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Fricano’s Deli is the business

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As a kid, in between games of ping pong or pool hoops with friends (and the madness that ensued when I, not yet the exhibitor of virtuous sportsmanship I am today, tried to bend the rules in my favor), I would sometimes make sandwiches for my friends. I wouldn’t just ask if they wanted ham or turkey pastrami, I would actually take a pencil and pad and write down exactly what kind of mustard they wanted, whether they wanted their bread toasted or not. Pickles and onions? The attention to detail would usually make up for my sporting and temper indiscretions.

Maybe it was my fondness for my grandmother’s summer afternoon preparations, passed down to my mother, to which I was paying homage. Maybe I was portending a future in the service industry or a life as a stay-at-home dad. Or maybe I felt guilty for acting like a jerk to my friends. Whatever the reason, I always had a love for sandwiches, their quality and construction and our desires to have unique and personalized creations even in the simplest of forms.

Over the years, sandwiches have been my staple, my go-to food. Sure, I love steak and tacos … and lobster … and pizza. But I can’t resist a wonderful sandwich. My passion has led me to find stacked pleasures across the country and abroad. Wagshal’s in Washington D.C., Parkway Deli in Silver Spring, Maryland, the original Antone’s in Houston, The Italian Store in Arlington, Virginia and countless sandwich places in Italy have all made me swoon and hold a special place in my heart. In Austin, I have made the occasional love connection to various degrees of intensity at Hogg Island Deli, Wisk (R.I.P.), Spec’s, Central Market, Food Heads, Buenos Aires CafÃĐ, Whole Foods, Sullivan’s, Tam Deli, Wheatsville Co-Op.

Add Fricano’s Deli to the list.

A hole-in-the-wall spot located near the Bermuda Triangle that is the area where East 31st Street and Speedway Street collide, Fricano’s feels like the kind of sandwich shop that despite being open only three years feels like it has been there forever. And it feels like the kind of sandwich shop I’d want to open, or at least eat at a couple of times a week. There are small bookshelves stuffed with books and board games, a few seats at the counter bar, two-tops with seating for about a dozen people and about two dozen sandwiches and hot dogs on the menu.

The sandwiches refrain from trying too hard, offering just the right number of ingredients to provide good flavor, without putting on a show. Take for example the Jamilio’s Italian Cheesesteak I had earlier this week. While the only thing Italian about it was the mozzarella, the combination of Boar’s Head pastrami, grilled onions and peppers, homemade Rocket sauce and the aforementioned cheese on a crunchy, flaky hoagie provided a wonderful combination of savory and spicy. It comes warmed to perfection on a Panini press that looks like it gets a thorough workout each day and hit all of the right notes.

Longtime Austinite Paul Fricano, and his business partners, husband-and-wife team Jamil Muhaisen and DeeAnne Bullard, take pride in their attention to detail, fresh ingredients and the fact that almost everything in the store is homemade, excepting the ketchup. And, really, people can be fussy about their ketchup, so probably safe to stick with the store bought.

Homemade offerings include potato and pasta salads, salad dressings and a red and green cabbage slaw, five original spreads that can be added to any sandwich and a soup of the day. When I was in Monday, I sampled a bit of the corn chowder, which was rich without relying too heavily on the cream, and featured crisp flavors of crunchy vegetables punctuated by refreshing cilantro. Although I passed on dessert my last time in, next time I will be sure to pick up one of DeeAnne’s homemade cupcakes, which she bakes daily.

While I have yet to make my way through the menu, I will be certain to tackle their roster of Reubens (five in all), and am unafraid to bring vegetarian friends, as the menu boasts four delicious veggie options.

Fricano seems a natural behind the counter, which makes sense when you discover his parents once ran a Chicago-style deli. He and his partners fill the worn joint with an affable vibe that almost makes it feel as if one of your buddies is fixing you a sandwich after a grueling match of ping pong. And they don’t cheat.

Fricano’s Deli [site]
104 C E. 31st St. [map]
482.9980

Hours
Monday - Friday: 11 am - 7 pm
Saturday: Noon - 5 pm
Closed Sunday


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Facebook is for looking at pictures of chicks; MySpace is for hillbillies

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That headline doesn’t quite summarize the findings of a recent study of social networking by Harvard Business School professor Mikolaj Jan Piskorski, but it does capture a part of his findings. Minus the pejoratives, of course.

Sean Silverthorne has an article, “Understanding Users of Social Networks,” on the Harvard Business School Web site that examines Piskorski’s findings, which indicate that men generally use social networking site Facebook to look at pictures of women, who receive two-thirds of all page views. Additionally, all Facebookers utilize the photo app. to create a visual narrative of their lives.

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As for MySpace, despite its bad rap in many circles, it still has 70 million users who are active at least once a month, which isn’t too terribly far behind Facebook’s 90 million users. However, much of the MySpace crowd is found in the South and middle parts of the country. “In other words, not anywhere near the media hubs (except Atlanta) and far away from those elite opinion-makers in coastal urban areas,” Silverthorne writers.

One of the more curious cases is Twitter, which has more female users than men, although “researchers still saw differences between how men and women are followed, perhaps pointing to a fundamental representation of the role of men and women in society,” according to the findings.

