Subject: Fernando de Sousa

• A Sneak of One's Own

  Fernando de Sousa, Wikimedia Commons Show: X-Men Origins: WolverineFood: Izumi salad, unagi crêpe, and taro milk tea with boba from BBC Asian Cafe & Bar.Difficulty: Junior-varsity -- food was poorly packed for sneaking and nearly impossible to repackage; mitigating factors included a dark plastic takeout bag and a drink in a self-sealing container.There is a jar of pickled asparagus in my purse.Sometimes I have these moments of clarity about my sneaking where I see myself as if I'm leaning

  June 1, 2009

• The Passion of the Sneak

  Fernando de Sousa, Wikimedia Commons Dara Strickland is a leading expert on sneaking food and drink into the movies. She reports on her exploits for Gut Check (from an undisclosed location) every Monday.I come to you every week with a message, a gospel: Food's subjectivity cannot be held by the chains of its complex carbohydrates nor mired in the webs of its protein. Cooking has a spare, temporal structure, a beginning, middle and end -- it's a Hemingway story. Plating and serving food certainl

  April 20, 2009

• The Old Man and the Sneak

  Fernando de Sousa, Wikimedia Commons Dara Strickland is a leading expert on sneaking food and drink into the movies. She reports on her exploits for Gut Check (from an undisclosed location) every Monday.Show: An astonishing schedule of St. Louis' cultural high points.Food: Not a damn thing.Difficulty: Outrageous. I've reached the point in my life where it's actually easier for me to Sneak than not. At one point, I was going through such awful Sneak withdrawal that I had to sit on my hands lest m

  May 4, 2009

• Sneako de Mayo

  Fernando de Sousa, Wikimedia Commons Dara Strickland is a leading expert on sneaking food and drink into the movies. She reports on her exploits for Gut Check (from an undisclosed location) every Monday.Let us now praise famous foods.The long skinny baguette sandwich, able to be laid across the bottom of a bag, in a particularly deep coat pocket or -- at most extreme lengths -- couched like a lance between non-ticket-buying arm and ribs beneath a concealing piece of clothing: We salute you.The

  May 11, 2009

• A Sneak at the Opera

  Fernando de Sousa, Wikimedia Commons Dara Strickland is a leading expert on sneaking food and drink into the movies. She reports on her exploits for Gut Check (from an undisclosed location) every Monday. This week, she snuck into Gut Check International Headquarters on a Wednesday with this missive...Show: La Cenerentola, the Metropolitan Opera's last show of the season, simulcast in HD from New York to the St. Louis Art Museum.Food: A brunch/Italian feast for two plundered from the Straub's de

  May 27, 2009

• The Audacity of Sneak

  Fernando de Sousa, Wikimedia Commons Show: Up, Pixar's latest gorgeous, visually engaging attempt to make me laugh while feeling a little guilty. Total success on both counts.Food: Mochi ice cream, mango flavored.Difficulty: Moderate. This is the easiest form of ice cream to bring into the movies, but it still requires extensive planning for temperature maintenance and consumption mechanics.Every time I tell someone about my ridiculous hobby, chronicled here for your enjoyment and edification,

  June 8, 2009

• The 48-Hour Sneak Project

  Fernando de Sousa, Wikimedia Commons There's an essential difference between discipline and morality, even when one is sneaking food into the movies. As I've discussed in previous posts, sneaking has its own ethics and its own style, a code less concerned with slavish devotion to rules than the currents of compassionate and appropriate behavior woven through the fabric of the situation.I consider myself, as a Sneak and a person, to be more moral than disciplined. Displays of discipline for thei

  June 15, 2009

• How to Win Sneaks and Influence People

  Fernando de Sousa, Wikimedia Commons In a previous blog post, I talked about the passionate side of sneaking -- particularly for those who seek a Sneak. But you've doubtless noticed that, while one of the things dearest to me in this life is the B-movie laboratory St. Elmo's fire that flares when I unintentionally twine my salt-studded fingers against those of The Doctor, my mysterious long-time gentleman caller, as we both reach for the wasabi peas in my coat pocket, he's far from my only sneak

