Most Disturbing Foie Gras Headline Ever

Posted by Sarah DiGregorio at 11:53 AM, May 8, 2008

From our friends down under at The Australian newspaper, we get the following gem:

"Obesity leaves children with livers like foie gras"

I'll give you a minute.

It turns out that the scientists quoted in the article don't make that analogy, they simply talk about what the causes and symptoms of a diseased liver are. The editor probably came up with that very vivid image to sex things up a little, in a manner of speaking.

No worries, foie-gras-haters. We can leave the ducks alone now and start farming chubby Australian school children.

Indiana Primary Special: Pork Tenderloin Sandwich

Posted by Sarah DiGregorio at 1:02 PM, May 6, 2008

Most states have a dish or two that they're known for. New York has plenty: Pizza, cheesecake and bagels to name a few. Texas has barbecue and Tex-Mex, California has tacos and burgers, Massachusetts has clam chowder and the Carolinas have pulled pork.

The non-stop Indiana primary coverage made me wonder what dish Indiana is known for. A first round of Google searching turned up the fact that Indiana produces a lot of corn, which doesn't quite qualify.

But then I came across references to the pork tenderloin sandwich—sounds generic, but it's not. Turns out, this is a very particular sandwich, related to pork schnitzel, but always made with tenderloin, and always deep fried rather than shallow-fried. It's pounded thin, marinated overnight, breaded, fried and then served on a soft white bun with lettuce, tomato, onion and mayo.

There's even a documentary dedicated to the search for the perfect specimen, called "In Search of the Famous Hoosier Breaded Pork Tenderloin Sandwich." You can watch an excerpt here.

There's an awesome blog dedicated to the pork tenderloin sandwich, featuring glamor shots of the porky goodness at various eateries (the guy seems to eat at least two a day) as well as a photo tutorial and recipes for making your own.

Any ex-Hoosiers out there know if this deliciousness is to be had in New York?

New Zealanders Think We're Crazy

Posted by Sarah DiGregorio at 4:36 PM, May 5, 2008

The other day, a man with the most amazing accent called me up. After I got over the loveliness of the phrase "good on you," which I think translates as "thank you," I discovered that I was speaking to Simon Morton, host of This Way Up on Radio New Zealand, and that he wanted me to speak on his show about New York's calorie listing law.

Turns out, New Zealanders are both incredulous and fascinated about our nanny state leanings—first they came for the smokers, then the transfats, and now you can't even enjoy a rainbow cookie at Starbucks without realizing you're about to get really, really fat.

I did the interview last Wednesday, the day after the law actually went into effect (on Tuesday, the stay requested by the Restaurant Association was denied). But restaurants who don't post the calories won't be fined until July, so many are not complying yet.

You can hear the interview (and Simon's accent) here.

First Lady Paterson Greens the Mansion, Enjoys Thai Food

Posted by Sarah DiGregorio at 3:45 PM, May 1, 2008

Having come to the Governor's mansion in, ahem, less than ideal circumstances, Michelle Paige Paterson is moving forward with several healthy eating initiatives that make considerably more appetizing headlines.

Today, Paterson announced that she would continue the local and organic food program that was launched last year at the Governor's mansion. The mansion chef buys local and organic produce whenever possible, shopping from a CSA program and a food co-op for New York state-grown produce.

Additionally, Paterson is working with eleven middle schools in Harlem on a project called Healthy Steps. Each student is given a pedometer, and the class to collectively reach four million steps wins a trip to Albany for a meal at the mansion with the Governor and First Lady, as well as a trip to an upstate organic farm. Mush, children, mush!

Our Q&A with the First Lady on where she likes to eat in the city, and why healthy eating is important to her, after the jump.

Tell us about the food program at the governor’s mansion.

The local and organic food program is one of the initiatives that’s part of the greening of the mansion. We buy locally because it helps the economy. And organic food doesn’t have antibiotics and hormones, which makes it healthier.

Why are these issues so important to you? Does it relate to your profession in healthcare?

It relates to my work in healthcare, I’m the director of an integrated wellness program, it’s a program based on healthy living for people with chronic conditions. But I’m also concerned as a mother; I’m very concerned about childhood obesity. To see children in the last couple years just blow up is a real concern to me. That’s why I started the healthy steps program a year ago.

What sorts of dishes have you requested from your chef? Is it a big change to have someone cooking for you?

My family is used to eating healthy, I’ve always been such a health person, so it’s not such a big change for us. We told our chef, Noah, about the things we like to eat, and he prepares them for us. Mr. Paterson never cooked much, but it’s a big change and a welcome change for me. I’m so busy juggling work and family, it’s very hard to cook. And that’s a big problem for everyone: kids are eating McDonald’s and processed foods because the parents are so busy and it’s easier to give the kids money to go to McDonalds. For me, having someone to prepare meals helps me greatly.

