The other night, I finally watched Sofia Coppola's incredibly fun and colorful Marie Antoinette. It wasn't exactly a movie about food, really, about the last gasps of the French monarchy before the country spent a few hundred years stumbling towards democracy, eventually sort of claiming world domination through culture. However, food, the consumption and modeling of, playing a dominant role. Poor Marie, trapped in a difficult marriage (seven years before it was consummated?) and restrictive aristocratic culture, found solace in parties and entertainment and clothes, including shoes. Oh, the shoes.
The food was exquisite - elegant and charming and colorful and frilly. Poached salmon decoratively wrapped in cucumbers. Frosted petite fours. Bubbly champagne fountains crafted of stacked glasses and goblets of ruby red wine. Meals did play a pivotal role in key scenes, setting the social order and customs for those in the court and their hangers-on and illustrating the gradual shifts in the King and Queen's relationship. The clothes carefully matched the food - bright colors, ruffles and lace and baubles. I was not surprised to learn that the costumes were modeled after the food. Wow.
One other comment - seeing the preview, reading reviews, I wasn't sure how Sofia would pull off the juxtaposition of 80s music and 18th century France. Amazingly enough, it worked, very well. I'm probably going to buy the soundtrack, it was that impressive.
Sunday, February 25, 2007
Grass vs Corn
The other night at Whole Foods, I bought a grass fed rib eye steak, invited Pete for dinner, then realized that one steak wouldn't be enough, so asked him to pick up another steak on his way over. Instead of a rib eye, he brought some other cut, but purchasing at QFC guaranteed that his steak was corn fed. Thus, we had the opportunity to do a side by side comparison of corn fed versus grass fed beef.
The difference was big. Both cuts had been prepped and cooked the exact same way, sprinkled with black pepper and truffle salt and pan-fried in a cast iron skillet, still nicely pink on the inside. The rib eye, as expected, was more tender, keeping in mind that the steaks came from different parts of the cow. But the general flavor was different, or as I said, "it was more buttery".
I also made mashed potatos with sour cream, half-and-half, sauteed shallots and garlic, black pepper and truffle salt. The sauteed spinach with garlic and lemon was delicious (and leftovers quite nice with eggs the next morning); the sauteed collard greens were bitter and disappointing.
The difference was big. Both cuts had been prepped and cooked the exact same way, sprinkled with black pepper and truffle salt and pan-fried in a cast iron skillet, still nicely pink on the inside. The rib eye, as expected, was more tender, keeping in mind that the steaks came from different parts of the cow. But the general flavor was different, or as I said, "it was more buttery".
I also made mashed potatos with sour cream, half-and-half, sauteed shallots and garlic, black pepper and truffle salt. The sauteed spinach with garlic and lemon was delicious (and leftovers quite nice with eggs the next morning); the sauteed collard greens were bitter and disappointing.
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
My Super Hero Dating Quiz
According to Professor Charles Xavier and Doctor Fate, Cable is my super hero lover. I'm not exactly sure who he is, but I like that as a cyborg, he packs a big gun. I'm sure I know what you are thinking, and to that I say, get your mind out of the gutter; Cable and his bug gun will always protect me from, umm, the weirdos out there.
Sunday, February 11, 2007
More Cupcakes!
Thanks to my daily dose of Daily Candy (which finally started in Seattle, yeah!), I discovered that the forever-in-renovation space in the Wallingford Center had been completed, serving a very useful purpose as cupcake shop and cafe, Trophy Cupcakes and Party.
