ludja

Fried olives and a glass of simple, crisp white wine...

or tamarind?

Not sure which places are in terminal one--but some liquid refreshments to possible check out are Peet's Coffee (can buy some beans to take home as well) and either Gordon Biersch (garlic fries are tasty) or Anchor Steam Brewery. Other resaurants that have local equivalents are Boudin Bakery (probably pretty good), Ebisu (sushi), Perry's (original "fern bar" with burgers, etc) and Il Fornaio (northern Italian). I have *no* idea how their airport versions of the restaurants are though... Not food for lunch, but you may enjoy stopping in at See's Candy. It's an old fashioned chocolate shop which started in LA but which has been in the Bay area for decades as well. Let us know what you try out and how it is! I fly out of SFO less frequently but appreciate having some tips from people that have tried some places. Happy flying.

I've been curious about what the substitutes will be for tranfats assuming that most users and certainly Crisco will not be reverting to butter, lard or liquid vegetable oils. Another likely requirement for a new substitute would be that it can be sold at a price similar to that of trans fat Crisco.. The article also mentions that the FDA allows listing of zero grams trans fat if the the amount is less than 0.5 grams per serving. The Crisco rep said that their new formula is well below the guidelines. (Interestingly though, I'm not sure how one would define a "serving" of Crisco. It's not something I would eat by the spoonful! The article gives some information related on how the product will be changed. click (Bolding added by me.) Can anyone comment on differences besides cost, if any, between sunflower, cottonseed and soybean oils?

Another option for Albuquerque residents (as opposed ot visitors!) are the three CSA's I've read about in the Albuquerque area: Here's some info linked from Duke City Fix: click (I believe misstenacity is contributor to this nice site...) Los Poblanos Organics website: http://www.lospoblanosorganics.com/ Farm location: North valley Cost: $26/week; $30.95/week with home delivery Sweat equity?: Yes -- up to 50% by special arrangement Drop-off and home delivery: Drop-off locations all over the Q (see their web site); home delivery for an extra fee Four Seasons Harvest Gardens website: http://www.freewebs.com/4season/index.htm Farm location: Placitas Cost: $300 for a summer half share; $500 for a summer full share (both are for 20 weeks) Sweat equity?: No, but there are two different student internships available Drop-off and home delivery: Drop-off at the Placitas Mini-Mart; home delivery is free with a full summer share Erda Gardens and Learning Center website: http://www.erdagardens.org/ Farm location: North Valley Cost: Full share $550 plus four hours of work per month, $650 for a non-working share; half share $275 plus four hours of work per month, $375 for a non-working half share (all for about 26 weeks) Sweat Equity: Absolutely! Drop-off and home delivery: Pick up at the Gardener’s Guild on Central at Wellesley (next to Kelly’s) or by special arrangement at the farm. No home delivery

Thank you both very much for the suggestions! I was not aware of The Sunflower Market, Fresh Herbs or Wagners. I look forward to checking them out the next time I'm in town and will pass on the info to my friend as well. I stopped in once briefly to the Talin Market and that is a good suggestion as well especially for Asian produce. Oh, and I think the natural foods coop I mentioned in the first post is La Montanita Coop. Apparently they also have some other locations in Abq and Santa Fe. My impression was only formed from one short visit to the Nob Hill location.click Thanks again!

I'm having trouble finding a good older thread on eGullet that discusses making this cake. As I recall it was a warm molten-center version. Here is room temperature version of his dessert adapted for Food and Wine: click ← The link to the thread had been broken, but it is now fixed. Here is an older discussion of Yosses' warm molten vanilla cake with a recipe and tips: click (This has been on my list to try for awhile) After he is "settled in" it would be wonderful to have Bill Yosses here for an eGullet Q&A. That would be extremely interesting although it may be difficult for him to answer some questions due to security or privacy issues, etc. He has participated on eGullet a bit in the past.

I found other recipes on that same site Michelle linked to, that seem to be the recipes Abra made from Georgian feast (down to the "apricot leather" in the cilantro sauce), might be useful or those of us who don't have the book. ← Thank you very much for pointing this out, Chufi and Swisskaese and thanks, Abra, for sharing how you assembled that mahvelous-looking potato salad. I just may buy The Georgian Feast to add it to Wolfert's and the Flatbread book but it's great to have some of the recipes right now.

Thank you for sharing this with us. How wonderful to have those two nicely paned windows on the one wall. No cabinets there, but I think I would trade to have so much sunlight in the kitchen. Good luck deciding on the older tile!

