In Which Much Cooking Is Done

It's the time of year. All sorts of fresh produce from our CSA and our own garden, which is flourishing under the excellent management of this eater's better half (that doesn't sound quite right, but I presume you get the gist!).

There's been quite a bit of zucchini involved, which is good, because we've had a lot to use.

First there was the zucchini linguini. If you, like me, will be making this for just a few people, when adjusting the recipe, don't skimp on the zucchini. Like spinach, it loses a good bit of its volume while it cooks, so don't be stingy with it. Or with the tarragon and pepper.

I put some zucchini from our garden (as well as a cucumber, which was off-recipe but a welcome addition) into this salsa verde of sorts for my very own birthday dinner. Careful with the salt on the first pass and, if you wish, leave it a little chunky, which I did and really enjoyed. While making it, you may also run into problems with the blender because of a lack of liquid. Just add a tablespoon of water if your blender is having a hard time.

Of the recent cooking escapades, my favorite came on Saturday: pork tacos. The recipe came from a food blog, The Whole Kitchen, which got it from Rick Bayless' Mexican Everyday, which I really need to get. I'd been desperate to find an excuse to use a nicely sized pork shoulder from Heilman's Hogwash Farm in Sarver, Pa. (which, unfortunately, does not have a Web site, but you can find them at the Farmer's @ Firehouse market in the summer as well as through Slowfood Pittsburgh's Laptop Butcher).

The tacos were excellent. The achiote paste offers some unique flavors. In addition to the pickled onions, I also put some crumbled cotija cheese as well. Any sort of lettuce or salsa, etc., would do these tacos a disservice. Keep it simple.

Gotta Glut 'o Veg from the CSA, Garden?

Mark Bittman has a suggestion for you...





I plan on making this very soon, but am thinking I might add a layer of bread crumbs and Parmesan about halfway up, also include some red onion, maybe something with a little heat. One suspects there are a thousand permutations...

Thanks for the invite. I'll Pass...

I've been a terrible, bad, inconsiderate food blogger. There's been so much noteworthy food news: national level policy news, like the FDA delving into the overuse of antibiotics in animal feed on factory farms, and local news, like PASA's upcoming grass-fed beef cook off in Latrobe and Franktuary going mobile with a lunch truck in the Strip District. (Follow these grass-fed hot dog maestros on Twitter to find out where they'll be next!).

But what finally roused me from my blogging stupor? An email from the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board announcing a bottle signing for Skinnygirl margarita, with "only 100 calories." Skinnygirl margarita is brought to you by... Bethanny Frankel, one of those "housewives" from Bravo's embarrassing "Housewife of...." series.

If you go to Skinnygirl Web site -- you'll have to find it yourself, I refuse to link to such tripe -- you'll also see an add for Bethanny's new reality show, "Bethanny Getting Married." Which makes one wonder why she was on a "Housewives" show if she wasn't actually... a housewife?

Even if you're on a diet or something, trying to become a "skinnygirl," do yourself a favor and enjoy a real margarita: a fairly good tequila (that does not include Cuervo "gold"), some lime juice, triple sec or cointreau, and maybe some simple syrup. Over ice or in a shaker, in a salt-rimmed glass if you like that kinda thing.

Just don't drink too many, take it easy on the chips and guac, and get some regular exercise. You'll be much better off.

Now That's a Summer Camp!

My son started summer camp today. Great place: pool, fishing pond, basketball court, football field, obstacle course in the woods. By Wednesday or Thursday of a given week he's exhausted.

This is a much different -- although a lot more intense, you might say -- type of summer camp:

After Mr. Shaw’s demonstration, Chris Wayne, 25, who works for Greenmarket developing new farmers, was the first to take chicken in hand. Wearing a rubber gown, he placed a chicken in an inverted metal cone on the wall, pausing a moment when its head did not drop through the bottom. Prodded by Mr. Shaw, Mr. Wayne reached inside to pull the head through, and then lifted the knife. His cut was deep, his hands steady.

