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Eco Tuesday moves to the Galleria!

Thursday, July 21st, 2011

If you have ever been to an Eco Tuesday event, then you know just how interesting and informative this monthly gathering can be.  I have always enjoyed going, when I can.  This month the topic will be very interesting and I look forward to trying to be there.  Will you join me?  Here is the info and flyer:

I’ve attached the flier for the 18th Ecotuesday ‘Fourth Tuesday’ event on July 26th from 5:30 to 7:30, which we are really happy to promote at the Gardens Under Glass at the Galleria.  We had a great session on hydroponics and key players in this great green-growing space we now call home.

 

This event is a natural growth from last month and it will feature a nice opportunity to catch diverse perspectives from various players driving a blossoming whole (aka raw, biogenic) foods movement here in Northeast Ohio.  Healthy eating is at the core of the matter and our panelists are true experts in this domain.  The latest on the strategic front from Whole Foods will punctuate an evening that will include  key presentations and updates from these talents with unique perspectives on propelling an important local industry: (scheduled to appear:)

 

Tom Frazier, Mylivefoods.com

Jeremy Koosed, Plant Kingdom Bakery

Abe Nabors, Mustard Seed Market

Chuck Molina, Good ‘N Raw

Michelle Stratton, Flaming Ice Cube

 

After the event folks will be welcome to roll over to the Ice Cube for some delish delights and debrief with the Vegetarian Meetup Group!  We thank them for co-promoting our event this month.   Regardless of what you like to eat, there is so much to learn for the good of our city and region!
We’d love to see you all  to learn, connect and engage with us.

Again, see attached – and do feel free to share this flier and bring your friends!

 

Call 216-849-8651 with any questions!
Be well,
The Cleveland EcoTuesday team

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What are you doing Saturday?

Wednesday, July 13th, 2011

This looks like fun… tell them you read about it here.

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Biodiversity in the Food Supply

Wednesday, July 13th, 2011

Thanks to Joe.My.God for sharing this great graphic.  The original source is in the image.

One of the things that I am doing this year is working for Fresh Fork Market.  I love working again with food.  In case you didn’t know I LOVE food, love eating, and really support local foods.  Fresh Fork Market is a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture), a program in which you prepay for a share and throughout the season you are given a bag of fresh ingredients.  Most CSA shares are all produce, but Fresh Fork Market also has dairy, eggs, meat and grains.  It is a great program and one that I love, both working for and in eating.

One of the great things about a CSA is that it supports local farms and local farmers.  All the produce comes out of the ground and comes right to you.  This means your produce is fresh and ripe.  No green tomatoes with no flavor are shipped from California or Mexico.  This abundance of fresh produce reminded me of how I yearned for good veggies and fruits in the winter and so I started canning for myself.  But that is a story for another time.  What I wanted to talk about is biodiversity in the food chain.  Check out the graphic below:

As you can see, big agriculture has played a real number on our biodiversity.  You can see that we once had a huge variety of seeds to choose from when planting every year.  This applies not to just the home gardener, but to the farmer as well.  Where once there were commonly 285 varieties of cucumber, we now find only 16.  Over 500 types of cabbage are now reduced to under 30.  This does not mean that the other varieties are gone forever.  Some seed houses continue to preserve heirloom varieties of vegetables and fruits for enthusiasts.

So, who cares if there is no biodiversity?  Diversity in plant supplies mean a broader resistance to disease and insects.  In South America there were once a huge variety of bananas grown on a commercial scale.  Now, there are only a handful, and I have not seen more than one in a long time.  The main banana we eat is a single species.  If a disease comes along that has a big effect on that variety, then we could see a huge problem with the world’s bananas supply.  It could even disappear.  Just as citrus prices inflate whenever there is a frost down south, we could see big swings in produce prices of other varieties.  From my own experience with Fresh Fork Market, I know that there have been crop failures this year due to heavy and early rains.  A diverse spectrum of planted beans, for example, might mean that at least some of the beans planted would survive the heavy rains and thus keep prices at least somewhat stable, and supplies available.

I know that there are simple joys in eating heirloom varieties of tomatoes, and as the season goes on, I am seeing big differences in local varieties of other produce.  Strawberries, for example, have different flavor profiles and ripening dates.  So, when you plant your garden, consider planting some unusual varieties… and save the seeds for next year.

 

 

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Markets Under Glass

Friday, May 6th, 2011

Thank you to Galleria Mall Manager Vicky Poole, who was able to score us a couple of VIP tickets to the 16th Annual Markets Under Glass event which benefited the Harvest for Hunger Campaign.  The event showcased “the culinary talents of many Northeast Ohio restaurants and beverages from a variety of purveyors”.  Robert was in heaven, being able to sample tasty bites from a myriad of chefs.  As in most cases, my selection was rather narrow since I try to keep Kosher, so I don’t eat pork products or mix dairy and meat together.  Try asking local chefs NOT to cook with bacon!

