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It's a thing with me that the older I get, the more seafood tastes like an enemy in the mouth. Spoiled. Hideous. Cat dish two hot days later. I'm not trying to be difficult. Does this indicate a condition? Am I...deteriorating? I switched to "healthy" deodorant six years ago, and I have cut waaay back on cake. I don't dare diagnose this with the Internet, because I will just end up watching the video where the bulldog walks on his front paws while peeing all over the patio. What if I'm the canary in the coal mine, and I'm here to warn everyone that they're eating too much mercury? Am I just being a bitchy-bitch bitch man, or are you fish-eaters in mortal danger? I guess we'll find out in a number of years.

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Files

Comments

Distant Egg Song

I have it on good authority that to get that sort of response from Grave Digger you also have to work the crank shaft. Beef is a master of tacit exaggeration. Also, given that my wife looks at me in horror whenever I open up another can of cheap sardines in cheaper hot sauce, I'm going with the mortal danger one.

Morgan

New head canon is that Pat can neither taste nor smell but he has no idea and has never once thought to ask someone about anything other than texture and health benefits. Beef and Ray never bring it up because asking "My brother in Christ do you truly have no idea what good food tastes like" is more of a Dude Crime than describing his food as monster truck ejaculate.

Josh Egbert

It is not bitchy-bitchness to not be the main fish eating person of your area.

Colin Sueyres

So when the Grave Digger wheelies up, is that just him presenting his Bits in a mating display?

Achewood

Yeah Grave Digger is a little older now, it also helps if you show him some old Chilton manuals.

Achewood

And yeah sardines? To me that might as well be a tin of rotted corpse fingers. Fear factor. But I am glad you are getting your omegas in a way that pleases you. I only "yuck the yum" for sport, not malice

Phineas X. Jones

My dad spontaneously developed a shellfish allergy in his 70s. But he also got a Harley. Life takes and gives.

jordan b.

everything about Beef in the second-to-last panel is amazing. The tears, the punchline, the kvass drips on his chin and chest ( that Pat is no doubt wondering how to recapture and ferment ).

Mae

I love Pat and I will never stop

Mina Roller

That is where the bluegill got glocked behind the 7-11

Achewood

There are definitely guys who would prefer an energy drink called like Truck Cum or Diesel Dick Drippins'. In fact I am going to the bank right now for a business loan

Achewood

Aw, I'd just use like a .177 plinker on the little guy, no need to turn his whole body into aerosolized fish (which would smell terrible)

Achewood

Pat is like Larry David, but not as well-realized.

Julie (HiDeeHoGal)

Age does change your palate. You read about people claiming such and such product tastes different or not as good as it used to and they always blame the product/manufacturer. They never consider senescence. Sure sometimes recipes and formulas change. Neural pathways do too. There is hardly any clean or ethical seafood and fish anymore anyway. That's what I tell myself. Pat seems like the kind of guy who would steal the idea of "ivermectin-ade" and new ageify it.

Anthony Thompson

I’m a tinned fish man for sure, but take solace; the more we eat the less there is in the world for you to cross.

Achewood

Thanks, I always like drawing Comics Mouths on them for momentary impact

Achewood

Was the Harley just in the driveway one morning, like an apology from God?

Achewood

Yes, it's rutting behavior (ba-dump-bump)

Achewood

My local group of food nerds is like constantly dripping in their pants over pictures of horrid seafood with like sacs and external lungs and shit, I don't get it at all. And an oyster? And oyster is the opposite problem, it's just a gross concept and has no flavor of its own.

Josh Egbert

I am (or more correctly, was) a culinary professional & despite having prepared & served many of the dishes you mention, their appeal was entirely lost on me as well. Fried piece of well battered cod suits me fine, please & thank you

Achewood

Please picture Grave Digger just letting out massive clouds of exhaust and laying on the horn as he O-faces

Achewood

all four wheels completely spinning in place

Rob Dalton

needed that chortle; grateful for your lunatic strivings, your effortless ineffable intermingling with us woebegone marmots gargling in the nova dust, chris. gratz, i'm sayin', chochacho.

