Like many, I may claim to be adventurous about food, drinks, condiments and above all desserts, but when it comes down to it, things like flavored mayo (and mayo in general) and multi-flavored soy milk are a bit off-putting.
So this past week, when I not only tried chocolate peppermint soy milk from Vita Soy and loved it and converted three non-soy-milk drinkers into wanting to find it and buy it too, I also broke down and tried mayo on a sandwich. No, it was not a horror. It was dijon-style nayonaise, and I liked it so much, I started mixing it into baked potatoes and was even inspired to create Potato-Less "Mashed Potatoes." Yes, that's right, all you dairy-intolerant and veggie folks out there, check out this 'Tofu Tatoes recipe that is entirely dairy-free, a similar consistency to mashed potatoes and it much easier than peeling potatoes and waiting for them to boil while your tummy growls.
So here's to trying new things and sharing the soy joy with others.
Gourmet's Barry Estabrook investigates the possibility of the presence of cloned beef's existence in the nation's meat supply. The following is an excerpt of his findings published on Gourmet.com.
I just found out that I may have dined on meat from the progeny of a cloned cow. You may have, too.
In January, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) decreed that meat and milk from cloned livestock was safe to eat. Last week, the agency went a step further and said that it was "theoretically possible" that the meat from the offspring of cloned cattle was already in the food supply.
Gourmet's Barry Estabrook investigates VP candidate Governor Sarah Palin's dealings with Alaska's salmon industry. The following is an excerpt of his findings published on Gourmet.com.
At the very least, there was something fishy about Alaska Governor (and Vice Presidential hopeful) Sarah Palin's decision to speak out publicly against the state's Clean Water Initiative late last month. There may also be something blatantly illegal about her advocacy for defeating the ballot initiative, which ultimately failed to pass when 57 percent of Alaskans voted against it.
A bit of background. The Clean Water Initiative (aka Ballot Measure 4) was put in place to restrict the amount of arsenic and other toxic pollutants that new, large-scale mines could dump into the state's waterways. Its stated goal was to protect human health and safeguard salmon that use the rivers and streams to spawn. More specifically, it was aimed at a massive gold and copper operation called Pebble Mine located directly upstream of Bristol Bay, site of one of the world's largest and most sustainable wild salmon fisheries, which produced 31 million pounds of king, sockeye, and chum salmon in 2007.
The law in Alaska forbids a governor from officially lobbying for or against a ballot initiative such as Ballot Measure 4. To get around the law, Palin exercised what she called "personal privilege" when she said to reporters, "Let me take my governor's hat off for just a minute here and tell you, personally, Prop 4-I vote no on that."
Gourmet's Barry Estabrook finds that the latest nutritional studies are at odds with what some manufacturers' campaigns might have us believe. The following is an excerpt of his findings published on Gourmet.com.
Nothing spoils a good marketing campaign as surely as solid, scientific facts. So I imagine the folks over at the Corn Refiners' Association-who have recently spent a fortune on PR and advertising to convince "moms and healthcare professionals" that high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) was no better or worse for us nutritionally than sweeteners such as table sugar and honey-were shocked when they opened the latest issue of the Journal of Nutrition.
It contains a paper by a group of researchers at the University of Texas who report that fructose, the primary sugar in HFCS (which finds its way into just about every non-diet soft drink sold), made subjects of a study fatter than glucose, another sugar.
"Our study shows for the first time the surprising speed with which humans make body fat from fructose," said Elizabeth Parks of the Southwestern Medical Center.
It also may explain why the current obesity epidemic in this country dates back to 1980, the year HFCS entered our diet. Starting from zero, Americans now gulp an average of 66 pounds of the stuff each year.
A 1954 Superman lunchbox broke records when it sold for a whopping $11,500 in auction. Though most vintage boxes won't score a sliver of that price, many good-condition carriers still hold their weight in worth. Here's a countdown of classic lunchboxes' blue book value. Who knows? You might have some cold hard cash collecting dust in your attic!
Stylelist assistant editor / former CBGB bartender Phebe Hunnicutt stepped away from the shoe closet for a sec to share her recipe for a crowd-pleasing Bloody Mary. Post your favorite variations in the comments below.
With the possible exception of the Martini, there is no cocktail more personal than the Bloody Mary.Love it or loathe it, everyone seems to have an opinion about this tomato-based drink. After years of bartending and bringing along my personal variation to countless friendly gatherings, I have come up with what I can confidently call a crowd-pleasing mix. If you're already a Bloody Mary-lover there's no doubt you'll have your own personal tweaks, but if you're new to the mixology of the Mary, this recipe is guaranteed to provide you with a yummy starting point.
Gourmet's Barry Estabrook makes sense of the battle over the benefits of organic food. The following is an excerpt of his findings published on Gourmet.com.
It's never a good start to your day when the first email you open is an authoritative-sounding press release forwarded by your boss that directly contradicts something you published on the company's website.
"You know anything about this?" she asked ominously.
The release came from the American Council on Science and Health (ACSH). Made public on Tuesday, it was headlined: "Scientist Debunks Myth of Organic Nutritional Superiority," and, not surprisingly, it received considerable media attention.
