Cooking With Ideas

The Future of . . . . Food

Imagining the future has been a trap, opportunity, game and business for as long as humans have existed, right? Imagining our individual futures (sometimes called religion) and imagining our social futrue (apocalypse now and then, trend spotting, etc.). And sometimes that imagined future involved and involves food. Will we all die from the overabundance of people and underabundance (is that a word, let alone a concept?) of food? (Did Malthus ever die?) Will we all live happily ever after with the opportunity to eat any food we can imagine -- using a matter organizer a la Star Trek? (Tea, earl grey, says Captain Picard and voila -- there it is, warm, in a cup, out of apparently nowhere but the words. No clue what I mean? Click here for a seconds long video clip.) What will the future of food be? And no, I do not mean the film of that name despite it's obvious relevance.

Rather, I have been reading Future Files: A Brief History of the Next Fifty Years authored by Richard Watson. (This is Watson's site.) And yes, he discusses food. If you want to know what he thinks about food formatted as a map, click here. His maps look like a cross between the london underground and. . . well, a complex interwoven futures forecasting. (And he at least acknowledges that futures are, in many ways, simply imagining with the present and the past. But hey, the book drags here and there but is also entertaining and interesting. And Watson also knows that the future, like past and present, will be filled with contradictory trends. We will want both A and not-A -- whoever we are. Sometimes some of us will want A and some will want not-A and in the futrue we'll both be able to have it. Maybe. Or, maybe we'll be a society where some of us must have A and some are not allowed to or cannot afford A so are stuck with not-A. We may become more tribal in all this -- or more global but probably it will be both. That's his kind of argument. A might happen. Or B. But probably A and B. Not to mention C.)

Back to food. Here are the five trends he identifies (in chapter 7, his chapter on food, summarized on pages 178-179):

*convenience portability and speed (we'll want those.) Here he predicts "Nobody will peel potatoes in the future." (p. 178)

*seasonal, regional and slow (yep, we want those too) Of course, the slow contradicts and augments the fast of the prior trend. . . .

*health versus indulgence (yep, we want these too) Here he says "food will be similarly polarized between low cost and luxury." And a variety of other polar opposites. (p. 179)

*nostalgia (and this is how we'll deal with the stress, depression and anxiety of the future)

*food science and technology (hmmmm. merging food with pharmaceuticals worries me. "from apples that cure headaches to water that suppresses appetite. . . " p. 179).

We have seen the future and it is us? Pogo lives. And I have to stop worrying about the future and return to my present and. . . . stop procrastinating,

For Watson on Youtube click here. For a summary of the book (authorized, I think, by Watson and his publisher but I am not 100% sure), click here.

Coming Soon to a Blog You Read . . . .

In addition to a look to the future, upcoming entries will look at some restaurants in Ann Arbor and in Chicago, Illinois. In the latter category, we went to a restaurant called graham elliot, and then came home to discover his picture in the newest issue of Bon Apetit. Hmmmmmm. NO, we were not in the know, but yes we loved the place. And there are many many more. In fact, we went to two places, each of which had a single Michelin star. And more. Yep, more.

And you, what have you been doing?

Free

I do not mean the land of the free. I mean something a bit more like what Milton Friedman rejected: there is such a thing as a free lunch? No. Not really. I mean not free as in freedom. Not even free as in free market or free . . . beer. Not even that old record album and book, Free to Be . . . You and Me, by Marlo Thomas. I mean Free: The Future of a Radical Price, as in a book I read recently. The author: Chris Anderson. And no, the book is not really -- or at least not mainly -- about food. And yet, it is relevant. Trust me. It is. (And you can find it here, for free-ish.)

The book is about varieties of free -- freemiums and five aways, and something called Moore's Law in which digital materials end up, eventually, costing so little as to be more expensive to charge for that to give away free. The book, thus, is about how to make money (really) from free things. It covers the history of doing so -- and the new ways this is changing the landscape of the economy (not to mention the field of economics.) I know little, so need(ed) to look at reviews of the book to see how controversial the whole theme is and can be. But it was a reasonably useful read in getting me out of my rut in thinking about things.)