Under the beautiful glass roof were two floors of forty or so restaurants and about a dozen wine distributors/producers.  There were fabulous high points and a few failures:

The asparagus bisque from Washington Place Bistro & Inn was delicious (and they kindly served me a sample sans bacon!).  However, Susy’s Soups from Tower City wins as my favorite for there rich and wonderful (and gluten-free) Cream of Artichoke soup.   Naya from Highland Heights served small pita bites with humus, tabouli and kafta (seasoned lamb and/or beef like what is found in a gyro) which were phenomenal!

Robert’s favorite bite of the night had to be the sliced mushroom salad from Ristorante Chinato (one of Z. Bruell’s newest places).  It had a rich dressing and slivers of cheese that was a bit too forward for my palate, but evidently perfect for Robert’s.   It was certainly tasty, but not something I would want more than a small dish of.  Robert wanted seconds!

Umami Moto offered an unusually flavorful Mushroom and edamame slider with Parmesan and the now ubiquitous ramps.  Palate from Strongsville had Chicken liver pate in a vanilla scented cone with black currant jam.  Robert liked it, but I didn’t taste it.  The vanilla cone seemed to overpower the filling, but Robert will eat anything with the word pate in it.  The highlight of the night for me was the pistachio dessert from Coquette Patisserie.  It was a delightful little French pastry with a perfect amount of flavor and texture.   We went back to get seconds but it was too late and they had already packed up.  Lucky’s cafe served rather large chocolate bombs, but the line was too long and by the time I got up there, they had run out.  Lucky’s also offered up a dish of macaroni and cheese, but it was bacon laden, so I had to depend on Robert’s judgment.  His take?  It was far too heavy and thick, but that’s just what quite a few people were looking for in a macaroni & cheese dish.  We passed by LaBella Cupcakes, which Robert has profiled on this site, but by the time we were ready for dessert they were decimated; people love a good cupcake!

There were at least four places to get sushi, and Robert tried them all.  The best was from Shinto Japanese Steakhouse. His second favorite was from Sushi 86.  Table 45 offered assorted vegetable sushi, rolled in a soy wrapper instead of seaweed.  It was nice for me to finally try some sushi, but honestly they just tasted like tiny wraps.  Unfortunately the sushi from Sushi Rock was tasteless and seemed a bit stale.  Another lowlight was the Seared pork belly from Sans Souci which Robert felt was tough and chewy instead of “melt in your mouth” the way good pork belly is supposed to.  Counter to this, Robert lit up when he tasted the Scallops and shrimp mousse canapés from Pearl of the Orient Restaurant in Rocky River.

Americano from Bratenahl had a grilled cocoa sirloin with a peanut slaw.  The sirloin was just okay, but the peanut slaw was excellent.  The Crowne Plaza Cleveland City Centre Hotel had cute little square sips of summer raspberry soup with truffle honey and mint.  I don’t know why they decided to call it a soup since it was really nothing more than a smoothie.  The raspberries and honey both made the drink very sweet, but it had the odor of truffles.  Now some people will die for truffles; the chemical/hormonal reaction makes them salivate, however I swear the scent is akin to…well, someone who has not been so cleanly after leaving the restroom.  One time I was seated at a restaurant and kept thinking the person next to me was “not so fresh” only to discover they were eating truffle sprinkled French fries.

The Melting Pot had fondue, which we both declined.  I don’t like the thought of other people dipping their food into the same pot of melted Gruyère, even if they don’t double-dip, plus it was early in the evening and it can be a very heavy food.  The Chocolate Bar had a chocolate fountain with dippables, but the same slight phobia applied.  Also, the chocolate that comes out of a fountain is a bit thin in order to flow correctly and therefore doesn’t really coat the diappable.  We skipped it as well.

At opposite ends of the spectrum, Robert liked the crab cakes from Don’s Lighthouse/Pomeroy House which featured a corn relish, remoulade and chipolte honey, but he didn’t like the jalapeño crab cakes with mango and watermelon coulis from the Galleria’s own Cafe Sausalito, which were pasty, dry and bitter.  One of our favorite companies is Great Lakes Brewing Company who presented a number of small bites and of course some of their exceptional beer.  I was disappointed in their bread pudding however, because although the sauce was delicious, the pudding itself was hard and extremely dense.  Bread pudding is one of those things that usually is best eaten hot when it can be moist and can really soak up the sauce; so it is probably not something meant to be served at this kind of event.

Most of the wine was excellent.  I even had a cheap Muscat from Sutter’s Home which would retail for less than $10.00 a bottle.  It wasn’t terrific, but it was palatable, bubbly, and sweet, which is typically a good combination for me. Robert used to sell wine, so his palate is far more refined.  He turned his nose up at the Muscat, but he enjoyed a few of the other samplings.  We both liked the ice wine from Firelands Winery.  It had a flavor similar to the Optima grape varietal you can find in parts of Canada, fresh, clean, with a slight hint of honey and apricot.  Upstairs in the VIP lounge was the state’s only Kosher vodka provided by Heidelberg Distributors.

Overall it was a delightful evening of good food and tasty drink!

