May 10, 2004
Molcajete: Do you own and use one?
The voice of Diana Kennedy, the fire-breathing diva of Mexican cuisine, echoed in my inner ear: "No self-respecting cook in this hemisphere should be without this classic piece of kitchen equipment." Well, I'm a self-respecting cook. And I live in this hemisphere. " This is Ed Bruske reporting in the Washington Post on his shopping adventure to buy a molcajetes on a trip to Mexico.
Here are the basics about molcajete also from reporter Bruske and published in the Post.
"In Mexico, mortar and pestle translates as molcajete y tejolote. The traditional implements are carved from black basalt, or lava rock, typically mined in the state of Jalisco.
The best molcajetes are black or dark gray. Anything lighter in color and chalky could be problematic, meaning the stone is too soft and will never stop shedding grit and dust into your food. Beware especially of molcajetes made of concrete. Buy only from a reputable dealer, and expect to pay between $25 and $45 for a standard molcajete -- usually eight inches in diameter and two inches deep -- made of quality basalt.
Before putting food in your molcajete, you must season it by grinding uncooked rice or dry corn (see below for directions) completely around the interior surface. This will probably require several applications over several hours, thoroughly cleaning the molcajete with hot water and a stiff brush each time. (Do not use detergent, as this can adversely flavor the porous stone.) Continue the process until the powdered material emerges clean and untainted by any grit.
Use your molcajete for grinding seeds, nuts, spices and herbs, and to make a variety of seasoning pastes and salsas.To season, put one-third cup uncooked rice or dried corn in the molcajete. Grind it up with the pestle, or tejolote, occasionally tilting and turning the molcajete to reach the entire interior surface. Do this for 30 minutes or until the grain is a fine powder and your arm muscles are burning. The first time you do this, the powdered grain will be gray from fine basalt granules shed by the molcajete. Repeat the process five or six times over a period of days until there is no longer any grit in the finished grain. We prefer to use dried corn (available at Latin markets) because it seems to leave a slight coating of corn oil in the stone for a glorious finish."
May 10, 2004 in Cooking | Permalink | Comments (0)
May 09, 2004
Virtual Luau: Compliments Smithsonian Folklife Center
A favorite annual event of ours that features food and cooking demonstrations is the Smithsonian Folklife Festival on the National Mall in Washington, DC. Three different cultures are showcased each summer with hundreds of participants invited to demonstrate their cooking, crafts, music, pastimes and occupations. It goes on under tents or in the open for two weeks ending on or near July 4th. Last year the Folklife of such diverse places as Mali in Africa, Scotland and Appalachia in the USwere featured. They even set a replica of one of St. Andrew's famed golf holes. In past years, Mardi Gras floats have been built, an ice fishing hole was created, and a rodeo was staged. Foodways and cooking demonstations are a prominent feature of each venue. Traditional foods from all the featured cultures are available at vendor's tents too.
This year's event features the maritime communities of the Middle Atlantic states, Haiti and Latin music.
But the reason for this post is the Smithsonian Folklife festival's website offers virtual folklife experiences for those who can't wait or can't get to their live show on the Mall in DC. Click here to visit a Virtual Hawaiian Luau.
Have you ever been to the Smithsonian Folklife Festival? What are some of your favorite memories? What other folklife festivals do you know about?
May 09, 2004 in Food & Culture | Permalink | Comments (0)
May 09, 2004 in Food & Culture | Permalink | Comments (0)
May 07, 2004
Is it Italian when the olives are Spanish?
In February we visited an olive oil business in France and a several museums devoted to the subject in both France and Italy. The French olive mill was a family business that produced small quantities with limited distribution. They pressed only locally grown olives using modern made-in-Italy industrial presses. The oil was extracted for several months during the harvest season Nov-Jan. The oil was bottled as needed the rest of the year. The most impressive olive museum, of several we saw, was in Imperia Italy. So olive oil is a subject we are paying more attention to at The Food Museum. This article in today's NY Times looks into one aspect of the impact of the EU and globalization of food resources.
Here are some excerpts:
"The Italian olive oil industry has long been built on this illusion. Consumers the world over want Italian olive oil because it is supposed to be the finest, redolent of la dolce vita, and so the industry finds a way to give it to them, sort of.
