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Last year we reviewed and ranked 14 different milkshakes from 14 different fast food chains in search of the thickest and tastiest. Our ranking revealed to us that Oreos are probably the single best thing to ever happen to the milkshake, and one of the finest Oreo Milkshakes comes from the stoner paradise that is Jack in the Box (ranked fifth!).

But what about those other Jack in the Box milkshakes? In addition to the mighty Oreo Shake, Jack also makes vanilla, chocolate, strawberry, and beginning yesterday for a limited time, the 4/20 themed Pineapple Express shake. The Pineapple Express Shake is a spin on the vanilla shake blended with pineapple syrup and topped with whipped cream and a maraschino cherry. Sort of like a Dole Whip.

Upon the shake’s announcement, Seth Rogen — writer of Pineapple Express — took to Twitter to make it clear that he had nothing to do with the milkshake and Jack in the Box did not contact him about using the name.

We’re not sure Jack in the Box needs to get permission for something like this, but Seth’s point is valid. And he’s right about the tacos (though he forgot to mention that they’re delicious in the right context).

We’ll pick a side depending on how good this thing tastes, and since we’re grabbing the Pineapple Express we figured we might as well order every milkshake on the menu and rank them from worst to best. We’re also going to give a 1-5 score based on how good they taste dipped in fries, this won’t have any effect on where we rank the milkshakes, but we figured it’s good info to have if you like living life the fun way.

Can anything top the Oreo Milkshake? Are we team Seth or team JiB? So many questions to answer, let’s get sipping!

5. Vanilla

Calories: 580 (Reg. Size w/ whipped cream)

Tasting Notes:

Before we talk about what the JiB Vanilla Shake tastes like, let me just throw this out there — all of these shakes are good. JiB’s shakes are super thiccccc, so thick that it takes an annoying amount of effort to get them through the straw. They’re creamy, almost like pure soft serve ice cream, and they keep their consistency for a remarkable amount of time.

It takes a whole hour for this shake to start to break down, that’s pretty amazing. Having said all that, JiB’s vanilla shake tastes… like nothing. There is the faintest hint of vanilla in there, but clearly, this shake is more of a foundation for the other flavors, which I’m pretty positive are just this shake, plus a flavored syrup.

It works for all the other flavors, but it makes the Vanilla stand out as tasting like it’s missing something.

Fry Dipability:

5/5. It might not taste like much on its own, but when encasing a salty french fry in its creamy goodness, few things taste better. This might be Jack in the Box’s best shake to dip your fries in. Ironically, we think it’s their worst tasting.

The Bottom Line:

Neutral to the point of flavorlessness. It’s sweet, refreshing, and creamy, with only a hint of vanilla.

4. Strawberry

Calories: 650 (Reg. Size w/ whipped cream)

Tasting Notes:

12-year-old me’s head would explode if they knew I would one day rank (the thought of ranking milkshakes as a job would also not compute to my 12-year-old brain) a strawberry shake above any flavor, let alone vanilla, every kid’s favorite. But I’m just going to throw this out there — disliking strawberry ice cream is kid shit.

It takes a mature palate to appreciate the complexity of artificial strawberry flavoring! That’s a hill I’m willing to die on.

This is a good shake, it’s remarkably refreshing and the strawberry flavor is faint enough that your tastebuds don’t really zero in on it, which helps to mask the fact that artificial strawberry doesn’t really taste anything like real strawberries. It’s an improvement in every way to the Vanilla because it actually tastes like something.

When paired with the whipped cream and maraschino cherry, this shake has an ice cream sundae quality to it. If Jack in the Box wanted to shake things up (pun intended) they’d find a way to work banana into this shake and give us one of the greatest milkshakes in all of fast food.

Seriously, why haven’t they done that yet?

Fry Dipability:

2/5. It just doesn’t really work. Nobody likes a salty strawberry. [Though that does sound like a cool band name. -ed]

The Bottom Line:

It tastes like the ‘80s vision of the ‘50s. It’s comforting, warmly nostalgic, and classic, and you should drink it while listening to some good ‘ol rock and roll.

3. Pineapple Express

Calories: Not listed, but it’s safe to assume it hovers in the upper 600s.

