Tour de Egg Sandwich
Finally it’s here. Well, it’s almost here. Really, it’s planned. But I’m excited about the plan. Naturally, I’m referring to the Winter 2012 FUSSYlittleTOUR, which will from this point on be known as the Tour de Egg Sandwich.
Before going any further, I should acknowledge once again Stanford Steph, who talked me into doing the first tour not too long ago, and Jess, who more recently suggested we sample the region’s egg and cheese sandwiches.
So what are these tours anyway?
Periodically, I lead a group of intrepid eaters around the region to eat and evaluate some of the most beloved foodstuffs of the area. These things both have an inextricable sense of place and would also diminish in transit. So we cannot bring these delicacies to us. We must go to them.
At the end of the day, not only do all the participants have a better understanding of the item in question and the nuances of its component pieces, but they have also decided upon their favorite version. Whereas most people’s favorites stem from childhood memories or geographic proximity, those on the tour form their opinion based on empirical data.
Oh, and it’s a fun excuse to hang out with some fellow food obsessives, meet new people, and eat far too much fast food. If you haven’t been on a tour with me before, you should come. What follows are the details of the inaugural Tour de Egg Sandwich.
Religious Rice
First, I know many of you have been very patient about the pending Tour de Egg Sandwich. Some people have today off, so I’m holding the announcement of the Tour until tomorrow. It just means I get to agonize over the details one more day. Planning events can be hell for someone who tends towards the obsessive.
Of course then there is the reason people have today off.
Happy belated birthday MLK! You know, it’s nice to be remembered, but it would be nicer to be actually remembered on the day you were born. I guess that’s what happens to public figures—they stop being people and turn into ideas. The third Monday of every January? That’s just crazy talk.
I hear that Dr. King (the person) liked pecan pie. I like it too, and I actually have a funny story about how a colleague of mine was once sent a box of pecans at work, so I decided to attempt a pie in our office kitchen. Officially, the kitchen was an amazing state of the art affair at my ad agency’s newly built office. But I didn’t quite have all the tools I needed to get the job done. All in all, it came out fine, but took a lot longer than I had expected. The good news was that I didn’t get fired. The bad news is that it was such a long time ago, the details escape me.
So I’ve got nothing thematic today. Well, unless you are really willing to make a stretch.
Cheap Gruel. Expensive Tool.
This is prime oatmeal season, but I’ve yet to make a bowl of my favorite breakfast treat since the weather has gotten frosty. And there’s a good reason for that.
Naturally, I’m referring to steel-cut oats. Not any steel-cut oats mind you, but specifically the preparation espoused by Cooks Illustrated in which you toast the oats in butter before simmering them in milk on the stovetop. It takes a long time, but it’s totally worth it. You can read more about that here.
However, even I do not dare to suggest that this is a reasonable thing to make on a weekday. This was why I was glad to discover that using a slow cooker can produce reasonably good results while you sleep. The only catch is that you’ll need to toast the oats in butter before going to bed, but that’s well worth the extra effort.
It’s difficult to go back to the slightly better stovetop method, once you’ve woken up to hot steel-cut oatmeal from the crock-pot.
Except there’s a problem with my slow cooker.
Drinking by the Numbers
Let’s not talk about wine for a minute. Instead, let’s talk about sandwiches.
Say I got a real sandwich expert to blindly taste the Italian sandwiches of Albany. And at the end of the day, the following document was produced based on a 100 point scale:
———————————————————————————————————————————————
Note: The below are fictitious and solely meant to make a point. They are not actual scores.
———————————————————————————————————————————————
– Cardona’s Italian Mix: 89
– Cardona’s Meatball Sub: 86
– Ragonese’s Sausage and Peppers: 88
– Ragonese’s Salami and Provolone: 84
I guess it’s kind of interesting. You know out of the four sandwiches which one the expert thought was the best and which one he thought was the worst. It’s clear that the reviewer wasn’t blown away by anything, and that there wasn’t a great disparity between the sandwiches. But these numbers aren’t terribly useful, because if you are in the mood for a meatball sub from Cardona’s, then sausage and peppers isn’t going to do it for you. And is there really a discernable difference between an 84-rated sandwich and an 86-rated sandwich.
