Panegyric poet / WED 3-8-23 / Fabulous fabulist / Marine fish that's also the name of a hairstyle / Saskatchewan's second-largest city, after Saskatoon / Former Wyoming representative Liz / Reverse a thumbs-up for, on Facebook
Constructor: Miranda Kany
Relative difficulty: Easy
THEME: "Guacamole" — theme answers are ingredients for guacamole, clued as recipe instructions. The word "Guacamole" is spelled out by shaded (here, circled) squares that you are supposed to read clockwise starting from the top:
Theme answers:
ONION (3D: "One small red minced, for crunch and tang")
GARLIC (4D: "Three cloves minced, for depth and aroma")
SALT (11D: "One teaspoon, pink or black, for emphasis")
CILANTRO (22A: "1/2 cup coarsely chopped, for bright (or soapy) flavor")
AVOCADO (40A: "About two cups cubed, after peeling and pitting")
JALAPEÑO (55A: "One seeded and minced, for heat")
CUMIN (53D: "1/2 teaspoon, for a little extra flavor ... really, try it!")
TOMATO (49D: "One vine-ripe chopped, for texture and color")
LIME (57D: "One small juiced, for citrus notes, and to preserve color")
Word of the Day: TINO Martinez (13D: Baseball's Martinez) —
Well I love guacamole, but this puzzle ... I don't know. I don't think I get it. That is, it's just a list of ingredients. That is all that it is. It seems to try to make up for this with some shaded (circled) squares that spell the "revealer" ("Guacamole"), but those squares are ... what are they doing? Are they supposed to form the outline of an AVOCADO? I can almost imagine that, if I squint and also am very generous. But if random squares that you read "clockwise" are still random squares. It is not going to be hard to find any of these letters in any given grid, and in a very choppy, high word-count grid like this, you can probably make a very vague "clockwise" scheme come out pretty easily. It's possible that the large amount of theme content (*Nine* ingredients!), made filling the grid more of a challenge than filling a similarly-shaped grid would've been under less demanding circumstances, but still, the "clockwise" revealer is kind of a dud, and it's a dud that's trying to make up for an insubstantial theme. This puzzle is just missing some essential *crossword* element. It doesn't seem playful or gamelike. It's a list. And the addition of CUMIN ... trust me, I do not want to get into the Guacamole Culture Wars ("Peas! How dare you!"), and I have no doubt that CUMIN is, as the clue suggests, quite good in guacamole, but its presence here is so painfully, obviously about making the ingredient list come out symmetrical that it had me going "really? come on." It is the notable outlier, as far as standard guacamole recipes go, and it knows it (the clue wouldn't be trying so hard to convince you it was valid if it was in fact valid) ("... really, try it!"). Overall, it's hard to be excited about this one, except insofar as I am always in some small way excited about guacamole. But I'll try the CUMIN. I promise.
The fill isn't great. I nearly took a screenshot early on because I got that NW corner feeling again today—the feeling when I'm only a few answers in and I can tell already that things aren't going to go well. ECO EON EELS ... OK, but then LUI on top of that? Yeesh. The rest of the grid had similar problems with stale repeaters. ODIST!? That's twice this week I think for that one—a word only a crossword could love. The only part of the fill I really like is the REGINA MULLET SPEEDO stack. Getting quite the picture—of a pasty Canadian dude with a bad haircut in tight swimwear. In my head, he's drinking Labatt's. He's got a MACAW on one shoulder and a MYNA on the other. He is a heroic figure of freedom. He should be on coins. Good day.
While I definitely do not qualify as a "chef", my cooking ain't that bad. And I get rave reviews on my guac: Two avocados; one chopped Roma tomato; 'some' lime juice; and my secret ingredient (Walmart's Great Value brand guacamole mix - really!).
I'm from New Mexico, snd I assure you cumin is an essential guacamole ingredient. In fact, seeing its inclusion here almost made me like this puzzle. But not quite. 😁
Recognized the ingredients, blew through the grid but was disappointed that there was no revealer (that circled letter nonsense that Rex pointed out doesn’t count) - which is too bad as I actually have enjoyed a couple of the themes this week. I think the OSMONDS may still headline out in Vegas these days (at least they still were a couple of years ago).
CUMIN absolutely belongs here! It is my secret ingredient in guac, and everyone loves it. They are not just telling me they do, I swear. Trust Miranda and me on this one. This list of ingredients is exactly what I put in guac except I add a couple grinds of pepper. As for the “or soapy” comment on the CILANTRO, well those genetically disadvantaged people who taste it that way will be the exception to liking my guac. You can never have too much cilantro, in my book.
I liked it fine, probably because of my approval of the ingredients. I liked that the AVOCADO is right in the middle. I liked the clues for IMAC (“Apple for a teacher, maybe”) and AESOP (“Fabulous fabulist”). SIDLE and DODGE sound like instructions for an evasive maneuver. Loved imagining your REGINA MULLET SPEEDO guy, Rex.
And thank goodness I now know that EELS blood is toxic to humans because I was seriously thinking of adding it to my next guacamole.
I feel like we had this theme, or one very similar, recently.
Some weird ingredients in the guacamole: EELS, MULLET, JAMS, and EDYS.
To be clear, which I don’t think the puzzle is, the blood of EELS is toxic if you inject it or it otherwise ends up in your bloodstream. You can still eat eels – though of course you shouldn’t.
RIBALD is one of those words that is pronounced incorrectly more often than not.
Ok, first, what Rex Said. Beyond that, I’m in on Garlic. Many restaurants in the south west will come and make it at your table and offer garlic as an option but not a base ingredient. I always like to add a little. No no no no I say to CUMIN. Theme answers were clued way to obvious. Would like to have seen the reveal presented in some other way. “Random, clockwise circles didn’t do it for me.
Ingredient quibbles aside (see below for those), I agree with Rex about this puzzle. The theme was pretty milquetoast - it neither felt like a cleverly clued, fun experience for the solver nor an impressive feat of construction. I’m realizing that I’m part of the “oh no, not circles” contingent though, so your mileage may vary.
Something nice (I’m trying to include those unless I truly loathed a puzzle) - I liked MACAW, MYNA, and MULLET, and I appreciated the effort put in to give us clues that weren’t typical to their answers.
As for the ingredients, imo CUMIN is optional but lovely, and GARLIC is a must. We are a very serious garlic household, going through 2-4 heads a week, and we buy a few different varieties in bulk - Romanian Red is a fave. I’ve got 40 cloves planted in my garden (first time growing garlic!) and I’m eagerly awaiting spring and seeing those scapes come up - fingers crossed!
Cumin in guacamole is a yes for me. This puzzle was a no. Too easy for a Wednesday and far to much fill that felt forced. I usually find OFL a bit harsh but today I think he was nicer than I would have been.
Talking my language here. The AVOCADO is, to me, ambrosia, divinity on Earth. When eaten at its fleeting moment of perfect ripeness, it transports me to a place of pleasure that cannot be disturbed.
So, this puzzle had me after I filled in ONION, GARLIC, and GENIUS, with its two circles, enough to where I immediately filled in the remaining circles, thinking of guac’s glorious taste. As each ingredient uncovered I continued to savor that taste, with the emphasis of that new ingredient. Crosswords as pleasure – that’s what this was.
Lovely bit of construction to make the circled GUACAMOLE happen – not an easy build, especially so smoothly pulled off here. And lovely words to pad the experience – RIBALD, TWISTY, MAUVE, SIDLE. Not to mention the two wonderful clues that echo each other, [Apple for a teacher, maybe] and [Brand for a butterfly expert, perhaps].
