Barack Obama Is Your New Food Critic

Next up: old footage of Barack Obama participating on your local public television fund drive?

A Pacific Relative of the Garbage Plate?

The New York Times has a look at a favorite Hawaiian dish of Barack Obama's: the plate lunch.  From the name (plate lunch v. garbage plate or plate) to the composition (macaroni salad and rice topped with meat v. macaroni salad and home fries topped with meat) to the look (a mushy mess v. a mushy mess), it seems like there's a lot in common with Rochester's own garbage plate.

That is awesome, and obviously this is going to trigger greater research on my part.  

H/T Washingtonian Best Bites Blog, which also mentions that Barack Obama doesn't like beets, and that Rick Bayless could become the White House Chef.  

Pillsbury Doughboy: Not Allowed within 1000 feet of school

Why, you ask?

Growing bans (at least in CA) on bake sales.   No word on whether the Pentagon will impose a similar ban, thus dashing the hopes of bumper-sticker purveyors.  

This seems like a well-intentioned rule horribly misapplied.  Then again, back in my elementary school days, a hepatitis outbreak at the bakery at BJ's, a local version of Sam's Club, caused bake sales to go on hiatus, the irony being that only store-bought goods were thereafter allowed to be sold, and only store-bought goods had caused hepatitis.  So, I guess there's a precedent for learning the wrong lessons when it comes to bake sales.

Spreading the Wealth, and the Chili

Courtesy of Jill, Bill Cosby's got company on Ben's Chili Bowl's list of those who dine for free: the Obama family.

What I would give to have a meal at Ben's with the Obama family.  Especially considering that, by all accounts, Obama doesn't like junk food.  More chili cheese fries for me.

Food, in Perspective

I've written about food a bit on this blog, and I imagine I will continue to do so in the future.  Over the summer, cooking evolved into a pastime of mine, and even amid 1L, I've made time to cook myself (and Jill, too) dinner just about every weeknight.  Some meals aren't so hot (see: botched chicken and biscuits attempt), some weeks are much better (see: last night's smashed roasted potatoes with cheddar and roasted garlic), but it's about the process as much as the product--how lawyerly.  

Of course, between my celebrations of oyster stew and applewood-smoked bacon, it's easy to lose sight of the fact that I am incredibly fortunate to both have access to fresh groceries and means to afford a relatively healthy and varied diet.  When the priority is chicken thighs over chicken breasts to save a few bucks, rather than chicken or Chicken Ramen or nothing at all, I remind myself that life is dealing me a winning hand.   Even just dedicating an hour to prepare, cook, eat, and clean up after a home-cooked meal is a luxury that far too few can enjoy for various reasons.  

Needless to say, this article in the New York Times put my growing foodie habit in perspective. 

I had seen articles covering shortages at food banks earlier this year, but they had focused around the impact that improved efficiency in grocery store ordering had on donations to food banks/Second Harvest-type organization (this one touches on it, as well).  The back end, in other words--which, given my past work experience, remains interesting to me.  This article also captures the experience from the front end, causing me to think about the fortune that has allowed me to view new interests.

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To give credit where it is due, the Bush administration's shift in policy to have the government provide more fruits and vegetables to food banks is admirable.  Low-income areas (particularly urban ones) often face a dearth of grocery stores offering fresh produce.  Hopefully, this shift can be expanded upon in the next administration, perhaps under the new auspices of the White House Office of Urban Policy.

Cooking with eggs

Eggs partner well with, well, pretty much any ingredient.  In terms of meat, anything except poultry seems to work, on some level, with eggs (although plenty of people have turkey in their omelets--I just have trouble eating multiple forms of bird at the same time), and in terms of vegetables, the choices are seemingly endless.  They also do wonders with leftovers, such as the ones I had this week:

Tuesday: sausage, spinach, and egg scramble with wheat toast.

Thursday: Asparagus and sausage "hash" (really, both just chopped in smallish pieces and sauteed together), topped with sunny-side up eggs, side of "cheese toast" (happened by accident: I was grating cheddar down on the eggs and "hash," and some wayward cheese got on the toast. It was very tasty).

Foodstuff of the week: Applewood-smoked bacon

Over the summer, Dad and I got really into applewood-smoked bacon from the butcher's counter at Hannaford (I'd say that Mom got into it, too, but I don't think she's into any kind of bacon).  It's got a great natural flavor and scent from the smoking process, and it tends to cook more evenly with slightly lower fat than the vacuum-packed stuff in the deli cooler-- for those of us who prefer our bacon to be neither charred nor greasy, this is a find.  

Naturally, when the new Safeway opened up on 5th and L NW last Friday and they sent me a coupon for $2 off a purchase of $10 at the butcher's counter, I had to check to see if they had applewood-smoked bacon.  They did.  Needless to say, I'm liking this new Safeway. I felt slightly self-conscious buying roughly 2 lbs. of bacon, but I figured, what the heck--I'll freeze half of it for next week, and use the rest this week.  