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More from Monsanto…

Tuesday, February 1st, 2011

When I was a kid, soda was different.  If you look in some stores, you will see some Pepsi products that are called “throwback,” because they are made with the same recipe we had as a kid.  Natural flavors, sweetened with sugar, and Mountain Dew even had actual juice in it.  Sometime in the 70′s this all began to change.  We were instead fed things that came in crazy colors, cheaply flavored with artificial ingredients and sweetened with High Fructose Corn Syrup.

Now, Corn Syrup in and of itself is not a bad thing.  However, it seems to be pretty addictive.  I know in junior high, we fed it to rats as an alternative to regular food and the rats chose the syrup every time-to the point of illness.  The results were fat rats that did not develop as well as the control group, had poor cognitive ability and memory.  Rats in the control group performed better in maze and other tests than those who consumed a diet high in corn syrup.  Now this was a science class in the late 70′s and not exactly Harvard Medical School, but the results anecdotally makes one think.  It seems that as time progressed we started adding High Fructose Corn Syrup to all manner of products.  Coincidentally, there has been a huge rise in both adult and childhood obesity as well as a number of health related problems.  So much so, that we no longer even use the term “adult onset diabetes” as more and more children are coming down with this malady.

So why the increase of corn syrup.  First off, it is grown easier.  Sugar is harvested in more tropical places like Hawaii, but corn is raised across most states.  Secondly, corn is cheaper to produce-even though it takes a huge toll on the water supply and when used as an additive can directly influence many products commonly relied upon by the less wealthy in the Americas.  Even though it is in high demand, we subsidize the corn industry-like we do the tobacco industry.

Enter Monsanto and its genetically modified corm crops.  As I have written before, genetically modified foods are not in and of themselves completely evil.  However, Monsanto created a strain of corn that was more likely to produce under adverse conditions.  They even patented their strain.  While that sounds harmless enough, what they don’t tell you is that their corn strain in mass production is a dominant strain.  If it cross pollinates with a nearby farm, the GM genes become dominate in that corn.  Monsanto has a history of planting this strain in huge factory farms near family owned and operated farms.  Now those farmers end up, through no actions of their own, producing a strain of Monsanto’s patented GM corn.  They have even taken farms to court for selling their corn and not paying them.  Moreover, their strain of corn is sterile.  That means that the kernels are fine for food or other uses, but will not sprout and grow.  This means that farmers must buy a new supply of corn for planting every year.  This has led to a host of litigations.  Not happy to control just the corn market, they introduced genetically modified, herbicide-immune soybeans. The plant is grown throughout the U.S. and represents about 90% of domestically grown soybeans. Since genetically modified crops are patented, Monsanto profits either from licensing or pricing on almost every soybean grown in the U.S.  Now they seeking to introduce GM alfalfa into the food stream.  Food Democracy Now says it is time to say NO!

From the email I received:

Tell President Obama WE are United! – It’s time to stand up to Monsanto!

Don’t let Monsanto’s GMOs Destroy Organic Dairy and our democracy!
Tell President Obama to instruct the USDA to immediately ban Monsanto’s GMO alfalfa from being planted and work to ensure that the organic industry is protected from genetic contamination and loss of profits and stand up for the basic rights for Americans to know what is in their food and how it’s produced.

Last week the Obama Administration chose to fully deregulate Monsanto’s Roundup Ready alfalfa, despite overwhelming public protest. In less than 6 days, more than 96,000 Food Democracy Now! members signed a letter asking President Obama and Secretary Vilsack to reject Monsanto’s genetically modified alfalfa based on concerns to consumer health, impacts to the environment and lack of adequate scientific testing, but they chose to cave to corporate pressure rather than protect the rights of America’s farmers and citizens.

Despite this bad news, we’re refusing to back down and are going to continue to press President Obama and Secretary Vilsack to rescind their unwise decision that not only restricts farmers’ ability to choose what to grow on their land, but is also entirely unnecessary as currently more than 93% of alfalfa grown in the U.S. does not use or need chemical herbicides at all, which is the argument for the necessity of Roundup Ready products in the first place.

We need our message of unity and the rejection of this unnecessary and harmful technology to spread far and wide, please sign here:

http://action.fooddemocracynow.org/go/337?akid=294.43500.t8R1jI&t=7

As has already been widely acknowledged by the U.S. Supreme Court, the USDA, scientists and active farmers, the planting of GMO Roundup Ready alfalfa will lead to contamination of conventional and organic crops, creating significant economic loss for important export markets and organic dairy and beef farmers.

While we are deeply disappointed in President Obama and Secretary Vilsack’s decision, we were fortunate enough to be at the 31st Annual Ecological Farming Conference at Asilomar in Pacific Grove, California where pioneering farmers and leaders in organic and sustainable agriculture gather every year. When we received word of the announcement there was an immediate and collective response from the farmers and members inf this community that day that vowed to fight until this injustice was exposed to the world and ultimately overruled.

Over the course of the next few days, several dozen farmers and individuals from organizations working to promote best agricultural practices helped craft a letter to President Obama and Secretary Vilsack calling on them to reconsider and reverse their decision.

