Photo: Myra Kohn.

Today, True/Slant as it currently exists, is being put to sleep, as part of its new relationship with Forbes.  You’ll still be able to access Licking Your Chops archives, but after today, there will be no new content.

My future as a Forbes contributor remains to be seen. Meanwhile, I’m about to give birth — to a book. The Meat Lover’s Meatless Cookbook will be out in the world on September 14, and I’ll be buzzing it up this fall in DC, Philadelphia, New York, San Francisco, Seattle — and a few other spots, still be to be confirmed. For updates on where to find my content — and me, when I”m on the road  — stop by kimodonnel.com, which is cute but will be even cuter and snazzier in just a few short weeks.

You can also keep up with me on Facebook and Twitter, and in my weekly chat on Culinate, every Thursday.

In the meantime, keep the spirit of cooking alive!

All best.

Image by law_keven via Flickr

Ever have a candy bar made of delicious camel milk chocolate? Or how about a glass of refreshing camel milk? Over in the United Arab Emirates, several firms — including a company owned by the Emir of Dubai — are betting gourmands will go crazy for them.

Al-Nassma, founded in 2008 by Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, has launched a campaign to sell European, North American and Chinese wholesalers on the virtues of camel milk chocolate. As with all things in Dubai, the company does not do novelty food marketing on a budget: the firm owns a farm of 3000 camels and is expecting to produce 100 tons of premium chocolate annually. Rather than producing budget Hershey’s or Cadbury’s-style bars, Al-Nassma is instead producing high-end bars with flavorings such as coriander and dates.

Meanwhile, two companies are applying for permission to export camel milk to the European Union.

If all goes well, Al Ain Dairy’s “Camelait” and the Emirates Industry for Camel Milk and Products’ “Camelicious” will be on European shelves in 2011. Camel milk is a popular drink in the United Arab Emirates and in some other parts of the Middle East: Camelicious produces 5000 liters a day.

Camel milk tastes largely similar to cow’s milk but has vastly more vitamin C and insulin.

A major selling point in efforts to market camel milk to Europe, China and North America is the beverage’s lack of lactose: Lactose intolerance-sufferers can drink camel milk with no problems at all.

This reporter has sampled camel milk before. While it does not taste unpleasant, it’s not going to go in his fridge anytime soon.

But the important question: How does camel milk chocolate taste?

The good people at Candyblog gave it a try:

The Whole Milk Camel Milk Bar is nicely molded and tempered. It’s quite a dark looking milk chocolate bar. It has a distinct, thick snap to it.

The flavor is immediately a bit salty to my tongue. The caramel flavors are noticeable as is the smooth texture but still on the rustic side. It’s not quite fudgy but also not completely slick or oily like some milk chocolates. It’s sweet but also well rounded with toasted notes and maybe a hint of malt and cheese. The ingredients on all bars list honey, though it’s far down on the list and I didn’t really get the honey notes here. The chocolate flavors are mild but more to the malt and woodsy side of things than raisins/berries or coffee.

But standing in the way of Al-Nassma’s cornering of the gourmet chocolate market is one thing: Dubai (and the Emirates) lack a processing facility for high-end chocolate. Al-Nassma sends shipments of camel milk to Vienna, where high-end manufacturer Manner processes the chocolate and sends the bars back to Dubai to have flavoring added.

Al-Nassma is opening retail outlets throughout the UAE and is beginning to sell their chocolates through retailers such as Harrods in London; Americans eager to give camel milk chocolate a shot can contact San Francisco store Chocolate Covered, who already stock them.

Sheikh al-Maktoum, Al-Nassma’s founder, is widely believed to have causd Dubai’s economic meltdown through his poor business decisions.

You’d expect a lot from a bottle of beer costing $765. What you get is 55 percent alcohol — and served in a squirrel.

According to Scottish firm BrewDog, “The End of History” is the “strongest, most expensive and most shocking beer in the world.”

Just 12 bottles were made and the company has already sold out. They will be shipped out to buyers in the United States, Canada, Italy, Denmark, Scotland and England next week.

The dead animals which were used to create the beers’ unusual appearance were four squirrels, seven weasels and a hare. All were roadkill, James Watt, co-founder of BrewDog, told msnbc.com.

The name of the blond Belgian ale is taken from the title of a book by philosopher Francis Fukuyama, “The End of History and the Last Man” which the company said had been chosen to imply “this is to beer what democracy is to history.”

Watt said the beer should be treated with care when drinking.

