You ever drive from one neighborhood to the next in a city/suburb and notice that every shopping center is exactly the SAME.
It's depressing. Mom & Pop stores and restaurants (I.E. PRIVATE BUSINESSES) are apparently long a thing of the past. Does that mean capitalism has passed us by too (I.E. competition, creative thinking and diversity in the marketplace)?
Regardless of the answer to that very complex question, the homogenous options that appear to the masses as "what they want," seem to exist in the cookbook market too - at least on the bestseller list.
Read what Nancy Leson, of the Seattle Times, blogged about, then come back to me....
The thing that genuinely disturbs me about the prevalence of celebrity chefs is that many of them work for TV stations, which are provably owned by one of five great media conglomerates (Disney, Time Warner, NewsCorp, Viacom (used to be CBS), and General Electric (own NBC). There's Bertelsmann in Germany too - but I'm talkin' U.S. here.
So a lot of the celebrity chefs seem to fit in a corporately-defined box, but they still influence our culture.
This 'possibility' disturbs me because it seems yet another identifiable example of how our society becoming homogeneous. The end result, at least for cookbooks, are products that lack individuality and a unique culinary cultural experience.
Which is to unabashedly say that FRP does a great thing by publishing regional/local community cookbooks.
One of our classics is River Road Recipes, from the Junior League of Baton Rouge.
I bought this book for all my family one Christmas when I was at LSU - this was well before I even came to work for FRP.
Why did I buy a cookbook that called for ingredients like raccoon, dove and squirrel?
Because the chapter for "Game" alone is a cultural trove.
Who doesn't want an original recipe for "Squirrel Country Style," or "Coon a la Delta."
I sure did, and I wanted my family to have them too.
While my Oregon people may never skin a squirrel for supper, the point is that people used to. They probably often needed to and were not above it. And it's fascinating to see where we've been and actually apply thought to where we're going.
So basically, FRP has been preserving food culture since 1961. I need to monitor the lifespan of some of these celebrity chefs.
They have nothing on a book that's been a bestseller like River Road Recipes: 1959, thank you very much.
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
What Goes Around....
are hot dogs.
No stinkin' way.
I wrote about this delightful dish yesterday, and look what appears in the Tennessean today!
First a cupcake store, and now a hot dog restaurant in the H.Village - oh how lucky I am.
TENNESSEAN.COM
April 23, 2008
Hot dog restaurant set for Hillsboro Village
By Dana Kopp FranklinStaff Writer
The restaurant-rich Hillsboro Village neighborhood is getting an eatery devoted to hot dogs.
Adam Deal, owner of The Dog of Nashville on Nolensville Road, plans to open a second location this summer on Belcourt Avenue in Hillsboro Village.
The new restaurant is taking over a former house-turned-office-building at 2127 Belcourt Ave.
The menu will be the same as at Deal's first restaurant: hot dogs and Polish sausages, topped a multitude of ways. He plans to serve beer, as well.
Deal is adding a patio in front of the building and expects to open by late summer. The new location will stay open later than the original, which is at 3302-A Nolensville Road (834-8633). Hours there are 10:30 a.m.-3 p.m. Monday-Friday; 11 a.m.-7 p.m. Saturday.
No stinkin' way.
I wrote about this delightful dish yesterday, and look what appears in the Tennessean today!
First a cupcake store, and now a hot dog restaurant in the H.Village - oh how lucky I am.
TENNESSEAN.COM
April 23, 2008
Hot dog restaurant set for Hillsboro Village
By Dana Kopp FranklinStaff Writer
The restaurant-rich Hillsboro Village neighborhood is getting an eatery devoted to hot dogs.
Adam Deal, owner of The Dog of Nashville on Nolensville Road, plans to open a second location this summer on Belcourt Avenue in Hillsboro Village.
The new restaurant is taking over a former house-turned-office-building at 2127 Belcourt Ave.
The menu will be the same as at Deal's first restaurant: hot dogs and Polish sausages, topped a multitude of ways. He plans to serve beer, as well.
Deal is adding a patio in front of the building and expects to open by late summer. The new location will stay open later than the original, which is at 3302-A Nolensville Road (834-8633). Hours there are 10:30 a.m.-3 p.m. Monday-Friday; 11 a.m.-7 p.m. Saturday.
Monday, April 21, 2008
Hot Dogs at the Ball Park
Hot dogs never taste as good as they do at the ballpark.
Of course, they taste even better with a super cold beverage of choice.
