Wrapping My Head Around Sushi Burritos
One of the fun things about my job is that I get to manage the Yelp Albany Instagram page.
Lately, Instagram has become my favorite social media platform. As far as I can tell, with a channel that’s based entirely on pictures there is little room for the misinformation, bickering, and straight up red hot hate of Twitter and Facebook.
It’s just a happy place filled with pictures of delicious food. Of course, I haven’t gone digging around in the darker corners of Instagram. And presumably, I have a lot of observational bias given the accounts that I follow.
Regardless, I really enjoy having the depth and breadth of all the pictures posted on Yelp to choose from. Of course I will also post some of my own shots too. But perhaps what I enjoy the most is getting to see which pictures have the most resonance and garner the greatest response.
If you read the title of today’s post, I’m sure you see where this is going.
North of Madness
Can I tell you how good it feels to be in Canada this week? I mean, even though I’m less than an hour over the border in Montreal, all of the madness that’s happening back in the United States feels like a million miles away.
I’ve been spending a bunch of time this summer at art museums. And while yesterday I didn’t take in any antiquities, last month at the Yale art museum there were plenty of ancient statues that had been defaced over the centuries.
Destroying works of art, regardless of how offensive they are, is not okay. The same goes for historically significant artifacts. That is not to say offensive works should remain in positions of prominence. They should not. But as a civilization, we should be concerned about them being preserved.
Sadly, I can imagine this perspective being an unpopular one among some people I otherwise admire and respect. But I’m used to being unpopular, I’m traveling in Montreal with two kids, both of whom have very different needs, desires, tastes, and temperaments.
One might even say diametrically opposed. And as a result, the eating on this trip has been anything but the traditional Montreal adventure.
Tour de Hard Ice Cream 2.0
The Tour de Ice Cream has been divided over many rounds to accommodate all kinds of frozen treats. We’ve done soft serve more times than I care to admit, we found our way through a gelato tour, and one for frozen yogurt. But now it’s time for a second outing to survey more of the best homemade hard ice cream in the area.
Yes, it may take us a bit further afield than in the past, but I’m optimistic the effort will pay off in the end. Today, I’m proud to announce the itinerary for the Tour de Hard Ice Cream 2.0.
Why further? Because this tour is going to take us into farm country. Actually, it’s going to begin and end with places that have their own cows. But at the last one, you can actually purchase some excellent fluid dairy in addition to ice cream. So hopefully those who come on the tour will pack a cooler and take advantage of this great opportunity to pick up farm fresh milk right at the source.
Now let me tell you what I’ve got planned.
Medianoche
Well, this is it. Goodbye to the farm. For now. We’re off. The next time you’ll hear from me, I’ll be in Montreal. So, if you have any thoughts about must eat treats while I’m there, don’t hold back. I’ve literally got no plans for our stay. My plan is to wing it.
Mrs. Fussy will be working for most of it, so I’ll be hanging out with the Fussy Little Children. Side note: Young Master Fussy has started to explore the blog in some of his free time, so I may have to start being more careful about what I say.
Smoked meat. Poutine. That fried bologna sandwich. They are all on my radar. I hear there’s some good banh mi to be had. And I have it on good authority there are some great hand made dumpling places. But we’ll see how many food spots I’ll be able to hit in the short time we’re there.
As usual, I’m writing this post late at night. And I want to make sure to go to bed soon, so we don’t die in some kind of spectacular accident on the road. But there are two things I want to share before I sign off for the week.
On Soggy Bread
Most of social media is just awful these days. Fortunately, apocalypse Twitter is just back to regular nasty Twitter. And Facebook remains just as argumentative as ever. Which is why, for the moment, my social media channel of choice is Instagram.
IG is a place where I can go and just look at some beautiful, and not so beautiful, pictures of food. Yes, there is room for some commentary, but most of it I’ve found to be positive. It’s not the place for getting into debates or heated arguments on the foldability of pizza.