“It tastes more like a whisky and you have got to handle it in that way as opposed to the way you would handle a normal beer,” he told msnbc.com.

I’ll stick with my Fat Tire, thank you very much.

Image by AFP via @daylife

On this hot Moscow Friday, I bring you two jewels of Russian decadence:

One. Miss Russia, known also by her mortal name Irina Antonenko, will soon depart for Las Vegas to represent her country in the Miss Universe competition. In her suitcase is a custom-designed dress embroidered in gold, becrusted with sapphires and amethysts, and, yes, trimmed in sable fur. It is supposed to resemble the old tsars’ crown, ye olde Monomakh’s Cap. Total cost? $60,000.

Two. Roads in Russia are a disaster, but building them is a shitshow of corruption that makes you want to bring in a Soprano-backed construction crew to do it on the cheap. The best metaphor to date comes from Russian Esquire, which did a calculation based on the most corrupt corner of Russia, Sochi, where preparations for the 2014 Olympics are already under way. Because 30 miles of roadway in Sochi will set you back some $8 billion, Esquire did various estimates on what road surfaces could account for that cost.

The options are as follows:

• 6.37 cm of oysters
• 21.9 cm of foie gras
• 9 cm of Louis Vuitton handbags
• 4.7 cm of fur coats
• 13.85 cm of Hennessy
• 6 cm of black truffles

And now you know.

via LifeNews.ru, Esquire.ru

Image via Wikipedia

I’ve been so good — eating much less and much healthier than ever before.

But yesterday I fell so far off the wagon it was lost in the the distance.

Because I had to say goodbye to my Mom, who I see, at most, once a year and sometimes only every two years; we live very far apart and the costs of hotel (small apartments for us both with too-big personalities) make it a challenge to do it frequently. She lives in Canada, and I in the U.S., having traded our native countries.

I hate that goodbye, not knowing when, or if, I’ll see her again. She’s 76, in OK health, living alone. I’m her only child.

She beat me bloody at gin rummy and I trounced her at Scrabble. That’s a good visit for us.

So it was a plate of Belgian waffles, (whipped cream and strawberries), that morning on the ferry ride back to Vancouver. It was a beer at lunch, and some of the fries that came with my fish and chips. It was a package of wine gums (a chewy candy I can’t find in New York.)

Yes, dammit, all in one day.

Comfort food. It didn’t heal my sadness, but at least I’m now quite conscious when I make lousy choices and why.

Today I took a long bike ride around Stanley Park, admiring herons and seaplanes. Healthier, more fun, fewer calories.

The first wagon-abandonment — and the first time I was really aware of this comfort connection — was the day True/Slant was suddenly sold to Forbes, putting my future with them (still) in doubt. I had a small scoop of ice cream and it tasted very good. Wrong choice, yes, but the day a carrot really makes me feel better I’ve turned into a rabbit.

What’s your comfort food? What pushes you to (over) indulge in it?

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Image via Wikipedia

Image via Wikipedia

You know how it goes: You’re wandering around in scrubby country, you’re a little hungry, and a little low on cash. You see a rattlesnake.

Pretty soon you’re back in your apartment at the hotel with a bucket of 27 rattlesnakes, eating some snake-on-a-stick, hoping to sell the rest of the serpents to science, when the wardens bust through the door without even phoning:

A Malta, Idaho, man found himself in a bit of trouble after he wrangled 27 rattlesnakes into a five-gallon bucket in hopes of finding someone who would buy the reptiles.

Terry Brian Teeter, 38, was issued two Idaho Fish and Game misdemeanor citations for possession, transport or shipment of wildlife on May 25, after Fish and Game officials found him and the Western rattlesnakes in his apartment at the Sunset Motel in Malta.

Teeter said he originally had 32 snakes but gave a couple away. He also skinned a couple, put them on hot dog sticks, cooked and ate them.

“They taste like chicken,” Teeter said.

Teeter has hunted rattlesnakes for 15 years but said he was unaware that a license was required to hunt rattlers in Idaho, or that a hunter may only take four rattlesnakes each year.

Teeter’s attorney, Don Chisholm, said most people seem to be unaware such regulations exist.

That’s from a story from over the weekend by reporter Laurie Welch, in the Times-News MagicValley.com, which covers news in the Twin Falls region.

Welch quotes Teeter, who has hunted rattlesnakes since age 15, as saying, “Everybody out here fears [rattlesnakes] for their cows, their horses and their kids. I hate the things. I have nightmares over them all the time.”

