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Chewing the fat
January 12, 2010
Grocery store check-out lane is more than a point of purchase
Just before Christmas, I donned a red polo shirt and a nametag and showed up for duty at one of Austin’s busiest H-E-B stores.
I’d approached Leslie Lockett, director of public affairs for H-E-B, a few weeks earlier with a crazy proposal: Could I work the check-out line at one of H-E-B’s Austin stores?
To my surprise, she said yes.
In tomorrow’s food section, you’ll find the resulting story, which — to my surprise — ended up being less about the logistics of being a checker and more about the brief, but meaningful interaction with customers. (Click here for a photo gallery.)
Food is such an intimate part of our lives, and it’s the checkers’ job to handle everything from your kids’ favorite breakfast cereal, the frozen dinners you’ll be eating for lunch all week to the ingredients you’ll lovingly turn into lavish meals for guests. Both cashiers and customers probably don’t think twice about this interaction, but if you step back and look at it, it’s a pretty unique relationship.
Have you spent time on the other side of the register? What lessons (good or bad) did you learn?
Video by Kelly West.
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January 11, 2010
What apps do you use in the kitchen or eating on the go?
Just a few weeks into life with an iPhone, I’ve already found it to be an indispensable tool in the kitchen, not just for tweeting while I’m cooking.
As you can see, Epicurious is my recipe application of choice so far. I’ve downloaded the All Recipes app, but haven’t used it, and more than once, I’ve found myself wishing that Fine Cooking had a dedicated app.
As for using my iPhone to find something good to eat, Yelp and Urbanspoon have both been helpful. Mando Rayo of TacoJournalism.com pointed me to the journalistas’ new app, iTacos, which helps you find taco joints in Austin.
Statesman tech writer Omar Gallaga says it’s worth the $4.99 to upgrade from Grocery Gadget Lite to help make grocery lists, but I’m still pretty stingy when it comes to paying for applications that I’m not sure I’m going to use.
But here’s where you tech-minded folks come in. Seeing as how most of you are easily a year or two ahead of me in the world of food apps for your phone, I’m hoping you will give me tips on what is worth paying for and what isn’t.
What are your must-have apps for pairing food and wine? What about menu planning or tweeting food photos? Do you keep track of your calories through programs like Livestrong’s calorie counter?
Over the next month, I’ll be diving into this world of food apps for an upcoming story, and I’d love to hear your favorite ways to use mobile technology to be a better cook and a better eater.
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January 4, 2010
After cheese balls, latkes and paella, let the holiday recovery begin
The holidays are meant for overindulging, and I did my fair share this year.
No need to rehash every delicious meal, cocktail or food tradition, but here are a few of the highlights to remind me, and hopefully you, too, of the wonderful time spent with friends and family over the past few weeks.
Santa brought me perfectly ripe, heirloom backyard tomatoes! OK, maybe not Santa, but my nice neighbor who has the magic touch of growing fall tomatoes. He picks them while they are still green just before the first frost, lets them ripen near a window and then, just a few days before Christmas, gives a little piece of summer to friends.
Not too long after Christmas, I found out that I’m 1/64th Jewish, which explains my previously hard-to-explain desire earlier in the month to host a Hanukkah party complete with a menorah (thanks, Jodi and Adam!) and latkes with applesauce.
I’d never made latkes before, but it wasn’t nearly as difficult (or smelly) as I thought it would be. Next year, I’ll just have to think ahead and make the applesauce, too.
At both the Hanukkah/winter solstice/birthday/Christmas party and Christmas Eve dinner, my mom brought cheese balls, which are one of my family’s traditional Christmas foods. Made with several kinds of cheeses, onions, parsley and nuts, the cheese ball is standard holiday fare at Christmas parties in Missouri, but I found that many friends in Austin hadn’t had one before. What do you think? Are cheese balls more of a Midwestern party food?
My mom and Julian tried to make a gingerbread house on Christmas Eve, but it turned into gingerbread cookies that, despite looking anything but edible, Santa seemed to enjoy when he made a stop at our house. (Julian also insisted on serving him chocolate milk with cherries, which he also drank.)
And Thanksgiving, er Christmas Eve, dinner, with dressing, turkey, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, marshmallow-topped candied yams and green bean casserole. Almost made me forget what holiday we were on, but when nearly every branch of the family tree is represented at a single, bustling dinner, does it really matter?
