A Morning on the Farm

My friend Kim invited me to ride with her this morning to pick up her order from Full Quiver Farm - a family farm in Suffolk, VA - and I took a few pictures to share. It was an absolutely perfect day to be outside too: sunny & 60°F!

Happy cows

Full Quiver Farm sells milk shares and grass-finished beef shares, as well as pork shares.

Happy baby cows

Chickens (for eating) in their portable coop - it's moved to a new patch of grass every day

Chickens (for laying eggs) in their portable coop

The yellow & white trailer has been gutted and now houses dozens of nest boxes. Every three days, the trailer and the white fence are moved to a new area of the pasture, so the chickens have fresh grass to eat.

Thanksgiving turkeys

They take reservations for turkeys for Thanksgiving, and apparently it's best to reserve by early October - they're already sold out for this year!

A cotton field nearby on Manning Road

Reading List for October 25-29

1. "Trick or - eek! Halloween candy nutrition labels!" from The Washington Post

"Even if you don't go trick-or-treating, it's hard to avoid Halloween candy this time of year. For those of us who aim to eat healthfully, there are three basic approaches to candy, Halloween candy in particular: You can abstain, which is easier said than done. You can carefully select treats that you can justify, choosing candies that are, say, lower in fat or calories than others, or take longer to eat. Or you can decide to enthusiastically indulge in what will truly satisfy your craving for candy, but do so in moderation and know when to quit."

2. "The Juice Cleanse: A Strange and Green Journey" from the NYTimes

"So, what’s so bad about juice cleansing? Done occasionally, for a few days at a time, apparently nothing. Done regularly, for a week or more, quite a bit."

Hmm ... perhaps this article should come with a note to readers: "Don't try this at home."

3. The Latest on HFCS

"Study: Corn Syrup Actually Isn't the Same as Table Sugar" by Marion Nestle in The Atlantic

"Study of Corn Sweetener in Soda Stirs Up Controversy" from NPR's Health blog

"If this study can be replicated, the [soda] industry may need to re-think its 'corn-syrup-is-the-same-as-table-sugar' talking point."

4. "Where to Line Up for More of Gordon Ramsay's Abuse" from New York Magazine's GrubStreet.com

Because what we all need in life is more of Gordon Ramsay's foul-mouthed ranting & verbal abuse. :(

5. And this is just plain weird: "Vending Machines Sell Live Crabs in Chinese Subway" from NPR

Better Than Food Network

Last Christmas my aunt & uncle gave me & Topher the perfect present (for us, anyway): a gift certificate to A Chef's Kitchen in Williamsburg, VA. It's been sitting on my desk at home, waiting patiently, and this past weekend it finally got used.

The weekend's festivities started with a ride on the Jamestown-Scotland ferry across the James River, from Surry to Williamsburg. Then we met up with our friends Randy & Kim and headed to Merchants Square. There we snacked on a cheese plate and a bottle of wine (Andrew Murray Vineyards"Esperance" red blend) from The Cheese Shop and walked around historic Colonial Williamsburg.

After a quick change of clothes at our hotel, we headed back out and grabbed a cocktail at the Blue Talon Bistro (their menu looked awesome, and I definitely want to go back there for dinner sometime). Then we made our way to the main event.

For those of you that are unfamiliar with A Chef's Kitchen (as I was until we received the gift certificate and I started doing a little research), Chef John Gonzales came up with the idea "because he 'felt sorry for the audiences on the Food Network,' who never get to eat the meals they watch being prepared," according to Frommer's Virginia.

The restaurant is set up stadium-style with three rows of ~8 seats each and an open kitchen. Chef Gonzales and his sous chef Sam Hall prepare your dinner there in front of you, teaching you how to make each dish as they go along (they even give you a recipe booklet to take home). There's only one seating each night, and the meal takes ~3 hours, with half an hour for champagne and hors d'oeuvres at the beginning. The meal was good, but the experience was great!

