Archives for 2008
This Week in Bacon
By now you’ve undoubtedly seen the words “Bacon is Meat Candy” plastered on some website or, perhaps, a t-shirt. The slogan is the brainchild of overcaffeinated BaconFreak.com founder Rocco, who contacted me a couple of weeks ago about our mutual interest in things cured and porcine.
We chatted about Rocco’s bacon of the month club, and Rocco agreed to send along some bacon, t-shirts, and bacon jerky–yes, you read right–for the Crispy potluck last weekend. (All the Crispy contributors save Jackson, who was unwilling to leave his wife and kids behind and drive 250 miles for mouthfuls of pork, were present.) Jerry’s already posted some nice snaps.
Anyways, the t-shirts were a giant hit, as expected. That’s my girlfriend suited up at right. The bacon, too, was overwhelmingly loved–it’s a real bacon-eaters’ bacon.
We tasted the Bourbon Street vanilla variety as a group. The vanilla was very subtle, and nicely balanced the salt and smoke. BaconFreak.com bacon is thickly cut, and has a great mouth feel. (Can you say that about bacon?)
Meanwhile, I stole the packages of hickory smoked bacon (chewy, salty, and gone in a blaze of crispyness well before the potluck) and the Cajun country bacon (the spicy aroma of which is wafting through my apartment and from my breath right now), while bacon-drink-maker Jerry nabbed the honey BBQ rubbed bacon.
In short, we loved the BaconFreak.com bacon.
The jerky was the only product that produced divergent views. Of those we sampled, the cajun variety seemed to more approximated the texture one expects of jerky. Every once in a while, though, we’d find a piece that seemed a little too moist–a little too underjerkified. The jerky, as I understand it, is a totally unique product that’s just coming to market. Based on the quality of the bacon itself, I’m confident BaconFreak.com will perfect the jerky in time.
Thanks to Rocco @ BaconFreak for the samples. You can learn more about his Bacon of the Month Club and other bacon and of-the-month varietals here.
Need more? Check out BaconUnwrapped.com’s Heather Lauer interviewing Rocco earlier this year. And Jerry and I spoke with Heather during a Crispy podcast (membah those?) earlier this year, too.
Utah, future home of the Vieux Carré
We’re a little late to this, but Jeff Fulcher (whom I’m glad I finally got to meet at Cato’s Repeal Day event last week) notes that Utah’s strange alcohol laws have gotten even stranger. Though news coverage was distracted by the ban on “alcopops,” Utah has also implemented changes to its alcohol service laws in bars. Previously drinks were limited to 1 oz of liquor, but customers in some businesses could order an additional shot, or sidecar, to bring their drinks up to normal strength. The new law alters this. Drinks are now allowed a more sensible 1.5 oz of alcohol, but a change has been made to the sidecar rule: Customers can still order a sidecar but it has to be of a different liquor than the one in their drink, the theory being that this will prevent them from stiffening their already impotent cocktails.
As Jeff notes, this silliness opens the door to unintended consequences:
What’s the worst that happens when someone gets an extra shot of gin for their gin and tonics? They usually drop the extra hooch into the drink, creating a slightly stronger highball. The game changes if they can’t combine. All of the sudden, instead of diluting the booze it gets thrown straight down the gullet.
John Saltas writes that it’s easy to get around the law anyway, as long as you’ve got a willing friend:
So you’ll just order a gin and tonic with a side of vodka, and your date will order a vodka tonic with a side of gin. Then you’ll switch your side shots and pour yourselves doubles. Call this practice The Guv. The governor got grifted in the name of tourism—which won’t increase just because Utah plays mind games with alcohol.
Sounds like a plan. Yet the bottom line is that Utah’s very stupid laws make it very hard to get a decent drink. They operate on the idea that a cocktail is simply 1 or 1.5 ounces of liquor combined with a mixer. As any reader of this blog knows, good cocktails are usually much more complicated or at least much stronger than that. The world of mixology has more to offer than gin and tonics or rum and Cokes or any other variation of spirit X and mixer Y.
