Recently in Food and wine Category

Lynne Kiesling

Want to buy the freshest in-season local produce? Here's the tool for you: Epicurious' seasonal ingredient map. Right now I should be eating lots of asparagus and potatoes ...

Lynne Kiesling

Happy Thanksgiving to you all! I have a LOT for which to be grateful this year, and I won't bore you with the details. But I will leave you with a cautionary note from Reason.tv's interview with chef Anthony Bourdain entitled "Better Enjoy Your Foie Gras Now". Here in Chicago we cannot buy foie gras in a restaurant, but we can get it as a free garnish on a $20 salad ...

Off to work on that pumpkin pie ...

Lynne Kiesling

In late June the KP Spouse and I were flying back from the ISNIE conference in Iceland, and we had a lengthy layover at BWI while awaiting our Southwest flight to Midway. Tired after a long flight from Reykjavik, we grabbed a crabcake dinner at the restaurant we knew of, then sauntered down to our gate for two more hours of lounging before departure. We rounded the corner, and couldn't believe what we saw before us: a minimalist, tastefully-decorated wine bar and shop. Could we be hallucinating? Were we so beaten down by the modern travel experience that we created a mirage?

Thankfully, no. It was BWI's outpost of Vino Volo, a relatively new line of airport terminal wine bars. Vino Volo currently has locations in Dulles, Sea-Tac, BWI, Sacramento, and New York's JFK, and they are planning to expand further. They offer a thoughtful selection of wines by the glass, tasting flights, small plate nibbles, and bottles of wine for purchase (which is possible since they are inside of airport security).

Today's Wall Street Journal has an article about Vino Volo (subscription required). The author recounts his experience:

We dropped in at the Vino Volo for lunch a few days ago and plunked ourself down in a modern-looking leather chair with old-fashioned comfort. An eager and vinously informed young woman called Jennifer emerged from the adjacent Vino Volo wine store bearing a menu and a wine list.

In a spirit of earnest inquiry, we ordered several of the small platters. Smoked salmon came as rollups, attractively plated. Duck confit with lentils and a generous sprinkling of cracklings was bathed in a vinaigrette made from Banyuls, a wine of Provence, the same region where duck has been parcooked in its own fat and preserved in this way for centuries. The plate (white china like the others) of cured meats included prosciutto, fennel salami and jambon de Bayonne, with crisp-fried crostini sliced from a good baguette-style loaf and bocconcini, little balls of mozzarella.

The teetotaler could limit herself to this food alone and wash it down with a bottle of sparkling Tau water from Wales. But, once again performing a reportorial service for travelers, I matched these platters with appropriate flights of wines. For the duck, I ordered Shades of White, a trio of glasses, each roughly half full, of Villa Maria Cellar Selection Sauvignon Blanc 2006 from the Central Otago region of New Zealand, and two from California: Terlato Family Vineyard's Russian River Valley Pinot Grigio 2006 and Ferrari-Carano's Alexander Valley 2005 Chardonnay. This adventure in global quaffing cost $10.

The glasses arrived on a silvery tray, atop a sheet of information about the wines. To describe each wine, Vino Volo provides a chart divided into four quadrants -- bright, light, rich and brooding. A black dot shows where the wine falls in the spectrum. Vino Volo pegged the Sauvignon Blanc as bright, the Chardonnay as rich. The Pinot Grigio's dot hovered over the line between bright and light. Next to each chart were tasting notes: The Chardonnay, we were told, has "enticing aromas of dried apricots, papaya and mango...with a toasted-almond finish."

We had a delightful experience at Vino Volo; our server was quite knowledgeable and happy to talk about the wines and Vino Volo's business model. We had one wine with which we are quite familiar, the Sausal Alexander Valley Estate Zinfandel 2003, and a new wine for us, the Borsao Campo de Borja Reserva 2001 from Spain (a blend of garnacha, tempranillo, and cabernet). Each glass came on a coaster with tasting notes; the Sausal notes said "raspberry & spicy clove", among other things, and the Borsao said "cherry pie & vanilla". Both were pretty accurate. The 2x2 taste matrix that they use to describe their wines has compexity on the X axis and fruit on the Y axis, and the four quadrants mentioned above do a nice job of capturing the salient characteristics of the taste, for comparison across wines.

Finally, something to add some pleasure back into air travel ...

Michael Giberson

The Washington Post Food section ran an article with Tyler Cowen, professor of economics at GMU, blogger at Marginal Revolution, and author of Discover Your Inner Economist.

An economist at George Mason University, Cowen has rather unusual criteria for restaurant selection. He doesn't first look at the menu, the ambiance or the reviews. Being an economist, he thinks about the rental market, property taxes, competition and clientele. "All of us already act like economists," he said, digging into a plate of Chengdu dumplings in a black vinegar sauce. "We just have to think about what we already know about the world and apply it to dining."

Here is Cowen blogging the article (of course!), which he said he liked. In the article the reporter meets Cowen at Hong Kong Palace. Here is Cowen's review of the place at Tyler Cowen's Ethnic Dining Guide.

Lynne Kiesling

Through my various wanderings in the past week I have come across two fun little shopping-oriented sites that I like: Little Splurge, which highlights little (and no-so-little) finds for fashion, home, travel, work, etc; and Paperclippy, focusing on office-friendly fashion finds.

These two cute sites are great examples of Internet filtering; there's so much great stuff out there, and I wouldn't know about most of it if it weren't for filters and seekers like these!

Michael Giberson

Today I did something new. Something I’ve never tried before. I walked into the local Barnes and Noble bookstore and bought a diet book.

