Category: mmm… food

Today I set aside my Second Life endeavours to explore a myth that’s very important to me. Or at least to my stomach.

Picture this: Craving a little guacamole for your chips, you buy a couple of avocados at the supermarket. When you bring them home, your heart sinks when you realize they’re hard as rocks! Totally unripe.

But don’t give up hope. Assorted experts on the intertubes claim that you can speed the ripening process by placing the avocado in a paper bag. Some say you should put a banana or apple in the bag with it, but others say that’s not necessary.

So today I put on my Mythbuster hat and attack this one pseudo-scientifically. I have two very unripe avocados, and placed one in a paper bag (as the experts suggest), but left the other exposed on the counter. Let’s see which one ripens faster. If they ripen at the same speed, “myth busted”, as Adam and Jamie say. According to the experts, it can possibly take only a day, so I’ll post the stupendously thrilling results later.

And yes. This is the kind of thing I do when I’m bored.

UPDATE! – Sept. 25

No changes to report. Avocados still unripe. More news on this amazing experiment later.

SHOCKING CONCLUSION! – Sept. 26

Today I removed the avocado from the bag and discovered that it was ripe enough to eat. And so is the other one. Hmm.

So what can I conclude from this fiasco? Putting an avocado in a paper bag doesn’t make it ripen any faster than it’s unbagged counterpart. Also: This was a colossal waste of time.

And now: guacamole.

Taking a short break from Second Life, I discovered these interesting items at a local specialty supermarket. Now… I usually avoid sketchy canned meat products — they’re often made from second rate meats from unidentified parts of the anatomy of occasionally unidentifiable animals. Canned seafood is even worse. But there’s something intriguing about these “Old Fisherman” brand canned seafoods.

First, the “Roast Eel Chili”. I’m going to hazard a guess that it’s not a hearty Tex-Mex style chili, but chili-flavoured bits of preserved eel meat. The label notes “Shelf life: 3 years”. Do I really want to risk tasting three-years-dead eel meat? The chili flavour sounds enticing, but… it’s eel.

Next up, the “Squid in Soy Sauce”. I don’t know why, but I really like that cute little squid. I sort of expect to peel open the lid and find a few of those little guys inside. But sadly, the reality is that it’s full of salty chunks of three-years-dead squid meat.

If I look closely at the “Old Fisherman” mascot, that old guy seems to be laughing and pointing. That can’t be a good sign.

So… do I open these? Do I dare put these sketchy preserved seafoods in my mouth?

I’m glad I tried Panago’s new “steak and blue cheese” pizza last night. Now I know where to find pizza that tastes the same going down as it does coming back up!

I laughed my ass off when I saw this one. No kidding… it fell off and hit the floor with a meaty thunk. My dad snapped this photo in a picnic area on Galiano Island, BC. I just had to post it.

Naturally, if you’re eating children, you want to keep the dogs tied up or they’ll grab a leg or two right off the table.