We rang in the new year with friends who made three different paellas (Cajun, veggie and traditional) and set up a very cool make-your-own-barbecued-oysters bar. With a firepit out back, the oysters kept guests entertained while the hosts worked in the kitchen. A fabulous entertaining idea to remember for next year.
(And you might notice the meh quality of the paella and oyster photos. I am now officially among the ranks of the iPhoners, and I upload all my wandering snapshots to La Vie Addie, a tumblr blog.)
Hope you all had a wonderful holiday season! I’m looking forward to a turkey- and cookie swap-free 10 months, and then hopefully I’ll be recharged enough to do it all over again…
UPDATE: I used this recipe for latkes from Epicurious, but Rob Moshein, the blogger behind Austin Wine Guy, shared this recipe for his Grandma Rose’s famous latkes. Hanukkah isn’t for another year, but you can make potato fritters any time.
Grandma Rose’s Latkes
2 lbs Russet potatoes
1 large yellow onion, outer skin peeled off.
2 eggs
1/2 cup Wondra flour
1 tsp. salt
Black pepper to taste
Line a cookie sheet with brown paper from a grocery bag and place in an oven set on low, which will keep latkes warm after frying until ready to serve. Heat 1/4 inch of fat or oil in large cast iron skillet to 350 degrees (Grandma Rose’s test was when the wood end of a kitchen match bubbles when placed into the oil. A dry chopstick will do the same thing.)
(Note on the fat: Grandma Rose used schmaltz or rendered chicken fat. We use Crisco. I will put a little goose fat into the Crisco if I have some left over, which adds a great flavor.)
Grate the onion into a bowl using a large box grater. Add the eggs and beat until well mixed. Add salt and pepper and slowly beat in the flour until smooth.
Shred the potatoes using the large shred side of the grater. (NOTE: we have tried the Cusinart here, don’t bother with it. The texture is all wrong, so this part has to be done by hand.) When you have the last 20 percent or so of each potato, grate that part on the grater side, for a lumpy puree with the shreds; this adds a nice soft inside to the pancakes. Add the potatoes to the egg/onion mixture and stir well. Work quickly here on out or the potato will turn brown.
Spoon the mixture into the fat and flatten out with a spatula to about 1/4 inch or so, you can make them as little or large as you like. We like ours about 4-6 inches across, or 4 latkes per large skillet. Don’t crowd the pan. Let them cook at least 2 minutes before flipping. Cook evenly on both sides until dark golden brown and the outsides are crispy. Place in the warm oven on the paper. Repeat until all the potato mixture has been used.
Serve ASAP with Apple Sauce! Perfect side dish for anything in the winter time.
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December 30, 2009
The Decade in Food: Local is the new black
Heirloom tomatoes have never had it so good.
Back in 2000, most omnivores didn’t know they had a dilemma, much less the extent that Monsanto, Cargill and their well-dressed friends controlled the food supply.
As authors and moviemakers spread awareness of what goes on behind closed doors at factory farms, the perils of genetically modifying seeds and the long-lasting damage caused by pesticides and herbicides, people started to pay closer attention to what went into growing and producing their food.
New farms including Johnson’s Backyard Garden, Green Gate and Rain Lily sell food directly to customers through community-supported agriculture programs, where people buy a share of the farm in exchange for produce.
And because it doesn’t get any more local than from your backyard, victory gardens made popular during World War II are back, empowering a new generation of people, including the First Family (whose garden surely looks much better than my backyard garden, below), to grow their own food.
This is the fifth of a series of five of the top food trends of the past decade. Restaurant critic Mike Sutter blogged his top 5 over on Forklore, and the story will be printed in today’s paper.
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The Decade in Food: The world wide cookbook
During the decade of the blog, people who like food and cooking suddenly had a way to connect with each other, to find new places to eat or share favorite recipes. An explosion of food blogs and recipe Web sites meant that you didn’t have to have a shelf full of cookbooks to find a recipe for just about any dish you could conjure up.
In 2008, AllRecipes.com surpassed the Web sites for both the Food Network and various food magazines to be the site with the highest Web traffic, and now home cooks’ biggest challenge isn’t finding a recipe but wading through them all to find one that works and is up to par.
When Gourmet magazine folded this year after nearly 70 years of publication, many with a stake in traditional publishing pointed their flour-covered fingers at food bloggers without realizing that the suddenly powerful and prolific food bloggers were some of Gourmet’s biggest fans.
