NCC gets it wrong - the ethics of foie gras vs. the ethics of industrial food

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I have a rant. It's been a long time brewing.

Food consumption and preparation are my passion. I freaking looooooooooove food. I love variety, I love exoticism, I love localism....basically, I derive large amounts of pleasure from food.

But in the back of my mind, I am acutely aware that the polished facade of my grocery store is really just a fresh hide over the rancid underbelly of industrial food production. Modern, factory-scale food production, frankly, sucks. It sucks for the animals involved. It sucks for the people involved. It sucks for the land and environment involved. It's an energy-sucking behemoth rife with suffering and horror.

Yes, I'm being dramatic, but I don't know that it's possible to over-dramatize this. When you eat factory-farmed meat, you are eating pain and suffering. The cheaper the meat, the more likely the unfortunate animal involved led a short, pain-filled, manure-covered life. I realize this may bother some people, but it's the truth. And people need to know that.

I talked about this in 2007, and I'll talk about it again in 2011....the only way you can be assured that your meat led a relatively content, well-treated life is if you buy it from a farmer yourself. I.e., if you bought it at Costco, a grocery store or pretty much any chain food outlet (fast food or not), your meat was probably factory farmed.

SO...this brings me to the current target off my ire....the National Capital Commission in Ottawa. Every year in Ottawa, we make the best of our freezing winters and the city throws a huge party called Winterlude. It's awesome. Skating on the world's longest skating rink, beautiful crisp clear winter days, ice sculptures, warm comforting food, etc. It's a great time.

The short story is that the NCC invited renowned chef Martin Picard (of Au Pied de Cochon and Food Network Canada fame) to put on a gala dinner for 400-some people in Gatineau's spectacular Museum of Civilization. Tickets sold out in a matter of hours. That's how excited people were to try some of this chef's famous dishes (which often feature foie gras). Ottawa Citizen food editor Ron Eade cites that Martin Picard's Montreal restaurant is the number one consumer of foie gras in North America.

Essentially, this guy is known for foie gras and people want to eat it up. In fact, they clamoured to eat it up (me, I was not interested as a) I do not personally like the taste of foie gras, and b) I can't imagine that eating mass-prepared banquet food could possibly compare to actually eating chef-prepared food). Anyway, people were clearly excited. The demand was absolutely there.

A few days later, the NCC officially launched Winterlude on a snowy December day...I was lucky enough to be at the launch for a non-food-related work thing. In front of the Chateau Laurier (where the launch was held), were a few snowy protesters with big signs. Whatever. There are ALWAYS foie gras protestors in Ottawa. I encountered them about 18 months ago when I visited Canvas for my birthday. For the most part, they are respectful, but get their point across.

SO....you'd think that the overwhelming excitement of 400 near-instant sell-out tickets would drown out the weak mewls of these protestors. Right?

WRONG. The NCC asked Martin Picard to omit foie gras from his menu. All seemed well.

Except it wasn't. Behind the scenes, Picard, like any chef/artist with a shred of credibility and character, bowed out. If Ottawa wasn't interested in his food, the way he wanted to make it, essentially, Picard wasn't really interested in Ottawa.

I don't blame the man.

But I do blame the NCC. It is RIDICULOUS that they let a few protestors alter the focus of Winterlude's marquee event. ABSOLUTELY RIDICULOUS.

And now I'm going to get back to the point of my rant.....this article on Serious Eats about the physiology of ducks does a great job of explaining why gavage, the practice of tube-feeding ducks and geese to fatten up their livers, is not, in fact, the worst thing that can happen to an animal. The physiology of ducks is such that they can (and do) swallow enormous things. It would make me gag. It would make you gag. Really, it would make anyone but an accomplished porn star gag. But it doesn't make a duck gag and it doesn't make a goose gag...because they are not people. Ignoring a duck's unique physiology is nothing short of anthropomorphism.

I'm not saying all foie gras ducks and geese across the entirety of the globe are well-treated. I'm absolutely sure they are not. Especially in Europe, where there is more demand, and foie gras is less of an artisanal niche product, and more of a mass-consumed product.

But here in North America? Not so much. 90 per cent of our population does not even know what foie gras IS (okay, I made the stat up....but I'll stand by it!). We are not producing foie gras on an industrial scale. To bring things back to the example at hand, according to this article, Picard takes no small amount of care when selecting the source of his foie gras.

Bottom line, these foie gras protestors are barking up the wrong tree. If they are that serious about protecting the rights of mistreated animals, why not protest Pizza Pizza or Subway as major sponsors? With the caveat that I have not personally researched these food outlets, I'd be willing to bet money that there's a whole lot more cruelty in the pepperoni on your pizza, or the turkey breast on your sub than there is in the foie gras on the select plates of those who choose to consume it.

I just don't understand the focus on a small (mostly) artisanal product when the real problem is of a MASSIVE scale. As consumers, we absolutely should be asking more questions about the origins and treatment of our food. If a merchant cannot tell us, we should take our purchasing power elsewhere.

Current regulations in Canada require that all meat be processed in a federally-inspected facility. This sounds great....unless you're a small farmer who only has a small amount of livestock. And you don't live near a slaughterhouse. So now you have to transport your formerly content livestock to a far-away abattoir. And if you try to sell (or even give away) something you slaughtered yourself. Well, you just might find yourself arrested. And no, I'm not joking.

So this is a bit of a rambly rant. But my point is that I'm ticked off that the NCC caved because of a few protesters. Foie gras is not the problem. Industrial food production is the problem.

Some reading for ya:

Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer

The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan

In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan

Beyond Factory Farming

Fast Food Nation - The Dark Side of the All-American Meal by Eric Schlosser

Some watching for ya:

The Meatrix (short, free, online)

Food Inc.

Fast Food Nation

Super Size Me

King Corn

And that's it for me tonight. Time to go to bed, but now that I've got this off my chest, I'll sleep well, especially knowing that I'll have some Bearbrook Farm buffalo braising in my crockpot for dinner tomorrow.

there is no defence for this food

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So, I've been a really, really crappy blogger lately. And I apologize for that.

However, I certainly haven't been idle in terms of food and eating....and especially in terms of reading. It seems to becoming de rigueur these days to read up on food and condemn factory farming practices and supply chain conglomeration and all those things.

