The Wonder Years is coming back, and if you assumed the reboot would do what the original did — look back at life 20 years prior — you were wrong. The revival, like the original, is set in the 1960s (with the hopes, of course, of bleeding into the 1970s), but with one major caveat: The focus, this time, is not on a lilywhite white family in a never-specified suburb but on an African-American family living in Montgomery, Alabama. And now we have the first idea of what it will look like.
In the debut teaser that dropped Tuesday, we see Elisha “EJ” Williams’ Dean, a 12-year-old growing up and experiencing a number of firsts: his first baseball hit, his first kiss, his first real recognition from the father whose respect he craves. We also hear Don Cheadle, taking over the original’s Daniel Stern as the narrator, i.e., Dean as an adult, looking back. (Cheadle, incidentally, only turned four in 1968, but it’s cool.) We also hear a soundalike of the original’s theme song: Joe Cocker’s cover of The Beatles’ “With a Little Help from My Friends.”
We don’t get a sense yet of how much the reboot will deal with the very circumstances a Southern Black family dealt with in 1968, which would be very different from the only occasionally turbulent world of Fred Savage’s Kevin Arnold. But given that one of its executive directors is no less than Lee Daniels — and Lee Daniels does not skirt away from exploring the nation’s oft-deplorable history with race, from The Butler to last year’s blistering The United States vs. Billie Holiday — it should be fascinating to see how it mixes the everyday with one of America’s most tumultuous recent eras.
Meanwhile, Savage himself — who morphed into a seasoned TV director — helmed the show’s pilot, and even broke the news to its star that he’d been cast. The revival is set to premiere later this year, and it will air on ABC, which played home to the beloved original.
For much of the past few days, Kwame Brown has been at the center of attention for the NBA Twitter discourse after an episode of the All The Smoke podcast in which Gilbert Arenas joined Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson to talk about a lot of things, one of them being Brown. As is frequently the case when people bring up Brown, he ended up being the butt of a number of jokes.
Brown didn’t take kindly to that and has since spent the past few days going on Instagram Live and torching Arenas, Barnes, and Jackson in videos. Barnes briefly responded with some comments on The Jump when prompted by Rachel Nichols about the growing beef, as Brown took aim at Barnes with commentary about Derek Fisher, who is engaged to Barnes’ ex-wife, Gloria Govan. The jokes about Brown being a bust as the No. 1 pick in 2001 have understandably worn on Kwame, and he finally decided he had time — and found a captive audience with NBA fans the past few days locked into his IG Lives — to go at those who won’t leave him alone.
Among those that he called out alongside Arenas, Barnes, and Jackson is Stephen A. Smith, who delivered the infamous rant about the Lakers trading Brown for Pau Gasol in which he called him “a bonafide scrub.”
Brown lit into Stephen A., inviting him to Seattle to fight because, for some reason, Kwame is aware that Seattle doesn’t require a waiver for hand-to-hand combat.
Kwame Brown told Stephen A Smith to meet him in Seattle ” the only city you can have hand to hand combat without signing a waiver” pic.twitter.com/UDpIYGsmBf
When pressed by folks to respond, Stephen A. went a route few anticipated and said Kwame is right that people need to leave him alone when it comes to jokes about him and his legacy as a bust.
I will do no such thing. I will not waste my time. That man is right; he’s been retired for years, yet all of us have been guilty of getting on him from time-to-time. He has every right to speak his mind. Go for it! https://t.co/seSmuGvRqy
As many have pointed out, after Brown responded, most everyone he has come after has quickly tried to squash this because Brown is not someone guys want to mess with. Still, even if there’s some self-preservation at play, it’s a point that hopefully folks can take to heart as at some point it becomes tired and unnecessary to keep bashing guys — particularly once they are out of the league, but even when they’re still playing. Brown carved out a 12-year career in the NBA, and while he never became the superstar that is typically associated with being a top overall pick, he also wasn’t a guy that flamed out of the league by the end of his rookie deal.