Cook’s Illustrated and several other publications are having some success charging readers access to online recipes and food content, but the vast majority of users would rather spend money on ingredients instead of recipes.
This is the fourth of a series of five of the top food trends of the past decade. Restaurant critic Mike Sutter’s blogged his top 5 over on Forklore, and the story will be printed in today’s paper.
Cartoon by Married to the Sea.
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December 29, 2009
The Decade in Food: There's a salmonella in my spinach
Peanut butter, spinach, tomatoes, jalapeños, pistachios, raw beef and even chocolate bars and cookie dough have been pulled from shelves after people have been sickened or even killed by pathogens.
In 2008, the U.S. Department of Agriculture recalled 143 million pounds of beef — almost a half pound of meat per person in the country — in one of the largest recalls in U.S. history. The FDA even has a Twitter account dedicated to food recalls.
This is the third of a series of five of the top food trends of the past decade. Restaurant critic Mike Sutter blogged his top 5 over on Forklore, and the story will be printed in Wednesday’s paper.
Photo illustration by Smart Choices.
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The Decade in Food: Cupcake mania
Cupcakes are cute, easy and cheap to make and portable, so it’s no surprise that cupcake fever has swept the country in the past 10 years. In an episode of HBO’s “Sex and the City” in 2000, Sarah Jessica Parker’s character eats a retro cupcake outside Magnolia Bakery in New York City, a scene that continues to draw thousands of tourists a year to the Bleecker Street bakery. (In case you missed the scene, here’s a bootleg version on YouTube.)
Just as with the frozen yogurt and doughnuts trends, the cupcake craze was slow to trickle to Austin, but even as we close out the decade, more than a dozen bakeries and cupcake catering companies, including Hey Cupcake and Sugar Mama’s Bakeshop, are still shelling out frosted gems to eager customers.
This is the second of a series of five of the top food trends of the past decade. Restaurant critic Mike Sutter’s blogged his top 5 over on Forklore, and the story will be printed in Wednesday’s paper.
Photos by Ralph Barrera for the Austin American-Statesman, Tim Sharp for the Associated Press.
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The Decade in Food: Queen Rachael takes her throne
Ten years ago, Rachael Ray and Anthony Bourdain were nobodies, struggling like thousands of other wannabe celebrity chefs to carve out a niche with their quirky personalities and cooking know-how, and the Food Network and PBS still had the monopoly on food-related television shows.
As the highest-paid person in food, Ray now sits at the top of an empire that includes a magazine, daytime television show, a number of other Food Network shows and even a pet food line.
Like Ray and her Food Network brethren including hosts Guy Fieri and Sandra Lee, Bourdain will probably never work in a commercial kitchen again, but that’s where “Top Chef” comes in.
In 2006, Bravo mashed together two American obsessions — chefs and reality shows — to create a hit series about the thrilling drama Bourdain so eloquently introduced in his book. The show, entering its seventh season, is launching the careers of a new wave of celebrity chefs and non-chefs, including red hot host Padma Lakshmi.
This is the first of a series of five of the top food trends of the past decade. Restaurant critic Mike Sutter’s blogged his top 5 over on Forklore, and the story will be printed in Wednesday’s paper.
Photos from Online TV and Links, Bravo and Amazon.
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December 15, 2009
Need a last-minute kid gift? Sew a pint-sized apron
(If your name is Harriet and you are 6 years old, stop reading this blog post or else your Christmas surprise on Wednesday is going to be ruined.)
Whew, now that I know that Harriet, one of the cutest little girls in the history of my son’s day care, isn’t looking, I can tell you about the pint-sized apron I made her for a secret Santa swap party this week.
She’s a frolicking, freckled spirit, and though I can’t be sure she’s as into cooking as I am, I figured that every kid needs a personalized apron to help keep them excited about hanging out in the kitchen.
I leave the crafty blogging to my friend Etienne, who writes the Knittin’ Kitten blog for the Statesman, but I’ve been known to sew a thing or two in my life. Skirts, purses, satchels, dresses: I’ve sewn them all, but after that oh-so-public fashion bashing I got a few years back, I stick to mending and making fun gifts like pillows and this apron.
Harriet is no bigger than a teacup, so I just used a bigger apron as a guide for shape when I cut out the fabric. (And as anyone who sews knows, you almost always have enough extra fabric lying around to make something else. All the fabrics I used are from previous projects.)