In the spirit of baseball season, spring's arrival, and the excitement of a long summer full of seventh inning stretches and hot dogs and beers for everyone (except the kids, of course,) I'd like to share an interesting factoid about the elements that make for a "Real Chicago-Style Hot Dog."
"A hot dog in this city is a steamed or boiled all-beef, natural-casing hot dog on a poppy seed bun. It may be topped with mustard, onion, sweet pickle relish, a dill pickle spear, tomato slices or wedges, sport peppers, and a dash of celery salt - but no ketchup.
Chicago-style hot dogs with all the toppings are sometimes said to be "dragged through the garden" because of the unique combination of condiments. Chicagoans traditionally shun ketchup because of the belief that ketchup is redundant in the presence of sweet pickle relish."
This tasty bit of information was found in Peeling the Wild Onion, the newest cookbook from the Junior League of Chicago.
(While I dig their commitment to the sweet pickle relish, I sure am glad I have no allegiance to Chicago. As my best friend, Nicole, claims, "one should live life with ketchup!" I couldn't agree more.)
Regardless of whether you eat your dogs with relish, ketchup, mustard, or in the buff, celebrate this great time of year by getting to a ballpark, sitting in the cheap seats, and enjoying a big juicy dog.
Cheers.
Monday, April 14, 2008
Cooking with Coffee
Patricia McCausland-Gallo, author of Passion for Coffee, the cookbook with recipes that all call for coffee in some form, will appear live on Baton Rouge's 2une In, at 5:15 on Tuesday morning.
She'll then round out her time in the Red Stick at the Brew Ha-Ha, a great little specialized coffee shop on Government St., where she'll sign copies of her book and talk about the brewing trend of cooking with coffee!
She'll then round out her time in the Red Stick at the Brew Ha-Ha, a great little specialized coffee shop on Government St., where she'll sign copies of her book and talk about the brewing trend of cooking with coffee!
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
Turkey Time
It always fascinates me how hunting seasons vary from place to place. I was recently in Georgia, and apparently turkey season had just begun. Myself an Oregon native, I was surprised that there was a hunting season in the spring.
Regardless, thought this recipe for "Thrifty Turkey Soup", from The Illustrated Encyclopedia of American Cooking, was a good one for getting the most out of that turkey.
ingredients
- Turkey carcass
- 2 onions, finely chopped
- 6 stalks celery, finely chopped
- 6 carrots, finely chopped
- 2 chicken bouillon cubes
- 1 cup rice
- mushrooms and diced potatoes, possibly garlic if you have such an acquired taste (optional and not in original recipe: they just sound like good ad-ins. Tony Chacheres is also ALWAYS a good lagniappe to throw into anything. While that's an opinion, people in the great state of LA would argue it's a fact.)
directions
- Cover carcass with water in large kettle; simmer for 2 hours or until meat falls from bones.
- Remove carcass; pick meat from bones (yummy - maybe ask your dog to help.)
- Strain broth; return meat and broth to kettle.
- Add remaining ingredients; mix well.
- Simmer, stirring occasionally, for 45 minutes.
Cookbook Industry's Economic Forecast Strong
This article from Kim Severson of the New York Times will hopefully blow your mind and excite you too.
Severson touches on many points that I myself have discussed in casual conversation from time to time - the quality of mass-produced food products; the almost 21 million people in our nation with diabetes and the junk food many of them are eating; lack of subsidies for organic farmers, government subsidies for cheaply-grown commodities and the agricultural industry's reliance on oil and petroleum to harvest and transport massive amounts of grains, sugars and animal products (once known as 'meat') - and all the very complex mutual relationships that exist among those bureaucracies, etc.
Those are all very broad, complicated and multi-faceted issues, but there are, in my opinion, some bottom lines I'd like to discuss:
1.) It's hard to trust in the nutritional value of anything you buy in a grocery store.
2.) Anything that's pre-made and pre-packaged is going to cost more and likely hold less nutritional value than a meal made 'from scratch'...so why would you pay more money for something that's processed, might alter your genetic code, contains unnatural substances like preservatives, and really only tastes decent because it has more sodium in it than a cow's salt block?
Well, one answer is that people in our society buy and eat these processed foods because they're convenient and we've either been programmed or programmed ourselves to identify them as "tasting good."
(Funny side story here: I always use that nasty, calorie-free spray butter. I was eating dinner at a friend's recently, and inquired as to what was done to the rolls to make them taste so good. The answer: "I put real butter on them."
