Re: Not that it sounds very good

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From this I can only deduce that you haven't been to Germany lately.


Posted by: Josh | Link to this comment | 03-23-11 10:12 PM
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Curry ketchup is delicious. And yes the trends been going for a little while. The Belgian fries place in the mission had it several years ago. (As Josh says it's much older in Germany.)

Now if only we could get curry Pringles here.


Posted by: Unfoggetarian: "Pause endlessly, then go in" (9) | Link to this comment | 03-23-11 10:23 PM
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IF varieties of ketchup are your thing. So, there's that.


Posted by: parsimon | Link to this comment | 03-23-11 10:25 PM
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OT: Did anyone else have Lincoln (the car company) offer them free access/registration to the New York Times for the rest of 2011, despite the new pay wall? A friend of mine mentioned it to me a few days ago, but I didn't get offered it until today. Score!


Posted by: Parenthetical | Link to this comment | 03-23-11 10:30 PM
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Just got free access, although I didn't even notice who sponsored it. Them's some quality advertising dollars!
Also OT but related to food- anyone know where I should eat in Seattle? I'll be there for one day on Friday- arrive Thursday night, leave Friday midnight.


Posted by: SP | Link to this comment | 03-23-11 10:35 PM
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4: That's apparently a thing. See thread here.

I'm still waiting for my invitation. If Lincoln (the car company) is involved, one suspects that the email address in play (*.edu?) may be relevant.


Posted by: parsimon | Link to this comment | 03-23-11 10:40 PM
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I wonder if the New York Times paywall excludes library subscriptions from some areas. The last time I checked - a few years ago - online-only stuff from the New Republic was not included in institutional subscriptions (through databases, not directly through the magazine).


Posted by: fake accent | Link to this comment | 03-23-11 10:41 PM
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6.2: I'm signed up with the NYT with the email address I created as a 15 year old, and it's embarrassingly unacademic and a yahoo account.

I heard it had something to do with being a heavy user of the site.


Posted by: Parenthetical | Link to this comment | 03-23-11 10:45 PM
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6 was actually meant to link here, a post from yesterday on the same topic, which thread does include some tips on possible ways to generate an invitation for yourself if you want one. Who knows.


Posted by: parsimon | Link to this comment | 03-23-11 10:51 PM
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My registered address was an aol (!) account I haven't checked in 10 years, although I did have free academic access to their previous paywall 4 years ago.


Posted by: SP | Link to this comment | 03-23-11 10:52 PM
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I don't really understand it. I'm supposed to be more likely to buy a car because they saved me $20?


Posted by: essear | Link to this comment | 03-23-11 10:55 PM
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8.2: What counts as being a heavy user, is the question. Today I noticed that the site was keeping a count of my reading under one log-in (I use two, but that's the more heavily used one), and I was at 73 articles so far this month. I guess that's not heavy.


Posted by: parsimon | Link to this comment | 03-23-11 10:55 PM
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I would guess I only read one or two articles there per day, on average.


Posted by: essear | Link to this comment | 03-23-11 10:57 PM
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There was a whole piece in the food issue of The New Yorker a few years ago about how Americans wanted Ketchup to taste exactly one way and had always failed to go for variants. Sometimes the food issue is the best issue of the year.


Posted by: Mister Smearcase | Link to this comment | 03-23-11 11:02 PM
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14: I was thinking some article which might be that one had been discussed here, so I tried to find it in the archives, but failed. I'm remembering a discussion of how artisanal ketchup often has distinct overtones of different ingredients, whereas the classic Heinz ketchup somehow all just blends together in a much more homogeneous way, such that you never notice the taste of vinegar or of garlic or whatever, you just taste an unanalyzable "ketchup".


Posted by: essear | Link to this comment | 03-23-11 11:06 PM
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Hrm, once I'm there, I'm likely to read 3 or 4 per day, though it's not at all unusual that at least one of those will be to read just the first couple of paragraphs of Brooks's (or Dowd's or whoever's) latest column before clicking back out of it. I don't even go so far as to look at Friedman or Douthat.

It doesn't feel like heavy reading.


Posted by: parsimon | Link to this comment | 03-23-11 11:07 PM
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Oh god it was a Malcolm Gladwell article I was remembering. This makes me feel dirty.


Posted by: essear | Link to this comment | 03-23-11 11:09 PM
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Anyway, ketchup. A friend went nuts making like 7 varieties (fresh from garden tomatoes, fresh chiles, etc.) a number of years ago. Interesting. It is not just ketchup. Said friend then also threw a garden party during which he tried to force everybody to have various kinds of ketchup on everything, and we had to restrain him.