As members of this movement, we were greatly encouraged by the spirit of cooperation and the resolve that immediately took place as we worked together to craft a collective response.

In an effort to help spread that good will and resolve to fight this unjust decision we experienced this past weekend, we’d like you to join in this fight to protect the democratic rights of farmers and the citizens who support them.

If we are to win the fight ahead, we must join together and be united going forward. It’s time that President Obama and those in Washington learn that the rights of farmers and American citizens mean more than the unjust profits of Monsanto, which increasingly put the livelihoods of farmers and the integrity of our democracy at risk.

Please take a moment to sign this letter inititated by our organic and sustainable farmers and leaders, then pass it on to friends.

http://action.fooddemocracynow.org/go/337?akid=294.43500.t8R1jI&t=9

Farmers attending EcoFarm, the largest organic farming conference on the West Coast, roundly criticized the Obama Administration’s ill-conceived decision. Two California farmers stated:

“We are appalled by this decision,” said pioneering organic farmer Larry Jacobs, President of Jacobs Farm-Del Cabo. “This is a sad day for the future of the sustainable agriculture.”

“As an organic farmer and an organic dairy processor, the decision to deregulate genetically engineered alfalfa is devastating for our industry and it could put our business at risk,” said Albert Straus, President and owner of Straus Family Creamery.

Condemnation of the bad decision quickly reached beyond the conference as one attendee heard from a leading voice in the movement, journalist Michael Pollan, who added:

“It’s hard to understand why the Obama Administration would put the organic industry at risk for the sake of an unnecessary and soon-to-be obsolete product like Roundup Ready alfalfa. This is a bad solution to a problem that doesn’t exist, since 93 percent of alfalfa hay is grown without any herbicide at all,”  confided Pollan.

Finally, EcoFarm President Thomas Wittman, an organic farmer himself for over 25 years concluded what many at the conference felt:

“The ruling by the USDA Secretary disregards the organic farmers, the dairy industry, and the environment, and I am confident that the decision will be reversed in court,” said Wittman.

While the USDA’s decision to approve Monsanto’s GMO alfalfa was a temporary blow to some at the conference, many vowed to redouble their efforts in working to defeat the Obama administration’s latest assualt on farmers’ and citizens’ right to access to safe, healthy, organic and sustainable food.

It’s time to present a united front against Monsanto and out of touch politicians. Please take a moment to join us in telling President Obama to reverse the approval for Monsanto’s GMO alfalfa. Your action today could help save organic integrity for future generations.

http://action.fooddemocracynow.org/go/337?akid=294.43500.t8R1jI&t=11

Thanks for taking the time today to stand up for organic farmers and the integrity of the organic industry. Please forward this email to any family member or friend that you know cares about the future of our food and the planet.

Thanks for participating in food democracy,

Dave, Lisa and the Food Democracy Now! Team

So where do you stand and what do you have to say?

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The REAL Truth about Genetically Modified Food

Thursday, October 14th, 2010

Life is complicated.  It is never black and white.  We like to think that our choices are easy and that the answers are right in front of us.  So, what about Genetically Modified Food?  Here is how I see and understand it:

Norman Borlaug started his work in the middle of the 20th century. There were thousands of starving  people in Mexico due to crop failures.  His work led him to specialized breeding of wheat crops that were more resistant to crop blight and produced higher yields.  This was the early stages of genetically modified agriculture.  He took his work to India, Pakistan, even China to produce strains of crops that produced better yields and were more resistant to the diseases that were destroying crops in third world countries.  In return, thousands (or perhaps millions) of people were saved from starvation around the globe.  Norman Bourlag was a humanitarian and has some of the highest awards in the world.

His one and only goal was to produce food to feed starving people around the globe.  There are still countries where the food supply is desperate.  Genetically modified food crops could produce higher yields and coupled with some other modern technology, could help some of these developing nations to feed and support their own people.  Remember, any cross breeding of crops is a form of genetic modification.  But even gross genetic manipulation, in a lab, that produces food crops that can feed starving people is not necessarily a bad thing.  While I don’t see any reason to have GM food in my food supply, who am I to say that our American lifestyle of throwing away an average of 40% of the food that we produce means that starving people in Africa and India should have nothing rather than GM food crops.  The idea of GM food was originally conceived to feed third world countries.

Unfortunately, with any progress in science, someone is out to make a buck.  While I would like to eschew this philosophy entirely, it is the system of capitalism that we live in.  It has become pretty obvious that the Marxist Utopian society does not exist.  Besides, the pursuit of the almighty dollar has led to some of the biggest and most impactful advances in technology that the world has ever seen.  If you are reading this blog, then you have are experiencing the benefits of that innovation.  For good or bad, we are not the kind of people that can stay static, and the desire to be better off has been the motivating factor for that small smart phone, the iPad and even the automobile.  So in this environment of making it rich, it is not so shocking that we developed a wonder like the “Super Tomato.”  The idea behind this fruit is that commercial farms in America can produce stronger tomatoes through genetic manipulation that would not bruise as easily and would transport farther, thus making them more money.  This type of thinking has led to Monsanto’s development of GM corn that is patented and easily cross breeds with other corn.  So when they plant it in a field, it often cross pollinates with smaller farms nearby, who now have the patented GM corn of Monsanto growing in their field, whether they want it or not.  Just to make sure they make more money, the basic strain they plant for production is completely sterile, so farmers now need to buy new seed corn instead of setting aside some of their own crop.  Who wins?  Certainly not the small farmer.

