Q&A with author and Batali apprentice Bill Buford. His new book about his experiences, Heat, was released yesterday and I'm anxious to read it.

link to this entry

Today's New York Times looks at soldiers' food care packages in Iraq. Reminds me of the story my grandmother tells of mailing my grandfather his favorite molasses cookies during World War II. Unfortunately by the time they arrived on his ship in the South Pacific, they were moldy and inedible.

link to this entry

How did I miss this Ed Levine post on fried clams? He lists some good spots close to home here in NYC and also CT, MA, and ME. I love fried clams, though not as much as fried scallops (which are one of my favorite foods to eat in the whole wide world). I've been thinking lately about clams and wishing there were good spots here in the city. I'll have to try Ed's suggestions. And I have a suggestion of my own: Danny Meyer, why don't you open a Clam Shack along the water some place? [via Eater]

link to this entry

Sam from Becks & Posh writes to say:

Coriander - means the leaves and Coriander seeds means the seeds. I never once heard it the other way around.

Since Sam's from a country that actually uses the term coriander, I think this provides more evidence that Emeril's wrong. Of course now Sam says cilantro like the rest of us...

link to this entry

The great cilantro coriander debate

Last night I was watching a bit of Emeril Live on the Food Network. Half-listening to the episode about grilling, I suddenly tuned in when I heard Emeril say, "When it's young it's called cilantro, and when it's old it's called coriander." That surprised me, as I always thought it was simply a localization issue: cilantro in North America and coriander everywhere else. Clearly it was time to do some research.

First stop, my trusty Larousse Gastronomique whose entry sits under the heading CORIANDER (CILANTRO). It says it's "[a]n aromatic umbeliferoius plant used both for its dried seeds, either whole or ground and its leaves." Further on it notes "[c]oriander leaves, sometimes know as Arab parsely or Chinese parsley in France and as cilantro in the United States..." There is no mention of age. I check Wikipedia's entry on coriander and it says a lot about the history of the plant, its various uses and parts, and nothing about any difference in name as it relates to the age of the plant.

Verdict? Emeril is wrong! Or rather, being a bit misleading. Both articles note the seeds are commonly called "coriander" (rather than "coriander seeds") and the leaves are referred to as "coriander leaves." Since the seeds are dried before they are used, it is a fact that they are older than the fresh green "coriander leaves" or cilantro one finds in salsa. So technically Emeril is correct. But is that really what he meant?

He would have done better to say something along the lines of: "Cilantro and coriander are the same plant, but in the US we use the term cilantro when referring to the fresh leaves, and coriander usually refers to the dried seeds of the plant." Maybe that's too much to say on TV, or maybe his audience doesn't care that much. Maybe I care too much. But it seems to me that if you're going to educate people about food, you should try to be as accurate as possible.

link to this entry

Wondering how come it's so expensive to go organic? Grist Magazine tells you why, but they can't resist slipping in some advice at the end with, "You know, going veggie is a very useful, highly effective environmental step. And it can be cheaper than going organic." I didn't like that.

link to this entry

A listing of good domestic rosé wines from the San Francisco Chronicle, in case my recent posts about rosés have piqued your interest.

link to this entry

If you are not currently reading The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals by Michael Pollan: stop everything immediately and get yourself a copy. It's that good, and that important.

I've been reading it for a week now, and had expected to write a review when I'd finished but it's taken me longer than I anticipated to get through it. There's so much to chew on I find I just stop reading mid-paragraph to think about everything he's saying. And really, it's so eye-opening that it's foolish for me to wait until I'm done to tell you: if you care about food, read this book.

Here's a small sampling from some of the pages I've dog-eared:

Very simply, we subsidize high-fructose corn syrup in this country, but not carrots. While the surgeon general is raising alarms over the epidemic of obesity, the president is signing farm bills designed to keep the river of cheap corn flowing, guaranteeing that the cheapest calories in the supermarket will continue to be the unhealthiest. (p 108)

"The organic label is a marketing tool," Secretary [of Agriculture] Glickman said. "It is not a statement about food safety. Nor is 'organic' a value judgment about nutrition or quality."...Some intriguing recent research suggests otherwise. (p 179)

Today it takes between seven and ten calories of fossil fuel energy to deliver one calorie of food energy to an American plate....Yet growing the food is the least of it: only a fifth of the total energy used to feed us is consumed on the farm; the rest is spent processing the food and moving it around. (p 183)

[T]here are no pigtails in industrial hog production. Farmers "dock," or snip off, the tails at birth, a practice that makes a certain twisted sense if you follow the logic of industrial efficiency on a hog farm. Piglets...are weaned from their mothers ten days after birth (compared with thirteen weeks in nature)...[b]ut this premature weaning leaves the pigs with a lifelong craving to suck and chew, a need they gratify in confinement by biting the tail of the animal in front of them. (p 218)

Our food system depends on consumers' not knowing much about it beyond the price disclosed by the checkout scanner. Cheapness and ignorance are mutually reinforcing. And it's a short way from not knowing who's at the other end of your food chain to not caring...[o]f course, the global economy couldn't very well function without this wall of ignorance and the indifference it breeds. (p 245)

So fight the indifference, and fight the ignorance. Go read The Omnivore's Dilemma. No book has changed the way I think about food and food production more than this.

link to this entry

According to the Porkchop Express, May is National Hamburger Month! PE visited DB Bistro Moderne and writes about the meal and the history of the burger. Who knew it was National Hamburger Month? And now it's the final day, so it will be hard for me to cram in all the necessary celebrations. But I will try.

link to this entry

These recipes for garlic scapes sound interesting, though I'm not sure they necessarily highlight the scape. The scape "is the sprout of the garlic plant, a thin, green stalk that curls above the ground and is more tender and sweeter than the cloves that lie below."

link to this entry

Looking for a bad-ass gift for a chef in training? Ask.Metafilter has ideas for you. My suggestion was a gift certificate for an amazing restaurant. Sure, a good knife is useful, but a meal at a great restaurant can blow your mind.

link to this entry

For a current account of war food, check out Operation Kabob, AKA: Food on Deployment in Iraq. I didn't realize they had Burger Kings and Subways (and Pizza Huts) at the Forward Operating Bases. I don't know why that seems crazy to me but it does.

link to this entry

A Q&A with Nina Planck, the woman behind the new beyond greenmarkets from New York. Apparently they'll be called Real Food Markets and will open June 17th. They will feature food from co-ops and will be "lengthening the food chain a tiny bit."

link to this entry

News about the new beyond greenmarkets set to open in Manhattan. While I'm all for more markets, I'm not sure I'm interested in buying "guacamole made from Costco avocados." Guess we'll have to wait and see how it turns out.

link to this entry

Long letter from Whole Foods to Michael Pollan to address "misunderstandings [that] are now circulating about Whole Foods Market as a result of his book and recent interviews." [via Accidental Hedonist]

link to this entry

Breadbasket of Democracy from Orion Magazine tells the story of North Dakota wheat farmers fighting Monsanto's attempt to get them to plant genetically-modified wheat. [via del.icio.us/sautewednesday]

link to this entry

wd-50 in six dishes is a thorough, thoughtful review of a recent meal at wd-50. I've been once, it makes me interested in returning again.

link to this entry

Four years since the French Laundry

Four years ago today, I wrote about my meal at the French Laundry. Can it have been that long ago? I still can taste the "Oysters and Pearls." I can still smell the flowers in the garden. I can still recall the first taste of foie gras on my tongue as years of vegetarianism evaporated in one bite, never to return again.