Back to the purpose of the study, it seems corporations are prolific in their use of social media, but their ability to come up with an actual social strategy to attract consumers and build off that base is another story entirely.

Some of the highlights from the article:

  • With these general ideas of why people use these sites, Piskorski examined weblogs of social networking sites (not LinkedIn) to see what people did when they were online. “I just wondered why people spend so much time on these sites; what do they do?”

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    The biggest discovery: pictures. “People just love to look at pictures,” says Piskorski. “That’s the killer app of all online social networks. Seventy percent of all actions are related to viewing pictures or viewing other people’s profiles.”

    Why the popularity of photos? Piskorski hypothesizes that people who post pictures of themselves can show they are having fun and are popular without having to boast.

    Another draw of photos (and of SN sites in general) is that they enable a form of voyeurism. In real life there is a strong norm against prying into other people’s lives. But online enables “a very delicate way for me to pry into your life without really prying,” the researcher says. “Harvard undergrads do it all the time. They know all about each other before they meet face to face. ‘Oh, you’re that guy that did that internship in D.C. last summer.’ ”

    Piskorski has also found deep gender differences in the use of sites. The biggest usage categories are men looking at women they don’t know, followed by men looking at women they do know. Women look at other women they know. Overall, women receive two-thirds of all page views.
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  • Looking at who uses Twitter, which restricts users to 140-character messages, Piskorski and student-researcher Bill Heil (HBS MBA ‘09) found that 90 percent of Twitter posts were created by only 10 percent of users. This was not surprising, he says, because the technology uses words without photos to communicate.

    “Only the people who are willing to put themselves out there publicly in words to people who they may not know will use Twitter. Some people will find this incredibly appealing, others will find this too scary.”

    But the remarkable finding was the gender dynamics. According to the research, there are more women on Twitter than men, women tweet about the same rate as men, but men’s tweets are followed by both sexes much more than expected by chance.

    “That was stunning because on all these other social networks you see the opposite,” Piskorski says.
  • So why doesn’t MySpace get the attention it deserves?

    The fascinating answer, acquired by studying a dataset of 100,000 MySpace users, is that they largely populate smaller cities and communities in the south and central parts of the country. Piskorski rattles off some MySpace hotspots: “Alabama, Arkansas, West Virginia, Oklahoma, Kentucky, Florida.”
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    Corporate marketers by and large struggle with how to use social networking sites to reach potential customers, says Piskorski, who advises companies on this subject. The problem is that execs think of online social networks as social media and treat it as another channel to get people to click through to a site.

    It doesn’t work that way.

    For one thing, findings show that people don’t click through on advertising on social networks. “A good analogy is to imagine sitting at a table with friends when a stranger pulls up a chair, sits down, and tries to sell you something while you are talking to your friends. You will not get far with a strategy like this.”

Read the full article here.

Thanks to Clay Crenshaw for the link, whose Facebook page I read even though he’s not an anonymous good looking girl with a ton of pics on his page.

Images from Photos.com.

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Seeing the country, one airport at a time

Round Rock resident Brendan Ross, a soon-to-be air traffic controller, is either terribly bored or a glutton for punishment.

They say that air traffic controllers have one of the most stressful jobs in the world. So what do people wired to be able to handle that kind of work do for enjoyment? Apparently endure the mind-numbing, stomach-ruining pain of living on airplanes and in airports for 30 straight days.

Ross, profiled in this piece by the American-Statesman’s Claire Osborn, wanted to take advantage of JetBlue’s offer for an unlimited one-month pass on the airline, but he didn’t have the cash. He posted an ad on Craigslist asking if anyone wanted to buy him the $599 ticket. Fortunately/unfortunately for him, Wired magazine took notice and stepped in to foot the bill.

However, there was one massive catch. Ross, who had offered in his post to sleep in airports, would be confined to said airports when not on the Jet Blue planes. Wired has made the offer in exchange for Ross’s commitment to keep a blog for Wired.com.

I have always found airports to be fertile ground for people watching and storytelling, one that would provide compelling exposition for a novel or screenplay. So many people coming and going — excited, anxious, comforted or scared to arrive to something new or familiar. Or possibly just zombie-walking dead-eyed through their business routine, hardly taking notice of their environments. Aggravation, anticipation, dealing with children or slow-moving spouses. It is a petri dish of human emotions, and the demographics, while confined to those who can afford to travel, are rather heterogeneous.

I was almost ready to get on board with the idea, actually, pardon the pun …

Until I read this line from the story: “the purpose of writing a blog for the magazine is to focus on aviation.”

Wow. The guy has to endure a straight month in airplanes and airports and has to focus solely on aviation? No David Foster Wallace-like literary journalism focusing on the sociological and psychological aspect of the environment? No pithy Tweet-sized entries on the food vendors? Just aviation? Count me out.

