Archives for August 2009
Quick Bites
Joel Salatin says “when the government gets between my mouth and my stomach, that’s a pretty intrusive government” and a bunch of other awesome things. [Portland Mercury]
LA cracks down on Mexican raw-milk cheese in restaurants. Pulitzer-owning LA food critic responds that crackdown is unhelpful, since “[l]ife is filled with risks.” [LAT]
Jim Breuer (perhaps best known for playing a stoned goat on SNL) either a) flips out while filming a Pizza Hut commercial or b) acts according to script so as to create middling viral footage. [OzarksUnbound]
Starbucks turning the corner? [NRN]
Frank Bruni returns to the NYT, mentions Alice Waters in a good light but still manages to pen a not-half-bad column on childhood obesity. [NYT]
Prepare yourselves. Michael Pollan’s Food Rules: An Eater’s Manifesto drops December 29th. [Amazon]
Or you could just buy bottles in the first place. [YouTube]
The oink is back in a 350-year old painting by a Dutch master. [Telegraph via Rachel Laudan]
Today’s Meat Moment of Zen
Jan Svankmajer’s “Meat Love” animation from 1989.
Via meatpaper
Wawa vs. Sheetz
This is precisely the sort of pointless, inside ball article for which I am a complete sucker.
Coming from the town that hosted, as we always joked, the original Wawa. (The Woods kept stores waaaaaaay back when.) I am a Wawa supporter, but when I travel up the valley of Virginia, I always make sure to stop at a Sheetz.
In a world of choice, why commit?
Are Pigs Bogarting the Drugs?
Two things:
1) There is a magazine called Pork. Its website includes sections labeled Swine Practitioner and Pork Exec. This is what happens in the curly part of the Long Tail, and it is so beautiful it brings a tear to my eye.
2) Via CCF, via Pork, I am alerted to this letter to the editor in the Chicago Tribune from a swine veterinarian:
You imply that overuse of antibiotics in livestock is a primary cause of antibiotic resistance, which is sapping the effectiveness of these drugs in treating human disease. To support that argument, you state as fact an estimate from the Union of Concerned Scientists that 70 percent of all U.S. antibiotics are given to livestock for non-therapeutic purposes. This estimate is junk science at its worst, and eight years old too. Among other things, it includes products that were licensed but never sold in this country. Two examples are oleandomycin and efrotomycin, estimated to be used in pigs at a rate of 66,000 pounds per year. Neither drug was ever marketed.
One swine veterinarian does not a peer-reviewed study make, but I bet this guy has a point. The whole penicillin-pigs-and-cephalexin-cows-are-ruining-medicine thing is such powerful conventional wisdom that it’s easy to accept ever-larger and more catastrophic-sounding estimates of the magnitude of the problem. (2/3 of Americans are overweight! 4/3 of American are obese!) I’m sure we could—and possibly should—trim our barnyard drugging a bit. But it would be better if editorial writers chose to cite something more reliable than an old study from an activist group?
A meaty Martini
After an evening spent flirting and chatting at the bar, your witty repartee and charming good looks have brought her back to your place. The lights are dim, candles are lit, jazz is playing softly, and you had the foresight to hide your comic book collection earlier in the day. All that stands between you and an unforgettable night of passion is one perfectly made Martini. You suavely gather the necessary materials: Two crystal glasses, pre-chilled of course. A mixing glass. A long spoon. A cast iron frying pan. A slice of bacon.
The meat sizzles as it hits the frying pan; so does she. While the bacon crisps you pour vodka over ice. You give it a seductive stir, the metal spoon barely clinking against the glass. You pour the Martinis, snap the bacon into pieces, and tantalizingly drop them into the drinks. She cocks an eyebrow, curious. You toast, she sips. A look of disgust creeps across her face. Suddenly she has an important meeting in the morning and really must be going. You fool, you’ve used a non-premium bacon flavored vodka!
