Sharing is Caring

So we finally are settling in to our new place. It seems to be going pretty well. We look out over a Papaya Dog and are next door to a halfway house and down the street from a Catholic Church— it's pretty typical New York.

We're also right near a Subway, so last night, Chris ran out and got a foot-long sub for us to share. It was a simple and satisfying meal that we got to enjoy on the roof deck of our new building as the sun went down over the city.

We often share entrees when we go out to eat. At most restaurants, a main dish is enough for, like, three people, so it works out perfectly. You save money and still have room for dessert if you want it. Not to mention, it's terribly romantic. Hah.

Of course, some foods are better for sharing than others, but that's probably a matter of taste. I was just about to say that I can't imagine sharing a hot dog with someone, but then I remembered a family/business trip to Maine and watching a mother split a hot dog amongst herself and her four young daughters.

Not only that, but an early 90's PSA on Nickelodeon told kids in no uncertain terms that they could not catch AIDS from sharing a hot dog with their friend. Good thing—I'll bet parents were worried, you know, with all those kids sharing hot dogs out there.

Whatever—it doesn't matter anyway since I hate hot dogs and Chris doesn't eat meat—just goes to show, I guess. Show what, I don't know. Perhaps that you can cut or divvy up pretty much anything?

Clearly, I am overthinking this point and really just get back to unpacking...

Pizza By the Signs

While reading an email a little while ago, I clicked on a "Pizza By the Signs" link. It's pretty hilarious. My favorite is Pisces. Be amused...

Aries:

You want your pizza to go, with extra hot peppers.

Taurus:

You order one with everything on it, and then another in case you're still hungry.

Gemini:

You like half mushroom and half olives but are usually too busy chatting with the waiter or delivery person to eat it.

Cancer:

You bake your own, making the dough from scratch and using tomatoes from your garden.

Leo:

You prefer gourmet pizza from trendy Italian places, but you only eat a piece so that your stomach still looks flat in your fitted jeans.

Virgo:

You order plain cheese pizza and request extra napkins for blotting the grease.

Libra:

You order one all-meat and one all-veggie because you can't decide which one you want.

Scorpio:

You get your pizza with pineapple, anchovies and secret sauce -- and you also manage to get the delivery person's phone number.

Sagittarius:

A Brazilian or Mexican pizza that can be put into an environmentally-friendly to-go box works for you.

Capricorn:

You like any pizza that can be folded calzone-style so that you can eat while you work.

Aquarius:

Mmmmm … doesn't a wheat-free pizza with soy cheese topped with organic vegetables sound delicious?

Pisces:

You get lost on the way to the pizza shop and end up at a Thai restaurant instead.

Greek-Style Nachos

I'm about twenty-five percent Greek but unfortunately don't know many of my relatives on that side of the family—go figure I try to connect to my heritage through Greek food. I never seem to get sick of it.

I just saw this recipe in the New York Times Dining section and decided I have to try it out in the near future. Maybe whenever we have our housewarming party? Yeah, we're moving on Friday (just a couple blocks), so it's packing week over here—and finals for me. I think a celebration is definitely in order once the boxes have been unpacked and the grades have been posted...

Greek-Style Nachos

4 pita pockets, white or whole wheat, cut into wedges

About 1/2 cup olive oil

Salt

4 ounces feta cheese

1/2 cup yogurt, preferably whole-milk

1/2 cup chopped fresh mint

1 lemon

Freshly ground black pepper

1 medium onion, chopped

1/2 pound ground lamb*

1 tablespoon ground cumin

2 or 3 medium ripe tomatoes, chopped

1 medium cucumber, peeled and seeded if necessary, and chopped

1/2 cup calamata olives, pitted and halved (optional).

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees Arrange pita wedges in one layer on baking sheets and brush or drizzle with a tablespoon or two of olive oil. Bake until they begin to color, turning once or twice, about 10 minutes. Sprinkle with salt, turn off oven and put chips back in to keep warm.