So what to do? As a service to my friends in Utah [Note: I don't actually have any friends in Utah], here’s a tip for what to order under the new law. Order a Vieux Carré:
1 oz rye whiskey
1 oz Cognac
1 oz sweet vermouth
1 tsp Benedictine
2 dashes Peychaud’s bitters
2 dashes Angostura bitters
Stir and serve over ice.
The Vieux Carré was invented at the Monteleone Hotel in New Orleans and named after the French Quarter. It’s a magnificent drink, one of my favorites for making at home. And most importantly, I believe it’s technically legal in Utah, since from what I understand vermouth counts as a “flavoring” and not as liquor. Therefore one could order the drink as above, leaving out the rye or Cognac and ordering it as a sidecar.
There are problems, of course. For starters one would have to find a bar in Utah that carries rye, Benedictine, and both kinds of bitters. That’s difficult anywhere outside of New Orleans, and I’m betting that it’s doubly so in Mormon country. The bartender is also unlikely to have any idea what a Vieux Carré is or how to mix one; the drinker will have to instruct him.
But still, this is an underappreciated cocktail, even in New Orleans. Utah is just the place to revive it. So it’s on you, my as yet non-existent Utah friends. You don’t get many chances to lead the way in mixology, but here you go. Spite the moral majority, bring back a classic cocktail, and enjoy a Vieux Carré.
Spam fingers are as good as they sound
Better late than never, I present to you the recipe for my Spam Fingers with Aioli that I served at the Crispy potluck last week.
First, the aioli. In a mixer, combine 2 egg yolks, 4 crushed garlic cloves (I like to use a microplane to disintegrate them), and 1/8 cup lemon juice. Get the mixer going nice and fast and slowly stream in 2 cups of mild olive oil. If it gets too thick, add a bit more lemon juice. Season with salt to taste.
For the Spam Fingers, heat the oven to 375. Slice a can of Spam into finger-like pieces. Beat one egg and 2 tablespoons of milk in a bowl. Coat each Spam finger with flour, then dip in the milk mixture and roll in panko. Place the fingers in a alumium-lined baking sheet. Bake 15 to 18 minutes or until golden brown. Serve with the aioli over them and/or as a side dipping sauce.
The Perfect Furry Storm
Everything about this story is a joy. 1) New York Magazine, 2) Nigella Lawson, 3) Fur, 4) peeved PETA. What’s not to love?
PETA is not pleased with television chef Nigella Lawson. When asked on BBC1’s The One show if she thought the fashion industry should outlaw fur, Nigella replied that she would wear it if she could kill the animal herself. The host asked what she would think of fur-wearing celebrities who started wearing dog or cat fur, and Nigella blurted out, “I’d love a dog or a cat!’’ Then she made a stabbing motion and added, “Going into a shop and buying a fur coat would be an act of weakness. But if I could go into the woods and kill a bear myself, I would wear it proudly as a trophy.’’
First they came for the cigarette smokers
Today the Boston City Council approved its measure banning the few remaining smoke-friendly businesses in the city. How bad is the new ban? Here’s City Councilor Michael Ross and restaurant owner Lydia Shire writing in the Boston Herald against it:
In these difficult times every small business is important. There are but six cigar bars in Boston, all of which undergo an annual local licensing process, exhibiting that 60 percent of their sales are from the sale of tobacco-related products and that the appropriate signage reflecting the risks of tobacco use is visible.
All six small businesses will be shut down if the regulations are passed as written. Even if these regulations are altered to temporarily grandfather in these six establishments, it is not reasonable to ask small business owners to maintain their significant investment in their communities, only to be shut down despite their commitment to be good businesses and neighbors.