I’ve never really though of myself as overweight. For most of my life I haven’t been overweight. For the last few years, however, I have thought of myself as needing to lose a few pounds -- unlike Lynne, I am no triathlete -- and over the past few years I have added pounds rather than losing a few.

I got naked earlier today and stepped on a scale: 198.4 pounds. A quick BMI calculation online produced a 27.3. The number puts me smack in the middle of the “Overweight” category.

Lots of people try lots of diets. Over the last few years I have heard people talk about their low fat, South Beach, low carb, Atkins, high fiber, unprocessed foods, more veggies, weight watchers, and how to take it off and how to keep it off diets.

Two things I’ve noticed about people on diets: they can’t seem not to talk about their diets; and, except for the people in TV commercials, none of them seemed to be having fun. And while I get that not everything in life has to be fun, the general tenor of the discussions tended to put me off the idea. Plus, many didn’t seem to work.

My feeling about the matter was, I’m happy for lots of people to try lots of different diets, and if something actually works, word will get out, and then I’ll give it a go. I’m a big fan of experiments, especially when other people are paying the costs and I can sit around and wait. I guess I’m ready to join the lab rats.

Wandering through the bookstore, I came across Seth Robert’s paperback edition of The Shangri-La Diet. (Previously mentioned on KP here and here.) I’ve been thinking about the “SLD” half-seriously since David Tufte’s one-year anniversary post at voluntaryXchange. Picked the book up, scanned through, read the Stephen Dubner quote on the back cover (and front cover, and again inside – apparently they really liked the Dubner quote.)

The second quote at the beginning of Chapter 4 caught my eye: “It appealed to my essential laziness.” (The quote was by-lined “A Blogger’s Reason for Trying the Shangri-La Diet.” Now you know that I stole my title.) I think for me the “laziness” aspect is part of the appeal for me – it looks astoundingly easy to do. But in addition to my essential laziness, the book also appeals to my essential curiosity. It is a little quirky. Roberts is interesting. I’d like to give it a shot.

So I’ve bought the book. I’ll probably start in a few days. If I’m lucky, I will drop 25 pounds or so and never have to buy another diet book again in my life.

Lynne Kiesling

I haven't said much in the past few months about the personal life, although I do still have one ...

This past weekend was a lovely spring weekend here in Chicago, and we took advantage of it to do some local exploring. We started off Friday night at Dr. Vino's meetup at Juicy Wine Company, which was great fun! His summary tells you all you need to know. We drank a Barbera from California and a Cabernet Sauvignon/Syrah blend from California called Barn d'Or (hee hee!), we ate a variety of Italian cheeses and delicious olives, and had a splendid time.

Saturday morning we went to the 2nd annual Arts & Crafts Chicago Show and Sale at Concordia University in River Forest. Lots of antiques dealers and modern artists who draw inspiration from the American Arts & Crafts movement (as well as related aesthetics, like English arts & crafts, Charles Rennie Mackintosh, art nouveau, and Japanese art). This was a wonderful show, and everyone we met was friendly and knowledgeable. We bought a lovely Motawi tile landscape triptych in a gorgeous oak Dard Hunter frame, to go in our not-yet-built master bathroom. This is only the second year of this show, and I hope it becomes a regular annual occurrence, because it was really enjoyable.

We then followed the intelligence of a colleague of mine and headed to Forest Park to Todd & Holland Tea Merchants, to replenish the woefully depleted stocks of tea in the KP household. What a spectacular place! The proprietor is extremely knowledgeable (we eavesdropped on him explaining the concept of astringency to some tea-newbies, and it was an excellent explanation that would suit a wine tasting too!), the selection is wonderful, and the accoutrements (pots, cups, scone mix, linens) are very well-chosen. We stayed firmly in the terra cognita of Indian teas: Assam, Ceylon, and blends of such. We drank the Abbot's Blend on Saturday afternoon and enjoyed it, but make sure it only steeps for 3 minutes and that you only use 3/4 teaspoon per cup without adding "one for the pot", as is my habit. They also have a great selection of Chinese black tea, green and white teas, and herbal tisanes. They also do mail order and online ordering.

Conveniently enough, there's a yarn store, Chix With Stix, across the street from Todd & Holland, with an ice cream parlor next door. Now you see why it was the best day! I think we'll be going back to Forest Park sooner rather than later ... especially since we could stop at Get A Grip Cycles on the way home and drool over the Serotta bikes.

Next week and weekend will be full of cycling and farmer's markets; the Green City Market opens for the season this Wednesday, and the other Chicago and Evanston markets are soon to follow. Early asparagus and berries, anyone?

So what makes the perfect spring weekend for you?

Lynne Kiesling

I found the juxtaposition of two recent articles (found via Arts & Letters Daily) on language quite interesting. Wine writer Colin Bower is frustrated with the use of simile and metaphor in wine writing: why can't we describe the experience of tasting a wine in a direct, factual way, without the use of metaphor?

Wine is always described as being like something else. This is appealingly post modern. If a chardonnay tastes a bit like a peach, what then does the peach taste like? A chardonnay? And if so, what does either taste like? If you must describe the Van Loveren 2001 limited edition Merlot as being “chocolately”, does it mean that chocolate tastes like the Van Loveren Merlot? And if we like the Merlot on account if its tasting like chocolate, why don’t we eat chocolate instead of drinking wine?

Consider this dilemma facing the wine writer, and then apply the evolutionary psychology and cognitive science prowess of Steven Pinker to the problem. Pinker has a new book on language called The Stuff of Thought coming out in the fall. One of his topics will be metaphor:

While swearing may garner public attention, perhaps the more surprising aspect of Pinker's work traces the pervasiveness of metaphor in language. Not flowery poetic allusions or rhetorical similes but concrete-to-abstract transitions so common in everyday speech and writing that we often don't even recognize them as metaphorical.

