Lower The Drinking Age Already!
Posted on 21 August 2008 under Beer, Food In The News, Rants, Wine | 9 Comments
On occasion, things in the news drives me nuts.
This evening CNN has a follow-up article to an earlier article on a group of college presidents who want to see the legal drinking age lowered to 18.
There’s also a conversation about this over on Serious Eats. Here’s my comment from there:
Chart of legal drinking ages around the world … It’s a simple fact: The U.S. is one of few countries around the world with a drinking age of 21. College-age kids over 19 across the north can cross the border into Canada and not worry about it. Yes, I’m a Christian, but not being able to buy alcohol on Sunday mornings because of Puritan laws is also complete nonsense. If I want wine for Sunday dinner, I have to wait because of church? Fine, I’ll just go back to communion and get seconds! … Bottom line: Food laws in this country are trashed. This is just another one.
As one commenter wrote over there, “I agree that the arbitrary legal drinking age of 21 is completely random”. And that’s the honest truth.
Here’s the deal: The current Mayor of Hillsdale, Michigan is Michael Sessions. Mayor Sessions was elected in 2007 at the age of 19.
Yeah, that’s right. Not only could he vote but he now also runs a city of over 8,000 constituents. He can also go into the military, learn to fly and, if necessary, launch nuclear weapons at other people.
But he cannot buy a beer without his own Chief of Police needing to throw him in jail for being “irresponsible”.
If you don’t agree that’s complete and utter nonsense, so be it. But I’ll tell you what …
… that’s complete and utter nonsense.
Would someone please get a clue? Thank you very much.
‘The Coney Nazi’
Posted on 10 August 2008 under Beachhouse, Rants, Restaurant Chit-Chat | 12 Comments
I could easily become … ‘The Coney Nazi’.
Ali “Al” Yeganeh’s inspiration for Larry Thomas’s ’Soup Nazi’ on the 116th episode of Seinfeld was brutal. Ask the character for bread, and either pay for it, or …
… “No soup for you!!!” … and out you go.
I could easily do that with the Flint coneys I make each and every day for dozens of customers.
See, I make the sauce almost every morning, from scratch. I make sure they’re served on good buns … not expensive buns, just buns that won’t separate at the seam, won’t flake apart, and won’t collapse under a pile of warm sauce. I make sure the sauce is made from the right ingredients every time … and that the hot dogs underneath are indeed Koegel’s.
So it makes me kinda nuts when someone comes up to the window and starts with, “I’ll take a chili dog …”
What did you say???
No. It’s NOT a chili dog. A chili dog has flippin’ chili on it. This ain’t no chili. No, it’s not “beanless chili” either. Yeah, there’s chili powder in there, but it ain’t no chili. Does my menu say “Chili Dog”? What about the big sign out front on the lawn? Is “chili” spelled anywhere on it??
It says “Flint Coney“. So …
“No dog for you!!!”
How ’bout some mustard on that? Ketch-… what? Ketchup?? You wanna put ketchup on that? And relish … and … no onion???
Listen bub, a real Flint coney has mustard on it and chopped onion. No ketchup and certainly no relish! What’s that? Jalapeños? And nacho cheese?? On a Flint coney??
“No dog for you!!!”
I blame Packo’s. I like Packo’s, and eat there cuz their food is cool. I still blame them though.
I can do that … because … I am become … The Coney Nazi.
Order it right. Otherwise, ya’ better watch yer buns.
Apologies to Seinfeld. Yeah, like he needs apologies or sumthin’ …
KFC’s Grilled Chicken? “I don’t want nobody foolin’ around with his own ideas.”
Posted on 24 March 2008 under Rants, Restaurant Chit-Chat | 2 Comments
Many news organizations are reporting that KFC will soon offer grilled chicken. From the CBC article:
Kentucky Fried Chicken customers will be greeted eventually by lighted “Now Grilling” signs, starting in coming weeks in select cities in the United States …Storefront signs will be altered to promote the new product — called Kentucky Grilled Chicken. Even the brand’s ubiquitous chicken buckets will get a makeover, though they will still feature the iconic founder Sanders … Doug Hasselo, KFC’s chief food innovation officer, says “This is transformational for our brand.”
No, not transformational. More like complete and utter nonsense, totally ignoring what KFC’s founder would have wanted.
