nosh nook #156 - monday, october 19, 2009

peanut producers thriving after safety scare (link)
10.18.09 - msnbc - from a.p.

at the beginning of this year, because of a salmonella outbreak that eventually killed nine people, the FDA started announcing recall after recall of peanut products. peanut butter? tainted. crackers & peanut butter? tainted. that crunchy peanut candy bar? also tainted. taint taint taint. as a result of the salmonella scare, the peanut industry went into a serious tailspin, as a frightened public avoided peanut products & sales dropped. the peanut industry's PR people tried to counter the effects of the outbreak, but were initially unsuccessful. the peanut-buying public was just too frightened.

despite all the trouble the peanut industry was having, at the moment, things are actually looking pretty good for them. according to msnbc's article from the a.p., "food makers processed more peanuts over the past year than nearly any other time on record." salmonella be damned! according to the department of agriculture's figures, the amount of "peanuts used for peanut butter set an all-time record at 1.1 billion pounds." the peanut industry's a bit surprised by the good news. after the outbreak was announced, they had a crappy january & february, but by march, things were pretty much back to normal. overall, it's an abnormally fast comeback.

stanley fletcher isn't so surprised & he's a "peanut economist" at UGA, so he knows peanuts. "there's an old adage in the industry that you can almost track the economy by consumption of peanut butter. it's basically the cheapest source of protein." it could have something to do with that, but it also could have something to do with the fact that, once their fears subsided, everybody who panicked & tossed out their peanut butter eventually had to go get more peanut butter. anyway, you don't have to worry about the peanut farmer anymore. they may never put another of their kind in the white house, but americans are basically addicted to peanut butter & need the cheap protein to survive, so they'll be just fine. don't waste your tears on them. waste them on that chick from the hills instead.

nosh nook #155 - friday, october 16, 2009

crumbs of reality needed in madison (link)
10.15.09 - the journal times - editorial

whether it's pepper jack, cheddar or gouda, people in wisconsin friggin love their cheese. packers fans wear those silly cheese wedges on their heads at games. their economy's always been largely based on dairy farming & according to the wisconsin milk marketing board, the state produces "over 2.4 billion pounds of cheese each year, over 25 percent of all domestic cheese." thassa lota cheese. that's like 90,000 elephants or 300 million babies or nine million baby elephants worth of cheese. folks basically can't live without the stuff. it coats their pockets & innards.

in fact, some badgers like cheese so much that, as the journal times reports, there's a bill (SB 327) that's been introduced to the wisconsin state legislature that would make cheese the official state snack. by declaring it the state snack, it would mean that by law, the wisconsin blue book would have to mention it alongside the state song, ballad, waltz, dance, beverage, tree, grain, flower, bird, fish, animal, domestic animal, wildlife animal, dog, insect, fossil, mineral, rock, soil, fruit, and tartan. really? they have a state tartan? anyway, the journal times thinks that it's a silly item for legislators to be dealing with, what with the horrible recession & all.

they wonder about what lesson such legislation teaches our kids about adult priorities & then they ramble on about that for a little bit before ending on some comment about "the escapist fantasy available on television every night." um, ok. if anything, wouldn't kids find it kind of cool that there's a state snack? wouldn't it help instill wisconsin pride at a time when the economy sucks bad enough that college graduates are probably better served by leaving the state for greener pastures? wouldn't it give at least a tiny boost to the currently embattled $12 billion dairy industry? wouldn't it just be sweet to get to DECLARE A STATE SNACK? stop being such grinches, journal times. it is the economy, stupid.

nosh nook #154 - thursday, october 15, 2009

cooking with beer (link)
10.14.09 - npr - by kevin d weeks

it's amazing what they're doing with beers these days. making pumpkin beers is one thing, but there are beers made with rice, coffee, bacon, watermelon & rainwater. there's beer brewed in barrels made of paraguayan palo santo wood. i hear that angelina jolie's coming out with a beer made from the rice & tears of orphaned kids just in time for the holiday season. with so many choices of beer, there are also a range of things you can do with your beer--drink it, shotgun it, spray it in the air to celebrate your softball championship, consume it through a funnel, pour it on the curb for your homie. the possibilities are endless.  

npr's kevin d weeks loves cooking with his beer. people are always cooking with wine, so why not beer? he notes that "ancient egyptian and sumerian physicians considered cooking with beer a healthy practice." these days irish & belgian (& occasionally german) cooking uses beer as an ingredient. we irish also use beer as a mouthwash, but that's besides the point. pretty much any beer will work, but he suggests that you "avoid india pale ales." as it is, that's my mantra in life. weeks also recommends pairing your beer with sweet vegetables or putting some in marinades & desserts.

