I went shopping at Union Square farmer’s market the other day and I was delighted to come across fiddlehead ferns. For those of you who don’t know what it is, it’s the unfurled baby shoot of a spring fern. In northeast US, it’s a seasonal delight that is enjoyed during spring time. I knew this wouldn’t be available for a long time so I bought some.
Now I have actually never prepared it myself and digging back into my memory, I might not even have had it before. After doing some Google search, most sites recommended taking the brown husk off the fiddlehead (why is it called fiddlehead anyways?), boil/blanch it, then sautee it. This is exactly what I did and I sauteed it with some garlic, olive oil and mushrooms. It came out ok…. I didn’t want to overcook it but was wondering if I didn’t cook it enough… There was a bitter, astringent quality about it and maybe it’s in my head but my stomach felt funny afterwards…. Some sites said that fiddlehead is toxic and can cause symptoms of food poisoning and that caused me to worry a bit…. Maybe I have to cook it longer? Or maybe I’m just not use to it. Either way, I noticed that I was starving a few hours after I ate the baby fern and wonder if perhaps the crunchy spring delight had caused the rapid digestion. Anyways, here’s an image of the dish:
So it’s been a while since I have made a blog entry. Apologies for the hiatus. A few months ago, we were asked to be featured on a online cooking show – Economy Bites. On the show, I was asked to show their audiences how to buy, kill, and cook a whole fish. It was a lot of fun and the fish turned out to be delicious. Check it out:
Every wonder why food tastes bland on airplanes, or at least your perception of taste seems to be bland? Scientists recently did a study and found that background noise dulled some tastes such as sweetness or saltiness but enhanced other food qualities such as crunchiness. BBC news reported this in an article on October 14.
Seems strange. I don’t think so at all. This study is a good case for showing that we use all our senses to perceive food. Sound is just as influential as other senses so it seems. Next time you eat out, listen to the sounds around you and think about whether or not the noise in the restaurant is intentional. I think good restaurateurs will pay a lot of attention and think through how to pair sound with the food as well as the wine!
So this is what we’ve been afraid of: Better access to fresh veggies DO NOT lead to better diets. The New York Times wrote an article about a comprehensive study conducted by the CDC that found American’s are not eating enough fresh fruits and veggies. Despite all the efforts that have gone into improving access and markets for people to eat better, it seems this has been met with resistance. According to the CDC report “Only 26 percent of the nation’s adults eat vegetables three or more times a day, it concluded. (And no, that does not include French fries.)”
I think it’s too early to claim failure.
The truth is, food preferences are hard to wean, especially if people grow up with a certain diet. There’s a level of diet elasticity about how much a diet will change when confronted with an improved or new food system. The marginal increase of healthy food consumption in relation to the increase amount of good foods surrounding an individual may be smaller than one would hope for.
I remember when I was in the Peace Corps, my peers ate very similarly to the way they ate back home even though the country I was in (Western Samoa) offered a lot of other fresh options. In another example, during one semester, I asked students in my Food Systems class to keep a journal of what they ate during an entire week. The results are not too different from what the CDC found in their study; and this is a class full of enlightened, pro-food eaters!
Changing food habits may take generations. There is an element of truth in the adage “can’t teach old dogs new tricks.” The greatest impact of all these efforts will be most prominent in younger generations.
Another comment I’d like to make is that in order for all these efforts to work, public health official must direct work within the cultural context of the targeted communities. Food habits are cultural and social, and in order for ideas to stick to people, it has to be integrated within their socio-cultural sphere. This conversation is often absent in most of today’s “good food” work. Production is only one side of the story, consumption must be met with equal attention.
During the past few months, I’ve been working with a non-profit to build a rooftop farm in the Bronx to feed former homeless women and their families. The organization is called Women’s Housing and Economic Corporation (WHEDCO) and their mission is to “work with families in the Bronx who struggle with the multiple challenges presented by poverty, and who, like all of us, aspire to a healthy, financially stable future. WHEDco offers interconnected, innovative, and high quality solutions – including the building of healthy, affordable homes – creating more beautiful, more equitable, and more economically vibrant places to live and raise a family.”
The building that I work on is a green building with energy efficient features and other traits that make it eco-friendly. As part of their mission they secured funding to incorporate a rooftop farm to inspire healthy food choices of the tenants. As with any farm, year one is always hard with lots of infrastructure setups and lessons learned from the growing season. I’ve worked on many farms before but this is the first time growing food in a rooftop environment. It was very different from working on a farm with challenges that include transporting soil to and from the roof, working on weight issues to prevent the roof from cracking, and learning about the productivity of veggies in a rooftop setting.
Even though the roof didn’t produce up to capacity we were still able to grow many vegetables to distribute to the tenants. Some of the veggies we grew included beans, collard greens, jalapenos, kale, spinach, tomatoes, basil, cilantro, peppers, egg plant, and lettuce. Some tenants knew about the farm project while other didn’t. Efforts are now under way to get the tenants involved and eating from the farm. Here’s a pic of some of our veggies:
Last night, we did our first cooking demo in the lobby and it was a huge success. Families and children were really into the food that we cooked and it always surprises me how adaptable and open minded kids are to new foods. We harvested radishes, tomatoes, collard greens, jalapenos and basil. The little ones were eager to try everything. The teenagers that came by were less willing. Parents were pretty open-minded for the most part.
I think children is where the future of our taste revolution is at. No big surprise there I suppose but it was nice to see it first hand. They are the ones that will try new things and develop an opinion about it; and the more they try the less afraid they are of new things as they grow older. There’s a huge debate of how to get people to eat better in marginalized communities and one of the most effective ways to do it is to target the kids. Their taste buds are a blank canvass and the more parents show their kids how to taste healthy foods, the more they will develop familiarity with it.
