There Are No Bad Foods
The title of today’s post may sound funny coming from a guy who has railed against almost all of the food found in a conventional supermarket.
It’s true. I can wander the aisles of an American grocery store which are stocked to the rafters with an almost endless variety of culinary diversity and be hard pressed to find a basket full of goods I consider to be food that I would want to take home.
But I need to make an important point of clarification.
We have a terrible way of looking at food, and I blame the Food Pyramid. Sure, that symbol is long gone, but its impact remains. As a society, regardless of which dietary approach you’ve taken to navigate our food landscape, foods tend to fall into two categories: good and bad.
It’s a problem, largely because it’s stupid and it doesn’t work. Bad food becomes the forbidden fruit, and you and I both know how delightfully sweet that can be. Good food becomes the panacea to all our problems and can never hurt us, regardless of how much of it jam down our pie holes trying to fill the void left by skipping out on all that delicious delicious bad stuff.
Don’t believe me? Let’s get naughty.
Think Fast
Yesterday I was thinking about gorging on donuts. Today is different, and that is because tomorrow is Yom Kippur.
It’s the Jewish Day of Atonement, and one of the High Holy Days. That means that Jews around the world who may never step foot into a synagogue all year, will be in the pews asking for forgiveness.
And yes, we will be fasting.
Well, most of us anyway. Small kids won’t. The elderly should not. Those who are sick are excused from the task. The fast isn’t long. Technically, it’s from sunset to sunset. But as a Reform Jew, I’ll be going from after dinner tonight to the break-fast at the end of the closing service tomorrow. Dinner will end after sunset, and for the past few years, the closing services have ended before sundown.
There will always be members of any orthodoxy who will say that everyone else is doing it wrong. I say we shouldn’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good. But there is one thing that I always take away from this experience.
Tour de Donut Nominations: Wild Card
It’s about that time of year again. Time to go donut picking. But it doesn’t quite feel right yet. School has started, but I’m still wearing shorts and sandals. Instead of raking, I’m mowing. And yesterday I broke into a sweat just standing around outside.
Still, people are heading out to our local orchards for donuts and apples, because that’s what you do in the Capital Region when September rolls around.
So when will we have this year’s Tour de Donut? I don’t know. Most likely it will be some time in October. Part of the joy I take in the fall tour is getting to drive around in the countryside when the air is crisp and the leaves are peaking.
However, before heading out to five different orchards to taste and evaluate apple cider donuts, our custom is to open the floor to nominations. And we’re going to do that today. But this year’s tour is going to be a bit different from that in year’s past.
To explain, we’re going to have to go back in time.
Straw Pan
Drinking straws are apparently killing the planet.
Look, I get the idea that small changes can have a big impact. I do. And I support the campaign of awareness to try and convince people to use fewer straws. That said, I think there is some lower hanging fruit. Actually, there is a lot of lower hanging fruit.
One of the issues I am passionate about also has something to do with my recent cookware purchase and my new kitchen project. So let’s combine all of those things together into one ranty—and hopefully informative—post on cookware.
Cooking Without a Net
Family. We do a lot for family.
For better or for worse, my kids are voracious readers. That means we end up spending a lot of time at the library. As opposed to most things, our library has continued to get better and better over time. I’m not entirely sure how it’s been able to buck the trend, but kudos to you Guilderland Public Library.
My kids also like watching Netflix. And thanks to a wicked combination of The Great British Bake Off and fake-aunt Amy, Little Miss Fussy is now into baking.
Not only does the library happen to have bakeware that you can check out, but we also discovered recently that they have launched a new monthly cookbook club. This is where a different cookbook is featured each month, and library visitors can sign up to make a recipe and bring it to the library for a communal tasting.
Well, the first book was The Great British Bake Off, and last night was our big reveal. But today’s post has almost nothing to do with any of this.
Food Food Everywhere, But Not a Bite to Eat
There’s a reason I’m a little overweight. Occasionally, I eat like an asshole. Case in point was the Italian sausage and hot beef sandwich I had at Midway Airport on Saturday night, even though I had just finished dinner and wasn’t even hungry.
Fortunately, I don’t eat second dinner all the time. In fact, these days that’s exceedingly rare.
It’s amazing at how quickly the pounds can come off when you stop eating like a jerk. However, the older I get, I’ve been noticing that those pounds aren’t quite coming off at the rate they used to in the past.
But I’m convinced that the trouble befalling our nation, as our bellies grow and our health declines, is traced to a different malady. It’s that so much food isn’t really food. And once again, after a brief stay in a perfectly lovely hotel, I was reminded of that every day.
Becoming Chicago
Happy New Year! I’m looking forward to a great 5779!
Yesterday was Rosh Hashanah. That meant it was all about going to the synagogue, joining the congregation in prayer, and listening to the Torah reading and commentary for a few hours. Of course it was preceded and followed with festive meals.
Since the celebration began on Sunday night, I wanted to make sure I woke up on Sunday morning in my own bed. That mean my trip to Chicago was limited to four days. Most of that was spent in Yelp meetings. Some of it was Yelp team building. But both Yelp meetings and team building have a way of involving food.
I’m not going to share it all, because that would be far too long, but I am going to give you the highlights. Especially since after going to Chicago a handful of times, this was the first trip where I actually fell in love the city.
Why was this trip different from all other trips?
Bah Baklava
Yelp may be trying to kill me.
Last night I went on a pizza tour of Chicago, and I went into it with a healthy dose of apprehension. I’ve had Chicago style deep dish before. I know how heavy it can be. And we were going to stop at three different places in one night.
As it turned out, we only sampled one deep dish pie. We also had one pan pizza, which was fundamentally a different style. And there was also a thin crust place thrown into the mix. The results and thoughts on the pizza tour is a whole different post. One that I can’t possible write right now.
It took a long walk in the fresh air and a restorative glass of sambuca to get me feeling right again. But that’s okay, because I’ve had a food rant rattling around in my head for awhile now, and this seems like the perfect time to get it out.
We need to talk about baklava.
Not Eggs Benny with Emily: Cock N’ Bull
Sometimes when you need something, the universe delivers.
Here I am, weary from travel and in a strange new land, and Emily sends me a guest post by email. It’s not even a brunch post, so I don’t even feel compelled to save it until Friday. Plus it has a cheeky title.
I don’t know if I could go to a place called the Cock N’ Bull without giggling. But Emily did. And she filed this report.
Read more…
Chicago Bound
Chicago, here I come.
This isn’t my first trip to the windy city, and it won’t be my last. I can’t quite recall how many times I’ve been. I know my cousin got married there. A friend from college had her nuptials there too, but those are much fuzzier because I traveled to the city with a four week old infant. And I was there at least once for to help the FCB Chicago office score a big piece of new business.
Now I’m heading back for a couple days of Yelp meetings.
I’ve eaten my fill of deep dish Chicago pizza, I’ve spent an evening at the wiener circle for a Chicago hot dog, I’ve had the crazy caramel and cheese popcorn, and I’ve even tried an Italian beef sandwich. There are certainly a lot of regionally unique foods in the area.
There are also some incredible world class fine dining restaurants, coffee shops, and cocktail bars. But I won’t be sailing in those waters on this outing. One of my favorite part about working with Yelp is how casual it is. My promise to myself is to pack closed-toed shoes, and to try and look at least a little respectable.
But let’s take this opportunity to do one of my favorite things: talk about the definitions of food.
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