2. In a blender or food processor, combine feta, yogurt, 1/4 cup olive oil, mint and zest and juice of lemon; sprinkle with salt and pepper. Blend or process until smooth. (You can also mash mixture by hand, with a fork.)

3. Put two tablespoons of oil in a skillet over medium-high heat and cook onions until soft, about 5 minutes. Add lamb and cumin and sprinkle with salt and pepper; continue cooking until meat is cooked through, about 5 to 10 minutes more. Put chips on a serving plate and top with lamb, sauce, tomatoes, cucumbers and olives if you’re using them.

Yield: 4 servings.

*I wouldn't use lamb since Chris and most of are friends are vegetarians, but if you could find texturized soy protein lamb (weird that I haven't seen it before), you could try that.

The End of Overeating

This new book, The End of Overeating, by former FDA President David Kessler sounds pretty interesting. I'm always fascinated by pieces that pick apart marketing and advertising—Sure, it's no secret that food companies prey upon people's senses, insecurities, and desires, but I'm always up for hearing new accounts on this topic. The fact that Kessler provides some semblance of a solution sounds encouraging as well. Pointing the finger is only half the battle...

From Publishers Weekly

Conditioned hypereating is a biological challenge, not a character flaw, says Kessler, former FDA commissioner under presidents Bush and Clinton). Here Kessler (A Question of Intent) describes how, since the 1980s, the food industry, in collusion with the advertising industry, and lifestyle changes have short-circuited the body's self-regulating mechanisms, leaving many at the mercy of reward-driven eating. Through the evidence of research, personal stories (including candid accounts of his own struggles) and examinations of specific foods produced by giant food corporations and restaurant chains, Kessler explains how the desire to eat—as distinct from eating itself—is stimulated in the brain by an almost infinite variety of diabolical combinations of salt, fat and sugar. Although not everyone succumbs, more people of all ages are being set up for a lifetime of food obsession due to the ever-present availability of foods laden with salt, fat and sugar. A gentle though urgent plea for reform, Kessler's book provides a simple food rehab program to fight back against the industry's relentless quest for profits while an entire country of people gain weight and get sick. According to Kessler, persistence is all that is needed to make the perceptual shifts and find new sources of rewards to regain control. (May)

Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The Perks of Eating at Home

Learning how to cook has totally changed my life. Seriously! Being able to make something healthy that also tastes good can be very rewarding. And it's nice not to have to spend a lot of money at restaurants and convenience stores. Why hand over a wad of cash for something you could make very easily yourself?

I just made this lovely little souffle for lunch, and I have to say, it was pretty awesome. Plus, it was really cheap to make—only a couple dollars if you break it down. Sure beats cold cuts.

World's Ugliest Loin of Pork

I dare you to top this ridiculous hunk of meat the butcher sent home to my mother...It looks like a worm. Needless to say, she has decided not to cook it. Would you?

Pulling a Chris

Chris has this amusing habit of putting foods and other kitchen items back in strange places when he's distracted. I think my favorite is still the tortilla chips in the freezer—I laugh out loud whenever I remember that. Just did now.

Anyway, I was on my own for dinner tonight, and when I got home from class, I was super-tired and not exactly in the best frame of mind. As I was getting ready to cook, I poured myself a glass of water and then put the pitcher back in the fridge.

When I turned around, I couldn't find my glass of cold water anywhere—not on the counter, not in the fridge. What the hell?

Naturally, I'd put the glass back in the cupboard, full of water. Clearly, I'm having a genius day...

Do any of you guys do silly stuff when you're tired or preoccupied?

what kind of salad?

Today in the Op-Ed section of the Times there was an interesting critique by columnist Maureen Dowd of the way President Obama sends mixed messages about food. I'm not exactly sure what to make of it.

Her gripe is that half the time, he's preaching the benefits of healthy eating and exercise, talking about the White House vegetable garden and eschewing french fries in restaurants, except for when he's showing what an average Joe he is by chomping on burgers.

"Mix the salad, not the message," Dowd says.

Might that be an arugula salad, Maureen?