Here’s a video of our first taste tester from last night. He is eating collard greens sauteed with jalapeno and minced turkey (now from the farm) seasoned with salt and balsamic vinegar.
In today’s New York Times, there is an article about why people like spicy foods. As the weather cools down, peppers are appearing in abundance at farmer’s markets across the country. There are many different types of peppers and they have varying degrees of “burn”. I went to the farmer’s market in the East Village this morning and saw habaneros, jalapenos, red and green peppers, scotch bonnets, and other small red chilies sold on branches.
Spiciness is not considered a flavor because a pepper’s spicy chemical – capsaicin – stimulates pain receptors in your mouth rather than taste buds. Spicy sensations makes use of the same nerves as when you rub menthol onto your skin or when someone pinches you. Scientifically, spiciness is a pain sensation.
But humans love spicy foods. Ever since it’s domestication in South America and Columbus’ discovery of the new world, peppers have spread across the world and became embedded into many culinary traditions. Jamaican’s love spice in their Jerk, Indians are known to produce fiery Vinadloos, Nigerian foods are known for its heat, and the Chinese developed a whole cuisine around peppers by cooking it with another non-pepper plant – the Sichuan peppercorn – to give spiciness another added taste dimension – numbness.
So why do people love peppers? The article tries but fails miserable on explaining the spicy phenomenon. According to a prominent psychologist, Paul Rozin (who is famous for his scientific studies on taste), he attributes this preference to eating spicy peppers for the thrill of it, which I disagree with. Saying that eating spicy foods for the thrill of it is too simplistic and cultural-centric. It also reminds of the TV show “man vs. food” where food becomes an object to concur.
First of all, human don’t eat peppers alone. They eat it with other tastes the comes with a spicy dish. A dish can be sweet and spicy, or sour and spicy, or cool and spicy, or a combination of many taste factors. The experience of spice is made multi-dimensional by eating it with other balancing tastes. Most of the best spicy meals I’ve had is not killer-hot but rather a mild heat-inducing exploration of spicy sensations.
The other thing that that is totally amiss in this theory is the idea that culture impact a persons perception of what is considered palatable or not. There are cultures that love stinky foods (i.e. Taiwanese stinky tofu) or cuisines that involved many bitter dishes. Cheese has such a strong smell that most Asians have a hard time eating it, yet Americans love it. Taste, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder.
Pain and pleasure can sometimes be a fuzzy terrain, and it is both physical and psychological. The connect or disconnect of how the mind works with the body is important to understanding why spiciness is adored or hated by people.
Mr. Dennis, an associate art professor at Elmira College, hosts bug dinners at his home in Brooklyn. His favorite bugs to cook include crickets, grasshoppers, meal worms, and silk worms. The dishes that he makes look quite tasty except for the critters that are tossed into his lo mein, or legs sticking out of the cookies, or crawlers in the hummus. Sounds gross? Well, yes and no.
Americans certainly did not grow up eating insects. If anything, we are taught they are dirty and should be zapped with Raid. However, many cultures across the world eat insects as part of their diets. I’ve seen it in Mexico, Thailand, Madagascar, and Samoa. Each of these countries serve them differently but they are considered yummy treats. Nutritionally, bugs have a lot to offer. They are high in protein, low in fat, and actually have a unique flavor that – once you get past the bug-phobia – is quite flavorful.
Not convinced yet? Well, neither am I, actually. I’ve eaten bugs many times in my life but I always get queasy when it get close to me. I know it’s totally in my mind but my bodily reaction is disgust. Perhaps I just need to eat them more to get over the repulsion.
Anyways, here’s the article in the Wall Street Journal where I found this story. Below is a video that shows one of his dinner parties. Enjoy.
I have to admit I am a fan of Lady GaGa. I think she has real talent and has given the world fresh and original art for people to consume. She’s still so young but have done so much.
I couldn’t help but post the meat dress she wore to the MTV VMAs. Talk about an outfit! It certainly made a statement, although I’m not sure what that statement is. Even the most carnivorous probably find it appalling. Click here to read more about it on the Daily News.
What’s interesting to me is to think about how food and fashion go together. Is it Kosher to eat what we wear? Or wear what we eat? Probably not right? Food is perishable and clothes are not. But here’s a more realistic notion to ponder on: do we wear certain clothes to eat certain foods? Think of restaurants that impose dress codes. Does this have more to do with the food or socioeconomic class?
Apparently, kangaroo meat was illegal to eat in New York ’til just a few weeks ago. Eight Mile Creek in Manhattan was serving it until they got in trouble not realizing that is was illegal. The state of New York listed kangaroo as an endangered species, which justified its prohibition. Esquire magazine interviewed co-owner Andrew Jordan about eating kangaroo. Here’s an excerpt:
Here’s something interesting I cam across. A new study found that cannibalism might just be another meal for early Europeans. In 800.000 year old bones found in a cave in western Europe, marking on the bones suggests “gastronomic cannibalism”. What scientists discovered was suggestive of meat being scraped and torn off the bones for meat. Also markings indicated tools that were used to break and pry open cavities to get to hidden morsels (ever suck marrow out of a bone? Yumm). These bones were also found amongst other animal bones with similar markings that were consumed for food.
I’m not advocating cannibalism here but it raises an interesting stereotype of hunters and gathers in far away lands hunting one another down with primitive weapons before roasting the catch for dinner. Well you know what? As it turns out, it’s happening right in your own European back yard.
On a deeper level, this bring up the interesting topic of food taboos. Remember when I posted about the guy who was planning to eat his cat? Well, I’m glad it wasn’t his relative that was marinating in his trunk! I’d be interested to hear what are some of your food taboos. What are your limits and why?
