At one point during our meal -- well, at two points during our meal, one of the myriad service people attending the patrons drops a piece of bread next to my chair. "Ladies and gentlemen, the sound that poor young man made when that toasted piece of heaven hit the immaculate carpet was akin to the soft keening sigh one might make upon discovering that one's pet Siamese had passed from this earthly realm to the next." A review of The French Laundry, but nothing like the usual reviews, and well worth reading.

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Writer has lunch at Per Se, smuggles food out, and sends it to a lab for testing to ascertain the calorie count of each item. Not surprisingly, the meal is pretty hefty. "All told, the nine courses tallied 1,230.8 calories, 59.7 grams of fat, and 101.7 grams of carbs." But that's not outrageous, especially since you probably don't eat much for breakfast (if you're smart) before you head over there, and by the time you waddle out, it's late in the afternoon. So who's going to eat a whole lot for dinner? Interestingly, when they add in the extras (amuse bouche, bread and butter, mignardises, and wine), the total pretty much doubles. The biggest culprit? Three rolls with three tablespoons butter adds 720 calories to the meal. I don't know who has the gastronomic capacity to eat a nine course lunch and three rolls with butter. That's an easy one to leave out, and keep the calorie count under control. [via Eater]

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From the May 2007 Saveur comes this great tidbit: the full name of Cap'n Crunch! His proper name is Captain Horatio Magellan Crunch. The Horatio makes him sound British, which makes sense since his outfit looks like an English Navy get up (or something Naploean would have worn). And the Magellan gives him an air of exploration. The Crunch is straight out of Dickens. He may be Capt. H.M. Crunch aboard ship, but he'll always be Cap'n of breakfast to me.

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"Tartiflette has the tang and satisfaction of macaroni and cheese baked until it forms a chewy crust, the pure pleasure derived from a bowl of creamy mashed potatoes and a flavor that could only come from 500 years spent perfecting cheesemaking." A traditional dish of France's Haute-Savoie region, it can be tricky to find a version that's delicious and not just served up for tourists. Mmmm...tartiflette.

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I'd completely forgotten that Broadway Panhandler (a cooking store here in New York) had moved closer to my neighborhood, so when I happened to walk by it yesterday, I stopped in. I was quite excited to see there'll be a Bread Pudding Recipe Exchange Week Taste Off! on Wednesday, May 2nd at 2 PM. "You be the judge of our selection of bread puddings, baked by our highly competitive (and dessert obsessed) staff." Recipes will be shared and there'll be a trial of the Zojirushi Rizo Rice Cooker, though I don't know what a rice cooker has to do with bread pudding, unless there's some mistake and it's a rice pudding contest. Regardless, sounds like fun for a New York City-based bread pudding fan. And guess who's a New York City-based bread pudding fan?!

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The Washington Post examines the possible change in the chocolate standard with Chocolate Purists Alarmed by Proposal To Fudge Standards. (I couldn't resist that title!) While the proposed change isn't limited to chocolate (it's more general than I'd realized, basically allowing for the substitution of vegetable fats), it certainly will impact chocolate if it's approved. [thanks Kayhan!]

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First we heard hogs had been fed some of the contaminated pet food, but we were assured those hogs hadn't entered our food supply. Now comes the government report that tainted hogs entered the human food supply after all. But "the potential risk to human health was said to be very low." Let's hope this time they're right.

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Nice summary of the issues around the FDA and E. coli outbreaks over at Accidental Hedonist, including information about what the FDA knew before the outbreaks happened but how little authority they had to take any action.

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A new market for New York

Somehow I just stumbled upon this: New Amsterdam Public. "It is time to build upon the Greenmarket’s success by establishing a permanent, indoor public market consisting of artisan purveyors committed to selling food produced sustainably and humanely in our region." They hope to transform the Fulton Fish Market building near South Street Seaport into a year-round market for New York City. It sounds like a fabulous idea to me. I emailed one of the folks involved in the project, Robert LaValva, about where things currently stand. His response:

Right now, we are working on a proposal to the City of New York to let us begin holding seasonal, sustainable food events in one of the empty Fulton Market buildings. The events will allow New Yorkers to envision a permanent, year-round market and help build momentum and support for that to happen.

