Food Falsificationism vs. Real Food
Posted on 4 January 2008 under Food In The News, Ingredients | 5 Comments
Yesterday the CBC posted an article titled, “Something’s fishy: Restaurant customers in Florida being served fake grouper”:
The Florida Department of Business & Professional Regulation, which regulates restaurants, found 139 cases of something other than grouper being sold as the fish between January 2006 through the end of last October … In the Miami area, inspectors walked into a food processing plant and found workers taking 2,722 kilograms of Vietnamese catfish that sells wholesale for about $2.50 per 500 grams and repackaging it as grouper, which goes for about $6 wholesale.
Are you appalled? Disgusted? Confused as to how this could happen?
Well, lemme tell ya’, this is nothing new. It’s an old problem that just seems to be getting worse. Not only that, it’s getting closer to home as well and in all the wrong ways.
I recall first hearing about this issue back in the mid-1970s. If you’re as old as I am you may remember a little novel and a subsequent movie about a shark. The film didn’t include a subplot from the novel detailing a steamy affair between Richard Dreyfuss’ character of marine biologist Matt Hooper, and Ellen Brody, the Chief’s wife, played by Lorraine Gary. Within this subplot in the novel, the two characters are having dinner at a restaurant when Hooper mentions the scallops are actually cod cut with a cookie cutter.
Imitation crab is usually pollock that’s been made into a surimi prior to cooking. While these packages of imitation crab are labeled as such in grocery stores, there’s no such labeling when your kids eat it in that cheese-covered Seafood Delight at a Chinese buffet. Surimi can also be used to make imitation shrimp, along with salmon burgers containing no salmon whatsoever, and even imitation ham and lunchmeats.
City Chicken Legs is a forgivable sin, known to be chunks of pork arranged on a wooden skewer so they look like chicken legs. Mary grew up on the ones from Lee Williams’ House of Meats, which we still enjoy on occasion. Even Chicken-Fried Steak is alright in this area, not having any chicken in it whatsoever, known to be steak that’s fried like, and subsequently looks like, fried chicken.
In the video on this page about making Individual Beef Wellingtons, Chef Tad of the Frog Leg Inn in Erie, Michigan explained for my camera how Jaccards are illegal in France. Apparently other kinds of meat tenderizers may be illegal there as well. As Chef Tad explains in the video, this is because someone could use these items to pass one cut of meat off as a better cut. When he said that, it made me wonder how often that might be happening in kitchens across the country.
Unfortunately, this issue of making one food to look like another has taken a nasty turn. Two cookbooks are out now, Deceptively Delicious and The Sneaky Chef. Both of these books advocate making “kid-friendly” foods that hide nutritious ingredients so your kids will eat them. Slate.com’s Mimi Sheraton explored the wrong messages sent by these authors:
The twin major flaws in this faulty reasoning, are that, first, children get the wrong message that sweets and starches are good for them … ultimately, and more seriously perhaps, lying to children via trickery—even “for their own good”—can feed a lifetime of distrust, as it should. I wonder how these undercover mothers keep their secrets … A second problem raised by this hide-the-veggies duo is the invisibility of vegetables in their own recognizable forms. As a result, children are not afforded the opportunity to get used to the idea of trying and learning about them. Nor will they consider them necessary for good health.
Foods are best when they’re treated with respect, when they’re given the opportunity to really shine. This is part of why my Traditional Chicken Noodle Soup is so popular. (Mary just took the last of that batch to work for her lunch.) Made right, you can taste the individual ingredients in this soup, each one also showing its own texture. There are no secret ingredients … eating this soup, anyone could figure out how it was made.
Shortly after my moving to Luna Pier in 2004, Mary got me hooked on simple roasted potatoes. She would cube some potatoes, coat them in a bit of olive oil, add a few herbs and spices, and oven-roast them in single layers on baking sheets, turning them occasionally, until they were crispy and golden-brown. These roasted potato cubes became the basis for my German-Polish Oven-Roasted Potato Salad, which a certain local ABC reporter can eat by the pound. (I understand he used to take it to the studio in the morning and have it for breakfast!) I haven’t made this for him in a while … maybe it’s about time I did this again …
Last night at the Olive Garden at Monroe and Talmadge in Toledo I had their Steak Gorgonzola Alfredo. If I were to make this, the beef tenderloin would have been grilled medium-rare first, then sliced into the medallions to be placed on top of the pasta alfredo. That they’d sliced the tenderloin and then grilled it to medium-rare turned out to be alright. The beef was still moist and tender. This simple dish was incredibly good, especially for a chain restaurant.