In truth, Italy does not grow enough olives to meet even its own demand, let alone foreigners'. Spain, not Italy, actually has the world's largest olive harvest. As a result, Italy is one of the world's leading importers of olive oil, part consumed, the rest re-exported with newly assumed Italian cachet.
The industry has a ready justification: what is important is not where the olives are picked and pressed, but where the oil is refined and blended. The olive oil is Italian, the argument goes, because it has been processed by skilled Italian experts who choose oils from around the Mediterranean to create an oil for the foreign market. "
Nary an olive nor an oil press is visible here in the new $50 million Salov factory, Instead, as much as 100,000 tons of olive oil a year is produced with a computer-controlled array of 30-foot-high storage silos, mixing vats and assembly lines. Extra virgin olive oil, the finest grade, needs little processing, while lower categories are heavily refined.
For export, the factory even churns out an extra light olive oil, a bland concoction that is about as enticing to a native Italian palate as bowl of SpaghettiOs.
Whether the Italian practice is proper depends on the interpretation of different laws in Italy, the European Union and the United States. As the producers carefully point out, if a Belgian chocolatier uses cocoa from Ivory Coast, does that mean that the chocolate is African? "
May 07, 2004 in Food Business | Permalink | Comments (0)
May 06, 2004
Gardening as a Radical Political Act
"I'm thinking about gardening as a radical political act," said Fritz Haeg, 34, an architect who teaches in the environmental design program at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, Calif. "It means completely questioning the way we live, the way we get our food, the way we use and abuse natural resources, the way we occupy public space." Mr. Haeg plays host at a monthly salon that draws a young, flamboyant crowd. Events are themed — "avant-garde knitting" was a recent topic.
While gardening has yet to reach critical mass among this group, it is beginning to make an impact. Peter Bosselmann, chairman of landscape architecture and environmental planning at the University of California, Berkeley, said he has seen a bit of a shift among applicants for the graduate program over the last four years. Traditionally, students came with experience in horticulture, but now, Mr. Bosselmann said, they increasingly have art-related backgrounds.
"It's pretty clear that young people are decidedly interested in or concerned about the landscape," he said. "Most perceive it as chaotic or in need of care and health, in need of introducing ecological principles, in need of being more artful, more structured."
Ms. Drennon, 27, who calls herself "a typical L.A. indie walking stereotype" complete with art degree and tattoos, said her gardening habit began with "a pot of rosemary on a windowsill."
"Everything just sort of rolled from there," she said. Lured by a 2,000-square-foot yard, she moved from a funky Koreatown loft to leafier Venice. She also joined You Grow Girl, an online gardening site that says it "speaks to a new kind of gardener." The site, at www.yougrowgirl.com, is the brainchild of Gayla Sanders, 30, a graphic designer in Toronto, who started it out of frustration with other online gardening communities. To her, they all seemed aimed at an older suburban audience, with a significantly higher disposable income.
"There definitely is this stigma that gardening is something that women who are housewives do, or something that only goes on in the country," Ms. Drennon said.
On an April morning, seed packets spilled across her 40's-diner-style kitchen table. The seeds, for flowers and vegetables with names like papaya pear hybrid squash and Flaro-French flageolet, were booty from a seed swap organized by You Grow Girl. She said that members send around a big box of seeds they aren't going to use. Each takes what she wants, adds her own leftovers and mails the box to the next person on the list. "It's like Secret Santa in April," Ms. Drennon said."
Have you planted a garden? What are you growing to eat?
May 06, 2004 in Foodies Forum | Permalink | Comments (0)
May 05, 2004
2004 World Food Prize Winners Announced
Two scientists specializing in rice breeding, one from Africa and the other from China, are the co-winners of the 2004 World Food Prize announced in Washington on March 29th.
Learn more about the World Food Prize by clicking here.
May 05, 2004 in Food News | Permalink | Comments (0)
May 04, 2004
Overweight kids now suffering from higher rates of blood pressure
Study finds rise in high blood pressure rates among US children which is linked to increased obesity levels among the nation's youth as well.
The study discussed in today's NY Times concludes:
"Based on this data, the number of children with high blood pressure probably has increased," Muntner said.
While increasing weight undoubtedly is contributing to the increase, other factors probably play a role as well, including a lack of physical activity and possibly greater salt consumption from eating fast-food and prepared foods, experts said.
