AskTP – Counting Down
It’s getting real. We’ve got a tenant for the house. We’ve put a deposit down on some storage space. We’ve booked the moving van. And we’re starting to put things in boxes.
At the end of July, we’re heading off on our next adventure in Princeton. But come next July we’ll be back. Still, that means only three more installments of Eat This on All Over Albany before I leave. And similarly only three* more editions of Ask the Profussor after today.
For anyone who may be new to the FUSSYlittleBLOG, Ask the Profussor is a regular feature where every other week I assemble the questions from the comments section of the blog and answer them all in one fell swoop. My commitment to readers of the FLB is that all questions will get the answers they deserve. That doesn’t mean they’ll be timely. It doesn’t even guarantee they’ll be correct. But dammit, they’ll be answers.
Now without further ado, onto the questions.
Gathering Granola
I’ve learned that if you write a food blog for long enough, people will start offering to send you food. Some of it is good. Some of it is not so good. Some of it is peculiar. Some of it is absolutely vile. But all of it is free.
We don’t talk about the ones that are vile. What’s the point? Likely these aren’t even food items on your radar. Nothing is to be gained by punching the gift horse in the mouth. And it’s not like I’m running out of topics to write about. On the contrary. If I ever had the time (or an incentive to maximize pageviews) I could easily bang out a second post every day.
Luckily for all concerned, I’m not at that point yet.
But I did get a package of granola from Gatherer’s recently. Actually, it was probably some time ago now. Did I mention the backlog? I promise that the Tap House maple syrup was sitting around even longer. Anyway, Gatherer’s included all three of their flavors. So naturally I put them into a competition with themselves to see which flavor came out on top.
Bye Bye Baseball
Baseball is a team sport. As a young kid all of my peers played baseball, I joined a T-ball team and even went to a variety of summer baseball camps to try and hone my skills. Still, I was the archetype of the bumbling right fielder who stood in the outfield hot and bored. But at the same time I was praying that nobody hit a pop fly my way.
It was miserable. As was soccer. As was basketball.
Tennis on the other hand was a lot of fun. There was no team I was letting down if I missed the ball. It was just me versus the other guy. Victories and losses were my own. I also enjoyed the serenity of sailing–being alone in a boat–man versus nature.
Of all the sports I attempted as a kid, baseball was the worst. But my Pop Pop loved baseball. Specifically, he loved the Mets. And he took me to my very first professional ballgame. I could never get into watching baseball on TV, but man, did I enjoy going to the ballpark to watch the game played live. And not just on the professional level, because I caught a minor league game in Altoona a few years back, and that was fun too.
At this point you may be wondering what any of this has to do with the FLB.
Every Day is Donut Day
My first San Francisco advertising job was with a small agency that specialized in health and natural foods. It was a crash course in spirulina, homeopathy, supplements, sprouted wheat breads, organics, rice milk, and vitamin packs.
But I had just moved from Philly by way of Miami (which at the time I considered the sixth borough of New York). And I had yet to shed my East Coast habits despite being immersed in West Coast culture.
So one morning when I was eating breakfast at my desk I was surprised by my co-worker’s surprise. She pointed to my breakfast and said, “What’s that?!” Well, I was still relatively new at the agency, and thought for a moment that it was verboten to eat beyond the confines of the agency kitchen.
Nope. That wasn’t it. I realized she was looking upon my choice of breakfast with horror and maybe just a twinge of revulsion. The funny thing was there were only two things on my desk, and her repugnance wasn’t directed at my coffee.
Gonzo Gelato Grazing
Nobody in their right mind would lead a ragtag group of fourteen adults across three counties to sample the wares of five different gelato shops in one day.
But I did. And fourteen adults of otherwise sound mind decided to volunteer their bodies to the Tour de Gelato.
The idea here was to get a broad snapshot of each gelato case to try and determine which is the best place to get this frozen Italian dessert in the Capital Region. After all, we already have a pretty good sense of where to go for homemade hard ice cream and soft serve. Maybe next spring we can tackle frozen yogurt in my absence.
Anyhow there are a ton of findings from the event. So let’s get to it.
