foodmuseumblog

Halloween Excess, Plus, Homage to Peg Bracken

USA Today tells me that Americans spend on average $65 per head on Halloween-related cr*p. $20 of this goes for candy, apparently. I spent $4 on two small bags of seasonal-looking candy kisses,  some of which has gone into the craws of  assorted pals, one utterly inadvertently into the dawg ( she lived!,) and the rest, most of the bags, is sitting near the front door wondering what in hell ever happened to Trick or Treaters? !  I had a carved and lighted punkin up, too.

Moving on--I noticed belatedly that the Queen of mushroom soup in a can,  Peg Bracken, had died in Oregon. Her "I Hate to Cook Book" is out of print, "doubtless a casualty of the Age of Arugula," as the NYTimes obit put it.  Back in the day when mothers like mine left Halloween costuming to the kids, as in --"go look in the closet-- be a tramp? ( The freightcar riding variety.) A ghost?" -- Peg Bracken was a blast of sardonic joy. "Some women, it is said, love to cook. This book is not for them," began her classic tome, published in 1960.  If a recipe was fast, easy and straightforward, it was good, period.  ( Frozen foods, canned foods, dried foods in cans, all were stars in this anti-Fanny Farmer, nothing- from- scratch, approach. )

Mind you, by the time Bracken's book came out, with no tiny kids to feed, my mother had already moved rapidly away from once-a-week meatloaf and pork chops with apple sauce. ( The meatloaf was never really jettisoned it was so damn good .) She subscribed to Gourmet and enjoyed experimenting. Urged along by her, ours was the first family to walk through the red and gold doorway of the first Chinese restaurant to open in our suburban area.

Peg Bracken was funny and liberating,  freeing multitudes of women from guilt, on a topic traditionally taken very seriously. Throw fodder at your family-- spare me the cutesy baby veggies, for gawd's sake--- and then go have a ciggie.

Recipe Theft, Deceiving Your Kids, And All That

You may have heard about Jerry Seinfeld's defense of his wife against charges of what he dubbed "vegetable plagiarism." Apparently Jessica Seinfeld's book, Deceptively Delicious: Simple Secrets to Get Your Kids Eating Good Food, (Harper Collins,) came out about 6 months after Missy Chase Lapine's book on the same topic, The Sneaky Chef: Simple Strategies for Hiding Healthy Foods in Kids' Favorite Meals  ( Running Press.)  Ms Lapine evidently thinks it's possible that Ms Seinfeld took her ideas and reworked them for her book. Ms Seinfeld says she has never seen the book.

The ideas? Stuffing mushed up veggies in other foods--inside a burger?--in truth, I have read neither book--to get kids to eat them.   According to an AP story, on The David Letterman Show recently Jerry Seinfeld put it this way:

"I love the term 'plagiarism' for this little event," he said. "Because it used to be you had to really take a theme from a major novel, some sort of literary narrative. Now, you're in your kitchen making brownies, you sneak a little spinach in there, your name's dragged through the mud."

Funny! ( Humor defuses many things,  even  possible lawsuits (?), so Jessica is lucky to Jerry on her side.)

A few things here irk /interest me---

1---This "sneaky" and "deceptive" route regarding kids and good food raises many red flags with me, not least the sneaky bit.  What, are you afraid of your kids?  Invite your kids to eat a bit of everything, or at least to try a taste, from the moment the kiddo can do solid foods. Make the food delicious and colorful and unseasoned at first. ( And if she/he won't eat more than a whisper of a veg, do not panic--I recall several little kids who ate only white foods for months, or ate almost nothing, or ate only hotdogs, and they all survived and today are adults who cook  and eat extremely well.)

2--The titles....the  first  is awkward and badly written. The second is waaay too long.

3--The cookbook recipe thing--I have often wondered about this, even as I contributed a couple of "my" recipes to a series of books I wrote about food plants.  I mean, who knows where one gets these things?  A while back I was sauteeing shrimp in some red chile, scallions,  olive oil and garlic and I wanted to make a nifty sauce--so I removed the cooked shrimp, randomly grabbed some tequila, swirled it around in the pan and added a bit of half and half, and had a terrific "new" dish, served with quinoa and baby brocc. Did I really invent something new?  Had no other chef before me put together that combo? I have no clue, but remember, YOU READ IT HERE FIRST, dammit. 

Weigh in, people.