On the other extreme are green purists.  In this far extreme lie groups like Greenpeace.  While Greenpeace hold many of the same values that I hold, they often are too radical in what they cling to for my liking.  Opposition to GM food crops by Greenpeace and many of their contemporaries led to a distinctly terrible situation in Zambia in 2002.  Some of the food donations to poor and starving people in a drought and famine afflicted country contained some portion of GM food.  Outspoken opponents to the GM movement encouraged the leaders of Zambia to reject this food.  In the end, many people starved and in some cases continue to starve due to rejections like this.

Somewhere in the middle lies the best course.  But due to propaganda and fear, the middle ground is often not where anyone lands-just look at American politics.  Yes there are risks to GM foods.  When you add a gene from a Brazil nut to a soybean so it produces a more nutritious soybean, you can trigger allergies in those who are allergic to nuts.  When we look at the rise in things we don’t completely understand (like nut allergies) it make GM food look like a great scapegoat for many of our ills.  To make matters worse, greed goes head to head with ethics.  In the case of Starlight corn, the government approved it only for animal consumption due to allergen trigger concerns, until more tests were done.  However, producers of corn products never bothered to tell farmers this, as they expected approval before harvest, so the result was Starlight corn illegally added to consumer products.  We do not know the long term affects of GM foods on the health and well being of humans (and remember doctors used to smoke and endorse cigarette brands).  On the other hand, taking a blanket stand against ALL GM food seems extreme as well.  If we can use GM foods to produce safe and healthful crops that can feed starving people in third world countries, then it definitely has a place in our modern world-at least for the time being.

As individuals, we are responsible for making our own well informed decisions.  I do not see any need for GM food in my particular diet.   Unfortunately, there is no clear labeling requirements, so it is already there.  I do my best to buy local food.  This reduces my chances of introducing GM food.  That being said, I do not make my own taco shells, so GM food is already there.  While I would like to avoid GM food for myself, I don’t think I have the right to make that choice for the millions of starving people around the world.

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How safe is your breakfast?

Friday, September 17th, 2010

I love food.  I love cooking it, eating it, trying new styles and products…. all of it.  I guess that is why I gravitate toward food events, love making friends with chefs, could easily shop only at gourmet stores and why I spent so many years in grocery and hospitality careers.  Being on a budget, I can scarcely afford to buy solely organic, but I try when I can.  I do make certain food choices that I almost never waiver on.

The first one is eggs.  I don’t always buy organic, but I always buy cage free.  Why?  I think that if I am going to eat eggs, that I need to spend that few dollars a month on something better for me and that does not promote the cruel mass production of foodstuffs.  While I am not so naive as to believe that all the hens who produce these eggs are happy and running around a large barnyard, I can feel reasonably certain that they are not stacked in cages 12 feet high, with no room to walk, and laying in their own waste.  Many people do not eat veal for the way it is raised, but are perfectly happy to buy the cheapest eggs on the market, ensuring the cruelest possible treatment for the hens that delivered them.  Since I buy these cage free eggs, I had no worries about the large egg recall that occurred.  Cage free hens are less likely to be contracting salmonella and are less likely to be fed the hormones that promote egg production.  Consequently, they are also less likely to need the antibiotics necessary to keep chickens healthy in this type of environment.

The second thing I rarely stray from is that I eat little beef, and when I do, I buy high quality.  Reasons for this are varied, but the biggest is that raising cattle is a poor use of the world’s resources.  We use exorbitant amounts of fresh drinkable water to raise cattle and the corn and soy beans to feed them.  Consequently, we need more of everything-land water, pesticides, to raise the feed, only to use more water and land to raise the cattle.  Cattle are often kept in the same deplorable conditions as chickens-requiring huge amounts of antibiotics and hormones to make the biggest profits.  A cow’s natural diet is grass, but rather than feed them grass (which would require more land) they are usually fed grains which makes them produce methane gas, a greenhouse gas.  Or worse, cows were even turned into cannibals, which is what led to the huge outbreak of mad cow disease.  We have tainted beef recalls all the time, and no one seems to even notice.