Consider this sentence:

"He attacked my position and I defended it." It uses the metaphor of argument as war. Or how about "this program isn't going anywhere," which uses the metaphor of progress as motion.

Says Pinker: "Look at almost any passage and you'll find that a paragraph has five or six metaphors in it. It's not that the speaker is trying to be poetic, it's just that that's the way language works.

"Rather than occasionally reaching for a metaphor to communicate, to a very large extent communication is the use of metaphor," he says.

"It could be that 95 per cent of our speech is metaphorical, if you go back far enough in language."

Why? Here, the teacher part of researcher and author Steven Pinker comes to the fore, offering a boring explanation and an interesting explanation, both with an element of truth.

The boring explanation is that using metaphor is a quick-and-dirty way of expressing a new idea without the trouble of coining [notice the metaphor] and propagating a new word.

"But that presupposes that the mind itself works metaphorically, that we see the abstract commonality between argument and war, between progress and motion. And it presupposes that the mind, at some level, must reason very concretely in order that these metaphors be understood and become contagious.

"And that's the more interesting part of the story."

Thus, with respect to wine Bower concludes

I’ve had to give up on so-called facts. They don’t exist. It took wine writers to prove this to me. Nothing is ever knowable for what it is. Admit it, you can no more say what a taste is than you can say what a colour is or what a feeling is.

I think Mr. Bower is a little too postmodern for his own good, and should leaven in some Pinker: it is in the nature of human language to use metaphor as hooks into our shared knowledge when we are describing a personal, potentially unknown experience to someone else. Metaphor provides the flavor and culture referents that we use to communicate our personal wine experiences to each other. Facts don't carry enough information without the metaphor hooks for us to put them in context.

Lynne Kiesling

As I've mentioned here before, I update the blogroll with a lag; I tend to read a lot of things through my RSS aggregator, and then put them here so I can access them without opening Bloglines.

Two new links here, but sites I read regularly, are Mark Thoma's Economist's View and The Wine Commonsewer.

Michael Giberson

In a story widely reported in news and on the web - we humans like our confirmatory data - a study finds that a compound in red wine may help fight the ill effects of obesity and aging. On the front page of the Washington Post today:

A substance found in red wine protected mice from the ill effects of obesity and extended their life spans, raising the tantalizing prospect that the compound could do the same for humans and may also help people live longer, healthier lives, researchers reported yesterday.

The substance, called resveratrol, enabled mice that were fed a high-calorie, high-fat diet to live normal, active lives despite becoming obese -- the first time any compound has been shown to do that.

An earlier version of the story, posted online early yesterday was later joined by this somewhat sobering correction:

An earlier version of this article did not have the correct estimate of how much wine would be necessary to get the levels of resveratrol given to mice. The researchers noted that people would have to drink hundreds of glasses of red wine a day. This version has been updated.

Uh, "hundreds of glasses of red wine a day"? Okay, maybe not quite the miracle diet we've been waiting for. But still, a toast to resveratrol!

Michael Giberson

Cindy Skrzycki writes:

It took a book called The Jungle, a grim assessment of work inside slaughterhouses, plus a campaign by labor unions, medical professionals and consumer groups, to pressure Congress to pass the Pure Food and Drug Act and the Meat Inspection Act on the same day in 1906.

The food industry was opposed to legislative and regulatory oversight then, as it is in many instances today.

But, as Ron Bailey explains, it is no "Jungle" out there:

In 1900, six years before Upton Sinclair wrote his great muckraking book, The Jungle, about the filthy conditions in the meatpacking industry, the death rate from gastritis, duodentitis, enteritis, and colitis was 142.7 people per 100,000. ... Today, accepting CDC calculations of 5000 deaths per year implies a hundred-fold reduction, to just 1.4 deaths per 100,000 people.

While there is no comfort in the fact for those affected by the tainted spinach, we were fortunate, from a public policy perspective, that the germs were spread by a fresh, organically-grown vegetable rather than, say, a heavily processed meat product. Thus we are spared a lot of unhelpful editorial hand-wringing about factory farms and associated Puritan scolding about unhealthy diets. Instead, both the news and the editorializing has stayed relatively focused on what happened in this case and what we can learn from it.

Skrzycki describes the latest episode in the continuing comedy that is Washington, D.C., as nanny-state public interest groups seek to demonstrate that no consumer ailment is ever too small to justify a new federal agency. Unfortunately for the nanny-staters, Associated Press medical writer Marilynn Marchione reports that food borne illnesses are at record low levels. Perhaps the existing food safety regulatory superstructure is working, or maybe grocery distributors fear being struck by abusive lawsuits, or just maybe the industry is cleaning itself up out of good old capitalistic enlightened self-interest. Could be some crazy salad-like mix of all three social forces. One thing that seems pretty clear: our food is safer than it has ever been. Go buy some spinach.

Lynne Kiesling

A follow-up to my recent musings on the health benefits of tea, one of my favorite beverages and daily rituals: innovation is occurring in the bagged tea market. This NYT article on new tea bag designs is very interesting, whether you are a tea drinker or not.

Most people are familiar with the flat, square bag typically used for tea, which is occasionally designed with a pleat in it to give the leaves more room to unfurl as they steep. The best flavor from tea comes from leaves that have not been broken down into very small pieces after fermentation and drying. But that's usually what you get in commercially-packed tea bags:

Look closely at a conventional tea bag in your cupboard or in the paper cup from the local deli. Chances are that instead of leaves it is filled with indistinguishable bits, the detritus left after tea leaves are sifted and graded. The tea industry calls it dust, and the beverage it makes is likely to be rusty-looking and often bitterly tannic. But it no longer has to be, nor is it necessary to brew a whole pot of tea to achieve something better tasting.

