Flash in the Pan

One of my kids had to do a report on Romania, including bringing some "authentic" food into school. Unfortuantely, I couldn't find an appropriate recipe in our extensive cookbook research library. My son found a web site with a collection of Romanian recipes but decided on what turned out to be an apple souffle, which isn't the sort of food that travels or reheats well. So instead, I looked on the same site and came across a recipe for potato blini. The results are like potato pancakes, but a bit lighter. Unfortunately, I didn't find it complete or really useful for those without significant experience with doughs, so here's my adaptation with fuller instructions:

Ingredients

• 1 lb. Russet potatoes


• 1/2 cup milk at 100˚F to 105˚F


• 1 envelope (2 1/4 teaspoons) dried yeast


• 1/2 to 1 1/4 cups bread flour


• 1 TB. sugar


• 3/4 tsp. salt


• 1/2 cup vegetable oil


• sour cream

Instructions

1. Peel potatoes and finely grate. Texture should be of wet potato mush.


2. Sprinkle dried yeast onto surface of milk and then stir until yeast dissolves.


3. In large bowl, sift 1/2 cup flour, sugar, and salt together. Add milk and grated potato and thoroughly mix.


4. Add additional flour and mix until mixture is thick but not stiff, with the consistency of pancake batter.


5. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and let rise at room temperature until doubled in volume, about 45 to 60 minutes. Do not deflate batter.


6. Heat oil in 10-inch pan over high heat. Add single tablespoons of batter to pan and fry until golden brown on the first side. Turn blini and brown on other, and then drain on paper towel.


7. Continuing adding tablespoons of batter to make additional blini until you've gone through all the batter. Serve hot with sour cream.

Serves 10 as an appetizer or side dish.

Labels: blini, pancakes, potato, recipe, Romania, Romanian

Bees have been dying en masse across the country, a dangerous situation when you depend on the critters for both honey and doing the lion's share, as it were, of polination of many foods. But according to the Los Angeles Times, researchers may be making headway into finding the source. A single-cell parasite could be a contributing cause, though a real understanding of the problem is nowhere at hand. However, this is a first break in a problem that has been leaving scientists baffled. Apparently a report that cell phone radition was the cause was less than accurate.

Labels: bees, cell phones, pathogen

While making a Whole Foods run a couple of weeks ago, we picked up two cheeses: Campo de Montalbán and laguiole. The first is a semi-hard, in this case made with cow and goat milk, though apparently it can also include sheep milk. There is a bit of a tang, provided, I suspect, from the goat milk, though the web reference above attributes it to three months of aging. It's supposed to be good with pasta, fruit, and meats, but I'll vote for straight up at room temperature (to get the full flavor) along with some bread. The Whole Foods price was $9.99 a pound.

According to Wikipedia, the latter is pronounced LAY-ole and is a French cheese made of raw cow milk. It's a creamy and firm cheese with a complex flavor after six months to a year of aging. Here's something on it from Cheese.com. Both would be good choices for a different take on your next cheese board.

Labels: Campo de Montalbán, cheese, languiole, review

The Dallas Morning News reports that a police officer was fired for his deportment last November in a restaurant called Whataburger. Apparently the officer, after going through the drive-through with his wife and ordering two burgers and drinks, thought that he had more change coming to him. When the people at the counter double-checked and assured him that he was not owed an additional $9 and a manager went out to speak with him, he got out of the car, put the guy into a wrist lock, and said he was going to arrest him for theft. An employee came out with the money and Lt. Jay Cooper left. He was fired yesterday after an extended period of administrative leave. As the story notes:

"The Dallas Police Department is an organization lacking leadership with
integrity," Lt. Cooper wrote in a statement that he faxed to The Dallas Morning
News.

And they probably also don't remember the ketchup with your fries.

Labels: burger, Dallas, fast food, hamburger, police, Texas, weird

According to a survey published in the New England Journal of Medicine, 83% of 1,662 doctors surveyed said that they accept food and drink from drug companies, and almost 4 out of 5 took free drug samples. Wonder if the freebie pharmaceuticals are obesity drugs?