Zen Window

Hey, every time you faceplant into some well meaning sadist's idea of a good time, at least you can feel a little more confident that COVID hasn't taken your sense of smell or taste. You know that face cats make after they get like three lungfuls of used sock? That's just reminding themselves they're still alive.

Derek Adams

When I see Gordon Ramsay fawning over shit like tuna sperm sacs I think dawg, you need some time away from food to gain an appreciation for what we have achieved as a society that does not need to eat the parts of a fish that normally get fed to street dogs

Shawn Warren

keep this up and you're going to have to start a higher subscription tier

Jacob Smith

I need a cup of mummy broth right tf now

Tucker

Last panel Pat has got the same mien as when he heard Roast Beef playing the banjo. "Hush! Always so quick to speak, Roast Beef!"

Matthew Miller

The cat with glasses is frustrated that his friends are tasting the draught he wrung from a tea-towel full of compost with their tongues, and not with some vague chakra-adjacent organelle attuned to bullshit health claims and rightfully deprecated Slavic brewing processes.

Achewood

I completely support this, while also maintaining that any business, especially investor-held, is basically required to diminish quality quarterly. So perhaps we are dodging two swords, or one sword with two edges.

Achewood

Thanks for sprayin' back some of that poem-style, Mr. D! Dude's all William Fingerspeare over here

Achewood

That's a good point. My local gourmet club, as they salivate over bagoong and crab turds, is at least confirming the vitality of my survival instinct.

Nicholas

Love Ray making his little joke in panel 3

Achewood

Big nose of manleather, base notes of Dustiest Time

Achewood

Well now you know exactly where I got that art from, no joke

Achewood

Maybe I'll meme it throughout future strips

Achewood

We got some cask language up in the comments today! I am *quite pleased*

Brian Sutton

Good lord does Grave Digger still exist? Asking as someone who probably lost a few years of hearing watching that thing live 30 years ago.

Zen Window

Damn near everything that should have been culturally amputated from the United States via a Reconstruction that wasn't smothered to death in the crib is best explained as a mating display. The part that warms this unapologetic winning-side northerner's heart is all that alpha male He-Man pro wrestling monster truck bullshit only actually works on other men, not the women it's intended to.

A. Hamster

My personal theory is that God is a teenager and oysters are just the tissues he finishes into

Achewood

That was my wife's favorite part. And I have to admit that as much as it's all Dick Van Dyke (oh no did he just die because I said that) it's still a pretty good gag in my ageing book.

Achewood

Perhaps because I reused the panel from 2005/banjo kidnapping and it's just Loaded with unresolved import

Achewood

Same with big loud motorcycles. I went to a monster truck thing a couple years ago (there's a writeup in tier 3) and I have to say, it's now no longer for men or women, it's 100% geared (sorry) toward children

Clench and Cheese

Let's chase down that amazing kvass with a few shots of Jepson's Malort! Next up Pat makes pulque and serves it in a hat!

Achewood

Malt and tartar and that fish can be food! What was your particularly culinary field?

Achewood

Derek Adams: Yes precisely this. I am convinced it's just one-upmanship, masculinity, dares. Because fuck eating fish jizz pumps

Tom P

Your issue with seafood is not uncommon in people I know who do not bear the blessing of Poseidon. With that said I am surprised as you reside near the ocean, or at least, appear to not be from Ohio, the state which is legally defined to be the Real one.

Achewood

A Hamster I am using this oyster idea at the next food nerd club meetup

Tucker

"Head canon." Definitely an instance where I wonder, "What had to leave my brain to persist recall of that expression?" I'd seriously consider wearing a T-shirt with just that look on it.

Vincent Verweij

The no text facial expression last panel is an excellent Achewood mechanic.

Bruce Wright

Do you even dislike fried fish? I'd eat my own head if it was deep-fried. Love the Gravedigger shoutout!

