A Hot Tub of High Fructose Corn Syrup

Double click on this to view better.  This breaks down visually how much HFCS people eat on a daily basis right through to a lifetime, yes that is a hot tub.  This illustration is from the NYT, more on the Sugar as Toxin article soon....but can I just say I posted Dr. Lustig's video and wrote about this over a year ago (March 10, 2010)  right here on Urbanfoodguy, just saying....off to lunch, much more later...

Lunch at Diner

I love Diner.  When friends are visiting I always try and take them for lunch (dinner is great too, but the chance of getting a booth diminishes in evening when it is so packed) and when I want to treat myself it's one of those restaurants that always seems to cheer me up.  It's also just one subway stop away so that doesn't hurt either.

But here is the thing, and I have written about this before, and here I am writing about it again because I JUST DON'T UNDERSTAND.  Here is a place that has a wonderful market driven, seasonal menu with lots of daily specials.  They are so fanatical about their meat that they source everything locally and even have their own butcher shop that features local grass fed meats,

They make sensitive choices by having things like Cane Cola, making an obvious statement that this is a place where you won't find diabetes and obesity inducing high fructose corn syrup, right?

So after our lovely Kale Caesar and a kick ass Cranberry bean soup with poached egg (the soup without the egg is vegan), my friend's $13 grass fed with Vermont cheddar cheeseburger and fries comes to the table along with a bottle of Heinz Ketchup! Yes the kind with TWO kinds of corn syrups, the Monsanto approved Corn Syrup rich ketchup: Heinz. The same Heinz who (because of ranting people like me) now have an organic version, so there is really no need in serving this shit.  So why does this great restaurant that is so sensitive and smart and tasty on every other level still after all these years serve it?  

Makes me crazy.  You know how easy it would be to make your own?  Or to buy the CANE Ketchup?

Why not serve Coke if you're going to serve Heinz?  I'm going to stop this rant mid rant because you've all heard it a million times and the fact is I go to Diner and just don't eat the ketchup, but some people do and that really is the point.  My friend did as you can see in the picture below.  Is it going to kill him?  No.  But that's not my point.  My point is that it makes no sense to be so particular about sourcing and butchering your meat, serving local and maybe even organic vegetables and Cane Cola and then presenting double GMO high fructose corn syrup ketchup.  It's just mind boggling to me.  And so easily fixed.  So why do they keep doing it?  What's the point?  

Rant complete.  I feel better now, thanks for listening.

Organic Candy Canes?

Saw these in Whole Foods yesterday and was kind of surprised, but glad to see we are slowly weaning ourselves from our high fructose genetically modified corn syrup addiction.  I love how they make sure to cover all conceivable markets and say:  Gluten free, Vegan and Kosher.

Halloween Treats

 

My inbox has been packed this week with mail from different high profile food magazines and online recipe sites giving suggestions for goodies to make for Halloween and whether apples are a good thing to give little trick or treaters (yes).

In each email is a recipe or two with High Fructose Corn syrup as an ingredient. 

I've ranted about this for years now and I think if you are on this blog you know how I think it should be banned.  It is unnecessary as an ingredient, really bad for you and really bad for the environment.  If you absolutely must make a recipe calling for its use Lyle's Golden Syrup as a substitute.

For more reading about my thoughts on this topic, here are the search results from posts on this blog over the years discussing the issues surrounding genetically modified corn and high fructose corn syrup.

Please spend some time in the kitchen making your kids and family homemade sweet treats this Halloween with quality ingredients: not corn syrup.

You want them to have fun not diabetes.

A Message from the Corn Refiners Association: You're Confused

Yep that's right.  The people who market high fructose corn syrup have decided that the only way to:

"clear up consumer confusion about the product"

is to change it's name to:  Corn Sugar

This is according to the NYT, who seem to be shilling for the Corn Refiners association.  It reads more like an advertisement than a piece of journalism.   Personally I'm kind of amazed at Marion Nestles' quotes; I respect her greatly, but for a nutritionist to say:

"But you have to feel sorry for them. High-fructose corn syrup is the new trans fat. Everyone thinks it’s poison, and food companies are getting rid of it as fast as they can.”

I have to feel sorry for them, why?  It is poison and there are many studies out there to prove it so why, Dr. Nestle, are you not mentioning them?  Or are you just being edited this way by the NYT?

To be fair, let's define poison.  High Fructose corn syrup is government subsidized, industrially grown, most likely a GMO and highly processed.  Sugar is a non GMO grass that, depending on the kind of sugar, can be processed to varying degrees.  Sugar can be bought in an organic version, HFCS can not.

It has been proven that HFCS prompts considerably more weight gain which leads to Diabetes, Obesity, Heart Disease and Liver Problems.  For a more exhaustive discussion on the topic you might want to start out by reading Tom Laskawy over at Grist; he's done a great job breaking it all down for you with lots of sources.

The bottom line is this:  why eat a processed genetically modified food when you have a choice to eat one that isn't?  Why eat corporate food when you have a choice to eat honey grown on the rooftops of Brooklyn or organic fair trade sugar?  In the end it is our choice - our choice of where we eat out, what we buy at the grocery store and our choice to reclaim our food lives by living a more seasonal, local life and cooking at home with ingredients, not products.

Just remember if the FDA approves the name change (it'll take a coupe of years):  when you start to see Corn Sugar on labels think,  Oh High Fructose Corn Syrup!

Then put the product back on the shelf and don't buy it.

I posted this ages ago, but it seem like it was worth a second viewing given today's subject matter:

Chocolate Pudding Cake with a Peanut Butter Twist

My Grandmother used to make the classic version of this dessert for me when I was a little boy.

Over the years I've played around with it, trying many different variations: low fat milk instead of water, coffee instead of water, adding cinnamon and hot pepper, and so on....this is my latest and I think my favorite variation: Peanut Butter Swirl.

By adding 4 tablespoons of creamy organic peanut butter into the batter you get a gooey baked Reese's Peanut Butter Cup in cake form made with really good ingredients!

Just be sure you use organic peanut butter none of that stuff with high fructose Corn Syrup or dubious hydrogenated tropical oils. No need to destroy the rain forest, become obese, get diabetes and support Monsanto just because you want a little peanut butter in your chocolate pudding cake.

