‘Roo Burgers
You can do your part to help save the environment by saying goodbye to cows and hello to kangaroos. Reaching into her bag of tricks, Mother Nature opted to leave out methane, which has shown to be 25% more potent as a green house gas than the carbon dioxide released by cars, in kangaroo farts. (Did I just say farts)? Since the Aussies have a stronghold on the kangaroo population, we may be out of luck.
Though, even if kangaroos roamed wild across America, you can bet cattle ranchers would lobby D.C. until the cows came home.
Ah well, they’re too darn cute to eat anyways.
Photo by mrimperial
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| Categories: | Environmental • Politics | 2 Comments |
Waiting by the River at Dawn
Christopher Kimball threw down the proverbial glove and issued a “Wiki vs. Test Kitchen Challenge” on October 15th. I publicly accepted within hours, but after 3 weeks, we still haven’t heard back. I left blog comments, @tweets, and submitted a private message via Cook’s Illustrated. I’ve seen no additional announcements, and though others accepted publicly, none came from a Wiki. Further, it’s clear that his post was in response to The New York Times and TIME Magazine articles about recipe Wikis that featured Foodista and quote both of us.
Dueling Pistols image courtesy of Nfutvol
Though the idea of this challenge seems to have fallen by the wayside, the resulting discussion has been fascinating. I’ve observed a lot of confusion about how the Web works and what a Wiki is vs. a blog, a search engine, or other types of web technologies. This is the first in a series of posts where I will share some of what I’ve learned from 13 years of building large scale websites and a prior career in cooking.
So what exactly is a Wiki? Well, the whole concept is less than 10 years old and there are a number of definitions, but they all share these elements:
- Is accessed via a Web browser
- Facilitates easy creation and publishing of web pages
- Enables large numbers of people to edit the SAME page
- Links between pages
- Reports on who edited what pages and when
Print has been a medium used to convey knowledge for thousands of years, including recipes. Indeed, some of the earliest surviving cookbooks date back to the Romans, including De re coquinaria, from circa the 4th century. Gutenberg later used technology to create a new medium: mechanical printing. Replacing legions of scribe monks, his press had a major impact on the business of the printed word when it massively reduced the cost of each additional copy produced. Cookbooks quickly grew to be a significant part of the overall printing industry. Over time, more mechanization continued to lower costs to the point where hundreds of pages can be had for pennies.
Still, printing has a number of limitations relative to a Wiki. Here are a few points of comparison:
- Cannot be changed once produced
- Expensive:
- Additional cost to every copy
- Cost increasing, especially when considering the environmental impact
- Slow to produce and distribute
- Invisible editorial process
- Disconnected, getting more information/context is difficult
Wikis
- Pages are continuously improved
- Inexpensive and getting cheaper, cost of each copy is close to zero
- Fast to produce, publishing is instant
- Open and transparent editorial process
- Connected, more detail is just a click away
This is not meant to be an attack on print, in fact I have a large and treasured cookbook collection. However, I feel it is also important to point out some of cost/benefit issues missing from the debate.
Upcoming Post: Quality and Accuracy in Wikis
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| Categories: | Author • Cookbooks • Cooking tips • Events • Technique • books | 1 Comment |
It’s Cook Something Bold and Pungent Day!
November 9th is Cook Something Bold and Pungent Day! Grab your pitchforks (or knives) and chop some garlic! Slice the blue cheese and peel the durian! Delight in a Limburger cheese sandwich and enjoy the distinct smell of your breath, it’s a day to celebrate!
Let’s just say it’s a good thing it’s not date night.
Here are some recipes that will have your neighbors holding their noses and your coworkers offering you breath mints.
Photo by cwbuecheler
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| Categories: | Asian • Cheese | 1 Comment |
Sustainability Week
Every day this week, Foodista is proud to recognize a variety of sustainable food bloggers. We want to celebrate each of you out there doing your part to reduce your global impact through your green food practices and choices. Whether you garden, hunt, forage, farm or shop and cook with a local and sustainable conscience, we applaud your efforts!
Check Foodista all this week for inspiring, delicious and environmentally conscious recipes. Don’t forget to check out our Eat Local Pledge and how you can find farmer’s markets and local Community Supported Agriculture programs (CSA’s) in your neighborhood.