Rattlesnake collecting, killing, and eating is an old endeavor of our American brethren in the West and Southwest. This story, however, presents an interesting combination of succinct factors: personal tradition, hunger, psychological disturbance, and entrepreneurship. If you’re a cultural anthropologist, Freudian psychoanalyst (are there any of them left?), or economist, Teeter could serve as a day’s worth of lecture.

Personally, I wonder why we’ve never seen Mrs. Smith’s Snakes-on-a-Stick in the freezer section of our favorite grocery stores.

# # #

Note: Welch’s story doesn’t specify what species of rattler Teeter caught and ate, but they were probably Western diamondback rattlers. A photo accompanying the article depicts Teeter with what appears to be a small diamondback. The snake in the photo here is an Eastern diamondback

via Man cited for keeping rattlers in Malta home.

Image by USDAgov via Flickr

The House version of the Child Nutrition Act has moved one step further on its legislative journey.  After two days of markup and amendments, the House Education and Labor Committee has passed the Improving Nutrition for America’s Children Act (H.R. 5504) by a vote of 32-13. Republican support came from House members Michael Castle (DE) Vernon Ehlers (MI) and Todd Platts (PA).

Spearheaded by committee chair George Miller (D-CA), the  $8 billion legislation authorizes, among other things,  increased access to free meals, improved nutrition and food safety standards and oversight of food sold in vending machines.

The next step:  Getting the bill heard on the full House floor. Advocates hope it will be scheduled before Congress breaks for summer recess (Aug. 9-Sept. 12). In a press statement, First Lady Michelle Obama lauded the committee’s efforts, but is calling for continued movement on an issue that is near and dear to her: “I urge both the House and Senate to take their child nutrition bills to the floor and pass them without delay. The President looks forward to signing a final bill this year, so that we can make significant progress in improving the nutrition and health of children across our nation.”

Updates will appear here as they are received.

Image via Wikipedia

Something readers might find of interest: Over at Foreign Policy, I just wrote a piece on new states and territories trying to elbow their way into the US gourmet food market. Although much of the article focuses on the Balkans, there’s also a fair amount of discussion of Palestinian companies at Whole Foods and elsewhere.

For the record: If any enterprising Palestinian businessperson can bring some proper kanafeh to American supermarkets, they’ll be in my debt forever.

Image by back_garage via Flickr

Several days ago in this space, I mentioned that the House Education & Labor Committee was hearing testimony on the Improving Nutrition for America’s Children Act (H.R. 5504).

Introduced by committee chair George Miller (D-CA) on June 10, the bill would authorize $8 billion in new funding over 10 years for child-nutrition programs, including the ailing National School Lunch Program. The legislation, which has bipartisan support, has been scheduled for full committee markup (debate and amendments) for next Wednesday, July 14.  Although likely to be voted on at the committee level, the question remains: Will H.R. 5504 make it to the House floor for a vote before Congress goes on summer vacation (August 9-Sept. 12)?

Meanwhile, the Senate version, known as the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 (S. 3307), has passed out of the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry committee, and awaits scheduling for a full Senate vote.

Stay tuned for updates.

For more background on child nutrition happenings on Capitol Hill, check out my School Food Cheat Sheet on Culinate.

Image by thebittenword.com via Flickr

In 72 hours, the weather in Seattle has gone from damp and near-wintry (I was wearing wool on the Fourth of July) to dry and blueberry-pie skies. In fact, there’s a heat advisory today, but a mere drop of sweat compared to the blistering triple-digits conditions that have plagued the mid-Atlantic this week.

Still, anything over 80 degrees means it’s time for iced coffee — and not just brewed coffee with a coupla ice cube floaters that results in brown crayon water, but a gutsy cold caffeinated brew that takes the edge off of a summer scorcher.

For the first time this season (I told ya — a few days ago, we were still wearing our woolies), I’ve whipped up a batch of cold brew coffee, which essentially is a concentrate, dark,  viscous and a little slice of heaven.  Here’s how it works:

Place a half-pound of ground coffee (automatic drip-style) into a mixing bowl and pour 5 cups of  cold water over the coffee, stir and allow the mixture to steep, at least 6 hours.

Strain and pour resulting concentrate into a jar or covered pitcher and keep refrigerated. You’ll end up with at least 3 cups of concentrate.

To make a cold-brew beverage, start with 1/4 cup of concentrate in a 12-ounce glass.  Add 1 cup water or add ice cubes, or if you’re hard core like yours truly, simply add milk and taste along the way until desired java flavor, adding more concentrate as you see fit.

