food museum blog

Pondering the Clever Critters Who Tidy Our Edible Crud

I read with interest an excerpt from Lyanda Lynn Haupt's book, Crow Planet, in Utne Reader recently, and then swiftly, as so often occurs to me these days, saw the book in the library. Now that I've meandered through it, I can say I was delighted with the crow bits, less enchanted by the philosophical riffs on the urban wilderness, the author's angsty moments, etc., etc. I really had hoped the book would be all about crows. ( Maybe I am bring picky here--the author writes well and there is much corvus-ian info.)

Crows, like the pigs in many parts of Asia, among their many activities, eat roadkill/foodwastes, spilled big Macs, and  Cousin Leta's tossed-out 2008 fruitcake,  that would otherwise leave urban and suburban areas icky.  Crows and pigs both have been deemed off the charts re their smarts, too.

( It was humans, you recall, who misguidedly killed off the pigs of Cairo recently, and thus became  awash in garbagey-areas now presumably patrolled by staggeringly fat crows.)

So crows, though lovers of corn, are omnivores, not reliant on any particular food source. Writes the author,  "A crow does not know what the day's food will be. A meal must be sought out, wrung from its place, and perhaps defended."

Am I more like a crow than I thought? As I peer into pantry and fridge at the start of the day, or stroll the market,  I am certain I will eat, but usually not until actual feeding time do I decide what I will toss together and how.

Glossy (National) Geographic Edibles

 This handsome mega-book weighs far more than most of us will eat today, and, alas, it fell open to an entry titled "French Fries in Ghent."  ( No!) Those of you who know me and this blog well understand that we speak of Belgian Fries, particularly if zeroing in on a Belgian city.

Anyway--It's Food Journeys of a Lifetime--500 Extraordinary Places to Eat Around the World, created by National Geographic. Over 300 pages, it's filled with the rich photography the National Geographic is known for. It's also one giant cliche---paella in Spain, baguettes in France, feijoada in Rio. Anyone who has traveled has eaten these things.  Sake in Japan, wine in Sonoma.........you get the picture.

Even though it lists websites,  recipes, and suggests places and concepts of interest to the alert traveler, it is decidedly a book for those who have not yet begun to travel, or those who want to contemplate travels completed. But, to give it credit, it has taken on the entire world of eating, an absurdly gargantuan task.

The most interesting sections are the book's top 10's--and in one of them, our own country's top edible, apparently, is the hamburger.

(Crayfish are big in Finland, as this photo attests. )

Cans Nixed: Further Proof That Fresh ( Or Frozen?) Is Better

The self-described "food politics" website Civil Eats has posted this by Naomi Starkman:

"Consumer Reports’ latest tests of canned foods, including soups, juice, tuna, and green beans, have found that almost all of the 19 name-brand foods tested contain measurable levels of Bisphenol A (BPA). The results are reported in the December 2009 issue and also available online. BPA, which has been used for years in clear plastic bottles and food-can liners, has been restricted in Canada and some U.S. states and municipalities because it has been linked to a wide array of health effects including reproductive abnormalities, heightened risk of breast and prostate cancers, diabetes, and heart disease. I’ve reported on BPA here, here, and here."

My pantry, which I just checked, contains a few cans--tomatoes, white beans, black beans, and pumpkin. I stared hard at them just now. A can of green beans never has entered my larder but, yes, tuna has, sardines have, along with the odd cans of beans. As a spontaneous, non recipe-based cook, those beans are vital and always ready to go.  Soaking dry beans overnight-- of course I have done that, but usually when I know that I am preparing a massive portion of black bean soup the next day.

I am sure many of you soak and cook beans ahead, and then freeze them in handy sized amounts, right?  But in what? Plastic bins! Baggies?  Chemical-laden somethings?

Help!

( Tks to http://www.thehungrymouse.com/home/2008/10/24/white-beans-two-ways-garlicky-dip-creamy-soup/ for can pix. It's a site that looks lively and informative, BTW.)

