I didn’t learn that Superman was a flavor exclusive to the Midwest until I tried to talk to East coasters about it – they first thought I was lying, and then assumed from corroborative pictures that it would taste terrible. Rest assured: IT DOES NOT TASTE TERRIBLE. Deriving its name from its red, yellow, and blue swirled coloration, Superman ice cream’s taste cannot easily be defined – the truest incarnation of Superman is not simply vanilla with food coloring. Some accounts say the red is some red fruit, like cherry or strawberry; some speculate the yellow is vanilla or banana; some say the blue is cotton candy. Different brands vary substantially in taste, adding to the mystery and controversy underlying the question, “What IS Superman ice cream?”

Perhaps due to its mysterious composition and the fact that it, well, looks like Superman, this flavor is an important part of many a childhood. This website chronicles memories of the flavor and cravers’ quests to find it again in adulthood. Only a truly magical flavor could inspire the heartfelt and emotional journeys written up here.

Another hypothesis as to the content of Superman ice cream is that the blue is another flavor called Blue Moon – a flavor also nearly exclusive to the Midwest, specifically Michigan. Though Sherman’s in South Haven, Michigan is most famous for the flavor, I have fond memories of traipsing to the Crossroads Mall in Portage, Michigan for my fix of Blue Moon. It was not a blue-colored vanilla, it was not cotton candy, it was not a blue fruit of any kind. I have no idea what it was. It does taste like blue, though.

In order to avoid writing solely about Midwestern ice cream flavors that I grew up with, let’s consider ice cream outside the boundaries of the continental United States. One of the most delectable ice cream concoctions I’ve ever tasted was a Japanese creation called mochi ice cream, a small ball of ice cream wrapped in mochi, or pounded sticky rice. Perhaps not surprisingly, when you consider that mochi ice cream is a Japanese innovation, the flavors are… rather untraditional. At least by American standards. Some of the more popular varieties are green tea, azuki (red bean paste), or lychee. Fortunately, you can buy some varieties of mochi ice cream in the United States: Hawaii, owing to its large Japanese population, has several shops that sell the confection. And Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods have also begun their foray into mochi (spoiler alert: Bubbies is better than Mikawaya).

Craving weirder flavors than green tea or red bean? Japan has many, many more options in store for you. This comprehensive list offers 101 so-called frightening ice cream flavors around, from whale and octopus to tulip and garlic. I’ll pass, thanks. As frightening as Superman might be to look at, it’s endlessly more appetizing than anything involving durian or kelp.

oh my god yes tell me more

Long before the days of the Frigidaire, the icebox or even a reliable means to make ice, people had to either a.) eat their food on the spot or b.) find ways to keep it from turning into a bacteria-fungus casserole at room temperature while they stored it for days, weeks or even months. Enter: curing.

Humans learned long ago that covering things in salt keeps the rot away, but it wasn’t until late in the Iron Age that we began mass-producing salt. The increase in available supply made it much more practical to use for everyday preparations like curing foods. I feel sorry for the first few generations that just covered their meats in granulated salt and left it there (dry curing) – must have been a bitter reunion when it was finally served. However, at some point in the Middle Ages we learned the technique of “brining.” Brining is submerging a cut of meat for a few weeks in a salt-water mixture (ideally you should be able to float an egg in the brine) along with some choice seasonings like pepper, garlic, coriander or whatever the local flavor may be. It is quite common to add sugar during the brining as well for an extra sweet kick in the mouth.

salt! smoke! history!

The oncologists, gun nuts and pee enthusiasts reading this may be interested to know: It used to be much more common to use potassium nitrate or “saltpeter” for brining. Saltpeter is a common ingredient for oxidizing gunpowder, can be obtained from decomposed urine and could very well give you cancer. It also has the effect of giving cured meats their distinctive reddish coloring.

Brining a cut of beef or pork brisket (or even turkey), giving it a rinse in fresh water and simmering it for several hours is called “corning” the meat. You can see where this is going, but you might be asking “Where is the corn?” Given the European roots of brining, it’s no surprise those cheeky Anglo-Saxons put a word to it – “corn” to them meant “small granule or pellet.” So in the case of cured meats, “corn” referred to the granules of salt used in the process Even up until colonial times the word “corn” meant any common grain. Thus, the maize that Native Americans introduced to settlers was called “Indian Corn” and the rest, as all the famed Etymologists of the world say, is history.

Oh, and from corned beef, the jump to pastrami isn’t a big one. Once you have a cured and rinsed chunk of meat, all you have to do is smoke it and cover it with crushed peppercorns and various other seasonings and there you have it – what the Yiddish called “pastrame,” the Turks called “pastrima,” and what most Americans affectionately call: “Holy shit that’s $3 a pound cheaper than ham!”

hello please make me a sandwich it’s important

 - Mike Beech lives in the Cleveland area and really just wanted to find out what the heck corned beef was all about.

I send out links to Google Maps quite frequently when inviting people to meet at the office for the Entrepreneurship Program that I run. Usually I have things set up so that I see a hybrid satellite view:

As you can see, the office I work in is down at the bottom. Now the reason I cropped this image the way I did was because if you switch the view on Google Maps back to regular “map” mode, you see this:

Take a look at that top part where Brown’s athletic complex is located. Now I’ll admit I don’t hit the gym all that frequently but if I’m not mistaken, Google appears to believe that some institution known as Dexter Asylum exists in the same area which to the best of my knowledge is a parking lot at the moment. What’s up with that?