Tasting Notes:

I went into this milkshake fully expecting it to be gross. I’m not sure if it’s because I have an affinity for Seth Rogen’s Houseplant weed brand and wanted to be on Seth’s side here, but it’s hard to hate this thing. It could’ve tasted terrible, a sickly sweet and tangy overload of candied flavor to match with Jack in the Box’s menu of weird stoner delights. But like all of the milkshakes, it’s subtle, and that’s its strength.

The pineapple syrup adds a gentle tartness and a fruity body to an otherwise neutral-tasting milkshake. It doesn’t really pair well with the whipped cream because it has a sort of Big Stick Popsicle flavor to it. If Jack in the Box added a cherry syrup in there, this shit would truly be next level.

The Bottom Line:

Sorry Seth, but this is delicious.

Fry Dipability:

1/5. Even worse than the strawberry. The salty potato flavor doesn’t pair well with the subtle tang of this shake. It’s almost vomit-esque. Barf-adjacent.

2. Chocolate

Calories: 680 (Reg. Size w/ whipped cream)

Tasting Notes:

It tastes just like a scoop of chocolate ice cream. I’m not sure if it was just my particular milkshake, but this was the only shake out of the lineup where I could visibly see the flavored syrup, and that added visual definitely enhanced the experience in some small way.

I’m almost positive this is just chocolate syrup mixed in with the Vanilla Shake base, but I can taste two distinct flavors of chocolate here, a more chalky milk chocolate powdered flavor, and a syrupy chocolate sauce flavor. I wish JiB would take the extra step to drizzle some chocolate sauce on the whipped cream, or maybe add a side of crushed nuts to really bring this to the next level and add some texture in there, but we’ll take what we can get.

Fry Dipability:

4/5. It’s good, just not as good as dipping a fry in vanilla.

The Bottom Line:

Almost a perfect milkshake. If not for our number one pick, this would be the clear winner.

1. Oreo Cookie

Calories: 690 (Reg. Size w/ whipped cream)

Tasting Notes:

Going in I assumed this was going to hit number 1 (it’s why we include the shake in our best milkshake lineup) but tasting all the shakes side by side really put into focus how much better this shake is than all of the others. The Oreo Cookie shake has all of the best qualities of every other shake in this ranking, it’s thick, sweet, creamy, refreshing, but it has one thing the other milkshakes lack — texture.

This makes a world of difference. When the Oreos come up through the straw and melt on your tongue in a bath of sweet and creamy vanilla ice cream it’s decadent dessert ecstasy.

Fast food milkshakes rarely get better than this flavor combination (though a few chains do the Oreo shake even better) and because Oreos are kind of a dusty cookie, the granules of chocolate cookie pepper the entire ice cream base, so aside from the actual chunks of Oreo you drink up from the straw, the milkshake itself tastes like cookies and cream ice cream. It’s a significant improvement to the neutral vanilla base it’s built upon.

Fry Dipability:

3/5. Unfortunately dipping a french fry in an Oreo shake makes neither the shake nor french fry taste any better. It’s fine, but should only be tasted out of curiosity.

The Bottom Line:

JiB made the Oreo Milkshake a standard flavor in the lineup of fast food milkshakes everywhere, and we count the OG amongst the best of them. Every other Jack in the Box milkshake lives in the shadow of this one. It’s the only one worth ordering.

Find your nearest Jack in the Box here.

In an age when movie trailers are rarely big news, the trailer for The Unbearable Weight Of Massive Talent seemed like big news. The conceit of Nicolas Cage playing Nicolas Cage, in a movie about the weirdo movie star, Nicolas Cage, had the feeling of a meme becoming self-aware. Naturally, the internet went crazy for it. But as Snakes On A Plane once proved, a hit trailer doesn’t always make for a hit movie.

In fact, it’s not even the first time this sort of thing has been attempted (JCVD, anyone?). Frankly, I was wary of the entire concept. I have mixed feelings about Nic Cage being a human meme. I started writing FilmDrunk back in 2007, when Nic Cage always seemed to be a great source of #content, whether he was going broke from buying dinosaur skulls or starring in movies where he got eaten by bees. Which is to say, I was myself at the very least complicit in turning Nic Cage into a human meme.