They also note that the ban will extend to outdoor seating areas, unfairly punishing business owners who invested in patios to comply with the original smoking ban four years ago. Ross and Shire deserve full credit for opposing this rampant paternalism. Yet they’re a little late to the party. Note that they both support the earlier ban on smoking in bars and restaurants; they’re only stepping up now because they’re among those “who care to enjoy the pairing of a cigar and a glass of wine following dinner at one of Boston’s excellent restaurants.” Well la dee dah. If they’re not willing to be equally vigorous in their support of the property rights of sports bar owners or smokers who want to have a cigarette while they take in a music show, they have no right to be surprised when the city steps in to take away their precious postprandial maduros. The difference in the new ban and the original is one of degree, not of principle, and this is exactly the sort of thing we libertarians warned governments were heading towards when the original, less restrictive bans came into force. Now they expect city councils to draw a line protecting elitist cigar smokers like themselves? Give me a break. (And I say this as a fellow elitist cigar smoker.)
There is one interesting wrinkle though. The cigar and hookah bar ban was amended to not go into effect for ten years, with the possibility of one ten year extension after that. Twenty years is a long time, perhaps long enough for cooler heads to prevail; for now it lets the council look tough without actually hurting the businesses. Even so, how sickening is this excerpt from the AP report?
Roger Swartz, who heads the commission’s community initiatives bureau, said the panel lengthened the grace period for the bars because of hard economic times.
“We wanted to give them a bit more time to get used to the idea that they’ll have to close,” Swartz said.
Oh, how very nice of you Roger. You say that as though the bars’ closing was an inevitable event delayed only by the grace of Boston’s benevolent politicians, when you in fact are the ones driving them out of business. How does a person become so self-righteous that they can take credit for protecting small businesses on the same day they forbid their existence?
Today the Boston Public Health Commission justifies the slippery slope arguments made by property rights defenders many years ago. We were told that we shouldn’t worry, that the smoking bans in bars and restaurants were reasonable, and that sufficient accommodations for smokers would be made. Now we see that no ban is strict enough for the public health nannies, that even six cigar bars in a city of more than 600,000 people is too many. The regulators will, perhaps, finally overreach and create a backlash, but by then much of the damage to business owners will be done.
[Hat tip: The Stogie Guys.]
We Don’t Need a Goddamn Secretary of Food
We just don’t. But NYT scribbling head Nicholas Kristof has ordained it.
And lefties who can’t stand unregulated eating–from big-government cheerleaders Michael Ruhlman to Ed Levine to Michael Pollan, who Kristof quotes in the piece–are cheering him on.
Kristof’s reasoning–which he seems to have stolen without credit from British nanny stater & chef Jamie Oliver–goes like this:
A Department of Agriculture made sense 100 years ago when 35 percent of Americans engaged in farming. But today, fewer than 2 percent are farmers. In contrast, 100 percent of Americans eat.
100 percent of Americans defecate, Nick. But by golly we all get by just fine doing so without a government department dedicated to the function. In fact, it should be clear to anyone with an ass and a brain that it’s because there’s no Department of Feces that there’s no shortage of crap in America.
So what’s the need for a department of food?
Besides killing corporate subsidies, which I fully support, Kristof fails to define any new mission for the newly renamed department.
Renaming the department would signal that Mr. Obama seeks to move away from a bankrupt structure of factory farming that squanders energy, exacerbates climate change and makes Americans unhealthy — all while costing taxpayers billions of dollars.
[...]
The farm lobby uses [its clout] to inflict unhealthy food on American children in school-lunch programs, exacerbating our national crisis with diabetes and obesity.
Sadly, we already have government agencies devoted to tackling obesity, doling out school lunches, fighting diabetes, and the like. And look what it’s gotten us: more obesity, crappy lunches, and more diabetes.
If Kristof were really concerned with our health, and the billions it’s costing us to support an ineffective and arcane agency like the Department of Agriculture, he’d call for it to be abolished, not retooled.
Update: This and this are apropos.