"One can be pretty sure that with the increasing role that fast food and convenience foods play in the diet that kids are being exposed to more salt," said Jeffrey Cutler of the NHLBI, who helped conduct the study.
The findings should not necessarily alarm individual parents about their children, but are cause for concern for the population overall, said Rae-Ellen Kavey, chief of cardiology at Children's Memorial Hospital in Chicago.
"On a national level, it is worrisome because the blood pressure of our children is gradually trending up over time, just as the weight of our children is gradually trending up over time," said Kavey, speaking on behalf of the American Heart Association.
Melinda S. Sothern, who treats overweight and obese children at Louisiana State University's Health Sciences Center in Baton Rouge, said she is already seeing children suffering severe health problems because of their weight.
"I think that we're going to have a generation of children who are not children. They're basically, because of the physiological and metabolic sickness associated with carrying all that excess weight around, prevented them from participating in childlike activities," Sothern said. "They are going to be very much physically and emotionally handicapped, and we're going to have to pay for it as a nation."
What is your reaction?
May 04, 2004 in Diet & Nutrition | Permalink | Comments (0)
Math in Macaroni, Spelling in Spinach: Kids Study the Restaurant Biz
Kids learn math and more by studying the restaurant businesses near their school and create two in classroom cafes for a day. The NY Times has all the details yesterday.
The Food Museum grew out of a classroom project that set up the world's first museum to honor the potato. Unlike the New York restaurant project, the students at the International School of Brussels, back in the late 70's, continued the project that eventually filled three formerly unused classrooms. You can read more on the history of The Potato Museum and The Food Museum by clicking on About Us on our Home page.
What do you think of this project based education? Can you tell us about your favorite school projects when you were in school, or do you know of efforts to help kids understand about the restaurant or food business?
May 04, 2004 in Foodies Forum | Permalink | Comments (0)
Mexican food to Australia?
A visitor to The FOOD Museum asks for information on when and where Mexican cuisine first arrived in Australia?
If any alert bloggers have some answers please post them here. Many thanks.
May 04, 2004 in Food & Culture | Permalink | Comments (0)
May 02, 2004
Acai: Latest Power Drink
"Rio de Janeiro is the city that worships health and beauty and where the healthy and the beautiful drink açaÃ. Pronounced ah-sah-yee, açaà is more of a lifestyle option than a foodstuff; a magic fruit potion that fuels the hedonistic energy of Brazilian beach life.
Shortly after I moved to Rio, I was told about the açaÃs berry's amazing nutritional properties: Brazilians believe it gives you strength, energy and is great for sex. A friend told me that when he was having difficulty in fathering a child, the first thing his doctor recommended was 'drink lots of açaÃ'. And it worked!'
I took my first sip at one of the juice bars that line the blocks by the beach. The berry juice is served half-frozen and its thick gloopiness means that you slurp it up with a spoon. This seems to accentuate its carnal, brutish aspect. As does the fact that the people who drink it are invariably nearly naked, in Speedo trunks or bikinis.
The way it looks is integral to its appeal. It is made from dark violet berries about the size of a raspberry; a deep, dense colour that seems weighted down by its nutritional secrets. It reflects no light and has the texture of mud. I wasn't immediately sure about the taste, which was very sweet and medicinal. But by the end of the cup I was hooked. It is fruity with a chocolatey kick. "
He visits the acai production area:
"Açaà is highly perishable and the only way it gets to Rio is in frozen packages. In Belém, the fruit is always consumed fresh. Since it goes off within 24 hours, in order to service the population with fresh açaà on a daily basis an enormous infrastructure has grown in Belém that employs an estimated 30,000 people.
The cycle starts in the rainforest. The açaà palm has a long thin trunk up to 25m high and a clutch of branches at the top from which hang ribbon-like leaves. Hundreds of açaà fruits dangle from branches in clusters that look like nests of bluebottles.
The fruit picking is done by hand. In the afternoons, river-dwellers scramble up the trees, cut off the branches and climb back down again exactly as they have done for hundreds of years. In the evening, boats containing baskets of açaà leave the rainforest heading for Belém's market, where they arrive in the middle of the night."
Here is a source in the US for this product. By the way, we have not tried acai, and do not get any benefit from reporting on it. We'd like to know more. Have you tried it? What are your comments.
May 02, 2004 in Food & Culture | Permalink | Comments (1)