food museum blog

"Food 2.0" Energizes!

Charlie Ayers is my kind of food guy and cook.  Most associated with being the fellow who "fed Google," he was the head chef there from 1999 to 2005, responsible for feeding 1500 people each day, 4000 lunches and dinners, in 10 cafes at Google's Mountain View, CA, campus.  His goal was to feed a diverse and smart group of people tasty, healthy food. Evidently, he succeeded.

His book , Food 2.0,  $25,  just published by DK Publishing, reflects his Google-ish commitment to  fast, unfussy, fresh food that might even push you into the genius category.  His tips upfront are utterly sensible and smart,  laid out with crisp, readable efficiency. What to keep on hand and how to keep it so that when the yen for a snack wafts over you, the veggie munchies are right there, ready to go.   I imagine he's the kind of person who stands at the fridge, eating a handful of blueberries, a couple of carrot sticks, a few lettuce leaves, and calls it salad on busy days.

What utterly won me over, however, was his love of full-fat, plain yogurt. He speaks my mind, indeed.  That ambrosia is good for the digestive system, satisfying, and bears no resemblance to the manufactured sweet, fruity little cupfuls of junk all over the supermarket. He also praises Trader Joe. Yes! Also: "Chocolate is a non-negotiable part of my life."

One of his early recipes is for "Mystery Fondue," made from assorted bits and bobs of cheese he saves up and then melts together with white wine and mustard seed.  And Apple and Brie Quesadillas, Silicon Valley Split Pea Soup, as well as Seared Southwestern Ahi Tuna Tornadoes, and a further slew of eclectic offerings.

The ahi is rubbed with a chile-spice mix, seared, and then wrapped in a tomato tortilla spread with a lime and spice avocado mayo and a stack of jicama, carrot, napa cabbage.....

OY--he even makes spinach latkes.

Food 2.0  is a solid and satisfying book, even in review-copy grainy black and white.  The retail hardback is in resplendent full-color from fabled Dorling Kindersley Ltd.

Myanmar Disaster Also Affects World's Rice Eaters

The destructive tsunami that has killed more than 22,000 people in Myanmar quite obviously has a food repercussion. First of all, the hundreds of thousands of survivors  in the devastated area must be fed. And there is no telling whether or not the tightly-controlling regime in power will allow adequate aid and food aid workers into the country.

In addition, according to a report in The Economist:

"The disaster may have ill effects well beyond Myanmar’s borders. UN agencies such as the WFP are already suffering huge strains on their finances because of the soaring cost of rice and other food staples. Having another big emergency on their hands may force them to divert scarce resources from other needy parts. Worse, the cyclone, which hit Myanmar’s main rice-growing areas, may intensify the worldwide panic over scarce rice supplies that have led to food riots in dozens of countries."

Thailand, the world's largest exporter of rice, cannot grow much more than it does already. Still,  in April the FAO forecast that most Asian and Latin American rice producing areas would do better in 2008, while Australian rice production would fall due to water shortages and US production would be less as  more profitable crops replaced rice among farmers.  But the FAO did not forecast the typhoon/cyclone that just wiped out much of  Myanmar's rice paddies.   The brightest spot may well be Cambodia,  one Asian country with a decided surplus in rice--even there, officials may well restrict exports of rice, given the volatile nature of the market.

Update from the LA Times---"This is the rice bowl of Myanmar, so we have to assess the impact on food production in the longer term, " said ( Christine ) South, (with the International Red Cross.)

Myanmar had agreed to supply tens of thousands of tons of rice to Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, according to the World Food Program (WFP), but now those prospects are uncertain."

Pumped for the Primaries? Krispy Kreme 'Em!

" Anyone who finishes without vomiting is a winner," says the young dude on YouTube. You thought he was referring to Senators Obama and Clinton, right?
Wrong! In my ceaseless quest to find rich foodish material for this blog, and to honor America's democratic process and the IN and NC primaries tomorrow,  I explored YouTube's offerings re "eating in Indiana," and "eating in North Carolina."

The result?

Most of "Indiana eating" was at the State Fair, with the usual sausages and deep-fried testicles and what-not. And too many shots of depressingly fat Americans.
So-- I chose to share with you instead this vid view of the Krispy Kreme Challenge, a 4 mile race held at NC State in January, wherein the runners are urged to chomp down and swallow a dozen KK donuts at the 2 mile mark, then continue on to the finish line.  12 donuts, 2400 calories, some running, loads of retching,  and all to benefit  Children's Hospital.

