Archives for March 2008
Regulations Don’t Beget Safer Foods
On Friday, NPR-voiced podcaster Caleb Brown of the Cato Institute interviewed Peter Van Doren of Cato’s Regulation** magazine about the myth of food safety. As Van Doren puts it:
The problem is that government overpromises… The left points out [USDA & FDA are] underfunded and don’t have enough inspectors to actually do a good job. And the left is correct. It’s true.
But that’s a chronic problem. Instead of the answer to that being, “Oh, we could add more money to the budget and somehow solve the problem,” if you do the math, you’d find out you can’t have enough inspectors to actually adequately provide assurances of the sort many voters want.
More here. Cato podcast index here.
The Federal Times on food safety issues here. The U.S. government’s own food safety website — which, as the image above shows, proves the feds aren’t wasting a blessed penny of their food-safety inspection budget on web design — here.
**I’m guessing that Regulation is the only magazine published by a think tank that boasts a former Dancing with the Stars contestant as a columnist.
Faux Food Extravaganza
With food prices rising, you might decide it’s cheaper to opt instead for Food Replica Package No. 3 from Nasco. The package includes everything from roast beef to pre-cooked pork sausage, refried beans to beef stew, and pizza to cooked prunes. All for only $185.
More Nasco food replicas here, including a 1.5 oz. shot of whiskey for $12.75. Competition here.
This Week in Bacon
The big news in bacon this week, BusinessWeek reports, is that bacon is big news.
Bacon is such an American staple that more than half of U.S. households—53%—report always having bacon on hand and, despite its demonization by the food police, per capita consumption in the U.S. rose from 16.8 lbs. per person in 1998 to 17.9 lbs. in 2007. Most of this growth has occurred not in the home but in restaurants—and not as a breakfast food.
According to Jarrod Sutton of the National Pork Board, “The food-service industry has led bacon growth by adding bacon where it hasn’t been before. It’s not just a breakfast entrée anymore. Bacon is becoming more popular as part of the other two meals…it’s become a complementary item to salads, sandwiches, and baked potatoes.”
Bacon is so now even Eliot (sic) Gould comes with bacon these days.
Glorious Foodie News as DC Baseball Goes BYOF
With baseball season set to kick off in the coming days, there’s no time like the present for teams to debut great new foods.
My adopted hometown Washington Nationals — I’ve adopted the town, not the team, which is moving into a new (taxpayer financed = boo!) stadium — aren’t just upping their food quality.
They’re also shockingly inviting ballpark diners to go the byof route.
There’s a big change awaiting baseball fans at the Washington Nationals new ballpark after years at RFK Stadium. The new Nationals Park is going to allow fans to bring their own food.
So if you don’t feel like paying $6.50 for a chili dog or $5 for fries, you won’t have to sneak in your own snack.
[…]
Fans will also be allowed to bring in water bottles that are less than a liter in size.
Holy crap! This is a baseball & food-lover’s dream! This might be the greatest sports food news… ever. Seriously. I could bring a backpack filled with hot dogs and a water bottle filled with white wine or beer. This is so great it makes the world’s greatest burger seem pedestrian.
Like a Taco Bell Gordita, Only Grosser
Butch’s Pizza has been around in Appleton, Wis. for several decades. Sounds like a good, traditional, family-style pizzeria.
Butch’s is filled with charm. For example, [owner Ned] Montanye’s community involvement is evidenced by the dozens of youth sports trophies that adorn the walls.
[…]
On the menu: I couldn’t decide on just one pie, so I just ordered two. I got a 14-inch Butch’s Special ($15.20) on thin crust, which is topped with sausage, mushrooms, pepperoni, green peppers and onions.
“All the flavors blend together really well,” Montanye. “I like adding bacon to it. That really jazzes it up.”
So far so… great! Awesome! Perfect! But then…
I also ordered a 14-inch Taco Pizza ($18.25), which is made with taco meat, lettuce, tomato, taco sauce on the side and, as a nice touch, crushed Doritos on top.
“Our taco pizza I think is amazing,” said Ned. “It is so filling. There is a lot of stuff on there.”
Speechless. Horrified. More here.
Though I’ve learned the Internet is rife with taco pizza recipes, anyone who craves such crap deserves to eat the Burrito Mexicalian Pizza, which features as its first ingredient “1 box single cheese pizza mix.” Check out Norway’s inexplicably “singing” taco pizza here.
Amy Winehouse Dines While Looking Like Hell, Again
You probably know by now never to look at Amy Winehouse while you’re eating. But by all means possible make sure not to look her when she’s eating.
More on this modern-day Medusa here and here. Crispy previously on the dining Ms. Winehouse here.
Headline of the Century
Paul Prudhomme should change his name to Paul Ferhomme.