In fact, there have been some 85 food recalls since July of 2009.  That is a pretty steep number.  When there was a pet food recall, and pets died, we were up in arms.  These deaths were hard to track, as there is no central database for this type of thing, but it was in the hundreds for sure and possibly in the thousands.   The furor and uproar in the US was unbelievable.  Pet food was pulled form shelves, whole pet diets were changed, congress pressed, the USDA petitioned, and concerned pet owners frantically called hotlines and checked websites daily to make sure the food they gave their animals was safe.  Contrast that to the estimated 76 million Americans who get ill from food each year.  As many as 325,000 end up in the hospital and 5,000 (mostly children) die EVERY YEAR from food related illness.  Still a food recall on eggs passes with barely a whimper and a food recall on beef hardly registers a blip on our radar.  The billions of eggs that were pulled from store shelves were basically form only two huge farms, and there is evidence that it was found a week before the actual recall was issued-while they continued to deliver eggs.  I won’t even go into the BPA that taints most of the bottles that contain that “cleaner and safer” bottled water (as well as plastic baby bottles and other packaging).

Why does this happen so often and so easily?  The short answer is that the public is often duped by premiere public relations departments and advertising, while USDA employees and politicians bend the rules for corporate interests.  Add to that the complications of bloated and unorganized government that is in charge of watching our food supply and you have a recipe for disaster.  According to an article in the L. A. Times (to which I was alerted by Green LA Girl-a blog you should definitely subscribe to):

in the U.S. cheese pizza is regulated by one federal agency, but a pepperoni pizza is overseen by another. An open-faced turkey sandwich, likewise, falls under the purview of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, but one with two slices of bread is under the jurisdiction of the FDA. Liquid beef broth and dehydrated chicken broth? USDA. Liquid chicken broth and dehydrated beef broth? FDA.

In an effort to try and make the food chain that we partake in safer and easier to regulate, there is a bill out there.  Titled the Food Safety Modernization Act this bill has passed committee and will likely die in the Senate.  Of course there are rumors  abounding about what this bill will and won’t do.  The multi-billion dollar food production industry is likely behind many of the rumors that it will stop farmer’s markets, kill small family farms, and interfere with organic food production and labeling.  In reality, this bill would only be a start to healthier food.  According to the Enviroblog:

The Durbin bill would:

  • Require food processors to anticipate and prevent possible contamination in the food production process.
  • Increase FDA inspections of food-processing plants based on risk associated with a particular product.
  • Require imported food to meet the same safety standards as domestic food.
  • Establish science-based minimum standards for safe fresh produce farming.
  • Empower FDA to order mandatory recalls.

There is another synopsis on the Food Poisin Journal, and you can read the bill in it’s entirety or by its informative summary here.  Mostly stalled by Oklahoma Senator Tom Coburn this bill is an expensive one.  But with the annual impact of food borne illness estimated at $152 billion, how much is reform worth?  You can join the Make Our Food Safe Coalition in an effort to alert the Senate to your support of this bill.

The best thing that you can do is vote with your dollars and buy locally produced foods, support farmer’s markets, and the like.  Unfortunately, those with the lowest incomes in America are disproportionately affected by food safety issues.  These are the same folks who are less likely to have access to health care and insurance.  This leads to more visits to emergency rooms by under or uninsured and raising the costs of health care and insurance across the board.  Just one more example of how all things are interrelated and how impact in one area is an impact in many others.

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Yum, Dim Sum, and the Flats…

Tuesday, August 31st, 2010

Cleveland is stretching and growing and trying to reinvent itself.  I love the energy and enthusiasm of the young people of this town.  They have a definite love of Cleveland and a desire to make it a better place.  So many are working hard to breathe new life into the region.  For those of you who are feeling that Cleveland has gone stagnant, then you are not paying attention!

Matthew Mytro and Kim Burant

First off, Friday was the latest installment of Yum! at the Mercury Lounge.  This is a monthly event put together by Stove Monkeys and Crisp Catering.  This event is usually on a weekday, but this month they wrangled a prime Friday evening spot.  This month’s menu was a little more dessert heavy with the liquid raviolis being served with trail mix cupcakes, liquid nitrogen milk shakes, Red Bull and sorbet shots, snickers bombs, and some inventive cocktails.  I am always eager to support cool ideas and things going on in Cleveland, so I managed to carve out a couple of hours to come down to check it out.  In addition, I had mini Ruben sandwiches and gyros from a the Old World Deli (delish!).  I ran into my friend Anabel Kouri (formerly of E4S) and was surprised to find out that they were there because of my blog-I guess someone does actually read this thing!  Her and her husband are running a small farm and selling their goods at the Lakewood Farmers Market on
Saturday, near the Marc’s.  We had a great time discussing local foods and the trials and tribulations of urban farming.  I was sad to see Anabel leave E4S, but was happy for the Peace Corps for managing to snag her.  Perhaps she will be willing to write a blog post about the Peace Corps and the good work that it does (hint, hint).  Kim Burant was telling me about the next edition of Fearless and it looks to be even more exciting than the last one!  Watch this space for details!  Matthew hinted at the future of Crisp Catering a possible food truck in his future….Read more about Matthew on the Cleveland Magazine website.

Goodies from Old World Deli

Gourmet Cracker Jacks with prizes!

Liquid nitrogen milk shakes....

