Chinese-made plastic brides kneel on the shelf of a local dollar store.
]]>London is one of the world's great cities and this pathetic attack will not destroy them.
]]>In the 20-odd years since, Diet Coke has ceased to be a "line extension" to Coca-Cola, but has become a distinct brand all its own. Nobody talks about how close Diet Coke is to the taste of real Coke anymore. They don't care because the Diet Coke taste is its own taste. Diet Coke drinkers aren't just former Coke drinkers who want a sugar-free Coke. They're Diet Coke drinkers unto themselves.
Why, I always wanted to know, did Diet Coke taste so different from regular Coke? Back in 1981, we believed that there was some strange voodoo chemistry in the regular Coke formula, that only Coke made with real sugar could taste the way Coke tastes. That somehow removing the sugar and replacing it with saccharin (the first version of Diet Coke came out just before the launch of NutraSweet, or aspartame), softened the flavor, made it lighter and less, uhh, I dunno, Coke-like?
Then the Coca-Cola Company tried to commit corporate suicide with New Coke. It tasted terrible. I would rather have drunk Sam's American soda than New Coke. But enough of that. Diet Coke, it emerged, was a rejected sugar-free formula for New Coke. If you ever had New Coke, then you can recall the similarities. Whereas New Coke became the fodder for innumerable Letterman monologues, Diet Coke caught on and continues to grow today.
Fast-forward to 2005 and the introduction of the line-extension soda Coke Zero. It tastes like regular Coke without sugar. Or, should I say, it tastes like Coke sweetened with HFCS, but with aspartame in place of the HFCS. Suddenly it becomes clear that they could have made Diet Coke taste just like real Coke all those years ago, but they chose not to. All those fantasies about the chemistry of sucrose in the Coke formula were just that--silly stuff.
The question I have is: is this an extension of the Coca-Cola line or of the Diet Coke line? An argument can be made both ways. Whatever-- it's great and has become my soda of choice. I wish they'd done this years ago.
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Chinese-made plastic brides kneel on the shelf of a local dollar store.
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This week we tried out the new restaurant in McAllen called Le Lai. It's in the shopping strip next to the Lack's on North 10th, near the car wash. Le Lai bills itself as "Eastern" cuisine, so we wanted to give it a try.
The first thing we noticed upon entering was that the place was nearly empty at dinnertime. In McAllen a new restaurant usually has people crowding in, at least during the opening week. In fairness, early crowds are no guarantee of future success, and there have been places that grew in popularity after a slow start. But they are exceptions.
The place is decorated attractively, with the expected halogen lighting and wooden chairs that have become synonymous with eateries of a certain type. I had been planinng to check out Le Lai, but what caused me to go this week was a chat I had with Toonces who said their fried spring rolls were "not just great, they were the greatest spring rolls I ever had in my life." So the meal started with spring rolls. They were presented with the largest amount of shrubbery I've ever witnessed accompanying a Vietnamese style appetizer. A mountain of green-leaf lettuce, fresh cilantro, and basil sat alongside the six spring rolls. We also received a saucer of Vietnamese-style dipping sauce made of fish sauce, sugar, chilli powder, and shredded carrots.
I have to say that although the rolls were good, they weren't earth-shatteringly great, but nobody in the Velley seems to know how to make them right anyway. These tasted, as all the Vietnamese spring rolls in the Valley do, like they were prepared from ready-made frozen rolls. The thing that gets me is how wrong the skins are. They should be irregular, and have frizzly bits sticking out all over. These were robotically perfect and consistent.
Then our orders arrived. G had Satay Chicken and I had Basil Beef.
Speaking of pictures, I converted my Flickr account to Pro status, to avoid bumping into posting limitations and to get access to their blog-by-email feature. So in case you're interested in what I'm shooting these days, or what might become the subject of an upcoming blog post, check Flickr.
]]>Podcasts, if you've been living under a rock since last fall, are one of the most exciting developments on the net in the past year. With iTunes 4.9, it suddenly becomes easy to locate podcasts and subscribe to them. The interface is simple and intuitive and it works well.
The downsides I can see to the way Apple's done this are
Last time I checked there were over 8,000 podcasts on the net and that number has probably passed 10,000 by now. iTunes only has a 3,000 to choose from, but there is a way to publish podcasts you want to see included. I wonder how many podcasts on Windows technology will show up.
The other thing I don't like about it is that it seems to give top billing to commercial and professionally-produced podcasts. I kind of hate to see something terrific created by amateurs and hobbyists be taken over by big business so soon.
At any rate, Apple has the resources to make iTunes the premier podcasting destination on the net. It certainly is easier to locate podcasts in iTunes than any other search engine I've seen. The hardest thing about being a podcast fan is just learning where to find the podcasts. Now we have that.
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