If and how to adjust one's diet with respect to health is a bit trickier than whether or not to smoke, but even with smoking there is no guarantee that you will get lung cancer or emphysema. Likewise it is possible for non-smokers to get lung cancer. This argument, that one can not absolutely "pin" lung cancer on smoking was the main justification (in his own mind) for an older relative to not quit smoking. Some people also downplay the potential bad effects of smoking (diet, also?) because then it means that they don't have to 'admit' that they have made bad choices in the past. I say, admit or not, but just get on with the better choices! I don't think one should feel "guilty" if one gets an illness that may or may not have a dietary component mixed in with a genetic one, but on the other hand, if there are reasonable steps one can take with one's diet, why not try to do it? And yes, thankfully, if one can afford it, there are medicines available to help mitigate some diseases and conditions without too many side effects. Despite what it may seem like from several of my posts, I am not fixated on diet and health! As lperry mentioned several pages back, one of the reasons I became more consciously interested in "whole" and 'real' foods was just that it corresponded more closely to the way I grew up AND to many foodstuffs that I valued. If anything, I had a tinge of suspicion or dislike of that type of "whole food" designation or claim. But finally, I realized that whole food was pretty similar to the types of food that I grew up with and now cook. I wasn't purchasing flax seed and whole grains from health food stores, I eat chips and drink diet soda; but I was actually cooking mostly "food" and using less "food products" per Pollan's definition. My antennae were raised when it seemed that certain foods I valued were becoming no longer available and that it seemed like they were being displaced by cheap and artificial substitutes. It is one thing to just ignore some of the food products that I don't enjoy but it is another thing when you can't even get the original food anymore! That hits the bottom line even if one is not thinking beyond oneself. Then, looking around a bit, one's eyes are opened to not just the presence of some processed or convenience foods, but to their creeping dominance in terms of choices available! That or your only choice is to pay three times the price at Whole Foods if they even a carry the ingredient or foodstuff you are interested in. (Try asking for lard, or pork belly or liverwurst or real rye bread or almond paste without corn syrup at a Whole Foods.) So, while all is not doomsday by any stretch of the means, this initial sensitisation has opened my eyes to other issues as well.

Sounds wonderful. Is this in her "World of Vegetarian Cooking" book? ← Is it this soup, on the Field to Feast blog? The writer says it's "adapted from" World Vegetarian. ← Thanks for digging that up, Rehovat. I had some problems accessing the blogs, but I think I was able to access the post through a "cache". It looks like a nice spiced tomato soup and it is from "World Vegetarian" but I see no beets in it. Maybe TarteTatin's version is an adaptation? If you see our posts, I'd appreciate any details you could share with us, TarteTatin (cookbook reference or some details on the recipe). I can't find anything on the net and it sounds like such a tasty, simple and original soup especially for those of us who like beets!

This is for an Austrian magazine. It deals with the food industry but not recipes. The French magazine is published bi-monthly if I am not mistaken. ← Ooh..thanks for pointing this out. The US Amazon listing does not give much info, but they do list the publisher to be: "Regal Verlags Gmbh" which appears to be Austrian as you mention. I also found a webpage for the Austrian Regal magazine as well. To find out who the publisher is for the French Regal magazine I looked on French Amazon. I did not find it listed there though.

^Sorry for my perhaps overzealous reply. Upon re-reading the post, I can see that you were specifically addressing the issue that two generations or so ago, people were not "dying" from a diet linked to processed food perhaps but they were dying, on average, earlier due to other reasons. Thus, how can one compare baby boomers to the generation before in that sense? I guess that is why, earlier, I mentioned that it might be interesting to observe the health trajectory of people born roughly in the mid-70's. This group will have had roughly the same health and other benefits compared to the baby boom generation, but they likely have a significantly different diet than some of the baby boomers--i.e. significantly more processed food and larger portions.