At some point it just needs to be let go, and Brown has made it clear that two decades of being on the wrong end of jokes has led him to the point of being fed up and being willing to come at anyone’s head about it — and take it much further than basketball.
DJ Khaled released this 12th album, Khaled Khaled, two weeks ago, but he’s already released six videos from it. They include “Sorry Not Sorry” with Jay-Z and Nas, “We Going Crazy” with HER and Migos, “Let It Go” with Justin Bieber and 21 Savage, and more. For his latest, “Body in Motion,” he connects with Lil Baby, Roddy Ricch, and Bryson Tiller for a lively video that shows the quartet having the time of their lives while partying on a yacht with a sizeable cast of women.
The new video arrives as each of the song’s guest acts continue work on forthcoming projects. Lil Baby is set to release his joint project, Voice Of The Heroes, with Lil Durk in the coming weeks. The duo planned to drop it on May 28 but decided to push it back out of respect for DMX, whose posthumous album, Exodus, will be released that day. Roddy Ricch is currently hard at work on his sophomore album, which is rumored to be titled Love Is Barely Real Anymore, while Bryson Tiller will release his long-awaited album, Serenity, at some point in the coming months.
You can watch the video for “Body In Motion” above.
Khaled Khaled is out now via Epic Records. Get it here.
Roddy Ricch is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
After showing off his potential on his 2019 major-label debut album, True 2 Myself, Lil Tjay returned with his follow-up Destined 2 Win earlier this year. The project saw the Brooklyn native flaunting more of his artistry and skills across the 21 songs. A little more than a month removed from that album’s arrival, Tjay lends his talents to rising Chicago rapper Lil Zay Osama in a video for their nonchalant collaboration “Emotions.” In it, the duo surrounds themselves with a cast of women during a video shoot while detailing their displeasures towards emotional people.
The song can be found on Lil Zay Osama’s most recent project, Trench Baby, which he released in February with features from Jackboy, G Herbo, Doe Boy. Earlier this month, he dropped a deluxe re-issue of the album with four new tracks and additional appearances from Stunna 4 Vegas, Sada Baby, and Sheff G.
The new video comes after Lil Tjay earned his highest-charting single thanks to “Calling My Phone,” featuring 6lack, which peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100. Recently, he also shared videos for “Love Hurts” and “Oh Well,” both also from the Destined 2 Win album.
You can watch the “Emotions” video above.
Trench Baby (Deluxe) is out now via Warner. Get it here.
Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
No one much talks about the 2003 Hulk anymore. It was from a very different time. The first Iron Man was still four years away. Superhero movies weren’t the only blockbusters in town. They didn’t even happen all that often. And so, nearly 20 years ago, we got a comic book extravaganza from Ang Lee. It didn’t get great reviews. It underperformed. It still isn’t much respected. (Although Lee’s decision to edit it like a comic book movie, complete with multiple panels, makes it perhaps the most aesthetically daring comic book movie of all time.) But even if it had been huge, its resident Bruce Banner had zero interest in doing more.
That person is Eric Bana, the Australian actor and comic who went from acclaimed actor — his turn in the renegade criminal biopic Chopper earned him raves, and he was singled out among the huge ensemble of Black Hawk Down for praise — to the head of a summer tentpole. Bana sat down for a recent WTF with Marc Maron (as caught by The Hollywood Reporter), and he was predictably candid with his host about the role he only played once.
“It wasn’t a quick yes, that’s for sure,” Bana told Maron. “It took me a while to get my head around it. I wasn’t privy to the script prior to signing onto the film. It’s one of the only films I have done where that was the case. It just wasn’t the type of film that I saw myself doing.”
What’s more, the MCU was still a glint in Bob Iger’s eye. And so Bana saw it as a one-time gig. “You certainly didn’t go into a film like that thinking you were going to do more than one … that just wasn’t in play,” he said. “The expectations are not the way they are now. I approached it as a one-off.”