I don’t talk much about my ex-wife’s cooking, but one dish she does extremely well is fried beef livers. She simply dredges the livers in flour and gently fries them in a shallow bit of melted shortening. Even the kids like this dish. It’s tender, moist and very flavorful, unlike beef livers they may have pushed aside somewhere else.
What’s my 10-year-old’s favorite vegetable? Raw broccoli. Do my kids like oysters? Absolutely … ice cold, on the half-shell. Do they know how to shell crab legs? Yup. What about rabbits? They help breed them and sometimes assist in the butchering. What do they like to ask for, for their birthday dinners? Grilled stuffed whole pork loin. Fresh steamed shrimp from The Fish Market? Deep-fried alligator from the Frog Leg Inn? They eat these things like candy. And they really like Bob’s handmade turtle soup from his Chateau Louise here in Luna Pier.
Please … don’t lie to your kids when you make them something. My rule is that they’re to try something once. If they’re iffy about it, maybe they should try it twice. But then they can make their own decision about whether or not they like something. If they don’t like it, that’s fine.
For example, Briahna doesn’t like corn bread. She loves corn otherwise, even pickled baby corn (which she used to eat like the larger cobs, one little row at a time). But she’ll even eat corn dogs with the coating removed.
Sure, that’s fine. Of course, that’s ammo for teasing her. She just glares when a box of Jiffy Corn Muffin Mix shows up in her stocking at Christmas …
Treat yourself and your friends and family to real food. Real crab meat. Real vanilla extract. Real beef with no soy fillers. Real ham in an omelet made with real eggs. Real sauerkraut with no vinegar to quicken fermentation, just cabbage and salt.
And real chocolate ice cream, made with real milk.
Your taste buds will thank you.
Steamy Kitchen and her Szechuan Peppercorns
Posted on 24 July 2007 under Food Blogs, Ingredients | 2 Comments
Back on the 4th of July, this particular 4-year-old face let me know he’d picked me as the winner of some authentic Szechuan Peppercorns from his mommy, Jaden of Steamy Kitchen, born in Hong Kong, now a food writer and cooking instructor in Sarasota, Florida. I received these four bags a few days later, but waited until I found a decent peppermill to use them in prior to opening any of the packages.
One of Jaden’s things was to insist, more than once, that I pop a couple of the whole peppercorns in my mouth outside the peppermill and just chew them up.
Ok. Sure, I’m game for that. These things have a great smell right through the bag.
That should have told me something. But, I wasn’t listening …
Tonight, I set up the above shot, loaded the peppermill, set the grind, and finished it. After shooting the photo, I grabbed a couple of the peppercorns and popped them into my mouth. Chewing them, I found them to be similar to chewing on a dried flower and just as difficult, so I set them between my front teeth and chomped them to bits.
It’s occured to me now that a civilization 2,000 years old has their own brand of horticulture down pat. Somewhere along the line, one of those Hong Kongians invented the horticultural equivalent of a 15-second-timer. Why? ‘Cuz that’s when the front of my tongue felt as though it had been hit with lemon-flavored dynamite. Kinda like getting a puddle of Lemon Pledge concentrate right there at the tip of my tongue, along with the tips of more than a few bamboo needles.
I tried rubbing the stuff off on the backs of my front teeth. Stoopid thing to do … where exactly had I been chewing the darn peppercorns?? Yeah, ok, off for some ice cold 2% milk to stop the chemical action on my tastebuds, and maybe keep my eyes from watering any further.
Drat. These things are immune to milk. Figures.
Ya’ know, the end of an orange popsicle tastes really odd when mixed with the intense zing of a chewed Szechuan peppercorn. At least the nerve endings are numb now. Could be a chemical burn, who knows.
Note to self: You’ve been readings Jaden’s blog for a while now. When are ya’ gonna learn …
p.s., Hey, Jaden! Just so you know, these things have an amazing flavor! But for me, only when ground and used in smaller amounts!
Anybody seen my eyeballs?
Erie Orchards & Cider Mill, Erie, Michigan
Posted on 22 July 2007 under Food Destinations, Ingredients, Michigan Cuisine, Shopping | No Comments
Who knew that this kind of great stuff was so close?? I should have, but I’d yet to take the time to find out! This half-gallon of ice cold apple cider was already gone shortly after buying it. And if this Vidalia Onion & Picante Salsa is any indication, with its rich tomatoey flavor and picante “kick”, the Key Lime Margarita Hot Sauce with Fresh Cilantro is going to be something worth savoring when I open it later today.