One of the many autobiographies I own is that of Col. Harland Sanders. If alive today, the Col. would have completely pissed, and would have simply removed control of the organization’s “innovation” from Hasselo. Here’s why he would have been pissed, in the Kentucky Colonel’s own words:
Well, every greasy spoon restaurant in the country has fried chicken on its menu and most of them call it Southern fried chicken. It’s fried in the same French fryer as they fry fish, shrimp, and everything else. Well, I didn’t want my chicken to be in that category. So I called mine Kentucky Fried Chciken, way back from its very inception when I first started frying chicken in the state of Kentucky … In the Southeast, we usually season our food more highly than the people in the Midwest or the West. Also, folks in the big cities usually liked thier food cooked in one way, while people in the country another way. But it didn’t seem to make no difference where people came from, they liked my Kentucky Fried Chicken just the way it was … Since then, we have seen this fact demonstrated in many parts of the world where Kentucky Fried franchises have been opened - thirty-three countries in all.
Why do I say the Col. would remove Doug Hasselo from the organization? Again, I’ll let the Col. explain:
Many times I’ve been accused of being a perfectionist. Maybe I am. But I do know how chicken should be fried, and if it’s goona be fried usin’ my special recipe, then it’s got to be done right. I don’t want nobody foolin’ around with his own ideas. [emphasis mine] If he had my franchise then he had to do it my way.
One time Mildred called me on the phone from Newport News, Virginia, to tell me there was a franchisee that wasn’t fryin’ chicken with my equipment. Someone come along and sold him on another type cooker.
At the time I was in Roanoke, so I drove up there, and sure enough there was this inferior equipment. There was also a pile of chicken left over from the night before and it was a horrible mess.
Well, I got there just after daylight. Wasn’t any business in the restaurant, so I backed up my car to the platform, raised the trunk lid, and went through the kitchen.
“Where’s the chicken-frying department?” I asked the first man I see.
“Over there,” he jerked his thumb.
There was the cooker. There was the pile of chicken left over from the night before. So I crawled under the counter and started handin’ the cookers over to my man. He carried them out and put them in the back of the car. Then we got the barrel of spice that I sent him. We took everything that had to do with Kentucky Fried Chicken.
Then I got into the front part of the restaurant and find the manager in there smokin’ a cigarette.
“Where’s the owner?” I asked.
“Not here yet.’”
“When he comes, tell him he’s out of the chicken business as far as Kentucky Fried Chicken is concerned. I’ve pulled his cookers, his spices, everything he’s got, and he won’t represent me anymore.”
The Col. physically shut down this franchise, and others like it, for fairly minor infractions against what he founded KFC on.
And then there’s Doug Hasselo, KFC’s “chief food innovation officer”, changing products and storefront signs.
Doug Hasselo, KFC’s “chief food innovation officer.” Chief what? Chief of, “If the Col. were alive today, he’d throw me out on my ass, with my grills not too far behind.”
I guess I’d better get over to a real KFC and get some real, honest, original recipe before these dad-gummed kids run the place right into the ground.
Blog Weirdness, and PETA Nonsense
Posted on 27 October 2007 under BlogsMonroe, Notes, Rants | 5 Comments
Back on my posting from last week about the Rabbit & Sausage Gumbo, Stephanie left a comment yesterday evening about her guy J (a chef we know) making rabbit dishes at the restaurant he works at. To be honest, looking at that comment from Stephanie, you can’t tell who she is, but Mary and I know who Stephanie is. Because of her work and her specific request to keep her identity a secret, I intentionally help hide her identity in this blog.
But in a second comment from last night, Stephanie wrote:
What’s weird is that someone just delivered some literature about eating animals to my desk about five seconds ago. Did you have something to do with this? I’m going to blog about it right now.
Over in the blog Behind The Headlines, Stephanie continues the story:
One of my coworkers just came back from a game and checked the drop-off box for whatever reason, found some fliers and jokingly said “these must be for you” while delivering them to my desk. There’s no way he could have read the comment since he was at a game all night … The fliers are all about animal cruelty. One asks “Why call some animals ‘pets’ and others ‘pants’?” and then goes on to ask “What if leather shoes were made from cocker spaniels? … The other flier is about KFC and cruelty to chickens with a rendition of the Colonel on the front, smiling, bloodied and holding a knife to a frightened, scalded chicken. Both are from PETA … Did someone read the comment and feel compelled to pass along the literature? Is it just a coincidence? Am I thinking about it way too hard? Is it simply time to go home and instead of doing yet another political brief (as I felt my head may explode) this blog fodder was a twisted gift from the gods?
As I said, because of how Stephanie comments here, there’s no way even coworkers can tell who she is unless they know about the connection with the anonymous Chef J. Of course, I can’t stand PETA so I had nothing to do with it. I’ve actually accepted literature from someone from PETA on a street in Columbus, calmly torn it up, dropped it on the sidewalk, and walked away.
The timing of what happened to Stephanie yesterday is what’s weird, as she wrote, “a twisted gift from the gods”. Those brochures would have likely arrived even if she hadn’t made the initial comment on this blog. There’s a sense of foreshadowing on her part, that she would comment on such a blog entry from over a week ago, as though she somehow knew the brochures were coming. Yeah, Stephanie, you’re using The Force … 
And why would a co-worker “jokingly” think of her that way? I’d be dropping dead chickens on his desk sometime soon.
