Bill Clinton, Reformed Fat Boy, Will Share His Story with Students

Source: Bill Clinton, Reformed Fat Boy, Will Share His Story with Students

Former President Bill Clinton  begins a tour of US schools this September in connection with an American Heart Association campaign aimed to "reduce childhood obesity in the US within 10 years," according to Sanjay Gupta's column in the August 1 Time Magazine.  Evidently Bill was 210 pounds at age 15, and not pleased about it.
Clinton suggests restaurants like McD's need to change their core menus. Tra La. The column points out that McD's is one of the largest purchasers of apples in the US, indicating this is  "progress." If those apples are going into the transfat and sugar laden apple  "pies" the company sells, that ain't progress, baby.  (  McD's website lists 250 calories per 2.7 oz baked apple pie serving, 34 carbs, 11 grams of fat of which 4.5 are trans fat.)  Anyway, as Morgan Spurlock points out in his film, Supersize Me, and his book, few people go to McD's for the salads and apples.
( Pic of BC from www.jaybrewer.net--Okay, we know Bill no longer eats the stuff, right??)

Feast or Famine: Fat Man Walking--Steve Vaught's Response to Obesity

Source: Feast or Famine: Fat Man Walking--Steve Vaught's Response to Obesity

Steve Vaught is walking across the US from San Diego. He has been on the road since April 10, having set out on his own anti-obesity odyssey as he realized he was almost 40, and weighing in at 400 pounds. According to an article  by Washington Post reporter Amy Argetsinger ( July 7), Steve had long been brooding about his weight, his inability or unwillingness to diet or exercise, and the effect those excess pounds had on his life and prospects. ( The state of California estimates that its segment of overweight and unfit citizens  could cost the government $28.7 BILLION in healthcare expenses, up 32% over five years ago, according to the LA Times' Lisa Girion, April 6, 2005.)

'" There's nothing appealing about fat people,' he says bluntly. " You can't impress them when you're fat." His jobs steadily declined in quality. In March he said he walked away from the latest, managing a muffler repair shop, after the owners sniped about him sitting down too much at work.'

Today Steve is headed across the desert to Winslow, Arizona. You can follow his progress on his website.  We don't know how much he weighs right now but we imagine he has dropped considerable pounds already. His extreme diet jump start is deemed "nuts" by many, of course--he  set out on this journey having had no exercise for years, weighing too much, without an elaborate support team or even much of a plan. ( Keeping hydrated across the desert in summer!! )

Recently The FOOD Museum  embarked on another major report on the dual subject of obesity and undernourishment--see the piece called Feast or Famine on our website. It appears that right now one third of  the world's population is overweight, and one third is severely lacking in food.  This imbalance is to be addressed in a major seminar by the World Food Prize International Symposium, Des Moines, October 12-14, concurrent with the official announcement of the 2005 Prize going to India's Dr. Modadugu V. Gupta, for his work in enhancing nutrition for the world's poorest people.

Cartoon, artist not known to us, found at www.sln.org/uk.

Nick's Still Kicks Ass

Nick's Crispy Tacos on the corner of Polk and Broadway in San Francisco has the best tacos in California. I have had a lot of tacos in my day. I lived in Los Angeles for 13 years, San Diego for 14 and I feel like I have had a good sampling of what California has to offer. Nick's however are something special. I dare say they are worth a trip to San Francisco just to have them. My fiance called on the way home last night and asked if I wanted to go...of course the answer was yes. Nick's Carnitas tacos "Nick's Way" are tough to beat. Any takers?

Beans Are GO!--Shuttle Discovery Launched On 13-Day Mission

Source: Beans Are GO!--Shuttle Discovery Launched On 13-Day Mission

Commanded by U. S. Air Force  Col. Eileen Collins, the shuttle Discovery took off from Kennedy Space Center in Florida today, and minutes afterwards, space launch team members dove into what has become a traditional celebratory meal of beans and cornbread---60 gallons worth of beans, cooked in 12  18-quart cookers.
The custom began back on April 12, 1981 when NASA Test Director Norm Carlson brought from home a crockpot of beans and some cornbread to feed hungry staffers. With each launch he brought in larger quantities of food and kept doling out beans until his retirement. At some point in the past 20 years the cry "Beans are go!" became  code for "a successful launch, let's rip into some chow."
These days NASA official food providers supply the bean and cornbread feast.

