Soy Sauce Packets & Epiphanies: the "q"

hello. my name is tony. t-o-n-y, and i'm a penny-pincher.

...and according to alan corey, that's not such a bad thing. but there are a few things in life that i feel it is very necessary to "splurge" on; a few items that the "generic" brand just can't replace. one item that i feel extremely strongly about in this catergory: q-tips. i don't want 'cotton swabs.' i don't want 'cotton buds.' for my daily eargasm, i want the real thing. 100% died-in-the-wool (or the cotton) q-tips. they're kind of a big deal; they even have their own website. you have to notice the difference, the way the cheap ones bend in your ear. and god forbid your 'cotton swab' have a plastic handle, instead of a little rolled paper one... YOU CAN KEEP IT. i implore you folks, life is all about simple pleasures... REAL q-tips, they are one of them.

**and in case you're curious, according to wikipedia, the 'q' in 'q-tip' stands for 'quality,' originally referring to the quality of the cotton on the end of the stick.

the story behind ssp&e:

so i'm not sure if you're anything like me, but being the 'off the cuff cuisine' chef that i am, i try not to let anything go to waste. you know, when you bring home some bk or mickey d's, and after consuming your poor excuse for food, have ketchup packets or sauce shots left over that you throw in the door and forget about. same goes for chinese food, and you know they always give you enough sauce to put out a fire at the pentagon with your order. you throw them in your refrigerator door and forget about them. then one day you're trying to impress some last minute guests that have decided to stay at your place for dinner and all you have in your 'gourmet' kitchen are some ramen noodles, frozen veggies and some leftover grilled chicken from last weekend's cookout. the makings of a superb, on-the-fly stirfry. but wait, OH SHIT!, how are you going to make a sauce for your stirfry with no sauce? you look in the fridge and all you see is a bottle of ketchup, french's mustard (i use the term mustard loosely when describing french's), and a jar of pickle juice. oh no, what to do, what to do. then you bust open the butter holder, that invariably has never seen a stick of butter in it's life, and VOILA! soy sauce, duck sauce, hot mustard! packets, but instant chinkychow sauce nonetheless! each one of those packets, collected over time, came from a meal, inevitably eaten over conversation, an argument or during a lone lunch of self-reflection, came from a time and place in the past. as are our lessons learned. we learn through the years how to cope, how to inspire, how to teach, and how to live. we don't always remember those lessons, as we throw condiment packets in the fridge we throw life-lessons into the back of our heads, until one day we find ourself in a situation where it becomes relevant and we pull them from the back of our minds as to not waste the advice and lessons of the past. the moral of this story, and the linking of it to my blog- our life experiences are our 'soy sauce packets,' our hidden links to our experiences of our past...

e·piph·a·ny - noun - a sudden, intuitive perception of or insight into the reality or essential meaning of something, usually initiated by some simple, homely, or commonplace occurrence or experience. [www.dictionary.com]

the epiphanies that we experience in life, questions or situations that we find ourselves in, and don't know how to resolve, can most often be solved my raking our brains in search of a 'soy sauce packet.' an answer to a question. a solution to a problem. and so this, this blog, is simply an ever-expanding culmination of soy sauce packets in my butter box, and the epiphanies that have helped to make room for more butter in my fridge...

Soy Sauce Packets & Epiphanies

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The "Q" is for Ketchup not Catsup.

Thursday, May 22, 2008

What Does the "Q" Stand For?**

Monday, May 19, 2008

About butter:

the story behind ssp&e:

from the churn:

more ssp&e:

where it all began:

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