Whole Foods sells a reasonably price peanut butter and they offer an unsweetened version which I highly recommend.

Try it, you'll like it.

Chocolate Pudding Cake with a Peanut Butter Twist

First preheat the oven to 325 F and butter an 8" square pan (I used my clay dish it's 8 x 11 and worked just fine, I just cook it a little less).
In a bowl add 3/4 cups brewed coffee (I used left over from that morning) with 3/4 cups hot water (you can use all water if you want, I have a friend who is very coffee phobic and even though I don't think you actually can taste the coffee in this dish, he could). Put aside.

In another bowl add 1/3 cup cocoa, 1/3 cup brown sugar tightly packed and 1/3 cup cane sugar and mix together into a fine powder. Put aside

Add 6 Tablespoons unsalted butter, 2 ounces bittersweet chocolate (finely chopped) and 1/3 cup cocoa in a bowl and place over a barely simmering pot of water, stirring until completely melted and mixed together. Remove from heat and set aside.
Mix together 2 teaspoons of baking powder, 1/4 teaspoon of salt and 3/4 cup of all purpose flour.

In a large bowl (I know, this is a bowl heavy recipe) whisk 2/3 cups cane sugar, 1 egg yolk, 1/3 cup whole milk (or half and half) and 1 Tablespoon of amber rum, scotch or Vanilla.

Add chocolate mixture and whisk until it is well incorporated then add the flour mixture. Mix until just blended. Spoon out into buttered pan.

Now here's the fun part: spoon 4 tablespoons of creamy organic unsweetened Peanut Butter into each corner of the batter and swirl around (I used a butter knife).
Then sprinkle with the cocoa sugar mixture.
And finally, cover with the water/coffee mixture.
Pop in the oven and cook for 35-45 minutes. Check on it at the 35 minute point, this is one of those cakes that the more you cook it the less pudding on the bottom you will have. Up to you, but I like it to be half and half pudding and cake so I usually take it out of the oven at the 35 minute point. See how it's looking, if it's still really wobbly give it more time.
Add some unsweetened whipped cream and dig in! And if you did use rum or scotch offer your guest a sip on the side, it can only enhance the experience. ;-)

The Sweet Smell of Success

or something close to it. Read this great article about the decline of Hight Fructose Corn Syrup in today's New York Times:

Here's my favorite part:

What started as a narrow movement by proponents of natural and organic foods has morphed into a swell of mainstream opposition, thanks in large part to tools of modern activism like Facebook, YouTube and Twitter and movies like “Food, Inc.” and “King Corn.”

As a result, sales of the ingredient have fallen in the United States. Charlie Mills, an analyst at Credit Suisse, says that the combined United States sales of high-fructose corn syrup for Archer Daniels Midland, Tate & Lyle and Corn Products International were down 9 percent in 2009, compared with 2007. A further decline is expected this year, he says.

Shocking News Cinema Snacks Are Fattening

Several media outlets today reported:

Popcorn in Movie Cinemas is fattening and high in calories, not to mention outrageously over priced (they didn't report the last part that's just my added editorial comment).

This is news?

I'm pretty sure I've recounted here my conversation with refreshment stand help that I've had many times over the years when contemplating the temptation of ordering some of the evil highly caloric puffed corn we love so much and for some reason has become so synonymous to the movie going experience.

In bright lights the sign behind the counter says Popcorn with Butter! There are pictures of melting butter being lovingly pour over light and delicious kernels of perfected popped corn.

The conversation would go like this:

"would you like butter on your popcorn?"

"Is it real butter?"

"um, no"

In such a litigious country it is mind boggling to me that somehow lawyer with a fat kid hasn't sued cinemas for perpetrating this lie?

Besides being bad for you and fattening, popcorn is also a GMO (genetically modified organism).
I mean if you're going to spend all that money on a GM corn product why not just buy stocks in Monsanto?

Anyway it seems to me absurd that all of a sudden today I've read on several sites about this study that tells the truth about how soda and popcorn (both GM corn products in this country - high fructose corn syrup in the regular soda or cancer causeing chemicals in the diet ones).

As initially reported by CBS:

According to laboratory analysis conducted by the Center for Science and Public Interest (CSPI), the concessions from Regal, the country's biggest movie chain, have 1,160 calories and three days worth - 60 grams - of fat. Regal said that the medium popcorn had 720 calories and the large had 960, but CSPI's tests found those numbers to be understated. A small popcorn at Regal had 670 calories - the same as a Pizza Hut Personal Pepperoni Pan Pizza. Even if you share a small popcorn - it's still about a day's worth of saturated fat per person, according to CSPI.

Here's my take on this, everyone understands that this is a treat and junk food so it's obviously not going to be good for you, but why on earth can't they just make it with real ingredients? Why not offer air popped organic non GMO local corn popcorn? With real butter, it used to be real I remember when I worked in a movie cinema as a teenager we would put a huge chunk of butter into the back of the butter melting machine.

No one expects treats to necessarily be healthy, but hre is an example of something that could be made so much tastier and healthier and better for us and the planet if we just made it with something other then chemicals and partially hydrogenated tropical oils.

Cinema chains want the biggest bang for their buck and real ingredients cost too much.

Fuck your health it's about their bottom line.

And as long as people are willing to buy it why should they change? It's like MacDonalds or smoking, no matter how much people know how bad something might be for you it doesn't mean they are going to stop doing it.

For me in the end it comes down to taste. I'd rather bring some good popcorn into the theater in my knapsack then spend the money on the scrappy stuff they sell. This suggests to me that there is a market for something better, but apparently not a big enough of one to bother to offer an option - something good, old fashioned, not genetically modified, made with real butter and in the instance of soda real sugar.

Another Reason Not to Drink Coke

Besides the obesity making, genetically modifed, high fructose corn syrup in each gulp and the wasteful, fossil fuel-based plastic bottle it comes in, now there is this news just in from MoveOn:

Dear MoveOn member,

Why would a company like Coca-Cola oppose solutions to global warming?