Yet that was almost 15 years ago. It’s not that I regret making Nic Cage jokes in the late aughts or that “Nic Cage deserves better!” (maybe he does, but I doubt he needs us to defend him, and anyway he made this persona). It’s less that it’s “unfair” to the celebrity and more that it just feels outdated and hack, a relic from the days of epic bacon and I can haz cheezeburger. “Zany Nic Cage project” was already a thing. It’s been a thing. Every year there are at least five of them. With Pig I thought we’d finally come out the other side, into newer and more interesting Nic Cage iterations.

Then again maybe The Unbearable Weight Of Massive Talent would be part of those newer and more interesting iterations. Maybe it wouldn’t just use Nic Cage as a sight gag, but actually have something say about it. At the very least it’s a fantastic title.

Like the title itself, the film is undeniably clever. Cage plays a manic, self-absorbed version of himself, constantly slipping into actor-on-a-press-tour mode (“it’s kind of like a cosmic gumbo“) to anyone who will listen. In an early scene, Cage, with his uncanny valley hairline and spray paint beard dyed an unnatural charcoal brown, corners a director near the valet stand after a lunch meeting. He verbally assaults the director with a Boston-accented monologue from director’s own script, even after the director has insisted that he doesn’t need Cage to read. Valets and waiters stare bemused, everyone embarrassed by the spectacle except Cage himself. What does Nic Cage care? He’s Nic Cage.

This is the Nic Cage of Unbearable Weight Of Massive Talent, a pathological ham who’s constantly name-checking his love for graphic novels and German expressionist films like Tourette’s tics, whose Dracula hair and stage beard are characters unto themselves. He’s struggling to pay his exorbitant bill at the hotel where he lives while trying to repair his relationship with his 16-year-old daughter Addy (Lily Mo Sheen — daughter of Kate Beckinsale and Michael Sheen) who feels like a prop in the ongoing one-man-show of Cage’s life. Meanwhile, his ex-wife Olivia (the wonderful Sharon Horgan from Catastrophe) tries and fails to drag him back down to Earth, swearing and tutting at his antics, Irishly. The devil on his shoulder is his own alter ego, Nicky, an emo-haired, leather-jacketed, CGI-de-aged incarnation of Cage (from Valley Girl?) given to maniacal shrieks who urges Cage to focus more on himself. Cage could win a best-supporting actor for this role.

Into this personal upheaval comes an indecent yet irrefusable proposal: a one million dollar offer to travel to the Spanish island of Mallorca as a birthday present for a reclusive rich guy, Javi Guitierrez, played by Pedro Pascal. “You’re not gonna have to blow him, or let him watch you fuck his wife, or watch him fuck his wife,” assures Cage’s agent, played by Neil Patrick Harris.

Javi turns out to be a sort-of-bashful, movie-obsessed Nic Cage superfan, and the two hit it off. Maybe it’s just what Cage needs to get his groove back.

Cage and Pascal have an undeniable, freak-charming chemistry, and for a while, The Unbearable Weight Of Massive Talent works beautifully as a goofy buddy comedy. It’s delightful watching these two characters just hang out and bond, dropping acid and living out their own fantasies. Javi is, after all, the only guy in the world as obsessed with Nicolas Cage as Nicolas Cage. And then the CIA gets involved.

As a Nic Cage joke that doesn’t feel like a leftover aughts meme, Unbearable Weight works shockingly well. But it also never quite delivers on any level beyond that, like exploring who Nic Cage is or why we joke about him. The early parts of the film set up the conflict in pretty stark terms — when is this “always on” Hollywood animal going to drop the celebrity persona and get real? That’s an interesting question, but at some point late in the film, there’s a shift, when the conflict becomes whether Nic Cage can save the day.

Did I miss the part where Nic Cage was a real-life action hero? The last bit of Unbearable Weight regresses into meta riffs and references, seemingly as a way to just get to the end of the movie without digging deeper into why we want to see Nic Cage play Nic Cage and why it’s funny. It falls flat after that because, frankly, who cares if Nic Cage “saves the day” in a high concept action-comedy? At that point, he could be anyone. He’s Johnny Depp in The Tourist. I thought the whole point was to try to get beyond the celebrity schtick. It would’ve been more interesting to explore why Nic Cage’s beard seems to have a different shape, color, and texture in every scene.

