...and I had found a world completely new, when love walked in with you.
I can never taste coffee the same again after having La Prima's light and dark roasts at last week's fieldtrip to the Strip District roasting facilities. I can pinpoint the significant points in my life that have changed my consumption and perception of coffee. After deciding to not use sweeteners in my beverages about 5 years ago, I began to think more about the body and acidity of the coffee, quite simply I would ask myself, "is this coffee bitter- or can I taste different notes?"
Enrico's Tazzo D'oro in Highland Park was my first significant experience as my mom has taken my sisters and me there since it opened 11 years ago. The barrista's not only pull the best espresso shots I have ever experienced, but they are just as beautiful, with either an intricate leaf or floral image adorning the top of the epicurean embodiment. I don't mean to fetishize food so intensely; however, I have literally dreamed about having a Tazzo D'oro latte after going through a month's withdrawal.
Another significant experience with understanding coffee tones came about three years ago after having French press at the Bee Hive in South Side with my coffee-savvy friend Alex. While I have had Oolong tea and other coffee at home made by my dad with his Bodem press, this coffee I could drink black. And I want to drink it black- the cream and the sugar only conceal the various flavors available to my taste buds.
Finally, after experiencing La Prima's fruity, vibrant light roast and the nutty, woody dark roast, Chatham's Cafe Rachel and their Fair Trade coffee no longer cut it for me. While it has become a privilege and lifestyle for me to consider the various qualities of good coffee, I have also had the opportunity to learn about the politics of coffee. Dr. Julier invited two graduate students from her class at the University of Pittsburgh to present their ongoing research project with Building New Hope.
Building New Hope is a non-profit organization based dually in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and Granada, Nicaragua. Since 1992, BNH has supported and operated grassroots development projects in Central America. Their main goal is to "support and partnership to communities in development in Central America, particularly in El Salvador and Nicaragua" which includes a wide range of programming from an organic coffee import project, a veterinary clinic, alternative schools and literacy programs.
This various range of support is constructed through making the coffee trade more fair and friendly to farmers and suppliers:
"The organization has been paying above fair trade prices for the cooperative's coffee since 2002. The coffee is roasted in Southwestern Pennsylvania and sold by coffee shops, fundraising groups, and other vendors throughout the region and country. After paying the farmers, the profits from the coffee project, along with support from private donations, goes toward development projects in El Porvenir and other parts of Nicaragua. In El Porvenir (literally, "the future") BNH has provided funds for a partial-road, scholarships for post-secondary students and a supplemental teaching salary. Coffee revenue also funds approximately 50 percent of BNH's programming based in Granada, Nicaragua including the alternative schools and veterinary clinic" (from their Executive Summary)
My next goal in becoming more aware of the politics of coffee and fair trade includes finding out if my favorite coffee suppliers indeed do partake in the sale of BNH's coffee, yet another reason for loving that latte of mine.
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Smörgåsbord of Food and Fun!
While spending lots of time during Spring Break on campus, or venturing to the Elbow Room for a pineapple BBQ burger, Chatham hosted a really exciting foods event. Sponsored by the Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture, the first annual 2010 Local Food Showcase included a reciprocal turnout of growers and buyers.
Anderson Dining Hall became a showcase center filled with unfamiliar faces from Friendship Farms, Penn's Corner Farm Alliance, Turner Dairy Farms as well as familiar faces of Parkhurst Dining Services, Dr. Julier and Dr. Wardi. As we navigated through the interesting and delicious exhibits we had the opportunity to taste raw milk, hummus, dip mixes, jams, as well as scrumptious pastries from Enrico's biscotti company.
Friendship Farms was an interesting guest to consider in terms of a local producer and seller. They have a unique bakery and farm story located in the Laurel Highlands of Southwestern Pennsylvania. Their baked goods are focused on hearth baken breads, scones, muffins, granola, and other pastries made from unbleached flour and organic flours and grains. The store, and they brought these products to the showcase, includes homemade jam, sauces, salsas and canned products grown and processed at the farm.
They also sell "all-natural" angus beef produced from cattle born and raised on Friendship Farms. The cattle are specifically bred for quality traits and are carefully nurtured as they are rotated around the farm pastures to consume a combination of alfalfa, clover and orchard grass. They are never treated with hormones or gived articially derived feeds.
Finally, Friendship Farms has a native plant nursery that specializes in containerized trees, shrubs, grasses and wildflowers native to Wester Pennsylvania. This particular business venture is a positive model for local production and consumption, as Friendship Farms is fully aware what is in their products because they control the means of production. This showcase was yet another enlightening food experience that demonstrated the relative financial ease and lifestyle change of considering local.
Anderson Dining Hall became a showcase center filled with unfamiliar faces from Friendship Farms, Penn's Corner Farm Alliance, Turner Dairy Farms as well as familiar faces of Parkhurst Dining Services, Dr. Julier and Dr. Wardi. As we navigated through the interesting and delicious exhibits we had the opportunity to taste raw milk, hummus, dip mixes, jams, as well as scrumptious pastries from Enrico's biscotti company.
Friendship Farms was an interesting guest to consider in terms of a local producer and seller. They have a unique bakery and farm story located in the Laurel Highlands of Southwestern Pennsylvania. Their baked goods are focused on hearth baken breads, scones, muffins, granola, and other pastries made from unbleached flour and organic flours and grains. The store, and they brought these products to the showcase, includes homemade jam, sauces, salsas and canned products grown and processed at the farm.
They also sell "all-natural" angus beef produced from cattle born and raised on Friendship Farms. The cattle are specifically bred for quality traits and are carefully nurtured as they are rotated around the farm pastures to consume a combination of alfalfa, clover and orchard grass. They are never treated with hormones or gived articially derived feeds.