Speaking of food trucks, Dim and Den Sum is on the radar!  If you watch food shows, then you may have seen The Great Food Truck Race.  This is a show that pits teams of food trucks against each other as they try to make the most amount of money in a couple of days in a city they are not familiar with.  While this is not the greenest show out there (food trucks and cars driving around the country), it is fun and a great insight into the challenges that are particular to food truck chefs.  One team is Grill Em All, an LA based burger truck that is run by chefs from Rocky River.  So… for next year, the Food Network has called for nominations from around the country.  One of them is our very own Dim and Den Sum!  You vote you can vote every day for this truck!!  Chefs Chris Hodgson and   Jeremy Esterly are great guys and would make great advocates for NE Ohio, because the winner of this challenge gets $10,000 and a chance to appear on the next season of the Great Food Truck Race!  GO!  Vote early and vote often, show the world how Cleveland really is!!  Besides, for every vote, you are entered to win a trip to the NY Wine and Food Festival.

I also wanted to clue you in to another fun thing that I have found.  It is the Cleveland’s A Plum blog and their fun web series The Flats. If you ever wondered what it is like to be young and having fun in today’s Cleveland, then this is a great blog.  I am living vicariously through Alexis Marino and her friends as they show off the fun spots to hang out in Cleveland.  Their new web series, the Flats, is a fun parody of the Hills.  While I have never actually watched an episode of The Hills, I have seen enough buzz to get most of the humor and I thin it is just plain fun!  There are only a couple of episodes so far, but I am waiting patiently for the next installment…

To round out the weekend I worked as back up support for Chef Bob Sferra at the LGBT Center Garden Party.  All the sparkling glitteratti of gay society were there as well as a few celebrities.  It was a great event, but my feet are killing me.  I have to say Kudos to Chef Bob for pulling off another great event for the Center.  The food was fantastic ( what little I got to taste) and the presentation was amazing.  If you ever need a chef to cater your event, then Bob is your man!!  Oh, and check out his new website, and you can follow his blog at Culinary Occasions-I built his new website, so this is a bit of shameless self promotion.

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The Future of Cleveland is Here!

Tuesday, June 22nd, 2010

To change Cleveland for the better, we need new ideas.  While there has been tremendous growth in the area of sustainability, clean energy and the like, I think our biggest growth area has been in the food world.  We Clevelanders love to eat, that much is certain.  When I moved here, it seemed all a bit old school.  You could find a great greasy burger, chili cheese fries, or corned beef sandwich within any neighborhood it seemed.  But over the past decade, I have seen Cleveland’s food seem grow and elevate itself in a way that I never thought possible.    A small restaurant with a local following, buoyed Chef Michael Symon to Iron Chef fame and a series of new ventures around the city and beyond.  Chef Jonathan Sawyer started a new green concept and made it to Food and Wind Magazine Fame.  Chef Brandt Evans of Kosta’s went on to open a series of great lodge-themed American Funk Fusion restaurants across the country, known as the Blue Canyon Kitchen and Tavern, and his charm and wit have made him a local celebrity.  Bob Sferra, Rocco Whalen, Steve Schimoler, Ellis Cooley and many more are fast making Cleveland the culinary capital of the Great Lakes.  I remember when Tremont was Lola’s, Kosta’s, and a handful of loud grungy eateries.  Now, you can’t a neighborhood with more great restaurants in the region.  E 4th Street is becoming a mecca for weekend dining and has attracted large scale chains like House of Blues.  Places like Melt, Momocho and others are being featured on television all the time.  But while established chefs are opening great hot spots, there is an underground chef culture that should not be ignored.

These emerging chefs and their contemporaries are coming up with new and innovative ideas to intrigue us.  I first found out about some of these cool folks when I won a T-shirt from the Cleveland Foodie blog.  A hip, fun tee from Stove Monkeys.  Always a fan of local business and food, I wrote about them on several occasions.  So when I heard about their molecular gastronomy event, I was in!  This has turned into a monthly event that is evolving into a culinary showpiece for foodies interested in the odd, but delightful world of interesting food innovation by Chef Matthew Mytro, Mike Schoen and their buddies. (Be sure to follow their exploits on Facebook!)  Then I was introduced to another great company, Dim and Den Sum.  Chefs Chris Hodgson and Jeremy Esterly are changing the way we look at street food in this town.  Veggie and pulled pork tacos, meatball sandwiches, tater tots with exotic spices and toppings are just a sampling of what you might find on their crazy painted food truck.  This truck is just the springboard to a bigger future… a fleet of trucks, a restaurant, who knows?

So when I got the invitation from my new pal, Kimberly Burant and her new company Clear Cut Promotions for an event at the Velvet Dog, I HAD to go.  The event was called “Fearless” and it featured a wide range of participants.  There were cocktails being shaken up by Darko Marinkovic of Chinato that were mixed with exotic elixers from The Lounging Gourmet.  I especially liked The Duchess and The Duke: an exotic combination of gin, lavender, and cucumber.

Then came the interesting fare!  I started off with a fantastic crostini topped with smashed peas, water cress and pickled lamb’s heart.  It was unbelievable and I could have eaten an entire plateful.  The chewy texture of the meat was softened by the pickling and the smashed peas were out of this world.  I want to try and duplicate this myself!