So being the diligent little foodie that I am, I've been doing these things. I've read books (The End of Overeating by Dr. David. A. Kessler, Eating Animals, by Jonathan Safran Foer). I've watched movies (King Corn, Food Inc.). I've read articles (from the Center for Science in the Public Interest, from various other news outlets).

I've been horrified, grossed out, temporarily vegan....you name it.

But it's honestly hard to grasp just how ridiculous and fragile the North American food supply is. I mean, yes, we've all heard about recalls of ground beef, spinach, lunch meats and all that stuff. But that seems pretty straightforward.

But then you look at the current recall on hydrolyzed vegetable protein. And your first reaction is...wtf is hydrolyzed vegetable protein, and have I eaten it?

To answer the first, HVP (which sounds like a disease, if you ask me) is made by boiling cereals or legumes [like soy, corn or wheat] in hydrochloric [wha?????] acid, and then neutralizing it with sodium hydroxide.

To answer the second, yes, you've probably eaten it.

So.....we are boiling stuff we don't need in a highly corrosive solution and then making it palatable with a caustic metal base.

This totally sounds like something I'd want to eat. You?

Anyway, the resulting HVP is used as a flavour enhancer in processed food. So it's used in things like soup, sauces, chili, stew, hot dogs, gravy, snacks, dips and dressings. And sometimes it's blended with spices to make seasonings. A quick investigation into my own pantry found me four products containing HVP - a salad topping mix, a soup, a burger seasoning mix and a peppercorn sauce. These items are full of sodium and other chemicals and probably had no business entering my house in the first place.

So I've tossed them.

Anyway, what I find interesting about this particular food recall is that it really shows how incredibly fragile the processed food supply is. So you have this one company in Nevada that makes this nasty stuff.

And then they sell it to all kinds of food manufacturers (lots of brands and varieties) that make even more nasty stuff.

And those manufacturers sell to grocery stores all across the continent.

And we buy this crap, mix it with another ingredient or two, and feel like we're actually cooking something.

And so basically anyone in the ENTIRE CONTINENT who has purchased processed food since September 2009 needs to have a good go-through of their cupboard and fridge contents.

All because of one small company in Nevada.

And how many other small companies might there be out there helping to pump our foods with chemicals and "enhancers" that we simply don't need?

I'm just looking at the label of my instant leek soup....on the ingredient list, I see corn starch (okay), wheat flour (okay), modified milk ingredients (hmmm), onion powder (okay...), dried vegetables [potatoes and leeks], corn syrup solids [wtf did they do to it to make it solid?], salt, monosodium glutamate [blech], canola oil, hydrolyzed corn protein [HVP!!!!!], guar gum (huh?), natural flavour (awesome....what is it?), spice, natural colour and sulphites.

Ummm....that doesn't sound like potato leek soup to me. To me, potato leek soup is leeks, potatoes, broth and maybe some cream. And it's not very hard to make.

What this potato leek soup is, is actually a conglomeration of chemicals from a conglomeration of companies that food scientists have discovered tastes a lot like potato leek soup. And it tastes a lot like the potato leek soup that most people want to eat.

And this totally reminds me of a recent experience at work. A while back, we had a chili cook-off. There were ten entries (including mine) and they ran the gamut - there were spicy entries, mild ones, wildly varying ingredients. But when voting time came, there was one particular entry that won by a landslide (it had 10 votes, and the next closest had 3).

And it wasn't my chili, hehe.

It was actually canned chili. I'm happy to say that *I* didn't vote for it....I found it lacking in texture, with a bit of a dog food smell.

But most people DID vote for it (over half!). It was processed, hyper-palatable food that a team of food scientists has spent months perfecting and testing. I.e., it was a representation of what most people felt an ideal chili should taste like.

You can't win against that.

And anyway...I guess this big long entry goes to say....it's time that we cut the chemicals out of our food and start eating tasty, healthy home-made food that isn't going from the chem lab to our tables.

More on this later....thanks for being patient, and now that I'm well and thoroughly riled, hopefully you'll see some more entries from me....

I'd love to hear your comments and insights....

if it smells bad, it tastes....

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...worse.

I've long been a believer in the power of involuntary memory. Sometimes, the mere scent, sound or taste of something can have the power to literally transport you (or your consciousness at least) to some other place.

For some people, it could be the smell of a campfire, or the taste of some long-forgotten treat. While songs tend to be a trigger for me, there are certain scents that have marked themselves indelibly in my memory, and whose reappearance never fails to bring about a strong bout of nostalgia.

In the literary sphere, Marcel Proust wrote a TON about this, devoting one entire portion of his giant epic, À la recherche du temps perdu, to characters who lived their mundane lives, enlivened only by the appearance of this type of memory (like in Du côté de chez Swann). But um....it's a really long long LONG book. You don't want to read it. I only had to read like 100 pages of it, but it was so dense I nearly lost my mind.

But I digress....where was I.....oh....involuntary memory. The thing with this is that it has the propensity to strike in the most unusual places. Like Costco. That evil big box behemoth where I now longer purchase oh SO many things due to factory farm support. Hubs and I were wandering the aisles, in search of laundry detergent and frozen shrimp, when I decided to head over to the cheese aisle, thinking I could pick up some gruyère or emmentaler for our crêpes this week.

Lo and behold, I spotted what looked like a beautiful little Camembert sitting in its wooden box, beckoning to me. I was drawn to its simple, european rusticity, so devoid of shrink wrap and industrialization. It seemed fated - the small alluring box, the $2 off sign overhead. This was meant to be.

And so I picked it up. And sniffed gingerly at it.....and instantly, I wasn't in Costco. I was in a French market, surrounded by the hustle and bustle of artisanal produce....not the shove and bully of massive carts overstuffed with such wares as toilet paper, chips and pop. I had to have this cheese. The seductive earthen scent drove me to madness....



I should have known better.

The thing is, as 'sophisticated' a palate as I attempt to have. I REALLY don't like very many cheeses...I really haven't evolved much beyond cheddar. Mind you, I love a good, really old crumbly block of balderson or perron...but still cheddar. It has a particular taste....one that I love and crave. But, I thought I would try to branch out.

