Ask the Profussor – I’m Glad You Asked
It’s been three weeks since the last Ask the Profussor. I can hardly believe today is the 18th installment of this feature. You know, the one where I answer reader questions that really should have been answered soon after they were asked.
If this ever becomes a full-time profitable gig, perhaps I’ll be able to stay on top of answering questions. But maybe not.
As it stands you all have been so prolific with your comments and questions that I really need to make sure that AskTP happens at least twice a month. That is wonderful. Seriously, I couldn’t be more thrilled. Please keep them coming.
But I really should move on. There is a lot to cover today.
Lead Dread Comes to a Head
Remember how I said I would be watching my mail for a letter from Welch’s? Well, it arrived.
The timeline is a little strange. I got the original less-than-satisfying email response on June 16. The generic boilerplate letter I received with a few coupons “in appreciation of your time in contacting us” was dated June 13. But the addendum, which is a specific statement about lead, is dated June 15.
Anyway, I wanted to share it with you, since it is kind of interesting. And despite its official-looking nature, I can’t seem to find a copy of it on the Internet anywhere.
STATEMENT OF WELCH FOODS INC., A COOPERATIVE
(Concord, MA) June 15, 2010… Welch’s is deeply committed to the health and safety of its customers. We are aware of the notice of violation of California Proposition 60 that was filed by the Environmental Law Foundation (“ELF”) alleging that they found lead levels in a variety of children’s and baby foods, including grape juice, that require a warning to be displayed under California law.
NY Wine Fans Have a Point or Two
Well, that was unexpected. Last week’s wine post really got people all riled up. And I think that in the flurry of emotions my main point was lost. Yes, I was expecting some kind of reaction. But I wasn’t expecting to get a regional wine blog all up in arms.
There is a blogging guru of New York wines and his name is Lenn Thompson. I haven’t written about his site, but I have been there on occasion. He is a tremendous resource. What is funny is that I think he and I aren’t too far apart on our opinions on wine.
So when I saw this tweet about my post from last week:
Trying to decide if I should chime in on this thread and educate this dude.
I chimed in with an enthusiastic, “Do it!”
But then it started to get personal with this:
Not sure I want to give the ignorant folks any more attention than they already get. Clearly ANYONE can have a blog.
And this:
I think I’ll ignore him. Stupid people aren’t worth it.
Sigh. While certainly I am not as much of an expert on NY wine as Mr. Thompson, I am not totally ignorant about the subject of wine. So, I wanted to see where I might have come off as such in last week’s post. I got a much clearer sense of the disconnect from one of the other editors at Lenndevours, Julia Burke (aka NYWineWench).
In a tweet, she wrote:
1) Chard is a warm-climate grape?? 2) Californians don’t manipulate wine?? 3) NY wines aren’t acidic?? 4) We need this guy??!!
Followed by the less helpful:
My grandpa always says, “You can’t argue with an idiot” – then again he’s a Rush Limbaugh Republican :)
So today, I’m just going to try to set the record straight.
Created: The Slugkiller
I’m a big fan of Chipotle, but I like to try and keep an open mind. There are people out there, perhaps you are even one of them, living in towns without a bona fide taqueria who prefer Moe’s. But try as I may, I just have never had a good burrito at Moe’s.
Perhaps, I thought, I was ordering wrong.
Certainly that seemed to be what the two off-duty Moe’s employees were implying when I sat down next to them with my Art Vandalay. For those who don’t speak Moe’s, Art Vandalay is the name of their vegetarian burrito. Honestly, most of their meat just sketches me out.
Moe’s has all kinds of wacky names for their food. Their loaded burrito is the Homewrecker. Another option is the Joey Bag of Donuts. I still don’t have a solid understanding of the ordering scheme; it is a thousand times worse than trying to order coffee at Starbucks.
Anyhow, I asked these two young men if they would brainstorm with me, and together perhaps we could come up with the ultimate Moe’s burrito. The idea that was I would order it on my next visit. Being full of passion (and possibly beer as well) they enthusiastically agreed.
Here is what we came up with.
Exploding Head: Juice With Lead
A few days ago regular commenter Erin Lenseth brought something rather alarming to my attention over at the FLB Facebook page.
Lead has been found in grape and apple juice at concentrations to warrant the mandatory labeling, “This product contains chemicals known to the State of California to cause cancer and birth defects or other reproductive harm.” It was also found in packaged pears, peaches and fruit cocktail.
The story, which includes mention of the group spearheading the effort, the EPA-certified lab that ran the tests, and all the legal mumbo jumbo, can be found at the NPR website, along with links to the full list of brands involved.
Over the past several months, I have been banging the drum over the shenanigans with our food supply. I thought the dirty little secret of the natural foods industry was bad. But I never suspected organic juices (along with their non-organic counterparts) to be contaminated with lead.
Now that I have read about the situation, it doesn’t seem like it’s a new phenomenon.
Lunch Love Letter
I love All Over Albany’s lunch week. And that’s not just because I got to write a post for them. It’s because I love lunch.
Lunch has been my favorite meal for a long time.
Breakfast, second breakfast, second lunch, dinner and supper all have their charms. But lunch is an oasis in the day. On some occasions, I do not get to sit down for a proper midday meal, and it completely sours my mood. Taking the time to sit and reflect over a plate of good food really reenergizes and reinvigorates the soul.
Plus if you plan to eat something heavy, my understanding is that it is better to do so earlier in the day, rather than closer to bedtime. At least that’s what I’ve been telling myself when I sit down to lunches of ridiculous size.
Now That’s Ridiculous
There is a dead link on my blogroll, but I can’t quite bear to remove it quite yet. That would mean admitting that Mr. Dave’s Ridiculous Food Society of Upstate New York is truly gone.
[Pause for the stunned silence.]
Mr. Dave is fine. He’s alive and well. But over the past few days his marvelous blog appeared to be converted to invitation only. And only recently the message from Blogger simply states:
The blog you were looking for was not found.
After reaching the man himself via email, I have confirmed that this is no technological glitch. This isn’t part of transferring his blog from one platform to another. This is the end.
Here is what he said:
Read more…
NY Wine Earns Its Bad Rap
It is very difficult to talk about something in aggregate. There are exceptions to everything. There are always going to be outliers. And often when you try to focus on the big picture, the interesting things that are happening fade into the background.
If you looked at California’s wine industry in the aggregate, you could probably say the state makes terrible wine. Largely, this is because almost all of the grapes that are grown in the Central Valley get churned into cheap jug wine, which remains the most popular wine in the country by volume sales.
But California has pockets of serious and committed winemakers who have been making world-class wine for decades. And that is what most people focus on, as they should.
New York has a few of these pockets too. But as far as I can tell, there are fewer of them. And even within these emerging New York wine regions, there are winemakers who continue to make wine that reinforces the world’s poor opinion of New York’s viniculture.
The FUSSYlittleBALLOT Redux
Yesterday, at long last, the 2010 Best of the Capital Region poll results were published by the Times Union. Mysteriously, given the fact that I am not a subscriber, a copy of the paper happened to be delivered to my house.
Curious.
If you may recall, a little over two months ago I posted the FUSSYlittleBALLOT. And thus began my quixotic campaign to get chains like Subway off the annual reader’s choice survey and recognize those things in the region that are truly deserving of being called “the best.”
The idea was that I was tired of complaining when the results came out, and instead I was going to try and do something proactive about them.
So while there is a lot to complain about, I’m not as despondent as some might think.
FUSSYlittleBLOG 