Posted by: parsimon | Link to this comment | 03-23-11 11:13 PM
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Here.


Posted by: Minivet | Link to this comment | 03-23-11 11:16 PM
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For quite a while, every time I clicked on a link to the NYT I was asked to log in. But in the last month or so, I've never been asked for a log in and have never logged in.


Posted by: fake accent | Link to this comment | 03-23-11 11:19 PM
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Oh, blekh. Well, I'm no great fan of Gladwell's, but the ketchup article was a really good read. I see no reason to disavow it just because some of his other stuff is crap.


Posted by: Mister Smearcase | Link to this comment | 03-23-11 11:21 PM
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There was a whole piece in the food issue of The New Yorker a few years ago about how Americans wanted Ketchup to taste exactly one way and had always failed to go for variants.

I remember this. What I found interesting: the failed attempts to introduce ketchup variants were based on the example of the new (and successful) niche markets for gourmet and "artisanal" mustards. Apparently Americans will experiment with mustard but not ketchup.


Posted by: Mary Catherine | Link to this comment | 03-23-11 11:28 PM
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I was going to mention that Gladwell article (curry ketchup fits nicely with the thesis of that article, if you think spicy is a basic taste of sorts), but didn't want to poke the Gladwell haters. He wrote a lot of great articles.


Posted by: Unfoggetarian: "Pause endlessly, then go in" (9) | Link to this comment | 03-23-11 11:30 PM
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20: I'm off in a minute, but do you get a (relatively new, for me) thing where in the normal position of the "Most emailed", "Most blogged" etc. list you see "Recommended for you" list?

I get that even if I'm not logged in, which is annoying: tracking my IP address, I can only assume.


Posted by: parsimon | Link to this comment | 03-23-11 11:32 PM
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24: No, but I almost never go to the front page. Odds are that they're tracking your browser through cookies, rather than IP, unless you see the list on different browsers.


Posted by: fake accent | Link to this comment | 03-23-11 11:35 PM
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Mary Catherine! Good to see you; I've been thinking of you lately, not sure why.


Posted by: parsimon | Link to this comment | 03-23-11 11:35 PM
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25: Hm. I'll have to think about that. It occurs on two different machines from two different locations, two different ISP accounts, one logged in, one not. And still they show me this. I don't know.


Posted by: parsimon | Link to this comment | 03-23-11 11:42 PM
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There are huge bottles of curry ketchup at the Cost Plus down the street from our house. I often think of buying one, but they are so huge! I can't commit to that much curry ketchup.


Posted by: redfoxtailshrub | Link to this comment | 03-24-11 12:35 AM
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Why did none of you tell me?

Because curry ketchup is a bog standard condiment in Holland (and Germany) to the point that if you order a frikadel speciaal, you are usually asked if you want it with tomato or curry ketchup. Hint: take the latter option; is much nicer.



Posted by: Martin Wisse | Link to this comment | 03-24-11 12:36 AM
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I don't really like curry catsup. I ate lunch at a hot dog stand yesterday where it was the only type of catsup available, and I was disappointed. I do like spicy catsup a lot though. Banana catsup tastes okay and will do in a pinch (I have a bottle in my fridge that I resort to when I run out of Heinz 57), but it has a weird glutinous texture that isn't that great. Heinz 57 really is a great product.


Posted by: jms | Link to this comment | 03-24-11 12:45 AM
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I don't really like curry catsup. I ate lunch at a hot dog stand yesterday where it was the only type of catsup available, and I was disappointed. I do like spicy catsup a lot though. Banana catsup tastes okay and will do in a pinch (I have a bottle in my fridge that I resort to when I run out of Heinz 57), but it has a weird glutinous texture that isn't that great. Heinz 57 really is a great product.


Posted by: jms | Link to this comment | 03-24-11 12:45 AM
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Who needs curry ketchup when you've got Sriracha? mcmc will back me up on this, I bet.


Posted by: Jesus McQueen | Link to this comment | 03-24-11 1:27 AM
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What the hell is curry ketchup? Ordinary ketchup with a few spices in or one of those 'cook-in' 'bhuna' sauces in a fancy bottle and a higher price?


Posted by: chris y | Link to this comment | 03-24-11 2:31 AM
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The former. Not to be confused with chips with curry, as I did one of the first times in was in Engerland.


Posted by: Martin Wisse | Link to this comment | 03-24-11 2:53 AM
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if you think spicy is a basic taste of sorts

The German version is not very spicy at all. It took me a long time to get used to the weird sweetness of it.

