Hot Dogs and Brain Surgery

Last week there was a bit of debate about whether we should eat hot dogs or Chinese noodles.  Through some mechanism I do not fully understand (brain implants, possibly), the female member of our crew prevailed and we ate hot dogs this week.  But I have to admit they were good.  I hadn't eaten a hot dog in years.

Of course, Fringe being what it is, as we sat down to eat we watched two guys cut open someone's head and take something out of his brain.  They were all very calm about it though, and there was no ketchup involved in my hot dog (just mustard and relish), so everything was fine.

This was a standalone episode -- no Observers, although it did have a William Bell tie-in, with the first on screen appearance of Spock, er, Bell since the finale last season.  It also had Walter briefly in full control of his faculties (through an oddly rigged setup with jars and wires), and I was reminded again what a great actor John Noble is.  As much as I love this show, he's kind of slumming a bit doing this, and scenes like that one call attention to it.  For a brief moment, you see the self-assurance flow back into him, and then the anger as he challenges them about being in his house.  There is something intense and a little frightening about Walter when his brain is really working.

But soon enough he's back how he was, apparently for good, and the guy who was behind the whole thing escapes back to wherever inter-dimensional henchmen go.  Walter also has a flashback that shows how he got the way he is, and I decided that I don't like William Bell very much.

There was one scene early on this episode when Walter was seen eating something.  We tried to figure out what it could be -- apple sauce?  Yogurt?  We decided it must be pudding.  Then towards the end of the show he announced what kind of food he REALLY wanted, and we knew that would be next week's selection.  But we're still having pudding for dessert.

Update: No show until January 7th??!?!?  Noooooooooooo

Giant Worms and Milkshakes

This week got off to a shaky start as we experienced hardware problems while preparing our milkshakes.  JayBah's excellent Ultimate Chocolate Shake recipe proved just a bit too awesome (or thick, maybe) for her blender to handle.  Recipe follows:

3 c vanilla ice cream
1-1/2 c chocolate sorbet
1/2 c whole milk
2 Tbsp hot fudge

Microwave 2 Tbsp hot fudge for 5 seconds to soften.  Combine all ingredients into a blender and puree until smooth.  Pour into chilled glasses and serve.

We accept no responsibility for dead blenders.  My own strawberry milkshake recipe proved less dangerous but also, I must admit, slightly less awesome.  We also tried out the cough syrup milkshake that so horrified Astrid during last week's episode.  Our reactions to it varied, and are presented here:

I tried it second, and you might note that I dropped my spoon in the cup after treating myself to a mouthful of it, thereby exposing everyone to cooties.  I apologize for my faux pas and I can only say that it really was pretty awful.



As for the episode, it involved people becoming infested with parasitic worms which burst forth from their bodies in a quasi-Alien sort of way.  It also involved a touching interaction between Astrid and Walter, who has decided he should buy his own clothes now.  I suspect this may become a source of further zaniness.

And now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go implant a tracking device in my neck.

Crepes for Peter

Walter: Oh, don’t be ridiculous. You were abducted, of course you need crepes.

It was a weird one this week. No monsters, but a multitude of bald guys. Walter's food last week, of course, was crepes, so that's what we had. With sugar and cinnamon, chocolate syrup, powdered sugar, peanut butter, or ... some other strange mango stuff from the Caribbean somewhere, or maple syrup from Vermont.  And whipped cream!  How could I forget whipped cream?

Ate far too many of them, but they were good. No Fringe next week due to Thanksgiving.

Update: this was interesting.

Licorice and Mind Control

Last week when Walter mentioned licorice, one of my compatriots expressed dismay. Doesn't like licorice. This is very unfortunate. I don't mind it, myself, but a couple days later inspiration struck at around 2am: what if the licorice could be covered in chocolate?

Google showed that someone had already done the ground-breaking research involved, so all I had to do was get some dipping chocolate -- I only used about a third of the bag of licorice though. The rest I threw in the garbage, hoping that it might reach those starving children in Africa my mother always told me about.

Was I going to talk about something else? Oh, right, Fringe. This was a classic X-Files-esque episode, with some unexpected twists. It closed out with a great quote from Walter that involved food. What more could we ask for?

Ciabatta and the Cosmonaut

Last week's episode was very light on food references.  We seized on a passing reference to Ciabatta bread, and I picked up some Mediterranean dipping oil for it.  Ciabatta (Italian for -- I am not making this up -- "slipper") is a strange kind of bread made almost entirely of holes.  As it turns out it does not taste anything like feet, and went very well with the oil I brought along.

On Fringe we watched Walter & co. investigate a puzzling series of deaths that involved people turning to ash.  This episode saw the first (and probably last) request for a Dustbuster to bring the body back to the lab for analysis.  And Broyles shot somebody.  It's nice to see him out of the office and interacting with the public.

Overall, a really strong episode with good effects.

Demons and Donuts

Last week when Walter announced that he wanted powdered donuts, we realized that we did too.  And a brilliant idea (or an idea, anyway) was born: whatever food Walter was fixated on, we'd get some and eat it while watching the show the next week.

So.  I decided that very small donuts would surely be less fattening than large ones, and I picked some of those up for today's episode.  It was even freakier than usual, with brain implants and hallucinations and a trip to Seattle.  But everything turned out to have a non-supernatural explanation that didn't even involve alternate dimensions.  The episode did, however, feature a company that wasn't Massive Dynamic, although it still did unethical experiments on people.

Having watched this show, I've decided against that new brain implant I've had my eye on.

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