Food Bits and Bobs

As I mentioned on June 29, we recently had dinner with Joan Gussow, "eat local" pioneer and author of This Organic Life, a food issue expert we first met years ago in Washington, DC. As we all tucked into green lasagna, grilled chicken marinated in balsamic vinegar, beet, goat's cheese and arugula salad and more, at the home of Hudson River painter Frances Wells, I was certain that Joan felt no regrets at leaving behind the relentless winter fare of parsnips, spuds and carrots from her remarkable garden. ( Joan was the inspiration for Barbara Kingsolver's new book about her family's year of eating locally in Virginia, and certainly a muse to Michael Pollan on his latest, The Omnivore's Dilemma.)

The next morning we walked through Joan's garden overlooking the Hudson, noting her delight at finding the perfect rethought and reinvented tomato staking device, Green Tomato Ladders from Gardener's Supply, a few of which she had recently purchased. " I never buy anything for this garden, not even plants, but these I had to try," she said.

Six of the people at the table the night before were involved in gardening/farming--two of the elders are Bette ( Lacina) and Dale ( Haubrich) the proprietors and full time workers on their small but fabled organic farm in Sag Harbor,  in the Hamptons.

Two of the younger tribe of earthworkers, members of my family,  tra la, will be starting their own intensive organic growing operation in Poland, Maine next spring and are currently working full-time as apprentices  at Riverbank Farm in Roxbury, CT.  

We visited John, neophyte farmer, and Sonya, experienced, one afternoon in Connecticut , arriving in time to snap them in full worker gear, tired and dirty from the day.

After we toured the place we were treated to a recently picked and cooked meal in the apprentice's kitchen that redefined the meaning of the word "fresh."   A pea picked 10 minutes ago compared to a pea picked a week ago, packed up, cooled, and hauled across the county---that is the definition of luxury for most mortals.   

Top: Meal on the Hudson; Top right: Joan in her garden; Left: John and Sonya; Right: The meaning of fresh

   

Garlic from There and Here

The WaPost has just discovered that most of the garlic sold in US supermarkets is coming from China. I asked my local grocer months ago about his garlic--it was from China-- because it looked suspiciously overly uniform.  (It was also mighty cheap. )

Here in New Mexico I can get terrific and diverse varieties of garlic at the growers' markets so I buy the Chinese only in the depths of winter.  But the American consumer has to face facts--Chinese growers and food suppliers are dominating world markets in multiple categories, whatever their  standards of integrity and cleanliness.

As the Post piece puts it:

"The FDA, responsible for inspecting some types of food from 130 countries, last year was deluged with 21 million shipments of food imports, among them 199,000 from China worth about $2.3 billion. FDA inspectors refused 298 food shipments from China in the first four months of this year: They included catfish laden with banned antibiotics, mushrooms laced with illegal pesticides, and others. The rejection rate for Chinese goods is about 25 times that for Canadian goods."

FYI  A lovely book about growing garlic in NM is this one:

Crawford, Stanley, 1991: A Garlic Testament - Seasons on a Small New Mexico Farm. HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. 10 E. 53rd St., New York, NY 10022, ISBN 0-06-018207-5, 241 pages.

( Pristine-looking Chinese garlic pic from http://dq-food.en.alibaba.com/product/50086691/50399618/Nuts_Seeds_Vegetable/Chinese_Garlic.html)

( Earthy, skinny NM garlic from http://www.spicelines.com/2006/09/the_pungent_clove_part_1_looki.htm)

From "Fried Baloney Tra La La" to Kraft on White Bread--Presidential Favorites

It's not a huge surprise to me to learn that the current Prez of the US loves Amurrican cheese--"Kraft singles"-- on white bread, and pb with honey sandwiches, too.  Regularly.

We all have our comfort food choices, of course--like mashies with butter flowing like magma over the edges, for instance. But to be able to command the White House chef, in this case Walter Scheib, prior to his being canned by Laura Bush in 2005, to make virtually anything, virtually any time. Wow. 

Were I the Eater-in-Chief, I might have rung the chef up to say, " Last night I was dreaming of fresh grilled sardines, matchstick potatoes, Belgian endive salad with fresh pear, oh, and, a slice of flourless intense choc cake, Walter, whaddyathink? Can you make my dream come through for lunch today? ( With Gorgeous George Clooney to discuss starvation in Darfur... Lordy, not appropriate...) With just one glass of an ultra dry crisp, chilled gray wine, pretty please?"

Ah well. Apparently Chef  Scheib's book, White House Chef, came out in January of this year. An interview with the chef just turned up at Scotland's Sunday Herald newspaper.

Working for the Clintons for many years meant slowly shifting the White House kitchen from all French to a better reflection of the best of American food--flavorful, fresh ingredients and wines from all over the country.