What’s next for you—do you have any plans for future initiatives related to food?

Actually, I’m looking to do something similar to Healthy Steps, in schools in Rochester next year. I think it’s very important to get kids involved excited about eating healthy exercising. We need to let them know that healthy food can taste good.

When you’re in New York City, what restaurants do you like eat at?

I tend to like Thai food. I try to go to restaurants that to cook healthy, that don’t use so much processed food. David and I recently had lunch with Ted Turner at one of his restaurants, the Montana Grill. It’s very healthy, they don’t use meat with any antibiotics, they don’t use plastics, and they’re very interested in helping the environment.

I’m sure neither of you has time now, but when your family cooks what do you like to prepare?

We eat a lot of chicken and fish, stir-fries with vegetables…David does like lamb, so every now and then we’ll eat lamb chops

What would people be surprised to see in your fridge?

Well you know, just because we eat healthy doesn’t mean we never eat anything unhealthy. We eat in moderation—everything in moderation.

Food Writing with a Global Conscience

Posted by Sarah DiGregorio at 12:02 PM, April 25, 2008

There's a really interesting story in this Sunday's Observer Food Monthly, (available online here). It's all about how refugees go about getting food and preparing it, and what dishes they long for from home.

Food writing is often simply entertainment (useful for finding your next good meal, yes, but still entertainment). Sometimes it opens up into cultural and political issues, too, and then sometimes food writing can go to places that you might not imagine food writing could or should go, like into refugee camps.

But why not? Even starving people have a food culture, and memories of foods from better times. If they've never experienced better times themselves, those memories are passed down from their parents or grandparents. This is the case for Palestinians, born into refugee camps, who talk about the traditional cooking of a home village that they've never themselves seen.

The article reminded me of another amazing example of profoundly good food journalism, The Hungry Planet: What the World Eats, by Peter Menzel, Faith D'Aluisio. The authors asked families from countries around the world to gather all the food the eat in one week in front of them for a photograph. It ends up revealing alot more than exactly what they eat, it also gives you a tangible notion of how they live.

Test Tube Meat Update: PETA 'Civil War'

Posted by Sarah DiGregorio at 1:35 PM, April 21, 2008

In-vitro meat has gotten a lot of attention in the last few weeks, after a recent international symposium on the subject.

PETA has now jumped in on the test tube meat action. From the group's website:

"PETA is offering a $1 million prize to the contest participant able to make the first in vitro chicken meat and sell it to the public by June 30, 2012. The contestant must do both of the following:

• Produce an in vitro chicken-meat product that has a taste and texture indistinguishable from real chicken flesh to non-meat-eaters and meat-eaters alike.
• Manufacture the approved product in large enough quantities to be sold commercially, and successfully sell it at a competitive price in at least 10 states."

The New York Times, reporting on the story, quotes PETA founder, Ingrid Newkirk, as saying that the decision to sponsor the prize led to "'a near civil war in our office,' since so many PETA members are repulsed by the thought of eating animal tissue, even if no animals are killed."

Calorie Counting in Times Square

Posted by Sarah DiGregorio at 12:19 PM, April 21, 2008

The law that will force New York restaurants with more than 15 branches nationwide to post calories on menus was to go into effect today, but it has been delayed.

The Department of Health says that the district court judge has now set Friday the 25th as the new date for the law to go into effect, and pushed the date for issuing fines back to June 6. This is to allow time for legal maneuvering on the part of the NY Restaurant Association, which is now going to the Second Circuit appeals court to seek a stay of the law. The court will likely decide on whether or not to grant a stay today.

Because the status of the law seems to change every time we turn around, there's a lot of confusion out there about when restaurants will need to comply.

I went to Times Square, the epicenter of chain restaurant-dom, where the calorie law will make the biggest splash, to see how it was going down.

Terrifying ribs from TGI Friday's after the jump.

At TGI Friday's, the new menus that list calories are already in use. And it is terrifying. Those would have to be some mighty fine ribs to make them worth 1910 calories. Salads range from about 900 to 1300, and innocuous-sounding choices like a grilled chicken sandwich weighs in at 1360. The sirloin steak, on the other hand, has only 290.

Calorie counts have gotten enough publicity lately that those numbers may not be such a shock, but seeing them there on the menu is probably enough to give anyone pause. I'm generally against banning certain foods (like foie gras) but you can't really argue with the value of more information. If you think those ribs are worth nearly 2,000 calories, you are welcome to order them.

At Starbucks, the calories went up on the menu boards last week. So, we discover that the blended creme green tea is 650 calories, and the large iced cafe mocha is 400. Surprisingly, most customers I talked to hadn't noticed the change—maybe because most people go in knowing what they want, and don't look at the menu.