When I was growing up in Grand Blanc, Michigan, one of our regular, almost-weekly trips was the short drive to Porter’s Orchard & Cider Mill in nearby Goodrich. I know Porter’s is still in operation over 40 years later as I’ve taken my own kids there. I’d heard of Erie Orchards & Cider Mill over in Erie, Michigan, and made it one of the first links in the sidebar to the right based solely on what folks have told me. Yesterday, I finally got over there … but only by chance, as the kids and I were actually just on our way back to Luna Pier from the petting zoo when I spotted the sign. I’m glad we stopped in, though, as Erie Orchards & Cider Mill brought back a lot of great memories about Porter’s Orchard & Cider Mill from when I was a kid.
The front of the barn gives very little indication of what’s inside:
If I had taken photos of every area of each of the four rooms inside the barn, this would be a very long entry! (Oh, right, there’s a window into the pressing room as well, which makes five, but the press wasn’t running so there’s no photo this time.) This is part of the shelf area in the first room you walk into:
There’s also a candy room, a pantry room with dressings, sauces, honey and such, and a gift/knick-knack room containing some wonderful items. As Erie Orchards has been in business 30 years now, they’ve had plenty of time to assemble a nice store with some great products, including a large number of their own label products.
I did have one rather pleasant surprise there, and though I didn’t act on it, I definitely plan to. Erie Orchards carries one rather obscure brand that I used to have a connection to: Paisley Farms pickled products, out of Willoughby, Ohio. My kids have a great aunt who recently retired from Paisley Farms. I used to get gift boxes of Paisley Farms products from her, and every last item, from the relishes, to the marinated mushrooms, to the four bean salad, are exceptional. This wonderful woman knew how much I loved Paisley Farms’ pickled baby corn. If, at work, they were packing it on a day I was visiting her house, and if she could get the batch overrun, I’d end up with almost a full gallon jar of the stuff!
[Ok, alright, I’ll try the Key Lime Margarita Hot Sauce with Fresh Cilantro … sheesh …]
As soon as the bottle is opened, there’s this beautiful aroma of fresh limes. I poured a puddle of the sauce onto a sesame water cracker to try it. The flavor is nice and fruity, and a medium jalapeño “kick” hits later … but not too hard. This hot sauce would be great on chicken, grilled salmon, eggs, etc. Anyone who knows me knows my affinity for Joe Perry’s hot sauces. I would say Erie Orchard’s Key Lime Margarita Hot Sauce with Fresh Cilantro compliments Joe’s own sauces nicely (particularly the axe-man’s Mango Peach Tango Hot Sauce), filling in in those few instances where neither of his would work well.
Be sure to check out Erie Orchards & Cider Mill’s web site, particularly their calendar of events. You may find us at some of those events … umm, except for that Country Music Extravaganza on September 15th and 16th … oh, wait, there’s antique cars that weekend, too … maybe I can tolerate the music … hmmm … [yes, dear, there’s a Country Music Extrava … what’s that? … ok, sure, we’ll go …] 
Ed Levine and The “Food Sur-Thrival Kit”
Posted on 17 July 2007 under Ingredients, Kitchen Gear | No Comments
Over on Serious Eats, founder Ed Levine talks about an interesting concept: a “Food Sur-Thrival Kit”.
Everyone has their own version of a Food Sur-Thrival Kit, a small group of reasonably priced go-to foods that we try to keep around at all times, so that no matter how bedraggled we feel when we get home, we can whip up a pleasure-inducing, satisfying meal in twenty minutes or less any time of the day or night any day of the year. You not only survive on these foods, you thrive on them. Hence the name.
I like Ed’s list. It’s a lot more creative than mine. Of course he’s been at this a little longer than I have. I think he’s seen “The Producers” a few too many times based on how he’s maxxed out on his bialy stock …
Here’s my own Food Sur-Thrival Kit:
- Chef Geno’s Spices - I keep four spices from the Alden Mill House in my pantry at all times: Farm Market Salad Seasoning: Great on salads, fish, pork, etc., I found out right away it’s also excellent on eggs; Pork & Poultry Seasoning: A nice rub for both pork and poultry, it’s good for these items when used in other dishes as well, such as chicken salad; Miracle Blend: I probably go through a full pound of this stuff every six months or so. A mix of Kosher salt, pepper, garlic powder and other niceties, this is my go-to spice for everything from fried or scrambled eggs, to mashed potatoes, steamed, blanched or fried vegetables, and countless other uses.; Malibar Island Pepper: A 50/50 mix of both Malibar Island and Tellicherry peppers, this stuff is so fresh, you can stick your nose in the jar, take a BIG whif, and not sneeze! Oh, and it tastes great, too!