Bana told Maron he wasn’t asked back for 2008’s The Incredible Hulk, which rebooted the character, now with Edward Norton. But he’d already learned that he and superhero movies do not mix. “It’s why I haven’t re-dabbled in that area,” the actor told Maron. “They’re not the kind of movie that I race out and see myself so that conversation is something I have with myself if I want to be a part of it.”
Bana, however, had nothing but nice things to say about the current Bruce Banner: Mark Ruffalo, who still hasn’t gotten his own solo jawn. “He’s the one who worked it out,” Bana said. “He found his stride.”
The fashion company is collaborating with Sesame Street for a new line that’s accessible for adults who grew up loving the iconic show, and for kids who are still being introduced to it. Kacey shared a series of photos and videos promoting the new collection on her Instagram today, also debuting some new bangs in the process. There’s the likes of Elmo and Cookie Monster on crew neck sweatshirts, Elmo on a crop top, an alphabet t-shirt, a black denim vest and skirt set covered in various character embroidered patches, and a whole lot more. Check out some of the photos of the new merch below, and keep in mind the full 33-piece collection is set to launch worldwide on May 25.
As for Kacey herself, she’s been letting fans know that new music is definitely on the way this year. She even has a new label partner, with Interscope joining UMG Nashville in releasing whatever is coming next for the country star. Let’s hope we get a peek at that very soon, along with Elmo t-shirts.
Charles Grodin is dead and the world will never be the same. On top of being a great movie scene-stealer — and an incredible if sadly infrequent lead; seek out 1972’s epic squirmfest The Heartbreak Kid soon as you can — he regularly stole talk shows, appearing as an aloof yet casually destructive guest. He loved to rattle Johnny Carson and David Letterman, and they gladly let him do it. And nearly 15 years ago he completely and hilariously derailed an episode of Hannity & Colmes.
Before he went solo and next-level evil, Sean Hannity spent some 13 years sharing a Fox News show with Alan Colmes, a mild-mannered Democrat who was in no way his far-right co-host’s equal. In 2007, two years before the show was axed and Hannity went his merry way, they brought on Grodin, who himself had hosted a perhaps shockingly serious MSNBC show from 1995 to 1998. They thought they would talk about the 2008 election, which was still 11 months away. They thought wrong.
Grodin instantly sizes them up and refuses to play ball. He accuses Colmes of wearing eyeliner. He tries to get Hannity to talk about his nonexistent singing career, asking him to “do your medley from Fiddler on the Roof. (“That’ll bring the house down coming from you, because you’re Jewish, aren’t you?” he asks the outspoken Irish Catholic.) At one point he calls Holmes “Eric” and later repeatedly pronounces Hannity as “Hawn-ity.” He asks the latter if he has a hairpiece.
All the while Hannity and Colmes try to get Grodin to talk shop, but he won’t. He says he has no interest in talking about an election, because it was too far in the future and “because I don’t think you guys should even be talking about it.”
The closest Grodin and his hosts come to blows is when they come back from a break and Hannity re-introduces him, this time as a “left-wing extremist.” Grodin fires back, saying, “Here’s right-wing fascist Sean Hannity.” When Hannity blusters at being called the f-word, Gordin retorts, “You’re a fascist. Did you not co-host a show with Goebbels before you met Alan?”
Later, when pressed about which side of the aisle he’s on, Grodin demurs. “I have no politics,” he claims. “The reason I get tagged this way, as left, is because I’m very active on prisoner issues and on homeless issues.”
But every time Hannity and Colmes try to steer the ship to a serious political discussion, Grodin torpedoes it. It’s a beautifully chaotic appearance, all thanks to Grodin, and one can only imagine what havoc he would wreak had Fox News ever let him go on Tucker Carlson. There was no one like him and there never will be again.
You can watch the full Hannity & Colmes appearance in the video above.