From Osborn’s story:

He began his journeys last week by flying from Austin to Long Beach, Calif., to Oakland, where he spent the night in a chair in the baggage claim area. “I know this is kind of crazy, but it always makes for good stories later,” said Ross in a phone interview last week . “The idea is to act as if you were just a regular traveler and you were stranded for 30 days.” Ross said he only needs about six hours of sleep a night, and he plans to stay clean by bathing from sinks in airport restrooms and taking the occasional shower in airports that have them. “I’ve got industrial strength deodorant because I don’t want to make anybody uncomfortable.” Ross has also packed detergent so that he can wash his clothes in airport sinks.

Well, at least the dude has a sense of adventure. Or a taste for airborne illness, overpriced cardboard pizza, screaming babies and blood clots.

Read the full story here.

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Give as good as you get at Flavors of the Town this Thursday

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In a delicious blend of philanthropy and gastronomy, the Busby Foundation holds its third annual Flavors of the Town event Thursday night from 6-9 at the Hyatt Regency Austin.

The foundation works to battle Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), commonly referred to as Lou Gehrig’s disease, by providing support for Central Texas families of those afflicted with the disease.

The evening centers around tastings from a wide range of local restaurants, including Andiamo Ristorante, Eddie V’s, Garrido’s, McCormick and Schmick’s, Salvation Pizza, III Forks and Tiff’s Treats.

“We are delighted to - again - have such amazing participation for Flavors of the Town,” said Volney Campbell, board member of the Busby Foundation. “Our support from the Hyatt Regency Austin makes this event possible and the local restaurants that donate their time and effort make all the difference in our mission to increase awareness of ALS and raise funds to help people in the local community battling the disease.”

Tickets for the event are $100. Additionally, a limited number of raffle tickets for a vacation getaway to a Hyatt resort are being sold for $100 each.

For more information, and to purchase tickets, visit Flavorsofthetown.org or contact Chris Valentine at (512) 699-3467.

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Dallas Cowboy and former Aggie Martellus Bennett’s love affair with Cap’n Crunch

If you combined slick lyricist K’Naan with slant-rhyming Emily Dickinson then subtracted talent and a dictionary and divided by 1,000, the result might sound a little like this unbelievable rap from former Texas A&M student and current Dallas Cowboy Martellus Bennett.

Bennett, about whom the Ft. Worth Star Telegram once wrote “had more memorable quotes than memorable catches at Texas A&M,” is apparently quite the kid at heart. A very rich kid who likes Cap’n Crunch. A lot. He also seems to have a penchant for old Nintendo games, as it sounds like his DJ on this track is Super Mario, straight out the dungeon level.

And, if this dude really does dig on Cap’n Crunch for lunch, it’s going to be a long season for the Cowboys offense (hope, hope). If anyone can figure out how to make this into a ringtone, I would be eternally grateful.

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Idea fail: Texts from Last Night Web site to become TV show

First the Web site “Look at this F—-ing Hipster” gets a book deal, now this.

Desperate to keep up with the zeitgeist of the tech and snark-savvy 20-something (and a lot of 30-somethings, likely) set, Fox TV has bought the rights to develop an adaptation of the popular site Texts From Last Night, according to Variety.

For those not familiar, TextsfromLastNight.com (definitely not safe for work or children), aggregates absurd, obscene and obnoxious texts (alleged texts, I guess) from readers who submit them on the site. The messages are sorted by area code, so you can even go read Austin-specific messages and see if you can decipher if any of them are from or about you.

According to Variety, “In writing the TV version, Holland will loosely base the show’s characters and plot on the whole idea of racy — and sometimes embarrassing — communication, particularly among the twentysomething set. Holland’s other credits include ‘Rules of Engagement’ and ‘Less Than Perfect.’”

OMG, what a ridiculous idea.

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Get a piece of Austin indie music history and some art to cover the punch hole in your apartment

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You know all of those sweet posters you see outside of gigs? Maybe you’ve torn one down off a wall at Emo’s or the Mohawk as you stumbled, dazed by PBR, from a show at 2 a.m.

Award-winning local graphic designer Bryan Keplesky of Misprint Magazine fame, is offering folks the chance to buy some of his previous designs, so you can have your own, clean print, without the added charm of cigarette burns or tears. And you can look all cool and stuff with some original art on the walls of your place, as opposed to that faded and torn Frank Zappa poster you’re currently rocking. Or Morrisey, or whatever the hell it is the kids listen to today.

Keplesky has put a few of his posters online at Gigposters.com and is selling them for $25 - $40 a pop. Shows represented include Death Cab for Cutie, Go! Team and Gang of Four. Check them out here.

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Pei Wei offers new ramen dish and a chance to help

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Pei Wei Asian Diner, the fast-casual concept from P.F. Chang’s China Bistro, wants to change the way people think about ramen noodles. And they want to help stock food banks in the process. Most people know ramen as dried, packaged noodles with flavor packets that offer college students and budget shoppers sustenance at a low price. The restaurant company’s executive chef, Eric Justice, hopes Pei Wei’s new dish, chile beef ramen (fresh egg noodles glazed in soy-chile sauce, served with wok-seared vegetables and flank steak, topped with cilantro and spritzed with lime) will turn the idea of simple ramen on its head.

“Our goal is to offer Asian food-lovers an exciting and flavorful new experience ? and to finally give the ramen noodles the redemption they deserve,” Justice said.

