Text 10002, 74 rader
Skriven 2008-07-02 17:31:00 av Michael Loo
Ärende: trip 2 of 5 552
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I don't care for Northampton in general. It's got the
funkiness of the '60s and early '70s with none of the
vitality. I figure if we'd been allowed to go on our
drugs-sex-rock-'n'-roll path for forty years, we'd all
be living like this; annoying and dead at the same time.

On to some mall (Dave could tell you the name), which was,
though funkier than your regular mall, kind of annoying,
except that it had a Herrell's. Now Steve Herrell was the
guy who founded Steve's out in Somerville; this was a big
success and a bit of a destination (when Nixon resigned,
my friends and I went there to celebrate, and we were among
hundreds to do so). Steve sold out to Joey Crugnale, who
ended up building a franchise operation selling very average
ice cream (there probably is one within driving distance,
wherever you may be in the US). He was uncomfortable with
retirement, though, so he started Steve Herrell's, but his
old bud Joey got a judgment (not unlike the Walter Taylor
and Taylor Wines issue) forbidding him to use this name;
thus was Herrell's named. Things I tried:

peppermint - pleasantly pepperminty; fairly rich; fairly good.

malted vanilla - almost as good as it was back in the old
days, but more cereally.

coconut - average.

jalapeno - tasted like grass clippings; quite wimpy and
very mediocre.

burnt caramel - not so good as Toscanini's, but acceptable.

I had a Ralph's root beer, which was wholesome and nondairy
and a taste of Lynn's cream soda, ditto.

On to TJ's in Hadley, so Lynn could buy chocolate-coated
sunflower seeds, which were teh awesomes - good quality
milk chocolate teaming excellently with the nuttiness and
slight greeness of sunflower seeds. I also tasted, on the
recommendation of a passerby, a sample of the cappuccino
cake ... it was rich and creamy, but for me the best part
was the garnish of a single ripe raspberry.

Back home: a bite of Lynn's Mountain Dew Voltage - couldn't
take much of this as it is full of caffeine; what I tasted
was somewhat like a raspberry lime rickey. The most notable
thing about this beverage is that it is blue.

Dave's rum-cured bacon is delicious. Not exceptionally
rummy, but still very lovely.

Peach-flavored gummi rings are peach-flavored, which should
surprise nobody, except that they are quite good. I didn't
get the name of the manufacturer, but it starts with a B,
as Barrett or Barnett or something.

Japanese chicken-flavored crackers - less heavy-handedly
MSGful as Chik'n-in-a-Biskit, but also to me less savory.
A decent snack but nothing special.

The beef bacon was as described on Dave's blog. It made a
pretty decent pastrami-oid substance when heated up without
crisping, but as bacon? Fugeddaboudit.

I had a slice or two of a corned beef Dave had made using
Chinese spices instead of the standard pickling spices. It
was quite palatable, rather like five-spice soy sauce beef,
which I make frequently.

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 * Origin: Nocturnal State BBS -- nsbbs.info (1:18/200)