One of the best bag innovations of the past few years is a pyramidal nylon mesh bag, which allows the long leaves of tea to unfurl. The pyramid shape creates a three-dimensional space more conducive to getting the best flavor out of long-leaf tea without grinding up the leaves, which can make tea bitter.

Perhaps the surest sign that the tea world is changing is this: Lipton, the world’s largest tea company and a division of Unilever, will start selling tea bags containing long leaf teas in supermarkets nationwide next month.

Instead of paper, the leaves will be enveloped by nylon mesh bags in a delicate pyramid shape.

Lipton is following the lead of American businesses like Harney & Sons, Mighty Leaf, Adagio and the Highland Tea Company, which for several years have sold tea bags filled with high-quality full-leaf teas, ones with complex, often floral, herbaceous, spicy or fruity nuances.

Smelling a trend, new companies, like Revolution Tea, Numi Tea, Two Leaves and a Bud, and Tea Forté, have formed expressly to sell fine teas in tea bags. Harrisons & Crosfield, from England, and the luxury Parisian tea purveyors Le Palais des Thés and Mariage Frères have also introduced tea bags.

Later on in the article a Lipton spokesperson says that people find brewing loose tea "intimidating". I don't think that's really true; I think the problems are portability and convenience. When I'm at home I can make a single cup with loose tea in a ball, bag, or "tea sock", but if I'm traveling, or at a conference or meeting at a hotel, they are going to want to provide the tea in bags, or I will carry my own tea with me in bags (yes, I do that, really).

I'm also glad that the article refers to the history of the tea industry, and how Lipton (and to a very large extent Twinings) profited by making tea affordable and accessible to more people. It also remarks on the change in the tastes and demographics of the tea market in the US, as more people become familiar with Japanese tea rituals. Very interesting.

Lynne Kiesling

Tea is healthier to drink than water, due to the flavonoids in tea:

These polyphenol antioxidants are found in many foods and plants, including tea leaves, and have been shown to help prevent cell damage. ...

Other health benefits seen included protection against tooth plaque and potentially tooth decay, plus bone strengthening.

This from a new UK study. Furthermore, even though tea is caffeinated, its net effect still produces hydration. So it replaces fluids and has antioxidants.

I think I'll go have another cup!

Lynne Kiesling

Hmmm, haven't done a wine review in a while; doesn't mean we haven't been tasting! Last night we had the New Gewurz 2005 from Alexander Valley Vineyards, a really great Sonoma County winery outside of Healdsburg. When we last were in Sonoma we visited there and had a lovely time.

The New Gewurz has a peach-and-pear nose with crisp acidity, so you know from the get-go that this will go well with food, particularly Thai or sushi. The foretaste has more of that peach and a balancing dose of honeysuckle, with a nice gentle malic acid fizz on the tongue. The mid-taste is round and fills the mouth with the fruit and acidity. The aftertaste is gently spicy, rather like a ginger beer. All in all, a very worthy wine for $8.

Alexander Valley Vineyards makes several wonderful wines in various styles and at various price points; their signature Cabernet is extremely good value for money. We are always on the lookout for their wines, and for opportunities to visit them.

Michael Giberson

Back in December I wrote:

I think quality, rather than customer goodwill and trust, will be the truly sustainable approach to providing a premium to small [coffee] producers in less-developed nations. To that end, programs like the Cup of Excellence are the better approach. It provides a rigorous quality scoring system followed by auctions, with high scoring lots commanding significant premiums. Cup of Excellence says that about 85% of the auction price goes to the producer.

This month Reason is carrying an article that makes similar points, only supported by actual journalism rather than just my idle speculation. Kerry Howley writes:

The range of prices between high- and low-quality coffees is still minuscule compared to what you�ll find with a highly branded beverage like wine, but it is growing, and consumers have consistently demonstrated that they�re willing to pay more for better beans. The best hope for farmers lies with consumers demanding better coffee, not just from Starbucks but from the supermarket shelf.

This point is further illustrated by an article from the Miami Herald discussing Bolivia's second annual "Cup of Excellence" competition. Bill Faries describes how investing in a quality, differentiated product is paying big dividends to some small farmers. He uncovers an interesting economic angle to the situation faced by small producers: reaping the benefits of investing in quality sometimes requires small producers to break away from the farmer cooperatives intended to assist them.

Small-scale farmers in the isolated Yungas Valley usually sell their beans to cooperatives, which then combine them into marketable quantities for sale to domestic and international buyers. A farmer producing high-quality beans might have his product lumped together with low-end coffee, and both farmers would receive the same price. The financial incentives favored mediocrity, and market information was in the hands of the cooperative managers....

Of the 67 producers whose coffee qualified for the Cup of Excellence this year, nearly one-third failed to submit their beans to the final competition. One reason, according to Mr. Jald�n and others, is that cooperative owners opposed to the program either prohibited their members from participating or sold their farmers' beans before they could be made available to the judges.

"This program really empowers individual producers," says Joel Webber, an official with the USAID project. "They can demand much more of their cooperatives."

A similar dynamic has twarted efforts in African to foster development of specialty coffee production. In Kenya, for example, coffee growers have been required to sell coffee through a monopoly government-managed auction. While the auction permits prices to vary among producers in a way that could support quality differentiation, the minimum lots sizes are such that small producers must combine their production with other farmers. The costs of an individual farmer�s investment in quality are largely born by the farmer alone, while the benefits of quality are averaged across all members of the cooperative.