Labels: doctors, drink, food, medicine, samples

Apparently, in a quest for greater profits, major chocolate manufacturers in the U.S. are petitioning the FDA to redefine chocolate. Under the proposed change, manufacturers could use vegetable fat instead of cocoa butter and whey instead of whole milk or milk powder. According to Bloomberg, the Chocolate Manufacturers Association includes Hershey, Nestle, and Archer Daniels Midland, and you can bet that if any of these enormous companies objected, the chances that the proposal would have been sent in would be slim. Thanks to manufacturer Guittard for breaking ranks and publicly objecting to this farce and for enlisting companies like See's Candies (good chocolates and owned by Warren Buffet's Berkshire Hathaway). As someone from See's says (sorry, couldn't resist), "If the margarine manufacturers could call their product butter instead of being required to call it margarine, wouldn't it strike the consumer as being odd?'' That's effectively what's happening here. The Bloomberg report had this, as well:

Hershey, the largest U.S. candy maker, says that broader labeling is needed to keep up with changing consumer tastes. "The petition would modernize all food standards, increasing flexibility to accommodate changes in technology," Kirk Saville, spokesman for the Hershey, Pennsylvania-based company, said in an interview. "Changes, if adopted, would provide the flexibility to make changes based on consumer taste preference, ingredient costs and availability, and shelf life."

Or changes based on profits. Unfortunately, mass manufactured chocolate is so far below the good stuff in quality that many people may have lost the ability to tell whether it is getting even worse. Today is the last day for public comment - use this form.

Labels: ADM, Archer Daniels MIdland, Berkshire Hathaway, chocolate, cocoa butter, Guittard, Hershey, Nestle, See's Candies, Warren Buffet

According to a Washington Post story, the Food and Drug Administration actually knew about the problems at a peanut butter plant and spinach farms that led to some deaths and many illnesses.

Overwhelmed by huge growth in the number of food processors and imports, however, the agency took only limited steps to address the problems and relied on producers to police themselves, according to agency documents.

Apparently FDA officials are saying that there was nothing they could have done. Well, other than sit on their backsides, but it appears that they already did that.

The outbreaks point to a need to change the way the agency does business, said Robert E. Brackett, director of the FDA's food-safety arm, which is responsible for safeguarding 80 percent of the nation's food supply.

"We have 60,000 to 80,000 facilities that we're responsible for in any given year," Brackett said. Explosive growth in the number of processors and the amount of imported foods means that manufacturers "have to build safety into their products rather than us chasing after them," Brackett said. "We have to get out of the 1950s paradigm."

Now just what paradigm is that? That someone has to make sure that food manufacturers do adequate jobs in keeping such things from happening? And all this time I thought that's what the agency was supposed to do.

Labels: FDA, food, food safety

A recent study in the scientific journal of the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology suggests that relatively few restaurants train their workers on food allergies, and some of the misconceptions could be deadly for someone with a high sensitivity:

For example, restaurant personnel reported that consuming a small amount of allergen is safe (24 percent); fryer heat destroys allergens (35 percent); and,
removal of an allergen from a finished meal was safe (25 percent).

Supposedly 15 to 32 percent of fatal food reactions start with restaurant food. Makes you want to take up recreational cooking.

Labels: food allergies, health, restaurant, study

We've been fans of Penzey's Spices for a long time. But apparently my wife realized that they also had stores, one of which is in the food marketplace in Grand Central Station. It's not huge, real estate there being expensive, but they still have a solid selection and samples to smell. We bought a number of things, including a double-strength Madagascar vanilla with an aroma that should do wonders for baking. (And at $14 for 4 ounces, it had better...)

Labels: food, Grand Central Station, Madagascar, New York, Penzey's, spices, vanilla

Technically, this is New Jersey (Newark, to be exact) at a Marriott's SpringHill Suites. A good location - about 10 miles from Manhattan and a price of $109 with a king bed, queen sofa bed, fridge and microwave, free Internet access, and a pool. Oh, yes, and breakfast in the morning is included. It's one of the better morning meals I've seen included in a room fee, with sausage patties and eggs for making sandwiches, yogurt, cereals, and so on. But what took me by surprise was the sight of two commercial waffle makers. The hotel leaves out individual servings of waffle batter. You open the iron, pour it in, close and spin it upside down, and wait for the beeping that says it's done. Fake waffle syrup, unfortunately, but we're not in western Massachusetts at the moment, so the real thing is not so plentiful. At the writing conference I've been attending, I spoke with a colleague, Daylle Deana Schwartz, music industry maven and relationship writer. She was on a book tour last year and said that I'm behind the times, as the DIY waffle making is in many places. Guess I don't get 'round much anymore.