Wednesday, all Pei Wei locations are offering 50 percent off the $6.95 chile beef, chicken or tofu ramen and the $7.95 shrimp ramen for all customers who bring in any package of ramen noodles, which will be donated to a local food bank along with a charitable contribution from Pei Wei. Pei Wei has five Austin-area locations. Details at www.peiwei.com.

Photo from Sue Tallon PEI WEI.

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New Groupon.com offers amazing deal at The Woodland

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A new site offering discounts to large groups has rolled onto Austin’s collective Internets. The multi-city site, Groupon.com (get it, group + coupon = groupon), offers daily specials that become valid once a certain number of the site’s members purchase the coupon.

Take their initial offer: buy a $25 gift card to The Woodland on South Congress Avenue, and get $50 worth of food and drink. For this deal, 25 people have to purchase the coupon before the deal goes into effect. In this case, the site currently says that 126 people have purchased the coupon, so “the deal is on!” For those of you who do not know, The Woodland features refined comfort food. I suggest the fried chicken sandwich, which I searched out last week when looking for some culinary comfort.

Each day, Groupon users will have 24 hours to make the purchase and get the group’s numbers to the threshold.

I’ll let the folks at Groupon.com explain it more thoroughly:

Groupon is a combination of the words group and coupon. Each day, we offer an unbeatable deal on the best of Austin: restaurants, spas, sporting events, theater, and more. By promising businesses a minimum number of customers, we get discounts you won’t find anywhere else. We call it “collective buying power”!

If you want to get the deal, just click BUY before the offer ends at midnight. If the minimum number of people (25 for today’s deal) sign up by the end of the day, you’ll get a printable gift certificate in your inbox the next morning that you can use whenever you want (well, at least until the deal expires—today’s expires in three months). If not enough people join, no one gets the deal (and you won’t be charged), so invite your friends to make sure you get the discount!

It’s nice to wake up to something new every day. Some people get their daily fix from desk calendars with a cute puppy and a funny caption every morning. Groupon is like a desk calendar, except the puppy is an unbeatable discount and the funny caption is a profound reflection on the flowers and needles growing from life’s cactus. We selflessly share our deep insights, hoping that you will join our mob of consumers, thus strengthening our collective buying power and commanding even better deals.

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WOXY.com wants to send you to party at the Voodoo in New Orleans

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Internet radio station WOXY.com, which bills itself as The Future of Rock and Roll and threw a great launch party Sunday night at Scoot Inn (check out TV Torso and Black Before Red whenever you get a chance), are doing yeoman work endearing themselves to listeners. Point in case, they are giving you and your friends a chance to go lose your minds in New Orleans at the Voodoo Music Experience over Halloween weekend.

The Big Easy is always a party, but throw in the spooky festivities of Halloween set the to raucous soundtrack of Jane’s Addiction, the Flaming Lips, Justice, Gogol Bordello, the Black Keys and the like, and you may be lucky to get out alive.

WOXY, VTech and Voodoo are not sparing any luxuries, either, as they are giving away a VTech IS9181 Wi-Fi Internet Radio, two VIP passes to the Voodoo Music Experience, three Night’s hotel stay at the New Orleans Marriott and flights to and from the festival. Even a pauper can afford to go if he wins this contest.

To enter, email woxycontests@gmail.com with the subject line reading “VTech/Voodoo Fest.” Be sure to include your mailing address.

Image of Jane’s Addiction at Lollapalooza from AP

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Alamo Drafthouse offers free refills. Who knew?

Apparently I have not been getting to the bottom of my sodas at the Alamo Drafthouse fast enough of late, or not reading the fine print, to notice that the beloved Austin institution now offers free refills on its $3.99 sodas.

My attention was brought to the matter during an ACL-related comment back-and-forth on Austinist. Thanks, Seth, for the heads up. The folks at the Alamo told me they’ve been offering the refills “for some time” but did not offer an exact date.

So, while I am not condoning drinking hundreds upon hundreds of empty calories at the next screening you attend (nor am I going all New York City Health Department on you), I just figured, if you’re like me and love popcorn and soda at the movies, you should have as much information as possible the next time you hit the Alamo.

And, before anyone complains about paying $3.99 fro a bottomless soda, have you seen the prices at the multiplex lately?

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What is going on with ‘Mad Men’?

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What exactly is going on with “Mad Men”? For those of us who were eagerly awaiting, for what seems like ages, the return of the critically acclaimed AMC hit, it has been a very slow and ambiguous start to season three, to say the least.

While last season got off to a somewhat cryptic start, it at least tantalized audiences and made me long for the next episode. With each episode, and almost every scene, a big reveal constantly felt like it could be around the corner. With this season, barring the Peggy Olson weed smoking bit in episode three (which was well written and perfectly performed by Elisabeth Moss), nothing terribly shocking or even interesting has happened and any revelations of the characters’ interior lives have been rather trite and expected. (I did like the creepy look Peter kept giving to the bosses while dancing, begging for their approval and admiration. Of course, we already know he is a scumbag. Also felt some trippy nostalgia in the bar scene that felt somewhat reminiscent early on of the bar in “The Shining.”)

