Chicago Foodies

The Urban Canopy

Speaking to Alex Poltorak about his company, The Urban Canopy, is a challenge. It's certainly not conventional. In many ways a product that allows people to grow produce anywhere is nothing new. Being an engineer, you can see that the Urban Canopy goes well beyond what you might expect. It's modular. It takes advantage of plants in each stage of their development. It's designed to grow up and out. It's very smart. It's also easy to explain until you start to think about the Urban Canopy vision.

Alex breaks out a network of eaters, growers and composters and challenges us to redefine the city as an agriculture-ready space. We get sun. We get rain. We consume. We produce useful waste. Can we coordinate everything so that we can feed off of each other? His first step is developing a system for wheat grass. Growing it and getting it to the right juice bars. Using their compost to grow more. It's pretty simple. He's an idea guy and he has a good idea. It's facebook for food. Your roof is a field that Alex will farm He might even pay you to use it. Check out the Kickstarter. He's got 10 days to go.

What's a Nitro Pour? Or, Why Can't I Get a Growler of Frangelic Porter?

This past weekend, friends and I made a pilgrimmage to Founders Brewery in Grand Rapids, Michigan. What happened between myself and a certain beer in the pub is probably best described as a tragic love affair. With Valentine's Day approaching, consider the rest of this post something of an open love letter to Founder's Frangelic Porter. It first caught my eye with its deep color, and then stole my heart with flavors of hazelnut, chocolate, and coffee, not to mention an exquisite creaminess.

Naturally, after my first glass of this unfamiliar and exotic delicacy, I wanted to take a growler with me. I sauntered up to the bar, looking forward to taking my new love back home to Chicago to meet my friends, and maybe even watch the Super Bowl with me. "Sorry, no growlers of the Frangelic," the bartender replied. "It's on nitro." My heart sinks. The same technology that creates the beautiful head and fantastic creaminess of the porter is the very reason I can't take it home in a growler. This started me thinking: What exactly is nitro pour, and why does it stand between me and 64 ounces of malty bliss?

Decoding Your Egg Carton

Organic, free-range, cage-free, brown – there are an endless number of options for eggs at your local grocery store. How do you know which one is healthiest or safest to buy? For all other foods, it’s pretty cut and dry what it means to be organic vs. conventional. Eggs are not so simple. Until I did some extensive research, I personally had no idea what the difference was.

Like wheat bread, brown seemed like it had to be better for me in some way. All in all, there is no 100% for sure answer. If there were, they wouldn’t be selling 10 types of eggs at the supermarket. I’ve done some research on what studies have shown, how to decode the egg carton and what organic food guru Michael Pollan believes, and this is what I’ve gathered.

Harvard Science & Cooking Lectures #1: Historical Context Food & Science

Harold McGee and Dave Arnold join David Weitz in this first of a series of Harvard lectures from their School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. It's a monster series which Harvard has archived online and which we will be sharing in full right here. It's really a prerequisite for high-adventure in the kitchen.

 

El Bulli Documentary Hits Screens in Evanston, Chicago

For those of us that didn't have the chance to eat at El Bulli before it closed, or who will never be able to snag tickets to Next's El Bulli menu, a new Spanish documentary is the closest we'll ever get to the progressive cuisine of Ferran Adria. El Bulli: Cooking in Progress offers a glimpse into the mad scientist mind of one of the world's most regarded, and debated, chefs. Whether you think he's a genius or a basket case, the film will shed some light on his singularly creative process.

Eating Gluten Free is Hard! Or is it?

I was tested years ago for food allergies and the blood tests proved to be inconclusive so I never pursued it further. On a recent trip to my doctor she was reviewing some of the old lab results as reference for our conversation and noted that although I tested negative for Celiac Disease my scores were on the higher end of the range. She recommended eliminating gluten from my diet for a couple of weeks to see if it made a difference. She said, “Really, how hard could it be?” How hard could it be? My initial thought was extremely hard. I had been eating wheat at every meal every day of my life. It took me several weeks just to mentally prepare myself for the task. I decided to start the diet on a day that I went to The Loving Hut in Edgewater for lunch and noticed gluten free symbols next to several dishes. I was encouraged to see that I could go gluten free and still enjoy going out to eat.

Coffee – The Greatest Addiction Ever

5-6 Year Olds Pick Healthy Cereal Over Sugar Cereal – Really.

