I love seafood. Growing up, my family used to spend summers on Cape Cod, and we regularly grilled swordfish, tuna, and salmon on the back porch. When I got a little older, I discovered sushi, and I recently began eating raw oysters, a delicacy that I'd avoided for years. There are some weird items, like sea cucumber and cuttlefish that still give me the heebie-jeebies, but I will try pretty much any denizen of the deep, as long as it is properly prepared and relatively fresh.
As I've gotten older, though, the fish market has become like a game of Russian roulette in which the chambers are loaded with a mixture of mercury poisoning, overfishing, and guilt. As more and more warnings about pollution make the rounds, I find myself trying to decide between the great prices of farm-raised and the supposed safety of wild caught produce. Meanwhile, I also have to worry that my fish of choice is being overharvested, leading to depletion in the ocean, the end of biodiversity, and (presumably) armageddon. Given the consequences of the wrong decision, I'm more and more likely to forgo the ocean's bounty in favor of a nice, juicy hamburger.
Recently, however, Stop & Shop has made it a little easier for me to navigate the rocky shoals of politically correct pescotarianism. Recognizing the danger of overfishing certain species, they've decided to stop selling shark, orange roughy, and Chilean sea bass until these species have repopulated. As the Quincy, Massachusetts-based supermarket operates 360 stores, this is a pretty impressive commitment to the environment. At the same time, it's a nice step toward making fish delicious and guilt-free!
In spite of all the articles, all the op-ed pieces, and all the tables of comparison, I've found it remarkably easy to forget that the cost of groceries has steadily risen over the last couple of years. Part of this is the fact that I moved to New York about a year ago. Prior to the move, most of my family's food came from regional groceries and the friendly, neighborhood Wal-Mart. Moving into the Bronx, I was so stunned by food prices price of food that a few pennies here and there were pretty much irrelevant. Recently, however, I was buying a box of cereal when it struck me that the price had risen by a dollar over the last year. Given that the new price was just over $5, this translated to a 25% cost increase in one year. I was stunned.
When asked about skyrocketing food prices, most pundits pin the blame on our new favorite villain: rising gas prices. While gas is partially responsible, it's worth noting that increased shipping costs haven't caused the prices of every other consumer item to soar. In truth, the biggest force driving up the cost of food has been exports; basically, European markets are filling up with cheap American foodstuffs. Over the course of 2008, Europe will have imported $110 billion worth of our produce, a 22% increase over 2007.
When most people look at commercials for Klondike bars, I imagine that they see silly people doing fun, wacky things in return for yummy ice cream treats. Personally, I see cruelty, torture, and the dark side of addiction. Hunger is a harsh mistress; luckily, I've never been placed in a situation where I've had to do something embarrassing or illegal to get fed. To my shame, I have to admit that, under the right circumstances, I would probably humiliate myself for a Klondike bar. If the reward was a nice crême brûlée, there's no doubt: all bets would be off.
Because of this moral shortcoming, I can, to some extent, understand Tremayne Durham. A Brooklyn thug who was being held in an Oregon courthouse, Durham recently admitted that he did, indeed, kill a man in cold blood over a failed business deal. In return for his candor, he's probably facing life imprisonment.
What caused Durham to admit to his wrongdoing? Was it depression, guilt, a need for forgiveness, the first step on the road to redemption? No, Durham plead guilty to aggravated murder in return for a gargantuan fast-food feast. He received a bucket of KFC chicken, a bucket of Popeye's chicken, a serving of mashed potatoes, a serving of coleslaw, a slice of carrot cake, a pizza, two calzones, a tray of lasagna and a bucket of ice cream. The entire proceeding cost the state of Oregon a mere $41.70.
As Durham discovers that justice is sometimes served with a side of cole slaw, I'm going to start taking the idea of fast food addiction a lot more seriously...
Flying domestically over the past few years has become increasingly more and more nightmarish. Just last week we had a post on the lack of complimentary food served on domestic flights. Last Sunday, the New York Times had an article about airlines, such as US Airways, that are charging $5 for snacks and $2 for water. Airlines no longer offering basic amenities, like luggage space and meals, is depressing. But, it's more or less expected from airlines that are all on the verge of going out of business. To me, charging for water is the most shocking.
