Raising the Ire of the Locavores

In last Friday's reading list, I included a piece from the NYTimes by blogger Stephen Budiansky entitled "Math Lessons for Locavores." Apparently his thesis - that we spend/waste more energy at home on food storage & preparation than we do in shipping & trucking our food across the country/world - was not well received. It's lit up sustainable food blogs and discussion boards across the internet.

A few of the highlights (not all of which I've had a chance to read yet) ...

• Letters to the Editor in the NYTimes
• "Food Fight: Do locavores really need math lessons?" from Grist (featuring responses from 10 food & environment experts)
• "Grist v. New York Times: Debating Local Food" from The Atlantic
• "Doing the Math on Local Foods" from San Francisco Chronicle blogger Elanor Starmer
• "About That Math for Locavores ..." from blogger La Vida Locavore
• "Eating Locally, and Other Victimless Crimes - A Reponse to Budiansky's Locavore Math" from Boston blogger eyes wide stomach
• "Driving Locavores Loco - Budiansky v. the Sustainable Foodies" from Food CEO
• "The Myth of the Rabid Locavore" from Huffington Post Food
• There's also a pretty vigorous reader discussion going on at Chowhound.

Blogger Lighthearted Locavore (who has a good summary of the Grist article on her website) makes a good point:

"I love it when The New York Times runs articles about local food economies, farmers and food policy, urban ag and locavore recipes. I get especially excited when the word LOCAVORE is used in a piece and welcome an op-ed that has LOCAVORE in its title even if I violently disagree with its premise. Why? Because the more our country debates our food system, the pros and cons of farmers markets and urban agriculture, impact of food miles, fossil fuel used in agriculture and climate change, the causes of exploding obesity rates, farm subsidies for commodity foods, food justice, local and national food policy and the like, the better it is for not only food advocates and locavores but for all eaters." (emphasis is mine)

Stephen Budiansky, the author of the original piece, has posted a follow-up on his blog offering sources for the figures he quoted.

It should all make for some interesting bedtime reading!

Summer of the Sandwich

Do you ever get on a kick where you find a food you like and just keep eating it over and over? I did that with Greek yogurt for a while, then avocados (although I'm still kinda on that kick), and now it seems to be sandwiches.

This summer I've snacked on egg salad, chicken salad (with celery, dried cranberries, & Granny Smith apples), and tuna salad sandwiches. Last week while in DC, I grabbed a balsamic chicken sandwich with avocado, basil, and baby leaf from Pret a Manger for lunch. And several times this summer, after Topher has made his delicious bourbon ancho pork tenderloin for dinner with friends, I've thin-sliced the leftover pork to use on sandwiches with sliced avocado, sliced tomato (from the WRPC Community Garden, of course), arugula, Swiss cheese, and a dab of Dijon mustard.

Breakfast sandwiches are my favorite, though. I wish I had time to make one every morning, but I usually enjoy them only on weekends, when I can sleep in a little and make breakfast at my own pace.

My dad used to make delicious breakfast sandwiches for me when I was growing up: fried egg, bacon, cheddar cheese, and a little mayo on toasted wheat bread. Anytime I had a big test or something at school, he'd have one ready for me on my way out the door.

This summer, in my continued quest to eat more veggies for breakfast, I've piled fried eggs on toasted white bread with sliced tomato & avocado, light Duke's mayo, and whatever cheese (Swiss, cheddar, or provolone) and greens (usually leftover arugula, spinach or cilantro - yes, I use it as a green!) we have in the fridge.

Ironically, I've also read about multiple sandwich contests this summer. I usually don't go in for those sorts of things, but I think I'm going to spend an hour or or this weekend to concoct, photograph (the hardest part for me), and submit an entry. If I get it done, I'll post pictures next week. Fingers crossed, I might win a trip or some moolah!

The Contests:

Southwest Airlines’ Spirit Magazine "Build a Better Sandwich" Sweepstakes (ends Sept 15)

Whole Foods' Whole Deal Pack-a-Lunch Contest (ends Sept 30)

Mezzetta's Make That Sandwich Contest (ends Sept 6)

Read more about sandwich "architecture" from Spirit Magazine and Whole Foods - it's actually pretty interesting, but it'll make your mouth water!

Note: The picture above is from this website.

Green Smoothie Follow-up: My Favorite Recipe

For the past two weeks, I've been experimenting with various versions of the green smoothie, and I think I've finally found my favorite. It makes a great breakfast!