But, I wrote, trust me, it's relevant. Why is it relevant for Cooking with Ideas? Not just because we get free condiments in restaurants and expect to -- salt and pepper, ketchup and mustard. Not just because the toilets are free in the restaurants we go to (usually?) Not just because the advebnt of bottled water made something previously free cost some real money in restaurants and grovery stores. And not because none of this is really and truly free most of the time, since it is subsumed in the overall cost of restaurant bills. Not even because people like me (called content providers in Anderson-speak -- and by loads of others as well) produce free reading at blogs like this -- or that you can use epicurious without paying a cent.(And thus even spare yourself the dilemma of where to store or what to otherwise do with year's of magazine subscriptions.)

Rather, because free and food are entangled in a variety of ways, according to Anderson. The tale begins with the free lunches salloon keepers offered to get folks to drink their product (and pay). And the book discusses the corn economy in a way that is profoundly different than how, say, Michael Pollan does so. (For CookingwithIdeas on Pollan's work, click here.) If you want to (re)consider the possibilities that abundance is not all vad, try pages 46-48 of Free, on the potential of linking the free economy and . . the abundance of corn. (Of course, Pollan and others have reminded us -- as Anderson does as well -- that free is not always exactly free. Often there are masked costs, paid for by others -- like, say, the future or the environment or. . . Free as Anderson often means it is really about. . . digital free. And, that is a topic which is more relevant to blog content than any atom based product,  even corn.)

So, free. Hmmm.And, no, no freemiums here.

For an unrelated review, try here where a pre-publication plagiarism scandal gets a lot of play. To get the book itself free, click here. 

Dallywater's -- Tea in Geneva

Formerly located in Naples, NY, and noted in an earlier entry here under the category rumors, Dallywater's is indeed open in Geneva, NY. Labeling itself a British eatery that is "tea-centric," Dallwater's is across from the post office in a large-ish, quite light space. When we went, we were met by a friend/acquaintance who has his first waitering job in his life. Yep, at Dallywater's. So, it was both welcoming and friendly.

The menu (available here) offers a variety of options. We had a cup of lovely fresh pea soup and the Darjeeling Express. What we really wanted, at least for one of us, was the cup of soup and one small sandwich. Turned out not to be available. This was, I admit, more than a tiny bit off putting. No way to get just one of hte sandwiches off of the Darjeeling. Having said this, we just ordered the Darjeeling Express for us both. To be honest, one would have been enough food for us, and I would love it if they could be clearer on whether one of these -- as an option (which comes with two sandwiches and with pastries) was available to share. Having said that, besides the lovely soup (which was truly fresh tasting) what did we make of what we did order?  As for the food: the Darjeeling Express came along on one of those lovely two-tiered serving gizmos (I have no idea what they are called) with the sandwiches on one level and the pastries on the second level. The sandwiches were described on the menu as "puri-style" which in this context means halves of pita sandwiches. The fillings -- we had a chicken salad (called chicken madras), a lime hummus, and an egg salad. I was entranced with the lime hummus and will try to make it at home one of these days. Much better than lemon, oddly enough. The pastries were a meringue with strawberries, a truffle (with bits of crunchy meringue in it), and a short bread cookie. I only tried the truffle and noted that besides generally tasting delightfully chocolate-y, the meringue bits made for a very nice mouth feel.

  DRINKS: First and foremost the tea: we ordered one pot of the Oliphant green and one pot of the Lord William's (which is a chamomile/spearmint blend). Both were dandy. They came with a tea strainer and etc. The first set may not have been steeped long enough, and was not quite the right temperature. But, that got sorted and we eventually drank large quantities of tea while there. Additional possibilities are a mint iced tea -- made with the Lord Williams -- and sodas. Absolutely no alcohol is used at Dallywater's. It is neither served nor used in cooking. But tea, there is. And the Lord Williams is quite quite good -- not overpowering but minty enough.

