You Got a Boo-Boo Poll Resaults

Cuts aren't too bad of an injury. Band-aids work great, cover them with a finger cot and you're ready to go back to work. Even a cut that requires stitches are more of a nuisance than pain. Need help with that cut, check this out.

Burns are far worse than a cut in my opinion. They hurt a lot, and often. Burns are ugly and turn into noticeable scars. Ice, cold water, salve...nothing really takes that constant sting of a burn away. I've found nothing that really helps a burn feel better but start here with a few suggestions.

Puncture wounds got no respect on this poll, but from my experience are more troublesome than either a cut or a burn. A puncture wound is difficult to clean first off. Second a puncture closes itself quickly trapping any infections bodies that might be; oh lets say a lobster tail or a fish's fin spines. I had a finger that was swollen up twice its size and required a doctor slicing the area open to clean it followed up with a large dose of antibiotics.

Lastly, and most unfortunately we examine how a torn quadriceps fit in with the above. I have to admit this is a far more detrimental injury. Physically and emotionally a torn quad will tear you down. Read about my personal experience with a torn quad here

Breakfast at Night

Cooking breakfast food for dinner just seems to make sense. Figuring that fast and furious meal while half asleep and starving is the most efficient meal of the day. Come on, we can slip In a lunch, especially if it’s not the home cooked kind, and dinner can go in a crock-pot or take a few hours of unattended cooking time. Breakfast has to take less than 10 minutes to cook, if that much time at all. So in this day and age why wouldn’t we just sync up and make the nighttime food just as efficient as the morning one.

Eggs and most likely bacon came in as the most popular breakfast item to cook for dinner with a whole %42 of votes. The very similar dish of an omelet came in second. Eggs are wonderful. It takes no longer than 3 minutes to cook a good egg, and I personally do love eggs. In the past few years I’ve come to fully enjoy a poached egg which for the remaining early years of my life I would have refused with great passion. See all it takes a some water, a nip of vinegar, and a hand that doesn’t break the yolk. Oh, and three minutes! That is it. Put a good soft succulent poached egg over toast…wow.

Best Thing Ever Poll

There is a show on the Cooking Channel called The Best Ever, or maybe it’s on Food Network too? The point is that a few personalities say all nice things about a restaurant, space, chef or dish. So that is where the question for this poll came from. The show doesn’t come across as very honest that is why I started the question off that way.
I’ll share with you my quick takes:

Best dish by a chef at a restaurant would be king crab legs under spicy Americana sauce at Morimoto in Philly. Ironicly Kari ordered this dish while I ate the 7 course Omikase. I’m not a fan of saffron at all, but add the right amount of spice and it worked great. By no means do I intent to discount the awesomeness of the sushi, scallop noodles, foie gras with Kobe beef or the octopus that was also part of the meal.

Best dish by a loved one would be my sister’s baked beans with bacon and some other ingredients that she keeps to herself. Then again Mom’s city chicken and Beef Stew could make it a three way tie. Wait…Kari makes some good pasta especially when it involves bacon…..four way tie!

Best dish by me would have to be poached eggs on toast topped with hot sauce. Best dish by me served in a restaurant would be foie gras mousse with Makers Mark gelee and granny smith apple emulsion.

Food Truck Poll Examined

Let us swing our sporks in the air and lay claim to conquering the mighty food truck…..or not!?!?

The only conclusion to be drawn from the recent food truck poll is that people are very polarized as to their willingness to embrace this up and coming trend. Either you’re willing to drive across town for a food truck treat or you wouldn’t touch their tacos if they pulled right up in your cull de sac. Eliminate my vote and it’s split straight 50/50.

Is that biodesial? Does that fryer oil run straight through the engine? How does the Department of Health visit if you don’t have an address? How long have those dogs been in that water or how long has that foie terrine been around? I got some warm nuts while in NYC a long time ago. They where the best nuts I’ve ever had. I tried the hot dog cart a few times working down town….give it up for the dog cart guys that’s a tough life! I think I even had a bite from the famed OU burrito buggy back in the day. Obviously I’ve not died since and it seems logical that for these individuals to continue doing business they need to be clean which seems to be a lot of peoples concern.