Yet people make their wine buying decisions based on these numbers all the time, and the profitability of a wine can vary dramatically based on the whims of one point. More people will buy a 90-point wine than will buy an 89-point one.
So how does our local wine stack up? Well, I’m glad you asked.
Bayer Bee Poison Kills Bees
The headline seems like a no brainer, but it actually took a peer reviewed scientific study from Purdue University to confirm this fact.
Really. We live in interesting times.
But let’s back up a bit. First, did you know bees are in trouble? Well, they are. I wrote about this subject last year around this time after a beekeeper got his hands on an internal EPA document. This document called into question the Bayer funded studies that the EPA used as the basis for approving Bayer’s pesticide known as Clothianidin.
There is some suspicion that Clothianidin and its fellow neonic pesticides are in part responsible for Colony Collapse Disorder, which is a serious threat to the bee population. This matters, because you probably like to eat things like fruits and vegetables.
But one recent article brings us a step closer to confirming this suspicion.
Ask the Profussor – Auspicious Beginnings
Penzeys. Trader Joe’s. The next Fussy Little Tour. I’m even trying to get ahead of the next Times Union Reader’s Choice Poll. DocSconz posted a very flattering piece on the FLB. Readership and activity appear to be up (and hopefully will continue on that trendline). I’ve got more to talk about than there are days of the week.
2012 is off to a running start.
It seems hard to believe that the last Ask the Profussor was only three weeks ago. Despite everything that’s going on, it’s important to stay on top of the questions and give them the answers they deserve.
For anyone who is relatively new to the blog, I have committed to answer every question that is left in the comments, so long as it includes proper punctuation. If you use a question mark, I guarantee an answer. While it would be great to keep up with these questions as they came in, sometimes life gets the better of me. So every few weeks I gather up the questions that have been neglected and answer them in this forum.
Now onto the questions.
How To Serve Kids
The great shame of my life is that Young Master Fussy continues to put ketchup on his hot dogs. Oddly, I’m not dismayed at all that both children mix ketchup into their Kraft Macaroni and Cheese. However, the sight and smell of the latter totally nauseates Mrs. Fussy.
On the flip side, one of the kiddo’s big treats is a small tasting glass of aged balsamic vinegar that he enjoys straight, taking tiny sips of the sweet nectar. Little Miss Fussy enjoys my homemade popcorn topped with some very fine extra virgin olive oil and kosher salt.
The bottom line here is that I don’t really want to feed the kids junk, but they would be just as happy with a frozen pizza as they would be with a steak dinner. In all honesty, they would probably prefer my Cuban black beans to any of it, but I don’t think that’s normal.
However, this isn’t about my children. Because for one night last weekend, we were doubling the juvenile population at La Casa de Fussy, and I was making dinner for more kids than parents. I wanted to make something good, and I didn’t want to spend a lot of money. So naturally I headed down to Adventure in Food Trading.
Albany & the Co-op
Why am I so hard on the Honest Weight Food Co-op? It’s a good question, and one that I don’t think I’ve ever tackled directly. Plus it’s an easy one to answer. The truth is that I really love what they are and believe in what they do.
Is that surprising to hear?
Part of the human condition is that we can only be disappointed by people and things we care about. If Burger King goes and makes a bunch of people sick selling tainted beef, it would be appalling, but my opinion of the brand is already so low, its impact would be muted. However, should the same thing happen at Chipotle, I’d be crushed.
While I love what the Honest Weight Food Co-op is and believe in what it does, I find myself frustrated by its execution. Sure, I could get involved and try to change things from within, but right now I do not have the patience to attend meetings and deal with committees. But despite my persistent concerns regarding prices, cheese and meat, the Co-op fills a very valuable role in the community.
And this is why I’m worried.
FUSSYlittleBLOG 