There have been other meals, even other amazing meals, but there's never been a meal like that one at the French Laundry. I doubt there ever will be again. I no longer even consider it in my "top ten meals" because it can't compare to anything I eat now. That's not to say what I eat now isn't as good, but rather that the French Laundry meal was a point in time long ago, and I was a different eater then. I had never spent so much on food before (nor had I ever saved up for a meal before). I'd never eaten foie gras before. I'd never ordered Champagne without knowing its price -- though I'll admit to a serious heart palpitation in the garden after we order our Champagne and I realized I had no idea how much it would cost.

The meal at the French Laundry was a turning point for me, a sea change in my culinary life. I started eating meat and dairy again, and I rediscovered my passion for cooking and for food. You could say the meal at the French Laundry has led me right to where I find myself today: passionate about food and spending as much time as I can learning and writing about it on this site. So thank you Michael Ruhlman for introducing me to Thomas Keller with The Soul of a Chef: The Journey Toward Perfection and thank you Chef Keller for sharing your perfection with me for one night.

link to this entry

The Porkchop Express compares some Greenmarket eggs. I've had both kinds he reviews and I can't decide which I like more, they're both so so delicious!

link to this entry

Lucy's Greenmarket Report updates whenever there's a Union Square market (Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday), telling us what's for sale and what looks good.

link to this entry

War food and Memorial Day

It's Memorial Day, and thinking about soldiers and war got me also thinking about food, and the culinary privations and sacrifices made during war time.

During the Civil War Southern civilians suffered heavily from Northern blockades and as the war dragged on, food supplies became quite limited. Southern food substitutions became common when staples were no longer available. For meat people ate "[d]omestic animals, crows, frogs, locusts, snails, snakes and worms." When coffee ran out, it was "brewed" from "[o]kra seeds that were browned, dried sweet potatoes or carrots, roasted acorns, wheat berries."

Soldiers in the field had it worse, as you can see from listings of Civil War recipes and stories of Civil War food. Hardtack was common.

Hardtack was a biscuit made of flour with other simple ingredients, and issued to Union soldiers throughout the war. Hardtack crackers made up a large portion of a soldier's daily ration. It was square or sometimes rectangular in shape with small holes baked into it, similar to a large soda cracker. Large factories in the north baked hundreds of hardtack crackers every day, packed them in wooden crates and shipped them out by wagon or rail. If the hardtack was received soon after leaving the factory, they were quite tasty and satisfying. Usually, the hardtack did not get to the soldiers until months after it had been made. By that time, they were very hard, so hard that soldiers called them "tooth dullers" and "sheet iron crackers". Sometimes they were infested with small bugs the soldiers called weevils, so they referred to the hardtack as "worm castles" because of the many holes bored through the crackers by these pests.

Though you can find the recipe for hardtack online, it certainly isn't very tempting to make. As technology advanced so too did war rations. During World War I, the food in trenches improved slightly, as you can see in this listing of soldiers food in the trenches. But it also states "[g]etting decent hot food from the field kitchens to the front line trenches could be impossible when a battle was either imminent or in full flow." And tin canned food became more common as well, though there were shortages and soldiers were given appetite suppressants such as cigarettes and amphetamines.

World War II saw the introduction of the C-ration. The C-ration consisted of an entree in a can and an accompanying pack of cheese, canned dessert, crackers, and things like "Soluble cream product." Also in use was the K-ration, which provided more food variety than the C-ration but less calories per serving. On the civilian side people had victory gardens to provide their families with vegetables (enabling canned veggies to go to the troops) and ration books limiting civilian quantities of such staples as beef, sugar, butter, and bacon.

K-rations were served in Korea, and C-rations were served until the introduction of the Meal, Ready to Eat (MRE) in the early eighties. Today's soldiers "enjoy" MREs in such flavors as "Sloppy Joe filling," "Cheese & vegetable omelet" and "Grilled Beefsteak with mushroom gravy." Earlier versions of MREs offered "Chicken loaf" and "Beef ground with spiced sauce."

War food has come a long way. MREs are a major improvement over hardtack. And on the civilian side, the Iraq war has not effected our food supply or caused any rationing or culinary sacrifice. So as we fire up our grills on Memorial Day, as we enjoy a nice steak and fresh vegetables, let us remember the men and women who have died in military service for our country. Let us be thankful for the bounty of food we have and our freedom to enjoy it.

link to this entry

Two good job opportunities in New York City if you're an experienced cook: line cook at Aquavit and sous chef at Eleven Madison Park.

link to this entry

In a foreshadowing of what's to come in school districts all over the US, Santa Clara, CA attempts to change school food and it's a battle. "All agree that schools need to clean up their nutritional act, but there is bitter dissent over how it should be done and how far it should go." Healthy does not mean the same thing to all people.

link to this entry

Anthony Bourdain was on All Things Considered talking about his new book. You can listen and there's also an excerpt on the page. I want to read it, but when? My reading list grows by the day and I can't keep up.

link to this entry

What it's like to taste the 1945 Lafite-Rothschild. Since I'll probably never taste this wine (certainly not the 1945, to date not even Lafite-Rothschild) this was an interesting quick read.

link to this entry

Making an omelette, the Pepin way. Metafilter readers seeks assitance to master a perfect omelette and many chime in with tips.

link to this entry

Epi-log writes that she's a fan of Newman's Own and now moreso because of "Newman's involvement in the Eat Smart, Grow Strong program." It's a program to get kids eating healthy food. I too have been a Newman's Own fan for ages, but lately less so because I've been looking at the labels and a lot of the products use high fructose corn syrup. I hope the new program, if it calls for Newman's Own products, doesn't rely too heavily on HFCS products.

link to this entry

These mason jar eggs look delicious. I don't really host lots of people for breakfast, but if I did, I'd make these. Speaking of, Leite's Culinaria is doing a cookbook giveaway and one of the cookbooks is all about eggs.

link to this entry

NPR's T. Susan Chang hunts morels and other wild mushrooms. Ever since I took a biology class in college (called "Plants and Humanity") I've been afraid to hunt for wild mushrooms. Our professor warned us about the death cap mushroom and told us some story about a professional mushroom hunter who was lost in the woods with a group and they stumbled upon some mushrooms. Very hungry and lacking food, he decided he would try one -- being the expert and all -- before subjecting the group to the mystery fungus. He ate it and it was poisonous and he died. At least, that's the story the professor told. Maybe he was just trying to scare us away from eating mushrooms in the woods. If so, it worked on me.

link to this entry

Sustainable Table fact-checks the Times and finds a statement about organic to be misleading. With all the confusion and controversy about organic food these days, I would hope sources like the New York Times would be vigilant about how they report such things.

link to this entry

New York Times restaurant critic Frank Bruni tries to kill himself by eating 42 fast food meals over the course of nine days and 3,650 miles. The man is insane!

link to this entry

Cheese by Hand's posted a ten-minute audio clip from their trip to Vermont Butter & Cheese. Glad to see they're finding time on the road to release some clips of their interviews. They said it was their hope to do this, but sometimes such hopes are deferred.

link to this entry

There's an eGullet thread on the best food blogs. If someone wants to mention the new Megnut in there, I'd be honored. I don't have an eGullet account and so I can't post.

link to this entry

GQ heads to Chicago and discovers a new direction for American food. The article talks about Moto (with the chef who cooks with a laser), Avenues (not familiar with this one) and Alinea (chef Grant Achatz worked for Thomas Keller). The New Yorker in me is a little irritated that NY is not driving a new direction for American food. Plus it would be easier for me to eat. [via chez pim]

link to this entry

Audio from the BBC's The Food Programme about frozen food from February, 2006. Over the winter I actually used some frozen vegetables (baby spinach, broccoli, green beans) and found them to be tasty and very convenient. Now that the farmer's market is carrying such stuff, I'm back to using fresh. [Thanks Michael!]

link to this entry

Following the life of a pig

Life of a Pig: from the birth of five piglets to a celebratory dinner of pork. A Seattle chef spends eight weeks documenting her time on a farm and following the life of the pigs she will eventually serve in her restaurant.

