cdh

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.

Any predictions, court watchers? This court has precedents going both ways with regard to the dormant commerce clause... though the way they phrase the issue for decision makes it a competition between an provision of the original text of the constitution and a later amendment to it... Anybody know any law on this? Hopefully the 14th Amendment is sufficiently distinguishable and different enough not to play any role in this argument, 'cause if the relation between the 14th and original text is the precedent they choose to follow here, then I think the direct shipping cause is sunk.

Who else in the food media biz do you consider your competition? To some extent Good Eats is sui generis, but I see some parallels between GE and David Rosengarten's Taste that was on TVFN concurrently with the beginning of GE. Any other shows on anywhere that you view as worth watching, if for no other reason than to keep an eye on them?

There is such a wealth of creative techniques that we've learned from you through watching Good Eats... I'm wondering how presenting such a thoroughly researched and thought out show has changed your own cooking style. What have you learned from your own GE research that you use in your own cookery on a regular basis? (You're not allowed to say you're too busy to cook for yourself any more, either.)

Is that crate in the first really from Frank's soft drinks in Philly? How did that get all the way to California?

Hey Scott-- Made any progress on the tonic compounding mission? I've not felt like springing for a pound of potentially stale or over the hill ground bark yet, though the crazy notion of making my own tonic may someday make me track down some quinine. My thoughts on how to do it would be to make a simple syrup with some lemon and lime zests boiled in along with the sugar, and then throw in some quinine. Research has indicated that the FDA has deemed 82mg/L of quinine to be a safe dosage, so getting the proportion of quinine to syrup to water will be the tricky bit... But take heart... it appears that Thomas Keller's bar at Per Se is (or plans on) making their own tonic using "quinine powder" and other assorted stuff... so others are thinking the same way we are.

Two great classic summery drinks: Pimm's, the perfect fruity summery punch-y libation that gives one excuses to put cucumbers into one's drinks. I generally make it by the bowlful by taking a cup of Pimm's, a cup of gin, an orange sliced into wheels, a peeled cucumber sliced into rounds, and two liters of good ginger ale. Place all of the above into a large bowl in which a large hunk of ice is already residing, and you're good for an afternoon on the lawn with a dozen friends. and Pastis, for those of us who happen to like anise flavored stuff... a shot of pastis in a glass of ice, and a tall pitcher of water to dilue it down with is all I need on a summery afternoon. As to novelty, a friend threw a party the other week that featured a potion of his own that was quite tasty (and which I'll christen a Kate's Birthday Cocktail)-- I'm unsure as to proportions, but the major ingredients were gin, elderflower cordial and blueberry juice. Served as a fizz. Delicious. (Got me thinking that the elderflower cordial would make a mighty fine pseudo-gimlet... ) Later in the evening I also found that a cucumber garnish (left in my glass from the Pimm's I'd had earlier) actually works quite well with this combination and makes it an even more pleasant experience... at least for those of us who like cucumbers in our drinks...

Well... my question came after looking at the pretty constant chatter over on the egullet wine board, and comparing it to the hushed quiet we see on the beer board. My theory is that since wine is always changing, it always has that magic media buzz that keeps it fresh in mind. Beer, on the other hand, seems to suffer from its uniformity, insofar as one or two good reviews of a beer really do pretty much do it justice, and will continue to do so for years to come. Anybody with a Michael Jackson book printed in the last decade or so knows what to expect from any beer MJ has covered, and what's the point of telling people stuff they already know or could look up. New releases are interesting... but they happen so infrequently... Are beer drinkers really such an inherently conservative bunch that there is a real market demand for uniformity and stability over innovation and improvement? Wine is a much more madcap, rolling-the-dicekind of experience, where you really don't know what is in the bottle until you open it... you can make educated guesses based on geography of origin and grape type, but you never know for sure unless you've found a review of that particular wine from that particular year... which aren't available for most wines. The wines most like beers are the NV champagnes from the big houses, which are blended with an eye toward uniformity of style... and even they change somewhat over time. Keeping beer fresh in the minds of consumers with media buzz can't be a bad thing, but the uniformity stifles that very buzz... A beer makes news when it wins an award... but that only happens so many times a year, and because there isn't regular beer coverage in the media, the story either gets buried or not picked up at all. It is sad...

Project: Thanks for such a thoughtful and wise examination of the agricultural mindset over time. I'm probably two generations past you, and my grandparents generation was the last to farm for a living. Even in Princeton, NJ, where that farm is, the 'plain is better than fancy' ideal was prevalent amongst my family. There was less indifference to flavor, however. Something quite the opposite, as a matter of fact-- after they stopped doing the dairy themselves in the early 1970's, only milk from one particular commercial source was good enough. Store bought eggs were never good enough, and the chickens outlasted the human inhabitants of the place. Vegetables not grown in the garden were avoided like the plague. There were flavors that were decidedly unwelcome, however... strong flavors were out... no garlic, no strong cheeses, no cured meats other than salt pork... I think there was some vestigial ethnic preference there as well, since the thanksgiving menu bore quite a resemblance to menus consumed by Dutch immingrants hundreds of years before. (And this side of the family were of Dutch extraction and had been in America for a few hundred years...) The commonality I see between your story and my experiences is the headstrong insistence that they knew best and anyone who disagreed about matters of taste was wrong.

All commercial breweries seem to strive to consistently create a lineup of beers that don't change from one production run to the next. If you've tasted one good example of a particular beer, there's nothing to be gained by trying it again except the same pleasure you got the first time around. I've tasted Orval and know I don't like it, and if I taste another I'll probably have the same reaction. I think that this property of most beers might be doing them some harm... Look at wine: every year the raw materials are markedly different. Tasting a 2001 German Riesling is a very different experience than tasting a 2002 or 2003 from the same vineyard. This wide variety of experience also sparks a wide variety of conversations and press about wine. It is always a moving target, and moving targets draw press attention. Any press is good press, after all. So the few beers that do change annually, like Anchor's christmas beer, do get some coverage as to what's new about it this time... wouldn't it be a good thing if producers allowed something to vary from batch to batch, if for nothing but the press attention it would get? The lineup of stable unchanging beers should be smaller than it is... and until a real classic emerges, the recipes of a lot of the beers out there should always be in flux in hopes of running across the next classic. I'm sure that there are regulatory reasons that nobody is doing this, but it does sound like a neat idea, no? Whaddya think?

Most people's perceptions of beer are based on the most advertised and most common beers... light colored pilsner type beers, and their light bodied "Lite" derivatives, and Guinness, which is almost universally misperceived as super strong and thick and heavy. There's so much more to beer than just that, but if people were asked to name five beers, I'd bet most if not all of the responses would be in those styles... I remember back in the days when Michelob tried to broaden people's horizons with their "Don't be afraid of the dark" campaign... but there hasn't been anything since that hints that there's more to beer than yellow stuff on the one hand and Guinness on the other. Any ideas how to correct the misperceptions and get more people interested in the vast variety of beers that are out there?

Are quadruples traditional at all, or are they a modern invention... the marketing equivalent of the amplifier that goes to 11? The only european quad I've ever seen is from La Trappe... are there others? Any recommendations?

In all of your beery travels, how does the homebrew you've run across compare? As a homebrewer, I'm generally quite pleased with what I make... but I'm biased, of course. In your opinion, is brewing truly great beer within reach of anybody with a little time and commitment, or is there is special touch in the hands of commercial brewers that us at home aren't going to be able to match?