Ask the Profussor – Digging Out

I started off the year so well. My first Ask the Profussor of 2012 was only eleven days in and totally manageable. But after a few busy weeks and a massive pile up of questions, the second installment of answers wasn’t able to clear out my in-box.

Really, I actually did answer all the questions. It’s just that they took up so much space Mrs. Fussy couldn’t get through them all. And if she couldn’t do it, the thought was that none of you would be able to either. No big deal though. I planned to simply follow up today with the remainder and whatever few stray questions happen to come in over the course of the week.

But what a week it has been.

We’ve talked about all kinds of hot-button issues like diet, what it means to be “The Best,” and diet. To say there are more than a few questions to arise from all these comments would be an understatement. Diet turns out to be one hot topic. Still, I’m committed to answering everything asked, so long as it includes a question mark. Please just bear with me as I dig out.

Hold onto your hats and sunglasses, and keep your hands and arms inside the vehicle at all times. Today’s post is a long and wild ride. Maybe in the future I’ll finally get better about answering questions as they come in. But for now let’s get cracking.

Amy asks a great question that requires a fair bit of background information:
Because I have gotten used to food with lower salt, I find most restaurant foods to taste very salty. I know it must be just me because my dining companions usually don’t notice it being overly salty. So I would appreciate a restaurant that holds back on the salt. But I know that other people, particularly smokers who have killed all their tastebuds, need to have a lot of salt in their food to make it taste good to them. So what’s a chef to do?

Great question. Tastemakers need to be guided by their palates. That’s what makes them taste makers. Otherwise they would simply be cooks making people what they want to eat. I believe the job of a chef is the former and not the latter. And that means a chef needs to make the tastiest food possible, based on what they think good food should be.

Tonia joins the ranks of people who don’t understand why I care:
Furthermore, at the end of the day, what does it hurt if there is a shaker on the table or not? Really. Who cares. If this is all we have to worry about, then life is good, I would say. :-)

It doesn’t hurt anyone. But leaving a saltshaker off a table says something about the chef’s confidence. Putting a small saltshaker on the table says something about anticipating the diner’s every whim. Putting a large saltshaker on the table suggests you are at a diner. For me it’s a canary in a coalmine. And if I’m going to be paying a lot of money for a meal, I appreciate the gesture of self-confidence.

Chuck Miller probably didn’t mean this as a question, but I’m going to answer it:
“Oh, you voted for Olive Garden for best Italian Restaurant? What’s wrong with you?”

Look. I actually don’t think people who like the Olive Garden are tasteless rubes. Really, I don’t. They simply have different priorities. And I get that. People eat for lots of reasons, and people have all kinds of different attitudes about spending money, class, comfort, and familiarity. Others are risk adverse. Others still have been burned at lackluster local establishments. People do things for a reason. And to dismiss people out of hand without discovering the basis for their actions serves nobody’s best interest.

The trick is to find the driver that sends people into places like Olive Garden and use that as the basis of an argument for change. If you like Subway because you think it’s healthful, then I’m going to come at you with why it isn’t. If you prefer Olive Garden because of their price to value ratio, I’m going to give you better alternatives. People are creatures of habit, and old habits are hard to break. But it’s not impossible.

Eric Paul is reminding me of chocolatiers from my past:
Have you ever tried Michael Recchiuti chocolates from your old stomping grounds? I used to sell Burdick and Recchiuti chocolates.

I have and I do enjoy them very much. It’s been a long time. If I remember correctly, I felt their flavors pushed the envelope a little further and that on an ounce-by-ounce basis were a bit more expensive. But they are both in the same stylistic category of La Maison du Chocolat and in my opinion run circles around the more popular ultra-high end chocolatiers.

jenh718 has a point, but I’ve got a counter point:
We have a master chocolatier much closer to home, Frank Vollkommer of The Chocolate Mill in Glens Falls. He’s also a Certified Master Pastry Chef. Local or mail order? The choice is easy for me.

I haven’t had his stuff, but I’ve seen pictures. It does not appear to be the crazy thin-shelled bonbons that I treasure. His flavors may be brilliant, but for me fine chocolate is as much about texture than anything else.

edible obsessions makes an argument for resisting granularity in the Best Of poll:
Thick vs Thin crust pizza? Really? How about best place to eat on a Friday vs. Saturday? This is where a good idea can be completely ruined by being over thought or broken down into the most miniscule of details. It’s a readers poll from a newspaper, not the Zagat guide.

I’m with you. Metroland has their crazy Best of the Capital Region list, which to me always seems like an excuse to sell more advertising. Yes, I do see the upside and the temptation to go this route, but the Capital Region isn’t quite large enough to justify cutting the pie into so many pieces.

edible obsessions is also unthrilled with the idea of a published Best Of guide:
Are you going to pay for that? Are you doing to advertise in it to pay for it? It’s great that you want all of these fantastic things, but are you willing to pony up the dough for the added cost or, like most, will you just toss it away and look up the results online like the majority of people will?