There seems to be a lot more prepared food out there for our consumption. For instance I remember going to the West Side Market as a child and the only prepared food available was a pizza bagel, and boy these were a great treat, but now there are an overflowing handful of prepared food stands. The deli counter has made similar progressions, along with the frozen food sections. People want a meal, they want it quick and easy, and the food truck is helping us get that.

Here in Cleveland we are just now embracing the food truck, but in Columbus there seems to be a much more established community. Blogger Bethia Woolff has a great insight on the capital cities local taco truck scene. And Jamie Wright brought to light some other transportable kitchens of interest such as the Rad Dog offering some vegan items, or Foodie Cart which offers Japanese crepes and can be accessed on Facebook.

What’s my take? As a chef I can appreciate the food truck as a now viable option to get a foothold in the business aspect of the culinary arts. As a consumer I can appreciate the price point that comes with a food truck. Yet I’m somewhat skeptical about food safety, but like I stated before it is in the best interest of the food truck operator to keep up sanitary conditions. Looking into it more I would be interested in seeking out an ethnic based food truck, something unique. On the other hand if I can get the same thing at the corner restaurant I’m willing to pay a few extra dollars for the giant flat screen with Sportscenter and the A/C blasting.

Candy Corn Poll Results

Turn that frown upside down Mr. Candy Corn cause we love you!

I’m not sure what there is not to like about candy corn. Especially compared to some other Halloween related candies, for instance wax lips. Three quarters of the poll results showed love toward those little candy kernels. So soft, chewy and sweet with the wonderful fall hues!

It was in the 1880’s that George Renninger created candy corn while working for the Wunderlee Candy Company. The kernels are made from a secret mixture of sugar, corn syrup, stabalizers, and artificial coloring. It is estimated that over 20 million pounds of candy corn are sold annually. Brach’s is currently the top peddler of candy corn boasting that they sell enough kernels each year that if laid end to end would circle the Earth…over four times!


For those who love candy corn, but have spent their whole life wishing it was acceptable in social circles to eat year round. You are lucky! Candy companies are currently launching kernels with a variety of color variations intended to suit other holidays like Christmas and Easter.

The Imaginary Poll Results

What an interesting poll. I surely thought it would have caught some more attention that the whole un-impressive 5 votes. But what the hell, let’s talk about it.

I constructed the idea that we might be invited to a hypothetical dinner party thrown by some of the most popular cartoon families of the past 50 years. Since it’s my imagination let me explain what might be expected.

One vote went to the mumbling Peanuts parents. Since I think of only three things when it comes to Peanuts and they are Snoopy, The Great Pumpkin, and the needless Christmas tree I am going to say the PP (Peanuts Parents) are going to stick with the regular holiday foods. Think roast turkey, stuffing, mashers, green bean casserole, cranberry sauce…ect. I also figure they would have a NA punch bowl seeing there are a bunch of neighborhood kids around and they are already mumbling. The PP would do a great party, but only for that 5 week period of the year when such foods are acceptable.

Lois Griffin also got one vote. There are plenty of scenes in Family Guy where the family sits around the dinner table, but more times than not it’s not about the food. Food just isn’t that funny. Plus they don’t have a proper dining room with the table dropped right in the middle of the kitchen. Based solely on this clip I am guessing Lois would replicate that meatloaf.

Lastly, and sole winners of more than one vote Ms. Flintstone and Ms Rubble would undoutably put for the best dinner party. I envision a full bar of gin martinis, imported champagne, huge wooden mugs of fermented barley and hops and clean water filtered through the wing of a bird that giggles and says something witty like, “I’m all wet” when you pour water on him. Bam Bam would hit Dino over the head, steal his dinosaur treat and share it with the little Flintstone girl. Fred would attempt to grill out, but after leaving Barney to man the grill while he chased a little green fairy Martian Barney would let everything burn because he is a big wimp and the grill was hot. So the final straw is the baked dinasor shank casserole, but everyone would be so full of gin they pass out and in a few hours when Bam Bam needs a diaper change he would bang on the ground shaking the whole house until everyone wakes up.

