the yumnivore's dilemma

Came across an interesting Stanford article courtesy of friend and fellow yumnivore A. H.  - about research that examines culture via food.  In this case the focus is on the culture shift in Bavarian after the Thirty Years War, but it got me thinking that what we eat and how we eat has always been a manifestation of our values and cultural identity.    

Most straight forward is probably the connection between ethnic identity and food.  Just think about your idea of the perfect comfort food.  For me that's easy - it's hearty jook with pickled veggies, thick noodle soups with pig parts, and my mom's version of mac and cheese with cauliflower and peas.  And what do I reach for to eat these things with?  A shiny pair of stainless steel chopsticks of course.  If I were researching myself I might say that I have strong ties to my Chinese heritage, parts of my family are from northern China, parts of my family has exposure to western influences, and that on occasion I miss my mommy.  All true!  

But perhaps more important than personal identity, the article cites food choices that are telling of the collective identity.  Apparently in the seventeeth century royals drank whatever wine was more expensive while regular-folk drank whatever wine was cheap - no matter what the taste.   To researchers, this strict division told them that the courts held all the power, and that having access to more expensive food and wine was an important status symbol and perpetuated that power.  Hmm... so what do our modern day collective food choices say about us?  In the year 2500 what will be said about our diets of corn syrup, meat slurry, yellow #5 and red #3?

Another interesting note mentioned in the article is that back in the day, food was treated like gifts and currency and therefore virtually none would go to waste.  You could settle a debt with wine, return a favor with bread; throwing food away was like throwing away money.  How ironic (and confusing) that since food has become an institutionalized 'commodity,' it has become much less valuable and much more disposable.  

Pondering the meaning of food,
Linda

p.s. related is a summary of Eric Schlosser's recent visit to Stanford

Secrets are a funny thing. Everybody has them and they have a knack for getting out. So here’s our secret: Muffin Street Brewery. A tiny brewing operation in the bowels of a former service garage in the Mission takes beer to the next level. How? Let us show you. 

We Chug Along
Jessica: Beer. Homer Simpson loves it. College students love it. Sports fans love it. We all love it or at the very least love someone who does. In college, I liked beer because I thought it was pretty cool that boys were impressed that I could shotgun Bud Light with the best of them. While I still think I can, maybe, I have to admit that the things I value in beer have changed. I love the fact that I can discuss the basic merits of a tasty, fruity Belgian and admire the piquant hoppiness of IPAs. Beer, admittedly, is an acquired taste. I acquired mine while working at a microbrewery in La Jolla, California. We would take our small sampler glasses and fill it with the different flavors, tasting the rotating and seasonal batches in between ringing up receipts and taking orders. It was the first time I realized  that beer could taste good -- like fruit and spices, and fruit and spices. I'll admit that while still a true novice, I can look down a good beer list and proudly assert that I've tasted quite a few from the selection, many of them local.  

Linda: Growing up, my dad always thought it was funny to replace my tea with watered down beer.  To a kid who thought tea was bitter, I was not amused.  Photographs of my sour expression at age 4...7...10 pretty much said it all.  In college beer didn’t try very hard to redeem itself.  It usually showed up at parties with sticky floors and bubble machines.  But in the spring of 2004 that all changed.  Along with an appreciation for sauerkraut and German operas, my semester in Vienna taught me that the American version - like so many Americanized versions - pales in comparison to the real stuff.  I developed a taste for wiesse beers and chimays, and promptly turned my nose at the domestic stuff once I returned home. Until the small breweries of San Francisco changed my mind again.  And lucky for me (and you too) brewing small batches of good beer is no longer restricted to the personal bathtubs, discerning beer drinkers and crafty beer makers are making quite a scene. 

First Taste
Linda: And one rising star on the scene is Muffin Street Brewery, ‘beer-child’ of Orion Lakota and Justin Ross, though you would never guess when you first enter the door with no number and invited to go down some dark and narrow stairs.  The first thing that hits you is the smell - warm (is it possible to smell warm??), yeasty and hoppy - kinda smells like bread baking if the bread was beer.  And when I saw the beer I was blown away by all the big and beautiful bottles of amber liquid, all different shades, sitting quietly, becoming delicious.  Unlike wine, all mysterious behind the walls of the barrel, beer has nothing to hide.

