Wednesday, January 31, 2007
Annie tested the direction of popular culture and felt the gentle wind of organics blowing, and she created her famous purple box of mac 'n' cheese. And now Salon's Anastacia Marx de Salcedo takes her, and everyone who whips up a box of it, to task in her article comparing Annie's to Kraft. While I agree that the label "all-natural" on Annie's doesn't really mean anything in any official government-approved way, you can take a look at the ingredients in a box of Annie's and it sure seems "natural" compared to Kraft's.
Annie's Homegrown Original Shells & Cheddar ingredients:
Durum Semolina Pasta, White Cheddar Cheese (Milk, Salt, Cheese Cultures, Enzymes), Whey, Sweetcream Buttermilk.
Kraft Original Elbow Macaroni & Cheese ingredients:
Enriched Macaroni Product (Durum Wheat Flour, Wheat Flour, Niacin, Ferrous Sulfate, Thiamin Mononitrate [Vitamin B1], Riboflavin [Vitamin B2], Folic Acid), Cheese Sauce Mix (Whey, Whey Protein Concentrate, Milk Fat, Milk Protein Concentrate, Salt, Sodium Tripoly-Phosphate, Citric Acid, Sodium Phosphate, Lactic Acid, Calcium Phosphate, Yellow 5, Yellow 6, Enzymes, Cheese Culture).
The author points out that from a nutritional perspective, Kraft and Annie's are about equal (in terms of calories, sodium, protein, fat, etc.) but that misses the point. It's not that Annie's is "healthy," it's that it's less processed. It has less chemical additives. Why feed yourself or your children Yellow 5 or Milk Protein Concentrate when you can just give them cheese? It's hard enough for people to get decent food on the table these days, and while I agree it's nice to have a home-cooked meal, sometimes there isn't time for that. When I'm choosing between two instant mac 'n' cheeses, I'll take the one without Sodium Tripoly-Phosphate any day.
As for the author's assertion that "making pasta with cheese from scratch is just as easy as mixing up a pot of Annie's" (with a proper Béchamel sauce!) I say no way! She lists the steps side by side in her article, but if you actually look at the time associated with each step, it's clear Annie's is less commitment. With box mac 'n' cheese, you boil water and cook pasta. Neither task requires your attention in the kitchen, so you're free to do whatever else needs doing. (I suggest making a quick green salad to accompany your boxed delight, but let's stay on target.) When the pasta's done, you simply drain, add butter, cheese powder, milk, and stir. Total active time: less than a minute. Now think about making the same from scratch. While the pasta's boiling, you need to make your Béchamel. That requires whisking and attention. You also need to grate cheese, mix cheese in white sauce, etc. Total active time: more than one minute.
All said, I don't eat Annie's products very often, so I'm not defending them because I'm a fan. It's because this article seems dishonest to me, making false comparisons to support the author's belief. And it strikes me as a thinly-veiled critique of a certain lifestyle in the guise of nutritional analysis: the holier-than-thou-homemade crowd vs. the well-to-do Whole Foods yuppies with kids. It's a rant directed at people who actually do care what they're feeding their kids, and who are trying to do the right thing. In my opinion, that's the wrong target.
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
Are you into food and the web? Are you good with web design, familiar with blogs, and an able coder? Serious Eats, a start-up that is focused on sharing food enthusiasm through blogs and online community, is hiring. You'd be working with a team of passionate food lovers, including the site's founder (food maven, and New York Times author) Ed Levine, food bloggers Alaina Browne and Adam Kuban, and me! See the job description for all the details.
Monday, January 29, 2007
New York's growing wave of parents obsessed with all things culinary are indoctrinating their children to the ways of gastronomy. From dining out at three and four-star restaurants to taking cooking lessons on Saturday mornings, “[f]ood is the next frontier in terms of the precious raising of children.” Normally this is something I'd cheer, but somehow the article made it seem so snooty.
