04.17.07
What the hell is that? / Do you know what you’re eating?
I have an embarrassing story that I love to share with people. It gives people a chance to laugh at me without running the risk of me going for their jugular and it reminds me that I – yes, even I – am fallible.
When I was in college, I lived in a YWCA. It was more of a half-way house for mentally disabled or troubled women and also served as a hostel for internationals from across the globe – and yes, the occasional student – before you get any ideas I don’t necessarily fit in the aforementioned categories…perhaps a bit of the former…
At this Y we were given a sustainable rent, the ‘security’ of living with all women and two square meals a day. One evening I was supping with my comrades, and paused a moment to watch my friend take a bite from a pickle. I said, in my many attempts to sound deep and insightful, ‘I wonder what the plant looks like that the pickle comes from…’
My friend stopped mid-bite and stared at me for a moment before she responded.
‘It’s just a cucumber…’
I simply stared blankly at her for a moment, digesting the small morsel of information I had just consumed and was trying to stay upright against the cascading shock that ensued.
The first cogent thought that arose was ‘How am I going to talk myself out of this and save face?’
Logic won out over pride and I succumbed to defeat.
‘…Oh…’
‘You mean you didn’t know?’
I shook my head ever so slightly, just in case others were watching.
Desiree flung her fork down to the table.
‘You mean YOU didn’t know?! YOU didn’t know where a pickle came from??!’
Everyone at the table was staring at me, waiting for my response. Waiting like an African jackal waits in the tall grass for the lions to take their fill – pacing and watching. Watching and pacing. I was the proverbial caribou filleted, seasoned and served with a side of greens and a red wine for ignorance’s repast.
‘Well,’ said I quietly, rubbing my neck in distraction, ‘no…not exactly.’
Many remarks were exchanged on how the day should be marked in history and that the event should be officially stamped by a legal notary – and so on and so forth. Scrambling to save what little face I had left, I began to make numerous points for my argument – points which my friends didn’t quite think were significant and continued with their meal and their victory.
But, reader, level with me. How many of you actually know where your food comes from. I’m not just talking about where it is grown – that is another political rant entirely. But what the god-given form of your fruits and vegetables are birthed from. If you were lost in the wilds, with no food and no El Pollo Loco in sight, how many of you would know what a potato plant looks like? How would you know what’s poisonous or (even better) a hallucinogen?
My point here may be obvious but it’s a point that is overlooked by nearly every person in this country that isn’t a hippie or a farmer.
We are so disconnected with the land that we’ve lost the understanding of what our planet provides for us. The once essential process of sowing, growing, reaping and storing our food has become a thing only for those who turn a profit from it and those, in poorer countries, do it merely out of survival.
Survival. That is the key word I have been dancing around. Most of us couldn’t survive till noon without a double tall, half-caff, half-skim, half-soy mocha latte with one turbinado sugar and two Sweet-n-Low’s let alone a whole day without food or water.
We live in grossly abundant times. I say grossly simply for the fact that this abundance is miss apportioned. It is a time where the selections available at the common grocery store can only be historically paralleled by royal or aristocratic feasts. It is a time where a large value meal at X fast food-poisoning joint costs less than a pound of grapes. It is a time where, forced by necessity, the common family must resort to cheaply processed and prepackaged foods in order to put a meal on the table.
This really only grazes the surface of greater, underlying issues – the processed food industry, the media’s role in ‘dumbing down’ Americans, international trade and farming politics – the list and its inter-connectivity goes on forever. Hopefully, I’ll have the strength and knowledge to expound upon all these topics in the future. But for now, I am content with a small spoonful of greater awareness and with the gentle reminder that this ‘pickle’ is much more than just vinegar and cucumbers.
04.06.07
Sumeshi: Sushi Rice
Rice. The central staple of every single cuisine in Asia. Today, it is served daily and at nearly every meal in many areas, but in the past, this tiny grain was so important that it was once used as currency.
Sumeshi, or Japanese sushi rice, can be just as valuable as gold in a recipe when prepared just right. This mildly pungent and slightly sticky rice will be the foundation for all of your sushi creations.
I have found, in my experiments with sushi, that it is very difficult to achieve the proper balance between the rice, vinegar, sugar and salt. You may want to search around for other sumeshi recipes until you find the one that best suits your palate. Some are too sweet. Some are too vinegary. You’ll see that once you find the correct balance, making sushi is an extremely satisfying art form.
Ingredients
- 3/4 cups uncooked, short grain rice.
- 3/4 cups of cool, pure water. Or 1 whole cup for a moister rice.
- 4 tbsp rice vinegar
- 2 tbsp sugar
- 1 tsp salt
Utensils Needed
- A rice paddle or sturdy spatula
- A Hangiri (a wooden, flat bottomed Japanese bowl used strictly for storing and cooling rice) or a large mixing bowl
- A thin hand cloth or towel
Makes approximately 2 cups
Instructions
- DO NOT WASH THE RICE!!! I know most of us Yanks like their rice to be light and fluffy. But unless you’re some kind of sadist you’ll really want to have a nice, sticky, glutenous rice to roll or press your sushi with. Washing the rice removes most of the gluten that covers the grain which causes it to be sticky. Edit: I’ll correct myself before someone who is vastly more experienced at making sumeshi than I am throws me against the wall and nails me there. Many traditional instructions for sumeshi call for washing the rice many times until the water becomes clear. This really depends on what kind of rice you’re using of course. I just make the generalization that most Americans like their rice to be loose and fluffly and may make the initial assumption that sumeshi should be the same way.