Labels: Daylle Deana Schwartz, New York, Newark, travel, waffles

Another stop we made in Manhattan was at a place called Max Brenner: Chocolate by the Bald Man. Great name, which was better I thought than the one test piece we picked up - an oversized truffle with filling dipped in a chocoalte shell and then in cocoa powder. My wife liked it but I didn't think that the chocolate was particularly noteworthy. There isn't a Max Brenner either. This is a high concept restaurant with chocolate as a theme. (Here's a New York Magazine review that is fuller than what I'll do.) If you want good chocolate and can be satisfied with a small amount (because it's so freakin' expensive), head to La Maison du Chocolat at 30 Rockefeller Place at 49th. Street. Founded by Robert Linxe, who founded the original location in Paris, the products are the result of a1 genius master. As good as the chocolate is, try the fruit jellies solidified with pectin and not gelatin. Or check here online.

Labels: chocolate, dessert, New York, restaurant, review

Since the early 80s I had been going to the Kiev, showing up at odd hours on arrival in Manhattan, grabbing some Ukrainian food, and then going about my business. When I met my wife, I learned that she, too, was a fan. So we were sad today to see that the Kiev is closed. Some construction is going on at the old site of 7th St. and 2nd Ave. The Second Avenue Deli is long gone, and it seems like the passing of an era. Luckily, Christine's, which also serves all-day breakfast, offers Polish food, so there is still one Eastern European connection that we knew downtown. I remember when the Kiev had moved from the old hole-in-the-wall decor to its more upscale look. We wondered if that was the beginning of the end. Apparently it was.

Labels: New York, restaurant, Ukrainian

It sounds like the American Egg Board decided that the only way to expand business was to find people who didn't cook. The trade organization is running a promotion it calls The Search For America's Worst Cook. Would-be contestants send in explanations of why they are desperately in need of cooking lessons. The winner - or would that be loser? - gets a culinary makeover in New York City. Why do I think that cooking eggs in all ways, shapes, and forms would be a foundation of the curriculum? If you want to nominate yourself or a friend, you have until June 30.

An interesting article from the Associated Press notes that although many American businesses and institutions are doing a trans fat purge, Americans eat about five times as much saturated fat as trans. So while society has one problem food item in its sites, the things it ignores to do so represent a much larger collective risk.

And while we're on the food safety topic, imported fish, fruits, and vegetables sound a lot less appetizing when you hear how often they fail inspections, according to another AP story. Here's a disturbing sentence:

With only a minuscule percentage of shipments inspected, they say the nation is
vulnerable to harm from abroad, where rules and regulations governing food
production are often more lax than they are at home.

Delightful, particularly with the statistic that the average American eats 260 pounds of imported food annually, or about 13 percent of the annual diet. What, we can't get something around here? Of course, given the problems with spinach a while back and other domestic food illness issues, a strict diet is looking more appetizing.

Hershey's is trying to crack the premium chocolate market, and I'm sure management has been drooling for years over the amount of money people are willing spend on great chocolate - or even second rate versions, like Godiva. And so the company came up with its Cacao Reserve line. There are plain chocolate bars and truffles and drink mixes. While going to a chain drug store with my daughter to get her a candy fix, I picked up a 1.3 ounce sample of the 65% extra dark for 99 cents - or $12 a pound at that rate. (To be fair, candy bars are no bargain in cost per weight either.) I didn't find the taste that extraordinary. In fact, it was pretty disappointing. Yes, there was the slight bitterness you'd expect from a lower percentage of sugar, but that was it. I found none of the complexity or overtones that a fine chocolate will give.