Loveliness even In the five-degrees-of-separation department: A JAR → mason → brick → wall → fire → pit → AVOCADO.
Thank you, Miranda, for a delicious solve, and for starting my day with unstoppable happiness. Congratulations on your debut!
Crossword solvers baffle me. Everyone balks at fairly common present pop culture phenomena (KATANAS and TAME IMPALA come to mind as recent examples), but given a name-laden and crosswordese gummed-up grid like this and everyone claims it’s easy peasy. TINO crossing ALAN? REGINA crossing NED? RIBALD crossing NUB and SIDLE?? (The most brutal.) MIA crossing EVITA (easier because of the frequency of seeing EVITA around). Others were easier with the crosses: MYNA, ABEL, LOCO… I actually enjoyed the theme too, but this was an ugly and frustrating solve for me. -Brando
The sled story was part of the movie. In the beginning it showed Kane as a child riding a sled and the same sled with the brand name Rosebud burning in a furnace at the end. The Marion Davies story was we known in Hollywood but would never have been discussed publicly then. However, everyone knew the movie's director, Welles was targeting William Randolph Hearst, the powerful publisher and Davies' lover, but only Hollywood knew the whole story. That came out to general knowledge much later.
Don’t care for GUAC so this never had a chance. AVOCADOs are the biggest myth perpetuated on this country since the mouse in the Coke bottle. Agree with @kitschef that we’ve recently seen a similar theme - I can remember @Z railing on the CUMIN addition. Monday level fill - NOTATED was the only one to give me pause.
Right after commenting here, I started reading today’s Times (online) and discovered that avocado probably comes from a slang Nahuatl word for testicle. This was in a story about a book everyone here will want to read (given our love of word origins and food): “Romaine Wasn’t Built in a Day” by Judith Tschann. Read the story for more fascinating word origins - and read the book for even more, I assume.
@Lewis, thanks for reminding me about the great clue for SPEEDO (“brand for a butterfly expert, perhaps”). I left it off my list but it’s the best one today.
Shouldn’t the clue for 67A (Marine fish that’s also the name of a hairstyle) read “Marine water-dwelling fish that’s also the name of a human being hairstyle”? And while we’re at it, shouldn’t CHENEY be tied with Bret Stephens for most evilest person in the world?
Last time I went fishing I thought I felt a MULLET bite, but it turned out to only be a GARLIC.
Shoulda been some chips in here somewhere, but it was still a scrumptious debut. Thanks and congrats, Miranda Kany.
AVOCADO is in the dead center of the grid but I can’t see the relevance of that . Maybe to highlight the main ingredient?
Cominos essential for chili but not for guacamole. Many folks won’t use cilantro but it is essential for true Mexican recipe. Tabasco is a nice addition.
Connecting the shaded squares roughly forms a pear shape. Very roughly. .
Yeah, yeah, it was a puzzle. Had a guacamole recipe. Weird.
Okay, on to a more important life-altering topic: I was late digging through yesterday's comments and I saw some crazy talk about LATTE ART and I want to pull out my 12 years in the coffee biz to clarify a couple of things.
It does NOT take any longer to do most LATTE ART. I've made tens of thousands of hearts and trees and leaves right before clomping a plastic lid on and handing them out a window. The barista's routine is where speed (or lack thereof) comes from, not the milk pour.
If your latte is made by someone who doesn't give a hoot, they steam your milk incorrectly and that milk can't make art. So an art-free latte might very well be an amateur or beginner's latte -- or most likely, an I hate this job latte. And we haven't even considered whether that person knows how to pull a quality shot of coffee. Enjoy....
The vast majority of latte consumers haven't made the slightest effort to understand the drink they just ordered so they'll pour almost anything down their throat. If they bought it in a shop with exposed brick and jazz on the stereo they'll think it's good, and some automatically assume if it comes from a corporate store it must be inferior. This thinking is sadness in a cup.
Okay, phew. I will now step aside as the "I drink black coffee" crew erases this issue of quality beverage assembly, but of course getting brewed coffee done right is even more challenging and even more prone to people willingly swilling ghastly glop.
Oh, and today's puzzle has MULLET on top of a SPEEDO. 🤣
Uniclues:
1 Give Superman a yacht. 2 Tell 'em you need to use the restroom and then go next door and buy a Toyota. 3 Those years when Donny and Marie actually had a show on TV and we actually watched it. 4 Admire bird screensaver. 5 I know why the dead bird sings.
1 ENRICH KENT 2 SCHEME DODGE 3 OSMOND LOCO ERA (~) 4 OGLE IMAC MACAW (~) 5 PHANTOM MYNA
Thank you that pro view of what it takes to make a delicious and beautiful latte! The latte art always pleases me—especially since these days that cup is five bucks—creamy foam and well-pulled espresso deserves contemplation and savoring. Glad you returned here to herald it.
While I think it wasn’t needed as a modifier in the clue, a “marine” fish (aka saltwater or sea fish) is an ocean dweller, in contrast to a freshwater fish. It’s definitely a known usage, even if a bit less common than saltwater. But now I’m wondering if there’s some species of freshwater fish that is also a human being hairstyle?! The closest I’ve got is “BOB.”
Felt too easy for a Wednesday and the clues for the themers were novice level--"Three cloves of ? minced? ". What in the world could THAT be? I mean really. My print version didn't have italics anywhere, but I can't imagine why they might have been necessary.
I did appreciate the acknowledgement of a "soapy" taste for CILANTRO, as I'm one of those folks for whom this is the case. Thanks to @Wanderlust for the "genetically disadvantaged" description . Not sure if I prefer that one or "genetically challenged".
In LOCO parentis was kind of a big deal back in my college days. I wonder if that's still true.
Yay for me for knowing REGINA instantly. Please don't ask me to name any other large cities in Saskatchewan though.
Some nice answers and clues, MK, but I Mostly Kept looking for some zing that I couldn't find. Thanks for a medium amount of fun.
Hey All ! Holy GUACAMOLE! (Someone had to say it!) 😁
Fill mostly good considering shoving a boatload of Themers in. As you may or may not know, I like a lot of theme in my puzs. Why I like it, is a mystery.
I work with one guy who has a MULLET, and another one who has a mohawk. Express yourself...
Tricky __ Minor clue. Kealoa city. Luckily I already had the S from the cross.
What a wacky clue for ABEL. Cain's brother wasn't good enough?
Got SPEEDO but really couldn’t figure out the clue “butterfly expert” then it dawned on me that it was referring to a swimmer. Good one. Easy puzzle, no overwrites and little resistance. Once I figured out that the italicized were all ingredients It dropped pretty quickly. Can someone please explain the ABEL mouse thing? Got it, but I don’t get it. Nice to see TINO Martinez in there, he played on many great Yankee teams and he was always a class act
Amy: @Wanderlust, saw that article and almost read it before the puzzle. Thanks, will definitely go back to it. Spritely puzzle. We did have a past puzzle that caused us to debate cumin in guacamole. I remember because I tried it and liked it.
This puzzle should have a spoiler warning for Citizen Kane...and the avocado. I managed to make it into my 20s before seeing CK, having heard people say Rosebud, but delighted to make the connection at the end.
I have that side-eye twitch when EON and ERA appear in the same puzzle.
EEL my favorite sushi/sashimi. I'll try to remember not inject it's blood.