Achewood

That's right. I have a friend who makes an advent calendar of different tinned fish, and I'm like, if there is a bomb or a fire, or if he eats it and exhales, at least his house is several miles from mine.

A. Hamster

My first college roommate enjoyed cheap sardines in cheaper hot sauce—worse, he enjoyed them heated; slowly, in a hot pot. Imagine the smell of feeding the seals at Sea World on a hot day, now add cheap hot sauce. I wound up dropping out just to get away.

Achewood

Frying seems to eliminate all the nastiness, and that is a meaningful part of these forensics. It's super high even temperature, perhaps this neutralizes or breaks down the trimethylamine and omegas and whatever else that makes these critters taste like the bottom of an aquarium. I should say that fried anchovies will never pass muster, of course, but even an unpleasant meat like cod is nice as fish and chips (and those are usually does with some aftermarket acid)

Achewood

Thank you. I miss doing punchlines that lean hard into silent awkwardness. It's easy to overdo (see all comedy of the 00's) but here and there it just feels delicious.

Zen Window

I will look straight down my nose at monster trucks, but you'll have to pull novelty short track demolition races from my cold dead hands. It's not high art, but so help me, there is little in this world that's funnier than hearing a totaled but somehow still mobile sedan bounce off its rev limiter as it accelerates through a full ass sofa that fell off a competitor's trailer during an actual race. ...maybe I'm the one who's cruising for tender gay lovemaking so secretly even I'm not aware? Anyway, trailer races are insane in the best way, maybe second only to school bus figure eight races. It's wild to see children get that excited about playing in new unfamiliar dirt between events.

Josh Egbert

I excelled in cold kitchen preparations; terrines, pates. Oddly enough things I didnt enjoy eating very much but a certain type of person will happily spend money on.

Achewood

I've always lived a few hours inland, and my mother's lineup is from deep, high New Mexico, so it was mostly a lard cuisine that fed these genetics. But I am excited to go to Ohio and try all the not-seafood! I hear they are doing some amazing stuff with meat and starch these days.

Achewood

Oh he's going straight to chicha de muko - "mucosal lady-spit hooch" - but prefermented/nonalcoholic of course, so you can really taste what else she had for lunch

2scrogz

Hell yeah, 3 was my favorite panel too. "Kvaaaat?" is classic Ray - never missing an opportunity to entertain himself in the conversation while simultaneously clowning on Pat.

Bruce Wright

I had fried anchovies in Italy once. They were, um, interesting. Like fried fish jerky

Achewood

From the people that brought you garum.

Achewood

That's the right way to phrase it -- entertaining himself. Ray is great at cracking himself up. Secret to longevity.

Achewood

I think that particular panel actually has its own sub-group of fans

Condorito

I know there are many consumables that require an acquired taste, but I refuse that Stockholm Syndrome mutual destruction pact on all fronts

A. Hamster

I’m inclined to believe Pat genuinely enjoys his own creations. Back on the farm, I saw a pig happily drinking the piss from a second pig, and I think it’s basically the same thing.

Achewood

Why is it people will always pay more for the skeeviest stuff And why is it my actual favorite to write Oh yeah I'm seven

Achewood

Okay, I feel like a whole new crack in the universe just opened up. Trailer races? Kids playing in the freshly-carved dirt during refueling/medevac? We didn't even need to wait for the apocalypse!

2scrogz

@A. Hamster, I'm pretty sure you can get charged at The Hague for that sort of behavior - it likely exceeds the minimum threshold for "War Crime under the Geneva Convention," but falls just short of "Law Enforcement Crowd Control Tactics in the U.S."

Achewood

Classic! I love that old guard medieval stuff, the food of kings who died of swollen ankles. What's a piece of hard-won wisdom regarding amplifying the flavors of these cold dishes?

Achewood

a hamster = that is rude as a shit on the carpet

Aaron J. Rushton, Writer of Words

Upon reflection, opening this strip in the funeral home chapel was poorly considered, even if it was still just the viewing.

