May 28, 2005
Quiz question!
Answer this one: from which virtually unknown restaurant dining room did I shoot this picture? Downtown skyline, Mount Rainier, Elliott Bay, Olympics. By the way, I had an assortment of Mediterranean appetizers and a chicken tagine, accompanied by a delicious Oregon pinot noir.
I'll post the answer--and report on the lunch--over the long weekend. Meantime, send your guess to my regular email. [I've turned off the blog's "comment" feature because of spammers.] Winner gets a bottle of wine!
May 27, 2005
Does this research make me look fat?
Couple of weeks ago I wrote about the government's new food pyramid and predicted that it wouldn't take long for people to make fun of it.
Sure enough, from cartoon strips like Cathy to online journals like Slate, the laughter began.
What I hadn't expected was the next round, transparently orchestrated by the food lobby: that it's okay to be fat. Riiight.
Now, Puliter-prize winning journalist Gina Kolata provides an update: the food lobby twisted the research. Read her story here.
May 23, 2005
Quorn-pone?
It's called Quorn, made from "mycoprotein." Never heard of it? Could be because it's an entirely new food, sort of but not exactly like mushrooms.
At the supermarket, you can find Quorn in the frozen-food case, next to more familiar meat substitutes like Boca Burger, Garden Burger and Morningstar (now part of Kellogg's, by the way). I cooked up a Quorn patty with asparagus; tasted like chicken!
Here's the point: the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a radical, anti-wine, anti-pleasure, anti-consumer outfit, has filed suit against Quorn, claiming it's not food. Seattle's own Sara Dickerman, who often writes for The Stranger, has details in an excellent Slate column.