Addendum: The New York Times ran an article on Fair Trade commodities on March 19. Available here. A quote:

Fair Trade labels don't list the amount paid to farmers; that sum requires research. The amount can vary depending on the commodity. An analysis using information from TransFair shows that cocoa farmers get 3 cents of the $3.49 spent on a 3.5-ounce chocolate bar labeled "organic fair trade" sold at Target. Farmers receive 24 cents for a one-pound bag of fair trade sugar sold at Whole Foods for $3.79.

The coffee farmer who produced the one-pound bag of coffee purchased by Mr. Terman received $1.26, higher than the commodity rate of $1.10. But whether Mr. Terman paid $10 or $6 for that fair trade coffee, the farmer gets the same $1.26.

For comparison, in the last Brazil "Cup of Excellence" auction, the highest paid producer received an astronomical $49.75/lb. (The other lots averaged $4.75/lb, which is still nearly four times the "Fair Trade" price.)

Hat tip to Russell Roberts at Cafe Hayek.

Lynne Kiesling

In the course of reading the Wine Blogging Wednesday entries, I found this great wine cellar site: Manage Your Cellar. It's kinda like wine inventory spreadsheet meets wiki. You can record your inventory (including when you should drink), your tasting notes when you do drink, and your purchases. You can also see the inventories and tasting notes of other members, but it's only by mutual agreement, so you have to get your friends to sign up too. A great learning opportunity and example of online community.

Lynne Kiesling

I missed Wednesday, but in response to Dr. Vino's Wine Blog Wednesday here's my local wine shop that feels the love:

Howard's Wine Cellar on Belmont Avenue in Chicago. Tucked into a very small shop in a strip mall, Howard's is the cellar of Howard Silverman.

Howard's passion for wine shows up in every aspect of the shop. It's stacked to the rafters with racks and boxes of wine from all over the world. He has a great, intelligently-selected variety, particularly when you consider the square footage into which he squeezes it all. He also does Saturday tastings, and he sends out a weekly email in advance so you know what he's opening each Saturday.

You can come in with requests ranging from "do you have the Bosquet des Papes 1999 Chateauneuf du Pape?" to "I'm looking for a mixed case of cheap-and-cheerful, but good, wine for midweek dinners," and Howard always delivers. His particular expertise is Burgundy (we actually bought a mixed case of red and white Burgundies from him in the spring to cellar), but he has broad and deep knowledge in other wines too. We have learned more about Spanish wines and German Riesling from Howard than I could ever have imagined!

Some of the great wines we've discovered with Howard include Cimicky Trumps Shiraz Barossa Valley (around $15, outstanding value), great German Rieslings whose names I can neither spell nor pronounce, the aforementioned Bousquet des Papes Chateauneuf du Pape, Drappier Brut Champagne (a little yeasty for my taste, but good), and some really yummy Sicilian red (nero d'avola) with a funky label whose name I can't remember, but what a heck of a value for $12.

Go see Howard; he'll set you up right. He's always been great to us, and very warm and welcoming (even after we went through a six-month phase of not buying wine because we were spending so much money on the house). Great wine, great value, great service.

Lynne Kiesling

Sam at Becks & Posh is sponsoring a Sugar Low Friday recipe-fest today. I have flaky blood sugar, so minimizing refined sugars and increasing fiber in the diet is crucial for me, and I'm always looking for ways to satisfy the sweet tooth with more fiber and less sugar (other than whole fresh fruit, the obvious solution).

So here's my entry: blueberry pancakes. I increase the fiber by using a mix of white flour, white whole wheat flour, soy flour, and ground flax seed meal. I use no sugar, only Splenda. The buttermilk is key for the loft and flavor.

1 egg
0.25 cup (scant) Splenda
1.25 cups buttermilk
0.25 cup canola oil (I use Enova)
0.25-0.5 teaspoon freshly-ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
pinch salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 (scant teaspoon) baking soda

0.5 cup white flour (I use King Arthur's unbleached)
0.25 cup King Arthur's white whole wheat flour
0.25 cup soy flour
0.25 cup ground flax seed meal

0.5-0.75 cup frozen blueberries (I use Trader Joe's wild blueberries)

1. Whisk together egg and Splenda.
2. Add nutmeg, vanilla, and salt.
3. Whisk in canola oil to emulsify.
4. Add buttermilk.
5. Add baking powder and baking soda.
6. Add dry ingredients, combining only until wet.
7. Add blueberries.
8. Cook and serve.

Tagged with: SHF # 15 + Low Sugar

Lynne Kiesling

Virginia Postrel has a post and a follow-up on one lawyer's almost single-handed crusade to rid the world of the dreaded drag�e. You know, those little metallic balls that decorate holiday sweets?

My favorite quote from Mark Pollock, the crusading lawyer in question (from the LA Times story in Virginia's post):

They're making it out of sugar and intentionally allowing it to be put on�desserts!

The horror, the horror!

One of my favorite childhood holiday memories was when my mother would make what seemed like hundreds of pressed chocolate cookies, donkeys and dogs, using one of those cool hand presses with the screw that turns the dough through the plate. Each donkey and dog got a little silver or gold eye.

While I'm sure I ate more of them than I should have, I doubt that I consumed enough gold and silver leaf to cause my internal organs damage. And given the sugar in the cookie, the sugar in the drag�e was certainly marginal.

Michael Giberson

Some consumers are willing to pay a little extra for a product, if they think they are supporting a good cause. It may be possible to get quality cookies at a lower price from the supermarket itself than from the Girl Scouts parked outside in the springtime, but since it is for a good cause many consumers will buy from the scouts.

This same bundling of charitable instincts and commercial trade is put to grander ends by �fair trade� groups. Fair trade organizations seek to commit producers in less-developed countries to improved wages and better conditions for workers, among other goals. Products that obtain a fair trade label typically sell for a premium, with the premium justified based upon the improvements in living standards it supports.