Achewood

See, this sardine crock pot thing is another terrifying reminder that beings from the cursed spirit world operate among us as NPCs

Josh Egbert

Ive found that a splash of white vinegar in the early stages of preparation really brings a burst of light in the end product.

Achewood

Great first line to your novel.

Achewood

There are scientists in here. Scientists, what is the survival advantage conferred to a pig by drinking his brother's urine? Surely somebody majored in this.

Aaron J. Rushton, Writer of Words

The actual first line is "There was a dog shitting on the front lawn of the Mayberry home when the youngest of its children pulled into the gravel drive."

Achewood

My local gourmet club would tongue-flick that disappearing-anus jellyfish, on the place where its anus disappeared from, just to prove they're the bigger gourmet

2scrogz

As a lifelong fish-hater, welcome to the club. It's like none of these "seafood people" seem to notice that crustaceans are basically just aquatic cockroaches, spiders, millipedes, etc. And fish are basically just, like, aquatic snakes. (Leave me alone evolutionary biologists, I know none of this is scientifically accurate, but it's the way that I feel about these creatures.) Yes, I'm aware that some people eat the land-versions of these things, and obviously many enjoy the sea-versions. But none of these animals are even remotely appetizing to me, and I feel like I'm taking crazy pills when I see people genuinely enjoying it. Like I'm missing the part of the brain that allows you to selectively disable your disgust mechanisms for sea creatures or something.

Achewood

Challenging. Vivid. The Griffith Estate is on line one, flashing red.

Achewood

Yeah, I saw him a couple years ago. He's been reduced to popping wheelies for little boys who believe in the tooth fairy, and no longer does anything remotely capable of raising one's heart rate. Also, it was $9 for a Sprite.

Achewood

This is superb knowledge. Like, a tablespoon of white vinegar in the grinder/food processor with the protein? What are your thoughts on white pepper?

Bob the Fish Productions

I am eating fish and chips right now, because it is Friday (and also I am British)

Josh Egbert

Yeah, that should deliver a pop for you. White pepper takes a deft touch. It can overwhelm very easily, but if you are being judicious in its application, I find it provides a much more pleasing end result than ground black.

Achewood

This is PRECISELY how I have come to think about these things. (Privately, because I still like having friends.) I am going to cook a lunch of land-bound proteins in your honor, now.

A. Hamster

Huh! My father’s side of the family goes pretty far back in Taos. Unfortunately they bought in the 80s hype that lard is a bad word, and the biscochitos are now made with Crisco.

b.zap

The Magreaux patio dog ruint your appetite.

Achewood

Okay there clearly needs to be an Historic Cold Preparations tier. I could ask questions about this all day. What gives your pastry shell the texture you're after?

Achewood

Black pepper is like Black Flag: You don't want it in your loved ones' mouths. White pepper can be pretty barnyardy, but when it's faint, it's the jam. I love using it in Szechuan wokked stuff.

Jonathan

If there were a world record for "length of time between callback humor and the thing being mentioned" I wonder who would win

Achewood

Shit, that's a shame about the lard-switch. My great grandmother measured the lard for her recipes "by the handful."

Achewood

Yet he's exactly the dog you want when there's a grill fire

Josh Egbert

Not to sound all Great British Bake Off but cold butter staying cold while being worked. Its difficult for the most seasoned pros, but the times I've nailed it, its because when it went in the oven you could still see those little pebbles of cold butter just waiting to burst.

Achewood

We are all chuffed to hear about your stodge nosh, mate! (Or do we call you cunt? I sense that's a tricky one to use correctly)

rickward

I wish I could agree re: palate, but about twelve years ago onions and mayonnaise became delightful to me.

Julie (HiDeeHoGal)

Pigs get pica. They crave salt. They get hella stressed and engage in Behaviors. I'm not a scientist per se but I have seen a whole lot of animal behavior.