Our grocery store food and snack roundup is back! For weeks now, we’ve been grabbing snacks and new food products (or, at the very least, new to us) with every market run — taking a bunch of snacking Ls so that you don’t have to. Sure, it’s created a bit of a love-hate relationship with snacking for us, but that’s the job. We find the snacks that are actually worth your time and money so that you’ll never have to experience the horrors of getting a snack craving and opening your pantry doors only to find Flavor Blasted Cheddar & Sour Cream Goldfish.
Why are we picking on Flavor Blasted Goldfish? Because Flavor Blasted Cheddar & Sour Cream Goldfish are probably the worst new flavor of anything to ever be introduced. Too many ingredients; too much blasting. Just calm down, Pepperidge Farms. Goldfish crackers are meant to be bland.
Anyway, here are a bunch of new(ish) food products that pass our toughest scrutiny! We’ve carefully vetted these flavors to make sure they’re worth your shelf space.
Loud Grandma’s CBD_infused Chili Crispy oil is amazing — and that’s not just the CBD talking. You’ll find that this chili crisp has some well-balanced heat, mouth-watering umami, notes of cracked pepper, and just a slight herbal tinge courteously of the CBD. It’ll quickly become a staple in your spice rack.
Made in collaboration between Win Son chef Calvin Eng and gourmet cannabis brand Pot d’Huile, Loud Grandma features 120mg of full-spectrum CBD per jar and is also available in a THC-infused version for those living in California. I haven’t tried the THC version, but if it’s as good as the CBD chili crisp and it gets me high — well… we have a winner, right there.
The Bottom Line:
Peppercorn and umami mingle in mouthwatering harmony, tamed by subtle herbal notes resulting in feelings of well-being after your meal. Is it the CBD? Maybe. Or maybe it’s just food. Who cares, it’s all delicious!
I’m not a huge fan of Oreo flavors that deviate away from the classic cookies and cream flavor Oreo is known for. Mint Oreos are always a slight disappointment over the real thing, and Birthday Cake Oreos can take a hike, but these Chocolate Hazelnut Oreos are pretty damn good.
Don’t get me wrong, they aren’t as good as the original. Cookies and cream will always be a better flavor combination than cookies and hazelnut chocolate. But this comes pretty damn close. The hazelnut chocolate isn’t nearly is thick as Nutella, it has an airy quality to it that is more similar to Oreo’s cream filling. Think E.L. Fudge cookie meets and Oreo and you’ve got yourself a pretty good idea of what this newcomer tastes like.
The Bottom Line:
Not quite as good as the original Oreo, but worth subbing in for the OG if you’re getting a little tired of the same old flavor.
BBQ sauce from… Portland? We know, we know, the best BBQ comes from the South, but this stuff is seriously good, with a well-balanced smokey flavor that isn’t too sweet or spicy but has that savory umami kick that a good BBQ sauce needs to have.
This organic BBQ sauce has notes of hickory and smoked paprika, with dark bursts of tamarind, allspice, and molasses with each flavor cutting through and being well represented. Our only gripe is, it’s a little red — we would’ve liked a deeper color. Still, seeing flecks of spice is always appealing.
The Bottom Line:
A great balanced organic BBQ sauce that proves the Pacific Northwest can hold its own in the BBQ game.
“Ew Sunny D — don’t you know that stuff isn’t even real juice?”
Yeah yeah, blah blah blah, we know, and trust us we aren’t suggesting you buy this stuff for making a whole fruit smoothie at home or anything. This isn’t part of a healthy well-balanced meal or anything. But we’re still reccomending it.
Fill to the top with this Sunny D Raspberry Lemonade drink.
Stir.
Boom! You’ve got yourself a low calorie — just 60 calories in the Sunny D per 8 ounces! — Gin and Juice that tastes a million times better than every White Claw flavor in existence and has fewer calories.
Garnish that by plopping in a slice of grapefruit and you’ve got yourself the best summer treat on this list.