- Now that you HAVEN’T washed the rice, gently pour the rice and the water into a pot and bring to a boil. As soon as it reaches a gentle boil reduce the heat to the lowest setting possible. Cover the pot with a lid and allow to cook until all the water has disappeared. Make sure you do not overcook the rice to the point where it begins sticking to the pot.
- Using the rice paddle or spatula, spoon out all the rice into the hangiri or large bowl. Cover with the towel and allow to cool. You want the rice to be cool enough to touch but still warm.
- In a small sauce pan, combine the vinegar, sugar and salt over medium heat until both the sugar and salt have dissolved.
- Remove the cloth that is covering the rice and set it aside. Slowly pour the vinegar mixture onto the rice. Using your rice paddle or spatula being to mix the vinegar and rice together using a vertical cutting motion. When thoroughly combined, the rice should have a shiny or glossy finish and smell sweetly of rice vinegar.
- Make some sushi!
Tips
- It’s important that once you’ve made your fresh sumeshi that you use it right away or store it. The loosened gluten and added sugar make it very sticky and will hasten the drying process. I find that storing leftover rice in a ziplock baggie (with the excess air squeezed out) does a very nice job at keeping sushi rice for several days.
- When making my sushi rice, I only use spring water or filtered water (filtered using a Pur or Brita filtration system).
- I have been using Nishiki Premium Medium Grain Rice and have been having really wonderful results.
- For myself, I find that I don’t like cooking the vinegar, sugar and salt mixture with a direct heat. So instead I use the still warm pot that I made the rice in. This will still have enough heat to dissolve the salt and sugar.
04.05.07
Pet Food Recall UPDATE!!!
Menu Foods has updated their pet food recall list!
For cats:
http://www.menufoods.com/recall/product_cat.html
For dogs:
http://www.menufoods.com/recall/product_dog.html
Top brands like Eukanuba, Iams and Science diet have been added.
FDA to loosen labeling requirements on irradiated foods.
I’d like to make my first official post by talking about something I actually had no knowledge about: irradiation.
Much to my feigned shock, I awoke on Wednesday morning to yet another spoonful of poisonous elixir the FDA has tried to sneak past the mouths of the American consumer.
On April 4th, 2007 The Food and Drug Administration announced a proposal that would loosen the requirements for labeling foods that have undergone the process of irradiation; which are foods that have been exposed to a low-level blast of radiation to eliminate harmful bacterias.
Upon the passing of this proposal the FDA would allow future labels to read ‘pastuerized’ instead of ‘irradiated’ or bearing the FDA’s irradiation symbol.
The FDA claims that such a proposal will allow for companies to better provide safer and more wholesome foods to the end consumer, free of harmful pathogens and that it will help boost sales and the economy.
Let’s get something straightened out first: The process of pasteurization involves heating a product to a very high temperature and then cooling it very quickly. At no point does it involve exposing uncooked food to radioactive materials.
The proposal will require products that have been irradiated when the irradiation has altered the taste, texture, smell and shelf life of the product.
That’s like saying “OK, you can irradiate milk much as you want but you gotta stop once the carton sprouts tentacles”
You can’t honestly be serious here. Since the induction of processed foods we’ve been taking very tiny baby steps to keeping the consumer informed about what they’re putting in their bodies and you want to set them back another 25 years to turn a profit? Dressed up as ‘concern for public welfare’?
That turns my considerably large stomach.
Alright, you eggheads out there, tests prove that it does not make food ‘radioactive’ but there are no tests that show how consumption of these irradiated foods impact our health in the long run.
At the base level, this is nothing more than another ploy to benefit the irradiation industry and in turn will potentially damage the nations overall health.
Passing this proposal would be a massive insult to health-conscious citizens everywhere and will further the indifference to health that the American populace already has.
Tell the FDA how you feel! Click the link and fill out the simple form with your opinion. Comments will be accepted up until May 7th, 2007.
Click here to go directly to the form. If the link is broken you can go directly to the FDA’s website and click on the link at the bottom of the page titled “Comment on Proposed Regulations” and search for Docket # 2005N-0272 Irradiation in the Production, Processing and Handling of Food
Intention
What’s that old saying? ‘The road to hell is paved with the skulls of unbaptized children…….oh and good intentions.”
Well, something like that. That will most likely sum up what you’ll start reading here. Some of it you’ll hate, some of it you won’t believe, other things – I hope – will reach you and cause you to think and act differently. Aside from the occasional lunatic raving, I have but two intentions: to inform and to heal. In the end, I may come across to you as just another ugly, fat, lonely, bitter, jaded girl that can’t get a date. And you’d be right! I am all those things! But regardless of what the source looks like, I hope that what the source intends has a far greater impact.
Also, any hate mail shall not be personally responded to. Instead it will be publicly posted for others to bear witness to in hopes to make others understand, objectively, what it is to be fat in today’s society. This is, after all, a study on a modern caste.
Be the ‘bigger’ person and take a look at the ugliness in yourself, instead of the ugliness of others.