Here’s my thing about PETA; There are Biblical and other ancient writings regarding the use of animals in food. PETA says animals are not ours to eat. I worship a God who says otherwise. In my life, PETA has no authority over that connection I have with God’s word, and because of this, PETA appears to me as an aetheist organization.
While some methods of animal husbandry are cruel, not all are, especially when it comes to smaller family farms. PETA’s generalizations in this area are irresponsible, especially considering the amount of hunger on this planet. If they had any sense of perspective, they would be attempting to assist in solving this massive human problem rather than harrassing people like Stephanie … even when it’s through a co-worker of hers who thinks it’s supposedly funny to do the same.
I might lose readers because of this. But I’ll tell you what, this is my opinion. If you agree with PETA, go ahead and do so. Just don’t try to force that opnion on me. I’ll tell you how I feel, and if you’re a mature individual, you’ll realize this posting is only about me expressing my opinion, not about my trying to force that opinion on you.
This is where I stand. “That’s all I have to say about that.”
Come to think of it, I think I have some Rabbit & Sausage Gumbo in the freezer. That’d make a nice lunch on a chilly Saturday like this one.
Produce: Part of The Real Reason for the Monroe County Fair
Posted on 2 August 2007 under Eat This Blog, Rants, Special Events | 4 Comments
Alex Phillips, these are amazing! Any more like them at home? 
I’m going to be rather blunt on this subject while you, dear reader, enjoy these edible photos …
The Monroe County Fair was established in 1947. According to an article in the Monroe News:
In 1938, the Monroe County Agricultural Society was formed, with Burton Knapp its first president. The society was the forerunner of today’s Monroe County Fair Association … In 1946, a 4-H Club Fair drew an estimated 2,500 spectators. From this fair, a movement toward a permanent location started … In October, 1946, C.J. Wittman, supervisor of Summerfield Township, introduced the idea of a countywide fair to the Monroe County Board of Supervisors.
Most people go to the fair now for the rides, the food, and the entertainment. Yesterday evening, in all the humidity, there were hundreds in the air-conditioned MB&T building.
The purpose of county and state fairs is to promote agriculture and industry. And yet, there were few visitors to The Flour Garden’s booth for candymaking and baking supplies in the MB&T building. There were few people in the small animal barn, mostly kids petting rabbits. And in the produce barn where I shot these photos, only one couple was in there when I was.
Take a good look at these photos. These growers and arrangers spent a lot of time this past year getting these vegetables to grow and ripen in just the right manner. You won’t find quality produce like this at Kroger or Wal*Mart. You’d have to go to a real farm, or a real farmer’s market, to get anything close to what you see here. This is what you’re actually looking for in the chain supermarkets. And yet, at the Monroe County Fair, wher you can see what you should be looking for at that same supermarket … well, very few are interested.
But the public isn’t the whole problem either. Take a deep, hard look at the Monroe County Fair web site. Do you see it? Look at this beautiful summer squash from Hannah Doederlein while you think about it …
Did you notice? The 4-H page on the fair’s web site. Yeah, that’s the one. The one that should have info on all this stuff, like these veggies, that are at the core of the fair’s roots. With the fair now half over, the page that still reads, “More information coming soon!” … and nothing else.
I wonder what Sara Seitz would think of that …
I don’t have any idea when the judging was for the items you see here. Yesterday evening they were downright delectable in all that humidity, which leads me to believe the judging was yesterday. I wish I’d have been able to find this out from the web site. I’d like to have congratulated Maryann Duvall when she won the blue ribbon for this incredible assembly:
It’s so unfortunate for these people, and the farming industry in general, that this is what’s been pushed by the wayside in favor of nothing but a good time.
I’d like to see a return to the fair’s roots. You may argue that attendance will continue to go down. Well …
Next time you’re outfitting a salad for dinner, maybe you’ll think of these veggies and the hands that made them …
… and then maybe you’ll reconsider what the fair’s really about.
If you’ll be going to the fair between now and Saturday when the doors close in the evening for another year, take the time to appreciate what the fair’s really about. You’ll be glad you did.
On Waiting on Waitresses and Waiters
Posted on 30 July 2007 under Rants, Restaurant Chit-Chat | 6 Comments
Over in the forums on MonroeTalks.com there’s a thread I became involved in because a couple folks had strong words against one of my favorite restaurants in Monroe, the Bolles Harbor Café. I took the path of a reviewer, suggesting they go more than once since that may have been a fluke.