Those with no votes are Marge Simpson who I don’t recall cooking much so that dinner party would center on Duff beer. Frylock, Meatwad, and Master Shake are all food stuffs themselves so that is just kind of weird to think about. Granddad Freeman and Riley would fully enjoy a picnic of fried chicken and watermelon while Uncle and Huey would chastise them for such stereotypical choices most likely opting for some type of Italian dish.

Textures of Fall

Butternut squash edged out root vegetables as a favorite fall cooking item. I have to agree that the versatility of butternut squash and in turn other fall root vegetables is very agreeable. For a long time I thought of butternut squash along with acorn squash, Cinderella, spaghetti and the many other varieties as nothing more than a puree-able pulp to be made into soup. I’ve learned the past few years that spaghetti squash is great when you cut it into rings and oh yes, it does in fact resemble spaghetti. Also butternut and acorn take well to being diced and sautéed. The key is not to overcook them, thus controlling their texture. The easy out is to cook the hell out of it and puree it into a soup like I’ve done so many times before, instead leaving a bite to it and getting a good sear will give you a great fall vegetable item.

While thinking about texture you can use parsnips, celery root, rutabaga and turnips the same way as squash. It is easy to cook them to death and puree them, but if you enjoy that flavor you will ultimately enjoy the caramelized and firm textured version as well. I’m really excited about the fall flavors this year and hope to share a few more ideas with you, but for now, here are two non-pureed ideas that I’ve found success with in the past.

Vegan Curry Butternut Squash Stew

One large onion diced
Just enough oil or roasted garlic oil

One tablespoon ginger
One teaspoon garlic if you don’t have roasted garlic oil

Two quarts medium diced butternut squash
Two tablespoons curry powder
Fresh crack black pepper
Salt

One quart diced tomatoes

Two quarts vegetable stock

Deeply caramelize the onions in oil. Add ginger, squash and curry powder to onion mix and cook a few minutes. Add the tomatoes and let its juices run, then add the stock and bring to a boil. This should take about ten minutes and at this point the squash should be tender but not mushy…perfect.


Butternut squash risotto

This is less of a recipe. What I like about it is the procedure so we will skip all the measurements and such. We all know how to make risotto. I like to take a large squash and make a perfect medium dice, but reserve all the scraps and chop them up in the food processor. I sauté this processed squash with an onion then proceed with making risotto. After the second third of liquid to the risotto I add the diced squash and continue on my way. This way I get a nice orange risotto with a resounding flavor of butternut squash, but also have the diced pieces of squash kind of like ‘flavor crystals’ in your gum. This is especially good with maple syrup!

Graham Kerr, a Poll Favorite

Graham and Julia are the runaway favorite cooking personalities in this last poll. Everyone knows about Julia, but this Graham Kerr character put together some great on screen moments himself introducing much of North America to his European culinary specialties. Currently you can see Julia and Graham back to back during the 2 o’clock hour on The Cooking Channel. But here is a little more about Mr. Kerr.

Graham Kerr was born in London, England 1934. By the age of 20 he was the General Manager of England’s Royal Ascot Hotel. While working in New Zealand as a catering chef his first book was published in 1963, ‘Entertaining with Kerr’. Beginning in 1969 on a Canadian soundstage in front of a live audience Kerr spent two years producing the beloved television show ‘The Galloping Gourmet’. Tragically a 1971 car accident put an end to the show, but Kerr went on to do plenty of short features for North American television. Kerr has been involved with the production of well over 20 cookbooks. While his early work and television persona featured copious amounts of butter, fat, and cream Kerr has become a huge advocate of responsible and healthy eating. He currently works with Bastyr University in Seattle, Washington looking for innovational and healthy culinary options

Get some gas cause we're grilling out.