Of course, due to some sort of weighing error, after they took the bacon off the scale, the total cost went from $10.03 to $9.88, nullifying the discount I was trying to use.   But it was worth paying full price: there definitely is a difference in taste and texture that makes it a lot more versatile.  

Bacon was featured in the following menu items this past fortnight (some instructions provided, but there's not a lot to some of these dishes):

• Breakfast tacos w/scrambled eggs, cheddar cheese, and corn tortillas (I suggest using flour, but I picked up corn--oh well).
• "Chicken à la king" (or something like it, at least).  First, dice bacon into small pieces (I believe the French call them "lardons," but I call them freedom slices) and sauté over medium-high heat to desired doneness.  Remove from pan and drain the bacon, and drain most of the grease from the pan, reserving some (or a lot, depending on how much fat you want in the dish).  Then, sauté diced chicken thighs (chicken breast or tenderloin is fine, really whatever you have), seasoned with salt and pepper, in the same pan at medium-high heat.  As soon as the chicken is cooked, add one can of cream of mushroom soup to the pan and 4 0z. (half a can) of milk.  Stir to incorporate chicken and heat until bubbling (a good time to add drained peas or carrots, if desired/available).  Right before serving, add the bacon back to the pan and incorporate.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.  Serve over toasted English muffin, waffle, toast, or starch of your choice (this would be great over mashed potatoes, rice, etc.).  
• Potato and bacon hash was also attempted, but this item needs some perfecting before I encourage anyone to make it.  It was still tasty, albeit a bit too greasy.
• French toast, topped with Nutella and strawberry preserves.

Banal Articles about Lunch and Oliver Wendell Holmes

Example: this article about lunch in the Washington Post.

Bemoaning his lunchtime doldrums, the author writes: 

Far too often, the most uninspired meal of the day is the one I eat sitting at my desk, juggling a Cosi sandwich, napkin and computer mouse as I try to eat while writing or editing.

 I'll tell you what's uninspiring: the quality of this article.  I'm pretty sure he wrote it while juggling a Cosi sandwich, napkin, and computer mouse.I sincerely doubt that this has been edited, what with its four rhetorical questions, disjointed topics, and lack of description regarding the taste of the recipes.   

I understand that different sections of the newspaper employ different voices to tell their stories. Yes, the article speaks to a daily question that many of us face: "What's for lunch?"Who knows, maybe the author is tyring to be a New Journalist, putting himself at the center of the story, helping us understand our own quiet culinary desperation through his own stream-of-consciousness search to answer that existential noontime question.

But clear communication skills don't become less important when talking about lunchtime or when they're on page F01.  In class today, my property professor read a passage from Oliver Wendell Holmes's concurring opinion in International New Service v. Associated Press, where Holmes's language is impenetrable.  After letting the fog of the passage envelop us, my prof yelled, "Holmes! A verb!"  

After reading this, I wanted to yell, "Post! Some structure!"  In that sense, the author here is keeping good company; I doubt he intended this article to draw him a comparison to Oliver Wendell Holmes, but here it is, out there on the intertubes, ready for someone to do a "Google" and repeat it.  

But the point is this: it doesn't matter if you're writing a Supreme Court decision or a food column: the ways in which, and the ability with which, we communicate with one another dictates how we fare, both individually, and as a society.  Write a mediocre, mid-week column on homemade lunches, you'll get by well enough, but don't expect to become the next Anton Ego.  Write poorly in a judicial opinion, and expect attorneys, state agencies, law students and faculty for the next century to be debating your meaning.  Tell the nation that "the fundamentals of our economy are strong" the day that two Wall Street giants bite the dust, and you'll lose your campaign for the presidency.*

* I hope.

New Course Restaurant

Highly Recommended. At 3rd and E Streets, NW, this place serves breakfast and lunch for bare-bones prices M-F. I had a great club sandwich there on Wednesday--any place that carves turkey, ham, and roast beef per order is doing things well.  Looking to try it out for breakfast later this week.

Beyond that, it has a great mission: "Our goal is to provide the highest quality food and service to our customers while operating a successful catering business. Our mission is to train homeless and chronically unemployed men and women for a future in the food service industry by providing hands-on culinary arts training." 

More on their website here: http://www.newcoursecatering.com/

The Fried Oyster Stew at Old Ebbitt Grill

Wow.  Try it, even if you don't like seafood.  I'm trying to get a recipe for this, it's that good.

Levi's Port Cafe

1102 8th St. SE, Washington, DC

Highly recommended.  Jill and I went there for lunch on my birthday, and aside from incredibly friendly service (and a free slice of birthday cake, complete with candle and singing), the food is fantastic.  On Barracks Row (between Eastern Market and Nationals Park), it has fantastic soul food and North Carolina-style BBQ.  Great fried chicken and chopped pork, in particular, as well as macaroni and cheese.  Affordable, too--2 large lunches, plus sodas, plus tax, came out to around $22.  

There's also sweet tea, which as a New Yorker, I don't see as a selling point, but Jill gave it her Texas seal of approval, so who am I to judge?