The ingredient list is an improvement over a typical Hershey's bar: the lecithin is made of organic soy and the label shows vanilla beans instead of artificial vanillin. But there is more milk fat than there is cocoa butter, and the first three ingredients are chocolate, sugar, and cocoa. On a really good chocolate, like Valrhona or Callebaut or El Ray or Scharffenberger , it's more likely going to be cocoa beans, sugar, and cocoa butter. As I thought about it more, I wondered why chocolate was listed as the first ingredient, as that should be the result of all the ingredients. Finally it hit me: I bet the company is starting with batches of chocolate it would use for other purposes - or maybe diverting some of the production of its baking chocolate - and then adding sugar and a bit more cocoa to make it edible and to be able to say "65% cacoa" on the label rather than 65% cocoa solids. Whatever 65% cacoa means.

If you're looking for a good bit of chocolate, let Hershey's continue to reserve this and find something decent which will likely not cost much more.

Food science researchers at Leeds University, clearly with either too much time on their hands or too little cholesterol in their systems, tested 700 variations of bacon butty - an English term for bacon sandwich - to find the perfect variation. Trying different cuts of bacon, cooking techniques, types of oil (Who the heck needs extra oil to cook bacon?) and cooking times and temperatures, they came up with the following requirements for a good snack: bacon cut 1 to 2 centimeters thick, cooked under a broiler for 7 minutes at 475ºF. In fact, the group developed a formula for success:

N = C + {fb (cm) . fb (tc)} + fb (Ts) + fc . ta, where N=force in Newtons
required to break the cooked bacon, fb=function of the bacon type, fc=function
of the condiment/filling effect, Ts=serving temperature, tc=cooking time,
ta=time or duration of application of condiment/filling, cm=cooking method,
C=Newtons required to break uncooked bacon.

What? No mayonnaise?

A family in England found that a bowl of Easter candy had a wider appeal than they thought. The pet cockatoo Pippa saw the filled chocolate eggs and adopted them, treating the treats as her own. When anyone got near the bowl, she's spread her wings and scream. The story circulating has been that the 17-year-old bird thought the eggs were real and had adopted them. Uh-huh. Obviously they haven't been able to get close enough to count the number left. My bet is that the bird's love is not for eggs so much as chocolate.

According to a Washington Post story:

As many as 6 million prepared meals stockpiled near potential victims of the 2006 hurricane season spoiled in the Gulf Coast heat last summer when the Federal Emergency Management Agency ran short of warehouse and refrigeration space, according to agency officials.

FEMA is taking more than $40 million in food and picking through, trying to find whatever hasn't spoiled, and then tossing the rest. Much of the food ws in the form of military rations that are supposed to last in desert and jungle climates, showing that a Louisiana summer is nothing to trifle with. I'm sure the agency is now contacting some big contractor or other to deliver bags of ice. Lots of them.

It's been two months since we started using the test system that Soda Club sent. So far, so good, for the most part. To make sure we had plenty of CO2 to make the seltzer, I purchased a second tank, but we're still on the first one, making anywhere from one to two liters a day. According to the company, you get about 110 liters per gas cannister, so that seems like an accurate estimate. My family still likes the ginger ale (in fact, I've been remonstrated for not getting more in) and the root beer is also popular. But not all the flavors are going over big. The cola syrup is OK, but not the "Real Thing," which I've been unable to find on the web except here, packaged for use with a commercial (otherwise known as expensive) soda-making machine. One to avoid is the cream soda. When purchasing the extra gas cylinder, I picked up a bottle and was surprised to find that it tasted like cotton candy, which got a resounding collective "yuck."

What was Yuri Ushakov, Russian ambassador to the U.S., doing on the evening of Tuesday, April 10, 2007? Why, promoting a Russian premium vodka at some gala event.Who's footing the marketing bill? None other than 44-year-old billionaire Roustam Tariko, "founder of the largest consumer credit bank in Russia." He started the brand in 1998 - sorry, apparently not an age-old tradition of the steppes. According to the press release, "Over 500 guests, predominantly trade and retail partners, enjoyed Russian Standard Original cocktails and unlimited caviar while listening to Balalaika players and a classical Russian string quartet." Whoah - unlimited cariar? I'm guessing that the bank has a really big petty cash drawer.

Thanks to the Nobody's Business blog of Rogier van Bakel and this item by guest blogger Anita Bartholomew (both journalistic colleagues and friends of mine). Apparently a Democratic representative in the Missouri legislature heard that some people use baking soda to make crack cocaine, so he wants it behind the counter, just like pseudoephedrine. Here's something on the process. Notice that they use spoons and a heat source such as a lighter or candle? So let's get flatware behind the counter, and candles, for that matter. I'm sure I'll feel safer in a few moments.