The good old gas grill. An almost given to be tucked away in every American back yard. Some of these grills get better treatment or at least more frequant use than others, but what we most overlook and underapreciate is that all import tank of gas. The tank of gas that most of us reach for when we think, "let's grill out." I've gone ahead and culled a few facts about the fuel for the fire, propane.

Propane is a three-carbon alkane, normally a gas, but compressible to a transportable liquid packaged into the familiar 20 pound tanks now commonly available.

Propane was first isolated as a volatile component in gasoline by Dr. Walter Snelling in 1910. By 1913 his method of processing and producing propane was issued a patent and he helped establish the American Gasol Company, the first commercial marketer of propane.

Propane is derived from other petroleum products during oil or natural gas processing. The processing of natural gas involves removal of butane, propane and large amounts of ethane from the raw gas, in order to prevent condensation of these volatiles in natural gas pipelines.

After it is produced, North American propane is stored in huge salt caverns located in Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta; Mont Belvieu, Texas and Conway, Kansas. These salt caverns were hollowed out in the 1940s,[7] and they can store 80 million or more barrels of propane.

The outdoor gas grill was invented in the 1960’s in Little Rock, Arkansas by William G. Wepfer and Melton Lancaster while working for ARKLA, the Arkansas Louisiana Gas Company. Wepfer, a graduate of the U.S.Naval Academy, was Director of Marketing, charged with finding new ways to sell natural gas to ARKLA residential customers, and therefore bought a basic charcoal grill and re-designed it in the Wepfer's garage so that natural gas provided the fuel for the grill.

Propane is a popular choice for barbecues and portable stoves because its low boiling point of −42 °C (−44 °F) makes it vaporize as soon as it is released from its pressurized container. Therefore, no carburetor or other vaporizing device is required; a simple metering nozzle suffices.

All these facts are from Wikipedia, and the hyper-links will lead you there as well.

The Incredible Edible.....Tomato!

The tomato is the worlds most consumed fruit ahead of apples and bannanas.

Spanish explorer Cortés may have been the first to transfer the small yellow tomato to Europe after he captured the Aztec city of Tenochtítlan, now Mexico City, in 1521.

Tomatoes were not grown in England until the 1590s.

Currently China produces almost 34 million tonnes of tomatoes. That is three times as much as the U.S.

The pronunciation of tomato differs in different English-speaking countries; the two most common variants are /təˈmɑːtoʊ/ and /təˈmeɪtoʊ/. Speakers from the British Isles, most of the Commonwealth, and speakers of Southern American English typically say /təˈmɑːtoʊ/, while most American and Canadian speakers usually say /təˈmeɪtoʊ/


The heaviest tomato ever was one of 3.51 kg (7 lb 12 oz)

On August 30, 2007, 40,000 Spaniards gathered in Buñol to throw 115,000 kilograms (250,000 lb) of tomatoes at each other in the yearly Tomatina festival.

Botanically, a tomato is a fruit: the ovary, together with its seeds, of a flowering plant.

In 2009, the state of Ohio passed a law making the tomato the state's official fruit. Tomato juice has been the official beverage of Ohio since 1965

The U.S. Supreme Court on May 10, 1893 declared that the tomato is a vegetable, based on the popular definition that classifies vegetables by use, that they are generally served with dinner and not dessert. Thus collecting a higher tariff tax at the time.

The poll resaults are clear and consistant with what the whole world has to say.... Give me my tomatoes!!!!

Mixed emotions about these poll results.

I find my interests and my actions in disaccord with regards to this post question. I can agree with the majority of poll votes that I take sustainability, local and organic (SLO) interest very seriously on a daily basis, but I do find myself slow at putting things into action. I ask myself, “Is it difficult to implement a serious stance on SLO daily?” and my answer is, “No.” But it sure is a whole lot easier not to! When convenient I will choose the SLO route. By putting myself in good situations a lot of these choices are already made for me. By good situations I mean eating out at indie restaurants over major chains or shopping the farmers market/Natures Bin instead of mass market grocery stores.