Life of a Pig reminds us to be grateful for what we have and to recognize the value in supporting our local farms and farmers. It is not about change, but creating awareness.

As a chef, I have mindlessly chopped, sliced, baked, roasted, grilled, braised hundreds ...gulp...thousands of pounds of meat, fish, produce without a second thought. Just after weeks of my participation in Life of a Pig I look at my cooler filled with food, differently

A really great look at pigs and what goes on at a farm, accompanied by great photos as well. I really enjoyed reading this.

link to this entry

A sort of report from the FDA on benzene levels in soda reports Accidental Hedonist. Benzene is a carcinogen and has been found in soft drinks in limits above those considered safe for drinking water.

link to this entry

Argentina bans beef exports to combat inflation, according to this snippet of an article in the Economist. Drat, just as I'm getting into Argentinian and grass-fed beef too! [Thanks Jim!]

link to this entry

Augie emailed to point me to his rant from last December about foie gras and Chicago. It's well worth reading and he raises excellent points. The more I think about the contradiction inherent in such a ban, the angrier I get. Shutting down small farms and leaving large factory farms intact doesn't do much to solve the problem of inhumane animal treatment. It just leaves people to feel good about themselves and pretend they've made a difference in the world, while hundreds of thousands of animals continue their miserable existences until they are killed for our consumption.

link to this entry

Earlier in May, the James Beard Foundation hosted a day of seminars, "Trends & Transitions: Exploring Careers in the Culinary Industry." Now the podcasts of these seminars are online for free download. I haven't listened to any yet, but there's one entitled "From Blogging to Blockbusters."

link to this entry

The BBC takes a look at trans-fats and answers some common questions about them.

link to this entry

A visit to Eleven Madison Park and chef Humm

Always a fan of restaurateur Danny Meyer, and a fan of his New York spot Eleven Madison Park, I couldn't let all the recent hype (see Eleven Madison Park is the hot table and More about chef Humm at EMP) about their new chef pass me by. So Jason and I headed over for dinner last week to check out Daniel Humm's cuisine and see if things were as great as everyone had been saying.

(Apologies now for the one crappy phone cam picture. I've got to get a better system for taking pictures of meals.)

Things didn't begin very smoothly, our arrival and initial fifteen minutes were not what I remembered from previous Eleven Madison Park visits. Fans may recall the cheese puffs (aka gougeres) that were laid down on the table moments after one was seated. Alas there were none of these, and no bread nor water nor even server for nearly fifteen minutes, which began to bother me because I was really hungry. Eventually our server arrived and we ordered the four course "spring" tasting menu. They also offer an "aquatic" and a "garden" choice.

Once we'd ordered, things picked up and the food began to flow. First to arrive: a long lovely tray of amuse that consisted of a little pouch stuffed with sweetbreads that was deep-fried, a coin of foie gras on a round piece of bread (didn't seem yellow enough to be brioche but I could be wrong), a radish spear, a tuna bite and something I've forgotten. Yummy little starts to the meal, and the foie gras was creamy and delicious. I was a bit disappointed with the sweetbreads because I love sweetbreads and I don't think this approach really highlighted their flavor as well as it could have. If I hadn't been told, I wouldn't have suspected it had a sweetbread filling.

A second amuse arrived: a cup of green gazpacho accompanied by a scoop of tomato sorbet. The sorbet was excellent -- a real rush of tomato as the ice melted on the tongue, and a nice compliment to the greeny flavors of the cold soup. The third amuse, and best presentation of anything I'd seen in a long time, was a beet and apple forest. Two kinds of beets and apples, carved into cylinders of various lengths, were standing on end, nestled together. Delicious and so artfully assembled, this was the highlight of the meal for me.

The first official course was a foie gras terrine with a lovely jelly on top (I believe it was rhubarb). It was accompanied by a very strange soupy mixture of golden raisins and pine nuts (?) that just didn't do it for me, it tasted almost like it was in a coffee-flavored soup. I didn't understand how it harmonized or enhanced the terrine in any way, though the terrine had a layer of rhubarb and raisins in the middle. It was accompanied by nice brioche toasts. I was disappointed with this course -- though the foie itself was silky and smooth -- because of my love love love for foie gras and my wish for it always to be deliciously presented.

Next we had langoustines in a carrot-orange nage (a sauce). Good and carroty flavor, and the langoustine tail was tender and sweet, but again (perhaps my palate differs from Chef Humm's) I didn't rejoice in the flavor combination. Carrot and langoustine together didn't merge into a superior third flavor. It just tasted like a nice carrot with a nice langoustine.

The final savory course was a rib eye of beef with a nice, marrow crust and peas. It was excellent, and my favorite of the official menu courses. But the very first time I ever ate at EMP, Jason and I had a côte de boeuf that I can still taste on my tongue. It remains one of the best beef dishes that I've ever eaten. So though this beef was excellent, I couldn't help but feel a little disappointed.

Desserts were very good, a strawberry sorbet with a lovely beignet followed by a little dessert sampler. The pastry chef seems to be the same, as I recognized some of the desserts from a visit last summer.

It was very good, to be sure, but a let down for me. Perhaps the hype raised my expectations to an unrealistic level. Or perhaps it just wasn't to my taste. Two women seated next to us were celebrating a birthday. I overheard one say to another, "This is just as good as Per Se." Having enjoyed both restaurants, I can't say that I agree.

Eleven Madison Park
11 Madison Avenue
New York, NY
(212) 899-0905
website

link to this entry

Philadelphia wants to join the "ban wagon" as councilman proposes ban on foie gras.

link to this entry

Or maybe for the cheesemaking, I just need to start with this simple but successful homemade ricotta from Becks & Post. Sounds delicious and I love ricotta.

link to this entry

So You Think You Want to Make Cheese? Why yes, yes I do. Though after reading this long post about it, I may be reconsidering.

link to this entry

Accidental Hedonist looks at the two basic stances people have on high fructose corn syrup. Some good discussion there as well.

link to this entry

Great long post about Paris organics from David Lebovitz. Organic is less popular in France than America, and my understanding (based on readings from Michael Pollan and others) is that in France they still have a more wholistic approach to farming and don't use a ton of peticides to begin with. Makes sense I suppose. Also, be sure to check out the picture of the Asperge Sauvage, or Delicate Wild Asparagus. Amazing.

link to this entry

15% off rosé wines today at Astor Wines in NYC. If you don't think rosés are over-rated and you live in New York, head over to Astor to check out the sale.

link to this entry

Gadget: Cuisinart Smart Stick

Today's post is the first in an occasional series I call "Gadgets I Can't Live Without" or GICLW for short. And the first item in the series is a Cuisinart Smart Stick. I've only had the Smart Stick -- an immersion blender if you want to get technical -- for about eighteen months. I wanted one forever but for some reason never got around to picking one up, which was so stupid because this is probably one of the best gadgets in my kitchen.