Finally, Friendship Farms has a native plant nursery that specializes in containerized trees, shrubs, grasses and wildflowers native to Wester Pennsylvania. This particular business venture is a positive model for local production and consumption, as Friendship Farms is fully aware what is in their products because they control the means of production. This showcase was yet another enlightening food experience that demonstrated the relative financial ease and lifestyle change of considering local.
I'll pass on the MSG.
This spring, I precociously began my spring break with an attempt to do laundry in my residence hall washing facilities. After a random major flooding of my first load, I was rescued by my mom as we went to the laundromat on Ellsworth. While waiting for my drenched accoutrements to rewash and dry we stopped at the Tokyo Japanese Grocery in the same center as the laundromat, with a Coldwell Banker office squeezed in between. There were certain products I was intrigued by, including bags filled with white powder labelled "Monosodium Glutamate." Infamously abbreviated by my mom since childhood, "MSG" is requested to not be in our food at any Japanese and Chinese restaurant we've frequented. While the use of MSG is frequently referred to as the "Chinese Food Syndrome" on various internet sources, its original use was indeed in Japan: "A Japanese company called Ajinomoto - only recently found guilty of price-fixing MSG on the world market, is today the prime maker of MSG. Japan is also where taurine and CoQ10 are now used to treat heart disease, and ginger and taurine-rich sushi are eaten alongside MSG sprinkled food. These foods have protective effects against an MSG reaction. However, even the Japanese have found recently that MSG fed to mice can lead to blindness." (http://www.msgtruth.org/whywe.htm) This use of preservatives is indeed frightening.
In a store that had so many single portioned items such as beautiful filets of salmon, meticulously bagged bok choy and perfectly shaped red bean pastries I was shocked to see bags of MSG. According to the Mayo Clinic's online information database:
Monosodium glutamate (MSG) is a flavor enhancer commonly added to Chinese food, canned vegetables, soups and processed meats. Although the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has classified MSG as a food ingredient that's "generally recognized as safe," the use of MSG remains controversial. For this reason, when MSG is added to food, the FDA requires that it be listed on the label. MSG has been used as a food additive for decades. Over the years, the FDA has received many anecdotal reports of adverse reactions to foods containing MSG. These reactions — known as MSG symptom complex — include headache, flushing, sweating, facial pressure or tightness, numbness, tingling or burning in face, neck and other areas, rapid, fluttering heartbeats (heart palpitations), chest pain, nausea and weakness. (http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/monosodium-glutamate/AN01251)
Another source reveals more dangerous consequential links between MSG and health:
A study by Johns Hopkins University suggests that monosodium glutamate can induce asthma in some individuals as well. Other studies show that MSG can cause damage to brain cells and the central nervous system. Some studies suggest it has direct correlations with Alzheimer's disease. (http://www.ehow.com/about_5432119_health-risks-monosodium-glutamate.html)
While there is no definitive evidence of a link between MSG and the previously listed symptoms, I have definitely experienced the wrath of this "flavor enhancing preservative." If I forget to ask for no MSG at Lulu's Noodles or Spice Island Tea House, after I'm finished my forehead gets tight and I get a full head pain that is excruciating. Clearly there must be some link. Furthermore when I do get food sans MSG, there is no obvious taste difference. So what's the point of including it? It is merely a preservative, and is not just included in Japanese and Chinese food. In fact, distinctly defined "American" food is just as much permeated with it from KFC to Burger King including ALL chicken, sausage, parmesan, ranch dressings, croutons, dipping sauces, gravy and soups in the fast food industry.
There is a difference between the way American and Chinese restaurants use MSG:
Chinese food, for the most part consists of fresh vegetables quickly cooked. MSG is added at the end as a condiment. It can be NOT added at the consumers request. Most Chinese restaurant owners also know what else on the menu contains natural MSG - soy sauce for instance is naturally loaded with free glutamate. Wait staff at a Chinese restaurant will often steer the MSG sensitive patron away from dishes containing soy sauce as well as MSG. At Asian restaurants, they know what is in the food because they put it there. Most American restaurants today purchase their foods from large US food companies that have what are called "Food Service" divisions. In American restaurants, most wait staff and often the cooks don't know what is in the food, because the soup base probably came from a can, those cute little jalapeno poppers came from a brightly colored bag in the freezer, and very little is actually "fresh". And, unfortunately, most American food scientists use the fact that soy sauce, and hydrolyzed vegetable protein naturally contains free glutamate to give their free glutamate containing products what is called "a clean label". So even cooks and wait staff don't even know what they are reading on the labels. The people who create the foods supplied to American restaurants have absolutely no compunction about hoping you don't know that MSG is in your food when you are consciously trying to avoid it. (http://www.msgtruth.org/whywe.htm).
Ang Lee's film Eat Drink Man Woman really made me reconsider the artisanal aspect of a culture's food. Chu, the professional chef and single father of the film, attempts to strictly adhere to a fresh, meticulous Chinese cuisine for his family. The ritual of Sunday family dinner reiterates the traditions of keeping family together as well as cuisine techique. This evolving culture and cuisine reflects Western intrusion through food, as the youngest daughter Jia-Ning works at a Wendy's fast food restaurant. The experience at the Japanese grocery, with lots of plastic miniature figurines of food and individually packaged and preservative filled products contrasts so greatly with the opening scene of the film where Chu is intimately connected with his craft, skinning the chicken, de-finning the fish, folding the dumplings. Inevitably, reflection of Japanese and Chinese food reiterates a postcolonial condition that Westernized ideals of commodification and preservative use has permeated both cultures food products. The "West" of Europe and America cannot be simply guilty of this, as the first MSG product was engineered in Japan. For now, for the sake of avoiding a headache, I'll stick to freshly prepared foods and skip out on the MSG.