I actually enjoy many sorts of brie and camembert (mild cheese, admittedly), generally on some nice baguette. I thought that mixing this kind of cheese in with egg, sauteed veggies and galette de sarrasin (buckwheat crêpe) would really be quite lovely.

And to some people....perhaps....it would have been. But OMG....that was awful. It was almost as bad as the time that hubs and I ended up on a six course tasting menu in France. One of the courses was a cheese course, and as we still like to remember.....one of them, the "ass-cheese" (as hubs so eloquently dubbed it), just kept on tasting and tasting and tasting. A lot of value for your buck, that one.

YUCK. So....not only did I stink up the car on the way home from Costco, I stunk up the fridge (despite me putting the offending ball of rot in a ziploc), and I've now stunk up our entire house. Seriously, it's pure raunch. If I could open the windows and not die, I would. GAH.

So....moral of the story is, artisanal raw-milk camembert and I do NOT go together. I tried...I really did. But holy nasty.

That said, those of you who actually enjoy this type of cheese (think normal Camembert times about a trillion) would probably have LOVED this dinner. The crêpes were yummy, the veggies were delicious, and once I pitched the stench and replaced it with (discount, yellow) cheddar, I had a yummy meal on hand.

So I'm sure you all want to try this now. ;) Keep in mind that crêpes can be filled with anything. This Breton special is so flexible - ham, cheese, vegetables, eggs, fruit, ice cream, etc. - you can have anything your heart desires in a galette or crêpe.

Before I share the recipe, here's a little primer on how these are usually consumed in France...a main course crêpe is called a "galette de sarrasin" and is made with buckwheat flour. Normally, you would have 2-3 items inside your galette, and they don't typically have a sauce on them - just pure delicious ingredients. To accompany, you would order a nice french cidre. For Canuck readers, buckwheat flour can be found in abundance at Bulk Barn, and cider is a little harder to track down, but if you're wiley and tenacious (today I was both), you can procure it in the Vintages section of the LCBO (Vintages 2022). Not easy to find though.

Dessert crêpes are called "crêpes de froment" and can be filled with all manner of wonderful things (particular favourites include nutella/banana, caramelized apple and plain old sugar and lemon). Of course, in a pinch, you can sub one kind of crêpe for the other and you certainly will live to tell the tale.

And will all of that ramble and blather.....here is the recipe!

Galettes de Sarrasin
350 g buckwheat flour (about 2 cups, from what my measuring cup tells me)
10 g fleur de sel (about 2 t sea salt)
75 cl cold water (3 cups)
1 egg

1. Combine the flour and the fleur de sel.

2. Using a whisk, add in the cold water. Whisk away until no lumps remain.
3. Whisk in the egg and combine throughly. Allow batter to rest for at least 60 minutes. Not sure why, but everyone says you have to. So do it.

Meanwhile......prepare your fillings....

Sautéed Veggies
1 pound asparagus, trimmed and cut into 2" pieces
1 red pepper, chopped into 2 inch strips
12 oz oyster mushrooms, chopped in strips
1 clove garlic
1 T olive oil
salt and black pepper to taste

1. Heat oil in a small skillet over medium heat. Add vegetables and sauté to desired doneness. Season to test with salt and pepper.


Galettes (continued)

1. Heat a 12-inch skillet over medium/medium-high heat. The skillet is hot when you can have drops of water "dance" on it (when you flick them).
2. Have a small bowl of oil, and a 1/2 cup measure handy. Dip a paper towel in the oil and rub it on the skillet, so you have a very thin brush of oil over the whole surface.
3. Using the 1/2 cup measure, scoop just under 1/2 cup of batter into the hot skillet, and swirl it around with the other hand, to spread the batter out. Don't worry if it's not perfect (and the first one definitely won't be!).....it all tastes the same in the end.
4. Watch the galette carefully.....when the edges start to pull away from the pan, slide a spatula underneath and flip it over. Give it about 30 seconds and remove from the pan. (I just pile them all on a plate). It's better if your crêpe is a teeny bit underdone, because it will go back in the pan to warm up the filling later.
Here's one of my rounder specimens...


5. Repeat until you run out of batter, re-oiling the pan before each one. You may need to adjust the heat, if you find the crêpe is getting too crispy at the edges before the centre is done.

To make filled crêpes:
1. Make sure the pan is hot (though turn it down to just below medium for this...not super hot) and oiled.
2. Put your crêpe in the pan. If you are using an egg for filling, you should crack it onto the crêpe now (TIP: If you are like me and skeeved by food that runs away from you, lightly beat the egg in a bowl beforehand - this enables you to get eggy goodness without yucky, runny yolk).
3. Once the egg starts to set (I find this is aided by putting a lid on your pan), add the other filling ingredients (if you're not using an egg, start with cheese and put others on top).
Here is hubs' galette that he didn't eat. That cheese is seriously poison. I know it looks innocent....it's NOT.

4. To serve, try to fold the edges over, so that only the centre of the crêpe is showing and then toss it on a plate. Here is mine, with my MUCH-needed cidre. Bah, that was so nasty.

5. Enjoy! Or.....if you're like us, bravely try to eat a bite or two and ooooooze sophistication....then give up and toss on the chedda.

The second crêpe was much better.....even if the cheese was orange (I let hubs pick out his fave this week since I didn't think I'd have to eat any).....


I also made a little 'dessert' crêpe by taking one of the leftovers, sprinkling vanilla sugar and then drizzling lemon juice. Yum. Maple syrup is also wonderful (I'm saving that for brekkie.....)

Thanks for reading through my fromage-laced rambling tonight. This will teach me not to pretend to be a gourmet cheese connoisseur, because clearly, I am not.....and hopefully the next time a scent transports me through time and space....I'll remember that absence makes the heart grow fonder....it's selective memory like this that allows for me to do this time and time again...come back tomorrow for adventures in soupitude.

Love the comments!!!!!

Theory of the what?

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More general food philosophizing here……a somewhat platonian take on nutrition…..

So I’m taking a few liberties with Plato, twisting his words around, and re-visiting him….a couple of millennia later. Plato wasn’t exactly into food…..but if I stretch, knead and bake his ideas a little bit, I can use them to illustrate a little food musing……

Take his Theory of the Forms…..(and I’d like to thank SparkNotes for refreshing my memory on the specifics)….the gist of this theory is that there are TWO levels of reality/existence. There is the so-called “real world” – where we actually are, and then the world of Forms, which stands apart from the real world and gives it substance. Not that that makes any sense.