The recipe that follows might well suit anyone having an enormous family reunion this summer. Foodie did wonder about the  paucity of celery in the recipe,  went tsk tsk over the liquid smoke, and asked, "Where are the chiles??"   

Successful Launch Beans ( Courtesy Nancy Holland, King5.com)

   Put 6 lbs. dried Great Northern Beans in an 18-quart electric cooker
   Cut 10 lbs of smoked ham into cubes
   Add ham and ham bones to beans
   Add ½ shaker of lemon pepper
   Add 3 lbs chopped onions
   Add 2 stalks chopped celery
   Add 1 tsp. liquid smoke
   Cover with water and cook for at least eight hours.

Farewell to Surf and Turf--Fulton Fish Moves, Chicago Stockyards Dwindle Down

Source: Farewell to Surf and Turf--Fulton Fish Moves, Chicago Stockyards Dwindle Down

"The smoky riverbank dawn, the racket the fishmongers make, the sea-weedy smell, the sight of this plentifulness always gives me a feeling of well being..."
--writer Joseph Mitchell

After over 180 years of flashing knives and flying scales, New York's Fulton Fish Market is headed out of Brooklyn and into the Bronx, at Hunt's Point. The state-of-the-art indoor facility will certainly be more comfortable for  both vendors and buyers---and the fish will be well-refrigerated, not tossed on mounds of ice. 

Evidently the market began in the early 1800's  as a site for the sale of meat, veg, as well as fish.

"The Fulton ferry then was a hub of activity, and the site was chosen because of its convenience to the ferry and for the benefit of Long Island farmers who said they could provide the public with vegetables at four to six cents less per bag by saving the cost of carting to the so-called Fly Market.

When the market opened  (sometime after 1815)  it was the most spacious and costly edifice of its kind in the country. It carried a wide variety of meats, including display of exceptional quality."
-----from Barry Popik's The Big Apple

By 1824 the  market became entirely given over to fish. 
The catch that used to come into South Street by boat to the market's first permanent structure built in 1869 has long been trucked to the market.

The FOOD Museum has dubbed Fulton Fish Market's original location  a Global Food Heritage
Site.  This describes a place integral to the history of food, and one that could either be devoted to a museum about such history, or at the very least honored by a plaque.  Many suich places, large and small, exist around the country, and many are in danger of evaporating along with their valuable stories of food.

If the fish are moving, the animals of Chicago's Packing district are almost gone. One small operation remains, devoted to the Kosher and Muslin slaughter of  lamb and veal, about 1200 lambs a day, and 300  calves a week.  According to the Washington post's Kari Lydersen, Chiappetti's Lamb and Veal has been the only slaughterhouse  in town since the 475 acre  Chicago Union Stockyards closed 35 years ago. The company is moving to an industrial park about a mile from its present location.

Developed  in 1865 along with the railroad that made it all possible, the stockyards once shipped fresh meat up, dopwn and across the U.S.  The Chicago-style  slaughter of animals evidently caused a light bulb to gleam  over the head of  Henry Ford.
" The Chicago stockyards are widely credited with providing the inspiration for industrial assembly lines. The slaughter process was known as a "disassembly line." It is said that Henry Ford observed it and reversed the process to put cars together, instead of taking cows apart. "

The Chicago Union Stockyards area is already becoming an upmarket, martini-bar-filled, condo area but it, too, deserves recognition as a Global Food Heritage Site.

Last winter Foodie and spouse visited the once immense and bustling Fort Worth Stockyards and stock market where daily a handful of longhorns parade up and down the street. (Interestingly,  Foodie learned that the cattle who once were driven along the street to be slaughtered never lived long enough to grow long horns--an animal doesn't show off any  for at least five years. )

Photo of Fulton Fish Market by Philip Greenspun

TV Dinner Inventor Dies, Is Slotted in the Aluminum Beyond

Source: TV Dinner Inventor Dies, Is Slotted in the Aluminum Beyond

Ah, those tiny squares of carrot interspersed with green peas, the hunk of tough turkey with gravy, the dollop of mashed potatoes, each bit in its own silvery aluminum slot--the first tv dinners were the brainchild of  a Swanson executive whose company was overloaded with a half million pounds of  surplus frozen turkey.  In 1952 Gerry Thomas who died July 18 at age 83 dubbed the  food-filled tray a "tv dinner " and made history.

