food museum blog

Horizon Organics Challenged

The Cornucopia Institute   in Wisconsin is claiming that the nation's largest organic dairy operation, Horizon, is using the same factory farm techniques of conventional companies in denying adequate outdoor pasturage to its cows on three mega farms in Idaho, California and Colordao. On February 16 Cornucopia  filed two formal complaints with the USDA.   

Mark Kastel of Cornucopia said " both the Idaho and California operations   differ little from conventional confinement dairies other than having their   high-producing cows fed certified organic feed. Real organic   farms have made great financial investments in converting to pasture-based   production — enhancing the nutritional properties of the milk and for   enhancing animal health—while it appears that these large corporate-dominated   enterprises are happy just to pay lip service to required organic ethics."

Horizon responded to the challenge with a statement on its website.

"White Wave Foods and its Horizon Organic brand are committed to complying with the National Organic Standards and its guidelines regarding pasture for animals that are certified organic. We only operate farms and work with family farmers who adhere to the organic standards mandated by the USDA National Organic Program.  

The organic industry is still in its infancy and the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB) is currently reviewing its pasture guidelines. Should the NOSB decide to revise or further clarify these guidelines, we will support them just as we always have."

Stars Peckish for Puckish Treats--and--Your Pick of Top Food Scenes of 2004

Super chef Wolfgang Puck has been pictured on several websites holding a tray of Oscar-shaped smoked salmon on toast hors d'oeuvres that evidently have already been scarfed down by the glitterati at events leading up to tonight's Oscars. 

As in past years, Puck is overseeing a banquet for 1600  in Hollywood just after the show and his signature offering there will be chocolate Oscar-shaped delectations.

As for top Oscar-rated foodie scenes of 2004, we can only attest that "Ray" features the blind performer cooking up fried chicken in the dark, and wine-tasting is central to the film "Sideways."  Waitressing evidently gets some play, both in "Sideways" and "Million Dollar Baby," where Hillary Swank takes home a partially eaten steak for dinner. "Vanity Fair" had a few dining room moments but what did anyone actually seem to be eating? " Only "Vera Drake" comes to mind as a movie where people sit down to eat together. Of course there's the documentary "SuperSize Me," a flick about a fellow eating McD offerings for 30 days that put me off eating altogether for days.

Any other foodie scenes from 2004 films, anyone?

"Makes a Square Egg"

Idly casting her eyes across an array of rejected kitchen items at her local Goodwill recently, Foodie noted a small boxed item called EggCuber. And its banner headline , on all four sides of the box, was "makes a square egg."  But why do I want a square egg, Foodie wondered.

Foodie carefully read the directions, especially noting direction # 2: "Screw top down until egg becomes square. ( Best results if Egg Cuber has been chilled.)"  Mind you, Direction # 1 stressed the requirement of a "warm, peeled hard boiled egg."
So one must take a warm egg and screw it with a chilled Cuber. My, my.

But why do I want a square egg, Foodie wondered, again.

One panel of the box pictured a primitively drawn, puzzled chicken,  gazing down at the square egg she has just produced. The hen comments : "?#!! OUCH!"

Yes, friends, Foodie bought the golden plastic EggCuber for 99 cents, and walked out to her car having  vague thoughts of creating an homage to the Twin Towers in boiled egg.

"Reduce cardiovascular morbidity" by Eating, Friends

Folks in the public health department of Erasmus University in Rotterdam suggested in the Christmas  issue of  the British Medical Journal that the right meal eaten once daily could happily boost our life expectancy.  Men, by 6.6. years, and women by 4.8. years.
( Why--because the women had to cook the meal???)
Dubbed Polymeal, it consists of fish, wine, dark chocolate, fruits and veg, garlic and almonds.
The study suggests these items can be combined into one glorious feast, in moderation of course, or eaten separately.  Let's see--the suggested 100 grams of chocolate is about 5 ounces?

Chef Raymond Blanc was asked by Sarah Boseley, health editor of The Guardian, what menu he would create using these foods.  His response:  watercress soup, grilled fillet of mackerel with a  stew of root veggies, chickpeas, toasted almonds and garlic, followed by chocolate mousse.

Hey, why not?   Well, once a day is a bit much maybe--but three times a week, sure. Or four, okay.
With exercise.

Illustration titled "The Power of Chocolate,"  by Shelly Wilkerson, on sale at www.catcompanions.com.

Brits Choose Fishy Symbol for UK

A recent survey by ICM Research, UK of 100 teachers and 110 14-16 year olds asked the question: " What food do you most associate with Britain?" 

Roast beef with Yorkshire pud(d) still pulsates the patriotic tums of the teachers, to the tune of 45%,  but only18 % of the  students chose that icon.  But fish and chips netted the most  votes, teachers 48%, students 57%.  Jellied eels and curry  pulled a lackluster 1% from each group.

Over all,  the fish and potato eyes , um, ayes,  have it.

Trans Fats Getting the Boot?

By this time next year U.S. food companies will be required to label the trans fat content of all products sold. While partially hydrogenated fats, made up in part of trans fats, once were seen as  healthy alternatives to  saturated fats like good old butter, these days they are viewed as heart-clogging and worse, fats that reduce good cholesterol. ( To make partially hydrogenated oils at home,  shoot hydrogen gas through liquid oil to make it into a  solid. Sounds healthy, doesn't it?)

According to a piece by Severson and Warner (NYTimes Feb.13, )  many companies have already removed the wicked fat from their products, Frito-Lay chips,  Gorton's fish sticks and a few Tyson's frozen fried chicken items among them.  The Whole Foods and Wild Oats grocery chains " refuse to sell any processed food that contains it."
Fast food restaurants such as McDonald's supposedly are attempting to reduce trans fats but until these giants demand other oils in bulk, such as a "high-oleic canola blend,"  farmers will not grow them.

