Archives for the 'Uncategorized' Category
NY Legislator Proposes a State-Wide Ban on Using Salt in Restaurant Cooking
And that is not a headline from The Onion. The bill, which Assemblyman Felix Ortiz , D-Brooklyn, introduced on March 5, would fine restaurants $1,000 for each violation. An excerpt of the bill’s text:
No owner or operator of a restaurant in this state shall use salt in any form in the preparation of any food for consumption by customers of such restaurant, including food prepared to be consumed on the premises of such restaurant or off of such premises.
Wow. The food police are officially out of control. In his quest to promote health, Ortiz wants to limit everyone in New York to a bland, hospital diet for patients with hypertension. Salt brings out the flavor of foods and is in no way a harmful substance. Some folks need to monitor their salt intake, but most do not. To put every diner in New York on a hospital hypertension diet is an appalling and invasive use of the law to regulate private choices in dining. It is also a horrifying reach of the state into private choices and freedom.
This legislation strikes at the heart of the freedom of the individual to experience the sensual enjoyment of eating out and the role it plays in conviviality, socializing and hedonism. The last I checked, none of that was illegal. To force every restaurant in the state to not use salt is so preposterous I hope this bill will be killed. But NYC’s Orwellian-named Department of Health and Mental Hygiene has been a leader in Nanny State food bans, as has Mayor Bloomberg, so New York has shown a propensity to adopt laws like this.
The opposition to this bill has been led by a nation-wide group of chefs, called My Food, My Choice.
The Little Market That Could Now Has an Outdoor Grill
The Broad Branch Market, now that the weather is good, has started grilling great stuff outdoors. When I visited them yesterday they were grilling hamburgers, ribs and chicken. They also have an amazing selection of condiments, including chimmichuri.
I hope that they keep on grilling and would love to see them grill their own house-made meat and seafood sausages.
They are located in Chevy Chase, DC at the intersection of Northampton and Broad Branch.
This Week in Bacon
Three months into the year, bacon remains at the forefront of our minds. Here are a few bacon bits from the past week:
Iowa, land of pigs and corn, held a Bacon Fest where it instructed the over 750 baconphiles to “drink plenty of water . . . . leave all tight fitting jewelry at home, [and] bring your favorite bacon haiku.” [Blue Ribbon Bacon Festival]
Man wins lottery, celebrates with bacon breakfast (can’t say I wouldn’t do the same). [The Daily Mirror]
Bacon jam: a new way to eat bacon for breakfast. [Skillet Street Food]
Maple-Bacon Breakfast Rolls bring home the “bacon” at 44th Annual Pillsbury Bake-Off. [North County Times]
If you’re unemployed, try becoming a “bacon-trepreneur.” [AOL News]
And the best bacon-related quote from the week: “Neil Patrick Harris is like bacon. You can add him to most anything and it makes it better.” (on NPH being cast in Smurfs: The Movie). [Latino Review]
Oysters
The New Englanders amonst us know that you NEVER eat an oyster in a month that does not contain an “R.”Yet Americans continue to do so and the FDA has come in to rescue those Americans who do not know that rule by issuing a rule that oysters served in the non “R” months be sterilized:
In an effort to reduce cases of a rare, but potentially fatal, bacterial illness contracted from raw oysters, the FDA announced new rules this month that will require any oyster served from April through October to undergo a sterilization process before it can be sold in restaurants or on the market.The rule will essentially eliminate raw oysters — at least as Louisianans know them — from restaurant menus for seven months of the year. Even oysters that will eventually be cooked during those months would have to go through the same cleansing process before being added to any dish, a move some say would undermine the culinary integrity of some of New Orleans’ most famous delicacies.
I say caveat emptor in terms of oysters. I would not eat a Gulf Coast oyster in the summer but the Feds should stay out of this and let the customer decide.
Is Salt the Devil Incarnate?
John Tierney of the NY Times has a great article today about the salt debate. The question at issue is whether the salt debate has merit or is another government inititiative that has unintended consequences, such as the food industry’s work on creating artificial salt. The debate is is being waged most fiercely in NYC, as Bloomberg and that city’s Orwellian named Department of Health and Mental Hygiene is taking on salt.
The harder the experts try to save Americans, the fatter we get. We followed their admirable advice to quit smoking, and by some estimates we gained 15 pounds apiece afterward. The extra weight was certainly a worthwhile trade-off for longer life and better health, but with success came a new challenge.
Officials responded by advising Americans to shun fat, which became the official villain of the national dietary guidelines during the 1980s and 1990s. The anti-fat campaign definitely made an impact on the marketing of food, but as we gobbled up all the new low-fat products, we kept getting fatter. Eventually, in 2000, the experts revised the dietary guidelines and conceded that their anti-fat advice may have contributed to diabetes and obesity by unintentionally encouraging Americans to eat more calories.