Update II: And we apparently need a Department of Sport, too.
KFC Employees Don Bikinis, Bathe in Sink
A KFC kitchen apparently comes equipped with a dishwashing sink about as big as a hot tub. Which got some Anderson, Cal. KFC employees to thinking…
Two female employees of the Anderson Kentucky Fried Chicken have been fired for bathing in a deep sink used to clean dishes, while a third earlier quit her job.
One of the young women posted photos on MySpace.com of the trio posing in underwear and swimwear, KCRA-TV reported.
The photos were filed under a gallery called “KFC moments.” Captions included “haha KFC showers!” and “haha we turned on the jets.”
More here. Additional snaps here.
Can Organic Food Survive a Recession?
Organic food tastes great but is expensive. Whole Paycheck, which I call Whole Markup, is not doing very well lately. Their stock is down from a high of $77 in 2006 to $11 today.
The NYT had a great article entitled, “Sticker Shock in the Organic Aisles.”
From it:
Shoppers have long been willing to pay a premium for organic food. But how much is too much?
Rising prices for organic groceries are prompting some consumers to question their devotion to food produced without pesticides, chemical fertilizers or antibiotics. In some parts of the country, a loaf of organic bread can cost $4.50, a pound of pasta has hit $3, and organic milk is closing in on $7 a gallon.
Smoking Inside, Er, Outside the Beltway
I have a piece up today at Culture 11 on how businesses can (and cannot) get around DC & Maryland smoking bans.
Speaking of DC & Maryland, did anyone else notice that NBC kept referring to Sunday night’s NFL game between the Redskins and Ravens as the “Battle of the Beltway”?
And which beltway would that be? 695?
I digress. A snip:
Perhaps the most egregious and subjective requirement of the waiver form is that a filer ordain whether “any like business opened or changed operations in” a waiver seeker’s “general vicinity” since January 1, 2005. (If yes, the applicant must provide an explanation.) For good measure, the application elsewhere describes a “change in operations” as “including, but not limited to a change in chef, manager, wait or other staff.”
In other words, in order to provide a complete response, a waiver applicant must ostensibly survey every nearby competitor to learn the intimacies of their staffing for the previous several years. Of course, a business owner has neither the obligation nor the incentive to aid his competitor.
More here.
Best Bushmeat Pun Ever!
What happens when Customs meets customs? Charred monkeys in luggage alert!
Customs officials searching the bags of an African man who flew into Dulles International Airport on Friday discovered three charred monkeys in his luggage, as well as deer meat and dried beef, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials said yesterday.
[...]
Foreigners visiting the United States sometimes try to bring with them exotic foods that are part of their native cuisines, especially around the holidays. But this was “a first for many of us,” Sapp said.
Primates are a common food source in the Central African region, said Heather E. Eves, director of the Bushmeat Crisis Task Force, a nonprofit that researches the trade in African “bushmeat,” the flesh of wild animals. Eves said that the monkeys’ charred appearance comes from the animals’ being smoked and that the meat is typically used to make stew.
And now for the pun: LoudonExtra.com commenter edbyronadams suggests “the passenger violated the no carrion luggage rule.” Fantastic!
Count Your Mosses
Scientists have plumbed the digestive tract of Ötzi, the 5,300-year-old mummy discovered in the Italian Alps, to find six different species of moss therein. Gross, you say? You don’t know Ötzi! You can’t judge him!
Researchers are confident that Ötzi wasn’t deliberately eating the moss, but that some of the plant matter stuck to his fingers as he ate.
“Moss is neither palatable, nor nutritious,” said study lead author James Dickson, an archaeobotanist at the University of Glasgow, U.K.
The archaeobotanists guess that one species, sphagnum, may have been used to staunch a wound on Ötzi’s hand; another was ingested when he drank from a stream; and a third was used to wrap deer and ibex meat he was carrying.