Those first tv dinners took an unthinkable 25 minutes to thaw out in an oven. Foodie recalls having one once with a baby sitter--it may well have been 1952!-- while  being allowed to stay up way too late to watch Fredric March in the film "Les Miserables." 

What I Did on My Summer Vacation--Food History in Oaxaca

Source: What I Did on My Summer Vacation--Food History in Oaxaca

Regular Blog commenter and writer Cynthia is just back from a Foodie dream vacation in Oaxaca, Mexico. Not her first visit,  this time she decided to delve deeper into the food history of the region.

" I signed up for a couple of courses with Susan Trilling at Seasons of My Heart.   Susana's classes were particularly well-suited to my interests--not only did she work overtime  exposing us to every possible traditional Oaxacan food, she also lectured on food origins, arranged for us to have a local scholar show us through the Ethnobotanical Gardens and lecture on the history of food domestification, cultivation, and processing in Oaxaca ( where the first maize may have been bred)
and she took us to a Zapotec village in the mountains, where the women taught us how to use pre-Hispanic cooking tools and techniques to prepare an almost entirely pre-Hispanic meal.

We also had heaps of fun in the classroom/kitchen at Susana's Racho Aurora, where we prepared a wide range of traditional Oaxacan specialties on both traditional and modern equipment. It was simply splendid--and just the sort of thing I thought might interest others interested in food history."

Slammers Makes it Into Schools' Lunch Programs

Bravo! Foods Partners With Tabatchnick Fine Foods to Introduce Slammers(R) to School Hot Lunch Programs Nationwide

July 18, 2005

NORTH PALM BEACH, Fla., July 18 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Bravo! Foods International Corp. (OTC Bulletin Board: BRVO - News), a brand development and marketing company that manufactures, promotes and distributes vitamin- fortified, flavored milks, announced today that Tabatchnick Fine Foods, Inc. will introduce the latest version of Bravo!'s popular Slammers® fortified milk drinks at the upcoming School Nutrition Association Annual National Conference. The nutritious product will be introduced into public school hot lunch programs nationwide through government Commodity Food Programs, including USDA exchange programs, state and federal commodity rebate programs, and state and federal fee-for-service programs.

Tabatchnick Fine Foods, a well-known quality re-seller with more than 100 years' experience in the food industry, has established relationships with public school systems nationwide and has been selling high-quality and nutritious food products through government Commodity Food Programs to public school lunch programs for more than eight years. Under a written agreement with Bravo!, Tabatchnick will distribute Bravo!'s Slammers® through a co- packaging agreement with Farmland Dairy of New Jersey.

Bravo! CEO Roy Warren said, "We are excited to introduce this latest formulation of Slammers nationwide. While we have been developing ways to sell our quality Slammers to schools for some time through a-la-carte and vending, a relationship with Tabatchnick allows Bravo! to introduce our high-quality milk drinks to hot lunch programs nationwide using an established vendor with the USDA, state commodity food programs and the School Nutrition Association in an immediate and cost-effective way."

Tabatchnick is introducing Bravo!'s specially packaged Slammers® at the School Nutrition Association Annual National Conference, July 17-20, 2005 in Baltimore, Maryland. This version of Bravo!'s popular Slammers® 100% milk drinks will be packaged in a Tetra Pak, an 8 oz. shelf stable box and meets USDA nutritional guidelines for school systems nationwide.

Bravo!'s most popular Slammers® 100% milk drinks will be available for government school hot lunch programs in seven different formulations and five flavors, including lactose free and low fat white milk lines. Slammers® for schools are low fat, reduced sugar, and vitamin fortified and come in Chocolate, Strawberry, Vanilla, Orange Creme, and Banana as well as white milk.

Ben Tabatchnick, president of Tabatchnick Fine Foods, said, "Our goal has always been to provide healthy, nutritious food to school hot lunch programs nationwide that are branded, packaged, and formulated in ways that encourage kids to eat and drink nourishing foods."