But basically, if you take this from a food perspective, in addition to being able to judge whether food is delicious or not, we also have a general concept of what deliciousness really is. The only reason that we can say a certain food is good is that we have an abstract concept of this goodness. All this to say that tasty things we eat are tasty only because they are a part of a more general form of Taste, which is actually unchanging, impervious to time (unlike tasty food, which, most definitely, loses all notions of tastiness within a given amount of time). For example, you could eat a wonderful salad today, and it would be tasty….but if you were to eat that exactly SAME salad again tomorrow, it would be limp, yucky and overall disgusting (especially if you’re like me and have a tendancy not to wash your dishes as promptly as you really should).

And if you stretch this marginal theory a bit…..let’s say you eat a fast-food burger. Now, on the menu, you’ll have a picture of a burger that looks perfect – it looks juicy (thanks to food dye and glycerine), it looks beefy (thanks to being cut down the middle and opened up so proportion is larger….), it has delectable sesame seeds (most of which have been glued on), a crisp bun (because it’s protected from the burger with rounds of cardboard) and overall is a perfect form of what a fast food burger should be. So when you are anxiously awaiting your own burger, and you open it up….and it is soggy, goopy, limp and overall lame…..you still eat it. Why? Is it because you have this perfect idea of what it should be, waiting in your head?

Or………let’s say you have a perfect idea of what a chocolate cheesecake should be……it should be rich, decadent, chocolatey, resistant, melting in your mouth and something to savour….it should be rich chocolate perfection on your plate. And let’s say you order such a cheesecake at a chain restaurant…..in your head you have these visions of perfection. And what arrives is oversweetened, whipped (and hence not resistant), not very chocolatey, inferior sorry specimen of said cheesecake.

What do you do?

You eat it anyway. And again, why? You have this vision of perfection and when you encounter inferiority, you accept it….perhaps because the vision you have of perfection is transcending the dark nasty blob of sugar on your plate?

A more timely example (on this blog at least) could be some of those much-harangued meat substitutes…..when a reluctant vegan (and let’s face it, they do exist…..those who love the taste of meat but can’t eat it on ethical grounds) eats one of those processed soy packages of ick….what are they tasting? Are they buoyed by grilled perfection? Can they accept this as a form of what they are missing?

And even those of us who are food obsessed really aren’t much different….one of my favourite dishes is really yummy macaroni and cheese, made with strong strong cheddar and just overall, amazing comfort food. And yet I’ll eat kraft dinner. And enjoy it. And have seconds.

I don’t really have any answers on this random rambling here……....

Thanks for reading my nutty musings. Real post to follow.....

Feeding Vegan Food to Non-Vegans

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Myself included, of course.





Saturday marked the culmination of Vegan Week 2007. A week of deprivation (or was it depravation....he). As you've already read, I celebrated the end of this event by inviting over a group of non-vegan friends (found five willing guinea pigs, though hubs skipped out and ordered PIZZA) and feeding them a mostly-vegan meal.

Well guess what, it turns out that you can feed vegan food to non-vegans and they will not only eat it, but actually enjoy it.

I can't say I developed any more grace in the kitchen and I continued my previous record of dropping things, spilling things, and a minor grain explosion. Thankfully none of this happened whilst I was wielding the blow torch (more on that later).

Anyway, here is the menu I put together, along with links to the recipe posts. I decided to be brave (or crazy....or both) and create my own recipes as I went. Not sure if it's the best idea for someone who hasn't a lot of experience in vegan cooking, but I went ahead anyway. Read on for comments, pictures, recipes and witticisms.

Apéritif - kir royale (sparkling wine with crème de cassis - I confess to not checking if these particular selections were vegan). I just wanted to ply people with drink in case my experiments went awry.

Appetizer - homemade rosemary fleur de sel foccacia with bruschetta topping

Salad - mixed greens with walnut dressing, dried cranberries and toasted walnuts (no recipe link for this one - basically 2 T canola oil, 1 T walnut oil, 1 T balsamic vinegar, fleur de sel, 1 T dijon mustard, fresh pepper, and mix)

Soup - parsnippity soup with red pepper coulis

Entrée - Veggie lentil phyllo strudel with sweet potato truffle purée, topped with port-braised mushrooms

Dessert - dark chocolate hazelnut torte

It was a feast suited to vegans and non-vegans alike. I was surprised and ecstatic to find out that not only was it good for vegan food, it was actually good food. Period.

So....vegan readers, try one of these recipes next time you have non-vegans coming over....they'll like it and you might even get a convert or two. And non-vegan readers....give some of these a try. You won't die if you don't eat meat for a meal (I didn't!) and they're actually tasty! Never underestimate the power of a roasted veggie. :)

And a few final thoughts and observations on Vegan Week.....

1) Overall, I can see the appeal of a lot of this lifestyle. It's always nice to think that we're lessening our impact on the planet, and if one can do this at the same time as consuming tasty nibbles, all the better. That said, as a non-vegan, it's a little bit frustrating to go to the effort of researching and trying to prepare something....and with nearly every recipe, receiving comments to the effect of questioning the vegan status of a given ingredient. Fair enough - and I'll confess that I didn't go out and buy vegan sugar and I didn't go out and buy vegan margarine (they do exist, but I actually despise margarine and wasn't about to buy a second tub....). It felt at times like an uphill battle. There's a great article on vegetarian diplomacy on the www.veg.ca website. I can't admit to being a perfect, fault-free vegan for a week....but there was quite a bit of effort. Don't knock it!

2) I did quite a bit of reading during the past week about animal impacts on the environment, particularly the effects of factory farming. Now, while I'm happily ensconced in my position at the top of the food chain, and I don't see that changing any time soon....this is definitely some food for thought. If you want more information (not for the faint of heart or stomach), click HERE , HERE or HERE. Again, don't click if you're eating or are planning to eat soon. I really would like to make an effort not to contribute to this sort of thing, and will definitely be decreasing meat consumption (particularly of the fast food variety) and buying more naturally raised meats. If my cows are happy and pastured and content, that's what I'm after. So this was a bit of an eye-opener.