since he's apparently a fancy lad, the first thing weeks ever cooked with beer was welsh rabbit. cooking welsh rabbit's a bit more effort than i'm willing to make, but he does provide a few manageable beer recipes in the article, recipes for beef carbonade, dill & beer quick bread, patatas bravas and guinness & chocolate cake. i try to avoid beef, but the bread, potatoes & cake sound damn good, especially the chocolate cake. guinness has a chocolatey taste as it is, so i can only imagine it inside of a luscious chocolate cake. maybe one day i'll get off my ass enough to bake one myself. then i can stop imagining.

nosh nook #153 - wednesday, october 14, 2009

cracker jack: the seventh-inning snack (link)
10.13.09 - the ny times - by john branch

it's been a few years since i've taken myself out to the ball game & it's been even longer since i've bought me some peanuts & cracker jack whilst in such a setting. apparently i didn't care if i ever got back...to a ball game that is. in recent times, i haven't picked up a box of cracker jack outside of a ballpark setting either. it may be "the original snack mix" & may have celebrated its 100th birthday last year, but i'm a crunch n munch guy all the way. i do have to give the snack credit though. it's sold at every major league baseball stadium & has remained a popular ball game snack for quite some time now, largely aided by its inclusion in the lyrics to "take me out to the ball game."

in yesterday's ny times, john branch took a look at the long time game time snack & examined where it is today, in an age where pretty much every year, a couple teams open a new, modern ballpark filled with quirky throwback junk & fancy new concession menus. branch notes that "baseball fans can buy rocky mountain oysters (bull testicles) in denver, crab cakes in baltimore, cheese steaks in philadelphia and fish tacos in san diego." you've been able to get an "ichi-roll" (named after the right fielder) at seattle's safeco field for years now. with options like that, why bother with stupid cracker jack?

kevin haggerty (the aramark guy who oversees fenway's concessions) puts it this way. "it does still have relevance. it's part of the ballpark experience. it is still a good snack. it sells well. it holds its place in the sales mix. and it's in the song." haggerty uses the word "it" a lot, but i guess he knows what he's talking about. fenway sells 1000 bags (bags? wha?) of cracker jack at each game. in the real world, cracker jack actually trails crunch n munch in terms of sales ($22.8M to $17.6M for the year ending 9/6), but for now, as long as they don't change the lyrics to "take me out to the ball game," i think they're going to be ok. they're owned by frito-lay after all & those dudes have a stranglehold on the sports snacking environment as it is, based on their promotion of doritos alone. plus, if a ballpark ever did something stupid like try to switch to crunch n munch, fans would rebel...well, at least the stupid yankees ones would.

nosh nook #152 - tuesday, october 13, 2009

obesity concerns spur calls to limit new convenience stores in south l.a. (link)
10.12.09 - l.a. times - by jerry hirsch

you live in south central? what's that? you've just been shot in the leg? oh wow. that's bleeding pretty bad. here. let me put a band aid on it...run along now. you'll be fine. band aid for a gunshot wound...that's essentially the approach to all the issues that plague south central, which is chock full of crime, poverty & drugs. the bloods & the crips started up there. the sweet gang filcks boyz n the hood & colors took place there. n.w.a., history's pioneering gangsta rappers, are from compton, a hood that's often considered part of south central.

you're not supposed to call the area south central any more though, because that name's synonymous with all that crime & whatnot. you're supposed to call it "south los angeles." anyway, south central's messed up & the city hasn't done much to tackle the core issue--that poor education & job opportunities for minorities have created a nasty environment to live in & that environment has spawned more of the same--but they are trying to tackle the TRUE evil...obesity.

as the l.a. times reports, as part of an expansion on last year's restrictions on fast-food restaurants, "the los angeles city council is set to consider a proposal that would limit the density of" convenient stores in south central. the rand corp. recently published a study that surmised that the high concentration of convenient stores selling junk food in the hood has led to a high obesity rate in south central ("26% of the residents of south los angeles are considered obese").

"the proposal...would prohibit such small neighborhood markets from being closer than one-half mile from one another unless they sold fresh fruit and vegetables." obviously, the convenient store industry's against the proposal, especially 7-11, which "has 50 stores within the los angeles city limits." there are "58 small food stores" in south central alone, compared to 14 in west l.a., but there are only three supermarkets in south central, compared to the ten in west l.a. no wonder gangs are always shooting each other up...they can't get a good basket of strawberries in their hood & that shit has to boil over somehow.