Flavors 518

Today at lunch time I was lucky enough to see a talk given by Kathleen Merrigan entitled "Growing Communities through Local Foods" sponsored by the Williams College Center for Environmental Studies . Deputy secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the author of the Organic Foods Production Act of 1990, Merrigan is widely regarded as the moving force behind the development of federal organic standards. She is an outspoken advocate of moving federal farm policies toward conservation and sustainable land use. After receiving a Fulbright fellowship to study pesticide use in Poland, Merrigan joined the staff of the U.S. Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee in 1987. She then earned her Ph.D. at MIT, where she also worked as a senior analyst for the Henry A. Wallace Institute for Alternative Agriculture. From there she was appointed to the National Organics Standards Board. In 1999, Bill Clinton appointed Merrigan to head the USDA’s Marketing S...

I was told John Roberts would force me to do this: Fortunately, broccoli stir-frys are terrific.   Adam Gopnik has more tips to deal with our scary new constitutional era.

We always look forward to a trip to the superb Ala Shanghai , in Latham. We're not alone in thinking it's one of the best restaurants in the area. Unfortunately, despite repeated requests something in our dinner last night triggered my allergic reaction to nuts. (Based on timing, I'm almost certain it was something in the steamed spicy wontons, whether a carelessly cleaned pan, a stray nut in the sauce, or perhaps some peanut butter used as a binding agent -- common in vegetarian dumplings, so I always take extra care to ask before ordering.) I thought it was minor, since I was merely uncomfortable for the next hour -- sometimes a very small quantity of a nut product will make itself known without triggering a full-scale reaction. But after I got home, my already-swollen lower lip had attained Mick Jagger proportions, and then it took me several tries to even swallow a Benadryl. Choking to death not being the way I want to go, a trip to the emergency room was ne...

Recently, I stumbled onto the White House Food Blog . It is really interesting because it includes a lot of information about recent discussions about school lunches. Also, apparently steak is big in the Obama white house . I also stumbled on the online portion of an exhibit at the National Archives about Uncle Sam's influence on the diets of the American people . I love all the historical photos. Also, cool images like this one: They also have a tumblr about the exhibit . It is all very interesting. All I know is that pizza is my favorite vegetable. Although, my second favorite is french fries.

"The most remarkable thing about my mother is that for thirty years she served the family nothing but leftovers.  The original meal has never been found."  -Calvin Trillin I  have previously worried about what to eat on weeknights for dinner. One easy, quick dinner was English muffin pizzas .  That week, we had two dinners made from the English muffins, and actually three meals made from the c heap pizza toppings from Hannaford. This week we ate dinner one night at El Mariachi . We both had fajitas. The next night I made corn tortillas, and Scott cooked up some flank steak and beans to have with the leftovers. Then I finished off those tacos for lunch today. If you are a really smart person you can figure out how to use up everything in your fridge – or better yet plan it all out in advance. It can be harder than it seems, but can really pay off in the end.

I have the above postcard hanging up next to my desk at work. It makes me think about regional foods. Do they mean anything in terms of the sense of identity people have relating to a specific place? What does it say about places if they don't really have their own regionally specific foods? I've lived in three places - Detroit, NYC, and Albany - and when I think about the foods that might be associated with those places I wonder what it means. The funny thing about regional foods is if you grow up in that place you assume everyone in the world knows about those things. It becomes a bonding thing or a short hand for relating to someone who is also from there (like sports teams). If you grew up in Michigan, you couldn't possibly know that if you went to Florida and ordered Mackinac Island fudge ice cream they would look at you like you were crazy. As featured above pasties are big in MI. I saw something similar when I was in Scotland, so I wonder if it was Scottish im...

This week my husband is going to Ireland for work, and I am going to pick him up from the Boston's Logan airport on Sunday. Last time he did this we stopped in Great Barrington for dinner on the way back. We found Baba Louie's Wood Fired Organic Sourdough Pizza in our guidebook and thought it sounded tasty. Scott  wanted soup, and I wanted to split a salad, and we agreed to split a salad. Scott: "Does that salad have nuts in it?" Waitress: "No, just greens, balsamic dressing, red onions." Scott: "Ok, we'll have that." Then we each ordered a pizza, and he ordered a beer. Then, the salad came and he had a few bites and all of a sudden his mouth became as big as a football and as red as fire engine. "I think there may have been a nut in there", he said, running to the bathroom. He was in the bathroom throwing up for about half an hour. The waitress asked what was wrong and said "He did not say he was allergic to nuts". ...

We have some freelance photographers at my job who come to shoot the art work who come all the way from Northampton, MA. They bring delicious pastries from Bread Euphoria . It is sort of ridiculous how much the Fruit and Nut scone from this place has over the last two years become a big highlight of my month. Today they brought them (as expected), and I was so excited.... except that my favorite scone seemed now to have the flavor of banana in it. I can't be sure, but that is pretty much the only food I hate. I guess you can't really taste bananas baked into things, but this faint suspicion really took away from the excitement of the scone for me. I HATE bananas to an irrational extent. In kindergarten I ate one and threw up immediately, and since then the mere scent of them can make me completely nauseous. The mushy, sticky texture, the way the smell of them takes over a room - who likes these things?? (Lots of people apparently, also they are apparently high in potassium, ...

"We must never confuse elegance with snobbery." -Yves Saint Laurent Today I got to thinking about food snobbery. I have written previously about my experience when I met Ruth Reichl . Every time I see her books in the bookstores now I think of that meeting and actually don't really want to read what she has to say. Maybe I shouldn't let it influence me, but it does anyway. Eating is obviously in its lowest form something a person needs to do to survive,and making it into some otherworldly or vaguely sexual thing is weird sometimes. Sometimes it is good to lighten up a little . A couple years ago we had an artist at the museum where I work who was doing a piece that was supposed to be about food. He spent time with two families in two different neighboring towns with different positions of social class. This artist himself had a background in a disadvantaged socioeconomic position, had worked as a social worker, and he had lived for a long time in various big cities...

... is to be avoided . Essentially, there are two three problems. First, although farming may seem as if it's more sustainable, it's actually terrible for the environment. Second, as Schrambling correctly notes, it's very bland. And last, tilapia generally lacks the nutritional benefits of other seafood. Even farmed salmon is much higher in Omega-3 fatty acids: [ New York Times , May 2 2011] There are better alternatives available -- trout, for example, is much healthier and tastier and generally not a lot more expensive than tilapia.