7.28.2005
food is love
I remember walking into a health club in New Jersey to meet one-on-one with the trainer there. He showed me what he ate every day: four steamed chicken breasts on dry brown rice and a bucket of steamed brocolli. Certainly one loses weight: no one can stomach that much steamed chicken. I had never seen someone with such an adversarial relationship with food (with one exception: a friend of mine who was anorexic in college - that was scary). Sure, this trainer readily admitted that he hated his lunch, but that it was what he ate in order to look good.
I tried that one night: I only had white rice, but I steamed it as usual, and then threw some brocolli in on the steaming tray. I steamed a chicken breast and added pepper, being careful not to add any salt. It was inedible. I ended up shredding it the next day for chicken salad. I guess there's a reason I don't have washboard abs.
From the food sections of America today: some interesting morsels of information and fun.
My favorite for today is a delightful article subtitled as "The worldwide appeal of meat on a stick." Mmm...
This article on salt was printed a few weeks ago in the LA Times, I seem to recall. I didn't comment on it then, but I can now - it's entirely over the top and perfect food writing. It quotes Michael Chiarello, host of Food Network's "Easy Entertaining" show, as saying that "the great thing about olive oil, salt and wine is that they are affordable luxuries for everybody." I would disagree. Olive oil is not a luxury, it's a staple. Salt is a staple. Wine is generally not affordable. So I would beg to differ. I mean, I like salt a lot, and I enjoy salty food. I like my kebabs and my pretzels and my soy sauce. And I've been told I've got a pretty good palette. But I don't think that I could tell the difference between all of the different types of salt presented in that article. And after cooking, I'm not sure anyone else could either. The only thing I did do was buy a big box of kosher salt, since it can both season my food and detox my cutting board.
Also from this week's Chicago Tribune, an homage Gerry Thomas' invention, the TV dinner. Gerry Thomas is quoted in USA Today as saying "It's a pleasure being identified as the person who did this because it changed the way people live," Thomas said. "It's part of the fabric of our society." However, the rest of the article by the Associated Press which was excised by the USA Today editors, also have Gerry complaining that "I really didn't invent the dinner. I innovated the tray on how it could be served, coined the name and developed some unique packaging. If I'm the father of the TV dinner, who's the mother? I think it's ludicrous.” Indeed, the Tribune Article today reminded us of why we enjoy TV dinners: because they're fun and modular: because you can eat the dessert before you've finished the green beans, and because unlike with what mom or dad was cooking, you could choose something else. TV dinners are fantastic. I remember my younger brother Andrew: he used to cook the Swanson Hungry Man turkey dinners and then doctor them up. His favorite method was to take everything except the cranberry dessert and plop it into a big bowl. He'd add certain seasonings from our Dad's spice rack and then just stir up the whole mess into a sort of thanksgiving-meal-mush. It was surprisingly tasty, and I've done it a few times. Not recently: I wonder how they'd taste now that Swanson's gone to using all white-meat.
Still, the oddest pairing of articles came from today's New York Times and Boston Globe (incidentally, owned by the Times). Combine this recipe for Marinated White Anchovies with this article. Ew.
It's wonderful to be able to see the Red Sox play on TV. If you want frustration, click on the "GameDay" button on any mlb.com webpage. Then, for comparison, switch on the game that you're 'watching' online. It takes forever, you don't know what's going on, and what scant details are provided are maddeningly imprecise. And another thing I've missed? SportsCenter. Oh yes.
I tried that one night: I only had white rice, but I steamed it as usual, and then threw some brocolli in on the steaming tray. I steamed a chicken breast and added pepper, being careful not to add any salt. It was inedible. I ended up shredding it the next day for chicken salad. I guess there's a reason I don't have washboard abs.
From the food sections of America today: some interesting morsels of information and fun.
My favorite for today is a delightful article subtitled as "The worldwide appeal of meat on a stick." Mmm...
This article on salt was printed a few weeks ago in the LA Times, I seem to recall. I didn't comment on it then, but I can now - it's entirely over the top and perfect food writing. It quotes Michael Chiarello, host of Food Network's "Easy Entertaining" show, as saying that "the great thing about olive oil, salt and wine is that they are affordable luxuries for everybody." I would disagree. Olive oil is not a luxury, it's a staple. Salt is a staple. Wine is generally not affordable. So I would beg to differ. I mean, I like salt a lot, and I enjoy salty food. I like my kebabs and my pretzels and my soy sauce. And I've been told I've got a pretty good palette. But I don't think that I could tell the difference between all of the different types of salt presented in that article. And after cooking, I'm not sure anyone else could either. The only thing I did do was buy a big box of kosher salt, since it can both season my food and detox my cutting board.
Also from this week's Chicago Tribune, an homage Gerry Thomas' invention, the TV dinner. Gerry Thomas is quoted in USA Today as saying "It's a pleasure being identified as the person who did this because it changed the way people live," Thomas said. "It's part of the fabric of our society." However, the rest of the article by the Associated Press which was excised by the USA Today editors, also have Gerry complaining that "I really didn't invent the dinner. I innovated the tray on how it could be served, coined the name and developed some unique packaging. If I'm the father of the TV dinner, who's the mother? I think it's ludicrous.” Indeed, the Tribune Article today reminded us of why we enjoy TV dinners: because they're fun and modular: because you can eat the dessert before you've finished the green beans, and because unlike with what mom or dad was cooking, you could choose something else. TV dinners are fantastic. I remember my younger brother Andrew: he used to cook the Swanson Hungry Man turkey dinners and then doctor them up. His favorite method was to take everything except the cranberry dessert and plop it into a big bowl. He'd add certain seasonings from our Dad's spice rack and then just stir up the whole mess into a sort of thanksgiving-meal-mush. It was surprisingly tasty, and I've done it a few times. Not recently: I wonder how they'd taste now that Swanson's gone to using all white-meat.
Still, the oddest pairing of articles came from today's New York Times and Boston Globe (incidentally, owned by the Times). Combine this recipe for Marinated White Anchovies with this article. Ew.
It's wonderful to be able to see the Red Sox play on TV. If you want frustration, click on the "GameDay" button on any mlb.com webpage. Then, for comparison, switch on the game that you're 'watching' online. It takes forever, you don't know what's going on, and what scant details are provided are maddeningly imprecise. And another thing I've missed? SportsCenter. Oh yes.