- Breakfast Stuff - I could easily eat breakfast meals for every meal, every day. Mary and I are not discussing the possibility of actually having our own Bed & Breakfast someday as it just seems the right thing to do. I have the Wear-Ever Lincoln Foodservice non-stick skillets as the cook-up eggs better than any other I’ve tried. Of course, there also have to be eggs, olive oil, 2% milk, Italian bread for toast, Alden Mill House Miracle Blend, and unsalted butter to put it all together correctly.
- Boneyard-brand Hot Sauces - From Aerosmith’s lead axe-man Joe Perry, these aren’t just any hot sauces. The Boneyard Brew has a rich tomato flavor, followed by a habañero pepper “kick”! The Mango Peach Tango sauce is sweet and mild, being excellent on omelets and such. I have my own batch of recipes for these sauces located here.
- Chicken breasts, pork steaks, ground chuck - These are my mainstays for entrées for variety. The versatility from these three items is pretty strong.
- Sweet Baby Ray’s Original BBQ Sauce - People seem to picky about their BBQ sauce around this house. This is the one we’ve all agreed on. Chef Tad at the Frog Leg Inn in Erie mixes this with raspberry puree for one of his current pork rib specials. It’s that good.
- Popsicles - Around here, the improptu dessert of choice!
Alden Mill House, Alden, Michigan
Posted on 11 July 2007 under Food Destinations, Ingredients, Shopping | No Comments
Two summers ago on our honeymoon, Mary and I rented a house near the northeast corner of the amazingly-clear Torch Lake, located between Traverse City and Charlevoix. As the lake is almost 20 miles long but very narrow, we decided one day we were going to simply drive around it and see all the sights. After passing the southeast corner and turning north in Elk Rapids, we ended up coming into a slew of traffic of both vehicles and pedestrians. Passing through a 90-degree-turn eastward, we found ourselves in the extremely busy little town of Alden. It was Thursday, at lunch-time, what the hey were all those people doing there?? It turns out that Alden, Michigan, is simply the little town every other little town hopes to become. They pack so much into a distance of about a half-mile, the whole place is a destination all its own.
Having lunch at a place called the Kountry Kitchen (now The Sweet Onion or something like that) I found some nice spices on the table. The address on the label indicated they were made right there in town. I’d ordered an omelet, and when it was brought to me, I followed my sister’s lead with her Lawry’s Seasoned Salt and sprinkled some Alden Mill House’s Farm Market Salad Seasoning on the omelet. Oh yeah, that was nice! The server said the mill house wasn’t far away, but I didn’t feeling like touring what I thought was an industrial facility. So, we went shopping instead.
In the tiny grocery in town, I picked up a couple Alden Mill House jars and took them to the counter. I was stunned when the girl at the register said they were cheaper at the mill house itself. Wait … you’re suggesting I get them elsewhere for less?? Wow …
Walking the rest of the way east to the next 90-degree-turn in the road, we finally saw the Alden Mill House. Good Sister Mary Margarita, I’m seeing Pippi Longstocking’s Villavillakula here!
These photos are from this past Friday, during our 4th or 5th visit to the Alden Mill House. As unkempt as the yard west of the house appears, it’s actually groomed this way by Chef Geno, a retired Chef, and owner of the Mill House and developer of the wonderful spices made there. The rest of that side of the yard is just as odd, but in a strangely-beautiful way:
Cottage Food on the 4th of July
Posted on 10 July 2007 under Eat This Blog, Ingredients, Kitchen Gear, Shopping | No Comments
I admit it: Mary and I weren’t on American soil on the 4th of July. Well, yes, we were in the morning, but by noon last Wednesday we were in Canada. Not just any Canada either. The Canadian First Nation unceded reservation of Walpole Island, located in the northern part of Lake St. Clair. We love it there! Mary’s brother owns a cottage right there on the St. Clair River (leasing the land from the First Nation people). There’s no phone, no internet connection of any kind, and only halfway-decent TV reception. Just Mary, the dog, and myself.