It also meant preparing this nostalgic nosh for Bill Clinton's High School reunion:

"We were doing a cook out for about 1000 people and I was asked to make Fried Baloney Tra-La-La," Scheib says. The gourmet chef obviously had no idea what the dish was. "They told me to cut a hole in the baloney, fry it and then when you flip it you crack an egg into the hole and fry the egg in the middle. I thought it was the single worst thing I had ever heard but it wasn't about what I wanted so we made 1000 portions of it and they all ate the hell out of it."

There's more--about the friendliness of the Clintons towards staff, versus the distance established from the beginning in the supposedly "just a regular guy with a Texas accent" Bush WH. But that's another story.

( Pic from http://www.leadingauthorities.com/24100/Walter_Scheib.htm)

Mrs. Beeton Couldn't Cook?

Public Television's Masterpiece Theatre debuts The Secret Life of Mrs. Beeton this Sunday, and the writeup on line sounds more like an upcoming series on Mystery. 

We will be glued to the tale of the Victorian era young woman, Isabella Mary Mayson, who did not cook, yet is famous still as the author of Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management, often considered the most famous English cookery book. She died young, after giving birth to her fourth child---as yet we have no clue as to her "secret life."

Here's her recipe for, of all things, "Pineapple Chips."

PINEAPPLE CHIPS.

1577. INGREDIENTS. -- Pineapples; sugar to taste.

Mode. -- Pare and slice the fruit thinly, put it on dishes, and strew over it plenty of pounded sugar. Keep it in a hot closet, or very slow oven, 8 or 10 days, and turn the fruit every day until dry; then put the pieces of pine on tins, and place them in a quick oven for 10 minutes. Let them cool, and store them away in dry boxes, with paper between each layer.

Time. -- 8 to 10 days.

Seasonable. -- Foreign pines, in July and August.

I Like You, Too, Amy Sedaris

Confession: Once again, I, Foodie, have a pile of food books stacked up next to my desk, all sent by perfectly nice folks for me to review. The latest is Jane Butel's tome, Real Women Love Chiles. I have met Jane, she's a southwest cooking guruette who lives here in NM, obviously, as she spells "chiles" correctly...And I will get to her book. ( Among others.)

But right now, I am blogging about a LIBRARY BOOK. ( Gawd, the guilt.)

Yesterday, the sirens called to me from the "new non fiction" rack. Actually, it was Amy Sedaris' wacky , colorful book on hospitality called I Like You--Hospitality Under the Influence ( Warner Books, 2006.) Born in 1961, Amy apparently would have preferred being an adult in the rickrack and jello salad-infested 1950's, stylistically and recipe-wise. ( Druggily speaking, no.)  Her Lil' Smoky Cheese Ball ! Her Meatloaf Wreath!  Her Band-Aid Cake!

Amy, an actor, writer, performer, etc., etc,, is Martha Stewart high, with a sense of humor, Martha nurturing and unleashing her inner tackiness.  The recipes are real, though this might be hard to believe, given their surroundings. So are the pix of Amy's fake food collection scattered throughout .

( Incidentally, while leafing through a half shredded copy of an entertainment mag while biking at the gym, I read a blurb about Meryl Streep--she said that in order to prepare to play the Devil in The Devil Wears Prada she gave up drinking wine with dinner and lost a few pounds--but more crucially, she lost her sense of humor, an absolute prerequisite for playing the silver-haired glam-0-harridan....)

(OK, that was extraordinarily "incidental.")

Feeling dull? Take a look at this book---the photospread detailing how Amy puts on pantyhose will  remind you why you gave them up eons ago but also whet your appetite for leaving the crafts section of the book, and trying out some of her (genuine) Greek-American recipes.

I know--this book isn't even "new." ( Sigh.)

Defiant Gardens--War and Sustenance

Apparently the days of using one's cell phone for making phone calls are now dead---those of us who have mastered adding to our Phone Books and retrieving messages, using the speaker function, even taking pictures, now are invited to employ our little phones to access the Internet, watch tv, listen to music, and presumably, order the dry cleaning to walk home and climb into the closet.

All of which telephonic coddling leads me to the deprivations in the trenches of Ypres, a place in western Belgium that was the heart of major fighting during WW1.  Recently we visited the In Flanders Fields Museum there, installed in  the rebuilt  Cloth Hall, before the war one of the largest medieval buildings in Europe. If any war museum can be said to bring to life the hideousness and incongruity of senseless noise and slaughter, this one does. 

Food? Yes, these warriors often knee deep in water, mud, and filth were fed, when bombardment lessened--they were rotated in and out, food was delivered, they ate. In the early part of the war some officers even enjoyed tasty picnics behind the lines, observing the fighting from a distance.