Bob the Fish Productions

You have to be pretty close to call each other "cunt". "Stodge nosh", however, is not a thing in any dialect in Britain or indeed the English speaking world to my knowledge

Achewood

I hope to win an award for this 300 years posthumously

Achewood

welcome to the only game in town. Onions and mayonnaise are my spirit language. Deviled anything. (Except fish jissom-producing-sacs)

Achewood

Spoken like a true divorcee. (I include myself in this anthropoanimalcentric classification)

Achewood

Cover of a greeting card: "May I call thee cunt?" Stodge Nosh is exactly what Americans come up with after watching too much Gordon Ramsay.

Tom P

Ohio is the Transfer Station into the void, do not go to Ohio... unless you must.

Tom P

Interesting. I wish you well with these lard-based snacks and breads; due to an Ailment, I can only have a small quantity of such fats, ideally fully absorbed by other food items.

Achewood

I've actually never been, but a friend keeps making cincinatti skyline chili or whatever, and that has me quite piqued. Would an Ohioer put spaghetti on a pizza? Burger buns on a pizza? I'm thrilled.

b.zap

Also Ray waiting for Beef to step on that landmine first is pure boss move

Tommy Wingo

Chris, this might be a best-of contender. The quotables are so much more refined than Pat's swill.

Julie (HiDeeHoGal)

I have come to appreciate onions in the last 10 years or so. Especially caramelized and finely sliced raw red. When I was younger, they were far too overwhelming. I like mayo as a base for other flavors but plain old Hellman's from the jar is fine too. Ooh, but if you got some toasted dark or marble rye and some spicy brown mustard in the mayo and some very thin onion slices? Yes for sure.

Achewood

We don't actually even see if Ray drank any. The man's got instincts.

Achewood

Thank you! It felt like a return to a younger, airier, punchier form. The best strips get written as I'm trying to fall asleep, and have to reach for my phone and type a line and interrupt the lighting conditions for everyone.

Achewood

Someone's about to put smoked salmon on that, and I'm going to walk the dog.

Bob the Fish Productions

I'm 75% certain such a card exists, in one of the darker corners of Moonpig dot com.

Achewood

Gordon Ramsay was the original internet brain rot. I must have watched a hundred hours of him yelling at hungover hamburger chefs

Marc Jozefowicz

As someone old enough to remember when Bigfoot was hot shit, it is kind of fun to see my young son's enthusiasm for Grave Digger and his ilk.

Achewood

Marc: Yeah, once I had recalibrated my expectations, it was sweet to see so many dads with their little boys out having an afternoon together.

Omurice

My local pizzeria is featuring this month; Gold Star OG Pie: Strong’s famous dough, Gold Star Chili base, mustard, onions and cheddar cheese —Gold Star Dip Deluxe Pie: Strong’s famous dough, ricotta and cream cheese blend base, Gold Star Chili, shredded cheddar cheese, tomatoes, onions and sour cream —Gold Star Pie-rito: Strong’s famous dough, Gold Star Chili base, shredded cheddar cheese, Fritos corn chips and Chipotle Ranch

Achewood

It's like you don't even need to announce that this pizza is being cooked in Ohio. And I am first in line for this nonsense.

Omurice

Two iconic Ohio-based brands, Graeter’s Ice Cream, America’s oldest family-owned and operated craft ice cream maker, and Skyline Chili, the 75-year-old Cincinnati-style chili restaurant famous for its Cheese Coneys and Ways, are unveiling their much anticipated collaboration: Graeter’s Skyline Spice Ice Cream. We are a seriously fucked up place, gastronomically speaking. You couldn’t handle it here, you have to be born in Porkopolis to survive Porkopolis.

Omnithea

This stuff is so bad they trust a recovering alcoholic around it. You can't trust isopropyl but you can leave this out in a dry county and fail to attract flies.

Achewood

You know your drink is bad when the alkies are sucking on deodorant instead

kdusjjdhxksj

I think he enjoys the way they make him feel about himself, and the way they make his senses feel is a small price to pay for that. You don't like waking up at 4 am, what you like is when somebody else wakes up 8 and you get to call them a piece of shit about it.