In a store that had so many single portioned items such as beautiful filets of salmon, meticulously bagged bok choy and perfectly shaped red bean pastries I was shocked to see bags of MSG. According to the Mayo Clinic's online information database:
Monosodium glutamate (MSG) is a flavor enhancer commonly added to Chinese food, canned vegetables, soups and processed meats. Although the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has classified MSG as a food ingredient that's "generally recognized as safe," the use of MSG remains controversial. For this reason, when MSG is added to food, the FDA requires that it be listed on the label. MSG has been used as a food additive for decades. Over the years, the FDA has received many anecdotal reports of adverse reactions to foods containing MSG. These reactions — known as MSG symptom complex — include headache, flushing, sweating, facial pressure or tightness, numbness, tingling or burning in face, neck and other areas, rapid, fluttering heartbeats (heart palpitations), chest pain, nausea and weakness. (http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/monosodium-glutamate/AN01251)
Another source reveals more dangerous consequential links between MSG and health:
A study by Johns Hopkins University suggests that monosodium glutamate can induce asthma in some individuals as well. Other studies show that MSG can cause damage to brain cells and the central nervous system. Some studies suggest it has direct correlations with Alzheimer's disease. (http://www.ehow.com/about_5432119_health-risks-monosodium-glutamate.html)
While there is no definitive evidence of a link between MSG and the previously listed symptoms, I have definitely experienced the wrath of this "flavor enhancing preservative." If I forget to ask for no MSG at Lulu's Noodles or Spice Island Tea House, after I'm finished my forehead gets tight and I get a full head pain that is excruciating. Clearly there must be some link. Furthermore when I do get food sans MSG, there is no obvious taste difference. So what's the point of including it? It is merely a preservative, and is not just included in Japanese and Chinese food. In fact, distinctly defined "American" food is just as much permeated with it from KFC to Burger King including ALL chicken, sausage, parmesan, ranch dressings, croutons, dipping sauces, gravy and soups in the fast food industry.
There is a difference between the way American and Chinese restaurants use MSG:
Chinese food, for the most part consists of fresh vegetables quickly cooked. MSG is added at the end as a condiment. It can be NOT added at the consumers request. Most Chinese restaurant owners also know what else on the menu contains natural MSG - soy sauce for instance is naturally loaded with free glutamate. Wait staff at a Chinese restaurant will often steer the MSG sensitive patron away from dishes containing soy sauce as well as MSG. At Asian restaurants, they know what is in the food because they put it there. Most American restaurants today purchase their foods from large US food companies that have what are called "Food Service" divisions. In American restaurants, most wait staff and often the cooks don't know what is in the food, because the soup base probably came from a can, those cute little jalapeno poppers came from a brightly colored bag in the freezer, and very little is actually "fresh". And, unfortunately, most American food scientists use the fact that soy sauce, and hydrolyzed vegetable protein naturally contains free glutamate to give their free glutamate containing products what is called "a clean label". So even cooks and wait staff don't even know what they are reading on the labels. The people who create the foods supplied to American restaurants have absolutely no compunction about hoping you don't know that MSG is in your food when you are consciously trying to avoid it. (http://www.msgtruth.org/whywe.htm).
Ang Lee's film Eat Drink Man Woman really made me reconsider the artisanal aspect of a culture's food. Chu, the professional chef and single father of the film, attempts to strictly adhere to a fresh, meticulous Chinese cuisine for his family. The ritual of Sunday family dinner reiterates the traditions of keeping family together as well as cuisine techique. This evolving culture and cuisine reflects Western intrusion through food, as the youngest daughter Jia-Ning works at a Wendy's fast food restaurant. The experience at the Japanese grocery, with lots of plastic miniature figurines of food and individually packaged and preservative filled products contrasts so greatly with the opening scene of the film where Chu is intimately connected with his craft, skinning the chicken, de-finning the fish, folding the dumplings. Inevitably, reflection of Japanese and Chinese food reiterates a postcolonial condition that Westernized ideals of commodification and preservative use has permeated both cultures food products. The "West" of Europe and America cannot be simply guilty of this, as the first MSG product was engineered in Japan. For now, for the sake of avoiding a headache, I'll stick to freshly prepared foods and skip out on the MSG.
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Strip trip!
When my Gram was a young girl in Pittsburgh, she spent alot of time around the produce yards of the Strip District. The Merlina family, consisting of seven brothers, my Gram and her sister Marie and their parents, worked and owned alot of the distribution areas, providing restaurants and homes around the city with a vast array of vegetables and fruits. The strips of distribution buildings haven't changed much since then, but what I have known them as since childhood includes merely new distribution companies.
La Prima Coffee Roasters takes up a space on the strip on Smallman street. As a fieldtrip for the class Producing Food, Producing Difference, I had the opportunity to learn more about the production of coffee. The morning began with a coffee tasting- including one lighter, fruitier, more vibrant roast and a much darker, woodier, nuttier roast. Sam, an associate of La Prima who closely works with the engineering of flavors and marketing, explained that coffee is the second most traded commodity in the world next to oil. While Starbucks, Caribou, Seattle's Best and local coffee houses such as Tazza D'oro, Kiva Han and Jitters dominate the university landscape of Pittsburgh, I never imagined it would be the number two international commodity.
Sam also discussed the flavor and body of coffee in terms of wine. While wine is prominently produced and consumed in first world countries (Champagne from France, Chardonnay from California, Reisling from Germany) coffee is produced between the tropics of cancer and capricorn, primarily where alot of the third world countries are located. This is one significant difference because the politics of coffee span from fair trade practices for farmers and laborers whose product eventually makes it to first world countries. Furthermore, the body of the coffee is described in terms of acidity. This is determined by how long the coffee is roasted for. Light roast coffees have more acidity and a brighter flavor because the oils are still in the bean. Dark roast coffees are literally more roasted/burnt beans that can have a charred or woody flavor. La Prima prefers lighter roasts, as Sam claims the dark roast beans have everything roasted out of them, including flavor.
We had the opportunity to watch the beans being roasted in the two "San Franciscan" machines, which turns out to be a rather mesmerizing process. Particularly the beans are poured into the roaster and spin for approximately 13 minutes. Once then are ready, they trickle out into a tray in the front of the machine, constantly spinning in a circle to cool until they are placed in buckets for distribution.
