The same old, same old meal doesn't satisfy

We have been taking my elderly mom out to breakfast on Sunday mornings for the last several years, and we normally end up at casino restaurants because that’s what she likes, and they’re easier to actually get into. Places like Pegs Ham n Eggs, or Squeeze In are mobbed on Sunday mornings plus the noise levels and lack of room to motor a 93-year-old through is ‘challenging’.

Lately, we’ve been frequenting Gold Dust West Casino in the Fourth Street part of Reno. It’s an interesting people watching venue for this observer of the human condition as it relates to food.

First, the food isn’t bad as casino coffee shops go. Really. And the prices are right. The service is really quite good also. So what’s my beef?

I’d rather pay more, and get less that’s ‘more’. That’s what. I’d rather go away satisfied, rather than merely full. I realize that only people who know me and have been around me for awhile ‘get’ that. What I’m trying to say here is, that a heaping plate of the cheapest, hastily tossed together food that America’s industrial food services industry can produce doesn’t ‘scratch that itch’ deeper down in my soul - on a more visceral level than my stomach.

Perhaps it’s like the difference between fast, convenient and available sex and really great ‘blow your hair backwards’ sex. Uh, I can ‘see’ a lot of men out there that aren’t hearing what I’m saying.

It’s heaps of essentially tasteless ‘food’, and if were just up to me, I’d rather be home with a really great bowl of cooked whole grains and fresh fruit, my husband and the newspaper. This is why I quit patronizing the fast food restaurants of America, and most of the chain restaurants, too. Their food, laboratory crafted to within an inch of it’s existence, is developed to appeal to the broadest possible audience at the cheapest price. It has no ‘taste’, not to mention actual nutrition.

One may as well be eating Soylent Green.

This is why I urge folks to eat local. Patronize the local establishment that, in turn, patronizes local purveyors and farmers. You can do this, even in a place like Reno. You may have to pay just a bit more, but you stand a much better chance of walking away satisfied - truly enriched by the meal you consumed.

-maven

Jamie Oliver: Power of food and a TED prize wish

Sharing powerful stories from his anti-obesity project in Huntington, W. Va., TED Prize winner Jamie Oliver makes the case for an all-out assault on our ignorance of food.

Jamie Oliver is transforming the way we feed ourselves, and our children

What's the problem with High Fructose Corn Syrup anyhow? Funny you should ask.

The folks who give us an entire grocery store filled with products containing High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) have produced some warm and fuzzy advertising to thwart the public’s concern over their product.

Maybe HFCS isn’t exactly DDT or dioxin, and we won’t die tomorrow from ingesting it. That isn’t the issue, and the industry doesn’t want to go where the real issues are, of course.

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Eat food.

Not ‘edible foodlike substances’.

That means, not the highly processed, laboratory engineered, corn and/or soy products which contain ingredients that no real person would have in their pantry.

Read the label.

Is there a ingredient on that label that you don’t and will never have on the shelf in your pantry or refrigerator?

Do you normally have a package of Hydrolyzed Vegetable Protein in there? How about Monoglycerides or Diglycerides? Pick some of that up at the grocery store the other day?

Do you normally have a jar of High Fructose Corn Syrup on the shelf?

No?

Then why are you eating it with your edible foodlike substances?

Eat food, not industrial novelties geared to support the corn and soy monoculture lobbyists and agribusiness like Monsanto.

American food supply less than safe. Time to become an activist.

I know I’ve been complaining about this for a long time, but how many kids need to be sent to the hospital before we do something?

Take a look at the statistics with European food supplies and ours. Theirs are safer, due to being locally grown by small farmers. We’ve allowed the Bigger Is Better mindset to takeover, thanks to Big Agribusiness and we’re sicker for it. And, it’s costing a fortune in back end care.

When will we get a clue about first, giving the USDA the teeth to do their job? Second, stop subsidizing Big Agribusiness and start buying locally … or at least regionally?

The food supply in our country is completely out of control, and it’s making us sick and fat.

Watch CBS News Videos Online

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Foodzie: Making finding unique locally grown foods easy

It’s that time of year for us to find that perfectly unique gift idea for friends, co-workers and family. And why not try your local area and small producers from around the country.

Foodzie makes this so incredibly easy, by providing interactive maps for local producers and their products that you probably didn’t know were even there.

I love fresh chestnuts and never knew there was a producer in Winters, California … which is on my way to the San Francisco Bay Area.

You’ll find every type of good food related idea and gift imaginable, and by the way, perhaps a good reason to get out for a weekend drive with friends or family to explore some of these areas. There are some absolutely amazing foodie ideas on this site, and from mom and pop enterprises. Hmmmm, I’m thinking back to that year I was making and selling cases of my jam…

Check this out, a single malt scotch chocolate caramel bar with Maldon sea salt flakes (OMG!), from BonBon Bar in Berkeley, California!

Or what about a perfect start to that boulliabase or gumbo:

12 Lies your menu is telling you

This is great. I love the job that ‘Eat This, Not That’ by Mens Health editor David Zinczenko. He’s really spot on in uncovering the clever marketing by restaurants - all designed to get into your wallet, and as a byproduct make a wasteland of your waistline (and arteries).

From the current Eat This, Not That:

The French term “faux ami” (literally, “false friend”) refers to a word that sounds like it should mean one thing, but doesn’t. And sometimes, reading a restaurant menu can feel a lot like deciphering a text in a foreign language that’s littered with these not-so-friendly “bons mots.” For example, using words like “crispy” (a euphemism for fat-soaked), “lightly breaded” (fat soaked, again) and “tempura” (…and again), restaurateurs try to make deep-fried food sound downright exotic.