Bullet Bounces Off Chef Paul Prudhomme
Chef Paul Prudhomme was shot Tuesday, but the bullet didn’t do any damage, according to Jefferson Parish deputies.
The chef was cooking at the TPC golf course in Avondale when, according to deputies, he felt something hit his arm. A .22 caliber bullet then fell from his sleeve. Prudhomme was attending The Zurich Classic, where he was cooking fish.
Deputies said the bullet did not penetrate.
Dom Deluise was unavailable for comment. More here.
Judge Tosses Foie Suit
Rare good news in the fight to keep foie gras legal, as a NY State judge has tossed a suit against Hudson Valley Foie Gras. Though I can’t find anything online to corroborate the news, a well-placed source tells me this Albany Times-Union blog post is accurate:
According to Patricia Lynch Associates, which represents Hudson Valley Foie Gras, State Supreme Court Judge John Egan Jr., last week rejected a lawsuit against the Sullivan County farm which contended that foie gras was an “adulterated food product.”
The Humane Society of the U.S. tried to say that the delicacy, made from fattened liver, was the product of a diseased animal but Egan disagreed.
I assume Judge Egan granted a motion for summary judgment, prior to trial, but will report back when I see official news. Regardless, good for Hudson Valley and the people who love their food.
Letterman First to Ask Bourdain About That Whole Cobra Heart Thing
Not really. And as a result — despite Tony’s best efforts — Bourdain’s appearance on the Late Show last night was pretty boring.
It also followed the pattern any post-fatherhood Dave interview has taken: if a guest has had a child within the last 57 months, you can bet Dave’s going to bore his viewers by asking about the kid. When he wasn’t asking about Tony’s daughter, Dave really only seemed to be paying any attention when Tony brought up Eric Ripert. (It certainly wasn’t when he went to commercial claiming No Reservations is on “Mondays at 10 a.m.”)
Tony did manage to get in one good line. When Dave asked if he’d ever “been really ill” from eating, Tony talked about picking at “the business end of a warthog” in the Kalahari, and then offered up this truism:
Most of the time, if I find myself on a cold tile floor after a meal on the show, most of the time it’s alcohol-related.
No video up yet. Bourdain’s first Late Night Show appearance (requires Real Player) here.
Nougat Fuel!
Nougat is one food I’ll never get sick of. Especially when it can fuel my car.
[A]t the United Kingdom’s University of Birmingham, researchers have diverted gooey nougat, caramel and other confectionary waste from the nearby Cadbury Schweppes plant.
Who knew that Cadbury Creme Eggs could be good for the environment?
Who knew? They’re good for everything, dammit.
In other nougat news, Daniel Boulud fitzes nougat here, and — since you were wondering — Time reminds us Iranian police aren’t going to fall for the old nougat/heroin switcharoo.
Schultz Caresses, Ponders Coffee Bag, Company’s Future
While the consensus is that Starbucks will take a while right its listing ship here in the U.S., business is booming in some surprising international locations. Take Mexico:
Reuters reported last month that, since entering Mexico in 2002, the company’s expansion rate has increased sevenfold. In fact, Starbucks plans to open 80 new stores in Mexico this year.
For Mexico’s trendy and monied set, Starbucks has become a status symbol of indulging in American tastes.
The company is also planning aggressive expansion in China (with possibly “thousands” of stores), Great Britain, Japan and Canada.
Meanwhile, Starbucks is mining customers’ minds for improvements with its My Starbucks Idea site — linked from the corporate homepage. Easily my favorite so far — and it’s baffled me for years why no company uses this — is the order/pay swipe card.
Easters Peeps Show
Thanks to Bill for the snap. WaPo Peeps contest here. All things Peeps here. Official Peeps site here.
Easter Treat: Ferrero Rondnoir
In case you’ve reached the age where the Easter Bunny no longer leaves special little treats around your home this time of year — or the Purim Bunny just never seems to show up — I recommend you try the the newish Ferrero Rondnoir this weekend.
A Ferrero rep sent me some, which she’d described in an email as “new dark chocolates that feature a dark chocolate cream surrounding a crisp wafer and topped with crunchy dark chocolate morsels.”
Since I’m a firm believer in there being no such thing as too much dark chocolate, I was happy to give them a whirl. (I’m happy to try pretty much any food someone’s willing to send me, though maybe not anything with chreese in it.)
The Rondnoir has a lot going on, but not too much. It’s definitely crispy on the outside — crunchy, even, thanks to the coating of the outer chocolate bits — and when you bite into it the three levels of cocoa-rich dark chocolate, each with a different consistency, play nicely off one another.
Candyblog has more — including the sad revelation that the Rondnoir contains no trans fats.
Find the Rondnoir seller nearest you here. Or just pick up a bunch from Amazon.
