slkinsey
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Posts posted by slkinsey
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Interesting. But here is another portion of the equation that a lot of people don't consider: How much extra greenhouse gas are you creating by living in your single-family dwelling and driving a car around compared to, say, living in the city and taking the subway everywhere you go like people in NYC do?
Looking at this strictly from a GHG standpoint, it's still not clear to me that it isn't better to live in a densely populated city with public transportation and eat non-local foods than it is to live in a low-density car-culture city either eating locally or growing your own. Again, this is only looking at it from a purely GHG standpoint...
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That's what I'm saying. There can be plenty of benefits to eating locally, but food miles seems to be a silly justification. It's also possible that, even accounting for all the benefits of your locally-raised grass-fed beef, that you would to better for the environment by giving up any kind of beef alltogether but continuing to eat non-local citrus fruits.
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Already fixed.
Lest my remarks be misinterpreted, I don't think that eating local foods, where possible, is a crock. I just think that the "food miles" incentive for doing so is a crock.
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There is a big difference between the kind of language fluency that enables one to work in a largely Spanish-speaking kitchen, or order in a restaurant in Rome, and actual fluency in a language. The former can be achieved fairly easily if you have any facility for languages and put your mind to it. Of course, there is no substitution for immersion (i.e., actually being in the Spanish-speaking kitchen or actually being in Rome ordering a plate of pasta) when it comes to speed -- you'll learn more in a week than you would in t months or more of classes.
Most people I know who have moved to countries where a language other than their native language is spoken felt that they had a reasonable level of fluency within a year.
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I agree that you're correct with respect to chard and carrots for us here in NYC. However, there are certain things (and citrus fruits are one of them) that simply do not grow here, and one must consider that the growing cycle here for most produce is only around 6 months of the year. So, for many foods and in many months, it's a choice between either buying non-local foods, or doing without. And if one makes the choice to do without, the selection can become quite narrow.
It's also a fact that California has the longest growing season of any major agricultural area in the United States, and that a very large percentage of the fruits and vegetables grown in the United States is grown in California. Some common fruits and vegetables are, for all intents and purposes, exclusively grown in California. This is why it's easier to be a vehement locavore in California than Minnesota.
Here is what I found most interesting about the article:
Different food groups exhibit a large range in GHG-intensity; on average, red meat is around 150% more GHG-intensive than chicken or fish. Thus, we suggest that dietary shift can be a more effective means of lowering an average household’s food-related climate footprint than "buying local." Shifting less than one day per week's worth of calories from red meat and dairy products to chicken, fish, eggs, or a vegetable-based diet achieves more GHG reduction than buying all locally sourced food.The emphasis is mine. But I think it's a good point. If I eat non-local Rancho Gordo beans once a week in place of the steak or cheese I might ordinarily have eaten, I've reduced my food-based carbon footprint more than I would have if I bought locally-grown food all year long.
Now, it just so happens that I think there are plenty of good reasons to buy locally-grown foods when they are available -- and I do. You outlined several good reasons. For me, certainly the facts that quality is better, and that I get to support local farmers, tradition and diversity are compelling reasons. "Food miles" as they relate to greenhouse gas emissions is not a compelling reason, because there are better ways I can reduce my food-based GHG emissions without giving up things like artichokes and citrus fruit.
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Franny's cocktails menu here.
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I think it's picking nits a bit to say that a restaurant is definitively in one neighborhood and definitively not in another neighborhood based only upon the side of the street on which the restaurant is located. Rather, it seems more realistic to say that it is on the border, and therefore part of both neighborhoods by any meaningful real-world criteria. Looking at the example of Arturo's, while the web site's URL is arturosgreenwichvillage.com, I note that the actual page says: "Neighborhood: Greenwich Village, SOHO."
Getting back to Franny's, it seems reasonable to say that it is part of both the Park Slope and Prospect Heights neighborhoods by virtue of being on the borderline.
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Bein = "leg."
Knicken = "to break."
I suppose that makes Knickerbein something like "breaking leg" or "buckling leg" or even "crooked leg." (I assume this is a misspelling of knickebein.)
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Would it be wrong for someone to say that Arturo's is in either neighborhood?
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Isn't Franny's more or less on the boundary between Park Slope and Prospect Heights?
