Recent Comments

• Will Phosphates Give Us Cancer? (Slashfood)

  Dec 30th 2008 2:19PM The inorganic phosphates the study was concerned with are food additive, i.e., in processed foods. It was not concerned with phosphates found in, e.g., leafy greens. I agree, tho: no big shock that processed food might not be good for you.

• A blade of grass in a bowl of greens (Slashfood)

  Jun 9th 2008 7:39PM This was on Mark Bittman's blog recently:
  
  * 3 hard-cooked eggs
  * 1 teaspoon sugar
  * Juice of 1 lemon, or to taste
  * 1 cup sour cream
  * 1 tablespoon milk
  * Salt and pepper to taste
  * 6 cups greens, preferably romaine, endive, escarole, radicchio or chicory, roughly chopped
  
  Method
  
  * 1. Cut eggs in two and put yolks in a bowl. Mash yolks with sugar and lemon juice, and beat in the sour cream with a wooden spoon, until smooth. Thin with milk if necessary. Season with salt and pepper. (This can all be done in a food processor or a mixer, but it is easy enough by hand.)
  * 2. Slice egg whites into thin strips, and toss with greens and dressing. Serve.

• RIP Organic Rice Krispies (Slashfood)

  Jun 8th 2008 2:16PM Organic puffed rice cereal is pretty easy to come by. I'm pretty sure Whole Foods has a house brand, but you can find it in bulk in most health food stores.

• The real price of that imported kiwi (Slashfood)

  Apr 26th 2008 9:20PM Compare the tax breaks offered for jet fuel with the barriers in place that discourage local food: "My Forbidden Fruits (and Vegetables)" http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/01/opinion/01hedin.html
  

• New food safety label introduced to certify your meat is safe (Slashfood)

  Apr 8th 2008 12:44PM What do you mean by trustworthy? Totally cynically, I'd say that this is an attempt by the "beef council" to recapture some consumer confidence in their product. To whatever extent that requires them to *actually* make their product safer, I think you can trust them to do so.
  
  But don't you want more than that from the people supplying your food? I don't know about the trustworthiness of other self-policing industries, but the beef industry feeds cattle the absolute cheapest stuff they will tolerate, stuff they are so unsuited for that they need to be heavily medicated to survive the experience. There's lots of evidence that spending a few days out of the feed lot on pasture lowers cattle e. coli rates dramatically, but I see no mention of that in VeriPrime's best practices.
  
  I'm skeptical, and suspect that this is just crass marketing.

• Babies in Bars: Yay or Nay? (Slashfood)

  Feb 20th 2008 2:41PM kristin: Yeah, that's a real advantage you've got going on there: you're comfortable being judgmental. Good for you. My "word game" is to say that you have no idea what might be OK for some people in some places. I've been to bars that wanted people to feel comfortable bringing their children. Here's an example:
  
  http://www.conoroneills.com/annarbor/gallery/album01/P3130286
  
  And you know what? If you don't like it, don't go. Maybe it's not the environment ... IN ANY WAY ... for YOUR baby.

• Babies in Bars: Yay or Nay? (Slashfood)

  Feb 19th 2008 5:48PM kristin: Pretty sure I didn't say whether I have kids. Instead of ranting about "right and wrong", you should perhaps not go to a bar that caters to the parents of children, i.e., vote with your wallet, free market and all that. Rather than being "beyond ridiculous for children to be in a bar," it's actually beyond reason that (any of) you should think you have a right to tell anyone else what's right or wrong. What hubris.

• Babies in Bars: Yay or Nay? (Slashfood)

  Feb 18th 2008 9:49PM Wow, what a bunch of uptight posts! You'll notice that Union Hall *does* allow children after banning them. Wonder why that is? Maybe because their customers didn't like being banned. Guess it's hard to stay in business if you're uptight about who you'll allow. I'm all for "my bar my rules," and also for "my money, which I'll spend when I like."

• New ties of caffeine to miscarriage potential scare tactics? (Slashfood)

  Jan 21st 2008 3:44PM Morning sickness is highly correlated with successful pregnancy. People who are morning sick drink less coffee. The study doesn't take any of this into account. It is not a large or comprehensive study, it was a phone survey. Perhaps it's someone's pilot study: an attempt to get funding to do a real study.

• Cookie Magazine put organic baby foods to the test (Slashfood)

  Nov 19th 2007 10:23AM Packaged? Cook it yourself. For example, if you're going to make hummus, put some aside before you spice it. Maybe thin it more than the rest. This works for many recipes -- reserve some of the ingredients to feed to your baby (pureed) or toddler (mashed or later whole). My goal is to get my daughter to eat what I eat.