An addendum

I told the story to my teenaged daughter who looked puzzled and said, "Wait, wouldn't you need cocaine first?" Yup, so let's control the far more prevelant and widely used ingredient. Oh, I forget, making crack often happens in a crack house, so let's put houses behind the counter as well.

The biofuel industry - corn and ethanol producers - have been running from one media outlet to another claiming that turning corn into fuel would have no noticeable affect on food prices. But according to this story from the Globe and Mail, a major national Canadian newspaper, that is so much hogwash. Or cornwash.

According to the report, world food prices were up 10% in 2006, largely due to turning corn into ethanol, and the US Department of Agriculture estimates meat production to drop because of the cost of feed. The International Monetary Fund states: "Rising demand for biofuels will likely cause the prices of corn and soybean oil to rise further, and to move more closely with the price of crude oil, as has been the case with sugar."

Corn has such a big impact because both people and animals use it as the basis for food. Just check how many products in a store use corn syrup as a sweetener.

If you've been concerned about the push to irradiate food, a proposed Food and Drug Administration rule will make that a non-issue - by redefining what "irradiated food" means. According to a proposed rule notice in the April 4, 2007 Federal Register, the FDA is proposing to "revise its labeling regulations applicable to foods (including dietary supplements) for which irradiation has been approved by FDA." The agency wants to set labeling requirements so that "only those irradiated foods in which the irradiation causes a material change in the food, or a material change in the consequences that may result from the use of the food" need have the term "irradiated" on their labels.

What's a material change? According to this notice:

For purposes of this rulemaking, we are using the term ``material change'' to refer to a change in the organoleptic, nutritional, or functional properties of a food, caused by irradiation, that the consumer could not identify at the point of purchase in the absence of appropriate labeling.

Quite a mouthful, in a manner of speaking. Breaking things down a bit, organoleptic in this context means something that people can perceive by their senses: sight, sound, taste, smell, or touch. Organoleptic properties would mean, then, how the food looks, smells, tastes, and feels. (Hopefully your food isn't making whimpering noises as you eat.) Nutritional properties would mean the caloric content, vitamins, minerals, protein, fats, and so on. Functional properties are how you use the food.

In other words, so long as they are not obvious, the changes aren't material and, therefore, the food needn't be labeled as irradiated. For those companies that have to admit to some noticeable change in the food, the agency wants to allow them to "petition FDA for use of an alternate term to ``irradiation'' (other than `pasteurized')." That's currently allowed under law. Under the right conditions, the FDA will even allow the use of the term pasteurized.

A number of governments have come out in favor of allowing irradition as a way of treating food. Proponents claim that the FDA has reviewed of "hundreds of studies" and found the process to be safe. For a different view, here's what Public Citizen has to say. I haven't yet checked the claims against the citations of evidence, and, to be fair, I have at times found organizations of all sorts drawing conclusions from studies that could not logically be drawn.

The labeling issues around irradiating foods had been around since 1984 - a number that, given the redefinitions of language we're seeing, some might find ironic in an Orwellian sort of way. Since then, companies in the food business have been climbing all over themselves to find another solution, because businesses don't want to advertise that they expose their food products to radiation as many consumers react negatively. By the late 90s, the FDA was already trying to soften the labeling requirements disclosing radiation and, in 1999, the agency solicited comments on other terms that could be used. Some in industry suggested "cold pasteurization" or "electronic pasteurization." Some filing comments objected to these terms, contending that they would only serve to obfuscate.

In May 2002, President Bush signed into law the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act. Among other things, FSRIA effectively changed the definition of the term pasteurization and directed the FDA:

"to publish for public comment proposed changes to the current regulations relating to the labeling of foods that have been treated by irradiation using radioactive isotope, electronic beam, or x-ray to reduce pest infestation or pathogens."

So this proposed ruling is just another step in a long process to weaken previous irradiation labeling requirements so much that they would effectively become meaningless. For a good understanding of the reason that irradiation and its commercial ramifications have come into play, consider how many stories of food contamination the past six months have brought. When things go wrong, industry can fix the basic processes to eliminate the problems, or it can try erradicating the symptoms. If you can irradiate food and destroy pathagens (though you may not understand what unintended consequences the action would bring), then you don't have to spend the money to literally clean up your act.