I love this product. In fact, in many ways, I like it more than Beyond Meat or Impossible Foods. Yes, seriously. But here’s the caveat: I like Lightlife mostly because of its texture. As a beef imitator, texturally speaking I think it’s the best on the market. If you make tacos or spaghetti bolognese with this, I doubt you could tell it’s not beef based on appearances.
So what about the flavor? The flavor of every dish I’ve made with Lightlife has been spectacular. But that’s also been mostly credited to me. I seasoned half a pound with garlic, taco seasoning, and enchilada sauce for a taco salad and fooled myself into thinking it was cow. I did another half pound with garlic, veggie broth, parsley, sage, rosemary, thyme, and mixed it into a quick spaghetti bolognese. Again, 100%.
If you’re looking to plug and play someone else’s product straight into your meals, this isn’t the one. But if you want a platform to hold its texture and take on the flavor of what you season it with — this is really a sterling stand-in for meat.
The Bottom Line:
My personal favorite fake meat and the one I’ve found myself returning to most often.
I don’t buy caviar a ton. Or often. I guess I don’t technically buy it even occasionally. But I got invited to write about it a fair bit when I was doing restaurant reviews and when I go to a party in Hollywood I hover around the caviar station like Christian Slater on Curb Your Enthusiasm.
So I consider myself something of a poor man’s connoisseur. And D’Argtagnan’s surgeon caviar is fantastic. It features small, tight pearls that are briny and rich without tasting like a mouthful of seawater. The pearls are deep green-black and hold their shape beautifully. There’s a “pop” to them when you press them to the roof of your mouth. On the palate, there’s a clear sense of the sea but you also get a nutty-fatty-almost-porky richness.
As with literally all seafood eaten in our era, the mark of quality is defined through the prism of sustainability and that’s where D’Artagnan’s shines. It’s farm-raised in France and packed within 30 minutes of harvesting. If you’re going to indulge in seafood, it’s nice to know it’s prepared in a way that the environment can handle.
The Bottom Line:
Rather than toast points, I say try this on a bite of blini with custard-style eggs and chives, backed by an ice-cold shot of vodka.
Ice cream sandwiches are the best dessert. Forget the ice cream cookie sandwich trend of a few years back, stick to the classics. These things endure. And the FatBoy brand is the best. The flavors are powerful but not overly sugary or chemical — two common flaws in a good old ice cream sando.
This flavor is newish for FatBoy (change your name to something that doesn’t guilt me, please) and it’s literally perfect. All the cake and batter and cookie ice cream flavors in the freezer are too sugary — not this one. It’s dense ice cream and carries a sweet flavor but it doesn’t make your teeth ache. It’s addictive and a full dessert but also holds up in the freezer for a few days if you cut it in 1/4ths.
The Bottom Line:
Summer distilled and the best ice cream sandwich at the grocery store.
These things are amazing. They’ve been around for a while, but I just found them and our affair has been quick and passionate. Seriously, I absolutely love them.
And why wouldn’t I? They’re… sheets of cheese. And then you heat them up. And wrap shit.
As a person who fails at keto because I can’t give up burritos, these are my new ace-in-the-hole. They’re just so incredible — so flavorful and work so well as a tortilla stand-in. You can’t really make burritos with them because they don’t flex quite that much, but you can do cone-like wraps. You can also do tacos or put them in a taco salad shaper and do a TACO SALAD ENCASED IN CHEESE.
That’s what I did (I’m on a taco salad kick lately). It was so good that if it’s not in every bowling alley and roadside diner in five years, we riot.
Anyway, these are amazing and you probably don’t need me to wax philosophic about them because ultimately, they’re freaking cheese and cheese is a gift from the gods.
The Bottom Line:
These taste like real cheese and allow you to replace carbs. What more do you want from food tech?
Recently I attended a backyard BBQ that was hosted by a vegan couple I’m friendly with. As I surveyed the table filled with fixings to complement/ dress my Beyond burger, I noticed a sauce I’d not seen before.