That being said, Unbearable Weight is strange and hilarious for at least an hour, even if it never quite gets to exploring why.

‘The Unbearable Weight Of Massive Talent’ hits theaters on April 22nd. Vince Mancini is on Twitter. More reviews here.

Yesterday was a big hip-hop day on The Tonight Show, specifically for rappers with a standalone T in their names: Ice T was on the show to chat and make his pick for the best rap album of all time, and elsewhere during the episode, Pusha T came through for a performance of “Dreamin Of The Past.” The song comes from It’s Almost Dry, Pusha’s new album he released today.

For his performance, Pusha was backed by some of The Roots (who make The Tonight Show a big hip-hop day any day). The album version of the track features Kanye West, who wasn’t present for the performance. His song-closing verse was replaced with a repetition of the song’s hook.

After the song concluded, Pusha took a second to say, “It’s Almost Dry, out now. Rap album of the year.”

In a recent interview with Charlamagne Tha God, Pusha revealed Kanye, who produced the track, originally wanted the beat for himself, saying, “That record happened… I begged for the record. I begged for the beat. That happens a lot. […] It was one of those ones, I just kept going back to him. I was like, ‘Listen, man: I need this. I need this record.’ I was like, ‘You know what? You should be on the record. You should be on the record, too.’”

Watch Pusha perform “Dreamin Of The Past” on Fallon above.

Do you ever feel like the world has officially entered hell-in-a-handbasket territory? Like division and hate are dominating and kindness and compassion are dwindling?

I have a strong faith in humanity, but the past handful of years has shaken that faith pretty hard. When I step back, though, I realize that most of my perception about the state of the world is coming from this electronic box in front of me. The nature of my work has me spending lots of time paying close attention to the media and spending lots of time on social media—which can be useful, but which also thrives on viral negativity. It’s easy to walk way from a social media scroll session with the perception that people in general are getting worse.

But that’s not what the data shows. While there are some serious issues we need to deal with, people in general have been actuallymore excellent to one another. In fact, the World Happiness Report, which uses data from Gallup World Poll, shared that people volunteered, donated and helped strangers 25% more in 2021 than before the pandemic. The report authors called it “a pandemic of benevolence.”

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Just let that shot of faith in humanity sink in. Don’t fight it. It’s a good thing, truly. Let’s let it be good without trying to explain it away. It’s OK to shift our focus from the negative to the positive. It’s energizing. It gives us hope. It reminds us that there is always good happening in the world at the same time as the bad.

It’s also OK to take a break from the headlines and indulge in some purely feel-good content. Those delightful little doses of endorphins from watching a cute animal or baby video can be just the thing we need to help us through the day. No shame in that game.

Let’s celebrate good things large and small with these 10 smile-worthy tidbits from around the interwebs:

Jennifer Garner got the best birthday surprise from her childhood crush, Donny Osmond.

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Jennifer Garner’s relatability is legendary and totally evidenced in this video. The part where she had to take off her sweater is the best. Such a pure, sweet reaction to a dream come true. Read the full story here.

Cameron the Lyft driver’s list of different drives he offers is hilariously genius.

Have you ever gotten into an Uber or Lyft or taxi and wished the driver would either talk more, or talk less, or stop talking, or talk about something else? Cameron lets his passengers choose what kind of ride they get, from the Small Talk Ride to the Therapy Ride to the Funny Ride to the Creepy Ride. One ride even involves bubbles. Read the full story here.

12-year-old raises more than $300,000 for Ukraine with his handmade wooden bowl.

Best story ever. Gabriel Clark’s dad shared that his son was feeling down because kids had told him his woodworking habit wasn’t cool. That tweet resulted in a flood of support and prompted Gabriel to create a special wooden bowl to raise money to help the children of Ukraine. So many people pulling together to support a sweet kid and those impacted by war. Definitely worth reading the whole story here.