For soup-making it is an absolute essential because it allows you to puree your soup in the stock pot; no more of the messy and dangerous transfer of boiling liquid into the blender for pureeing and back again. I've made rich squash soups and creamy mushroom soups using it. I even used it to puree chicken livers when making a pâté. It's fast and easy, hardly any clean up involved afterwards. And what's great about this particular model is that it's stainless steel. I've heard of some people whose immersion blenders were housed in plastic and suffered meltdowns when they got too close to the bottom of a hot pot. But I've had no such trouble with my trusty Smart Stick. It's certainly a Gadget I Can't Live Without.

link to this entry

If you want to combine seasonal food and travel, check out this list of food festivals from Frommer's. "[Y]ou can plot an entire year's travels around eating well -- particularly if you're in the hunt for seasonal foodstuffs that are: freshly harvested and at their taste-bursting peak, and/or local seasonal specialties that have been crafted with love and a native sensibility."

link to this entry

California hopes to make fish farms more environmentally friendly. "The Sustainable Oceans Act would install provisions for siting and operating aquaculture businesses that produce finfish -- such as halibut, bass or tuna -- for the retail market." [via del.icio.us/sautewednesday]

link to this entry

Gothamist reports that this weekend's NYC Culinary festival was not so hot. I saw something about this but it didn't sound that enticing to me, so I didn't go. Based on what's been reported, I'm glad I didn't bother.

link to this entry

Learning from the best with an Argentine Barbecue Master course. "Grill chef Daniel Leguisamo starts by examining the 19 most commonly used cuts of meat used in Argentina (from a possible 27), far more than other meat-eating countries." 27?!

link to this entry

Oldie but goodie about Heston Blumenthal of the Fat Duck. This may unofficially be "molecular gastronomy" week here at megnut.com.

link to this entry

According to the Monterey Bay Aquarium, Tilapia are environmentally-sound. "In the U.S., most tilapia are farmed in inland recirculating systems that have little impact on the environment. Tilapia thrive on inexpensive vegetable-based foods, making them a good source of eco-friendly protein." No need for my mom to stop buying them frozen from Trader Joe's. [Thanks Robert!]

link to this entry

The 2002 Farm Bill: Policy Options and Consequences from the nonprofit Farm Foundation.

link to this entry

Notes from Michael Pollan's 92nd St Y talk

Last Monday I went to a lecture at the 92nd St Y, Michael Pollan with Ruth Reichl: The Omnivore's Dilemma. It was an interesting discussion though as someone who's already familiar with a lot of the issues around various farming methods (and someone's who's currently reading Pollan's new book The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals) I didn't learn a tremendous amount. Still it was enjoyable, and somewhat depessing, to hear them talk about topics so close to my heart.

Here's a rough replay of the talk, reconstructed from my poor notes, which seem to totally lack the questions Reichl asked Pollan to get him to talk about all this great stuff:

Reichl and Pollan began by discussing how basically in the course of ten years organic has gone from something that was seen as a bad message to share with the consumer to something that's very popular. Pollan mentioned companies in the early nineties that grew organic and chose not to reveal this fact on their labels. Apparently a lot of wine is grown organic but not labeled as such. The rise in the popularity of organic food is being driven by a sense that the current conventional system of farming is unsustainable.

Pollan said, "We have these teachable moments, you could call them panic..." when people have realized some of the things that are wrong with the current food system, such as the mad cow disease scare. He spoke for a bit about mad cow in more detail, discussing how the current system the government uses to test for mad cow is actually designed not to find mad cow because it depends on cow owners reporting sick cows to the government. Of course, owners have no incentive to make any such report because they risk losing their entire herd. Makes it hard to find the mad cow. He said he is certain there's mad cow in the US and that we will have outbreaks here. Only after that happens will there be a change in the system. He pointed out how Britain transformed their meat industry after the mad cow outbreaks there a few years ago.

The discussion moved to ignorance and Pollan stated that the current f ood production system in the United States depends on ignorance. If people actual saw how their food was produced, there would be an outcry. Stores like Whole Foods (and the organic movement in general) use stories to combat ignorance and educate people on where the food comes from and how it's produced. (My thought: it's a great way to make you feel better paying all that extra money too..) He called Whole Foods "a great literary experience."

With regards to the news that Wal-Mart will begin to sell organic food, he says this will make it impossible for organic food to be considered elitist, which is good. But they also say they will charge only 10% more for organic food. How will it be possible to charge 10% more than prices that are artificially low and irresponsible? First of all, they'll use only big organic farmers. Then they'll squeeze them on price once they've become dependent upon Wal-Mart's business. And Wal-Mart will also go over seas, we'll see a globalization of organic farming, with products coming from countries with cheap labor and less regulation.

He pointed out that organic is simply a government standard, a word whose definition is at the mercy of Washington, and the standards it represents can be changed. He said people already lobby Washington and that attempts have been made to reduce the efficacy of the organic label. An example he gave: A provision was put into a bill a few years ago that would allow organic chicken farmers to give their birds conventional feed when the price of organic feed rose above a certain level. An outcry from producers got it repealed.

As more organic food comes from abroad, less food will be produced here at home. What's wrong with that? It's uncomfortable for a country not to produce its own food. Also we risk losing what many people like: an agricultural landscape. He said that by the end of the century, California's Central Valley will no longer produce food. We will import its former products from abroad and the Valley will fill with housing. Once that happens, that land cannot be returned to food production without tearing down homes, something that will never happen.

He said our food system depends on cheap energy. When there's government pressure to clean up factory farms, they'll move overseas to a place where there's no pressure and there will be no change. He also pointed out that organic farming is nearly as productive as conventional farming now, especially in drought years. He talked about how the US supply of cheap corn is flooding the corn markets of the world -- 1.5 million Mexican farmers have gone out of business since NAFTA because of it.

The discussion turned to small producers and he talked about the slaughterhouse chokepoint. For small producers there's nowhere to get their meat processed. Often they have to go very far to do so, and that adds $1/lb to the cost of meat. He talked about a man who tried to build his own slaughterhouse and went out of business doing so because of the difficulties with the FDA inspectors.

He called New York City's Union Square the center of the food movement saying, "the choice we face is crystallized in Union Square, which side of the street will you shop on?" (This is in reference to Whole Foods being across the street from the famous farmer's market.) He says local is more important than organic, and that you should ask producers if they use pesticides or synthetic fertilizers. He talked about how Whole Foods sells some unsustainable products, like farmed Atlantic Salmon, and how salmon are being re-engineered to eat corn. (Aside: What the fuck?! Are we crazy? What are we doing to our food, and why is it being driven by the insane over-production of corn?)

Best line: he told a story about talking to a meat producer on the phone and his hopes of getting some "review steaks." I'd like to get some review steaks! He said we need to rediscover the art of the kitchen, of preserving. We're complicit in the system and we need to reinvent ourselves as eaters. We need to get more local. We need to cook more. People do have time to cook, it doesn't take three hours to put a meal on the table.

He wrapped up by saying blue states need to pay attention to the Farm Bill (reauthorized every five years in the US, new one coming up in 2007) because it dictates public health and land use. We need to work towards food sovereignty for regions and nations, and we should not sell food below the cost of production. He suggests we follow a more European model by paying farmers to maintain land and to be sustainable (rather than grow monocrops and saturate the land with chemicals), and to grow food we want to eat.

link to this entry

Chicago chef Homaro Cantu cooks with a Class IV laser and does other zany things at his restaurant Moto.

link to this entry

My mother stands by her frozen fish recommendation and enjoys Trader Joe's Tilapia. What she made sounds delicious, but I'm not so sure that eating farm-raised fish is, "green alternative to over-fished wild species." From what I've heard recently, fish farms can be big polluters. I'll have to do some more research on that to confirm.

link to this entry

NPR's Melissa Block talks with Mark Bittman about the differences between fresh and frozen fish. How timely is that? Just days after I posted my article on the very topic.