Sugar? Up to you, but the long steeping process results in a sweet, almost chocolate-y richness that makes sugar seem superfluous.

Do try this at home! I just had my first cold brew of the day, straight up, with a milk chaser.  Summertime and the living is  easy…

Image by Ed Yourdon via Flickr

If you’re looking for the biggest, best Fourth of July fireworks, I found a really wild website.

It’s called the Fireworks Display and Shows Worldwide Guide, and once you get over the garish colors, layout and goofy graphics, it’s got a ton of information.

I went straight to the 10 Largest, Biggest, Best 4th of July Fireworks category, and here are their top ten selections:

Macy’s 4th of July Fireworks – New York City
July 4th Boston Pops Fireworks Spectacular
Central PA 4thFest – State College, PA
Welcome America! Philadelphia
A Capitol Fourth – Washington DC
Family 4th at Lake Union – Seattle*
Go 4th on the River – New Orleans
Fair St. Louis – Ohio
Lights on the Lake – Lake Tahoe
Freedom Over Texas – Houston

* The website listed Seattle’s display as the WaMu Family 4th. That was the name of the celebration until the sale of Washington Mutual to Chase. And when Chase didn’t want to sponsor the fireworks anymore, a grassroots effort to save Seattle’s Fourth of July fireworks resulted in a 24 hour-blitz where $500,000 was raised from both corporations and people in the community. You can read more about the down-home campaign in an article I wrote on my Seattle Travel Examiner site.

But the rockets red glare isn’t happening in a lot of cities this year, as reported in this CNN article Dark skies: No 4th of July fireworks here.

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Falafel Mafia vs. shawarma sushi

Falafel Mafia readers might find this recent documentary vid of mine interesting. I traveled with the good people of Film@11 to New York Israeli falafel/sushi restaurant Olympic Pita to try their specials: fried eggplant sushi and shawarma sushi.

Yes, I did say “falafel/sushi restaurant” and “shawarma sushi.”

Because, hell, I’ve always been a fan of cross-cultural understanding and odd foreign foods.

View the vid here.

The pointers that follow may seem ridiculously obvious, but they bear repeating; in the heat of the charcoaled moment, some of the smartest people I know start doing stupid stuff like this guy:

So, before you don those beer googles, do put on that thinking cap and wear it all weekend if you can, particularly if food and the great outdoors are involved.   A handful of my tried-and-true tips for safe outdoor feasting:

1. Keep cold things cold and hot things hot. The “danger zone” for food-borne bacteria is 40-140 degrees Fahrenheit.   At home, keep those salads and sides cold until serving; while out at the park or beach, keep the cold stuff in a cooler and return to the cooler when not using.  Stuff that sits out on the picnic table is an open invitation for bacteria to party like it’s 1999.

2. Clean that grill grate. I mean, give it a really good scrub with a wire brush and get rid of stuck-on bits of food and carbon build-up.  A clean grill is a happy grill — more efficient, less moody.

3. Charcoal grillers, do me, your neighbors and the ozone layer a favor:  Give up the lighter fluid, once and for all, and let go of those petroleum distillates.  Instead, buy a chimney starter to fire up those coals.  Think of it as a new toy rather than a flame buzzkill. It’ll set you back about $15 and will last a whole lot longer than a 64-ounce squeeze bottle of the liquid starter.

4. If you don’t already own one (and you should, doggone it), treat yourself to an instant-read thermometer to know when your meat has arrived at a safely cooked temperature. Pork, beef and lamb can be cooked to varying degrees, depending on preference.

Keep in mind these temperature checkpoints: Medium rare is 125 or so; medium is 135ish and well-done is 160 degrees.  I’m aware that some of this doneness advice conflicts with the earlier mentioned  ‘danger zone’ warning, but I’m also not going to discourage you from a medium-rare steak if that’s what rocks your world. Commonsense is key here.  Chicken, however, must be cooked thoroughly, to a ballpark of 160-165 degrees.

If meat is your thing, may I put in a word for sourcing those chops, burgers and steaks locally from a butcher or a farmer — a person you can have a conversation with about how the animal was raised and processed, rather than at no-name meat counter or frozen aisle of products from an industrial feedlot from any number of locations around the world.

5.  Drink plenty of water and alcohol in moderation.  And if you’re drinking the hard stuff, designate a driver. The car will be there the morning after, and we’d like you to be, too.