Fox enjoying a little banjo concert in front of a stunning natural backdrop.

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I mean, this is just beautiful in every way.

Golden retrievers Winston and Doug meet their baby sister for the first time, and awwww.

@winstonthegoodboygolden

Already the best big brothers 💛 I see lots of kisses & toys in Miller’s future! #dogmeetsbaby #petsoftiktok #goldenretriever #feelgood #ComeDanceWithMe

The donut got me.

Potato dog getting a bath.

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No reason for sharing this other than it’s just so darn cute. Oh, dat belly.

The original video that prompted a viral ‘I JUST A BABY!’ audio wave is just too much.

@little.blooming.women

Did. She. Stutter? #parenting #toddler #toddlersoftiktok

There are a gazillion videos on TikTok using this audio, but nothing compares to the original. These pandemic babies are something else, I tell you. (Also, “I JUST A BABY!!!” is now my excuse for doing anything I don’t want to do, thankyouverymuch.)

Dad had no idea he was auditioning for “Britain’s Got Talent,” then brought the house down.

Sorry, this is both smile-worthy and tear-worthy, so you might want to grab a tissue before watching. So dang sweet.

Believe it or not, there really was a “pandemic of benevolence” in 2021.

The conclusion of the 2022 World Happiness Report ought to give you a boost of faith in humanity:

“Although our three measures of prosocial behaviour—donations, volunteering and helping strangers—had differing levels and trends, all showed increases in 2021 in every global region, often at remarkable rates not seen for any of the variables we have tracked before and during the pandemic.

Global benevolence, as measured by the average of the three measures of prosocial behaviour, has increased remarkably in 2021, up by almost 25% of its pre-pandemic level, led by the helping of strangers, but with strong growth also in donations and volunteering.”

Read the full story here.

If you need a pep talk, let this 3-year-old’s affirmations inspire you. 

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Definitely want the sound up on this one. This is the kind of pump-up we all need to give ourselves each day. “I’M RUNNED OUT OF POWER BUT I CAN STILL MAKE IT DOWN DIS BIG HILL.” Right on, little one.

Hope that brought many smiles to your face, friends! Come back next week for another roundup of joy and delight.

Sigrid loves to collaborate — this was clear when she teamed up with Griff for the bombastic “Head On Fire,” and then when she invited King Princess and MØ onto a newer, even bigger version of that track. Now, the Norwegian pop star is linking up with former metalheads Bring Me The Horizon, who recently collaborated with Ed Sheeran, for an inspirational song, “Bad Life.”

Despite its pessimistic title, “Bad Life” is about having strength. The pair have their own verses, describing their struggles and pain, but come together in the chorus to share hope for the future: “Well I know that you’re afraid / Things will always be this way / It’s just a bad day / Not a bad life,” they sing together. Who would’ve guessed the same person who wrote and screamed on 2008’s Suicide Season would be releasing such encouraging, wholesome anthems?

About the song, Sigrid said, “I’m so excited about ‘Bad Life’ being out in the world with the Bring Me boys! We’re really proud of this one, and we hope it can bring some comfort. It might not be the most likely collab, but we’ve been fans of each other for a while and we’re so happy we could collaborate on this song. And filming the video was an amazing and crazy experience in itself!”

Listen to “Bad Life” above.

In times of crisis and uncertainty (so the last several years) it can be easy to blame all of the problems in the world on the planet, right? What has the earth ever done for us? That’s what The Daily Show‘s Ronny Chieng asks in the segment, “Prove Me Wrong: Earth Day Edition.”

Chieng asks people on the street why the planet should be celebrated, to which some people agree that maybe…we shouldn’t be here. When was the last time you even pet a bird? In order to combat Chieng’s negativity, many pedestrians try to explain how it actually is important for us to take care of the only planet we have. “If we are not thankful for the earth, we’d be dead,” one passerby explains, to which Chieng responds, “I’m not thankful for the earth and I’m still alive.” When he’s right, he’s right!

Chieng then asks civilians to prove him wrong with the prompt: “Inside is better than outside,” which, to be fair, is true three months out of the year, depending on where you live. One fan explains, “The plants….relax you,” while another mentions that the inside has air conditioning and a fridge. Also true.