What We Ate:

• appetizers: goat cheese balls rolled in crushed pistachios, and olive tapenade on toast - paired with champagne
• Parsnip & Chive Bisque with Applewood Smoked Bacon & Sour Cream
• Mâche, Carrot, & Apple Slaw with Golden Raisins & Toasted Pecans - paired with a (not oaky) chardonnay - very good! a healthy, colorful, & flavorful dish that I would definitely like to make at home
• Skillet Baked Corn Bread with European-style Butter
• Shrimp & Butternut Squash Risotto with Fresh Thyme - paired with a sauvignon blanc - well made (the shrimp weren't overcooked, and the risotto was just the right consistency - not crunchy, not mushy), but a little too sweet
• Seared Broadleaf Farms Venison with Braised Boneless Berkshire Spare Ribs over Mashed Celeriac & Virginia Apple Purée - paired with a regional Spanish red wine that I can't remember - this was the absolute, hands-down highlight of the evening! the spare ribs were so tender, juicy, & flavorful that my mouth is watering just thinking about them ... and I really want to start eating celeriac at home
• Lemon Mousse with a Chocolate Shortbread Cookie & Port Braised Figs - the three elements of this dessert were good (especially the shortbread), but somehow the combination of the three just didn't work

The Scoop:

A Chef's Kitchen is located at 501 Prince George Street (near Merchants Square and William & Mary) in downtown Williamsburg, VA. Dinner is served Wed-Sun at 6:30pm. Reservations are required and should be made well in advance by calling 757-564-8500.

Mad about Mediterranean

Last weekend, while visiting my parents in Savannah, we got lunch from the annual Greek festival at the Hellenic Center. As I sat munching on my dolmades (stuffed grape leaves), I began to wonder: When did I get so into Mediterranean food?

Sure, it’s common knowledge that I LOVE feta cheese and kalamata olives. But I’m not Greek (or Italian or Turkish); no one in my immediate or extended family is Greek (that I know of); and I’ve never been to Greece. So how did my love affair begin?

Dancers at the Greek Festival in Savannah, Oct 2010

Chapter 1
Thinking back, I’ve decided that my first real exposure was at the Olympia Café on River Street, where I went on field trips with my high school Latin class. I remember eating lamb gyros, mousaka (baked eggplant casserole), pastitsio (baked meat & macaroni casserole), and spanakotiropita (spinach cheese pie).

But my favorite, by far, was the saganaki, or “flaming cheese.” Our server would bring a skillet full of sizzling cheese to the table. While it was still hot, he would pour in a shot-glass of brandy (which immediately ignited) and shout, “Opa!” After the flames went out, we would eat the delicious, gooey cheese on crusty, fresh-baked bread. My dear friend Jessica and I went to the Olympia Café together several times for New Year’s Eve, and we ordered the flaming cheese every time – it was a ritual.

The photo above is from here.

Chapter 2
A few years later, when I was living in Philadelphia, I went to Turkey for ~10 days with some friends, to visit some other friends who were living in Istanbul and Ankara. Hospitality is huge in Turkish culture, so we spent a lot of time talking, sipping çay (Turkish tea, usually apple flavored, pronounced like chai), and eating.

Turkish cuisine is very similar to Greek food, and the meals we had were delicious - so savory and flavorful – I was in heaven! For breakfast, our hotel served a buffet of olives, cheeses, sliced tomato & cucumber, yogurt, bread & crackers with honey, marmalades, & butter, and a variety of sliced meats. For lunch we sometimes ordered köfte (meatballs, also called kefta in Greek) from a street vendor, and in the afternoons we drank ayran, a refreshing yogurt drink.