SERVICE: As I said, we arrived and were greeted by someone we knew, so Dallywater's immediately seemed warm and friendly and was. The service opened with the arrival of a turny little gizmo holding jars labeled with varieties of tea. This way, you can use your olfactory capacities to choose. When it arrives, the tea comes in a pot, and you pour it into your cup through a tea strainer. (Or the wait staff does so.) Having said all this, mainly the service was attentive and it was quite responsive when, for example, we said the tea could have been steeped longer or served at a better temperature. Also, various people stopped by and ensured we had enough tea -- not too frequently but frequently enough.  And, when a third person joined us, they were quite gracious. See below for a tweak.

SETTING: As I said, large, light and white table-clothed. Nice high ceilings. And lovely huge front windows which look on to Castle Street but mainly were a source of lovely sunshine the day we were there. There is, also, loads of parking on Castle Street. And Dally water's was not terribly busy when we were there.

ON THE WALLS: Beyond some light colors, there was a hug (and I do mean huge) poster-y London street scene wall papered on to one wall. Sounds odd perhaps, but it worked despite being black and white.

 BATHROOM REVIEW: I have let bathroom reviews slide a bit here at Cooking with Ideas and am back on track. See, I have even got the former visuals! Anyway, our anonymous bathroom reviewer knew that we'd all like the floor -- my favorite sort of old-fashioned tile (or faux of the same thing). And hte bathrooms are right on the first floor unlike some of those places where finding the bathrooms is like a game of . . . well, tunnel exploration or Indiana Jones kind of exploration. One thing the anonymous bathroom reviewer failed to mention:   it was so cold in there that I gasped. Alas.

ADDED DELIGHTS: Well, there is an art gallery but we did not visit it. And, you can purchase t-shirts (though they still say Naples, NY on them). And, of course, you can buy loose leaf tea.

TWEAKS: Yes, there are some. Let me begin with the food.  First: the pita bread (or puri style bread) was cold and should have been at room temperature. Also, though I know this particular grouping we ordered was about British colonial India, I find the puri reference here a little confusing because the bread seemed more pita-ish than puri. That may just be me. Mostly, when it comes to the food, I would thnk about presentation a bit more. The appropriate use of garnishes (ok, that sounds pretentious) could have made the presentation better -- rather than 4 pita halves on one level, looking a bit forlorn, a bit of edible flowers or greens or. . . . woudl perk it up or finish the plating.  Not unrelatedly, on the menu it says that the chicken madras has some greens in the sandwich, but it did not. It would have looked a bit better if it were not sort of monotone -- with some greens (as perhaps could the others we were served) or something to deal with the fact that the color of the bread and the filling in all cases was virtually identical. In some ways, when it comes to afternoon tea, appearance is a huge part of what happens since the serving size of the sandwiches is supposed to be pretty small and the theme is elegance.

One other tweak: the place was nowhere near full and yet a large party was seated beside us, making it hard both for servers to get around them and for them to get up and down without asking us to move or nudging us. An option was to seat them at the other large table (a few feet away) where they woudl not have had this problem, the servers would have had an easier time, and we would not have been squooshed. Doing so would, of course, have prevented our eavesdropping on the other table, but likely everyone involved would have had a slightly better time. So: a minor tweak. 

All in all, I will likely go back, if only to purchase some loose leaf tea -- or have one of those truffles again. Or, I must admit, to try the Weslh Rarebit, which is one of my faves.

For a magazine bit on the Naples venue, now transplanted to Geneva, try here. And, for a more recent visit by anohter blogger, try here. Or, check the comments here at Cooking with Ideas (or make one below)!