San Francisco now has one of the best French-style bakeries...Tartine Bakery. I was in San Francisco last week and had breakfast there and I concur with Mark Bittman: Tartine is fabulous. I especially enjoyed the bread pudding with seasonal fruit. I think I could eat that every morning for the rest of my life and never get bored. Please will someone open a place this good in New York City, preferably in my neighborhood?
Friday, January 26, 2007
Modern supermarket experience
Coffee and doughnuts to become just doughnuts. A scientist has developed caffeinated doughnuts! So you can skip the coffee, or double down on your morning caffeine intake by having a cuppa and a caf doughnut.
FishWise labels makes it easy to choose seafood that is healthy for the oceans and healthy for you. The labels are color-coded so you can tell if you're purchasing something that's being overfished. So far it looks like it's in stores in Minnesota and California for now.
Thursday, January 25, 2007
Bi-Rite Creamery in San Francisco
Councillors in York, England vote today to urge the government to ban foie gras and for the city to discourage its sale. Doesn't sound like they're voting on anything more than a recommendation, so nothing will be banned. They mention Chicago's ban as inspiration for their campaign. Perhaps the news hasn't traveled across the Atlantic that that ban hasn't gone so well.
Wednesday, January 24, 2007
Chef foraged for the mushrooms in a thicket near the Tappan Zee. Frank Bruni on the change in climate at some New York restaurants. "Once they were lucky to have us. Now we’re lucky to have them. They don’t meet us on our terms. We meet them on theirs." Even my beloved Keller sounds annoying in this article.
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
Send breast milk halfway around the world to help undernourished babies in developing countries. What really piqued my attention was the bit at the end of the article, where they discuss pasteurizing breast milk so it will last longer. Won't that kill so many of the beneficial nutrients in the milk? After all, breast milk is our very own probiotic milk shake! [via Jason]
Things were slow around here at the end of last week because I was at MIT giving a talk, and didn't end up with as much time to blog as I'd thought. I hope to write up more about my presentation when I get a chance. In the meantime, here's a little summary from John Maeda.
Some experts say that probiotics have the potential to be this decade’s oat bran. Probiotics are foods that have beneficial bacteria that many claim aid digestion and ward off illness. Yogurt with live cultures is a probiotic, but now bacteria are being added to non-dairy products.
Monday, January 22, 2007
Thomas Keller uses frozen Sysco french fries at Bouchon. WIth all my travel last week, I missed this story from Grub Street. Scandalous, but I'm not a fry snob who turns my nose at frozen. If they taste good, I'll eat them.
Freegans are people who employ alternative strategies for living based on limited participation in the conventional economy and minimal consumption of resources. "Perhaps the most notorious freegan strategy is what is commonly called 'urban foraging' or 'dumpster diving'." That expired bread out behind the market? That's dinner for a freegan. [Thanks Cory]
These miniature salami are so cute! Even if you no longer have a dollhouse, or never did, it seems like there's something you can do with it. The site sells all kinds of mini food items.
Wednesday, January 17, 2007
At what point does hiring someone to achieve a certain look or style in a restaurant turn into racism? Should a server at a high-end French restaurant like Daniel be French, or is it okay if he's Korean or she's Indian? Is the restaurateur crafting an experience or descriminating?
Flickr user Rakka's awesome Nintendo DS cake.
End the tyranny of dark chocolate! Gourmet tests 25 milk chocolates and lists their preferences. I'm not a huge chocolate fan (though I used to be) but when I have it, I prefer milk chocolate, so I was happy to see this list.
Nine pages on Grant Achatz may only appeal to the die hard Alinea fan but it's got everything you'd want to know about cooking, going back to Carême and the Enlightenment. Just remember, don't call it molecular gastronomy. (Here's part II.) [via Serious Eats]
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
For lazy prep cooks, or those looking to create perfect julienne or dice without perfect knife skills, these Crate & Barrel Alligator Choppers will do the job for you. "With one quick press, hinged plastic cutters slice food into 'sticks' with a razor-sharp grid of stainless blades. Turn 'sticks,' then press again for 'cubes.'" See, you don't even need to know culinary terms to use it! $19.95 - $26.95, depending upon the size.
