food museum blog

Hodge-Podginess Heading Into Tgiving

I missed our new NM Senator Tom Udall's resolution to skip two meals, and donate the "saved" money to a local food bank; I missed the invitation by the post office to donate canned goods in my mailbox to the hungry, too. But I did buy and donate a can of pinto beans to the cause via my local market, and I gave a buck to a guy begging on Pennsylvania Avenue here in DC. Not much, but something.

Anyhoo---

In solidarity with the State Dinner for India, we are doing an all-veg Tgiving spread at a friend's house. I am committed to green chile cornbread, am pondering some kind of squash/pumpkin empanadas, a green chile casserole, some Asian green beans, possibly some deep fried garbanzo beans with a Middle eastern sauce, spuds.  Hmmm..asparagus grilled with Balsamic vinegar....it sounds like a real hodge-podge, doesn't it?

Dessert will be either ginger tea, or Pepto-Bismol.

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.

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.

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.

Art, Fast Food, Dying Warhorses

You may have seen the headline--McD's is thinking of putting one of their joints in the "food court" that serves the Louvre in Paris.  I can barely believe I am juxtaposing the words "food court" and Louvre. I haven't been there in a while but hitting a little bistro around the corner would have been my choice, after a morning spent tromping through the galleries.  But I need to enter the 21st c., don't I?  Apparently the Champs Elysees McD's is the most successful in the entire McD universe.

Gourmet Magazine, on the other hand, must not be shining brightly enough for Conde-Nast. It is ceasing publication of the ancient ( est. 1941) food journal by the end of this week, astonishingly. The company's Bon Appetit--less grand, less precious, more accessible? will carry on, for the moment.

My mother subscribed to Gourmet for several years in the 1970's, but the real Conde Nast star in our house was always The New Yorker. I've been reading it since I could read, and love it still.

G-18 Spouses Dine Down on the Farm

Michelle Obama just hosted the 18 wives of the economic summit G20 leaders meeting in Pittsburgh----the 2 male spouses were not on hand-- at the working farm of Teresa Heinz, head of the Heinz Endowments, and the wife of Senator John Kerry. The visitors have apparently enjoyed a meal the details of which have been kept under wraps, or perhaps, en papillotte.

Here's the food story according to Sandra McElwaine in The Daily Beast: "The meal, catered by super chef Bob Sendall of All in Good Taste, who is known for foolproof soufflés and jumbo lump crab cakes, is top secret. No one will spill the beans—literally—except some of Heinz’s fresh organic veggies or free-range chicken might make it to the table. Or maybe Michelle will opt for Sendall’s most sought-after item: Toffee Taboo—thin sheets of Belgian dark chocolate with toffee cashews and almonds, a salty sweet dessert he has been concocting for years. (Before the summit even started, one unidentified dignitary requested pancakes from Pamela’s Diner. During a campaign stop in 2008, the president made a pit stop at Pamela’s and called the pancakes “outstanding.” Because of the massive security, the restaurant hasn’t a clue about how it will manage to get the pancakes to the customer, but they’ll be ready for delivery, as requested, on Friday morning.)"

"Julie and Julia," The Movie

Why isn't it titled "Julia and Julie," as without Julia Child there likely would have been no blog for Julie Powell, no book, no movie made from the book? Most likely because the blogger in question comes across as a whiny, self-absorbed twit, even with  Amy Adams' customary twinkle in operation.

Yes, this is a food ( and wine) film. And, yes, watching Meryl Streep unwrap and deliver Julia Child is the only reason one might want to rent the future DVD, just to see what she does and when and how she does it. Streep is an actor who uses her entire body in the creation of a persona,  from her feet  all the way up into her coif. ( But, of course, one is not supposed to be avidly scoping out the technical details of an actor's work while watching a film--one wants to be utterly absorbed in a place, a story.)

As a film, this melding of Julie and Julia does not work.  Julie is small and Julia is large. Julie complains and Julia rises above. The director/screen writer Nora Ephron could have made the Julie character more feisty and generous, but presumably the "real" Julie held sway.

And so, as my friend and I watched the film yesterday we were both fighting off sleep during the Julie bits, and rearing awake whenever Julia was on board. And we both recalled that our respective mothers cooked Julia's boeuf bourgignon, which, then as now, closely resembled the less glamorously dubbed  "pot roast," save for the addition of red wine to the former.

The movie will make you run out to buy more butter, and some decent red. And consider how well people back in the day dressed, even with the silly hats.

Comfort Food Awaits Freed Journalist Laura Ling

According to this AP report, Al Gore, whose company Current TV employs both women just freed from North Korea, told Ms. Ling, "... your mom's been making your special soup for two days now."

Special soup!  Mine would have been a rich, creamy, basil-y tomato bisque or maybe a crab/squash bisque or a Thai coconut soup with fancy mushrooms or a wild mushroom and cream concoction and all these musings are making me soup-hungry.

But--I have not recently been freed from North Korea, my dear Mom is long gone, and it's going to be in the high 90's today, so the chances of any soup on the agenda are minuscule.

 Still, I would love to know what Laura Ling's mother's " special soup" is....

(Found adorable loving soup bowl artwork at this website dedicated to Swedish news in English!

http://www.thelocal.se/blogs/eatingout/2009/04/)