And most remarkably, in the midst of blight and despair, surrounded by a landscape from hell, many soldiers created gardens.  The unique book Defiant Gardens, by Kenneth I. Helphand, ( Trinity University Press, San Antonio,Texas, 2006) explains that gardens not only nurtured their builders, they helped soldiers transcend their environments.  "...although we associate gardens with the natural world, gardens only exist as human creations; they are places where we have exerted control over the natural world. At the front--a profoundly chaotic and unnatural situation--human success in exerting control over anything is extraordinary in itself..."

One photo in the book shows soldiers  growing celery in an unused communications trench---while not everyone's favorite comfort food, celery was most likely grown there because it could survive in the perpetually soggy soil. And was an easily enjoyed finger food requiring no preparation.

Helphand's well-illustrated book thoroughly explores gardens "against the odds"  in the ghetto, in prisons,  in the Japanese internment camps of the USA---each garden a place of peace that symbolizes normalcy.  The author even includes a photo of two American soldiers posing proudly in front of their garden of sweet corn somewhere in Iraq.

At the close of the book Helphand writes: " The aesthetic value of gardens supports their image as a place ( sic) of escape and refuge; on the other hand the sustenance value links gardens to the role they play in building hope and preserving one's values and ideals even amid unimaginable horrors."

Food Is Culture

Until relatively recent history, the study of food and its history was considered part of the "female" story, if it was considered at all.  It certainly was not seen as a credible academic pursuit.

Fortunately, people with  passionate curiosity about  food's story have prevailed and now  the subject is blossoming across the board. One of the stars from academe in this field is Massimo Montanari, author of the new little gem titled Food Is Culture. ( Columbia University Press, 2006.) Montanari is professor of medieval history AND history of food at University of Bologna, and wrote FOOD--A Culinary History, with Jean-Louis Flandrin.

Montanari believes that the artificial creation of food, starting with fire and ending with cuisine, is what made the civilized person--that the cooking and preparation of food separates humans from animals and that bread is the prime symbol of human dominance over nature. This tidy book is divided into about two dozen concise chapters or essays, any of which can stand alone.

One randomly delightful revelation out of many relates to the globalization of food---when Disney set up its food offerings at EuroDisney in Paris, the planners assumed correctly that American hamburgers would readily appeal to the French. What they had not considered, however, was that Europeans tend to eat hamburgers as a meal, at lunchtime, while Americans eat them anytime, all day. As a result until the adjustment was made, the hamburger joint staffs were idle in the morning and evening, and insufficent to handle the lines and  traffic at lunchtime. 

Lest we fear that food globalization will have us all eating and drinking the same things in lockstep, the author reassures us that while coffee is now enjoyed all over the world, the way it is prepared still does indeed differ country by country.

Black Women, Food and Power

A chicken is not just a chicken in the eyes of Psyche A. Williams-Forson. Professor Williams-Forson  has written an utterly unique book about chickens and black women that explores food  "as a form of cultural work. " And in Building Houses Out of Chicken Legs--Black Women, Food & Power,  (University of North Carolina Press, 2006,) she teaches me a lesson about a writer I praised in this Blog in April, Marjorie Rawlings.

Building Houses begins with this quote: " My mother paid for this place with chicken legs."  Isabella Winston of Gordonsville, VA, like her mother before her, provided fried chicken and such for train passengers stopping briefly at her country rail station.

The author explains in the introduction that chicken was to some a means of economic independence, to others a culinary show case, and to still others even a means of vicarious travel--these women sent off box lunches on the trains they would never travel.  To some whites, of course, fried chicken, along with watermelon, became the stereotypical "black " food.  (Comic Dave Chappelle does an entire stand up riff entitled "Fried Chicken.")

But back to Rawlings, author of "Cross Creek,"   "The Yearling," and "Cross Creek Cookery:" Her maid, Idella Parker, wrote a memoir, Idella: Marjorie Rawlings' Perfect Maid, about her 10 years with the author. Here's an excerpt: "Many of the recipes in the book were mine, but she ( Rawlings) only gave me credit for three of them...There were several others that were mine, such as the chocolate pie, and of course it was me doing most of the cooking when we were trying the recipes out."

Giving credit where credit is long overdue.

( Jacket cover photo is from a 1920's ad in Ladies Home Journal for Snowdrift Shortening.)

Food News From All Over

Maryland and Virginia spinach-growers whose crops are free of E. coli fear the anti-spinach backlash will affect their business, according to a report in today's NYTimes.   

Meanwhile, for those who insist on eating at fast food joints, here's a "calorie counter" for you from the Washington Post.  But wait--do those who eat this stuff give a damn about the caloric content? Hmmm....I see that Taco Bell's "Mexican Pizza," which I have eaten on the road without meat, weighs in at 550 calories, 31 fat grams. Yikers. That sucker is indeed slathered with nasty bad factory-made cheese.