Now I want a currywurst.


Posted by: Blume | Link to this comment | 03-24-11 4:42 AM
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Also at SXSW shouldn't it be salsa ketchup? Or just salsa?


Posted by: chris y | Link to this comment | 03-24-11 5:01 AM
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You bet. Hare sri sriracha, condiment of the gods.


Posted by: mcmc | Link to this comment | 03-24-11 5:14 AM
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37 to 32, of course.


Posted by: mcmc | Link to this comment | 03-24-11 5:14 AM
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Japanese reactor operator inspired by, er, kamikaze pilots.

I bet this guy wasn't thinking along the same lines. "I did stand to one side, sort of hopefully," he went on to say, "but if you're staring straight at the core of a shut down reactor you're going to get quite a bit of radiation.""


Posted by: Alex | Link to this comment | 03-24-11 6:25 AM
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18/22: I am all about some flavored ketchup and have been fascinated by the strength of people's reactions to it ever since the days of alt.ketchup and their/our good-natured war with alt.mustard. (Every word of that is true.) There was a lot of discussion there about the "hot ketchup" variants that came out, by which I mean regular brands of ketchup that mixed in some hot sauce to make it spicy. I loved those - loved them - and have always had a thing for a little Texas Pete shaken into a squirt of regular Heinz but there were a lot of people for whom the consistency of experience of their favorite brand of ketchup was really important. It pretty clearly went beyond just being about the condiment and veered off into some sort of symbolism of purity or youth or whatever.

I love curry ketchup, but I love curry anything. If one were curious but didn't want to commit to a commercial-sized tub of the stuff, any halfway decent Indian grocer is going to carry HP Curry Sauce and you can always pick up a small bottle and mix it with a little ketchup at home. I know that sounds completely sarcastic and campy but for real, I mean every word, and it is so very good.


Posted by: Robust McManlyPants | Link to this comment | 03-24-11 7:22 AM
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||

This is the definitive comment about foodies: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tNWYclVn-Q&feature=fvwrel

|>


Posted by: Walt Someguy | Link to this comment | 03-24-11 7:38 AM
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I like ketchup mixed with Vietnamese chile-garlic sauce. It's called [checking firdge...] tuong ot toi (there are some diacritics in there, but the internet isn't reproducing them for me) and come in a rooster featuring bottle, much like sriracha, but is chuckier and more savory. That mixed down with some heinz makes for a good tater tot experience.


Posted by: Jimmy Pongo | Link to this comment | 03-24-11 7:46 AM
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regular brands of ketchup that mixed in some hot sauce>

Ooh, yes. There's a diner in town that has sweet potato fries, which I like to eat with a side of ketchup plus Sriracha. I make a little ketchup pond about the size of a half dollar and then line the edge with the blessed-rooster sauce.


Posted by: Stanley | Link to this comment | 03-24-11 9:29 AM
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Please god, just don't create a currywurst fad here. Most disgusting food around in Germany. Some good cheap Doner stands made with real meat not mystery meat product would be very welcome.


Posted by: teraz kurwa my | Link to this comment | 03-24-11 10:21 AM
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If the economy really goes for a double-dip recession, you'll probably be able to find some cheap-donor stands. Kidney for a ha'penny, that sort of thing.


Posted by: Stanley | Link to this comment | 03-24-11 10:45 AM
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There is Heinz, and there is everything else.


Posted by: Spike | Link to this comment | 03-24-11 11:44 AM
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I cannot believe you people call it Sriracha instead of 'cock sauce', or 'rooster red sauce' for polite company. We invariably called it cock sauce.


Posted by: Megan | Link to this comment | 03-24-11 11:52 AM
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46: Whatever you say, Senator Kerry.


Posted by: Stanley | Link to this comment | 03-24-11 11:55 AM
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I am all about some flavored ketchup and have been fascinated by the strength of people's reactions to it ever since the days of alt.ketchup and their/our good-natured war with alt.mustard. (Every word of that is true.)

I love you.


Posted by: redfoxtailshrub | Link to this comment | 03-24-11 11:58 AM
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47: not "hot cock"? That's pretty prudish of you.


Posted by: Sifu Tweety | Link to this comment | 03-24-11 11:59 AM
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Please god, just don't create a currywurst fad here.


Posted by: Sifu Tweety | Link to this comment | 03-24-11 12:00 PM
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I just had hot cock Sriracha on toast. Yum!


Posted by: Jesus McQueen | Link to this comment | 03-24-11 12:01 PM
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46: There is Heinz, and there is everything else.