Achewood

We have Salt and Straw, who took the mantle from Iron Chef for stunt ice creams, so I think I can eat an ill-advised custard or two. *I've even had scrapple, on a plate, next to some badly cooked red potatoes that were supposed to be breakfast-format*

Jay Y

I'm actually curious about kvaas, but then I had the fermented shark when I was in Iceland and thought it was all right and was super into their black label, caraway aquavit. Also I haven't thought about Grave Digger since small times (dad and half-brother were super into monster trucks for a bit, such was my half-white trash childhood)

Achewood

Podcasts are now saying that the 4am hustle culture is actually ruining your brain, because healthy sleep is apparently the number one game in town. Why was destroying yourself to be awake so popular with men? It's always the same guys who post reels of them mindlessly, constantly, endlessly jogging.

kdusjjdhxksj

I once passed over a self-serve pulque station in a gift shop next to teotihuican because it was completely covered in flies, and to this day I have mixed feelings about that decision

Achewood

Was the other half all silver spoons and ascots? This would be a great 80s sitcom premise: the Boy Between Two Worlds. Like Fresh Prince, but with throaty diesel mayhem crushing strips of vehicles the city had towed.

Jay Y

One half was art museums, opera, jazz concerts and the like, the other half was demolition derby, motorcycle rallies, air shows.

Achewood

Dude, flies know What's Up, they are the original Things That Like Anchovies / Poo

Achewood

Let's get you a writer's room. I don't think Will Smith is doing anything these days.

Jay Y

Bad news: Victorians drank most of it.

kdusjjdhxksj

Destroying yourself in the nominal pursuit of status allows the guy doing it to see himself as already being made of better stuff than the guys destroying themselves for fun. Whether the status materializes is immaterial, the doing of the better-guy thing is itself proof of the better-guyness. Haha, 'tis I, the future ghost, both guys die at the end.

blair

That's much more scientific than my rationale, which is that I'm hopelessly bogged in my ancestral inland Southern culture. I can engage with a lot of heritage problems, but not with quenelles.

blair

Now I'm wondering if they might be good battered and fried. With hushpuppies.

kdusjjdhxksj

I think I was concerned about losing focus and missing a connecting flight, but then the cabbie ended up taking about a forty five minute shit and missing it for us anyway, so I had less to lose than I thought I did.

Clench and Cheese

They also will keep your open wound from going gangrenous. But pulque will give you dysentery, so there's that

Achewood

Was it Umbrella Academy where a roomful of victorians wore helmets that connected them to some kind of spirit world?

Achewood

aren't quenelles always made with some kind of fish that lives in murk?

Achewood

This is really demotivating me to go for a run today. Maybe I'll get high and go for a run, "funmaxxing" it

Elyse Renée

I love the three cats friendship. No amount of highly descriptive roasting can stop Pat from summoning Ray and Beef for feedback on his terrible concoctions.

Achewood

The cabbie story is incredible, if brief. New Hemingway style.

Achewood

yeah there was that Las Vegas crime show where the lead forensics dude was an entomologist, that was rad

kdusjjdhxksj

Always here if you need it bro

Achewood

When you're buddies with someone since a kid, that can be as strong a bond as blood. It's a fundamental tenet of the dirtiest dudes in town, this quantum glue. I'd love to hear Pat's inner monologue when dealing with their feedback and inviting them back...but it's friday and I'm done writing for the week

Tom P

this is making me question the wisdom of my investments in the cookbooks. I got to take stock.

kdusjjdhxksj

The greyhound-equivalent down to Oaxaca was lovely and I only seldom cursed that man's long-shitting heart

blair

Pike. It's a sign of the esteem I hold you in that I dragged ass over to look it up in the Nouvelle Larousse Gastronomique.