Dept of There Will Always Be An England: The Guardian's new food writer is over-the-top WASPly monikered  Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall. He is profiled here and the interview runs under the quote, " I am so damned jammy."  We are searching for the translation now. Anyway, here's Hugh's website. What the heck.

New book I haven't read explores how Amurrica became a "gourmet nation."  Did we? David Kamp's book is The United States of Arugula and I just hope it emphasizes its bi-coastality. Also, I hope the fact that arugula is now growing wild in my driveway will not chip away at the green plant's pedestal.

( Glorious "Last Supper" of the saints of gourmet America by Ed Lam from NYTimes Book Review Section, Oct 1, 2006.)

Relax, Ladies, and Enjoy!

During the fairly recent flurry about "the French diet paradox"--the French eat full fat cheese and drink wine and eat dessert and are still slim and healthy--I ( Foodie) weighed in with the result of my own personal experience. While researching our book on the food museums of France, eating rich meals every day for 6 1/2 weeks, with almost no official exercise, my weight stayed the same, and my husband lost 2 pounds. ( Still, we joked somewhat about the secret dietary weapon of the French--smoking!)

Well--- I may be the last foodie on the planet to finally read the sensible book titled French Women Don't Get Fat by Mireille Guiliano. ( Alfred Knopf, 2005.)  It's a gem--unpreachy, wise, amusing, and written in an informal yet authoritative style. Ms Guiliano is a French woman who has lived in the United States for years and just happens to be the CEO of Veuve-Clicquot Inc, the fabled champagne's US branch.

So there's a bit of a leap between the life she leads and the lives of what an old friend of mine calls "everyday average Americans," whoever they are...we know they're overweight, though, and plodding through the supermarket now.  But--Guiliano herself knows of the perils of the American way of eating--as an exchange student in the States she gained 15 pounds after discovering the joys of brownies, bagels, eating standing up, and so on. On her return home, having departed from the French way of eating, alas, she gained more. Her family doctor, a good old soul, helped her to regain her balance, the equilibrium that Guiliano believes each woman finds for herself.

Someone once said that French women embrace and celebrate food while American women fear it.  Or, as Guiliano puts it, "French women typically think about good things to eat. American women typically worry about bad things to eat."

The author counsels that old virtue, moderation. Eat less but eat more widely of fruits, veggies and dark chocolate.  Drink much more water, enjoy wine and champagne. Buy locally, eat in season. And everyday, eat real plain yogurt. She makes her own, and evidently her yogurt maker's sales ( and Clicquot) have risen along with those of her book. 

Walk, take the stairs, try her recipes, enjoy yourself, and stop stepping on the scales.

I wonder how many readers of this book will make the paradigm shifts ( remember those?) necessary in order to become like the not fat women of France.

"Hungry Planet"--Arresting Stats

The people who traveled the world and brought back a fascinating photographic and literary record of the human family ( Material World series,) published a new entry last year called Hungry Planet, subtitled What the World Eats, by Peter Menzel and Faith D'Aluisio.

There is much for food-focused types to explore in this book. One gleaning--- from their statistics about the 24 countries they featured:

Their list's top meat eaters:

USA--275 lbs per person per year; Greenland--250 lbs; Mongolia--239 lbs; Australia--235 lbs.

Countries whose people ate the least amount of meat:

Bhutan--6.6 lbs per person per year; India--11 lbs; Chad--31 lbs; Turkey and Mali, 42 lbs.

Any surprises? Kuwaitis and Mexicans eat about the same amount, between 129 and 132 lbs. Germans eat somewhat less meat at 181 lbs than the Italians ( 199) or the French ( 222.)

( Photo by Nayef Hashlamoun.)

Medieval Tastes of Baghdad's Elite

Before tabouli, baklava, and grape leaves, the cuisine of Baghdad was the finest food created in the “richest city in the world,” according to food historian Charles Perry writing in the current issue of Saudi Aramco World.

The culinary Bible of the court of 9^th c. Baghdad was Kitab al-Tabikh or The Book of Recipes. Its contents reflect the melding of Persian with Arab styles of preparation. ( The Arabs conquered Persia by the close of the 7^th c.)

Succulent stews cooked in “tannuur”or tandoori ovens featured spices Perry points out are no longer popular in Arab cooking today—caraway and asafetida, among them. Herbs like basil and tarragon were favored, and the stews were frequently topped off with the bitter herb, rue.