Coca-Cola is a prominent member of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which just launched a $100 million campaign described as a "declaration of war on the White House." The Chamber is pouring millions into killing clean energy as well as health care reform.¹

Recently, an uprising of companies fighting back against the Chamber of Commerce has begun, led by companies like Apple, Nike, Johnson & Johnson, and GE.²

But Coca-Cola continues to help fund the Chamber's anti-climate agenda through their Chamber dues.

Can you call Coca-Cola and urge them to quit the Chamber of Commerce? If you're a customer of Coca-Cola, be sure to mention it when you call. Here's the info:

Coca-Cola
(800) 438-2653, press 2

Then, report your call by clicking here:

http://pol.moveon.org/chambercalls/coca-cola.html?id=17578-3196443-ud.lc6x&t=4

For years, the Chamber of Commerce has pushed a right-wing agenda.³ But now, it's trying to kill progress on clean energy, health care, workers' rights, and even financial reform.⁴

The U.S. Chamber has gotten so out of step with its own members that even local chambers are joining the rebellion. "They don't represent me," the head of the Greater New York Chamber said the other day.⁵

The top issues causing companies to walk away from the Chamber are clean energy and global warming. Wind and solar power create jobs and help the economy, and most business leaders know it.⁶

But the Chamber isn't listening. After Apple quit, the Chamber's president said of his critics, "Bring 'em on."⁷

So why is Coca-Cola still funding the Chamber? The Chamber wouldn't be able to run multi-million dollar campaigns if it weren't getting so much money from its members.

Call Coca-Cola today and urge them to quit the Chamber of Commerce:

Coca-Cola
(800) 438-2653, press 2

Then, help track our progress by clicking here:

http://pol.moveon.org/chambercalls/coca-cola.html?id=17578-3196443-ud.lc6x&t=5

Thanks for all you do.

–Steven, Wes, Anna, Noah, and the rest of the team

Sources:

(I haven't attached all these links if you want to access them just cut and paste - thanks!)

1. "Does the U.S. Chamber Speak for Big Business?," Business Week, October 7, 2009
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=84889&id=17578-3196443-ud.lc6x&t=6

2. "Apple quits U.S. Chamber of Commerce over global warming views," San Jose Mercury News, October 5, 2009
http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_13492186

"Nike Resigns From Chamber Board," The New York Times, September 30, 2009
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=84826&id=&t=7&id=17578-3196443-ud.lc6x&t=7

3. "A Quiet Revolution In Business Lobbying: Chamber of Commerce Helps Bush Agenda," The Washington Post, February 5, 2005
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=84896&id=17578-3196443-ud.lc6x&t=8

4. "Corporate America Is Fighting Back," Financial Post, October 14, 2009
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=84891&id=17578-3196443-ud.lc6x&t=9

5. "Defections Expose Chamber's Dirty Little Secrets" The Washington Post, October 16, 2009
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=84890&id=17578-3196443-ud.lc6x&t=11

6. "At Chamber of Commerce, Member Exodus on Climate Issue a Big PR Problem," Newsweek, October 6, 2009
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=84820&id=&t=8&id=17578-3196443-ud.lc6x&t=12

7. "Defiant Chamber Chief Says 'Bring 'Em On,'" The New York Times, October 8, 2009
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=84829&id=&t=11&id=17578-3196443-ud.lc6x&t=13

Want to support our work? We're entirely funded by our 5 million members—no corporate contributions, no big checks from CEOs. And our tiny staff ensures that small contributions go a long way. Chip in here.

The Trials and Tribulations of Eating Out

In the last week or so I've been very lucky to eat at some of my favorite restaurants in town. It's always nice to have generous house guest who like to eat out. Momofuku and Double Crown are still as good as ever. Yesterday, after yoga, I was starving and in need of a quick fix so I went to Momofuku's sister restaurant Ssam Bar which I went to when it first opened and it didn't really do it for me. Yesterday all I had was a BBQ Spare rib sandwich with red onion slaw served on a chewy, baguette type roll and it hit the spot perfectly. The highlight though was an interaction I overheard, between two staff members, one of whom was the very friendly and efficient server behind the counter who was doing prep work for the bar, juicing limes? Any way he had thrown all the juice lime carcasses in the garbage when one of his co workers (maybe a manager?) came by and said:

"Don't forget we are composting!"

How fucking great is that? One of the things I most admire about David Cheng's empire is his dedication to things homemade, like pickles. I can't remember a time when I was ever served something at one of his restaurants that wasn't made in his restaurant. And now I find out he is composting! My hat goes off to him.

And speaking of condiments, I had a wonderful burger and deep fried corn on the cob with watermelon butter at Diner for lunch the other day. It was all perfect. The room is one of my favorites, the server was lovely, but why oh why do they have cod in their fish and chips? To get it before its extinct? Truly it is a very confusing situation as no one in the fishing industry wants it put on the endangered species list even though it has been off and on many for decades. Cod is seriously depleted and my two cents is that it shouldn't be on menus especially of very smart informed places like Diner. The thing that really miffed me was the double corn syrup GMO special Heinz Ketchup served in bottle on the table with the burger (tomatoes, distilled vinegar, high fructose corn syrup, corn syrup, salt, spice, onion powder, and natural flavors).

What? I get that the shape of the bottle of the historic nature of Heinz Ketchup is very cool and in keeping with the look and feel of the room, but come on guys make your own and put it in the same bottles and put a Diner label on it that has the same feel as the Heinz one only that is made with real ingredients. Or just buy bulk organic ketchup. It's very competitively priced at this point.

Which brings me to another wonderful meal we had next door at Diner's sister restaurant Marlow and Sons. I love this room and the food is also fresh and top notch. The only thing that I think is strange is how offended the waitress was when I asked her two questions that she answered all wrong, my first question was: Are you still using corn syrup in your chocolate caramel tart?

She got very flustered and kind of huffy like I'd asked her was the chicken actually a rat from the back alley or something. The reason I asked is because in the published recipe for that tart both confectioners sugar and corn syrup are called for, both containing GMO corn products unless you buy the organic version, but nowhere in the recipe was it mentioned that you should do this. Something I find remiss, but still I think it's a perfectly valid question just as was my second question which was: Do you make your fruit pies with beef suet. Again I asked because they have published a recipe for pie pastry using beef suet and I think for people who keep kosher or for vegetarians, if you are going to serve a dessert item with meat in it you should let people know, it's just an issue of disclosure plain and simple. So I felt my question was not out of line.

