HOW THE OTHER HALF EATS

Menu blogs have become popular with low-carbers; Jimmy Moore chronicles every bite, usually with pictures, and many of his readers are following his lead. Even Dr. Michael Eades did it for a week on his Protein Power blog. Now Ruth Reichl, famous restaurant critic, author, and current editor-in-chief of Gourmet Magazine, has given us a peek at a few of her daily menus and a chance to see how our choices stack up to an unabashed gourmand and foodie. She patronizes the world’s best restaurants, she loves to cook, she loves to eat, and she can slip down to Gourmet's test kitchen for a snack whenever she feels like it. Here’s a typical day’s list (although I doubt that she ever has a typical day):

Breakfast—Pork and chive dumplings. Coffee with milk and sugar.

Snack in test kitchen—Brown-butter scrambled eggs. Dark chocolate cake with light chocolate frosting.

Lunch at a restaurant—Chicken curry with white rice, "all the vegetables," and extra red sauce.

Snack in test kitchen —A “tapioca fry thing” that was “gooey and crispy and had garlic and peanuts.” An avocado crème brûlée.

Snack before a lecture—A banana.

Snack after lecture—Coconut macaroons in all different flavors.

Dinner at a restaurant—Baked clams, chopped Caesar salad, veal piccata, spinach, and wine. (Probably also included potatoes or pasta and bread, since this was a restaurant meal.)

You can read the whole story here: http://nymag.com/daily/food/2009/04/ruth_reichl_rips_into_lobsters_gets_her_dumplings_to_go.html

Judging from the picture of her at the top of the article, she is getting away with it. Oh, to be so lucky! A dream job and a metabolism that can handle it! (Mario Batali, Paul Prudhomme, Ina Garten, and many others prove that just being in the upper echelons of the food world doesn’t guarantee that you can eat this way without suffering the same consequences as the rest of us.)

I have thought about blogging my menus, but I don’t have time to do it now. I think I eat as well, as much, and as often as Ms. Reichl on my low-carb regimen—and I probably have, if such a thing is possible, an even more varied diet than hers. My husband often says, “There are 7 billion people in the world, and I’ll lay odds that we are the only ones having this.” Here’s one dinner that elicited that comment (not necessarily the best example, but a recent one that I remember):

Baked ham and roast turkey, mushroom and turkey dressing (made with popcorn—not a keeper), broiled kippered herring, cherry tomatoes and avocados with olive oil and vinegar, and rhubarb fool with strawberries and whipped cream for dessert plus something chocolate for him and butter-pecan ice cream for me later in the evening.

Granted, some of the above resulted from recipes that needed to be tested that I didn’t want to waste, but it’s not really that different from the way we normally eat. (Perhaps normal is not the right word.)

©2009, Judy Barnes Baker

SAFE CINNAMON

I have posted several times about the dangers and benefits of using cinnamon as a supplement. At the end of this post are a few excerpts from one of the original articles. (Read the whole article here:

http://carbwars.blogspot.com/2008/09/cinnamon-warning-update.html)

In the last few weeks I have noticed that true cinnamon is now available in stick form at World Market stores and under Freida's brand at grocery stores. Better yet, it is only slightly more expensive than the sticks of cassia. Either kind is safe when used as an extract, so if you are using a stick of cinnamon and removing it at the end of the cooking time, it should not pose a problem. When you need to use cinnamon powder in a recipe, however, true cinnamon is preferred to cassia, but it has been difficult to find and much more expensive. Now we have the option of buying true cinnamon sticks and crushing or grinding them for use in baked goods and spiced dishes without paying a premium price for it.

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I bought some of each and took a photograph to show you how to tell the difference between the two varieties, as it is not always clearly stated on the label. In the picture at the top of this post, the four sticks on the left, the ones that look like thick scrolls, are cassia; the three shaggy ones on the right are true cinnamon.

Excepts for Sept. 8, 2008 article:

"Since the insulin-like properties of cinnamon were discovered, it has become a popular treatment or prophylactic for insulin resistance and diabetes. Many people assume that if a little is good, more is better, but there is a potential danger in taking too much or the wrong kind. Cinnamon contains coumarin, an anti-coagulant and possibly carcinogenic substance that can cause liver inflammation.

The European Food Safety Authority concluded that the TDI (tolerable daily intake) for coumarin is 0.0002 ounces per day for a 130-pound adult, an amount easily exceeded during the Christmas holidays and that as little as three cinnamon cookies could contain enough of the toxin to harm a small child. If the amount is exceeded for a short time only, it may be reversible in a few weeks, but taking supplements made from powdered cinnamon bark regularly may not be such a good idea....

There are two kinds of cinnamon, but product labels do not usually specify the type. Ceylon, or true cinnamon (Cinnamomum zeylanicum), is a pale tan color; it is milder, sweeter, and more expensive than cassia. Cassia, or common cinnamon (Cinnamomum cassia), is redder, stronger in flavor, and cheaper in price. Most of the cinnamon sold in the US is cassia rather than true cinnamon. Ceylon cinnamon sticks are tight rolls of thin layers; cassia sticks are hollow tubes of thicker bark.... Cassia cinnamon contains 0.5% coumarin, while Ceylon contains only 0.0004%.The beneficial compounds in cinnamon are soluble in water. Coumarin is not, so a water extract of cinnamon will not contain any of the hazardous substance."