Sounds like the market dream is still a ways off, but I'm hopeful it will happen. For more information, check out this essay about the philosophy behind the market.

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Rhode Island is the birthplace of the diner, and the New York Times takes a look at some its oldest historic diners. I'm a huge diner fan, especially of the authentic railcar diners. I wish there were more here in Manhattan, but two I like to frequent are The Square, in TriBeCa, and the Cheyenne, on Ninth Ave near 34th Street. I just wish there were a great one close to my house. Boston has some good ones, especially in Somerville and Cambridge, that I used to go to all the time when I lived there. Mmmm...diner breakfast would be good right now.

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More thoughts on foie gras production

Yesterday I wrote about producers changing their approach to foie gras production and I wondered, "By changing their approach to product, aren't producers acknowledging that force-feeding is inhumane?" Some folks wrote in with some thoughts about my question.

Berry:

I would say, not necessarily. Producers could merely be acknowledging that if they don't change their production methods, shrill activists may get their product banned altogether, so they're attempting to compromise.

Kevin:

Obviously the producers have to speak for themselves.

But in my view efforts to find a way other than gavage to create foie gras is simply an acknowledgment that some people object to force-feeding (whether the arguments are correct or not), are passing laws against it, and the producers want to stay in business.

Lisa:

I don't think the only or strongest conclusion is that force-feeding in foie gras production is inhumane, nor do I think that producers exploring alternatives is inconsistent with their statements that the animals don't suffer during the process. An alternative view is that the producers are aware of the power of public opinion--informed or not, scientifically correct or not--and are considering other approaches that may yield the same product but avoid the public condemnation. Trying to find the happy medium, as it were.

All three of you raise valid points, and it's quite possible that the production changes are motivated by a simple desire to stay in business. Still though, I can't help but feel like this is one of those logic problems you see on tests. If force-feeding is inhumane, you change your method. If it's not, you don't. Of course, I never took logic in college, so I'm sure I could be guilty of some kind of logical fallacy here. Thanks for writing folks, it reminds me I should turn on comments again!

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Eating on a budget

It's about the half way mark of the Penny-Wise Eat Local Challenge, where participants limit themselves to eating local on the budget of an average American. The idea is to counter claims that eating local is too expensive. For one person, that means spending $68 on food for a week. Here's a list of participants, there are more than fifty people taking part and writing about their experiences.

Related: The governor of Oregon is living off a food stamp budget for a week. If you think $68 as your weekly grocery budget isn't much, imagine $21 for a week. That's what one person gets in food stamps for a week in Oregon. The governor isn't eating local though. One article I read said he was pretty much forced to buy junk food.

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Looks like mangoes have been reunited with sticks. To translate: the mango on a stick vendor is back on her corner at 14th Street and University. I've walked by a million times but never gotten one, which is odd given my love of mangoes. This just might be the year to try one out! These mango flowers, as I call them, were always for sale in the streets in Mexico when I lived there. But that was before I loved mangoes.

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I've always found graphics of animals that are explicitly related to their consumption both disturbing and amusing (e.g. this post from last fall of a cow explaining cuts of beef), so I was totally psyched to find the blog Suicide Food. "Suicide Food is any depiction of animals that act as though they wish to be consumed. Suicide Food actively participates in or celebrates its own demise." Just like this French poster you can see here of a pig slicing himself into delicious saucisson, or sausage. The site has lots of great graphics of cows happily being sliced into steaks and pigs slathering themselves in BBQ sauce. [via The Ethicurean]

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FDA Was Aware of Dangers To Food. The recent spinach and peanut butter e. coli outbreaks, and the pet food contamination, have led the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee to hold a hearing on food safety. "Congressional critics and consumer advocates said both episodes show that the agency is incapable of adequately protecting the safety of the food supply." [via The Ethicurean]