When Bush was in office, there wasn't a whole lot of talk about what the President ate (except the whole pretzel incident), but you see people looking to the Obamas for cues on how to eat. Obviously, Barak and Michelle know what they're doing and who's watching, but foods like burgers and fries can be part of a healthy diet as long as you're physically active and make room for indulgences by making good food choices the majority of the time.

While I do find it encouraging to see Dowd focusing in on the President's eating habits, I feel like she misses a few opportunities to talk about what a healthy lifestyle can include. She almost makes a good point about our country's need for a good role model but doesn't exactly go there.

It also bugs me that the public supposedly considers burgers and fries "average Joe" food in the first place. It's like when you go to a bar mitzvah, and the kids get chicken fingers and mozzarella sticks, while the adults get to nosh on prime rid and caviar. Why can't everyone line up for the same buffet? It doesn't have to be one extreme or the other.

However, living in a city full of "arugula-eating liberals" who can afford fresh produce, I have to remind myself that the concept of moderation isn't exactly a no-brainer in our country.

I guess we'll just stay tuned for now.

Urban Gardening

In this morning's New York Times, there was a great article about urban gardening. While city dwellers have been growing tomatoes and herbs in little planters for years, there has been a recent increase in home-grown fruits and vegetables. Though tax incentives have been a motivation for some, it runs much deeper for many. Paula Crossfield, the managing editor of Civil Eats blog about sustainable agriculture, considers the 400-square-foot garden on her Lower East Side roof to be an extension of her work. “Growing my own food helps me understand better what I write about: how food gets to our table, the difficulties it entails.” “The bottom line,” she said, “is that I harbor a secret desire to be a farmer, and my way of doing that is to use what I have, which is a roof.”

While I have no desire to be a farmer, I'd love to be able to plant some basil and tomatoes on my roof (which may or may not be possible...) so I can have tomato-basil-mozzarella sandwiches whenever I want. Now if someone could engineer a mozzarella plant, that would be even more awesome.

Photo coutesy of NYtimes.com

Gazpacho

Sunday night, Chris and I had dinner with my parents. My mom sent us home with some homemade treats, including this gazpacho. Below is the recipe she sent me from the Barefoot Contessa* Cookbook:
Ingredients

* 1 hothouse cucumber, halved and seeded, but not peeled
* 2 red bell peppers, cored and seeded
* 4 plum tomatoes
* 1 red onion
* 3 garlic cloves, minced
* 23 ounces tomato juice (3 cups)
* 1/4 cup white wine vinegar
* 1/4 cup good olive oil
* 1/2 tablespoon kosher salt
* 1 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper

Directions

Roughly chop the cucumbers, bell peppers, tomatoes, and red onions into 1-inch cubes. Put each vegetable separately into a food processor fitted with a steel blade and pulse until it is coarsely chopped. Do not overprocess!

After each vegetable is processed, combine them in a large bowl and add the garlic, tomato juice, vinegar, olive oil, salt, and pepper. Mix well and chill before serving. The longer gazpacho sits, the more the flavors develop.

*I don't have a TV, but I love watching cooking shows with my mom. Might I add how amusing the Barefoot Contessa is? It seems like she's always picking herbs and cooking delicious things for the quirky gardeners hanging around the house. And talking about her husband, Jeffrey. Hilarious.

Waiter, there's a tapeworm in my sushi

I kind of wish I hadn't read this, but oh well.

One of the known dangers of eating sushi is the slight possibility of ingesting a parasite. Restaurants freeze their fish in order to kill these lovely little creatures (which can become BIG, 39-foot-long creatures), but all it takes is one that doesn't get frozen all the way.

The salmon parasite, Diphyllobothrium nihonkaiense, appears to be spreading to regions it hasn't been seen in before (like North American and Europe), according to a report published in the June issue of Emerging Infectious Diseases.

Additionally, farm-raised salmon in South America has been plagued by a similar parasite. Fun stuff.