Tabatchnick continued, "Bravo!'s unique Slammers® exceed our expectations, providing a nutritious alternative to traditional dairy products that have limited shelf-life and require extended refrigeration. We look forward to the successful introduction of Bravo!'s Slammers at the School Nutrition Association's annual conference."

Last season, Tabatchnick Fine Foods sold 200 truck loads, or 14 million units of its previous milk brand. The Company has already pre-sold three million units of the specially packaged Slammers®, or about 43 truck loads.

About Bravo! Foods

Bravo! Foods International Corp. (OTC Bulletin Board: BRVO - News) develops, brands, markets, distributes and sells nutritious, flavored milk products throughout the 50 states, Mexico and nine Middle East countries. Bravo!'s products are available in the United States and internationally through production agreements with regional milk processors. Bravo!'s popular milk drinks currently are available under the brand name Slammers®, and can be purchased in retail outlets throughout the country and in some international markets.

Bravo! Foods' Slammers® are now available at more than 30,000 stores nationwide, including such popular chains as: 7-Eleven, A&P, Associated Grocers, BI LO, Brunos, C/S Metro, Dutch Farms, Giant Food Stores, Jewel, Mars, Pathmark, Piggly Wiggly, Ralph's, Safeway, Sam's Club, Shaw's, Shop Rite, Speedway, SuperTarget, Unified, Waldbaums, Walgreens and White Rose.

For more information visit: http://www.bravobrands.com or http://www.otcfn.com/brvo .

Contact: Roy Warren, CEO Bravo! Foods, 561-625-1411 or James Dryer, Investor Relations, 561-837-8057 or Jamie@otcfn.com .

Safe Harbor under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: The statements which are not historical facts contained in this press release are forward-looking statements that involve certain risks and uncertainties including but not limited to risks associated with the uncertainty of future financial results, regulatory approval processes, the impact of competitive products or pricing, technological changes, the effect of economic conditions and other uncertainties as may be detailed in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Source: Bravo! Foods International Corp.
www.bravobrands.com

What I Did On My Summer Vacation--Oaxaca with Susan Trilling

Source: What I Did On My Summer Vacation--Oaxaca with Susan Trilling

Regular Blog commenter and writer Cynthia is just back from a Foodie dream vacation in Oaxaca, Mexico.
Not her first visit , this time she decided to delve deeper into the food history of the region.


"I signed up for a couple of courses with Susan Trilling at Seasons of My Heart. Susana's classes were
particularly well suited to my interests -- not only did she work 
overtime exposing us to every possible traditional Oaxacan food, she also 
lectured on food origins, arranged for us to have a local scholar show us through 
the Ethnobotanical Gardens and lecture on the history of food 
domestication,cultivation, and processing in Oaxaca (where the first maize may have 
been bred), and she took us to a Zapotec village in the mountains, where 
Zapotec women taught us how to use pre-Hispanic cooking tools and techniques to
prepare an almost entirely pre-Hispanic meal. 

We also had heaps of fun 
in the classroom/kitchen at Susana's Rancho Aurora, where we prepared a 
wide range of traditional Oaxacan specialties on both traditional and modern
equipment. It was simply splendid -- and just the sort of thing I 
thought might interest others interested in food history."

School Lunch Reform--A Full Report, PLUS " The White Meal"

Source: School Lunch Reform--A Full Report, PLUS " The White Meal"

The FOOD Museum's motto is from famed writer about food and eating, MFK Fisher, who said in an interview once, "First we eat. Then we do everything else."
Right--before we can build, paint, teach, fight, play, write, manage, jog,  organize, research, act, compete, we must be fueled.  This includes children, too, oddly.

How well are we feeding schoolchildren in the US? How well elsewhere in the world?  Morgan Sperlock, the fellow who ate McDonald's for a month and recorded his "findings" on film for his award-winning documentary "Super Size Me,"  has a book out called Don't Eat This Book.   In it he states: " Some 23,000 of our public schools now have fast-food franchises in them."   And, the US government tosses in vatfuls of surplus milk, cheese, and oodles of meat. Clearly we in the US are really really doing a swell job at feeding our kids at school.

But enough. The tide may be turning. For a full  and positive report on this topic, with sources, links and looks at countries beyond the US, please visit The FOOD Museum's newest offering compiled by Tom Hughes,  all about school lunch reform.