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Several folks have emailed, wondering what's happening with my Best chocolate chip cookie search. It's been a month since I asked for recipes, so you could assume I've made quite a bit of progress. Or at least made one of the recipes. But the truth is, I haven't made a single batch of cookies yet! I know I know, at this rate it will take me close to two years to try all the recipes submitted by readers. But I'm on top of it now, and have been organizing the recipes for tasting. I'll post more about it in the next couple days, and will kick off the testing in earnest. Really. I promise! :)

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Menu Pages launched blogs awhile back, and ever since I've had my eye on their Menu Pages Boston blog. Enough time has now passed that I can safely say it's a good read for Bostonians interested in local food happenings. I've been reading it to stay plugged in to my hometown's culinary culture, and would find it really useful if I actually lived there.

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Changing foie gras production

Producers in the United States and Europe have been trying to find ways to make foie gras that will overcome the objections of those who see their work as an act of cruelty. The New York Times looks at alternatives to force-feeding geese and ducks to make foie gras, including an approach that simply allows the animals as much food as they want prior to their migratory season. Alas, the self-gorging technique doesn't seem to yield the same results as force-feeding the animals.

By changing their approach to product, aren't producers acknowledging that force-feeding is inhumane? And isn't that the crux of the issue, whether the animals suffer during the process? One side says they do, the other says they don't. If producers are changing how they make foie gras, it seems like they're saying the "animals suffer" argument is correct. And that doesn't bode well for the future of foie gras.

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The dangers of polyethylene plastic

After learning last week that boiling freezer bags is not recommended, I decided to do a little more research about polyethylene plastic, the main "ingredient" in plastic bags. Low density polyethylene is used not just for freezer bags, but also for vacuum sealing bags (like FoodSaver). So I suspect that whatever type of plastic bags professional chefs are using for their sous vide, they are likely made of polyethylene.

And as it turns out, polyethylene melts. Above 115°C, the polymer changes from a clear solid to a relatively low-viscosity melt. It's hard to figure out the exact melting point for plastic bags because there are many different types of polyethylene (high density, low density, linear low density, etc.) but all seem to melt around the boiling point of water (100°C, 212°F), and some below it.

Even if you think your food will cook well below the melting point, there's still the issue of transference: molecules of the chemicals in the plastic can leach into the food or beverage. These chemicals are added to the plastic during the manufacturing process and some studies have shown they can find their ways into our bodies, especially when heated. So not only is sous vide potentially bad (either the poor man's version or the rich man's), but reheating that lasagna in the Tupperware isn't so great either.

Where does that leave us? Laying off all kinds of sous vide preparations, and migrating home storage containers from plastic to glass, or another inert material. Or just hoping that a little plastic does the body good.

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I realized recently that two years ago this month, I was in Paris. So I was looking back through my Flickr photo collection of my April in Paris and longing for the food I ate. Moules Frites (mussels and french fries) is one of my favorite things in the whole world, whether in France or in the US. I think I'd like a neon "Moules Frites" sign in my house, just like the one in the above photo.

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Any day now, the ramps will be arriving at the Union Square Greenmarket. And when they do, I will be going on a ramp binge.

Update: Looks like ramps arrived on Saturday. Doh! I should have gone over to see, but was going other things. Wednesday I'll check for sure. [via Gothamist]

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The FDA is considering a change to the definition of 'chocolate.' "Their plan is to change the basic formula of chocolate in order to use vegetable fat substitutes in place of cocoa butter, and to use milk substitutes in the place of nutritionally superior milk." The result? A crappier product that can be labeled 'chocolate.' You can fight the change in the chocolate standard by sharing your comments with the FDA until April 25. [thanks Shannon!]