A child then impressively explains the concept of the dinosaurs and the economy. Chieng mocks, “What are you, an archeologist?” to which he responds, “No, I’m a kid.” Since kids will be on the planet a lot longer than us, let’s save the planet! Happy Earth Day!

Former White House Chief Of Staff Mark Meadows isn’t going quietly into the sunset, probably much to his own dismay. Not only did Trump get mad at him for making a less than flattering statement about the ex-president’s hair, but for several weeks, there’s been buzzing about him registering to vote in multiple states, and now, Washington Post‘s Fact Checker has done the leg work and revealed that Meadows’ was, in fact, simultaneously registered to cast his ballot in a trio of states.

This, of course, is a terrible look for any U.S. citizen and an especially bad one for a chief of staff whose boss directed the January 6 insurrectionists to “fight like hell” to overthrow Joe Biden’s 2020 election win. Yep, Washington Post confirms “that until last week, Meadows was simultaneously registered to vote in three different states — North Carolina, Virginia and South Carolina.” At present, he’s no longer registered in North Carolina (as USA Today recently added), but the mess has been made.

Especially since Meadows was all about preaching “election integrity,” the fallout will likely continue from what could, in fact, be voter fraud. And The Daily Show slid onto Twitter with a fitting entry of mockery: the cinematic trio of Spideys.

“Meadows voting.” Simple and effective.

(Via Washington Post & USA Today)

Okay, that headline promises a lot, I’m not going to deny that. But I’d also argue that building deeper flavors into simple meals isn’t that hard either. You can make some everyday grocery store spices, butter, and stock/broth go a long way with a little nudging and finesse in the kitchen. And one of the best ways to test that is to skip buying packages of “taco seasoning” and just make an awesome braised taco meat yourself.

It’ll take you 15 minutes from beginning to end, I promise. And it’ll be so much better.

The key to making great (simple) taco meat at home is a quick braise with real stock, toasting spices in the pan, and using fat to create a “saucy” texture — kind of like a basic pan sauce (see, we’re already delivering on “elevated”). The trick is to work while the meat cooks so that everything’s ready once that quick braise is done. That’s how I can claim this only takes 15 minutes to make. Well, that and getting all your spices ready beforehand.

Before we dive in, I’m using ground beef for this. I was hankering for a crunchy cafeteria taco but good ones, so that’s what I made. I’ve also used this method on chicken breast and skirt steak before. Simply cut the meat into bite-sized pieces and then follow the steps exactly the same as listed below with a little fat to get the cooking process started. Naturally, you can also use Beyond, Impossible, or beans for this fast braise too, if you’re looking for a vegan option.

Anyway, let’s get into it and make some seriously well-flavored taco meat for some lunch tacos.

Braised Taco Meat

Ingredients:

Makes 12 classic crunchy tacos.

• 1 lb. ground beef (85 percent lean/15 percent fat)
• 1/2 white onion, chopped
• 1 cup beef stock
• 1 tbsp. paprika
• 1 tbsp. cumin
• 1 tbsp. garlic powder
• 1 tbsp. dried oregano
• 1 tbsp. soy sauce
• 1 tsp. ground allspice
• 1 tsp. white pepper
• Large pinch of salt
• 1 tbsp. unsalted butter

This is all pretty straightforward stuff that you’ll be able to find at any grocery store. The key to mounting the braising liquid at the end to create a pan sauce base is the butter. You can’t really rely on olive oil or even beef fat from the pan to mount a sauce (emulsify liquid and fat) in the same way. You need butter and its creamy fat for that.

As for the beef stock, the deeper the flavor profile, the better your end product will be. I make stock from old t-bones, oxtails, random roasted bones, and tons of root veg. If you’re buying some, use the best you can find but don’t use “low-sodium” versions or bullion cubes. They won’t cut it. Remember, this is about elevating flavor, and you really need to use decent stock to do that in something this low-fi. Well, that and the aforementioned butter.