After a brief stop for lunch, beer purchases at the Bottle Shop and a dose of gourmet at Cosa Bella (where I picked up the very excellent Ecorce de Sapin, a wonderfully runny cheese, tasting of slight sour and toasted almonds), Jill, Jamie and I made our way to the cupcakery. Jill chose a chocolate cupcake with vanilla frosting, I went vanilla all the way. Other choices included red velvet, variations on coconut and a chai cupcake. Wisely, we decided that going basic would give us a good sense of the cupcakery's potential; after all, if they couldn't make a decent basic cupcake, were the gourmet ones really worth it? Jamie disagreed, but he also doesn't like cupcakes, so I'm not sure that I trust his line of argument. (Sorry Jamie)
The Trophy Cupcake was delicious. Airy cake, with enough structure to support the generous helping of frosting, but not overly dense. The frosting on it's own wasn't as sweet and cloying as say, a Safeway cupcake. I'll be eager to see how well it does over the long-term. I suspect that cupcakes are a fad that are nearing their end for now, but Wallingford could be a great location, considering the neighborhood's heavy emphasis on family. Also, the cupcakery sells an assortment of other stuff, including cupcake decorations and cards.
In other news, I finally broke down and bought the new Shuffle; mine was a year old, starting to have problems and rather than suffer the pain of it's eventual breakdown and demise, proactively purchased a new one. For those that care, i selected silver. The colors are super cute, but in the end, I thought the silver was best.
After a brief stop for lunch, beer purchases at the Bottle Shop and a dose of gourmet at Cosa Bella (where I picked up the very excellent Ecorce de Sapin, a wonderfully runny cheese, tasting of slight sour and toasted almonds), Jill, Jamie and I made our way to the cupcakery. Jill chose a chocolate cupcake with vanilla frosting, I went vanilla all the way. Other choices included red velvet, variations on coconut and a chai cupcake. Wisely, we decided that going basic would give us a good sense of the cupcakery's potential; after all, if they couldn't make a decent basic cupcake, were the gourmet ones really worth it? Jamie disagreed, but he also doesn't like cupcakes, so I'm not sure that I trust his line of argument. (Sorry Jamie)
The Trophy Cupcake was delicious. Airy cake, with enough structure to support the generous helping of frosting, but not overly dense. The frosting on it's own wasn't as sweet and cloying as say, a Safeway cupcake. I'll be eager to see how well it does over the long-term. I suspect that cupcakes are a fad that are nearing their end for now, but Wallingford could be a great location, considering the neighborhood's heavy emphasis on family. Also, the cupcakery sells an assortment of other stuff, including cupcake decorations and cards.
In other news, I finally broke down and bought the new Shuffle; mine was a year old, starting to have problems and rather than suffer the pain of it's eventual breakdown and demise, proactively purchased a new one. For those that care, i selected silver. The colors are super cute, but in the end, I thought the silver was best.
Saturday, February 10, 2007
The Omnivore's Dilemma
I recently read Michael Pollen's excellent The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals. In a nutshell, Pollen presents a through investigation of the U.S. food industry, looking at the industrial farm (primarily corn growing) in the heartland, a small, sun-driven farm on the East Coast and hunting and foraging in the Bay Area. At least for the short-term, and hopefully long-term, the book has impacted my foodie behavior.
I was shocked and alarmed to discover the sheer amount of corn in our food. Eating fresh corn in the summer is really the least of issues with corn: Pollan hypothesizes that the industrialization of corn has dramatically changed the farming industry, severely impacted the very constitution of the food we eat through increased processing, and increased our caloric intake, pinning corn as a factor in America's rising obesity rates. Corn's contribution is not just through partially hydrogenated corn syrup, but a whole host of ingredients that give our food much of its basic character. A good rule of thumb: if the word in the ingredient list is unknown and "scientific", chances are, it's derived from corn. Beyond, we consume corn through most meat and dairy products. Cows are fed corn (despite the fact that bovines are natural grass eaters), chickens eat corn, pigs eat corn, even salmon are being breed to be corn tolerant. I have visions that I am slowly turning into a giant kernel of corn.