While the La Prima aspect of our Strip trip was really educational and amazingly scented with the roasting coffee beans, we also visited Enrico's biscotti shop. This is yet another one of my favorite places to buy lisanti (soft cherry walnut biscotti) and shell pastries filled with ricotta cheese and orange zest. The next stop included Reyna foods which sells delicious chicken burritos and non-alcoholic sangria. After stopping at Lotus foods to partake in the nostalgia of sharing leechie fruits with my dad and sisters as well as Pocky and Botan rice candy, we lunched at Chicken Latino, a fairly new Peruvian restaurant. The chicken burrito was served with an amazing cilantro sauce, as well as fried plaintains- the perfect sweet salty end to another Strip trip!
La Prima Coffee Roasters takes up a space on the strip on Smallman street. As a fieldtrip for the class Producing Food, Producing Difference, I had the opportunity to learn more about the production of coffee. The morning began with a coffee tasting- including one lighter, fruitier, more vibrant roast and a much darker, woodier, nuttier roast. Sam, an associate of La Prima who closely works with the engineering of flavors and marketing, explained that coffee is the second most traded commodity in the world next to oil. While Starbucks, Caribou, Seattle's Best and local coffee houses such as Tazza D'oro, Kiva Han and Jitters dominate the university landscape of Pittsburgh, I never imagined it would be the number two international commodity.
Sam also discussed the flavor and body of coffee in terms of wine. While wine is prominently produced and consumed in first world countries (Champagne from France, Chardonnay from California, Reisling from Germany) coffee is produced between the tropics of cancer and capricorn, primarily where alot of the third world countries are located. This is one significant difference because the politics of coffee span from fair trade practices for farmers and laborers whose product eventually makes it to first world countries. Furthermore, the body of the coffee is described in terms of acidity. This is determined by how long the coffee is roasted for. Light roast coffees have more acidity and a brighter flavor because the oils are still in the bean. Dark roast coffees are literally more roasted/burnt beans that can have a charred or woody flavor. La Prima prefers lighter roasts, as Sam claims the dark roast beans have everything roasted out of them, including flavor.
We had the opportunity to watch the beans being roasted in the two "San Franciscan" machines, which turns out to be a rather mesmerizing process. Particularly the beans are poured into the roaster and spin for approximately 13 minutes. Once then are ready, they trickle out into a tray in the front of the machine, constantly spinning in a circle to cool until they are placed in buckets for distribution.
While the La Prima aspect of our Strip trip was really educational and amazingly scented with the roasting coffee beans, we also visited Enrico's biscotti shop. This is yet another one of my favorite places to buy lisanti (soft cherry walnut biscotti) and shell pastries filled with ricotta cheese and orange zest. The next stop included Reyna foods which sells delicious chicken burritos and non-alcoholic sangria. After stopping at Lotus foods to partake in the nostalgia of sharing leechie fruits with my dad and sisters as well as Pocky and Botan rice candy, we lunched at Chicken Latino, a fairly new Peruvian restaurant. The chicken burrito was served with an amazing cilantro sauce, as well as fried plaintains- the perfect sweet salty end to another Strip trip!
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
Crap, Corn?
Last evening I trekked out to Eden Hall Farm with Jenn, Amber and Quayla for a film screening of King Corn with the director Aaron Woolf. Before the film we chowed down on salad with lettuce and radishes harvested seconds before eating, along with some delicious local cheese.
The only beverage choice available was Coca Cola. After learning about food systems for the past year, drinking soda, even sparingly, sends me on a guilt trip. I have already given up soda and sweeteners for drinks. This article was single-handedly responsible for causing me to think about the dangers of sweeteners: http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2006/05/22/060522fa_fact_bilger. Later on this year in Dr. Wardi's World Literature class, the politics of drinking Coca Cola were amplified. In the film "A World Without Water" http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3930199780455728313# I learned that Coca Cola has literally bought the water supplies beneath Rajasthan, India, massively affecting water table levels and putting farmers in peril. Drastic amounts of water have been taken to produce Coca Cola for consumers around the world, so this water is permanently torn from the biosystem and is never replenished. This has been just one journey of knowledge to learn about my own consumption.
Aaron Woolf's film "King Corn" took me on yet another journey of consumer enlightenment. The film is structured in a similar manner to Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma, documenting the journey of an acre of corn that best friends Ian Cheney and Curt Ellis plant and harvest. While this film shocked me on many levels, the most depressing aspect included the instance when Ian and Curt sit in the field, tasting a raw corn cob that "tastes like crap." Essentially, this corn, as a majority of the corn in Iowa, is inedible until it is processed. Contrary to popular perception, American corn is not for consuming whole, but as high fructose corn syrup. It is impossible to escape this entity as it is responsible for satiating our sweet tooth, even if we're unaware. A trip to a supermarket revealed that high fructose corn syrup was in practically everything.
Ian and Curt attempt to make high fructose corn syrup. After cooking their corn kernels for around 18 hours, they proceed to add ingredients including obscure chemicals that have images of a skull and crossbones along with a hand dipped into the liquid that reveals a skeletal hand. Yum! While there are so many other points this movie makes such as the decreased nutritional value of products and the inevitable epidemic of diabetes in America, I really appreciated the film as yet another journey to considering where and how our food comes to the table.
While this film includes political awareness that can instigate action, Aaron does not have a definitive answer of how to cause change. Part of his solution is his Urban Rustic grocery store in Brooklyn. This interesting business venture includes working with local farms to sell produce in season. While many vegetables are frozen to satiate a palate craving a tomato in December, Woolf emphasizes the importance of shifting taste to what makes sense locally (such as winter crops root vegetables celeriac or black radishes). This film on a microcosm affected how Jenn, Quayla, Amber and myself think about consumption. Even if we opt for water over soda, or a salad over McDonald's, effect on the local level matters.