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The Shake Shack camera was fixed there for a couple days but I guess the huge crowds over the weekend taxed its capacity and it's busted again. I'm sure the line is over an hour long though with the gorgeous weather, so no need to check it to see how long you'll be waiting if you head over today. You'll be waiting all afternoon.

Update: Seems to be fixed!

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One dollar can buy 1,200 calories of cookies or potato chips but only 250 calories of carrots. Michael Pollan argues this is the year for everyone to get involved in the Farm Bill, and to realize it's really a Food Bill that effects everyone in the United States. I agree with him, but am not optimistic it will happen. At least, not this year. Maybe by the next Farm Bill.

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Because people use to go to sleep around sundown, the biggest meal of the day once centered around noon. As candles and lamps became more common, mealtime shifted. By the 1800s, the upper class would have supper at 2 AM and stay up until dawn. Who knew the history of mealtime could be so interesting? [thanks Jason]

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I want my rBGH

Stephen Colbert explained rBGH the other night on "The Colbert Report." So if you're still in the dark about this milk additive, perhaps the amusing clip will help you understand the issue more clearly. [via The Ethicurian]

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Veal becomes more flavorful if it’s allowed to walk around, and that deliciousness has contributed to a rise in humanely raised veal consumption. More producers are allowing calves to roam pastures with their mothers, and using feed and grass in their diets in addition to milk. The result? Guilt-free, tasty veal. Of course, "The American Veal Association, a majority of whose members still raise their animals in crates, maintains that the new kinds of veal on the market don’t even deserve the name." They want it to be called "calf" or "young steer." I'm partial to the label "humanely raised veal" so you know what you're getting: a young calf that wasn't confined to a crate.

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Dairy farmers go organic before upcoming rule change. Current regulations allow dairy farmers to feed their cows 80% organic feed during most of the transition year to organic. With an upcoming change to the rules (requiring 100% organic feed during transition), many farmers are now making the switch to organic. But don't expect organic dairy prices to drop any time soon. There's been more demand than supply for organic dairy for a while now, and the market will quickly absorb all the new milk. I just hope it means more access to fresh organic local milk for people, and less reliance on the ultra-pasteurized stuff.

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Beautiful looking white chocolate cheesecake from Flickr user Sashertootie, recipe included.

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NYC Trend Alert: high-end late night dining! Tribeca Vietnamese restaurant Mai House recently announced they'll be serving a late night menu "28 terrific plates, all priced at $10 or less from 10 PM on." Remember, Momofuku Ssäm Bar started out with a late night menu after 10 PM, which they then began serving at 6 PM because their early night menu wasn't nearly as delicious. So it looks like options for fancy late night dining in New York are increasing. Of course, there have always been options for non-fancy late night dining. And sometimes, nothing tastes better at midnight than a grilled cheese, if you ask me.

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Regarding the poor man's sous-vide post from yesterday, it looks like boiling Ziploc bags is not recommended. From a consumer specialist at S.C. Johnson & Son (makers of Ziploc), "Ziploc bags are not designed or approved to withstand the extreme heat of boiling and therefore, using Ziploc bags to make any recipe that requires the bag to be boiled is not recommended." The plastic can melt at the temperature, and who wants to eat food merged with plastic?

Of course, if I'd read the recipes more closely, I'd have realized the salmon I was keen to try out doesn't even call for the faux sous vide prep, and is just slow cooked in the oven. The only recipe that calls for the use of freezer bag is the slow-poached shrimp, and that only wants water brought "to 150 degrees, just below a simmer." So you might be ok if you keep the temperature low, but consider yourself warned. [thanks Allan!]

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I'd heard rumors of this, but it looks like it's official: Danny Meyer's opening a Union Square Cafe in Tokyo. Wonder how the famous Meyer hospitality will translate to Japan, and how he'll manage a restaurant so far away. It will be interesting to see the results.

See also: a diary of the opening process. [thanks Jason!]

