October 31, 2006
Thank you, Mayor Bloomberg
Mayor Bloomberg’s push to have trans-fats 86’d from the city’s menus has been met with the both usual pushback and healthy enthusiasm that such initiatives can expect. The smoking ban met with similar and more vocal responses, but in the end had little impact on the city’s brisk bar business, and in fact has made us all smell better. Maybe now we can all slim down a little.
Nice Ideas
The difference with trans-fat ban is that these synthetic oils are merely ingredients in a host of products used to create food.Granted, most of these foods are fried and none of us really need to eat them, but we do like them and we will consume them if they are handed over to us for a reasonable fee. But would we like to have a choice as to the quality and health of those fried items? YES, we would.
What the Mayor is asking, and what we all are asking, is that operators be stealthier about their purchases and let us know what we are eating. We want chefs and cooks to do research before buying pre-processed products, such as frozen French fries, breakfast sandwiches, and fruit pies. This means making a commitment of Time.New Yorkers do not like to commit to Time. They are already short of it. Perhaps we should ask distributors of such products to clearly label the contents so that proprietors don’t have to think too much.
It seems reasonable to this foodie that consumers should know what they are consuming. If a restaurant feels compelled to put the name of the farm or the cheese maker on the menu, why not name the fat used for frying? If the fat is synthetic, then we certainly have a right to know before we stick the final food product into our faces.
Next to each fried item, there should be a note: Deep Fried in …
As for the Mayor’s push to have caloric values indicated – this idea works only in chain restaurants where recipes are strictly observed and much of the food is pre-fabricated, like McDonald’s, Wendy’s, Appleby’s and Outback. For most of the city’s restaurants, one would have to guess the calories in a particular dish, or hire a full-time food scientist to uncover caloric and other values.
Next to the Cobb Salad: Approximately 750 calories, if you eat all of the bacon….
More Ideas
The Mayor should not stop at trans-fats. The Mayor should press on for the elimination of High Fructose Corn Syrup, which has no place in nature nor in our bodies.Together with trans-fats and the sheer number of available calories, High Fructose Corn Syrup is responsible for the obesity epidemic we see among the nation’s children.
Since Americans consume the majority of their food away from home, and this includes children, these same Americans have a right to know what they are consuming so that they can make better choices. Despite what lobbyists say, there is a great deal of ingnorance, and that is due to a lack of information, not brainpower.
No Lawsuits, Please
Recent legislation to prevent Class action suits against purveyors of fast food has eliminated this legal avenue for Americans to get even with those companies who peddle bad food as “value” packed family nutrition. Thanks, you loyal lobbyists!
However, there is no reason to think that the producers of the raw materials (High Fructose Corn Syrup et alii) are exempt from legal action. Keep your eyes open!
Tags:
Americans are fat, ban on trans fats, Bloomberg, calories in menu items, class action suits against fast food, fat land, fat New York, Mayor Bloomberg, New York City and trans fats, smoking ban New York
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Posted on 10/31/2006
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October 24, 2006
As always, the holiday season sneaks up on us so suddenly we haven’t had time to make any of those coveted reservations we’ve been promising ourselves all summer long.
ADVICE: If you wish to eat at the city’s finest locales, you better start making reservations now. Seriously.
There are also the endless holiday parties and fund-raisers that we must attend. Be sure you schedule your exercise time!
And don’t forget, there are a slew of new openings coming up all over town. Everyone is waiting for Gordon Ramsay to open at London NYC. His front wave of PR claims that he is England’s best chef, but word on the streets of London and Paris is that he is one of a group of very talented Anglos, and he is distinguished only by his desire to brand himself in that mega-chef American way. My bet is there is a casino in Las Vegas just waiting to put his name on their eatery.
But I digress. I am sure that Ramsay’s eponymous spot will add yet another gem to the NYC’s crown. However, I am more excited about other openings.
First, Kampuchea Noodle Bar, set to open on the LES, Rivington Street. Why am I so happy about this diminutive opening? Cambodian cuisine is virtually unknown in NYC. I once had the most fantastic bowl of Cambodian noodle soup when I was in Paris. Honestly, it was hands down the best soup I had ever tasted. Concerned that this will be just another sloppy noodle bar? Boring?
Note: While similar to other cuisines of Southeast Asia, Cambodian fare does have its own style, and prahok, a fermented fish sauce that adds just that extra something.