It seems to me that this premium stands on two legs: customer goodwill toward workers in less-developed countries and the customer�s ability to trust that the system effectively delivers positive changes. Both legs � trust and goodwill � are exposed to problems that could undermine the enterprise.

Continue reading this post for my attempt to explain why this is the case, why I think quality rather than charity provides a better approach, and some addition resources.

Lynne Kiesling

Tyler Cowen is making my mouth water for barbecue, and making me think about planning a visit to Lockhart, Texas! Yum!

We had much more pedestrian fare in the KP House this weekend -- roast chicken (using the recipe in Ina Garten's Barefoot in Paris), pur�ed yams, apple cobbler (with Jonamac apples from the Cornell Orchards). But it felt great to spend time doing some fall cooking!

Lynne Kiesling

Dr. Vino has post on wine shipping costs, and various aspects of them. Shipping costs can be high; after all, glass bottles of liquids are heavy. That said, I think that the cult winery that is charging him $68 to ship a case of wine from California to New York could be gilding the lily. We get a half case from Preston Vineyards every quarter, and our shipping is on a pro-rated and distance-adjusted basis is less than that.

In addition to the aspects he discusses (you don't pay sales tax, etc.), I would point out that when you buy a case of wine from the winery, you typically get a volume discount. If, in addition, you are a member of the winery's club, you probably get a larger discount. We get a 25% discount on the wine we buy from Preston. So once you factor in high shipping, no sales tax, and reduced price relative to retail list, perhaps the shipping's not that big of a deal.

I think Dr. Vino is right, that in the wake of more liberalized wine markets within the US we will first see the early adopters diving in. In the short run that shifts out the demand curve, but the nature of winemaking constrains the supply, so prices (perhaps including shipping) could rise. Over time, as wineries absorb these changes, if wine shipment becomes more popular it will put downward pressure on shipping prices.

Michael Giberson

When the Ink Spots sang �I love the java jive and it loves me'' in 1940, they could not have known how right they were.

Coffee not only helps clear the mind and perk up the energy, it also provides more healthful antioxidants than any other food or beverage in the U.S. diet, according to a study released Sunday. [...]

The findings by Joe Vinson, a chemistry professor at the University of Scranton, in Pennsylvania, give a healthy boost to the warming beverage.

So says an Associated Press story appearing in The Mercury News. Or see any of the other 350+ hits resulting from a Google News search on �coffee Vinson.�

I�ll drink to that. Curiously, however, while the findings are all over the online news sources, it isn�t clear from news reports what is actually new about the research. Visit Vinson�s webpage and you can readily find a 1999 article, �Take Two Cups Of Coffee And Call Me Tomorrow,� which featured the same result. A quote:

Vinson decided to study all of the antioxidants together, excluding vitamin C. In terms of polyphenol content, he found that "coffees are lower than teas and lower than wines, but higher than just about anything else you can think of in beverages (like fruit juices)." But because Americans drink a lot of coffee, it represents their top source of antioxidants from food.

Lynne Kiesling

OK, last word before I go make that Manhattan ... contrary to what Glenn said in his follow-up post, I have no enthusiasm for ethanol as a fuel! Except for when it's taken internally from a bottle with a red polymer top ...

Lynne Kiesling

On the subject of wine ... the KP Spouse and I have been members of the wine club at Preston Vineyards in the Dry Creek valley in Sonoma County for a while. Preston is at the way-far north end of the valley; you go to the end of the road, take a right, and keep going. Farm, Italian aesthetic, bocce lawn, cats, friendly folks, beautiful scenery, fresh bread and olive oil, all complementing good "Rhone Ranger-style" wines.

We've even been members long enough to experience Preston's transition to a fully organic vineyard and farm. They made a strategic decision to go organic, reduce yields, stop producing some wines, and essentially to simplify. I think the wines have gotten better; Lou's Red is a nice, casual blend. I've mentioned before that we've got a 4+-year vertical of their Petite Sirah in the cellar; it's a nice, lush, structured, bold wine (yum!). I believe we have a similar vertical of the Old Vines Zinfandel (yum encore!). I've also mentioned their Cinsault, which you don't often find in single-varietal bottlings but is a supple and elegant wine that goes perfectly with a nice spring navarin d'agneau. Vigonier, zinfandel, roussanne, all of their wines are born of good care, good fruit, and careful but not fussy winemaking.

One of the charming features that makes us enjoy being members of the Preston wine club is Lou Preston's personality, which is irrepressible. His newsletters accompanying our wine shipments always make for good dinner table entertainment the night that the box arrives, when we crack open a bottle from the box and hear about Lou's journey over the past three months. He's a sincere and honest communicator, and a good writer, so it's been interesting to accompany him on his exploration of bio-dynamic agricultural practices and organic farming. He's also very good at putting it in non-judgmental terms, basically saying "I increasingly have found that this stuff matters to me, so I'm changing how we do business to reflect that, and here's what I'm learning and experiencing along the way."

All this is lead-up to what by now should be obvious: Lou should be blogging, and now he is. I've added him to the list on the left. Right now his top post may be of interest to you energy folks out there; he's found that in the transition to organic they are using the tractor way more than before, and he has retrofitted the tractor to take recycled vegetable oil as fuel.

Lynne Kiesling

Today the Supreme Court struck down the interstate wine shipment bans in several U.S. states. SCOTUSblog has the links to the decision documents. I've posted frequently here on the topic. According to this Wired story,

By a 5-4 vote, the high court ruled that the bans involving out-of-state wineries unconstitutionally discriminated against interstate commerce. Such laws have been adopted in 23 states while the other 27 states allow direct wine sales, industry officials said. ...