This Week’s Featured Food Bloggers
Sustainable Pantry
Farm Girl Fare
Garlic Breath
Hunter Angler Gardener Cook
Caviar and Codfish
Cook Local
Straight from the Farm
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| Categories: | Environmental • Organic | Leave a Comment |
Notable Quotes
“How we eat can change the world” – Alice Waters
Life has a way of make us feel overwhelmed and insignificant at times. News headlines never seem to be short on stories of pollution and mounting environmental concerns. It is a daunting challenge. But Waters suggests that each of us has the ability to contribute to the solution by the simple act of eating. I love that.
photo by Bruce Tuten
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| Categories: | Uncategorized | Leave a Comment |
Vegan Soul Kitchen
Raise your hand if you’ve ever entered a bookstore intending to buy a literary work and left with a cookbook or two. It’s ok. It happens to all of us.
Vegan Soul Kitchen came out in March of this year, and I had been lusting for it since hearing an interview with Bryant Terry, the author, on The Splendid Table in April. Therefore, when Amazon gently recommended it to me- on sale- as I bought my fall textbooks, I happily added it to my virtual shopping cart.
The recipes are modernized, veganized versions of the traditional African American and Southern recipes Terry enjoyed growing up in Memphis. When one thinks of Southern cooking, “vegan” is not the first word that comes to mind. Even the vegetables tend to be battered, deep fried and flavored with bacon or lard. Terry proves that one can enjoy Southern and African American cooking without sacrificing lifestyle or nutrition. “To be clear, though, I am not presenting this as a ‘healthy cookbook,’” Terry writes in the introduction, “Vegan Soul Kitchen is a real food cookbook for anyone with a soul that likes tasty eats.”
The recipes range from drinks to sides to entrees to desserts, with an entire section devoted to watermelon. One theme throughout is a focus on sustainability. As an example, Terry encourages readers to compost the matter remaining after making the stock for the Tempeh, Shitake Mushroom and Cornmeal Dumpling Stew I prepared last night. I picked up all of the vegetables for the stew (except the mushrooms for the stock) at the farmer’s market yesterday: every ingredient called for in the recipe is in season at the same time. In fact, the concept of the book grew out of the director of CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) asking Terry to create recipes for CSA members.
The book is peppered with pop culture references; for example, Terry titles his vegetable section “So Fresh and So Green Green.” (Outkast, anyone?) He also includes a soundtrack for each dish, drawn from an eclectic variety of musical genres. The songs accompanying my stew were “Chicken an’ Dumplins” by Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers and “Shroom Music (Champion Bound)” by Quasimoto (neither of which I had in my iTunes library).
However, the only music I needed was the sound of a hearty, delicious meal simmering on my stove.
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| Categories: | Cookbooks • Meatless Monday • Uncategorized • books • vegan | 1 Comment |
Dissecting Sugar: A Wade Through the High Fructose Corn Syrup Controversy
I was still reeling from New York City’s swift ban of trans fat when the high fructose corn syrup debate ignited and tore through the shelves of one of my favorite local grocers, vaporizing all traces of high fructose corn syrup. For a kid who grew up in the 80’s, this is like wiping out an entire food group. It made me queasy. Just what poison is this high fructose corn syrup? Why are we only now trying to get rid of it after it’s been around for over 30 years?
If you’ve already settled this sugary mess for yourself and would rather enjoy your Halloween loot in peace, you probably want to meander to happier recesses of the internet . However, if you are curious and don’t mind giving up your Halloween loot, read on.
There are two camps in the high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) controversy: one insisting that HFCS is harmful for human consumption and another arguing that HFCS is chemically no different than table sugar and therefore deserves equal treatment. The general consensus among experts is that both of these carefully worded statements are in fact, correct.
From a chemical standpoint, HFCS resembles table sugar and is metabolized similarly. To make HFCS, corn syrup is converted into fructose through an enzymatic process, and then recombined with pure corn syrup*. Essentially: HFCS = fructose + glucose. HFCS comes in a few different flavors, however: HFCS-42, HFCS-55 and HFCS-90. The trailing number denotes the percentage of fructose each solution contains. Arguments can be made here that these varieties differ from table sugar (sucrose) because sucrose contains glucose and fructose in a 50/50 ratio. But since most consumables are made with HFCS-42 (in foods and baked goods) or HFCS-55 (in beverages), the fructose-glucose ratio is close enough that most experts don’t deem HFCS signicantly different from sugar.