© 2008, Judy Barnes Baker

"FAT" IS A WINNER!

Well, knock me over with a lamb chop, if Jennifer McLagan hasn't won the prestigious International Association of Culinary Professionals' Single Subject Award for her book celebrating--fat! And she beat out two really big names in food circles to do it: the other nominees were Under Pressure, by Thomas Keller, famed chef and owner of The French Laundry restaurant, and A Year in Chocolate by Jacques Torres (a famous name and the word chocolate in the title usually insures a win!)

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OK, so she didn't win in the Health Category; that award went to Ellie Krieger, host of the Food Network's show, "Healthy Appetite," for her book The Food You Crave. Ellie and the other two finalists in the healthy-eating competition all endorse the same ol', same ol' (low-fat, olive oil, whole grains, fruits and vegetables, blah, blah, blah), but hey, it's a step in the right direction!

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Congratulations Jennifer! It is refreshing to see signs of a return to sanity in the food world and to see your courage rewarded.

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Here's my review of "Fat" that I wrote when the book originally came out:

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CELEBRATING FAT: A NEW BOOK BY JENNIFER MCLAGAN

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Jennifer McLagan, winner of the prestigious James Beard Cookbook Award for Bones in 2006, has taken a courageous stand in her latest book titled Fat. My first exposure to Jennifer was at the IACP (International Association of Culinary Professionals) conference in Seattle where she was also nominated for an award. I attended a workshop on food photography and at the awards ceremony on the closing day, found myself seated next to one of the presenters from the class. He had warned against using images with unpleasant connotations and bones were specifically cited as an example of things to be avoided. I couldn't resist nudging him to point out the picture of the cover of Jennifer's book adorned with a gorgeous plate of marrowbones featured in the program. Jennifer McLagan breaks the rules, and she does it beautifully.

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The last IACP newsletter announced that Jennifer’s new book, Fat: An Appreciation of a Misunderstood Ingredient, With Recipes, was due out this month. I fired off an e-mail to her to find out when it would be out (Sept 1) and asked for a picture to post on my blog. She sent me a pdf but warned that she uses sugar and carbs in some of her recipes, which I already knew from looking at her blog and reading the information on her Amazon page. Never mind; she champions the healthful qualities of fat, and I’m convinced that if we had never abandoned good, natural fat, we in the US could probably still eat sugar too. (Jennifer grew up in Australia and now lives in Toronto.)

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She said, “It took a long time for publishers to talk to me.” (And she’s an award-winning author!) “The opening chapter is all about the importance of animal fat in our diet and why in the last 30 years we have been (wrongly) convinced to cut it out....It gives us energy. It boosts the immune system and some fats have antimicrobial properties. Others can lower bad cholesterol. There are vitamins that are only fat-soluble. Your brain is mainly made of fat and cholesterol, as are the membranes of your cells. It helps you digest protein, which is why you should eat chicken with crispy skin or well-marbled steak." She points out that we have been eating animal fats for thousands and thousands of years. If it had been that bad for us we probably would not be here.

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Fat includes recipes such as Roasted Pork Belly with Fennel and Rosemary, Duck Confit, Carnitas, and Butter-Poached Scallops. Stories, lore, quotations, and tips about fat’s place in culinary history and traditional cultures round out what is described as a “plump, juicy, and satisfying read for food lovers.” It contains 35 color pictures, as of course it would, seeing as how the author is herself a professional food stylist.

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It’s still a hard sell. She proposed a seminar on animal fats for the 2009 IACP conference, but she says, “surprise, surprise, they didn’t go for it.” Later this month, the venerable CIA (Culinary Institute of America), one of the most respected organizations in the food world, and The Harvard Medical School are jointly sponsoring a conference called “Healthy Kitchens, Healthy Lives.” Both promote a plant-based diet. Harvard's “Eat, Drink and Weigh Less Food Pyramid” features a base of "daily exercise and weight awareness” followed by lots of fruits and vegetables, plant oils and whole grains. Nuts, tofu, legumes, fish, seafood, poultry, and eggs are next, then dairy foods, vitamins, and red wine. At the tippy-top are lean red meats, bread, white flour, desserts, and soft drinks. Apparently, both the culinary and the medical establishments have endorsed Michael Pollan’s now famous conclusion from In Defense of Food: “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.”

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Obviously, as Jennifer told me, “We have a lot of hard work ahead of us.” True, but we are making progress, and emerging science supports those of us who embrace butter, lard, duck fat, bacon, marrowbones, and tallow for the life enhancing substances that they are. Hopefully, I won’t be the lone pariah at the next IACP convention.

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(Here’s my rewrite of Michael Pollan’s seven-word slogan:

Eat Fat. All you want. Stay healthy.)

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Fat can be ordered from Amazon Here: http://www.amazon.com/Fat-Appreciation-Misunderstood-Ingredient-Recipes/dp/0771055773/ref=sr_1_2/002-2385511-2323269?ie=UTF8&s=

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Jennifer’s blog: http://jennifermclagan.blogspot.com/

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© 2008, Judy Barnes Baker