The most unusual seasoning created by medieval Arab cooks was a dark liquid made from fermented barley called murri. According to Perry, it tastes exactly like soy sauce—evidently he made his own batch at home by first wrapping barley in fig leaves, then leaving it to molder for a month or two.

Sweets recipes, 90 of them, including one for the possible precursor to marzipan, close The Book of Recipes.

If you're in the mood to whip up a quick and ancient Arab recipe, try this one for Mulahwajah—it means “hasty."

"... this recipe was often prepared for Harun al-Rashid. Galangal is sold in Arabia as ‘irq al-hail or khulanjan, and in Southeast Asian markets under such names as kha and laos. Dried ginger could be substituted. Use the rue sparingly—it’s very bitter.

2 tablespoons oil
1 onion
2 leeks
rue, preferably fresh
cilantro (green coriander, kuzbarah)
½ pound lamb, chopped or ground
2 teaspoons ground coriander seed
½ teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground caraway
1 teaspoon ground pepper
1 teaspoon ground galangal
4 teaspoons vinegar
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons honey

Heat oil in pan. Add onion, leeks, pinch of rue and 2 to 3 sprigs cilantro and fry until soft. Add meat and fry until brown. Add coriander, caraway, pepper, galangal, vinegar and soy sauce. Cook until done. Stir in honey and garnish with several more sprigs cilantro. Serve with flatbread. Serves two. "

( Illustration by Linda Sawaya for Saudi Aramco World, July/August 2006.)

Vocally Eat Locally

Joan Dye Gussow is that rare person on this planet who lives what she believes. And she believes emphatically in eating locally. We ate breakfast today at her house on the Hudson River in Piermont, NY---the strawberries, blueberries and raspberries had just been plucked as locally as a few yards out into her garden plots lapped by the tidal Hudson. As best as she can, 77 year-old Joan eats from her 12 raised beds and assorted pots and side plantings, year round.

A nutrition educator by trade, she is professor emerita at Teachers College, Columbia University in New York, has sat on numerous boards, and is friends with most of the stars in sustainable ag/organic gardening and so on. Her latest book, This Organic Life, published by Chelsea Green in 2001, grabbed us by the small hairs in the chapter titled " California and the Rest of Us." We Americans demand and expect cheap food year round, regardless of the season and we pay mightily for it, our taxes keeping the flow of bought and/or stolen water coursing into the irrigated fields of the deserts of California. It's an insane situation that has put farmers out of business across the US and left many major metro areas across the country dependent on produce from the West.

And Joan asks how long can the West provide?

" There are many threats to California's continued fruitfulness--soil erosion, air pollution, salinization of irrigated land,the invasion of exotic pests, and land subsidence are among them. But the two most worrying are the disappearance of farmland and the competition for water."

Another ramification that strikes Foodie's mind is that "terrorists" could easily disrupt or block the flow of food heading east in trucks. Ponder that the next time you observe airport security personnel nonsensically herding elderly ladies into machines that seek out hidden explosives by sending puffs of air into their blouses and up their skirts.

Most of us cannot grow all our own food--even Joan buys grains and grapefruit juice and surely Belgian chocolates ( we must ask her!)  from beyond her garden walls--and a commitment to eating locally does not require us to give up all taste for globally traded products. We are only entreated to wake up to what we eat and who produces it and why we want it or think we need it. 

Please read this speech Joan gave to the Connecticut Chapter of the Northeast Organic Farming Association in 2003, on the eve of the invasion of Iraq.

A Nourishing Journal

If you like your foodie literature short and sweet, neatly contained in a journal suitable for insertion in pockets,  and you'd rather not wait for the New Yorker's special issue on food, Alimentum is for you. The New York-based journal was launched by writer and caterer Paulette Licitra soon after she had the notion that food had not yet been honored by a dedicated lit mag. Her husband, Peter Selgin, a writer, painter, editor, teacher, shares editing duties with Paulette, the publisher. Evidently they are already backlogged on submissions--the first two editions, Winter and Summer, have just emerged--so expect a wait on your poem about the armadillo that refused to cook up tender. Ultimately Alimentum hopes to pay its writers but for the moment the reward is seeing your work in elegant print.

On Sunday Foodie caught the Alimentum crowd at a reading at a restaurant in Brooklyn to note the publication of Summer. (Night and Day in Park Slope hosted the event.) While some material "reads" well and its authors have a gift for same, other does not, alas. We think that the best presenters should take the mike---Foodie assumed, incorrectly, that she would find the authors in the magazine, after the fact. Alas, she does not know the name of the fellow who did a funny riff on the food references missing from Lawrence's Women in Love, nor the young woman who read some poetry with memorable lines like, "the fish in the window are taken already," and "Keep the taste of your sandwich closed, in your mouth," and something about the bottoms of feet, as "flaky as whitefish." Lynn Levin read with delayed amusement about her attempt to eat guinea pig in Peru, and Angus Woodward wondered what the "tomato as a fruit or not" controversy was all about.