SLO is for the masses now. The glory days are over. SLO is a marketing tool and there is nothing we can do about it. The meaning or ‘organic’ has become so far reaching, and it’s meaning has become so muddled that nobody really understands it. But it does make us feel better if that word is on the label.

What is sustainable? We can come up with thousands of examples of what sustainable is… high efficiency this, low emissions that, natural products, ect. But if the guy next to you is soaked in toxic waste, sucking up power and spewing a cloud of death into the air what does our ‘sustainable’ practice do beside make us feel better about ourselves? Surely this does not imply that on an individual basis we should ignore aspects in life where sustainable choices might be made. It does appear the meaning behind making these choices though is often more personal than planetary.

The wholesomeness of what the word ‘local’ means with regard to food has been totally and completely destroyed within the past decade. Kraft wants me to buy ketchup that is labeled as ‘local’ because the tomato farm and the processing plant are in close proximity! Consumers have become obsessed with this idea of local that you can feed them any conjured up idea of what local means. What does this mean for you and I who are very serious about SLO? In my opinion it means there are even fewer trustworthy options in our desire to purchase local food products. Fortunately we are turning the corner on the planting season in the mid-west and it’s almost farmer’s market time, and for these few months out of the year we can fill our baskets with most assured ‘local’ products.

New Poll

It's been a roller coaster week thinking about the quality and source of my food. It's a clear personal choice. But when purchasing for a third party or the restaurant I work for the question comes up, "should my personal opinions impact my descisions about purchases for the restaurant?" These are my personal battles I'll have to think about. How important do the issues of sustainability, local, or organic relate to your everyday eating? That is the current poll

MMMMMM, Bacon!

Like this pic, check out this site.

The bacon cooking poll has closed with the pan and oven methods coming in neck and neck. I Bing searched ‘best way to cook bacon’ and this seems to be a common theme. Pepper in a few fans of the microwave and we are only left with wacky gadgets and grandma’s tips on how to cook up the best piece of bacon possible.

I can understand why the microwave method has its fans. With a cooking time of one minute per slice, there is no dispute this is the fastest way. I just don’t like cooking things in the microwave. Surely it’s my favorite way to heat something up, just not a tool to cook with in my opinion. I’ve had bacon cooked in the microwave, and the end product is more like warm pork jerky than a nice greasy crisp piece of bacon.

The pan method did get one more vote than the oven so it is the winner. I like bacon cooked in a pan, but it’s messy, and takes a lot of attention. I don’t have a pan big enough to cook more than 4-5 slices of bacon at a time, which is a great reason to cook bacon in the oven. The oven method is the cleanest of them all, especially if the bacon is set on a wire rack over a baking sheet, which also offers the benefit of more even cooking. All it takes is setting a timer so you don’t forget your bacon. I think the oven method is the most efficient, clean and easy way to cook up the best piece of bacon possible.

In the restaurant we always cook large batches of strip bacon in the oven. On the other hand for diced bacon we use a pot, and add bacon fat we saved from the last batch. This makes for evenly cooked bacon that doesn’t take a lot of attention to not burn. This method is a lot like deep-frying bacon, just in a pot of bacon fat instead of a fry-o-later filled with canola oil. And if you do have a fryer, and most restaurant kitchens do, as a bored cook you will eventually try to deep fry just about anything. Bacon is no exception to this rule. While I have assumed this discussion to be about strip bacon up until now, I will say that frying large pieces of bacon (or pork belly) in a fryer is a preferred method. As for the thick cut, beer battered, and deep fried bacon…..I tried it, and hot damn it was good!

When just cooking up a simple strip of bacon becomes boring don’t quit. It has come to light that bacon plays well with other ingredients like brown sugar, maple syrup, black pepper and chocolate per suggestions of other. I say, “Why stop there?” I’m ready to try a whole mess of other combinations. How about curry powder, apple butter, soy sauce, BBQ sauce, mustard, coco powder, roasted garlic, fresh herbs, you begin to see the possibilities.