Personally, for somebody who spouts his mouth (and fingers) off about the importance of local food, sustainability, etc., I've done little to get more hands-on experience with it. Most of my support has come with words and dollars. Would really like to improve on that at some point, especially if I could be involved in something like this.

Last weekend, 16 campers, most of them employees of New York City’s Greenmarket program, arrived at Flying Pigs Farm in Shushan, N.Y., during a rainstorm, and soon were gathering eggs and scouring a chicken coop and surrounding field for broken shells. As the campers worked, Ms. Small spotted a hen whose beak dripped with yolk. She explained that once a chicken tastes a yolk it will start cracking every egg it finds.

“You can never cure a chicken of being an egg eater,” she said, separating the chicken from the group. “Sorry, my dear.” 

Good to see these folks, at least, putting their hands where they put their time and money.

Fast Food Abomination of the Week

It's been far too long since there's been a Fast Food Abomination of the Week. And that's a shame, because surely the KFC "Double Down" fell into this category. Heck, it may be an all-time champ!

But, perhaps, just as deserving are the new "fire-grilled ribs" from Burger King. The very idea of ribs at a fast-food restaurant is enough to make even those from the most hearty of stock cringe.

But apparently there are people who actually want to eat these things -- a whole s#$%-load of them in fact, because more than 10 million ribs have been sold since they were introduced in mid-May!

And here, of course, is where the stomach-churning can really turn into high gear: when you pull back the curtain and see how the fast-food industry works with Big Meat to come up with this garbage.

[The ribs are] a result more than a year of development between Burger King and the National Pork Board, noted [National Pork Board President] Steve Weaver.


"We've worked with experts in food innovation, product marketing, and research and development to provide Burger King with industry data and information, market trends, and menu concepting, along with product review and evaluations, " according to Paul Perfilio, NPB national foodservice marketing manager.

The National Pork Board, if you haven't guessed it, is basically a front group for the big, dirty pork producers like Smithfield -- yes, thee of the pink manure pools fame (and Paula Dean's BCF, or Best Corporate Friend -- so not surprising that they would work with Burger King to come up with these pork McNugget-looking things, 6 pieces of which run about 33 grams of fat. Woohoo!!

Yes, oh yes, in the land of the mostly free and home of the ever-increasing waist line, it's a sure bet that you can count on the U.S. fast food industry to regularly spoon up more heart-stopping, artery-clogging filth, and you can be sure that there will people who will spend their money on it. That's a gair-on-tee!

One of the Most Important Blog Posts...

... that I have read in a while comes from Serious Eats.

Well, well, well. It must certainly be very important, you might say.

The Topic, you might, then, inquire? I will tell you -- right now, in fact!

It is: Cleaning Mushrooms!

This is a task -- the proper method for carrying it out that is -- that has bedeviled my thoughts for some time now. It has caused me great angst, forced me to reconsider it each and every time I use a mushroom in whatever dish it is I am preparing.

This singular post, I will confess, has given me great comfort. It has, in many respects, put my mind at tremendous ease. I am forever grateful for it.

I will say no more, and direct you to said blog post: right here to be exact.

To wit, be a good user of the Internet and bookmark this post, in case you should ever forget the immensely valuable lessons it endeavors to impart.

Eat mushrooms, properly cleaned, and prosper, my friends.

Adieu.

A Must Read: The Salt Fight

This is a great article from Michael Moss in the New York Times on the food industry's long and rugged fight to fend off having to reduce salt in its products. And, remarkably, what sticks out to me most -- more even than the almost obscene reliance of the food industry on sodium to make their food and the tobacco-industry like divert and delay tactics -- are these two statistics:

The food industry releases some 10,000 new products a year, the Department of Agriculture has reported, and processed foods, along with restaurant meals, now account for roughly 80 percent of the salt in the American diet.

