Food Blog

The National Restaurant Association’s show is in town in a few weeks, but they’re also putting on an International Wine, Spirits & Beer Event.

It’s that time of year again, find a Farmer’s Market near you. Evanston’s opens May 17th.

The New Yorker tells the story of Grant Achatz’s battle to save his tongue.

Secret Found: What Makes Food Look Tasty “This natural molecule, named ghrelin, actually improves perception and memory when it comes to food.”

Monsanto’s Harvest of Fear “Monsanto already dominates America’s food chain with its genetically modified seeds. Now it has targeted milk production. Just as frightening as the corporation’s tactics–ruthless legal battles against small farmers–is its decades-long history of toxic contamination.”

A side effect of the farmer surveillance Monsanto practices - if you try taking a nice photograph of a picturesque barn in farm country, you should be prepared to be confronted by farmers who are paranoid about cameras.

On the brighter side of farming check out Straight from the Farm, a beautiful blog featuring an urban farm in Philadelphia.

LTHforum, Chicago’s best food forum now has a whole section devoting to Gardening, Farming and Foraging.

I don’t have ads on this blog, but if I did I’d send you to:

Fred and Friends, with kitchen products like a pan handle shaped like a banana a measuring cup that measures not just in cups and onces, but useful measurements like ‘5 thousand drops of water’ or ‘as many grains of flour as people on the planet’. And what home would be complete without an accessory to add the vision of Mary on your toast?. They have a blog too - the Joy of Fred.

I’d also try to sell you meat candy - lollyphille has maple bacon lollypops.

I’d love to design and ad for this dual aquatic pet chop/seafood place.

Hot cross bun from Bennison’s.  

 
Oyster at Davis Street Fishmarket. I think that was a big fat Blue Point. They’re half price during their happy hour. 

Chiplotle BBQ Wrap at McDonald’s. Not very good - dull wrap, fake smoke taste. 

Photoshoped animals into fruits

Last year there were two trillion stalks of corn in Iowa, and a lot of it went to corn syrup Short article on King Corn, a movie about corn. There’s a dormant blog about the movie tour.

“If you were to pluck one of your hairs and analyze the origins of its carbon, most of it came from corn. That’s right — you’re mostly corn! That’s because all the chicken and beef you’ve ever eaten (or almost all of it) was corn-fed. And those snacks and sodas? All corn syrup. Even the fries we eat are up to 50% corn by caloric content if they are fried in corn oil.”

My Forbidden Fruits (and Vegetables)
An opinion article in the NYT by a farmer.

“…my efforts to expand production to meet regional demand have been severely hampered by the Agriculture Department’s commodity farm program. As I’ve looked into the politics behind those restrictions, I’ve come to understand that this is precisely the outcome that the program’s backers in California and Florida have in mind: they want to snuff out the local competition before it even gets started.”

Learn about sourdough from FoodWishes in the multi-day series that starts at Follow the Sourdough - Day 1: Can you say Lactobacillus Sanfranciscensis?

Scott Kelby, one of the Photoshop Guys has a couple of posts at his Photoshop Insider blog on shooting food - Shooting (and Lighting) for Food and a follow up - Cereal Shoot Lighting Diagram.

Found in the comments of the first post is a link to The dirty tricks of food photographers.

I get several press releases a week, mostly cookbook announcements or recipe/timely food tips. It’s funny to see how many of these mirror themselves in the food pages of newspapers around the time I get them. 

But I just received an important, and local one, from Gus, the owner of Wiener and Still Champion here in Evanston, who is celebrating National Corn Dog Day, on Saturday March 22, by offering his Dipping Dogs for $1.25 each. These things are great and he’s got some fancy sauces to dip them in like curry ketchup, garlic aoli or Argentine garlic and herb.

If your unaware of National Corn Dog Day, it’s a celebration of corn dogs,  beer, tater tots and college basketball. Check out the official site for events near you, and to see the brilliant posters promoting the event through the years. They’re also offering t-shirts this year.

Chocolate raised donut. Bennison’s Bakery, Evanston. 
 

A little food related knowledge.

Vanilla Garlic tells us about Tasseography - or diving tea leaves.

Greg Wee (that’s a link to his food blog) has a trick on his other blog for killing a fly on your food without killing the fly ON your food.

Cave Cinum brings us the word “yorange - the white pithy strings that cling to an orange after you peel it”