More Than Just Cheese
Fancy foods and health foods are not the same thing. And this may be hard to believe, but amazingly delicious things come from other countries than Italy. I mention this because many stores that sell the best ingredients in the world are often muddled by other interests. Thanks to Adventure in Food Trading I haven’t longed for a specialized fine foods purveyor, but now that we have one in the form of The Cheese Traveler, I’m overjoyed.
Health foods and fine foods on some level share a similar ethos. They both tend to favor small production, without a lot of chemical additives. And there is plenty of overlap as well. Take something like Ronnybrook creamline milk. Is it special because it’s made without antibiotics or hormones? Or is it special because healthy animals are given great things to eat and slowly turn it into rich, delicious milk with a decadent layer of cream on top? Naturally, the answer is both. But a health food store might stock the dairy’s butter, while a fine foods market would realize there are better butters elsewhere.
It’s gotten to the point where one doesn’t even blink at considering Whole Foods a source for fine foods. But in its heart of hearts it’s a health food store. Just walk in the door, take a deep smell, and you’ll know. I have no idea what that smell is, but I suspect it comes from the herbal supplements aisle.
Here in Albany most of our fine foods markets are Italian delis. And they are great. I wish there were a few that specialized in the foods of a particular region and went deeper into those cuisines. But they do have some tasty things and have served me well.
Still, it was with immense pleasure that I made my first purchase from The Cheese Traveler’s retail store yesterday. If you love food, you have to go. Even if you hate cheese, you have to go. Even if you are too broke to buy fancy food, you have to go.
Really? Yes, really.
Potluck Promises
Almost every month I go to a potluck dinner at my temple. These have been incredibly tricky in the past. Mostly because the food has to travel and sit for the better part of an hour while it takes the journey from home to its destination. The arrival of a slow cooker, complete with locking lid for travel, has made it easier.
But what makes it harder is that I have incredibly high standards and expectations for myself. And I’m also super-competitive. Which means that I want what I bring to be the best dish on the table.
Oh, and I also aim to keep it vegetarian, seasonal and local/organic.
So in the past I’ve had a bunch of different organic cornmeal-based dishes during the winter. There was the tamale pie and the polenta bake. Also in winter was the sweet potato, carrot and prune tzimmes with the vegetables coming from my CSA.
Last Friday I made something with primarily Roxbury produce, organic butter, and a little bit of spice that hailed from Pakistan. It was easy and delicious, and I was asked for the recipe. Luckily I have a pretty easy way of sharing these kinds of things.
Fallbany Conflicts
One day I should try to eat in some dining hall on the SUNY Albany campus. Part of that would be to observe the state of food being served to college students in this town. But the other part of that would be to see how college kids eat.
A million years ago when I was in school I ate like shit. But it was Philly and at the time that seemed like part of the regional culture. You know, steak sandwiches with grilled onions and cheese sauce plus french fries with even more cheese sauce on the side. Naturally there was soda to wash it all down and for dessert, ice cream. Always ice cream.
But I justified it because I’d usually only be able to afford that one meal a day. Dinner was often a roll, potato salad or a pack of ramen. Wow, that sounds bad. I’ve come a long way from those dark days. And even though there were presumably healthier choices I wasn’t making any of them.
Still, today we are living under a much more pervasive food culture. Kids now are familiar with Fast Food Nation and many know of Michael Pollan. The farm-to-table ethos was ballyhooed by the SUNY Albany dining folks earlier this year, even though I had my reservations. And just this weekend the university hosted a farmers market.
Sadly, I seemed to be the only one heckling the event.
Pizza to the North, Pizza to the West
There are a lot of great things I get to do in the service of this blog. And a lot of great people I get to meet. But my favorite thing year after year is participating as a judge in All Over Albany’s Tournament of Pizza.
This is my fourth consecutive year. The only judge who has a longer tenure is Albany Jane, who has been participating since the contest’s inception in 2008. However, in missing that first year, I also missed eating pizza outside in a park. These days AOA has been able to make sure that all tastings are conducted indoors, with chairs, napkins, water and everything.
