Here's something you might be interested in.
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed
Big Screen — Movie commentary
Blurt — Music's inside track
Booze News — San Diego spirits
Classical Music — Immortal beauty
Classifieds — Free and easy
Cover Stories — Front-page features
Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes
Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts
Feast! — Food & drink reviews
Feature Stories — Local news & stories
Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore
From the Archives — Spotlight on the past
Golden Dreams — Talk of the town
The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it
Letters — Our inbox
Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites
Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans
Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists
Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news
News Ticker — News & politics
Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated
Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna
Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated
Poetry — The old and the new
Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers
Reading — The hunt for intellectuals
Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails
San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds
SD on the QT — Almost factual news
Sheep and Goats — Places of worship
Special Issues — The best of
Street Style — San Diego streets have style
Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves
Theater — On stage in San Diego this week
Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative
Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work
Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego
Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads
Your Week — Daily event picks
The Opposite of Jalapeño
Hey, Matt:
There are plenty of ingredients or toppings that add spice to a meal, but is there anything I can add to "cool" the food down? Does the jalapeño have an opposite?
-- Jay, via e-mail
The opposite of jalapeño is menthol (mint oil) and certain components of malt. Just as peppers' capsaicin stimulates our heat and pain receptors, menthol stimulates our receptors that say "cool" to our brains. Scientists are working on skin-cooling agents derived from malt because the sensation lasts longer than that produced by menthol. So, have a beer and a Junior Mint and it'll feel like Antarctica.
Hey, Matt:
A Cheesehead friend of mine told me that some people who work in the Cheetos factory back East are turning orange from long-term exposure to that "stuff" on Cheetos. Is this an urban legend?
-- Cheese Guy, via e-mail
It is now. The cheez stuff is usually annatto, a spicy, powdery dye from a tropical tree, and maybe some chemical dyes. Calling on our usual reliable sources, a relative of a friend of a relative works with commercial annatto. He sez, the powder is usually added as a coating inside a sealed rotating drum. Free-flying annatto would be a health hazard from inhalation. But the stuff is used as a decorative skin dye among tribal people, none of whom work at the Cheeto factory, as far as we know.
Here's something you might be interested in.
The Opposite of Jalapeño
The Opposite of Jalapeño
Hey, Matt:
There are plenty of ingredients or toppings that add spice to a meal, but is there anything I can add to "cool" the food down? Does the jalapeño have an opposite?
-- Jay, via e-mail
The opposite of jalapeño is menthol (mint oil) and certain components of malt. Just as peppers' capsaicin stimulates our heat and pain receptors, menthol stimulates our receptors that say "cool" to our brains. Scientists are working on skin-cooling agents derived from malt because the sensation lasts longer than that produced by menthol. So, have a beer and a Junior Mint and it'll feel like Antarctica.
Hey, Matt:
A Cheesehead friend of mine told me that some people who work in the Cheetos factory back East are turning orange from long-term exposure to that "stuff" on Cheetos. Is this an urban legend?
-- Cheese Guy, via e-mail
It is now. The cheez stuff is usually annatto, a spicy, powdery dye from a tropical tree, and maybe some chemical dyes. Calling on our usual reliable sources, a relative of a friend of a relative works with commercial annatto. He sez, the powder is usually added as a coating inside a sealed rotating drum. Free-flying annatto would be a health hazard from inhalation. But the stuff is used as a decorative skin dye among tribal people, none of whom work at the Cheeto factory, as far as we know.
Comments