“What’s this?” I asked.
“Oh, that’s Bitchin’ Sauce, and it’ll change your life,” replied one of the hosts. “We put it on everything.”
Intrigued, I slathered some of it on my burger buns and was quite impressed. So impressed that I went out to the grocery store the next day to basically buy up as much Bitchin’ Sauce as I could find. Since then, I’ve basically planned all my meals to involve Bitchin’ Sauce. It’s astonishingly good, so good that I’m flummoxed as to how I’ve just now come to find out about it.
Best of all, all Bitchin’ Sauce products — and there are currently 13 of them, which our old pals at BroBible recently ranked — are completely vegan and devoid of any GMOs. So far, I’ve used Bitchin’ Sauces on burgers and sandwiches, as a salad dressing, as a dip for chips and veggies, and as a pasta sauce (and there are many other creative ways one can use it).
The Bottom Line:
If I ever decide to go full vegan, you can bet that the raw, cold-processed, almond-based, creamy Bitchin’ Sauce products will be a big reason why.
Our grocery store food and snack roundup is back! For weeks now, we’ve been grabbing snacks and new food products (or, at the very least, new to us) with every market run — taking a bunch of snacking Ls so that you don’t have to. Sure, it’s created a bit of a love-hate relationship with snacking for us, but that’s the job. We find the snacks that are actually worth your time and money so that you’ll never have to experience the horrors of getting a snack craving and opening your pantry doors only to find Flavor Blasted Cheddar & Sour Cream Goldfish.
Why are we picking on Flavor Blasted Goldfish? Because Flavor Blasted Cheddar & Sour Cream Goldfish are probably the worst new flavor of anything to ever be introduced. Too many ingredients; too much blasting. Just calm down, Pepperidge Farms. Goldfish crackers are meant to be bland.
Anyway, here are a bunch of new(ish) food products that pass our toughest scrutiny! We’ve carefully vetted these flavors to make sure they’re worth your shelf space.
Loud Grandma’s CBD_infused Chili Crispy oil is amazing — and that’s not just the CBD talking. You’ll find that this chili crisp has some well-balanced heat, mouth-watering umami, notes of cracked pepper, and just a slight herbal tinge courteously of the CBD. It’ll quickly become a staple in your spice rack.
Made in collaboration between Win Son chef Calvin Eng and gourmet cannabis brand Pot d’Huile, Loud Grandma features 120mg of full-spectrum CBD per jar and is also available in a THC-infused version for those living in California. I haven’t tried the THC version, but if it’s as good as the CBD chili crisp and it gets me high — well… we have a winner, right there.
The Bottom Line:
Peppercorn and umami mingle in mouthwatering harmony, tamed by subtle herbal notes resulting in feelings of well-being after your meal. Is it the CBD? Maybe. Or maybe it’s just food. Who cares, it’s all delicious!
I’m not a huge fan of Oreo flavors that deviate away from the classic cookies and cream flavor Oreo is known for. Mint Oreos are always a slight disappointment over the real thing, and Birthday Cake Oreos can take a hike, but these Chocolate Hazelnut Oreos are pretty damn good.
Don’t get me wrong, they aren’t as good as the original. Cookies and cream will always be a better flavor combination than cookies and hazelnut chocolate. But this comes pretty damn close. The hazelnut chocolate isn’t nearly is thick as Nutella, it has an airy quality to it that is more similar to Oreo’s cream filling. Think E.L. Fudge cookie meets and Oreo and you’ve got yourself a pretty good idea of what this newcomer tastes like.
The Bottom Line:
Not quite as good as the original Oreo, but worth subbing in for the OG if you’re getting a little tired of the same old flavor.
BBQ sauce from… Portland? We know, we know, the best BBQ comes from the South, but this stuff is seriously good, with a well-balanced smokey flavor that isn’t too sweet or spicy but has that savory umami kick that a good BBQ sauce needs to have.