As someone who loves to travel, I'm desperately hoping that US Airways' $2 water bottles do not become a trend on other airlines. We can't bring water through security. So, we'll have no other option than to purchase water at the gate prior to boarding the plane. This means arriving at the airport extra early than we already have to in order to prevent dehydration on a transcontinental flight.
The article in the Times outlines an up-to-date list of current drink and meal offerings from major airlines traveling domestically. It's hard to pinpoint which airline is the stingiest. While Southwest, Spirit, and JetBlue offer no food apart from snacks, American, Delta, United, and Northwest all charge at least $4 for meals. Northwest charges $10 for meals! We all know how delicious airline cuisine is...Hopefully, these airlines will not follow US Airways and take away a simple necessity like water.
Over the last few months, the intrepid editors over at Consumerist have done an outstanding job of tracking the trend of smaller sizes for the same price. They call it the Grocery Shrink Ray and they've seen it hit everything from coffee, to peanut butter to yogurt (it also strikes non-edible products such as toothpaste and contact lens solution).
One of the debates that occurs around this topic of shrinking package sizes is whether it would be more honest for companies to simply raise the prices on their products instead of charging the same for a smaller amount. In the face of rising costs, Turkey Hill Dairy has decided to succumb to the dreaded shrinking size trend for their ice cream packages, as prices for ice cream's have risen dramatically in recent days. They announced this size reduction with a heart-felt letter penned by company President, Quintin Frey that was posted on their blog.
You know Duff Goldman as the owner of Charm City Cakes and the central character in the Food Network's reality show, Ace of Cakes. I have a friend who has something of a crush on him and often says that she'd like to "put him in her pocket." Well, today is apparently her lucky day, as Charm City Cakes has teamed up with Diamond Select Toys to turn Duff into a very pocket-sized action figure. That's right Charm City Cakes fans, you can now have your very own Duff doll.
In addition to the doll, you can also buy an assortment of accessories, including "two of the shop's signature cakes, a drill-powered mixer, a chainsaw, wooden spoon, spatula, guitar and flame-thrower! Also included is an alternate baseball cap to recreate another Duff Goldman look!"
They're available this fall and would make the perfect holiday gift for the Duff Goldman fan.
Are you feeling opinionated on a range of food topics, notably diets? On the website Opposing Views, you have the opportunity to view experts' arguments for and against low-carb diets, caffeine use, biotech foods, and on becoming a vegetarian. Afterwards, you can post your own comments.
There are so many overbearingly opinionated blogs. What a relief to finally find a site where doctors and scientists debate over hot topics. And, rather than totally ignoring what everyone else has to say, it fosters continued discussion with comments. Also, the site provides news headlines dealing with the various questions.
From all the food-related issues that Opposing Views thoroughly covers, I found the topic on caffeine the most interesting. This is no doubt due to my over sensitivity to caffeinated products. Also, increasingly we hear stories in the news stating that coffee can reduce our risks of diabetes, Parkinson's disease, and colon cancer. Just this past January, the media stated that doctors confirmed that while coffee helps fight type two diabetes, caffeine makes it worse. Such a contradictory study gives one an even stronger reason to check out this debate on Opposing Views.
One of my favorite early Saturday Night Liveskits was featured John Belushi as an Olympic athlete. The scene opens with clips of Belushi doing a high jump and running around a track, then cuts to a shot of him at the breakfast table. Clutching a cigarette, Belushi looks into the camera with complete gravitas and tells about his secret to staying fit: "I downed a lot of donuts. Little chocolate donuts. They taste good and they've got the sugar I need to get me going in the morning."
The commercial played off the classic "Wheaties" ads, which featured Bruce Jenner. The prevailing wisdom in those days stated that top-class athletes had to eat extremely healthy foods, like whole grain cereal and skinless, boneless chicken. However, as I recently read about Michael Phelps' daily eating regimen, I was surprised to see that his diet is much closer to John Belushi's than to Richard Simmons. To begin with, the Olympian consumes approximately 12,000 calories a day, roughly six times the RDA for a man his age. Second, it is heavily skewed towards carbohydrates and fats, which most diets eschew. Given Phelps' amazing energy expenditure (in the average week, the guy swims five hours a day, six days a week!
At any rate, Phelps' average daily menu is after the jump...
