My Thai cooking class experience in Bangkok. From my trip to Thailand last November, my husband and I took a great class.

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Thai cooking slide show from the New York Times.

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Chefs, VIPs, media, et al, are often comped or have discounted checks; the rule is to tip on the dollar value of the meal – not the lower amount of the check. In case you're comped at a restaurant, now you know how to handle the tip.

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Two children from Washington State ill from E. coli in raw milk. It is legal to sell unpasteurized milk in Washington. Last December, 18 people got sick from a batch from a dairy near Vancouver, WA.

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Keeping up with comments

Lately I've been turning on comments for more posts. As I've done so, I've found it hard to keep track of active conversations. To resolve that, on the right-hand side of the page (beneath the "What is Megnut?" heading), you can now find a short list of entries with comment activity. I hope this will help you stay involved with the discussions on the site.

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Somehow this seems related to all of today's discussion about factory farming practices. A four-legged chicken lived for 18 months on a farm before being discovered. She was among 36,000 chickens on a farm in Pennsylvania. Seems like they might have spotted her sooner if they'd had less birds.

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Foie Inanity Reaches New York

This morning Bourdain called my cell and said, "Ruhlman, I’ve got upsetting news."

He wasn’t kidding.

Apparently a New Jersey politician, freshman assemblyman Michael Panter, next week will introduce a bill to ban the SALE of foie gras in and out of state.

Not only would this put out of business or force the relocation of Ariane Daguin’s D’Artagnan--which would be a blow to the entire tri-state area and beyond and the countless restaurants that rely on D’Artagnan for foie-based products--but it would be a dangerous encroachment on the rights of New Yorkers and New York City chefs to eat what they want and cook what they want.

The whole issue of what happens to Daguin and her highly respected company, around whom the fine dining scene has grown during the past two decades she's been in business, is an important one that should be looked at separately.

But if the rumor is true, the foie brouhaha has reached New York in a serious way. And it's bad. The foie issue embodies the hypocrisy and corruption of so much of how our government operates. That our public officials continue to spend their time and our dollars on this is ludicrous. If they cared about their state and their country, they would address the catastrophe of how we're raising agri-hogs. That's truly inhumane. We're trashing our land and water, growing crappy food, contaminated chicken, feed lot beef and creating lakes of sewage polluted with e coli that gets on our spinach and kills our kids.

It’s a good rule to live by: don’t shit where you eat. But that’s exactly what we’re doing on a massive scale. So what do you do if you’re a local congressman? You outlaw a product that has little if any environmental impact, a product that few people buy, but that raises your stature and makes you look like a noble protector of all things cute and fuzzy.

Chicago's been through this. Now Jersey--living up to its cliché. Chicago been a laughingstock among people throughout the country who understand the issues. Its mayor is endorsing a REPEAL of the silly law that bans foie gras sales there. An article in today's trib describes how the pro-ban factions are struggling, in the face of widespread ridicule, not to lose ground. The city is not enforcing the ban anyway, so it's largely symbolic. But symbols are important.

And right now, foie gras banning is becoming a symbol of ignorant politicians grandstanding on issues they scarcely understand while the real horrors of our food supply go neglected, and continued silence is bought and paid for by agribusiness lobbying.

I've made myself clear on this issue before: more no-nothings in government telling me what I'm allowed to eat, corrupt government ignoring the agricultural catastrophes while taking self-promoting potshots at fundamentally humane businesspeople and farmers makes me mad. If this law happens it promises the beginnings of change in the restaurant scene in New York City for the worse--this, the most diverse and dynamic restaurant city on earth. That in itself is bad. But all that such a bill would portend is truly scary.

If this bill happens we need to use its indulgent foolishness to shine more light on the real problems with our food supply. And they don’t have anything to do with foie gras.

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Should cows be raised in close proximity to produce? The spinach E. coli outbreak has critics calling for an overhaul of the factory farming system.

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99 year old chef plans to keep cooking. He'll be 100 in December and still works six days a week at his restaurant in Japan.

