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  • Showing only topics in ~food with the tag "usa". Back to normal view / Search all groups
    1. I'm looking for a specific beer, for meme purposes

      TL;DR - I'm trying to find a way to purchase Chilean Cerveza Cristal in the US for a joke that is very important to a friend of mine. So, some of you may be aware of the current memes surrounding...

      TL;DR - I'm trying to find a way to purchase Chilean Cerveza Cristal in the US for a joke that is very important to a friend of mine.

      So, some of you may be aware of the current memes surrounding a series of advertisements from a Chilean beer company that interrupted airings of the Star Wars films in an... unconventional way.

      Well, my friend is both a huge beer aficionado and a huge Star Wars fan, and he occasionally works with the Star Wars folks at conventions. He's planning some interesting stuff for an upcoming event but can't for the life of him find the stuff here in the US. I haven't been able to turn up a retailer for it either. Does anybody know of a good way to get foreign beer into the US?

      19 votes
    2. Does anyone here have experience/opinions on induction hotplates?

      I live in what is basically a studio apartment in someone's basement with a little cobbled-together kitchen in a small room attached to my bed/sitting area. My cooking is done in a largish Cosori...

      I live in what is basically a studio apartment in someone's basement with a little cobbled-together kitchen in a small room attached to my bed/sitting area. My cooking is done in a largish Cosori convection toaster oven (mine) with a double-hob induction hotplate (kindly provided by landlord) sat on top. The hotplate is from Nutrisystem (not sure of model exactly) and it's definitely a step up from the electric one I brought from my old place (My kitchen was the laundry room there!), but over the last few years there's been a few things about it I don't like so I'm considering buying a new one.

      The main problem I have with it is the lack of specificity in the temperature settings: it goes 140°, 210°, 260°, 300°, 350°, 400°, and above that I never really use, but I often have trouble with something cooking too fast at, say, 300° but too slow at 260°. I'd like a device that lets me make smaller, (like maybe 5-10 degree) adjustments at the very least. Also there is the issue that if you go above a certain temp on one hob, it will dial down the other automatically to keep from going over max watts, but it also means I can't boil water on one while searing a steak on the other. Not sure if there's a way around that what with the limitations of current portable cooktop technology and American house wiring codes. As you may have gathered from my living arrangements, I need to keep the cost down to a reasonable <$300, preferably <$200.

      Because it needs to sit on top of my toaster oven, I need a side-by-side arrangement. I was gifted Amazon cards for Xmas so I'm hoping to find something on there to defray the cost, but if anyone can point me to the perfect solution somewhere else, I'm interested. Everything I've looked at there so far has preset temp settings and I can't tell if they are fine enough to be any improvement.

      Bonus points if anyone knows of an induction-compatible stovetop griddle that heats evenly and isn't heavy-ass cast iron.

      Thanks in advance for any advice!

      24 votes
    3. Why are American carrots so skinny?

      I know this is a weird thing to ask, but google is failing me and I don't have enough agricultural knowledge to know where to start looking. I'm hoping this isn't another food thing I'm the only...

      I know this is a weird thing to ask, but google is failing me and I don't have enough agricultural knowledge to know where to start looking. I'm hoping this isn't another food thing I'm the only one who thinks about.

      I love carrots but I'm increasingly irritated by the tiny long carrots that I can find in the markets. I just bought a bag of carrots that had a number of them thinner than my pinky finger. In the meanwhile whenever I look at cooking shows on Youtube that are made in other countries they have thicker, longer, or otherwise more substantial carrots. The ones in Japan seem huge; some of them look like they have a 2" diameter!

      Is it just that they are using a different variety? If so, why would they be using those tiny ones here?

      18 votes
    4. US President Joe Biden: Don't give Wall Street control of our public water systems

      New advisory report pushes disastrous privatization schemes Link to the article This week, President Biden’s National Infrastructure Advisory Council issued a report recommending the privatization...

      New advisory report pushes disastrous privatization schemes

      Link to the article

      This week, President Biden’s National Infrastructure Advisory Council issued a report recommending the privatization of the nation’s water systems.

      The chair of the advisory council is the CEO of Global Infrastructure Partners, an infrastructure investment bank with an estimated $100 billion in assets under management that targets energy, transportation, digital and water infrastructure.

      The report recommends, among other things, that the federal government “[r]emove barriers to privatization, concessions, and other nontraditional models of funding community water systems,” and open up all federal grant programs to support privatized utilities.

      Food & Water Watch Public Water for All Campaign Director Mary Grant issued the following response:

      Water privatization is a terrible idea. President Biden should have never appointed an investment banker to chair an advisory council for the nation’s infrastructure. Wall Street wants to take control of the nation’s public water systems to wring profits from communities that are already struggling with unaffordable water bills and toxic water.

      Privatization would deepen the nation’s water crises, leading to higher water bills and less accountable and transparent services. Privately owned water systems charge 59 percent more than local government systems, and private ownership is the single largest factor associated with higher water bills — more than aging infrastructure or drought.

      Instead of relying on Wall Street advisers, President Biden should support policies that will truly help communities by asking Congress to pass the Water Affordability, Transparency, Equity and Reliability (WATER) Act (HR 1729, S 938). After decades of federal austerity for water, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law was a step forward, but it provided only about seven percent of the identified needs of our water systems. The WATER Act would fully restore the federal commitment to safe water by providing a permanent source of federal funding at the level that our water and wastewater systems need to ensure safe, clean and affordable public water for all.

      Link to Food & Water Watch


      Certain resources/commodities/services like water, food, electricity and health should remain in public domain. I don't understand the askance that is associated with this view.

      Once these fall to the profiteering domain, we will be sucked dry and forced to accept abnormal standards as normal to gain access to these which in first place should be in public domain protected in public interest by public representatives.

      These resources will be and are used by IMF and sister organisations that are usually called "banks" as leverage to get their debts serviced or sold as AAA+ securities.

      They tried that with real estate but that burst since a physical house doesn't just disappear which leads to emergence of derelict patches within the estates. This would certainly destroy the demand and the dead estate would translate into toxic securities by just being there and not disappearing. Similarly things that are too volatile will also not be accepted as essential by the public as was the case with electronics/net. So that's not worth it.

      But what if the resource or commodity is essential, which means it has sustained demand, as well as it is volatile enough which means it vanishes after its monetary utility. Now that's "gold". Theoretically its value will not only be retained but it may even increase with no downside. Perpetual profitability.

      55 votes