Very easy for a Wednesday, plus topical since we had late night guac after seeing Hillary Hahn play an all Bach solo program at Geffen Hall. Stunning!
@Wanderlust - the avocado/testicle connection was part of the WNYC canning of Leonard Lopate from his long tenure in the afternoon. He was said by an uncomfortable underling to have told the story and made some kind of hand gesture....I'm picturing an underhand softball grip (or trying not to).
TINO was an ECO HERO OR SO the we always said TOMATO and CILANTRO grew in his garden bed just add an AVOCADO and the neighborhood was fed one day poor TINO wore a SPEEDO outside to all our dread he'd gone pure LOCO bonkers bonkers in the head they tried to ask his wife the EURO but found her buried and dead she'd turned to fertilizer AND SO holy moly we bought guacamole instead
It's the same as the Alton Brown recipe on Food Network. Minus the tsp of cayenne pepper.
I would never bother to make this but I didn't mind seeing it in the puzzle. I agree he revealer disappoints. Jeff Chen notes that some of the circled letters are situated in tbe ingredients; it would be nice if they all could have been.
@Son Volt - Also found the @Z cumin puzzle. June 20, 2021.
The clue was "Good spice to add to guacamole (try it!)". Seeing that and today's clue of "1/2 teaspoon, for a little extra flavor … really, try it!" makes me suspect the cumin cartel has gotten its hooks into Will Shortz.
Why do people get so excited about guac? It's okay, but it's no better a condiment than, say, salsa or hummus, but you don't see those inspiring the giddy enthusiasm guac does.
I tend to agree. But that is because my taste buds find avocado to be meh. Maybe yours do too. I would like it more if it had a lot of garlic! The Mexican restaurant I go to doesn't seem to use it. Apparently most people love avocados so I have to tolerate that fact. I actually liked the puzzle though.
I happened to be listening to some Bob and Ray this morning just before I read @Gary Jugert's tirade about latte art, and imagined I was still listening to Bob and Ray, who are among my all-time favorites. Nicely played, GJ. Nicely played indeed.
I'm with @Lewis -- the fun in this puzzle came from figuring out the revealer and filling in all the circles. It wasn't that hard to do, but somehow very satisfying.
Garlic is fine, but 3 cloves does seem high.
The scariest part of the puzzle was the moment when I thought EmuS might have poisonous blood. I've eaten plenty of emu steaks in my time, and never felt it was risky. But LUI straightened me out, and reminded me of the old song about Lord Randall. Did his sweetheart add some blood to the eel's broth, along with the CUMIN?
@Bob Mills, watch the movie again, and be careful to stay until the very end, where all will be revealed--and I don't mean GUACAMOLE.
I know that food!!!!! I love that food!!!!! I have that food in my refrigerator right now!!!!!
I certainly don't have to connect the tiny little circles to figure out what that food is. Which is a good thing because I never connect tiny little circles in a crossword puzzle.
My philosophy is: Let someone else connect the tiny little circles in the puzzle.
If I did connect the tiny little circles, would it produce a picture of a GUACAMOLE?
Earlier this week I was told that AVOCADO is a SUPERFOOD. And today GUACAMOLE is the subject of the entire crossword!!!!! I guess Will Shortz wants me to eat a lot of AVOCADO.
And I do, Will. Cross my heart. I do eat a lot of AVOCADO. Hardly a day goes by when I don't eat AVOCADO, either by itself or as part of a generous portion of GUACAMOLE. Are you promising me that I will now live forever?
A mouthwatering puzzle -- with or without the (quite ignorable) tiny little circles. Loved the way your recipe instructions were worded, Miranda.
I was like others aware too early on that we were making guac and that the circled letters were going to spell GUACAMOLE. That did contribute to the puzzle playing "easy" for a Wednesday.
I did have to pause before entering my final letter: the L shared by ABEL and SLED. Neither of those was known to me as clued, but by running the alphabet in my head, SLED seemed to be the only possibility.
Speaking of SLED, my contribution to the Uniclues today:
Surprised that nobody (esp Rex) balked at the double "SO": AND SO very near OR SO. That's illegal or something, right?
Didn't know any or the sports ball names (as usual), but crosses were fair, so no harm done.
Lucked out that REGINA was a gimme. I wasn't sure about which city was bigger, but Saskatoon and Regina are the only SK cities I can name, other than Cut Knife which is way too small to be a city. Jim Gaffigan (whose standup is funny, even though his CBS Sunday Morning pieces are not) has a funny routine about Regina (which rhymes with a female body part) and the rest of Canadian geography.
As for guac, I'll pass. Feels like already-chewed bananas and doesn't taste good enough for me to get over that.
An admirable construction, with all of those ingredients symmetrically placed and the AVOCADO suitably at center stage. As the letters of GUACAMOLE began to appear in their circles, I guessed that they'd be randomly scattered, to indicate the need for mixing, so I was surprised at their orderly array. Lazy as I am, my version includes only AVOCADO, LIME, and SALT.
ENRICHing the solving experience: COUPE, RIBALD, PHANTOM, TWISTY, and the nod to the questionable fashion duo MULLET and SPEEDO. I also liked the AAH leading into AVOCADO.
Welp. Things didn’t start off great for me since my printout had no italics in the theme clues. Seems someone dropped the ball but it wasn’t difficult to figure out which ones they were and not much of a hindrance. When everything was mixed, stirred, and seasoned, I ended up having quite a nice time. I also learned that a MACAW may talk and there such a thing as black SALT. Who knew? Thank you Miranda and congratulations. A very tasty debut!
The AVOCADO is one of those amazing super foods and was clued as such just yesterday. Oddly enough, also what I had for lunch yesterday. Smash a fully ripe one and sprinkle with GARLIC powder. Add about a cup of cottage cheese and some finely chopped celery. Mix with salt and pepper as you like. No really, try it sometime. No CUMIN though.
The whole time I was solving, I couldn’t help but hope that whoever made this first popped that red ONION in the refrigerator for at least a day before removing it from the refrigerator and putting on a pair of tight-fitting goggles and stuffing a big piece of bread into their mouth, allowing a small portion to protrude over the lip. Then submerged the onion in a deep bowl of water before then placing it on a cutting board that's on a 48 degree slant away so that the onion is already impossible to see and then, while looking completely in the opposite direction, took the sharpest knife that anyone in the world has ever used and sliced hard and deep and quickly -- avoiding any delicate chopping or dicing or mincing motions that might have made the onion unhappy.
(A pure plagiarism from last week courtesy of @Nancy. Worth repeating I thought.)
Always nice to see see a debut grid or enjoy GUACAMOLE. Puzzles like food reactions hinge on one’s taste, either figuratively or literally, so pass the chips 🙏🏾
We enjoy more garlic and cumin and cilantro on the side with shrimp tacos, but I must admit that we are closer to REGINA than México. Easy puzzle even for Wednesday.
OK...so we have us some GUACAMOLE. Most of you here know that I love food; I live for food; my husband drools for food; we are consumed by what's on the menu every evening. I'll start by saying that I play around with recipes and never follow the instructions. So I leave out the GARLIC...it dominates all the other ingredients. Now mind you, I probably eat garlic every day because I love it but the AVOCADO has to be the star. The other ingredients are there to make sure you don't fall flat on your face. CUMIN..AAAAAH. Yes. It has this earthy lemony taste. I buy the seeds whole and grind them up.... It gives that green mess you're staring at the required "que sabroso" taste. And so...today's puzzle. Some of the ingredients listed here have that little circle in them: GARLIC, SALT, TOMATO and CUMIN are the lucky ones. CILANTRO, AVOCADO and JALAPENO don't. I wondered about that. Is there some deeper meaning? By the way...CILANTRO is a must - and it doesn't taste like soap!....The circles do and the circles don't bugged me. Kinda like preparing some bodacious "Congri" and forgetting to add any SALT. I usually don't bother looking at these things, but today I noticed it. Not my favorite Wednesday but it did give me a chance to think about dinner tonight. Have you ever tried Elote stuffed avocados?...or deep fried?....or even pickled?