Hey--remember "mystery meat?"  Remember "the white meal?"  It appeared once a week when Foodie went to college back when dinos roamed the quad,  and she knows college kids are not school children but still, it was a school, and even then, before Foodie became, well, Foodie, she had been raised on tasty, healthy, colorful food. So "the white meal" really had an impact.
Now Foodie is willing to reveal the makeup of "the white meal," but first, let's see what you Blog commenters think it contained, ok?  Weigh in..........
   

Fat Suits Featured/Lay off the Diet Sodas

Source: Fat Suits Featured/Lay off the Diet Sodas

Foodie is a bit late in viewing Dodgeball, an amusing if predictable flick about a rivalry between neighborhood workout joints that comes to a head in a major dodgeball tournament. Yes, the game we all played with pink rubber balls on rainy days in what used to be called "gym," is elevated to almost pro status in this movie.  Anyway, at the end, the repugnant narcissistic fitness freak character played by Ben Stiller in his usual crazed style has retrogressed from lean machine to fat guy, stuffing himself with snack foods. Stiller in a fat suit is memorable indeed, wallowing, nay billowing in his fatitude.  ( Earlier in the flick we see Stiller teasing/testing himself with pizza and other dietary no-no's.) 
Foodie confesses she  is hot to try on a fat suit but isn't sure she could bear the accompanying fat face....oi vey.
And , in case you missed it, a new study indicates that diet sodas make you fatter. Seems that by not receiving the satisfaction of real sugar in the drink, the dieter eats/drinks more to achieve satiety.

Bush Administration Cooks: Part 1

Source: Bush Administration Cooks: Part 1

US News and World Report, May 20, 2005  ----"Karl Rove and the U.S. military have something in common: They both agree with that old Napoleon Bonaparte saw that "an army marches on its stomach." That's right: Rove, the president's political and policy guru and White House deputy chief of staff, believes that he'll have a happy camp of senior workers if he keeps them well fed during meetings.
Turns out Rove isn't one of those guys who just dumps a box of Dunkin' Donuts on the conference table, as our bosses do. He fancies himself a chef and entertainer. "Karl loves to cook," says a pal.
And it's not just anything he serves to top Bush aides. His signature dish is called "eggies," a heart-stopping mix of eggs, melted butter, cheese, and bacon grease, all served with bacon and maybe Danish. The secret: whisking. "He's always there just whisking and whisking," we're told. Eggies are what lured key re-election campaign staffers to Rove's house every weekend for meetings last year. They also drew top Bushies to the White House mess recently when Rove took over the griddle.
This galloping gourmet isn't stuck on breakfast foods, either. Friends say he outdoes Marie Callender when it comes to pies. The secret here: handmade dough and no sugar; just fruit. "They're fantastic," says one of the family favorite, blueberry. "He can cook anything.""

Enjoying Your Salad? Thank A Tomato Picker

Source: Enjoying Your Salad? Thank A Tomato Picker

The tomato pickers of Florida, organized as  the Coalition of Immokalee Workers,  have been celebrating a victory for their members, after a two year boycott of Taco Bell brought the brand to the table to create more equitable pay and rights for those who do the hard labor of the major tomato suppliers in Florida.

From the Coalition's website:   " Southwest Florida is the state's most important center for agricultural production, and Immokalee  is the state's largest farmworker community.           As such, the majority of our more than 2,500                                   members work for large agricultural corporations in the tomato and citrus harvests, traveling     along the entire East Coast following the harvest in season. Many local residents, and thus many of our members, move out of agriculture and into other low wage industries that are important   in our area, including the construction, nursery, and tourist industries. The community is split,   roughly, along the following ethnic/national origin lines: Mexican 50%, Guatemalan 30%, Haitian 10% and other nationalities (mostly African-American) 10%. "

Back in March Washington Post reporter Evelyn Nieves wrote this after the victory for the tomato pickers: 
"Jonathan Blum, senior vice president of  Yum -- the world's largest fast-food corporation -- ( owner of Taco Bell) said that laws need to be changed to protect workers and that the industry needs to hold growers accountable. He added that the company had included language in its supplier code of conduct to ensure that indentured servitude by suppliers is prohibited -- referring to several cases                  in recent years in which the Coalition of Immokalee Workers helped federal authorities prosecute farm bosses for holding workers as slaves. "

You can take a look at Taco Bell's statement of policy re tomato growers here.

