There can never be too may turkey taste tests or suggestions about different methods of cooking turkey before Thanksgiving, whether you are trying to choose the perfect bird, find the perfect temperature or narrow down your list of useful gadgets. After all, the holiday comes only once a year and anyone motivated enough to cook their own bird is going to want to do it right. In their quest for the perfect turkey, the Washington Post tested out several more expensive local brands against the ubiquitous Butterball. Their food section staff and chef Todd Gray got together and tasted four birds prepared by Chef Bryan Voltaggio of Charlie Palmer Steak (who shoots and plucks his own wild turkeys).

The favorite was the free range, all-natural turkey from Maple Lawn Farms, with moist and full flavored meat. In what came as something of a surprise to everyone, the ordinary Butterball came in second, pleasing taste buds with its familiar flavor even though it was a bit dry. The judges did not like the flavor of the fresh, free-range, organic, certified humanely raised and handled American Bronze heritage breed turkey from Ayrshire Farm or the fresh, natural Shady Brook Farms turkey.

Chef Voltaggio said he could see the difference in textures in the two mass produced birds (Shady Brook and Butterball) and would prefer to serve one of the other two brands. But the taste test here is a good reminder that it doesn't matter what you pay for the bird as long as your guests enjoy what you're serving

Chef Kazuki "Kaz" Yamamoto is on the cutting edge of cuisine. And by "cutting edge," what I mean is that he cooks rare, occasionally immoral, and sometimes outright illegal, foods for those who are willing to pay for them. Based out of Arizona, he travels to homes of rich and/or famous clients and plies them with previously untasted delicacies from his traveling "restaurant, known as "Le Menu". Because his client list includes government officials and gastronomes alike, Yamamoto says he has had few problems in the past obtaining locations, including restaurants, to hold his dinners. When Stephen Lemons, the Phoenix New Times food critic joined in a dinner, he sampled foods such as Saguaro cactus salad, made from the legally protected succulent; tenderloin of Bichon Frise, endangered pygmy owl, roasted and eaten whole, with entrails and bones intact; and nigiri-style seal sushi.

Other items that Yamamoto is famed for include chimpanzee stew (protected), grilled intestines of brown bear (poached from Yosemite), rhino genitals, gila monster, giraffe tongue, monkey tartare and a dozen variations on penguin meat.

A dewberry is a relative of the blackberry that grows throughout the the country, particularly in New England and the South. They get their name from the fact that the berries are often seen covered in dew in the early mornings. Unlike other berries, the dark dewberries, which can be nearly black when ripe, reflect the color of the sky when they are covered with dew, making it noteworthy enough to generate the name. The New England berries are relatively common, but the Southern berries are less frequently seen because they grow only in the wild and are too fragile to ship. Actually, it would be more correct to say that they are rarely eaten and often seen, since they grown like weeds along fence lines and in vacant lots. The berries themselves are difficult to harvest. They grow on thorny vines, which for dense nests as though to protect the berries. Unfortunately for berry lovers, they taste good. Very good.

Going back generations, people in areas where dewberries grow, especially in Texas, have headed out to harvest them annually, just as their parents and grandparents did. They don’t do this to make a profit from selling the berries, though. They do it because nothing beats the smell of a fresh dewberry cobbler coming out of the oven. There is even a dewberry festival, which took place this past weekend in Cameron, Texas. If you can’t pick your own, the farmer’s market is a better place to look for them than the supermarket, but once you get some, try making a cobbler, or just serve with fresh, whipped cream.

 

With the opening of an exhibition about the tools used for eating at the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, Julia Moskin asks are we really afraid of flatware? (Of course not. We’re just saving it for a special occasion!)

The message to eat local, organic and avoid processed foods is at the core of a Berkeley nutrition professor's book What to Eat, which tells you how to shop for groceries and select the most nutritious foods.

An oyster zealot shares his passion along with the history and flavors of the oyster in the Northwest.

Foraging for wild plants in the woods is what really gets some chefs heated up in spring, though the seasonal ramps, ferns and bitter greens are not always the easiest sell to diners.

The minimalist, Mark Bittman, does a video preparation of grilled lamb with miso-chili sauce at the NY Times website.

Frank Bruni dines at August and gives it two stars.

[Image NYT]

Would you eat at a restaurant when the purveyor of the foods says “food is overrated”? Not that he is referring to his food, mind you, but to food in general. “Restaurateur, nightlife mogul and celebrity dentist," Dr. Tim Hogle is the man who would rather not eat than eat something that isn’t on his very strict diet, though he owns a series of Miami Beach restaurants. afterglo, his newest venture, does not serve health food per se, but functional foods that are intended to have beneficial effects on the body and not simply to sustain life. Plying food to the body-conscious and sun-bleached crowd can be challenging and the restaurant serves foods that are wild, raw and, of course, organic. Hogle calls it “beauty cuisine,” though the irony of marketing supremely natural foods to a population of plastic people will not escape the notice of some. “Everything has a low GI, is highly alkaline (which reputedly helps regenerate cells) and packed with enzymes, minerals and antioxidants” according to the Independent.

Certainly sounds purposeful, but does someone who eats only for functionality sacrifice taste at his restaurant? Apparently not, since the restaurant has received good reviews. One does have to wonder whether or not Hogle will actually eat everything on his menu.

[Image of afterglo's raw "sushi" via Click Clack]