A fluke indeed …
When the young waitress herself came into the thread and defended herself, it became clear what had happened was more than just a fluke. At the age of 17, it was her first day of the first job she’s ever had. All of that has been deleted. But what hasn’t been deleted is the spirit of that waitress.
Mary and I were able to meet this young lady yesterday morning. She is very charming, very sweet, not the chiseled and jaded kind of waitress you’d find at other restaurants. Intent on doing the best job she can, she’s still a little bit on the nervous side.
Think about that for a moment: You’re 17, you have your first job, your first day is full of people wanting things … and then, later on, you, and that particular day, are negatively discussed in a public forum.
No wonder she’s still slightly nervous in that very-public setting she works in.
You’re used to having it your way. You’re used to going to a fast food restaurant to watch the staff try to beat 60 - 90 seconds per order. You’re used to going to semi-casual restaurants and sit-down diners and getting exactly what you want when you wanted, with the wait-staff themselves being semi-transparent through all your desires.
Yesterday morning, after our young lady had made a beeline to our table to meet us for the first time with a hug, Chef Silverio, owner of the Bolles Harbor Café, called over to our table and said, “I want to thank you for what you did for her!”
My response to Chef Silverio was that it was her first day, and I felt she deserved more than a little consideration, particularly in regards to what happened in the public online forum.
That’s the real lesson here. In case you don’t understand, let me lay it out:
The foodservice industry is where the majority of people have or had their first-ever job. These same folks don’t always have good days, just like anyone else. I don’t care what you’re used to, what kind of day you’ve had, what kind of mood you’re in, or any of that. If you have or even perceive problems at a restaurant, tell someone there. Tell your server if the flatware’s dirty or the table’s sticky. If the food isn’t quite right, if it’s a little cool, don’t lose your temper. Be calm and let someone know. If you have to, escalate it to a manager, but again, keep calm. If your server is acting inexperienced, by all means, assume they are inexperienced! You and everyone else were at some point as well, and were just as nervous. Getting angry or frustrated about it, especially if you don’t tell someone, doesn’t help anyone, including you, and that inexperienced person won’t constructively learn more about what they’re trying to do.
I think our young lady is going to be fine, but just like anyone else, she still has some to learn. I know Chef Silverio is keeping a good eye on how she’s doing, and Mary and I will, of course, visit her on occasion.
Do those servers and yourself a favor. Don’t expect absolute perfection 1000% of the time. We’re all human after all.
Strong Comments on Local and Global Food Safety, Part 4
Posted on 23 July 2007 under Food In The News, Food Safety, Rants | No Comments
“Uncle Dave, are we there yet?”
In Part 1 of this multi-part series (maybe we’re finally at the end), I laid out some of what I felt is wrong with food safety issues in this country. In Part 2, I looked at a few of the differences between the U.S. and just a couple other countries with respect to food safety. In Part 3, I described some common myths that are still perpetrated by food safety “experts” in this country, along with some other serious annoyances in the arena of “political food correctness”. From Part 1 from this morning:
Here’s the reality: Regulators are focusing on all the wrong areas of food safety. When it comes to the editorial in yesterday’s Blade, I’m in full agreement. But frankly, the whole so-called “food safety” system in this country needs a flippin’ overhaul.
In Part 1, referring to the Blade editorial, I wrote, “As in any good editorial, the writer gave their own suggestions”. So, without further ado, here are my own thoughts on things that should be done from the federal level:
- Outlaw political correctness from any and all previous, current and future food regulations.
- Direct the National Restaurant Association to further their efforts in policing themselves via ServSafe, providing partial funding.
- Continue retail and non-profit foodservice inspections via county health departments, while allowing for the use of “common sense” during facility operation. Make 100% of restaurant and facility inspection reports available online at county levels across the U.S.
- Simplify permits for events lasting less than 96 hours overall, with more simplification for single-day events.
- Require each K-12 school kitchen or cafeteria (public or private) be inspected twice annually, and that the director of each cafeteria system be ServSafe certified.
- Combine the FDA and USDA food-related inspection and regulatory agencies into a new, single entity.
- Ramp-up inspections of both domestic and imported foods in an effort to reach 80% of all products within 5 years.
1. Outlaw political correctness from any and all previous, current and future food regulations.
Yes, some people need to lose weight. Why does the government, or anyone else, feel they have the right or the authority to regulate this, to throw calorie counts in people’s faces, to make the entire restaurant industry change ingredients, change how they operate, just to satisfy political correctness? With the exception of true “companion animals” and real animal cruelty (which excludes the whole foie gras fiasco), what’s on anyone’s dinner plate is no one else’s business.
2. Direct the National Restaurant Association to further their efforts in policing themselves via ServSafe, providing partial funding.