Update: I'm an idiot and cannot read or maybe I don't know what year it is. This was posted in 2004. Now it is 2006.

link to this entry

My first feature, Comparing Frozen Fish to Fresh, is online and ready for your reading. "My mother swears by frozen fish. I was unconvinced, and decided to put her statements to the test: could flash-frozen fish taste as good as fresh local fish from the Greenmarket or even fresh fish from a local supermarket?"

link to this entry

Introducing the new megnut.com

You may have noticed that for some time now, this site has been more and more focused on food. Following my heart has led me to kitchen work (From geek to chef) and then back to more technology (Returning to tech? Sort of...) and now to a technology food combination. Today I'm happy to announce that megnut.com is going 100% food and that I'll be devoting myself to it full-time.

I'll be updating (week) daily not only with links but also more original content. You can see the new feature section in the upper right hand corner of the home page. I'm going to try to do regular features on a variety of topics. And I'll pursue whatever else interests me in the world of food -- reviews of meals perhaps, recipes, book reports. Mostly it's just going to be an experiment, an outlet for me to follow my food passions wherever they take me.

It will probably take a couple days to work out the kinks with the new design, so if you have any problems feel free to email or comment and I'll try to get everything fixed up right away. The non food-related content has moved to http://meg.hourihan.com and old links should redirect to the new site. I can't promise a lot of updates on the personal blog, but I'm sure there will be some as the non-food urges strike.

Since 1999 this site has been a wonderful outlet for me. It's provided a way for me to learn more about myself, and a means for me to meet and connect with other people. I'm excited for that to continue as I explore the world of food, and I'm looking forward to sharing it with you. Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy the new megnut.com.

PS If you're reading this post in a news reader, you should really come on over to megnut.com and check out the new design!

PPS Thanks to Jason for the nice design!

link to this entry | comments (18)

The Hungry Cabbie describes his perfect NY moment. Hungry Cabbie is quickly becoming one of my favorite blogs. It's a great blend of storytelling and restaurant tips, today's link being an excellent example of both.

link to this entry

For all you Bostonians out there, the essential restaurant guide to Boston from Epicurious. I guess it's been a while since I've lived in Boston because I've never been to a single restaurant on their list. Wow.

link to this entry

Important food personages names mispronounced

Speaking of Ruth Reichl, it turns out I've been mispronouncing her name for years now. On Monday evening I went to a talk at the 92nd St Y between Reichl and Michael Pollan (more on that later, when I get a chance to write up my notes...) and the introducer spoke about how proud she was to have Ruth RYE-Shul participating. RYE-Shul?! I've been saying RYE-Kull! But here it is, confirmed in this very handy-dandy Chef Pronunciation Guide from the Gentleman Gourmand. Also Chicago's Alinea restaurant has a chef named Grant Achatz, pronounced "ACK-ETZ". And I've been mumbling "Ah-Shaats". Ay ay ay! At least I know how to pronounce Ferran Adriá, thank you Spanish classes.

link to this entry

Funny post about a cake pan description that's been mistranslated. "The man of your dreams. Cake pan. Make your man of your dreams using this cake pan delivery with a cake preparation lends to employement."

link to this entry

Food print continues to go food blog

Back in the Blogger days of 2000, we used to sit around and talk a lot about "what ifs" -- What if people used Blogger to publish sites in countries without free speech? What if bloggers uncovered political scandals and exposed them, a la Watergate? What if traditional print media used blogs to publish on a multi-daily or even daily schedule, rather than a weekly or monthly schedule? Jump to 2006 and it's apparent all this, and more, has happened in the world of weblogs.

Lately there's been a lot happening with regards to that third wish: a lot of print's big food hitters (Food & Wine, Bon Appétit) have launched blogs. Today I spotted more, House & Garden has two blogs. One is Dining Out by Jay McInerney (! I didn't even know he wrote about food and wine) and the other is Eating Around by food editor Lora Zarubin. Now what I want to know is: Ruth Reichl, where's your blog?! [via epi-log]

link to this entry

How did I miss this Brooklyn beer and pigfest that Augieland attended? I must not be paying much attention, which is a shame because it looks like it was yummy fun.

link to this entry

Looking for something pretty to make with rhubarb? Look no further than Delicious Days' Raspberry-rhubarb-vanilla-custard Tarts. DD wanted to retain the pinkness of rhubarb while cooking and came up with this delightful-looking tart. I think I'll try it out this weekend.

link to this entry

Breakage in the kitchen

On Sunday morning I decided to make pancakes for breakfast. As I was preparing to measure some liquid in my Pyrex measuring cup, it slipped from my hand and fell into the empty bowl on the counter. When I lifted it out -- no sign of Pyrex damage -- I noticed a chip in the bottom of my bowl. Closer inspection revealed a crack across the whole bottom, to about halfway up the side. My favorite bowl was broken and beyond repair. Not that this was any special bowl, but I'd had it for more than ten years, and it was just the perfect size and I used it for everything. I pressed on. We ate the pancakes but they didn't taste very good.

Last night I roasted a chicken and for some reason, rather than placing the bird in my cast iron skillet, I decided to use my (here's that word again) favorite roasting dish, an Emile Henry piece I picked up ages ago. Everything was going along fine in the kitchen and I could hear the bird sizzling and spitting away in the oven (I was using the Keller high-heat method, as referenced here). Then I noticed the apartment was filling with smoke. I looked at the stove and smoke was pouring out. I turned on the oven light and saw that my roasting dish had cracked right in half and the fat and juices were dripping out of the chicken onto the bottom of the oven!

We opened a lot of windows, located the fire extinguisher just in case, and kept an eye on the oven until the bird was done. Sadness filled me as I extracted our chicken. My favorite roasting dish was no more. I'm not sure why it broke. The oven was hot, 450°, but I thought that dish could handle that heat. Maybe it got bonked beforehand and had a small crack going in? I'll never know, but from now on I'll use my skillet for chicken.

What's weird is I hardly ever break anything, and within four days, two favorite kitchen items have broken in half. I'm hesitant to do anything in the kitchen until my bad luck passes. From now on, I'll stick to delivery or going out.

link to this entry

Which is better fat or skinny asparagus? I always wonder this, especially now at the greenmarket where I find fat and skinny New Jersey stalks in the same bunch.

link to this entry

Free range, free roam, and organic are not always what they seem. Sustainable Table encourages everyone to ask where your meal is coming from, as labels are getting confusing.

link to this entry

Another look at Eleven Madison Park chef Humm. Also notes, "[i]n the next few weeks, the restaurant will undergo a renovation of the kitchen and dining room that will include different lighting to evoke a more intimate feel."

link to this entry

Eating, Drinking, and Touring in Provence is something I've always wanted to do. Epicurious provides the details.

link to this entry

Though it's a year old, Amy's post about eating local raises some valid issues. Like anything, I think it's a question of balance. I don't care for extremes in anything.

link to this entry

A recipe for scallops, apples and wine. I love scallops and am always looking for interesting new ways to prepare them. This recipes sounds especially tasty: apples and a clove beurre blanc!

link to this entry

How to tame the terror of ordering wine at a posh restaurant. I'm not as bothered by this as I used to be, but seems like handy advice nonetheless.

link to this entry

Alain Ducasse is making food for space travel. Space treats to include, "red tuna and lemon sauce, spiced baby chicken with Thai vegetables, potato and tomato millefeuilles and rice in soya milk pudding."

link to this entry

Chimpanzee stew and grilled brown bear intestines are two of the illegal ingredients Chef Yamamoto prepares. Just reading this made me uncomfortable. [via justinblanton.com]

link to this entry

A week after it's posted, I finally stumble across The Secrets of Incredible Food. It contains Clement's Theorem of Deliciousnes. What more do you need?