Champing at the bit for more Fourth Feasting tidbits? Join me at 1 ET (10 a PT) for my live chat on Culinate.

Here’s to a safe and scrumptious Fourth weekend!

Photo: Flickr/Chiot's Run

As tantalized as I am by the lipstick-red sweetness of strawberries and the earthy wholesomeness of freshly dug-up asparagus,  I am completely smitten with the garlic scape, and tune out the rest of the produce world in mid-to-late June for private time with my pistachio-hued paramour. Although it slices like a scallion and adds a mildly garlic kick to salads, stir fries and omelets, the allure of the scape is its ability to be pureed and transformed into pesto.  Unlike basil pesto, its famous (and overrated) Italian cousin, garlic scape pesto is thicker — more like a spread –  and is so full-flavored that the traditional add-on of Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese is dare I say it, unnecessary.

In the first few years of our romance, GSP and I have had many blissed-out moments together – tossed into short pasta (with a handful of cherry tomatoes), slathered on grilled slabs of crusty bread, and perhaps the most intimate way of all, slurped from a spoon over the sink.

As we grow older together, my beloved curlicue and I are exploring new ways to make the most of our time together every June.  This year, we’ve taken our relationship to new levels, and I do believe I’m still flush with excitement.  We’ve swapped out the pasta for pizza dough, and we’ve topped the grass-green pizza shell with thinly sliced potatoes.

The spuds are a tribute to gnocchi, the dumpling of Italy, often made with potatoes. I’ll never forget the night I ate my first bowlful of potato gnocchi, wading in a pool of basil pesto, at a trattoria in Cinque Terre, a cluster of five villages along the Ligurian coast.

In this case, I boiled a whole unpeeled Yukon gold potato in salted water for about 18 minutes, enough time for partial cooking but not too soft for thin slices.

My pizza dough shaped and at the ready, I arranged my par-boiled potato thins atop a layer of garlic scape astro turf, followed by mini-dollops of pesto, topped off with a wisp of Parmigiano-Reggiano and a drizzle of olive oil.

I could say that the results are delicious, but that would be too easy and tawdry, like basil pesto.  You know how some folks talk about toe-curling sex?  That’s my lover, garlic scape pesto pizza.

Garlic scape pesto potato pizza. Same time next year. Photo: Kim O'Donnel

Garlic Scape Pesto-Potato Pizza
Ingredients
1-2 medium Yukon gold potatoes, washed thoroughly
1 12-inch round of your favorite pizza dough
Medium grind cornmeal, for dusting pan
1 batch of garlic scape pesto (recipe follows)
Parmigiano-Reggiano and olive oil for garnish
Salt and pepper to taste

Here’s What You Do
In a medium saucepan with 4 cups of water and ½ teaspoon of salt, boil potatoes for 18 minutes. Remove from pot and transfer to a bowl of ice water to cool.  Remove skin and slice potatoes into ¼-inch rounds.

Preheat oven to 500 degrees.

Roll out pizza dough into desired shape, about 12 inches across.  Dust an inverted cookie/baking sheet with cornmeal. Place dough atop cornmeal.

With an icing spreader or flat-edged rubber spatula, spread about 1/3 cup of pesto, covering entire surface of dough.  Place potatoes on top in a single layer, followed by Parmigiano-Reggiano, if using, olive oil, salt and pepper.

Place in oven and bake for 15 minutes, rotating tray from front to back at the 8-minute mark.  Transfer pizza to cutting surface and slice into wedges.

Note: 1 batch of pesto is enough for 2 pizzas, and then some.

Garlic Scape Pesto
Ingredients
1 cup garlic scapes (8-10 scapes), flowery tendril removed, cut into 1/4-inch slices
1/3 cup walnuts, pecans or almonds
1/2 cup olive oil
¼ cup Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, grated, or more to taste (optional)
1/2 teaspoon salt
black pepper to taste

Here’s What You Do
Place scapes and nuts in the bowl of a food processor and whiz until well combined and somewhat smooth. Slowly drizzle in oil and process until integrated. With a rubber spatula, scoop pesto out of bowl and into a mixing bowl.

Stir in the Parmigiano-Reggiano to taste (if using), then  add salt and pepper.
Makes about ¾ cup of pesto.
Keeps for up to one week in an air-tight container in the refrigerator.

Fairmont Empress cocktail. Sue Frause photo.

Forget just beer, wine and Diet Coke. Beginning July 1, Continental Airlines will serve specialty cocktails on board.

