Cooking With Ideas

Entries to Watch Out For. . .

What's coming up on Cooking With Ideas? Here are a few things to keep an eye out for:

*An Interview with Michelle Jones-Ham of the Canandaigua Spice Company

*A link to a RADIO INTERVIEW on April 6, 2007 with Bibliochef -- on www.wvox.com, a West Chester NY Radio Station, the show hosted by William Martin, with previous shows available at http://martincolin.podhoster.com

*A review of Robert Appelbaum's Aguecheek's Beef, Belch's Hiccup, and Other Gatronomic Interjections: Literature, Culture, and Food Among the Early Moderns

And who knows what else?!?

Questionable Edibles -- Part 2 OR Poisons Amongst Us

When I think arsenic,I think "Arsenic and Old Lace" in a rather terrible high school production. Little old ladies poisoning people with (as I recall) elderberry wine. When I think mercury, I think swordfish and not eating it. Lead? Well, there's always lead-based paints as an issue, right? And then, I began reading University of Cambridge chemist John Emsley's book about poisons entitled The Elements of Murder: A History of Poison. It is not a terribly good book --that is, it is not very readable, its prose is not mellifulous, and its tales are stilted and decontextualized. In fact, its sense of humor is embedded in the title -- yes, the elements are the elements of the periodic table. Punny. Nevertheless, The Elements of Murder is a fun book, which reminds me somehow of Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon and related books. And, there are quirky little sentences and sidebars here and there where the author takes on personality -- these I like. No, Emsley has most definitely not written a swashbuckling historical romp. Why then the echo between his book and Stephenson's? Perhaps it is the tales of Isaac Newton and alchemy? Or is it the collection of phosphorus from. . . ? Anyway, I think Stephenson read similar sources to Emsley. (On Stephenson, his own website reveals him to be a bit of a pip or bore or pompous idiot who concocts swell swashbuckling though sexist novels; he appears more reasonable here.) For those wishing to write murder mysteries, there is always the peculiar possibility of poisoning via wallpaper. (Read the book.) Or Victorian era fly papers. And. . . .

Alas, this particular book on poisons turns out to have less to do with food and cooking than I somehow anticipated, despite my associations to arsenic, to mercury and to lead. Not sure why I expected it to be more foodie -- or at least foodie-who-reads-murder-mysteries-ish. But I did. Here and there one learns how poisons like lead, mercury, aresenic and antinomy enter the food chain or were used to flavor (and/or adulterate) foods. (As examples, red lead used to adulterate Hungarian paprika and make it more colorful or lead in various wines where grapes are grown near major highways -- including some of the vintages of very very well known wines.) I would have been less disappointed if The Elements of Murder was a better read. Go figure.

Wing Tai

I rarely think of Wing Tai when I am looking for a place to eat in Geneva. I take it for granted. It's right there on the corner of Main Street and Castle Street. And yet, yesterday a friend told me how people greeted its opening, in the mid-1980s with great delight -- because it introduced a place with good food to a city which had very few restaurants. Wing Tai has had staying power. It is a Chinese restaurant, with an extensive menu, and on the relatively rare occasions I have gone there, good food. (Susanne McNally, interviewed here, is a wiz at ordering well from Wing Tai.) And, there's take out! Wing Tai, of course, long predates Main Moon and Kyo's Asian Bistro, for example.

Last night, a group of people had buddha's delight, eggplant with garlic, green peppers stuffed with minced pork and accompanied with a black bean sauce, dinosaur's eggs (an invention of Wing Tai's chef for his children -- consisting of tofu balls which are absolutely swell), shrimp with bean sprouts (a dish served at room temperature), and steamed rice. There were a dozen of us --and we did not eat quite all of what we ordered but we were very happy when we left (despite the snow). Everything was fresh tasting, and the eggplant with garlic and dinosaur eggs got raves from some of us.