The Best New Sandwich in DC
Having grown up in New Jersey among a plethora of Italian delis, my life in DC has been largely characterized by my search for a great Italian sandwich that is not served by the surly staff of Vace in Cleveland Park. I am happy to report that a new contender has emerged in DC. Even better, and most unlikely, it is made at the new Broad Branch Market in my neighborhood of Chevy Chase DC, home of a population that mostly thinks that turkey breast and mayo constitute a sandwich.
The newcomer is the Industrial, a classic combo of Boar’s Head capicola, salami and mortadella served with a little bit of thinly-sliced red onion and oil and vinegar on the best Italian sub roll I have had in years.
This little market that could is full of surprises and worthy of a visit.
Gravlax with Team Crispy
My contribution to the Crispy dinner was gravlax. It is a wonderful crowd-pleaser and only requires four ingredients beyond the salmon. To make it, cut your piece of salmon in half. Then place one half on a dish and lay on top of it a generous amount of fresh dill. Then sprinkle caraway, salt and granulated brown sugar, enough to coat the fish but not too much. Then place the other piece of salmon on top of the first one, flesh meeting flesh, wrap it up in plastic wrap and put something on top of it to press the flesh together. Let it sit for two days at least and it will be great.
I served the gravlax on toasted German sourdough bread (bought at Rodman’s in DC) with whipped Philly cream cheese and capers.
Aromatic Lamb Meatballs with Team Crispy
Team Crispy learned last night that a cocktail garnished with a twist of venison isn’t nearly as horrifying as it sounds (it’s important to actually twist the venison, so that a drop of blood falls into the drink). But we weren’t brave enough to drop one of the tiny lamb meatballs I brought to the potluck into a drink. Maybe next time.
And there will be a next time, because (if I do say so myself) these cumin, allspice, and cinnamon-scented cocktail snacks are amazingly delicious. We ate them with pita and hummus, but they’re good straight up while holding a drink in your other hand, or served in a vegetable stew as part of a sit down dinner.
One pound of meat makes about 75 meatballs, and we managed to consume about 110 of them between us last night. What I’m trying to say is that it’s impossible to make too many of these.
***
Aromatic Lamb Meatballs
Adapted from Nigella Lawson’s Feast
Combine in a large bowl:
1 lb ground lamb (these are ok with ground beef, pork, or veal, but lamb is best)
1/4 cup sliced scallions
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon allspice
1 1/2 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons flour (Nigella says to use semolina)
1 egg, beaten
Mush the whole mess around lightly with your hands. I don’t know why, but the rule with meatballs is that you must always mix them with your hands. Cover and refrigerate for at least half an hour.
Now comes the fun part: Make a bazillion meatballs. Tiny ones, “toytown small,” according to Nigella. You should get about 75 from one pound of meat. As you roll, drop them on a cookie sheet covered with wax paper or plastic wrap. If your hands get too sticky, Nigella has the helpful hint to rinse them periodically in cold water.
Heat a healthy (by which I mean unhealthy) amount of vegetable oil in the bottom of a large skillet and fry the meatballs in batches, about a minute on a side, until brown.
Recipe crossposted at ToastPoint
Crispy Potluck: Cocktails dos and don’ts
Last night the Crispy on the Outside team celebrated the first ever Crispy Contributor-Contributed Potluck Dinner, and it was a great success. Photos here. We had more mouthwatering dishes than we knew what to do with. Not surprisingly, a disproportionate amount of them were bacon-centered. In the coming days we’ll post our recipes.
We were also lucky to have with us Crispy’s resident mixologist, Jacob Grier, who brought along a dozen bottles of liquor and a bar set. In this video, Baylen and I make a mockery of Jacob’s art by having a cocktail-off that produces the “Deer Hunter” and the “Beulah”. We recommend neither.
Now that you’ve seen how not to make a cocktail, here’s Jacob mixing us a proper drink called an Aviation. This violet-flavored drink was awesome and we do recommend it.