 Jessica: It's exactly like what Linda describes. We enter an unmarked door and descend down a rabbit hole into a room filled with what looks like a series of strange and alien light sculptures, overstuffed furniture, a platform with a DJ table and a bar. To the far left of the bar behind a heavy door is the heart of Muffin Street Brewery. It seems almost haphazardly slapped together -- a functioning machine made from cast off kegs, messily strewn winter coats and plywood. There is an oppressive, but not wholly unpleasant smell of steaming malty grains. And it's hot.  

Second Sip
Jessica: This is a workshop. Artisinal. A work in progress. 

Linda: Turns out making beer is all in the details and beer makers are mad scientists - just look at their recipe books.  Justin had a hefty one with hundreds of recipes, each one covered with precise measurements of temperature, time and ingredients.  This was not a hobby of convenience, this is a project of love and craftsmanship.

Jessica: You see the blue ribbon win from their first and only outing at a competition. They placed first and third at the San Mateo County Fair against all the other great brewers in the Bay Area.  

Third Helping
Linda: Two words: Chicken Beer

One doesn't often hear 'beer is like a blank slate' - but it really is.  Our patient host Justin explained to us that you can combine beers with just about any flavor, from florals like lavender, to spices like chipotle, to veggie like mushrooms and even meat.  We must have looked like we didn't believe him because he then promptly produced two tastings of Flustercluck - beer made with, wait for it  - chickens.  A friend and fellow food producer had so loved Muffin Street's turkey beer that she brought two free-rage organic birds from Green Chile Kitchen as offerings for their next experiment.  So they did.  And here we are.  The beer was, as Muffin Street likes to say, 'like nothing I've ever tasted.'   

Jessica: One of my favorites was the lavender flavored hefenweizen. Named after Justin's grandmother, the Myrtleweizen stole my heart. Although the Flustercluck was beautiful in its soft mouthfeel from the proteins and its epiphany of ghostly whispers of salinity, lime and paprika, the Myrtleweizen stole my heart. Proudly floral, sweet, soft and mild, this giggly dowager of a beer was balanced and extremely palate friendly.  

Bottoms Up
We know you're thinking, how do I get me some Flustercluck, some Chipotle Porter, some Cream of Mushroom Stout or some Myrtleweizen?  Easy!  Repeat 'It's like nothing I ever tasted' and click your heels three times.  Just kidding.  What you gotta do is 'Like' Muffin Brew on facebook, then email Justin and Orion and tell 'em Yumnivore sent you.  Give them 2 weeks lead time if you want whatever is already on the schedule, and 4-6 weeks if you want to customize the recipe.  We are pretty sure it will be totally worth the wait.    

Resources for the best local brews near you -
Winners of this year's Good Food Awards.  If you don't live in the San Francisco area, you can also check out the Brewers Association site to locate one near your neck of the woods. You can read more on craft beer or the basics of brewing you rown on the Popular Mechanic website. 

We don't like to play favorites when it comes to food or the awesome events we  tell you about.  But today we break our own rules.  Today we confess that we have a weakness for all things cheese... salty, smooth, velvety, nutty, buttery, stinky, stringy, irresistible cheese.  

So you can just imagine our reaction when we found out about a little thing called California's Artisan Cheese Festival... yup, it's what you imagined, a few octaves higher, with more jumping up and down.  

This is a 3-day affair, and some of the events on Friday and Saturday are sold out, but not all, so hurry and get yers!    

Looking for those elastic-waisted pants...
Linda

We are sick!

But, we're fighting off our cold and flu to try our best to get better before the hallowed celebration of beer and leprechauns - St. Patrick's Day - this weekend. We have dug up some of our favorite cures and elixirs to share with you. 

Fun and Healthy Hot Drinks
In our Quick Bite, Linda takes us through one of her favorite fun and healthy hot drinks to help you through your cold. The first is a tea made of honey, lemons and ginger.