But Joan Wilson, who works nearby at MTV, told me that she switched from whole to skim milk for her daily large cinnamon dolce latte. The whole milk version was 400 calories, while the one with skim milk is 160 calories. "I hate skim milk," Joan said. "But with the calorie difference, it's not even a question."

None of the other chains in Times Square had instituted the calorie listings yet. The managers at Sbarro and McDonald's hadn't even heard of the law.

At the Olive Garden, the manager said that he was waiting for word from above. "This is a corporate-type situation," he said. "I think people are going to eat what they're going to eat, good or bad."

At Bubba Gump's Shrimp, maitre d's Carlos Gonzales and Gio Sykes were happy to give me their thoughts on the matter ("I don't know if this is such a good thing for restaurants, but you know, at the end of the day, people are going to eat what they want to eat.") until they were cut off by Aaron Vazquez, the manager, who told me brightly that everyone at Bubba Gump is "very excited about it."

Test Tube Meat?

Posted by Sarah DiGregorio at 1:36 PM, April 15, 2008

The first in-vitro meat symposium was held last week in Norway. Yes, in-vitro meat, as in meat grown in a lab, from cell culture.

That sounds pretty gross, but it's actually no more disgusting (and infinitely more humane) than many factory-farming practices.

Jason G. Matheny, of New Harvest, just got back from the symposium, and he agreed to answer all our burning questions about test tube meat.

"It should taste the same as regular ground meat..." after the jump.

How does growing meat in-vitro work?

Cultured meat is meat produced in vitro, in a cell culture, rather than from an animal. The production of cultured meat begins by taking a number of cells from a farm animal and proliferating them in a nutrient-rich medium. Cells are capable of multiplying so many times in culture that, in theory, a single cell could be used to produce enough meat to feed the global population for a year. After the cells are multiplied, they are attached to a sponge-like "scaffold" and soaked with nutrients. They may also be mechanically stretched to increase their size and protein content. The resulting cells can then be harvested, seasoned, cooked, and consumed as a boneless, processed meat, such as sausage, hamburger, or chicken nuggets.

How did the symposium go? Did you learn about anything new?

The meeting was very encouraging. The general consensus is that a ground meat product like sausage or hamburger is both technically and economically feasible in the near-term.

What were the big issues at the symposium this year?

One of the big challenges has been development of animal-free culture media and growth factors. There's been excellent research in this area recently, and it looks like this challenge can be solved in the near-term. Another issue at the symposium was economics. The consortium funded an independent economic assessment, which found that by adapting existing technologies, it should be possible to make a cultured meat product that's competitive with conventional meat.

I notice that many of your colleagues at the in-vitro meat association are European. Is Europe ahead of the US on this?

Yes, definitely. The Dutch government has shown unique foresight by funding research on cultured meat. It would be good for the US government to catch up. After all, in this country we've got more heart attacks, more water pollution, and more greenhouse gas emissions due to meat.

When will the technology be ready to produce in-vitro meat on a large scale?

Our guess is 5 to 10 years. This could likely be shortened by more energetic investment in research and development.

Why should we support in-vitro meat production?

Cultured meat could help solve a lot of global problems. Fatty meats are thought to cause two million deaths each year. With cultured meat, you could have a hamburger that has the fat profile of an avocado. Meat production is responsible for more greenhouse gases than the transportation sector. With cultured meat, you could reduce emissions to a fraction of what they are now. And with cultured meat, you wouldn't have problems like avian flu, Mad Cow, or the salmonella or campylobacter that contaminate our meat. Lastly, with cultured meat you wouldn't need to raise and kill 50 billion farm animals each year.

The most common objection I've heard to cultured meat is that it's unnatural. This is true, but it's also unnatural to raise tens of thousands of animals under a tin roof, doping them with antibiotics and growth promoters. That's what we do now. We can do much better. We already accept bioengineered products like yogurt, so I'm optimistic that consumers will accept cultured meat, particularly given its health benefits.

How does it taste?

It should taste the same as regular ground meat, as it's made of essentially the same material.

In theory, would you be able to grow anything from a porterhouse steak to a pork shoulder?

Growing whole pieces of meat, like steaks or drumsticks, is a much more difficult challenge. My guess is that's decades off. But half the meat we eat is ground meat, so we should start there.

Will you run into trouble with the American Cattlemen Association or other lobbying groups?

I haven't seen any statements from the livestock industry groups about this. Meat processors like Tyson should be in favor of any technology that helps their bottom line. In principle cultured meat could eventually be cheaper than traditional meat, since you can avoid losses due to animal disease, and integrate meat production from start to finish under one roof. But it's true that cultured meat would compete with large livestock producers.

How did you get interested in in-vitro meat?

