There's an interview with Alinea's Grant Achatz in July's Chicago Magazine in which we learn his favorite movie hero is "Mr. Incredible," he drinks several cans of Diet Coke a day, he doesn't sleep much, and most importantly his favorite blogs are: kottke.org, chicagoist.com and megnut.com! Megnut.com!! Can you believe it? I'm flattered and honored, and now I feel like I really should be doing a better job of posting!

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Deborah Coleman/Pixar
Although the story line has its charms, the precisely rendered detail of a professional kitchen will appeal to the food-obsessed. A fascinating look behind the creation of Pixar's upcoming Ratatouille. "The Pixar crew took cooking classes, ate at notable restaurants in Paris and worked alongside Mr. Keller at the French Laundry in Yountville, Calif." Thomas Keller and other chefs also advised on the dishes prepared in the movie, and many of the scenes are based on famous Paris restaurants. I can't wait to see this!

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The New York Times has more information on the nonorganic/organic issue with Nonorganic Exceptions Ruffle Enthusiasts of Organic Food. Here's an interesting bit: "John Foraker, chief executive of Annie’s Homegrown, argued that nonorganic annatto was a crucial ingredient in the company’s macaroni and cheese. 'Making orange colored macaroni and cheese is an important element of our offering. Without annatto, our macaroni-and-cheese products would be white.'” So? So your organic mac-n-cheese is white. And your non-organic mac-n-cheese can be day-glo orange like your competitors. I don't buy any of the excuses the industry is trotting out. Not enough organic hops? Grow more organic hops, don't change the rules to allow organic beer to be brewed with nonorganic hops.

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Enjoying the Tavern Room

Jason and I wandered over to Gramercy Tavern last night for an early dinner. Though we used to eat in the tavern room (the front room where entrees are less expensive and they don't take reservations) every few months, for some reason we hadn't been over there since last fall. Encouraged by Frank Bruni's recent three star re-review, The Constant Comfort of an Old Friend, I was looking forward to our meal. And I wasn't disappointed. I had an excellent appetizer: a soft shell crab accompanied by yellow and green beans, pickled rhubarb, and micro greens. For my main course I had bacon-wrapped trout with lentils. Both were super yummy, especially the crab. Jason had asparagus soup to start and a giant meatball that was filled with oozy cheese. Also super good.

But it wasn't just the food, or the service, or the vibe (which always strikes me as the perfect balance between casual and upscale), it's also the quality for the price. My crab app was $12. I can't think of anyplace else where you can get an appetizer that good, of that quality, prepared with such attention to detail and served in such a setting, for that price. I'm glad we went because it reminded me how much I like eating there. We'll have to return again soon.

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Students from a business-statistics class at Seattle University conclude farmers’ markets are a better deal than supermarkets. I have a feeling that's not true in my part of Manhattan, but maybe I should try out a little experiment and see. There are four supermarkets within walking distance of the Union Square Greenmarket. It wouldn't be hard to do some sleuthing.

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The USDA is considering a list of 38 nonorganic ingredients that will be permitted in organic foods. "The list includes 19 food colorings, two starches, casings for sausages and hot dogs, fish oil, chipotle chili pepper, gelatin and a host of obscure ingredients (one, for instance, is a 'bulking agent' and sweetener with the tongue-twisting name of fructooligosaccharides)." I don't understand how this is even an issue. You either grow it by the rules, or it's not organic. Or is this some Orwellian thing, Organic is Nonorganic?

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Showcase the surprisingly versatile strawberry in a pasta dish. This is a recipe for Sfoglia’s Spaghetti with Strawberries, a savory meal made with the berry. It sounds good, but I have a hard time wrapping my head around any savory strawberry concoction.

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Whenever I take a pig, lamb, or cow to butcher or sale at the sale barn I am supposed to pay a tax that goes to fund one of the industry “check-off” programs. The author is referring to the National Pork Board and the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, the folks that tell you pork is the other white meat and beef is what's for dinner. "I don’t believe that farmers like myself should be compelled by the government to pay for advertising an industry that goes against our principles and basic beliefs about farming. I don’t want every sale of an animal from my farm to go toward promoting the very factory farming system that I am trying to be an alternative to." [via The Ethicurian]

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Illustration by Nick Dewar for the New York Times
Sushi began as a way of preserving old fish. "Rice farmers in Southeast Asia would pack fish in jars with cooked rice to preserve it." It didn't used to be about eating raw fish. Good information on the history of sushi in Jay McInerney’s book review of the two new sushi books on the market.

