Ham, Bread & Pupu
* Funny, Sunday’s New York Times Consumed column was about jamon iberico, my minor fixation from the recent past. Expect countless articles on the subject as we get closer to the hams’ maturation date possibly some time next year.
* I’ve never been a grocery store label whore. Sure, chemicals and additives are bad but I’m not obsessive about fat grams or sodium content (though I should because heart disease and diabetes are totally waiting in the wings). What I didn’t know that really disturbs me is that virtually all store bought bread has high fructose corn syrup in it.
I was looking at all the hyperbole on the plastic bag of Kirkland white bread that James loves to buy from Costco and one of the sentences screamed, “no corn syrup.” And I was like duh, because I hate unnecessary health claims like putting “fat free” on mustard or chocolate syrup like it’s a new formulation when common sense would tell you these items never contained fat in the first place.
But on my last visit to Western Beef I was surprised to see that every single brand of bread, white and wheat, hot dog buns and hamburger rolls contained corn syrup. No, Western Beef isn’t a bastion of the organic or artisanal. They’re mainstream and rough around the edges—that’s why I love them. I don’t even eat white bread with any regularity, but it still irks me that something as basic as bread should have so much crap in it.
* There’s really not enough Polynesian in the city (or anyplace in the U.S. anymore). And Waikiki Wally’s doesn’t count. I’m determined to check out King Yum, a tiki hut holdout I somehow heard about for the first time a few months ago. The only trick is trying to convince people to come out to the furthest reaches of Queens with me for a pupu platter.
I was discovering Guatemalan food yesterday near the next to last stop of the F train (I finagled a ride because I’m spoiled) in Jamaica. The air on that block was spiced with Indian food (it could’ve been Bangladeshi or Pakistani—my nose isn’t that discriminating) but I didn’t have time to explore any of it because I was too busy eating salpicon, the craziest Latin American dish ever. It’s almost exactly like Thai larb, but not hot–kind of like Carroll Gardens Thai food, now that I think about it. I got papaya salad from 9-D Saturday night and I don’t think there was a single speck of chile in the whole damn thing. It was like the shredded fruit had been doused in limeade and peanuts, which is just unnecessary and wrong. 
Remind me to stop attempting Thai food in Brooklyn.
* I just noticed Halloween candy is in full effect at Eckerd and I'm assuming the same is true everywhere. I originally noticed a candy corn display right after my birthday but before I went on vacation so that had to be late July. Is it now normal to advertise items intended for the last day of October in the middle of summer? I really don't approve of how they changed the Peeps spooky cat from purple to brown, either.
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you said, “pupu.” heh.
It’s only sort of Polynesian, but I found a good Hawaiian fast food place on Fulton st called L&L Hawaiian BBQ. It’s cheap but pretty tasty.
I love Halloween candy, though it doesn’t seem right when people are still wearing tank tops and flip flops. But then, people seem to wear flip flops year-round nowadays. Why bother with seasonality at all?
I’ve been meaning to L&L but I’m never in that part of the city. I’ll put it on my mental list.