Well holy cow.)
Points are these:
1.) While fast food is kind of fast, cooking your own meals and preparing your own food really doesn't take any more time than a 10 minute wait in the drive-thru. The end result is much healthier and satisfying too.
2.) Consuming real food with as few false ingredients or contaminants - i.e. locally or regionally grown vegetables, meat from local butchers that actually looks and smells like meat, locally harvested organic butter, milk, and cheese, beans, unprocessed rices, etc. - all of these things are healthier, and while some organically grown products may cost more, it can be argued that their sale helps local economies, and their consumption will save you from a heinous doctor bill, sooner or later.
So why doesn't everyone jump on the organically grown bandwagon?
As Severson points out, the cost of food is rising, and the dollar menus may remain appealing to Americans as their pockets get tighter, along with their pants.
I would argue, however, that along with my previous point that cooking at home really isn't that time-consuming, buying real food products to cook at home really isn't that expensive.
Ingredients for red beans and rice won't run more than $15, will yield enough tasty grub for a good number of people, and the dish is filling and pretty basic.
How to make red beans and rice? Well, here's where the cookbook industry comes in.
There are thousands of cookbooks with hundreds of recipes in them. If people do start seeking the value of real nutrition and real foods, and putting forth the effort to cook at home and save their health, then the cookbook industry will be a great resource for millions.
Shameless plug: Cookbook Marketplace is a great place to start one's cookbook collection.
It's my theory that while you might spend $20 on a cookbook, you'll save on grocery and health-related bills in the long run. Plus, you'll enjoy tastier food.
Severson touches on many points that I myself have discussed in casual conversation from time to time - the quality of mass-produced food products; the almost 21 million people in our nation with diabetes and the junk food many of them are eating; lack of subsidies for organic farmers, government subsidies for cheaply-grown commodities and the agricultural industry's reliance on oil and petroleum to harvest and transport massive amounts of grains, sugars and animal products (once known as 'meat') - and all the very complex mutual relationships that exist among those bureaucracies, etc.
Those are all very broad, complicated and multi-faceted issues, but there are, in my opinion, some bottom lines I'd like to discuss:
1.) It's hard to trust in the nutritional value of anything you buy in a grocery store.
2.) Anything that's pre-made and pre-packaged is going to cost more and likely hold less nutritional value than a meal made 'from scratch'...so why would you pay more money for something that's processed, might alter your genetic code, contains unnatural substances like preservatives, and really only tastes decent because it has more sodium in it than a cow's salt block?
Well, one answer is that people in our society buy and eat these processed foods because they're convenient and we've either been programmed or programmed ourselves to identify them as "tasting good."
(Funny side story here: I always use that nasty, calorie-free spray butter. I was eating dinner at a friend's recently, and inquired as to what was done to the rolls to make them taste so good. The answer: "I put real butter on them."
Well holy cow.)
Points are these:
1.) While fast food is kind of fast, cooking your own meals and preparing your own food really doesn't take any more time than a 10 minute wait in the drive-thru. The end result is much healthier and satisfying too.
2.) Consuming real food with as few false ingredients or contaminants - i.e. locally or regionally grown vegetables, meat from local butchers that actually looks and smells like meat, locally harvested organic butter, milk, and cheese, beans, unprocessed rices, etc. - all of these things are healthier, and while some organically grown products may cost more, it can be argued that their sale helps local economies, and their consumption will save you from a heinous doctor bill, sooner or later.
So why doesn't everyone jump on the organically grown bandwagon?
As Severson points out, the cost of food is rising, and the dollar menus may remain appealing to Americans as their pockets get tighter, along with their pants.
I would argue, however, that along with my previous point that cooking at home really isn't that time-consuming, buying real food products to cook at home really isn't that expensive.
Ingredients for red beans and rice won't run more than $15, will yield enough tasty grub for a good number of people, and the dish is filling and pretty basic.
How to make red beans and rice? Well, here's where the cookbook industry comes in.
There are thousands of cookbooks with hundreds of recipes in them. If people do start seeking the value of real nutrition and real foods, and putting forth the effort to cook at home and save their health, then the cookbook industry will be a great resource for millions.
Shameless plug: Cookbook Marketplace is a great place to start one's cookbook collection.
It's my theory that while you might spend $20 on a cookbook, you'll save on grocery and health-related bills in the long run. Plus, you'll enjoy tastier food.
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