The waitress, again was like are you from outer space or what dude? And assured me that they only used butter.

I love these restaurants and don't mean to pick on them, I just want them to be consistent to their dedication to quality food and I find the corn syrup thing off base and kind of weird.

Lastly, Neil and I tried to eat at the new Motorino Pizza on 12th street last night. It's a bustling place, a new outpost of the popular Williamsburg pizzeria. When I first go there I was greeted by a nice guy who looked like he was kitchen staff. I told him I was waiting for my friend and he said that there was a fast turn over so seating would be no problem.

Then a few minutes later as I stood gazing at the menu a woman came up to me and asked if I
was looking for a seat. I told her I was waiting for a friend. I could see that there were two 2 tops open and figured there was no need to put my name on a list. It's a small place, maybe seats 30 tops so it's very tight. It struck me as odd why the previous twosome was seated on the outside table leaving the empty table for 2 on the hard to get to wall side, but this is New York and who knows, maybe they didn't want to sit next to the wall?

As I'm waiting on the street I see two guys go in and instead of being seated the woman takes their names and they come join me on the street. A minute later another couple, a man and a woman also enter and after a minute are relegated to the street with their names on the list.
I'm perplexed: why when you have 4 empty seast are you making people wait outside. I go in to investigate.

I asked the hostess why she is putting names on the list when there are 2 empty tables for 2?
She said that it would be a 15-20 minute wait and that the people sitting in the tables next to he empty seats had already been inconvenienced enough and would I want to put my name on the list?

I said to her: this is New York what is the problem with just asking them to move so people can sit next to them?

What I was thinking, having seen them being seated on the outside of the tables, was: why didn't you make them sit on the inside in the first place?

So I gave her my name and at that moment Neil showed up on his bike. We decided to eat at Cafe Orlin. I found the whole thing to be off putting and rather a strange way of doing business.

Hire a hostess who is incompetent and make customers wait for tables when there are empty ones waiting? Good luck with that.

In a city full of excellent pizza I don't see myself going back to Motorino any time soon.

The Last of San Francisco

In San Francisco it's seems impossible to turn a corner and not discover some intriguing place selling some sort of food, beverage or grocery item. It would be impossible to list them all, but I did want to try and name a few highlights that I found and wished I could have explored more.

In no particular order here are some of my own personal highlights:

City Beer a little place on Folsom that had a bustling crowd the night I went in with tastings going and a vast selection of beers from all over, but with a particular emphasis on local ones it was like walking into a party. The highlight for me was how reasonably priced so much of it was.

One night on my way to Fire Fly restaurant in the Noe Valley I walked by the very bright and bustling Lahore Karahi a Pakistan Indian restaurant on O'Ferrell street near my hotel, just blocks from Union Square. With an open kitchen and nothing that you would call decor, a TV showing old black and white Bollywood the place may very well have been in Lahore!

The walls were filled with rave reviews from every possible web site and publication and all the tables were pretty much packed.

It called me in with the wonderful scent of spices and the appeal of a damn fine and incredibly cheap meal. I had Lamb Vindaloo which was the best I have ever eaten, it actually had chopped fresh coriander in it and lots of seeds which when I ask was told they were from bell peppers (I would have thought hot peppers) so the base for the Vindaloo was in part stewed peppers with lots of crunchy coriander seeds. The Lamb was tender and the heat of the dish was just right. The waiter asked me if I wanted it medium or spicy, I said spicy, which it was yet it was still complex not just chili pepper hot which can happen with Vindaloo. Bread, rice, Pappadom (the coriander sauce on the table was nothing like it is here in NYC, creamy with an intense coriander flavor and a real kick of heat) a side of mango chutney tax and tip the meal cost $14.

One of the things about San Francisco and Berkeley is their assumed dedication to quality, local and organic ingredients, it seemed to me on almost every menu was a a note about where the ingredients came from. At the Ferry Building there is a burger joint called Taylors: Automatic Refresher, the first thing on their menu is the word BURGERS underneath which is this statement:

We use humanely raised Niman Ranch beef, all natural, vegetarian fed, no antibiotic or added growth hormones (cooked medium well; a little pink inside when served).

On the back of the menu in the far corner it says:

This menu is printed on recycled paper.
A Burger is $6.99, Fries $2.69 and you can get a bottle of Main Street Merlot for $15.

My kind of place.

Similarly Kurt and I went to the new California Academy of Science over lunch we were told by one of the counter people that all the restaurants in the building were certified organic. I had
Chicken Pho (pictured below) it was a little on the bland side, but they had Sirichi to add to help perk it up. Kurt had a Goulash which was not as cook to falling apart tenderness as it should have been. Still all things considered the food was of high quality, the selection vast and interesting and the dedication to quality local and organic ingredients again given ultimate priority.


The last place I want to mention is 2223 on Market Street in the Castro. Before I go on I have to say the website for this place is a mystery to me, it has annoying disco music, voice overs and images that do no justice to the space, which the night I went was quiet, warm and cosy.

Kurt and I went the first night I was in town, and I had a pizza that blew my mind, everything about it was perfect. Figs, Pancetta and Gorgonzola with a pile of arugula on top. The crust was chewy, traditional pizza crust with that wonderful, warm white bread taste, the cheese had only a slight hint of blue but was mostly just sharp and creamy, the highlight was the figs, soft and warm from the oven and bursting with sweet ambrosial fig flavor. It was so big and rich I took it home so for $14 it provided two meals.

Every time I go someplace that grows figs I realize how shitty they are here in New York, where to my taste buds they never really taste right, they are always a disappointment, yet when I go to Spain, Italy or California they are this brilliant revelation.

Again here is this nice local neighborhood restaurant with another statement on their menu about the local and organic nature of their ingredients.

San Francisco isn't as big as New York and they may not have the diversity we do, but for consistency and quality of food it is hard to beat. In New York it is easy to over pay for uninspired, boring, low quality food.