(For those History Buffs out there, this fish sauce is probably very similar to the garum invented by the Phoenicians and widely prized and traded by the Romans.) While one could claim that Cambodian food is just a sampling of Vietnamese, Thai, Burmese and Chinese traditions, it does combine common ingredients in its own delightful ways.
Second, Fireside, at the Omni Berkshire Place Hotel, headed by Chef Sam DeMarco. Just in time for the cooler months, Fireside will be all about sharing.This idea appeals to me, as there are a host of stand-at-the-ledge, small plates and grad-n-go places popping up everywhere. Fireside promises to takes a deep breath, give us some space to breathe and an opportunity to talk to those we love.
Third, Blue Ribbon Bar (Downing Street) and Blue Ribbon Sushi Bar & Grill (West Park Hotel) will flesh out the Blue Ribbon brand, which we have seen with Craft and of course the big players (Danny Myers’ Union Square Hospitality, Steve Hanson’s BR Guest, and the Jean-Georges empire). Blue Ribbon, though, has a little cachet of its own, and I look forward to being able to dart into the Downing Street location for a quick bite and a glass of bubbly.
Overall, the trends in NYC seem to be going in every direction. Location-wise, the trend is to partner with a hotel, a tactic has plenty of fiscal pulchritude for the number crunchers.Flavor-wise, Asian Fusion continues to thrive (FR.OG, opening on Spring & Crosby), small plates are everywhere, and comfort food (Macbar – dedicated to Mac & Cheese) has a loyal following. One thing that we haven’t seen is more of the 3-star kitchen. Despite the giant resource & customer drain that is the Meatpacking District, there is room on the Culinary Map for another 3-Star location, be it NY Times or Michelin. So bring it on.
Unhappy Trends
Chefs leaving their restaurants. Michael White, one of my personal favorites, has left Fiamma. His replacement, Christian Fantoni, is a very talented chef, so do not despair. Still, I will miss Michael and look forward to his next project. Sascha Lyons left his eponymous digs, not surprising given that he was more like the mayor of a vertical small town than he was an executive chef. It’s hard to manager 300 employees and 3 separate businesses when you are used to much smaller digs.
Other trends are the closings of old favorites (Aquavit), unholy lease agreements, too much PR too soon, and of course the grumpy old review that is overly harsh.
But none of this is new.
For this Holiday Season look for new openings, with only Kampuchea and Fireside offering something really new to the mix, hard-to-get reservations at the city’s best restaurants (Per Se, Daniel, Alain Ducasse, etc) and lots and lots of small plates.
Tags:
Aquavit, Blue Ribbon, Fiamma, Gordon Ramsay, Kampuchea, Michael White, new openings in New York City, NYC restaurant news
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Posted on 10/24/2006
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October 19, 2006
Ever the since the unfortunate e-coli incident in California, we the eaters of vegetal matter have been victimized not only by bacteria, but also by mixed messages coming from a variety of sources. We left-leaning, organic-eating, populist-acting, free-thinking do-gooders have been hit hard by the lofty rhetoric of the lobbies who want to rid the world of small producers and the whole notion of “organic”.
First Spinach, then Carrots, now…. Scatology?
The reason for the e-coli outbreak is Fertilizer. Fertilizer comes from Manure. Manure comes from the digestive tracks of mammals. Human beings are mammals. Much of our own “bio-solids” ends up in fertilizer. If the fertilizer is not treated properly, the inevitable bacterial outbreak with occur.
The spinach was a lovely breeding ground, and there was no way for the growers to know, except by taking samples.
Two Amazing Facts
First, the amount of spinach exported from California, and specifically from a handful of farms, is astounding. To think that your eggs Florentine were crowned by spinach coming all the way across the continent, when spinach is available RIGHT HERE!
Second, the idea that an “organic” farm can use treated bio-solids of the Homo sapiens variety is, well, disturbing.
Mega Food Retailers Gleeful
The recent trend towards Green products, local production and artisanal foods has vexed the Wal-Marts and indeed the Whole Foods of the world (for different reason, of course). Scrambling to get their share of your Green dollar, giant retailers have begun competing directly with local Farmers Markets. What better way to drive the masses out of the green market and back into the processed and “vale added” food retailers than by scaring the pants off them? (Value-added means that if the grocers pretties-up a veggie, the veggie costs three times more.)