This is where Bakon, “a premium bacon flavored vodka,” might have saved your night. It was only a matter of time before two of the food world’s biggest trends — flavoring vodkas and putting bacon where it doesn’t belong — collided with potentially disastrous results. But knowing that it was my sacred duty as a Crispy on the Outside blogger to sample all things bacon-related, I broke down and bought a bottle.
Continue reading this post »
Quick Bites
My family farm was quirky, man. I ever tell you about the chick who thought she was a goose, and then she learned she was really a chicken? Whoa! Hah! Those were the days. Man. Problem with food today is it lacks soul. Needs more soul. Hope Obama regulates farming. Man. Soul. Hah! This (and this) is what passes as a Nicholas Kristof column. What a load of garbage. [NYT]
Monica Bellucci, perhaps the most beautiful actress of all time, likes Italian food. Makes sense, her being Italian and all. But I needed an excuse to post her honey-covered photo, and her talking for a second about food apparently suffices. [Daily Mail]
Columbia Univ. public health professor (and vertical farming advocate/entrepreneur/author) invokes typical Malthusian doom scenario (If X keeps happening, “the majority of people could soon be without enough food or water”) to scare us into buying his ideas and book. I’m not buying. [NYT]
A “complex cafeteria” is to blame for Red Sox hall of famer Jim Rice saying bad things about Derek Jeter. [ESPN]
Teh Twitters is all gushing over Bryan Walsh’s new Time piece on the so-called high cost of cheap food that doesn’t, in my view, say anything new at all (see, e.g.). [Time]
New KFC fried chicken and bacon sandwich–apparently being tested in my part of the world; and yes, I’m on it–uses fried chicken as… bread. [Wonkette]
White House Farmers Market?
D.C.’s ethically ostentatious are struggling to figure out how to make do in a world where Whole Foods is anathema:
Adrienne Pine, a professor of anthropology at American University, admits that she’s known about Mackey’s “right-wing libertarianism” for a while now, but that his Wall Street Journal op-ed was “the straw that broke the camel’s back,” and the reason she switched from Whole Foods to co-ops and farmers’ markets.
But options may soon expand for Whole Foods boycotters in the capital city. At yesterday’s health care forum, President Obama indulged in a little entrepreneurial spit-balling:
So, you know, Michelle set up that garden in the White House?
One of the things that we’re trying to do now is to figure out, can we get a little farmers’ market—outside of the White House—I’m not going to have all of you all just tromping around inside—(laughter)—but right outside the White House—(laughter)—so that—so that we can—and—and—and that is a win-win situation.
Since a couple of the protesters in front of D.C.’s P Street Whole Foods were already sporting “UFCW for Obama” shirts, I’m sure they be thrilled to transfer their custom to the man himself.
Come to think of it, there is a convenient blocked off section of Pennsylvania Ave. right in front of the White House. And I’m sure the Secret Service won’t mind at all if Sasha and Malia get out there and hawk some of those spare zucchini.
The Little Market That Could (T-Shirts Available)
In April I posted about the Broad Branch Market, that wonder of a neighborhood shop that carries everything from epoisses to microbrews and home-made terrines. The tiltle of my post was “More on the Little Market That Could.”
So how excited was I to see yesterday that the employees are wearing T-shirts that read: The Little Market That Could.
Crispy has influence!
The Inalienable Right to Dog BBQ?
Everybody loves puppies. But do we love them enough to eat them?
Animal lovers in New Zealand want to make it illegal for people to eat their pets, after a Tongan family killed and barbequed their pet dog.
The Taufa family killed their pet staffordshire bull terrier Ripper and then invited friends round for a barbeque. Lupi Taufa says it’s common practice in her homeland Tonga. “Dog, horse, we eat it in Tonga. It’s good food for us,” she said.