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Veggies: Raw or cooked, or a tempest in a soup pot?

I get really annoyed by food faddists and trend followers that assert that we simply must return to the dawn of cave dwellers and eat everything in its raw, ‘natural’ state.

Here’s the bottom line for me: if it tastes good - eat it. I don’t like raw broccoli or cauliflower. I think they are bitter and awful. Raw carrots are good. Raw onions, well, not so much.

And, good luck getting kids to eat all that raw crap.

If you’ve been reading my blog much, you already know I celebrate the whole idea of cooking.

Food researchers have found upsides and downsides - often in the same vegetable - to justify using it either cooked or raw.

Here’s a good analysis of the issue as it appeared in Scientific American:

Fact or fiction: Raw veggies are healthier than cooked ones

Do vegetables lose their nutritional value when heated?

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Locavore? Let's get real, okay?

I love everything about being a locavore. That means eating food that is in season and grown within 100 miles, according to most, of where you live. Being a locavore would, in the ideal sense, mean really fresh, picked at the peak of ripeness, from Ma and Pa Farmer.

If you live in the central valley of California that might be possible. When you live in Nevada, not so much.

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Alice Waters on the frontlines to save our food

Okay, I had the video here but it won’t ‘not play’ without permission and I’m getting sick of hitting the mute button on my keyboard.

It’s a great segment on Alice Waters’ and her philosophy - slow food, grown locally and sustainably - that a lot of other people are starting to listen to and take very seriously indeed.

So catch it on the CBS news video with the provided link.

John Salley Food, Inc PSA

Interactive Tools: wine pairing simplified

I’ve taken wine appreciation classes and done tastings in the Napa Valley, but there are still those special occasions when a bit of backup verification on a wine selection would be nice.

Real Simple magazine has this nifty interactive wine selector - pick the food, pick the color wine, pick the body of wine and voila!

Global recession affects brands appearing on the store shelves

It’s amazing just how far the effects of the economic downturn - can you say D-E-P-R-E-S-S-I-O-N ? - is affecting every part of the market.

My favorite juices, by Kagome, are no more. I wondered what was happening when they started to disappear from the shelves at Whole Foods, I probably bought the last bottles. Here’s the statement from their website:

Due to economic conditions, we regret to inform you that Kagome has made the difficult decision to exit the U.S. juice market. Our products will be available at current retailers near you until supplies run out.

Our Kagome Inc. customized sauces will continue to be sold by our Food Service Division (www.Kagomeusa.com) in the United States and worldwide. Our parent company, Kagome CO., LTD (Japan), remains the largest producer of tomato products in Japan, preparing wholesome, nutritious food for the people of Japan for over 100 years using processes that respect and preserve nature’s ability to enhance your natural balance and well being.

For those who have purchased our juices in the past, we thank you for your support and for allowing us to share the past few years with you. We sincerely hope you have enjoyed this time as much as we have. Though we are saying goodbye, we would like to do so with the spirit that captures the essence of LIVE TRUE:

Good intentions meet the supermarket aisle

If you are about to engage the battle of the bulge then you can start out right by learning how to dodge the obvious bullets in your average supermarket aisle. Here are some super tips that will surprise you.

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Boston Family Foodie: 2008 in review

You’ve seen the books and the television shows: Frommer’s Australia from $50 a day among others and Rachel Ray’s $40 a day on the Food Network. It turns out that, according to NetAid, more than 1 billion people (that’s 1 in 6 people around the world) live in extreme poverty. Extreme poverty is defined as living on less than $1 a day.

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Website deal: Schokinag drinking chocolate

I got a card in the mail today for the SchokinagNA.com website offering a $5.00 discount on any gift set of drinking chocolate tins

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Simple, quick drizzle sauces for pasta or meat

By Mark Bittman TODAY recipes updated 9:01 a.m. PT, Fri., Nov. 14, 2008

Nothing could be easier or more versatile. All you have to do is boil some pasta or rice or broil a piece of chicken or fish, then get this going while it cooks. I’ll start you off with the base recipe — a kind of warm vinaigrette — and a handful of variations, but no doubt you’ll soon come up with even more ideas.

• 4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil or butter
• 1 tablespoon minced onion, garlic, ginger, shallot, scallion, or lemongrass
• 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice or mild vinegar, like balsamic
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper

1. Put the oil or butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. When the oil is warm or the butter is melted, add the onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until it softens (turn the heat down if it starts to color), a minute or two.

The mother of all farmers markets.

Ron and I went over to the Bay Area last weekend to visit the folks at Posit Science (that Brain Fitness Program that you’ve seen on PBS during their fundraising drives) and then up to Marin to visit the daughter and son-in-law to be, Michael.

On the last day we all decided to hit the Farmers Market over in the parking lot below the Marin Civic Center (that wonderful Frank Lloyd Wright building with the blue roof). It was sensory overload squared. It’ s a foodie paradise.

The diversity of product was absolutely astounding- almost as astounding as the number of Toyota Prius hybrids that could be found in the same public parking lot. This is the land of, what I call “REI Liberals”. They’re probably all good hearted folks deep down but shoppers in fancy shmancy expensive ‘casual’ clothing and pelotons of matchy-matchy spandex ‘cyclists’ give me heart burn. I ride a bike. It has baskets for groceries and straight handlebars. I’m too old for spandex.

But back to the market. Whole aisles devoted to artisan bakers, exotic potatoes, mushrooms, flowers and the most amazing BBQ’d oysters on the entire planet.

But as you can see from my little slide show here, this place is definitely worth the trip when you are in the area. Heck, they even had a tent where several professional massage therapists appeared to creating some deep and serious blissouts for several customers.

Lunch up.

maven