That said, a good Facebook argument is one of those things that can inspire a blog post on the FLB. I’m terrible at writing short answers. I need a few hundred words to express my thoughts. Because rarely are things as cut and dry as one might want them to be.
For example, let’s take soggy bread.
Farming Feed Over Food
If we’re all still here, it’s a good morning. So let’s take a minute, breathe in the air, and let that sink in a moment. We’ve got another day. Let’s make the best of it.
Last night Mrs. Fussy was saying that apocalypse Twitter was the worst kind of Twitter, and I’m inclined to agree. I’ll try and stay off that platform today as well. Hopefully cooler heads will prevail, and we’ll find some way out of this current predicament without millions–or even thousands–of people dying in the process.
Part of me is very glad I’m on the farm this week, surrounded by my family. But do you know what else we’re surrounded by? Farms. Seriously, there is corn as far as the eye can see. Even still, if civilization were to collapse around us on this trip, we would be completely screwed.
Most likely, we would starve. And here’s why.
Farms on Phones on Farms
Maybe it’s just all of the farm dinners I’ve been going to lately, but it feels like the local foods movement is picking up steam.
At the Pitney Meadows Fire Feast, I sat with a couple who would rarely spend $100 out for a nice dinner, but decided to make a commitment to this local organization and drop $200 each for the incredible culinary experience DocSconz put together. After the event, they were absolutely glowing, and would do it again without hesitation.
Too often, the farm-to-table ethos espoused by restaurants is more table dressing than substance. And consumers have realized this. Which is why I suspect more of them are skipping the middleman and just going out for dinner at the farm.
Look at Field Notes. These guys are doing 20 person dinners at Lansing’s Farm Market and Greenhouse in Niskayuna. They just had their first dinner, and now it’s going to be a regular thing. And you’ve already heard about the Sunday cookouts at Indian Ladder Farm.
So how do you learn about some of the good things that are happening around the farms of the Capital Region? Well, I’m glad you asked.
The King’s Buns
At some point a couple of years ago, I actually went to a Burger King for the sake of science to document the classic chicken sandwich. This was one of the beloved fast food items among my circle of friends during the teen years. And I was really curious to taste it again as an adult.
To complete the comparison, I also visited McDonald’s to see what was happening under the golden arches with their chicken.
Neither this story, nor its photos, saw the light of day. The Burger King chicken sandwich was not the stuff of memory. However, I was suspicious that the poor excuse of a chicken sandwich I received was the result of operator error. It would be a tragedy if the brand had let the standards that built a classic erode so badly. Of course, it could also be that as kids we simply did not know any better.
With this experience under my belt, in addition to the awful taste the Burger King burgers literally left in my mouth a few years prior, I figured I was totally done with this chain. That is, until two forces conspired against me:
1) A Family road trip to Pennsylvania
2) BKs new Chicken parm sandwich
Milk Punch Revisited
One way you know something is truly great, is if you can’t stop thinking about it days after the fact.
That Fire Feast at Pitney Meadow Community Farm earlier this week wasn’t all just about local food, prepared by internationally renowned chefs. It was also about crafting some killer cocktails to go along with the dishes.
And of all the great cocktails, and there were many great cocktails, one stood out in my mind above all others. But even before you learn how it’s made, this was a totally badass drink to kick off a summer night of culinary adventure.
The Local Farm for Foreign Foods
Farms. I’ve been talking a lot about them recently. Really, I should make our local farms a central part of this blog. But before I can do that, I need to get out of the house and visit more of our regional farms and farmers. Time is the limiting factor. Time has been kicking my ass lately.
Promoting local farms has been on my to-do list for far too long. If all goes according to plan, I should be able to get out and meet a few meat producers in the fall. But regardless of how many stories that trip might produce, it won’t even begin to scratch the surface of what’s out there.
I mention all this because sometimes, farms come to me. Well, kinda.
Recently, I heard from Tierra Farm which is out in Valatie, and they wanted to know if I would be interested in getting a sample of what they produce out in Columbia County. Well, naturally I said yes. And yesterday I got the box in the mail.
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