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.

Cheese Us, Christ!

After reading Kingsolver, I went ahead and ordered Ricki Carroll's 30-minute mozzarella and ricotta kit, and it turns out that things are much more difficult than ol' Barb lets on when it comes to cheesemaking. Either that, or I'm just a shitty cheesemaker (insert "but I'm good at cutting the cheese" joke here). Here are a few spots where I think I went wrong, just in case your cheesemaking curiosity has led you down the same path:

1. Patience (something I lack after 6 beers at 9pm on a Friday) is requisite. The whey will separate eventually. I don't think I gave it enough time.

2. After you slice the curd and go into the reheat process, be careful with the stirring. I did more harm than good by doing so.

3. Unless you're one of those people that can walk on hot coals, get a pair of gloves for the pulling process. The curd-cum-cheese is literally too hot to handle.

My end result wound up looking more like cottage cheese. The curds just wouldn't come together, so I trashed the whole batch. But I am not disheartened. A future post will document my imminent success. Until then, I'll have to be content as a schmo.

Juiced.

Special magic video from Gourmet.com teaching us that cutting a lemon lengthwise yields way more juice. Fascinating stuff.

Sorry

Sorry I've neglected the blog. I'm on vacation for the next two weeks, but check in after August 18th for more exciting news from the Beet.