Restaurants owners, Chefs, cooks and the countless others who work in food service, understand their business better than anyone else. To regulate these people without listening to them, as with trans fats, restaurant nutrition info labeling, etc., is more than Orwellian. It’s downright nauseating. Cooking is more art than science, and to involve science to regulate every last aspect of the food industry will only ruin it. These people know their jobs. Help them do it better, trust them with it, get ServSafe built to involve everyone in the industry, and the resulting food will be so much better.
3. Continue retail and non-profit foodservice inspections via county health departments, while allowing for the use of “common sense” during facility operation. Make 100% of restaurant and facility inspection reports available online at county levels across the U.S.
Food inspections are sometimes full of nonsense. Inspection reports such as this one are reported as, “Inspectors observed ‘Several food items at unsafe temperatures’, turkey was being improperly thawed, and other food items weren’t being reheated correctly.” Were they really? Or is this some of the non-common-sense items from that county’s health department? It’s difficult to tell, really, what some of these statements actually mean. But the fact is, some of these processes may have actually been fine. This is where the whole “common sense” aspect comes into play. Counties should post these kinds of reports verbatim. The City of Chicago at least allows you to see the real language of a restaurant’s violations online, so this is certainly possible for most localities to accomplish.
4. Simplify permits for events lasting less than 96 hours overall, with more simplification for single-day events.
Is a full inspection really necessary if a Scout group wants to sell hot dogs and hamburgers at a local fair? Puh-lease … get a responsible adult to understand they’re solely liable if anyone gets sick, and everything will be fine. These people likely cook at home anyway and know what they’re doing. Stop insulting their intelligence by implying they haven’t a clue.
5. Require each K-12 school kitchen or cafeteria (public or private) be inspected twice annually, and that the director of each cafeteria system be ServSafe certified.
This isn’t difficult. Really, it’s not. I’m sure it wouldn’t be difficult to find ServSafe-certified chefs or cooks who could take on this inspection task locally to ensure their own and neighboring kids are eating in a safe facility. Again, these pros know what’s needed. Give them a minor stipend, hold their butts responsible, and you’ll have 100% inspections in no time. As to directors being certified, that should be a given.
6. Combine the FDA and USDA food-related inspection and regulatory agencies into a new, single entity.
I could never figure out how and why this split happened. How much duplication of effort is there? Probably substantial. This whole agency thing should be modernized anyway, with less bureaucracy, and more real effort toward solving real problems.
7. Ramp-up inspections of both domestic and imported foods in an effort to reach 80% of all products requiring inspections within 5 years.
Streamlining the agencies into one single entity, no longer playing the “political correctness” game, letting restaurants police themselves as they should … yup, should end up with plenty of qualified inspectors needing jobs.
This is “quick and dirty”. I’ll probably expand on this later. But I should really finish up, especially since …
While I was finishing this up just now, this comment came in from Ria over at the Our World and Everything In It blog here on BlogsMonroe.com. Here’s part of Ria’s comment:
What I’ve seen, read, heard, and witnessed myself, we’re eating crap anyway, so overcooking or undercooking crap is of no consequence. It’s not so much the food prep, the animals are cute, how long is it cooked, it’s how it’s raised period.
Exactly, Ria! From Part 3 of what I’ve written today:
In the mid 20th century, most pork had to be cooked well done because of the fear of trichinosis. But today pork is fed and raised differently and the meat is safe to heat when cooked to an internal temperature of 160 degrees F. If the juices run very light pink, the pork is done.
This is not so difficult. Let the restaurant industry police itself. Use government resources, and the resources from individual food production industries, to properly take care of food where it’s raised and processed. The pork industry has proved how this can be accomplished.
Ria gets it. Do you?
Strong Comments on Local and Global Food Safety, Part 3
Posted on 23 July 2007 under Food In The News, Food Safety, Rants | 1 Comment
In Part 1 of this multi-part series (that may really never end), I laid out some of what I felt is wrong with food safety issues in this country. In Part 2, I looked at a few of the differences between the U.S. and just a couple other countries with respect to food safety. In this part, we’ll look at some common myths that are still perpetrated by food safety “experts” in this country, along with some other serious annoyances in the arena of “political food correctness”.
I keep going back to this next part as it bears repeating. It’s from an earlier post of mine …
================
We go now to one of the masters of cooking, Chef Anthony Bourdain of Les Halles on Park Avenue in New York City, also A Cook’s Tour on Food Network and No Reservations on the Travel Channel. In his Les Halles cookbook he writes:
Most people think that if you just scatter some salt and pepper and, God forbid, paprika on a chicken, then throw him, legs askew, into an oven and cook every bit of blood and moisture out of him — that that’s roasting a chicken. Hell, most people figure that if the crispy skin tastes good, and there’s no yucky blood or pink stuff near the bone, that’s a fine roast chicken … Chicken should taste like chicken. Understand also that legs and breasts cook at different rates. In your zeal to make sure that there is no pink (eek!) or red (oooohh!) anywhere in the legs, you are often criminally overcooking your breasts. Find a happy medium. A little pink color by the thigh bone does not necessarily mean you are eating rare poultry.