Before taking the ferry over, we stopped at a Kroger in New Baltimore, Michigan, for groceries for those next few days. Back in the meat case, we found these beautiful “gourmet” Angus burgers:
Review: Michigan Maple Barbecue Sauce
Posted on 24 June 2007 under Barbecuing, Grilling, Ingredients | 1 Comment
A few nights ago when serving ice cream, Mary reached into the fridge, opened a jar and was about to spoon the chocolate sauce onto the ice cream … when she caught a wiff of maple. Looking at the jar more closely, she realized what she had in her hand wasn’t chocolate sauce. It was Michigan Maple Barbecue Sauce.
Honestly, we have no clue where this stuff came from or how the still-sealed jar had landed in our fridge. Freaky …
Reading the label on the jar, I found the sauce was made by Sansonetti Gourmet Foods in Holly, Michigan, a little ways south of Flint. You can order their products online, or at a number of retail stores. Looking at the retail store list, we’re guessing one of my sisters had bought the jar at Oliver T’s in Grand Blanc and had brought it down at some point. We just don’t know when.
Last night I planned to grill a few pork steaks, along with some brats and hot dogs. Mary talked me into barbecuing those pork steaks with the Michigan Maple Barbecue Sauce. I seared the steaks over high heat so they’d get decent grill marks, then slow-cooked them over low heat at the other end of the grill. When they were almost done, I slathered on the sauce and let it glaze, over slightly higher heat for a few minutes.
Man, that stuff is good! When you bite into meat that’s been barbecued with Michigan Maple Barbecue Sauce, you get this great maple flavor. After a moment, you then get a bit of a rich and spicy barbecue flavor, but not enough to overpower the sweetness of the maple. I’m sure we’ll be getting more of it.
This jar, though, is a bit odd. It’s obviously pre-2006 as trans fats aren’t listed on the label. And it’s an older label than what’s shown on the manufacturer’s web site.
And even though the “use by” section of the label is blank (?), it’s still good. Yeah, that good!
U-Pick … Beef? and Where Your Food Comes From
Posted on 13 June 2007 under Food In The News, Ingredients, Shopping | 5 Comments
Yesterday, the CBC reported on the U-pick concept moving to ranchers of live cattle:
In as little as 40 days, [rancher Ivan Allin] says, he could have [an] animal packaged and in your freezer … The secret to a good cut of beef is animal health and there is no better way to tell the health of an animal than to see it for yourself … Last year he sold six animals to customers directly, and this year he has set aside 20 head to be sold through the you-pick operation … A customer who wants a side of beef can stop by the farm … Once an animal is chosen, depending on its development, Allin will finish fattening it up and then send it to a local butcher where it is cut and wrapped … A side of beef will yield between 126 and 135 kilograms [278 to 298 lbs] of steaks, roasts and hamburger and run between $800 and $900 [Canadian dollars].
Actually, that’s a pretty good price for such a bundle of meat, being about $3 a pound. Not bad at all. Lee William’s House of Meats in Point Place offers a Mini Side of Beef, with a take-home weight of 50.5 lbs, for $219.99.
But there’s a problem with Ivan Allin’s U-Pick Steak Farm. Simply look at the picture of two calves on the front page of the farm’s web site. You did it, didn’t you? You took one look at that picture and went, “Awwwwww, how cute“, right? Yeah, I thought that was you. Honestly, I did the same thing …
There’s a serious disconnect between where food actually comes from and how people see that food in the marketplace or in a restaurant. For the longest time, I could not for the life of me understand why King Crab is as costly as it is. But once the job of fishing in the Bering Sea was named one of the world’s most dangerous jobs, and I became a regular viewer of the resulting non-fiction show, “Deadliest Catch“, well, I now humbly understand.
Raising cattle used to be a way of life for a large majority of Americans. Cuteness of the animal aside, most people used to know where their dinner came from as they or a neighbor would raise it. My own kids continue to raise rabbits at their home near Tecumseh, participating in the butchering when it’s called for. They, at least, know where some of their food comes from.
There’s a rule, sometimes spoken, sometimes not, that you never name your dinner. When my mom was little, she had a pet rabbit she had, of course, named. One day, the rabbit disappeared … and the next day, when she looked closely at what was on her dinner plate, her dad said, “Oh, that’s just chicken, go ahead and eat it.”
Yeah, that made for some problems.
The rabbit breeders my kids deal with have names. The babies are never named, unless something happens where they’ll end up as a breeder. But the kids never name their dinner. And yes, they love eating rabbit, even ones they’ve played with as babies.
When you see a piece of meat in the meat case, or even if you happen to catch a glimpse of a full side of beef through the butcher shop window, do you have any inkling of where it came from? Do you consciously recall this steak was once alive, that the animal could physically look you in the eye?