This Week in Bacon
What do you get when you combine Winnipeg and Omega-3 acids? Winningpig!
[T]here’s something decidedly fishy about hogs waddling around three farms near Winnipeg.
Contained within their portly bodies is a glut of omega-3s, the fatty acids found mainly in seafood that make oily fish so healthy.
For years, researchers have puzzled over how to add these highly sought-after oils to the flesh of other animals, with little success.
But over the past five months, Prairie Orchard Farms, a small research and marketing firm in rural Manitoba, has won two prestigious awards for doing just that. First came the federal government’s highest honour for agricultural innovation in November and, three months later, another Alberta-based prize for pork innovation.
The omega-3 pig looks and tastes much like an average hog, but it could prove to be a lucrative new entry into a market that’s increasingly wary of the health risks of red meat.
“I know a product like healthy bacon almost sounds like an oxymoron” said Willy Hoffmann, president of Prairie Orchard, located about 45 minutes west of Winnipeg in Elie, Man. “We have a novel product that way.”
The tale of how Prairie Orchard stumbled upon omega-3 pork is one of luck and perseverance.
More on that tale here. Prairie Orchard Farms describes is suped-up pigs (featuring audio and video links) here. Pick up your Omega-3 bacon — which I hope tastes better than the Prairie Orchard Farms photo pictured above makes it appear — here.
NPR on earlier U.S. scientists’ efforts to cram good fats into bacon here. Slashfood noting Omega-3 bacon was, in 2006, just a bacony pie in the sky idea here.
Food at War
While nearly every outlet is taking this week to look back on five disastrous years in Iraq, both the WaPo and NYT have nice pieces up that look at eating in the midst of war. While the MRE certainly still has its place, wartime food is much more than hard tack.
Ashley Gilbertson of the NYT’s Baghdad Bureau speaks and eats with Italian war photographer Franco Pagetti, who knows his food.
Franco sent me an e-mail early in the morning with his grocery list. For the gnocchi all we needed were potatoes, and for the sauce tomatoes and white onions. He already had Italian sausage he’d couriered in from home.
In Iraq, going to the market is incredibly dangerous — when McCain visited one in 2007, he took a company of soldiers. Our Iraqi staff just went alone. Low profile was safer, but the main concern was suicide bombers. Bazaars were their preferred locations to kill the greatest number of people.
When Franco arrived, we got to work on dinner. Making gnocchi is not an easy process, especially from scratch. All the more so when you are sous-chef to Franco. We were using his grandmother’s recipe, and he was fastidious. “Ashley! Use a knife to take off the skin! You will burn!” (He was right). “Ashley! You idiot! What’s wrong with you? You’ve never cut an onion?” (Not really.) “Ashley!” “You’re not making footballs, you make gnocchi!” (Never again.)
Walter Nichols, meanwhile, covering the domestic beat, writes for the WaPo about the food scientists who make up the MRE, and a new combat ration for soldiers — the First Strike Ration.
When U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan open group combat rations in the months to come, they might find an unexpected treat: a walnut tea cake that serves 18. And before they even get to it, they’ll have chicken pesto pasta and Burgundy beef stew to finish off.
At a recent Pentagon demonstration of advances in field food, a group of Army veterans and young soldiers who had recently returned from Iraq stood shoulder to shoulder with military brass to sample entrees and desserts that will be introduced in war zones over the next few years.
Let’s hope we can cross Iraq off that list — or at least our participation in it — as soon as possible. Certainly for the troops’ sake, but also so someone can write an updated Iraq travel guide already.
If You Like Rib-a-que, Thursday’s a Good Day to be a Senior
Each week, the Daily Star of Oneonta, NY publishes the menu served each day at local senior centers.
Today, the Delaware County Senior Dining Program is offering up “Barbecued pork rib, Greek oven fries, green bean casserole, golden glow molded salad, whole wheat bread, tapioca pudding, [and] diet salad.” Doesn’t sound half bad, if you don’t mind your salad glowing and “molded”.
Meanwhile, though, the Otsego County Senior Meals Program has lined up “Rib-a-que, mashed potatoes, bread, [and] vanilla ice cream.” That sounds lousy.
Rib-a-que? If you, like me, are looking at that word and wondering just what the hell that means, you haven’t eaten a publicly subsidized meal in a while, apparently. Because is seems like a significant portion of America dines each day on Rib-a-que.
More on tap in the Oneonta area this week here.
Editor’s Note: Image is of a McDonald’s McRib, rather than a Rib-a-que, since the Rib-a-que apparently has agents and lawyers who refuse to let it be photographed. If you are lucky enough to have snapped a grainy image of a Rib-a-que, I’d be thrilled if you’d let me know.