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At Per Se, the importance of staff meal takes on an almost religious intensity. "The fascination was simply in seeing how ingredients were alchemized, how that same English cucumber, vacuumed, compressed and barely recognizable in a Sunday-night salad, became the dice in a fine, simple yogurt sauce Monday afternoon for a North African family meal of lamb and falafel." I loved staff meal when I worked in a restaurant. We were always trying to one-up each other with what we could come up with based on left-overs and what we could use. Stuff like fish was off-limits because of its cost, so it forced everyone to be creative, but also experimental.

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Coffee troubles

It's getting hot out, and you know what that means? Time to order iced coffee drinks from the local barista. Sadly though, the state of coffee ordering has gotten so complex for me that the addition of "iced" seems to throw my whole order into doubt. I switched to decaf ages ago. I used to order soy milk, now I usually get cow's milk, but never skim. And I mostly order small drinks, though sometimes medium. And I never know in what order to place all the different variables. Today I tried for "small decaf iced latte" and when the women said something about milk, I assumed she asked if I wanted whole milk, so I said yes. Two seconds later, I was served an iced coffee.

"Oh, sorry. I wanted a latte," I said, "An decaf latte."

It seemed to be corrected and one women went to make it while the other began to ring me up.

"Iced medium latte," she said.

Apparently at this coffee shop, latte = coffee and decaf = medium. Or maybe I was just mumbly? I'm not anymore, now I'm all ZIPPY! From what seems to be a medium NOT DECAF iced latte!!

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Dinner party anxiety

People don’t want to be associated with the wrong kind of olive oil, points out the New York Times, in one of those articles that makes New Yorkers seem like crazy people. Ah, the stress of throwing a dinner party when you're a lunatic foodie! I avoid this problem by throwing low-key dinner parties and not freaking out, amazingly enough. What I do is plan a menu that can more or less entirely be prepared in advance, say a roast or a tart for a main course. When my guests arrive, we enjoy hors d'oeuvres and appertifs in the living room. They always looks a little anxious when I hang out with them, instead of dashing around the kitchen. Then after a while I say, "Is everyone ready to eat?" and I usually dress the salad (vinaigrette and salad already made in advance too), pull whatever's in the oven out of the oven, and voila! Dinner is served.

Sometimes at this point I have a dessert that's made and that goes into the oven to bake while we eat. Sometimes it's already prepared or doesn't need anything more than a simple assembly. It's amazing how nicely this whole approach to dinner parties can be. I still of course obsess over the menu, and buy high quality ingredients. But for me the fun is having people over, and enjoying their company. I don't care if I'm associated with the wrong kind of olive oil. I care that my friends head home happy and contented after a nice evening.

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My extensive experience in making Paneer compelled me to try something different, that is, making Paneer out of my own breast milk. Woman attempts to make "human cheese" with her supply of frozen breast milk. Passed its "three months drinkability period" but not yet expired, she thought it would be fun to try. Alas, it doesn't work because human breast milk doesn't contain enough protein to curdle. Even if it had worked, who'd eat the cheese? [via BoingBoing]

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Per Se’s summery Wagyu-steak salad keeps appearing on the frequently-changing menu. It's made with Japanese Wagyu, "graded A5, one of the very highest grades," watercress, vinaigrette made with rendered Wagyu fat, carrots, chive blossoms, radishes, and spiced peanuts. Mmmm, looks and sounds fantastic. I could go for that for dinner tonight!

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The authors of two new sushi books separate the facts from the fishy. Time Out New York summarizes all you need to know about eating sushi, or as they put it, "must-have intel for your next fish-and-rice repast."

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The trick with asparagus, besides just-cut freshness, is to cook them so they are somewhere between firm and limp. While it used to be overcooking that was the problem, Marian Burros argues that too often chefs today undercook asparagus. Getting it just right is certainly a matter of preference. And there's nothing like fresh asparagus cooked just right.

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In these isolated times, people yearn to break bread with neighbors. Communal tables are all the rage at Bay Area restaurants. Though the article points to NYC's Asia de Cuba as the trendsetter, I can't say communal tables are all the rage here. Of course, most tables are packed so close together in Manhattan that it seems like you're sitting with the folks next to you anyway.

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Remember I told you about Meatpaper, a cool new magazine "of art and ideas about meat" awhile back? Well subscriptions are now available The first issue will ship at the end of summer, 2007. So go sign up now!