The booze menu includes a Stirrings Mojito, Stirrings Pomegranate Martini and Red Bull Energy Drink. OK, so these aren’t handcrafted cocktails, and I’m not familiar with Stirrings. The company touts its cocktail mixers as being made with all-natural ingredients including real fruit juice, cane sugar and triple-filtered water.

The Mojito is mint, cane sugar and lime juice served with Bacardi Light rum on ice; the Pomegranate Martini includes pomegranate, cane sugar, lemon juice and Skyy Vodka; and the Red Bull is also served with Skyy Vodka. The cocktails are nine bucks, but if you just want the cocktail mixer or the Red Bull, it’s only $3.

The specialty drinks are available in economy class on flights to North American, Caribbean and Latin American destinations. It will be interesting to see what happens to the cocktails in the sky if the merger between United and Continental becomes a reality.

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I have had the opportunity to see Kobayashi eat in person, and it’s quite a sight. He’s known as “The Tsunami”, which despite being wildly insensitive to the people who regularly get killed by tsunamis, is a pretty fitting name. He’s fast, destructive, and terrifying to watch. When Kobayashi eats a hot dog, you’re never entirely certain that he won’t take a finger with it. He pairs up two dogs at once and then pushes them conveyor belt style into his mouth, chomping all the way. I’m sure he’s lost rings down there, countless fingernails, probably a wrist watch or two. And despite being Japanese, tiny, and an intruder into what is clearly our rightful domain of competitive eating – he’s as American as apple pie.

I ask you, what’s more American that shoving disgusting amounts of food down your face in as short as time as possible? Sure, the Star Spangled Banner is our national anthem, but it really only sounds right when sung with a ho-ho and half a box of goobers in your mouth. The United States was a country born on freedom and independence, but we were raised on melted cheese and deep-fried funnel cake. Takeru exemplifies this as well as anyone. He was not a born eater. He’s slender and surprisingly short. He had to learn to be a pig, slowly working his way up through long training and strenuous workouts. Kobayashi wasn’t given what you and I take for granted: a natural ability to stuff our faces to the brink of sickness. He saw what we had and said, “That is what I work for. That is my destiny.” If that’s not the American Dream, I don’t know what is. And we’re supposed to celebrate our Independence Day without him? I don’t think so.

Not impressed? Well, here’s a video of Kobayashi in a hot dog eating contest with…a bear.

I’d like to see George Washington do that. It’s unknown why Kobayashi would skip the Coney Island challenge this year, but rumors are it’s over his appearance fee. Which frankly is a little hard to believe – I mean, the guy eats hot dogs for a living, how lavish could his demands really be? In any case, I’ve got two words for Nathan’s, the hot dog institution that runs the contest: pay him. Pay whatever it takes because it will not be the 4th of July without The Tsunami doing his thing. The fireworks won’t have the same pop, the grill won’t have the same sizzle, and the beer won’t have the same blinding intoxication. Because I was wrong in what I said before. Kobayashi isn’t as American as apple pie – he’s as American as 50 apple pies eaten in under a minute.  That is America. Don’t let us down, Nathan’s…

Image by terren in Virginia via Flickr

Life has been getting in the way of regular dispatches in this space. Despite my absence, I’ve been busy keeping tabs on the many developing stories in the world of food, including politics, media, safety, nutrition, seafood and agriculture. What follows is a mere sliver of the buffet of headlines I’ve been following this month alone.  Chew on these, and weigh in, if you please.

Shopping Bags
California is poised to become the first state with a ban on plastic and paper shopping bags. With approval in the state assembly and the support of Gov. Schwarzenegger, AB 1998 awaits review in the state senate.

Seafood
Wild-caught salmon from California and Oregon are now a red-light menu item, according to one sustainable seafood source. In its latest Seafood Watch Pocket Guide, the Monterey Aquarium has issued an “avoid” recommendation “due to declining populations of Chinook salmon in these states and concerns about bycatch of threatened and endangered salmon species in these fisheries.”  This was unwelcome news in Oregon, where commercial salmon fishing opened for the first time in three years.

After 134 years in business,  P&J Oyster Co., a New Orleans institution,  closed for good due to the conditions caused by the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

New Orleans chef Susan Spicer filed a class-action suit against British Petroleum on behalf of restaurants and seafood suppliers whose livelihoods have been directly impacted by the April 20  rig explosion and resulting catastrophic spill.  Spicer talked to New York Times reporter Kim Severson.