Justice Anthony Kennedy said for the court majority that the laws at issue from Michigan and New York were designed to grant in-state wineries a competitive advantage over wineries located in other states.

"We hold that the laws in both states discriminate against interstate commerce in violation of the Commerce Clause (of the U.S. Constitution) and that the discrimination is neither authorized nor permitted by the 21st Amendment," Kennedy concluded. ...
Joining Kennedy in the majority opinion were Justices Antonin Scalia, David Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer.

Chief Justice William Rehnquist and Justices John Paul Stevens, Sandra Day O'Connor and Clarence Thomas dissented.

Thomas wrote that the court majority suggested it believed the decision would enhance consumer welfare and serve the nation well. He said the 21st Amendment and a 1913 federal law "took those policy choices away from judges and returned them to the states."

I haven't read the decision yet, but I can't say that I understand Thomas's logic.

See also Todd Zywicki's post at Volokh, and the links therein.

Lynne Kiesling

From Chocolate & Zucchini, asparagus and strawberry tart. Yum. Different.

Have to try that when I get home.

Lynne Kiesling

Back in Paris after three days in Grenoble working with co-authors C�line and Dean on a very fun experimental project. Grenoble is beautifully situated in a valley between three mountain ranges, and we had a blast. The KP Spouse got to be Nature Boy and do some hiking while we worked, and we had a lot of fun catching up with our friends.

The KP Dad is here now too, for a long weekend. Today I work and send them out on their own on their own recognizance; gives them a good opportunity to work on their French!

In an earlier post on chocolate from Patrick Roger, Coyote from Coyote Blog asks how Patrick Roger compares to Maison du Chocolat in my estimation. Now I've refreshed my memory on MdC, and I can say that both are outstanding. But Patrick Roger is not for the faint-of-heart, while Maison du Chocolat has a wider range to appeal to a wider range of tastes. Patrick Roger is almost entirely dark, dark, dark chocolate, sumptous. He has some chocolate-covered hazelnuts that are outstanding.

But if you are not an afficionado of dark chocolate, I would recommend either Maison du Chocolat or Jean-Paul H�vin. H�vin is very popular here, and has worked with a chef whom I appreciate greatly, Joel Robouchon. I have not yet tried H�vin chocolates, but the queue outside the rue Vavin shop on Saturday morning was impressive. Note that the H�vin shop on rue St. Honor� has a tea room, so it might be a good stop for a chocolat chaud in the afternoon.

Lynne Kiesling

As a hostess gift I took a box of incredible Patrick Roger on the Boulevard St. Germain. This is some of the most amazing chocolate I have ever had in my life (and, as a chocolate connoisseur who lives in the hometown of Vosges Haut Chocolat and consumes it on a regular basis). It's deep, dark, rich, savory, lush, sensual chocolate. My favorite of the assortment was dark chocolate with a dark ganache center with lemon and thyme. Outstanding. Incroyable.

The funniest moment was when my friend's six-year-old daughter took a bit of one and made a horrible face. At that moment it was clear that this was adult chocolate (very adult), so instead she got a milk chocolate ladybug from her mother, who was probably thinking "oh good, more for us!".

I also bought a bar of their plain chocolate from Ghana, 75% cacao content. It's spicy and rich and smooth all at the same time, without a trace of any residual milk or sugar taste. Aaaaaah. They sell "single varietal" chocolate bars from about 12 different country/cacao level formulations. Sadly, but not surprisingly given the artisanal nature of the product, each bar (about the size of a regular Lindt bar) is about 6 Euros (that's almost $9 to me).

I blame La Coquette for my sybaritic consumption and squandering of my meager budget, after her mention of M. Roger:

The chocolate! We're POWERLESS TO RESIST AND THIS REALLY NEEDS TO STOP FOR THE SAKE OF OUR POCKETBOOK AND WAISTLINE, PLEASE.

And it won't get any better when my father arrives next week, and will want to go to Ladur�e to get macaroons to take home to my mother. OK, getting up in the AM and doing yoga as well as a run after work ...

Lynne Kiesling

While browsing last evening after dinner I found this interesting discussion at The Morning News about "the French paradox", largely sparked by the recent publication of Mireille Guiliano's book French Women Don't Get Fat.

It's essentially a panel discussion about differences between French and American eating, fitness, and social habits as they involve food. One of the participants in the discussion is the wonderful Clotilde from Chocolate & Zucchini, a wonderful food blog.

The interesting this is I've been in France a week now, and while I eat pretty well and am very active at home, for some reason I find that I am eating smaller meals here. And I've been mostly cooking for myself, so I can't claim restaurant portions are smaller or any such thing.

Lynne Kiesling

Kerry Howley's essay on the documentary Mondovino at Reason is a very enjoyable read that captures some of both the economics and culture of winemaking. I also like its witty title!

Howley discusses the main contrast in the film, between anti-globalism winemaker Aim� Guibert and global entrepreneur Robert Mondavi. Howley's conclusion piques my interest in the film:

Mondovino starts as a mournful elegy for fine wine, but it's too smart, or perhaps too honest, a film to end that way. Instead, wine emerges as an experience open to invention and reinvention, a nebulous pleasure that can be captured only fleetingly in the strained metaphor of a critic or the romance of an Italian estate before it is reconceived as something wholly different. Connoisseur Lawrence Osborne claims wine is "99 percent psychological, a creation of where you are and with whom." That's a profoundly empowering concept for a beverage once thought to be the province of elites, whether they be crass American businessmen or cranky European farmers.

I like the idea of "experience open to invention and reinvention."