I can't live a life devoid of corn. Derivatives from the vegetable is in almost everything, stabilizing it, flavoring it, providing a long shelf life. It's difficult to find high quality meat that hasn't been fed corn; the finest steak houses proudly advertise "corn-fed beef", in part because we have a taste for the marbled fat that corn develops in beef. But I am now scrutinizing labels more so than ever in attempts to avoid processed corn; I even switched to a different brand of yogurt after reading the Tillamock label and discovering the high corn content. I don't want to turn into a corn kernel.
I tend to think of organic as a good choice. Sadly, but born of practicality, the organic food industry has begun to migrate to an industrialized food model. While not as harmful and damaging to the environment as that of the corn industry, it is still disturbing, but really, a fact of life considering the population and mechanics of modern life. I believed that Whole Foods shopping supported small, sustainable, organic farms; the 60 Minutes feature this fall stressed that the company strives to work with family farms. While this may be partially true, the reality is that by shopping at Whole Foods, I'm primarily supporting industrialized organic farms. Something we never consider: the fossil fuel costs of getting the food to Whole Foods is almost equivalent to that used by Safeway, QFC and other stores. The strawberries grown in California need to get to Seattle, somehow.
I wondered if I should stop shopping at Whole Foods, although Richard pointed out "that it's the lesser of two evils". And really, the quality of produce is far better than QFC, so I will remain a Whole Foods customer. But, I have made some conscience decisions about the food I buy. Rather than buying whatever sounds good, I am beginning to look at labels and trying to buy food that is in season and from the Pacific northwest area. And, I signed up for Pioneer Organics, which delivers food to my doorstep grown by local family farms (more on that later).
Pollan discussed becoming vegetarian for a period while researching and writing his book. Despite reading about disturbing practices in the processed meat industry, I am not about to become a vegatarian (and really, after reading the precursor articles to Fast Food Nation several years ago in Rolling Stone and a very excellent December article in the same magazine about industrial pig farms, figured that if I were to go veggie, it would have happened already). Pollan made some excellent arguments for and against the choice, something rarely heard in the debate.
One final point: for years, I've heard many complain about the relative expense of grocery stores like Whole Foods, Vallergas (a local Napa chain) and Andronico's (a Bay Area chain), kind of but not always agreeing. I rarely complain about the cost of groceries, considering the higher quality of produce and food, and improved service of those stores in contrast to Safeway and QFC, to be worth the few extra dollars. I didn't realize that as Americans, the proportion of our relative income dedicated to food has actually decreased, a sobering statistic. Pollen made a very salient point: why should we be cheap and expect that our food be inexpensive? Implicitly, this suggests that we are willing to accept low-cost, highly processed foods of suspect health value, which considering the importance of food as sustenance and pleasure (clearly), we should be demanding and willing to pay for high quality. So as a result, I've decided to forego any of the cheapness that I had surrounding food. I look to buy high quality, in season food grown/harvested locally, as much as possible. I will no longer refuse to buy fruit or vegetables because it's "too expensive".
Learning in action. For dinner a few weeks ago, I bought pork chops at Whole Foods, hoping that the pigs had a nicer life than those at the industrial pig farms. I also purchased kale and sweet potatoes to serve along with (the former broiled with olive oil and salt, the latter braised and mashed), seasonal food that had been grown in the Washington area. And, I didn't balk at the cost of cheese, splurging on Cowgirl Creamery's Mt. Tam triple creme (from the Bay Area, but one of my favorite cheeses which I generally only get for special occasions). The meal was excellent: while the pork was a tad bit overcooked, it tasted good and I loved the "smothered" recipe with bacon and onions. The winter vegetables nicely complimented the pork, tasting, as well, vegetables should taste: fresh.
