Food Matters

Kids get their ABCs of nutrition at this school cafeteria salad bar

By Kitty Crider & Dale Rice
Oct. 13, 2004

Photo by Ha Lam for AA-S Tianna Scott tries a piece of star fruit at Hillcrest Elementary. The school offered an alphabet of nutritious food.

A is for apple, B is for broccoli, C is for cantaloupe, D is for ... daikon sprout? The alphabet took on a healthy fruit and veggie flavor recently at Hillcrest Elementary when the Del Valle school district promoted an A to Z salad bar in the cafeteria. The purpose was to expose students to healthy new taste experiences, and many teachers, aides and parents were on hand to encourage the young palates to try jicama, radishes, figs, kiwis and more. Each was marked with a letter of the alphabet and fun facts about the product. Not surprisingly, the familiar strawberries, mango and watermelon were going faster than the quince and turnips.

While some students were reluctant to try the new produce, others jumped in with enthusiasm.

"This (star fruit) tastes like a lime," observed first-grader Joshua Ruyle. "The radish is spicy. And the jicama doesn't taste like anything," the budding food critic announced. And he was right.

Chris Maggard, director of child nutrition for Sodexho, which handles the food service for the school district, says his company had done a similar program successfully in California and other areas. It also does a fruit/vegetable of the month promotion that includes an activity book.

The teachers were planning to follow up the educational lunch with discussions about comparing and contrasting the various fruits and veggies.

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What's our shrimp have to do with a whine about Champagne?

Gulf shrimp from Nebraska? No way. We all know where those shellfish come from. That's exactly what the Office of Champagne, USA, hopes to emphasize with its "Questionable Origins" advertising campaign that is running in national food and wine magazines through the rest of this year.

Americans commonly refer to any sparkling wine as "champagne," but the true wine of that name comes only from the Champagne region of France. An amusing, bookmark-sized ad, such as the Gulf shrimp one, will appear on one page of the magazines, with a full-page ad discussing the origins of Champagne on the following page.

We can't help but wonder if they're preaching to the choir. Seems like readers of the Wine Enthusiast would already know this.

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'King' of fajitas grills again at Buddy Walk

Sonny Falcon

Names in the news: "Fajita King" Sonny Falcon is coming out of retirement. Sunday he will grill fajitas for the Buddy Walk benefiting Down syndrome research Sunday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Zilker Park polo fields. And next year the guy who claims to have invented fajitas will open a restaurant at the H-E-B shopping center planned in Kyle ... El Chile Cafe y Cantina, 1809 Manor Road, is giving birth to El Chilito, a breakfast/lunch taco and coffee bar at 2219 Manor Road. Look for the eatery to open this month, says Orlando Sanchez, a partner in the spinoff along with Carlos Rivero, Kristine Kittrell, Matt Weaver and Michelle Segal. El Chile, which celebrates its first birthday this month, serves lunch, dinners and Sunday brunch ... Frank Sickelsmith, Austin franchise owner of the new Tin Star eatery in Hancock Center, says folks here in River City eat differently from Dallas, where the chain was born. Dallas is bigger on the gourmet tacos, he says, whereas in Austin, diners go for country fried steak, burger tacos , vegetarian quesadillas and margaritas ... Recently at an Austin Symphony performance, Ray Benson of Asleep at the Wheel shared his own take on the Atkins Diet -- the Chet Atkins Diet: "You pick at your food."

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A cookbook to get you cooking again

If your kitchen has gotten dusty, "Cooking New American" (Taunton, $29.95) will get you back to the stove. The hardbound volume features 200 recipes from the editors of Fine Cooking magazine, each illustrated with one -- often two -- tempting color photos of completed food. Recipes are approachable, and for the most part, more healthful than the naughty strawberry shortcake on the cover, but still foods you like to eat.

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Lunch is served in no time flat

What's hot but cool is this neoprene BYO Lunch Bag from Built NY. Empty is it's flat. (Some passersby, obviously sports fans, mistook it for a stadium cushion.) But unzip the lunch bag and stuff in a sandwich or salad. There is even a separate pocket for a water bottle or canned drink. At work, the bag unzips completely to reveal your lunch and make an impromptu placemat. Available in a variety of colors for $26 at Zinger Hardware, 2438 W. Anderson Lane.