Wait, what did he say?? Did this world-renowned Chef just say chicken can be … pink???
Well, yes, he did. Imagine that. I know, I know, your grandmother would simply keel over at the thought. Both of mine would, too.
What’s the key to safe chicken? Rinse it?? Umm, no, that’s not it. Bacteria like to swim. Rinsing only moves them around without getting rid of them. I’m not ServSafe certified (maybe at some point this year), but I have a copy of the coursebook right here. Let’s see, rinsing chicken, rinsing … chicken … poultry … nope, rinsing ain’t in there.
This here ServSafe book says to cook chicken to a minimum internal temperature of 165°F (74°C) for 15 seconds. For his roast chicken or “poulet roti”, Chef Tony simply gives oven temps and specific timings, and then says, “If you’re worried about undercooking, with the point of a small knife or with a skewer or cake tester, you can poke the fat part of the thigh. If the liquid that runs out is clear — not pink or red — your bird is cooked.”
================
Let’s look at pork now. From About.com:
In the mid 20th century, most pork had to be cooked well done because of the fear of trichinosis. But today pork is fed and raised differently and the meat is safe to heat when cooked to an internal temperature of 160 degrees F. If the juices run very light pink, the pork is done.
This also echos what the USDA says about cooking pork. The National Pork Board also writes, “Because of modern feeding practices, trichinosis is a no longer a concern. Although trichina is virtually nonexistent in pork, if it were present, it would be killed at 137 degrees F. That’s well below the recommended end cooking temperature for pork, which is 160 degrees F.”
Wait … what? 137 degrees F is really all you need?? Actually, that’s true. Look at this chart from Tyson foods. 145 degrees F is high enough, which makes it possible for Chef Tad of the Frog Leg Inn to offer his beautiful Pork Tenderloin as “medium rare”. I had this dish a couple weeks ago, and it’s truly delicious.
No, my mom wouldn’t like pork that was pink whatsoever. But looking at the time period she grew up in, I understand. Talking to her on the phone just now, she tells me she still refuses to eat beef, pork or chicken that is any pink whatsover. I mentioned recalling how she used to brown pork chops and chicken sections prior to baking them in the oven or letting dad grill them on his Hibachi. She said, “Oh, I don’t do that anymore”. While she will never have food that’s medium or medium-rare, it’s more the result of the time period she grew up in than anything else.
You may not like this next part. Consider yourself fore-warned …
================
The three men slurp their stew
WASH
I do miss her cookin’ though.
DELMAR
This stew’s awful good.
WASH
Think so?
He sniffs dubiously at his spoon.
I slaughtered this horse last Tuesday; ‘m afraid she’s startin to turn.
================
This little scene from “Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?” generally turns people’s stomachs. But in fact, it was only a few months ago that courts blocked the inspection of horse meat for human consumption, effectively closing the last horse farm of its kind in the U.S. And actually, horse is consumed by humans around the world.
(M)any other countries, especially those recently hard hit by mad cow and other disease, consider horse meat to be a nutritious staple and will pay big bucks for it … The protein-rich, lean meat is sent to the butchers and restaurateurs of Asia, mainly Japan, and Europe, mainly France. Here in the United States, zoos buy the meat for their big cats and other carnivores.
Some of it used to be bred here, as that article from 2002 states, but not anymore. To be honest, I’m not even sure how I, myself, feel about the human consumption of horse meat. I just don’t know … haven’t figured that one out.
But here’s the thing: I do know that “political correctness” has no place whatsoever in the legislation of food issues. This is quite simple.
Chew on this for a moment:
My kids, ages 17, 14, 12 (the only girl) and 10, all assist in raising rabbits, and know how to process them for food.
Ok, so “process” is a “politically-correct” word here …
My kids kill, drain, skin and gut the rabbits before cutting them into sections and soaking the pieces in brine. That’s what “process” means.
The rabbit is then either frozen, or cooked and eaten at that evening’s meal. (No, when it’s cooked right, it does not taste like chicken!)
I can hear it now; “THEY KILLED THUMPER!”
No they didn’t. Thumper’s one of the breeders. You never name your dinner. Sheesh …
“But how could they kill something so cute, so adorable, so … cuddly??”
Here’s a simple fact: Just about every previously-living creature you’ve ever eaten was cute at one point or another. Piglets are downright adorable and baby chicks are definitely cuddly. Why, then, is it alright to kill them and eat them just because they’re older and no longer cute?