Although I do kind of like the idea of a booklet. The Times Union prints all kinds of supplemental materials. This seems like it could have legs. But pushing for this isn’t my priority. There are larger more fundamental problems to solve with the Best of the Capital Region poll first. Maybe once it gets into a better place we can campaign for something like this.

My tour buddy Eric Scheirer Stott simply wanted to know:
Have you tried Nora’s Candy Shop in Rome NY?

No, I haven’t. But I have heard about it. My to do list is long…and delicious.

Speaking of tours, KB @ Home-Baked Happiness had this to day:
Ooh, ice cream sounds good! (But what about the cupcake-off? :) )

It’s homemade hard ice cream. Perhaps the working title of the Tour de Hard Ice Cream is The Snowman Cometh. Sorry. And I have not forgotten about the cupcake-off. I needed to get the Tour de Egg Sandwich off my plate, and now I can focus on this long awaited event. You people are incredibly patient, and I thank you for that. Also please remember that the cupcake-off will be invitation only, and will only be posted about on the FLB after the results are in. If you are interested in participating, please make sure that I know, so I can email you with the confidential details.

Michelle isn’t convinced that I have fully emasculated the Super Bowl:
It all sounds very manly to me. But then again, what do I know? My manly husband doesn’t even watch football. Still, sausage seems manly enough to me.

I attempted to whisk up my own mayonnaise by hand (which failed). But I did manage to caramelize my onions for the duck and foie gras sausages. Those, by the way, were delicious on toasted Bella Napoli soft torpedo rolls. Oh, and I drank all of my beer from a glass. They don’t even give you a glass at the newly gussied up Ruby Tuesday.

Mr. Sunshine wants to know about the scope of the FUSSYlittleBALLOT 3.0:
What about the Saratoga Farmers Market? Too far?

It’s not too far. Mrs. London’s is in Saratoga and that’s been on the ballot for two years in a row. If you would like to see the Saratoga Farmers Market on the ballot, I invite you to make your case for why it is the best. To help you out the current frontrunner seems to be Troy, so if you want to be comparative as to how it’s better, that would be the most compelling.

KB @ Home Baked Happiness breaks my heart when she asks:
Why would I go to another grocery store when I already have a good one near my house?

The blunt and honest truth is that while one of our grocery stores is doubtless the best of what we’ve got, there is no one great grocery store in our area. That means if you really care about such things it pays to shop around.

You go to another grocery store because you don’t settle for good. You go to another grocery store in the hopes that you find one that is better. And if it’s not better overall, it may be better for some things. These places exist. Just look at the nominations.

Crystal seems to have no faith in the heathcare industry’s profit making potential:
Do you know how much money the healthcare industry would loose of people were actually healthy?

I don’t. But I’m sure they would find a way to profit. And presumably insurance companies would do better too, charging people premiums and never having to pay out.

ajw93 gets it:
Buying organic milk makes me feel good, but feeding cows organic corn is not *really* solving the problem, now is it?

No it is not. But it is solving a different problem, namely the widespread use of antibiotics and GMOs in animal feed. Minor incremental improvements are still improvements. I don’t want people to shun organic milk for its conventional counterpart because they think it’s all marketing mumbo jumbo. It’s a small step in the right direction.

irisira probably didn’t mean to step into a shitstorm with her innocent remark:
Pizza isn’t considered health food, but since when is eating a turkey sandwich considered unhealthy?

[deep breath] Please, do not glorify the turkey sandwich. When I think about those poor virtuous souls who stoically chew down their bland lunchtime repast in the name of good health it makes me sad.

There is only one turkey sandwich that people love. And that is the leftover Thanksgiving sandwich, filled with hand carved turkey, stuffing, cranberries and gravy (maybe even with some potatoes). Everything else is heavily processed turkey deli meat, between industrially produced bread loaded with dreck, slathered with mayonnaise made from GMO soybeans and sad eggs that were raised on GMO soybeans and corn. It wouldn’t surprise me if there was more technology involved in making that sandwich as was required for inventing the telephone or the first computers.

And I didn’t even talk about cheese, or the Florida tomatoes you get in February, or the raw lettuce that’s potentially as dangerous as undercooked hamburger. [end rant]

Weenie Girl gave me some homework:
As it turns out, my question is completely relevant (I was going to ask it even if it wasn’t). Have you seen this article? Will you please read through (it’s not too long…I promise)? I’ll look forward to your thoughts on the next Ask the Profusser.

Per your request I read through the article, which would have otherwise escaped my attention. Olive oil, like all comestibles, comes in many different quality brackets. What they are saying in the article is true. But I’m not sautéing my string beans in freshly harvested and pressed single-estate olive oil, just as I’m not sipping the stuff I get from Trader Joe’s to use for cooking.

I’ve written about this before, but we generally keep two levels of XV olive oil in the house. The better tasting mass-produced kind for cooking, and smaller production more expensive ones for drizzling on things (including challah on Friday nights). Salads, given the volume of oil they require, can go either way depending on how indulgent we are feeling.

