2020 Hindsight

meat counter adventures

When looking at the grocery store weekly specials that show up in the mail with the Pizza Hut coupons and the Closet Organizer ads, I check out the prices for different cuts of meat (it's a leftover Atkins diet thing, I guess).

When I see something I'm not quite sure of--but that's offered at a good price, I should just buy it. I did that once, with a pork shoulder picnic roast (which was offered at a good price-- $0.99/lb). Figured out what to do with it later. Today, the adventure comes to fruition with an all-day BBQ -- Pulled Pork. 6 pounds, 6 bucks, 6 hours cooking time.

In the meantime, while the frozen pork waited for the opportune time, a good meat sale came and went without an adventurous purchase. While looking through recipes yesterday, I repented of my hesitation. The whole reason stores put different cuts of meat on sale is to get me out of my same-old same old rut. (Don't talk to me of the reasonable theory of supply and demand; the purpose for the meat specials is to get people to push their cooking boundaries, plain and simple!)

Super Size Me

I saw Morgan Spurlock's acclaimed Super Size Me film last night. Excellent. Very highly recommended.

Morgan has a blog, too. He's doing press tours like there's no tomorrow. 30 days eating nothing but McDonald's food changed his body and his health, and now the non-stop promotion and the acclaim he's deservedly receiving is making other changes to his life. Of note, from his May 11 entry:

After the Aussie news, it was off to tape an episode of Dennis Miller’s new show. This was also another surreal experience. I’ve been a big fan of Dennis’ for a long time and to sit across from him while he talked about the film and made me crack up was awesome.

I have to keep stepping back and acknowledging that this is all really happening.

As I left his show, he grabbed me and gave me some great advice, “Enjoy this time.” He said. “When you’re on your way up like this, it only happens once. Don’t get caught up in the bullshit and have fun. Because in a couple years when you’re really established, you’ll be thankful you took the time to enjoy the ride.” Smart words from a smart man. [Read More]

You guys at the San Diego conference... here's the place to eat

This is for the bloggers attending the eDemocracy conference in San Diego. Back in October I was all set to blog this San Diego restaurant. Fabulous, absolutely fabulous. But after we ate there, and drove home, the fires that began that day in San Bernardino Mountains and that night in San Diego raged on, and telling the world of a fabulous Russian Georgian restaurant in San Diego was not a high priority.

This post is to rectify that:

Pomegranate

2302 El Cajon Blvd.

San Diego, 92104

(1-8 east to Texas Exit. Right onto Texas. Up steep hill. At top, approx 3 lights to El Cajon Blvd. Right 1 block: Pomegranate is at the end of that first block on the right)

Here's a little quote from off their menu (which was so funny, I asked for a copy)

Smoked Rainbow Trout of Smoked Salmon: Salmon or trout is smoked over a slow hardwood fire in the Georgian mountain style. Taste this groumet treat and die happy. Market price varies unless the Chef goes fishing himself

Oh, and when you go, my comment is up on the ceiling toward the kitchen... it's got something about "food names that are unpronounceable" (I had the Chanakhi--lamb stew-- and it's out of this world)

Rebuilding Food Pyramid

I read this article from the dead-trees edition of Scientific American: A year-old article proposing a new food pyramid, based on various n sundry research. It distinguishes between healthy and unhealthy sources of fats and carbohydrates:

FAT: yes, when vegetable oils is the source (olive, soy, canola)

sparingly: butter

No, no, no: Trans fat

Protein: Yes: Poultry, seafood, eggs (they're back!), Nuts, legumes.

Sparingly: red meat

Carbohydrates: In: Whole grain foods

Sparingly: Refined Carbohydrates: White Bread and Rice, pasta, Potatoes

Lowered: Dairy, Calcium supplement (1 serving per day for adults)

No change: Eat plenty of fruit and vegetables

Also: Alcohol in moderation unless you otherwise shouldn't

. . . .

Then, LA Times (sub req'd): The Amish Paradox. A very high-fat diet in a population with very low obesity. The reason? Heavy exercise (I'm shocked, shocked). Interesting tidbits: Amish chosen for this study because they're a population that allows a modern-day glimpse at what lief was like 150 years ago. No between-meal snacking. Amish communities with lessened exercise (woodworking instead of farming, for instance) had higher incidence of obesity.

I give thanks for Julia

Just got back from Thanksgiving with the family. Found the combination of days to drive to and from Las Vegas so as to avoid traffic (from LA to LV Tues; from LV to LA Friday). Saw Cirque du Soleil's Mystere (for which I give many thanks, and awe) Tuesday night.

My Mom brought a bunch of vintage cookbooks (choose whichever one interests you!), including Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking, the foreword of which talks about how it's a book for the servantless American Cook, so now I understand the tagline for the Julie/Julia site, "No one here but us servantless American cooks". I got my dad started reading the blog. It was good to see him chuckle at her wit and colorful language.

Saw Hal this afternoon, and (among other things) discussed the archaeology of office cleanings and how artifacts are dug out, you know, those old papers that are piled in strata above the legendary car pet. Came home to a house that is slightly cleaner than it was last weekend, for which I give much thanks.

Musings on Julie/Julia

So I'd seen it before, but after the NYT article, I've been taking a deeper look at Julie/Julia. A great read. Go there. After you finish reading this, that is.