Wow. I would never have guessed that kids want to eat healthy. It seems to be the case until marketing slaps the cartoon character on the box (not to mention the toy in the box). Then they want the sugar. Talk about the wrong reinforcement.
This is all results of a new study from the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine: "Influence of Licensed Spokescharacters and Health Cues on Children's Ratings of Cereal Taste".

Conclusions:  The use of media characters on food packaging affects children's subjective taste assessment. Messages encouraging healthy eating may resonate with young children, but the presence of licensed characters on packaging potentially overrides children's assessments of nutritional merit.

They like what we tell them to like. Duh.
Shame on us.

--Hat tip for the AWESOME picture to the Daily Dish

Mmmm... Organic!

 
A lot of us took the Chicago Foodies Organic Survey and Foodies certainly appreciate organic foods for many reasons... But what does "organic" exactly mean? Well, here's a cheat sheet.

No synthetic pesticides
No synthetic herbicides
No artificial preservatives or additives
No genetically modified seeds or ingredients
No irradiation (radiation of food)
No industrial sewage sludge
No artificial hormones
No antibiotics

What about the many labels? Well, in the US "organic" is a legal term that requires specific growing, handling, and processing (this is in stark contrast to "natural" which is not legally protected and has no criteria. Almost anything can be labeled as "natural"). If a certain criteria is not met food companies cannot legally use the "USDA Organic" seal (you can be legally "organic" and choose not to use seal, Eden Foods chooses to do this for many reasons). Here's a run-down of the different labels (After the jump).

Sous Vide 101: Ferran Adria Goes to Harvard

In other news in the world of molecular gastronomy, Ferran Adria's closing of El Bulli in 2012 sent waves of panic throughout foodie hearts worldwide, but the greater mystery was what he intended to do with his time off. Now, we have a partial answer: Adria plans to teach at Harvard. Quoth the WaPo:

In 2014, El Bulli will become a foundation, giving culinary scholarships to chefs with avant-garde leanings. And this fall, Adrià will join Washington chef-restaurateur José Andrés to help teach a first-of-its-kind course in culinary physics at Harvard University.

Over 13 weeks, Andrés and Adrià will teach multiple times, while such renowned chefs as Blue Hill's Dan Barber and another Michelin-starred chef from Spain, Joan Roca, will appear once. Students will attend chef demonstrations, physics lectures and labs that explain the structure and characteristics of a classic emulsion (a liquid dispersed into another liquid) and more recent inventions such as Adrià's famous foams (air bubbles surrounded by thin sheets of fluid).

With a greater understanding of the physical parameters of food, students will learn how to manipulate them. Ditto for the chefs. Much of the culinary invention in recent decades has been a result of trial and error rather than scientific research. Adrià is reported to have invented the foam after a friend gave him a canister of nitrous oxide with which to experiment. Andrés developed a hot and cold foie gras soup at Minibar not because he knew that liquids at different temperatures have different densities (he learned that later) but because he had seen the technique used in Irish coffee.

Wonder if they'll accept audit students?

Chef Dan Barber's TED talk – How I Fell in Love with a Fish

Michael Ruhlman is RIGHT ON: 'The Cooking Imperative'

I'm a big fan of TED presentations. Whether it's new technology or 'How we learn' the subjects and presenters are top notch. Last time I saw Michael Ruhlman was when he interviewed Grant Achatz at the Steppenwolf. I'll confess that I was expecting more forward thinking conversation than an interview but it certainly didn't take much away from that afternoon. Michael's TED Presentation - "The Cooking Imperative" is not only important, it's something I believe in. Take a look:

You ARE Eating Genetically Modified Food.

Leave it to the movies to stimulate healty eating. Food Inc. is on video and one of the areas of interest is in our overwhelming acceptance as a nation of 'genetically modified organisms' in our food.  GMOs are in over 80% of the items at your grocery store... Is that odd when every country in the European Union, Japan and the hearty Australians all restrict or ban it? 

Here's a list of some FAQ and a link to companies that will help you eat around them: from the Non-GMO Project.

What are GMOs?
GMOs (or “genetically modified organisms”) are organisms that have been created through the gene-splicing techniques of biotechnology (also called genetic engineering, or GE). This relatively new science allows DNA from one species to be injected into another species in a laboratory, creating combinations of plant, animal, bacteria, and viral genes that do not occur in nature or through traditional crossbreeding methods.