The Apartment Living Challenge
All of you who are waiting for the results of the Tour de Gelato are just going to have to wait a wee little bit longer. I promised them to Albany Jane by Wednesday morning, and dammit, I’m going to have all those scoresheets wrangled by then.
The tour was a ton of fun. Although I learned a valuable lesson for the future. If possible, frontload the eating and backload the driving. Maybe I’ll remember that for the next go-around.
There was even some talk about continuing the quarterly Albany tours in my absence. Whether or not I’ll be making any tours in New Jersey is also an open question.
Speaking of New Jersey, this move is getting very real. We have rented out our home and will have vacated the premises by August 1. With only two months to go, we’re in packing mode. I’ve already donated the third of my wardrobe that I never wore. The car is filled with boxes of books we never read. And the kitchen? Well that’s another story.
Hudson Berkshire Wine Fest Recap
FUSSYlittleNOTE: Today we’re doing something different. Below is a guest post from my friend, former cupcake co-judge and fellow Fighting Quaker Innae Park. When I couldn’t attend the inaugural Hudson-Berkshire Wine & Food Fest, she bravely stepped up and volunteered. Here is her report. It even includes pictures.
Cloudy, cold, windy and rainy. All adjectives you would normally shudder at when describing Memorial Day weekend – but it just so happened that this holiday coincided with an indoor wine and food festival. That’s right, indoor.
The first ever Hudson Berkshire Wine and Food Festival was held at the Columbia County fairgrounds in Chatham, with 16 food vendors, 9 exhibitors, 12 wineries, four distilleries and two breweries taking part.
This may not seem all that bizarre to you, but until last fall, craft breweries, distilleries, and even wineries weren’t able to sell their product at certain events where they provided tastings. Since Governor Cuomo announced regulatory changes at the state’s first Wine, Beer and Spirits Summit, that’s changed. And inevitably, my wallet is much emptier.
Enough about me. Back to the beverages!
So Much For No GMO Wheat
You have to love the timing. On Wednesday I was commiserating with a reader who was fed up with uninformed anti-science GMO protesters. The reader cited activist claims about GMO wheat when there is no GMO wheat.
Then guess what happened on Thursday?
There was a big news story about GMO wheat being found in a field in Oregon. It was in The New York Times, the USDA has a press release on it, and before the end of the day Japan had cancelled a tender to buy US wheat on the heels of the news. You see, even though most of America doesn’t care that much about what they eat, the same is not true for the rest of the world. Even China labels GMOs.
Let’s get something straight before we go any further. This isn’t a post about inciting panic. I’m confident that there is no imminent public safety concern. However, this incident shines a light on some important and prickly issues surrounding genetically engineered crops, some of their problems, and the real negative impact they can have on American agriculture.
That said, it’s reasonable to be concerned. After all, GMO wheat has never been approved for commercial production. This is why I supported the claim on Wednesday that there is no GMO wheat. Monsanto had been testing GMO wheat, but abandoned the project in 2004. And according to the New York Times, “The last field test of that type of wheat in Oregon was in 2001.”
Here is what nobody is explicitly asking. How can something appear twelve years after it was removed from the fields? And if its not really gone in Oregon, which of the other 15 states where it was tested continue to grow this transgenic plant unbeknownst to everyone involved?
Cooking for Four
I love my family. I love introducing my kids to new foods, especially ones they enjoy. I love spending time with my wife, lingering over dinner with a glass of wine.
Cooking for my family? That’s another matter entirely.
Sure, there are some dishes that are universally loved by everyone around the table. Cuban black beans with sweet potatoes? Big hit. Spaghetti with meatballs (imported from Providence)? Nothing but happy faces. Friday night roast chicken with challah and pan seared string beans? Well, sometimes Little Miss Fussy sniffs at the vegetables.
There are other dishes that are hit or miss. Sometimes they go over well, and other times they get a lukewarm reception. Savory bread pudding used elicit tears from one of the children, but now it seems to be on the safe list. Stirfry used to be a weekly dish until Mrs. Fussy tired of its flavor profile.
And then there are the things that one person loves and are non-starters for the rest of the family. Young Master Fussy loves fried rice, but the ladies of the house don’t go for it, so when he and I are alone together I might bang one out.
In theory we have a framework in place for dealing with this.
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