I called my boyfriend and read him the first entry of the Julie/Julia blog (Aug 25 - last year) and the entry from August 1 of this year. Stories of real people and their real experiences with cookbooks might have a soft spot in his heart. Why? Because he's learned how to cook from cookbooks. Julia's? No.

Sometime in graduate school, or was it post grad, my boyfriend found himself tiring of can openers, pizza and ground beef, and called his mother up for basic recipes. He tired of childhood favorites like macaroni and cheese, and branched out further. Being a good student and a methodical person, he collected cookbooks. Fannie Farmer, Better Homes and Gardens, Cooking for Dummies. He had some cooking successes.

But his cookery guides lacked a certain something. Why? Okay, a certain recipe calls for these ingredients in those portions, and says to heat in a saucepan while stirring for five minutes. Why? Why, why, why?

Somewhere in my adult life, I encountered people --usually scientists-- who ask the same kinds of questions that three-year-olds drive their parents crazy with. And there are some good answers to those questions. That is, other than, "Don't bother me, I'm busy." Why does the world work that way? Why do colors in a rainbow occur in just that order? And why didn't I wonder why boiling karo syrup turned brown in my 7th grade home-ec Peanut Brittle recipe? I dunno. It just does and when it does, that's when you pour it onto the greased cookie sheet. It was enough that I could reproduce the results at home.

But my boyfriend belongs to the Order of the Rigors of Scientific Thinking. He's had it drilled into him in the hallowed halls of CalTech and Stanford. He followed the recipes in the cookbooks, but they told him only what to do, not Why.

Browsing in a bookstore's cooking section, he encountered The Best Recipe. Finally! A cookbook written by a New England kitchen lab applying all the rigors of a scientific investigation. In any other context, they'd be laughed at as a prime example of anal-retentive: They provide a chart of how many minutes it takes a stick of butter --just outta the fridge-- to soften to the proper creaming temperature. (Oh, and they did the same thing for a frozen stick of butter, too).

The cookbook generously provides all kinds of background information on the whys and wherefores, explaining every path they took and why they settled on the one provided in the recipe. So when the recipe calls for roasting the butterflied bird at 500 degrees, my boyfriend took comfort in their having cooked 14 birds at different temperatures just to get that proper temperature and cooking time. Talk about isolating your variables! (And that doesn't include all the trials devoted to brining or flavoring, either). This was a cookbook for those who want to understand why as well as how.

I met my boyfriend well into his Cook's Illustrated phase. I've picked up some good pointers myself. I'll poke around with him in his cookbooks and ask him the wisdom of seared salmon according to "those guys back east" (though I mostly like the Cook's Illustrated, their take on taco preparation was *not* to be trusted by this Californian, and they've been "those guys back east" ever since). But I don't even have the patience that he does to spend the amount of weeknight time that he does trying out some new recipe or preparing a favorite one.

So here is Julie, spending a whole year, cooking every recipe from Julia Child's cookbook. Whether the book is by Julia, or "those guys back east," anyone who undertakes to cook over 500 recipes in a years' time is crazy in a divine kind of way-- a mad inspiration, a fantastic genius. 500+ recipes in a year's time have transformation powers. I find myself admiring the hell out of this Julie and her cooking quest.

I'm like the Jesus of extreme cooking

A New York Times article about Julie of the Julie/Julia weblog. And the winning quote....

"I'm miserable so they can be happy," Ms. Powell said of her readers. "I'm like the Jesus of extreme cooking. I got fat and very unhappy for their sins."

Spanish plant names, translation and latin plant names

I don't know whether this should go under Food or Gardening. Since I was looking for some translation of the spanish word aji, for a kind of condiment or side sauce something or other, I'll take it as a food item.

I'm re-discovering backyard barbecue grilling this weekend. I grew up in a BBQ household, boyfriend did not. I don't have the right kind of spot for a BBQ at my house, he does. He just got one. (Grrl's husband, a man who loves to sear flesh over an open flame, enthusiastically recommended charcoal over gas for my boyfriend's upcoming grill purchase. A good recommendation.)

I discovered a book on my boyfriend's cookbook book shelf, bought at the LA Times Festival of Books last year and promptly forgotten: Douglas Rodriguez's Latin Flavors on the Grill. Lots of different ingredients (boyfriend says "too many ingredients" whereas my eyes are popping with intrigue at the combinations). One Amazon review inspires me to dig in and try (here's the result of our weekend BBQ party using the recipes-fantastic!).

Now, if only Rodriguez provided a translation for Aji, just to let this southern californian know what the heck it *is*...

Cooking Disasters

Found while searching for an explanation of the chemical changes that take place in wine when it's cooked. Some wonderful person saved stories of cooking disasters that were posted to alt.rec.cooking and put 'em on this page. Don't try these at home!

One short sample:

This dates back to when i was perhaps 9 or 10.

I made a white cake and decided to change the flavoring from vanilla to peppermint. well i put in what the recipe said: one tablespoon.

The periodic table of dessert

Andrew Plotkin does dessert. [via Looka!] But where is cake? I get cake today!

A Scientific and Rigorous approach to patisserie -- in Full Color

You've seen those charts that say, like, "Periodic Table of the Vegetables" or "Periodic Table of the Sausages"?

They annoy me. Because they're not periodic. They have no vertical or horizontal correspondences. The actual periodic table of chemical elements has structure -- that's why it's cool.