The Hoddle of Coffee: Tottenham Hotspur news and links for Tuesday, December 18

Hey, all!

Did you know that Christian Eriksen is actually in the above picture? He’s pretty hard to spot.

Ramble of the Day

Friends, I’m sure we’ve chatted about Disney before. The Disney parks are special places full of good and bad things, like fun rides and overpriced goods. One thing that is undeniable, though, is that Disney pulls out all of the Mickey Mouse-themed stops at its parks. Naturally, that includes its food items, but it’s always more than Mickey Mouse sprinkles on a delicious brownie at Hollywood Studios in Disney World.

Food & Wine recently highlighted some of the Mickey Mouse-related treats offered at the Disney parks for the character’s 90th birthday, and...they all sound different types of awful. There are a number of cupcakes and even a gateau, and I’d imagine all of that is fine. There are some unique entries on the list, though.

First on the list is Mickey’s Birthday Churro and Celebration Churro, offered at Disneyland. It’s basically a churro that (they say) tastes like birthday cake, which is very obviously a horrible way to treat a churro. A simple churro is the best churro, making it just as good when dipped in chocolate or on its own. I bet it’s over-sweetened, too. At Disney World, they offer a confetti pretzel that I bet I would have the same complaints about. (I am not a fan of sweet pretzels.)

At Disney World, they’re offering something called the Cheesy Hot Diggity Dog, which is a hot dog topped with cheddar, queso, and “seasoned cheese puffs,” which I’m guessing is the Disney version of Flamin’ Hot Cheetos. I’m a big cheese lover, so much so that I want to become a cheese connoisseur, but this does not sound that tasty. A lot of cheese is best offset by vegetables, I find, and meat or its substitutes if need be. Really, I’m advocating for several different flavors to work with the many cheeses unless you’re making ravioli with cheeses that complement each other. This seems like cheese for the sake of it. They have a cheeseburger with macaroni and cheese, American cheese (which is AWFUL, by the way), cheese sauce, and “spicy cheese dust” (???) that suffers from the same problem.

This is just a salad and I have no problems with it, minus the fact that it looks pretty plain. People really need to jazz up their salads and recognize that don’t just have to just be lettuce, tomato, and cucumber, but that’s a conversation for another time. I just wanted to acknowledge Disney’s commitment to Mickey Mouse by cutting cucumbers in the shape of his head. I don’t know why, but I want to do this. It’s amusing to me.

tl;dr: Disney’s (probably) overpriced and definitely weird food.

Links of the Day

Chelsea fans were heard singing anti-semitic messages following the team’s match against Brighton over the weekend, and have since been spoken to by the police.

Additionally, the police is investigating Chelsea after allegations were made that black youth players were bullied in the 1980s and 1990s.

Paris Saint-Germain’s Adrien Rabiot has been “indefinitely benched” after refusing to sign a new contract, per the club’s sporting director Antero Henrique.

Manchester City’s Kevin de Bruyne says he didn’t need a lot of time off after the World Cup, despite manager Pep Guardiola’s claims that he was fatigued at the end of the 2017-18 season.

Today’s longer read: Tariq Panja on the criticism surrounding the Italian Super Cup match between Juventus and AC Milan, set to be played in Saudi Arabia, for The New York Times