3) I learned a lot about efficiency and food production. It takes 16 pounds of grain to make one pound of beef (i.e., a cow, over its lifetime, will consume 16 pounds of grain for every pound of meat it yields). So....not only is it inefficient, but cows are eating food that could be consumed by humans (and likewise pigs, chickens, etc.). It certainly puts things in perspective anyway. More food for though (is it dinner time yet? I'm STARVING!)

4) I've mentioned before and I'll mention again....meat and dairy substitutes are NASTY. In order to properly and joyfully adhere to a vegan lifestyle, I think it's important to visit offerings of other cultures (many asian and african countries come to mind) to find food ideas. The North American standard of meat, potatoes and vegetables (MPV for short!) just isn't the same when it's only potatoes and vegetables. Legumes are our friends, and I will endeavour to make more with them. That said, I have been devouring cheese like there is no tomorrow ever since first thing Sunday morning.

Make sure to come back for more posts about delicious food, including an upcoming theme week about the food of España, as well as an entry into the Cupcake Round-Up hosted by the Cupcake Blog!. Yum!

Thank you for reading! And, comment-whore that I am....pleeeeeeeeeease comment. :)

PSA for the culinarily trepidatious

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I admit it, I actually wrote this article for a class assignment, but I thought I would share, seeing as I am on a cooking hiatus.


Mageiricophobia, the intense fear of cooking, is not as rare as one might think. The bigger question is why, with the abundance of choice in grocery stores today, do so many people choose to gorge themselves on fast food. How is it that of males aged 19-30, only 37.9 per cent eat at home on an average day? And women aren’t much better, with only 43.1% opting to dine-in. Statistics Canada released a survey in July 2006 that revealed some rather shocking findings about the eating habits of Canadians.

Most of us eat too much fat, too much protein, way too much sodium and not enough veggies. But we all know that now – this isn’t exactly news.

As a nation, we are becoming nearly as wobbly and jiggly and lethargic as our southern neighbours. Is our addiction to fast food the root of all evil? Is the lack of food product labeling leading us astray?

I’d like to suggest neither.

Quite simply, our nation is getting “growing” because we don’t know how to cook. The sense of fear and panic faced by many in the kitchen is rivaled only by their total incomprehension of a standard recipe. The 19-30 demographic in particular is by far the generation that is the least ill-equipped to care for itself in modern history. Ask an average university student to make EasyMac, and you’ll probably be in luck. Ask the same student to make stovetop Kraft Dinner…and you might luck out with someone who has used a stove before. But ask the same student if they could make you some macaroni and cheese like mom did….and a blank stare is all you’ll get.

With out-of-control urban sprawl, by the time people get home from work, the last thing they want to do is make a healthy, wholesome dinner for themselves. These are people who don’t have the time or energy to cook, and even if they did have the inclination, they have zero skills in the kitchen. They are terrified!

Two sisters, Janet and Greta Podleski, have devised a delightfully clever solution to this problem. Their third cookbook, Eat, Shrink & Be Merry, is filled with jokes, wisdom, and very easy recipes. From start to finish, this cookbook runs the gamut of cuisines from Bangkok to Bangor. Filled with crazy monikers, ES&BM (as those in the know call it) is a no-nonsense, simple approach to healthy eating. ““If I can’t find the ingredients at my local grocery store, then I’m not putting them in the book,” says Greta, the inspirational genius behind the recipes. With such witty titles as “Lord of the Wings and “Flank ‘n’ Stein,” the cheesy sense of humour calms even the most apprehensive soul.

And her approach is winning over the mageiricophobics - so engaging that it has developed a cult-like following on the internet. One devoted thread on a popular message board boasts over 15 000 views and nearly 600 posts! Jess from London said “I don't really cook all that much and I found this very easy to follow.” Easy to follow indeed – the Podleskis are careful to gently introduce any unusual ingredients to the reader – from herbes de provence to making their own fresh bread crumbs – this book is a boon to the culinarily trepidatious. “I’m starting to think that this is the best $18 I have spent,” adds Jan from Milton, “I bought ES&BM last week and have honestly never been so excited about any one cookbook!”

Rarely has there been a cookbook so worthy of excitement. A valiant volley in the battle of the bulge, the Podleskis are to be congratulated for their dedication and absurdity when dealing with something that is no small matter. I can only suggest that you finish up with a decadent slice of “La Vida Mocha,” a decadent chocolate mocha mousse cake, that offers a mere 187 calories per generous slice. “Decadent and yummy” is the scrawled review in my own stained, sticky and well-evaluated copy.

You too can find decadence at any local bookstore, at a suggested price of $29.95 per copy (though it can be found for less if you hunt around).




Too much fun. Make your own here.

Culinary Intertextuality

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Feeling geeky today. (pushes glasses up nose – ignore the fact that the glasses are pink, rhinestone-studded Versace for a sec…)

Food is a source of inspiration for me. I find it’s an opportunity to show creativity, artistic talent even, and to just enjoy myself. But in reading another blog – http://blog.fatfreevegan.com/ – the subject of original recipes came up.

Is there such a thing as an original recipe?

Probably not.

But when you come to think of it, is there such thing as an original anything? Exploring my favourite literary vein again, let’s go back to Homer’s Odyssey (or the Iliad). Many consider this to be one of the first written works of fiction (or legend or what have you) in the Western world. But as my comp lit prof so often told us, there was nothing original with Homer. He was taking thousands of years of oral tradition and merely putting them into a new and less metamorphosing form. Something concrete, at that point in time.

Virgil came later and tried to surpass what Homer did, by writing the Aeneid. And then Ovid tried to turn it all topsy-turvy with his Metamorphosis. Fine, dandy.

Then you get real nutcases like Boccacio who, for example, uses a crazy frame-work to turn the structure of fiction on its head (holy story within a story in that one batman) to build a canvas for his fiction or not fiction, depending on what frame you see.

And this just continues in modern times – you can look at experimental fiction today and really, is it that much stranger than The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy (which dates back to 1759)?

The real crux, however, is that nothing is being done that hasn’t been done before. There is nothing new. Very rarely do we truly innovate, in the literary sense. The tools change, the context changes, but the people-vs-people interaction remains as it always has been. You can’t separate yourself from what you already know and what you’ve already done, and hence this is the nature of literary intertextuality. People do not exist in vacuums and all you do is influenced by who you are and what you’ve already done.