• ~1 cup of almond milk or soy milk
• 1 ripe banana, cut into 1-inch chunks & frozen ahead of time (I blend these with the milk before I add anything else)
• ~ 1/2 cup of frozen mixed berries (I use Harris Teeter's bagged mix of frozen blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, & blueberries)
• two large handfuls of spinach or rainbow Swiss chard, washed and torn into pieces (I tried kale as well, but I don't think it works as well - it's the wrong texture or something)
• 1 T of ground flaxseed
• 1 T of almond butter

Blend all ingredients in a blender until smooth. Makes 2 servings.

Sadly, it does not turn a fun bright green color, unless you leave out the mixed berries. With the berries, it's a strange purplish brown - not all that appetizing to look at, but delicious to drink!

Reading List for August 23-27

1. "Calorie Counts Are Coming to the Menu" from NPR

Earlier this year the FDA tackled the problem of misleading serving sizes on packaged foods: "[O]fficial serving sizes for many packaged foods are just too small. And that means the calorie counts that go with them are often misleading," wrote The New York Times in February. Now the FDA has released draft guidelines that would require chain restaurants and vending machines to display calorie counts in the same font size as the item name or price, whichever is larger.

2. "A School Fight over Chocolate Milk" from the NYTimes

" 'Saying we need to add sugar and flavoring to milk to get kids to drink it is like saying we need to feed kids apple pie if they don’t like apples,' said Ann Cooper, who runs the Boulder, Colo., school food program and a national Web site, chefann.com, aimed at reforming school lunch. She’s not opposed to chocolate milk, but she is opposed to teaching children it is part of a healthy daily diet."

I drank a lot of milk as a kid, both plain 2% and chocolate. As an adult, I drink mostly plain skim milk, but also soy milk and almond milk. The fact that my parents allowed me to drink chocolate milk as a kid got me in the habit of drinking milk (instead of tea or soda) with meals. I'm gonna fall on the "milk is milk" side of this debate.

3. "Math Lessons for Locavores" from the NYTimes

"Eating locally grown produce is a fine thing in many ways. But it is not an end in itself, nor is it a virtue in itself. The relative pittance of our energy budget that we spend on modern farming is one of the wisest energy investments we can make, when we honestly look at what it returns to our land, our economy, our environment and our well-being."

This author doesn't argue that local food is bad, but he does offer some interesting figures that made me reconsider the pros & cons of eating a variety of healthy food that's shipped and trucked from all over the world.

4. "Seeing a Time (Soon) When We'll All Be Dieting" from the NYTimes

Columnist Mark Bittman reviews The Coming Famine: The Global Food Crisis and What We Can Do to Avoid It by Julian Cribb.

"Mr. Cribb is reporting on the fate of a planet whose resources have, in the last 200 years, been carelessly, even ruthlessly exploited for the benefit of the minority. Now that the majority is beginning to demand - or at least crave - the same kind of existence, it’s clear that, population boom or not, there simply isn’t enough of the Euro-American way of life to go around. And while there is a sky-is-falling tone to his relatively brief (just over 200 pages) thesis ... the book does offer sensible ways to help alleviate the 'global feeding frenzy.' "

5. "Egg recall points up need for Senate action on food safety" from the Washington Post

If there's a silver lining in the massive recall, it is that this latest outbreak of food-borne illness (remember peanuts, peppers, tomatoes, spinach, etc.) appears to have sparked action in the Senate, where comprehensive food-safety legislation has languished since July 2009. The bill would give the FDA the power to initiate a mandatory recall of contaminated products. And it would set up systems to trace food from farm to fork, thus making it easier and faster to pinpoint sources of contamination. A vote by the full Senate is expected as soon as it returns Sept. 13.

To find out if your eggs are part of the recall, check out the FDA website.

Back to DC: Founding Farmers

Every few months I travel to DC for training for work, and this week I'm back again. The last time I was here, I had lunch at a farm-to-table American restaurant in northwest DC (near George Washington University) called Founding Farmers. I enjoyed it so much that I decided to go back for lunch again today.

Founding Farmers is big on knowing where their food comes from. Their website states, "When ingredients are available locally and it is sensible for us to buy them, we do. We serve chicken, beef, pork and dairy from certified sources that state their commitment to sustainable farming and clean foods; we buy our seafood from vendors committed to the standards of FishWatch."

Today it was more crowded than on my first visit, and I had to sit at the bar; but it turned out not to be too bad - my bartender/waitress was prompt & friendly. Both times I was able to get in & out and back to class in under an hour. I tried two different pasta dishes, but the rest of their menu looks good too, especially the entrée salads and the Roasted Vegetable & Avocado sandwich.

What I Ate #1:

• Straw & Hay Pasta: housemade macaroni noodles simmered in a light creamy broth with asparagus, bacon, mushrooms, & peas
• To drink: Cranberry Cucumber Cooler (non-alcoholic) - very refreshing!