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In Italian-American restaurants, I'd say that it's somewhat common to serve clams with grating cheese. The Italian-American staple, linguine with white clam sauce, almost always features plenty of grated cheese.
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It's true in my experience, although as with all things, I am sure there may be some exceptions.
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re: Kessos. It's not bad but IMHO original FAGE is better. Personally Kessos is watery to me.
Odd. "Watery" is the last word I'd use to describe Kesso's yogurt. If anything, I think it is significantly thicker than Fage. There are lots of things I use Kesso's strained yogurt for where I find Fage a poor substitute because it's too watery.
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I agree with most of the things you're saying. However, I should point out that it's a whole lot easier to say those things when you live in Napa. For someone like me, in NYC, there is simply no such thing as a local grapefruit. I understand that your example is for "anything fresh" -- but it's a simple fact that a huge percentage of Americans live in areas of the country where their diet would be severely restricted for large portions of the year by eating strictly locally. So, for us, the question is whether there is a meaningful difference, carbon-footprint wise, between a grapefruit from Israel and a grapefruit from California. I don't know for sure what the answer is, but depending on transportation routes and methods, it may be that the grapefruit from Israel has a smaller footprint. What is not a realistic option is for people in First World countries who live more than X miles away from citrus production to simply never eat citrus fruit.
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I know I sometimes bang on about the Brooklyn variations as the cocktails in the Savoy which I am most tired of. But this was really good. A nice stiff gin, a beautiful fresh valencia orange, generous portion of bitters, decent dry and sweet vermouth.
I think there may be some borough confusion. Isn't the Income Tax cocktail a variation on the Bronx, and not the Brooklyn?
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I think it very much depends on the style and price point of the restaurant, and the depth of the wine list. What are the restaurant and wine list going to be like?
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The advantage of the high proof cognacs (in the $60-$45 range) is that you don't need to use as much of it.
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The "tang" of sourdough bread doesn't come from yeast. It comes from lactic acid-producing bacteria. Lactic acid-priducing bacteria are also responsible for the sourness of lambic beers, but these are different strains. The bacteria in lambic beers are Lactobacillus delbrukii and Pediococcus damnosus, whereas the bacteria in a sourdough are other strains such as Lactobacillus sanfranciscensis.
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You might want to have a read through this thread. More technical/scientific information as to sourdough cultures here.
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FYI: All this will do is give you a false sense of security in starting the culture, as you will see some activity from the commercial yeast for the first several cycles. Eventually these yeasts will die out and, if everything goes right, be replaced by a symbiotic culture of wild yeast and lactobacilli. All that "starting" a culture with beer yeast or bread yeast or juniper berries or grapes or honey or whatever does is delay the inevitable. Considering that the inevitable is what you want anyway, why not simply start with flour and water?
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Are you sure your friend isn't simply misremembering the venue? It seems very unlikely to me that Pegu would have been serving a jasmine tea infusion and peach drink right around the same time as Flatiron. Seems more likely that your friend had the drink at Flatiron.
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Kesso definitely has fairly limited distribution. But they're hardly a boutique artisanal producer. I buy mine at Fairway.
My point was just that the example of Kesso proves that it's possible to make a high quality Greek style yogurt on a fairly large scale in the United States. Needless to say, Fage's operation is quite a bit larger than Kesso's. But if Fage is able to do this in Greece, I have to believe they can do it here as well -- and the quality of Kesso suggests that they can.
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Just surfed back to this thread.
In case it was not already clear as a result of the context of the discussion and the American "crudi trend" that grew out of NYC: I'm not suggesting that Pasternack and Batali invented the tradition of "Italian style raw seafood." They were quite upfront from the beginning that it was a tradition they had encountered in Italy and were introducing to America in their restaurant, Esca. What I am suggesting is that the American "crudi trend" grew out of NYC, and specifically out of Esca. Thus, for all intents and purposes, Pasternack "invented" crudo for the United States.
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Considering that Kesso Foods in Queens makes Greek-style yogurt that is, IMO, better than Fage, I have to believe that it will be possible for the Fage people to work out the kinks in their new American facility.
Bruni and Beyond: Reviewing (2008)
in New York: Dining
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So... when is the last time the NYT had a review this scathing? I don't think I can recall a single "poor" rating in the last 15+ years.