And not as if anybody needed any more evidence that the United States now more closely resembles an oligarchy than a democracy, but this little bit stands out as well (bold emphasis mine):

Sugar and fat had overtaken salt as the major concern in processed foods by the 1990s, fueling the “healthy” foods market. When the F.D.A. pressured companies to reduce salt in those products, the industry said that doing so would ruin the taste of the foods already low in sugar and fat. The government backed off.

“We were trying to balance the public health need with what we understood to be the public acceptability,” said William K. Hubbard, a top agency official at the time who now advises an industry-supported advocacy group. “Common sense tells you if you take it down too low and people don’t buy, you have not done something good.”

You have not done something good for the company. But you have done something good for the country and public health. But we all know what's more important to about 99% of elected officials in this country.

Read the whole thing. This is what good newspaper reporting and writing is all about.

Processing: The Bottleneck in Local Meat

About three weeks ago it was pork chops in a brown sugar/chocolate/chipotle rub. Two weeks ago it was lamb, kabob-style, marinated overnight in a yogurt mixture, basted with an olive oil/lemon juice/oregano "vinaigrette" I guess you might say, as it cooked on the grill. About a week later it was a burger, grilled, topped with some sauteed wild mushrooms and a sunny side-up egg. Last night it was some (big-a#$!) grilled chicken thighs that had been marinated overnight in a mixture of fennel seed, dried oregano, crushed red pepper, salt, garlic, and olive oil.

In other words, we eat some type of meat about once a week (often with enough for leftovers the next night). All of the meat from the last month came courtesy of local farms. One is in Ohio, but it's a small family farm that sells a lot of product through Slow Food Pittsburgh's Farmers @ Firehouse market and Laptop Butcher, and it's within 60 miles I believe, so that counts as local to me.

Anybody who gets local, sustainably raised meat probably has some familiarity with a big issue that these farmers face: finding a processor. There were, at one time, a good number of small processors who could serve the needs of their like-minded small family farmers. That has changed.

For small meat businesses in America, catastrophic events result from changes high up in the regulatory food chain that make it very difficult for small plants to adapt. The most recent extinction event occurred at the turn of the millennium, when small and very small USDA-inspected slaughter and processing plants were required to adopt the costly Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) food safety plan. It has been estimated that 20 percent of existing small plants, and perhaps more, went out of business at that time.

The HAACP, as Joe Cloud -- who operates T&E Meats and works with the uber-sustainable farmer Joel Salatin of Ominvore's Dilemma and "Food, Inc." fame -- explains in his Atlantic piece from which this little excerpt came, is supposed to keep meat free from nasty bacteria and other gnarly pathogens.

The problem is a common one: the regulations were written as if every meat processing plant is the same, whether it has 10 employees and a handful of regular customers or hundreds of employees, operates 24-7, and processes thousands upon thousands of pounds of meat each day.

And let's face it. They are very different. The way they operate and the level of risk they pose could not be more diametrically opposite. So the regulatory structure that ensures the safety of the meat they process must reflect those differences. It's that simple.

Which brings Mr. Cloud to the point:

On March 19, 2010, the FSIS published a draft guidance document on HACCP system validation, outlining new rules which would institute regular, year-round testing of all meats, whether or not problems have been identified. The proposal recommends testing for testing's sake, and it will cost small plants tens of thousands of dollars, perhaps even hundreds of thousands, every year. The financial burden appears great enough that this will destroy much of the remaining community-based meat processing industry, which is enjoying a renaissance and creating jobs.

You can learn more here about the new draft guidance and how to tell the USDA that the one-size-fits-all approach is ill-advised and will have multiple deleterious effects on local food and small farmers and processors.

