Understanding Albany’s Love of Chains
Earlier this week in response to the frenzy over the Whole Foods opening in Colonie Center, Chris Churchill wrote a thought provoking piece in the Times Union entitled Chains are nice, but homegrown is better.
His arguments for supporting local businesses aren’t new. Nor is his concern about the region’s apparent inferiority complex. Churchill views our collective lust at the arrival of long awaited national brands as a regional desire to validate our existence in this remote (and long shunned) outpost of civilization.
Sure, there’s some truth to that, But I think the reality goes deeper and that he puts too much stock in this superficial argument. Churchill closes the piece with a rhetorical question, which perhaps is supposed to serve as a Socratic proof of sorts.
Here’s a question: Do you think people in San Francisco, a self-assured town if there ever was one, care that it lacks a Sonic?
And, when you visit a city like San Francisco, do you return and say, “Chinatown was OK, but what really impressed me was that Costco I found out in the ‘burbs!”
I don’t think he’s going to like my answer.
Final Rounds
Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Monday, if all goes to schedule, we pull out of Jersey. I’m not ready to go.
Mrs. Fussy is in London, and I’m in charge of packing. The kids want to play with their friends, and I want to get in a few last meals. My hopes of getting back to the Jersey shore are fading quickly, so I may have to make a follow up visit to make it to Maruca’s.
On top of it all, since I abhor waste, I’m valiantly trying to use up every last bit of food in the fridge, freezer and pantry. Part of me wanted to make one last batch of chicken stock and gift it to our Israeli friends across the courtyard, but at this point I don’t see that happening either.
As the move gets closer, I’m more and more motivated to try morsels that I’ve missed over the many months we’ve lived here. In the past two days, I’ve made four stops (and probably put on at least as many pounds). Two of them were worth it, the others I found to be a bit overhyped.
No Votes No Complaints
2014 was the year I decided to ignore the Times Union’s Best of the Capital Region Poll entirely. In past years I’ve tried to meddle with the outcome by compiling a slate of truly exceptional places, and getting like minded people to vote along FLB party lines.
Some folks dismiss my scheme as anti-democratic. But such compromise and cooperation is exactly how our democracy is able to get things done. At least in theory anyhow.
And it was after an open letter to the Times Union on the FLB that the paper reconsidered how it asks the questions on the poll. Now it is a lot less likely for big chains with multiple locations to be deemed the best in a category simply based on the restaurant’s ubiquity.
This year I did nothing. That was part of my sabbatical. Also, I now carry a list of local recommendations in the header of the blog. Frankly, I can’t even remember if I voted. And if you don’t vote, I say that you cannot complain about the outcome. Democracy requires participation. But AddiesDad wrote in with his observation that this year’s results are a big step backwards and asked for my thoughts. This list has had reverberations elsewhere, so what harm could come from putting my spin on them?
Okay. Well, here it goes.
Vermont Maple Grade Inflation
Real maple syrup is non-negotiable. Pancake syrup or other maple-flavored syrups, regardless of whether they are all natural or artificially flavored, are a blight upon the world.
If there is no real maple, your choices are limited. Most likely at a place that only stocks some cheap imitation, the jam is probably some high-fructose corn syrup and pectin concoction. Hopefully the joint at least uses real butter. Then at least you could sweeten your French toast or pancakes with a bit of powdered sugar. I’d avoid commercial honey too, since that can be nothing more than a simple sugar syrup stripped of everything that made it honey in the first place.
Ah, the wonders of modern food production. Isn’t progress marvelous.
As you likely know, real maple comes in grades. Soon, those grades will be changing. You may start seeing them now, but by 2015 they should be firmly in place. While I’m bummed that my underappreciated (and thus occasionally bargain-priced) Grade B will be renamed “Grade A Dark with Robust Taste”, the truth is that the secret of Grade B’s robust maple flavor has long been out of the bag. Plus the new grading system promises to include the mysterious Grade C which up until now wasn’t available for retail sale.
But recently, I had an experience with maple that turned my world a bit upside down.
Slaves to Shrimp
Was anything ever simple? Or were we just better at lying to ourselves once upon a time?
Today’s global society has some tremendous advantages. For example, local coffee roasters can buy direct from small quality growers around the world and help make sure that farmers get a fair price for their hard work. I love being able to get noodles from Korea, cans of sweetened mango pulp from India and value-priced grassfed beef from Australia.
Sure, I like eating locally. However, when it comes to local food I’m driven by flavor and craft, and not by the environmental impacts of shipping food around the world. Personally, I like to manage my carbon footprint in other ways.
The downside of a global industrial food system is that supply chains get fantastically long and complicated. And with so much food moving around, small cracks in the system can have big impacts. I still can’t wrap my mind around chickens being raised in the US, sent to China for processing, and then returned to America for retail sale.
I have two tales to tell that were circulating in the news. Maybe you’ve seen them and maybe you haven’t. The one thing they both share is that they are far from simple.
Whole Foods Opening Without Me
Never. If you asked me when I thought Albany would get a Whole Foods, I’d say never. And even when the grocer announced its plan to bring a market to the Colonie Center Sears, I wasn’t fully convinced that it would actually open.
Tomorrow. That’s when it happens for real.
Yesterday, or so it seems, the Capital Region had only two grocery stores, neither of which really appeared to be trying that hard to provide great produce, meats, or anything that might connect food to joy or well-being. Sure, there was the co-op, but it too was cramped, dingy and crazy expensive for non-working members. Adventure in Food Trading was a small bright spot. All of this drove the desperate two hours to the nearest Trader Joe’s with coolers in tow.
Today that has changed. There’s been massive expansion, renovation, and a surge of competition in Albany’s grocery and specialty food markets. It has been great for consumers, and it has absolutely improved the level of food available to residents of the region.
To give everyone just a tease of what’s to come, Whole Foods invited some members of the local media for a tour of the new store. While I’m totally bummed to be missing the grand opening tomorrow, I’m delighted that Jennifer Hernandez of Sweetly Tart agreed to come out of semi-retirement to cover the story for the FLB.
Here is her report. Read more…
Spending Spring
Spring foods always seem to come a bit closer to summer than spring. It’s always a bit frustrating, but it does make sense. Plants need time to grow. And you can’t rush nature.
Well, that’s not entirely true. Of course, you can rush nature. That’s where all of those hormones and antibiotics used for quick growth of livestock come into play. Let’s just say that one shouldn’t rush nature.
Great rewards come to those who wait.
Some of those rewards come in the form of seasonal produce, enjoyed at the peak of the season. It’s especially exciting if you happen to eat seasonally the rest of the year and abstain from lesser versions of these foods that are grown in greenhouses or shipped halfway around the world. Even with a global supply chain, there are just some things that are only available for a very short window every year.
There are plenty of people who get excited by the first ramps, fiddleheads, and garlic scapes of the season. I can’t blame them. After months of ice and snow, these are among the first edible forms of life to spring from the earth.
For me the glory of spring is found a few weeks later, but if you blink you might miss it. And as I learned last week, they are worth almost any price.
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