What I Ate #2:

• Show Stopper Pasta: Mussels, shrimp, white fish, & chorizo over housemade spaghetti in a light wine sauce, served with crusty bread - this dish was fun to eat: the sauce was light, not heavy & creamy, and the shrimp & chorizo were "hidden" towards the bottom of the dish, so each bite revealed a little more, like toasted (pine?) nuts and mixed herbs ... yummm
• To drink: Mint Limeade - tart & refreshing

The Scoop:

Founding Farmers is located in the International Monetary Fund headquarters building at 1924 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, DC 2006. Reservations are strongly recommended (even for lunch) and can be made by calling (202)822-8783. They serve breakfast M-F, lunch & dinner M-Sun, and brunch on Sat-Sun.

Reading List for August 16-20

1. "Eat an Apple (Doctor's Orders)" from the NYTimes

• Produce by "prescription" seeks to address childhood obesity
• Doctors at three health centers in Massacusetts have begun adnising patients to eat "prescription produce" from local farmers' markets, in an effort to fight obesity in children of low-income families. Now they will give coupons amounting to $1 a day for each member of a patient's family to promote healthy meals.
• "The goal is to get them to increase their consumption of fruit and vegetables by one serving a day." - Dr. Suki Tepperberg, a family physician at Codman Square Health Center in Dorchester, MA

2. "A Hen's Space to Roost" from the NYTimes

"Animal welfare advocates and farmers [in Ohio, the second-largest producer of eggs after Iowa] agreed recently to phase out small crates for gestating hogs and veal calves, and to ban new cages for egg-laying hens. (Existing cages can remain.)"

In related news: "Egg Recall Tied to Salmonella Grows to 380 Million" (WSJ)

3. Food & the Economy

• "Wheat Prices Hit 2-Year Highs Following Russian Ban" (WSJ)
• "Reap What You Swap" - a farmer's perspective on derivates, aka agricultural swaps (NYTimes)
• "Commodity prices: The breakfast index" (The Economist) - Prices on the raw ingredients for breakfast (cereal, coffee, & orange juice) have risen 25% since June.

4. "Weekday Vegetarians" from TIME

• You don't have to completely forsake meat; being a "flexitarian" (i.e. reducing your intake to just a few days a week) can still offer benefits to your health & the environment.

Curry Cravings

If I could add one and only one restaurant to our offerings in downtown Suffolk, I would probably pick an Indian restaurant. It's easy to find good Indian in the DC area (Bombay Curry Company, anyone?), but not so much in Suffolk. We've got sushi, Italian, Mexican, and Chinese takeout, but no Indian. And sometimes a girl just needs a little curry, ya know?

So when Topher & I want to satisfy our cravings, we visit Rajput in Ghent. Topher first took me there a couple of years ago for my birthday. (It was the first birthday we'd celebrated together as a couple, and Topher set the bar for gifts very high: he gave me a first edition of To Kill a Mockingbird, my favorite book!)

We went back this past February for Valentine's Day, which fell on a Sunday, so we got to indulge in their amazing Sunday lunch buffet. All-you-can-eat paneer masala, chicken tandoori, lentils & chickpeas, basmati rice, naan, and kheer (rice pudding with raisins, nuts, and rosewater) - it was a perfect date for us.

Last week Topher's friend Matt and his new fiance Allison were in town for a visit, and we ate lunch with them at Nawab on Military Highway. (They have another location in VA Beach near Hilltop.) Nawab has a lunch buffet, so we gorged ourselves on vindaloo, curry, biryani, eggplant bhartha, and palak paneer, finished off once again with kheer.

A couple of nights ago I "cheated" on Topher and went to Rajput with my dear friend Stacy. It was delicious as always! But I felt kinda bad that Topher missed out. I was brave, though, and ordered my entree "medium-hot" (level 3 out of 5) - Topher would've been proud.

What We Ate:

• appetizer: vegetable samosas (stuffed with potato & peas)
• our entrees: chicken korma (mine) and chicken tikka masala (Stacy's), served with basmati rice and naan
• to drink: mango lassi (a sweet yogurt drink) - I would've liked this to be a little bit colder, but it was still very refreshing.

The Scoop:

Rajput Indian Cuisine is located at 742 W. 21st Street in the Ghent neighborhood of Norfolk, VA 23517. They serve lunch M-F 11:30am-2:30pm and Sat-Sun noon-3pm; they serve dinner Sun-R 5-10pm and F-Sat 5-10:30pm. You can make reservations online or by calling (757)625-4634. (I think their food is a little better than Nawab, and the decor is definitely nicer - it's better for an evening out.)

Note: The images above were found here.