The double-standard for this that applies to things like rabbit meat is patently absurd.
I’ve already discussed foie gras bans and trans fat bans in these pages. If you want to read or re-read those posts, there they are. While some cities such as NYC and Chicago are attempting to require food chains to list calorie counts on their menu boards, not only are some refusing to do so, even Mayor Daley thinks the idea is ridiculous.
Do you or anyone else have the right or authority to tell anyone but your own children what they can and cannot eat?
No. Plain and simple. No. Deal with that on your own while you get out from between me and what I want to consume.
Now, pardon me while I go chew on a stick of butter. Why? Because I can.
Part 4 later …
Strong Comments on Local and Global Food Safety, Part 2
Posted on 23 July 2007 under Food In The News, Food Safety, Rants | No Comments
In Part 1 of this multi-part series (that may never end), I laid out some of what I felt is wrong with food safety issues in this country. But what about other countries?
Here’s Chef Anthony Bourdain in a Paris restaurant, from No Reservations on the Travel channel:
It’s a common traveler’s dilemma. You hear about a local joint that you just have to check out and, well, you hesitate. It’s not easy pushing your way through the front door of some new place. Is it going to be one of those cowboy moments where you walk in and everybody turns around and looks at you? You can’t turn on your heels then and say, “Oops, wrong place,” and leave. You’re in … But once in, especially in a place like Chez Robert and Louise, you’re rewarded with a truly local experience. I mean it would be impossible to have a business like this in the states. A wood burning fire, illegal. The meat, illegal. The dog, illegal. The cheese sitting out uncovered, illegal. Basically, everything that makes this place good would be illegal in The States.
“(E)verything that makes this place good would be illegal in The States.” I want to make sure you see that statement. It’s extremely important when looking at how similar situations are in “The States”.
I saw the above episode prior to finding the transcript on the web. The meat he talks about is lying on a wooden counter, likely for most of the day. The cheese is the same way, out in the open. There’s no refrigeration used for either of these items during the day. They’re out where they’ll be used, it’s just that the cook doesn’t know when they’ll be used.
The dog is lying on the floor, and is no Service Dog either. It’s just a dog. Lying there. And no one’s complaining.
You’re probably thinking, “Well! I would never eat at a place that allows meat to come to room temperature before cooking!” The fact is, you may have already done so. From this article a few years back on CBSNews.com:
With 64 restaurants around the globe and another set to open in July, it goes without saying that Morton’s Steakhouse knows more than just a little something about Memorial Day grilling … On The Early Show, Klaus Fritsch, who co-founded Morton’s Steakhouse 26 years ago, shared his secrets for grilled steak … “Bring Steaks Out of the Cold: Have steaks at room temperature before grilling.”
How do they get away with this in a restaurant? I’m really not sure. But I’ll tell you what, I’ve tried cooking steaks from both chilled and room temperature, and there’s definitely a difference. I’ll take the room temperature beef, thanks.
As for cheese, look at the bottom photo in this post of mine from the other day. That’s John of the Boulevard Market in Tecumseh, holding a chunk of smoked gouda. Do you see the plastic around the bottom of that cheese? What that plastic is, is the food handler’s gloves John was wearing. They have to wear them whenever they get cheese out of the cooler to even give samples to customers.
John wouldn’t have to do that in Paris.
Do you like oysters? How do you like them? At an event at the Toledo Zoo I once enjoyed iced oysters on the half shell. There was a bin of ice, the oysters were lying on the ice, I picked one up and ate it. Sure, it was still alive. Can you eat them that way? Absolutely. What about at room temperature? Again, yes. From safeoysters.org, from the University of Georgia Marine Extension Service:
Is it safe to eat raw oysters? - Most foods from animals are cooked prior to consumption. However, molluscan shellfish (oysters, clams, mussels) are often consumed raw or partially cooked. Illnesses sometimes occur from eating shellfish, and although most illnesses are typically not life threatening, instances of serious illnesses and deaths have been reported (see section on VibrioInfection). Eating raw shellfish can increase risk of illness – cooking can reduce the risk.
Wait … clams and mussels, too?? YES. You can definitely eat these things raw, and the reality is that they’re best straight from the ocean floor, at the temperature of the water. Just pop ‘em open, and suck ‘em on down.
One day a few months ago, Chef Tad of the Frog Leg Inn had a patron in who was visiting from France. The patron had specifically requested Steak Tartare, which isn’t on Tad’s menu. For those unaware, the dish is basically raw ground beef. Scary enough, isn’t it? When Tad made up the dish, there just happened to be another serving. Read here to find out what happened to yours truly when that other serving landed in front of me a few minutes after the French citizen was served.