This organic BBQ sauce has notes of hickory and smoked paprika, with dark bursts of tamarind, allspice, and molasses with each flavor cutting through and being well represented. Our only gripe is, it’s a little red — we would’ve liked a deeper color. Still, seeing flecks of spice is always appealing.
The Bottom Line:
A great balanced organic BBQ sauce that proves the Pacific Northwest can hold its own in the BBQ game.
“Ew Sunny D — don’t you know that stuff isn’t even real juice?”
Yeah yeah, blah blah blah, we know, and trust us we aren’t suggesting you buy this stuff for making a whole fruit smoothie at home or anything. This isn’t part of a healthy well-balanced meal or anything. But we’re still reccomending it.
Fill to the top with this Sunny D Raspberry Lemonade drink.
Stir.
Boom! You’ve got yourself a low calorie — just 60 calories in the Sunny D per 8 ounces! — Gin and Juice that tastes a million times better than every White Claw flavor in existence and has fewer calories.
Garnish that by plopping in a slice of grapefruit and you’ve got yourself the best summer treat on this list.
I love this product. In fact, in many ways, I like it more than Beyond Meat or Impossible Foods. Yes, seriously. But here’s the caveat: I like Lightlife mostly because of its texture. As a beef imitator, texturally speaking I think it’s the best on the market. If you make tacos or spaghetti bolognese with this, I doubt you could tell it’s not beef based on appearances.
So what about the flavor? The flavor of every dish I’ve made with Lightlife has been spectacular. But that’s also been mostly credited to me. I seasoned half a pound with garlic, taco seasoning, and enchilada sauce for a taco salad and fooled myself into thinking it was cow. I did another half pound with garlic, veggie broth, parsley, sage, rosemary, thyme, and mixed it into a quick spaghetti bolognese. Again, 100%.
If you’re looking to plug and play someone else’s product straight into your meals, this isn’t the one. But if you want a platform to hold its texture and take on the flavor of what you season it with — this is really a sterling stand-in for meat.
The Bottom Line:
My personal favorite fake meat and the one I’ve found myself returning to most often.
I don’t buy caviar a ton. Or often. I guess I don’t technically buy it even occasionally. But I got invited to write about it a fair bit when I was doing restaurant reviews and when I go to a party in Hollywood I hover around the caviar station like Christian Slater on Curb Your Enthusiasm.
So I consider myself something of a poor man’s connoisseur. And D’Argtagnan’s surgeon caviar is fantastic. It features small, tight pearls that are briny and rich without tasting like a mouthful of seawater. The pearls are deep green-black and hold their shape beautifully. There’s a “pop” to them when you press them to the roof of your mouth. On the palate, there’s a clear sense of the sea but you also get a nutty-fatty-almost-porky richness.
As with literally all seafood eaten in our era, the mark of quality is defined through the prism of sustainability and that’s where D’Artagnan’s shines. It’s farm-raised in France and packed within 30 minutes of harvesting. If you’re going to indulge in seafood, it’s nice to know it’s prepared in a way that the environment can handle.
The Bottom Line:
Rather than toast points, I say try this on a bite of blini with custard-style eggs and chives, backed by an ice-cold shot of vodka.
Ice cream sandwiches are the best dessert. Forget the ice cream cookie sandwich trend of a few years back, stick to the classics. These things endure. And the FatBoy brand is the best. The flavors are powerful but not overly sugary or chemical — two common flaws in a good old ice cream sando.
This flavor is newish for FatBoy (change your name to something that doesn’t guilt me, please) and it’s literally perfect. All the cake and batter and cookie ice cream flavors in the freezer are too sugary — not this one. It’s dense ice cream and carries a sweet flavor but it doesn’t make your teeth ache. It’s addictive and a full dessert but also holds up in the freezer for a few days if you cut it in 1/4ths.
The Bottom Line:
Summer distilled and the best ice cream sandwich at the grocery store.
