Here’s this week’s list of things to check out:

1. Suntory “The Premium Malts”: Aaron and I stopped at a sushi joint Friday night after a college visit, and I was uncharacteristically on the fence about which drink to have. They had a full bar with an old fashioned that sounded delicious… maybe that? They had a nice selection of sake, too, and I do enjoy sake with sushi. But they also had Japanese beer, in the usual varieties: Asahi, Saporo… and Suntory “premium malts?” I’d never heard of this one. I like Japanese beer for what it is, and for what it isn’t. It’s invariably clean, fresh, light, and balanced. It would go over well with most American beer drinkers, but unless you’re an unapologetic hophead who won’t taste anything without stratospheric IBUs, there’s plenty to like for snobs, too. I always get a Japanese variety at our favorite ramen joint in Rehoboth, Delaware. In any event, my curiosity was piqued by this new (to me) brew, so I tried it out. It is characteristically Japanese: balanced, fresh, and light on the palate, but decidedly more flavorful than the Asahi, Kirin, and Orion beers that I’v tried. I had two, at $11 a pop. Very good.

2. Habanero Relish: I’ve been making jalapeño relish for a few weeks now, chopping up jalapeños from Rhonda’s garden and packing them in a small mason jelly jar with a pinch of kosher salt and a teaspoon of apple cider vinegar. Last weekend I grabbed some habanero peppers to add to the relish and I really liked it. Much hotter but not intolerably so. I put this stuff on everything.

3. CardHop: One of the challenges of not using Google’s suite through your web browser is the lack of access to the email directory. At my previous job and current job, I often have to jump into Google Contacts to find an email address of a person that I didn’t have in my address book already (or hadn’t communicated with using my email application of choice, which is MailMate… although the limitations apply to Outlook and Apple’s Contacts app and pretty much everything else I’ve used). MailMate does allow you to scour emails you’ve already received and sent as autocomplete options, which is often good enough for me (but far short of ideal). I happened to open Cardhop earlier today and noticed that you can add directories to your accounts, which allows you to search your organization’s contact database. Cardhop is included with a Fantastical subscription, which I’ve long had and plan to continue to keep, because it’s a great product.