cdh

Be careful in your terminology-- there are two Yuengling products with "Light" in their names-- the "Light Lager" of which I'm speaking, and the "Premium Light", which, a year or more ago when I tried it, struck me as watery and pretty bad. The good thing about the Light Lager was that it was only slightly lightened, and retained a lot of good beer characteristics. It worked as a great counterpoint beer when one of my homebrews wasn't what I felt like drinking. Maybe all this is just a relative perception thing with me, since I've been drinking my way through a batch of homebrewed Trippel style beer this spring, and last year I was drinkning homebrewed Wit. Maybe the much richer and heavier beer outshines its counterpoint beer this year. But I still would like to think that it was a better beer that has slid downhill...

Just picked up a case of Yuengling Light Lager, which despite the "light" in its name, used to be a pretty good beer. This stuff that I brought home yesterday would have trouble standing up to seltzer water. The beer used to have both a good hop profile and a bit of malt character. Both are missing in this case... as is some of the carbonation I'd remembered... this is like a two-day-open seltzer bottle. Am I imagining things (like it was ever good), or did this beer really slide over the past year?

Tea served with a bunch of 1cm diameter tapioca balls in the bottom of the cup. Sipped through a straw big enough for the balls to get sucked up along with the tea. Some eat them. I prefer to view them as ammunition, and the straw as a blowgun. Perfect for when you've got a to-go cup and are wandering the streets. It's a drink that comes with a game attached. I don't see the appeal of the stuff in a cafe setting. Though shops that do bubble tea often do drinks with chunks of immature coconut jelly in them too, and that is good eating in a fruity tea context.

Try hitting it with a hand blender... maybe lack of clumps will make it taste better. The sweet to sour balance sounds a bit better, but maybe a spoon of brown sugar would help it out if it is still too tart.

Well... this is not exactly about grapefruit juice, but I've been drinking quite a few of Paul Harrington's Jasmines lately, and despite the fact they contain no grapefruit juice, they are a dead ringer for its flavor. Do you squeeze your own juice, have a store that makes its own good squeezed juices, or are you at the mercy of Tropicana and Ocean Spray in your choice of grapefruit juice sources? Big difference between a splash of Ocean Spray Ruby Red Grapefruit Juice Flavored Drink, and a squeeze of the real thing. Both probably have their places in mixology... but I'm quite content to shake up Jasmines and drink my ersatz GFJ flavored cocktails.

But boba are more like ammunition than food... bubble tea is a drink that comes with a game attached... big straw + boba == blowgun Watch out, inviting targets!

Beer + ice cream is not unheard of... pretty tasty too. Porter milkshakes, anyone? But sour cream + stout does sound a little bit on the acidic side. Is ukranian stout sourish, or sweetish? And how well was your friend's concoction blended together. Nothing says unappetizing like lumps in your beverage.

Well... samovars don't make tea as such... they keep water hot. Generally a little pot of very concentrated tea sits on top of the samovar and you splash a little of it into your cup and top up with the hot water from the spiggot on the samovar. A bit of etymological trivia: samovar comes from the russian words for self (sam) and boil (varit')...

And if it is really a high quality oolong, then expect to be able to get at least 4 or 5 infusions out of each dosage of leaves... don't throw them away after just one steeping (which should only be around 2 minutes). All this is predicated on your making it in a little pot and pouring all the tea off the leaves after each steep is done. Don't know how it would turn out if made in a big pot and the leaves were left to slosh around in the tea as you drank your way through the pot.

OK. I think orange juice sucks... mostly. Judging by shelf space in the refrigerated section of all the supermarkets, it looks to me like people just love orange juice. Mostly the horrible crappy industrial OJ that fills the entirety of those refrigerators. Now I'll not go so far as to say I hate all OJ... fresh squeezed, and I mean the really fresh squeezed stuff, not the pasturized industrial stuff that never got concentrated and rehydrated, is good. Tropicana, Minute Maid, Florida's Natural, all the big branded crap on the shelves is just no good. It is all too sweet and not tangy enough. Probably has something to do with the blend of varietals of oranges they use...

Not England, I don't think. Wasn't she in either California or France in all of her writings? I think cooking wolves was about wartime rationing in the US... we didi that here too...

This sounds like a game of remote refrigerator roulette. Which brings to mind the thought of throwing something like a rent party, but instead of collecting cash at the door to pay the band, ask everybody to bring an ingredient of their choice, and put your culinary skills to work (you're an egulleter, after all) to make vast quantities of something out of the collected ingredients. Feed everybody, and you, as host, get to keep the leftovers.