Optional for taco build:

• Taco shells
• Cheddar cheese, grated
• Iceberg lettuce, shredded
• Tomato, diced
• White onion, diced
• Hot sauce

What You’ll Need:

• Cutting board
• Standard frying pan or cast-iron skillet
• Kitchen knife
• Wooden spoon
• Box grater
• Measuring cup and spoons

Method:

• Add the ground meat into a cold frying pan and put it on medium-high heat. Don’t add any oil for frying, the fat from the meat will render out and create plenty. Use a wooden spoon to break up the ground meat into small bits. Add salt and pepper and let brown on one side. Then use the wooden spoon to turn over the browned meat to continue cooking and breaking up with the spoon.
• Once the meat is fully browned and there’s a good layer of rendered fat in the pan, create an open space in the middle and add the onions into the beef fat. Stir occasionally and let the onions fry until translucent.
• Once the onion is translucent (about two to three minutes), stir the onion into the meat and push the meat and onions to the side. Scoop out excess beef fat and save it for cooking later. If you don’t remove some of the excess fat (not all), you’ll have super greasy taco meat, which makes a big mess when trying to eat the taco.
• In the empty space on the bottom of the pan (there should still be a small amount of beef fat at the bottom of the pan), add the spices and herbs to activate them on the heat. After about 15 seconds, they’ll burst with aromas. Mix them into the meat/onion mix.
• Add the cup of beef broth and stir in until well mixed.
• Keep the heat on medium-high and let the whole thing briskly simmer for about five minutes or until the fluid is reduced by 2/3, stirring occasionally (this is also when you get get your toppings ready for your tacos).
• Stir in the butter to mount the sauce. The broth/sauce should almost immediately have a thicker texture.
• As soon as the sauce thickens, turn the heat off. You’re ready to make tacos!

Bottom Line:

These hit the spot. Let’s focus on the taco meat though. It was juicy and spicy but not runny or greasy (see the plate below). That’s a perfect balance if you ask me. There were plenty of Tex-Mex vibes to the whole thing, but the meat is what really shined the most in the taco. It was just the right amount of spice that also had this veneer of silkiness thanks to the buttery pan sauce base.

Overall, this is an easy go-to that’s miles ahead of any packet. It’s crisp, meaty, spicy, and silky without being overly messy or greasy. I ate four and was very happy.

“Do I relate to my old music anymore? The answer is kind of… no.”

Dove Cameron might be better known for her work as an actress, but she’s coming on strong as a force in the pop world. With the release of her latest single “Boyfriend” a few months ago, Dove honed in on her sound and catapulted onto the charts at the same time. The dark, tongue-in-cheek hit went all the way to No. 40 on the Hot 100, proving that queer pop songs are more than welcome in the mainstream in 2022. “I could be a better boyfriend than him,” she begins, “I could be such a gentleman” — before delivering one hell of a punchline: “Plus all my clothes would fit.” It’s the kind of carefree, sexy pop song that puts an artist on the map and gets the industry’s attention, and Cameron isn’t wasting any time doubling down on this moment.

But looking forward also means reckoning with what came before, and in her case, a lot of it is just not relevant to where she’s going from here. “Probably my favorite song before ‘Boyfriend’ was ‘Waste,’” she mused in a recent phone interview about the shifts in her music career. “I love everything that I’ve released, but as an artist, my perspective on things changes so much. There’s so much that I’ve created that’s no longer really relevant to my life or my creative process. I’ve just changed so much as a human being that I’m really more focused on the music I have going forward.”

Dove, born Chloe Celeste Hosterman, has been open about her queerness for some time now, coming out in a cover for Gay Times last year and discussing her fear of being accepted. “Maybe I haven’t said it, but I’m super queer,” she recalled telling her fans in a coming-out video on Instagram Live. “This is something I want to represent through my music because it’s who I am.” That confession came after accusations about queerbaiting in her “We Belong” lyric video, a moot point once she set the record, ahem, straight. And though she’s been making her way in the music world for a few years now, putting out covers here and there and contributing to soundtracks related to her film projects, Cameron’s debut EP came back in 2019 with the release of “Waste” and “Bloodshot.” Since then, she’s put out a string of exploratory singles, but all her searching snapped into focus with “Boyfriend.”