DRINKS: In addition to the tea that is ubiquitous in Chinese restaurants, some of us had Tsingtao beer, a light German-style beer made in China. Wing Tai also has plum wine and a local riesling, for example. We did have a lengthy discussion of why restaurants in the U.S. serve ice water before meals; "it's just a custom" said one of us while another said it was a historical trace of the times when the availability of ice was a marker of wealth.

SERVICE: Very attentive and upbeat.

SETTING: Wing Tai has a Chinese restaurant decor, which has been recently updated. There is on the street parking and if you are desperate (and it is not snowing like mad) there is a parking lot behind.

ON THE WALLS: I admit it --I do not remember.

BATHROOM REVIEW: Perfectly adequate.

OVERALL: An inexpensive meal and very tasty. We ought not neglect this local possibility as more restaurants arrive on the scene.

LOCATION: 164 Castle Street, Geneva, NY

PHONE: 315-789-8892

Chinese Restaurant

Provolone Anyone?

I received a big hunk of lovely provolone as a gift. It was swell. I love provolone, which I knew in my Philadelphia suburban childhood as part of hoagies. Real hoagies, of course, are a Philadelphia tradition -- and they are not just subs under another name, they are hoagies, defined by their roll, their meats, and the provolone. (Does it date me to say I remember when for, under a dollar, you could get your hoagie along with Tastykakes and a bottle of coke?)

In Geneva, most of the provolone, even that labeled extra sharp, is, alas, dull. It is not the provolone of my childhood. It is not even the provolone of my 30s or 40s when I got it at a deli near where my aunt stayed in Ocean City, NJ. So, I was delighted to discover that my provolone gift came from a place with a website: Di Bruno Brothers. You'll be delighted too.

Glenora's Restaurant:

It was one of those days. The phone rang constantly. So, the anonymous bathroom reviewer and I gave up. We went out to do errands -- and then on a jaunt for dinner. It took us a while to come up with an idea of where to eat, and we finally drove down the lake to the restaurant at Glenora Winery: Veraisons. There was a great sunset as we drove south -- and it was relatively balmy for mid-March. Neither of us had been to Veraisons in ages -- if ever. When we arrived we discovered they do a pasta night on Thursdays and on Fridays do a fish fry that involves flights of local microbrews. Here's what we had that balmy Tuesday night a whileback:

Appetizers: Veraisons has a number of appetizers, including wild boar ravioli. We were not tempted so did not have an appetizer.

Entrees: After some thought about vegetable lasagna and other options, we chose duck (with a lovely port sauce involving fresh plums and blackberries) and a filet mignon. The duck dish was enormous (in fact, it was too much to eat at one sitting). Parts were cooked to perfectiomn (the sliced portion) and the whole breast was a little underdone perhaps. The sauce was lovely and it came with fingerling potatoes.The filet was cooked quite nicely, with just a little pink showing in the center, and was served with cubed potatoes. Both dishes included shredded vegetables (carrots, etcetera) which were too soft (especially in the case of the duck dish, where they were sitting in the sauce for the duck). The salad which comes with meals was described as iceberg lettuce on the menu; we went with the featured field green salad that included slices of proscuitto and nuts with a warm bacon dressing. I had it with the warm dressing and the anonymous bathroom reviewer went with balsamic vinaigrette. A nice salad, though I think I could have used less meat on mine.

Dessert: We had no dessert but we looked at the tray of posibilities. Turns out only the creme brulee and the tiramisu are made in house. The chocolate cake, key lime pie, and others come from Sysco, frozen. So, we did not try the chocolate cake.(For a related piece involving Sysco, click here.)

Miscellaneous other things: The bread was a warmish foccaccio style bread. Soft and not too herb-y.

DRINKS: Glenora, of course, focuses on their own wines, including some terrifically odd-seeming "wine martinis" which use their wines to imitate various martinis. I resisted (in fact, the idea put me off) and had a cosmopolitan. We then had a merlot and a meritage with the meal. Both were nice, with 0% residual sugar. Certainly finger lakes reds are wildly better than 20 years ago when they were terrible. The merlot was quite dry and the meritage well rounded -- though it was a bit heavy and I did not finish it. The decaf coffee I ended with was actually quite robust.