The only beverage choice available was Coca Cola. After learning about food systems for the past year, drinking soda, even sparingly, sends me on a guilt trip. I have already given up soda and sweeteners for drinks. This article was single-handedly responsible for causing me to think about the dangers of sweeteners: http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2006/05/22/060522fa_fact_bilger. Later on this year in Dr. Wardi's World Literature class, the politics of drinking Coca Cola were amplified. In the film "A World Without Water" http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3930199780455728313# I learned that Coca Cola has literally bought the water supplies beneath Rajasthan, India, massively affecting water table levels and putting farmers in peril. Drastic amounts of water have been taken to produce Coca Cola for consumers around the world, so this water is permanently torn from the biosystem and is never replenished. This has been just one journey of knowledge to learn about my own consumption.
Aaron Woolf's film "King Corn" took me on yet another journey of consumer enlightenment. The film is structured in a similar manner to Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma, documenting the journey of an acre of corn that best friends Ian Cheney and Curt Ellis plant and harvest. While this film shocked me on many levels, the most depressing aspect included the instance when Ian and Curt sit in the field, tasting a raw corn cob that "tastes like crap." Essentially, this corn, as a majority of the corn in Iowa, is inedible until it is processed. Contrary to popular perception, American corn is not for consuming whole, but as high fructose corn syrup. It is impossible to escape this entity as it is responsible for satiating our sweet tooth, even if we're unaware. A trip to a supermarket revealed that high fructose corn syrup was in practically everything.
Ian and Curt attempt to make high fructose corn syrup. After cooking their corn kernels for around 18 hours, they proceed to add ingredients including obscure chemicals that have images of a skull and crossbones along with a hand dipped into the liquid that reveals a skeletal hand. Yum! While there are so many other points this movie makes such as the decreased nutritional value of products and the inevitable epidemic of diabetes in America, I really appreciated the film as yet another journey to considering where and how our food comes to the table.
While this film includes political awareness that can instigate action, Aaron does not have a definitive answer of how to cause change. Part of his solution is his Urban Rustic grocery store in Brooklyn. This interesting business venture includes working with local farms to sell produce in season. While many vegetables are frozen to satiate a palate craving a tomato in December, Woolf emphasizes the importance of shifting taste to what makes sense locally (such as winter crops root vegetables celeriac or black radishes). This film on a microcosm affected how Jenn, Quayla, Amber and myself think about consumption. Even if we opt for water over soda, or a salad over McDonald's, effect on the local level matters.
Saturday, March 27, 2010
Food Hangover
Last night, Dozen Bake Shop in Lawrenceville hosted a summer cupcake party to release their new flavors. I had the opportunity to taste a lemon basil cupcake that brilliantly fuses together savory saltiness with sweet. Li
ke the current flavor, salted caramel, I am glad to see the salted flavors are continuing with a margarita, salt lined cupcake. I was also excited to see lavendar being used for the passion fruit lavendar cupcake, a refreshing change for the summer. As I navigated through the cupcake towers, filled with a whopping 2000 cupcakes, flavors such as Apple Pie à la mode, Chocolate Chai, Lemon Merengue and Key Lime Pie were tempting. The most intriguing flavor was Twinkilicious, a white cake batter with topping identical to that of the consistency of actual Twinkees (mouth-coating, bland yet subtly sweet). After doing research on Twinkee culture, I'm interested to discover more about this particular flavor and the inspiration behind replication of this petroleum derived product.
I am really intrigued by Dozen not just for their delicious products such as pot pie infused with rosemary, empanadas, cinnamon buns with inch-thick cream cheese icing and the life-altering lavendar waffles with lemon curd. This notion of blurring the lines between savory and sweet complicates my notion of what makes a meal. For me, a meal includes the equation of one savory plus one sweet- for instance, breakfast equals a cinnamon bun (sweet) and a latte (savory). If I apply this reasoning of consumption to Dozen's cupcakes- one lemon basil (savo
ry) and one banana butterscotch cupcake (sweet) makes a meal. Of course this is not a healthy nor sustainable way to eat, but I really appreciate the fact that Dozen challenges and expands my taste buds with such tongue twisters.
Dozen also strives toward the local. The shop's website (http://www.dozenbakeshop.com/html/about.html) includes a list of local suppliers including Penn's Corner Farm Alliance, Grow Pittsburgh, and Turner Dairy Farms, Inc. The shop was listed in Pittsburgh Magazine last year for their noble sustainability efforts.
The night did not end after the cupcake party, as my fellow foodie friend Jenn and I went to the "Waffle Shop, A Reality Show" in East Liberty, located between Ava and Shadow Lounge. The view from the outside is initially peculiar. Looking in through the open view windows surrounding the shop, there is a bar and tables with a talk show stage set up towards the back. On the prominent blue wall in lighting that reminds me of a circus ride, hails customers and potential talk show guests: WAFFLES. After walking in we were cordially greeted by multiple waiters, as well as the shop's manager, Dawn. The shop's website (Waffleshop.org) offers the most succinct explanation of this unique space:
...a neighborhood restaurant that produces and broadcasts a live-streaming talk show with its customers, operates a changable storytelling billboard on its roof, and runs a take out window that sells food from countries engaged in conflict with the U.S. The shop is a public experiment that brings together people from all walks of life to engage in dialogue and the co-production of culture.
Ultimately, the waffles are bait to get people in to talk. The take out window, Conflict Kitchen, is a connected project, as next door they will be selling kafta (lean beef heavily spiced with basil and other ingredients- try it at Aladdin's, too) wrapped in homemade bread wrapped in information about Iran. The layers in which this project operates is so interesting, combining local initiatives and dialogue with international awareness.