Now the Coalition is moving to bring other food brands to change their purchasing tactics. This month the National Council of Churches released this statement:

  "The NCC publicly calls upon McDonald's, Burger King, and Subway to  support the socially responsible purchasing principles established in this agreement and to meet with the CIW to ensure the highest standards of  human rights in their own supply chains," Edgar (Rev. Dr. Robert Edgar, NCC General Secretary) said.
Farm workers picking tomatoes in Florida are earning 40-45 cents for every 32-pound bucket of tomatoes they pick and have an annual median income of $7,500, according to the Department of Labor. "
The 40 cent wage has remained unchanged, astonishingly, for  30 years.
Those who pick our fruits and vegetables by hand deserve our gratitude and a decent wage.

 "Come, ye thankful people, come
Raise the song of harvest home
All is safely gathered in
Ere the winter storms begin..." 

      

 

Mad Cows and Englishmen ( The Blokes Who Test Them)

Source: Mad Cows and Englishmen ( The Blokes Who Test Them)

' "There is no risk whatsoever," he ( Mike Johanns, US Secretary of Agriculture) told reporters in a hastily organized conference call Friday night. '  One always releases bad news to the distracted American public on Friday night, as they happily head home  focussed on weekend plans or this month fixated on Michael Jackson's fate...The story, reported by Alexei Barrionuevo, appeared in the NYTimes Saturday, June 11.

Yes, Virginia, we have  a mad cow or two or three or more  in the USA. 

"The beef cow, which was nine years old and could not stand, was first tested last November and passed three initial tests. Then the Agriculture Department's inspector general, in reviewing the department's mad cow testing program, requested that the cow and two other previously suspect animals be tested again with a different technology that is used in Europe. The one cow tested positive on Friday.

Agriculture Department officials said they did not yet know which state the cow came from.
A sample of the animal's brain tissue will be sent to a laboratory in Weybridge, England, and results should be available in a few days, a spokesman said."

There is no risk, absolutely none, dig into your prime rib, but we, uh, the government, have no clue as to where the latest damned maddening cow came from.

Blame Canada! ( Can we?)

( Cow pictured is not known to be mad, and appears content to be near its fodder, if not its mudder. As for its udder, well...)

Gitmo Gustatory Offerings Detailed

Source: Gitmo Gustatory Offerings Detailed

Seems the food at Cuban/American Gitmo is not all malanga, plantains, boniato and black beans.

This from CNN June 13:

"Rep. Duncan Hunter, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, defended the Guantanamo facility and flatly rejected suggestions that prisoners are mistreated.

"I think that's accepting a falsehood and giving to the American people that somehow we don't treat prisoners right," said Hunter, a Republican from California.

Hunter cited a menu of food served to prisoners Sunday -- including oven-fried chicken, rice pilaf, fruit and pita bread -- as a sign that they are treated well. "

UPI Pentagon Correspondent Pamela Hess had this report:

" California Republican Duncan Hunter held a press conference to discuss the treatment of detainees at the island jail, and spent his opening statement going over a daily menu for prisoners that included oven-fried chicken and fresh fruit.

"This is what Osama bin Laden's bodyguards will eat several times a week. Lemon chicken, rice, broccoli, carrots, bread and two types of fruit," Hunter said, inviting a reporter to come eat with him.

 

Learning the Joys of Food

Source: Learning the Joys of Food

So Foodie and spouse are heading into Day 9 of an 11 day program we tailor-made for the "gifted and talented" kids at Isleta Pueblo Elementary.  Twenty-three kids, from Kindergarten age through 7th grade, sit in a semi-circle around a huge trunk covered with as many members of the cabbage family as could be found in our local supermarket. And we're also including Belgian endive, escarole, radicchio, a slew of lettuces.......the subject today is Green Power: Leaf and Flower Vegetables. ( Not coincidentally, that's the name of one of 10 books Foodie wrote in a series called Plants We Eat, for Lerner Publishing and we are keying this program off
that series. ) 
Later we marvel at the range of questions these Native American kids asked about these plants, as well as the observations they made about them. 