Friday, January 12, 2007
Buy a greenwashed product and you’re buying a specific set of healthy environmental and socially correct values. "Greenwashing...can also describe a pervasive genre of food packaging designed to make sure that manufacturers grab their slice of the $25 billion that American shoppers spend each year on natural or organic food." Includes a list of identifiers so you're aware the next time you're shopping for "Natural Cheetos." I imagine those must be picked fresh from the Cheeto tree, right?
Kate at Accidental Hedonist reports that Capri Sun will be removing the "All Natural" label from their juice products after a lawsuit by consumers. The suit claimed the label was misleading and deceptive because Capri Sun contains high fructose corn syrup, a man-made product. But corn syrup is produced from corn starch, a natural product of corn, by an enzymatic reaction. Enzymes are natural, a scientist didn't invent enzymes one day in the lab. So in a weird way, Capri Sun is natural. I don't think that's really the issue here.
People infer some kind of healthiness when they read the label "All Natural", but plenty of natural product will kill you, eating the wrong wild mushroom, for example. The real issue is processed food, and how much manipulation we want of our food before it reaches the table. Corn syrup (and the high fructose variant) do not exist in nature without human intervention. People looking for all natural food are looking for food in its original state, I suppose, but how often does that exist? And where do we draw the line? Is maple syrup all natural? You need to boil maple sap to produce the syrup. Is flour all natural? You need to grind the wheat to produce it. You could be a "naturalist" by eating only fruits and vegetables and foods that haven't been transformed, kind of like folks in the raw food movement.
For a while now, my eating style has been whole foods as much as possible. I don't buy processed or prepared foods. I make pretty much everything from scratch, and try to eat things as close to their natural state as possible. This way I can avoid additives and preservatives, and chemicals. Mostly I do this because I enjoy cooking, and I enjoy how these unmanipulated foods taste. Tomato sauce from scratch tastes better to me than sauce from a jar. Homemade soup is better than canned. When I go to the market, I don't look for an "All Natural" label, I look at the ingredients. It's pretty easy to tell from that what's really gone into the product.
I usually have on hand several different kinds of rice, each with a different use. A look at a variety of rice in the pantry and its uses. I'm not much of a rice eater at home, but when I have it out, I always enjoy it.
Thursday, January 11, 2007
Japanese tea photo from Flickr user Yoppy
I want people to walk out of the restaurant not feeling heavy and full, but vibrant and restored, says new Gramercy Tavern chef Michael Anthony. Grub Street reports butter and animal fat use to be used sparingly, "Vongerichten-like combinations of juices and herbs" will appear in their stead. What's he think he's operating, a Jamba Juice?
Trend alert from upstate New York: A supermarket food bar that's more like ordering at the bar of a nice restaurant. "Your place is set with real silverware and glassware. A server brings your food to you, beautifully presented on white plates." You pay after you eat and no tip is required. Will this trend reach NYC? Probably not, we all know no New Yorkers go to the supermarket, they eat out and get delivery.
Tuesday, January 9, 2007
A lentil & pomegranate salad recipe accompanies The Department's lovely pomegranate photo.
Lately I've been enjoying milkshakes, especially black and whites and chocolate malteds. But it seems they often come with whipped cream, which I don't like. Over at Serious Eats, I asked Milkshakes: should they come with whipped cream on top or not? If you have an opinions, please sshare it. I'm curious if this is more common than I thought.
Monday, January 8, 2007
Häagen-Dazs is running a contest for a new flavor on their site. "Post an original entry -- whether it's a story, video, photo or artwork -- depicting your dream ice cream flavor combination now through February 9, 2007." Annoyingly, the site loads a giant video and wants to launch pop-ups to tell you all about this contest, so consider yourself warned if you click through. Still, it would be fun to enter.
