Something Just Doesn't Smell Right

In case you missed it, a plane traveling to Kentucky had to make an emergency landing in Philly because a Jewish teenager put on his t'fillin and the flight attendant freaked out thinking it was a bomb...no joke. T'fillin are known as "phylacteries" in English. Just keep that in mind when you watch the clip.

Here is the captainChief Inspector of the Philadelphia police's report from AP:

Those olfactories are something we all have to watch out for but when they aren't running or stuffed up odds are things will turn out ok with your flight, captainChief Inspector of the Philadelphia police.

(H/T: Mobius)

Interesting Food Links

Politics of Food Trucks:
Do you dig on the epicurean roach coaches but not the Halal stand? You will wait for 2 hours for a kimchie Kogi taco but wouldn’t be caught dead eating two tacos carnitas con salsa from the truck near the day laborers? Read this article about the issues facing food truckers in the LA area. Salon

Frozen Fruit:
While it might be a good way to get some vitamin C in the dead of winter, having it freeze on the trees in Florida is bad for the trees and the industry. That is being addressed but what about the people who pick the fruit? Take a look behind the groves and see what is happening to those who put food on your table. The Atlantic

Krazy for Kosher Food:
So people think Kosher food is better for them. Boy I hope they don’t have the hypertension! The Times reports that millions of non-Jewish Americans are now “keeping Kosher” because it is perceived as better. New York Times

Hide the Salami:
The WSJ reports that the jack-ass undies boomber is going to make it harder for chefs to sneak good tube meats into the country. One more reason to hate that guy! Wall Street Journal

Zig Coyotes!

I wrote a post over at Jewschool about a situation that took place at my high school; please check it out.

A Great Song about a Great Salad

First you take parsley from your sister
Chop it up like hand of shoplifter...

(Now get that out of you head)

Bing Bong

So Bing was supposed to be better than Google…not so much. They are supposed to bring you better, more pertinent information. Again not so much.

This ad kind of says it all:

Follow tweets from these two politicians and this crazy actor, Bing makes it easier.

Way to be Bing.

I mean really? William Shatner and Obama? I guess Schwarzenegger brings it together but still...Shatner?

The White House, Food Network and Trendy Food Culture

I wrote a piece about the trendiness of “new American cuisine” and its sustainability movement. And last night, the Food Network supported my trendiness-thesis with a two hour special complete with “Super Chefs” that even anti-epicureans would recognize. Chef Emeril Lagasse teamed up with Iron Chef Marrio Batali to take on White House Executive Chef Cristeta Comerford and Iron Chef Bobby “The Ego” Flay.

As promised, it was the culinary event of a lifetime.


Eh, but it was fun TV and the food looked pretty fantastic. For a blow-by-blow, I suggest reading another blog. However, to ease your suspense I can let you know that the President, the First Lady and the world’s most important people will be eating from the kitchen of a champion. (Like that was a big surprise.) The only thing I will say about the content of the show is that this two hour special about local food, sustainable production and healthful eating didn’t provide Americans with an attainable way to engage in local, sustainable or healthful eating.

Most people don’t have a garden that can produce 1,000 pounds of food -- forget the army of people needed to tend to such a small scale farm. Most people don’t have the knowledge to use watermelon radishes or that crazy looking cauliflower-broccoli thing that Batali used in his unearthly mega-ravioli. Most people also don’t have the skills to create those kinds of food.

But beyond all the simple things that make Iron Chef a fun TV show and not an educational program, the food that was presented last night was really not all that local, sustainable or healthful.

Sure the veggies were produced locally in relation to the White House, but not to Kitchen Stadium where they were consumed. The meat may have been grown on a sustainable farm within 100 miles of New York City (home of Iron Chef America) but odds are a good deal of that meat isn’t even close to affordable for most Americans and therefore not sustanable for thier budgets. The use of the deep fryer makes me question the overall healthfulness of the meals produced. No question: even the fried oysters with remoulade created by Lagasse are a better choice than a Big Mac, but they were still battered, fried and dipped in a fatty sauce.

The end result was a pretty meal that could not be reproduced in a home kitchen by a home cook. However, if Iron Chef America stops using secret ingredients that have to travel thousands of miles to Kitchen Stadium, incorporates more diverse vegetables into its pantry and cooks with health and taste in mind, then maybe this popular cooking competition will have some sort of an impact. If not, then the culinary event of a lifetime was just another episode of a TV show trying to keep up with the trends it claims to set.

Until well made and carefully crafted food becomes just what is done in this country, we will continue to see the negative impacts of our current fast-mass-produced food culture wracking our society. I don’t pretend to eat only organics or local food. I know I could, but it is really difficult and cost a ton of money. It is a choice and that is one of many that I make, with my wife, on how to consume our food thoughtfully. That is really the core issue with the lackluster American food culture and this “battle” of “Super Chefs” did very little to address this part of the problem.

We do buy so-called cage free eggs, feed with organic vegetarian meal. I know that just means a small door at the end of a huge coop is opened a few hours a day to "allow" the chickens to go outside. And chickens aren’t really vegetarians, so that is another problem. But that extra money is worth spending most of the time because the eggs taste and cook much better. The same is true with organic chicken. Do we buy organic milk? Yup, when it is available at our finicky market. But sometimes we need milk and they aren’t carrying the organic half-gallons. And sometimes you really want an orange; organic or not, those suckers aren’t growing in the 100 mile radius of Kitchen Stadium in January.

The change in US food culture will take place when we start thinking about our food more. I do not believe the answer is the Alice Waters local-or-nothing approach or the White House uber-garden method. People need to think when they buy produce or meat or dried goods (and they should try to buy these items more often than the stuff that comes already made (which we also buy, but less and less of it)) where it comes from, how it is made and if they are alright with the story they get.

Does your farm fresh milk support the exploitation of workers? Possibly. Do your organic, cage-free eggs come from truly free chickens? Most likely not. Does sneaking veggies into a kid’s meal really help her expand her growing palette and lead to smart eating choices later in life? I don’t know, but I would doubt it. Where any of these kinds of questions raised on Iron Chef America last night? No, they were not.

It is great that people want to eat better. It is also fantastic that organizations and the entertainment industry are talking about healthful and local food. But it is just trendy and it will not create real change in the American food culture unless the conversation is about a process towards a better eating culture and not just a buzz word infused two hour TV special, no matter how good the sweet potatoes from the White House garden taste in that ravioli.