What really makes this apron special, of course, is the big letter “H” on the front. Letters are easy to sew on, and they instantly personalize whatever you’re making.
Who knows if Ms. H will actually use this apron in the kitchen — I’d be just as happy if it were covered in paint a year from now — but I hope it brings her as much joy as it did for me to make it.
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December 3, 2009
Kitchen Confession: Opting out of Thanksgiving traditions
I skipped the big Thanksgiving this year.
Last week, I wrote a little bit about taking a break from traditional Thanksgiving dishes, but our break from tradition wasn’t just about not serving turkey.
Every year since I moved to Austin, I’ve done the holiday dance, driving 11 hours to Missouri to spend Thanksgiving or Christmas with my family there. It’s always a lovely time together, and I really do cherish the whole idea of packing as many relatives into one house as possible for the holidays.
But sometimes you need a break.
I’m lucky to get to see my and my husband’s family several times a year, so this year, I knew our own little family needed a different approach to the holidays.
I could blame it on the fact that we have a 3-year-old who hates spending an entire day in the car as much as we do. I could blame it on the fact that all I think and breathe for the entire months of November and December is holiday food. I could blame my little hail-dented Corolla that needs a visit to a mechanic before another massive road trip.
The truth is, we wanted to do things our way this Thanksgiving.
When I first told my family that we weren’t going to anyone’s Thanksgiving dinner but our own, I don’t think they believed me. But as the end of November got closer and even my San Diego-based uncle, the prodigal son who never came home, said he was flying back for Thanksgiving, the pressure was on for us to change our plans.
But we didn’t. Feelings were hurt, I’m sure, but everyone, even you, dear reader of this blog, shouldn’t have to beg for a get-out-of-jail-free card if you want to opt out of a big family gathering.
The result? The most relaxing, drama-free, expectation-free Thanksgiving vacation I’ve ever had.
I missed being around my extended family, but most of them will be in Austin for Christmas.
I know I’ll be back on the gravy train next year, but stealing last week with Ian and Julian was one of the best decisions we’ve made all year.
Kitchen Confession is a series of blog posts highlighting the bad habits we refuse to break in the kitchen.
What’s your dirty kitchen habit? E-mail me at abroyles@statesman.com. Photos are optional, but encouraged.
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October 5, 2009
After 68 years, Gourmet magazine to close after Nov. issue
What a day for food news.
The New York Times is reporting that Gourmet magazine will cease publication after the November issue. After 68 years as one of the best food magazines around (the most recent 10 years with food powerhouse Ruth Reichl as editor), this news is a sad reminder of the changing times.
Yes, the economy is bad, but magazines have been struggling for a while. Ad sales are down. Subscriptions are down. Free content is everywhere, but you can’t find the quality of photography and articles published in Gourmet just anywhere. Especially in Bon Appetit, the “other” food magazine Conde Nast owns.
Few in the industry thought that Conde Nast could continue to publish two food magazines for much longer, but many put their bets on the less-prestigious (and to me, less engaging and enjoyable to look at) Bon Appetit. But when you look at the other food publications out there — Cooking Light, Eating Well, Saveur, Food + Wine, Every Day with Rachael Ray and even the Food Network’s magazine — readers want quick bites, tips, low-fat recipes and dinners they can cook in less than 20 minutes.
Gourmet just released “Gourmet Today,” a collection of more than 1,000 new recipes for “how we cook today.” A great concept and a fine book, I’m sure, but I haven’t seen it. Budget cuts must have forced them to reduce the number of review copies they sent out. (We haven’t received review copies of the magazine in a long time, but I subscribed anyway.)
It’ll be interesting to see what Reichl, a former New York Times restaurant critic, does next. She has a series on PBS that is supposed to air this fall and has had success with her memoirs, but what do you do after 10 years at the helm of the world’s most elegant food magazine?
UPDATE: It appears Gourmet will continue in book publishing and television programing. From an e-mail quoted on LA Observed:
Gourmet magazine will cease monthly publication, but we will remain committed to the brand, retaining Gourmet’s book publishing and television programming, and Gourmet recipes on Epicurious.com. We will concentrate our publishing activities in the epicurean category on Bon Appétit.
As if the news of Gourmet closing wasn’t enough to digest this morning, the Federal Trade Commission announced that starting December 1, bloggers must disclose freebies or payments they get from companies in exchange for reviewing their products.