Over the past few years, fast-food joints like McDonald's and Burger King have cashed in on nutritionists' advice that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. At this point, they all have a breakfast value menu. So, it's no surprise that food service businesses, such as Denny's and IHOP, which built their restaurants on the fact that they provide breakfast, are getting competitive with fast-food alternatives. An article from the Baltimore Sun explains that Denny's is going to offer breakfast skillets for $5.99. IHOP is now selling more to-go breakfast meals.
Restaurant analysts state that Denny's and IHOP will have to compete with the convenience, speed and low prices available from their fast-food competitors. Nevertheless, they should probably also realize that they may be targeting a different demographic alltogether.
Would you sign up for Denny's Real Breakfast Club? Signing up means that they'd send you emails with promotions, news, and offers.
Why are we so disgusted by the simple fact that all the drinking water on earth is recycled wastewater? Unfortunately, the natural recycling process, involving evaporation, condensation, and precipitation, does not deliver enough drinking water to the drier parts of the world. This Sunday, the New York Times Magazine had an article about Orange County's new facility where it's purifying 70 million gallons of recycled water a day.
Many people are skeptical and revolted by the idea that their drinking water is simply purified toilet water. But, if we were to analyze the general water infrastructure in the U.S., we'd realize that sewage enters all our waterways. The majority of us drink tap water that is disinfected at drinking-water plants far less sophisticated than the ones built in Orange County.
The water coming out of the Fountain Valley plant in Orange County is cleaner than many bottled waters, such as Poland Spring. However, to appease peoples' concerns about the water being unnatural and dirty, Fountain Valley puts the water back into nature (ponds, streams, lakes, etc.). Ironically, the water's purity dwindles when it goes back into the wild where it's exposed to bacteria, pharmaceuticals, and agricultural and industrial chemicals.
Should Fountain Valley care if people view their water recycling process as natural?
Last week, I listened to a story on NPR about countries in Central America, notably Honduras, that are turning to genetically modified crops as the global food crisis worsens. Honduras is the only country in Central America that has embraced genetically engineered corn.
Genetically engineered corn is against the law in most of Central America where the crop has been grown for thousands of years. They ban genetically modified organisms (GMOs) to protect their many diverse varieties of corn from contamination. But with the price of corn doubling, Honduras has recently decided to use GMOs.
The food crisis is bringing about a new trend towards genetically modified crops. Egypt just approved GMO corn, and China increased its funding in research on GMO foods. However, this may be a destructive temporary solution. Environmentalists are concerned that biotech crops could damage the natural diversity of plants. These crops are made by injecting new genes that were found in other species. In essence, they're getting rid of previous natural varieties and creating new ones.
What do you think? Should countries view GMO foods as a solution to the current food crisis?
(Click the photo to see TV's Top 7 Sexy Celebrity Chefs)
Food Network chef Tyler Florence and wife Tolan Clark Florence announced the birth of their daughter, Dorothy Tyler Florence on Friday. Born on August 8th, 2008 she Dorothy will forever have the delightful (and according to the Chinese, very auspicious) birth date 08/08/08. To see a picture of the newborn, check out the post welcoming her to the scene over at the Food Network Addict blog.
Dorothy has two older brothers, Hayden is 14 months old and Miles is 12 years old (Tyler's son from a previous relationship). I'm sure they're both just giddy over their pretty new sister.
I don't know if it's all the summer produce that just happens to be filling the markets or if there's been some allignment of the planets, but it's been a banner week for food writing on the Weblogs, Inc. network. Over in the world of finance, Walletpop offered a couple of useful posts, exploring the relative value of in-store brands, and highlighting a free cereal offer from Malt-o-meal. Meanwhile, sustainability site GreenDaily offered some great suggestions for enviromentally-conscious summer cocktails, and an exploration of Pizza Hut's new quasi-organic vegetable pizza.
Over at ParentDish, Bethany Sanders questioned the bona-fides of supposedly healthy kids' snacks and Jennifer Jordan pointed out that (surprise, surprise!) most fast-food kids' meals are unhealthy. Speaking of health, That's Fit explored the benefits of tea, almonds, alcohol, peaches, spices, cherries, and even cake! They also waxed rhapsodic about the values of salsa, salad and beans, and even offered some suggestions for the healthiest kids' cereals!