When I read a press release about the Messermeister julienne peeler, I knew I had to give it a try. The concept is delightful for anyone who has spent time cutting vegetables into a julienne. Instead of picking up a knife, you take this device that looks like a vegetable peeler with an odd blade. Pass it over a vegetable, and off come long, thin strips ready for cooking or garnish. I contacted the company, which sent over a test unit - and I've got to say, it works nicely. I used it on a carrot and quickly enough had a pile of orange strings. In fact, the edge of the blade is sharp enough for scraping the outside of the carrot to remove the outer layer instead of dirtying a regular vegetable peeler as well.

My son asked if we could use it to make hash browns, so I have that a try. In this case, I did use the traditional peeler on the skin (had to do the extra cleaning anyway) and then the julienne cutter. I had to break apart the julienne strips because they would get stuck at the very end of the swath I cut. But they separated easily and quickly. Adding some salt and pepper, I dropped a mass into a heated pan with oil and, after a few minutes on each side, had a hash brown cake. You could probably use it on most root vegetables and create new garnishes and ingredients. To avoid accidentally turning your fingers into piles of julienne while trying to grab the cutter from a drawer, there's a clear plastic blade cover - a nice touch. The suggested retail is $8. It won't take the place of a full mandolin with interchangeable blades, but at the same time it's a whole lot cheaper.

The durian has the reputation to have the most unpleasantly pungent aroma of all fruits, described as "smelling like garbage, moldy cheese or rotting fish," according to not only an AP story, but everything I've heard about it over the years. I remember traveling in Singapore on business and talking to a PR person representing the country. "Oh, I know it smells bad," she said, a bit embarrassed. "But I love it." I didn't try one then, but I understand how sometimes, as with some fine cheeses, you must come to terms with aroma.

However, there are people who like to see just how much they can prod nature, and a government researcher in Thailand has apparently found a way to remove that aromatic calling card. Some out and out don't believe the claim:

"I don't think it's possible to make a durian that doesn't smell," said Somchai Tadchang, the owner of a durian orchard on Kret, an island on the Chao Phraya river north of Bangkok.

"Anyway, durians actually smell good," he said. "Only rotten durians stink."

The scientist in question cross-bred 90 varieties to create something "that he says smells as mild as a banana." And yet people who like the fruit also like the smell. So why did he spend a reported 30 years on this project? Was it a traumatic incident from his childhood? Or did he remove Freud from his psyche? I could have given him a solution long ago: a nasally-sported clothespin.

Sometimes I run across deeply disturbing business concepts in press releases. The latest in my why-didn't-someone-say-stop category is Spotlight Live, a new eatery in Times Square with two stages. Diners can have a turn performing with professional back-up singers in front of an audience that is captive until dessert is over. A big screen brings the ... uh ... mmm ... well ... entertainment out onto the street and performances are on demand TV and stream online. I think I'd be streaming out on the second rendition of Memories. Oh, and if you have stage fright, there are private recording booths. Private? As in no one else hears? Yes, please.

Here's one of their paragraphs on the food:

A shining culinary star, Kerry Simon creates the dazzling American fare for Spotlight Live. Dubbed by Rolling Stone as the "Rock 'n' Roll Chef," Simon is heralded for his inventive, whimsical approach to classic American fare, putting his cutting-edge stamp on comfort foods for the new Spotlight Live menu. Starters will include "Central Park" Pigs in a Blanket with spicy mustard and relish and French Onion Dip with Homemade Potato Chips. Classic entrees will include Pretzel Crusted Pork Chops with Sweet Potato Mash and Spaghetti and Meatballs with cheese garlic bread. Finally, the dessert menu will include nostalgic favorites like Cotton Candy, Spotlight Cupcakes, Make- Your-Own Sundaes and Sno Cones. Already a smash success with his eponymous restaurants in Las Vegas and LA, Chef Simon serves up imaginative and modern cuisine to the Times Square locale.

Shining culinary star? Inventive? Pigs in a blanket (hot dogs in pancakes, to jog memories) with spicy mustard and relish? Pretzel crusted pork chops? The performances don't sound so bad now, and that's a shame. Think I'll just take the family to Ellen's Stardust Diner where the singers are pros and you can get an old-fashioned egg cream.