From AP: “It is the first time since 1980 that the commission has revised its guidelines on endorsements and testimonials, and the first time the rules have covered bloggers. But the commission stopped short Monday of specifying how bloggers must disclose any conflicts of interest.”
This is an interesting ruling that will without a doubt affect the food blogging community. Violators could face up to $11,000 in fines, but I’d really like to know who is going to be perusing the millions of blogs to find out who is breaking the rules.
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September 18, 2009
Patrick Swayze, I'd carry a watermelon for you
In a Patrick Swayze remembrance today in the paper, I reflected on my adoration of his role in “Dirty Dancing,” a movie I’ve seen more times than I care to admit and whose soundtrack I’ve listened to even more:
It was hard to feel sorry for Jennifer Grey’s character in 1987’s “Dirty Dancing.” Frances “Baby” Houseman, a do-gooder trying on her big-girl shoes one summer at her family’s retreat in the Catskills, falls for the smooth-talking and even smoother-moving dancing instructor Johnny Castle. Few actors could pull off the role like Patrick Swayze, a classically trained ballet dancer whose mother was a dance teacher in his hometown of Houston.
Swayze’s masculine appeal drives the film, from he and Baby’s first meeting after she carries watermelons to the hip-thrusting afterparty through their dance lessons in the rain and in a lake and that sexy scene in the cabin where Baby officially leaves her overprotected childhood behind.
Swayze, with his sure steps and steady gaze, gave a generation of women a muscular, lust-worthy leading man who could do a mean mambo without the stuffy pretense. Sure, John Travolta gave us a rebellious, swift-footed hunk a decade before in “Grease,” but Swayze ditched the musical theatrics for a less slicked-back and ego-driven definition of cool. I’d rather swap places with Grey than Olivia Newton-John any day.
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May 22, 2009
Ramen noodles and The Maneater
The Maneater student newspaper had spread the word even before we moved on campus that if you were a serious journalism student, theirs was the newspaper you wanted to work at before you actually entered J-school (typically your junior year).
The eager beaver I was/am, I popped into the newsroom before the classes started and picked up an assignment: a grocery story-by-grocery store price comparison of foods that typically comprise a college student’s diet. I gathered my data and surreptitiously took pictures with my, gasp, SLR camera (whose film I would later develop in The Maneater’s photo lab that would only be in use another two years). I was proud to show off my first story but even prouder when it was picked as the “story of the week” (for the first and only time in four often rowdy years at the paper) at The Maneater’s auditorium-filled first official news meeting.
I’ve been reading UT graduation tweets today and thinking about college and all it means in our lives, from the 40 pounds we gain and can’t seem to shake off to the late-night pizzaPokey Stix runs, croissant-fueled trips through Europe and mid-morning brunches. Not only can see where the 40 pounds comes from, but also where our relationships with food bloom.
So, graduates, congratulations and may the Ramen be with you.
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May 13, 2009
My two cents on 'Julie & Julia'
Sure “Star Trek” just came out and wowed everybody, even the non Trekkies, and there will probably be another four “X-Men” movies released by the end of summer, but by all the talk in the food community, you’d think there was only one movie coming out this year that matters.
“Julie & Julia” won’t be released until August 7, but foodies have been buzzing about it since they found out former Austinite Julie Powell’s blog-turned-book would be adapted for the big screen by Nora Ephron and that no less than Meryl Streep herself would play Julia Child. Rising star Amy Adams was booked as Powell, and the hysteria began.
A little more about the movie: Powell hated her job in New York, and as a way to give herself a purpose, she started a blog to chronicle cooking all 524 recipes in Julia Child’s “Mastering the Art of French Cooking” in one year. After a lot of cursing and aspic, Powell finished her task and eventually got a book deal, which then made its way to Hollywood and into the hands of Ephron.
Journalist-turned-chef Michael Ruhlman has seen is and says he loves Streep’s performance as Julia. They are already preselling a copy of Powell’s book with the actors on the cover. Director Nora Ephron apparently ran into Streep on the street and told her she was working on the script; Streep launched into her Julia Child impression and the deal was sealed.
I haven’t seen the movie, but as part of a book club earlier this year, I read the book, and much to my surprise, I was one of the only people in the club who actually liked it. Powell, who grew up in Austin and whose family still lives here, started this project in 2002, when blogs weren’t quite the universal force they are now. The idea of cooking every recipe from Julia Child’s “Mastering the Art of French Cooking” in a year and blogging about it wasn’t as gimmicky as it would be if started today because no one was doing that kind of thing way back then.