Easy. I caught on early so this went pretty quickly, although I would probably skip the CUMIN. Coincidently we split the chicken fajitas with GUACAMOLE at Miguel’s Cocina for lunch yesterday. Liked it more than @Rex did, nice debut.
The SLED clue got me thinking: what would be a good word to say right before I dropped dead? One must plan for these occasions. CILANTRO? Nah, no one would ever believe I would say that. It needs to seem mysterious, but be traceable to something from my past. Hmm.. I would also have to make sure someone is there to hear it.
Btw, cilantro leaves contain the same aldehydes used in soapmaking, which is why many people experience a soapy flavor. I definitely taste it. It put me off at first, but now I don't really mind it. Anyway, I barely eat anything containing cilantro.
Looks like a recipe: onion, garlic... cilantro? Ah, this is a guacamole puzzle.
I enjoyed it, but then I enjoy making guacamole, which includes cumin as a standard ingredient. I'd guess far more people have added cumin to their homemade guacamole than have added black salt. Cumin is not an outlier. Critical salsa ingredient as well.
I did once go to a tailgate where someone added strawberries and kiwis to the guac, and I must say it was fabulous.
I liked the puzzle. A bit more Mondayish for me but that's fine.
I had "cacao" there because yes, that is indeed included in guacamole recipes I learned from natives.
I wouldn't use cumin, it ain't really kosher, though I guess it's just fine. I tend to save that for Tex-Mex food. There are as many recipes as there are people who make food. That's just a fact of life. No wars here.
TINO Martinez was one of my faves, when with the Mariners back in the day. ⚾️
Liz CHENEY is my sense of what an ideal Republican would act like. It's so important that we have reasonable people in all our parties. I wish her all the best! :)
Youngest granddaughter will be overflying REGINA at the end of the month, on her way to Winnipeg, where she will LACE up her skates for the Western Canadian Ringette Championships. ⛸
Most of the fam have iMacs; my only desktops were the Apple Macintosh Plus and the Performa, which I used prior to getting an iBook in '02; only laptops since.
Very enjoyable adventure, as I circled thru the GUACAMOLE today! 🥑 BTW, nothing wrong with GUAC, but I'll just stick with the hummus, thank you. :) ___ Success on Gorski's Mon. New Yorker (1 /3/4 hrs), with the Mid-west being quite a challenge! ___ Peace 🕊 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness to all 🙏
An interesting thing about coffee: it seems that the countries where people drink the most of it, make the least fuss about it. I've spent a lot of time in Italy and Austria, to name two - and people just order their coffee, drink it and move along. No one there seems to waste much time talking about it.
Re: Abel/mouse – Abel's Island is a children's novel written and illustrated by William Steig. It won a Newbery Honor. It was published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Toronto, Ontario in 1976. It is a survival story about a mouse stranded on an island where the only thing there is to eat is cilantro. Since it won't eat the cilantro it doesn't survive.
I liked the puzzle fine. Never tried Cumin in it, but plan to. Red onions don't make people cry like white ones do, and that is the onion you need for GUAC. But I would never add GARLIC. Do to a lot of food, but not GUACAMOLE. You have to have a tomato for color and added flavor, but in my experience, Romas are best. Scoop out the pulp and seeds, and cut the outer part into chopped-onion size pieces.
I should use limes, but we have always a ton of lemons in my back yard, so I use lemons instead, usually. And the one secret ingredient, if you have it: One of those Louisiana hot sauces that is not Tabasco, which IMO has too bold a flavor. How much? Add some and if it isn't enough, add a little more.
I do think GUAC is as much an American dish, probably from New Mexico, as a Mexican one. Mexicans love it too, but the places I go never use enough cilantro and often forget the onions.
When I make guacamole, I want to taste avocado, avocado, and avocado. A touch of garlic, a pinch of salt, and a little lemon. Nothing more. Never any onion, zero tomato (no salsa), no jalapeño, no other herbs or spices. Avocado simply doesn't need much help to be delicious!
I'm one of the few here who doesn't like GUACAMOLE; look what all you have to add to AVOCADO to make it even palatable! However, I won't hold that against today's offering.
Constructors, please, don't italicize feature clues. Star them instead. My paper prints all the clues in the same font, so today I had to solve without that aid. Not that it was much of a hindrance THIS time...
A note (ugh!) plus circles (double ugh!!): you're not doing much to curry--or CUMIN--favor here at the Space station.
Someone noted the SO dupe; I saw it too, but after all, there've been plenty of grids with the term SOSO; I say it gets a pass.
The DOD stage is crowded today: we have Liz CHENEY, the EVITAs and Marie OSMOND. But the sash goes to Jorja Fox as Sarah SIDLE of CSI.
With all its warts, this puzzle does contain a pretty dense theme. It can't have been EASY to fill. Par.
A rather surprising Wordle birdie on a tough word.
Bravo to Miranda Kany on her excellent debut NYT puzzle. My only quibble is the unecessary addition of the note. It took away the relatively small challenge (and fun) of solving the theme.
.png)
I always put a pinch of cumin in guacamole, but never that much garlic.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteNo overwrites. Briefly thought it might be TImO at 13D, but I was thinking of Timo Perez.
While I definitely do not qualify as a "chef", my cooking ain't that bad. And I get rave reviews on my guac: Two avocados; one chopped Roma tomato; 'some' lime juice; and my secret ingredient (Walmart's Great Value brand guacamole mix - really!).
ReplyDeleteI'm from New Mexico, snd I assure you cumin is an essential guacamole ingredient. In fact, seeing its inclusion here almost made me like this puzzle. But not quite. 😁
ReplyDeleteHere in Tucson we omit the tomatoes. A cooking class in Mexico taught us this. Tomatoes go in the pico de gallo.
DeleteI enjoyed the puzzle, though I am a guac purist. I protest the addition of cumin and garlic—wonderful flavors in countless other dishers—to guac.
ReplyDeleteMarine fish? Marine fish??? What am I missing here?
ReplyDeleteMarine as in saltwater
DeleteIt is neither an aerial nor a terrestrial fish.
DeleteMarine means of or having to do with the sea.
DeleteRecognized the ingredients, blew through the grid but was disappointed that there was no revealer (that circled letter nonsense that Rex pointed out doesn’t count) - which is too bad as I actually have enjoyed a couple of the themes this week. I think the OSMONDS may still headline out in Vegas these days (at least they still were a couple of years ago).
ReplyDeleteCUMIN absolutely belongs here! It is my secret ingredient in guac, and everyone loves it. They are not just telling me they do, I swear. Trust Miranda and me on this one. This list of ingredients is exactly what I put in guac except I add a couple grinds of pepper. As for the “or soapy” comment on the CILANTRO, well those genetically disadvantaged people who taste it that way will be the exception to liking my guac. You can never have too much cilantro, in my book.