Foodie was about to launch into a didactic explanation of the whole affair settled by the Supremes in 1887---the government wanted tomatoes taxed as a veg, the importers wanted it untaxed as a fruit--and of course we all know technically that it is a fruit, botanically...but since this entire explanation would have been utterly unliterary, Foodie shut up and ate her nicely prepared fried baby artichokes.

Musings on Mullet

Today, children, we turn our attention to the magnificent leaping mullet, the mostly-vegetarian fish with a gizzard ( tastes like flying chicken?) and the focus both of a kiddie book, The Wise Mullet of Cook Bayou, and an October event in Florida's northwest panhandle with the enticing name Boggy Bayou Mullet Festival.

The book was written by journalist and native Floridian Timothy Weeks. It tells the strong simple  story of three mullet in a Florida bayou who choose different life paths, with the "wise" one making out the best. Weeks says his book is based on a story by the Persian Sufi mystic Rumi, a philospher and poet who inspired the "whirling dervishes," those for whom dance was a pathway to the Divine.  Many old hand Floridians say the mullet "leaps for joy," as often as it leaps to avoid danger, so the Rumi connection is fitting.

Weeks' children's book project became a family affair. His mother, Jeanne, did the illustrations. His sister, Kimberly Bryant did the editing, and his Dad, David inspired his early interest in mullet. Crazy as it may sound, this shiny, tidy book laid out with a combo of hand drawings and computer graphics, smells terrific, sort of a petroleum and printing press melange. The odor does not from the two recipes by Jeanne at the back  for Golden Brown Mullet and Cheese Grits, staple foods of the denizens of Cook Bayou.  ( Contact Weeks directly for the book-- educators can obtain a teaching packet as well. )

Once we saw the mighty leap of one of these fish in Florida, we decided perhaps we harbored a mullet-within, and became loathe to eat them. Before the infamous net ban of 1995, mullet was the least expensive fish in local Florida markets. Today it's harder to find, though the smoked mullet at South Pasadena's( St. Petersburg) Ted Peters Famous Smoked Fish is a favorite.

For more things mullet, visit the B.B. Mullet Festival in Niceville, named Boggy Bayou until the citizenry wanted a more Up Town name. You and 100,000 other visitors will eat 10 tons of mullet ( we know, mullet doesn't sound scarce) during three days, October 20, 21 and 22.

(For exhaustive info on fishing mullet in the UK, click here. Seems they will bite at flakes of white bread..)

As for the fabled "do," known as The Mullet, no mullet possibly could leap to the notion that its arrangement of fins (?) ( see the mullet pic up top) would spawn an entire culture. Wikipedia says the mullet --short everywhere, but long in the back, was sported by fishermen in the 19th c to keep the backs of their heads warm.

"Organic, Inc."

The author of the highly readable Organic, Inc. --- Natural Foods and How They Grew ( Harcourt, Inc., $25, ) begins his book as a customer, wowed by the seductive offerings of Whole Foods, and drawn to the fresh locally-grown produce of farmers' markets. Samuel Fromartz, a business writer, sets out to discover why he and other consumers buy organic foods.  In the course of his odyssey he meets most of the big players in this complex business, as well as several small growers and many others involved in organic food.

His first chapter, Humus Worshippers, reveals a 1998 study done by the University of Washington's Chensheng Lu of children in the Seattle area , testing their urine for levels of pesticide residue. He found them in hundreds of 2-5 year-olds. But one child of the study had none. He lived in a family that exclusively ate organically grown food.

Many people have chosen to go with organic for that reason alone--but consumers have other reasons---better support for the environment and sustainability, positive health benefits, economic support of local growers and so on.

Astonishingly, we live in an era in America when only 1% of the population farms, down from 25% in 1940.  Fromartz profiles the 30 year efforts of the Crawford family's New Morning Farm in central Pennsylvania. New Morning exemplifies the successful small farm protoype--it is organic, independent, and "local," and also very clever in the way it markets its fares outside traditional outlets.

Fromartz also looks deeply into the doings of giant organic firms like  California's Earthbound Farms, and Colorado's Horizon Organic and tofu-based White Wave, both now owned by Dean Foods.

While organic farmers and the US government have reached an agreement as to what constitutes "organic growing," they have wrestled long, hard, and not terribly successfully with  what makes a finished product "organic." Fromartz moves through this complex, would be-acronym-littered--NODPA, NOFA, NOSB--field as well as anyone could.