In order to find a place that prioritizes local and organic you have to look and then you have to play 20 questions with the waiters because some of our best places here still do things like make desserts with high fructose corn syrup or beef suet or worse lard.

But I digress, ultimately if you enjoy eating it is worth while to spend a week in this food mecca and eat till your heart's content and your wallet is empty.

Maybe the best pizza I have ever had!

555 Pound Boy's Mom Charged with Criminal Neglect - For Letting Him Over Eat?

This is just so crazy. The government of South Carolina has charged this boy's mom with a felony because he is so morbidly obese. Watch the interview with the lawyers - they say he spent his days at school eating at the school cafeteria, several lunches.

Why isn't the state suing the school for selling unhealthy junk food in their cafeteria? Why aren't the makers of trans-fat and high fructose corn syrup being sued for the way they market their disease causing non-foods to children? Seems to me there's a parallel with the cigarette industry here that needs to be explored in the legal realm...

The Market Hall on Bergmannstraße, Bio in Berlin and the Search for Molasses

My first 4 days in Berlin were spent going to grocery stores and markets to source the food that I we would need to buy for the BBQ/opening on Saturday night. One if my menu items was baked beans which required molasses, so my Holy Grail was to find, in Berlin, Molasses.

A general observation about food shopping in Berlin: organic food is a priority here.
There were two organic grocery stores near me in Kruezberg, one was LPG, a co-op type situation to which you need to pay 30 Euros a month to become a member, the benefit of membership being a deep discount on the regular price. The other was a grocery store chain called Bio Company (bio =organic) with an outlet directly across the street from the market hall on Bergmannstraße. This place is great. They have everything you need including wine (I love that in Europe you can get wine with your groceries) and I was particularly impressed with the vast selection of wines that were either organic or biodynamically grown and produced.

Indeed, "Bio" is everywhere in Berlin. Riding our bikes down the canal there was a truck that sets up every day that sold local produce. Even in the shopping malls (see video below) there are local bakeries, local vegetables, meats, preserves, fruit and pretty much anything else you can imagine (except molasses).

Molasses in Berlin is elusive, if it exists at all, in the blackstrap form I was looking for.

I figured a big store like KaDeWe would have it no problem and was very excited when I was told they had an American section and a Deli section that both carried "typically" American groceries. Apparently to most Germans that translates into junk food. The shelves were filled with Marshmallow Fluff, ketchup, Jack Daniels BBQ sauce, and so on, but no molasses.

The good new is that most junk food, stuff that would be riddled with high fructose corn syrup here, is actually made with sugar there. Some had fructose syrup in them, but I'm led to believe this isn't as nasty and, in general, is genetically modified.

I even had a Coke with my pesto pizza from Ron Telesky's Canadian Pizza company in Kreusberg after I read the label and discovered, to my joy, that it did not contain any corn products whatsoever, that it is indeed made with zucker. I just couldn't resist. Check out his site, by the way. The song is hysterical. I actually met co-owner Ole Schack. He has a canoe out front which I commented on, as I used to love to canoe as a teenager in Canada. Ole told me that his canoe was actually from the former East Germany. He also told me that he had been an exchange student in Peterborough, Ontario and had worked at the pizza place there which is where he got his inspiration. Too funny. My slice was delicious, the variety available was really good. Keith had a slice with sweet potatoes and rosemary.

However frustrating the hunt for molasses, after days of searching, I had gotten a great overview into the food culture of Berlin. What a great city for food shopping. It isn't as multi-cultural or diverse as NYC, but then very few cities are, and Berlin certainly can hold it's own. Walking through Charlottenberg, Keith and I came across a huge Thai grocery store that has a small food room tucked away where Thai moms were making the real deal for people to take away or eat in. Everything it would seem, but molasses.

In the mostly Turkish grocery store, across the street from the Turkish market, I finally found both grape and pomegranate molasses. I was tempted to try the grape, but in the end was afraid to experiment in a situation where I wanted to make a good impression. In the end I used maple syrup in my baked beans and they managed to all get eaten.

And if I may so say myself, they tasted damn good!

It was well worth the exploration, even if I did end up ultimately empty handed. It was great to be able to discover what turns out to be a very environmentally concerned city that is dedicated to organic food, not as something special and rare, but as daily staple. A place where local fruit, veggies and products are highlighted and prized.

Funny, you don't think of Berlin and decide: "Oh I want to do a market tour!" which is too bad because food culture in Berlin is every bit as interesting and extensive as it's art or club scenes.

Heritage Radio Network and thoughts on BBQ and What to Eat?

Sounds like some right wing Christian thinktank, but thankful it's a Bushwick based radio station that's all about food and food related topics.

Today while blogging and doing research I've been listening to Urban Foraging. These guys and gals are a hoot.

I couldn't get the entire episode to play, but the segments played fine. I just finished listening to Extracting Flavors from Ingredients a chat with Will Goldfarb (dessert chef and owner of Room 4 Dessert) hosted by Zakary Pelaccio, Jori Jayne Emde.

The highlight of the conversation for me was the discussion of smoke, liquid smoke and how grilling and barbecuing things are carcinogenic.

My potentially annoying side note to this is that after having survived July 4th BBQ's I realize that between smoking cigarettes, consuming factory farmed meat, drinking GM high fructose corn syrup with gay abandon that most people really are either blissfully unaware of the dangers lurking in our food and to a larger extent in our food system or, they know, but just don't care.

Which makes me wonder, why do I care? I wish I had an answer for that, I wish the whole thing was simpler, but alas it isn't.

My favorite comment about my food habits from this weekend was the delightful and very generous hostess of one BBQ I went to who, when offering me a platter of hamburgers (some with bright orange American "cheese") and hot dogs on white buns, said:

"Oh just have one! I know you're all bitchy about food, but..." then she re-thought the offer and moved on to more enthusiastic eaters.

This theme is appearing in my life: what can I eat? Or probably more honestly put, what will I eat now that I know what I know about our food and our food system. A few days after seeing Food, Inc. I was on the subway reading Pollan's Botany of Desire as a bookmark I was using a postcard for Food, Inc. when my stop came I got up to exit and dropped my book the postcard fell to the floor as I bent down to pick it up an young Indian woman sitting across from me saw it and said excitedly:

"Oh I saw that at the Film Forum yesterday! Did you see it? I loved it...it was great, but now, I don't know what to eat."