SERVICE: Adequate but not exciting. The room was relatively empty. The woman running the desk for the inn itself was incredibly friendly.

SETTING: Located at Glenora Winery, the restaurant has big windows that look over the winery itself toward Seneca Lake. The room also has a gas fireplace and could seat many parties. It was a bit cold though, despite spring-like temperatures outside. The restaurant is in the inn itself.

ON THE WALLS: I did not notice anything except the St.Patrick's decorations on the fireplace.

BATHROOM REVIEW: In the hallway outside of the restaurant, the women's room was nothing to write home about. No complaints though.

MINOR QUIBBLE(S): Could they light the parking lot near the wine tasting room a bit better so it is not hard at night to figure out how to get to the parking adjacent to the restaurant itself?

OVERALL: A good way to fix a screwed up day. The setting is the real draw, of course, and the menu is not what would draw you there. We spent about $80 for two.

WEBSITE: www.glenora.com
LOCATION: On Route 14, north of Watkins Glenn in Dundee, NY.
PHONE: 800-243-5513

Glenora
Finger Lakes Wine
winery

Saint Patrick's Day is Coming

My sister was named after an Irish Setter. Three of my grandparents were from Ireland (one Catholic and 2 Protestants). I once wore a striped sweater -- green and orange -- to school on Saint Patrick's Day. And I love those candies called "Irish Potatoes" available only at this time of year -- little round balls, brown on the outside (cinammon) and white on the inside (coconut). But I am not really a big Saint Patrick's Day celebrator. (I particularly hate it that the Saint Patrick's Day stuff was out at Wegmans on Valentine's Day. I wonder what they are putting out on shelves today? To tell them what you think, click here).

Saint Patrick's Day, though, is a foodie's day, isn't it? Corned beef and cabbage, most definitely. Really? Where have I read about the invention of tradition? Not, it turns out, a new thing. Like many things we think are eternal, corned beef & cabbage as an Irish tradition too has a history; for a piece on the "feeding of a myth" click here. Or check out this site, where it is noted that some "Irish people think Corned beef and cabbage is about as Irish as Spaghetti and meatballs" and that beef carries class (and colonialist) connotations in Ireland's history.

Once you're read, though, try it. Cooked well, it is delightful. You'll like it. Turns out places in Geneva have corned beef and cabbage on Saint Patrick's Day. (Where is it best? Let us know.) Or, check out recipes, from plain (or is that traditional?) to fancy here or here or here or . . .

Saint Patrick's Day

A Third Place: Interviewing Bill Ferree

I have never met Bill Ferree other than virtually. I discovered his pub & cafe (A Third Place Pub & Cafe in Eustis, Florida) while researching a post on Ray Oldenburg's A Great Good Place called "Great Good Eating?". When I let him know I'd mentioned the pub & cafe in the post, we decided to do this interview. I'm truly grateful for the time he spent answering all these questions and hope those of you who go near Eustis will stop in his place and let us know what you think!

Bibliochef: Thanks for agreeing to do this interview via email. I appreciate your time. Since I found you when researching a piece on Ray Oldenburg’s A Great Good Place, I do not know much about The Third Place Pub & Café other than what I found on your website. Can you tell us a bit about it and what your role is there?

Bill: First, the name is "A" Third Place. I think Oldenburg correctly recognizes there are many versions of "a third place." What he sees and describes is a community asset that's become undervalued and scarce in our country over the last 50 years or so. Blame it on the Interstate Highway System and the pattern of development that's followed, or on the ubiquity and power of TV and the internet to command our attention, or whatever, but the fact of the matter is a gathering place that doesn't have an agenda or purpose other than just being a place for people to hang out and talk an enjoy each other's company is missing for most of us. But quite a few people (and the number's growing) miss having "a third place." There wasn't one in my neighborhood, so I decided to create one. Of course then I didn't even have a name for it; I just had an idea of what it should be. The model I had in mind is actually an Irish Pub, called Molly Malone's in Munich, Germany.

