The Rebel Palate

It's October, and you know what that means: time to celebrate all things wacky, wild, and WEIRD! No tricks- this is gonna be a treat! (Click here to jump to the recommended song, the Moville Mysteries Theme Song by Jonathan Evans and George Tevlin!)    Howdy, Rebels!   It's October, and you know what that means: Spooky time! It's time to kick off The Month Of The Weird!  WHAT IS "THE WEIRD"?    "The Weird" is the name I've given to all things B-horror. Think Boris Karloff movies, horror pulp novels, weird monster art- anything campy, occult-themed and just plain WEIRD!   Though not a subculture in itself, The Weird often runs alongside rebellious subcultures like rockabilly, psychobilly and goth. And during October, I'm all about that. Here are some visual examples to give you the general vibe:   Photo credit: 3btheaterposterarchive.wordpress.com Photo credit: wwcomics.com   Photo credit: Mike Nelson ...

A Decent Cup of Tea   A tea-related post from me? Way overdue. Here I review a book where some Irish guy teaches us how not to suck at brewing tea. (Click here to jump to the recommended song, A Decent Cup of Tea by Frank Turner!) Howdy, rebels! In my last post , I mentioned that tea is the "food-related item I know most about". A friend suggested that I talk about tea, but I didn't know what to say about it until now.   This is because I don't like repeating readily available information. I could drop some tea knowledge on the Rebel Palate, but I would feel dishonest knowing there are already so many better sources . This doesn't mean I can't talk about tea at all, though- I can talk about a book about tea.   I've noticed a lack of "proper" reviews for A Decent Cup of Tea by Malachi McCormick. It's popular among tea lovers, but not in the wider scope, so I thought I would post about it here. The book contains history, advice ...

Geeking out is fun, but everyone must start somewhere. It can be intimidating to get into the culture of food. Here are five tips to get you started. (Click here to jump to the recommended song, Savoy Brownie by Joe McDermott!) You may have met at least one nerd over your lifetime. This nerd is super knowledgeable about a specific food or beverage. Though they seem crazy, you're secretly jealous of how much they know about this specific thing. You wonder, "how does anyone get into that thing?" You start doing research, but everything you find assumes you know about it to begin with, or there's all this jargon you don't understand. Maybe there's so much variety you don't know where to start. I've been both the nerd and the non-nerd many times, and I'm here to tell you from experience how I've overcome that beginner's terror. #1. KNOW WHAT YOU'RE TRYING TO LEARN. You want to learn about a food, but what specifically about it? The histo...

Happy Labor Day, rebels. In the first part, I found out not only are Biggy Iggy and Chewy Louie still around, they’re at Richmond Market of Richmond, Vermont. (Click here to jump to the recommended song, "The Swag" by Link Wray and his Ray Men!) Happy Labor Day, rebels. In the first part, I found out not only are Biggy Iggy and Chewy Louie still around, they’re at Richmond Market of Richmond, Vermont. And that using Google instead of DuckDuckGo and just letting the store’s website load would have gotten me that information much faster. The Biggy Iggy is a whopping seven ounce, 530 calorie ice cream sandwich that brags about its “premium vanilla ice cream” between two chocolate-chip cookies that stay chewy right out of the freezer. They also get a lot of hype by the people who have had them before. According to the Flash Microsite, one convenience store cashier said “Biggy Iggies sell like flapjacks on a cold morning in Wisconsin.” The people of Massachusetts...

(Click here to jump to the recommended song, Pickpocket by Brian Setzer!)   Howdy Rebels, Kat here with an important update on The Quest For The Biggy Iggy. The mission is a go! My family and I are going on a road trip to Vermont to get our hands on the fabled ice cream sandwiches. I will post my review on Monday, September 6th, AKA Labor Day. You may have read Part One and wondered, "Why go all the way to Vermont when you can order them on Richmond Market's website ?" An excellent question, dear rebels. As Wordgirl's best villain, Dr. Two-Brains so eloquently puts it:     The linear way feels too easy. Sure I can order the Biggy Iggys online, but so can anybody. I wanna make it a journey. Plus, conventionality gives me hives. I've also found the .swf file for the Biggy Iggy and Chewie Louie microsite!   Here's a video demonstration.     I also uploaded the .swf file to my Google Drive: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1KO7Jssdg3lEuYQGvU8f5k1hTNcYvMMb5/view...

(Click here to jump to the recommended song, Unchained Melody as performed by Elvis Presley!) It's Elvis Week, that seven-day slice of time so named for being the anniversary week of Elvis Presley's death. Everybody knows how much the guy liked fried peanut butter-banana sandwiches, but there was another, more interesting sandwich with stranger lore behind it: The Fool's Gold Loaf. The Fool's Gold Loaf I made.   Some people call it "The Elvis Sandwich," as if it's his signature sandwich that absolutely everyone knows about INSTEAD of the peanut-butter banana... I digress. The legend goes that on February 1st, 1976, Elvis and a couple of his cop friends were reminiscing over an absolute madlad creation from Denver, Colorado. It was crafted by a bakery called the Colorado Mining Company- the Fool's Gold Loaf. An entire loaf of French bread with a jar of jelly, a jar of peanut butter and a pound of bacon inside. The outside was slathered in two tablespoo...

(Click here to jump to the recommended song, the Sam and Max Office Theme by Jared Emerson-Johnson!) I leaned back in my chair with my feet on my desk and my fedora over my face. I was contemplating the disappearance of someone well-known in his neck of the woods. Went by the name of Biggy Iggy.  He was the face of a line of ice cream sandwiches, a big hit in Massachusetts and Vermont. He was a big fella with a big smile, great hair and a winning personality.  He was often seen with his kooky partner in crime, Chewy Louie, but for some unknown reason the two of them vanished. Just disappeared off the face of the earth. No goodbyes- and the craziest part was, no one seemed to notice. I saw a picture of Iggy once, on a wrapper to one of his fine products. Found it on the side of the road in ‘17 or ‘18. But I threw it away when I got home. Never saw it again. It was a shame. Something about him really clicked with me. Maybe it was his old-school style. Woulda liked to meet the gu...