Jon Stewart in his interview with Robert Kenner the maker of Food, Inc. echos this comment with: "I saw your movie and now i don't know what to eat."

Neil has banished himself from the hospital where he works cafeteria and complains now all the time: " There is nothing to eat!"

Which has started a healthy trend; I know make sure Neil has a lunch to take to work with him. It's cheaper and he knows from whence his food came.

Not sure where this particular digression was meant to go, other than to say I wonder how this will all play out?

As someone who soaks himself in information about the dire state of our environment and the relationship big agriculture, chemical companies, government subsidies and our general food culture plays in creating it, you have to wonder how long can it last? How long can we go along buying the same old deadly foods before something happens?

Certainly big business will fight tooth and nail to maintain the status quo because it makes them powerful and rich. In a recent panel discussion Anthony Bourdain confronts Alice Waters and tells her that all that matters, basically, is that it's cheap and tastes good and everything else is irrelevant.

Obviously where I stand on this is clear. I find it hard to even listen to Bourdain speak as he just seems to horribly out of touch and willfully stupid. However, he represents a large portion of the population.

So what to do? For me all I feel I can do is to continue to read and understand as much as is possible what the moral, ethical and environmental impact is on the way we eat and the way food is made and from there, make decisions on how and what I will eat.

This weekend made it clear to me that even people who know better are in no hurry to change the way they eat. It's deeply personal, ingrained and very hard to change something you have been doing all your life.

Change comes very slowly. My hope is that urbanfoodguy and all the thoughts/ideas/information here in might, just might and help change hurry up a little bit!

Watch the video and see what we're up against:

In The News

There is not enough time in the day to read every news article, magazine and book I want to!

So here is a summary of things I have managed to read that I think you might find interesting.

Harper's June 2009 has a very upsetting article about world hunger written by Fredrick Kaufman called: Let Them Eat Cash

This article isn't on line, but I encourage you to spend the 17 bucks and become a subscriber to Harper's it is one of the most consistently smart magazines out there, they can use your support.

The article discusses a new model for solving world hunger which has to do with cash not shipping food, it's all very corporate.

The most interesting thing to me about the article is how the chemical companies are so insidious that even in discussions of world hunger/food aid the article mentions pesticides several times as part of the big picture. As something necessary and an intrinsic part of what is needed to solve world hunger.

When will we wake up to the fact that monocultures and pesticides are part of the problem not the solution? How about teaching poor rural farmers in Uganda how to diversify their crops and grow organically, increasing nutrition and yield in addition to improving soil that may not have been very good to start with? Alas, none of the big wigs in the world food aid business are interested in this real solution cuz there's no money in it.

The New York Times had an interesting, if frustrating article today about Urban Homesteading in Oakland, CA. Can I just say all these people who live in places where they can have a house and live in a temperate climate (foraged grapefruit jam my ass) really makes me jealous! Oh darling I'm going to go forage some grapefruit from those trees in the alley.

The only thing you could forage in an alley in New York are empty zip lock bags that used to be filled with crack.

Grist ,as usual, has tons of depressing stuff to report. First, and closest to my heart, Canada is sucking at maintaining it's green image, my homeland came in last of all the G8 nations when it comes to making substantive legislation/regulation to tackle climate change. I blame it on the conservative pro business government, but that's hardly surprising.

Lastly and also from Grist comes this article on how Americans just seem to be getting fatter. Author Tom Laskawy makes the trenchant point without food system reform health care reform is going to be a challenge. Something to think about when you gorge yourself on high fructose genetically modified corn syrup thickened ketchup this July 4th.

Look above for some home made ketchup alternatives.

News Flash: Grey Poupon Mustard made by Kraft Foods

When I was a little boy my favorite food experience was to go to the counter at Kresges with my grandmother and order french fries, gravy and a coke. When the waitress would place my order in front of me the first thing I would do is cover my gravy sodden fries in ketchup. I loved the sweet, savory interplay on the hot, greasy, fried potatoes. It seemed important to start this post about condiments out with a whiff of condiment nostalgia.



You probably already have heard that the pundits on the far right, or the lunatic right, a more apt description of Faux News et. al. have taken President Obama to task for ordering Dijon mustard on his burger. Sean Hannity snidely remarks "Ketchup isn't good enough for the president". Of course I thought that's because Obama knows that Ketchup is made with two kind of GMO corn syrup (regular as a thickener and high fructose as a sweetener) and is trying to keep his figure. Or maybe he just likes spicy mustard? As a land of immigrants spicy mustard is not a new item here. Spicy is something a lot of Americans seem to enjoy, so much so that Kraft Foods who makes Grey Poupon, one of the more high profile Dijon mustards in the world thought it would be a good brand for their portfolio. What is more all American than Kraft? Really? Don't they make Velveeta?

For goodness sakes, Dijon is so all American at this point the ne plus ultra of American bourbons, Jack Daniels, makes their own uniquely zesty version of it, which they sell in 6 packs!

Obviously, this is all silly distraction from anything more substantial or significant. Just another way for the wingnuts to try and find some criticism, anything really, to say that might tarnish the presidents image. Just imagine how the news would have played if the president had asked:

"Is that burger made with local grass fed humanely treated beef or is it factory farmed?"

Fuck the Dijon let's get to the heart of the matter. What does it matter what condiment you use when the burger itself is tortured, antibiotic ridden, poison? Sorry, I don't mean to sound like a PETA activist. The good news is that I am not part of a fringe minority any more, look at the people of California who passed, this last election, proposition 2 a law requiring more humane treatment of factory farm animals .

The real issue here as I see it is choice. If you're at a restaurant and you want the chicken quesadilla, but there is only one kind of chicken and it wasn't raised on the farm, it was processed in a factory, what are you going to do? Most people are going to order it. We should all have the ability to choose between mustard or ketchup, farmed or factory. Making those decisions based on whatever sets of personal criteria we have decided are important to us. Hopefully irrational xenophobia won't be one of the criteria (did anyone else have a freedom fries flashback with this mustard nonsense?)