ReplyDeleteI liked it fine, probably because of my approval of the ingredients. I liked that the AVOCADO is right in the middle. I liked the clues for IMAC (“Apple for a teacher, maybe”) and AESOP (“Fabulous fabulist”). SIDLE and DODGE sound like instructions for an evasive maneuver. Loved imagining your REGINA MULLET SPEEDO guy, Rex.
And thank goodness I now know that EELS blood is toxic to humans because I was seriously thinking of adding it to my next guacamole.
I feel like we had this theme, or one very similar, recently.
ReplyDeleteSome weird ingredients in the guacamole: EELS, MULLET, JAMS, and EDYS.
To be clear, which I don’t think the puzzle is, the blood of EELS is toxic if you inject it or it otherwise ends up in your bloodstream. You can still eat eels – though of course you shouldn’t.
RIBALD is one of those words that is pronounced incorrectly more often than not.
What! Unagi is great! My go to sashimi choice, every time. Go eat some EEL! (Is that like EAT A SANDWICH: EAT AN EEL!?!?)
DeleteOk, first, what Rex Said. Beyond that, I’m in on Garlic. Many restaurants in the south west will come and make it at your table and offer garlic as an option but not a base ingredient. I always like to add a little. No no no no I say to CUMIN. Theme answers were clued way to obvious. Would like to have seen the reveal presented in some other way. “Random, clockwise circles didn’t do it for me.
ReplyDeleteIngredient quibbles aside (see below for those), I agree with Rex about this puzzle. The theme was pretty milquetoast - it neither felt like a cleverly clued, fun experience for the solver nor an impressive feat of construction. I’m realizing that I’m part of the “oh no, not circles” contingent though, so your mileage may vary.
ReplyDeleteSomething nice (I’m trying to include those unless I truly loathed a puzzle) - I liked MACAW, MYNA, and MULLET, and I appreciated the effort put in to give us clues that weren’t typical to their answers.
As for the ingredients, imo CUMIN is optional but lovely, and GARLIC is a must. We are a very serious garlic household, going through 2-4 heads a week, and we buy a few different varieties in bulk - Romanian Red is a fave. I’ve got 40 cloves planted in my garden (first time growing garlic!) and I’m eagerly awaiting spring and seeing those scapes come up - fingers crossed!
Cumin in guacamole is a yes for me. This puzzle was a no. Too easy for a Wednesday and far to much fill that felt forced. I usually find OFL a bit harsh but today I think he was nicer than I would have been.
ReplyDeleteTalking my language here. The AVOCADO is, to me, ambrosia, divinity on Earth. When eaten at its fleeting moment of perfect ripeness, it transports me to a place of pleasure that cannot be disturbed.
ReplyDeleteSo, this puzzle had me after I filled in ONION, GARLIC, and GENIUS, with its two circles, enough to where I immediately filled in the remaining circles, thinking of guac’s glorious taste. As each ingredient uncovered I continued to savor that taste, with the emphasis of that new ingredient. Crosswords as pleasure – that’s what this was.
Lovely bit of construction to make the circled GUACAMOLE happen – not an easy build, especially so smoothly pulled off here. And lovely words to pad the experience – RIBALD, TWISTY, MAUVE, SIDLE. Not to mention the two wonderful clues that echo each other, [Apple for a teacher, maybe] and [Brand for a butterfly expert, perhaps].
Loveliness even In the five-degrees-of-separation department: A JAR → mason → brick → wall → fire → pit → AVOCADO.
Thank you, Miranda, for a delicious solve, and for starting my day with unstoppable happiness. Congratulations on your debut!
Crossword solvers baffle me. Everyone balks at fairly common present pop culture phenomena (KATANAS and TAME IMPALA come to mind as recent examples), but given a name-laden and crosswordese gummed-up grid like this and everyone claims it’s easy peasy. TINO crossing ALAN? REGINA crossing NED? RIBALD crossing NUB and SIDLE?? (The most brutal.) MIA crossing EVITA (easier because of the frequency of seeing EVITA around). Others were easier with the crosses: MYNA, ABEL, LOCO… I actually enjoyed the theme too, but this was an ugly and frustrating solve for me.
ReplyDelete-Brando
Had to guess at the ABEL/MEME/SLED cross, but guessed right.
ReplyDeleteI remember "rosebud" from Citizen Kane as his (secret) name for Marion Davies' "femininity", and the movie's sign-off. Can someone explain SLED?
Considering I'm no gourmet cook, I'm pleased with myself for getting JALAPENO and AVOCADO. Fun puzzle.
His little red sled from childhood had rosebud written on it. It’s sort of a memento.
DeleteThe sled story was part of the movie. In the beginning it showed Kane as a child riding a sled and the same sled with the brand name Rosebud burning in a furnace at the end.
DeleteThe Marion Davies story was we known in Hollywood but would never have been discussed publicly then. However, everyone knew the movie's director, Welles was targeting William Randolph Hearst, the powerful publisher and Davies' lover, but only Hollywood knew the whole story. That came out to general knowledge much later.
Don’t care for GUAC so this never had a chance. AVOCADOs are the biggest myth perpetuated on this country since the mouse in the Coke bottle. Agree with @kitschef that we’ve recently seen a similar theme - I can remember @Z railing on the CUMIN addition. Monday level fill - NOTATED was the only one to give me pause.
ReplyDeleteThe SIDLEr
Liked REGINA atop MULLET and RIBALD.
My real name is Mr. Earl
I’ll pass on the OSMONDs and CHENEY.
Kick out the JAMS
Keep this one - I’ll take the hot Green Mountain salsa
The Del Fuegos
Right after commenting here, I started reading today’s Times (online) and discovered that avocado probably comes from a slang Nahuatl word for testicle. This was in a story about a book everyone here will want to read (given our love of word origins and food): “Romaine Wasn’t Built in a Day” by Judith Tschann. Read the story for more fascinating word origins - and read the book for even more, I assume.
ReplyDelete@Lewis, thanks for reminding me about the great clue for SPEEDO (“brand for a butterfly expert, perhaps”). I left it off my list but it’s the best one today.
Rosebud was the name of his sled in Citizen Kane.
ReplyDeleteThe puzzle was pretty easy and kinda yawny, but the last paragraph of Rex’s write-up is a hoot!
ReplyDeleteIt was zippy and refreshing. In addition to prev mentions of apple & Speedo let’s not overlook Lunch that saves the day.
ReplyDeleteBut if you come too late:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=2B4bsqYxwo0
ReplyDeleteShouldn’t the clue for 67A (Marine fish that’s also the name of a hairstyle) read “Marine water-dwelling fish that’s also the name of a human being hairstyle”? And while we’re at it, shouldn’t CHENEY be tied with Bret Stephens for most evilest person in the world?
Last time I went fishing I thought I felt a MULLET bite, but it turned out to only be a GARLIC.
Shoulda been some chips in here somewhere, but it was still a scrumptious debut. Thanks and congrats, Miranda Kany.
AVOCADO is in the dead center of the grid but I can’t see the relevance of that . Maybe to highlight the main ingredient?
ReplyDeleteCominos essential for chili but not for guacamole. Many folks won’t use cilantro but it is essential for true Mexican recipe. Tabasco is a nice addition.
Connecting the shaded squares roughly forms a pear shape. Very roughly.
.
Yeah, yeah, it was a puzzle. Had a guacamole recipe. Weird.
ReplyDeleteOkay, on to a more important life-altering topic: I was late digging through yesterday's comments and I saw some crazy talk about LATTE ART and I want to pull out my 12 years in the coffee biz to clarify a couple of things.