I'm a little confused by who the "we" is that you're referring to. The generation that's currently living longer then previous generations is not the babyboomer generation or any generation younger then the boomers, it's the generation that went through the Great Depression. Or the generation that, if Pollan's research is correct, grew up when food was still relatively expensive (the article refers to 1947 as a year when food was expensive and since then food prices have decreased), and they might've also had less to eat during the Depression and the rationing during WWII. That generation or general age category would've been likely to have eaten primarily what Pollan calls, "real food", at least into adulthood. We don't know yet if the babyboom generation (or the whichever generation is considered to be the first generation to have opportunity to eat lots of processed foods) will experience a similarly long life span, since, as far as I know, the oldest boomers are just starting to reach retirement age. - good content snipped by me to decrease quote length - I think no one knows for sure yet just what the impact of a diet rich in processed foods will be, at least not on longevity. I don't know about general health--I seem to see alot of articles talking about increasing rates of diabetes, obesity and obesity related health problems (for instance, joint problems). But I don' t know if there's a clear connection with those problems and processed foods--for instance there's a study that indicated that veterans exposed to Agent Orange developed diabetes at a higher rate then average. Agent Orange, a herbicide, was used quite in bit in the US before it was pulled off the market. The healthiness and longevity of babyboom generation and those following in the US may be the test, although it may be difficult to separate out what's caused by processed foods and what's caused by, for instance, degree of exposure to a variety of pollutants through other means then food. ← Take a walk around an old cemetary or research some death certificates. The small plots are the most heart breaking. A significant portion of that generation didn't even make it to adulthood in order to eat "processed" foods. Check the dates. It is even sadder when you see a family plot in which little stair steps have been laid to rest, alongside a mother, from the days before RH factors were routinely tested for and gestational diabetes was not understood, much less the factor of the poor mother going through pregnancy after pregnancy - because of lack of birth control - and the wear and tear that put on her body. Before school lunches, before WIC, before food stamps. I know a very dear lady who survived cancer only to die within six months from a heart attack. But the point is, she survived breast cancer which would have certainly gone undiagnosed a few decades earlier, because mammograms were not routine and even if they did find it, they didn't have a clue how to deal with it. Ironically, there was some speculation that the target area for her radiation weakened an artery. My mother was widowed at 32 when her husband died of lung cancer at 35 in the early 1960s. She had 5 children. I guess I am cautious when I feel like the Depression Era is being aggrandized. It was an awful, awful period in our history, and for humanity in general. I think it is pretty easy to say that things have improved since. However, the human animal does not settle into complacency. ← I find it hard to believe that one could honestly think Pollan's article was aggrandizing or romanticizing "life in the Depression Era". However, this very counterpoint has been made several times already so I guess that it is not a willful misinterpretation! I don't want to misinterpret your post, but this is what it seems to be saying: 1. My grandparents and other relatives during the Depression and other times died relatively early in life and they ate predominately whole foods. (Therefore, there is no (or little) benefit to eating whole foods and more fruits, and vegs, etc.) 2. If one decides that one wants to limit ones intake of processed food, Pollan suggests one of several strategies for doing so as you make buying decisions at the market. One can ask oneself, “Would my great grandparent recognize this as a foodstuff?” (Therefore, Pollan is suggesting that there have been no improvements in health or nutrition, or even other arenas in life since the Depression Era. In addition, we should eat the same diet as people did duirng the Depression.) edited to add: It is amazing to realize how much more difficult things were not too long ago with respect to what we now take granted regarding healthcare. I'm sorry for the heavy losses in your family. My sister just had her first baby. Everything went well but there were a few "small" things that would have been life threatening only two generations ago. It is something to be thankful for that we have so many advantages w.r.t. healthcare and other issues. Maybe your larger point is that we have so much to be thankful for we shouldn't carp on things that are so much less difficult, in a way. These veers the discussion into so many personal areas regarding "quality of life", etc I guess one of the reasons we are discussing this article is whether one thinks the suggestions are good ones to increase one's day-to-day sense of well-being, ones own health and the health of one's children, the health of farmers and other food producers and of the environment, etc.

Obviously I don't have a Western stick of butter here as I type, but I have to say that Wikipedia is wrong on the dimensions. No way is it only 3.125" long (the math doesn't even come out right). And Eastern butter is not packed side-by-side; it's also packed two-by-two. And maybe the difference is not so great that butter dishes can't handle both, but I know that butter dishes in the West fit the Western sticks. ← It's true, the total volume is not matching up between the western and eastern dimensions given in the article. (Since they only give one short dimenision, I both short sides are the same length.) Maybe it is due to some rounding errors but it seems a bit large for that (7.0 sq inches for west; 7.4 sq inches for east). In any case, I just measured a frozen stick of butter purchased at a California Trader Joes and the dimensions are 3.1-3.15" x 1.5", agreeing with the article... It's funny that I never consciously noticed this before (or forgot if I did).

