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.

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.)

Steak vs Hamburger

With all the hooha these past few days about the appetite of a certain New York governor for youthful yet costly flesh apparently not available locally, I couldn't help but recall the jaunty response of Paul Newman years back when asked if he had ever been unfaithful to wife Joanne Woodward.

"Why go out for hamburger when you have steak at home?"  Such a romantic, that Paul!

Now-- we gals do not overtly welcome comparison to cuts of beef, but still, for a food blog, useful.

SSF Mainiacs Visit Fabled Indian Farm

The Summit Springs Farm-ers, ( you may recall their ongoing effort to erect a large greenhouse on their spread,) recently have returned to Maine after an incredible 5-week trip to India, and their spokesperson on all things ag, John Sayles, sent us this report:

" One of the most rewarding experiences of the trip was a visit to Navdanya, an organic research farm and seed bank about 10 kilometers outside the city of Dehra Dun in the Indian state of Uttranchal. The 20-acre site was founded in the 1980’s by Dr. Vandana Shiva, a scientist, environmentalist, and activist, “to support local farmers, rescue and conserve crops and plants that are being pushed to extinction and make them available through direct marketing.” The Navdanya website also notes that the farm is “actively involved in the rejuvenation of indigenous knowledge and culture. [Navdanya] has created awareness on the hazards of genetic engineering,  ( and)defended people's knowledge from biopiracy and food rights in the face of globalization.”

After looking through the small bookstore and administrative center, we walked around this unique farm with a guide. In small plots, different combinations of crops are grown together to see how they do. One plot may have carrots and onions together; another may have carrots, onions, and coriander (cilantro). Crop density is also studied. One plot of wheat has been intensively planted, and another less so, and another even less, but perhaps also interspersed with another grain or even another variety of wheat. Dozens and dozens of these plots cover the farm’s open spaces. Nearby is an orchard, and in the opposite direction is the seed bank.

We took a short walk down a tree-lined lane with bright green parrots flitting about overhead, to reach the seed bank, a modest rectangular building with an adobe appearance. We all took off our shoes and filed in. Over 300 varieties of rice are kept here in metal boxes, plus about 70 varieties of wheat, numerous other grains, and vegetable and fruit seeds. It is probably the most extensive private seed bank of its kind in all of India. The building itself, though, was much smaller than expected, quite modest, and decorated with lively paintings of flora and fauna on the walls. Outside, the spirit of experimentation and variety continued with the compost area. We saw four or five different composting methods being tried, everything from pit composting to compost bins with removable sides to elaborate composting trenches designed to make the worms happy.

  Our friend and traveling companion, Nicole, is an amateur herbalist and was thrilled to spend some time with the farm’s herbal guru. He showed us around his modest plots of medicinal and cooking herbs and also allowed us a peek into his rooms where he dries and prepares the herbs. All of this was followed by an excellent buffet-style lunch in the farm’s mess hall. We took a brief look around the farm’s library and bookstore and purchased a few books, including an Indian cookbook, before thanking our new friends and hitting the road for the drive back to our ashram in Laksman Jhula. The Navdanya experience was moving, inspiring, and thought-provoking. I would love to return for a longer stay and perhaps do some volunteer work there as a way to help this noble effort. "

For more information on the remarkable visionary Dr. Vandana Shiva, a physicist trained at the University of Western Ontario, click here.

(Pix by shaggy, baggy Farmer John who can be seen just above on the right.)

Obama, Japan, Produces "Native Son" Bean Cakes

A town of 32,000 on the west coast of Japan has a bond with one of our candidates. The town is Obama, and apparently the locals there are rapidly becoming fans of that guy with the same name.

According to this AP story, "Obama's name graces posters hung in the main hotel. Headbands and T-shirts with drawings of the candidate's face will be available soon. Local confectioners are designing Japanese-style sweet bean cakes with Obama's portrait on them."

Now that's a candidate with broad, diverse appeal. Come March we expect to hear from the little known O'Bama clan in Ireland, backing their lad, Barry, with marzipan potato candies bearing his likeness.

( Thanks for bean cake pic from http://mtkilimonjaro.blogspot.com/2007/07/fine-find-in-san-francisco.html)

Time for Tums?

Seems as if people of all sizes, shape, gender, hue and religious affiliation have been campaigning for assorted nominations in this country for at least two years, eating on the run the entire time or, even worse, forced to sit down at an official fundraiser and chomp down in a relaxed manner while people paying $2000 per meal stared fixedly at their table manners. Senator Clinton referenced pizza as the usual menu du jour, though she was photographed recently trying to get her mouth gracefully around a taco at East LA's King Taco restaurant.

The perils of political eating were well illuminated by President Gerald Ford whom older food freaks may recall munched on a tamale without removing the corn husk surrounding it. How could he know? It was 1976, he was running against Jimmy Carter, and he was from Michigan, for gawds sake.

A day or two ago master dieter and healthy guy Governor Mike Huckabee was asked by a reporter how he felt about fried chicken, after reports circulated that Governor Mitt Romney had been observed removing the skin from his portion of chicken before eating it.

According to CBS News reporter Joy Lin, " Going through the weight loss program I try to eat it more broiled and baked," Huckabee said. "But I can tell you this: any Southerner knows that if you're not gonna eat the skin, don't bother with calling it fried chicken."

In jest, Huckabee said: "I'm glad to hear that (Romney) did that because that means I'm going to win Alabama, Georgia, Tennesee, Arkansas, Oklahoma--all these great Southern states that understand that the best part of friend chicken is the skin."