The waffles in themselves are completely tempting, as we had the options to choose between the traditional buttermilk, mint blueberry and coconut chicken curry waffles. The food aspect of the shop indeed operates in a (relatively) local-focused paradigm, as they are in partnership with Whole Foods Market. Jenn and I opted to share a mint blueberry waffle, as we were operating on cupcake overload. The tasty concoction had fresh blueberries in the batter, with vanilla bean ice cream on top, and a sprig of fresh mint. Pairing this along with great conversation and talk show entertainment, I will definitely be returning after having something savory to counteract this sugar shock.
ke the current flavor, salted caramel, I am glad to see the salted flavors are continuing with a margarita, salt lined cupcake. I was also excited to see lavendar being used for the passion fruit lavendar cupcake, a refreshing change for the summer. As I navigated through the cupcake towers, filled with a whopping 2000 cupcakes, flavors such as Apple Pie à la mode, Chocolate Chai, Lemon Merengue and Key Lime Pie were tempting. The most intriguing flavor was Twinkilicious, a white cake batter with topping identical to that of the consistency of actual Twinkees (mouth-coating, bland yet subtly sweet). After doing research on Twinkee culture, I'm interested to discover more about this particular flavor and the inspiration behind replication of this petroleum derived product.
I am really intrigued by Dozen not just for their delicious products such as pot pie infused with rosemary, empanadas, cinnamon buns with inch-thick cream cheese icing and the life-altering lavendar waffles with lemon curd. This notion of blurring the lines between savory and sweet complicates my notion of what makes a meal. For me, a meal includes the equation of one savory plus one sweet- for instance, breakfast equals a cinnamon bun (sweet) and a latte (savory). If I apply this reasoning of consumption to Dozen's cupcakes- one lemon basil (savo
ry) and one banana butterscotch cupcake (sweet) makes a meal. Of course this is not a healthy nor sustainable way to eat, but I really appreciate the fact that Dozen challenges and expands my taste buds with such tongue twisters.Dozen also strives toward the local. The shop's website (http://www.dozenbakeshop.com/html/about.html) includes a list of local suppliers including Penn's Corner Farm Alliance, Grow Pittsburgh, and Turner Dairy Farms, Inc. The shop was listed in Pittsburgh Magazine last year for their noble sustainability efforts.
The night did not end after the cupcake party, as my fellow foodie friend Jenn and I went to the "Waffle Shop, A Reality Show" in East Liberty, located between Ava and Shadow Lounge. The view from the outside is initially peculiar. Looking in through the open view windows surrounding the shop, there is a bar and tables with a talk show stage set up towards the back. On the prominent blue wall in lighting that reminds me of a circus ride, hails customers and potential talk show guests: WAFFLES. After walking in we were cordially greeted by multiple waiters, as well as the shop's manager, Dawn. The shop's website (Waffleshop.org) offers the most succinct explanation of this unique space:
...a neighborhood restaurant that produces and broadcasts a live-streaming talk show with its customers, operates a changable storytelling billboard on its roof, and runs a take out window that sells food from countries engaged in conflict with the U.S. The shop is a public experiment that brings together people from all walks of life to engage in dialogue and the co-production of culture.
Ultimately, the waffles are bait to get people in to talk. The take out window, Conflict Kitchen, is a connected project, as next door they will be selling kafta (lean beef heavily spiced with basil and other ingredients- try it at Aladdin's, too) wrapped in homemade bread wrapped in information about Iran. The layers in which this project operates is so interesting, combining local initiatives and dialogue with international awareness.
The waffles in themselves are completely tempting, as we had the options to choose between the traditional buttermilk, mint blueberry and coconut chicken curry waffles. The food aspect of the shop indeed operates in a (relatively) local-focused paradigm, as they are in partnership with Whole Foods Market. Jenn and I opted to share a mint blueberry waffle, as we were operating on cupcake overload. The tasty concoction had fresh blueberries in the batter, with vanilla bean ice cream on top, and a sprig of fresh mint. Pairing this along with great conversation and talk show entertainment, I will definitely be returning after having something savory to counteract this sugar shock.
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Gooey. Butter. Cake...
...are three of the best words a Paula Deen admirer could want to hear. While travelling to St. Louis this past week to present in the Sigma Tau Delta, International English Honor Society conference, I had the opportunity to peruse the food scene around the Arch. After visiting the Culinaria Schnuck's market I learned that Gooey Butter Cake is the favored dessert of the region. The delightful treat is the consistency of a lemon or lime bar- substitute the lemon or lime flavor with butter. Underneath lies a thick graham crackery crust, making for a heavy combination. A small slice goes a long way.
I was also surprised to learn that St. Louis is renowned for the quality of Italian food (which will be an interesting comparison to the food I will be experiencing in Rome this May!). The Hill is characterized as a mostly Italian-American population in St. Louis, reflecting that of the Bloomfield "Little Italy" of Pittsburgh. Italians, prominently immigrated and settled in the area during the late 19th century, drawn to jobs in nearby plants developed to mine deposits of clay discovered in the 1830s. My regular spot in St. Louis was an Italian restaurant, Calico's, where I enjoyed delicious catfish, as well as toasted ravioli which was deep fried and served with marinara sauce. While at the Arch, there was a general store that sold delectable praline cremes, peanut brittle, and of course, in the mecca of Mark Twain enthusiasts, Huckleberry lozenges. I offered the Huckleberry lozenges as part of a presentation for my American Exploration class in which I explored the use of food as a signifier for regional identity in Mary Austin's "Stories from the Country of Lost Borders."
Regionality is such an interesting component of food studies that I am drawn to repeatedly. The vigor with which Austin considers both the Shoshone use of landscape and the society of the California's "Little Town of the Grapevines" emphasizes American identity as multi-faceted and confused. Austin takes on this characterization not with anxiety, but with a profound sense of wonder, experiencing within the natural and socially constructed landscapes Emerson’s “transcendental eyeball” moment repeatedly. She writes of her new found landscape, the California desert. For as regionally-focused as Austin is, the food reiterates a diverse American identity. In turn, food functions as a conduit of memory and history for American explorers to the west as well as the means for survival on the cultivated frontier. Reading this text during my own travels to "The Gateway of the West" resonated with my understanding of a new place in terms of food.