Over many years we have found that by putting  actual food plants --- fruits,  vegetables, spices, nuts et al, in front of students,  and just letting them observe and ask questions, they begin to wake up to the wide  world of food possibilities.  That day we cooked and tasted an East African dish built from  spinach, coconut milk, curry spices and sauteed onion and tomato, served on brown rice seasoned with a veggie cube.  ( Lots of plate licking going on.)

Every day we play games, show artifacts and objects, watch video from around the world,  learn songs ( Foodie on the ukelele, ) hear stories, and do art projects,  all tied to a particular food theme.

Veterans of  our summer programs ( we've been doing them for six years at Isleta) stick their heads in the door, sniffing  and hoping, some of them chanting Foodie's personal holy trinity--"olive oil, garlic, and onion!" 

Oi vey--these Indian kids are foodies in the making! One child almost swooned over the veggie-broth flavored rice--"this is toooo good," she said.  Another watches the Iron Chef competition regularly, and refered to it so much he became our own" Little Iron Chef."

p.s. Educators take note: You can book a program from The FOOD Museum  for your school now!   ( For next school year.)

Saddam's Snacks vs Flatbread with Sweet Onion

Source: Saddam's Snacks vs Flatbread with Sweet Onion

Raisin Bran Crunch for breakfast and Doritos as a snack food appear to be favorites of Saddam Hussein, according to the young solders of the Pennsylvania National Guard who had been keeping an eye on him for a year.  Right. Of the American processed foods he is offered, these he prefers.
We have no idea what else is on the menu but a steady diet of American snack foods is probably still acceptable under the Geneva Conventions.
( Yes, the guy is  scum--let him eat Twinkies!)

What the American public is learning about Iraqi customs, Muslim religion, folklore, and history, let alone cuisine, could probably be inscribed on the head of a pin, with room to spare. But then...
Cucumbers grew lushly in the hanging gardens of Babylon, for example.  Babylon is Iraq, what??!!

We heard on the radio the other day great shock and horror expressed at the notion that Saddam, once  ready  to do his business, as it were, did not use toilet paper!!!!!!! Ohmygawd. Squeeze the Charmin, NOT!
Thirty plus years ago serving in the Peace Corps in Iran, we were introduced to the middle eastern custom of pouring water on one's business region, post business,  no t. paper involved.
Seemed sensible at the time and still does today, in truth.
Now go wash your hands.

Back to food---Pomegranate soup, spiced eggplant stuffed with meat, chickpea fritters, flatbreads with sweet onions, cold yogurt and tomato soup, minced meat mixed with nuts and raisins, lamb marinated in yogurt and cooked as kebabs, rice seasoned with saffron.......pastries made with rosewater......

Food, Peace, and All That

Source: Food, Peace, and All That

So what do we have? Bombings in London, with a local Marks & Sparks' handing out free food to rescue workers. We have, recently, Jacques Chirac, shooting off his mouth about his view of the poor quality of British cuisine.  We have  Scotland's chefs and other lovers of food from Scotland, particularly praising  its fresh produce and home grown meats.   And London, increasingly, is being touted as boasting better restaurants than Paris.   ( If you can afford to eat in any of them...)

And then what do we have? Tonight's dinner out on the patio in New Mexico--moules frites for us, a Belgian omelet ( unfolded, with sauteed tomato, onion and wilted spinach, then puffed up under the broiler, ) with baked chips for Foodie Jr, just back from a year abroad.  One of our four flag poles, the one with the American flag, is at half mast for the Brits.

We are grateful for home and hearth and good food. We wish the peaceful same for everyone around the world.

Food News Gleanings

Source: Food News Gleanings

Items of foodie  interest from The Week magazine,  issue dated July 1, 2005:

---A Washington Post story claims that people brewing their own jo would save $55,341 over 30 years  ( including interest) if they stopped buying those $3 daily lattes.