Dinners often started with a variety of mezzes, small appetizer-like dishes such as dolma (grape or cabbage leaves stuffed with rice, meat, & spices), baba ghanoush (spices, baked eggplant, and cooked tomatoes often used as a dip), or tabbouleh (a bright salad of bulgur, finely chopped mint & parsley, diced tomatoes, olive oil, & lemon juice). These were followed by meaty entrees like döner and iskender kebap (lamb dishes).

Dessert was, as usual, my favorite: baklava! We usually finished with Turkish coffee; a small glass of raki, an anise-flavored apéritif that, when mixed with water, turned a milky white; or an Efes pilsener (Turkish beer).

Chapter 3
Back in Philadelphia, my fellow travelers and I were thrilled to discover Divan Turkish Kitchen. If I was in the mood for a light snack, I got the falafel appetizer with hummus and tahini sauce. For something more filling, I usually ordered iskender, but on one occasion I opted to try a new dish: Kayseri Manti ("tender steamed homemade dumplings filled with ground lamb, topped with garlic yogurt sauce and mint," according to the menu). Good decision.

A few years later, after I'd moved away from Philadelphia, I came back for my friend Anne's birthday, and a group of us went to Leila's Cafe in Queen's Village. Leila's is a little more casual than Divan, but it offers all the standards – kefta, shawarma, falafel, hummus, tabouleh, baba ghanoush, lentil soup, grapes leaves, and baklava – plus tabletop hookahs. Fun times!

Dinner at Leila's Cafe, August 2009

Chapter 4
Thanks to a few good friends, it didn't take me too long after moving to Hampton Roads to find a good spot for Mediterranean: Azar's on Colley. I haven't been for dinner, but I've had lunch there several times - once for my birthday (a few years ago with my aunt & cousins), a couple of times after church, and once to get takeout for my friend Heather (while she was on bedrest this summer). When I'm really in the mood to eat, I order the Mid-Eastern Sampler (half of a chicken tawook wrap, a serving of baba ghanouj or hummus, and 3 stuffed grape leaves, plus olives and pita bread), but their veggie orzo soup makes a yummy light lunch.

The photo above is from here.

Next on my list: Pasha Mezze! I tried to go there once before, with my friend Beth, but we went on a Monday, and they're closed on Mondays. So it's still on my "to dine" list, for now. I've got my eye on the Salad Sampler Plate: “your choice of five: kale salad, garden salad, organic tabouli, organic red lentil pate, hummus, black bean & corn salad, chicken curry salad, smoked salmon, grilled chicken, or shrimp.” It makes me happy just to think about it.

Also, at the Greek festival in Savannah last weekend, we missed dessert: loukoumades, or honey puffs. Somehow I've never tried these. Boo! Add those to the "to dine" list.

The Scoop:

• Olympia Cafe - Savannah, GA (River Street) - Urbanspoon, Yelp
• Divan Turkish Kitchen - Philadelphia, PA (22nd & Carpenter Sts.) - Urbanspoon, Yelp
• Leila's Cafe - Philadelphia, PA (13th & Pine Sts.) - Urbanspoon, Yelp
• Azar's Natural Foods & Mediterranean Specialties - Norfolk, VA (Ghent) - Urbanspoon, Yelp
• Pasha Mezze - Norfolk, VA (Ghent) - Urbanspoon, Yelp

Reading List for October 18-22

Good Morning, and Happy Friday!

1. "Tiles, Farms, and the Dead Zone" from the NYTimes
An opinion piece that's short, sweet, and to the point:

"Sacrificing life in the gulf [of Mexico] for corn in the fields [of the Midwest] is a trade-off that has to stop."

2. "Tips for Picnics on the Tailgate" from NPR's Kitchen Window
(includes recipes for Garlic-Tomato Soup, Pork Kebabs, Pickled Beets with Feta, and Yogurt Cake with Blueberry Sauce)

"Cahn calls a parking lot full of tailgaters 'the last American neighborhood' and refers to the parties as 'the new American community.' The character of the event seems to vary somewhat from locale to locale depending on the city and team. In some places, there's a great deal of food sharing and tasting; in others, the meal itself is more private. Whatever the case, it's a party."