The myth that was supposedly debunked was featured in this space a few months ago. It was a study co-authored by Dr. Charles Benbrook of the Organic Center, an affiliate of the Organic Trade Association, an industry group, which reported on the results of a review of nearly 100 scientific papers examining levels of nutrients in organic versus conventional crops. Benbrook and his associates concluded that organic food was on average 25 percent more nutrient-dense. Their work was regarded as one of the first scientifically valid research projects that clearly showed such an advantage. Earlier studies had been inconclusive. I felt some vindication for my own preference for organic foods and applauded the findings.
The release from the ACSH sharply criticized Benbrook's paper. Its condemnation of his work was based on a critical review written by Joseph D. Rosen, emeritus professor of food science at Rutgers University. To be kind, it is scathing. Some choice arguments...
Gourmet's Barry Estabrook finds that more food producers are addressing the issue of sustainability. The following is an excerpt of his findings published on Gourmet.com.
Carnivore's Delight
It's not often that you'll find this space singing the praises of vertical integration in agriculture, but I was heartened to read this week that Joel Salatin of Polyface Farm (the subject of a September 2002 profile in Gourmet who became the national face of sustainable food production after being featured in Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma) had bought the small, 70-year-old slaughterhouse in Virginia that processes his grass-fed cattle.
This is good news because small meatpacking operations in this country have been closing in droves, unable in many cases to comply with stringent USDA regulations designed for the enormous facilities that handle most American meat today. As a result, sustainable livestock farmers have had to truck their animals over great distances, or in some cases cease raising cattle, sheep, and hogs altogether for want of an approved slaughterhouse. T&E Meats, as Salatin's company is known, will continue processing his animals and also those of nearby small producers.
I'm going to knock on wood, but I dare say Salatin may be part of a trend here. Earlier this spring, two other grass-fed beef producers, White Oak Pastures in Georgia and Paicines Ranch in California, opened their own slaughterhouses.
Gourmet's Barry Estabrook investigated why this season's most sought-after catch is suddenly scarce. The following is an excerpt of his findings published on Gourmet.com.
Life is not good here. The fish are not running. And things are going from bad to worse. Due to the extremely low king return, fishing anything is entirely and wholly out of the question."
That dispatch was sent early this week from Jack Schultheis, operations director of Kwik'pak Fisheries, a processor of salmon caught out of the lower Yukon River in remote western Alaska, to Jon Rowley, who handles communications for the small, Eskimo-owned company. (Rowley is also a Gourmet contributing editor.)
In the last year or so, Yukon River kings have become the "new" Copper River salmon, the most sought-after catch-of-the-day at top-end seafood restaurants because of their unusually high oil content. For a while, it looked like everyone was winning. The salmon were moist, tasty, and healthful. Exports to the Lower 48 provided vital income (sometimes the only income) for struggling native Yup'ik fishing families that use earnings from the fishery to purchase gasoline (currently $7.60 a gallon up there) for necessary subsistence activities such as hunting moose and gathering berries. And, better yet, the stocks were sustainably managed.
Then disaster struck. So few king salmon returned to the Yukon River this month that fishery managers ordered drastic cuts to subsistence fishing. There will be no commercial harvest.
AOL Health Editor Katherine Steinberg submitted the photo above for inclusion in the Midnight Sausage series, but we thought it was worthy of a post all its own.
"As I was wandering the streets of London foraging for food, I came across something even more foreign to me than the British slang -- the hot dog hamburger, or the 'express special'. It was so strange that I had to take a picture. I'm not sure what about this makes it faster than your average meal, but I do know that it comes with fries. But don't get too excited, judging by the recent price dip, it won't be popping up in your local deli anytime soon."
Has anyone seen or sampled this frankenfood in London or elsewhere? We'd love a first-hand account.
Gourmet's Barry Estabrook investigated the hows and whys of salmonella's introduction to the produce we eat. The following is an excerpt of his findings published on Gourmet.com.
How in the hell does salmonella get inside a tomato?
Excuse the bluntness, but that question has been much on my mind this week in the wake of the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) warnings against eating raw red tomatoes. The agency took action after 145 diners in 16 states were sickened by tomatoes tainted with salmonella, a bacteria carried in the intestines of animals and humans.
After making several calls and receiving no satisfactory answer to my simple question, I finally reached David Gombas, senior vice president of food safety and technology at the United Fresh Produce Association, a trade organization. He frankly admitted that while there are a number of potential ways for salmonella bacteria to get from some animal's intestines into your fresh salsa, the exact mechanism remains a food-safety mystery that the industry would dearly love to solve. This explains why outbreaks of the disease are so common. The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) says that more than 3,000 Americans have been sickened by tomatoes in 24 different outbreaks since 1990, a number that looks even more sobering when you realize that the Center for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that only 1 in 30 salmonella cases ever gets reported.
People have always loved bacon. Its smell carries us back to comforting times. For me, I'm a child again in a warm kitchen laughing with my siblings and my mother, who served a pound-and-a-half of it every morning for breakfast. Always very crisp, always thinly sliced.
Whether it's eggs or maple syrup-drenched waffles with crispy slices of bacon to begin the day, a grilled cheese and bacon sandwich or juicy bacon cheeseburger deluxe for lunch, or a hearty stew perfumed with cubes of bacon or fish simply wrapped in it and grilled, the juxtaposition of salty, sweet, smoky and ever-so-slightly bitter tastes tantalize our taste buds.
Like many, I may claim to be adventurous about food, drinks, condiments and above all desserts, but when it comes down to it, things like flavored mayo (and mayo in general) and multi-flavored soy milk are a bit off-putting.
Special to AOL Food by Joanna Pruess 
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