And there is at least some hope that the USDA will listen. As part of the "Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food" program that so angered several Republican senators in the back pocket of big ag with budgetary concerns, the USDA completed and released the results of a survey of meat processors that are available to small farms (the big processors often won't serve the little guys 'cause they don't give them enough business, and the small farms, apparently, don't like to work with the big guys anyway: they do their best to raise their animals in a humane and sustainable fashion, and the big processors aren't necessarily known for their, uh, strong track record on safety and humanity). The agency concluded from its survey:

"To support consumer demand for locally produced agricultural products, meat producers need to have access to local or regional slaughter facilities, and the study we are releasing today shows that there is often a shortage of facilities needed to bring food to market," said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. "The 'Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food' initiative is working to address various shortcomings in the food supply chain on behalf of our country's producers and consumers. If there is a stronger, closer link between production and consumption, there is often an economic benefit."‬ 

 I truly stink at reading charts and graphs and maps, so, based on the maps in the slides from the USDA that lay out the situation (starting around slide 7), I'm having a hard time coming up with a coherent analysis of how western Pennsylvania fairs with regard to access to slaughter houses/processors. But it looks like that, for beef, the situation may be all right; for pork, also possibly not too bad; and for chicken, downright terrible.

I'll have to make some inquiries to the folks I get meat from and see what their experience is like. I'll give myself that homework assignment for tonight and report back on what I learn.

The Overnight Rise

I think we make a pretty mean pizza in the Fillippelli household. The crust, courtesy of  my wife, has a good balance of flavor and chew, and whether it's a simple pie with just a little sauce, some Moroccan olives and freshly grated pecorino or something bit more adventurous with radicchio, fontina, and walnuts, the final product is always delicious and satisfying.

But there's always room for improvement. In today's New York Times, Oliver Strand suggests a way to take your crust to a new level of flavor: letting the dough rise overnight (if not longer!).

It’s not a new idea. Anthony Mangieri redefined New York’s artisanal scene when he opened Una Pizza Napoletana in 2004 (now living in San Francisco, he will reopen his pizzeria there later this summer). He learned to let dough rise for 24 hours in Naples. Pizzeria Mozza in Los Angeles, Pizzeria Delfina in San Francisco and Pizzeria Bianco in Phoenix all have overnight rises; at Lucali’s in Brooklyn, the dough rises for about 36 hours; and at Saraghina, also in Brooklyn, it goes for as long as 72 hours.

What's the difference between a 3-hour rise (ours is usually more of a 5- to 6-hour rise) and a 24+-hour rise?

...the prolonged fermentation of an overnight rise not only develops the dough’s structure, it also enables starches to transform into flavorful sugars. The dough becomes complex and nuanced.

Hmmm... I'll be the judge of whether "complex and nuanced" translates into "better tasting."  Love a good pizza experiment!

An Olive for Thee?

Our back patio is kind of a nice place to hang out. It's got herbs all around it. A butterfly bush that, once it blooms, attracts, among other things, butterflies and the ultra-cool hummingbird clearwing. But it's just plain-ol' cement. No brick, no fancy patio furniture, although it does have a Gargoyle to guard it from evil spirits... or at least rabbits and other hungry critters that might want to nibble on our sage.

The patio also has a really freakin' ugly water meter. For the last two years my wife and I have talked about finding something decorative to -- in the spring and summer at least-- put in front of the water meter to obscure it from view. A low and frivolous priority, obviously.

But, this weekend, while at a nearby nursery picking up pepper and arugula and basil plants, among other things, for our small garden, I came across quite a surprise: A small olive tree. An arbequina, to be precise. It's apparently a workhorse of the California olive oil industry and is the predominant olive for oil in the Catalonia region of Spain.

It's quite amenable to growing in a large pot. It looked to be the perfect size, once it fills out a little bit, to hide that ugly water meter. And it's apparently quite prolific. So guess I better start learning how to cure olives, eh?

Oh, Pho, How I Miss Thee

That picture is just a killer. I really do miss the flavors and pleasure (and slurping) of a big bowl of pho.

Makes me realize that I really need to finally make it to Tram's Kitchen in Lawrenceville.