Her strong blogging voice didn’t translate into the book, my fellow book clubbers said. It wasn’t the best written book I’d ever read, but it certainly wasn’t the worst. Women authors, especially those who start as bloggers, don’t get near the respect of their male counterparts. Instead of being “witty” or “edgy,” Powell was “annoying” or “contrived.”
From the looks of it, Amy Adams won’t have quite the sailor’s mouth or affinity for gin vodka gimlets that Powell does/did in the book, but the way Ephron appears to be weaving the two storylines together seems fantastic. Eat Me Daily is upset because now Julia Child has to share the screen with some lowly blogger and won’t get her own full-length feature. This echoes some of the criticism during the book club meeting: Child is too grand, too great a character to be the subject of such a frivolous project, book and now movie.
I couldn’t disagree more. Child was an institution for decades in the form of both her cookbooks and her shows, but where is Child now? She passed away while Powell was writing her book and never officially chimed in on what she thought of the blog project. Her shows aren’t airing a hundred times a week on television. She doesn’t have new cookbooks coming out. Think all that Jacques Pepin and Auguste Escoffier did for cooking, but how many of them will be a household name in ten years?
I think that Powell’s experience in many ways embodies what Child set out to accomplish. Wasn’t Child preaching empowerment in the kitchen? Then why would she have any objection to a depressed worker bee rediscovering herself by learning to make French food that no one eats anymore? Wasn’t the love of food what saved Child, too?
Powell’s “year of cooking dangerously” has reinvigorated Child’s legacy so it can inspire a new generation of cooks. What better way to honor such an extraordinary woman.
(Photo from Columbia Pictures)
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March 19, 2009
Graffiti keeps Austin tasty
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January 27, 2009
The biggest compost pile you've ever seen
A few weeks ago, I was touring Sunshine Community Gardens, the 4-acre plot near The Triangle that celebrates its 30th anniversary this year, and one of the gardeners there showed me this heaping compost pile. (She didn’t understand why I got all excited and started snapping photos of rotting food when I hadn’t taken a single photo of the lush winter gardens we’d been strolling through.)
I found out that twice a week, Whole Foods lets volunteers pick up crates of expired food to bring up to the community garden, where it then is mixed with clippings and leaves to create rich soil that the gardeners use. Workers from Casa de Luz, the macrobiotics place I wrote about last fall, bring Casa’s scraps to Sunshine.
Speaking of waste…
During a road trip earlier this month, we hit Jack in the Box for some grub. I’m having a hard time eating full-on fast food after reading Michael Pollan’s “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” recently, so I ordered a salad (with crispy chicken nonetheless), but look at all the packaging! The salad was pretty tasty, even though the dressing was full of sugar and high fructose corn syrup, but it just seemed like such a waste to have all the nuts, crispy strips and such in their own packages.
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January 6, 2009
In a crowded kitchen, Food Network stuck on the line
Interesting statistics on the biggest food Web sites today. Food Network, which was once the granddaddy of food Web sites, has fallen slightly behind Allrecipes.com in unique visitors. ComScore, which tracks online traffic, said that food sites attracted about 45.6 million unique visitors in September, a 10 percent increase from the same month in 2007.
Allrecipes, which boasts nearly 300,000 recipes, drew more than 8 million of those visits, a sliver more than the longtime leader, Food Network.
It seems the economy is pushing people back into the kitchen and therefore online for inspiration on what — or how — to cook.
Where do you go to find recipes? Do you search by ingredient or by recipe? I find myself doing a bit of both, and instead of going to a specific Web site, I generally do a Google search, with mixed results. I’m pretty surprised that About.com is up there; the (un)usability on that Web site makes me crazy.
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November 6, 2008
Can you really get high off brown rice?
Early students of Michio Kushi were hippies looking for enlightenment, Warren Kramer says, and Kushi tried to show them that you can get high from eating brown rice.
Those macrobiotics folks aren’t lying when they say what they eat is as much about spirituality as it is food.
People may scoff at the idea that eating brown rice will get you high, but I doubt anyone can say they haven’t felt that sublime, head-in-the-clouds feeling after eating something exquisite. (Sushi, for example, always gives me a physical and mental buzz.)