Are GMOs safe?
In 30 other countries around the world, including Australia, Japan, and all of the countries in the European Union, there are significant restrictions or outright bans on the production of GMOs, because they are not considered proven safe. In the U.S. on the other hand, the FDA approved commercial production of GMOs based on studies conducted by the companies who created them and profit from their sale. Many health-conscious shoppers find the lack of rigorous, independent, scientific examination on the impact of consuming GM foods to be cause for concern.

How common are GMOs?
According to the USDA, in 2007, 91% of soy, 87% of cotton, and 73% of corn grown in the U.S. were GMO. It is estimated that over 75% of canola grown is GMO, and there are also commercially produced GM varieties of sugar beets, squash and Hawaiian Papaya. As a result, it is estimated that GMOs are now present in more than 80% of packaged products in the average U.S. or Canadian grocery store.

Your Soy Sauce Might NOT Be Soy Sauce!

I was enjoying my Wing Hoe takeout the other day and for some reason I was looking at the soy sauce packets. I noticed the MSG and then looked a bit closer. It didn't even register but then I tasted it again and immediately grabbed the Kikomann from the cupboard. Hmmm.

It's an MSG salt water packet. WTF? It's even made in Chicago. Not to get into the whole MSG thing, isn't it weird that salt, MSG and food coloring (caramel color) passes so easily, and for so long, as soy sauce? Granted, I usually don't use the stuff but a simple taste of the genuine article and you see what you're missing.

I don't know really how they can call it "Soy Sauce" either. Granted duck sauce isn't duck and oyster sauce isn't oyster so I don't think they're trying to pull a fast one necessarily, but come on.

Bottom line is that in addition to the ketchup, mustard and mayo, get yourself a nice bottle of Soy sauce, you might end up needing it.

The packet ingredients: water, salt, caramel color, sugar, monosodium glutamate, 1/10 or 1% sodium benzoate.

Real soy sauce ingredients: water, soybeans, salt, alcohol, organic wheat.

Or is this just news to me?

Sous Vide – from Botulism to those new Glad Bags to Katrina

I was in the grocery store this past week and was staring at the new Glad steaming microwave bags. I immediately wondered if they would melt in a pot – they would, if I could vacuum seal them – you can't and if I should retry my attempts at sous vide – I probably should. It's the new foam.

It's one of the mainstays of the molecular gastro thing and then some, the picture is from a Grant Achatz sous vide demo. This is somewhat funny since it makes the most sense and was invented for simple cooking. If you were at a 4 star hotel and someone ordered room service salmon you could have the bell-hop grab a bag from the pot and it would theoretically be cooked perfectly.
While it might burn, if the bag was in water at the temperature you desired for your product it would never get any hotter and would never dry out as it was sealed.

The Glad bags are vented so they're out... but they answer the safety of plastic bags in the microwave question.

This is why when cooking for 400 Hurricane Katrina evacuees D.C. chefs used sous vide. It sounds like a great meal. From the Washington Post:

This was a nine-course menu served for three nights recently at the D.C. Armory that included such elegant entrees as braised beef in balsamic and black pepper sauce, blanquette of monkfish, roast poussin stuffed with wild rice, grilled salmon with Cajun cream sauce and vegetarian ratatouille raviolini.

The evacuees and crisis workers who lined up for the sumptuous meal gave it an enthusiastic thumbs-up. "I've never had five-star meal in my life," said Clarence Robinson, one of the evacuees.

So how did the chefs pull it off so quickly?

The answer: sous vide .

The big problem is the lack of oxygen and the increased time it takes to get to your optimal temp is the perfect recipe for BOTULISM!!!!

Bleached Flour - No Good Reason?

It seems like capitalism will cycle our baking aisle in the grocery to include more organic options. Consumers appear to be far more comfortable with less processed ingredients. Aesthetic taking a backseat to safety. Two examples are Safeway's introduction of the Organic's line and Frito Lay's "Natural" line... meaning their regular line must be un-natural? I do have an unnatural urge to eat Cheetos...

There are tons of options of sugars and flours that are not bleached, are bleached in different ways, etc. I'm really not sure why are we obsessed with "white" flour. I guess in white cakes maybe though that would be cake flour, no? But bleached flour for everything? I don't get it. There are even questions about the safety of white flour.