Chris asks the million-dollar question:
I commented in an earlier post about the nasty food I ate as a kid… back in the times when every kid ate peanut butter and lived to tell about it. What has happened? Did something happen to our food or have people gotten super paranoid?

It’s not paranoia. And I wish I knew. Clearly something has changed. I’m putting my money on the unintended consequences of crop monoculture. But wouldn’t it be funny if the answer was something like fetal exposure to cigarette smoke inhibited the allergens found in peanuts. That would mean that more people are getting sick because on the whole we’re getting healthier. Ha!

Burnt my Fingers is calling the question on William Kennedy:
Best local writer about food & drink?

Well, let me just say that this is a title that I aspire to achieve. I’ll let Mr. Kennedy have it for now.

S. totally calls me out:
You really believe your own bs, don’t you?

Yes. Yes I do. But I also believe it’s not bullshit, and I’d like the chance to change your mind. So if you let me know what you take issue with, we can talk it out.

Katie has another solution to my cholesterol concerns:
What about exercise?

I view that as the nuclear option. I suspect it will work, but I’m saving that as a last resort. I can be happy eating a reduced cholesterol diet. The transition is hard. And really, I’ve been eating like a jerk for a long time now. Beef fat and cartilage slow cooked its own rendered fat, salted and eaten as a pre-dinner snack was insanely delicious, and I do not regret the indulgence. But I was a bit out of control.

Jess (the one in the city and not in California) feels my pain:
When I read the bit about giving up cheese, my heart hurt for you. Barbeque, eggs, even icecream, fine. But cheese?! On an optimistic note, there are wonderful things that can be done with oatmeal these days, and who doesn’t love more red wine in their diet?

There is precious little cheese to be eaten up here on a regular basis that is worth the fat and calories. Yes, I should get out to our local neighborhood farms a whole lot more than I do. And the good folks at Adventure in Food Trading can bring in a whole lot of good things wholesale. But aside from a few wedges of Parm-Reg, and the occasional treat from AiF, The Cheese Traveler is my exclusive purveyor. Luckily he’s only operating in a limited capacity for the next few months anyhow.

I got used to giving up cheese a long time ago when I moved from a place where I was surrounded by amazing cheese counters to one where such a thing did not exist.

I’m actually going to call techcommdood out on his question to a fellow reader:
Sediment chunks? Really? You should study up on craft beer to learn what those chunks are and why it’s important you see them there.

Okay, mister smartypants. Since I make no claims to knowing about craft beer, can you please clear up this issue on chunks and why they are important? Thanks in advance.

Dominique who owns Hudson-Chatham winery asks:
And hey, how about a category for Best Local Winery?

This is like the category for Best health food store. When there only is one serious contender does it even need a listing? Seriously, I think to deserve a category there should be strong second and third place contenders. With Hudson-Chatham on the top, who else even comes close?

irisira is going to let me settle this debate, and I’m glad for the chance:
Best can be subjective, but it far more objective. I think location may play into it in very limited circumstances, but, for example, that wine store without a parking lot may be in a pedestrian neighborhood and therefore easier to access for someone without a car. Who is right?

The best wine store needs to be judged on what happens inside the store. Parking and accessibility should play no part in this decision. If it’s truly the best, people will move Heaven and Earth to get in there. Much like people put up with the miserable parking conditions at the Honest Weight Food Co-op. Right now, it’s the best in its class in the region. You can’t seriously ding it for such ancillary concerns.

legsbenedict who is a new commenter asks:
When’s the next tour and do you have a Tour de schedule?

There is no concrete schedule. But I aim for four tours, one per season. They alternate between sweet and savory. The next one will be sometime in the spring and will feature hard ice cream. Summer’s savory tour is still a bit up in the air. Next fall I fully expect to head north to Saratoga’s apple country for another Tour de Cider Donut. In winter I’d like to tackle fried mozzarella with raspberry sauce. Naturally, all of this is subject to change.

Darren Shupe is preaching a relativism that I reject:
If you’re looking for great produce, you might go to one place, and and if you’re trying to find USDA prime beef, say, you would most likely go to another. We all see these things through narrowed eyes that reflect our own desires, and though we can try for objectivity, there’s always going to be that element of “what do I like?” in any such decision.

Sure. However, The Best place needs to be serviceable in all departments. Walmart’s wonderful grocery section gets summarily dismissed because of its weak meat selection. The Asian Supermarket can’t compete because of its lack of everyday consumer packaged goods staples. Some Hannaford stores have disgusting looking produce. The fish counter at some Price Choppers look all but abandoned.

The above reasoning may mean that The best grocery store does not actually have any of the best individual departments, but that doesn’t mean it’s not the best overall.

Building the ballot is hard, and I’m really asking people to take a much broader view than they do in everyday life. It’s not about your favorite place to shop, what is most convenient, or what fits best into the narrow criteria you favor. Rather, I’m asking you to think about what makes a grocery store the best (not just to you, but your friends and neighbors too), and helping to identify which individual locations fill the bill.

It’s crazy, I know. But I’m thrilled to have so many people playing along at home.