It does NOT take any longer to do most LATTE ART. I've made tens of thousands of hearts and trees and leaves right before clomping a plastic lid on and handing them out a window. The barista's routine is where speed (or lack thereof) comes from, not the milk pour.
If your latte is made by someone who doesn't give a hoot, they steam your milk incorrectly and that milk can't make art. So an art-free latte might very well be an amateur or beginner's latte -- or most likely, an I hate this job latte. And we haven't even considered whether that person knows how to pull a quality shot of coffee. Enjoy....
The vast majority of latte consumers haven't made the slightest effort to understand the drink they just ordered so they'll pour almost anything down their throat. If they bought it in a shop with exposed brick and jazz on the stereo they'll think it's good, and some automatically assume if it comes from a corporate store it must be inferior. This thinking is sadness in a cup.
Okay, phew. I will now step aside as the "I drink black coffee" crew erases this issue of quality beverage assembly, but of course getting brewed coffee done right is even more challenging and even more prone to people willingly swilling ghastly glop.
Oh, and today's puzzle has MULLET on top of a SPEEDO. 🤣
Uniclues:
1 Give Superman a yacht.
2 Tell 'em you need to use the restroom and then go next door and buy a Toyota.
3 Those years when Donny and Marie actually had a show on TV and we actually watched it.
4 Admire bird screensaver.
5 I know why the dead bird sings.
1 ENRICH KENT
2 SCHEME DODGE
3 OSMOND LOCO ERA (~)
4 OGLE IMAC MACAW (~)
5 PHANTOM MYNA
Thank you that pro view of what it takes to make a delicious and beautiful latte! The latte art always pleases me—especially since these days that cup is five bucks—creamy foam and well-pulled espresso deserves contemplation and savoring. Glad you returned here to herald it.
DeleteWhile I think it wasn’t needed as a modifier in the clue, a “marine” fish (aka saltwater or sea fish) is an ocean dweller, in contrast to a freshwater fish. It’s definitely a known usage, even if a bit less common than saltwater. But now I’m wondering if there’s some species of freshwater fish that is also a human being hairstyle?! The closest I’ve got is “BOB.”
ReplyDeleteAnother recipe slog (didn’t that get blasted by your profane guest writer that day?j plus a CHENEY.
ReplyDeleteWhat’s not to love?
OR SO followed immediately by AND SO
ReplyDeleteTake all the ingredients and mix them in a circular fashion? Or whiz them in the blender?
ReplyDeleteIt sort of draws out to Ann avocado shape. If I try a little bit….
ReplyDeleteFelt too easy for a Wednesday and the clues for the themers were novice level--"Three cloves of ? minced? ". What in the world could THAT be? I mean really. My print version didn't have italics anywhere, but I can't imagine why they might have been necessary.
ReplyDeleteI did appreciate the acknowledgement of a "soapy" taste for CILANTRO, as I'm one of those folks for whom this is the case. Thanks to @Wanderlust for the "genetically disadvantaged" description . Not sure if I prefer that one or "genetically challenged".
In LOCO parentis was kind of a big deal back in my college days. I wonder if that's still true.
Yay for me for knowing REGINA instantly. Please don't ask me to name any other large cities in Saskatchewan though.
Some nice answers and clues, MK, but I Mostly Kept looking for some zing that I couldn't find. Thanks for a medium amount of fun.
Hey All !
ReplyDeleteHoly GUACAMOLE!
(Someone had to say it!) 😁
Fill mostly good considering shoving a boatload of Themers in. As you may or may not know, I like a lot of theme in my puzs. Why I like it, is a mystery.
I work with one guy who has a MULLET, and another one who has a mohawk. Express yourself...
Tricky __ Minor clue. Kealoa city. Luckily I already had the S from the cross.
What a wacky clue for ABEL. Cain's brother wasn't good enough?
OK, I have TO GO.
No F's (ITS NAY)
RooMonster
DarrinV
Got SPEEDO but really couldn’t figure out the clue “butterfly expert” then it dawned on me that it was referring to a swimmer. Good one. Easy puzzle, no overwrites and little resistance. Once I figured out that the italicized were all ingredients It dropped pretty quickly. Can someone please explain the ABEL mouse thing? Got it, but I don’t get it. Nice to see TINO Martinez in there, he played on many great Yankee teams and he was always a class act
ReplyDeleteAmy: @Wanderlust, saw that article and almost read it before the puzzle. Thanks, will definitely go back to it. Spritely puzzle. We did have a past puzzle that caused us to debate cumin in guacamole. I remember because I tried it and liked it.
ReplyDeleteThis puzzle should have a spoiler warning for Citizen Kane...and the avocado. I managed to make it into my 20s before seeing CK, having heard people say Rosebud, but delighted to make the connection at the end.
ReplyDeleteI have that side-eye twitch when EON and ERA appear in the same puzzle.
EEL my favorite sushi/sashimi. I'll try to remember not inject it's blood.
Very easy for a Wednesday, plus topical since we had late night guac after seeing Hillary Hahn play an all Bach solo program at Geffen Hall. Stunning!
@Wanderlust - the avocado/testicle connection was part of the WNYC canning of Leonard Lopate from his long tenure in the afternoon. He was said by an uncomfortable underling to have told the story and made some kind of hand gesture....I'm picturing an underhand softball grip (or trying not to).
Disappointing. A Thursday that played like a Monday. Cumin, si; garlic, no!
ReplyDeleteTINO was an ECO HERO
ReplyDeleteOR SO the we always said
TOMATO and CILANTRO
grew in his garden bed
just add an AVOCADO
and the neighborhood was fed
one day poor TINO wore a SPEEDO
outside to all our dread
he'd gone pure LOCO
bonkers bonkers in the head
they tried to ask his wife the EURO
but found her buried and dead
she'd turned to fertilizer AND SO
holy moly we bought guacamole instead
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteIt's the same as the Alton Brown recipe on Food Network. Minus the tsp of cayenne pepper.
ReplyDeleteI would never bother to make this but I didn't mind seeing it in the puzzle. I agree he revealer disappoints. Jeff Chen notes that some of the circled letters are situated in tbe ingredients; it would be nice if they all could have been.
in the Top 10 this week in 1972
Oops...*the* revealer disappoints
Delete...and *the* ingredients
DeleteFound it. December 15 - so less than three months ago - we had a vichyssoise puzzle where the themers were the ingredients.
ReplyDeleteNo Mexican puts cumin (or garlic for that matter) in guacamole. Call it something else, people!
ReplyDelete@Son Volt - Also found the @Z cumin puzzle. June 20, 2021.
ReplyDeleteThe clue was "Good spice to add to guacamole (try it!)". Seeing that and today's clue of "1/2 teaspoon, for a little extra flavor … really, try it!" makes me suspect the cumin cartel has gotten its hooks into Will Shortz.
Why do people get so excited about guac? It's okay, but it's no better a condiment than, say, salsa or hummus, but you don't see those inspiring the giddy enthusiasm guac does.
ReplyDeleteI tend to agree. But that is because my taste buds find avocado to be meh. Maybe yours do too. I would like it more if it had a lot of garlic! The Mexican restaurant I go to doesn't seem to use it.
DeleteApparently most people love avocados so I have to tolerate that fact.
I actually liked the puzzle though.
I happened to be listening to some Bob and Ray this morning just before I read @Gary Jugert's tirade about latte art, and imagined I was still listening to Bob and Ray, who are among my all-time favorites. Nicely played, GJ. Nicely played indeed.