Science proves that food directly affects our bodies and our brains. Why do you think we all go for soup when we’re feeling under the weather? The warm, savory liquid has as much power over us psychologically as it does physically. For some, the mere smell of cookies baking will release relaxing chemicals in the brain. How many of us have a special breakfast we eat to prepare us for a particularly challenging day?
What about that feeling after you eat a giant salad for lunch? Your belly feels good because it is digesting healthy nutrients and your mind feels good because it knows you’ve eaten well.
Macrobiotics acknowledges the power of one’s actions while cooking as well. How many of us have said, “You can taste the love in this _”? While making this video on how to make miso soup, chef Morna Neal did a few interesting things: She lovingly washed each vegetable by itself, and then after cutting the carrot or celery very slowly with a knife, she wiped the cutting board to honor the integrity of each vegetable, she said.
The best part about my job is getting to know not just people who love to eat, but people who love the food they eat with every molecule of their body.
If you do that, you are already living the “Great Life,” even if the word macrobiotics never comes out of your mouth.
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August 20, 2008
Say goodbye to your favorite Torchy's trailer
When Torchy’s Tacos owner Mike Rypka told me he was closing Torchy’s original trailer on South First Street, I almost started to cry.
What about the basketball goal! The poison-ivy coated creekside! The grassy back yard where Julian learned to walk! With so many memories at the lot across the creek from the Texas School for the Deaf, how could he think of shutting it down?
Don’t get too sad, he reassured me. Not only was the original trailer moving just two lots down the street, it was also getting a neighbor — Shuggie’s, a burger and seafood trailer whose menu he’s been working on for months.
So, the original Torchy’s will close down on Sunday, August 24, only to reopen alongside Shuggie’s on Friday, August 29 (the date on the sign hanging on the trailer now is a misprint, Mike says).
“It’s gonna be a lot of fun once we get that thing up and rollin’,” Mike says. He’s planning a game room with pinball machines and pool tables, a tire swing, horseshoes and a kids’ area at the new spot, which will also have more parking.
Oh, and as for Shuggie’s: Prepare yourselves, folks. Greasy, hand-formed meat patties, po’ boys, onion rings, hush puppies. Need I say more?
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August 19, 2008
When to say "no" to leftovers?
Eating leftovers is a great way to reduce the amount of food wasted, but that pesky fine line of when something spoils is sometimes hard to spot. How brown is too brown for ground beef? Can you trim off the mold on a block of cheese or loaf of bread? Don’t condiments keep forever? ABC News asked scientists to help leftovers lovers figure it out:
Smelly, spotty or curdled food won’t necessarily make you sick. In fact, the so-called spoilage bacteria can outgrow the bacteria that can make you sick and actually act as a protection shield for the food. The ones that will make you take over the bathroom are odorless and colorless.
The key to keeping food safe is the temperature of your fridge. You can safety keep most foods for four days at 40 degrees Fahrenheit, according to one of the scientists in the article.
Limit the amount of time food is left unrefrigerated to two hours.
You’ve got three days for raw chicken and beef. If you’re not going to use it in three days, put it in the freezer.
As for that mold on the bread? As long as no one has a mold allergy, you can cut a few inches past the mold and it should be OK to eat.
If you’re still unsure, you can always call the USDA meat and poultry hotline at 1-888-674-6854.
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August 18, 2008
Rachael Ray's alter ego
Cause I know you can’t get enough of America’s favorite 30-Minute-Meal maker, meet Rachael, er Rachell, the smiling faux chef behind Every Freaking Day with Rachell Ray, a parody book out that’s sure to have Ray Ray boiling in her JCrew booties.
Or maybe not. Ms. Ray, who recently topped the list as the top-earning celebrity chef with her $18 million a year salary, seems like a light-hearted gal most of the time. Maybe she, too, can get a laugh at herself.
I sure did, especially with features “Oh My Buns! Burgers of the Month,” “Swell Swill: Wines under $5.99” and an RR drinking game, in which you take drinks each time she says “totally” or “EVOO” and drain the bottle when she calls the guests on her show “kids.” (The real Rachael’s Web site has a Rachael-isms page to explain her lingo, in case “delish” or “yum-o” isn’t clear.)
Watch out for “floater” recipes — including one whose ingredients consist of flavored gelatin and Chex Mix — and a how-to on getting from the fridge to the counter with every single flippin’ ingredient you need in your grasp.
What would we do without you, RR?