Where are you, and what is your starting state? Are you in a city with a stocked pantry? Are you in the country with bare shelves and a bicycle? Do you like to eat breakfast or skip it? I'll assume you're mobile, but without a stocked pantry. My off the top of my head suggestions for cheap healthy eating involve the availability of asian shops-- you can get soba or udon by the kilo for less than $3 at some near me. Add another $3 for a jar of dashi granules and you're set to eat healthy japanese soups for at least a week. Add a dozen eggs for $1.50 for some protein (they poach nicely in dashi). Now you've got $2.50 left for variety goodies. Bean sprouts are cheap and consistent with this menu. So are scallions. So are big leafy greens like kale and mustard greens, both of which will probably boil up nicely in dashi broth too. A kilo of soba should keep you going pretty well for a week... if you have a pantry that contains sesame oil it would be a great addition... OR you could take a different route if you've not got an asian shop near you... buy a whole chicken for $5 or so. Buy some onions, carrots, celery and potatoes. Roast all together. Pour off what fat is not absorbed by potatoes and veg and save for frying eggs or other such. (mmmm schmalz) Eat chicken. Boil the carcass to make stock. Make soups or sauces to go on the noodles or potatoes or other cheap starches you can find. Less healthy, but if it is what's available, ya gotta eat... no? Even less healthy, but good no less, are chicken livers... which go for about a buck a pound. I don't know I could survive on them exclusively for a week, but chicken livers and onions and a bit of balsamic vinegar or wine (if you've got a pantry with stuff in) are yummy yummy yummy. You could go cheap and make lots of stuff from inexpensive building blocks... get a head of garlic and roast it. Buy a can of white beans. Whiz beans and roasted garlic in blender for a great dip. I'd bet you could make felafel-like croquettes by dropping dollops of this stuff into hot oil. Bake yourself some bread from a 70 cent bag of flour and a dollar of yeast granules. You could eat local cheap specialties... when I was living in Texas, tamales were a grocery store thing for like $2.99 a dozen... and frozen burritos were about the same price. A dozen burritos, a dozen tamales and some vegetables to make a salsa could certainly keep you going if such local stuff were available to you. You could probably get some eggs and remain on budget too... So... if you want good advice specific to you, tell us more than your budget... and we'll be able to focus more clearly on your needs.

Well, are you looking for a varietal, or a shop's proprietary blend? I find that the Pacific island coffees, i.e. Papua New Guinea, Sumatra, etc. are smooth, sweet and without acidity. I like them a lot when I drink filter coffee, which is rarely... I've gone over to espresso almost entirely. For finding non-acidic coffees, I don't know where you are or what to suggest other than getting green beans from Sweet Maria's and roasting them yourself to a doneness that is not offensive to you. I happen to like the PNG roasted fairly dark...

There was an article in the NYTimes about them sometime within the past year or so, and the assertion was made that they are banned because they harbor pest beasts that could do damage to US fruit crops. Sounds like all the reason anybody sane should need to support irradiation. Blast the beasts and bring me my mangosteens!

How's the planning going? This thread was suspenseful and fun... now we need the thrilling climax and triumphant victory stories.

Very nice essay, FG. Maybe something to be addressed in another essay might be, rather than the issue of authenticity, the issue of bastardization, or dumbing down. Is New York a town where one can find food seasoned to the sugar and spice balance one would find in the town the food's native to? Absolutely. More so than in most other towns I can think of. But you'll also find any number of restaurants that feel the need to make food "less challenging", or "more like what people want"... which usually equates to less spice, more sugar, and maybe more liquid fat and less solid fat. My sense is that authenticity complaints are often bastardization complaints couched in more polite language.

Love CFA, and prefer them to any other national chain by a long shot. I still have pleasant memories of childhood trips to the mall where a big CFA lemonade (or the promise of one) kept me from getting anti-socially bored out of my skull as my parents shopped for whatever boring stuff they were shopping for. And the sandwiches (with pickles) rock!

Best idea I can offer would be to order some from Gray & Seddon. They have one that is quite nice. Click here and look under Oolongs. Can't help with London local tea vendors. I assume you've checked the food halls and Fortnum's and such?

We're in agreement... however the fundamentals of geography are not on our side. The commoditized produce has been specifically bred so that it can be grown centrally and shipped widely. The US is a BIG place... A branding campaign would have to be local. To be successful a local grower of something would have to establish a reputation sufficient to get the market to demand that the supermarkets carry this particular item. They would then have to be capable of producing in quantity at the same level of quality. And of turning down orders from places that are too far away, etc. With centralized corporate buying for supermarkets, I don't see that happening often, sadly. Economies of scale have an undeniable appeal. IT is a pity that quality vegetables are limited to farmers markets and the one or two days a week they're open... and, of course, one's own garden.