Jason Wilson's Spirits column in the Washington Post discusses Cynar (pronounced CHEE-nar), an Italian drink made of artichokes. The author waxes about the liquid:

I won't lie. Cynar -- like anchovies and modern jazz -- takes a bit of effort, at first, to love. But I implore you: Make the effort.

I'll offer different advice: don't bother. I sampled this drink a few years ago from a sample a PR person sent me for a newspaper column version of this column I used to write. I'm game to try almost anything, but found this drink entirely unappetizing. Although not of the same flavor, to me it had the same effect as tossing back some milk that has gone bad. One sip is enough. Just in case I was off, I asked my wife, whose taste buds are far more acute than mine, to try it. She had the same reaction, though maybe a touch faster. The article then goes on about combining Cynar with other ingredients as part of a mixed drink and how people like the results, which only goes to show that if you concentrate enough alcohol in a glass, it's surprising what you can get away with.

I had previously reviewed QuickSeals and found them a smart idea, though I questioned the cost of adding one to an already opened food package. Now I have to wonder about the long-term quality. I've had a bag sporting a QuickSeal for about a week in the fridge. Today when I went to use it, I found that the clasp of the seal had tipped on end and that the bag wouldn't open. It was like having a zipper burst, only in reverse - can't open instead of can't close. By sliding the clasp to the open position, I was able to reinsert it, but it's annoying to have something like that happen after that short a period of time. I'll keep watching them and if I have any more unfortunately derelictions of duty, I'll be sure to menion something here.

In my review of avocado oil I noted the high smoke point claimed by Olivado, the manufacturer, and quasi-confirmed by my experience doing some particularly hot sauté without turning the kitchen into a set from the Towering Inferno. In discusing smoking points with a family friend, I ended up doing some online research and found, of course, that CookingForEngineers.com had an entry with the smoking points of many types of oil. Thought I'd pass it on for those that might find it interesting and useful.

In a previous post I mentioned that I'd be requiring registration for comments because one post sounded suspiciously like PR chum, carefully placed to help reduce the effect of my ambivalent reaction to a product. Today another comment on a different product appeared - one that I had just reviewed in the last week. In this case, the comment was about QuickSeals, and the remark from a person apparently with only a first name said, "Since my foods stay fresher much longer, QuickSeals more than pay for themselves. " Sorry to the poster if I'm wrong, but I just don't believe a consumer would write this - particularly as a sealed top won't keep food better than, say, a reusable storage container. (Though a ziped seal is certainly better than leaving a bag or box completely open in the fridge.) It's another post that sounds like an intern trying to sound like a real marketing person.

I really don't want to moderate posts, and I don't want to try and guess whether a comment came from a legitimate consumer or was a bit of spin control from a PR firm. So I've decided to eliminate comments. I wouldn't mind so much if the PR people directly contacted me and wanted to try rebutting - but that would require reasoning that I thought held up, and not something along the order of, "But that's not good for my client."

Unfortunately, anonymity makes it tough to know whether you're hearing a real opinion or so much shill. However, here's what I am willing to do. If someone outside of a vendor or PR firm really wants to comment, I'll post something for the person.

According to the Associated Press, a man was found stuck in the air-conditioning ductwork of a Gendale, Arizona supermarket. A police spokesperson assumed it was a burglary that had gone awry. Nex time, he should try snacking after the job, not during.

While staying for the weekend with friends, we were helping (OK, my wife was helping) with getting a large dinner party together. Part of those preparations was to be reducing chicken stock for a gravy because the chickens were going onto the grill. Those plans changed the minute my wife and our friend Harriet opened a package of Emeril's All Natural Chicken Stock that they had picked up from the store. Now, please understand that Harriet is a fine cook and frugal and can find a way to make use of virtually anything. But virtually embraces the concept of the odd exception, and that's exactly what this chicken stock became. She and my wife said that the taste was revolting, with a metallic aftertaste. I just took a smell of the open container and would get no closer to the product, let alone actually ingest it. I admire the courage or foolhardiness of the two women. I have a feeling that when Emeril Lagasse cooks, this stock is not in his pantry. At least, I hope it isn't.