kottke.org posts about food
Milk Thistle Farm, which makes great organic milk that can be had at NYC greenmarkets or at Whole Foods, is asking small investors to finance their expansion.
While many organic dairy farmers who supply big producers have been suffering in the recession, Mr. Hesse says demand for their milk and cream has been growing and that they’d like to start selling in more markets. He’s also thinking about producing yogurt and ice cream.
The minimum investment is $1000 and the notes offer 5-7% interest.
In the future, there will be sommeliers for everything from toothpaste to flip-flops. Today’s example: water.
Take Mahalo Deep Sea Water, at £20 for 71cl, which comes from “a freshwater iceberg that melted thousands of years ago and, being of different temperature and salinity to the sea water around it, sank to become a lake at the bottom of the ocean floor. The water has been collected through a 3000ft pipeline off the shores of Hawaii.” According to the Daily Mail, Mahalo has a “very rounded quality on the palate” and it “would be good with shellfish.”
There’s even a book on this “up-and-coming trend”: Fine Waters: A Connoisseur’s Guide to the World’s Most Distinctive Bottled Waters.
Update: The Grand Hyatt Sao Paulo has a cheese sommelier, a specially water menu, and “an extensive soap menu”.
A pair of farmers are growing a huge garden on the top of a former bagel factory in the Greenpoint neighborhood of Brooklyn.
But for some New Yorkers, a vegetable-filled rooftop is far more conceivable and practical than moving to the country. Novak agrees. “When these farmers go in and lecture these inner city kids about dairy farming in upstate New York, it’s in one ear and out the other. But I can tell them, I have two farms in the city,” and they can take the subway and come help on the weekends.
Update: More on urban farming.
If you’re daunted by The French Laundry Cookbook and Under Pressure, Thomas Keller is coming out with a more accessible cookbook based on his casual Yountville restaurant: Ad Hoc at Home.
Keller showcases dishes that can be made every day (and not just for special occasions). Invaluable lessons, secrets, tips and tricks — as well as charming personal anecdotes — accompany recipes for such classics as the best fried chicken, beef Stroganoff, roasted spring leg of lamb, hamburger, the crispiest fried fish, chicken soup with dumplings, potato hash with bacon and melted onions, and superlative grilled cheese sandwiches, apple fritters, buttermilk biscuits, relishes and pickles, cherry pie — 200 recipes in all.
It’s due November 1. Ruhlman, did you have a hand in this one?
Update: Ruhlman says “yes”.
From Reddit, a question that yielded a number of thought provoking answers:
So many of our grandparents were racist, and some of our parents are homophobes. Which of our own closely held beliefs will our own children and grandchildren by appalled by?
Phil Dhingra collected some of his favorite answers.
That drugs were illegal
Eating meat
Monogamy (or anti-polygamy)
Imprisonment vs. rehabilitation
Attitudes about human treatment of animals is something that will likely change in my lifetime. At some point domestication and consumption will move from something that we do because our ancestors did to something that just doesn’t fit into modern society. In a cultural sense, humans don’t belong to the animal kingdom anymore; we’re not normal predators that need to kill animals to survive. Soon we’ll have the technology to grow enough meat in factories to satisfy even the most hardcore meat-eaters. Once this happens, it will be difficult to justify the continued imprisionment and slaughter of cows, pigs, chickens, and the like simply so that we can eat what we like rather than what we need to survive.
After five years, NY Times restaurant reviewer Frank Bruni is moving on to other assignments.
In his spare time, between aerobic eating and the requisite gym time to burn it all off, he has managed to produce a memoir of his lifelong, complicated relationship with food. Recognizing that the book is certain to seriously compromise his ability to be a spy in the land of food, Frank picked this as a natural time to move on. He will be turning in his restaurant-critic credentials when his memoir, “Born Round: the Secret History of a Full-Time Eater,” is published in late August.