Derek Haddy works for the SPCA, New Zealand’s equivalent of the RSPCA. “I find it quite disturbing that somebody would kill a pet and then eat it. I’m not OK with that, but unfortunately the law allows you to do it,” he said. The SPCA says people eating their pets happens more often than society realises.
Little blurbs like this one from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation are an uncomfortable reminder of the swaths of modern political life still predicated on the yuck factor. While it’s possible to take a rational position against dog eating (just as one might take such a position against cow or chicken eating)—dogs are ethically relevant beings in Peter Singer’s expanding circle, the habit of killing living things makes men less virtuous, etc.—that’s not what this story is about. An accurate summary of brief is: “Dog eating? Ew. Let’s make it illegal.”
Via Crispy contributor Jacob Grier, who adds: “Libertarian purity test time!”
Semi-crossposted at Reason.com
Quick Bites
Local British government councils now handing out rewards–at taxpayer expense–for such accomplishments as brewing a cup of tea. Yaaaaayyy! [Sun]
I was informed the other day, while walking on a sidewalk with a cigarette in hand on the University of Arkansas campus, that such an act–or chewing tobacco–is subject to a $500 fine. That’s smoking. Outside. Not near any person or building. $500. I need me one of these.
Locavorism. A movement inspiring people to travel thousands upon thousands of miles for the purpose of eating a locally grown dinner. And this is better because…? [MSNBC]**
New energy drink Simply Cocaine attacked by UK anti-drug zealots for being named after illegal drug. Ever heard of Coca-Cola, dude? [Sun]
D’Artagnan’s Ariane Daguin remembers Julia Child. [D'Artagnan]
Food & Wine is looking for America’s best home cook. [F&W]
Support Whole Foods, just like “Radney” Balko does at The Agitator.
**Link fixed.
The Big Move, and More School
I have new digs. I drove from my DC home to Fayetteville, Ark. last week to earn a degree at the University of Arkansas–yes, the same school Bill and Hillary taught at together. In nine months, I’ll be the proud owner of a Master of Laws degree in Agriculture and Food Law from UARK law. It’s the only such program in the country. The program boasts a
curriculum specializing in the law of food, agriculture and the environment. Each year, the Graduate Program in Agricultural Law prepares a small number of carefully selected attorneys as specialists in the complex legal issues involving food and agriculture. The Program attracts candidates from throughout the United States and the world. Our alumni currently work in 35 different states and 15 foreign countries, serving as leaders in private practice, government, agribusiness, public policy, and academia.
I’ve been lucky enough to earn a full tuition assistantship, along with a modest stipend to work as a research assistant. This means I’m pretty much done accumulating student loans, and I’ll hopefully get to do some interesting food research and writing over the school year.
To the best of my recollection, my ten classmates hail from Arkansas, Virginia, India, Colombia, Nigeria, and Russia. Sounds like a pretty interesting mix.
Afterwards? Who knows. I certainly plan to work in some free market, food-related legal capacity. As my plans firm up, I’ll keep everyone y’all informed. In the meantime, I’m back to regular blogging duties here at Crispy.
This Week in Bacon
Is there a limit to what we can do with bacon? Apparently not. There’s bacon vodka, bacon floss, bacon dresses, bacon guns, bacon lube (yes, you read that right), and the list goes on and on (just check all of Crispy’s past This Week in Bacon posts . . . you’ll get the picture). But there’s something missing. A little bacon-related something for the football fans to enjoy. That something is called Bacon beer. Don’t throw up just yet . . . wait until you actually read what the Brooklyn Brewery has concocted:
…[Brewmaster Garrett Oliver] been infusing a brown ale with the flavor of Benton’s bacon fat through a technique known as “fat washing.” [...] Oh, and the bacon-fat-infused ale was also aged in bourbon barrels, because bourbon and bacon go together like, um, beer and bacon.
Eventually, the barleywine with the bacon-smoked malt and the bourbon-aged, bacon-fat-infused ale would be blended to create one monstrously bizarre beer.