Food Safety
Yesterday, cereal giant Kellogg Company recalled 28 million boxes of sweetened cereals “due to an uncharacteristic off-flavor and smell” from the boxes’ plastic liners. Froot Loops and Apple Jacks are among the casualties.

In southern California, the South Gate Meat Company recalled  35, 000 pounds of ground beef and hamburger patties last week for being tainted with E. coli 0157:H7.

In possibly one of the most massive recall uh-ohs in recent memory, Campbell Soup Company recalled 15 million pounds of Spaghetti-Os with meatballs “due to possible underprocessing” which paves the way for botulism.

Nutrition
Every five years, the Department of Health and Human Services and the USDA issue their Dietary Guidelines for Americans.  The latest recommendations have been released as a precursor to the 2010 Guidelines, which help set the standards for all federal food programs, including the National School Lunch Program.  Among the recommendations, the advisory committee is calling for less salt, saturated fat and sweetened beverages, with a new emphasis on less meat, more plant-centered meals.  The public is invited to submit written comments  until July 15 or oral testimony at a public hearing on July 8.

This Thursday, July 1, the House Committee on Education and Labor will hold a hearing for the Improving Nutrition for Children’s Act (HR 5504), the house version of the Child Nutrition Reauthorization Act.  Introduced by committee chair George Miller (D-CA) earlier this month, the legislation calls for $8 billion in additional funds over 10 years for child nutrition programs.
The Senate version, the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 (S. 3307),  was unanimously passed out of the Senate committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry, chaired by Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.).  This just in: Top Chef judge Tom Colicchio and retired Army general Paul D. Monroe, of Mission: Readiness, will testify.

In Massachusetts this summer, doctors at three health centers will “prescribe” $20,000 in fruit and veggie prescription vouchers to be used at local farmer’s markets.

Media

There were two online births: To CNN, which spawned Eatocracy, a blog with a huge appetite for food news and kitchen stories;  and to Grace Foundation (The Meatrix, Eat Well Guide, Sustainable Table), which welcomed its newest blog baby, Eco Centric,  to the world last week.

Agriculture
Yesterday, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recommended new limits on antibiotics administered to livestock that would be permitted for disease prevention and treatment but no longer for growth.  Details and debate likely to emerge in the coming weeks.

In the case Monsanto Co. v. Geertson Seed Farms, the Supreme Court sided with Monsanto Co., in overturning a ban on the company’s genetically engineered Roundup Ready alfalfa seeds. Alfalfa is an important animal feed crop; farmers opposed to the GMO alfalfa have long expressed a concern for the risk of cross-pollination and contamination of other seeds.   The ruling is subject to the results of a USDA environmental study.  It is the first Supreme Court ruling in a GMO case.

On Wednesday, June 30, Senator Lincoln will host the first of many anticipated hearings about the Farm Bill, an omnibus piece of legislation surely to knit some eyebrows in the coming months.

Whole Foods Market is embarking on a community garden project at its store in the  Richmond, Va., area, with the goal of growing food for the store. This is a pilot project for the Austin, Tex.-based grocery chain.

Truffled Cashew Cheese (with fresh herbs blended in)

This is a new recipe for my next cookbook.  I am sharing it today as a lead into next week’s post about helping picky eaters enjoy more nuts and seeds.

I make this cheese fairly regularly.  Though it can be used as a raw recipe incorporated into other raw dishes, we also use it as a spread for breads and potatoes, a filling for pastas, and also a pizza spread.

Truffled Cashew Cheese

Cashew cheese is a favorite for eating on its own with veggies or crackers, or using in entrees where a dairy-cheese substitution is desired. The addition of truffle oil in this cheese adds a particular sophistication to the flavor of the cheese.  However, don’t shy away from making this recipe if you don’t have the truffle oil – see the note for other ideas.

2 1/2 cups soaked raw cashews (see note)
1/2 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice (see note)
1 small-medium clove garlic
2 – 4 tbsp water (as needed to thin/smooth cheese)
1/2 tsp sea salt
freshly black pepper to taste
1 – 2 tsp truffle oil (see note in directions)

In a food processor, blend all ingredients until smooth, starting with 1 tsp of truffle oil to start, and adding 2- 4 tbsp of water to desired consistency (or more if desired to thin). Stop to scrape down sides of processor as needed, and puree until very smooth and thick. Taste, and add additional truffle oil, ½ – 1 tsp to taste.

Makes about 1½ (generous) cups.