I was shocked and alarmed to discover the sheer amount of corn in our food. Eating fresh corn in the summer is really the least of issues with corn: Pollan hypothesizes that the industrialization of corn has dramatically changed the farming industry, severely impacted the very constitution of the food we eat through increased processing, and increased our caloric intake, pinning corn as a factor in America's rising obesity rates. Corn's contribution is not just through partially hydrogenated corn syrup, but a whole host of ingredients that give our food much of its basic character. A good rule of thumb: if the word in the ingredient list is unknown and "scientific", chances are, it's derived from corn. Beyond, we consume corn through most meat and dairy products. Cows are fed corn (despite the fact that bovines are natural grass eaters), chickens eat corn, pigs eat corn, even salmon are being breed to be corn tolerant. I have visions that I am slowly turning into a giant kernel of corn.
I can't live a life devoid of corn. Derivatives from the vegetable is in almost everything, stabilizing it, flavoring it, providing a long shelf life. It's difficult to find high quality meat that hasn't been fed corn; the finest steak houses proudly advertise "corn-fed beef", in part because we have a taste for the marbled fat that corn develops in beef. But I am now scrutinizing labels more so than ever in attempts to avoid processed corn; I even switched to a different brand of yogurt after reading the Tillamock label and discovering the high corn content. I don't want to turn into a corn kernel.
I tend to think of organic as a good choice. Sadly, but born of practicality, the organic food industry has begun to migrate to an industrialized food model. While not as harmful and damaging to the environment as that of the corn industry, it is still disturbing, but really, a fact of life considering the population and mechanics of modern life. I believed that Whole Foods shopping supported small, sustainable, organic farms; the 60 Minutes feature this fall stressed that the company strives to work with family farms. While this may be partially true, the reality is that by shopping at Whole Foods, I'm primarily supporting industrialized organic farms. Something we never consider: the fossil fuel costs of getting the food to Whole Foods is almost equivalent to that used by Safeway, QFC and other stores. The strawberries grown in California need to get to Seattle, somehow.
I wondered if I should stop shopping at Whole Foods, although Richard pointed out "that it's the lesser of two evils". And really, the quality of produce is far better than QFC, so I will remain a Whole Foods customer. But, I have made some conscience decisions about the food I buy. Rather than buying whatever sounds good, I am beginning to look at labels and trying to buy food that is in season and from the Pacific northwest area. And, I signed up for Pioneer Organics, which delivers food to my doorstep grown by local family farms (more on that later).
Pollan discussed becoming vegetarian for a period while researching and writing his book. Despite reading about disturbing practices in the processed meat industry, I am not about to become a vegatarian (and really, after reading the precursor articles to Fast Food Nation several years ago in Rolling Stone and a very excellent December article in the same magazine about industrial pig farms, figured that if I were to go veggie, it would have happened already). Pollan made some excellent arguments for and against the choice, something rarely heard in the debate.
One final point: for years, I've heard many complain about the relative expense of grocery stores like Whole Foods, Vallergas (a local Napa chain) and Andronico's (a Bay Area chain), kind of but not always agreeing. I rarely complain about the cost of groceries, considering the higher quality of produce and food, and improved service of those stores in contrast to Safeway and QFC, to be worth the few extra dollars. I didn't realize that as Americans, the proportion of our relative income dedicated to food has actually decreased, a sobering statistic. Pollen made a very salient point: why should we be cheap and expect that our food be inexpensive? Implicitly, this suggests that we are willing to accept low-cost, highly processed foods of suspect health value, which considering the importance of food as sustenance and pleasure (clearly), we should be demanding and willing to pay for high quality. So as a result, I've decided to forego any of the cheapness that I had surrounding food. I look to buy high quality, in season food grown/harvested locally, as much as possible. I will no longer refuse to buy fruit or vegetables because it's "too expensive".
Learning in action. For dinner a few weeks ago, I bought pork chops at Whole Foods, hoping that the pigs had a nicer life than those at the industrial pig farms. I also purchased kale and sweet potatoes to serve along with (the former broiled with olive oil and salt, the latter braised and mashed), seasonal food that had been grown in the Washington area. And, I didn't balk at the cost of cheese, splurging on Cowgirl Creamery's Mt. Tam triple creme (from the Bay Area, but one of my favorite cheeses which I generally only get for special occasions). The meal was excellent: while the pork was a tad bit overcooked, it tasted good and I loved the "smothered" recipe with bacon and onions. The winter vegetables nicely complimented the pork, tasting, as well, vegetables should taste: fresh.