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Raw milk and E. coli

Some more reader feedback regarding raw milk and E. coli. From Adrian:

Interesting reading on the whole raw milk debate. The feedback you posted (Raw Milk Risks) is particularly noteworthy. E. coli is a bacterium which inhabits the intestines of mammals. The fact that there's E. coli in (some) raw milk is indicative of unsanitary milking practices rather than an innate problem with raw milk. To put it bluntly, there's shit in the milk.

Gross, but possibly true. But it's important to understand that "E. coli" is not one thing. Nina Planck explains the difference between various strains of E. coli in this New York Times article Leafy Green Sewage. E. coli O157:H7 is the bacterium that makes you sick and it loves an acidic environment. Planck writes "O157 thrives in a new — that is, recent in the history of animal diets — biological niche: the unnaturally acidic stomachs of beef and dairy cattle fed on grain, the typical ration on most industrial farms. It’s the infected manure from these grain-fed cattle that contaminates the groundwater and spreads the bacteria to produce, like spinach, growing on neighboring farms."

So this could explain the current E. coli spinach outbreak. It also could explain how the four California children who drank raw milk products have been infected with E. coli. But reader Susan Q had brucellosis, possibly from raw butter or raw cheese. Even if sanitary milking practices are followed, there are still risks.

Adrian also says:

Furthermore, it's really only the soft raw-milk cheeses that you need to watch out for, hence the FDA's requirement that raw-milk cheese must be aged for a minimum of 60 days. Incidentally, there's some research in Europe which suggests that the majority of cheese-related food poisoning incidents are linked to unsanitary practices in large-scale, pastuerised milk cheese production. This is an argument that has been used in the UK in recent years by artisanal cheese producers under pressure from the government to stop using raw milk.

As cheese ages, it loses moisture. Hard, aged cheese have a lower pH and are not as favorable for bacteria growth. That's why aged raw milk cheeses are permitted in the United States. It seems like raw milk -- whatever its form -- has risks. That's why it's important you know where it's coming from and the conditions under which it's produced if you choose to ingest it. The same could be said for spinach, and meat, and eggs, and nearly everything else you eat.

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Sous Vide Cuisine, by Joan Roca and Salvador Brugués is available for purchase. This is the book Jeffrey Steingarten picked up in Spain and mentions in his sous vide article. Alas, it's $169.95. That's a lot of money, but it comes with figures, and flowcharts, and boxes and has a foreword by WD-50 chef Wylie Dufresne.

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Bathtub salmon sous vide

In his column for Octber's Vogue (not online), Jeffrey Steingarten buys an immersion circulator on eBay and goes for some at-home sous vide cooking. But here's the most important thing I learned from the article: you can sous vide in your bathtub!

The temperatures for fish are radical. [Sous vide cookbook author Joan] Roca has you cook salmon until its internal temperature is 100.4° F. (Incidentally, if 100.4° F sounds foolishly precise, that's because Roca's 38° C was directly translated for the English edition of the book.) The texture of fish cooked this way is astounding -- like a translucent gel with not a hint of fibrousness -- the color is the bright pink of fresh salmon, and the flavor is neither raw nor cooked but a taste of its own.

Mmmm. Mmm. Mr. Steingarten then points out:

100.4° F is two degrees above body temperature. You can cook wild salmon in your pocket the next time you have a fever. Or in your bathtub -- lightly salt several six-to-seven-ounce pieces of salmon; wrap them tightly in plastic; using a good electronic thermometer with a fine probe, get the bathtub to around 115° F, leaving a little dribble of hot water to maintain the temperature, and submerge the salmon. Don't wrap one piece, but use it for testing by inserting the thermometer to its very center. When it reaches 104° F, the salmon is ready. Sear it briefly in a very hot pan in smoking olive oil to add a familiar flavor.

So there you have it: bathtub wild salmon, sous vide. Who needs a stove when you can cook your fish in your dishwasher or tub?