I have it on very good authority that that delicious Häagen-Dazs Sticky Toffee Pudding ice cream I wrote about will be going into the regular flavor rotation due to its popularity. Yay! Except that I ate too much of it and am kind of burned out on it right now.
Wine management software can produce an instant, detailed inventory of a collection and sort it, for instance, by grower, region or drink-by date. Most are web-based now too, so you can access your collection from handheld devices when you're out and about. Sounds cool, if you know, you have so much wine you can't keep track of it. Me? I know exactly what's in my wine "cellar," about four reds worth saving and several more worth drinking right now.
You can buy absinthe from Europe online, but as McGee points out in the article below, "Europe currently has no regulations on how absinthe is made or what it can be made from." So do your research before you make Hemingway's cocktail, or any other absinthe drink.
Harold McGee recreates Hemingway's absinthe cocktail, without the absinthe. “Pour one jigger absinthe into a Champagne glass. Add iced Champagne until it attains the proper opalescent milkiness. Drink three to five of these slowly.” McGee reports that recent studies disprove the belief that absinthe causes hallucinations and criminal behavior.
Saturday, January 6, 2007
Friday, January 5, 2007
What do 200 calories of food actually look like? Pictures show various foods in 200 calorie portions, organized by weight. Not surprisingly, you get a lot more celery than peanut butter for 200 calories! [via Lifehacker]
Industrial pig waste also contains a host of other toxic substances: ammonia, methane, hydrogen sulfide, carbon monoxide, cyanide, phosphorous, nitrates and heavy metals. "America's top pork producer churns out a sea of waste that has destroyed rivers, killed millions of fish and generated one of the largest fines in EPA history." Mmmm...other white meat...[via Dethroner]
Thursday, January 4, 2007
The cameraman beside me drew in his breath sharply: three little babies were grilling on the spit. Don't worry, the "babies were three medium-sized monkeys." BBC reporters reflect on some of their more memorable meals.
In a modern country, a rise in disease caused by tainted food seems like a giant step backward in public health. The F.D.A. is trying to find a way to stop outbreaks like the recent spinach and lettuce contaminations, but doesn't have the resources for inspections of every farm.
Wednesday, January 3, 2007
Right now there’s a big tension between small scale and industrial food production. My friend Leah interviewed me for her site, and I talk about the current state of food, living in New York City, and "astounding facts" that no one knows about me.
Tuesday, January 2, 2007
U.S. and Japanese scientists reported on Sunday that they had used genetic engineering to produce cattle that resist mad cow disease. Great! So instead of a simple solution to stopping mad cow like don't feed cattle (who are vegetarians) animal parts from sheep and other cows, let's complicate the whole thing by genetically engineering animals to "lack the nervous system prions, a type of protein, that cause BSE and other related diseases." Yum, now we can go back to feeding our cattle spinal cords from sick, old cows!
First Lenny Kravitz gets fooled into thinking L'As du Falafel makes the best falafel in Paris, and now to my dismay I see that Mark Bittman of the New York Times not only thinks L'As is the best in Paris but says "this is the falafel destination in Paris, indeed in Europe." But Bittman and Kravitz are wrong! Right across the street from L'As du Falafel is mi-va-mi, which I believe makes a superior falafel, and easily the best one I've ever had. And trust me, I've had it many times because I lived in the neighborhood for a month back in 2002. Perhaps the problem is that both places offer such superior falafels to anything anywhere else that upon eating one, you conclude there simply cannot be a better falafel and you've found the best spot. Regardless, mi-va-mi is my place, and it has a take-out window and nice indoor seating. And every time I return to Paris, I head over there for a delicious sandwich and swear it's all I'll eat for the rest of my visit.
Harmful bacteria are rampant in meatpacking plants and in produce fields, but government oversight is eroding. But after the recent contaminations in spinach and at Taco Bell, attention is focused on the issue of food safety, and the public is becoming more engaged.
