The 614ortyPlatter - Free Music!...and a little Samin

Along with music, Samin Nosrat was a constant companion
while working from home during 2020

For those of you who have followed along since I have posted my playlists, the amount of music I was listening to while working from home proved to be the inspiration for these food-meets-music explorations. Like many, I definitely miss live music and concerts; frankly, if it's been hard for the consumers like us, it's been multiple times harder for the musicians who make at least a part of their living from their musical pursuits.

As a result, I've been making sure to supplement my Spotify listening (which as everyone knows, pays a pittance to artists for their streamed songs) with actual purchases of merch and music.  I've encouraged those of you who have read and listened along to do so too, and I figure a way I can do that even more is to provide a little bit of a carrot.  Thus, I'm giving away up a $20 gift card to Bandcamp, home of many independent music artists towards that effort.  If you came here first, check out my Instagram page (@CAlipinOH) to get the details on how you can enter the giveaway.

Nostalgia Trip: The First Lady Goes Tailgating in Columbus

The season of the weekend college football tailgate has arrived in
full force in Columbus, home of The Ohio State Buckeyes

With the arrival of the college football season comes the rebirth of the college football tailgate party. Unsurprisingly, this proves to be a popular pastime here in Columbus, home of Ohio State University, its nationally known football program and fervent fan base.

The modern concept of the football tailgate is said to date back roughly a century to the then dominant Ivy League schools, but historians and researchers have traced the tailgate’s origins to the U.S. Civil War and even to old Roman Empire rituals.

Considering my interest in things sports-, food-, and history-related, it’s really no surprise that “The Official Tailgating Cookbook” would catch my eye during a random thrift store visit. What I found inside made it worth far more than the $1 (an 80% discount over its original cover price) I forked over at the cash register.

Steady Diet of Everything: Anthony Bourdain's "The Hunger"

Anthony Bourdain: The Hunger
Palace Theatre
October 29, 2016

The book that put chef/author/media personality Anthony Bourdain on the map

Whatever one may think of "Kitchen Confidential", chef/author/major media personality Anthony Bourdain's exposé on the culinary world published in 2000, there were two notions that the reader would've wondered back then when it came to the author himself.  One notion would lie in the author's self-obsession, in that there was nothing in the world that would've crossed Bourdain's path to change his primary focus to someone other than himself.

Never doubt the power of a child, however. At the age of fifty, Bourdain was blessed with the birth of his one and only child Ariane, an event he acknowledges came at the right time for him in his newest literary release "Appetites: A Cookbook." As he noted in the introduction, "I was no longer the star of my own movie - or any movie. Like most people who write books or appear on television...I am a monster of self-regard. Fatherhood has been an enormous relief, as I am now genetically, instinctually compelled to care more about someone other than myself."

The Carnage Plate, Refined: Little Eater

This, my friends, is my version of a carnage plate, Little Eater-styled.

Carnage is a word that generally carries negative connotations. And yes, carnage is not a word generally associated with the well-regarded and beloved Columbus' North Market. In fact, most people would probably dream of the heat of hot chicken, the airy chew of macarons, and the waft of ripe produce, simmering stews. and all manner of bakery goods, rather than anything destructive.

It most definitely isn't pretty, but I dare say carnage has never tasted better.