It's much bigger (and older) than that. It started with Danube (Bouley sussed that on out, like, EXACTLY). Then Walsee was warmly received, and Cafe Sebarsky was a tremendous hit right out of the box. Then, you started seeing Austrian inflections on more standard menus all over the place. And of course this trend hasn't abated: in the last year there's been Trestle on Tenth, Brasserie Klee, etc. The only misstep so far has been Scott Conant's Alto, which tried to capitalize on this trend in the Italian context by focusing on the cuisine of the Alto Adige, to mass incomprehension if not hostility (such that they had to modify their menu). ← Not brand new, but another Austrian spot is Thomas Beisl in Park Slope.

^ I guess I thought that in trying to simplfy choices that were likely to also be healthier, Pollan's choice would *not* be between organic corn chips or Pringles. The idea would just be less chips. That is, less processed foods, not keeps lots of processed foods on the menu and trying to tiptoe among them for those that look like they have or omit this or that ingredient. I know part of your point is that many foods we eat are processed and therefore where is the cut off point for what is "too" processed?

What fat do you typically use that works well with the doctored mixes? (I may be misunderstanding, but you mentioned the issues with all oil and part butter...) And thank you for sharing some of your experiences in making and decorating celebration cakes in advance.

Would sauerkraut work as a vegetable with the perogies? (I see you're thinking of cupcakes for V-day; sounds fun as well. The meringue disk "sundaes" work well with many different flavors--ice creams, sauces and/or fruit compotes.

That sounds really good. How? Do I just steep it in milk? ← Actually, water is typically used. This is the method I've used and that I've seen mentioned in most Thai cookbooks. The link also has some quicker methods using a blender. click For certain recipes you might want or need the "thicker" milk so you can keep it separate from the second weaker batch depending on your needs. One example is that I use the thinner coconut milk for cooking the glutinous rice for mangoes and sticky rice and then use the thicker milk for a sweetend sauce to go with the finished dish.

I thought the muffin bottom pie thing was pretty funny as well. I *think* the food they were trying to ditch was some Quail breised in a Mexican mole type sauce or something. (It sounded really tasty, so I guess Lorelei was just being 'contrary' to her Mom. I think Emily said she asked one of her maids who was from Mexico to procure the recipe and make it.) Maybe someone can remember the quail prep better than I can!

But I wonder if is that we have lost sight or that we would prefer another, easier, approach. I think, speaking generally, we want a magic bullet: eat whatever you want but take a multi-vitamin, or eat whatever you want and drink this magic potion, eat whatever you want, except carbs, etc, etc. Isn't that what diet claims are all about - eat whatever you want and still lose weight. Maybe for not the people here but, speaking of the overall North American population, I understand that convenience and health are the two big food industry themes. I think many people would like to combine the two with the assistance of food scientists, not in a traditional diet which many would find very inconvenient. ← Good point; I agree. There is more to it than "losing sight" of things, including all you have pointed out and other factors as well.

Vanilla ice cream with raspberry sauce. Pink rasberry macarons alongside. Raspberry sauce (strained, please) is easy to make ahead and works well with frozen berries. (A little Triple Sec, even a budget brand adds a nice taste to the sauce.) *If* you've made macarons before they are quite easy and can be made ahead of time. Even filled with a raspberry flavored buttercream. Here is a simpler cookie idea I got from "The Passionate Cook" Blog that you could serve with the ice cream. Make regular meringues (tint them pink for Valentine's Day) and pipe them out to get uniform discs. Piping is quicker, too. Make a cinnamon butter mix using: sweet butter, confectionary sugar and cinnamon. Use this filling to sandwiich two meringues together. Although I am usually careful with how much cinnamon I use, you need a bit here for the flavor to come through. These cookies are so good; much more than the sum of their parts. I brought them to a Christmas party and made them at home and people were really wowed by them. These are very inexpensive to make, as well. For the amounts you would need it would still be very economical even if you don't use the yolks. May just need 6-8 whites to make plenty of cookies for 100-150 sandwich cookies. Too time consuming to fill the cookies though? Not sure... Another easy varient on this would be to pipe individual serving meringue disks, one for each person. Pipe a circle by starting in the middle and coiling around. Add ground almonds to the meringue batter if you like. Serve with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and raspberry sauce on top of the crispy meringues. This last might be the easiest and these look very pretty. (Again, you could tint the meringue disks pink.)

Yes! It is very simpler, practical advice! The other parts he emphasizes besides eating more fruits and vegetables is to have smaller portions overall and less processed food products*. "Eat (real) food. Not too much. Mostly plants." Although simple and full of common sense, it is very easy to lose sight of this very normal (not too long ago) approach to eating. *I think one can figure out what he means by "processed" foods in the article.

You could use some of the coconut to make coconut milk for curries.