I'd like to remember that the most successful brands for high quality, distinctive food and ingredients are identifyers of origin. In europe, yes, identifiers of origin do serve that purpose. Much less so in America. The only geographic identifiers for produce that I can think of are close to meaningless-- Florida Oranges-- this does not imply any particular distinctive quality to me... Jersey Tomatoes-- Maybe I'm spoiled, but the tomatoes in my Pennsylvania garden are just as good... either are better than the commodity products in the supermarket, but tomatoes are universally reviled when they're out of season. Vidalia Onions-- OK, this does mean something, as does the Maui Sweet identifer and the Texas numbered sweet onion... Washington Apples? Says nothing to me about their quality. Those are about all the geographic identifiers for produce in the US that I can think of. I can't think of any sort of produce I'd think to hunt by its origin. There is no way to tell where most produce comes from unless you buy it from a farmer at a farmers' market who actually grows what he sells (not universal).

If you're looking for non-tea brewed-stuff beverages, something really cool to get your hands on is hibiscus flowers. They brew up into a ruby red, tart drink... kinda like natural Kool Aid... Add a little sugar, cool it down, and you've got a vitamin C rich iced drink that beats any powdered mix. You can find the stuff in bulk at latin food shops under the name Flor de Jamaica. There is a middle eastern tradition of mixing it with mint, which makes quite a good refereshing cool drink too.

I'll second the recommendation of Gray & Seddon as a supplier, but I'll tell you to buy a different set of teas from them than Gary suggested-- Go for their oolongs, the Anxi Gold King in particular, but also the Shantou Autumn Bloom and the Water Maiden. All are very much unlike most other teas you've had recommended so far. Floral in their aroma, delicious when brewed at about 180. I'd also suggest Ten Ren's Pouchong and the Green King's Tea... I'm drinking both in the second grad right now... can't make myself spend for the first. The Pouchong is another floral tea with a long lasting finish, and the King's Tea is their Green Oolong infused with some ginseng, which gives it a great mouthfeel and flavor. The Ten Ren teas come in canisters that seal very very well, so storage isn't a problem.

I'm glad that tea is getting some attention now... though I've not seen the ubiquity of tea services implied by the article. I love tea for its huge variations from one type to the next. I just hope that the snobbish frippery about "only good china" and raised pinky fingers go away. The shamanistic sounding incantations about time and temperature for each tea are actualy necessary information if you want the get the best out of each particular type of tea... pouring boiling water over green tea is a sure-fire recipe for a bitter astringent disaster... let the water drop 30 degrees, on the other hand, and you've got a fine cuppa there. Try brewing black tea with water at 180 and you'll certainly get a different cup than if your water was boiling... depends on your tastes which you prefer.

This thread has taken an interesting direction-- looks to me like the culprit for the state of US cookery and food production today may not be a direct result of a disdain for flavor as exemplified by Project's "don't use wine vinegar because of the wine" anecdote, which (I hope) can be characterized as an outlying fringe belief. Looks to me like the culprit is more the interplay between our native frugality (particularly in the generation that lived through the depression) and the gross commoditization of agricultural products that sprang from it. Think about it a little- when maximizing the edible yield of a crop it is counterproductive to differentiate between the "really good" specimens and the "barely edible" ones. Mix them all together, and you've got a whole bunch of a commodity, for which the market will pay a particular price on a particular date (and is often contractually bound to do so... futures and options, y'know.) Farmers are caught up in just such a system, which leads to such things as agribusiness churning out freight train loads of commodity grade produce. And that is the majority of what the market produces. And they produce it cheaply. And we like cheap stuff, after all, don't we? The farmers of whom Project speaks didn't have the time to develop pride in (and market recognition of) making a really good example of some particular thing... rather pride (and profit) sprang from productivity... I can still remember the framed certificate from the 50's still hanging on the wall proclaiming my farming relatives members of the 100 Bushel Club... presented by some NJ agricultural bureaucracy, I think... recognition for quantity, rather than quality. I've never been to anything like the "state fairs" that exist in the popular psyche, so I don't know how the blue ribbons are awarded... anybody know whether it is quantity (size of item, profusion of item) or quality ( flavor of item, or look of item) that is the judgment criterion? Today the market (exemplified by those reading this thread) is getting to a point where decommoditization of produce is viewed as a good thing by consumers with good palates. We know to go to farmers markets and look for the good stuff, rather than go to the supermarket and get the commodities. Further decommoditization will surely follow, but we must absorb the costs of it if it is going snowball. Are we willing to swallow the costs of the "barely edibles" that we were spared when we buy the good stuff? Agribusiness would be a great market if they could find marketable uses for the barely edibles, while letting the good stuff out unadulterated. (Question: What do the Italians do with their low end produce? Assumption being that their level of quality of ingredients is higher... there must be a low end... what happens to it?) And, of course, discriminating between the good stuff and the rest is more work, which somebody is going to have to do... which will, to some extent, add to costs. Just as chefs go outside the entrenched supply lines to get superior produce, we have to as well... for the moment... I wonder the commoditization of produce will remain, but become more granular, with gradations of quality readily available. To some extent this might already exist, insofar as some stores have much better quality of produce than others... but I wonder if this is a result of gradiations of quality as such available through their suppliers, or if it is a result of the care they take of their stuff after they get it.