Matthew Weiner and his crew have done a terrific job of building suspense and intrigue in the show’s first two seasons, while examining some delicious and extreme characters, but the characters all seem wooden and two-dimensional so far this year, and each sequence seems to end on a flat note.

Maybe my trouble comes from having had the benefit of watching the first two seasons on DVD, never having to wait a week for the next episode, but there is so little tension this year, nothing that makes me excited for the coming week. As David Itzkoff writes in his Arts Beat on NYTIMES.com, “Increasingly, Matthew Weiner, a former “Sopranos” producer, and his “Mad Men” writing staff seem to be so enamored with their characters that they are content to assemble them in potentially interesting settings, let the cameras linger on them and hope that an interesting scene emerges. This unhurried strategy may produce the occasionally transcendent image — think of Don and Betty Draper kissing in the moonlight at the end of the episode — but doesn’t do much to advance the internal narrative of the series.”

However, much like my faith in Houston Rockets architect, general manager Daryl Morey, I will give “Mad Men” creator Matthew Weiner the benefit of the doubt and trust that he is building something here that I can solidly get behind. The creepy slowness does give the subtle feel of the quiet before the storm. Maybe Weiner set the kettle to slow burn this season and soon we will all be drenched with the hyper-stylistic drama we fell in love with over the past two years. Let’s hope that is the case, anyways.

Image from AMC.

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Central Market’s Hatch chile contest: Bon appe-heat

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It’s a bit ironic that late each summer, when the mercury seems to take up permanent residence in the triple digits, the roasters at Central Market seem to be perpetually cranking away on Hatch peppers.

Maybe it’s not ironic. Maybe it’s just a testament to the pride (insanity) of Texans as we scoff in the general direction of Mother Nature. It’s hot enough outside to fry an egg on the pavement and swimming amidst the polar ice caps does not seem unreasonable? Let’s roast some peppers, damn it!

Each season, Central Market orders 250,000 pounds of the green chiles grown in Hatch, N.M., Chile Capital of the World, and passionately celebrates them with the aforementioned roasting as well as a slew of creative dishes. This year, each store took part in the Third Annual No Holds Barred Hatch Chile Pepper Recipe Contest, of which I was happy to be a judge at the Westgate location on Sunday.

Recipes ran the gamut from the creative (Watermelon Hatch Peppersicle) to the expected (Roasted Chile and Corn Pizza, declared the winner), but all were delicious and carried with them the distinctive flavor of Austin’s adopted pepper.

Although I am no fan of eggs or quiche, as evident by my disdain for breakfast tacos and my high-maintenance individual serving of lox and bagel at my family’s annual Christmas brunch, my favorite dish at the contest was a Hatch Green Chile Quiche.

The recipe is as follows:
  • 1 unbaked 9” shell
  • 4 eggs
  • 1 tsp. salt
  • 1/2 tsp. cumin
  • 1/2 cup chopped onion
  • 1 tsp. red chile powder
  • 1 tsp. black pepper
  • 1 cup chopped green chile
  • 2 cups heavy cream or 1 cup evaporated milk or 1 cup half & half
  • 1 cup shredded Swiss cheese
  • 1/2 cup crumbled bacon
Separate eggs and beat egg yolks. Whip egg whites until thick and foamy. Fold egg whites into yokes, along with salt, onions, red chile powder, black pepper and green chile. Add cream or evaporated milk to mixture and blend well. Layer Swiss cheese over bottom of pie crust and then pour egg into pie crust. Sprinkle crumbled bacon over top. Bake at 425 degrees for 25-30 minutes or until browned and solid. Serve hot.

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The Watermelon Hatch Peppersicle mentioned above offered the refreshing, mouth-puckering flavors of watermelon with the flavor-forward piquancy of Hatch peppers, the bits of which you could see in the frozen treat. It seems easy enough to make. Check it:

Take one (1) seedless watermelon and cut it into bite-sized chunks. Cut two (2) grilled Hatch peppers into strips. Toss melon and pepper into a blender and blend until smooth. Add some tequila, then pour into Popsicle trays and let freeze. Before you know it, your mouth will be tingling and so will your brain.

I would imagine these and other recipes will be added to Central Market’s “The First Ever Un-Edited and Un-Tested Hatch Chile Pepper Recipe Book,” which has over 100 Hatch-infused recipes, all of which appear in the book in the original handwriting of the contest submissions. The book is available at Central Market stores.

For those of you who are now craving the roasted goodness of Hatch peppers, Central Market will be carrying them likely through mid-September and hold out hopes they will receive a shipment of red peppers by the end of the brief season. Bon appe-heat.

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Interview: ‘Extract’ director, Mike Judge

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Hollywood is awash with R-rated comedies —you can’t take a bathroom break at the movies without passing by a poster for the next Judd Apatow-produced film about insult-Ninja man-boys dragging their heels through life. And Ben Stiller, Will Ferrell and the like seem to have made a cottage industry out of sports parodies and physical comedy. But living outside the hit-making universe, often tucked away in his adopted hometown of Austin, is comic everyman Mike Judge.

Through his television and film work, Judge has cultivated a voice portraying sympathetic characters baffled and beleaguered by rubes and circumstances outside of their control, from Ron Livingston’s character in “Office Space” to Hank Hill in “King of the Hill,” Judge’s beloved and ambling animated TV hit that will see its 12-year run end in September.