Scrapin' Up the Bits - Embarassed Style

I've been meaning to do a post on this truly gut-churning -- as in, make we want to vomit for a minimum of 3 hours -- letter from several senators to USDA secretary Vilsack in which they whine about the "Know Your Farmer" program, but haven't had time to do it justice. And it's just been holding me back.

So, I'll just leave it to other, more professional types to do the job for me. First, a good post on the letter itself. One of the most gut-churning sentences argues that the program is...

"aimed at small, hobbyist and organic producers whose customers generally consist of affluent patrons at urban farmers markets.”

Oh, noes, how dares the government take some of the billions they provide in corporate charity to the big agriculture companies and give it to "small" or "organic" producers. I mean, who the hell are they? They don't have any good lobbyists, do they? So why worry about them? And the "hobbyist" term is a nice jab, eh?

And although it's true to an extent that "affluent patrons" do frequent farmers markets, why do you think that is? Because they have easy access to them, both in terms of location and financial resources. Could the playing field be leveled, that is, either by removing the corporate charity that makes conventional produce/meat so much more affordable or beefing up support for the more sustainably-raised products that come from small and organic family farms, those cost differentials might not be so significant and the demographics of just who frequents farmers markets could change dramatically.

Along those lines, a brief, although still, good retort, here -- via Mark Bittman's blog -- from Barry Estabrook. Key nugget:

On average during the past decade the Feds have doled out $17 billion (with a “B”) dollars a year to well-to-do growers of wheat, corn, soybeans, and other commodity crops. Some years these welfare payments to agribusiness have soared to $24 billion. Those are the “realities of production agriculture.” By comparison, Know Your Farmer will cost about $65 million (with an “M”).

Speaking of Barry Estabrook, this is from last year, but it won an award and is an eye-opening look into how despicable some humans can be and into the underbelly of the world of many grocery store tomatoes.

A few other items worth noting, including:

The Environmental Working Group's "Shopper's Guide to Pesticides." Hint, when purchasing nonorganic produce, stay away from celery and peaches.

Surprise, surprise: Round-Up resistant weeds are popping up like... oh, well... weeds on farms across the country. Who would have thought that?

Holy shellfish is that a HUGE paella!

Heinz is (quietly) reducing the amount of sodium in its ketchup. Good for them.

Restaurant recommendation: Round Corner Cantina in Lawrenceville. Great drinks (I highly recommend the "Red Pepper, Red Pepper") and great food (they had me at the pork belly tacos). Advice, though: be prepared to wait, 'cause it's a small joint, and do not -- I repeat, do not! -- skip the vegetables escabeche. You won't be sorry.

Guess what?! We're still working away at the remnants of the Giant Chocolate Bunny! Speaking of, if you, like our family, enjoy getting free chocolate -- and darn good chocolate at that -- I recommend following Edward Marc on Twitter (@EMChocolatier) to get the secret word of the day.

Finally, a drink experiment recommendation: All those crazy "mixologist" guys are all into using, like, herbs and junk in their cocktails, right? So why not try it at home?

I had two little sample bottles of Rain organic cucumber vodka that I got for free last year at the local Wine & Spirits store. So I had a little fresh ginger and lemongrass left over from our amazing pork meatball banh mi sandwiches (BTW, the recipe calls for basil and no lemongrass; I subbed mint for the basil, and added about a tablespoon of finely chopped lemongrass; freakin' yum).

So, on late Sunday afternoon, I took perhaps a heaping teaspoon each of the ginger and lemongrass, some mint leaves, and muddled them in a shaker. Put in the cucumber vodka, a little regular vodka, a little club soda, ice, shook vigorously. The end result was really quite delicious and refreshing. I would go easier on the ginger next time. But there will be a next time.

UPDATE: Left something out of the drink recipe above. If your shaker doesn't have a strainer attachment of some sort, you will likely want to pour the shaker through a strainer into your drink receptacle of choice.

Back in the Saddle

Was out of town for 4-5 days covering a cancer research conference (doing stuff like this).

