It's a cold, dreary, and wet day, so I'm guessing Fall must be here, but I won't be wasting time mourning the end of Summer... because an all new ALL FOOD & EATING Bullet Sunday starts... now...

   
• Food Talk! I fell down another rabbit hole on the internet... this time with a podcast called Lunchbox Envy. The episodes are like potato chips in that you can't watch just one. There's also a clips channel with short videos that have interesting food facts...

Food is always interesting because it reflects the culture and environment of the people eating it. But there's something to be said about discussing interesting things about the food you eatmin your own culture.

   
• Plum Sweet! I could watch bats eating all day long...

Bats are adorable in all the right ways. But bats eating is next level.

   
• Taters! I've had all these dishes because I love potatoes so much, and have tried well over 100 recipes for them...

I'm a little sad that the Japanese croquet included meat, because when I was traveling to Japan, the way they make them without meat is amazing because of how they're seasoned. The most interesting option here is the Turkish baked potato, which I had without the hot dog. It seems a weird combination of toppings, but it really works... and I need to make one soon, because I haven't had it in at least a decade. And I can make it with a veggie dog!

   
• We'll Be Having Eggs! Chef José Andrés broke the internet when he unveiled his secret for an amazing omelette in less than a minute (on Rogan, of all places). It's just and egg with mayonnaise mixed in. I had one this morning and can verify that it is indeed very delicious and very easy to make...

I have been buying microwaveable frozen omelettes because I don't eat a lot of eggs any more, and don't want them expiring. I am very curious to know if the José Andrés omelettes can be frozen and still taste good, because that would be a lot cheaper.

   
• Sliced! Slicing bread is not an overwhelming task. You pull out a serrated knife and you start sawing it. But when you make a lot of bread, a tool like this looks pretty fantastic, just because it looks like it makes perfectly even slices...

But the problem with stuff like this? You then have to clean it. Which doesn't look fun at all.

   
• Food Map! D gets me Southern Italy, India, China, Australia, New Zealand, Israel, a good chunk of Greece, Japan, Indonesia, Cambodia, Laos, Turkey, a nice chunk of the Middle East, the Philippines, and more? Sign me up...

I would badly miss Mexican and African cuisine... and I'd be missing most of the European dishes I wouldn't get... but, yeah, D... second choice G. They have the best variety of what I most love to eat.

   
• UtiliBread! I have a sourdough starter that I use for absolutely everything bread-related. From loaves to pizza crust to hamburger buns... it's good for anything I could want. Then I found this interesting no-knead dough that I very much want to try sometime...

Because you can never have too much bread!

   
• Umami Whammy! It's bizarre to me how MSG is in so many foods, yet people treat it like some kind of toxic chemical or something (seriously, look at the ingredients on a bag of Nacho Cheese Doritos and get back to me). The misinformation campaign started as a way of discrediting foreign foods (MSG is a staple of Asian cooking), and became urban legend so people think it causes headaches or whatever. And yet most people are eating it without knowing and don't seem to complain? Well, I love the stuff. It only takes a small amount, and I put it in many foods that I make (it makes potato salad and vegetarian meat-substitutes sing). This guy does a test which compares common foods with and without MSG, and it's a pretty great video which mirrors my experience...

So... if you want to add some mouthwatering appeal to your cooking and ignore the misinformation that plagues it, try just a small amount of MSG and find out if it makes a difference to you.

   
• Cost of Living? Can anybody tell me to get those cheaper groceries that were promised on "Day One?" Because I just paid an astronomical sum for a very small amount of groceries. The only thing that seems to be down in price are eggs (which makes sense because the chicken population is being restored after so many were killed because of the Avian flu). Alas, I don't eat many eggs... so that means I'm paying more for everything I'm buying. Price indexes say we're paying 29% more than 2020, but that actually seems an understatement, because the size of products is decreasing as prices are increasing. And the prices are only going to get worse... likely far worse... because tariffs, deportations of agriculture workers, and climate change are driving up prices with no end in sight. Just like economists said would happen before the election. I don't understand how somebody who prioritizes personal gain and funneling money to his wealthy corporate donors while knowing nothing about how tariffs work was ever going to be a solution to high prices. The guy bankrupted a casino... A CASINO! And where is all that tariff money going? Tax breaks for billionaires, I'm guessing.

   
I should probably go out and start pulling all my dying plants for compost, but it's not at all pleasant outside so I guess I'm holding off on that. Instead I think I'll cook something because I'm hungry all of a sudden.