In the end, the author decides that consumers of organic foods and products are in a way conflicted, spending top dollar for items an individual thinks matters lost, such as organic milk for children,  and staying mainstream with say, canned baked beans. And dabbling in gardening.

Read this book.

Disparate Books for Disparate Cooks

Baking with the light of the sun; quick, plan ahead suppers; chowing down on more than just the BBQued beast. Anyone?

With the sun beating down hard here in the drought-filled Southwest, and energy prices escalating, Foodie may just finally set up her own solar cooker. She saw one at an alternative energy fair, or rather, her nose smelled it, and she beelined over to speak with the cook , organic gardener, and author of The Solar Chef's Recipe Book, Rose Marie Kern. ( Visit the Solar Ranch website, $15 plus $2.50 shipping.) Rose Marie was cooking up Suntan Chicken, with red chile sauce and lime, in her Global Sun Oven, and even to a veggie it smelled divine. Apparently Rose Marie was inspired by solar as a kid, when on blistering hot days folks would attempt to fry an egg on the sidewalk.  And even now, though she cooks with fairly high end solar cookers, she suggests that you or your kids can build a simple solar device by lining a shoebox with aluminum. Then paint the outside of a quart canning jar black and put anything you want heated up inside. Put the jar in the box, tilt the box towards the sun, wait 15-20 minutes and bingo.

The joys of solar cooking evidently include the pleasure of using free energy, cooking things slowly, with moisture well contained, observing the movement of celestial bodies, and cooking in the wilderness when campfires are banned. And these recipes, among others: Motto's Sephardic Matzo Ball Soup, Gingered Sweet Potato Bisque, Beer Cheese Bread, Chicken Mole...Yes, indeed, make meals while the sun shines.

Renee Pottle's book, I Want My Dinner Now! ( $12.95, Hestia's Hearth Publishing and Design, Kenniwick, WA) is for the newbie cook, and/or for the home food purveyor who wants to do right by the family but has little time or inclination for frequent food shopping or the glories of cuisine. Pottle has some good ideas--Foodie especially liked the one about freezing leftover tomato paste/sauce/cut up tomatoes in a tomato bin for later use. And her book is well organized, with the ingredients set forth for either two servings or six.

Her menu planning is mind-arrestingly thorough, so that a week in which 1/2 can of soup is used makes use of the other half by the end of the week. ( Canned soup? What? Still edible?) Her recipes are fairly basic, straight-forward American fare, and even the occasional dalliance into exotica--Thai chicken, or paella--is served up so that the most finicky isolationist eater will probably try it. Margarine is listed as an acceptable ingredient throughout, however, and olive oil is not mentioned. While this cookbook is not inspiring, in it Pottle achieves her goal--she provides quickly assembled meals so that the frazzled family can avoid the take-out, pre-packaged route and eat together.

The Big Book of Barbeque Sides by Rick Browne, ( $16.95, Collectors Press, Portland, OR) suggests things aside from the main event to cook over those perfect hot coals or fragrant wood. Things like Savory Onion Pudding, a rich dish that involves Emmental, thinly sliced onions, and Vermouth, and three ways to roast corn, and even grilled fruit with an eggy brown sugar and dry cider sauce. Author Browne, the host of the PBS show Barbeque America, also prepares sides away from the grill--for Dirty Rice, he shares his specially concocted Creole blend. His Sweet Potato Biscuits sound sublime but do they really need the 1/4 c. brown sugar he includes? Moments ago, Foodie served up his Sicilian White Beans and Parmesan, with crusty bread and a side of fresh spinach with garlic. Just fine.

"Teenage Waistland"--A Former Fat Kid Weighs In

We made reference to this book and its author, Abby Ellin, in The FOOD Museum's detailed exploration of hunger, obesity and school lunch reform. So she recently sent us a copy and Foodie was reeled in from the first sentence of page xv: "I was 10 the first time I stepped on a scale."

The author has no definitive array of answers or advice on how to handle "the fat thing" with kids but it becomes clear, rapidly, that shaming the heavier kids into "doing something about their weight"  is not the way to go. Ellin was an overweight kid,  not obese, and sent herself to fat camps for years on inherited income derived from her grandfather. 

Still reading this eminently accessible, thoughtful and entertaining book, Foodie has been thinking back to her own dinosaur-era childhood--when kids ran around outdoors until hauled in for bed, when girls, certainly, had no organized sports teams, and when tv was not in her home! ( Nor were the glorious Internets, obviously..)  And food was prepared fresh, and our family ate dinner together. ( And we were all slim.)  It all sounds bizarrely antique.