Things are slowly returning to normal. Had a really good dinner last night that is perfect for a weeknight. It's one of our standards, Thai-style chicken, to which I added a spicy-Asian slaw.

For the chicken, you can do most of the work the night before: make the marinade, toss it with the chicken, and throw it in the fridge 'til dinner time the next day. For the slaw, you can shred the cabbage, peppers, and carrots the night before if you'd like, and the slaw dressing takes all of 5 minutes.

The only deviations from the slaw recipe were that I used less garlic (which I also did for the chicken) and substituted a tablespoon or so of honey for the sugar. If you don't have Sriracha, well, get some! It's too good and too useful not to keep around.

Your Small Farmer Needs You

So, if, like me, you:

• Love your CSA
• Really enjoy farm markets like Farmers @ Firehouse in the Strip
• Like your small farmers and trust them more than the huge agri-corporations that produce/control something like 95+ percent of the food in this country
• Are a little terrified by the number of massive food recalls due to scary thingies in said food
• Feel a need every once in a while to be proactive instead of letting things just happen

Then... you should probably go here and send a letter to your Senators to let them know that 1) you believe in food safety, but 2) the problem is not with the little sustainable/organic/family farms, it's those really big-a@#$ guys who are wreaking all of the havoc.

In other words, a one-size-fits-all approach to improving food safety standards will not work and will only serve to hurt the little guy and, in the end, potentially decrease food safety.

So perform your civic duty and then enjoy the weekend.

I Still Don't Understand Cilantrophobes

And I really don't understand this soap comparison, but it's apparently a fairly common perception of cilantro, writes the always excellent Harold McGee in the New York Times. I suppose a "soapy" smell or taste is better than a buggy one, a comparison that was apparently somewhat common at one time.

Modern cilantrophobes tend to describe the offending flavor as soapy rather than buggy. I don’t hate cilantro, but it does sometimes remind me of hand lotion. Each of these associations turns out to make good chemical sense.

Flavor chemists have found that cilantro aroma is created by a half-dozen or so substances, and most of these are modified fragments of fat molecules called aldehydes. The same or similar aldehydes are also found in soaps and lotions and the bug family of insects.

My own love of cilantro probably began with Vietnamese food, which I consumed in abundance -- somewhat reticently at first -- in the mid-90s during my first years in D.C. with my girlfriend (and eventual wife -- the one who wins giant chocolate bunnies!). I don't like to get too verbose when it comes to describing food, but cilantro really is one of those herbs that has a small that sets my taste buds a firin'. Fresh is always the word that comes to mind. Possibly flowery. And even citrusey, probably because I combine lime juice and cilantro so often.

But there are many who hate cilantro, including a good friend of mine who is an accomplished home cook and vino maker and, apparently, Julia Child, who, Mr. McGee recounts, explained that she would "throw it on the floor" if she found it in her food. So, yes, even Julia Child had her shortcomings.

The latter part of the article really caught my attention, though. Because it helped to explain how somebody like me -- who up until my 20s had a very limited diet, to say the least: no fish, little veg, overcooked meat, among other atrocities -- came to have a pretty expansive taste for food.

When we taste a food, the brain searches its memory to find a pattern from past experience that the flavor belongs to, [explained Dr. Jay Gottfried, a neuroscientist from Northwestern University]. Then it uses that pattern to create a perception of flavor, including an evaluation of its desirability.

If the flavor doesn’t fit a familiar food experience, and instead fits into a pattern that involves chemical cleaning agents and dirt, or crawly insects, then the brain highlights the mismatch and the potential threat to our safety. We react strongly and throw the offending ingredient on the floor where it belongs. ...

But he explained that every new experience causes the brain to update and enlarge its set of patterns, and this can lead to a shift in how we perceive a food.