Oklahoma is Southern?

(Taco pic found at http://community.livejournal.com/ohnotheydidnt/19444197.html)

Toiling Under the Spreading Avocado Tree

In response to a Post from fellow Blogger Kathy F. at

http://whatdoiknow.typepad.com/what_do_i_know/ , I wrote the following.

"Usually I am not blogging from a small cafe table outdoors under an enormous avocado tree. Yet since I am in St Petersburg, Florida, for several weeks, working on a food history book, this site seems appropriate to a Blog dedicated to all things eclectically food. ( My usual workplace is a messy home office in New Mexico.)
My new workspace is not always tranquil. Acorns from surrounding live oaks hammer down on adjacent sheds and squirrels natter loudly.
If only my new digital camera worked with this traveling laptop, I would enclose a pic. Maybe later, after a huge avocado and grapefruit salad. The adjacent yard has numerous gfruits and friendly neighbors..."

This reminded me that eons ago, in our parlor floor apartment on the Lower Eastside of New York, just off the Bowery, we had a lovingly nurtured scrawny avocado tree in a pot, grown from an actual seed, as urban pioneers did in those days.  It did have extravagent arms, as I recall, and it became woefully dusty, but it gave a shot of rich, ripe greenery to a windows-at-each-end, none-at-the-sides little pad. It may have gone to a friend when we moved to Brussels, or perhaps it was the plant my mother found a home for at a car dealership in the 'burbs.

In any event, its cousin, the exuberant tree under which I toil, connects me with the Florida of old--the lush acres of trees and citrus groves planted by Hamilton Disston's people in this very neighborhood that later sprouted 1950's bungalows. Initially, Disston bought 4 million acres of FL land for 25 cents an acre back in 1881 and proceeded to create agricultural land. He is perhaps best known for his tireless effort to drain" the worthless swamp you people call the Everglades."

A complex fellow with vast influence over Florida, Disston's dealing went sour in the late 1890's and he died in 1896, either from a heart attack, or, as one report has it, by a single shot to the head. He was found in his bathtub.

Disston Heights, the small neighborhood where I am staying, is the one area in the entire county that does not require flood insurance. It's a dizzying 40-60 feet above sea level, thank you, and its inhabitants need not evacuate in times of hurricanes.

But if the hurricanes doen't get them, the squirrels will--the avocados, that is. We are vigilant each morning, ready to pick up the heavy fruit that have tumbled to the ground during the night. Most of them have tiny toothmarks by dawn.

Tavee's Thai Cuisine

  Sometimes the best is right in one's own backyard--my personal Thai buffet lunch place, for example. It's on Albuquerque's west side, in a long stringbean of a shopping center, next to a competent vacuum cleaner store.   The Thai Cuisine and Teriyaki Queen started out ten years ago as a tiny take out joint with maybe 5 tables. ( That name is its only flaw....) Its denizens were often Thai-aware--ex Peace Corps people, ex military, ex government types. They sniffed out the aromas--NO MSG!-- and knew they had unearthed a jewel.

Yes, some of us fretted when the co-owner and prime mover, the uber efficient and crisp Tavee Yaparwong, decided the time had come to expand into the space next door. But all was well--the food remained perfect, hot enough but not too hot--the spring rolls fresh and tasty, thank you, filled with colorful and flavorful veggies only.  I quickly learned to show up only on a Tuesday or a Thursday because those were the days of  my favorite and sublime coconut soup, and, usually, red curry or green curry. Along with pad thai, of course, and tofu with carrot, and so on. Tapioca pudding--not the gummy variety--recently joined the watermelon chunks and green papaya salad in the buffet line.

In the past two years Tavee and her husband Sagol have further pushed the envelope--they now own the Thai Cafe in Santa Fe as well. An accountant who decidedly does handle the books, Tavee is also now a restauranteuse----but she laughs and rolls her eyes as she explains the whole thing was her husband's dream, running a Thai restaurant, not hers.

" So all this is actually your own personal nightmare ? "  I ask, gesturing broadly with my camera. Tavee laughs harder and bustles over to the cash register, attentive to yet another satisfied customer.

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.

Depressing Food News From All Over

LifeScience informs us that mussels are declining in North American waters. " ...mussels now are one of the most endangered groups of animals on the continent, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Humans are primarily responsible for the disappearance of mussels through water pollution and changes to their physical habitat wrought by the construction of dams, dredging and the introduction of exotic species."

So eating mussels locally will start to be challenging--we will all be making moules frites with Dutch bivalves, or worse, those huge greenies from New Zealand.

Meanwhile, good old beleaguered China now has a killer pig virus problem, apparently. According to the Washington Post,  "Moving rapidly from one farm to the next, the virus has been devastating pig communities throughout China for more than a year, wiping out entire herds, driving pork prices up nearly 87 percent in a year and helping push the country's inflation rate to its highest levels since 1996. "   International authorities are concerned that the virus may easily spread beyond Asia--it's already in Vietnam and Burma--to affect people worldwide.

The Dole bagged salad people are doing a voluntary recall of their Heart Delight salad mix after one bag in Canada tested positive for the E. coli bacteria.

And then, in Michigan, former president Gerald Ford's bulgy-eyed likeness--the poor guy is even wearing a striped tie!-- has been carved from a corn field at Gull Meadow Farms.

( Thanks to pbs.org for the mussels shot and a nifty-seeming recipe at the webiste link  for "Mussels steamed on the grill with chourico sausage in a white wine butter sauce, served with Texas toast .")