“One of two things will happen,” Mr. Oliver predicted. “Either this will be the most amazingly disgusting thing you’ve ever tasted in your life. Or I shall rule the earth.”
Hmm, I predict the former. Maybe there isn’t a limit to what we can do with bacon, BUT . . . maybe there should be (and this is coming from a true bacon lover, although I’ll admit, an equally passionate beer hater). Bacon fat infused beer sounds unappetizing, especially when you imagine it with wings or chips, or any other food product, for that matter. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see how it’s received, once it is “perfected.”
More Reasons to Eat Chocolate
As if you really needed another reason (or five).
Chocolate. It’s everywhere. It taunts us at the end of grocery aisles, it coats and covers some of our favorite snacks, it functions as the go-to gift for nearly every holiday and celebration, and it somehow finds its way into our mouths to comfort us when we’re down. But chocolate has a bad reputation. It is associated with sugar and fat and poor health. Besides the antioxidant effects in dark chocolate and the great taste, it didn’t seem like there was any other redeeming quality. Until now. Studies show that there are FIVE more reasons to eat chocolate (well, the full article lists seven, but here are the five new reasons):
2. Helps with cholesterol: Scientists at Penn State found that dark chocolate and flavonoid-rich cocoa powder reduced LDL (”bad” cholesterol) oxidation.
3. Reduces inflammation: An Italian study showed that when volunteers ingested small amounts of dark chocolate, their levels of C-reactive protein (an inflammatory marker) decreased.
4. Lowers blood pressure: A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association showed that dark chocolate had an effect on lowering blood pressure.
5. Helps with mood: Chocolate contains tryptophan, a precursor of serotonin, which can help with depression. Research also shows chocolate can increase dopamine, a neurotransmitter associated with pleasure. Chocolate also contains phenylethylamine (PEA) known as the “love chemical.”
6. Improves blood flow: Research published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition has shown that cocoa has anti-clotting, blood-thinning properties that work in a similar way as aspirin. Nobody is suggesting to replace your aspirin with chocolate, but the research is compelling.
So, go ahead. Indulge yourself, although you may have to toss those Three Musketeers or Milky Way bars – these positive effects only relate to pure dark chocolate, without nougat and without caramel. Enjoy your guilt-free chocolate consumption, and just think . . . you’re helping your body!
[Via Huffington Post]
Nymph Mania
Just when Alabama’s gourmet beer bill was starting to make the state look like a reasonable place to buy alcohol, the local control board has stepped in to ban a wine’s suggestive label:
Wine and scantily clad women may sound like some cad’s idea of a good time, but the combo spells trouble in Alabama, which last week banned the sale of a California-made wine bottle adorned with a naked nymph — helping boost its sales elsewhere in the nation.
Pursuant to the state’s administrative code, the Alabama Beverage Control Board ordered Hahn Family Wines to remove its Cycles Gladiator wines from shelves throughout the state, calling its label “immodest.” According to Hahn president Bill Legion, a small state board in Alabama rejected the artwork last year, but the ruling did not catch Legion’s eye. His apparent defiance of the state’s decision — he claims the paperwork “fell through the cracks” — led to the ban.
“It’s turned out to be a great thing for us,” laughs Legion, who says he’s received calls of support from oenophiles around the world.
The bottle’s eyebrow-raising label was designed in homage to a classic 1890s print ad featuring a lithe, long-haired cyclist clinging to a bicycle shuttling through a starry sky. The belle époque illustration has since become a popular poster, affixed to bike-shop bulletin boards and wannabe road racers’ walls.
Click through to see the label, which I think is perfectly delightful. Maybe Free the Hops will take on prudishness next?
Great Chieftan o’ the Puddin’ Race!
The English, desperate to find something edible in their vicinity, are trying to appropriate the haggis. The great Alexander McCall Smith gets tore in. Wayulll!
HT: Loralei Coyle.