I'm the owner, which means I get to do everything, like pay the bills, fix vacuum cleaners, show the movies on movie night, wash dishes in the coffee bar, bus tables, etc. I also book our live entertainment, which is a pleasure.

Bibliochef: How did you choose its name?

Bill: I read an article by Christine Cole, a writer for the Orlando (Lake) Sentinel newspaper that read like she'd been reading my mind. She referred to Ray Oldenburg-------the name is just a perfect fit for what I'm (we're) trying to create. (For Christine Cole's recent articles, click here.)

Bibliochef: How did the menu get selected? If I came in today, what would you recommend I try?

Bill: Our menu's evolved. Originally we described it as "healthy comfort food." We do still make a real effort to put fresh vegetables prominently on the plate, but on balance it's probably a little rich. Of course, butter is one of the basic food groups, and Chef Matthew Dennis uses it liberally. What to order? The sliced duck breast salad is a wonderful lunch selection. As the name suggests, it is slices of roast duck breast served warm over a bed of greens with a mix of fresh berries and pecans ----- reasonably light and healthy. On the more decadant side, there's a smoked turkey breast sandwich. It has bacon slices and warm parmesan cream served on ciabatta bread. For dinner, I'll match our 8 oz. Filet with a port wine reduction against anybody's. If red meat is out, have the ahi tuna steak with wasabi ginger sauce. Matthew's "Molten Chocolate Cake" dessert is a prize winner. It comes with a black cherry compote and whipped cream. From time to time he makes a mango cheese cake that's one of the best desserts I've ever had anywhere.

Bibliochef: Wow, sounds great. I admit to being jealous of snow birds around February every year – there are lots of folks from upstate New York who spend some time in Florida
each year, though not me. Your place is in Eustis, Florida, right? What’s that like?

Bill: Eustis is a town of about 16,000 on the fringe of the rapidly growing greater Orlando area. This is Lake Co. Florida, and Eustis sits on the edge of Lake Eustis which is about 4 or 5 miles long and is part of a chain of lakes that empties into the St. John's River. I tell people we live in the central highlands of Florida---elevation about 160 ft. Being inland (the middle of the state) we do enjoy a drier climate than folks on the coasts. (For related sites, click here for the official city government, here for the Chamber of Commerce and here for the historical museum.

We have an enthusiastic and growing little arts community here which we hope will thrive as the downtown area revitalizes. The Bay Street Players theater company is alive and well and occupies a 1920's theater literally a stone's throw from our front door.

Bibliochef: So, how did you get into the restaurant business?

Bill: I originally thought our town needed a little Irish pub. But I couldn't find the place that was right, and this big beautiful old building (a former department store built in 1926) was sitting here vacant for the previous 3 years. It's probably a project too big for me, a novice, but it had my name on it so I plunged in.

Bibliochef: Here's one of my odd but usual questions. Is there any other occupation you would like to do – or would never ever want to do?

Bill: I don't think so. I already retired once----from flying airplanes for 35 years.

Bibliochef: Can you describe a day at the Third Place?

Bill: Some of the lights come on pretty early.  Maintenance manager Mike has probably been there an hour or so already (it's 7:20 a.m. now) working on the latest project I've invented for him.  Today he's finishing up making a movable corner section of wall divider.  Next on his list is the installation of some more sound absorbent material on wall surfaces.  Acoustic improvements are a continuing project that's had major benefit in terms of the ambiance of the place.  Mike is generally has by himself until about 9:00 a.m. when kitchen staff starts to arrive.  Friend and neighbor Peggy lights the front at about the same time.  She makes sure the front staffing is adequate for lunch, puts flowers on the tables, opens the coffee bar and generally "pretty's up" the place.  By 10:00, most of the crew, Nate the bartender/server, resident potter, Jeff, gofer, bank/laundry runner, resident musician/sound man, Chef Matthew, general manager, chef extraordinaire, Lauri, personal manager/scheduler/sometimes mother hen, and the rest of the staff for the lunch service are at work----or at least "at coffee." 