link to this entry

Wondering whether rosé wine is underrated or overhyped, Food & Wine writer Lettie Teague taste tests to make up her mind.

link to this entry

Google's cafeterias to serve only cage free eggs. "In a growing animal welfare trend that is being embraced by natural foods markets, universities and technology companies, Google officials plan to announce their employee cafeterias will no longer serve eggs that come from hens crammed into small cages." [Thanks Jason]

link to this entry

Food & Wine is now doing a "Blog Watch" on their front page. It's a weekly listing of the top five posts in, "the food and wine blogosphere." So far they don't seem to have an archive of past listings or an easy link to it, but the image on the right shows you where you can find it on their front page.

link to this entry

Eleven Madison Park is the hot table

Folks are saying Eleven Madison Park's new chef is great, alas the full article is behind the subscription wall at the New York Sun. But Veal Cheeks also has a write-up, Fennel Fantasia New York City Entry #91 Eleven Madison Park:

Of the over 100 meals, I have eaten this year, Eleven ranks second, just behind Per Se (is all great cuisine left coastal?), and when one realizes that the tasting menus are $75.00 (four course, plus at least four concealed courses), the ratio of joy/dollar ranks just behind Papaya King.

Wow, that's saying something. I always enjoyed EMP with its old chef, now with Daniel Humm at the helm, I'm anxious to try it out again. Second to Per Se?! Dear reader, I'll let you know asap!

link to this entry

What's it like being married to a chef? Jennifer Leuzzi, Snack author and wife of Laurent Gras tells us.

link to this entry

Bon Appétit editors have launched a blog. "Think of this as an extension of the conversations that go on in the Bon Appétit Coffee Room. Our editors will be posting daily on everything from chocolates we think you'll want to try right now (for some reason, we've been tasting some particularly luscious ones recently) to a good excuse to make yourself a cocktail."

link to this entry

Barrett at Too Many Chefs says, 'Eat local? No thanks.' "But when you see a mango from the Philippines, a can of Italian Pomodoro tomatoes, or Swiss chocolates in the supermarket, don't hesitate. Drop them in the cart and enjoy the amazing variety of food that modern agriculture and transportation has brought to your doorstep."

link to this entry

I don't usually read Celebrity Baby Blog (really, I don't!) but I happened upon this post today, Prune chef Gabrielle Hamilton delivers a baby boy. Prune has not only a female chef but also a female sous chef. That's pretty rare. Rarer still: they were both pregnant at the same time. Andrea Strong as more details over at the Post, Buns in the Oven, about how they managed to work in a small 200 sq. ft. kitchen with bulging bellies. Color me way impressed.

link to this entry

Touring America on 12 Meals a Day over at NPR with my favorite road food writers, Jane and Michael Stern. They always make me want to hit the road and stop at some greasy spoon in nowheresville.

link to this entry

The dangers of drinking wine

No, not the usual dangers about liver, there's more to worry about now. According to this article, Is it OK ... to drink wine? in The Guardian:

The debate about the social and health impact of alcohol consumption, including wine, is well rehearsed elsewhere, but the production of wine also throws up a number of concerns, with the reality often far from the bucolic idyll of lore.

Many of the world's vineyards are now highly industrialised. Of most concern, perhaps, is the increasing reliance on pesticides. Several recent studies have discovered pesticide residues in wines, including some labelled as organic. This suggests that vines could be particularly vulnerable to contamination from airbound pollutants. One study of Bulgarian wine found that wine from a vineyard in a heavily polluted region contained more than double the legal limit of lead.

I guess I shouldn't be surprised to discover that we've poisoned our food supply as we poisoned our planet, but still, it's a bummer. The article also raises the issue of the sustainability of shipping bottles of wine around the world. Some times the more I think about food production and sustainability, the more depressed I get.

link to this entry

Ideas in Food has started a new series of posts called "Just Before the Bin" as way to catalogue recipes that didn't quite work. The first is a, A Greek Salad? which was a Greek salad dessert. From the picture it looks good and sounds interesting, but I guess it wasn't great. I like the idea behind this feature a lot: it's important to share and build on failures as well as successes. Not everything we cook turns out fabulous, and it's nice to see even the pros admit that.

link to this entry

The Hungry Cabbie went to a pickle party and has a great write-up of the event and the new pickle company Wheelehouse Pickles, Travis Pickle. Mmmm...pickles! Some day I'd like to make my own pickles.

link to this entry

I love a good cookbook meme

This little cookbook meme is going around the food blogs, and seems fun, so here are my responses.

How many cookbooks do you own?
Approximately 40, though I also have a bunch of food memoirs with recipes in them as well (Ruth Reichl's books, an Elizabeth David) but I always forget about them because they're not in the kitchen. I also subscribe to Gourmet and Food & Wine, and use the web a lot for recipes. But my cookbooks are like trusted friends.

Which cookbook did you buy most recently?
La Bonne Cuisine de Madame E. Saint-Ange: The Original Companion for French Home Cooking. I read about this someplace (can't recall where) and had to have it. I love it, though I haven't cooked anything from it yet. It's incredibly detailed, explaining how to do pretty much everything. And I love the design and drawings it has inside. It seems like something I'll use one of these days when I plan a grand dinner party -- not that the food is grand, but just that I'll want to make something different.

Which is the cookbook that you read most recently?
I guess that would be La Bonne Cuisine de Madame E. Saint-Ange: The Original Companion for French Home Cooking mentioned above.

Name 5 cookbooks that mean a lot to you.
The New Basics Cookbook by Julee Rosso and Sheila Lukins. This was the first cookbook I really owned on my own. I bought it in college and just loved it. It guided me through my first preparation of duck, my first catfish fillet, and countless other appetizers and main courses. I rarely use it anymore but I used to just sit and read it for hours -- to learn more about cheese or meat, or just to read the great culinary quotes interspersed between recipes.

The Vegetarian Bistro: 250 Authentic French Regional Recipes by Marlena Spieler. I was a vegetarian for four years and during that time this was my go-to cookbook. I still use it regularly, even now that I eat meat. It is filled with such delicious and straightforward recipes. Nothing French and stuffy, more simple French fare that highlights the purity of the ingredients and the brightens their flavors. I also learned a lot about French food from it, and was delighted when I traveled to Paris to discover I recognized items on menus simply from cooking from this book. Authentic is right!

The Cake Bible by Rose Levy Beranbaum. It wasn't until college that I began to cook, prior to that I was a baking fiend. I made all kinds of elaborate cakes that required fancy molds and trips to the liquor store for ingredients like Grand Marnier. If only I'd had The Cake Bible then, oh the cakes I would have baked! Still, I got this book in the mid-nineties and I treasure it. It is filled with the hows and whys and cake making, and with recipes for the most amazing confections. When I made a wedding cake -- with rolled fondant! -- for friends, this book was my guide and I couldn't have done it without it. I consider it an absolute must for anyone who likes to bake cakes.

Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone by Deborah Madison. I picked this up when I became a vegetarian in 1998 and it's been in constant use ever since. Her veggie stock is wonderful, and I make the soups in here all the time. I also use her pasta dough recipe whenever I make pasta from scratch. Even though I eat meat now, I use this cookbook a ton, whether for a side dish or to find inspiration for a meat-free main course. Also, like many of the other books I've mentioned, she offers a lot of culinary instruction and philosophy with her recipes, so using her book has made me a wiser and better cook.

Think Like a Chef by Tom Colicchio. This book, perhaps more than any other I've mentioned, has had the biggest recent impact on my cooking. I love this book because, again like my other favorites, it's about education more than anything else. I've read it numerous times, and I've found I'm much more confident now at the stove when preparing meat. Meat has always been my culinary weakness (since I didn't eat it much and was pretty scared of it) but with this book and a meaty resolve, I've learned how to create delicious roast chickens and beef at home. Highly recommended for anyone looking to boost their culinary confidence.