In a recent lecture given at UCSF, Dr. Robert Lustig notes that the main charge against HFCS is not a chemical difference from table sugar, but an economic one. HFCS is cheaper to produce and it works marvelously as a flavor enhancer. As a result, HFCS has found its way into a majority of our processed foods. As a nation, we are eating more sugar than we ever have and one of the main culprits seems to be the cheap and ready availability of HFCS.
The graph below from the USDA shows the trends in the consumption of various sugars over the past 40 years. You can see that corn syrup had replaced cane sugar as the dominant sweetening agent by the mid 80’s. As the use of corn syrup has surged, our total caloric intake of sugars has risen correspondingly.
This trend is alarming because over-consumption of refined sugar, be it table sugar or HFCS, is detrimental to health. There is mounting evidence that the fructose component of the refined sugars is down right dangerous (yes, fructose, the fruit sugar!). When fructose is isolated from the plant mass, you lose your satiety signal, and it leaves you vulnerable to overeating. Which is exactly what I experienced after having a desperation-cupcake yesterday. Have you experienced this before? Craving more food after having sweets? And that’s only the tip of the iceberg. Read what the American Heart Association has to say about the effect of sugar intake (including fructose) on cardiovascular health. In any case, my point is that the arguments of each camp in the HFCS debate (HFCS is bad for you, and HFCS is equivalent to sugar) are not mutually exclusive.
To me, the HFCS controversy is emblematic of a larger problem in our relationship with food – a fragmented food chain. There’s rarely a week that goes by without some news about contamination in our food supply (for example, this week’s stories on BPA and e-coli – again!). This happens because many of us have relegated food preparation to the industrial food complex. When we do this, we become so removed from the origins of our food that it becomes more difficult to know what is healthy or safe. My strategy for staying above the fray? Stay away from processed foods, get in the kitchen and roll up your sleeves with some wholesome foods and good recipes.
What’s your take on high fructose corn syrup? Has the HFCS controversy changed your eating or shopping habits? If so, how?
*Although sound in theory, it seems to me that the more processed a food is, the higher the likelihood for contamination. This Washington Post article from earlier this year reported findings of mercury in high fructose corn syrup.
Sugar cubes photo by: Vali…
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| Categories: | Uncategorized | 5 Comments |
Sci-Fi Toaster
How nice would it be to actually SEE when your toast is done?
Well…you’ll have to wait a wee-bit longer. The manufacturer is still working on the glass technology to enable enough heat to actually toast the bread. But hey – it’s something to look forward to!
Photo: Cnet.com
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New! The Amazing Ingred-o-Matic!
Ever wondered what’s in an apple pie? Or, what ingredients go into a typical borscht?
Wonder no more! Introducing the amazing Ingred-o-Matic! from Foodista Labs. Give it a dish, and — it slices! it dices! — it purées away the fluff to identify the most common ingredients that go into making that very dish†.
† Well, not really. What we really do is query our extensive collection of structured recipe data, bin the results, and generate histograms of the ingredients.
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| Categories: | labs | 2 Comments |
Raw Tacos
There’s no meat in the fridge, no canned salmon in the cabinet, not even a packet of spam. What’s a woman to feed a carnivorous husband? So I found a recipe for raw tacos! Walnuts? Check. Spices? Check. Soy Sauce? Check. Food processor? Not so much, but I’m resourceful and make do with a coffee grinder.
After grinding, mixing, and using over sized lettuce leaves as shells, I served these tacos to my husband. He protested a little, but he tried a bite. And he liked it! He and I both agree that thanks to using the same spices that you would normally use in taco meat, it tasted just like a normal taco. He even enjoyed the lettuce leaves as a shell. Children might like this recipe too, ok maybe not the lettuce leaf.
Try it for yourself! Just drop a glob of guacamole, mango rawlsa, and some rawesome sour cream and you’ll have a meatless, vegan, gluten-free meal! Feeling adventurous? Try making your own raw taco shells, maybe even explore some other raw, meatless international food like Raw Pad Thai or Rawssian borscht!
Today is National Nachos Day, so how about you mix up a little meatless, raw nachos by making Spicy Corn Raw Tortilla Chips, Raw Nacho Cheese, and Raw Refried Beans. Of course you could also just use meatless refried beans if you don’t want to go all out raw, but hey, guacamole can always be raw right?
Photo by Geoff604.
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| Categories: | Meatless Monday • Mexican • Nuts • Vegetarian | 1 Comment |