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Poor man's sous vide

photo by Ken Hively/LAT
The Los Angeles Times looks at "poor man's sous-vide" in Low, slow and succulent. Instead of using an immersion water bath and vacuum-packing the food to be cooked, the article describes a simpler technique: Ziploc baggies! Place food in a zippered freezer bag, place bag in warm water, poach. The results look pretty good, and the three recipes at the end of the article sound tasty. I think I'll try out the salmon and see if it actually works. [via The Ethicurean]

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From Esquire comes this list of 60 Things Worth Shortening Your Life For, many of which are food. Also some of which I've eaten, and would eat again, like duck-fat potatoes and deep-fried Twinkies. I'd like to try The Fat Darrell at the R. U. Grill & Pizza in New Brunswick, New Jersey, a "sandwich made up of chicken fingers, mozzarella sticks, and french fries." Yum. And of course, the downhill skiing they mention sounds pretty fun too.

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The cuisines of the world are merging into one giant, amorphous mass, worries Salma Abdelnour in May's Food & Wine. "The problem is, too many chefs worldwide are creating menus that flit across so many borders and reference so many traditions that they--and we--lose any sense of place." She raises a valid point, but I'm not sure I buy it. Of course if you go to one of the may Nobu's anywhere in the world, you're not going to have a local experience. But there's plenty of street food to be had that's authentic. I traveled around Asia a few years ago and ate Thai food in Bangkok and Vietnamese and French food in Saigon. Perhaps if you only visit high-end restaurants, you'll get stuck with fusion and miss out on local specialties. But after the amount of eating and traveling I've done in the past few years, I don't feel like we're in danger of a homogeneous world cuisine any time soon.

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My mother-in-law was visiting recently and while she was in NY, she stopped in at the MOMA Design Store and picked up these awesome Nested Prep/Measuring Bowls as a gift for me. The orange melamine bowls are designed by Mario Batali (what can't that guy do?!) and inside have lines for measuring. So you can use them for prep, or measuring cups, or both! Handy dandy, and beautiful to boot.

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I'm a few days late on this, but David Lebovitz's Salted Butter Caramel Ice Cream sounds fantastic. My ice cream maker's been out of the freezer for a while now (I use the KitchenAid attachment) because it hasn't been ice cream weather. But after reading this, it's going back in. And with the warmer weather coming (it's got to be coming, right?) I'm going to get back to making more ice cream. Mmmmm...I wish I had some salted butter caramel ice cream right now!

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Interested in visiting the New York Food Museum? If so, no need to buy a plane ticket, it's mostly an online museum. Currently with no permanent home, the museum organizes events (like Pickle Day) and exhibits at schools and in mass transit stations. Poke around the site for a look at New York City food 100 years ago, and other interesting tidbits.

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What is this, you ask? Port Wine and Confit Duck Sausage with Truffle Sauce Moutarde and White Truffle Cheese from Hot Doug's, "The Sausage Superstore and Encased Meat Emporium" in Chicago. Mmm...mmm...good! My husband and I wanted to go to Hot Doug's last spring when we visit Chicago and somehow managed not to. Stupid! We'll have to head back soon.

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You'd think with all the recent wind (gusts over 50 MPH) here NYC, the Shake Shack would be able to power their web camera but the poor thing's been out of commission for at least two weeks. Either that or this guy's been hanging out forever trying to decide what to order. Come on, Shack Crew! How hard can it be to keep a lil' ol' web cam running?

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Missing links at the New York Times

It seemed like the New York Times Dining Section was really trying hard to get the web. They set up some blogs like Diner's Journal for critic Frank Bruni and The Pour for wine writer Eric Asimov. Recently they added more bloggers to Diner's Journal, increasing the number of daily posts and the breadth of coverage. Things were looking good. And then, they go ahead and run articles like today's Expanding the Options.