Sometimes A Person Is Really Hungry

Once I had wrestled into submission the packaging surrounding my new Epson printer, I was starving. I mean seriously--after pushing and pulling and scissoring the h out of the box, I finally was on the floor, my feet pushing the frigging printer out of the tight grip of the box.

So instead of going with the halibut, possibly encrusted with crushed sesame crackers,  sauteed with garlic, tomatoes and basil, I went full tilt carb boogie. Using Trader Joe's whole wheat pizza dough, I made a tomato, onion, olive and mozzarella mini pizza in my trusty cast iron mini pan, with basil. And garlic infused/chile added olive oil.

Wow. Good stuff.

Books: Ezra Meeker, Veggie Purveyor to the Klondike

If you delight in letters--remember them?-- as well as food, American history, and familial fondness, read this book.  It's called Slick as a Mitten, by Dennis M. Larsen,  it's published by Washington State University Press , and it's about a character named Ezra Meeker.

The book, rich with old photos,  is based on Meeker's letters, mostly to his wife, Eliza Jane. She and Ezra came west on the Oregon Trail in 1852 and settled in Puyallup, Washington.  Meeker, along with his father, became a wealthy hop grower and broker, but at the close of the 19th century, he went bust.  The hops were infested with bugs, controlled only through exceedingly expensive methods. Ezra was also on the board of a bank, though not involved until it began to decline, all the other officers having abandoned it. He personally covered the bank's losses, all its customers, by spending most of his own money.

Unimaginable in this era of Bank of America et al?  The mid to late 1890's were a time of bank closings and financial downturn in the US.

Once gold was discovered in the Klondike area in 1897, the race was on. But, unsurprisingly, so many masses of people arriving in an inhospitable area did not find enough to eat. People suggested that there was more money to be made in supplying miners than in engaging in mining itself. "There are no fresh vegetables of any kind here," said one. 

Meeker took note of this and decided to supply both fresh and dried veg, as well as reconstitutable eggs to the populations springing up in Yukon tent cities. He specialized in granulated and sliced potatoes, dried cabbage, squash, sweet potatoes, turnips, pop corn, and fresh oysters from the east, hauling everything first by steamer, then along icy trails with "teamsters," and floating produce down the Yukon River.

Even lemons.

He was 67 when he started. In three years he had made possible the movement of almost 100 tons of food. And throughout those years, he wrote regularly to Wife, back home in Washington, signing himself Husband. It was Eliza Jane who supervised the dehydration of the eggs, and the preparation and packing of the veggies.

As for the phrase slick as a mitten,  Ezra lost his assets that way, he said, swiftly. I picture a thick leather mitten, coated with ice.

ps  Meeker planned the town of Puyallup, and named it. The name honored the native people there, known as the "generous people," but whether their generosity extended to the deeding of their lands to white settlers for hop growing I do not know. ..

Scary Sweet Alarms Young Gardener Before Halloween

A student assisting First Lady Michelle Obama and others dig up root veggies at the White House Garden today recoiled from the alarming sight of a giant sweet potato, dirt still clinging to its nether parts.

The fate of the sub-terrestrial beastly batata is unknown.

Reading Marinade Labels

In a small local store here that specializes in healthy meats, and assorted groceries, I spent way too much time this morning reading a few marinade labels. I was waiting for the three pounds of chicken wings I had ordered for my dog. ( Yes, she eats them raw. No, not quite every day.)

First, I checked the sodium content. I love salty things, but sometimes these products, along with salad dressings, just taste like salt, period. Next, I pondered xanthan gum.  It's in many products of this sort, but...

Now, back home, if the Wiki contributor is correct I know that xanthan gum is created when a bacterium ferments sucrose or glucose. How the happy little bacterium does this, I do not know, and why the result helps stabilize sauces and dressings......well.

The marinades contained actual ingredients, too---like garlic, lemon, chiles, sesame oil, ginger, and such. I put them all back. Not so much because of the "gum," but because I realized how silly it was to buy a product containing it, when I can zip together a marinade myself.  Of course. I do it. Yes, we can.