The problem of course is that we've reached a place where we know better, but it's all kind of overwhelming. Why can't I just go into a greasy spoon and order a burger and ketchup and not have to have anxiety over the quality, safety and ethical concerns of the food that will be presented to me? Why have we, the consumers been so undermined by agribusiness and our government in the form of the inept, corrupt and criminal FDA?

My fantasy is that we will one day live in a world where president Obama, instead of asking about the mustard, asks about the meat.

It's Saturday morning, the birds are amazingly loud given I'm no the 14th floor of a high rise on the project strewn lower east side. I'm about to make my way to the market (I finally did get that rhubarb, pickles, crumble and chutney are on the to do list today) and it isn't raining out!

If it had just been called American Spicy mustard none of this would have happened.

Can I have some bourbon with that?

High-Fructose Corn Syrup Spoof

Drags Queens you got to love them. Jackie Beat does this over the top spoof of those insipid corn syrup commercials. I think she makes her point. Not for the sensitive!

How Industry Replaced Artisty and How We Can Get Back to the Garden

Let us begin on a journey backwards, to a time when people were happy to be food artists, to a time when artistry won out over industry, when we realized and appreciated the value of the planet we lived on and lived off.

What exactly is the hurry every fast food TV commercial talks about? Ready in 3 minutes? Just pop it in the microwave - ready in seconds!

Since when is one of the most primal, important and pleasurable activities of human existence - eating - something to be not thought about and enjoyed leisurely? Why is it now we have created a culture where it's an inconvenience to feed yourself? How has eating and cooking become some hasty, nasty necessity, something that has to be gotten over as quickly as possible instead of enjoyed?

Would we ever think about sex in this way? Of course not, or at least I hope not. So why do we think about food this way? Who brainwashed us into believing we should not spend time with our family over a meal, that we should not prize quality healthy ingredients over cheap manufactured ones? Who made it so that the choice between cheap and expensive was so great and that a grocery store like Whole Foods, which actually tries to educate its consumers about the food they are buying by listing the place of origin and farming practices used is systematically smeared by campaigns calling them "Whole Paycheck?" This smear is a falsehood: sure they have high end products as part of a vast selection, but that selection also includes store brand organics that are cheaper then the closest equivalent at Fine Fare. This is something I've pointed out here repeatedly. Take olive oil. It's way cheaper by many dollars at Whole Foods then at Fine Fare (a popular grocery store in poor neighborhoods).

Also studies have shown that it is harder to find healthy food at stores in poor neighborhoods. Healthy and organic foods are also way more expensive, if you can find them, in a poor neighborhood grocery store. Why even buy vegetables when you can get cheap fast food? The price of two hamburgers at a fast food chain are cheaper then a pound of green beans, so why buy green beans which aren't going to give you that full feeling? Once again we show our cultural disdain for the poor by not only giving them the least healthy foods in their neighborhoods, but also encouraging them to eat badly by filling their neighborhoods with cheap fast food outlets. Corporate America at it's worst.

It reminds me of how we dealt with DDT, after it was vilified and banned here in the States, corporate America just changed its marketing strategy and started selling it to developing nations. Mexican Mango, anyone?

What is the solution to all this madness? It's not easy and it doesn't seem to me that there is anything near to a quick fix at hand. What I do see is a new generation of young people who are ready, willing and able to give up on the existing food structure and go backwards. People here in New York, like the Mast Brothers, Anne and Benoit at Saxelby Cheese, Vere Chocolates, Rick’s Pickles, all the folks at the New Amsterdam Market, Brown Cafe, Broadway East, Marlow and Sons and Daughters and Diner and Bonito and so many more; people who have chosen to make nurturing themselves and their communities a top priority. They do this by eschewing the big bucks, choosing quality over quantity, and rejecting the mass produced commercial to embrace the authentic.

In this time of great economic despair and increasing unemployment we have to ponder how it is we live and what it is we do with our time. The last ten months of unemployment have given me the opportunity to wonder what do you do with your time when you have so much of it and so little money? What is my time worth? Does being home make me the de facto house slave? If I was one of those people who was preparing and eating my meals in minutes this gives me all the more time to ponder: now what? After a great deal of struggle I've discovered a night of making bread can be fun and very cheap, given a loaf of artisanal bread can easily cost 6 bucks it’s a thrill to discover I can make that same loaf (or similar) at home for a fraction of that price. You see, I'd rather take to the kitchen given these circumstances then take to my bed and watch Oprah. It's a choice.

It's also intensely gratifying to give to my friends as a present a loaf of bread or a pint of homemade ice cream or a container of wonderful stew or some chewy sweet home made caramel that you know now tastes so delicious made the old fashioned way, with brown sugar, butter and cream, and no GMO high fructose corn syrup required. You see immediately from the reaction on your friends' faces that they love this kind of gift way more then some plastic wrapped rose, from some chemically fogged, slave labor dependent, green house in South America.

There are so many ways to change how we do things. Prioritizing food, family and artistry in our life is, to my mind, an easy choice. I'd much rather spend time with friends leisurely over a meal then watch TV with a microwave dinner. I'd rather spend what little income I have on seeds to grow food at my community garden or buy groceries then on a grossly sized flat screen TV that's going to cost a fortune and raise my electricity bill (so much so they are banned in Europe).

Call me madcap, but I love being in the city sitting around the dinner table with friends in a room lit by candles sharing stories of our lives, being passionate about politics or whatever else our hearts and minds want to express. We don't need to escape to an idyllic country setting to accomplish this, we don't need to have a car and drive for hours to get there, we don't even need to have a fancy cut of meat to feed our friends, In our home some cheesy, homemade lasagna goes faster then almost anything else, add a salad and a sweet and you have an entire evening of fun. I don't see this as cutting back, it's more consolidating. It's the art of living. It's not complicated or expensive, it's actually really simple and straightforward.