What's not to like? Alas, the local and very earnest tv peeps reporting on this offbeat story have worked diligently to make it extraordinarily dull and lacking in humor.
Sorry.

On Thirsty Bees, and Benevolent Bee Removal

For many days in a row I delightedly had noted at least three dozen honey bees buzzing around my fountain, many of them lined up in a row drinking from it like winged mini cows along a trough. Each morning I gently refilled the fountain to the top so that the insects would not have to struggle ( and likely drown) for their water.  I told a friend of mine in the neighborhood about it and she said she had no bees at all among her apple blossoms. It was " a puzzlement," to quote the King from The King and I.

Then, the other evening, my "everything-is-of-intense-interest" terrier, Lillian J. Russell, went into a major barkathon at the front door. The low key man standing there was asking if he could "borrow some power" from us so as to extract the bees from an impromptu hive on the foreclosed  property next door.

Well!  I went next door with him, dragging my extension cord, explaining about the major bee drinking marathons going on at my place. Mountain Bee Man, Dennis Parks,  said I had been keeping them well-irrigated during  an extremely dry period in Albuquerque.  And bees en masse, who knew, can drink as much water in a day as a large, hairy dog!  Apparently, I, Foodie, was an unlikely heroine to the inadvertent bees next door.

Feeling chuffed and halo-deserving,  I watched as Dennis and his apprentice began to set up the vaccuum-cleaner-like machine that would gently remove the bees from their dog house and into their new portable home. Their efforts to save these creatures and make them comfortable genuinely touched me, given the times we live in, or rather the violent news with which we are bombarded each day.  Credit, too, goes to the realty company or the bank people or someone who chose to hire a professional bee crew to relocate rather than eliminate this unlikely colony.  ( Bee Man expected the bees would be moved to either the east mountains of Albuquerque or to Corrales, a rural Spanish land grant community along the Rio Grande.)

My physical reward, not that I needed one, came a few hours later in the form of a plastic bear filled with honey from the Bee Man's honey farm. Readers, it was sublime.

( Since I did not take a pic of the bees drinking,  I am grateful to http://www.tonitoni.org/images/050422_beesdrinking.jpg for the shot above.)

Spring, Really?, Invades Summit Springs Farm, Maine

The greenhouse-from-Hell is up, fully up and running, and actually occupied by young seedlings as well as baby chicks.  What's not to like! For those of you who live near the Poland, Maine farm, there are still a few openings in the CSA program. ( Contact Sonya, summitspringsfarm@fairpoint.net)

Perhaps more importantly, the garlic ( above) is poking through its bed of seaweed, having finally tossed off the last (?) of the snow.  Don't know about you, but I prefer homegrown garlic, rather than the symmetrical, fully white, perfectly formed heads in wide distribution from our pals in China.

Eat Crap, Win Voters' Hearts and Minds?

In between mel0dramatic reports on lame bowling skills and memories of shooting ducks as a wee lass and all the flotsam and jetsam of American political discourse, I have noted disparagement of Senator Obama's campaign eating style. Apparently he doesn't finish all his waffles!  He shies away from fat-laden nightmares like Philly cheesesteaks ( I may be making this one up) and so on. He's not into multiple brewskies, either.

So the guy is trim, healthy, and against all the odds during this marathon primary season, he wants to stay that way and hold off the carbs. What a nutcase!  What a crappy exemplar of all that is American!

Please, superdelegates, end the agony soon so that Barry O' can take a break to revisit farmers markets and Senator Clinton can hole up in her Georgetown home tossing back whatever she damn pleases.

This tidbit from the NYT a few days back may amuse....

ps  Not getting into the use of "waffle" as a verb...

(Thanks to http://www.easywafflerecipe.com/ for handsome, healthy-looking waffle photo.)

Home Cooking from the Mediterranean

In these troubled times of an expensive out-of-control war, food crises, political shenanigans and more, it is always a comfort to, well, eat. But before that, cook something homey and warming and reminiscent of a more tranquil time.
Armenian-American chef and restaurant owner Zov Karamardian's self-published book  ZOV--Recipes and Memories from the Heart offers up multiple tasty, colorful dishes that fill that bill.  The first entries I checked were under "eggplant" in the index, because one of my all-time favorite pleasures was a bubbling rich eggplant casserole perfected by a friend's Armenian-American Mom. To my delight, Zov presents an inviting vegetarian Eggplant Tagine, made with chickpeas as well, typical of the North African stews that combine subtle flavors with slow cooking. She recommends with it Roasted Rack of Lamb with Pomegranate Sauce --the pomegranate, today's latest health juice item,  reminds us of the possibility of enjoying "new" ( albeit ancient) tastes.
Kooba Hamoud, appropriately an Iraqi dish--a "meatball soup with lemon and mint," reminds me of the garlic, mint and lemony dishes we enjoyed as Peace Corps volunteers in Iran.