To be fair, the Google Maps satellite data is a bit old. That bright white rectangle in the complex was our swim center, but the “hyperbolic paraboloid” roof became unstable after years of poor upkeep and the building was torn down in February, 2007. Brown will be building a swanky new fitness center within the next several months in its place. That bit of information, of course, is a totally different story and does not solve the mystery of Dexter Asylum. I just thought it was interesting.

Anyway, turns out that the area that currently looks like this:

…used to look like this back in 1911:

So what was this place? According to the Rhode Island Historical Society,

The Dexter Asylum served as an institution for the care of the poor, aged and mentally ill of Providence from 1828 to 1957. The Asylum began through a bequest in the will of Ebenezer Knight Dexter (1773-1824), a wealthy citizen who had served on a town committee for poor relief. Dexter’s gift to the town, though much needed at the time, later was seen as an anachronism–a walled and isolated “poor farm” in the midst of Providence’s residential east side. Beginning in the 1920’s, city officials, developers and assorted heirs made several attempts to change the conditions of the will, and in 1957, they finally succeeded. The Dexter Asylum property was sold to Brown University.

So, mystery solved. The only remnant of Dexter today is the stone wall which runs around the property:

But wait, there’s more!

Life inside Dexter Asylum was… not particularly great. According to The City of Providence, it was something like this:

Early asylum records include hundreds of certificates of indenture, binding inmates for usually six to twelve months. From 1828 to 1844, indentures were required for inmates with no visible means of support. This British tradition of enforced servitude was common in New England and widely used for youths apprenticed to learn a trade — such as printing or blacksmithing — and for the poor. The indenture for Thomas Stanton is typical:

“This Indenture made and entered into this twenty-seventh day of August A.D. 1828 . . . Witnesseth that the said Overseer . . . does hereby set to work, and bind out to the said Gideon Palmer for the space of six months from the date hereof, Thomas Stanton, a person of colour, a minor under the age of twenty one years, now residing in said Providence, able of body, of no visible means of support, lives idly and neither uses nor exercises any ordinary or daily lawful trade of business to get his living by; during which time said Thomas shall faithfully serve the said Gideon in such employment as the said Gideon may direct in and about the house and upon the farm which he occupies and improves, and obey all his lawful commands . . . And the said Gideon does, on his part, hereby covenant . . .that he will for the work and service of the said Thomas, provide him suitable and comfortable board, lodging and clothing during the time he shall serve the said Gideon as aforesaid.” On September 2, 1828, Thomas Stanton “left without leave.”

Some of the 1828 “Rules and Regulations” provide a window into the world of the Dexter Asylum: “At the ringing of the bell, 10 minutes before each meal, everyone at work shall cease and be ready with clean hands and face; at the ringing of the second bell, to repair to the dining hall. Those not attending shall lose that meal unless they can render a satisfactory reason for their absence.” Half an hour was allotted for breakfast and supper and one hour for the midday dinner. The rules further state, “. . . those who are clamorous, quarrelsome or otherwise unruly shall be removed from the table and deprived of the next meal.”

There were strict rules against smoking in bed. Also, “No intercourse [interaction] whatever shall be allowed between the unmarried males and females of the house.” Permission was required to leave the farm, and those suspected of harboring “strong liquor or stolen property” were subject to search. The penalty for begging was three days in the asylum’s jail. The master and matron had extensive duties, such as inventories of numerous items, ringing the bell for various daily activities, and “attending to the security, proper management, and comfort of insane or deranged persons, lodged in the maniac cells. . . .” (Although probably a quarter of the patients suffered some degree of mental illness, there was no other place for them until the founding of Butler Hospital in 1847.)

While meals probably varied considerably with the season and success of crops, the food was not luxurious; as this menu from 1869 demonstrates:

Breakfasts: White bread, cheese and coffee. On rare occasions, brown or Graham bread could be substituted for white, and cold meat for the cheese.
Suppers: White bread, butter and tea. (Children received milk.) Twice a week there were treats: hasty pudding with molasses, and milk with tea.

Dinners:
Sunday: Baked beans or peas, pork, brown bread
Monday: Pork tongues or corned beef, white bread, vegetables
Tuesday: Irish stew or fish, vegetables, white bread
Wednesday: Soup, fresh meat, vegetables, white bread
Thursday: Stewed beans or peas and pork, brown bread, rice and molasses
Friday: Fresh or salt fish, potatoes, white bread
Saturday: Soup, fresh meat, vegetables, white bread

“Krispy Kreme Doughnuts, Inc. (NYSE: KKD) is honoring American’s sense of pride and freedom of choice on Inauguration Day, by offering a free doughnut of choice to every customer on this historic day…”

To most of us, this is a victory in and of itself. Free Krispy Kreme, THAT’S awesome. Except, not quite so much to the American Life League, a pro-life organization whose slogan is “From creation to natural death” (catchy, isn’t it?). The next day, the group released a press statement entitled “KRISPY KREME CELEBRATES OBAMA WITH PRO-ABORTION DOUGHNUTS”. No joke. Talk about oversensitivity.

“This is one of those inventions, like the wheel or the incandescent light bulb, that will forever change the landscape of our culture.”

and

“So far, I have put it on a burger, a hot hog and, this morning, a Jalapeno bagel. It’s God’s gift to deliciousness!”

What could it possibly be besides BACONNAISE.

That’s right. Bacon + Mayonnaise. Baconnaise. From the J&D’s people who brought us BACON SALT: for those of us who want heart disease just *that* much faster. No joke, their company’s slogan is “EVERYTHING SHOULD TASTE LIKE BACON.”

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