In case you forgot to TIVO this

Rachael Ray on ice: Eat, rink & be merry

The best sauce in the world is hunger.

Video of workers abusing cows raises food safety questions – CNN.com

The article says the workers were terminated but I wonder if the real problem of poor oversight is being addressed. The slaughtering process needs to be more transparent. It should be monitored and taped and reviewed regularly by inspectors and when abuses like this are documented , the plant should be shut down until management can prove that the process they have in place is humane.

Video of workers abusing cows raises food safety questions – CNN.com

The best sauce in the world is hunger.

Great New Product

Are you wondering what to have for dinner tonight but too bored with the usual offerings from your supermarket HMR case of clammy roast chicken, wiggly-edge lasagna with lipstick red tomato sauce and snot green string bean salad? Wanna really bite down on something that you will be proud to brag out to you homies at work tomorrow morning. Then why not try a nice juicy German “Cheeseburger in a can?” That’s right, Cheeseburger in a can. Originally developed for leiderhosen clad backpackers it has become the meal of choice by those whose appetites run towards foods that cause them to question the nature of reality and humankind’s place in nature.
(Or something along those lines.)

You can order your Cheeseburger in a Can here. And tell them A Hunger Artist sent you. I’m sure they will understand.

Many thanks to Scotty at Cooking ion Theory and Practice for tipping me on this truly astonishing product.

The best sauce in the world is hunger.

Great New Product

Are you wondering what to have for dinner tonight but too bored with the usual offerings from your supermarket HMR case of clammy roast chicken, wiggly-edge lasagna with lipstick red tomato sauce and snot green string bean salad? Wanna really bite down on something that you will be proud to brag out to you homies at work tomorrow morning. Then why not try a nice juicy German “Cheeseburger in a can?” That’s right, Cheeseburger in a can. Originally developed for leiderhosen clad backpackers it has become the meal of choice by those whose appetites run towards foods that cause them to question the nature of reality and humankind’s place in nature.
(Or something along those lines.)

You can order your Cheeseburger in a Can here. And tell them A Hunger Artist sent you. I’m sure they will understand.

Many thanks to Scotty at Cooking ion Theory and Practice for tipping me on this truly astonishing product.

The best sauce in the world is hunger.

Post Pleistocene Eating Blues

I posted the following response to Mark Bittman’s depressing article Rethinking the Meat Guzzler over at Ruhlman.com and figured I’d cross-post it here to give it a bit more play. If you get the sense that I’m more than a little fatigued by the current discussion over the anthropogenic causes of global warming, you’d be correct.

‘m so glad that I don’t eat too much meat and also consume a lot of vegetables. My diet keeps me pretty healthy and fit, and affords me the opportunity to, unlike Mr Bittman, NOT have to wring my hands too much over how much my eating contributes to global warming.

Of course, I am not off the hook entirely, even the produce I consume organic and otherwise contributes to global warming in a variety of ways. Crops don’t absorb as much CO2 as the forests and grasslands they replace and the fallow fields reflect much more heat into the atmosphere than natural vegetation.
Even the best managed land loses topsoil which runs off into streams and rivers thereby increasing heat absorption by the water.

It’s too bad that I was not born closer to the end of the Pleistocene, when global warming had finished off the last vestiges of the great continental ice sheets, and the forests and plains of what would become the temperate regions were aborning. I read that the hunting was great back then, farms had not yet been invented and the warming of the climate that continues to the present was in no way anthropogenic.

AND, there was no omnivore’s dilemma.

Sigh.

The best sauce in the world is hunger.

Post Pleistocene Eating Blues

I posted the following response to Mark Bittman’s depressing article Rethinking the Meat Guzzler over at Ruhlman.com and figured I’d cross-post it here to give it a bit more play. If you get the sense that I’m more than a little fatigued by the current discussion over the anthropogenic causes of global warming, you’d be correct.

‘m so glad that I don’t eat too much meat and also consume a lot of vegetables. My diet keeps me pretty healthy and fit, and affords me the opportunity to, unlike Mr Bittman, NOT have to wring my hands too much over how much my eating contributes to global warming.

Of course, I am not off the hook entirely, even the produce I consume organic and otherwise contributes to global warming in a variety of ways. Crops don’t absorb as much CO2 as the forests and grasslands they replace and the fallow fields reflect much more heat into the atmosphere than natural vegetation.
Even the best managed land loses topsoil which runs off into streams and rivers thereby increasing heat absorption by the water.

It’s too bad that I was not born closer to the end of the Pleistocene, when global warming had finished off the last vestiges of the great continental ice sheets, and the forests and plains of what would become the temperate regions were aborning. I read that the hunting was great back then, farms had not yet been invented and the warming of the climate that continues to the present was in no way anthropogenic.

AND, there was no omnivore’s dilemma.

Sigh.

The best sauce in the world is hunger.