Throughout "Stories from the Country of Lost Borders," Austin pieces together sensory experience in meticulous ethnographic style. In terms of the Shoshone tribe, analysis of food reveals a reciprocal balance between men and women, as Winnenap, the medicine-man first teaches her of the many available nourishments of the landscape. The first focus on food for survival is explored in terms of the Shoshone Land as:
Desert Indians all eat chuck-wallas, big black and white lizards that have delicate white flesh savored like chicken. Both the Shoshones and the coyotes are fond of the flesh of Gopherus agassizii, the turtle that by feeding on buds, going without drink, and burrowing in the sand through the winter, contrives to live a known period of twenty-five years (Austin 59).
Here, Austin explores the landscape in terms of the food it provides. She does not express any disgust with eating either the chuck-walla or turtle, and offers pertinent information on the lives of the animals themselves, reiterating her profound reverence of the natural landscape and its inhabitants. Furthermore, she considers the flora of the landscape in terms of consumption: “It seems that most seeds are foodful in the arid regions, most berries edible, and many shrubs good for firewood with the sap in them” (Austin 59). Once again we are exposed to the specificities of the region in terms of her scavenging experience. Austin offers a how-to guide of living within the rugged landscape while maintaining a poetic, Transcendental tone. Most notably Austin finds her stride in explaining the many uses of the mesquite bean:
…whether the screw or straight pod, pounded to a meal, boiled to a kind of mush, and dried in cakes, sulphur-colored and needing an axe to cut it, is an excellent food for long journeys. Fermented in water with wild honey and the honeycomb, it makes a pleasant, mildly intoxicating drink (Austin 59).
While Austin does not offer an explanation on the specifics of cooking chuck-walla or turtle, here there are multiple possibilities for using the regionally grown mesquite beans. Interestingly, this one product can be used to make many products for survival, from solid meals to sustaining liquor. She learns many of these food preparations from the Shoshone Indians, yet there are other aspects of her experience that relate to food. Women become the primary focus of food preparation during her time with the Shoshones. During the day, Austin notices “These are working hours, and all across the mesa one sees the women whisking seeds of chia into their spoon-shaped baskets, these emptied again into the huge conical carriers, supported on the shoulders by a leather band about the forehead” (Austin 88-89). In contrast to the previous information given by Winnenap, the women here work with the raw materials to create edibles for the tribe.
Austin spends Fourth of July in El Pueblo de Las Uvas, known as “The Little Town of the Grape Vines.” In contrast to the Shoshone use of the land, here Austin finds agricultural constructs that contribute to the community’s consumption. The domesticated means of producing food are quite different compared to the Shoshone’s. Consider her description of food ritual:
Every house in the town of the vines has its garden plot, corn and brown beans and a row of peppers reddening in the sun; and in damp borders of the irrigating ditches clumps of yerba santa, horehound, catnip, and spikenard, wholesome herbs and curative, but if no peppers then nothing at all. You will have for a holiday dinner, in Las Uvas, soup with meat balls and childe in it, chicken with chile, rice with childe, fried beans with more childe, enchilada, which is corn cake with a sauce of chile and tomatoes, onion, grated cheese, and olives and for a relish chile tepines passed about in a dish, all of which is comfortable and corrective to the stomach. You will have wine which every man makes for himself, of good body and inimitable bouquet, and sweets that are not nearly so nice as they look (Austin 145).
Once again, Austin reveals an overwhelming sensory experience in terms of the consumption of grown products. There is a catalogue list of supplies here, reflecting the cataloguing Thoreau partakes in for preparations to Walden pond. The chiles overwhelm this section, being included in every dish and reflecting the regional taste. Furthermore, food focalizes community tradition, as holiday dinners include specific dishes and drinks depending on what successfully grows. While seemingly a minor point, these meals are noted as being “passed about in a dish” which reflects the settled nature of the landscape. This is an established community that has effectively domesticated surroundings to its anthropocentric use. Just as Austin explains her liking for the Shoshone recipes, she also finds that these dishes are “comfortable and corrective to the stomach” that reflects her own comfort in the region.
Food focalizes on ritual, as Austin notes in “The Little Town of Grape Vines.” She identifies and clings to familiarity in this sense, while also meticulously noting the regional specificity. A meal becomes a signifier of time:
There are two occasions when you may count on that kind of a meal; always on the Sixteenth of September, and on the two- yearly visits of Father Shannon. It is absurd, of course, that El Pueblo de Las Uvas should have an Irish priest, but Black Rock, Minto, Jimville, and all that country round do not find it so (Austin 145).
Here, occasions give rise to food, in terms of the same times of year. Interestingly, the inclusion of Father Shannon reiterates the diversity of people exploring the western frontier. Austin notes that he is indeed Irish, yet another transplant on the landscape just like her. This transplantation is not viewed as strange or absurd because so many of the settlers experienced the same uprooted experience. Tasting rejuvenating fresh-picked grapes and chili peppers were comparatively remedial for Austin as the gooey butter cake was for me.
I was also surprised to learn that St. Louis is renowned for the quality of Italian food (which will be an interesting comparison to the food I will be experiencing in Rome this May!). The Hill is characterized as a mostly Italian-American population in St. Louis, reflecting that of the Bloomfield "Little Italy" of Pittsburgh. Italians, prominently immigrated and settled in the area during the late 19th century, drawn to jobs in nearby plants developed to mine deposits of clay discovered in the 1830s. My regular spot in St. Louis was an Italian restaurant, Calico's, where I enjoyed delicious catfish, as well as toasted ravioli which was deep fried and served with marinara sauce. While at the Arch, there was a general store that sold delectable praline cremes, peanut brittle, and of course, in the mecca of Mark Twain enthusiasts, Huckleberry lozenges. I offered the Huckleberry lozenges as part of a presentation for my American Exploration class in which I explored the use of food as a signifier for regional identity in Mary Austin's "Stories from the Country of Lost Borders."