Then I tried the “Superworm:”  basically, if you have ever eaten the worm in the bottom of a bottle of tequila (and who hasn’t?), then you get the idea,  This was a tequila and lime jello shot with a super worm inside.  My new friend Janet of Metromix tried one and it freaked her out a bit, but I was non-plussed.  I followed that with other tasty delicacies, like the braised antelope short rib taco and the wild boar bacon fritter with tomato coulis.  Then there was the “catch of the day.”  Deep fired hissing cockroaches.  It was the talk of the evening, “would you?”  ”could you?”  ”did you see that?” and “Oh my God!” I have to admit, I saw no reason to eat this giant bug.  I figured that it would not add at all to my life experiences and who cares that I could say that I ate a cockroach.  Even if some places consider them a delicacy, the allure of a back street restaurant in China or Indonesia is not quite the same as the rooftop of the Velvet Dog in Ohio.  I enjoyed watching others, though!

So while eating cockroaches may not be your thing, the fact remains that young and vibrant talent abounds in this town.  Starting new trends and creating an entire sub culture of interesting ideas that will make the rest of the country take more notice of us.  Bringing Cleveland back to its hight and rightful place as the capital of the Great Lakes will take time, ingenuity, and fresh clever ideas, and I am proud to have had the chance to meet and hang out with some of the fresh new thinkers that will be a part of it!

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AMP 150 and Thirsty Dog Brewing

Tuesday, June 15th, 2010

Most people never even realized that yesterday was Flag Day.  Wile there was little celebration going on in most of the country, AMP 150 was grooving.  In case you don’t know, AMP 150 is the restaurant at the Cleveland Airport Marriott.  First off, while I am a foodie, I am not a food snob.  Still, I probably would not have heard of AMP 150 except for a couple of reasons.  First off,  Chef Cooley introduced his restaurant at an E4S event.  His goal is to create a great restaurant that will draw people from all around the region, and he is likely to do it.  How?  Local foods and fresh ingredients prepared with style.  They are planning a local food farm right there on the hotels property, just so they can produce the food they want to serve right on site.  Now THAT is local and fresh!  The second way I found out about AMP 150 is the way they have learned to embrace social media.  I read about the restaurant on Cleveland Foodie, a local blog, who reviewed the place and was intrigued.  Then I was suddenly connected to them on social media.  So when I heard about the Flag Day Tweet UP and Foursquare Party that they were planning I was all in!  If you have ever wondered what the point of Foursquare is, AMP 150 is showing us how to leverage this social media platform.  First off, they managed to get over 50 people there, which made them the first Cleveland restaurant to give out a Swarm badge.  This is just some Foursquare nonsense that is only of interest to us techno-geeks and social media freaks.  But they go on to offer special discounts for you for every time that you go there and check in on Foursquare.  Your 5th check in will even result in 25% off your entire bill.  When  I talk to social media clients about how they need to be using their Foursquare and other accounts to reach out to clients, this is what I mean.  Everytime someone checks in, it is like a little free shout out by clients to their friends.  The ”mayor” of AMP 150 even gets 25% off their bill, every visit, until they are unseated-a move that will be causing a mini contest amongst us Foursquare fanatics.

Anyhow, I went to the event last night to taste the appetizers, check out the venue and taste some beer from Thirsty Dog Brewing Company. The beers were tremendous.  Brewed locally at their Akron brewery, they are going to give Great Lakes Brewing a run for their money.  As a lover of craft beers before moving to Cleveland (Portland was, and perhaps still is, the capital of micro brews), I am excited to see so many local beer lovers crafting such delicious products.  The only wrong with the event was that I had to try all the beers.  Normally this would not be a problem, except they were tasting 10 different brews.  This is no simple 3.6 Budweiser kind of night.  The beers ranged from light and fruity to dark and chewy and some had quite the high alcohol content.  Luckily, I wasn’t driving.  The only beer I didn’t care for was the Pumpkin Ale, but it may have something to do with the fact that it followed the Raspberry Ale.  I especially liked the Siberian Night (a Russian Stout), the Old Leghumper (a porter) and the Twisted Kilt ( a refreshingly different Scottish Ale).  The appetizers being passed were outrageous.  Duck pate to die for, Artichoke stew, and even a gourmet hotdog with mustard and kraut.  I can’t wait to go back and try the full menu!

Amongst the crowd were a lot of folks who are changing the  local food scene:  Chefs Chris Hodgson and Jeremy Esterly of Dim and Den Sum are the guys who introduced gourmet street food to the region with their cool food trucks; Chef Matthew Mytro and his buddies from Stove Monkeys are the folks who put on the molecular gastronomy event YUMM! at Mercury Lounge; Trevor Clutterbuck of Fresh Fork Market is taking the CSA to a whole new level.  I also got to meet a lot of the social media buddies that I connect with mostly online, like Tony Ramos, and made some new friends, liek Janet Nguyen of Metromix.  Overall, the event was a huge success, the crowds got to try some of Chef Ellis’s food, the beers were delicious, the company was super AND we earned our swarm badge…. jealous?

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