Gluttonous Rite Survives Without Silverware – New York Times

Now this is what I call a party. Wow. I’d like to see the carbon footprint of this. On second thought, maybe not.

Gluttonous Rite Survives Without Silverware

The best sauce in the world is hunger.

To Know Him is to Eat Him: Here come the Rice Cops

Thanks to reader Robert Martin for sciencing me up about Farmer Direct, a Canadian beef co-operative that was founded, in part, on the assumption that people will eat more beef if they know how it lived and, I assume, died.
Hi, I’m Al, I’ll be your food tonight | Macleans.ca – Canada – Features

Worldwide Authenticity Screening for Japanese Restaurants? Sounds good to me.
Actually, I want something like this for all ethnic restaurants-especially Italian restaurants. Furthermore, let’s make it the responsibility of the United Nations. That way, when I go to an Italian restaurant in New York, London or Orlando, I don’t have to worry about being offended by stuff like “Buffalo Wing Pizza” or “Fettuccine Alfredo with Crabmeat.”

Officials in Tokyo are offering a worldwide “authenticity screen” for restaurants that purport to be Japanese. The scheme, they say, may lead to an equivalent of the Michelin star system for the world’s 25,000 Japanese restaurants.

[Source]

The best sauce in the world is hunger.

To Know Him is to Eat Him: Here come the Rice Cops

Thanks to reader Robert Martin for sciencing me up about Farmer Direct, a Canadian beef co-operative that was founded, in part, on the assumption that people will eat more beef if they know how it lived and, I assume, died.
Hi, I’m Al, I’ll be your food tonight | Macleans.ca – Canada – Features

Worldwide Authenticity Screening for Japanese Restaurants? Sounds good to me.
Actually, I want something like this for all ethnic restaurants-especially Italian restaurants. Furthermore, let’s make it the responsibility of the United Nations. That way, when I go to an Italian restaurant in New York, London or Orlando, I don’t have to worry about being offended by stuff like “Buffalo Wing Pizza” or “Fettuccine Alfredo with Crabmeat.”

Officials in Tokyo are offering a worldwide “authenticity screen” for restaurants that purport to be Japanese. The scheme, they say, may lead to an equivalent of the Michelin star system for the world’s 25,000 Japanese restaurants.

[Source]

The best sauce in the world is hunger.

Too Many Chiefs

by The Foodist

With all the positive aspects about attending culinary school there are negative ones that should be address as well.

The Culinary Institute of America prizes itself as being the top culinary school in the country. It’s an idea that’s drilled into the heads of the students from the time we arrive on campus until we leave. In conjunction with that, you have the individual students. Students from all walks of life, from all kinds of places, and with many ideas on how things should be done.

The combination of all of this in classroom here causes what we refer to as “The CIA Ego”. It’s not always a bad thing. It instills in us pride in our work, a strong work ethic, communication, and understanding. Well, in most cases. In other cases it causes some of us to become bull-headed, stubborn, and downright lazy. These individuals see menial tasks like peeling potatoes or cutting herbs as beneath them and feel as if [I] “have more important things to do”.

When you cram 19 bodies into a kitchen here -which is ten more than should really be there- you have very little space, a lot of work to do, and things go from a normal state of organized chaos to uncontrolled chaos. With so much ego and so many bodies tension builds and tempers flare.

Being a few weeks from graduation my class has the problem of “Too many chiefs, not enough Indians”. My station has two other people assigned to it, and has struggled for the last few days to produce a quality product. Part of the reason is that we are not used to the kitchen. It always takes a few days to feel comfortable in a new kitchen , but besides that is the fact that my group members have decided to take “sick” days. As a result, Chef has been on my back about family meal.

In response I have taken de facto control over the station, and have since produced better quality meals. But then today a group mate returned after missing his second day and is screwing things up by trying to get over on me and take control of the station.

Here-in lay the problem. With me at the helm Chef has been more pleased with family, and as a result I plan on staying in control of the station to ensure it continues to improve over the next 2 weeks. The other student ignores direction, does what he wants, and undermines what little authority I care to exert.

Frustration sets in while the pressure to come up with different and exciting dishes increases. Through it all I cant help but look at the situation from an outside perspective and wonder if the students graduating and going out into the world will carry this attitude with them. The idea of being “Holier then Thou” has never been one that interested me, but seems to be standard operating procedure here.

The food we cook demands more humility, patience, and understanding from us. Food cooked with ego instead of love is awful. So I am faced with a challenge in this kitchen of producing good tasting food while dealing with a control issue. Given time to think on it, a new perspective on the matter has emerged. I will take this as a real-world lesson. There will always been employees who are difficult to work with, to get on your side to do things your way. How I handle this case will help me handle future ones.

With so many chiefs, I will have to play the roll of a wiser, calmer, more focused chief.

The best sauce in the world is hunger.