A. Hamster

I had a chance to listen in on two tech bros at a Philz in Redwood City. They were each boasting about how their company had the best gym, and they were getting 3 hours of lifting in before their workday, and how about a little free climbing this evening? I was going to ask them to take their conversation elsewhere as it was very tiring to me.

Achewood

Oh, it's pike here too? I just had three different pike quenelles in Lyon, but wondered if it was a different fish in the states. (Fortunately a quenelle is like 2/3 egg and cream or whatever, so the Fisssshhhhhhisssssssssnake flavor is mitigated)

Bruce Wright

By the way, everybody, Culver's has their fried walleye sandwich right now for a limited time! Ees pretty good

A. Hamster

Skyline has always been on my list, I finally tried it on a cross country trip in 2024. They give you a small, self-branded packet of plain crackers, which I realized (belatedly) is anti-diarrheal pregaming. 10/10 would eat again, just on a day with less distance between restrooms.

A. Hamster

Oh this hit an entire 3-story dorm, with my room at the epicenter. The bomb squad should have been called, but everyone’s eyes were watering too badly to see the phone well enough to dial.

Zach M

we'll all find out. in a number of years.

Paul Kim

I feel like I am obligated to like weird seafood, for ethnic reasons. I love an oyster, or a spicy clam broth, or a fish soup, but some things "my people" eat are beyond the pale -- google sea pineapple or, uh, penis fish if the HR person isn't in the room.

Paul Kim

Also, the idea of drinking something made with fermentation lees is grossing me out so bad. I made some pickles with sake lees once and they turned out nasty in a way that was clearly inherent to the concept of the food, rather than my lack of skill.

Oppido

The final panel on this strip is an all-timer: https://achewood.com/2004/07/23/title.html. (Not quite the same, though, since Ray is just punctuating his own dialogue with a silent beat, as opposed to what Pat is doing here -- reacting wordlessly to someone else.)

John Robinson

Now I want a t-shirt that's just the words "aerosolized fish" in a single line, all lower-case, maybe in an italic Garamond.

Oppido

Starting to see why Rod walked away, here. (Also: I thought "zymbiotic" was a term Pat invented -- and I don't know why I would credit it to Pat instead of, uh, Chris -- but I Googled it and it turns out it's a real thing. Learning that was like seeing a news report that the horror movie monster that terrified you as a kid has been spotted in real life, shuffling around your neighborhood.)

Chris Warren

Alternative tasting response: Woo! I am definitely not afraid of the fucking police now!

ladiesbane

Me too with the fishy stuff! Maybe my aging body doesn't like the taste of microplastics, or I exhausted my tastebud privileges after laughing in the face of Jeppson's Finest. Maybe I should go on a mindful eating retreat with suburban-safe omakase just to be sure.

Tim Hulsizer

"Jank as mummy broth" is now joining my permanent lexicon

Blue Delliquanti

the dialogue-free panel of Pat's disapproving scowl is funny every time. It's like the banjo all over again

Nicholas Williams

Ha ha ha god how I love a dialogue-free panel of an enraged Pat. The whole strip could just be that and I’d laugh my little bottom off.

GruntyGinMan

do you know how to play the banjo pat

Jay

Christ Jesus. One of my best friends introduced me to Malort after seeing it described as tasting of "earwax and hate" on a YouTube channel. It is a completely accurate description. We're still friends though. TBF he did introduce me to Achewood lo so many years ago. We've had great fun referring to the new Chicago-bred Pope as the Malort Pope.

Achewood

I believe the people who don't eat sardines will find out more, because they will live longer, personally. A sardine's favorite food is mercury, which they process into stinking.

Achewood

Oh cool, you used kasu / koji for fermentation? I just got a pack of kasu sheets for blending into a meat marinade — apparently it develops surface proteins into starches that create a superior caramelizing surface. I am fully expecting a different outcome than "stank pickle," and I am sorry for your experience. Also, I have googled both the things you mentioned, and if a penis fish ever writhes up to my wife on the beach, I am going to kick its (ass?).

Achewood

"Not afraid of [death] any longer!"