People around the world, in cultures hundreds and thousands of years older than ours, eat very differently than we do, and yet, they still survive. Food doesn’t have to be as scary as our government makes it out to be, and yet, with their focus being on what we can’t eat, and how to regulate and label things, rather than how to make food safe to begin with, is it any wonder we’re having all these recalls, e.Coli scares, and other incidents?
Part 3 is yet to come …
Strong Comments on Local and Global Food Safety, Part 1
Posted on 23 July 2007 under Food In The News, Food Safety, Rants | 1 Comment
Yesterday, the Toledo Blade published an editorial titled “Food for Thought“. One sentence of this editorial rather accurately describes the current administration’s inadequacy in this area:
It was a rich irony, and perfectly indicative of the government’s failure to adequately confront this issue, that on the same day that President Bush announced a new panel on imported food and product safety, opining that “it’s important for the American people to know their government is on top of this situation,” another recall was publicized: cans of hot dog chili sauce that has been linked to botulism.
As in any good editorial, the writer gave their own suggestions:
Perhaps, rather than trying to ensure the safety of food as it passes through our borders, a better way would be to work more closely with exporting nations to ensure the safety of the food as it is gathered, harvested, and processed overseas, or the safety of products as they are manufactured. This will necessitate collaboration with some countries unwilling to open their factories, fields, or processing plants to U.S. scrutiny, but exporting nations want their products and foodstuffs on the shelves of American stores.
This makes perfect sense, especially when we already perform these same kinds of functions with some sweatshops worldwide in the clothing industry.
But there’s another side to this issue that should be discussed. If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you already know how I feel on this subject. Linking what I’ve previously mentioned to global food safety also makes sense.
There is a serious over-regulation of some food safety issues in this country. Sometimes this isn’t a government issue. My one sister and her best friend have both cooked in a nursing home kitchen for over 30 years. They’ve been made to understand by their supervisors that, if chicken doesn’t have an internal temperature of 190F when it’s removed from the oven to be served, they’ll be fired.
After 30 years, you’d think someone in management there would lighten up. My take on this is located here.
In the United States, every restaurant, every hot dog cart, cotton candy stand, elephant ear trailer and roadside rib joint, must absolutely be inspected by a local health department each and every year. At Taste of the Nation: Toledo by The Docks on April 29th, I videotaped three health inspectors making the rounds, checking the temperatures of ingredients in coolers and charting them, hair nets in-place, calibrated digital thermometers at-the-ready. This past June 30th I refused return customers I’d sold handmade corndogs to last year at our City-Wide Yard Sales because I didn’t have an inspection and resulting permit. Cities are now attempting to require restaurants to include calorie counts on menu boards (which some are refusing to do), trans fats are being labeled as the bad guys (what happened to carbs?), and even foie gras is being banned “because we said so“.
Meanwhile, other areas of food safety have some serious problems.
MSNBC stays on one track that’s positively scarey. For years now, the network has investigated the lack of real food safety in public school cafeterias, for example, in this article from November 2004. More recently, from an article this past March:
Millions of children eat in school cafeterias that don’t get the twice-yearly health inspections required by Congress to help prevent food poisoning … Schools are supposed to get two visits from health inspectors every year. But one in 10 schools didn’t get inspected at all last year, according to Agriculture Department data obtained by The Associated Press. Thirty percent were visited only once.
Here’s the reality: Regulators are focusing on all the wrong areas of food safety.
School cafeterias are not being inspected as they should be. The inspections of imported foods is down from 8% in 1992 to a currently sad state of 1%, the USA Today reported in March. There are more food safety recalls than most folks are even aware of, with the weekly report for July 18, 2007 being available here. And while the National Restaurant Association has developed its own food safety and training curriculum called ServSafe, it’s painfully obvious a lot of restaurants just don’t get it.
When it comes to the editorial in yesterday’s Blade, I’m in full agreement. But frankly, the whole so-called “food safety” system in this country needs a flippin’ overhaul.
Don’t tell me the CDC’s FoodNet is going to study foodborne illness and do something about it. This thing’s been in-place 11 years now, and for what? What good has come from it? Has the number of cases of foodborne illness gone down since FoodNet’s inception? Look at any of the preliminary data from FoodNet and you’ll find the following statements near the top of even the most recent report:
This report describes preliminary surveillance data for 2006 and compares them with baseline data from the period 1996–1998. Incidence of infections caused by Campylobacter, Listeria, Shigella, and Yersinia has declined since the baseline period. Incidence of infections caused by Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli O157 (STEC O157) and Salmonella, however, did not decrease significantly, and Vibrio infections have increased, indicating that further measures are needed to prevent foodborne illness and achieve national health objectives.
Look at the table at the bottom of that same report. I’m not so sure FoodNet is money well-spent after looking at both ends of that thing.
More later in Part 2 …
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