I’ve done this before. Collected several little capsule stories – each too small for a post all its own – in a catch-all post. I hate to think we’d miss out on a treat just because it’s a slider and not a double quarter pounder. Today, we have a number of items that didn’t seem to belong anywhere but the ‘Misc.’ file…
Beating the Sriracha shortage: Barter may be better…
Creative solution to the sriracha shortage
A Los Angeles Vietnamese restaurant has come up with win-win approach to beating the sriracha shortage caused by this spring’s hot pepper crop failure in the U.S. Southwest and Mexico.
You’ll recall that, for the first time in its history, the giant Huy Fong pepper sauce plant in Irwindale, Cali. recently shut down production due to a shortage of peppers. Blame climate change, which has brought the twin scourges of drought and heat to the region for a couple of years now. The move triggered a shortage of sriracha on store shelves across the continent – because Huy Fong long ago cornered the pepper sauce market. Their only real competitors now are boutique makers and expensive imports from Asia.
Well, one restaurant in Los Angeles, Bé Ù Kitchen, has approached the problem from a creative perspective. They’re offering customers big discounts on food in return for bottles of sriracha.
“Free banh mi, popcorn chicken, or order of summer rolls if you bring us a 28oz bottle of sriracha,” the sign says. A smaller-size 17 oz. bottle will get you half off the same menu items. “We go through about 312 bottles a year, so any little bit helps.”
Fair food starting to surface early this year?
I still haven’t decided whether I like this idea or not. It has a sort of wacky Yin-Yang to it. Nevertheless…
We’ve seen all manner of mash-ups involving various pastries and other foods over the past decade or so. Most appear in the late summer or fall at harvest fair time. Remember the Cronut? The hot-dog-stuffed pizza crust? I rest my case. But now, a bakery in Philadelphia has come up with something new: I’m calling it the ‘Dognut’.
Okie Dokie Donuts has stuffed a hot dog inside a large Sweet Corn doughnut. The texture is like soft, fluffy cornbread. The outer layer has a beautiful, golden hue. The flavour… Is supposed to be a cross between sweet and spicy, a winner in so many other dishes.
How do they get a long, straight hot dog into a round, classic doughnut? It looks as if they slice the dogs longitudinally, like delis often do with Dill Pickles. Then the slices of dog can be moulded into the required circular shape.
I’m going to try making these myself!
What a tangled web they weaves…
Pringles is petitioning the scientific community to change the name of an Asian spider. If I just left it at that everyone reading this would have their own idea of what the weird-sounding tale is really about. But I’ll put your curiosity out of its misery. It’s another nutty promo – as if you hadn’t figured that out already. The deal is thus: Pringles has posted a petition online to have the name of Araneus mitificus, commonly known as the kidney garden spider or pale orb weaver, officially changed to Pringles Spider.
Seems someone at Pringles (or mother corporation Kellogg’s) noticed that the spider bears what they claim is an uncanny resemblance to the Pringles logo: “[The] slanted hairline, the beady eyes and even that signature ‘stache’.” I have to say it’s a long reach (maybe even an over-reach) to see the alleged resemblance. But I can see how some Pringles fans, desperate to believe, could make the connection.
Anyway. If you’re one of the latter, there’s an additional enticement to join the petition. You get to ‘adopt’ a virtual Pringles Spider.
~ Maggie J.