I was working in India on a public health project and was surprised to see a trend toward the factory farming practices and meat consumption common in the U.S. It was clear that the problems we have with American meat production and consumption—pollution, greenhouse gas emissions, heart disease, food contamination, and poor animal welfare—are becoming global. Around the same time I had read about NASA research on cultured meat— meat produced in a cell culture rather than in an animal—to feed astronauts. It seemed like the technology would have more important applications feeding people on Earth.

Efficient Germans Eliminate Waiters

Posted by Sarah DiGregorio at 1:24 PM, April 14, 2008

'S Baggers, a restaurant in Nuremburg, Germany, is completely automated, making it possible for you to go to dinner without speaking to a single human. First, order off a touch screen (the menu is heavy on the meat, and includes a "slaughterhouse meat platter" ) and later, your meal comes sliding down a spiral track system to your table. Their motto: " All good things come from above"

You can even set up direct debit for your meals, and pay just once at the end of the month.

Hasn't Battlestar Galactica taught these people anything? The system could evolve and multiply and start force-feeding us sausage.

Other Europeans are finding this very amusing. A commenter on the Guardian food blog: "The reason this works is that you can only order three things to eat in Germany, and two of them are sausages." The BBC is just glad the system means they don't have to tip.

Vive le Baguette

Posted by Sarah DiGregorio at 9:02 AM, April 7, 2008

After 12 long years of inglorious defeat to the Japanese and Americans in the Coupe du Monde de la Boulangerie (the World Cup of Baking), the French have finally recaptured the gold medal. The competition is judged on three items: a baguette, a yeast pastry and a showpiece that's not meant to be eaten. The French entry in the last category was a voluptuous bread woman in haute couture, naturally.

The Wall Street Journal has covered it here and here.

Michael Psilakis Owes it all to T.G.I. Friday's

Posted by Sarah DiGregorio at 1:15 PM, April 3, 2008

Food and Wine's Best New Chefs 2008 has been announced. Michael Psilakis is the lone New Yorker in the bunch (above, with business partner Donatella Arpaia).

From F&W's bio we learn that Psilakis "earned a degree in accounting and finance before a job as a waiter at T.G.I Friday's led him to reconsider..." Those goblet-sized Long Island iced teas will do that to a young man. We can only imagine that Psilakis is feeling on top of the world these days. (Or he's having anxiety-ridden dreams of losing it all, à la David Chang)

Psilakis' Anthos is a nominee for James Beard's Best New Restaurant award, and the chef's newest restaurant, Mia Dona, has just been glowingly two starred by the Bruni.

Slurp

Posted by Sarah DiGregorio at 8:05 AM, April 1, 2008

We were walking past Washington Square yesterday when we noticed a sign outside North Square—a glass of cava and six Malpeque oysters for $12. So we stopped in. The oysters weren't the most flavorful ever, but they were fresh and, well, they were oysters for a dollar each. You should go.

North Square
103 Waverly Place
212-254-12000

James Beard Award Nominees Announced

Posted by Sarah DiGregorio at 12:17 PM, March 24, 2008

The James Beard Award nominees have been announced.

New Yorkers nominated include Joe Bastianich and Mario Batali, Dan Barber from
Blue Hill. Anthos has been nominated for Best New Restaurant, and Pichet Ong, who just opened Batch last week, for Outstanding Pastry Chef.

"Holy is Healthy!"

Posted by Sarah DiGregorio at 2:11 PM, March 21, 2008

As if Bible literalists weren't busy enough cracking down on the scary gay people and spreading rumors that Obama is Muslim, now there's a new cookbook that reminds them that the Bible has plenty to say about what's for dinner, too.

In honor of Good Friday, the press release for The Complete Idiot's Guide to Good Food from the Good Book, after the jump.

"The Bible is a source of many things, including one of life's basic ingredients, food. The Bible is a treasure trove of good food: natural, simple, tasty food, most of which is available today. In The Complete Idiot's Guide to Good Food from the Good Book, author and master chef Leslie Bilderback transforms the wonderful foods found in the Bible into superb, easy to make recipes including:

appetizers
main courses
side dishes
desserts

Each meal features only those ingredients mentioned in Scripture or the closest modern equivalent..."

Gov. Spitzer In Room 871, With the Mini-Bar

Posted by Sarah DiGregorio at 9:33 AM, March 13, 2008

According to the federal affidavit, former Governor Spitzer agreed to pay for any mini-bar charges during his tryst with Kristen at the Mayflower Hotel. Very generous of him! You know how outrageous those prices can be!

But what might Kristen have chosen from the Mayflower's mini-bar? Turns out, there was plenty to choose from for a three diamond kind of girl: Gray Goose, Bombay Gin, Absolut Vodka, Chivas Regal, Johnny Walker Black, plus an assortment of soda, candy bars, cookies and peanuts.

How many of those little bottles would it take before Spitzer started looking pretty good? Some questions we just can't answer.