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This neat beaker glass pitcher looks handy. I like the idea of pitchers on the table instead of bottles or cartons. A friend of mine always serves wine in a pitcher at her house, and it's just one of those small things that makes a pleasant difference in the meal. [via Outblush]

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Is the cross-breeding of heirloom pigs a sign that industrial principles are creeping into heritage agriculture?

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A pancake recipe without words. Reminds me a little of IKEA instructions that show you how to assemble your dresser without a word of any language.

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Two best words in the English language: Oyster Frenzy. Get your oyster on in NYC this weekend in two different spots.

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Not sure how I missed this nice review of Thomas Keller's Ad Hoc from a few weeks ago. Oh how I wish he had opened such a place in New York City instead! It looks wonderful.

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Raw milk risks

Recently I linked to some information about raw milk. Reader Susan Q emailed me with her raw milk experience:

I noticed your comment about raw milk and at one time, I was in favor of it but no longer. We even did a not unfavorable article about it when I was at Organic Style. But I was diagnosed in spring with brucellosis, a dastardly bacteria you get from eating raw milk products. I either got it from some raw butter here in Kentucky or it's possible I got it from some raw cheese from years of being a traveling foodie. Regardless, I could not recommend chancing getting it by consuming raw milk. Although I went through 3 months of serious horse pill antibiotics -- much of that time in bed as even going to get the mail was a major effort -- it is very difficult to get rid of according to my large animal vet friends. And I'm having some symptoms again as we speak.

I am concerned that a lot of organic moms are feeding this to their children. Raw milk is also advocated by the 'Master's Diet" which is popular here. You can distribute raw milk in this state if you give it away and many people are taking it to their church for people. Not only is brucella a risk -- the majority of states are considered brucella free by the USDA so cattle are no longer vaccinated for it, nor is milk tested for it -- but there's E. coli and other bacteria to consider. So, unless I was married to a vet who was testing my own cattle and I was cleaning the milking equipment myself I would not chance it. This is from someone who wasn't afraid of anything as long as it was natural. No more! Or, I might get it and pasteurize it myself...something to consider.

Some epidemiologists I know think it is highly under diagnosed and reported. The symptoms are similar to chronic fatigue or fibromyalgia. Also, if it's chronic one might not test positive for it. But bottom line, it sucks!

Sounds like you really need to know where you're getting your raw milk from if you're going to go the raw route.

Related: The Grinder reports four California children who drank raw milk products have been infected with E. coli.

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You can cook salmon in a dishwasher, but I don't know why you'd want to. It would take a long time, you wouldn't be able to check on its progress, and it would use a lot more power than the stovetop. [via MAKE: Blog]

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Did you know there are knives just for lefties? I didn't, but I spotted a Wusthof Left Handed Bread Knife the other day.

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How to sharpen a serrated knife

A friend recently asked me how to sharpen a serrated knife, and I realized I had no idea. I sharpen my chef's and paring knives at home on my sharpening stone. But I've never sharpened my serrated blade. Poking around online, I found a link that says you can sharpen on a stone by each individual blade serration. That sounds insanely time-consuming. Other sites say it should only be sharpened by a professional.

Anyone have any suggestions for how best to sharpen a serrated knife?

Update: Doh! Forgot to turn comments on. Fixed now, answer away.

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My post from Wednesday on babies and tipping has an interesting discussion going about attitudes towards babies in restaurants, breast-feeding in public, and whether the United States hates children. Keep up the interesting comments folks, and join in if you'd like.

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A creamy taste of Innsbruck

One of my favorite things to pick up when I travel are local cookbooks. In Austria I purchased a Tyrolian Cookbook filled with recipes for "Marinated Leg of Mountain Goat" (which I haven't tried) and "Innsbruck Garlic Soup" (which I made last night). We had some great knoblauchsuppe (garlic soup) in Innsbruck, and Jason was anxious for me to recreate it.

I've posted the recipe, with a small change and some metric conversions, here: Innsbruck Garlic Soup. We found last night's soup to be more garlicky than the one we had on our trip, so I've slightly reduced the quantity of garlic. Aside from that, it was delicious. I'm looking forward to making this throughout the winter.