Though the chances of getting a tapeworm are pretty slim, it's probably best to make sure your salmon is cooked. If you do choose to eat raw fish, stick to tuna and other saltwater fish, which aren't as susceptible as freshwater fish like salmon.

I don't know, I almost ate a rubber band yesterday at a diner (it was in my spinach pie), so the gross-out bar is set pretty high today, which is saying a lot, since I have a pretty high threshold. Half of me is like, "eh, what's a tapeworm?" But on the other hand, imagining said tapeworm is pretty unsettling. All part of the adventure of eating outside the home, I suppose...

Recession Flexitarians

I came across a really interesting article from Gourmet magazine while procrastinating on a work project earlier. I don't know about you, but I feel like I've been hearing a lot about how more people seem to be citing money as a reason to go vegetarian in recent months.

So behold, Recession-Bred Flexitarians—"semi-vegetarians who dabble in carnivorous cuisine from time to time."

Meat being as expensive as it is, it makes sense that choosing legumes, soy products, nuts or other vegetarian options over, say steak, can save you money, even if you only do it a few times a week.

If you don't want to take the jump to full vegetarianism (especially if you, like me, don't believe in restrictive diets), this can be really easy to stick with. Besides that, a lot of research supports the notion that the American diet is too heavy on meat in general, so why not take advantage of the recession and use it as an excuse to do something good for your health?

Personally, when it comes to saving money, I think a lovely bowl of homemade lentil soup or spinach pie beats a Big Mac any day.

Poultry was Top Cause of Outbreak in '06

In general, I'm not a fan of 2006. In fact, it's probably one of my least favorite years thus far. I shouldn't complain that much, though. It could've been a lot worse, had I also gotten food poisoning.

The CDC just put out a report tracking the top causes of food borne illnesses in 2006. Of the 17 foods tracked, poultry was number one. Surprise, surprise.

But before I go all smug quasi-vegetarian on you, it's worth noting that salmonella found in peanut butter, spinach, and tomatoes ranked second on the list.

I can't tell if this is good or bad, but apparently two-thirds of all food-related illnesses that can be traced back to a single ingredient are actually caused by viruses that usually come from restaurant workers who don't wash their hands.

Lovely.

While none of this is comforting or anything, it's good to see that some thorough research is being put into food attribution. Hopefully it will help lead to better food safety.

Mommy's Little Statistic

Healthy eating may start at home, but parents need to do more than just eat well themselves. 

A recent study, published in Science Daily last week, tracked the eating habits of a nationally representative sample of adults ages 20-65 and their children ages 2-18 via a questionnaire. It showed that parents' "healthy example" diets have little effect on their kids. 

After comparing the parent and child questionnaires, and scoring them against the USDA 2005 Health Eating Index, researchers  found little similarities in intakes of carbohydrates, proteins, fats—saturated, monounsaturated, polyunsaturated, etc—or vitamins. However, the children's diets did resemble their mothers' slightly more so than their fathers'. The child's age and the family's income, however, did have a slight effect on the overall score. For example, the older the child, the less similarity, as friends tend to become more important in adolescence.

This doesn't mean that kid's won't pick up on parental signals. Parents' attitudes toward food—good or bad—can have a profound effect. Also, it's never a bad idea to stock the house with healthy options. FYI, I don't really think fat-free twinkies count as healthy...It's not about creating a controlled environment at home; it's about teatching your children how to make good choices for themselves. 

MIrror, Mirror

An article from Sunday's New York Times discusses recession-driven changes in consumer spending at major retailers such as Wal-Mart. Said John E. Fleming, the chief merchandising officer for Wal-Mart, "Our sales—it's like holding up a mirror to our society."

With consumers prioritizing how to spend what money they do have, they are sticking close to their lists of the essentials and favoring generic-brand goods over brand-name items. We're also seeing a "recession protein hierarchy...with ground beef trumping steak, and chicken trumping beef." Many consumers are just plain skipping protein, choosing pasta instead. 

Not surprisingly, microwave sales are also up. Heating up leftovers or a frozen entrée is more popular these days than going out or ordering in.