Depending on where you look,  canola oil is  a genetically engineered oil derived from rapeseed, part of the mustard family, and named after a blending of  "Canada" and "oil. "  The Canola Council of  Canada describes its product differently, however.
And then there's iffy palm oil, getting another look.  Paul Newman"s Newman's Own Organics uses palm oil in its Oreo-like cookies and discusses palm oil thusly:

Organic Palm Oil:

• Is not hydrogenated
• Contains no trans-fatty acids
• Is lower in saturated fat than butter and has no cholesterol
• Is widely used in Europe as an alternative to partially hydrogenated oils
• Is extracted from the palm's fruit not the palm's kernel
• Can be grown organically in tropical regions
• Of the three tropical oils, Palm Oil is 50% saturated while Palm Kernel is 85%, and Coconut Oil is 92% saturated.

This California non profit has its views on the trans fats issue.

Oh what's a consumer to do with all this info?  Bake his own goods??? Cook her own food from fresh ingredients??

Sheet-Rock---Art Carbs for the Food Weary

This little edible tidbit would utterly have passed us by, but--- as Foodie was reclining on her comfy bench having a second cup of java, and scanning an old NYTimes Book Review while glancing out at the birds chomping on proso millet and sunflower seeds,  she heard a report from NPR's Scott Simon about a woman who is chewing a wall. 

Foodie has eaten garden soil, because it smelled so sweet after a rain, and yes, some meadow grass once as a kid, after noting the great pleasure cows took in it, but sheet rock has thus far not proved enticing enough.  Yes, she has a dim recall of swallowing a miniscule morsel of chewing gum wrapping, the bit with a cartoon on it.  And tasting a teensy dollop of milky white latex paint.  Hmmm.  Maybe Foodie will survey Lowe's and Home Depot this weekend for enticing home improvement offerings---cedar closet panels have a lovely odor.
Anyway--more power to the artist.

Emily Katrencik has almost finished her 41 day experiment in building material dietetics but if you live in or near NYC you can still catch her act until the 27th of the month.

Here's how New York Press wrote up the story in its Volume 18, issue 7:

"Walls can provide privacy, comfort and protection, but they can also create boundaries that are hard to overcome. So artist Emily Katrencik, 29, is eating one. Starting on Jan. 1, Katrencik began ingesting 1.956 inches of sheet-rock wall per day. For 41 days she will continue to eat the wall in LMAKprojects' new gallery space in Williamsburg. Part artist's lab and part living space, the wall Katrencik is consuming actually separates the gallery space from director Louky Keijsers' bathroom. "So it's really intimate," Keijsers said. But Katrencik isn't eating the wall alone. Visitors can also participate by eating bread made with minerals extracted from the wall. The artist, who has a masters of science degree from M.I.T. in visual studies, has eaten walls before. In 1999, she ate part of one at the Carpenter Center, a building designed by Le Corbusier at Harvard."
       

LMAK projects Gallery, 60 N. 6th St. (betw. Kent & Wythe Aves.), Williamsburg, 718-599-0089; Fri.-Mon., 1-6, free.
            ---New York Press   www.newyorkpress.com

Note: Photo is to remind us all what a full platter of sheetrock looks like.

Real Estate Bites

Suzanne Hamlin reports in the NYTimes ( Feb. 13) that realtors are starting to offer food and wine as an enticement to potential buyers at high end open houses.

"For listing brokers, serving food may imbue a property with a special aura and project the subliminal message that the space would be great for entertaining. And potential buyers definitely linger longer at a food site.

As for the mortgage brokers who pay for it all, it's a $200 to $600 investment that they say pays for itself many times over. "

Foodies take note: try to ferret out the catered open houses in Manhattan and Brooklyn.

Thanks to the Chinese

New York City's Museum of the Chinese in the Americas, based on Mulberry Street in Chinatown, recently featured two exhibitions on food--one titled "Chop Suey," was a photographic review of Chop Suey houses. The newest project looks at the history of the Chinese restaurant in America. "Have You Eaten Yet?" explores the role of the restaurant as a cultural forum.

The museum's website explains---"'Have you eaten yet,' is a standard Chinese greeting sharing the same connotation as "how are you?" Its incorporation into the daily vernacular attests to the significance of food in the Chinese culture, where meals are a fusion of art and entertainment and a venue for dialogue and reconnecting with family, friends and guests. "
The exhibition runs through June 2005.

Grains with Everything

That much anticipated every five year event, the U.S. government release of its Dietary Guidelines, has now occurred, and dedicated eaters are now diligently trying to eat at least half of their daily intake of grain as WHOLE grain.  Others are trying to determine what exactly is a grain and what makes it whole. (  People blithely sing about "amber waves of grain" but rarely stumble across any.)

The dedicated people at Oldways Preservation Trust in Boston have gathered together assorted professional grainiacs to create the Whole Grains Council and that entity in turn has issued a series of stamps it hopes producers will affix to its products--the stamps tell the exhausted/confused consumer whether a grainy product is Good, Excellent or 100% Whole.

One way to determine bread's whole graininess is to seize it in your hands and squeeze. If the loaf retains an hourglass figure and does not pop back, you are holding Wonder (wholegrain free) Bread.

Foodies and Slow Food members and good cooks across the country are concerned at how poorly many people eat, and struggle with the dilemma of the  economics of inadequately nourishing, yet cheap food.