NYT Creates ‘Fat Pack’ Phenomenon
Some people like to eat. Some of those people like to eat well. Some of those people are fat. Where I see, at best, a Venn diagram, the NYT sees a story.
If 1960s Las Vegas had its Rat Pack and 1980s cinema its Brat Pack, early 21st century food has its Fat Pack. [eGullet co-founder Jason] Perlow was a charter member. Now, like some of his fellow travelers, he is learning what happens when the Fat Pack’s philosophy of excess meets the body’s limits of endurance.
The journalists, bloggers, chefs and others who make up the Fat Pack combine an epicure’s appreciation for skillful cooking with a glutton’s bottomless-pit approach. Cramming more than three meals into a day, once the last resort of a food critic on deadline, has become a way of life. If the meals center on meat, so much the better.
Even to those who have been in the game long enough to have seen more than a few cycles of food and diet fads, the Fat Pack culture is a shock.
“Most of us who are in this profession are here as an excuse to eat,” said Mimi Sheraton, the food writer and former New York Times restaurant critic who has chronicled her own battle with weight loss. Still, she said, “I’ve never seen such an outward, in-your-face celebration of eating fat.”
Mr. Perlow, who has embarked on an aggressive diet and fitness overhaul, believes that his online colleagues will soon realize that the time has come for healthier eating.
“I do find it irresponsible that they have done nothing to address health issues,” he said of eGullet, which he left in 2006 after a dispute with another of the site’s founders, Steven Shaw.
“The whole foodie lifestyle and diet I used to participate in — I’m not going to say it is unhealthy, but it is excessive,” he said. “I think you can still keep the food very interesting, but do it in moderation. That’s what the food community of the future is going to have to be.”
To which many members of the Fat Pack say: Shut up and pass the pork butt.
While one blogger at Serious Eats claims to be part of the phenomenon, I’m going to rain on the whole damn parade.
There is no phenomenon. People who consume more calories than they burn off through exercise become fat. I could stand to lose some weight, and I know I can easily do so by consuming fewer calories and exercising more — not by claiming membership in some fictitious “Fat Pack”.
Nigella Lawson’s Critics in Race to the Bottom
The NY Post gossip pages are reporting that producers for sexy Food Network commando Nigella Lawson will no longer show her on camera below the waist because she “has waaaay overeaten”.
“The result is a butt like a Budweiser horse,” sniped one detractor.
That would be a clydesdale, you devilish detractor.
All of this might be newsworthy — in that alternate universe where stories about the bum size of a woman approaching 50 is news — if it were not for the fact that London’s Daily Mail served up pretty much the same story (including the photo at right) in late 2007. It featured this quip:
TV critics claim her new series incorporates “scenes of gluttony not seen since the golden age of the Cookie Monster”.
Well bra-effin-vo! It’s a hell of a lot better than scenes of boredom not seen since the mythical age of Veggie Monster, let me tell you.
Repel the Nigella-hating by showing a little love to Nigella Feasts and Nigella Express.
This Little Piggy Was Subsidized, But Now He Goes to Market
Newsweek has a great piece up on European farmers’ newfound embrace of the free market. Why the dramatic shift from their earlier support of subsidies? I guess most EU farmers–though not all–finally herd that subsidies and protectionism don’t work.
Not all that long ago, it was hard to use “European farmers” and “markets” in a single sentence, unless perhaps you included the words “dumping” or “distorted.” Now, thanks to the global surge in the price of food and farm products (buoyed by a new emerging-market middle class), plus a series of important reforms to Europe’s 50-year-old subsidy system, market forces that haven’t been felt in ages are stirring in the continent’s fields, barns and meadows.
[…]
Thanks to a new crop of muckraking European NGOs, more and more EU voters are also starting to see through the shroud of myth surrounding agricultural aid. Transparency groups like UK-based Farmsubsidy.org have dug up lists of subsidy recipients, showing that the biggest profiteers are actually corporate and aristocratic landowners such as Nestlé, Unilever, and the queen of England. In a sign of the changing public mood, Dutch EU Agriculture Minister Cees Veerman barely escaped having to resign in 2005 after his undisclosed subsidy income showed up on the list. New figures also show that 80 percent of the aid goes to the largest 20 percent of farms, exposing as a sham the argument that the system is needed to support small, traditional farmers. A fresh wave of outrage will likely come in 2009, when transparency holdouts Germany and France will be forced to finally publish their lists, thanks to a new directive from Brussels.
Though EU policies are hardly perfect, the Bush administration could learn a thing or two about the free market from Europe–which says as much about how terrible Bush is as it does about how far Europe has come.
Crispy on YouTube: Rum + McDonald’s Shamrock Shake = McJito
Kudos to Roxanne for expert direction and Jerry for keen film editing. I’ll be adding more videos to our new YouTube Channel as we make them.