Perhaps this explains how my son, who will quickly spit a green bean out on the table, or the floor, now will eat a bit of sushi, vacuumed some fairly spicy sausage recently, and loves Asian dumplings (regardless of what's inside them, even vegetables!). Perhaps the smells of the cooking going on in the kitchen -- even when he isn't going to eat what is being prepared -- are beginning to establish new patterns in his brain. I like the idea of it, that's for sure!

Pollan, Batali & Dogfish Head

Two totally unrelated things, but I don't really care.

First, if you're a Michael Pollan fan, you can find a cache of his talks and interviews here.

Second, as I tweeted just a few minutes ago: Batali, Dogfish Head, restaurants, rooftop brewery. Wow! To be more specific, though...

The first floor of the building at 200 5th Avenue will house Eataly, an epic Italian specialty foods market and multiple restaurants which pair gourmet foods with artisanal beers and wines. Additionally, there will be an 8,000 square foot rooftop brewery and restaurant operated by B&B Hospitalitys Mario Batali and Joe Bastianich.

The rooftop bar and restaurant will house a copper-clad brewing system. The idea is to create an artisanal, old world Italian craft brewery that just happens to be located on a rooftop in Manhattan, says Dogfish Heads Sam Calagione. The four brewers are working together on recipes for Eatalys house beers. Those beers will feature Italian and American ingredients. The beers will be unpasteurized, unfiltered, naturally carbonated, and hand-pulled through traditional beer engines for the most authentic and pure presentation. The four individual brewers will also occasionally brew beers under their own names on site. The rooftop restaurant project will pair artisanal rustic, homemade beers with the artisanal, rustic cooking of Chef Mario Batali. Additional Italian and American regional craft beers will be served both at the rooftop bar and within the downstairs restaurants.

Can you say, "Hard to get a seat"?

Scrapin' Up the Bits... Vote for Me style!

Oh, just kidding about that voting stuff. I mean, somebody went and just posed the simple question on the Chowhound Pennsylvania board: what are the city's best food blogs?

Now, I realize that LBoN, despite its huge number of readers (tee hee), may not be the most popular Pittsburgh food blog, but I'd like to think that it's somewhat... unique. Do other Pittsburgh food blogs have:

• giant chocolate bunnies?
• Cleverly written recipes for dinners like ancho-chocolate rubbed pork tenderloin?
• Interesting and sciencey posts about nutrition and obesity?

• 
  

I'll let the public decide whether LBoN is worthy of an honor such as this. 'Til then...

I've been trying to do a better job of eating fish in a more sustainable fashion. In other words, avoiding overfished fish, such as tuna, or fish whose pursuit and capture involves a whole lot of by-catch, well, like a lot of fish. But it's very hard. And it's good to know that others think so. Others like Casson Trenor, who wrote a freakin' book on the subject, and who talked with Mark Bittman about the subject recently.

“I myself can barely keep up with this stuff – it’s changing all the time, and it’s really complicated – and I look at the issue every day all day.”

So you think you're a food-lover, eh? Not a "foodie," who I define as somebody who likes to eat good food but doesn't really seem to care about where the food came from, the impact it has on the environment, public health, etc. (which, IMO, is a pretty important factor in determining whether the food I'm eating is "good.")

Then maybe you should look into a masters degree in "food studies" at Chatham. You get to work on a farm and everything!

I don't think they have any grass-fed beef on that Chatham farm. But NPR looks at whether there is a difference between grass- and corn-fed beef. But for the taste test, she did not even season the meat. Not even some salt and pepper, for udder's sake. That seems like food reporter malpractice, no

Of course, if the feds aren't careful, they might just put an end to the burgeoning movement for grass-fed beef, reports the Des Moines Register.

Federal regulators are proposing new meat testing requirements that small processors say would impose staggering new costs and force businesses to drop products or go out of business. ...

The proposed rules risk running afoul of the Obama administration's campaign to promote locally grown foods and small producers. Small-scale processors represent a tiny slice of total meat sales, but they see growing demand from consumers, chefs and grocers for locally produced meats and other foods."You can regulate somebody to the point that they can't operate anymore," said Phil Barber, who sells beef, pork and chicken to restaurants, country clubs and other businesses in the Des Moines area.