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Jason's looking for cheap eating suggestions in NYC. Got some favorites? Go add them to the discussion.

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Parents Against Junk Food is non profit organization devoted to eliminating junk food from our public school system. It's hard for me to believe that soda and candy are even sold in schools. They certainly weren't offered in any of the public schools I attended in the 1970s and 80s.

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By fingering any spinach as suspicious, even bunched fresh spinach, the F.D.A. isn’t educating anyone, or solving the problem. A view on the E. coli spinach outbreak from the original owner of Riverside Farms, one of the farms at the center of the controversy.

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Frank Bruni kept a running history of his calls to procure a Per Se reservation. It is an infuriating system, but it's better than no "two month" rule. It's like no matter who you are, you have the same opportunity as anyone else of getting a reservation at the Laundry or Per Se. It's a slim chance for one and all.

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If you haven't already heard, the 2005 Bordeaux is being touted as an incredible vintage. In an attempt to try to put it in its historical context, some Sherry-Lehmann (an NYC wine store) folks visited Chateau Palmer in Bordeaux. Now they're offering some pristine bottles of such legendary vintages as the 1945, 1961, 1966 and 1970 for sale in their store. You know, in case you've got $7,900 to drop on a single bottle of wine.

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Poor service at Freemans

Today New York Times restaurant critic Frank Bruni published his review of Lower East Site hot spot Freemas. While he seemed to enjoy a lot of the food, it was the inconsistent service he kept returning to. Coincidentally, Freemans is the restaurant I wrote about yesterday where I had poor service while dining with some friends. His review captured the experience we had at Freemans on Monday night.

Mr. Bruni reports there was "dismissive service." A "bossy, brittle man" wouldn't let his party order the artichoke dip while they read the menu--at least our server allowed us that! He describes a hostess who "had all the cuddly charisma of Cujo." Ouch. In the end Mr. Bruni gave it no stars, simply "Satisfactory."

Yesterday, Eater ran a two-part (Part I, Part II) interview yesterday with William Tigertt, Freemans' owner. As I read it, I was struck by how much Mr. Tigertt was concerned with getting the food just right for Mr. Bruni's visit. He changed things on the menu and worried about what Bruni and his party ordered. It was as if running a restaurant were only about the food.

But in my experience, and as Mr. Bruni's review demonstrates, a great restaurant is more than just its food. It's a welcoming environment that sets you at ease. It's a place that treats each and every guest with respect, whether they're a big-time restaurant critic or a few friends stopping in for an early dinner with babies in tow. Perhaps the New York Times review will spur Freemans to improve their service. I hope so, because I enjoyed their food, and I'd like to go back there again someday.

Update: Eater has a final update from the Freemans owner. Even after reading the review, they're still concerned about the food. My hopes for a service improvement are dashed already.

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Gourmet names Chicago's Alinea number one in their bi-decade list of the Best 50 Restaurants in America. Chef Grant Achatz "is redefining the American restaurant once again for an entirely new generation." This is great news and for one I agree completely with one of these "best" lists. I loved loved loved Alinea when I ate there in late May of this year. (See Alinea's most exciting food and the June 2006 archives for lots of Alinea-related links.)

Update: There's no link to this information because it's not online. It's in the October, 2006 Gourmet, the one with Moto chef Homaro Cantu on the cover. Mine arrived in my mailbox today.

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One more post about Ferran Adrià's Espesso that includes a recipe.

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In Japan McDonald’s tags food with high-tech nutrition information. "Known as a QR Code, these printed codes look somewhat like a barcode and are scannable by many photo cellphones. All sorts of information can be packed into these little codes, from the website to find the amount of calories and fat in a Big Mac to a company’s contact information on a business card."

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We've always had this joke, those of us who have been exposed to Chez Panisse or worked there, that Alice thinks she invented food. The great article about Alice Waters and the history of Chez Panisse from October's Vanity Fair is online.