Can anyone tell me why human beings waste  lives, money, time, energy, spirit and resources in the archaic pursuit of warfare in the 21st century, when we could be sharing aromatic dishes of food with one another?

Flavored Snapple Antioxidant Power Waters Under-Amaze Foodie

Water, water, everywhere, including from the tap, but Americans choose to buy it in both big and little plastic bottles--or wrestle home the 5 gallon jugs from the water store ( my choice thus far,) or install filtered gizmos at the kitchen sink, or pour tap water into those Brita pitchers...or.....

Now, yes, flavored water has been around a while--and I'm not talking about the Cokes and the Dr Peppers and all those hideously uber-sweetened fizzy things that once were merely made with sugar and now are all corn syrup all the time--the drinks that made Americans Great, and I mean, like, Huge.
No--I am tiptoeing into the topic of , maybe, specialty waters?

A pr person emailed to ask if I would try some Snapple Antioxidant Waters and comment about them on this blog. Sure, I said. They arrived. I tried a half glass of chilled Agave Melon, subtitled "The Power to Restore."  Then I sipped Raspberry Acerola--"The Power to Defy."  Wow. The literary context of these drinks is formidable, maybe to provide the breakfast reading we once enjoyed on the back of cereal boxes, before we shifted to bulk grains in clear bags, who knows?

Ok, so--the restorative one is presumably for use after working out. The defiant one is aimed at keeping me, ( me?) "young at heart." Oy. Even worse, it "wants to keep my mind spry." And it contains a heckuva lot more "protective anti-oxidants" than the Agave Melon.

The taste? Like very diluted regular sweet juice. Curiously flat. Reminiscent of the watered-down  juice  we gave our kids back in the day, after realizing they were getting crazed on the full-fledged liquid.

The waters arrived in a box containing absolutely zero product info. Dutifully, I went on the Internets and enjoyed an amazing fantasy website put up by the Snapple people--a plane flying over lovely landmasses and such, but the hard facts were elusive. In fact, when I clicked on "Real Facts," the first thing I learned was that a goldfish's attention span was three seconds. Now this did not surprise me, given that my childhood fish, Joe, swam around ALONE in the same bowl for 12 years until being flushed down the toilet by my mom. He was dead at the time. ( In later years, I became fairly certain that numerous "Joes" had entered and exited that bowl during my happy childhood. )

Note to Snapple: wha???

But I digress.

Finally, driven by the need to be a responsible recipient of free drinks, I looked at the labels of these not really waters.  Modified corn starch???  And Epigallocatechin Gallate. ( Among many other ingredients.) OMG!  I'm off to have a slug of a real health drink, Cabernet Sauvignon.

Good luck, Snapple. Thanks for the Nutrient Enhanced Water Beverages you sent me. Full disclosure: a friend of mine walked off with the Mango one, and the other one, whatever it was.

Price of Rice Hits Home While Gas Price Keep Diners Home?

"You can't charge enough to keep up with food prices."  So said Tavee Yaparwong, owner of my favorite Thai restaurant in Albuquerque, who just told her customers she would  be closing down the $7.43 lunch buffet in favor of $7.95 daily specials. "Rice alone, jasmine rice, has gone up 150% in the past month, " she added.  And apparently the buffet was starting to have excess food going to waste on a regular basis.  Fewer people driving the extra miles to eat out, due to gas prices? Fewer people eating out at all, due to the need to put extra cash towards gas?

Fat David, Plus, Foodie is Baaaack; Also, Usage!!

Back, at last, after a long time away, and a road trip across these USSSS of A from St Petersburg to Albuquerque, a journey not noted for its fine cuisine, alas. So while I organize my foodie thoughts, experiences and pix, and prepare to resume, I thought you might enjoy this lovely image at left, forwarded to me, origin unknown. Clearly Dave has returned to his pillar in Florence after a few weeks holiday in the U.S.

Oh--also---consumed with following the Dem primary on line, I am once again urging all bloggers and posters to understand that "loose" means untied or unconfined,  while "lose" means go down to defeat. Also--"led" is the past tense of "lead", as in "she led in the PA polls by 20 points a few weeks ago."  And "lead," the noun, is the stuff appearing in all those Chinese-made toys. Thank you.