ReplyDeleteI'm with @Lewis -- the fun in this puzzle came from figuring out the revealer and filling in all the circles. It wasn't that hard to do, but somehow very satisfying.
ReplyDeleteGarlic is fine, but 3 cloves does seem high.
The scariest part of the puzzle was the moment when I thought EmuS might have poisonous blood. I've eaten plenty of emu steaks in my time, and never felt it was risky. But LUI straightened me out, and reminded me of the old song about Lord Randall. Did his sweetheart add some blood to the eel's broth, along with the CUMIN?
@Bob Mills, watch the movie again, and be careful to stay until the very end, where all will be revealed--and I don't mean GUACAMOLE.
Speaking of which, guacamole somehow always reminds me of this song from Finian's Rainbow.
@Joe D
ReplyDeleteGet the hell outta here.
@JC66 – okay okay, right after I tell @kitshef that the 6/20/21 puzzle contains not only CUMIN but ACUMEN.
DeleteThere's always room for a little guacamole, at our house. And The Circles, of course.
ReplyDeletestaff weeject pick: LUI. Duck bro of HUI & DUI.
Nice weeject stacks, NW & SE, btw.
some fave stuff: RIBALD. PHANTOM. HERO clue [only ?-marker in the puz].
Impressive number of symmetric(al) themers. Had no idea that guacs could be so symmetric(al).
Thanx, Ms. Kany darlin. And congratz on yer tasty debut.
Masked & Anonymo6Us
illustrated, solo … the DownHome solvequest option is recommended:
**gruntz**
I know that food!!!!! I love that food!!!!! I have that food in my refrigerator right now!!!!!
ReplyDeleteI certainly don't have to connect the tiny little circles to figure out what that food is. Which is a good thing because I never connect tiny little circles in a crossword puzzle.
My philosophy is: Let someone else connect the tiny little circles in the puzzle.
If I did connect the tiny little circles, would it produce a picture of a GUACAMOLE?
Earlier this week I was told that AVOCADO is a SUPERFOOD. And today GUACAMOLE is the subject of the entire crossword!!!!! I guess Will Shortz wants me to eat a lot of AVOCADO.
And I do, Will. Cross my heart. I do eat a lot of AVOCADO. Hardly a day goes by when I don't eat AVOCADO, either by itself or as part of a generous portion of GUACAMOLE. Are you promising me that I will now live forever?
A mouthwatering puzzle -- with or without the (quite ignorable) tiny little circles. Loved the way your recipe instructions were worded, Miranda.
I was like others aware too early on that we were making guac and that the circled letters were going to spell GUACAMOLE. That did contribute to the puzzle playing "easy" for a Wednesday.
ReplyDeleteI did have to pause before entering my final letter: the L shared by ABEL and SLED. Neither of those was known to me as clued, but by running the alphabet in my head, SLED seemed to be the only possibility.
Speaking of SLED, my contribution to the Uniclues today:
Appropriate attire for a downhill run?
Answer:
SLED SPEEDO? NAY!!!!
Surprised that nobody (esp Rex) balked at the double "SO": AND SO very near OR SO. That's illegal or something, right?
ReplyDeleteDidn't know any or the sports ball names (as usual), but crosses were fair, so no harm done.
Lucked out that REGINA was a gimme. I wasn't sure about which city was bigger, but Saskatoon and Regina are the only SK cities I can name, other than Cut Knife which is way too small to be a city.
Jim Gaffigan (whose standup is funny, even though his CBS Sunday Morning pieces are not) has a funny routine about Regina (which rhymes with a female body part) and the rest of Canadian geography.
As for guac, I'll pass. Feels like already-chewed bananas and doesn't taste good enough for me to get over that.
An admirable construction, with all of those ingredients symmetrically placed and the AVOCADO suitably at center stage. As the letters of GUACAMOLE began to appear in their circles, I guessed that they'd be randomly scattered, to indicate the need for mixing, so I was surprised at their orderly array. Lazy as I am, my version includes only AVOCADO, LIME, and SALT.
ReplyDeleteENRICHing the solving experience: COUPE, RIBALD, PHANTOM, TWISTY, and the nod to the questionable fashion duo MULLET and SPEEDO. I also liked the AAH leading into AVOCADO.
Uniclues (Gary Jugert TM)
ReplyDelete1)It's no longer "The Fox and the Grapes"; it's now "The Fox and the Bulbs"
2) "Funny money"
3) Herb you can buy with EUROS that are TWISTY
1) GARLIC AESOP
2) EUROS TWISTY
3) SPOOL CILANTRO
Welp. Things didn’t start off great for me since my printout had no italics in the theme clues. Seems someone dropped the ball but it wasn’t difficult to figure out which ones they were and not much of a hindrance. When everything was mixed, stirred, and seasoned, I ended up having quite a nice time. I also learned that a MACAW may talk and there such a thing as black SALT. Who knew? Thank you Miranda and congratulations. A very tasty debut!
ReplyDeleteThe AVOCADO is one of those amazing super foods and was clued as such just yesterday. Oddly enough, also what I had for lunch yesterday. Smash a fully ripe one and sprinkle with GARLIC powder. Add about a cup of cottage cheese and some finely chopped celery. Mix with salt and pepper as you like. No really, try it sometime. No CUMIN though.
The whole time I was solving, I couldn’t help but hope that whoever made this first popped that red ONION in the refrigerator for at least a day before removing it from the refrigerator and putting on a pair of tight-fitting goggles and stuffing a big piece of bread into their mouth, allowing a small portion to protrude over the lip. Then submerged the onion in a deep bowl of water before then placing it on a cutting board that's on a 48 degree slant away so that the onion is already impossible to see and then, while looking completely in the opposite direction, took the sharpest knife that anyone in the world has ever used and sliced hard and deep and quickly -- avoiding any delicate chopping or dicing or mincing motions that might have made the onion unhappy.
(A pure plagiarism from last week courtesy of @Nancy. Worth repeating I thought.)
Always nice to see see a debut grid or enjoy GUACAMOLE. Puzzles like food reactions hinge on one’s taste, either figuratively or literally, so pass the chips 🙏🏾
ReplyDeleteWe enjoy more garlic and cumin and cilantro on the side with shrimp tacos, but I must admit that we are closer to REGINA than México. Easy puzzle even for Wednesday.
The guac recipe looks yummy, but sorry, this is not a theme. Any more than this is:
ReplyDeleteCOMPTON
ALBANY
LOSANGELES
INGLEWOOD
FRESNO
ORANGE
RIVERSIDE
NORTHRIDGE
IRVINE
ANAHEIM
The bright start to the week just dimmed considerably.
Can someone please explain nub?
ReplyDeleteOK...so we have us some GUACAMOLE. Most of you here know that I love food; I live for food; my husband drools for food; we are consumed by what's on the menu every evening.
ReplyDeleteI'll start by saying that I play around with recipes and never follow the instructions. So I leave out the GARLIC...it dominates all the other ingredients. Now mind you, I probably eat garlic every day because I love it but the AVOCADO has to be the star. The other ingredients are there to make sure you don't fall flat on your face. CUMIN..AAAAAH. Yes. It has this earthy lemony taste. I buy the seeds whole and grind them up.... It gives that green mess you're staring at the required "que sabroso" taste.
And so...today's puzzle.
