Thursday, April 14, 2005

Visions of Premium Ingredients

I have some ingredients at my pantry that I will probably never use. But I love having them. Chestnut flour would make great pancakes, and maybe gnocci or pasta...It could be a nice addition to sugar cookies, or biscotti. But I have to tell you in all shame, my oven has not worked for almost a year. It's gas, see? And, as embarrassing as it is to admit, I am afraid of it.

So, anyway, I don't make cookies right now. Of course, I have no excuse for the pancakes, gnocci or pasta. I even have a lovely heavy manual pasta maker (still in the box, never used, next to the $200 kitchen aid mixer that has never been used--horrors, I am mildly afraid of that, too).

But I'm glad I have it, and if I find that it is stale, I will buy it again. It is the same with bonito flakes, dried whole ancho chiles, saffron, juniper berries, arrowroot powder...oh I am sure there are others that I don't even notice any more.

I think I like food and cooking, but I might be required to admit, in my current situation, all I have time and enthusiasm for is shopping. If you ever feel the same, I recommend Kilauea Black Wet Salt. I don't know what it does, but I am pretty sure I have to have it.

# posted by Comida Evangelista : 5:08 PM  1 comments

Wednesday, April 06, 2005

What do we want? Equal Rice! When do we want it? Now!

Did you know that over 40% of the rice grown in California is exported to Japan? That is a whole lot when you think about how rice is a sort of cheap staple product. Not that Japan could grow its own locally, but it seems like it would be more expensive to ship it to Japan than it would be to buy it, say, anywhere else in the world. Maybe problems with China won't allow them to buy it there, but surely there is somewhere closer.

Another thing I recently learned about rice is that there is a staggering profit margin on it. For something that is widely seen as a commodity-it blows my mind that some rice companies in California are getting an over 45% margin on rice. On rice! OK, sure, some of the higher margin products are "exotic" grain blends, but mon dieu do people the world over really not know that you can buy the same products at the Han Kook Market for about 25% of the price?? I will bet that you can buy California rice that was exported to Asia and then re-imported under an Asian brand name for less money. I guess that is market segmentation for you, but it sure seems like a lot of wasted resources.

I remember hearing something the wide reach of the California rice industry while in Japan. I will never forget the time I sat down on a bullet train to the Shizuoka Prefecture, ready to dig in to a seemingly freshly made bento box of unagi don (eel over rice) and noticed it said "made in California" in tiny print across the back of the paper label. In train stations in Japan you can get these great fresh lunch boxes to take with you, reasonably priced and of impeccable quality. Apparently, made right here in California, (with eel probably caught in Taiwan, sold to California through the Tsukiji market in Tokyo, and then shipped back to Tokyo in the bento).

I ask you, if they are made here, why can't I buy anything even remotely comparable here?

My outrage is boundless.


# posted by Comida Evangelista : 8:23 PM  2 comments

Tuesday, April 05, 2005

Silk, Wondermilk

Did you know that a cup of lowfat milk has 11 grams of sugar? OK, it's not exactly Coca Cola, but for something wholesome, it sure has a lot of simple carbohydrates.

Silk unsweetened soymilk, (in the teal package) has 1 gram of sugar per cup. It also has a small amount of fiber (which is absent in milk.) No transfat, no cholesterol, and exactly the same amount of calcium. Milk beats silk on protein, coming in at 8 grams over 7. Big deal.

Somehow silk is only 10 calories less per one cup serving, but still, the sugar thing is a pretty good reason to recommend it. It also tastes good. (Not all the soymilk brands taste good. For all my avid pursuing of anything nutritious and pure, I have not developed a taste for baby formula!)

I wouldn't cook with it or anything but I find it is actually better in espresso based drinks than milk is. Both are bean based, and the nuttiness of soy tastes very good with coffee. It's good in oatmeal, too.

And I really like milk, and cream, and butter and full fat yogurt. But for my daily morning jolt of protien, no sugar, please! Since it is free of all that vanilla flavoring and sugar, it might be nice on mashed potatoes, but I haven't had the guts to mess with my mashed potatoes yet.

I will try a product just because I think it is a cool idea or company, but I can't stay with it unless it is really good and a good value. Silk is a bit expensive, but it is 100% organic, and the company is totally cool. They're using wind to provide energy to process the soybeans, and were the US Department of Energy's Green Power Partner of the Year for 2004.

The company, Whitewave, has a sense of humor, too. On the jobs site it says:
"40 hours a week and all the tofu you can eat.
Just kidding. Sometimes we work more than 40 hours a week."
I would like to go work there, but I just simply cannot live in Colorado. No offense.

The boxes have little games and articles on them, (you can read with your breakfast-like grown up cereal boxes.) It is available in regular chilled milk cartons and aseptic containers, as far as I can tell, there is no difference in the taste or quality. I like the aseptic containers because you don't have to refriderate them until they're open. Actually, if you can find milk in aseptic containers, it is much better, as the light, bleaching agents and temp change of other containers degrade the flavor of the milk. In Poland, they sell milk and juice in those aseptic paper boxes-convenient, square (cheap to ship), and super tasty!

# posted by Comida Evangelista : 1:09 PM  0 comments

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