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Babies and the tipping point

Last night I had dinner with four adults. One couple and one woman were accompanied by their babies (both well under the age of two). We were at a popular restaurant, but arrived at 6:30 when it was still empty. Over the course of two hours, we ordered appetizers, main courses, and dessert. We also ordered two bottles of wine.

During that time, the server was so-so in his attention to us. Our salad forks were cleared and no new ones were brought with our main dishes. When we asked for some additional items (another fork, salt, a fresh napkin), another server was short with us and exasperatedly asked, "Is there anything else?" After we finished our first bottle of wine, the servers cleared empty wine glasses rather than ask if we wanted more wine. They seemed irritated with us, as if they were trying to get us out the door as quickly as possible.

So, when the bill finally comes, our server puts it on the table and says, "The tip is included for parties of six or more."

I rarely mind when the tip is included for large parties, because I know they can be difficult. But usually the service that accompanies the included tip is well earned. I'm not sure that was the case last night. On top of it, we were a party of five adults. As I don't usually dine with infants, I'm not sure if it's common to include them in the count. But saying we were a party of seven seems like a stretch. Though I suppose we weren't a usually party of five either.

It felt like the server invoked the "six or more" rule because he found our table difficult and wanted to be sure of a large tip. We paid and left, but not before my friend (who herself had worked as a server for many years) left a note on the check saying the food was great but the service was bad.

So what I want to know is, is this common? Do babies count? Was the server in the right to invoke the large-party-tip-included rule? Or should we have protested? Or is this one of those nebulous areas of American tipping custom that make the whole process so frustrating you wish service were just included in the bill?

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The poisonous truth about our daily bread. "The industry is keen to sell us 'premium' loaves with fashionable additions of omega-3, inulin, folic acid and the like. But if we don't attend to the innate quality of our wheat and flour, our diet will consist of little more than nutrified industrial slop."

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Get your child off on the right gourmet foot with this totally cute toy set of DUKTIG Cookware. It comes with a mini frying pan, stockpots, a strainer, a whisk, and a ladle.

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After a lot of trial and error, geek reverse-engineers Patsy's pizza. "This pizza is modeled after Patsy's on 117th street in NYC. I have been working on this for SIX years, but FINALLY I can report that I have achieved my goal." Incredible directions and detail about pizza-making. [via boingboing]

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At Aurora Organic Dairy, cows are put on grass only when not being milked or when they are nearing the end of a lactation cycle, and that totals about two to three months a year. A look at big organic, Wal-Mart, and the price of milk.

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First New York, now CHOW. Devoted to the pleasure of food and drink, CHOW launches today. You may remember it as a print magazine. It's now reborn as an online concern, complete with recipes and a food blog.

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New York magazine's new food blog launches today. Grub Street promises hourly updates covering everything from the cult street vendor, nameless yet venerated, to the latest temple of gastronomy, awash in renown.

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If a mass-marketed coffee product is as close as I'm going to get to the godfather of molecular gastronomy, I'll snap up that opportunity and approach it with an open mind. Another review of the new espesso being served in Chicago, this one more positive. I hope it comes to New York City soon!

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Getting too full during a great meal

Via email from a reader, who I shall call "R":

While I was in San Francisco I dined at Bouchon and Chez Panisse. I had high expectations of both. Unfortunately I was unable to really enjoy my experiences because I ate too much! How do you prepare yourself for this kind of eating and traveling? How do you pace yourself? Also, I made the mistake of ordering a special of the day that looked good, tasted good for one bite, and became an entire food that I will now avoid because of the experience - it was just too rich, too flavorful, too much! And this was at Bouchon where the servings are not typical American-style biggie sizes.

Any thoughts? What are your experiences?

I've definitely had that same problem, most memorably in Las Vegas. My husband and I ate lunch at Mesa Grill, and while it was delicious, it was quite filling. That evening we had reservations at Bouchon and ended up disappointed with our dinner, in large part because we were too stuffed to really enjoy eating it.