  June 22, 2009

• The Land of the Midnight Sneak

  Fernando de Sousa, Wikimedia Commons I was planning on regaling you with tales of the highly appropriate rainbow-hued foods I snuck into the Pride Parade this weekend in Tower Grove Park. Alas, even Southern sneaks wilt like delicate magnolia blossoms in 100-plus degree heat, and I am no exception. I scuttled back indoors to live to sneak another day with less chance of heat stroke.Instead, I'll offer you an exercise in one of the core doctrines of sneaking food into movies: appropriateness. Ju

  June 29, 2009

• The Best of Gut Check: The Sneak

  Fernando de Sousa, Wikimedia Commons Dara Strickland is a leading expert on sneaking food and drink into the movies. She reports on her exploits for Gut Check (from an undisclosed location) every Monday. While Gut Check is on vacation this week, check out some of Dara's best work:The International vs. Jay's International (March 2, 2009): The clear winner of my group was the flan. I love flan like Heloise loved Abelard, though I doubt she ever hoisted him over her head in an international groce

  July 6, 2009

• A Separate Sneak

  Fernando de Sousa, Wikimedia Commons Show: First of a two-episode arc, "Sniper," from the fourth season of Homicide: Life on the Street.Food: Pills, booze.Difficulty: Painful. Do not try this at home. Owwww.So far I've detailed various methods of choosing sneakable foods, appropriate repackaging and wardrobe tips for aspiring sneaks without speaking truth directly to the power of sneaking food into the movies: unearthly sangfroid, the kind of confidence that makes a seventeen-year-old ticket-tea

  July 20, 2009

• Sneakeasy, Part 1: Public Enemies and Wei Hong Bakery

  Fernando de Sousa, Wikimedia Commons Show: Public Enemies, director Michael Mann's latest cinematic man-crush on tight-lipped inscrutability and sparklingly pretty violence played out against the backdrop of the Great Depression.Food: Chinese food, courtesy of Wei Hong Bakery and Restaurant: crab rangoon, shrimp dumpling lo mein, sesame chicken, rice, coconut roll.Difficulty: Above average. Like most Chinese restaurants, Wei Hong prepares portions designed for family-syle passing and sharing, no

  July 27, 2009

• Sneakeasy, Part 2: A Slice of Pizza, A Life of Crime

  Fernando de Sousa, Wikimedia Commons Show: Drinks at the Flatiron Lounge, Flatiron District, New York, NY.Food: One deliciously greasy and huge slice of New York pizza.Difficulty: Medium. Pizza is a messy food with a limited temperature range within which it is fully delicious. Thus, it requires extensive repackaging. While my sneaking tote is generally quite stylish as well as useful, this dressier occasion required a more petite evening bag.Last week, I took a look at Prohibition's impact on

  August 3, 2009

• Sneakonomics 101 - Sneakonomies of Scale

  Fernando de Sousa, Wikimedia Commons Recession. Literally, a pulling back a of a surging, forward-moving tide. The moon never considers whether the tide is a good thing or a bad thing, what its ideal point is along the sand. That's a detachment I sometimes envy when considering the other recession. I pore over the newspapers or turn up the calm radio voices, searching for the turning of the tide as fervently as any early navigator with an astrolabe and a chart with the stars delicately limned i

  August 10, 2009

• Julia Child Haunts the Sneak

  Fernando de Sousa, Wikimedia Commons Julia Child is haunting me.In full disclosure, I invited her in. I just didn't realize that beloved, deceased TV chefs followed roughly the same rules as vampires. Man, that is going to be no good for Mario Batali. That gentleman has stringent minimum garlic requirements.Here's the deal: I was going to make a delightful recipe from one of Julia Child's books to sneak into Julie & Julia, the new partial biopic about Julie Powell, a blogger (who later coll

  August 17, 2009

• Innovations in Sneaking: The Solid-State Cocktail

  Fernando de Sousa, Wikimedia Commons While I'm constantly amazed at the number of movie theaters in St. Louis that offer beer, wine and decent coffee, there still aren't many places you can enjoy a good cocktail during the show. What's a sneak to do?1. Pre-mix the cocktail and bring it in a bottle or thermos.This is all right for simple cocktails, like a screwdriver, but for something more complicated or garnished, this is a poor choice. It's also hard to get an appropriately-sized serving for

  August 24, 2009