3. "State of the Organic Union" from The Atlantic
A report from the 3rd Annual Organic Summit in Boston from a (strong) organic supporter

4. "25 New Healthy Foods That Aren't" from Eat This, Not That (in Men's Health)

"As Americans have become more health conscious, so has the food industry—or at least restaurants and manufacturers would like us to think so. Most often, this means using buzz words such as 'grilled' and 'whole wheat' to make their products appear healthy. But if you actually look at the numbers and give the ingredient list a glance, you'll see that these claims don't tell the whole story."

5. "Conflicts of interest mar food producers' independent inspections" from The Washington Post

"With food-borne illness and recalls rising, the use of private inspectors has grown rapidly in the past decade as companies try to protect themselves from lawsuits and tainted products that can damage their brand names. But experts agree that the inspections often do not translate into safer products for consumers. 'It's a business strategy, not a public-health strategy,' said David Acheson, former assistant commissioner for food protection at the Food and Drug Administration under President George W. Bush." ...

"Suppliers 'will hunt down the fastest, cheapest, easiest and least-intrusive third-party auditor that will provide the certificate' that will allow them to sell their product, Acheson said. 'Until that model flips, there will continue to be a false sense of security in terms of what these systems offer.' "

6. Not exactly "reading," but definitely fun to look at (from the blog D Street Design)

• "Good Enough to Eat" - funny sculptures of animals and people made out of food
• "Børk! Børk! Børk!" - a new cookbook from IKEA featuring (surprise, surprise) minimalist food photography

Hope you have a great weekend!

Playing Tourist in My Hometown

This past weekend Topher & I flew to Savannah, GA, to visit my parents. The weather was gorgeous - sunny & 70°F - and the four of us spent Saturday "playing tourist." First we took a trolley tour of the downtown historic district.

Now, every kid in Georgia public schools spends a year learning about Georgia history and doing projects on their city or county. But I haven't lived in Savannah for over 10 years, and I've forgotten most of the local lore. So the trolley tour was a great refresher: we heard about Tomochichi and General Oglethorpe, Casimir Pulaski and John Wesley, Juliette Gordon Low and the Waving Girl, and of course Paula Deen and Lady Chablis (although I don't think the last two were part of the tour I got in 3rd grade).

Afterwards we headed to the St. Paul's Church & Hellenic Center for lunch at their annual Greek Festival (more on that later this week), then home for a walk and a much-needed nap.

That evening the four of us got dressed up and went out to dinner at Elizabeth on 37th, housed in a huge old Victorian home at 37th & Drayton. Specializing in upscale Southern cuisine, Elizabeth's is definitely a "special occasion" place (read: expensive), but our meal was wonderful!

What We Ate:

• biscuit with butter & marmalade
• my appetizer: blackeyed pea patty served over shredded greens & halved cherry tomatoes, with mustard sauce - the patty was slightly crispy on the outside (a good texture, IMHO), and the mustard sauce was mild but flavorful
• salad: mixed greens & herbs, julienned red apples, goat cheese, and house vinaigrette - a fabulous salad, full of mint, cilantro, spinach, arugula, and goat cheese (need I say more?)
• my entree: mustard-garlic glazed Scottish salmon, served over shredded greens & halved cherry tomatoes, with roasted potatoes - paired with a glass of sauvignon blanc - when I ordered this, I didn't realize it was served over the same greens & tomatoes as my appetizer - I guess I got my vitamin C and lycopene for the day. The mustard-garlic glaze was subtle but flavorful, and the salmon was moist & flaky ... yum!
• Topher's entree: pork chop with five cheese macaroni and apple-cabbage slaw - although he shared a bite of pork chop with me (delicious! not overcooked, still tender and slightly pink in the middle), I did not get to taste the macaroni & slaw: he was scared that I would like them too much and want to switch plates, and he was probably right - the macaroni was full of fontina, and the slaw was full of cilantro!