Raw Honey: Is a natural anti-septic. Known for its throat soothing properties, it may also boost the production of white blood cells, giving your immune system a little kick.  
Meyer Lemons: all sorts of good stuff, like anti-oxidants and tangy zip!
Ginger: Has therapeutic properties as an antioxidant and an anti-inflammatory. Ginger can promote a healthy sweating that aids in the detoxification of the body and can quell nausea.

But to make it a little more interesting, you can add a splash of your favorite liquor, commonly whiskey, brandy or rum, and make a toddy. 

One of our favorite toddy recipes is a 3:1 ratio of hot water to brandy. Add 1/3 lemon, an ounce of honey, a teaspoon of brown sugar, a dash of cinnamon and nutmeg, and finally just a few drops of vanilla.

Special Chicken Soup
Jessica is drinking chicken soup by the boatload, infusing it with Eastern Medicinal herbs. Dammit, Jim, we are bloggers, not doctors, so our knowledge is based off of the things we gather from the net and our mothers. In addition to the chicken soup, which already has anti-inflammatory and stuffy nose alleviating properties, these herbs pack a cold conquering wallop and tastiness, too! 

Jujubes: Considered as the "living vitamin pill" by the Chinese, jujubes contain tons of vitamins and minerals, including one scientists have found, cyclic adenosine monophosphate, that can slow down the growth of cancer cells. 
Wolfberries or Goji Berries: These berries contain anti-inflammatory agents and are packed with antioxidents and vitamins that keep the immune system functioning properly.
Dried Chinese Yam: In Eastern medicine, it is known the strengthen the lungs, spleen and kidney. It also builds up the body's defenses and increases vitality. 
Codonopsis Root: "Thought to benefit the entire body by boosting strength, increasing stamina and alertness, rejuvenating the body, strengthening the immune system, aiding recovery from chronic illness, reducing stress, and stimulating the appetite. 
Astragalus:  NIH - "There is some preliminary evidence to suggest that astragalus... may have benefits for the immune system, heart, and liver, and as an adjunctive therapy for cancer." Researchers from the UCLA AIDS Institute describe boosted production of telomerase in aiding the reduction of the aging process of immune cells. 

Drop your herbs in a simple chicken stock, I just use chicken, salt and water, and cook for 40 minutes to an hour or longer and drink with relish.

In honor of St. Patrick's Day, we'll be headed out to a local brewery to learn the secrets and stories of the magical suds we find inside.

That's it for now. See you next bite. And in the meantime, keep up the good eating. And drinking!


In sickness and in health,
Linda + Jessica

Others may think of Hershey, Nestle and Cadbury when they hear the word 'Chocolate', but we San Franciscans know better.  We think of Ghirardelli, Scharffen Berger and TCHO.  While all of these chocolate makers have roots in the Bay Area, TCHO is the only chocolate manufacturer that still operates in S.F., others have moved on for one reason or another.  Leaving this deceptively small shop to hold down the chocolate fort.  So today we pay pilgrimage to the one left standing; today we go to the mother ship.

The TCHO factory, shop and coffee bar is located discreetly on Pier 17, separated from the sidewalk by a big parking lot, and these days overshadowed by the Exploratorium's new construction site right next door. 

We arrived for our tour at 10:30 AM and was greeted by friendly employees and our guide Kimmy.  Only after donning our hair-guards (beard-guards) were we allowed to officially begin the tour.  Reminiscent of many-a-Disney rides, we began with a multimedia presentation and some show and tell.  We learned that all of TCHO's chocolates are single-origin, and that there are actually 3 types of cacao plants - Criollo, Forastero and Trinitario, the first is the rarest and most expensive, the third most common.  Cacao beans are also nothing like what you'd expect - they grow on tree trunks and are these beautiful and naturally multicolored pods, almost the size of footballs.

They're taken off the trees with a machete, no joke, dried, opened, dried some more and ground up to make cacao nibs (tastes kinda like a coffee bean - bitter and brittle, blech.) 