[Thanks Jason!]

link to this entry

Wondering what all those crazy greens are at the farmer's market, or in your fancy "mixed greens" at the restaurant? Epicurious to the rescue with an illustrated guide to salad greens.

link to this entry

Ed Levine live-blogged the James Beard Awards, LIVE: The James Beard Awards and he's got pictures too. It's almost like being there, or having been there. Almost.

link to this entry

Cheese by Hand stopped in West Cornwall, VT to visit a goat's milk cheese producer and has the details here, Small: Twig Farm. Sounds like a great operation, and just what I picture for my farm when my agrarian daydreams overtake me. I'll have to find some Twig Farm and try it out.

link to this entry

Trouble at organic dairies?

It must be organic day here at megnut.com, because I've got another link about organic farming! From NPR's All Thing's Considered, Farmers Say Mega-Dairies Milk the Organic System.

As organic mega-dairies with thousands of cows sprout up across the country, small-dairy farmers complain that some so-called "organic" cows don't get enough meadow time. They say the huge dairy operations are taking advantage of the system at the expense of the smaller farms that built the organic movement into a lucrative industry.

link to this entry

The Faces of Organic: Swanton, Farmer is a first in his field. Grows organic berries and offers great benefits and pay to his employees. [via del.icio.us/sautewednesday]

link to this entry

There's a great article in this week's New Yorker, Paradise Sold
What are you buying when you buy organic? by Steven Shapin. Long but worth it. [Thanks Jason]

link to this entry

My favorite way to prepare ramps

I've been babbling about ramps for several weeks now but here's an article with pictures and instructions for gathering your own in the woods, Ramps: Wild vegetables bring fresh flavor to spring dishes. Also includes a few recipes, though my new favorite is the one I've made several times in the past two weeks (and forced some friends to make too!)

Roasted ramps and baby potatoes

Two bunches of ramps
2 - 3 lbs of the smallest baby potatoes you can find (I used ones barely bigger than my thumbnail!)
sea salt
pepper
olive oil

1. Pre-heat oven to 375°. Clean potatoes and place in baking dish. Toss to coat in olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. When the oven is to temperature, place dish on rack in the middle of oven.

2. While potatoes are cooking, clean ramps by rinsing thoroughly in water and removing outer layer. Trim off ends and then cut ramps into 1" pieces, separating whites from green.

3. After ~fifteen minutes in oven, remove potatoes and toss with ramp whites (reserving greens) and replace in oven. (The idea is you want to roast the ramps with the potatoes but not the whole time because they'll burn up. I've found about half the time is good.)

4. After ~25 minutes, check potatoes. If the potatoes are almost done, stir in the greens and cook until greens are wilted and warmed (~ five minutes).

5. Remove and eat. Can be served as a side dish with a roast chicken or fish or just about anything.

link to this entry

Are chefs libertarians?

The blog East Meets West wonders, Are chefs more likely to be libertarians? They present two reasons they think the answers might be yes. The first, because, "chefs...are basically in the hedonism business" and secondly, "[c]hefs and restaurateurs must deal with government regulations that are often ineffective and arbitrarily enforced."

I concede their points, but I wonder -- if we assume chefs are libertarians -- if their reasons are causes or effects of pre-existing libertarianism. I think people who are attracted to the culinary industry in the first place are a bit off. They already eschew a traditional work environment for one filled with long hours of intense labor that's sometimes violent, often times hectic, and during most months, hot as hell. Renegades are drawn to the kitchen (Bourdain talks about this in Kitchen Confidential, I believe) so for me it more likely follows that many chefs enter the kitchen as libertarians. All the government regulations probably just push them further over the edge than they already were.

link to this entry

Early reports from Craftsteak

Augieland goes to Tom Colicchio's brand new Craftsteak and has a lengthy write-up about the experience, Craftsteak: 552 dashfedillian stars. He and his companion engage in some comparison dining while there.

So here we were with an aged corn-fed strip steak and a grass-fed strip, cooked at the same time by the same guy, with which to compare the merits of one to the other. Because of this opportunity alone I will forever have a warm spot in my heart for Craftsteak.

Ultimately they decide they like the grass-fed beef more than the corn-fed. Craftsteak sounds delicious. I may have to save up for a visit.

link to this entry

What you're really celebrating with Cinco de Mayo

It's Cinco de Mayo! Yay! Let's celebrate the defeat of the French by drinking Coronas and margaritas! Wait, what? The French? Isn't Cinco de Mayo about, well, um, maybe, Independence? Or something? It's Mexico's most important holiday, isn't it?

Actually, no.

While the United States was mired in the Civil War, the French (under Napoleon III) invaded Mexico. Landing at the Gulf city of Veracruz in January 1862, they began marching toward Mexico City. Along the way, they suffered a surprising defeat on May 5 (el cinco de mayo), 1862, in the city of Puebla at the hands of a small, poorly armed, disorganized army. This was a great victory for Mexico.

But one victory does not a war win, and the French charged on to Mexico City where they installed an emperor, Maximilian, and ruled Mexico for several years. After the US Civil War ended in 1865, the United States began supporting the Mexican Republicans. By 1866 with their troops losing battles, France announced their intention to withdraw from the country. In 1867, Maximilian was executed and the Mexican republic was restored.

But don't let this new information impede your drinking this evening. I think it's great that once year Americans decided to pay attention to their friends south of the border and celebrate a piece of their tumultuous history. Just don't think you're celebrating Mexican Independence, because you're not. That celebration begins on the evening of September 15 (September 16 being Mexican Independence Day) and goes on long through the night. Perhaps marketing executives felt that Mexico's most important holiday shouldn't be cheapened by crass commercialism and beer promotions, so they picked Cinco de Mayo to degrade instead. ¡Salud!

link to this entry

Wine Library TV: Episode #42 - How to taste wine. Great little video about, well, just what it says it is.

link to this entry

Feeding Desire at the Cooper-Hewitt

Feeding Desire: Design and the Tools of the Table, 1500-2005 opens today at the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum here in New York City. It's on view from May 5-October 29, 2006.

A journey through the evolution of Western dining from the Renaissance to the present, Feeding Desire features objects from Cooper-Hewitt's world-class collections. The exhibition will address the development of utensil forms, innovations in production and materials, etiquette, and flatware as social commentary.

I can't wait to go see it!

Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum
2 East 91st Street
New York, NY 10128
(212) 849-8400

link to this entry

Lack of food leads to obesity? Maybe, according to researchers at Boston University School of Public Health and the Boston Medical Center.

link to this entry

Also from the BBC, Food miles, "Thanks in part to concerns about climate change, more people are stopping to consider the impact that everyday goods - including food - have on the environment. So, what are the hidden costs of a weekly shop?"

link to this entry

From the BBC's food section, a list of what's In Season: May. Lots of familiar spring items, but also some new things like samphire, which I've never heard of, and sea trout, which I had for the first time last week. Each item is accompanied by recipes.

link to this entry

Great article from the San Francisco Chronicle about mushroom hunting in the Bay Area, The Mushroom Hunters: It's a long route from forest floor to Chez Panisse tabletop.

link to this entry

If roast duck is not your thing, what about trying, Quaglie in Tegame (Pan-Roasted Quail)? I love Flickr recipes because the pictures add so much to the process.

link to this entry

Though I've made plenty of roast chickens, I've never tried to roast a duck. But this recipes is tempting me to try it out, Marie-Claude Gracia's Roast Duck
by Susan Herrmann Loomis.

link to this entry

The foie gras battle is spreading

In today's New York Times, Organizing for an Indelicate Fight looks at a lawsuit filed by Sonoma Foie Gras against Whole Foods. Apparently Whole Foods (who does not sell foie gras for ethical reasons), "told Grimaud Farms last fall to stop processing and distributing Sonoma's ducks and foie gras or the grocer would no longer do business with the company." Sonoma Foie Gras has been unable to find another processor and is suing Whole Foods for, "intentional interference with contract."