Enjoy your bacon!

Purchasing Seafood

Consumer interest in sustainable seafood is lackluster and overshadowed by food safety, according to the results of a consumer survey discussed at the Seafood Business Summit: Consumer Insights on Sustainable Seafood at the International Boston Seafood Show.

The online survey, which polled more than 1,000 consumers, was conducted by the Perishables Group of West Dundee, Ill., in conjunction with Diversified Business Communications of Portland, Maine, which publishes SeaFood Business magazine and SeafoodSource.com.

Survey respondents were asked to rank various factors influencing their purchasing decisions, and “environmental friendliness” ranked No. 6. Food safety ranked 1, followed by type of fish 2 and price at 3.

“With this presentation it’s pretty clear that consumers lack understanding of, or are confused about, sustainable seafood,” added Matthew Owens, director of operations for FishWise, a Santa Cruz, Calif., organization that works with retailers to develop and implement sustainable seafood purchasing policies.

“Based on that, some critics might say that this stuff is a waste of time. But that’s pretty shortsighted for several reasons,” he said. “First, the topic is vital to the future [seafood] supply. Second, the younger generation is the most aware, and they’re going to dominate the marketplace in the future. Third, knowledgeable consumers eat more seafood. And, fourth, we’re at this critical stage between the early adopters and [sustainable seafood] becoming fairly mainstream, and at that stage the first movers have the advantage and other companies are going to get left behind. Sustainable seafood is here to stay, and it’s pretty important that we start to understand what’s resonating with consumers.”

For an easy to use guide to purchasing resposable seafood also explore the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch list of everything seafood and sustainable.

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The Incredible Edible Egg

What great poll results! Scrambled, fried, and poached all come in neck in neck at the finish line. I love eggs. I love them on their own as a standalone protein, but I also admire their coagulation abilities in making things like custards, puddings, mousses, ice cream, sauces and the such. Eggs seem such an oversight in the professional kitchen. It’s like, “go grab 30 eggs and let’s get going here.” Sometimes you need to stop and smell the roses…or the egg shells.

I suppose the poll really hits home about those eggs we cook at 8 am, in a fog, and hungery. I would have guessed the omelette to garner more votes. I guess they are more of a restaurant item than an everyday thing to make at home. Scrambled eggs are great, but take an extra bowl, and in the home kitchen one more thing to clean is one more reason to not go that direction. Fried eggs are versatile, from soft to hard to sunny side up….ect. The only thing about those two cooking methods is I really hate caramelized/brown eggs. It’s an absolute tragedy in my opinion to cook an egg until it browns.

I’ve really come on to poached eggs lately. No fat, butter, or oil is a healthy decision. Cleaning a poaching pan is easiest of them all. Lastly you can still get that great runny yolk. Three minutes is all it takes! On top of that you don’t have to stop with poached eggs in acidulated water. ElSalvadorian spicy chicken soup with eggs dropped in to poach were a weekly hangover cure for a few years. Eggs poached in a saucy black bean puree topped with Tabasco are equally impressive.

No matter how you enjoy your eggs do your best to support local, humane, organic, sustainable or otherwise responsible egg farmers.

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Meatless Not so Meaningless

I’ve never given much thought into going meatless. I mean of course I’ve had only pancakes and French toast for breakfast before, but that isn’t really what we’re talking about here. Most of my eating decisions start with, “do I want beef, pork, chicken, fish or shrimp,” and especially when dining out I really don’t mind whatever starch or vegetable they come with. It’s just how I and many others think. This isn’t necessarily a conscious thought process it’s just how we are. We are mid-westerners and beef and potatoes is dinner. That’s it; we don’t even have to put any thought into it. Such an easy decision!

I was watching one of the morning news programs during a spell of insomnia, and through my personal morning fog I saw an interview with Tom Colicchio of all people advocating meatless meals. He claimed to be currently eating at least one meatless meal a week. A bold claim for a man known coast to coast for high end steak house restaurants. This got me thinking. How many people out there are interested in meatless eating? Vegetarians have made that decision, but for those of us who keep meat as an option how viable is going meatless occasionally. Why go meatless? I guess there are health reasons, and veggies are ‘green’ plus, why not? Currently only 20% go meatless intentionally while a majority of almost 60% don’t give it much of a thought.