OMG: A Use for Iceberg Lettuce? OMG

I occasionally eat iceberg lettuce. It feels like a cross between a guilty pleasure and nostalgia. Once in a while, I absolutely love a nicely done chunk of iceberg with blue cheese dressing and bacon. Mmmmm. I order it in restaurants and I do not think I have purchased a ball of green iceberg lettuce in a grocery store since. . . well, I have no memory of doing so until very recently. So, when I went to Wegmans and purchased a wrapped ball of lettuce labeled iceberg, well, it felt kinda OMG. (No clue what OMG means? Click here and wonder why are you reading a blog? Too secular for OMG? Well, maybe we need WTF? Clueless again? Go back and click on that site again. Or, try this one: SFLA (as opposed to the unlisted STLA.))

That is not, however, what I am writing about here. Instead, this is a mildly healthy thing. And, it involves me cooking. Weird, eh? A lettuce wrap. I first encountered such a thing (I think) at P.F. Chang's (a restaurant bibliochef reviewed here) and then (gasp) came across a reasonably similar thing in a recent issue of Bon Appetit. Here's the recipe I started with. . . . And what I changed/added included:

1. I switched the chicken thighs for chicken breasts. And yes, i chopped the darn things into pretty small bits -- maybe 1/4 inch or so. As for amount, I had 3 breasts that added up to about 1 1/2 punds, so I used two of them and. . . tomorrow I may make the third into something Mexican-ish. And yes, I am on ish as a big suffix today.

2. I added a little more soy sauce than called for just because I think the world goes better with. . .  soy sauce. Yes, I use organic. Yes I use low sodium. Yes I feel vaguely virtuous.

3. I used -- gasp -- iceberg lettuce. What really caused this? Well, on teh one hand the recipe called for butter lettuce and there just was none when I was at the store. On the other hand, my experience of lettuce wraps previous to this attempt included iceberg. So. . . . and now that I have googled and discovered the iceberg lettuce myth, read about the possibility that iceberg lettuce contains a morphine-like chemical here, discovered that Arizona has an Iceberg Lettuce Research Council, and watched this video on the darn stuff (yep, a bit of a sales pitch) . . . I am kinda glad I did.

4. Absolutely not indicated in the recipe is the need for a mixture of things to become the sauce to add -- not just the sweet asian chili sauce the Bon Apetit people indicate. So, with a little imagination frm elsewhere, I mixed up:

    *soy sauce (maybe 2-3 Tablespoons)

    *a couple squeezes of siracha

     *two dollops of a hotter asian chili sauce (siracha has sugar; this one called sambal oelek does not)

     *a pinch or two of red pepper flakes

     *the piece de resistance -- which I would never ever have remembered without help -- a squeeze or so of dijon mustard --- I used grey poupon

The sauce, of course, was salty and hot. And it can be made more or less hot. All in all the sauce just adds to the delight of the lettuce wraps and ensures that iceberg lettuce has some bite . . . 

So: all in all, it was a fine time int he kitchen with bibliochef, making chicken lettuce wraps and a hot sauce to ensure they were just a bit more addictive than iceberg on its own. Hurrah. And, now, finishing this entry, I discovered you can actually find the P.F. Chang recipe on line, right here, including a recipe for the sauce. Did I try it? Not yet. Might I? Yep. 

Coming Events in the Finger Lakes

Finger Lakes Culinary Bounty is having it's annual Harvest Dinner at Geneva on the Lakes on August 1, 2011. Keep an eye out for signs. And call Geneva On the Lake to order tickets. Check out their Culinary Delight package for a package that includes a night at the Inn.

For a review of a prior dinner, try here.

A Journey through the Land O' Weird

It is late at night and I am wandering the blogosphere and thought I would share a few oddities with you, a few days (or more) later.

First: try googling any date and "food history" and you'll find all sorts of weird things. For June 5, for example, you will find this site. I am not sure what is weirder, that I googled it or what it actually says there about, on the one hand, bananas and, on the other hand. Alice Cooper's pet boa constrictor.