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Photo by Peter Menzel

What's on family dinner tables in fifteen different homes around the globe? From the new book "The Hungry Planet" by photographer Peter Menzel. The above photo shows a week's worth of food for an Ecuadorian family in Tingo. A fascinating look not just at how much people eat, but what they eat. The processed food in some diets is incredible, especially in contrast with the above photo. [via Jason]

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On a fruit shortcake bender

Delicious berries awaiting conversion to strawberry shortcake.

Prompted by a tasty looking quart of strawberries I picked up at the Greenmarket on Saturday, I've been eating shortcakes with various fruit. Saturday evening I made my favorite shortcake recipe (Shortcakes for strawberries and other fruit) and had two biscuits worth of strawberries and whipped cream. I garnished with some fresh basil and that added a delightful touch. Sunday I had biscuits left, but no more strawberries, due to my greedy eating Saturday. So I took some frozen wild blueberries (usually reserved for pancakes and smoothies), thawed them and tossed them with a bit of sugar. What do you know?! Blueberry shortcake (this time garnished with fresh mint) is pretty tasty too.

So last night I was going to use some frozen peaches I had, but then I spied some California peaches in the market that seemed soft and smelled pretty good. Alas, they didn't have much flavor, even after maceration with sugar and basil for an hour. My third batch of shortcakes was a bust. The biscuits had gotten too soft and mushy, the peaches were flavorless (reminding me again why I only buy local fruit in season), and the whipped cream was good. You can't screw up whipped cream, can you?

I think I may be on the verge of a shortcake bender though. It was so good (and healthy, right? All that fruit, and the calcium from the cream?) and easy and tasty. I want some kind of fruit and shortcake dessert every night!

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More sausage makers less bakers

We need more investment bankers becoming butchers and sausage makers. I think we have enough cupcake bakers in this country. Ed Levine on the demise of family-run artisanal food shops and the rise in cupcake baking. "Every time we lose a sausage maker, a bread baker, or a mozzarella maker, we lose a little piece of our food heart and soul, our gustatory generosity of spirit. Those are precious commodities in our culture, and we should do everything we can to preserve them."

I agree, but I don't see it happening. The thing with baking cupcakes is, it's easy. You don't need to spend years learning to do it, you don't even need to go to culinary school to make cupcakes. And you can get away with selling mediocre cupcakes that people will still adore simply because they're sweet and better than store-bought. But to be a butcher? Or a sausage maker? That's so much more work, and it's not cute and pink and fun. It's back-breaking and bloody and dangerous.

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The let’s-wait-in-long-lines-for-a-cupcake trend has arrived in the West Coast. Cupcake shops are popping up all over Los Angeles, with many folks quitting their white-color jobs to open bakeries, even without food service experience. I can't say I love cupcakes enough to want to see anymore of this trend. Ice cream and pies are my passions, though shortcake (strawberry, blueberry) are high on my list these days too.

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Steve Cuozzo's got some things to say about the Shake Shack in the New York Post, a handful of which I am going to respond to. Burger blogger Adam Kuban responds to the "shacklash" with some valid points. I still [heart] the Shack, but I never go at prime time and I never wait longer than half-an-hour in line. So that's probably why I still [heart] it so much.

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Argh, swamped today with other things. But here's some information on the benefits of grass feeding animals. "Animals raised on pasture live very low-stress lives. As a result of their superb nutrition and lack of stress, they are superbly healthy."

Also, there are some interesting comments happening in the If we want to save the animals we must eat them post. When I get a moment, I'll share my thoughts. Feel free to pop in with yours.

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Heritage meat statistics

OK, it was a short day looking at heritage and heirloom links, so maybe I'll keep this going tomorrow, since I didn't really have time to dive into veggies at all really, nor enough time to dig into the meat (ha ha ha) of this issue. For those wondering what the big deal is, or why diversity matters, I'll leave you with this information from Sustainable Table:

In the US, a few main breeds dominate the livestock industry:

• 83 percent of dairy cows are Holsteins, and five main breeds comprise almost all of the dairy herds in the US.
• 60 percent of beef cattle are of the Angus, Hereford or Simmental breeds.
• 75 percent of pigs in the US come from only 3 main breeds.
• Over 60 percent of sheep come from only four breeds, and 40 percent are Suffolk-breed sheep.

More sobering information: "Within the past 15 years, 190 breeds of farm animals have gone extinct worldwide, and there are currently 1,500 others at risk of becoming extinct. In the past five years alone, 60 breeds of cattle, goats, pigs, horses and poultry have become extinct."

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