The "Open" sign is lighted at 11:30 and customers start arriving soon thereafter.  Our lunch clientele is what you'd expect in a small downtown, a mix of local business people, and groups of "ladies out for lunch."  We also have lots of folks visiting from "up north" and others who hang out to use our free internet access. 

We're open through the afternoon, but don't have many visitors until dinner.  Today will be interesting.  It's Friday.  Being the first weekend of the month, the monthly street festival is scheduled, but a rather nasty looking cold front with lots of dangerous looking weather is approaching.  By my calculation we'll get hit at about noon.  With luck, we'll be on the clear side by this evening----good for a party.  So, if it's a good day, the rain will stop, nobody will get blown away by a tornado, happy hour will start at 3:00 and by 7:00 we'll have a full house of hungry people. 

At about 8:30 our live music will start.  Tonight we have a local entertainer, Emily Stine on stage.  She's young (20's I think) and has played at our regular Thursday night "open mic."  Part folk singer, part punk rocker, I'm expecting a really good show.  There'll be singin', maybe some dancin' and for sure some beer drinkin' until about midnight.  By then most of our clientele usually get's tired and goes home to bed.
 
Bibliochef: Wow. What a day. Sounds fun and challenging. I know you do films and music and other events at your place. Do you have favorite movies or books or songs or. . . . about food?

Bill: I can only think of a couple of movies, and I'm not sure of the titles.  I think "Babette's Feast" (for ohter mentions of this film on this blog, click here) and "Like Water For Chocolate."  Both are from probably 10 or 15 years ago.  More recently, "Sideways" turned me into a bit of a wine snob.  As irrational as it is, I rarely drink merlot any more.  Lyle Lovett has a great song "Church," on the album "Joshua Judges Ruth."  The chorus is:

To the Lord let praises be

It’s time for dinner now let’s go eat

We’ve got some beans and some

Good cornbread ………

And the moral of this story

Children it is plain but true

God knows if a preacher preaches

Long enough

Even he’ll get hungry too

And he’ll sing

To the Lord let praises be

It’s time for dinner now let’s go eat

For legal mp3 downloads of Lovett's music, including "Church," click here.

Bibliochef: Who would you most want to visit the Third Place?

Bill: Gosh, I don’t have too many heroes.  If I could resurrect, maybe John Kenneth Galbraith or Richard Feynman.  If you send Howard Dean or Bruce Springsteen or Madeleine Albright that will be fine too. (Little editorial voice: At least one of these has been to Geneva, NY -- Albright.) More practically, I’d like a visit from Scott Joseph, food critic for the Orlando Sentinel.  That’s a high risk proposition because he is a critic, but I really do think we’re good and ready for greater recognition in the Orlando area.

Bibliochef: What a great list! I hope Scott Joseph will be by -- and though resurrection might not work for Galbraith or Feynman, the others -- well, you never know! Thanks again for doing this. . . . and if I get to Eustis, you'll see me in A Third Place.