If Sonoma loses the suit, it could hasten the disappearance of foie gras in California. In 2004 California passed a law banning the production and sale of foie gras by 2012.

"I hope I'm retired by 2012," said Thomas Keller, owner of the French Laundry in the Napa Valley and Per Se in Manhattan, who believes the government should not tell people what to eat. "If force-feeding a duck is cruel, then packing chickens in a cage is cruel, and then the veal and the beef. We are all going to be vegetarians soon if they have their way. We should probably start converting now."

Oh that TK! Seriously though, if PETA, et al have their way, will we ultimately end up eating humanely treated animals, or no animals at all? Accidental Hedonist raises a good point in her Chicago and Foie Gras post about how removed people are these days from meat production: "the mainstream public...are now so separated from the process of how our food is actually collected, harvested or made, videos showing gavage can be shocking and upsetting." When all your meat comes neatly packaged at the supermarket -- free of blood and bones and veins -- it's hard to remember you're eating an animal. Perhaps that's part of the problem.

link to this entry

Eight recipes from 'Around the Roman Table Food and Feasting in Ancient Rome' including such yummy-sounding items as "Soft-Boiled Eggs in Pine-Nut Sauce".

link to this entry

Decanter.com has an extensive listing of Wine Courses for those interested in learning more about the subject.

link to this entry

Eating the whole pig

Via email from Moira, an article from last week's New Yorker, Carnal Knowledge: How I became a Tuscan butcher by Bill Buford. Buford, after spending time in Tuscany learning how to butcher pigs, buys a whole pig at the New York City Greenmarket. He gets a lot of strange looks from people as he lugs it home.

The realization confirmed something I'd always suspected: people don't want to know what meat is. They don't think of meat as an animal; they think of it as an element in a meal. ("What I want tonight is a cheeseburger!")

For me, meat wasn't a cause. I just believe people should know what they're eating. At the Greenmarket, you overheard discussions about fertilizers and soils and how much freedom a chicken needs before its eggs are free-range. Wouldn't it follow that you'd want to know your meat? I had brought home a freshly killed animal -- better raised than anything I'd find at a store -- and, in preparing it, I was hoping to rediscover old-fashioned ways of making food. This, I felt, could only be positive. But I was sure getting a lot of shit for it.

Over the Fourth of July weekend in 1994 I attended a pig roast in New Hampshire organized by some friends. I don't recall their reasoning behind buying a pig and butchering it themselves -- except that the one in charge had grown up on a farm. But for me the participation was a critical part of eating meat. I wanted to witness where the food came from. That said, it was a bit disconcerting to arrive at an apartment the night before the BBQ and discover a pig in a large metal crate on the front porch. He was killed the next day and we all learned how to skin him from the farmer hosting the roast. Hours and hours later, we ate the pig and I found it to be the tastiest pork I'd ever eaten.

It was definitely disturbing and I'm not sure I want to do anything like that again, but I'm glad it did it. It's important to know the animal behind the meal and to understand where our food comes from.

link to this entry

The Fanatic Cook wonders if Eating Locally is such a feasible and good idea for those that aren't young and well-off. She raises some interesting points.

link to this entry

Eating local and the eat local challenge

Apparently May is Eat Local Month, at least for 2006 for those in the local-eating circles. For the month of May various people, see the Locavores in San Francisco and Eat Local Challenge. It's only May 2 so it's not too late to get started if you're interested in this kind of thing. A neat site related to eating local is the 100 Mile Diet site, which even has a tool to help you map your 100 mile food radius. Living in NYC, I was not surprised to discover that approximately half of my 100 miles is off the coast and in the ocean.

While I'm not officially participating in Eat Local Month, the farmer's market near me is in full swing now and I'm trying to do as much of my shopping there as possible, for as long as possible. And while I'm on the topic, here are 10 Reasons to Eat Local Food. [via A Full Belly]

link to this entry

A delicious-looking recipe for cooking Sweet Plantains. In Mexico we had some plantains (at least I think they were fried plantains) as side dishes in some of the traditional cheap places where we ate lunch. Jason wasn't a fan but I was, so I think I'm going to try and make these at some point.

link to this entry

While on my honeymoon in Mexico, I ate a lot of ceviche. Most of the time it was really tasty, and made me realize it would be just the thing to make this summer when fresh tomatoes and fish would be easy to come by. I found this recipe for Mexican Ceviche that looks about like what I was eating. Except for the oregano. If I make this, I think I'll leave out the oregano.

link to this entry

Tips For Selecting The Right Beef Cuts For Your Meal And Budget.

link to this entry

Looking for lardo

Searching for delicious pig fat in Italy, Hog Heaven: Cutting the Lardo di Colonnata.

Some people might recoil at the idea, but there are few things as sublime as thin ribbons of pearly white lardo piled high on top of warm crostini. Though buttery in texture, it packs a complex flavor of herbs and spices borne on a subtle tide of brine. Years back, we'd sampled a northern Italian version of lardo, and marveled over the way, as it gently melted on the tongue, soft notes of rosemary and sage played on our taste buds. We discovered that every region in Italy makes its own particular lardo and that Colonnata's was the most prized. Naturally, we had to find out why.

Oh yum!

link to this entry

Epicurious has Julie Mautner's culinary tour of Southeast France, for those who are interested in Provence.

link to this entry

Enjoying soft boiled eggs

Ever since I ate my first soft-boiled egg about a month ago (I know, I know, I must have been living in an eggless cave for the past 34 years...), I've been smitten by these warm gooey eggs. But I'm having a problem now. I love making soft-boiled eggs from the eggs I get at the Greenmarket because they're so fresh and tasty. But they're a pain to peel, even after running under cold water. It takes me about four minutes to peel the top off of one and one minute to eat the whole thing! I did some research online and apparently fresh eggs are much harder to peel than older ones. Quite the dliemma: I don't want to eat older eggs soft-boiled. It's the freshness that's the key to the yumminess of the soft-boiled egg, at least in my novice opinion.

Then I read about an egg topper (see a Zyliss® Egg Topper for sale at Sur La Table) but I'm not quite sure how it works. One description I saw said it takes off the egg top, including the shell. Does that mean you need two little egg cups for just one egg? Or do you just eat that little cap first, then discard it on the plate before you dig into the yolk in the cup? Soft-boiled egg-eating readers, I ask for you help!

Comments are open. If you eat soft-boiled eggs, or know someone who does, please share your secrets with me. How do you open them? Peel or top? How long in the water? What else?

link to this entry | comments (28)

Free wine and cheese today at Astor

Today May 1st from 5-7pm Astor Wines & Spirits is having a "Spanish Fiesta!"

Nine winemakers from across Spain pour over 20 wines at a walk-around tasting featuring samplings from Murray's Cheese. 10% Off All Featured Wines

Astor Wines & Spirits
399 Lafayette at 4th Street
New York, NY 10003

link to this entry

The Independent looks at a restaraunteur who wonders, Can a menu be sourced solely from London produce?

link to this entry

Neat article from the New York Times Magazine, The Way We Eat: Olde School about old recipes and cooking methods.

link to this entry