These things are amazing. They’ve been around for a while, but I just found them and our affair has been quick and passionate. Seriously, I absolutely love them.
And why wouldn’t I? They’re… sheets of cheese. And then you heat them up. And wrap shit.
As a person who fails at keto because I can’t give up burritos, these are my new ace-in-the-hole. They’re just so incredible — so flavorful and work so well as a tortilla stand-in. You can’t really make burritos with them because they don’t flex quite that much, but you can do cone-like wraps. You can also do tacos or put them in a taco salad shaper and do a TACO SALAD ENCASED IN CHEESE.
That’s what I did (I’m on a taco salad kick lately). It was so good that if it’s not in every bowling alley and roadside diner in five years, we riot.
Anyway, these are amazing and you probably don’t need me to wax philosophic about them because ultimately, they’re freaking cheese and cheese is a gift from the gods.
The Bottom Line:
These taste like real cheese and allow you to replace carbs. What more do you want from food tech?
Recently I attended a backyard BBQ that was hosted by a vegan couple I’m friendly with. As I surveyed the table filled with fixings to complement/ dress my Beyond burger, I noticed a sauce I’d not seen before.
“What’s this?” I asked.
“Oh, that’s Bitchin’ Sauce, and it’ll change your life,” replied one of the hosts. “We put it on everything.”
Intrigued, I slathered some of it on my burger buns and was quite impressed. So impressed that I went out to the grocery store the next day to basically buy up as much Bitchin’ Sauce as I could find. Since then, I’ve basically planned all my meals to involve Bitchin’ Sauce. It’s astonishingly good, so good that I’m flummoxed as to how I’ve just now come to find out about it.
Best of all, all Bitchin’ Sauce products — and there are currently 13 of them, which our old pals at BroBible recently ranked — are completely vegan and devoid of any GMOs. So far, I’ve used Bitchin’ Sauces on burgers and sandwiches, as a salad dressing, as a dip for chips and veggies, and as a pasta sauce (and there are many other creative ways one can use it).
The Bottom Line:
If I ever decide to go full vegan, you can bet that the raw, cold-processed, almond-based, creamy Bitchin’ Sauce products will be a big reason why.
The unexpected passing of DMX has led to a whole host of projects cropping up in his memory. Not only is his label releasing a guest-packed posthumous album, Exodus, later this month, but his crew the Ruff Ryders have been active about organizing, too. Ruff Ryders to The Rescue organized a march in Houston called Ryde4Lyfe that will honor his memory, as well collaborate with the Philonise and Keeta Floyd Institution, founded by the brother of George Floyd’s brother, to commemorate the life of George Floyd.
Additionally, the event hopes to raise awareness for the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act that’s before Congress. If you’re in Houston and able to attend the march, it will start this Saturday, May 22 in McGregor Park at 8 AM CST and finish at the Jack Yates High School.
Check out more information on the march in an Instagram post shared to the Ruff Ryders To The Rescue account:
Here’s the full caption for the post:
Ruff Ryders 2 The Rescue is joining forces with Philonese & Keeta Floyd ‘Institute For Social Change for a game-changing ride event. Come out and support a monumental humanitarian cause! We are asking that everyone reach out to your local congressmen to ensure the vote to pass the “George Floyd Justice In Policing Act” In Congress. Our ride honors George Floyd & The Late Great DMX. For years, X has been the voice of strength, hope, and courage in the streets throughout the black community. Over the past decade, most of the Black culture has suffered behind police brutality without justice. We’ve watched countless viral videos of sisters and brothers senselessly beaten and gunned down by law enforcement. It’s time to end this cycle. We’re striving for the passing of this bill to help end police brutality in our culture and begin to hold law enforcement accountable. The ride out will take place on Saturday May 22nd at 8am CST in Houston and start at 5225 Calhoun Road and end at 3650 Alabama Street. The proceeds of the t-shirt will be donated to our campaign to end police brutality. Gear up, join us, and support a monumental humanitarian cause!
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