Ray Oldenberg
Florida
Great Good Place
A Third Place

Questionable Edibles -- Part 1

Joanne Harris's book Five Quarters of the Orange is not new. It was published in 2002 and I have seen it in airport bookstores on and off since then. In fact, I just bought it again and read it again. (Why? Middle age.) The author of Chocolat as well as several books about French food (I think cookbooks but am not sure), Harris's novel both shows food as part of social (or at least family) cohesion and as deployable in viciously divisive ways. (Perhaps the power of food as communal to construct both cohesion and division, a la Nancy Jay's book, Throughout Your Generations Forever.) The plot turns centrally on a collage-like text that the narrator inherits from her mother -- recipes interlaced with memoir-like interpellations. Despite its title, another reader (or at another time, this one) might see the book as about fishing (and pike), but the titular oranges are indeed central -- their smell, their texture, their availability, their symbolic weight. The book is about the power of the olfactory in relation to food -- we all know the realtor's advice to bake cookies when selling your house, and some with epilepsy or migraines fear the olfactory aura that precedes seizures or headaches. It is this latter link -- between olfactory auras and migraines -- that Harris uses to interesting effect in this novel, raising issues of ethics and parent/child interaction, history and personal memory. In the many years of my life before I ever had a migraine, I might have identified most with the narrator -- but the horror of migraines which on occasion have even led me to emergency rooms, makes me actually angry with some of the narrator's actions. (For links related to migraines and olfactory auras, click here or here. The latter will tell you olfactory auras are less common with migraines than with epilepsy. It turns out, by the way, that there are loads of migraine blogs! To find these, click here.) In any case, here, in Harris's novel, the traumas of families intersect with the traumas of history (in the form of Vichy France), and the redemptive power of truth-telling is darkly hopeful. Scattered amongst the angst and ethics are recipes and descriptions of wasp-laden fruits, offered quietly and sometimes as crankily as love. And yes, the questionable edible is the orange -- though it is not the oranges, but their uses that are questionable.

That smell and memory go together in this novel is perhaps not surprising for any of us for whom lavendar evokes long lost grandparents or for whom home is not home unless there are the smells of cooking wafting throughout. When I googled "smell and memory," sitting here in Bryn Mawr at Bryn Mawr College, this student paper (from Bio 202 in 2000) came up. Small world, whether virtual or not. For a tutorial on the sense of smell, click here. And for more, try here. Even if you do so, you'll discover the science is not all there is to the link of memory and smell -- as Harris's novel attests.

And oranges? What of them, these days beyond their link to Vitamin C? There was a controversy some time back regarding oranges qua fruit when Hobart and William Smith fans wore t-shirts to a Syracuse University lacrosse game (yes, Syracuse teams are oranges and/or orangemen). The t-shirts linked oranges to fruit. Somehow, our campus could not make the obvious link between calling people "fruit" and homophobia. So, today, I googled, in thinking about Five Quarters of the Orange, looking for a picture of an orange for the header. Up popped the t-shirt shown here. Yes, oranges are fruits. Tht t-shirt reads, in part, "Real Men Aren't Fruits." In the case of these particular shirts, the controversy is between those Syracuse fans with -- and without -- opinions about the teams' name. . . . Yes, fruit is a loaded term -- and masculinity of a very particular sort is strengthened by heteronormativity, by homophobia, by nastiness about fruit. This, of course, is a tangent and not Harris's point, though it definitely still matters. . . .

For interviews with Harris, click here or here or here or, one more, here.

Or, perhaps best of all, read the novel. I am not quite sure what to make of it. Perhaps you will be. And you can ponder: is an orange a questionable edible? why buy the same novel twice?

JoAnne Harris
migraine
orange
homophobia

Harvard and Michelin Guides: Finally Feminist

IWD has arrived. No. I do not mean WMD (hurrah). I mean IWD -- International Women's Day. Turns out we most definitely still need it. Yes, Harvard has a new president, Drew Gilpin Faust, Dean of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, named on February 11. (For information click here or here.) Guess what? She's a woman. And all over the US (and one hopes internationally) women are celebrating. (Though at least one article mourns the "feminist takeover.")

Yes, Michelin Guide has given 3 stars (its highest rating) to its THIRD woman, Anne-Sophie Pic, since the advent of their rating system in the 1930s. She's the first in 50 years to receive it. And many of the articles begin with an emphasis on the "macho" world of cuisine. (I first saw the announcement in the Globe and Mail but here are a few other articles: here and here and here.)

We all know women chefs we love. Alice Waters. Judy Rodgers. Mollie Katzen. Julia Child. Marcella Hazan. Madhur Jaffrey. Deborah Madison. Name your favorite. Yet, even in 2007, chefdom seems a male world (though cooking is a woman's). To say we celebrate because Harvard finally names a woman president (or that Hilary is running for a different first) may signify how far we've come but it also signifies how little we have moved.