Sad to see him go…I liked Bruni as a reviewer. But how long can the Times continue to expect their critics to remain anonymous? Savvy restaurateurs often knew when Bruni was in the house and it remains unclear whether a known reviewer is a biased reviewer.
There have been many funny product reviews posted at Amazon — perhaps the first was John E. Fracisco’s 2000 review of The Story About Ping — but these reviews of a gallon of whole milk are funn…no, wait, I laughed so hard at the reviews that milk came squirting out my nose. (How’s *that* for layered narrative! Bam!)
(thx, jeff)
Update: I totally forgot to mention that the reviews are only part of the magic going on with this milk. For starters, it’s only available through two Amazon resellers, both of which are charging $2500 for the gallon (hand delivered). And the “Customers Who Viewed This Item Also Viewed” listing includes a $220,000 diamond ring, a relaxation capsule ($40K), a book called BIRTH CONTROL IS SINFUL IN THE CHRISTIAN MARRIAGES and also ROBBING GOD OF PRIESTHOOD CHILDREN!! ($135), and uranium ore (only $30?). Many many more unusual Amazon products can be found under the Amazon Oddities tag. (thx, stuart)
In celebration of Star Trek opening today, Adam Kuban goes long on a piece about food in Star Trek movies and TV shows.
Science fiction often holds a mirror up to contemporary culture, critiquing its practices, politics, and mores. So, too, with Romulan ale. Because of the United Federation of Planets’ standoff with the Romulan Empire, the drink is illegal within the Federation — much like Cuban cigars are in the U.S. But like the captains of industry of today, captains of starships indulge in this vice.
Oddly, my only complaint is that (somehow) his piece isn’t long enough. Adam, you didn’t even get in to “Tea. Earl Grey. Hot.” (thx, alaina)
Get yer clickity fingers ready: you can pre-order the Momofuku cookbook on Amazon. Publication date is October 27, 2009. It is likely to include the several recipes that David Chang shared with Gourmet magazine in Oct 2007 like the brussels sprouts and the still-amazing pork buns. (via serious eats)
Update: NY Times food critic Frank Bruni also has a book coming out soon: Born Round (weird title).
The trailer for Julie and Julia is out, based on the blog and book of the same name.
I can’t figure out if Meryl Streep is almost nailing her Julia Child impression or completely blowing it. Also, Streep is ~5’7”….I don’t know what they’re doing in the movie to make her look so tall, but it doesn’t work.
Update: Michael Ruhlman has seen the movie and has positive things to say about it.
Food, Inc. opens on June 12; here’s the trailer.
Our nation’s food supply is now controlled by a handful of corporations that often put profit ahead of consumer health, the livelihood of the American farmer, the safety of workers and our own environment. Food, Inc. reveals surprising — and often shocking truths — about what we eat, how it’s produced, who we have become as a nation and where we are going from here.
The cow genome has been published and the results show changes due to millions of years of natural selection but also to the thousands of years of selective breeding by humans.
Both types of cattle show evidence of natural selection in genes that appear to be involved in making the animals — large, horned and potentially dangerous — docile. In some breeds, specific variants of behavior-related genes are “fixed,” or seen in essentially every animal. Curiously, some of those genes are in regions that in the human genome seem to be involved in autism, brain development and mental retardation.
So…by “docile”, you really mean “mentally retarded”. (via long now)
A year ago, I collected a bunch of links related to what makes NYC pizza taste like it does. New York’s fantastic tap water was a leading candidate. In a recent blind taste test of identical pies, a panel of judges — including some noted NYC pizza chefs — chose a pizza made with NYC municipal water over those made from LA and Chicago water.
Also, I just ran across this map showing NYC pizzerias which are outfitted with coal ovens. There are many more than I would have thought.
A Vermont IHOP is the only restaurant in the chain of ~1400 to serve real maple syrup with its pancakes.
You can’t open up a Vermont pancake shop without Vermont maple syrup.
This story offers up a microcosm of the contemporary American experience.
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