That fiasco hasn’t dampened the reformers’ enthusiasm, to judge from the growing campaign to impose salt restrictions. Pointing to evidence that a salt-restricted diet causes some people’s blood pressure to drop, the reformers extrapolate that tens of thousands of lives would be saved if there were less salt in everybody’s food.
Chefs to Host Terrible Television Program, Great Radio Segment
If you’re like me, you love learning about diners, drive-ins, and dives, but hate having to listen to Guy Fieri for thirty minutes. Well now he’s hosting another show, although this time, about something significantly less interesting than food. Fieri will be hosting an NBC game show called Minute to Win It, where people perform stupid and mindless tasks in under a minute in an attempt to win $100,000. See below.
In other chef-turned-host news, famed chefs Anthony Bourdain and Eric Ripert will be doing a five-week long segment on Martha Stewart’s XM radio show:
Anthony Bourdain and Eric Ripert: Turn & Burn will launch on Thursday, February 18 and will air from 7:00-8:00 pm ET every Thursday through March 18, on Martha Stewart Living Radio, SIRIUS channel 112, and XM channel 157, as part of “The Best of SIRIUS package.”
During the show, Bourdain and Ripert will stir up discussions on everything from food ethics to food in the media, celebrity chefs, at-home cooks, vegetarianism, and sustainability. The two will also welcome special guests, including acclaimed chef/restaurateur Mario Batali, who will be live in studio on February 18 at 7:00 pm ET for Turn & Burn’s premiere.
Now THERE are two chefs I wouldn’t mind listening to every week.
An Expose on Just How Awful the US School Lunch Program Is
The US government pays massive dollars to schools to help them provide meals to children in public schools. Federal payments — including $2.68 for each fully reimbursable lunch — total around $12 billion annually and feed roughly 30 million children every day, according to the USDA. That covers about half the cost of food service. Local governments pick up the rest.
Michelle Obama is making fighting obesity her FLOTUS statement and Mary Cheh of the DC Council shepherded in legislation that ostensibly brought healthy foods to the DC Schools menu.
But Ed Bruske of the Wa Post spent a week in a DC school cafeteria and shows that government involvement in school food is nothing but harmful.
When she took office in 2007, the District’s schools chancellor, Michelle Rhee, opted to privatize food operations. “The mayor and I want to introduce students to a variety of foods to help train their palates to choose healthier foods for the rest of their lives,” Rhee said. The “fresh cooked” initiative was included in the city’s contract with Chartwells.
But from what I observed during my week in the kitchen at H.D. Cooke, “fresh cooked” does not mean “from scratch” or even “fresh ingredients.” Most meals are made from processed foods that have been precooked and frozen. They’re simply heated in the steamer or in a convection oven, since one of the things missing in the school’s tricked-out kitchen is a stove. Meal components have been designed to require minimal time and skill to prepare. It’s all part of an effort to squeeze school meals into tight local food budgets that hinge on federal subsidies.
Freshness and flavor are the first casualties. Fat is replaced with sugar as a go-to calorie booster. One of the most startling images from lunchtime at H.D. Cooke was the mad rush around the cooler where chocolate- and strawberry-flavored milk is stored. Sodas have not been served in D.C. public schools since 2006, but the dairy products served rival soft drinks for sugar content.
I am going to go out on a limb here and aver that the non-subsidized Catholic school lunch program that I experienced as a child was far superior to having kids eat processed macaroni with meat bits for lunch. Our lunch program served only sandwiches and half-pints of skim milk. That looks incredibly healthy compared to what the DCPS is offering. But it would not meet the standards of the US, which mandates “hot meals” for lunch. Ergo the awful and unhealthy lunches that are served. Let’s go back to simple sandwiches.
Quick Bites
New Mexico residents protest state senate’s “tortilla tax.” [KRQE]
LA held its “‘first annual’ LA Street Food Fest” on Saturday. [LAT]
Michelle Obama vows to take on obesity. Billions in unsuccessful programs and increase in obesity rate inevitably to follow. [Telegraph]
The loathsome Jamie Oliver wins a TED prize and hopes it will unlock the back door to the White House, so that he can help Michelle Obama draw up said programs. [Hello]
Romania mulls a tax on so-called junk foods. [AFP]
Mark Bittman mulls a tax on soda. [NYT]
Man wins lottery, celebrates with bacon. [Daily Mail]
This Week in Bacon
Apparently Canadians are just as passionate about bacon as Argentinians (see fellow Crispy blogger Jessica’s post below). Here are some of the results from a survey of 1,006 Canadians, commissioned by Maple Leaf Foods (which, shockingly, packages and sells bacon):
Nearly one in four respondents (23 per cent) from Manitoba and Saskatchewan have wondered if “my partner loves bacon more than me;”
Asked to rank aromas (vanilla, spice, floral, musk) by preference, 23 per cent of men rated bacon No. 1;
Four out of five respondents (82 per cent) who said they love bacon also said they’re good lovers.