So, for International Women's Day, track down your favorite woman chef or woman president of Harvard. (You'll notice I did not put links here -- feminist vistory is worth a little work, right?) Once you find them, then what? Say thanks and work for a time when the adjective is less necessary and/or less noticeable. Work for change. Work for a feminist takeover. Make the ironic title of this little piece real.

Anne-Sophie Pic
Michelin
Harvard
Drew Gilpin Faust

United States of Arugula

A few days ago, I was on Cookin in the 'Cuse and saw a great photo of the cover of David Kamp's The United States of Arugula. Turns out I had just started the same book, and have been reading along for a while. I love the way the book begins -- yes, David Kamp drew this reader in by personalizing the transformation of American food culture, paralleling his own development with changes in the national landscape of food. Like Kamp, my early years were mid-1950s food in all of its cliched bliss (and horror). As our culture has transformed, so have my eating habits. In fact, I never quite recognized how much my own changing food palate has been tied to chnges in what is available. So, as part of Kamp's target audience, I bit -- the book's narrrative felt familiar and yet new --because Kamp's narrative burgeons with historical research (and interviews etc.) that fills in the skeleton story of "the making of a gourmet nation." Yes, I ate at Chez Panisse in the 1980s (and more recently) so reading about Alice Waters was great --and the mention of Greens, another favorite vegetarian place was too. I came to love goat cheese and Dean and DeLuca, Zabars, and. . . (And look, all these places that used to require a literal trip are now available virtually, with Zabar's featuring a Purim basket today.) More recently, I finally made it to Charlie Trotter's and. . . yes, I know who Ruth Reichl is and I own Classic Italian Cooking by Marcella Hazan (though only now do I know how it came to be). In fact, there was enough familiar -- and enough in the way of swell substantive footnotes, insider gossip, historical research, and surprising links across our continent -- to make each chapter fascinating.

As Cooking in the 'Cuse notes (February 27), The United States of Arugula even has upstate New York relevance. (Yes, the Union Square Market had, as its inspiration, a farmer's market in Syracuse. Though I did not know that 'til I read Kamp's book, I did know they sell upstate things -- including the wonderful fruit from Red Jacket Orchards in Geneva, New York.) That's not the only local link in Kamp's book, though, as The United States of Arugula devotes some serious attention to the Moosewood in Ithaca as an aspect of the changes in American foodie culture. (For an earlier entry on the Moosewood, click here.) I had no idea, for example, that the Moosewood began as a corporation and then became a collective -- there goes my mythological view of the Moosewood. Nor did I know that Mollie Katzen's relationship to the Moosewood changed dramatically because of this.

The book is worth reading for this local history and more. I could go chapter by chapter telling you why. Instead, I want to point to the end of the book, where, alas, Kamp loses me. He's discussing his main view -- that it is a good thing, even when not perfect, for there to be more food options and etc. So, while Alice Waters comes in for some critique for being oh-too-over-the-top demanding in her righteous indignation about others' decisions, for example, yes, her idea that schools (both public schools and Yale) should serve nutritional food is great. And while complicated for all sorts of reasons, the notion of natural food at Burger King turns out to be not ONLY horrible. And, for Kamp, Walmart's expansion into organic is a good thing as well. At least potentially. Alas, there is no discussion of the relation of LOCAL to organic (not even to mention workplace equity) and thus, perhaps, a little too uncritical optimism about the impact of the commodification of all this. Yes, it is a good idea to make good food (and quite literally food that is good for you) accessible and cheap. But I still worry about Walmart (who continues to work toward a superstore in Geneva, alas). That the United States of Arugula is also the United States of Walmart is, in my view, quite frighteningly naive. (For my other views on Walmart, click here.)

Should you read Kamp? Yes. Its fun, informative, and well researched. Let me know what you think.