In general, I try to avoid eating much during the day if I know I'll be going out to a big dinner someplace special, especially if it's the kind of place where I'll likely order the tasting menu and be eating for four hours. Also, I try to be cognizant of how rich of a dish I'm ordering. In Austria, because most of the main courses were meaty and heavy with cream, I opted for salad starters every evening. That way I wouldn't be full before the main arrived.

Another trick is exercise. I run or go to the gym nearly every day, and I find that gives me a larger appetite -- and an increased gastronomic capacity -- than when I don't work out. If I can't fit in a jog (because of travel or something), I usually try to do a lot of walking around before a big meal, so I'm good and hungry before going in.

I also try to pay close attention to how full I'm getting, so that if I'm starting to fill up soon (say, on an appetizer, or early into a tasting menu), I back off a bit. I don't finish every course, especially if I'm not that crazy about it.

Most importantly, I don't try to become a member of the clean plate club anymore. It took me years to break the habit from childhood of eating all the food I'd been served. But I realized that in a restaurant, I hadn't had any input into the quantity of food I'd been given, and therefore was not obligated to finish it. Being too full is the easiest way to ruin a good dinner, and though I'm not always successful, I work to avoid it.

Does anyone else have thoughts about this and suggestions for R?

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New super-thick foamy espesso by Ferran Adrià is just 'bleh' according to Chicagoist. If you want to judge for yourself, you'll have to head to the Windy City, where it's served at the three Lavazza cafes in the United States.

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The Agriculture Department has proposed a standard for grass-fed meat that doesn't say animals need pasture and that broadly defines grass to include things like leftovers from harvested crops. Somehow this is not surprising to me. [via an obsession with food]

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Whole Foods to begin selling lobsters again? Whole Foods is reportedly building special housing to make lobsters more comfortable in its stores so its customers won’t have to go elsewhere to buy them. But how comfortable will these new houses be? Berber carpets? Gourmet kitchens? Jacuzzi?

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Two Chicago alderman file to have Chicago foie gras ban repealed. "Anybody who's traveled anywhere in this country knows that people are just laughing their heads off at us....It has become an embarrassment."

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I hated this meal in a way I've never hated a meal before: I felt a violent emotional reaction to what this restaurant stood for. The Amateur Gourmet visits Le Cirque and in the comments, some responses from a "Mauro Maccioni." Could it really be the owner's son joining the discussion? Or is it just an imposter?

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Florence Fabricant of the New York Times reports that former Blue Hill at Stone Barns executive chef Michael Anthony will be the new executive chef at Gramercy Tavern. He'll start next month, but his new menu won't be in place until January. Mr. Anthony, please oh please don't remove the "fresh bacon" from the Tavern Room menu. It's one of my favorite things in the whole wide world.

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For some, a trip to Austria steers their gastronomic attention to wiener schnitzel, but for me, it's all about the wurst. Jason summarizes our würst-eating adventures in Austria and Switzerland.

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Why is it, that in America it's easier to buy drugs, guns and political favors than it is to buy a gallon of raw milk? A look at how we went from drinking raw milk (naturally filled with vitamins, enzymes and antibodies) to ultra high temperature (UHT) pasteurized milk that's had its nutritional value cooked away.

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When lab-grown meat is readily available, what happens to the experience of eating meat? Or purchasing it? This research examines how our interactions will change as technology changes. Fascinating to contemplate, though I can't say it looks very appetizing to eat.

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Genetically modified plants escape test areas, go wild. Didn't we learn anything from Jurassic Park? You can't control nature. [via rebecca]

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It's that time of year again, time for the falliest yummiest sandwich. I made my first for lunch today, using slightly different ingredients. The nice thing was the apples I have (Ginger Golds, from my CSA) aren't as firm as I used last year, but they kept their flavor. So they sort of melted into the sandwich. Yum!