Here-in lays a perfect example of regulation run bad. I believe regulation is a good thing. It prevents things like, I don't know, massive bank failures and infectious diseases running rampant through the nation's blood supply.

The key is how those regulations are constructed and applied. Often, they do not take into account differences between large and small businesses. And, let's face it, often, it's the large businesses who have the political influence to get legislation passed and regulations written that, while they may govern their business and be a pain, they have a far greater impact on the little guys, which only serves to help the big guy.

Hopefully common sense will prevail and there will be exceptions and exemptions for small processors.

WSJ Wades into the Raw Milk Debate

Rarely has the WSJ graced the electronic tableau of LBoN, but, hey, despite , IMHO, the failings of the op-ed page, its reporters still produce some good stuff -- most of it is just usually behind a firewall!

The paper had an article on raw milk the other day. I have read some about this subject, but haven't written much about it here. It's an emotional issue, as a look at the comments following the article demonstrates.

I've eaten a good bit of raw milk cheese -- much of it from local sources -- and had no problems. Heck, really enjoyed most of it. Proponents of raw milk will often espouse its health benefits, but, from what I can tell, most -- if not all -- of that is based on anecdotal evidence. It would be interesting to see some hard-core studies comparing people who have drank raw milk for a number of years to those who drank pasteurized milk for a number of years and look at hard "endpoints," like incidence of certain diseases, etc. Don't know if that will ever happen.

In the meantime, the fact is that there are real risks associated with raw milk.

Between 1998 and 2008, there were 85 outbreaks of human infections resulting from consumption of raw milk reported to CDC, including a total of 1,614 reported illnesses, 187 hospitalizations and two deaths. Illnesses and deaths have also been linked to the consumption of fresh cheese made from unpasteurized milk, notably the Queso Fresco style cheeses popular in Hispanic communities.

And in the comments section, Bill Marler, a food safety lawyer who is well known in food policy circles, weighs in -- and I mean, weighs in, with a 2,700-word monster of a comment that actually is broken up into two back-to-back comments -- to lay out in more detail the risks. An example:

Kalee Prue, a 27-year-old mother of one, became infected with E. coli O157:NM in June 2008, as the result of consumption of raw milk. Her symptoms began in early July, and intensified for several days. On two occasions, Kalee sought treatment in the emergency room. On July 12, it became apparent that she was developing hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS). She was then admitted to the hospital on July 13. Kalee’s renal failure was complete and prolonged, and she required plasmapharesis from July 13 through August 11. Severe anemia necessitated repeated transfusions with packed red blood cells as well. By the time she was released from the hospital on August 14, she had incurred over $230,000 in medical bills. Kalee has not recovered full renal function. She is at severe risk for long-term renal complications, including end stage renal disease (ESRD), dialysis, and transplant.

That said, as some commenters noted, if it's a risk some people are willing to take, I think they should be free to do so. But I'm not going to blame the FDA and other health agencies for doing their jobs in trying to protect the public health -- even if they do it unevenly, sometimes ridiculously so, at times.

Beware the Giant Chocolate Bunny

Well, at least hide it from the kids! Yes, that's right, my wife -- smart, beautiful, sophisticated, and, most importantly, purchaser of raffle tickets for the 30-pound giant chocolate bunny, Eddie, from our favorite chocolatier, Edward Marc.


And darn it all if she didn't win the thing! And it's not just a 30-pound milk chocolate bunny. It's also an assortment of about 30 truffles (at least!).

So a big thank you to the folks at Edward Marc for Eddie. We -- and no doubt our family, friends, neighbors -- will enjoy it immensely!

Music Friday with Elbow

In honor of the beautiful days hopefully ahead with the arrival of spring, a great song from one my favorite bands, the ridiculously unheralded Elbow.