Lastly, it's important for all of us to embrace diversity. It's hard to be home and unemployed as a man because you are brought up with the expectation that you need to be the breadwinner. Increasingly, in these times, if you are lucky enough to be sharing your life with someone you love what does it matter the gender of the person who stays home? And although it will cause anxiety and readjustment we need to really enjoy and appreciate (note to self: quit being so damn critical!) the fact that two people have come together to help each other out. Maybe if you get really lucky, when your loved one comes home from work you can say:

"Hey honey I made dinner. It's simple, but I made it myself, from real ingredients and love, for us to share." Hokey? Maybe, but true none the less.

This is how we start to create the change we need, to replace industry with artistry, at home in your kitchen, with some simple ingredients and a friend.

Know Your Scum Bags

As a gay man who came of age during the AIDS crisis when a week didn't go by that someone I knew didn't die a horrible death I understand what urgency feels like. It was with this urgency to save the lives of our loved ones during this dire time that Larry Kramer started ACT UP (AIDS coalition to unleash power). A grass roots community organization to bring awareness to the plight of PWA (people with AIDS) and to focus on government inaction and pharmaceutical companies maleficence. A group called Gran Fury was at the time making posters and doing gorilla postings of them all over the city. These guys were really smart, talented artists who understood the power of a good graphic. They're the ones who created the Silence=Death logo. They did a lot of great work, but one of my favorites was a split screen image with one side being the Pope at the time and the other side being a used, filled condom. The whole poster was done in this shocking yellow, with the head line: Know Your ScumBags. After much searching on line I was unable to find it, but I did find the silence = death poster and thought it was also appropriate for this posting. If there is a talented artist out there I'd love to come up with a version for AG Sec Tom Vilsack although to be honest I am at a loss for what would replace the condom. A jar of Karo High Fructose GM modified Corn Syrup maybe?

Monsanto toady and Secretary of Agriculture Scumbad Tom Vilsack

In an article over at Grist.org journalist Tom Philpott discusses Mr. Vilsack's showing at the recent G8 meeting, it wasn't good, unless of course your an executive for an agribusiness.

Vilsack said the U.S. experience with such schemes had shown it was better to focus on technical advances in irrigation, seed varieties, machinery and farming methods.

The article in Grist ends with:

Is that really the lesson we want our ag secretary to be drawing from the last 50 years of U.S. food history?

Grist and I agree, bio tech is not the solution for the future, bio tech is a way to make sure there isn't a future. Some real solutions as I see it are to re-introducing traditional farming methods, get rid of commodity based mono-cultures, eat less meat and get rid of corn subsidies, as a start. Oh and I would add for the record that I think GMO products are dangerous and the making of them should be stopped immediately for at least another 20 years until we see what effects they have in the long term. I would also over turn the law that allows companies to patent nature. You can patent a discovery but you can't have the right to own nature. Only bad things will come from a furthering of the GMO agenda, the proof is everywhere that this technology doesn't work, look at the article quote and the subsequent article it quotes in Reuters or google GM foods and ignore all the sites run my the companies who make them. It is very scary and I don't think this is something we can shrug, feel dis empowered by and go out an by a diet Coke to mull it over. At the beginning of this posting I evoked ACT-UP, probably the most successful grass roots movement in the last 50 years. Why? Because you had a group of people who were dying and had nothing to lose taking to the streets and getting their message out there. I believe it's the only way to change the entrenched, super wealthy, corporate structure that is killing our planet and making a future for your children look less and less likely. As long as you read these words and think I'm crazy the clock will only tick closer to what I see as an inevitable reality. We can no long be silent about this, because our silence will indeed result in our illness and our death at the hands of the bio tech chemical boys who really only care about their bottom line. If this isn't something to be really upset about then what is?

Do as I say not as I do

Please excuse my grumpiness.

I just saw a headline that said Al Gore ignores earth hour. Hold on to your chairs the world is about to end! Al Gore is my hero, and this post has nothing to do with him except it is in the spirit of setting an example that has put me in this state this morning.

last week I wrote about how Mark Bittman had a video/article on ramen made with ketchup. Predictably I wrote about how if you want to use ketchup you should point out the genetically modified nature of high fructose corn syrup. I wrote a comment on his blog and when I checked last night I see that only positive comments are posted on his blog and there is an editors note say that the "Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive." Apparently being annoyed is abusive over at the Times, you can only mention any criticism couched in a lovely pillow of Bittman adoration, so the only one comment that mentioned high fructose corn syrup was this one posted by Marya:

But this, this I wouldn’t eat with his mouth. Why in heaven’s name would I want to eat ketchup? Yuk, yuk, yuk. How about reconfiguring the recipe to include a quarter cup of Miso instead? What do you mean you don’t have miso? I’m supposed to have ketchup and you don’t have miso? Get some, it’s tasty good for you and you can use it 25 different ways.

Who was then gently scolded a few posts down by Susanne:

Now, now - no ketchup snobbery please! Miso is great, but it’s an entirely different beastie. Didn’t Reagan make ketchup an official vegetable? Hilarious. Mark did say you could use tomato paste and sugar if you wanted. I have a nice bottle of Muir Glen ketchup (I’m a total no-corn-syrup-please snob) I made this broth the other day and added the step of sauteing a bit of garlic and ginger at the beginning. I also threw in some bean sprouts at the end. Delish!

Maybe I'm just a crotchety, unemployed, middle aged man, maybe I shouldn't even bother with this, but if you are going to write a book telling us what to eat like Mr. Bittman has in his:
Food Matters: A guide to conscious eating then don't turn around and write a recipe extolling the virtues of ketchup and not mention that in Heinz ketchup, the brand leader, when you look at the ingredients it contains not only high fructose corn syrup, but also regular old corn syrup. That's not conscious eating that's eating with your head stuck so far up your ass it's too dark to read the ingredients label eating.

And while I'm on the topic, the New York Times has just had to lease out most of their building
and have laid off hundreds of employees, people are talking about the death of the newspaper, maybe if they encouraged actual debate and freedom of speech in their comments section more people would be inclined to go there and engage them, instead of stifling the first amendment rights of it's readers by preventing comments it doesn't like from being published. It's not like I insulted anyone I just simply asked why he would not make a point of being conscious about what choices you make when buying certain products? Is that unreasonable? Is that abusive? Apparently at the Times it is.