One good thing about living in New York is that we have access to a lot of great, cheap food, and there are even places where you can get cheap groceries. 

I used to think nothing of shelling out for a bunch of fancy Greek or Icelandic yogurt, for example, or white asparagus I didn’t really know how to cook. Now, I save that kind of stuff for once in a while (2 for $1 White Rose yogurt, anyone?), and buy cheaper produce. 

Luckily, a block away from us is this market that has amazingly low prices on fruits and vegetables. They may or may not be cheap because they fell of the back of a truck somewhere, but whatever—just wash them before you eat them, like you would anything else.

For packaged stuff like oatmeal, rice, and bread, there’s the sketchy meat market a few doors down, which is also cheap, and something of a vortex, but I’d rather risk having an adventure than pay twice as much at the Food Emporium.

Learning to cook balanced meals that actually taste good using a few cheap ingredients has been a lot of fun too—definitely better than eating a five-dollar frozen entree every night. 

So there's a bright side to everything, I suppose. 

Midtown Lunch

For those of you living and working in Midtown New York, check out this awesome website, midtownlunch.com. This searchable site features profiles and reviews of tons of restaurants, stands, and street carts in the Midtown area. 

If you've spent any time there, you know how disorienting all the foot traffic and neon signs can be—not good if you only have a few minutes to grab a decent, reasonably priced lunch. Consider creator/editor Zach Brooks your culinary savior. Some of the offerings almost make me wish I had a desk job. Almost. 

I have to admit, even a peanut-butter-and-banana sandwich feels like a luxury when enjoyed in the comfort of your home "office." I get to do this less and less. Taking a minute to make your own damn sandwich can be especially comforting when faced with an unrelenting to-do list.

Happy Friday, everyone!

Girls Vs. Boys

On June 8th at the Astor Center on Lafayette Street in New York, a panel of food experts will blind-taste five courses of dishes prepared by guest chefs in an attempt to discern whether there are differences in the way male and female chefs cook. There will also be a discussion about what factors contribute to the experts' guesses. 

As someone with a background in gender studies, I find this especially interesting. What's perhaps more interesting to me is how the idea for this event came about. 

Tickets are $35. Visit the Astor Center's website for reservation information. 

Aww Look, it's a Cupcake Truck!

I actually had a few minutes to sit down and read the Times over breakfast this morning (me, stationary for fifteen whole minutes? Concept!), and saw a little blurb about a new Cupcake Truck called Cupcake Stop, which travels between Chelsea and Union Square. Lev Ekster, the former law student who runs the truck, sure seems to know his audience (disclaimer: statement based on lighthearted neighborhood stereotyping).

The cupcakes, which are made by professional baker Manal Mady in Brooklyn, will be offered starting today (if you get to 14th Street between University and Fifth Avenue around 10 a.m. today, you can snag one of the free mini-cupcakes he'll be giving away), in flavors such as Red Velvet, Chocolate Peanut Butter Swirl, Oreo Crumb, and Triple Chocolate. Regular-sized cupcakes will go for $2.25, and minis for $1. 

I've never been much of a cupcake enthusiast—I'm just in it for the frosting—but I have a feeling I'm in the minority. However, I do believe in treats in general. Cupcakes can be a part of a healthy diet as long as you fit them into your day along with plenty of nutrient-rich foods. Being able to get these in a smaller size is great too, though 2009's "mini" is probably a 1959 "mammoth" cupcake. 

The truck's locations will be posted online at cupcakestop.com or twitter@cupcakestop.com. Enjoy!

When Curry Becomes Soap

So, the other night, I set out to make curry and I think I accidentally made soap. 

It's possible this is due to a chemical spoilage involving the free fatty acids, but I don't quite know enough yet to be certain. What I do know is that coconut milk and coconut oil are some of the key components in soap (ever heard of sodium laureth sulfate?), and it appears that I almost served up a plate of soapy sauce and sweet potatoes over brown rice the other night. 

Whoops.

Turns out someone else already wrote an academic paper about this, so I'll spare you, but feel free to read about it here.