Note: It is important to soak the cashews in advance so they become very soft and moist for pureeing. You will need between 1 ¾ – 2 cups of cashews to yield the 2 ½ cups of soaked. Soak overnight in the fridge if possible, or for 4-6 hours if you haven’t soaked overnight. I’ve also made this cheese with a combination of soaked brazil nuts and cashews, and that’s another delicious variation.

Note: After pureeing this mixture, test and if you’d like a zingier flavor, add another 1-2 tsp of lemon juice.

Note: If you don’t have truffle oil, simply make this cheese without it, and consider adding other flavor enhancers, such as fresh herbs (handful of basil leaves, few teaspoons of thyme leaves, or a couple tablespoons of chives), chipotle hot sauce, smoked paprika, or, if you like the flavor of nutritional yeast, add ½ – 1 tablespoon of nutritional yeast (or more, to taste).

Note:  This cheese freezes very well.  I typically make a double-batch, and freeze smaller portions that can be thawed for using within 3-4 days.

Recipe © copyright 2009 Dreena Burton

Image via Wikipedia

AIX-EN-PROVENCE, France – The sounds and smells of the Saturday market are unmistakable in this Provencal city. The tastes are even better.

First comes the music of the vendors,  calling out to customers, walking shoulder to shoulder down narrow aisles sprawling over two squares of the city.

The “thank yous” alone are music to the ear. “Merci. Au  revoir. Bonne journee” — words not so much spoken as sung, their end syllables rising in an expressive cadence.

Don’t come here on an empty stomach. The spice tables alone will make you salivate at the smells of dozens and dozens of varieties, from the exotic, things such as Hawaiian black salt and Jamaican pepper, to the rich mélange that makes French food French – from tarragon and thyme to basil and rosemary.

Imagine the biggest U.S. farmer’s market you’ve ever visited. Now multiply by perhaps three.  Add women and men dressed to be seen, not just to shop.  Add children and dogs slithering through the crowd. Add elderly women, bent at the shoulders as they pull carts piled high with tomatoes the size of small cantaloupes, and carrots, cucumbers and lettuce fresh from the field. Add the food here you’ve never seen at your local farm stand – paella fresh from the sea and prepared before your eyes fir 6.95 euros (a little less than $9), chevre pastry puffballs, olives of all persuasions and preparation, breads and honeys, fish straight from the Mediterranean, eggs laid this morning, cheese like you’ve never tasted, even in specialty shops.

“You can get every kind of bean here,” Kathy marveled as she deftly wiggled through a logjam. “It’s amazing.”

And, if you tire of the food, you needn’t wander far. Follow one of the narrow streets  joining the two sprawling food markets, one on Place des Precheurs, the other on Place Richelme, and you can buy almost anything else – hand-made soap and aroma therapy kits; straw hats to shield against the brilliant  sun and salad bowls; Marcel Proust (used) and Led Zeppelin (vinyl); leather sandals and belts; sun dresses and antique silverware – even scarves, the classic French fashion staple though no one wears them here in summer.

Three years ago, Kathy and I lived here for five months while I worked on a sabbatical book finally scheduled for publication in September (sorry for the delay; the topic is writer’s block). We never missed a Saturday market.   So it’s special to return, to start the first full day of our three weeks back in France in the midst of perhaps our strongest and warmest memory.

You see, in this leisurely, graceful city, where life is lived  outdoors, where men and women alike pause in the middle of cobblestone streets to plant kisses on both cheeks of their neighbors, market day is not merely a way of eating splendidly, but a way of living.

It is central to the region’s rhythm, as I wrote in this piece in the Christian Science Monitor, a major reason tourists flock here, to the bemusement and, occasionally, distain of the vendors. But if you stumble through an attempt to use the language, these and other natives will humor you, tolerate you — sometimes even welcome you.

It is worth the test. You’ll never taste fresher food.

Starbucks menu in Hong Kong. Sue Frause photo.

Starbucks, which made its debut in Seattle in 1971, is hoping to pump up its popularity with the addition of beer and wine to its beverage menu.

The company is renovating one of its high-profile stores at 1600 E. Olive Way on Seattle’s Capitol Hill. The neighborhood is home to dozens of coffee shops, with stiff competition from such indy spots as B&O Espresso and Espresso Vivace.

The new look will be unveiled in the fall, and includes a LEED-registered interior and exterior; work from local artists; and a setting where customers can get “closer to the art of Starbucks handcrafted beverages.” The so-called enhanced coffee experience will include new premium food items along with beer and wine.

A single, tall-non fat latte in the morning and a glass of Merlot at night?

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