HA HA! Get my funny title?? Well, you may not get it yet, because you may not know what C2 is. Do you know what T3 is?? If you don't know T3 is a reference to the movie Terminator 3: 3D.

C2 is Coca Cola's new entry into the omniprescent and all powerful low carb market. It is marketed at "same great taste, half the carbs, half the cals." I really respect bringing the calories into the equations, because in these times the marketers have seem to forgotten that calories, fat, or anything else exists. I also respect the bold packaging of this new product in 8 packs instead of the normal 12 packs. If you are being conscious of carbs, cals, etc. it is even a better idea to have less of these "treats" overall.

I saw C2 for the first time in Las Vegas last Friday night. Entering the mini mart the darker red and the brash black & silver immediately grabbed my eye. At first, I thought it was a repacking of New Coke (the infamous mid 80's product that replaced the original Coca-Cola and is seen as one of the biggest business snafus of all time, that eventually with the return of the original formula saw Coca Cola regain its No. 1 status in the cola world) which is still sold in some parts of the US (still surprisingly popular in the Chicago area) as Coke 2. I surveyed the new item and decided I had to try it. The woman at the checkout warned me and wanted to make sure I knew this was "the new coke." She warned me about a funny aftertaste, but I didn't take too much heed and I struck out for the strip of Las Vegas with my awesome cousin and a 20oz of C2. The taste was really pleasant. It taste just like a Coke but a bit more mellow. I can totally see it being more appropriate than a Coke from time to time.

I have an 8 pack of C2 in my fridge right now. I think it will be a success of a product (I have been wrong about this before. Just ask Jake Longstreth about a little wager he and I had about Surge�). There are a lot of people who don't like Diet Coke due to the change in the flavor and a dislike of nutrasweet but worry about too much sugar in Coke. Of course, I am biased in this whole (Coca Cola) realm. I'm just hoping they bring the wonderful Sprite Ice� to the US, which is Sprite with mint, currently only available in Canada and Hong Kong.

Reprinted with permission from Orange Bicycle

I've been tutoring a Cuban couple in English, and last night they made me a traditional Cuban dinner. I'd never really had Cuban food (except for once at Cañitas), and I wasn't quite sure what to expect. It was really simple but very delicious: black beans and rice, salad, yuca root (aka casava), chicken, and—a new food for me—malanga (also known as taro, or, in Japanese, satoimo). To be honest, malanga was fairly plain, but I really enjoyed getting to taste a whole new food.

If you think about it, most of us as adults can count on basically only eating things we are familiar with. One of the defining experiences of childhood must be how many foods and tastes are new, but I can't remember how that felt. And, growing up in California, I don't remember when I wasn't familiar with "exotic" foods like jicama, avocado (which I wish were still called the alligator pear) and kiwi. Still, it's easy enough to try a new dish or preparation, or even a new produced ingredient like wine, cheese, or sauce. But I really treasure the moments when you try an entirely new basic food flavor.

When I lived in Mexico in college, one of the first new fruits I tried was the delicious nispero, a little tart fruit with big smooth seeds. It took me years to figure out that the English name is loquat, and I actually haven't been able to find any until just a few weeks ago, during a visit to a California farmer's market. I also remember fondly the tuna fruit (when you see tuna flavored ice cream on the menu, don't be alarmed; if it were actually fish-flavored it would be called atun), which is a cactus fruit called the prickly pear, as well as the white-fleshed, creamy guanabana, otherwise known as a cherimoya. The epazote herb flavored bean dishes, and we often ate nopalitos cut from cactus paddles. Likewise, I enjoyed getting to know tomatillos and a delicious tea made from jamaica (hibiscus flowers). And of course there were all kinds of new chiles, like chilacas/pasillas, poblanos/anchos, serranos, and piquin, to name a few. We even ate raw raw sugarcane as a treat!

I know no one thinks of Germany as being a culinary paradise, but when I lived there I tried, and learned to love, belgian endive, celeriac (celery root), and the delicate quince fruit. I love all members of the crucifera family (broccoli, etc.) of vegetables, so of course I enjoyed kohlrabi, and likewise I loved a wild relative of the allium (garlic & onion) family which doesn't grow in the states called Bärlauch.

Traveling and fearless cooking projects have introduced me to Indian ingredients like ajowan, tamarind, and the challenging asafoetida (whose name shares a root with the word fetid); Southeast Asian delicacies like the tangy, mild, gingery galangal root, tangy kaffir lime leaf, and delicious, moist palm sugar; and Japanese treats like shiso leaf, the beautiful lotus root (renkon), burdock root (gobo), and fuyu persimmons, a smooth-fleshed, firm, sweet, delicious fruit that's very different than the sour, mushy persimmons we have here.

Of course, our wonderful farm share and the farmer's market have introduced a brave new world of produce to us as well, from fava beans to greens like sorrel, watercress, and mizuna. We've eaten fiddlehead ferns and all manner of wonderful wild mushrooms, not to mention a variety in kinds of mundane ingredients like apples, tomatoes, and potatoes that I never dreamed possible.

I'm sure I'll never run out of new foods to try, and a few that are high on my list now are cardoons, pawpaws, a now-rare native North American fruit I first heard about in Ohio on my cross-country trip, and the truffles I couldn't afford to try on my last trip to Italy.

What are new foods you've eaten? Did you like them?

Reprinted with permission from Orange Bicycle

This one goes out to our friends over at So So Deep.

The first step is to buy good ramen, not that ten-for-a-buck Top Ramen crap. My favorite is Sapporo Ichiban Miso or Original flavor (available at Anzen or Uwajimaya), but I also enjoy going to any Southeast Asian grocery and picking at random. Then you end up with fun flavors like sour soup, tonkatsu, chinese onion, tom yam, and also stuff you never end up recognizing.

Then, clean and slice up some vegetables that you like. My favorite combination is carrots, spinach and green onions. Bring the noodle brick to a boil in water to cover. Add any hard vegetables which need to cook (like carrots) at this point too.

When the noodles and veggies are done, drain them almost all the way, then dump them back in the pot. Mix in the cleaned spinach and sliced green onions and the flavor packet. When these are all mixed together, turn the heat back on to low, then add one egg and mix well until just cooked. Serve topped with toasted sesame seeds.

This only takes a few minutes longer than regular ramen, but it's much better! It's what I had for dinner tonight.