And I have bought this kind of thing in the past and hated it on the first taste, thus wasting $5. In these troubled economic times, who needs that?

Annoyingly, however, I discover have no fresh ginger on hand. My marinading as well as my marinating will have to wait a day or two.

Fat Americans, Again

So I've been away, traveling up and down the east coast, visiting friends and family, and doing some biz.  I pulled into a roadside rest area somewhere in New England with the usual fast food subjects on hand and decided to buy a coffee at Cinnabon.

As I stood in line, naturally I noted and smelled the alluring and catastrophically caloric buns. (730 calories per bun, according to the Internets. ) Now hey--I love to eat something divinely wickedly tasty once in a while. But of late I have been, shall we say, cutting back? So I spotted some tiny versions of the full-sized buns and when it was my turn asked for one, with the coffee.

"Honey, you have to buy 6 of those," said the clerk.

'This, " I blurted out, gesturing melodramatically and then slapping the counter,  " is why Americans are so fat!"  Rather than calling security, the woman serving me the coffee threw her head back and guffawed with gusto. 

"Ain't that the truth, honey, ain't that the truth."

Deliver Me From Bland!

Amazingly, I ate lunch at my second Seventh Day Adventist-inspired vegan joint in almost as many days. This one, Little Lad's, is in Portland, Maine, and it seems that the same fellow started them both--and others. So maybe he likes bland food that features  descriptive names but tastes almost exactly the same?  ( New Hampshire's stuffed pepper did have a tasty tomato sauce.)

We ate lentil pilaf, Armenian style,  "Shepherd's Pie," fresh corn, slabs of potatoes, and salad. I doubt that an Armenian came within an inch of those lentils.  The corn and the salad were fine. When I asked for black pepper, I was told that the cooks think pepper is tough on the digestive tract, so no dice. The salt, too, was hidden, but available.

Little Lad's sells perfectly popped and seasoned popcorn in bags that is exceptionally good, I must say. They give you small sample bowls with your lunch and, of course, I bought a bag to take away. (If the popcorn is distinctive, then why is the carb-heavy food so...?)

A fellow blogger who lives near London makes delectable vegan food--as do many others inclined in that direction--so there is no reason for same to be utterly lacking in distinction. Or spices.

For supper in Portland? Gilbert's Chowder House--homemade onion rings! Fried clams with bellies! Oh yes, mighty fine, as a once in a blue moon treat. We neglected to have cole slaw.

Tomorrow I head south, back to the wicked NY/DC metro corridor, where  I most likely will not be enticed into another such vegan eatery.

ps   Don't miss eating at Flatbread if you are in Portland. Pizzas and ethical stances of distinction.

Veganism Lives, in Keene, NH

( Foodie is on the road--DC, NY, VT, NH, ME, NY, DC)

Ah, the nut rissoles one recalls from the earlier days of veggie dining!  Along with savoury veg casseroles. Back in the day, veg eateries were few, and the Seventh Day Adventists were just about the only people to be counted on to operate them, especially abroad.  Because of their firm belief that the body should be as healthy as the spirit, their food was natural, all vegan, and not terribly exciting or colorful.  

Today I had lunch at the SDA-run Country Life Natural Foods restaurant, on a side street in Keene, NH. The buffet offered a full salad bar,  with small bowls of tahini, peanut butter, soy egg salad and a fine, startlingly pink dressing made with beets and chives. ( I put cayenne pepper--provided!--on the decent veggie soup.)  Stuffed green peppers ( soy stuffed?) with a delicious tomato sauce, corn, sauteed bok choy,  and so on. The blueberry-topped "cheese" cake was light and tasty, the peanut butter cookie, superb.

Gentle Mozartian music in the background, hushed voices of a few diners---it was........church-like? The only harsh note was a stack of red and black pamphlets illustrated with a bottle of wine and scary-looking grapes. It denounced the seductive evils of al-kee-hol, as well as caffeine. 

(The Bible seems fairly keen on wine, it seems to me, but then, oops, Noah planted a vineyard in that lush alluvial soil, and word has it he did not turn out to be a moderate drinker...)