No doubt there were smiles all around as giant companies like ADM (purveyors of so many agricultural chemical additives), thinking that the organic farmers were finally “getting theirs”. But I speculate, based solely on the things said by people in the Agra business.
Our S*** Don’t Stink
While we all ponder the ramifications of our own bio-solids being spread out on the corn crops, it is important to note that we are importing food from all over the world all the time to satisfy our whims. We can get almost anything we want at any time of the year. Aside from the monumental distances that these foods must travel, there is a need to fertilize the little baby plants, and there is nothing quite like s***, even our own, or that from somewhere far, far away.
Who to Blame?
It’s fairly clear that if you are a big retailing giant and if you want to continue to grow your business until it is so large it collapses onto itself, you need NEW customers every day. Where do you get them from? You get them from your competitors. What better tool is there than FEAR.
But Americans, once frightened, like to know who to BLAME, so that swift action may taken. The scuttlebutt was that somehow these organic spinach farmers were “dirty”; there has been no talk of the vendors that sold them the “bio-solids”, which are the source of the e-coli.
We can blame the bacteria, the farm workers, the farmers, the croppers, the machinery… but it in the end, it is the quality of the s*** that matters.
Tags:
bio solids, e coli, farmers markets, fertilizer, green markets, shit, spinach, Wal Mart, whims
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Posted on 10/19/2006
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October 12, 2006
Just how easy is it to deliver lots of flavor – pure flavor – without tons of fat or some kind of chemical concoction, like super-activated MSG?
This is a question that cooks from the first human village to NY’s Greenwich Village have been asking for millennia.
The answer has often been to sauce things up.
Condiments as the root of all flavors.
In the US, three basic condiments have reigned supreme since the advent of canning:
- Mustard
- Ketchup
- Mayonnaise
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Mustard, a sturdy little condiment that adds a little bitter to the mix, has many incarnations, but basically, is ground up mustard seed, and has been used for flavoring since Biblical times. Because ground mustard often contains no milk or egg and is easy to preserve, mustard is a compliment to many and varied cuisines. The yellow American version is visually interesting, but that is about all.
Ketchup, a new world product made from assassinated tomatoes and often further sweetened by added sugar, is a colorful antithesis to mustard. Love it or hate it, ketchup has been added to dull foods for years so as to make them palatable.
Mayonnaise, a fat-laden, cholesterol coma inducing condiment has been made for centuries in France, and has a much wider application there than here. American versions are blander and less creamy, and sometime not even mayonnaise at all.
All three of these condiments have been undergoing many changes recently – gourmet styles, spicy, garlicky, artisanal.There is no end in sight to what can be done to make the Red Yellow and White of the picnic table more interesting.
Other sauces of importance
Béchamel and béarnaise are old standards in the kitchen, and they certainly add flavor, depending on who is preparing them.The former is basically scalded milk and cooked flour, and is the base for many other sauces (especially cheese sauces). It is creamy and has been served with meats and casseroles for 400 years.
Its cousin, béarnaise, is made with egg yolk, butter and shallots cooked in tarragon vinegar. Tricky to prepare, and the mother of many culinary disasters.
Related sauces – the Creole roux, which is flour cooked in fat and then thinned with stock, usually chicken. Roux is the sauce base for much of the Creole and Cajun cuisine of southern Louisiana.
All of the above are used to add or introduce new elements of flavor into a dish (or onto it, as the case may be).
We’ve seen them before. We hate when cooks cheat and use cornstarch to thicken things quickly. Often times, these sauces are cloying or bland.
What’s New In Flavor:
Foam. That’s right.Foamy flavors permeating dishes and lending color and texture to dishes that might otherwise be predictable.
The secret to foam as a sauce is that is virtually pure. Need carrot flavor? Cook the carrots, purée and then aerate them. You don’t need to add fats or other calorie-delivery substances.But how does one aerate boiled carrots? Ah, the secrets of a professional kitchen and a canister of compressed gas.
At home, if you have a food a food processor and some unflavored gelatin, you can cheat by making an airy mousse. But it can’t be heated. Nevertheless, a mousse can be a great addition to a savory dish. Think about it, and see what springs to mind.
Let me know what creations you have tried recently. Some are winners and some are losers, but the trying is fun.
Tags:
flavors, foam, food trends, mustard
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Posted on 10/12/2006
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