Here in Philadelphia, we don't have to stray far from Center City in order to get a hit of Amish country. There are number of Pennsylvania Dutch vendors at Reading Terminal Market who sell jams, jellies, local honeys, fresh produce, meats, cheeses and some of the most amazing baked goods. However, normally the PA Dutch merchants don't call much attention to themselves and stay tucked back in one corner of the Market.
However, this weekend, the PA Dutch merchants take over the whole Market for the 19th Annual Pennsylvania Dutch Festival. The fest was canceled last summer, due to some unrest at the Market, so it's doubly exciting to see it return this year. Starting today, they'll set up the festival in Center Court and it will feature handmade crafts including quilts, woodcrafts, paintings, hand-braided rugs, wooden toys, and cedar chests. Available foods will including chicken pot-pie, donuts, ice cream, pies and canned fruits and vegetables. On Saturday, they'll have a mock barn raising on Arch Street, building a garden shed on the city street as well as a country auction.
If you're in the Philadelphia metropolitan area, I highly recommend coming into Philly to check out the festival. Be prepared for crowds and come with an empty stomach!
About a year ago, I went shopping at a new grocery store. To my surprise, this store expected you to take your bagged produce over to a scale, select the variety of fruit or veg and print out a label to apply to the bag. This was done in the name of saving the check-out person the work of having to determine what type of apple or lettuce you'd just heaped into your grocery cart and speed things along. I was a little irritated when I first had to do it, and although I've come to enjoy playing with the machine, I still shudder over the process, as it creates more waste and renders the bag difficult to reuse due to the sticker.
However, engineers have created a new check-out scanner/scale and this one is all set to put these produce-section scales with label printers out of business. This new scanner contains a camera that snaps an image of the non-barcoded produce. It compares the picture to its database of images in order to determine whether it is a bunch of bananas, an orange or a bag of brussels sprouts. This way the produce is identified, weighed and price is determined, simply by placing the item or bag on the scanner.
As the Appliances & Kitchen Gadgets blog points out, there are still elements that would require human input. How could the scanner tell whether the produce was organic or conventional? Additionally, some stores price their produce by unit instead of by the pound (four ears of corn for a $1). Would it also be able count quantities? Despite the limitations, it's still an interesting innovation.
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I love seafood. Growing up, my family used to spend summers on Cape Cod, and we regularly grilled swordfish, tuna, and salmon on the back porch. When I got a little older, I discovered sushi, and I recently began eating raw oysters, a delicacy that I'd avoided for years. There are some weird items, like sea cucumber and cuttlefish that still give me the heebie-jeebies, but I will try pretty much any denizen of the deep, as long as it is properly prepared and relatively fresh..jpg)
In spite of all the articles, all the op-ed pieces, and all the tables of comparison, I've found it remarkably easy to forget that the cost of groceries has steadily risen over the last couple of years. Part of this is the fact that I moved to New York about a year ago. Prior to the move, most of my family's food came from regional groceries and the friendly, neighborhood Wal-Mart. Moving into the Bronx, I was so stunned by food prices price of food that a few pennies here and there were pretty much irrelevant. Recently, however, I was buying a box of cereal when it struck me that the price had risen by a dollar over the last year. Given that the new price was just over $5, this translated to a 25% cost increase in one year. I was stunned..jpg)
When most people look at commercials for Klondike bars, I imagine that they see silly people doing fun, wacky things in return for yummy ice cream treats. Personally, I see cruelty, torture, and the dark side of addiction. Hunger is a harsh mistress; luckily, I've never been placed in a situation where I've had to do something embarrassing or illegal to get fed. To my shame, I have to admit that, under the right circumstances, I would probably humiliate myself for a Klondike bar. If the reward was a nice crême brûlée, there's no doubt: all bets would be off.
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One of my favorite early Saturday Night Live 
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I don't know if it's all the summer produce that just happens to be filling the markets or if there's been some allignment of the planets, but it's been a banner week for food writing on the Weblogs, Inc. network. Over in the world of finance, Walletpop offered a couple of useful posts, exploring the relative value of 
Chocolate-stuffed bananas on the grill
Tyler Florence welcomes new daughter
Beware kids' menus!