Achewood

Oh it's real baby, and if you were ever in a house where for dinner the people made brown rice with black olives and cashews, they knew it was real too.

Achewood

"suburban-safe omakase" = California rolls and tempura? I'm in I like the microplastics argument against eating fish. I can use that to supplement my argument.

Achewood

That line was when I knew I had a strip.

Achewood

I've used it twice, to my knowledge, so I love that it merits an "every time" reference. It seems to be a special panel, and I want to use it judiciously.

Achewood

I will email you just that panel once a week for an additional $5

Achewood

I'd feel the need to include an illustration of a shaving cream-like can, with lettering stylized like Barbasol.

Achewood

Jesus Christ. Just...Jesus Christ. You're not even supposed to lift that much in one day. If I still lived there I would not live there any more. Overhearing people in coffee shops is my hell, but tech people way more so.

Achewood

Let's just say I'm happy there was prison time, and do not wish to be told there was no prison time.

s b

This is an alien place to me, hate to see the Picky Eater circle-jerk.

Achewood

Like I said, I'm not proud that seafood has become a problem for me — and I, too, get very annoyed when people demand all kinds of attention for what they won't eat. I will, in fact, and in light of this, probably stop talking about fish for a great while.

Achewood

Is the McFilet-o-Fish actually fish flavor, or just white area-ness? I've always been curious if it was like a glorious plain fish stick, tasting mostly of Fried and tartar sauce.

ladiesbane

An intoxicated environmental scientist I was chumming with (take that either way) dropped as an aside that due to the unseasonably warm winter in the west, we should expect a flood of cheap Russian salmon, loaded with parasites and radiation. She whispered that last with the emphasis from Repo Man, but it didn't lower her cred with me. Pass the Crab Rangoon, please.

Oppido

The banjo strip appeared in 2005, so, once every 21 years feels about right. See you in 2047, Silent Pat!

Mina Roller

I'll go out back and glock the cow for you guys

Achewood

Food chain! Get used to it!

Nicholas Williams

That's a tier for the true heads. The..."Angry Pat Heads."

Achewood

Every morning, you pick up your phone, angry pat head has again set itself as the wallpaper. There is no escape. You move to Croatia…but guess what is flying the plane

Professor Hazard

What if Pat is the ultimate troll and has been doing an Andy Kaufman style immersion persona all this time just to farm cringe from Beef and Ray

Achewood

We will find that out the day before I die

Nicholas Williams

This may have been some 3AM Instagram fever dream but I think there is a new kind of video game where exactly this thing happens e.g. various enormous heads unceasingly and terrifyingly pursue the player.

Gozan

True story: In my grandparents' youth, it was apparently the thing around here to "quicken yourself up" with a spoonful of mercury when you were feeling sluggish. The local doctor couldn't understand how anyone in town was still alive

Achewood

Fascinating! Where was this? O just learned via the new Frankenstein that Mercury was used for syphilis - “an evening with Venus, a lifetime with mercury

Ste & Danni JM

I have the exact opposite thing - I used to hate seafood, and then one day I ate it, and it was... fine. Nice, even. This happened during the pandemic so my working assumption at the time was that COVID just rewired the old taste buds

Achewood

This would be a fun thing to happen during a text adventure. Usually you just kill an orc or whatever, but if you typed like "Lick disease jar" and suddenly developed a love for seafood, that would be a charming plot advancement device.

A. C.

late to the game but final panel is perfection

Achewood

Thankee droggy droog, it is the purest expression of Pat's unguarded anger

FactWino

Hey Chris, where in NM? A local boy wants to know.

Achewood

@FactWino they are from Taos since forever, so I am antsy to finally feel the place out in person before too much more time passes

tossrock

Not to be confused with Zbiotics, purveyors of fine GMO probiotic hangover-reduction products.

Achewood

You know, I never did find the hangover pill that could stand up to a bottle of Burnett's Discount-Style Vodka

Datura

gotta go fast

Gozan

It was in the far north of Scandinavia