Some of the ingredients listed here have that little circle in them: GARLIC, SALT, TOMATO and CUMIN are the lucky ones. CILANTRO, AVOCADO and JALAPENO don't. I wondered about that. Is there some deeper meaning? By the way...CILANTRO is a must - and it doesn't taste like soap!....The circles do and the circles don't bugged me. Kinda like preparing some bodacious "Congri" and forgetting to add any SALT. I usually don't bother looking at these things, but today I noticed it.
Not my favorite Wednesday but it did give me a chance to think about dinner tonight. Have you ever tried Elote stuffed avocados?...or deep fried?....or even pickled?
Easy. I caught on early so this went pretty quickly, although I would probably skip the CUMIN. Coincidently we split the chicken fajitas with GUACAMOLE at Miguel’s Cocina for lunch yesterday. Liked it more than @Rex did, nice debut.
ReplyDeleteThe SLED clue got me thinking: what would be a good word to say right before I dropped dead? One must plan for these occasions. CILANTRO? Nah, no one would ever believe I would say that. It needs to seem mysterious, but be traceable to something from my past. Hmm.. I would also have to make sure someone is there to hear it.
ReplyDeleteBtw, cilantro leaves contain the same aldehydes used in soapmaking, which is why many people experience a soapy flavor. I definitely taste it. It put me off at first, but now I don't really mind it. Anyway, I barely eat anything containing cilantro.
Looks like a recipe: onion, garlic... cilantro? Ah, this is a guacamole puzzle.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed it, but then I enjoy making guacamole, which includes cumin as a standard ingredient. I'd guess far more people have added cumin to their homemade guacamole than have added black salt. Cumin is not an outlier. Critical salsa ingredient as well.
I did once go to a tailgate where someone added strawberries and kiwis to the guac, and I must say it was fabulous.
I liked the puzzle. A bit more Mondayish for me but that's fine.
ReplyDeleteI had "cacao" there because yes, that is indeed included in guacamole recipes I learned from natives.
I wouldn't use cumin, it ain't really kosher, though I guess it's just fine. I tend to save that for Tex-Mex food. There are as many recipes as there are people who make food. That's just a fact of life. No wars here.
I’m with @Alice Pollard can someone explain ABEL/mouse . thanks Larry
ReplyDeleteThx, Miranda. Holy GUACAMOLE, what a GENIUS tHEME and SCHEME! :)
ReplyDeleteEASY-med.
SPEEDOed thru this one, altho the SW was a BIT on the 'spicy' side 🌶, not knowing ABEL, but DODGEd the conflict via fair crosses.
Will watch 'ABEL's Island' later today on Kanopy (Canada).
Considering adding CILANTRO to my veggie mix.
TINO Martinez was one of my faves, when with the Mariners back in the day. ⚾️
Liz CHENEY is my sense of what an ideal Republican would act like. It's so important that we have reasonable people in all our parties. I wish her all the best! :)
Youngest granddaughter will be overflying REGINA at the end of the month, on her way to Winnipeg, where she will LACE up her skates for the Western Canadian Ringette Championships. ⛸
Most of the fam have iMacs; my only desktops were the Apple Macintosh Plus and the Performa, which I used prior to getting an iBook in '02; only laptops since.
Very enjoyable adventure, as I circled thru the GUACAMOLE today! 🥑 BTW, nothing wrong with GUAC, but I'll just stick with the hummus, thank you. :)
___
Success on Gorski's Mon. New Yorker (1 /3/4 hrs), with the Mid-west being quite a challenge!
___
Peace 🕊 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness to all 🙏
Liked it. Always nice to be reminded of RBG and Liz Cheney is a tolerable Republican. Happy International Women’s Day. XX rules !
ReplyDeleteAn interesting thing about coffee: it seems that the countries where people drink the most of it, make the least fuss about it. I've spent a lot of time in Italy and Austria, to name two - and people just order their coffee, drink it and move along. No one there seems to waste much time talking about it.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous - NUB means the crux of the matter, the main point.
ReplyDeleteRe: Abel/mouse –
ReplyDeleteAbel's Island is a children's novel written and illustrated by William Steig. It won a Newbery Honor. It was published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Toronto, Ontario in 1976. It is a survival story about a mouse stranded on an island where the only thing there is to eat is cilantro. Since it won't eat the cilantro it doesn't survive.
In most places I've been to in Mexico, guacamole is simply mashed avocado with salt and limone.
ReplyDeletethanks Joe diPinto
ReplyDeleteI liked the puzzle fine. Never tried Cumin in it, but plan to. Red onions don't make people cry like white ones do, and that is the onion you need for GUAC. But I would never add GARLIC. Do to a lot of food, but not GUACAMOLE. You have to have a tomato for color and added flavor, but in my experience, Romas are best. Scoop out the pulp and seeds, and cut the outer part into chopped-onion size pieces.
ReplyDeleteI should use limes, but we have always a ton of lemons in my back yard, so I use lemons instead, usually. And the one secret ingredient, if you have it: One of those Louisiana hot sauces that is not Tabasco, which IMO has too bold a flavor. How much? Add some and if it isn't enough, add a little more.
I do think GUAC is as much an American dish, probably from New Mexico, as a Mexican one. Mexicans love it too, but the places I go never use enough cilantro and often forget the onions.
Good Monday puzzle, maybe Tuesday.
ReplyDeleteWhen I make guacamole, I want to taste avocado, avocado, and avocado. A touch of garlic, a pinch of salt, and a little lemon. Nothing more. Never any onion, zero tomato (no salsa), no jalapeño, no other herbs or spices. Avocado simply doesn't need much help to be delicious!
ReplyDeletemy housemate who has been a children's librarian for 25 years didn't know Abel's Island so I'm surprised to see that clue on a Wednesday.
ReplyDeleteSorry, but the REAL “Baseball’s Martinez” is the one and only, EDGAR!
ReplyDeleteI'm one of the few here who doesn't like GUACAMOLE; look what all you have to add to AVOCADO to make it even palatable! However, I won't hold that against today's offering.
ReplyDeleteConstructors, please, don't italicize feature clues. Star them instead. My paper prints all the clues in the same font, so today I had to solve without that aid. Not that it was much of a hindrance THIS time...
A note (ugh!) plus circles (double ugh!!): you're not doing much to curry--or CUMIN--favor here at the Space station.
Someone noted the SO dupe; I saw it too, but after all, there've been plenty of grids with the term SOSO; I say it gets a pass.
The DOD stage is crowded today: we have Liz CHENEY, the EVITAs and Marie OSMOND. But the sash goes to Jorja Fox as Sarah SIDLE of CSI.
With all its warts, this puzzle does contain a pretty dense theme. It can't have been EASY to fill. Par.
A rather surprising Wordle birdie on a tough word.
Bravo to Miranda Kany on her excellent debut NYT puzzle. My only quibble is the unecessary addition of the note. It took away the relatively small challenge (and fun) of solving the theme.
ReplyDeleteLOCO GENIUS SCHEME
ReplyDeleteEVITA was UNLIKE the rest,
ABIT EASY, OR SO called,
NED AND ELI ATONCE TO test
if she's TWISTY AND RIBALD.
--- KENT ALAN OSMOND
Have never made GUACAMOLE but will have it no matter what's in it. Apparently lotsa opinions on the subject.
ReplyDeleteWordle bogey.
Didn't really need the circles to know you have guac!
ReplyDeleteNever had GUACAMOLE I didn't like - no matter what is in it.
And I liked what was in this puzzle, too. Happy Wednesday, all. Especially you SyndieCats.
Diana, Lady-in-Waiting for Crosswords