The Scoop:

Elizabeth on 37th is located at 105 East 37th Street, Savannah, GA 31401. They're open for dinner Mon-Sun at 6pm. Reservations are available online or by phone (912-236-5547). (Disclaimer: I went to high school with the owners' daughter.)

Note: The photo above came from this website.

Food That Heals

On my flight home from Savannah on Sunday (more on that trip later this week), I read an article in the October issue of Vogue about Dr. Daphne Miller, a Harvard-educated family physician who has a private practice in San Francisco. She's also the author of The Jungle Effect, a nutrition adventure/travel memoir about the benefits of traditional diets from around the globe.

Miller is among a growing group of health professionals that believe in the healing power of food. As part of a normal check-up, Miller asks her patients about what vitamins & minerals they're taking and what they eat on a regular basis. And frequently she prescribes foods instead of pills.

Why? Because, she says, too often OTC or prescription drugs cause multiple unintended and unpleasant side effects: "[M]edications often produce a buckshot-like effect, hitting organs far beyond their intended target," ("Doctor Uses Some Foods as Medicines," The Washington Post, 26 May 2009). For example, when a patient comes in with a cold, instead of offering a decongestant or a fever-reducer, she prescribes mushroom ginger soup (recipe below): ginger is a natural decongestant, and mushrooms boost the immune system.

Another point she makes: " 'Today, people are so crazy-busy, they say they don't have time to cook,' she adds. 'But when they get sick, they have time to go to the doctor'," ("Dr. Daphne Miller's jungle diet," San Francisco Chronicle, 29 June 2008).

I recently saw a sign outside an auto repair shop that read, "If it ain't broke, maintain it." The same holds true for the human body: instead of waiting until something goes wrong and then heading to the doctor, it's easier to make healthy lifestyle & diet choices along the way that will help prevent long-term problems.

Miller's book (which is on my "to read" list) focuses on five "cold spots," places where a certain chronic disease is rare or nonexistent: "colon cancer in Cameroon, heart disease in Crete, depression in Iceland, diabetes in Mexico, and breast & prostate cancer in Okinawa."

What she found in each place was basically the same: "They all ate a traditional diet of locally grown fresh foods, eaten in combination and in sequences that enhanced their nutritional and disease-fighting qualities," (SF Chronicle). Back in the states, she's trying to use that ancient culinary wisdom to treat a variety of ills.

She's also studied food synergies: how certain ingredients, when eaten together, heighten each other's nutritional benefits. For example, when tomatoes and carrots are cooked in olive oil, "the healthy antioxidants lycopene and beta-carotene are more easily absorbed by the body" ("Force of Nature," Vogue, October 2010). Eating fermented foods like vinegar and yogurt with a carb-heavy meal helps slow the absorption of the sugars, which prevents the typical blood sugar spike & crash (Vogue). And treating tortillas with lime may help boost their nutrient content (SF Chronicle).

Check out the full Vogue article (click on the thumbnails below):

If/when I get sick this winter, I'm definitely going to try her soup (and perhaps follow it up with a hot toddy).

Mushroom Soup with Ginger (from the Washington Post)

• 1 ¼ cup shiitake, white button, maitake, cremini, or oyster mushrooms cut in ¼ inch slices
• ½ inch cube of fresh ginger (or more, if you really love ginger)
• 2 cups cold water
• 1 tablespoon white or red miso paste
• 1 tsp Mirin, sake or rice vinegar
• 1 tbsp finely chopped scallion

Put mushrooms, ginger and water in a pot with a lid and bring to a boil; then immediately turn down heat and simmer for 30 minutes. Remove from heat and take out ginger. Put ¼ cup of broth in a bowl, and stir in miso paste and Mirin. Stir this mixture into the pot. Serve topped with scallions.

Serving size: 1 dose