Around The Web
Melissa and I were away for the long weekend, and we find ourselves catching up with a few interesting pieces.
Dan Barber wrote an in-depth op-ed piece for the New York Times that articulates many of the problems with our current agricultural system. Unfortunately, he uses taste as the lead-in to his many useful points. A cry for flavor smacks of food snobbery to many, even if he's right that small farms and local distribution networks make for better-tasting ingredients. Most people in the country don't know or don't remember that non-industrial food tastes better. When factories have placed uninteresting eggs into every store in the country, who knows about small-farm eggs? Food snobs and those lucky enough to live in an area where they can buy that level of food.
Food and Wine magazine offers advice on cooking locally, if you live in California or Vermont. I don't envy a national magazine that has to cover local eating, since by definition readers' options will be different in different parts of the country. Still, it's always nice to see the topic brought to national attention, and the article does offer some insights for the locavore in winter.
Chow provides a primer on the cutting-edge science used in famous kitchens. The writer even knows to warn you away from the term "molecular gastronomy."
- Vinegar Is Coming For Your Children!
An article in the San Francisco Chronicle says, "Eating just one tablespoon a day of some vinegars can raise a young child's lead level by more than 30 percent, modeling requested by the news service shows." Which "some vinegars"? According to the...
- The Atlas Of American Cheese
Melissa and I followed a simple syllabus for our cheese education six or seven years ago. Each week, we would mark a few cheeses in Steven Jenkins' The Cheese Primer, buy them, and eat them that night. One of us would read aloud from the Book of Jenkins...
- A New Use For Factory Farms
Food & Water Watch has found a good use for factory farms: Warning other countries about the consequences of industrial farming. The organization will lead European farmers on a tour of our industrial facilities, taking advantage of their anticipated...
- Lodi - Insert Ccr Reference Here
It's been a year since I wrote a feature for The Wine News, though some of you may have noticed that they've assigned me smaller news pieces here and there. But I've had some other features in the wings as well, and the first of those is...
- Art Of Eating 67
However long I write about food and wine, my happiest memories will always include the day in June of 2003 when Ed Behr bought a story idea from me. It was the first food/wine story I sold (though not the first to press), and I, along with lots of serious...