I feel personally challenged to go meatless once a week. I want to turn a new leaf. Try something new, a challenge to myself. I want to take one day a week and intentionally eat no meat. Why? I’m not sure. It’s as if in that haze of insomnia chef Colicchi double dog dared me to do it. We will see how it goes. I’ll keep you updated.

Movie Night

I didn’t expect such a landslide of a vote for a favorite foodie movie. Looking at the options I am seeing a foodie movie and a romance that happens to have a chocolate shop involved. Big Night is a great movie. I really enjoy it. I’ve watched it more than a few times as I get sucked in after only a few minutes. But there is a story there about life struggles, about hope, success, family and the funny bits about Italian American cuisine, angry chefs, and general kitchen behavior. I can’t think of another movie before or since that has centered around a kitchen/restaurant that shed light on some of the real emotional struggles we go through. Big Night is in my opinion and yours a top notch foodie movie and one I can’t wait to see again.

Wait, there is one movie that comes to mind that centers on a kitchen, has real emotional themes, and is at least sometimes honest…. ‘Waiting’ I don’t consider this a foodie movie. It is a shock and awe comedy at best. It’s a mis-mash of dinner’s most extravagant fears and put them in a semi-realistic setting. The personality types, the corporate environment, and the personal interaction among the staff are humorous. Those of us in the business can usually pick at least one character and admit we worked with someone just like that. By no means am I implying that Waiting is a good representation of any professional kitchen that I’ve ever worked, but it does take every aspect of what does exist and push it to the max. In this way Waiting is a funny restaurant movie.

New Poll

To remind ourselves about the content of the new poll:

Big Night

or

Chocolat




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Scary Supermarket

Gram-pa Joe and Cousin Eddie prepare to mix the burger meat.

The grocery store can be a scary place. All the people, the carts, the huge amount of money your about to spend, closterphobia or the fear of running into someone you’d rather not are all reasons to fear the grocery store. Go ahead and add on pathogenic bacteria, viruses, prions and parasites as things to fear as they are in most cases the cause of food borne illnesses. Not necessarily in plain sight but improper food handling, preparation, storage or human hygiene are all ways these nasties can find their way into your cart. That’s not to mention the naturally occurring toxins that some plants, mushrooms and fish produce. Here are a few things you might bring home from the grocery store that are free, Campylobacter jejuni, Clostridium perfringens, Salmonella, or the celebrity of food borne illness Escherichia coli o157:h7.

I’ll throw out a few stats:


Over a two year study it is estimated that for every 100,000 people in the U.S. there were 26,000 cases of food borne illnesses, or which 111 of those people needed hospitalization, and 2 out of every 100,000 people would die do to food borne illness. It’s estimated that in 1997 the financial cost of food borne illness in the U.S. reached over $35 billion in medical costs. Yearly estimations in the U.S. reach 76 million sick people, with another 2 million in the U.K. and 1 million in France. That means the number of food borne illness cases in these three countries alone account for nearly 1% of the world population.


During the year of 2008 The Food Safety and Inspection Service (a subset of the USDA) had approximately 7,800 inspection personnel working in nearly 6,200 federally inspected meat, poultry and processed egg establishments. FSIS is charged with administering and enforcing the Federal Meat Inspection Act, the Poultry Products Inspection Act, the Egg Products Inspection Act, portions of the Agricultural Marketing Act, the Humane Slaughter Act. FSIS inspection program personnel inspect every animal before slaughter, and each carcass after slaughter to ensure public health requirements are met. In 2008, this included about 50 billion pounds of livestock carcasses, about 59 billion pounds of poultry carcasses, and about 4.3 billion pounds of processed egg products. At U.S. borders, they also inspected 3.3 billion pounds of imported meat and poultry products. That means every inspector is looking at over 1.5 million pounds of product a year.