Something else happens here which I don't remember now, and in any case I'm sure the rest of the interwebs has a much more thorough description of the actual process.  What I do remember is that it gets heated, and the cocao butter rises to the top, and the chocolate stays on the bottom, forming a hard, rock-like substance. 

Can you believe these two came from the same stuff?  The butter is stiff but moist, both reminiscent of a piece of well-worn soap and a piece of marble.  The cocoa mass on the other hand, completely rigid and marked in hard lines and angles.  I wanted to count the layers to figure out how old it was - but I don't think that how that works. 

Next we got ready to visit the factory itself - where the chocolate was in all it's glory.  Naturally we thought we were going to see something like this:

In reality it was something more like...

No cameras allowed beyond these poly-urethane gates!  What we saw was a bunch of machinery and just a glimpse of the actual goodies.  So we were eager to get to the tasting part of the tour. 

Here's our chocolate flight (seriously, why aren't these available more?  I need to start a chocolate tasting bar.) from darkest - closest to camera, to the milk - at the far end, each was more delightful than the next and it was really hard to choose a favorite. 

Here are the individual samples right next to one another, you can easily tell the color difference.  We could hear the difference when we snapped it.  And certainly tasted the difference in each.  Even though TCHO calls the four dark chocolates by different names, they are actually the same harvest, using the same ingredients, just tempered and processed differently.  Much like wine, beer or coffee, it's the specific processes that bring now the notes of the fruit and of the terroir. 

My mouth left TCHO happy, and my brain and heart got a little treat too.  I learned all about the fascinating cacao plant, and got an educated on the practices that often accompany chocolate sourcing.  Did you know most of the laborers and farmers around the world that grow cacao has never tasted chocolate?  Talk about a violation of human rights!  TCHO uses only farms that allows their workers to taste their products, and helps their farmers by teaching better, more efficient, production practices. 

I realized that as serious as I am about the origins of my produce and meat, I now had enough knowledge to question the source of my chocolate.  And knowing what it takes to make 'good' chocolate just makes me appreciate it even more.   

Next trip, Peru to visit a cacao farm?  Yes please!

See you soon at our neighborhood chocolate factory!  Here's how to book.
Linda

It is no secret I am a shameless groupie of food trucks.  I am wherever they are, languishing in the scent of bacon fat mixed with diesel fuel.  That last part is not entirely true, but close enough.  Wherever there is a truck, there is me.  I love them because they can turn any ordinary street into a block party, any lunch hour into a treat, and any disgruntled employee into a happy foodie, even if for one short hour.      

Lucky for me there are no shortage of them in the Bay Area, in fact just about every day you can find a truck or a truck stop between 11am - 2pm somewhere - and in case, here. Off the Grid is responsible for the majority of these, in fact they now have markets everyday, from San Mateo to the Upper Haight to Fort Mason.

Off the OTG-Grid is Mint Plaza, you'll find at least one truck there every day from 11-2.  Also joining the scene as of a weeks ago is Truck Stop (Mission and 1st in SoMa) with its own rotating fleet of delicious and eclectic meals on wheels.  

My only gripe?  Where is that leftovers trucks for when I want to eat after 2?

Food-truck chaser,
Linda

Thursday is Women's Day.  We love women, and (most) women we know love chocolate, so here we are, paying homage to Linda's favorite food.  Starting off with a quick how-to inspired by a recent lollipop making party that Linda attended.  We found that some of the chocolate lollipops formed a white film over the surface, or it wouldn't lay smooth, or that the texture and mouth-feel wasn't as smooth as we would have liked.  After consulting BnP (baking and pastry) extraordinaire LB Cake, we found that the wrinkle in the execution is usually tempering, or melting down, the chocolate.  

So here's our fool-proof solution - use a microwave.  Seriously.  
  
Recipes and food demos usually call for a double boiler, which steams the chocolate and melts it using the heat from the water.  But in this process you could easily overheat the chocolate, or contaminate it with the water or steam.  In our method, we microwave the chocolate at high heat in a dry container for 10-15 seconds at a time.  


