Fringe Foods

I honestly have no interest whatsoever in eating a hamburger in which the bun has been replaced by a donut. That's just wrong. That's disgusting.

Look, I'll go on record to say I actually am interested in trying dog meat and horse meat, just so long as it is legal, the meat was legitimately produced, and the dish was prepared decently. I understand I'd have to go overseas to get such dishes.

I'm even interested in some day trying the raw chicken meat dishes that some progressive restaurants are starting to offer.

I would be just fine if I didn't have another bowl of shark fin's soup for the rest of my life. I find the dish bland and the concept of irresponsibly treated sharks as unpalatable. I think I read that there is a proposal in San Francisco to ban shark fin's soup, for environmental / wildlife protection reasons. I think I'm OK with that, my Chinese heritage be damned.

Generally speaking, I don't think it's right for one group of people to tell another group of people to not eat something.  See my previous blog post on foie gras.  But I think shark fin soup is very different than foie gras. I believe the sharks are a threatened species, if not endangered, whereas the ducks for foie gras are domestically raised and in no short supply.  Further, the ducks are definitely get all their parts used for food, whereas the sharks in question may be irresponsibly caught and butchered for just their fins and then tossed back into the sea to drown.

I've tried fried pickles - they are just salt and vinegar bombs. No need to eat them again.

Filipino balut - the bird eggs with developed embryos inside, no thanks. Even Bourdain shuddered from his experience eating it.

Deep fried butter - I don't think so.

Product Review: CrispRoot Original

On a lark, my wife and I picked up a bag of CrispRoot brand cassava chips to try as a slightly healthier alternative to potato chips. They're excellent. We think they're noticeably better than most potato chips. They have a deeply satisfying crunch and a distinct potato-like flavor. The seasonings of salt and garlic powder are just right.

Cassava root are also known as yuca, a root vegetable that is used by many cultures, especially in South America. I first learned about yuca while watching Anthony Bourdain visit Peru. He visited some very poor farmers in the mountains. One thing they served him was a beverage comprised of yuca root that had been partly chewed and spit out by the village women, a process which uses the natural enzymes in saliva to break down the yuca. Not exactly a pleasing idea and pretty much has nothing to do with CrispRoot chips.

The manufacturer's website indicates a commitment to simple and healthy ingredients, as well as some grassroots origins of the brand. I do wonder if the company is truly independent and family oriented as they portray themselves, or whether there is a major global food conglomerate behind the scenes of this well crafted niche brand.

Either way, the chips are good. Thumbs up.

Haven't Watched TV For Months

It's a bit weird for me to admit that I haven't watched TV for months. As a kid, I watched tons of TV. As an adult, I curbed my watching to just some favorite shows. But lately, I've been going cold turkey without the boob tube.

Between work and parenting, these days I don't have much personal time available. Guess it's part of finally being a responsible adult. I try to catch up on sleep sometimes.

No TV has meant not seeing what many other people do see. Lately, that's meant not seeing any World Cup soccer games, not that I ever was interested in soccer. I totally missed the Lebron James announcement special, although I was plenty aware of it before and after from radio news while driving and news on the web.

Pasta with a Fresh Tomato Sauce From Scratch

Tonight, I cooked up angel hair pasta with a fresh tomato sauce made from scratch, inspired by the Chef Scott Conant segment of last week's Anthony Bourdain No Reservations "Techniques" special episode. For my first time ever, I blanched fresh tomatoes, removed their peels, removed the seeds and watery sections. I did Conant's high heat, hot olive oil, generous salt, potato masher technique with the tomato segments. Also, I did the extra virgin olive oil infusion with garlic, fresh basil, and red pepper flakes. I then cooked the pasta and finished it in the sauce, with parmessan cheese, the infused and strained oil, fresh basil bits, and butter. I mistakenly overcooked the pasta, in part because I seldom cook with fresh pasta, but the overall flavors worked out well. But I gotta say, it was a lot of work for only a small improvement in flavor from my usual quick and dirty spaghetti sauce. Perhaps I shouldn't have used ordinary supermarket tomatoes, since a couple were kinda mealy to start with, but my hope was the techniques would bring the best out of ordinary ingredients. 



Wishing for Extended Episodes of Anthony Bourdain

The online marketing arm of the production team for the Travel Channel television show, Anthony Bourdain No Reservations, has been actively reaching out to fans for feedback and questions. On August 27, I responded on Twitter:

@NoReservations How about selling longer, 2+ hr versions of previous destinations, on DVD, pay per view, or iTunes, for hardcore food fans?

The Foie Gras Wars: Taking A Stand

To all vegan extremists: leave us meat eaters alone!

A delectable, delicious dish of seared foie gras in reality has none of the cruelty of shark fin soup, pinikpikan, or even, perhaps, a bucket of KFC. The mythology of pervasive mishandling of ducks and geese, when combined with the political strategy of attacking foie gras as a mere beach head landing in the war on meat consumption, seems to fuel vegan extremists to tactics of annoyance, interruption, and, occasionally, reprehensible vandalism and criminal threats.

25 Random Thoughts

Originally posted on my Facebook profile around the time many others were posting lists of personal desires, childhood injuries, personality quirks, and the like. After initially resisting to participate, I decided my list would be somewhat different, reflecting more thoughts than milestones.

Rules:

Once you've been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. At the end, choose 25 people to be tagged. You have to tag the person who tagged you. If I tagged you, it's because I want to know more about you.

1. I believe it's totally OK to say you don't know, but usually not OK to sound like you don't know.

2. My favorite beers mostly come from Oregon.