Is food any different?

Probably not. Is it possible to create a new recipe that hasn’t been influenced by anything you’ve ever made and tasted before? No way. So this is what I like to call culinary intertextuality, or really, the impossibility of culinary innovation.

That said I don’t care. :)

I revel in the fact that all of the amazing cuisines I’ve had the fortune to enjoy are as we speak revolving around my little brain, influencing how I create a meal. It just makes it SOOOO much more fun. The cosmopolitan nature of today’s food economy means that now, more than ever, we have the opportunity to be exposed to how others throughout the world prepare food. I love seeing how surroundings influence the flavours of the dishes – the spices that are used, the way the food is eaten, everything.

I just enjoyed a yummy meal of homemade chowmein, and am now sipping on a delightful cup of chai tea. The world at my fingertips, indeed.

On Sunday, I ended up with an impromptu mini dinner party, and had a good time getting that together. Had a little too much time on my hands and hubs had invited a friend over to work on some sort of project, so I suggested that the friend stay for dinner as well.

And then spent the rest of the afternoon having a little fun in the kitchen.

Homemade foccacia was the first thing that I made. It wasn’t that hard! I was inspired (see??!!??) by the ACE bakery rosemary foccacia I had enjoyed the night before. I LOVE that stuff, but I just can’t foresee spending $4 for a teeny loaf of bread that hubs and I will devour in a matter of minutes (it’s that good – the lazy among you should buy it and eat it!). I opened up a cookbook and found myself a recipe. Foccacia is a time-consuming bread to make, but not terribly labour-intensive. First you make a “sponge” (warm water, flour and yeast) that is technically *supposed* to stand overnight. I only had a few hours to let it stand, and it seemed to work just fine, though the fermented flavour would probably benefit from a longer standing time. After you’ve made the sponge, you add more flour, water, a bit of snipped rosemary, and some sea salt. Also pretty simple. The somewhat yucky part is kneading for 10 minutes (I could not ever knead again and die happy, but I guess that is the price we pay for tasty homemade bread). Let rise for a while (tip: cover your dough, put in a cool oven, turn on the oven light, and voila, you have the perfect warm draft-free place for your bread to rise!)……then you dump it out of the bowl onto a baking stone (if you have one, which I don’t) and let rise for some more time. The fun part is spreading it out, dimpling it with your fingers, and then brushing with olive oil. At this point, I also snipped more rosemary and sprinkled sea salt and then baked my way to salty, chewy, crusty perfection. I love bread.

We also had Caesar salad, but I was very lazy with this – renee’s light dressing, jarred (real) bacon bits, boxed croutons…..and some fresh parmigiano-reggiano to try to redeem it. It was tasty.

Main course was also very tasty. I had lucked out a couple of weeks ago finding striploin steaks on sale, so I stocked up. Pulled a couple out of the freezer, and trimmed of visible fat (I hate fat on my meat! Blech!). These were bbq’d to perfection by my cute hubby (with some montreal steak spice). I topped the steaks with a mixture of caramelized onions, marsala and cracked peppercorns. I have to say cracking peppercorns is one of the most fun things ever.....you put them in a little baggie and then go at them with a meat mallet. :) It's like therapy, but free!

I made these delicious twice-baked potatoes from epicurious - Potato Recipe I used whipping cream instead of half and half (I had some leftover from last week’s dinner party), PC peppercorn goat cheese, skipped the butter and topped with a sprinkling of paprika. I suggest adding salt, and perhaps some garlic for a little more flavour, but the presentation is quite impressive (yay for the good old icing gun!) and they are very easy to make. Two thumbs up. I also added some stir-fried veggies – matchstick carrots (leftover from some other recipe), green beans, peppers, onion and mushrooms, along with some olive oil, garlic, sea salt and rosemary. Yum!

And it was a success. Hubs’ confirmed bachelor friend is now re-considering his status.

Have two more dinner parties on the near horizon. A low-key one next week for the in-laws (it’s on a weeknight) and one next Sunday for some friends of ours. I’m always bittersweet on in-law dinners. On the one hand, I love preparing things that I know they will like, but on the other hand, they make such a HUGE kerfuffle about me not fussing that it has a somewhat vampirish effect on the joy I take from cooking. I mean, I *could* serve them plain baked chicken and potatoes with boiled veggies, but I wouldn’t serve that to myself! So why would I serve it to them????? It’s funny how a woman who seems to derive pleasure from keeping her house meticulously clean (a pleasure that I, clearly, do not share), would not understand the pleasure that I get in preparing tasty food for the enjoyment of others? They're awesome people, but not inclined to indulge themselves....

So I will make the whole dinner on Monday night, so when they arrive for dinner on Tuesday, all is taken care of, and we won’t need to order in (which is what they want to do…they’ll treat, but I’d still rather cook).

For our friends, I’m thinking Moroccan. Not sure why, but I think it will be fun. I think I’ll do a little research over the next little while – I’m thinking like Moroccan/French fusion something – so it’s exotic, but not too much so. The french colonial link makes me think that there could already be some great fusion ideas out there.

I want to make something with a "foam" just because I never have and it sounds cool. And I think apricots will somehow have to be involved. Any suggestions?

Thanks for reading!

A New Generation of Remembrance

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With Remembrance Day being tomorrow, I can’t help but delve into the reasoning and motivation that shape our approach and understanding of this day. The current military activities in Afghanistan have brought new relevance to the idea of remembering sacrifice and devotion to one’s country. And with these great sacrifices, our faint memories of past sacrifices have become less fuzzy, less black and white, less grainy; now rendering themselves in sharp focus, surround sound and the haunting lament of a lone bagpipe. I have a few Remembrance Day stories I’d like to share, if only to bring you some thoughts to ponder….

For me, November 11 has been a time of remembrance and reflection for as long as I can recall. As a child, the memories are less clear, but they are nonetheless there. Impressions of sadness, of solemnity. John McCrae’s words splashed overhead on a yellowed transparency. Gluing black to the centre of a big red poppy. Stiffness from sitting cross-legged on the gym floor. I doubt that I truly understood what was going on, but I knew that it was important.

