Food: Gjetost
Do you like cheese? Do you like dessert? Have you ever thought “gee, there should be a cheese that could be a standalone dessert”? If you are a normal, sane human, maybe you haven’t. But to everyone’s benefit, the Norwegians have been quietly churning out a unique sweet cheese in a class by itself for the past 2,500 years.
Gjetost is a rich, creamy, chewy cheese that has a consistency like very firm fudge. It’s made by simmering whey, cream, and milk to evaporate the water and caramelize the milk sugars. The caramelization is what gives gjetost its brown color and sweet, nutty taste. While cheese in desserts (cheesecake, tiramisu, etc.) is not all that rare, gjetost presents some tantalizing possiblities for the cheese lover with a sweet tooth. For example, if you’ve ever had a Colombian pan de queso or Brazilian pao de queijo, you know how delicious chewy, stretchy, cheesy bread can be. But gjetost has the power to turn savory into sweet. I made chocolate chip gjetost cookies by subbing shredded gjetost for parmesan and cheddar in a pao de queijo recipe, and the results were spectacular - a very rich, chewy, slightly savory chocolate chip roll that I couldn’t stop eating.
Many grocery stores around me sell gjetost (usually the Ski Queen brand pictured above) in their cheese section. While you can get wildly creative with it, you can also just enjoy thin slices on their own. Gjetost has so much energy packed into every square inch that when a truck of it caught on fire in a Norwegian tunnel, it burned hot enough to demolish the whole structure. Now that is NUTRITIONALLY DENSE. Add in the fact that it’s stable at room temperature for about a week and it’s the perfect on-the-go food for hikers, bikers, and others whose endeavors take them far afield.
Do yourself a favor and buy a cube of this stuff today!
Politics: Jon Stewart Will Save Us For The Dozenth Time
Jon Stewart is returning to The Daily Show, and people have opinions. Some of those opinions are execrably stupid, but give a fantastic window into the mindset of the execrable opinion holders.
I’ll focus on the commentary of one Dean Obeidallah, CNN contributor, comedian, and reliable comparer-of-things-to-Hitler. Dean has some strange beliefs:
And after Trump won that election, many — including myself — believed that if only Stewart had not abdicated his late-night show in August 2015, Trump might well have been defeated.
Ah yes, if only Jon Stewart had (along with literally every other late night host, and opinion show talking head) been there to make fun of Trump, he would have lost. We should all take a minute and reflect on the prodigious ego and sense of self-regard Obeidallah and his fellow travelers must have, to think that a late night jokester who was mostly watched by people who would never have considered voting for Trump in the first place, could swing an election.
Maybe Stewart would have come up with a REALLY MEAN AND FUNNY nickname (like Drumpf, remember how that changed hearts and minds?) and the voters in the heartland would fall to their knees at the powers of his japery.
Perhaps realizing how silly his opening was, Obeidallah quickly backpedals:
…And no one — not even the award-winning host himself — can save us from Trump or any other societal problem facing our nation today.
Yikes, that’s grim. I guess we’re doomed. But!
But … and you knew a but was coming … Stewart’s history of effectively ridiculing and taunting Trump is what so many of us will be tuning in for. And if history is any guide, Stewart will get under Trump’s pathetically thin skin, surely causing him to lash out on social media…
…Stewart discussed the other GOP presidential candidates. When he got to Trump, Stewart joked, “They’re all very colorful characters, but for me there can only be one F**kface von Clownstick.” Stewart then did an impression of Trump, mercilessly mocking him for saying he had a secret, “foolproof” plan to defeat ISIS.
How did Trump respond? With a series of angry tweets calling Stewart “a wiseguy with no talent,” “the most overrated joke on television” who delivered “dumb clown humor” and more. For a comedian, having a person like Trump respond angrily on social media to your jokes is better than a standing ovation.
So the big plan here is, there’s this guy who is literally Hitler (and possibly Voldemort), and what we’re going to do is make fun of him and get him mad. Of course,
…there’s an added concern that Stewart didn’t have to deal with back in 2015 when he was last hosting “The Daily Show.” If Trump were to win in 2024, he may go beyond simply slamming Stewart on social media and employ the apparatus of government to silence him.
So yes - there’s this guy who is literally Hitler (and possibly Voldemort), and what we’re going to do is make fun of him and get him mad. We are very afraid and think it is likely that he will start jailing late night hosts for making fun of him. He was President before for 4 years of ceaseless mockery, and didn’t do that, but now he will, and we’re so sure that instead of taking up arms against this incoming dictatorship, we’re going to make some jokes.
I want to reiterate part of the quote here, because it’s emblematic of the whole parasitic, internally incoherent nature of the relationship between Trump and Trump Haters:
For a comedian, having a person like Trump respond angrily on social media to your jokes is better than a standing ovation.
This entire exercise for Obeidallah is about him - how he feels, the pleasure and status he derives from his relationship to the Consummate Heel. There has never been a villain as fun as Trump to mock. Like an inexperienced schoolyard kid, he gives the bullies exactly what they want - big emotional reactions. Of course, there’s a massive audience that loves his outbursts as much as those of his detractors - and you can’t disentangle the Trump/Media complex. The back and forth is too good to give up. They serve each other too well, financially, emotionally, and electorally.
So no, I do not think that Jon Stewart’s reappearance will have an impact on the upcoming Presidential election. I enjoyed the Daily Show for a long time, and Stewart can be a very funny guy, but based on his most recent work I fear the newest incarnation of The Daily Show will be a series of deeply unfunny struggle sessions.
Music: My Favorite Synth Solo Ever
I’ve always been a bit salty about the fact that I missed seeing Math The Band (in their 2007-2017 incarnation as a two-piece band) live - there aren’t a lot of bands that make me feel like I need to dance like an un-selfconscious child, but these guys make me feel like Karen in Hans Christian Andersen’s The Red Shoes.
This band may be something of a litmus test - after many years listening to punk and other “fast music” (particularly Atom and His Package) I’ve built up an immunity to the pace and occasionally jarring noisyness, but to people without my temperament it might be stress-inducing. Either way, you have to appreciate the synth wizardry on display from Justine Mainville in this track at 2:01 - it is mindblowingly fun.
And that’s not even getting into the manic awesome 2009-ness of this music video - green screen, effects plugins, and all manner of editing tomfoolery add up to an aesthetic blast from the past. Enjoy!
I don’t know if I can trust a newsletter whose author is clearly in the pocket of Big Gjetost to provide impartial cheese coverage.