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The best meal that never was

As you can tell from the resumption of links, I'm back from my Austrian travels. And what a trip! I didn't really have any expectations for Austrian cuisine, but have returned a huge fan. Our first few days in Linz, we had dinner with a group of people and ended up at non-traditional restaurants. (Our first night was a vegetarian place. Only later, after eating pounds of meat in other parts of the country did I wonder how, and why, we'd ended up eating there!) So it wasn't until Salzburg that we began to search out Austrian cuisine. Lunch found us exploring the various würst stands each day, trying as many different kinds as possible. My favorite? The Munchner, or weisswürst. Oh what I'd do for one of those right now...

Dinner found us slurping creamy soups (garlic, potato), meats and (more creamy) sauces, and the occasional wiener schnitzel. On our last night in Salzburg, we sat outside at a little place near our hotel. I'd heard it was mushroom season, and we'd spotted lots of them at the market, so when I saw chanterelle specials listed on the menu, I knew my choice: a salad to begin, and then the mushrooms in a cream sauce with dumplings. Jason ordered a similar dish with roasted pork. Alas, when my plate arrived, it was chanterelles on top of greens, some kind of mushroom salad. Apparently there'd been some confusion with the order (along with a such a delay that I didn't want to send the salad back) and I'd gotten the wrong mushroom special. It was good, the mushrooms were delicious, but when I tasted Jason's creamy dish, I realized how much better mine could have been if it were actually the right thing.

The more we traveled, the more I kept looking on every menu for the creamy chanterelle dish. Every taste of dairy, every bite of spätzle or dumpling wrapped in that delicious cream, made me long for what surely would have been an excellent dish. But I never saw it in Innsbruck (though the photo to the right appeared in the Innsbruck tourist guide, which raised my hopes), and it didn't seem to be anywhere we went in Zurich either. And while the fondue was great, and the würsts memorable, and sauerkraut and smoked meats delicious, it's that damn mushroom dish that sticks in my memory. The culinary highlight of my trip is the best dish I never ate, and I can still imagine its taste on my tongue.

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There are just seven producers who are permitted to entitle their cheese Roquefort. A great look at what goes into producing Roquefort, from the ewe's milk to the aging in select caves. I had no idea, but that's not surprising since I'm pretty much a cheese novice.

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Lovely post about fleur de sel de Guérande from David Lebovitz with details about how it's harvested. And there's even a picture of potato chips with fleur de sel. Boy what I wouldn't do for those!

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The hard life of an organic farm worker

Hard Labor is an interesting article from The Nation about the people who work on organic farms.

For many consumers, an organic apple tastes sweeter not only because it's healthier but because it conjures up a vision of a simpler, more pure world, where we produce our food without wreaking havoc on the environment and our relationship to it is unmediated by fear, guilt or the drive for excessive profits. This image of a food utopia has fueled the growth of the organic food industry, which is expanding by 20 percent each year.

But the farmworkers who bring in the organic harvest face a different reality, one largely invisible to food buyers. Whether they work in the fields or in processing plants, most workers on organic farms, like those on conventional farms, are immigrants from Mexico who earn minimum wage or slightly more and receive no benefits. Fieldwork on organic farms can be especially strenuous because farmers employ back-breaking methods like hand-weeding to avoid using pesticides.

I spend a lot of time on this site talking about how animals are treated. This article makes me realize how little attention I've paid to how the people who harvest our food are treated. From now on, I hope to do a better job of that.

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Interesting look at greenhouse gas emissions caused by food production. Includes graphs and lots of interesting facts, including "People in industrialised countries eat between six and seven kilogrammes (about 15 pounds) of food additives every year." Whoa.

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My favorite restaurateur, Danny Meyer, had a new book coming out called Setting the Table: The Transforming Power of Hospitality in Business. I imagine his insights apply to more than just the restaurant industry. Hospitality in business is seriously lacking in other industries as well. I can't wait to read it.

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This BBC guide to making risotto has a few recipes and tips. Not as comprehensive as it could be, but it's a nice start. And also a reminder that I want to start making more risotto now that the weather's cooling off a bit.

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Tablehopper.com features primarily San Francisco restaurant reviews and some bar reviews too, along with industry gossip, weekend getaway ideas, and other places and things. Looks like a good resource, especially for those living in the Bay Area.

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