On Picky Eaters

Complaint Box | Picky Eaters

Excerpt:

having a simple dinner with the people I love now requires a nutritionist, an Excel spreadsheet and considerably more patience and culinary skill than I possess.

The very last straw was a friend who called before her family came for dinner and — without a hint of shame — presented me with a detailed list of their food requirements: Her husband doesn’t care for shrimp, her son requires a pasta side dish with every meal, and none of them eat the dark meat of chicken, which she dismissed savagely as “dreck.”

I have had enough with people who want to have it their way, and I am done catering to the quirks of food-obsessed numskulls. If you eat in my home, I will grudgingly respect medically diagnosed allergies, since it puts a pall on conversation when a guest goes into anaphylactic shock at the dinner table. But beyond that, I expect you to eat what you can, ignore the rest and not make trouble. On Thursday, 15 people are sitting down to Thanksgiving dinner at my house, and with God as my witness, I promise you this: There will be dark meat.

Comment: My Father in Law would not eat fish of any kind. He also did not want any foods on his plate to touch other foods (vegetables must not touch mashed potatoes!). I have a relative who announced that he would not eat ham ... but then had three helpings of the same at a dinner. Or another ... only free range chicken. On the other hand I will not eat squash.

Healthier chips and fries?

Settlement reached in potato chip lawsuit

Excerpt:

Four food manufacturers agreed to reduce levels of a cancer-causing chemical in their potato chips and french fries under a settlement announced Friday by the state attorney general's office.

California sued H.J. Heinz Co., Frito-Lay, Kettle Foods Inc., and Lance Inc. in 2005, alleging they violated a state requirement that companies post warning labels on products with carcinogens.

The companies avoided trial by agreeing to pay a combined $3 million in fines and reduce the levels of acrylamide in their products over three years, officials said.

"Other companies should follow this lead," Attorney General Jerry Brown said, calling the settlement "a victory for public health."

Acrylamide forms naturally when starchy foods are baked or fried. Studies have shown the chemical, which also has industrial uses, causes cancer in lab animals and nerve damage to workers who are exposed to high levels. The Food and Drug Administration is researching whether acrylamide in food poses a health risk.

"Everybody's trying to figure out how to lower levels (of acrylamide) without significantly, adversely affecting taste," said Michele Corish, an attorney for Lance, which produces Cape Cod chips.

Comment: Hard to believe that even this action would make these foods "good" (but I like them!)

Eaten In One Week Around The World

What Is Eaten In One Week Around The World

HT: Approaching North

Comment: Photo essay. Photos from Hungry Planet: What the World Eats .

Since I am not that involved in the grocery / cooking side of our household (that's an understatement), I'm not sure what the Peet family spends on groceries per week.

McDonalds and the food fascists

Lovin' it all over

Excerpts:

McDonald's exemplifies the role of small businesses in Americans' upward mobility. The company is largely a confederation of small businesses: 85 percent of its U.S. restaurants — average annual sales, $2.2 million — are owned by franchisees. McDonald's has made more millionaires, and especially black and Hispanic millionaires, than any other economic entity ever, anywhere.

McDonald's has 14,000 restaurants in America, another 17,000 in 117 other countries. The company will add another 1,000 in 2008, more than 90 percent of them abroad. Such is the power of the McDonald's brand, 48 percent of the people of India were aware of McDonald's before it opened its first restaurant on the subcontinent.


Skinner's job is to maximize shareholder value. Shareholders should be pleased. The value of their stock has more than doubled during his three-year tenure. McDonald's stock will have either the best or second-best (if second, only to Merck & Co.) gain among the Dow industrials this year.


The food fascists are not pleased. Pursing their lips and waxing censorious at the mere mention of McDonald's, they blame it for fat people. But although it might seem peculiar to cite McDonald's customers as evidence of Americans' increasing health consciousness, consider this: Red meat has become suspect and McDonald's now sells as much chicken as beef — 150 percent more chicken in dollar volume than just five years ago.


Do the arithmetic, says Skinner. Americans eat 90 meals a month. The average American, who has 900,000 restaurants to choose from, eats three of those meals at McDonald's. Surely the other 87 meals are more of a problem. Even McDonald's core customers, who eat there 50 times a year, consume more than 1,000 meals elsewhere.


Comment: We eat at McDonalds about 5 times a year - typically on road trips. The point is that while some blame McDonalds for America's obesity epidemic, McDonalds does provide healthy choices and should not be condemned for the poor choices some make.

Florida Fish Fraud

Something's fishy in Florida restaurants

Excerpts:

Gonzmart, whose family has owned the Columbia restaurant in Tampa's Cuban-American Ybor City section for four generations, won't serve grouper, because he can't be sure he is getting the real thing from his suppliers.

Many restaurants in Florida have been caught passing off Asian catfish, tilapia or other cheaper species as grouper. Fake grouper is by far the biggest food-misrepresentation problem Florida inspectors handle.
...
In the Miami area, inspectors walked into a food processing plant and found workers taking 6,000 pounds of Vietnamese catfish that sells wholesale for about $2.50 a pound and repackaging it as grouper, which goes for about $6 wholesale.

