AskTP – Packing It In

The storage locker is filling up. Boxes are being filled. Strollers have been sold. House repairs have been made. Everything is moving along nicely. We even now know where we will be living in Princeton.

Be advised that August will be a very transitional month. I’ll be roaming around the northeast doing a lot of traveling. There may be some interruptions of the FLB in transit. But I do look forward to sharing any insights into food I get from my time on the road.

Now I’m looking forward to sharing reader questions and matching them up with the answers they so richly deserve. From the beginning I committed to eventually answering every question that is asked in the comments section of the blog, just so long as it is asked using proper punctuation. And every other week, I write this feature to clear out the backlog.

For those who just like to scroll through these posts, each new question is tagged with the mystery link of the day. So if you are bored, or if I’m boring you, and perhaps feeling a little adventurous, I invite you to click away.

Now without any further ado, onto the questions.

caravan70 wants to know about local beans:
I hope this qualifies as a grammatically-correct question: do you have any local roasters that you would prefer to patronize, as opposed to ordering from afar? I’m always looking for more coffee options. Thanks!

Very well done. All you need is a question mark. You put one of those on the end of a question, and it will get answered. The big nationally famous coffee roasters have made a name for themselves by sourcing small lots of high quality beans and roasting them gently to express the flavor of the bean. The old guard sees the bean more as a canvas for the roast, with darker roasts reducing the acidity and tannins of green beans and providing a more pleasurable cup of coffee.

After spending far too little time with Matthew up in Saratoga’s Uncommon Grounds outpost, I’m glad to report that he’s working to bring this local institution up to the times. They’ve got some good stuff in their lineup as does Tierra Coffee Roasters.

Burnt My Fingers has a lot of faith in the “egg buyers” at HWFC:
I have infinite faith in you, Profusser, just not in your forensic skills re the freshness of the product on Honest Weight’s opening day. When are you likely to get fresher product: at a time when every shelf in the store has to be stocked and the store is probably making all kinds of compromises just to get it done, or at a later time when demand has resolved to a predictable level and the egg buyer can adjust the delivery schedule accordingly?

When demand resolves into a predictable level retailers start rotating stock. You can see this at Stewart’s and every other food retailer in the universe. Yes, they have eggs there that are three days from the chicken, but they also have the eggs that were brought the day before that, and the day before that, and so on. So you look at the sell-by dates and buy the youngest eggs. Because every single day counts.

Since the labeling isn’t always as clear with the stickers placed on generic cartons by micro egg producers, it’s a little difficult to gauge the age of the eggs at the co-op. I’d wager that the chances of grabbing any given container of eggs and picking up one that hasn’t sat around for a week (or more since being laid) is greater on opening day than any other time henceforth.

Honest Weight Food Co-op is participating in the conversation but ignored the last AskTP:
Our eggs come daily from many different local farms. They are delivered in small batches and some farms make multiple trips in a week. We also carry national organic eggs but LOVE the taste and variety of local eggs and building relationships with our AMAZING local vendors. Daniel, we want to know too… How did they taste?

Actually, I answered this last week. But I don’t really expect everyone to read every post on the FLB. So just to be gracious, I’ll repost the answer to this question from two weeks ago:

This is tricky, because I know how deceiving the brain can be with things like taste. The only way to tell for sure would be to conduct a tasting as a blind trial. My hunch is that these two specimens were close enough in flavor that one would not be able to pick the Stewart’s egg blindly with any statistical relevance over random chance. But with my eyes wide open, I had the distinct sense that the egg with the darker yolk had a richer, fuller flavor.

Mr. Dave smells some shenanigans about BMF’s guest post on Eating in Saratoga:
Haha! What are we doing here? Trying to capitalize on the pre-track season surge in “where to eat in Saratoga?” Google searches?

I’d be lying if I didn’t admit to thinking that this story might draw in a new audience to the FLB. However that wasn’t the intent of the post. For me it was twofold.

The first is laziness. Occasionally, I like to not write. But I also want to have something up on the FLB every day for those people who have become habitual readers of the blog. What can I say? I hold the FLB readers in high esteem, and I want to do right by them. I know by direct experience how frustrating it can be to find no fresh content on a beloved blog.

The second is equally selfish. I’m leaving soon. And while I’ll continue to write hopefully interesting thoughts on food, it will be much less focused on the Capital Region. Before I go, I’m trying to shine a light on some of the other voices in our local blogosphere. It’s thrilling for me to enjoy such a dynamic and enthusiastic group of readers, truly. I’m hoping to turn some of them on to more writers beyond the confines of the Times Union.

Jamie quotes the Buddhist Thich Nhat Hanh who asks good questions on mindful eating:
Most of the time, we barely look at the apple we are eating. We grab it, take a bite, chew it quickly, and then swallow. This time, take note: What kind of apple is it? What color is it? How does it feel in your hand? What does it smell like?

This is great stuff. Seriously. I did this recently with an apple imported from Chile, because it’s apple season somewhere. And it absolutely added to my enjoyment of the apple. As it turns out, I have a Buddhist cousin. Maybe this runs in the family.

Burnt My Fingers sees coincidence in the flames:
Franks Red Hot is one of the few unalloyed pleasures of dining in the CD. FYI, China Village just re-opened in Albany (CA that is) in case you get out that way. Less renowned than Chez Panisse, but equally missed while it was closed. (Due to a fire in both cases. Coincidence? I think… probably.)

I have no idea, but I’m thrilled. Now all that needs to happen is for The Original Joe’s to rebuild after their fire. All of my favorite places burn down. It’s not fair.

Eric Stott is trying to find a home for an old coffeemaker:
When you return to the Capital District (please) would you like a Ca. 1910 alcohol fired percolator? It works very well – if you like percolator coffee.

Thank you, but I’m going to have to decline. I have far too many devices for making coffee already, although yours sounds fascinating. Plus, there are far too many other devices that I already am interested in adding to my overflowing coffee maker cabinet.

addiesdad has a practical question about my day-to-day life in New Jersey:
Question: what will you do for a coffee machine in Princeton?

Probably the same thing I do now: Mrs. Fussy. She brews it, and when I’m lucky brings me a cup in bed. But if the stuff that pours out of Mr. Coffee continues to be unbearable, I may just drink cold brew all year long. It’s also unclear how the morning will flow with school drop off and bus pickups. Maybe I’ll get lucky and will be able to enjoy a leisurely French press or pour over every morning once the kids are away and the apartment is quiet. That would be lovely.

caravan70 is less convinced about the wisdom of wishing for New York Cuisine:
I don’t know about some sort of elevated upstate/Capital Region cooking style. It seems to me that people here know what they like, and that’s fine. There are some great Hudson Valley restaurants, but they relate more to downstate trends than to anything happening up here. Isn’t part of the charm of living in this area that, as you’ve frequently pointed out, that there are some great specialties that don’t break the bank, like mini-dogs? And if you want a truly luxe experience, you take 2 1/2 hours out of your day or weekend, and drive down to NYC or over to Boston?

Our regional specialties are charming. I might even go so far as to call them a treasure. And I’m not looking to exchange one for the other. The goal of looking for a New York Cuisine is not about having a luxe experience, but rather cultivating a taste of the place. Something that’s rooted in our local foods, but is tied together in a way that makes more sense than just ingredients on a plate. Just after writing the post, I came across a food truck in the Hudson Valley that I think is doing this beautifully.

Not only does it hit the Germanic notes, but because it’s focused on flamm, it also kind of ties into our local tavern culture. I couldn’t have hoped for a better example. That this truck popped into my Facebook feed yesterday is pure kismet.