“Finding your sound is like feeling around in the dark, looking for a heat signature or something,” she said. “For years, artists will try to verbalize what their sound is to their A&R, to their label, to the people they work with. Everyone historically knows that’s like next to impossible, because a sound is intuitive and goes beyond language. When I was making music before this, I was doing things based on ideas of who I was. Once I figured out who I was, it was an intuitive thing. Now, I have a roadmap of what I want to do and where I’m going. It feels like waking up into a new reality where suddenly everything makes sense.”

For Dove, when she’s not “literally on camera” or filming a TV show or movie on set, she’s in the studio — so producing new music isn’t as much the problem as much as making sure it’s music she’s passionate about. Self-identifying as a writer more than a musician, or even an actress, Dove shared that she carries around four different sets of notebooks with her wherever she goes: “One for poetry, one for songwriting, one for journaling, and one for essays. That’s what I do, all day. I write songs all day. I wrote poems all day.” Given that amount of creative output, and a decent amount of time in the studio, it’s not a huge surprise that more new songs are definitely in the works for release.

“I have about five other songs that I love, that I feel like are on par with ‘Boyfriend,’” she said. “But besides those I’ve written hundreds of others that probably no one will ever hear… and they should be happy for that. [Laughs] As of now we’re still adjusting the sails of the ship, because we really weren’t expecting ‘Boyfriend’ to do what it did. We only put it out, because people were asking for it on the internet. And that’s a very strange experience that TikTok as a platform has changed for artists.” In the past, after an artist wrote and recorded a song, there could be months before it gets approved, gets a video treatment and a release schedule with the label, and finally makes its way to the public. But with TikTok as a real-time measure for what an artist’s fans are connecting with, that timeline has shortened considerably.

A prime example of that is the next song Dove has already been teasing on the short-form video platform, this one titled “Breakfast.” Since she first posted a snippet of the track — which is dark and synthy, and akin to “Boyfriend” in some ways — the clip has racked up close to four million streams. Dove wrote that she’d “just finished” the song when she first shared it in late March, so it seems likely that we’ll get that as the next single. Earlier this week, she further displayed her chops as a vocalist by delivering a reimagined cover of Lil Nas X’s “Montero (Call Me By Your Name),” and debuting “Boyfriend” on late night. As touring is slowly but surely returning, it seems like some live shows will make sense in the very near future. And based on both of these live performances, that tour will be a huge part of establishing Dove’s position in the pop ecosystem.

As for a longer project, Dove is leaning full-time into flexibility mode. “The next big move I make, I want to be really sure of — be behind it 100% and be intentional about it,” she said. “So, the idea is to keep collecting songs, and if it shapes up to be thirteen songs then it’s easy, that’s an album. But if I go on tour, and write a bunch of stuff on the road, and it makes sense to do two EPs, then that’s what we’ll do. Maybe for some projects there really is a lot of planning behind the scenes, but for mine, because it’s so off-the-cuff, I have to watch how it’s shaping up like an animal and then decide as I go.”

Everybody has opinions about who the best rappers, albums, songs, etc. in the history of hip-hop are. Rappers weigh in on the subject not infrequently and last night, Ice T made his contribution to the conversation on The Tonight Show.

During a segment called “Ice T Settles It,” Jimmy Fallon asked Ice a series of rapid-fire questions and eventually, he tasked Ice with making his pick for the greatest rap album of all time. He seemed intrigued by the question, giving an “ooh” after he asked. Ice didn’t take long to give his answer, though, replying after only a short delay, “I’ll say Paid In Full by Eric B. & Rakim.” Fallon asked Ice to elaborate and he continued, “‘Cause that was the most influential album to me when I was making my album.”

He also offered his No. 2 and 3 albums, and like Paid In Full, they’re also from the late ’80s and early ’90s, when his own music career was at its peak. He continued, “I’ll say Fear Of A Black Planet [by] Public Enemy would be a close second, and then Straight Out Of Compton, NWA, would be top-3. But each one of those albums had a lot to do with influencing me as an MC. But when I heard Rakim, I had never heard nobody rap like that. And it was so many hits on that album. Get Paid In Full and you’ll bang it all the way to the house.”

Watch the full interview above.