Regionality is such an interesting component of food studies that I am drawn to repeatedly. The vigor with which Austin considers both the Shoshone use of landscape and the society of the California's "Little Town of the Grapevines" emphasizes American identity as multi-faceted and confused. Austin takes on this characterization not with anxiety, but with a profound sense of wonder, experiencing within the natural and socially constructed landscapes Emerson’s “transcendental eyeball” moment repeatedly. She writes of her new found landscape, the California desert. For as regionally-focused as Austin is, the food reiterates a diverse American identity. In turn, food functions as a conduit of memory and history for American explorers to the west as well as the means for survival on the cultivated frontier. Reading this text during my own travels to "The Gateway of the West" resonated with my understanding of a new place in terms of food.
Throughout "Stories from the Country of Lost Borders," Austin pieces together sensory experience in meticulous ethnographic style. In terms of the Shoshone tribe, analysis of food reveals a reciprocal balance between men and women, as Winnenap, the medicine-man first teaches her of the many available nourishments of the landscape. The first focus on food for survival is explored in terms of the Shoshone Land as:
Desert Indians all eat chuck-wallas, big black and white lizards that have delicate white flesh savored like chicken. Both the Shoshones and the coyotes are fond of the flesh of Gopherus agassizii, the turtle that by feeding on buds, going without drink, and burrowing in the sand through the winter, contrives to live a known period of twenty-five years (Austin 59).
Here, Austin explores the landscape in terms of the food it provides. She does not express any disgust with eating either the chuck-walla or turtle, and offers pertinent information on the lives of the animals themselves, reiterating her profound reverence of the natural landscape and its inhabitants. Furthermore, she considers the flora of the landscape in terms of consumption: “It seems that most seeds are foodful in the arid regions, most berries edible, and many shrubs good for firewood with the sap in them” (Austin 59). Once again we are exposed to the specificities of the region in terms of her scavenging experience. Austin offers a how-to guide of living within the rugged landscape while maintaining a poetic, Transcendental tone. Most notably Austin finds her stride in explaining the many uses of the mesquite bean:
…whether the screw or straight pod, pounded to a meal, boiled to a kind of mush, and dried in cakes, sulphur-colored and needing an axe to cut it, is an excellent food for long journeys. Fermented in water with wild honey and the honeycomb, it makes a pleasant, mildly intoxicating drink (Austin 59).
While Austin does not offer an explanation on the specifics of cooking chuck-walla or turtle, here there are multiple possibilities for using the regionally grown mesquite beans. Interestingly, this one product can be used to make many products for survival, from solid meals to sustaining liquor. She learns many of these food preparations from the Shoshone Indians, yet there are other aspects of her experience that relate to food. Women become the primary focus of food preparation during her time with the Shoshones. During the day, Austin notices “These are working hours, and all across the mesa one sees the women whisking seeds of chia into their spoon-shaped baskets, these emptied again into the huge conical carriers, supported on the shoulders by a leather band about the forehead” (Austin 88-89). In contrast to the previous information given by Winnenap, the women here work with the raw materials to create edibles for the tribe.
Austin spends Fourth of July in El Pueblo de Las Uvas, known as “The Little Town of the Grape Vines.” In contrast to the Shoshone use of the land, here Austin finds agricultural constructs that contribute to the community’s consumption. The domesticated means of producing food are quite different compared to the Shoshone’s. Consider her description of food ritual:
Every house in the town of the vines has its garden plot, corn and brown beans and a row of peppers reddening in the sun; and in damp borders of the irrigating ditches clumps of yerba santa, horehound, catnip, and spikenard, wholesome herbs and curative, but if no peppers then nothing at all. You will have for a holiday dinner, in Las Uvas, soup with meat balls and childe in it, chicken with chile, rice with childe, fried beans with more childe, enchilada, which is corn cake with a sauce of chile and tomatoes, onion, grated cheese, and olives and for a relish chile tepines passed about in a dish, all of which is comfortable and corrective to the stomach. You will have wine which every man makes for himself, of good body and inimitable bouquet, and sweets that are not nearly so nice as they look (Austin 145).
Once again, Austin reveals an overwhelming sensory experience in terms of the consumption of grown products. There is a catalogue list of supplies here, reflecting the cataloguing Thoreau partakes in for preparations to Walden pond. The chiles overwhelm this section, being included in every dish and reflecting the regional taste. Furthermore, food focalizes community tradition, as holiday dinners include specific dishes and drinks depending on what successfully grows. While seemingly a minor point, these meals are noted as being “passed about in a dish” which reflects the settled nature of the landscape. This is an established community that has effectively domesticated surroundings to its anthropocentric use. Just as Austin explains her liking for the Shoshone recipes, she also finds that these dishes are “comfortable and corrective to the stomach” that reflects her own comfort in the region.
Food focalizes on ritual, as Austin notes in “The Little Town of Grape Vines.” She identifies and clings to familiarity in this sense, while also meticulously noting the regional specificity. A meal becomes a signifier of time:
There are two occasions when you may count on that kind of a meal; always on the Sixteenth of September, and on the two- yearly visits of Father Shannon. It is absurd, of course, that El Pueblo de Las Uvas should have an Irish priest, but Black Rock, Minto, Jimville, and all that country round do not find it so (Austin 145).
Here, occasions give rise to food, in terms of the same times of year. Interestingly, the inclusion of Father Shannon reiterates the diversity of people exploring the western frontier. Austin notes that he is indeed Irish, yet another transplant on the landscape just like her. This transplantation is not viewed as strange or absurd because so many of the settlers experienced the same uprooted experience. Tasting rejuvenating fresh-picked grapes and chili peppers were comparatively remedial for Austin as the gooey butter cake was for me.
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