As a teenager, the images of memory are less ambiguous. Adolescent remembrance brings feelings of cold, of trembling, of more solemnity and deeper sadness. It also brought me a new appreciation for this day as I had the good fortune to actually speak with veterans. Through an involvement in cadets, I can remember the brave and proud columns of veterans. I remember the wizened world war one veterans, marching as proudly as their age would allow. The group, already decimated by memory, grew smaller and lonelier every year, until there were simply none of these brave men left. I remember that legions of world war two veterans, honoured and strong. And I remember thinking that if these brave people could survive the horrors of war and still be out there in the cold every November, then it would be least I could do to support them out there.

Learning about Canadian history brought a true clarity to what I was supposed to be remembering. To this day, I can’t hear place names like Passchaendaele, Vimy, Juno Beach, Flanders, Ypres without thinking about the great sacrifice that happened there. A gifted teacher brought the grainy, colourless past to life for us. By this time, we knew dates and places, but this illumination added a human side to the historical ledger – a picture of suffering and a deeper respect for all involved. We imagined what it would be like to be in a trench, to endure endless rain and mud, to fear mustard gas, to face an endless barrage of fire and yet break bread with the enemy in the Christmas Day truce of 1914. We felt the pride of being Canadian when we learned about the great success of the Battle of Vimy Ridge. By the end of that year, Remembrance Day was more than a vague impression of sadness, but a true sense of admiration.

At the same time, not everyone understood. I stood with the veterans, I played the Last Post so many times… letting its poignancy ring through an otherwise silent crowd. But not everyone had this. If we go back in time about a dozen or so years, say 1995, we’ll find me, sitting in a 10th grade classroom, valiantly defending the relevance of Remembrance Day to the apathetic adolescent masses. I remember classmates questioning the relevance of this day…questioning the relevance of war in general and wondering why they were supposed to care and why we were celebrating war. But you see, the thing is, we’re not celebrating war. We’re not glorifying war. What we’re doing celebrating the resiliency and endurance of humanity, how the devotion to one’s country can mean an ultimate sacrifice. This sacrifice needs to be remembered. We need to appreciate those young men and women who died and who were injured – they are still relevant. But in 1995, not so many could see the relevance. Our southern neighbours had Vietnam to bring relevance to this day, but we saw war as only a distant memory. Something better left untouched.

I spent some time on Parliament Hill, where I gained even more cognizance of Canadian sacrifice. I saw the books of remembrance, where the names of the dead are inscribed. Over a hundred thousand Canadians have been killed in action and this was something that shocked me. I found myself imagining a group the size of a city all being snuffed out, and it really brought home the depth of sacrifice that happened. I saw the massive paintings commissioned by Lord Beaverbrook on the walls of the Senate, including the cloth guild in Ypres (which I later saw first hand in Belgium).

Fast forward to Remembrance Day 2001. Exactly two months after 9/11, I found myself at the foot of the war memorial of Vimy Ridge. This ridge is almost surreal in its ability to convey meaning and relevance. Somehow, before I visited, I vague impressions in my head about troops hiding in the base of a giant white stone edifice. Not exactly what happened…and probably not what I was supposed to think. But allow me to just try to paint a literal picture of this scene and I can only hope to bring a fraction of its depth to you. The approach to the ridge is via a wide, tree-lined avenue. In rural France, the formality of this avenue seems almost out of place, but yet the natural arch of foliage just invites to continue your exploration. It all seems serenely beautiful until you notice the barbed wire fence keeping you on the avenue, and the abnormal number of sheep munching their way through the wilderness. The ground behind the fence is strangely pockmarked, and very uneven. You’re actually seeing the deep scars of war, nearly 90 years after the fact. The sheep are the only thing light enough to walk in this space, as it still suffers the deadly legacy of artillery shells.

Nearing the end of the avenue, you round a bend, and everything is clear. There is nothing before you but an expanse of green and a gleaming white monument. I was lucky enough to be able to approach the monument in complete solitude, and able to just take everything in on my own. I climbed the steps of the monument, and then I saw. And I understood. Sometimes, it can be difficult to comprehend why a particular battle or a particular sacrifice was of such importance. But the minute you can see over the ridge, you can see why this battle was a pivotal point in the war. Overlooking the Douai plain, whoever controlled this ridge, had control of the Douai plain, and all of the vital coal this to this day is still found there. I saw the statue of Canada, as a young nation, cast in stone as a young woman, mourning her dead. I heard the stories of how Canadian soldiers approached the ridge under the veil of a rolling barrage to surprise the enemy. I learned of the 10 602 Canadian casualties, with 3 598 paying the ultimate sacrifice. These people deserve our appreciation and respect.

But it took the deaths of four Canadian soldiers in 2002 (the “friendly-fire” incident) for Remembrance Day to regain widespread relevance. Since 2002, 43 Canadian soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan and each new casualty brings with it a wave of support to our troops. Do I fully support our war in Afghanistan? You know what, I’m not really sure. I haven’t been there, I don’t know what we’re doing, I haven’t seen what’s going on. But do I support the men and women whose lives are threatened on a daily basis? Absolutely. I think all Canadians should support these people – many of them are so young and so full of life, and to think that it could end at any time is, I would argue, deserving of a minute or two of your time.

What circle was that?

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For those of you familiar with Dante’s Inferno, you’ll know that Dante ingeniously divides Hell into nine different circles. He takes all the different capital sins (aka the seven deadly sins) and he punishes people in a way that befits the ills they committed on earth. The punishments start rather anemically with people who refuse to “take sides.” They are not evil enough to merit actual hell, so they are stuck in its vestibule. Now, because these people were not stung with conviction in their earthly existence, they are doomed to eternally chase a banner, whilst being stung by wasps. Nice, eh? And these people aren’t even technically “evil.”

So what circle of hell would I belong in? Well, according to Dante, gluttony (of which I am tremendously guilty of late) is a rather minor deadly sin, and condemns me only to the third circle of hell. Sweet. Now, you may wonder, what fate befalls the glutton? What fate befalls mrbunsrocks? First off, gluttons are forbidden from eating or drinking in hell, because they were so overindulgent during life. Even better, Dante sticks them in putrid ground because garbage was their only product during life. And, to make things worse, gluttons are EATEN and torn apart constantly by Cerberus’ three sets of teeth. (Cerberus is a three-headed dog who guards the entrance to the circle of gluttony…he’s very intent on his meals).