As a side note, for a second adventure, try googling any date and weird holiday -- and you'll discover, for example that June 5 is "festival of popular delusions day." I love that. (To confirm, try clicking here. ) While looking into this, I also discovered that later in the month there is a whole week devoted to watermelon seed spitting. (Click here to confirm.) And of course, June 5 is the day, in 1968, when Sirhan Sirhan shot Bobby Kennedy. But that has zip to do with food. And in fact, there are lots of weird -- and not so weird -- June 5 factoids. But hey, this is just one of those out of the blue, gone a little wonky posts.

What Has Bibliochef Been Cooking Lately?

Well, to be honest, not much interesting. That's my answer tonight to "What Has Bibliochef Been Cooking Lately?" I have been trying to be a bit more unplanned in terms of recipes and thus making a lot of things up. This may also be because I jhave finally folded into my real hatred of food shopping. I am not sure that is a good thing, but you never know. Mainly, I have been tinkering with existing recipes. Here are a few things I have tried:

Arugula Pesto:

    Basically this is just using arugula in place of basil in pesto, though I am mainly eye-balling the ratio of     arugula, oil, nuts (I have tried pistacchios and pine nuts; I think I may like pistacchios better), salt,     and parmesan cheese. I occasionally add a jalapeno or lemon. This works nicely under a piece of     salmon. I often wonder about pistacchio oil in this -- or some other options. Hmmmm.

Stir Fried Chicken:

    I have made various versions of this lately, starting with substituting chicken slices for pork in a pork     vietnamese recipe I have from a Madhur Jaffrey book. Mainly this involves marinating the chicken     slices in soy, fish sauce, lemongrass, onion, a bit of hot curry powder, sugar, salt, and oil. To cook,     you first saute thinly sliced onion (about half cup per chicken breast) until brown, saute the chicken     with the marinade, and then add a handful of cilantro leaves.

    My own version is actually a sort of lemon chicken. Marinate the chicken in lemon juice, olive oil,     pepper, salt, and whatever you feel like. I sometimes use a bit of curry powder and sometimes don't.     Sometimes add scallions and sometimes don't. And sometimes add a really red hot pepper for color.

    I used organic chicken breasts, sliced very thinly.

Stolen from a Friend Cheese:

    All this is is some proportion of soft-ish goat cheese, like lively run, baked at 350 degrees for a bit.     Top it with olive oil, some lemon zest and whatever herbs you have or feel like having! I did this last     in a tiny little bowl and it served as a nice easy dip.

And a few other things! I am still reading cookbooks a lot and you never know what will come next. What are you cooking lately?

Kings of Pastry: A Documentary

Kings of Pastry is a documentary -- and yes, I was inside on a sunny, somewhat too hot day, avoiding too much work and . . . . the heat. The film introduced several competitors, including one of the founders of Chicago's French Pastry School, in a French competition for the best craftsman in pastry in France, an honor call the MOF (an acronym for “Meilleur Ouvrier de France” or “Best Craftsman of France”). Here's a note from this blog on what that means: "The M.O.F. title in pastry has been awarded to only 113 French pastry chefs around the world....  There are only four pastry M.O.F.’s living in the USA today."

Among the many things I liked about the competition as depicted in the film: all the competitors can, potentially, win. In this case, 16 qualified to compete. SPOILER ALERT: they do not all succeed. And yet, they could -- they are competing against a standard and perhaps themselves not each other.

For the three day competition, the chefs make all sorts of dandy things -- from sugar art to lollipops to a wedding cake to small very artsy pastries. I liked the riff on cream puffs. The examination/competition seems a cross between time, experience, appearance and taste. The film shows judges working to ensure competitors finish; and it shows them as truly moved by the effort of the competitors. It seems that this pushes against the shorter and shorter challenges on the Food Network shows; and yet, for all that gets done three days comes to seem a very short time period. And, as one of the people in the documentary comments, to where the blue, white and red collar without having succeeded at the competition is illegal in France!