I would only quibble with the characterization of terroir:

Terroir, a central tenet of wine's mystique, dictates that a great wine expresses its place of origin. Napa is too new for even the pretense of terroir. Its wines are the product of technology and experimentation, not centuries of careful cultivation. Its techniques aren't family secrets or lessons culled from the land, but scientific innovations pumped out of UC Davis in the 1960s. So Napa had to create its own mythology�one of person, not of place.

I don't think that's right at all. Even within Napa Valley you can get variation according to vineyard, although Howley is correct to say that in general, New World wines rely more on scientific and technological innovation. I don't think terroir is a pretense, although I do think the French mysticize and romanticize it excessively, and I don't think that the New World is too new for terroir. The ways you can influence the taste of a wine fall into three general categories: the grapes you use, the soil/climate you plant them in, and the winemaking technique. One of the reasons why wine is so complex and fascinating is that the interaction of these three variables can produce such a wide and changing variety of experiences. And that doesn't even incorporate the experience of the consumer enjoying the wine with friends and food!

If, for example, you drink an Italian Sangiovese next to the Bonny Doon Sangiovese, you can taste the varietal characteristics of blackberry, black cherry, and dried currant. But I tend to taste more juniper/eucalyptus in the California Sangiovese than in the Italian, even though there is some juniper in both. Some of that is probably terrior, I would bet.

Sorry, didn't mean to rant about terroir ... just meant to convey that where you grow the grapes can matter, but that the interaction of that with the grape itself and with the winemaking technique leads to a very subtle and complex, and enjoyable, outcome.

Lynne Kiesling

Taking a quick break ... found this lovely recipe for Carbonades Flamandes at Chocolate & Zucchini, a French foodie blog that I enjoy. Sounds just the thing for a late winter/early spring weekend dish.

She even suggests making your own pain d'�pice instead of buying one. I can get a decent one here at Treasure Island, but I used to make it a lot before I developed my hormone imbalance and insulin resistance, which has made me have to cut back on white foods and wheat things (as well as sugar). Perhaps I'll make an exception this weekend...

Lynne Kiesling

Although I am only here for about 48 hours, I did want to try at least one of the many exciting restaurants in London. In fact, the March 2005 issue of Gourmet magazine proclaims London �the best place in the world to eat right now�, and gives a lot of suggestions to support their claim.

So I decided to focus on a part of town that I hadn�t visited for almost 19 years � the east end. I walked around Spitalfields, Shoreditch, Hoxton, Clerkenwell, and Islington. More on that later.

I ended up having lunch at St. John restaurant and bar, in the restaurant (which is a serious splurge, particularly at the going exchange rate!). The palpable buzz surrounding this restaurant is amazing. It�s a very traditional British restaurant that I think has been accurately described as �aggressively minimal.� The surroundings are simple � white walls, floor, and tablecloths, simple wood chairs, with unadorned tableware � in a small dining room with a warehouse feel to it.

The primary theme of St. John is using the entire animal, particularly their symbolic mascot, the pig. The tagline for the place is "nose to tail eating," which is also the name of the restaurant's cookbook. There is consistently more offal on this menu than I have ever seen anywhere else. For example, the main course special today was pig cheeks, and there was marrow and sweetbreads on the menu as well. Not being a fan of offal, I was a bit concerned about being able to find something to eat, but I had to check it out given all of the raves I had heard about it. As you would expect from an �aggressively simple� chef, the food was all simple, simple, simple, and well-prepared from high-quality ingredients.

I started with a squid, fennel and arugula salad. The portion was very large for a lunch starter, with big cuts of the flat bits of squid. The squid was perfectly cooked, not at all rubbery. The sauce was a simple broth with grated fennel bulb, subtle but delicious. The squid was topped with baby arugula in a mustard sauce. Until I really swished things around and mixed the fennel broth with the mustard dressing, the mustard flavor overwhelmed the fennel and I didn�t get any fennel. But once they mixed it was a really nice mix of flavors that I wouldn�t have put together. Each component was really, really simple, and when they merged they created a harmonious, yummy higher level of complexity. In other words, it was yum-deli-icious!

The main course I chose was a poached chicken with leeks and aioli. Again it was a very simple presentation, with the chicken poached in a simple broth and served in some of the same broth. The leeks were whole, and the (pleasantly garlicky) aioli was presented on the side. Each of the components of the dish was simple, and unlike the squid, was not particularly interesting. As with the squid, the dish actually improved as I was eating it because the simple flavors merged. I found the optimal strategy was to take a bit of chicken, some leek, a good dunk in the broth, and then a little swish in the aioli. I can�t enthuse about this dish as I can about the squid, but it was good and interesting once the flavors combined.

The brown bread was baked on the premises and excellent, served with fresh cream butter. The house vigonier was a good wine to accompany both dishes. The portions were so large that I didn�t have room for dessert. I�m glad I went, although given the cost and that I don�t eat offal, I wouldn�t make a habit of it if I lived here.

Lynne Kiesling

Happy vestigial-holiday-of-romance to one and all (sorry, I'm not particularly sentimental). Around the KP house Valentine's Day is an excuse to eat better quality chocolate than we usually do. As in most of the past 8 years, this year it's Chicago's own Vosges Haut Chocolat. The brain child of two women, one of whom is a French-trained dessert chef, Vosges makes distinctive truffles. One of my favorite is Naga, which is dark chocolate with curry powder. Absolutely decadent, exotic, and delicious flavors. This year we will also be enjoying a Red Fire Bar, which is a dark chocolate bar with ancho chile, chipotle chile, and cinnamon. YUM!

We also tend to get Vosges for St. Patrick's Day: Bailey's Irish Creme truffles,Guinness truffles, Jameson's Irish whisky truffles. Good thing no one around here gave up chocolate for Lent!