Obama Foodorama

Happy New Year all! Thought I'd share a few thoughts on Obama Foodorama, LA blogger Eddie Gehman Kohan's site that captures food-related news about our president-elect.

This morning I finally got around to reading Michael Pollan's piece in the NY Times magazine. It's worth the read, but if you're short on time, Jeremy previously posted the Cliffs Notes. Thanks Cease! The article led me on a search for related content. Enter Obama Foodorama. I'll admit that global warming aside, I hadn't thought much about Obama's position on food in comparison to his stance on other issues (like global friendliness). But yeah...this is so fascinating and necessary when you think about how food affects pretty much everything we do.

Obama Foodorama blends news with fluff (e.g. Michelle Obama is a fan of Paula Deen. Yes!) and the the occasional examination of policy. I'm hoping that as Obama transitions into office, the blog will continue the fun while increasing a focus on the desire for massive (gasp!) political change. Surely I'm not the only one wanting to see a victory garden planted on the carefully tended White House grounds.

Great hunks of meat

The Feedbag Makes Gyros at BZGrill from The Feedbag on Vimeo.

I've always wondered what a shawarma looks like before it's a shawarma. Now I know.

Nice Balls

Success! Taking a sick day, playing the metal channel, and using a recipe graciously provided by the Cease (thanks for the pity), I was finally able to perform dairy alchemy, although the results were far from perfect. My mozz was lacking in stretchiness, possibly resulting from not bringing the whey up to temperature (which kept the curds somewhat brittle), but for now, I'll take it. The flavor is most certainly mozzarella, and I am most certainly a believer in the third time being the charm. Good luck in your own personal cheese misadventures.

Abbreviated Pollan

For those of us (me included) who haven't read Michael Pollan's 8,000 word New York Times Magazine piece about re-thinking our food culture, Michael Ruhlman has heroically cut it down to it's essentials here. Some of my favorite proposals include:

• Provide cities grants with which to build structures for year-round farmers markets.
• Require federal institutions that prepare food (school lunches, prisons, military bases, etc.) to buy a minimum percentage of that food locally.
• Food stamp debit cards should double in value when swiped at a framers’ market.

Eating China Food

The lovely and talented friend of To Be or Not To Beet, Emily Murphy, has decamped for a year to teach American culture to University students in Hong Kong. As a devoted eater, she's posting her witty musings and lovely photos of her food adventures on her travel blog. I'm jealous of her access to every Hong Kong movie-goers favorite treat, noodles in a bag, which sounds a hell of a lot better than stale popcorn with coconut oil "butter" topping, no?

School of Cheese

Fidel Gastro, AKA the Big Queso, isn't the only one out there who wants in on the world of lactose-tinged delights. If you've got $500 burning a hole in your pocket (even after the great market plunge of 2008), check out Murray's Cheese Boot Camp. 3 days, lots of cheese and a chance to show off at your next caseophile cocktail party.

Mozzarella, take two

The learning curve is steep. My hands are burned (seriously). I blew it once again. This time, I got the curds to set, but when I got to the heating and kneading process, my hands just couldn't take the heat, so I followed the advice of Ludacris (among others) and got out of the kitchen, leaving another blob that would not behave as promised. Lame.