Tuesday, February 06, 2007
Vancouver!
It was time for a road trip, so Friday after work, we headed up to Vancouver, a short 3 hour drive away. Really, the weekend was eating, drinking, shopping and staying out of trouble. Vancouver is a great place to visit, the perfect road trip to a very international city.
Dinner Friday night at an old style steak house just off of Robson Street with an imposingly large menu and sheet of white butcher paper laid on top of the white table cloth. I agonized - partially caused by the late hour - ultimately choosing an iceburg wedge with bacon and blue cheese dressing and a lamb shank with mashed potatoes. My partner-in-crime had a caesar salad, steak and very excellent horseradish mashed potatoes. A cabernet, the Shadow of the Dog or the Hair of the Dog or something similar was served with; it didn't have much depth.
Appetizers at Cardeno's Saturday afternoon. Very excellent oysters, on the smaller side, crisp and sweet. I was reminded of what it's like to taste and experience oysters for the first time. An oyster virgins' questions: do I chew? what do they taste like? how should I eat them? I also enjoyed the Granville micro brews (so much so, that I had more later that night).
Dinner Saturday night, at the very excellent Fuel, one of Vancouver's newest, hottest restaurants. The bread - delicious crunchy rolls - was served in one of the most creative ways I've ever seen: the rolls were laid on a piece of granite, with unsalted butter and flakes of sea salt. The only sad part was that they didn't deliver more bread (which they could have. Walking out, I saw more rolls on the baking rack in the kitchen). I chose the warm mushroom salad as an appetizer. The salad was dressed with a poached egg and a sherry vineagrette. While the combination sounds odd, it was delicious. Pete ordered beef consomme, elaborately poured over fried manchego cheese slices; a comic strip was laid between the lead glass bowl and white serving plate, a nice twist. Main courses: trout with hazlenut sauce and a sauteed winter vegetables and a chorus of pork with a fennel compote (or something like that). A very nice Penfold's Shiraz accompanied.
Dinner Friday night at an old style steak house just off of Robson Street with an imposingly large menu and sheet of white butcher paper laid on top of the white table cloth. I agonized - partially caused by the late hour - ultimately choosing an iceburg wedge with bacon and blue cheese dressing and a lamb shank with mashed potatoes. My partner-in-crime had a caesar salad, steak and very excellent horseradish mashed potatoes. A cabernet, the Shadow of the Dog or the Hair of the Dog or something similar was served with; it didn't have much depth.
Appetizers at Cardeno's Saturday afternoon. Very excellent oysters, on the smaller side, crisp and sweet. I was reminded of what it's like to taste and experience oysters for the first time. An oyster virgins' questions: do I chew? what do they taste like? how should I eat them? I also enjoyed the Granville micro brews (so much so, that I had more later that night).
Dinner Saturday night, at the very excellent Fuel, one of Vancouver's newest, hottest restaurants. The bread - delicious crunchy rolls - was served in one of the most creative ways I've ever seen: the rolls were laid on a piece of granite, with unsalted butter and flakes of sea salt. The only sad part was that they didn't deliver more bread (which they could have. Walking out, I saw more rolls on the baking rack in the kitchen). I chose the warm mushroom salad as an appetizer. The salad was dressed with a poached egg and a sherry vineagrette. While the combination sounds odd, it was delicious. Pete ordered beef consomme, elaborately poured over fried manchego cheese slices; a comic strip was laid between the lead glass bowl and white serving plate, a nice twist. Main courses: trout with hazlenut sauce and a sauteed winter vegetables and a chorus of pork with a fennel compote (or something like that). A very nice Penfold's Shiraz accompanied.
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