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July 28, 2008
TGI Friday's Guy Fieri hits up Casino El Camino
I’m stoked any time an Austin eatery or foodie gets the national spotlight, but it makes me crazy that Fieri, who won the second season of The Next Food Network Star, is also a spokesman for TGI Friday’s, a chain that may be partially responsible for the deaths of hundreds of these beloved dives. I don’t know Fieri, so I can’t say for sure, but the guy is on his third Food Network show, so he can’t be hurting that badly for dollars, especially from a company so antithetical to the mission of this show.
Of course, Fieri isn’t alone. Tyler Florence hooked up with Applebee’s to promote healthier menu options. Rachael Ray looooves Dunkin’ Donuts (and if you can believe it, she just came out today with a charitable line of premium dog food), and remember, Paula Deen talks ham, not unions.
The celebrity chef sellout question is your call, but thank God — for many reasons — we’ve still got Anthony Bourdain. From this interview:
I’ve had pretty much a full spectrum of offers for business, as well as personal services! Endorsements and reality shows, you know the usual kind of (expletive). It’s a quality-of-life issue, I don’t want to wake up in the morning, look in the mirror and see the Tidy Bowl guy or the spokesman for Lomotil. I won’t be doing a set of steak knives
Personally, Fieri drives me nuts (or maybe it’s just the hair), but like I said, I’ll watch anything with Austin in it.
And at least he snagged a recipe for El Camino’s Amarillo Burger.
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July 9, 2008
French chickens and fancy hens
I had so much fun working on this week’s stories about French fowl and rabbit farmer and chef Sebastien Bonneu and the Cola Sisters, the hosts of the public access show “Cookin’ Good.” Great subjects with interesting stories to tell. Every food writers’ — well, at least this food writer’s — dream.
They raise some tasty chickens, too! We had a couple of birds a week or so ago — cut into pieces and grilled — that made me remember what chicken is supposed to taste like. Certainly makes chicken sold on Styrofoam and wrapped in plastic a little less appealing.
He’ll be at the Triangle tonight selling his goods if you want to try them yourself.
I got to listen in on some of them during a taping of a show last weekend, and let me tell you, they have some crazy fans, some of whom leave 5-minute messages professing their Cola love. (If you’ve never seen the show, it’s hard to grasp exactly why they have such a following, but you can get a glimpse of their style in this Austin360.com video.)
Someone made a full-color comic book based on them, they sold a guest spot on their show for charity recently for $100 and Arcie even was offered a ride from some fans who recognized her in public last week. All from a cooking show that would make your grandma blush. These are my kind of gals, even though I don’t think I could ever pull off the outfits.
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May 22, 2008
Is a woman's place still in the kitchen, eating yogurt?
The way food products and cookbook are marketed and written these days, you’d think women were still staying at home to bake all day and the majority of men only touched food when they were eating it or grilling it.
Take this barbecue tool belt or just about any little kids’ cooking set. Remember the pink Easy-Bake Oven? Don’t worry, it’s still pink and “still delights with a girl’s first real baking experience,” according to the official word from Hasbro. Nearly every grilling cookbook I get features “manly men” on the cover, holding some grill tool and looking gruff. No ovens in sight.
The stereotypical marketing extends to not just cooking, but eating, too. CurrentTV recently had this piece about how yogurt makers rely on really generic stereotypes (for example, that all women want in life is shoes, long walks on the beach and a happy digestive tract) to sell more yogurt.
Missy Chase Lapine, one of two cookbook authors who’ve burst onto the scene in the past year with recipes that encourage people to sneak vegetables into their foods so that their kids will eat them (the other is Jerry Seinfeld’s wife, whose book is “Deceptively Delicious: Simple Secrets to Get Your Kids Eating Good Food”), has moved from teaching you how to deceive your children to encouraging you to deceive your husband in “The Sneaky Chef: How to Cheat on your Man (In the Kitchen).”
It’s amazing to me that not only is she suggesting that encouraging males to eat vegetables is somehow a betrayal of their love and trust, but also that men somehow won’t eat vegetables of their own volition.
“A Man, a Can, a Plan” is another book based solely on the stereotype that men can’t (or
Does this drive anyone else mad? My fiancée, Ian, is a great cook, and Julian already has a little cooking set-up that he plays with. I just have a hard time believing that with more men cooking now than ever, these companies (and authors!) aren’t changing how they sell food-related products and books.
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