Wow, take a deep breath, and reconsider your rash decision to never go to the grocery store again. There is a 75% chance you won’t get sick from food borne illness in the next year and a really, really, really good chance you won’t die! Cheer up. The past poll queried the location in the supermarket that most concerned you about food borne illness. Pre-cut and packaged meats (and lump in the ‘they all scare me’ votes) accounted for 70% of the votes. When I think supermarket, I’m thinking about the big boys, Kroger, Giant Eagle, Wal-Mart..ect. The kinds of places that have eliminated the butcher and sell cuts of meat that are processed at a central location. I have some faith that these large production plants can produce safe product assuming that the laws, rules, regulations and procedures set forth are in fact implemented. While we lament the extinction of the local butcher, I have to wonder if gram-pa Joe and cousin Eddie are really able to apply solid food safety procedures like the big boys. On top of that, if there were another few thousand meat handling institutions how would the USDA be able to look after them all. So, unlike 70% of those who voted I’m comfortable with pre-cut and packaged meat.


What scares me are deli meats! First off you don’t cook them like you do anything on a tray with a wet nap under it. Secondly, you don’t wash it like an apple or lettuce. Deli meats sit in a case of questionable temperature, get pulled out every once in a while and placed on a slicer… the same slicer everything else is cut on, and placed back in the case. What I don’t see is what is most scary; I don’t see the meats get re-wrapped. I don’t see the slicer get cleaned off between uses. I don’t see a thermometer in the case.


Let’s take an example, so a piece of ham gets touched by a piece of machine that was fixed by a repair man who used the restroom right before he fixed the broken down packaging machine, but never washed his hands properly. The first ham through the machine is inoculated with some fecal matter. This ham just happens to sit in a box on a delivery truck of which the cooling unit is not fully functional and this ham is subject to temperatures above 40 degrees allowing for bacterial growth. This ham is delivered to the supermarket and properly refrigerated, looks and smells fine and is sliced open by a clean, gloved and caring deli worker, placed on a clean slicer and shaved perfectly to my specification. So now the slicer, the workers gloves, and everything else he touches or puts on the slicer is in theory infected. So I order some turkey that gets infected from the slicer, and the scale is infected from the gloves, and the next pair of gloves that touch the scale are infected and the turkey is infected from the slicer so now the ham and the turkey are problems. You see how this can multiply fast. Everything in the deli case scares me because right in front of us it is subject to everything that should scare us…it’s handled, it’s prepared, and it’s subject to human hygiene issues.


The next question is how concerned are we? I don’t plan on stopping me deli counter purchases. I doubt any of those who stated they are most concerned about pre-cut and packaged meats are going to stop buying those types of products. We do feel safe with the majority of our food purchases, but it’s complacence that will kill us. And the number one thing we all can do to make ourselves and all those around us safer, wash your hands.


All numerical facts were found on Wikipedia, here or here.

Try Something New from the Appetizer Section

I think this past poll had an inherent logical answer built into it. Those people who are willing to try something new surely would like to give it a small try before diving in. I am surprised that neither soup nor dessert got a single vote while entrées did. Personally, I’m quite willing to give a dessert a try that strays from the predictable chocolate, vanilla, or berries regime. Apps and desserts also share the same price point, and quantity. Appetizers do garner all the glory though. They are the first things eaten, usually make up a good portion of the menu, and are most likely to include something unique.


Not just when looking for something new do people gravitate toward apps, but as a theme appetizers have become ever more popular. We call them different names; tapas, small bites, starters, ect. Restaurants across the country have gone above and beyond to explore exactly how to give the customer enough appetizer options. Ironically it’s been my observation that the downfall of any great menu is the lack of entrees. In my opinion while people want as many app choices as we can come up with, they also want the ability to order a big ole’ comfortable mid-western plate of food. What I’m saying here is that people want a lot of choices, they want to find that something new and give it a try, but they aren’t likely to make that a meal. At least from my experiences.