To make the lollipops you'll need:

• popsicle or lollipop sticks
  
• chocolate for melting
  
• a microwave safe container - make sure it is completely clean and dry
  
• molds or fun ice cube trays
  
• bag for piping
  
• parchment paper or silpat sheet
  
• cookie tray

To start, pour chocolate into your microwave-safe container.  In our case, a cup of chocolate chips was enough for 1 tray of 8 pieces.  Pop the container in the microwave, starting with 15 seconds, then in 10 second increments.  Making sure to check and stir in-between.  

With diligent checking, we were done melting after about a minute.  The beauty to this method is that if the chocolate becomes too hard to work with, just pop it back in the microwave.  

Using a spoon or ziplock or piping bag, fill your molds with chocolate, making sure to get to the bottom and into the nooks and crannies.  In our case we are using fun ice cube trays.  Then using the back of a knife, flatten the top.  This will be the bottom, which you want flat.    

Pop your trays into the refrigerator for about 15 minutes.  You want to them somewhat stiff but still malleable.  Carefully loosen them from the mold and place them on top of the sticks.  Press down to make sure the stick is nice and snugly embedded in the chocolate piece.  (You can help it by adding another drip of chocolate to seal in the stick.)  

Return to the fridge for at least another 15.  And enjoy!  

Try it out and send us photos of your creations!

Yours in choco-unity,
Linda and Jessica

It has been an amazing journey. I've been surprised at how little I miss meat. I thought I would be running for the nearest steak joint at the end of the month, but instead, ate a nice veggie breakfast and lunch. A newly developed sweet tooth is forming into a pretty unnerving habit. I wonder if this is because my body is craving calories and something rich to take the place of meat. I've tried doing Western vegetarian style and realized that to me nothing beats a good old-fashioned garlic Asian veggie stir-fry for ease and satisfaction. I even got so comfortable with cooking for me that I managed to cook a few meals that included omnivorous options, too. I have a bit of a crush on lentils now. And carbs and I have reignited a long estranged friendship. 

In the beginning I survived on anything I could get my hands on and a lot of dairy -- cheese in particular. Now I eat limited cheese and a lot more soy, tofu, greens, legumes and whole grains. I am very happy. Very contented. But despite all of this, I'm still going back to being an omnivore. 

So what was the point?

The point was that I immersed myself in a different food culture and feel that I can say that I understand why and how vegetarianism is done. I have deepened my knowledge of food, ingredients and eating and come out richer for it. But, the most momentous change will be not just a change of habit, but a shift in the way I think about food. I will still eat the occasional animal protein, but it will only be occasional, not daily and maybe not even weekly. I want to work to cut down on consuming dairy -- yes, you cheese, butter and milk. Not only because it's Earth-friendly. Not only because it's cheaper. Not only for the health reasons (and believe me Forks Over Knives was very convincing to me). But because it makes me feel good to eat like this. Trust me, I'll still be enjoying plenty of triple creme brie, pork belly and ice cream, but it will be in moderation. 

And that's just the way, I now realize, that I like it.

Without further ado, here are some highlights that rounded out the rest of the month for me. 

Spinach and Feta Fritter Tomato Caviar over Lemon Mint Slaw

Red Wine and Rosemary Ragout over Polenta and Tempeh Chip

Sweet Potato Bread Pudding Trifle with Sugar and Cinnamon Pita Crisp

Day 25: Panko Crusted Tofu Curry with Creamy Polenta
We used leftover curry from one of our favorite curry spots Kare-Ken

It all tasted as good as it looks. 

Thank you all for coming along this journey with me. Was it hard? Yes. Especially at first. Changing the way I cook and eat is a very difficult process. Was it life changing? Totally. I will never eat the same way again! Was it worth it? Absolutely. Absolutely.

Once you go veggie, you never (totally) go back,
Jessica

p.s. Did you notice that we went the ENTIRE month without any meat in our posts? We thought that would be pretty cool to point out today.

Need I say more?  Ok how about where to get your hands on it.  The 2012 Chocolate Salon is happening this Sunday, March 3, and you can read all about it here, and get your tickets here.  

Hello my name is Linda and I'm a chocoholic.