Judge returns to the workplace in his new film, “Extract,” which opens Friday, but this time he shows his sympathies lie not just with the little guy. The film focuses on the owner of a vanilla extract company (Jason Bateman) and his attempts to manage his eccentric employees while haphazardly trying to revitalize his marriage.

I spoke with Judge last week at the Four Seasons Hotel after the Austin premiere of “Extract” to discuss his new film, dealing with Hollywood, living in Austin and what’s next.

Where did the idea for ‘Extract’ come from and when did it originate?

Mike Judge: I started writing shortly after ‘Office Space,’ and it was kind of two ideas that I combined. One was the guy hiring the gigolo and then the other one was the thing about Mila’s character - just a girl who’s kind of a really good looking sociopath. I didn’t really know where I was going with either of them; I just started writing and then combined them. And then put them it all in a factory that makes vanilla extract.

Speaking of extract … was there any metaphoric meaning in that product … due to its essence or simplicity?

It definitely wasn’t a metaphor. When I used to see that Adams Extract factory by the side of the freeway (in Austin), I just thought I really liked the way that building looked. I like those classic American factory-type buildings. When I was a musician, I played with a guy who was sponsored by Miller Genuine Draft, and they would fly us up to Milwaukee and a couple of times gave us a tour of the bottling factory. And I just kinda liked watching all that machinery work; it’s just fun to look at. Also, I was driving with my Realtor once back in ‘94, and he just pointed to a nice house over in Pemberton and said, ‘That’s where the Adams Extract people live.’ I just kind of thought, ‘you know, it’s kind of this odd item that’s in the grocery store that you’ve seen all your life but you don’t think about how it’s made or who decided to start a factory.’ So it just seemed kind of interesting to me, actually. And then, when I would tell people, ‘this guy has a factory that makes vanilla extract,’ they’d start laughing; so, I figured I’m one step ahead if that’s already getting a laugh.

If you started writing this just after ‘Office Space,’ I guess you didn’t have Jason Bateman in mind when writing?

No. And I put the thing on the shelf and didn’t look at it again for a few years, I guess. But after I’d seen ‘Arrested Development,’ I thought, ‘Man, this guy’s perfect.’ He did ‘King of the Hill’ once. My producing partners, for years, they were ahead of the game … they were always into Jason Bateman. They always thought he ought to be given a chance to be a leading guy, going all the way back to the 80s.

There’s an everyman characteristic about Bateman’s character. The same could be said about the protagonists in much of your other work. They are these everyday guys who have to deal with the buffoons and antics surrounding them. Do you relate to that character in a personal way?

It’s probably something I relate to, myself, I guess. And particularly with this, I wanted to do something where a guy is trying to be a nice boss and gets taken advantage of and how that’s kind of a difficult task. I’d never had anybody work for me, I was always an employee, and I had, you know, 100 jobs. Then, when ‘Beavis and Butt-head’ happened, I suddenly had 50 people working for me, and I started to sympathize with bosses I’d had and realized, ‘This is not easy.’ I just thought there could be something funny there. But, yea, he’s kind of an everyman … who runs a factory.

It seems that in a lot of R-rated comedies of late, a lot of the characters seem to be too clever by half. You, on the other hand, have a natural tone. Can you speak to your writing style in that regard?

It used to bug me when you’re watching a movie and everyone’s a little too clever. You can just see there’s a comedy writer who spent forever coming up with this line for this person to say, and it starts to, I don’t know, make it less believable or something to me. I guess I tend to also not write jokes so much as just have the comedy come out of who the characters are and their situations, I guess.

Do you think your quick rise to fame and early success allowed you to do what you wanted to do on your terms, and the fact that you weren’t in Hollywood worrying about what tests well and how to write the perfect joke, gave you a different perspective?

I’m pretty lucky in that I started out making these films in my house by myself, not having to take any notes from anybody. And then ‘Beavis and Butt-head’ became a show and became a hit right away. So right away, Hollywood was looking to me for the answers instead of the other way around. I think if I had moved out there and tried to make it, I would have had a different deal. By the time I did ‘Office Space,’ ‘King of the Hill’ had been a hit and ‘Beavis and Butt-head’ and ‘Beavis and Butt-head’ the movie, and still it was hard to get a studio to get on board with dialogue that was a guy just going, [does impersonation of ‘Frank Lundberg’ from ‘Office Space’] “Hmm … yea … if I could just go ahead and get that from you …” I mean, they saw the dailies and they were just breathing down my neck, ‘What are you doing, man?! Where’s the punch line? Why aren’t you shaking the camera all over the place and getting wide-angle lenses in people’s faces?’ So, even with the success, there’s such pessimism. They were just like, ‘Well, it’s because he should only be doing animation. He doesn’t know what he’s doing with live action. This is horrible.’ And then when Office Space came out and didn’t do so well, they said, ‘Well, see, we were right … you should have had punch lines and this and that.’ And eventually it started making a lot of money and they wanted sequels and all this other stuff. (laughs) Hollywood is very afraid to completely insult someone usually because there’ve been so many comeback stories.