Yikes. If that won’t put me on a diet, I don’t know what will. In continuing the rather literary theme, let’s see what C.S. Lewis has to say about gluttony. Yep, you read that right. Our lovely Narnian author. C.S. Lewis was an extremely religious man, and though the Chronicles come with the trappings of ‘kiddie lit’, if you read them from a certain perspective, you can interpret each one to be a separate diatribe on each of the seven capital sins. This isn’t necessarily the best scholarly approach to analysis, as it is a bit simplistic, but if anyone will remember Edmund, from the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, there, we have a classic example of what fate awaits the glutton. For those of you who don’t remember Edmund, he was the one whom the Witch woed with promises of Turkish Delight. Even worse though, after Edmund leaves the Witch, he’s still completely obsessed with the Turkish Delight – this can be interpreted to be a like temptation, Eve eating the apple and all that original sin stuff. Bottom line though, gluttony leads Edmund into being a traitor.

Will all of this rather scholarly preamble, you’re probably wondering why I’m just blathering and why I’m not confessing. The answer is that I’m almost too ashamed to confess. I was AWFUL yesterday. The day started out okay – with a super yummy breakfast burrito – whole wheat tortilla, slice of cheddar, omega three egg, hot salsa and a bit of low-fat sour cream. Yummy. Then I ate my lunch, which wasn’t too bad either (penne with tomato sauce, peppers and lean Italian sausage). But then I was still feeling muuuuuuuuuunnnnnnchy, so I got a small order of fries from the cafeteria. And then I completely and totally doused them in vinegar and salt.

Not so good eh? It got worse. In the afternoon, I was still feeling munchy, so I got a Crispy Crunch (not good) and had a coffee. And THEN, when I got home from work, I ate a third of a box of really fattening crackers, and then compounded it with HALF a large pizza (pepperoni, bacon and mushrooms), with ultra-fatty creamy garlic dipping sauce and a non-diet Dr. Pepper.

And did I work out? Ummmmm…no. I poured myself a glass of wine and drew myself a bubble bath.

How’s that for self-indulgence?

Oh, and I had chocolate chip cookies for breakfast.

Do I, or do I not belong with all the other gluttons. And did I mention that it’s cold and rainy eternally there? Blech. Dante didn't even put any cool people there.

Me vs. the binge....

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I read an interesting theory a couple of days ago that really struck a cord with me. Maybe I’m the only person in the world who hadn’t thought about things this way before, but it was definitely something worth noting.

Any of you who have been longer-term readers (esp. of my previous blog) can probably note that I regularly have issues with overeating. Sometimes I binge, and I just can’t get why I couldn’t stop myself from doing it. (but…no worries, purging is not something I’ve ever done or plan to do!!!!!!!!)

The theory I read is that alcoholics can QUIT drinking. Smokers can QUIT smoking. Overeaters can’t quit eating. And that is the crux. I’m not saying it’s easy for the aforementioned addicts to rid themselves of their vices….merely that at least it is possible to rid oneself completely of the temptation. It’s pretty hard for a former alcoholic to drink in moderation. And while smoking in moderation is just as vile as chain smoking, you don’t see that happening much either. Those are all-or-nothing habits.

But with eating, you HAVE to continue eating. And worst of all, you don’t see people urging former alcoholics to have a drink, or former smokers to take a puff. But for overeaters….it’s always “oh, one slice won’t hurt” or “why bother dieting! Dig in!.” These statements can be extremely frustrating when you really are trying to be good.

And something I’ve discovered about myself is that I have real issues with moderation. Some people can eat one chocolate, or one slice of pizza. Or three fries. But I’m just not one of them. Instead of one chocolate, I eat a layer. I eat a whole pizza. And I definitely eat all my fries (seriously….what is WITH the people who can just eat a couple and then let the rest get cold….a huge part of me wants to shout “nooooooooooooooooo! Let MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee have them.”)

Anyway, not sure if that helped anyone, but at least it’s something worth noting. As I’ve written previously, it’s a microcosmic case of broken window theory. If I don’t eat any pizza, I’m fine. I actually love salad, fruit, yogourt, fish, etc. They are favourites. But as soon as the barrier is breached….all inhibitions go out the window and the entire pie is stuffed down my gullet. Yum. Same thing – if I just don’t have any dessert, I’m fine. But if it’s there, I can’t limit myself to just a bite. I admire those who can, but I CAN’T. I just have to eat it all. So very very sad.

Umm…did I mention that I am perhaps spurred on by my unplanned consumption of 600 empty calories on my way home from work???? I made the mistake of buying two healthy snacks at the grocery store.

PC Rice Crisps. Very dangerous. I bought the Japanese Wasabi and Honey. Picture just the right touch of pungent, acidic heat (like a really good Dijon) tempered with the sweet delicacy of honey. Yum. My burning mouth ate the whole bag on the way home.


They also come in a Tamari flavour, which I also managed to inhale half of. It’s also tasty, but not nearly so spicy as the wasabi. LOVE the wasabi. :)

Hopefully my taste for spice is quenched by tonight’s dinner – panfried red snapper with homemade fresh salsa (the kind with loads of jalopeno and fresh coriander) and basmati rice. Might make a watercress salad too. Might not.

However, one thing I really do have to do is a solid tidy. My mom is coming on Saturday afternoon, so the house has to be mom-ready (which sucks, because it’s somewhat of a disaster right now). Also, somehow in the week that we were gone, my father (or perhaps my brother?) managed to completely coat the shower in nasty-ass soap scum that *I* now get the joy of muscling away. I hate soap scum. How the heck did they get it to form so fast? Must be a new record.

The other issue I have is my dining room table (ooo! Excitement – our new dining table is ready and will be delivered in the next couple weeks….I am already salivating in anticipation of its solid maple beauty….swee-at). My current dining room table is located just opposite the front door. Consequently, it seems to find itself the most unfortunate recipient of constant barrages of mail, flyers and general crap. It seems to take about three minutes of us being home for it to be covered in crap. I’m trying to figure out a way around this with our new table. I really wouldn’t want to cover up all that nice wood with commercial marketing garbage. Any ideas?

Oh….and I really need to unpack tonight….

Thanks for reading!