And that hurts fishermen like Michael Athorn. He and his three-man crew spend up to 12 days 60 to 70 miles from shore in the Gulf of Mexico, trying to reach the 6,000-pound catch limit for grouper, which has to be caught on individual hooks.

Back on shore he has often found restaurants advertising grouper and putting something else on a plate.


Comments: Kathee and I have eaten at Columbia in Ybor City. Minnesota has had our own fish fraud: Walleye or Zander? What Are You Really Eating?

The most expensive dessert in the world

New York's $25,000 dessert sets Guinness record

Excerpt:

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A day after New York City came up with a $1,000 bagel, a local restaurateur unveiled a $25,000 chocolate sundae on Wednesday, setting a Guinness world record for the most expensive dessert.

Stephen Bruce, owner of Serendipity 3, partnered with luxury jeweler Euphoria New York to create the "Frrozen Haute Chocolate," a blend of 28 cocoas, including 14 of the most expensive and exotic from around the globe.

The dessert, spelled with two Rs, is infused with 5 grams (0.2 ounces) of edible 23-karat gold and served in a goblet lined with edible gold. At the base of the goblet is an 18-karat gold bracelet with 1 carat of white diamonds.

The sundae is topped with whipped cream covered with more gold and a side of La Madeline au Truffle from Knipschildt Chocolatier, which sells for $2,600 a pound.

It is eaten with a gold spoon decorated with white and chocolate-colored diamonds, which can also be taken home.

Comment: Be sure to look at the pictures associated with the article (link above). Actually it doesn't look that good. I would take Haagen Dazs cherry vanilla over this (my idea of an expensive dessert!)

Steel cut oatmeal

We tried this this week: McCann’s Oatmeal

What are Steel-cut oats?


Steel-cut oats are also known as coarse-cut oats, pinhead oats, Scotch oats, or Irish oats. In comparison, the other main variety, rolled oats, are flake oats that have been steamed, rolled, re-steamed and toasted.

Impression: tastier, more pleasant texture than rolled!

575 year old bratwurst recipe

Historian finds oldest recipe for bratwurst

Excerpt:

BERLIN (Reuters) - A hobby historian has discovered the oldest known recipe for German sausage, a list of ingredients for Thuringian bratwurst nearly 600 years old.

According to the 1432 guidelines, Thuringian sausage makers had to use only the purest, unspoiled meat and were threatened with a fine of 24 pfennigs -- a day's wages -- if they did not, a spokesman for the German Bratwurst Museum said Wednesday.

Medieval town markets in Germany had committees charged with monitoring the quality of produce. Thuringian bratwursts, which are made of beef and pork, are symbols of Germany's cultural heritage and ubiquitous snacks at football matches.

Historian Hubert Erzmann, 75, found the ancient recipe, inscribed with pen and ink in a heavy tome of parchment, earlier this year while doing research in an archive in the eastern town of Weimar, museum spokesman Thomas Maeuer said.

"The discovery shows that there were already consumer protection laws in the Middle Ages," he said.

Comment: I love bratwurst (but I'm not sure bratwurst loves me!). I especially like bratwurst with dark stone ground mustard and sauerkraut. I only have this about three times a year: Memorial Day, 4th of July, and Labor Day.

Crescent Moon Bakery

Kathee and I took a drive this afternoon over to the Crescent Moon Bakery. North Minneapolis is a true cross cultural zone in Minnesota. On Central there are Vietnamese restaurants, Indian restaurants, and Afghanee restaurants. Further North in Columbia Heights there is a Jerusalem market! The residents have learned to co-exist! The Crescent Moon is Arabic. Al Jazeera is displayed on a large flat screen monitor in the restaurant. English is spoken but not often heard.

Address: 2339 Central Ave. NE, Minneapolis

The Crescent Moon is a combination bakery, grocery, and restaurant. We've eaten there before and it is very good. Today's trip (it actually wasn't our destination - we were wandering) was to buy dried fruit. Today I bought dried white mulberries and dried plums.

Mulberries are an excellent snack ... so tasty. Kathee is not that fond of them. More for me! The dried fruit we bought today are products of Pakistan.

For the Love of a Good Burger

Comment: Like the juxtaposition of this article by the vegan article? They call that "editorial policy"!

For the Love of a Good Burger

The Minimalist
For the Love of a Good Burger
By MARK BITTMAN
Published: May 23, 2007
It’s almost as easy to cook a really great burger as it is to cook a mediocre one.

Comment: My wife makes great hamburgers. She puts sun dried tomatoes and onions in them! Stone ground mustard is an essential condiment!

Death by Veganism

Death by Veganism

Op-Ed Contributor
Death by Veganism
By NINA PLANCK
Published: May 21, 2007
You cannot create and nourish a robust baby merely on foods from plants.

Excerpt:

Indigenous cuisines offer clues about what humans, naturally omnivorous, need to survive, reproduce and grow: traditional vegetarian diets, as in India, invariably include dairy and eggs for complete protein, essential fats and vitamins. There are no vegan societies for a simple reason: a vegan diet is not adequate in the long run.