Speaking of Hollywood … you’ve been in Austin for about 15 years now. What is it that you like about living and working in Austin that keeps you away from Hollywood?

Austin to me has everything I’d want in a town, and, even though it’s gotten bigger, it still feels kind of small. I’m able to get more done here. I can write and work better here. Over the years, it’s also kind of helped make me unavailable, which can be a good thing.

After the troubles you had with 20th Century Fox, specifically on ‘Idiocracy,’ what was your experience like getting ‘Extract’ made the way you wanted?

‘Idiocracy’ was a script that was the last thing I owed them on a deal that went way back to (the late 90s). And I wasn’t even sure I wanted to make it, but everybody was encouraging me. This one I just wrote on spec. What a lot of people do, and what I have done, and what your agent always wants you to do, is get the money in advance to write it. So, with this one, I just wanted to write it. And my producing partners are kind of in the same boat. We all decided together that we were just going to start writing stuff on spec and own it and do business a different way. We actually got independent financing for most of the budget. Miramax came in for the rest of the budget and bought domestic distribution, so it wasn’t even a development deal or anything. We already had Jason on board and all this before Miramax came in.

How did you get Ben Affleck on board?

Ben actually had read the script, and I had never met him before, and I heard he wanted to do it. And I thought, ‘Wow, really?’ Because I remember after ‘Dazed and Confused’ came out, I asked Rick Linklater, ‘Who’s the guy with the paddle who gets the paint dumped on him? Cause he’s really good.’ And this is way back in ’93. And he was telling me, ‘Oh, it’s this guy Ben Affleck, and he’s really smart and a really good guy to work with.’ And then he became this huge star. But I actually like him when he’s a character actor, like in that movie, like in ‘Shakespeare in Love.’ So I met with him and he started telling me about this guy back in Boston that he’s friends with, who he went to high school with and as he was talking about it, I could just sort of see it. And we had a read-through of the script, and he just killed it. I just thought he was really funny. And luckily he agreed to kind of make himself look different. He just got it, ya know?

When I first saw his name, I thought it may come off as an over-the-top cameo, but he really owned it and you could tell he enjoyed doing the role.

Yea. We shot a bunch if his stuff toward the beginning, and then all the factory stuff was at the end, so he came back for one factory scene, and I could tell he was kind of happy to be back. I think he really had a lot of fun with it, and it was really fun watching those guys together.

I assume, since you had independent funding for ‘Extract,’ you probably didn’t have to wage the battles you did for casting on ‘Office Space.’

It was much easier There weren’t any discussions about it. You know, whoever I thought was best and was available I could put in without having to listen to why this person isn’t funny and that person isn’t funny by the people who hired me because I supposedly know what I was doing. So that was definitely a better experience.

Why did you choose to shoot in L.A. as opposed to Austin?

It was actually cheaper, I think, to shoot in L.A. and we could get the actors to do it more easily in L.A. We shot some exteriors here, actually, so there is a little bit of Austin in it.
Also, the timing … you know, we shot it in the summer. I had always planned to shoot ‘Idiocracy’ and ‘Office Space’ here in the winter, and each time it got delayed until it was the middle of summer.

The film, in a sense, is about sex and infidelity and the fears surrounding it. But there’s no sex or nudity in the film, so it feels like a fairly conservative look at sex. Was that a conscious decision?

I wouldn’t say it’s a conscious decision. But when I see a movie, I don’t need to be in a theater getting turned on. That can happen in private just fine. I can’t imagine trying to be on the set when there’s actually a nude scene … I don’t wanna do that. There’s enough drama with actors with no nudity, so I can’t even imagine … … (laughs)

Do you ever make it out to any of the comedy or improv clubs in Austin, or are those the places you know for certain you will be recognized?

I haven’t in awhile. I used to go to see stand-up at the Velveeta Room and stuff. There’ve been a couple people I’ve used who I met there. And when I was casting ‘Idiocracy,’ I’d see people who were kind of a part of that scene. There’s a lot of good people here. Even though we shot this in L.A., I ended up using a little bit of local casting. You know, there’s a certain type of person that decides to up and move to L.A. and become and actor. For women, especially there are some interesting actors here. In L.A. you either have the huge fat woman who’s in the pizza commercials or the skinny, anorexic hot blonde ones … it’s harder to find those kind of in between ones.

What’s next on the horizon for you?

There’s a thing that my partners, Dave Krinsky and John Altschuler, wrote called “Brigadier Gerad,” that we’ll probably do next. I don’t think I’ll direct it, I’ll probably produce it. It’s set during the Napoleonic Wars, and it’s a comedy based on these stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle that are actually really funny. I read them, and it’s rare that you see something over 100 years old that makes you laugh. Maybe it’s not that rare. Anyway, these guys wrote this great script and we’re hanging on to it and we’re probably going to make that.

Independently?

Yea. I think it will probably get distributed by a studio. We have the money in place, we’re just kind of figuring out who’s going to be in it and that sort of thing.


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OMG, there’s a bear in my yard! (kind of)

Back from vacation and trying to get back in the swing of things. In the meantime, really enjoying the hard-hitting journalism coming out of Fox8 in Cleveland.