No, I’m not trying to turn you into a non-meat-eater. I won’t even do that with myself.
What I want you to realize, dear reader, is that every cut of meat you deal with in your own kitchen or get at a restaurant deserves your utmost respect for giving its life for your sustenance.
Go pick out your dinner at least once. Not lobster or fish, as that’s a normal, everyday occurrence. Be daring at some point and find out where your food really comes from.
I’ve posted the following before, but it bears repeating. From Chef Anthony Bourdain’s brutal bestseller “A Cook’s Tour” comes this amazing paragraph on this same subject:
Understand this about me - and about most chefs, I’m guessing: For my entire professional career, I’ve been like Michael Corleone in The Godfather, Part II, ordering up death over the phone, or with a nod or a glance. When I want meat, I make a call, or I give my sous-chef, my butcher, or my charcutier a look and they make the call. On the other end of the line, my version of Rocco, Al Neary, or Lucca Brazzi either does the job himself or calls someone else who gets the thing done. Sooner or later, somewhere - whether in the Midwest, or upstate New York, or on a farm in rural Pennsylvania, or as far away as Scotland - something dies. Every time I have picked up the phone or ticked off an item on my order sheet, I have basically caused a living thing to die. What arrives in my kitchen, however, is not the bleeding, still-warm body of my victim, eyes open, giving me an accusatory look that says, “Why me, Tony? Why me?” I don’t have to see that part. The only evidence of my crimes is the relatively antiseptic boxed or plastic-wrapped appearance of what is inarguably meat. I had never, until I arrived in Portugal, had to look my victim in the face - much less watched at close range - as he was slaughtered, disemboweled, and broken down into constituent parts. It was only fair, I figured, that I should have to watch as the blade went in. I’d been vocal, to say the least, in my advocacy of meat, animal fat, and offal. I’d said some very unkind things about vegetarians. Let me find out what we’re all talking about, I thought. I would learn - really learn - where food actually comes from.
This is something we should all do.
Will U-Pick Beef ever show up in this area? I for one hope so, if only so people will give their food, their ingredients, their Sunday Dinner, the respect it deserves.
Sweet Baby Ray’s BBQ Sauce, the BIG Bottle
Posted on 9 June 2007 under Grilling, Ingredients | 4 Comments
Our prefered commercially-made BBQ sauce is Sweet Baby Ray’s. This is so good that, if you go to the menu page at the web site for the Frog Leg Inn and click on “Current Specials”, you’ll see the last special at the bottom of that page is “BBQ Ribs in Raspberry Sweet Baby Ray’s” which is, as Chef Tad describes it:
5 ounce single ribs marinated in Sweet Baby Ray’s original BBQ sauce with raspberry share the spotlight with homemade sweet potato fries and homemade creamy cole slaw. Let the grillin’ season begin!
This dish is quite good, and has been on the Specials page for two cycles now, over a month.
This morning, a 28 ounce bottle of Sweet Baby Ray’s original sauce at Kroger is just over three dollars. For a while now, I’d been looking at GFS Marketplace just in case they started carrying this sauce in larger containers since I use it so much. For example, there are pork ribs in the crock pot right now for BBQ pulled pork sandwiches for dinner this evening, and I have Sweet Baby Rays to mix in with the meat later today.
Well, I guess I should have bought the 80 ounce container of Sweet Baby Ray’s original sauce I finally saw at the GFS store in Ann Arbor yesterday. It was $10 … and I passed on it! Such a doofus I am …
I’m not sure if this container is available at the Monroe or Toledo GFS locations, but if so I’ll grab one next time I see it.
Fresh Asparaus: Where’s It From?
Posted on 7 May 2007 under Ingredients, Recipes, Shopping | 2 Comments
On CBC.ca, Judy Creighton of the Canadian Press talks about the 125-or-so asparagus growers along Lake Erie on the Canadian side of the lake. From the article:
… I was surprised last week find to out that what I thought was fresh asparagus from California at one vendor’s stall at my local farmers market was actually grown in Ontario. It was an early crop and an unusual find considering the cool spring weather.
If I could eat more asparagus, I certinly would. I’ll take it steamed with a little Kosher salt and some Hollandaise sauce, or grilled with a bit of unsalted butter. The article has a great photo of an Asparagus Tart, which they provide the recipe for in an article containing other recipes as well. They also describe six basic methods for cooking fresh homegrown asparagus. Of course, you can also pickle it if you feel so inclined.
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