My view: Less meat is good ... no meat is bad!

Was He the Eggman?

I post this only because I like Eggs Benedict (from Perkins!)

According to the NY Times, here's its history:

New York Region / The City
Was He the Eggman?
By GREGORY BEYER
Published: April 8, 2007
A dashing turn-of-the-century Wall Streeter may have invented eggs Benedict. Or maybe not.

Wiki: Eggs Benedict

Will Diners Still Swallow This?

A Hardee’s Monster Thickburger

Will Diners Still Swallow This?

Business / Your Money
Will Diners Still Swallow This?
By ANDREW MARTIN
Published: March 25, 2007
On your plate, a battle between profit and portions.

Comment: From a dieter! Eating out is bad for your waist!

Dried Fruit snacks

Last year I was in a bad habit of having dessert every night after dinner: ice cream, cookies, etc. Virtually every night I was having something.

This year I have been having dried fruit. Some comments:

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While I had eaten a Fig Newton before ... I had never eaten a fig before 2007. As we were reading the New Testament, Kathee and I had a discussion about dates and figs. I said that I did not know the difference. We shopped for them at Lund's and bought a small carton of each. A fig is not a fruit of beauty but what it lacks in looks it makes up in taste! Read about figs. We buy them in the Lund's produce department. Eight Ways Figs Keep You Healthy

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Read about dates

We buy also buy dates in Lund's produce department. Oh the taste! Plus they are chewy (and a little sticky)!

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We also buy dried apricots at Lund's. I'm not sure which aisle Kathee gets these in but it is not in produce.

Kathee typically prepares a small plate of dried fruit to accompany our coffee. Tonight I had 1 fig, 2 dates, and 2 apricots. I understand that this is approximately 100 calories. And they are good, healthy, vitamin rich and satisfying calories.

Healthy Sodas

Makers of Sodas Try a New Pitch: They’re Healthy

Excerpt:

In coming months, both companies will introduce new carbonated drinks that are fortified with vitamins and minerals: Diet Coke Plus and Tava, which is PepsiCo’s new offering.

They will be promoted as “sparkling beverages.” The companies are not calling them soft drinks because people are turning away from traditional soda, which has been hurt in part by publicity about its link to obesity.

Comment: You will be able to drink your vitamins? I hope Starbucks joins this trend!

Kathee's White Chili recipe

Ingredients:

2 (4oz) cans	Green Chilies
3 (15oz) cans	Great Northern Beans (drained)
1 lb	Cooked Chicken Breast (cubed)
1 cup	Yellow Onion (chopped)
1/2 teaspoon (TSP)	Garlic Powder
2 TSP	Cumin
1/2 TSP	Salt
1/2 TSP	Oregano
3 1/2 cups	Chicken Broth
Sour Cream
flour tortillas or tortilla chips
Shredded Monterey Jack or Pepper Jack cheese

Combine all ingredients except last three in a crock pot or stock pot on a stove. In crock pot cook for 8-10 hours on low or 4-5 hours on high. Or on the stove cook for 1 hour.

Serve with sour cream, tortillas / chips, and top with cheese

For a lower calorie meal, skip the sour cream, chips, and cheese

Compare Simply Recipes: White Chili Recipe

Colossal Burger

On some menus, one plate packs 2,000 calories

Excerpt:

The examples included Ruby Tuesday’s Colossal Burger, which weighs in at around 1,940 calories and includes 141 grams of fat. That doesn't even include the fries on the side. Another entree from Ruby Tuesday, the Fresh Chicken and Broccoli Pasta, has 2,060 calories and 128 grams of fat, thanks in part to a parmesan cream sauce and layer of melted cheese.

Comment: Oh God help me to eat right!

Angioplasta

"extreme eating"

Excerpt:

Ruby Tuesday's offers an entree called Fresh Chicken & Broccoli Pasta so loaded with cheese and other stuff that it tipped the scales at 2,060 calories and 128 grams of fat, he said. Jacobson dubbed it "Angioplasta," alluding to angioplasty, a medical procedure to open clogged arteries.

The average daily calorie requirement is about 2,000 for women and 2,500 for men.

Contrast with ... Subway

Twinkie, Deconstructed

Mmmm, Tasty Chemicals

Excerpt:

If you've ever puzzled over why packaged foods contain "polysorbate 60" or "mono and diglycerides," Ettlinger's new book, "Twinkie, Deconstructed," is a treat you'll want to try. Chapter by chapter, Ettlinger—the author of previous food books like "Beer for Dummies"—decodes all 39 ingredients in the little crème-filled cakes. He explains their uses and the processes by which raw materials are "crushed, baked, fermented, refined and/or reacted into a totally unrecognizable goo or powder with a strange name," which then appears on a label full of other incomprehensible and barely pronounceable ingredients. Unraveling it all was a major undertaking—and Ettlinger received no help from Hostess and its parent company, Interstate Brands Corp., despite appealing directly to the Vice President of Cake

Order the book here: Twinkie, Deconstructed

I'm looking forward to reading this book.