Heinz is consistently comes out at or near the top of brand loyalty polls. I live right up the hill from where he grew up and my house is on land where an initial unsuccessful venture of his grew horseradish. And to 48, Teresa's estate is another mile or so up the road (although according to Wikipedia at $4M it is the least valuable of their 5 homes/estates).


Posted by: JP Stormcrow | Link to this comment | 03-24-11 12:11 PM
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Teresa's estate

Lemme guess. It's a condimentium.


Posted by: Stanley | Link to this comment | 03-24-11 12:14 PM
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I love Heinz, and it was pretty much the orthodox, canonical ketchup of alt.ketchup, but these days I like Hunt's because it doesn't have HFCS. I've read that Heinz has a "Simply Heinz" label that uses the original, non-HFCS recipe, but I haven't seen it on the shelves here.


Posted by: Robust McManlyPants | Link to this comment | 03-24-11 12:16 PM
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And, of course, I also love rfts right back.


Posted by: Robust McManlyPants | Link to this comment | 03-24-11 12:17 PM
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There was a whole piece in the food issue of The New Yorker a few years ago about how Americans wanted Ketchup to taste exactly one way and had always failed to go for variants.

I'm a bit like that with tomato soup. I'll eat fancier kinds, but at the end of the day I prefer your cheap and cheerful Heinz cream of tomato.


Posted by: Ginger Yellow | Link to this comment | 03-24-11 12:21 PM
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I think curry catsup is closer to the original, though IIRC it's descended from soy sauce through India based on what the British Navy found palatable and long-keeping, so God only knows.


Posted by: clew | Link to this comment | 03-24-11 1:21 PM
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my mom is very definitely 'polite company' but has decorated her kitchen with lots of cocks.

Anyway ketchup doesn't really seem like the right place for spices, as much as i like 'curry' (really, i was reading a wot recipe and all i could think was 'hm ok so ghee and garam masala, and onions and ginger, but it was beef)

i sort of anticipate remaking ketchup sometime here. One thing i remember is that heinz filters their tomato goo, which is why ketchup is smooth, where as a tomato sauce has little particles. it seems like a good place for some sort of fermentation. I'll probably make chocolate first though.

I messed up my nytimes login with my 'spam' account, so i can neither to password recovery nor sign up. probably for the best.


Posted by: yoyo | Link to this comment | 03-24-11 3:27 PM
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I've never really been able to accept the various not-really curry "curry" things, having grown up in Bradford where curry is serious business. Berlin currywurst is entertaining but you really wouldn't want to do it too often and frankly, when you're in Germany, why would you eat mystery-meat sausage blanketed with (basically) crude oil when there's so much good stuff?

Apparently it was invented on the basis of British army canned rations in the late 40s, which makes sense as dousing horrible tinned sausages with sachet ketchup and tabasco to render them harmless is very much a squaddie thing to do.


Posted by: Alex | Link to this comment | 03-25-11 4:15 AM
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Further to 60, in north Germany in the late 1940s the population wasn't going to be able to get hold of much meat that wasn't British army rations. Germany was in a bit of a state.


Posted by: ajay | Link to this comment | 03-25-11 4:40 AM
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Germany was in a bit of a state.

Damn right. A trivia question that always catches somebody is: "Where was the famine that the Oxford Committee for Famine Relief (Oxfam) was set up to relieve?"


Posted by: chris y | Link to this comment | 03-25-11 5:03 AM
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The answer is not Germany, but they were extremely active in post war Germany. The trick is nobody realises it was a wartime initiative.


Posted by: chris y | Link to this comment | 03-25-11 5:05 AM
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when you're in Germany, why would you eat mystery-meat sausage blanketed with (basically) crude oil when there's so much good stuff?"

really, based on reputation and the view from the trains alone, i would expect Germany to be good at sausagues, beer, and things made from rape.


Posted by: yoyo | Link to this comment | 03-25-11 5:51 AM
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I'd want some good beer if I was going to have to live on a diet of sausages fried in canola. Can you eat rape? It's a brassica, so I don't see why not, but as far as I know nobody does.


Posted by: chris y | Link to this comment | 03-25-11 6:02 AM
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65: Isn't it used to make cattle feed?


Posted by: ajay | Link to this comment | 03-25-11 6:23 AM
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I'd want beer that wasnt from the fuckers who invented lager.

I'd expect it to be similar to mustard seeds.

to be honest, canola is one of the best vegetable oils, at least that you can grow in germany.


Posted by: yoyo | Link to this comment | 03-25-11 6:28 AM
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