And perhaps most shockingly, 43% of Canadians say they “love bacon more than sex.” So this Valentine’s Day, forget the chocolate, candy, flowers, J. Crew Sweaters, and jewelry. Get your significant other something s/he will really appreciate – BACON. And here’s a suggestion for that extra special present for your extra special loved one: The Wine and Cheese Place’s Bacon Basket (includes “Bakon Vodka, Bacon Chocolate Bars, Bacon Bandages, Bacon Soap, Bacon Gummy Strips, Bacon Air Freshner and of course BACON”).
Argentinian President: Pork Rises to the Occasion more than Viagra Does
To build on fellow poster Kim’s claim that pork is the meat of Kings, The President of Argentina has chimed in to agree.
Actually, Ms. Fernandez de Kirchner went further, arguing that pork assists in other ways.
According to CBSNews she said that she hadn’t known pork improved sexual activity, but she had a very good time after having pork with her husband, former President Nestor Krichner. “It is much more gratifying to eat some grilled pork than take Viagra,” she said.
Pork: It’s the Meat of Kings!
Here’s a little gem that was forwarded to me by a friend and fellow bacon-lover. It’s a nice little video (and catchy too) to start off your morning — be careful, it plays on loop, so you will probably need to shut it off after 30 or 40 seconds so you don’t annoy your co-workers . . . or yourself.
Prepare yourself for a GREAT day: Swine Tastes Fine (sorry, can’t embed the video).
The Best New Sandwich in Washington
The Broad Branch Market, which offers my previous best sandwich, the Industrial, is outdoing itself.
Owner John spent a few weeks in Vietnam and came away convinced that none of the DC area establishments that sell banh minh, the classic Vietnamese sandwich, came close to what he had in Vietnam. John even dissed the sandwiches at the Eden Center in NoVa, which was my only reference point.
So now this little market that could (PS I used that moniker in a previous post and they now have T-shirts bearing it) is offering awesome Vietnamese sandwiches every day.
Where the WH Elite Dine in DC
I, and I am sure more than one restauranteur, was hoping that the new POTUS would dine out more than did his predecessor, who was known for a 9PM bed time and never went out.
The current POTUS is pretty much like W, but some of his senior staff do like to partake in the local scene. From a Politico piece today,
White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel and senior adviser David Axelrod have been making the rounds of D.C. restaurants.
On Friday night, Emanuel and his family hit Central. Emanuel has been spotted at The Source, Marvin and Birch & Barley recently.
Axelrod has also been seen at Birch & Barley and Chef Geoff’s. So what’s his favorite restaurant? A White House aide tells POLITICO that Axelrod loves a good deli — and when in Chicago, it’s Manny’s all the way.
The Bag Tax as a Big Hassle
I am opposed to any bag tax but could make peace with it if it only applied to grocery stores as those visits are planned and I am 50/50 to remember to bring the non-disposable bags along.
But as Jackson posted, the DC bag rules are confusing and apply too broadly.
In fact they are ridiculous and affect every establishment that sells food or liquor. That means that if you order greasy Chinese take-out you better be ready to have it spill into the 99 cent Whole Foods bag that you just purchased.
Last Saturday I witnessed dozens of people walking down 14th street cradling bottles of wine in their arms.
The law also applies to Politics and Prose, the famed DC bookstore, because they sell mints, which under DC law are considered “food.” Politics and Prose are discontinuing the offending mints so that they can give bags without the tax.
Policeman’s Tea Eggs Bring Peace
In a remote mountainous village in Taiwan, tea eggs made by a local policeman are all the rage:
Every day for the last eight years, police chief Liao Shih-hua has prepared tea eggs for his colleagues, tourists, and cyclists exploring the mountainous neighborhood, giving away more than 180,000 of the hard-boiled eggs stewed in a tea liquid worth some NT$500,000 (US$15,600).
Crime is down, and egg quality is up:
“At first, even dogs were reluctant to smell the eggs that I screwed up.”
For those who want to try this at home:
“Fresh eggs, Coca-Cola, traditionally brewed soy sauce and a bag of seasoned gravy are the secrets for making delicious tea eggs.”