----The U.S. government evidently is paying $12.68 per day for  meals served to Gitmo guests, while U.S. troops are fed on $8.65 per day per person.
----A beer watchdog group in London reports that British beer is being served way too warm in pubs. 52 degrees is the refreshingly perfect temp for draft beer.
----Diet soft drinks make you fat because the sugary taste doesn't deliver the satisfaction available in a regular sugar-filled soft drink but instead primes the drinker to want to eat.  The University of Texas Health Science Center  revealed that "the risk of obesity goes up by 41 percent for every can or bottle of diet soda a person consumes daily."
----Three men who robbed a McDonald's in Virginia over a year ago were identified by DNA in abundance on their unfinished burgers.
---Soft shell crabs are in--don't forget to eat them!

Banned in Baseball: Iced Cabbage

Source: Banned in Baseball: Iced Cabbage

Boiling in the lead-up to the 4th?  Try iced cabbage leaves on your head---seems Babe Ruth used to apply same to his head, changing them every two innings.
So did South Korean pro ballpayer and pitcher Myung-hwan Park until his league banned the practice.
Evidently the pitcher has quite a follow-through--his hat flew off twice in a recent game, sending the  cabbage leaves flying.  Korean Baseball Organization officials  felt the cabbage practice " can interrupt games," hence the ruling against the vegetative cooling device.  The Seattle Times, June 23, reported the KBO considered cabbage leaves to be a "foreign substance." 

Cabbage is the centerpiece of Korea's ubiquitous  kimchi, people. Foreign?!  Sheesh.

Fast Food--Spuds Fuel Tour de France Cyclists

Source: Fast Food--Spuds Fuel Tour de France Cyclists

Along with carb-laden bars , fortified drinks, bite-sized French sandwiches with meat, cheese and butter, racers on the move in stages of the Tour munch on potatoes, sometimes baked, sometimes boiled.  This year the Tour began in an obscure peninsula in the Vendee region, Ile Noirmoutier,   known for its special "new" potatoes, the Bonnottes. Cultivation of this variety dates back to the 1920's and was always done by hand. In recent years production of La Bonnotte has been revitalized, especially as Bonnotte pairs beautifully with the local oysters. It is entirely possible, therefore, that yesterday's racers were mindlessly stuffing themselves with carbs from rarified potatoes prized by gourmandes.

Athletes who need 6000-7000 calories per day  eat cooked potatoes the way more sedentary types eat apples. At the feeding stages, team helpers hand long bags of supplies to their racers, trying to connect as cyclists flash by at 30-50  miles per hour. You can see the cyclists stashing supplies in their kangaroo pouches, tossing wrappers and bottles to the winds as they scarf or slurp something down. Fast food for the athletes, slow cleanup, for someone.

First Best of the Wurst Museum?

Coming to Berlin in early 2006, is a museum dedicated to currywurst, a specialty there since 1949.
Evidently curry powder is lavishly applied to a wurst " smothered in ketchup," according to a Reuters piece from July 1.  The article says new museum director Birgit Breloh is predicting 350,000 visitors a year.

Here's a recipe for currywurst from www.marions-kochbuch.com.

Currywurst with Ketchup

 

Ingredients: 1 tbsp olive oil 1 onion 1 can tomatoes 1/2 apple 1/8 l / 4 ¾ oz apple cider vinegar 1 tsp salt 50g / 1 ¾ oz sugar   Freshly ground pepper 2 tsp mustard   Basil 3 sausages 20g/2 ½ tbsp shortening 600g / 21 oz French fries   Curry Serves 3 - 1.081 cal per serving Prep-time: 45 min. - Total-time: 45 min.

.

Begin with boiling down the home made tomato ketchup. Heat the olive oil and steam the diced onions until glossy. Add the tomatoes with the juices. Cut a ½ apple in chunks and add to the tomatoes. Pour in the apple cider vinegar and season with salt, sugar, freshly ground pepper, mustard, dried basil and a little bit curry powder. Let simmer in the uncovered pot, stirring once in a while. After approx. 45 min. all the liquid should be evaporated and the result is a thickly tomato puree. Strain the tomato puree (use a spoon to strain the tomato puree through a sieve) and season to taste. In a large skillet heat the Oil and roast the sausages for about 5-8 minutes on medium heat until light brown. (You can use knockwurst, large franks or cooked bratwurst for this recipe.) Be careful don?t let them get too dark. The inside should stay pink. Cut them in chunks, pour over the ketchup and sprinkle with curry powder. Serve with French fries.

---