The article is a little summary of new joints that have opened in the West Village in Manhattan that they've already reviewed. But they don't link to the original reviews in the online version of the article! They just mention there was an article and the date it appeared, leaving readers to dig through their archives to find it. How stupid is that? Links people, links! The web is all about links!!! And a business aside to the Times: if you're worried about getting your dead-tree-printing ass kicked by the internet, your best bet would be to up your page views (and advertising revenue) by driving people to your own freakin' content. You wrote it once, help people find it again.

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Get farmers off the agri-welfare roles, says the Christian Science Monitor, encouraging Congress to revamp the Farm Bill this year. "This is the year for Congress to do for agriculture what it did for welfare reform in 1996."

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The cold rainy spring here in the Northeast has been a bummer for me. But it's really been a bummer for lobstermen. A pattern of strong northwest winds has made it difficult for lobstermen to head out to sea for the last two months or so. And colder water temperatures mean the lobsters aren't feeding, so the traps are often empty. End result: lobster is scarce and pricey right now.

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Playing catch up

I've been so busy doing stuff over at Serious Eats that I've been completely neglecting this site. I've built up a bunch of links I've been meaning to post though, so I'm going to just give them all to you in one big lump, since who knows when I'll have time to write properly about them or mete them out. Some are probably so old you've already seen them, but oh well. That's what I get for letting things sit around I suppose.

Organic crime in Bay Ridge looks at smuggling raw milk in Brooklyn, NY.

It doesn’t add up: math in the era of trans fat labeling. When zero doesn't mean zero.

Restoration on the Half Shell opines about oyster farming in the Mid-Atlantic states.

Was He the Eggman? A look at the history of eggs Benedict.

Jamba Juice may or may not have milk in their non-dairy mix. They also may or may not have a non-dairy mix at all.

The Red-Meat Miracle, and Other Tales From the Butcher Case. Harold McGee looks at why red meat is red, and how carbon monoxide can make older meat and fish look "fresh."

Cruelty-Free Carnivorism links and trend over at Buzzfeed. Assuage your conscience and fill your belly!

Bovine growth hormone: human food safety evaluation. An abstract from a Science article in 1990 stating "recombinant bovine growth hormone (rbGH) in dairy cattle presents no increased health risk to consumers."

And finally, The New Rules of Food. "Basic knowledge of where food comes from and how it is produced is lost on many Americans today. How differently would we eat if we got to know our food better?"

Gah, that's a lot of stuff I should have been posting! Hopefully I'll be more on top of things beginning next week. In the meantime, enjoy!

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Meatpaper is a new magazine, it's "a print magazine of art and ideas about meat. We like metaphors more than marinating tips. We are your journal of meat culture." One of the editors, Sasha, attended high school with me, but until now I was not aware of her meat love! I'm looking forward to seeing the first issue, it sounds intriguing.

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Is Mario Batali selling out?

Mario Batali has sold out is and is using his name to move frozen dinners for General Mills, according to an article on Grist. The author wishes Batali would bring his "talent and fame to bear on the great food issue of our time: the environmental, social, and public-health ruin served up as a matter of course by our industrial food system." Well sure, I'd like to see that from a lot of our leading food personalities, but we all don't believe in the same causes.

From what I've heard, Batali actually worked long and hard to make sure these dinners were tasty and good-quality. They won't be cheap, something around $10 or so to feed four people. So clearly they're a step up from Stouffer's. Plus, if you're going to call Batali a sell-out, wouldn't you have done so after that NASCAR cookbook?

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The recent dog and cat food scare has people cooking food for their pets at home because of safety concerns. I totally understand this desire, as a cat owner, but I don't have the time. I'm relieved I've been using Wellness Cat Food for my kitty for several years now. Wellness products haven't been affected by the recall because they don't use wheat gluten. If you're concerned about your pet's food, and don't have time to cook for them, check out Wellness. The wet cat food doesn't even smell gross! And that's saying something.

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It's National Peanut Butter & Jelly day, which means we're celebrating over at Serious Eats. I wrote an article, J: Jams, Jellies (and Preserves and Conserves), all about the difference between the many type of "jams" and how they're made.

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