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We’re gonna break out the hats and hooters

Although I may not be the most prolific blogger in the world, or within 50 feet of my desk, I feel compelled to let you know that I will be away from the Intertron for close to a week. As for what I will be up to, that’s a secret, but here are some clues.

And for good measure …

Yes, I am happy to be leaving the 100+ degree heat, if you couldn’t tell.

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Your A-List: Best Taco Stand

What began as a small trailer operation on West Fifth Street has expanded to three locations with plans for more. As it makes its slow move to dot the Austin landscape with its taco locations, Torchy’s carries with it the title of Best Taco Stand in the Your A-List poll.

The flagship Torchy’s location sits in the South Austin Trailer Park Eatery, offering plenty of seating and parking for folks who have come to love the operation’s green chili queso, breakfast tacos and unique creations, such as the Trailer Park, which features fried chicken, green chilies, lettuce, pico de gallo, and Cheese served on a flour tortilla with poblano ranch.

The folks at Torchy’s briefly experienced a mild delusion of grandeur or misguided ambition last year when they attempted to start a burger operation at the Trailer Park location. However, they laid Shuggie’s to rest last month in order to focus on doing what they do best — tacos.

Click below for complete results.

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Busting a move (glow sticks not included)

With Lollapalooza now over, I wonder if this guy is already queuing up for tickets to the run of aftershows at Stubb’s during ACL (Sound Tribe Sector 9, Thievery Corporation, Ghostland Observatory). I think that may be Gene, the camp cook from “Wet Hot American Summer,” in the background.

This video originally appeared on the Leshock Value Blog. Thanks to Paige Maguire for the tip.

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Homeowner calls the cops on Bob Dylan

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Long considered a man of mystery, Bob Dylan’s enigmatic personal life received a new confusing and humorous anecdote last month.

In New Jersey as part of his national tour with Willie Nelson and John Mellencamp, the 69 year-old musician considered the voice of a generation decided he’d take a walk. In a story that sounds like it was ripped from one of his song’s lyrics, Dylan was walking through a residential neighborhood in Long Branch, N.J.. He was dressed in sweatpants, black rain boots and two raincoats, and a hard rain was falling.

According to ABC.com, “When Dylan wandered into the yard of a home that had a ‘For Sale’ sign on it, the home’s occupants became spooked by his appearance and called police with a report of an “eccentric-looking old man” in their yard, Long Branch Police said. One of the occupants even went so far as to follow Dylan as he continued on down the street.”

I may be a little spooked, too, if a dude looking like the old preacher in “Poltergeist II” appeared in my yard during a rainstorm.

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Twenty-four-year-old Long Branch police officer Kristie Buble responded to the call and questioned Dylan as to who he was and what he was doing in the neighborhood. He responded calmly that he was Bob Dylan, was looking at a house for sale in the neighborhood and was in the area as part of his nationwide tour.

Considering the strange circumstances (a massive downpour), lack of identification, disheveled appearance of the musician, and an apparent deficiency of cultural knowledge, Buble took Dylan into custody and drove him back to the hotel. There she encountered a fleet of tour buses and eventually discerned Dylan’s identity. (I would imagine the cats on Willie’s bus were a little nervous when they saw the police roll up on the scene.)

Just another day in the life of one of America’s most curious and talented artists.

Read the full ABC post here.

Image of Bob Dylan performing at the Dell Diamond in Round Rock on Tuesday Aug. 4, 2009 by Jay Janner AMERICAN-STATESMAN.

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Your A-List: Best Locally Produced TV Show

From local public access shows to a well-known drama on NBC, Austin can brag of an array of quality programs shot in town. But only one show based in Austin has made it into any kind of hall of fame.

Earlier this week, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame announced it will designate the studios of “Austin City Limits” as a historic site. This week’s Your A-List poll winner, with 40 percent of the vote, joins eight other locations around the country to receive the distinction.

The show, aired around the country on PBS, began with a focus on Texas music, so it was fitting that Texas native Willie Nelson was the first musician to perform on the show. In the 33 years since its initial broadcast, Austin City Limits has welcomed musicians of all stripes to its stage, from Trey Anastatio to Dwight Yoakam.

In addition to the nod from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, in 2003, “Austin City Limits” received the National Medal of Arts, the only TV to receive that distinction.

Click the link below for complete results.

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Your A-List: Best Queso

The Your A-List poll for Best Queso was as hotly (pun intended) contested as any we’ve had, with the top two vote-getters finishing within a tortilla chip crumb’s distance of one another. In the end, the multiple-location Kerbey Lane narrowly edged out Austin landmark Matt’s El Rancho for the crown. Both restaurants garnered 13 percent of the vote, but Kerbey received two more total votes.

With everyone and their mother serving queso in Austin, you can’t just melt some Velveeta and call it a day. You have to somehow set yourself apart. Kerbey has done so by adding guacamole to their queso, and offering the upgraded Cowboy Queso, which features black beans and guacamole covered with queso and topped with pico de gallo. According to their site, the stuff is so popular that the folks at Kerbey make 150 gallons of the award-winning queso every week. I think my heart just exploded.

Click the link below for complete results.

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