Among the wonders: pulling sugar ribbons. They were striped -- and pulled entirely by hand, sometimes across a knee or thigh. The pulling and joining made the stripes get more and more complex. Imagine Christmas-time candy ribbons infinitely (well, not really) thinner and more beautiful.

Much of the sugar art was a cross between blown, pulled and molded sugar forms -- and the colors and sculptural aspects were amazing. Some of the flowers were amazing -- and lots of the pieces were an intertsting combination of lyrical, whimsical, formal elegance and cheer. THere may not even be enough adjectives. Alas, these constructions are often very fragile -- which makes you respect the success even more. And here, the cakes were not covered with fondant -- and thus may be even more amazing than some of the cake shows I have watched on the Food Network (such as this one which I admit to liking so much I sighed and nearly cried when I learned they do not ship cakes). I am pretty darn sure they taste better but I may be very very wrong, since I have actually zip evidence on the taste of . . . well, any of the cakes or pastries discussed here.

All in all Kings of Pastry was an hour and a half that I enjoyed. I wish I had seen more of the judging, but otherwise -- a fun moment on a procrastination day.

One big question: why no women?None have competed (as one of the reviews cited below notes). While it is certainly an endurance event -- and there is certainly strength required -- I suspect the reason is much more likely to be the hierarchies of French cooking life. Ruth Reichl offers some insight here.

For a Q & A with the filmmakers, click here. For the NY Times review click here;ans for the review of the documentary with the most Mary Poppins-ish title, click here. And, for yet one more punny use of pastry names in the review title, try here. if you know a place with wonderful pastry (or make it yourself), please, I beg you -- let us know where by commenting!

Rumor and More: Geneva Foodie News

Life is filled with rumors. Sometimes they are true.

Rumor 1: Well, we were driving along and there it was: the new tea shop. It seems to be called Dallywater's Tea Room and Art Gallery, seems to be open, and has a website! According to the site, they are a "tea-centric British eatery" and are at 68 Castle Street. Driving by, I could see white tablecloths. Hmmm.

What does it mean that they (despite the Brit theme) carry French macarons? (I love the way they look.) Their menu looks dandy and. . .you can count on me to head over there one of the next few days. I may become (well, I am approaching it these days) a lady who lunches. (Well, not a lady -- but still. . . lunch. Wow. They have toasted welsh rarebit on their menu.) Apparently they used to be located in Naples, NY. Now they are in Geneva. Hmmm.

For reviews, possible on line ordering and more, try their site.

Rumor 2: Maybe this does not qualify as a rumor, since this one I heard pretty darn directly --  from the owners' mouth. There is now an Opus at Fox Run. Opus, of course, is the coffee shop and lunch/breakfasty place on Exchange Street in Geneva, NY that is one of the places to be these days. Not the best coffee in the world (sorry folks, I still go for Dalai Java ) but the sandwiches (which often use Dustin Cutler's Normal Bread are a treat. I especially like the olive tapenade and brie on Dustin's olive bread. The salads are interesting -- I have had a lentil salad, a fresh snow pea-ish one and a tomato and cucumber one lately. (I would be cutting the cucumbers smaller -- or providing a knife -- but that seems to just be me since my favorite lunch companion does not agree.) On occasion, there are just too many people there I know -- but, that's the wonder and price of a smallish town. They also serve beer, and their reasonably priced, smallish wine list is perfect for a hot summer day. They have outside seating (I have never tried it). . . And it is a woman owned business, run by Heather Tompkins and Chelsey Madia.

For their website, click here.

And, for OPUS at Fox Run, drive right out their to the vineyard, throw caution to the winds, and . . .  from 11-5 every day, according to their website.

Rumor 3: Ok, someone told us that there is something big going on downtown, but they heard it from someone who heard it from someone who says that's all they can say. Any body have a clue?