What’s most exciting about this year is that we’ve gotten the old gang back to together. Jerry, who joined the judges last year, returns. But pizza savant Renee is sitting at the table this year again after her maternity leave. And Jersey boy Joe is back in full force representing the Garden State. They know good pizza in Jersey. Truth.
When pizza season hits, it hits fast and furious. Two brackets from the first round have already seen their results posted on AOA this week. And while the coverage on the site is fantastic and full of pictures, I like to provide a bit of color commentary. So how did the Saratoga Springs and Schenectady pizzas look at the Judges’ Table?
AskTP – Pizza Season
Time for me to break out the fat pants. Beach season is over and pizza season has begun. Every year around this time, All Over Albany breaks out their Tournament of Pizza. And once again I am honored to sit on the panel of judges that has the arduous job of deciding upon the best pizza in the region.
Dammit, it’s really harder than it sounds. The judges take the task very seriously. And we eat a lot of pizza for the sake of science. Check out this year’s bracket, and catch up on the early rounds.
But even if you aren’t judging food competitions, now is the time to indulge. The baggy winter clothes are coming. And if you don’t pick up a few pounds of warm, insulating body fat in October, you aren’t going to have any resolutions about losing a few pounds in January. Get with the program.
So I’ll just make myself comfy here with a bowl of ice cream and answer a few reader questions that have collected dust over the past couple of weeks. Because that’s what I do. Every question that includes an actual question mark eventually gets answered in this feature we call Ask the Profussor. But proper punctuation is critical. Now onto the questions.
Dad’s Disasters
Last year was the anomaly. In 2009 and 2010 I wrote a post about my father on October 9. Could I have forgotten his birthday last year? I suppose it’s possible, but I hope not. Just to be safe, let’s not repeat that again this year.
Happy birthday, Dad.
My dad is a great guy, and as a result everyone wants a piece of him. But like all of us, there is only so much to go around. However, this year he sent my half-sister off to college, and now for the first time in his life, all his kids are finally out of the house. Now if Dad can wrangle some time away from work, there’s a fighting chance I’ll get to see a little more of him.
So on this birthday, I thought I’d help him celebrate by remembering how far he’s come. It’s not to linger on the lows, because even as dim and dreary as those post divorce days may have been, they still hold a special place in my heart. Luckily, neither he nor I have continued to eat like this.
Judges Table – Saratoga Farmers Market
Even on a cold and rainy day people came out to watch the Fifth Annual Iron Chef Challenge at the Saratoga Springs farmers market. I saw some old familiar faces including Mr. Sunshine (not that I’m calling him old) and Bobby Carlton, although I didn’t get a chance to talk much with either of them.
I even met a woman who actually makes the donuts at Saratoga Apple. And while she is well versed in how variable the product can be depending on who is manning the donut making operation, she was completely perplexed at the dominant flavor of nutmeg we found on the the recent tour.
Were my presence not required elsewhere that afternoon, I would have followed her to the orchard for what she promised would be the best cider donuts I’ve ever had. Damn responsibilities.
Speaking of responsibilities, I was not at the farmers market for fun and games. There was serious work to be done. Two-time champion Max London was cooking three dishes to defend his title against John Ireland of Panza’s. Someone needed to taste all that food and decide whose cuisine reigned supreme.
Scheduling Events
Cocktails are all about proportions. The secret to yesterday’s post was my strong preference for 4:1 with only one minor exception. When I took a cocktail class way back when with Jeff Hollinger, his colleague explained that she didn’t know any recipes, all she knew were proportions.
And I understand that baking is all about proportions too.
These days I’m suffering from the tyranny of inverse proportions. As in, the quantity of things I want to eat over the course of the day is inversely proportional to the number of meal eating opportunities. This was played out earlier this week when I confessed it took over sixty days to finally grab that much anticipated egg and cheese sandwich.
Sometimes the timing of things just works out. Like getting to slip into the new distillery late Wednesday night. But that was only because Matt and John were burning the midnight oil in preparation for their grand opening today. Or scheduling coffee with a new food blogger who was interested in chatting about the community.
But most times, instead of working out, I simply miss out.
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