08.31.04

Corn Syrup Nazi: Everybody knows one!

"Did you know that there are over ten teaspoons of sugar in that can of soda?"

Paul Newmans Pasta Sauce Ingredients: Tomato Puree (Water, Tomato Paste), Diced Tomatoes, Corn Syrup, Salt, Soybean Oil, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Extra Virgin Olive Oil, Spices, Onion, Garlic, Citric Acid

Paul, man, that is just embarrassing.

Planters Dry Roasted Peanuts Ingredients: Peanuts, Salt, Sugar, Cornstarch, Monosodium Glutamate Flavor Enhancer, Gelatin, Corn Syrup Solids, Paprika, Other Spices, Dried Yeast, Onion Powders, Garlic Powders, Hydrolyzed Soy Protein, Natural Flavor

Wait a minute - you put corn syrup - on my peanuts! In God's name, why?

Yoplait Go-Gurt Ingredients: Cultured Pasteurized Grade A Milk, Sugar, Nonfat Milk, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Modified Corn Starch, Kosher Gelatin, Tricalcium Phosphate, Potassium Sorbate (To Maintain Freshness), Carrageenan, Natural And Artificial Flavor, Colored With Carmine.

You think sodas are making kids fat? Guess how many of these sugar tubes get downed every single day during school lunch?

Michael Pollan on high fructose corn syrup.

Awash in corn syrup: The Chart.

08.31.04

Food News

Leslie Revsin 1945-2004: "Her first book, "Great Fish, Quick," was published in 1997. It was a finalist for the Julia Child Cookbook Award, given by the International Association of Culinary Professionals. She also was chosen as one of 13 chefs on the PBS show "Master Chefs of New York."

At Their Bark and Call: "On the room-service menu, I found a page devoted entirely to all-day dining for pets. The menu included such items as ’ÄúKitty’Äôs Salmon Supreme,’Äù ’ÄúChow Hound Chicken’Äù and ’ÄúWhisker Licking Liver.’Äù The meals, which ranged in price from $9 to $21, were served on ’Äúappropriate petware’Äù with Evian water accompanying them."

Just Try and Sneak In Some Saucisson: "Unlike a chef friend of mine who used to smuggle in ortolans (tiny, delectable French birds) packed amid his wife's underwear, we were completely open and aboveboard."

Good Thing I Drank All Mine: "Chateau Montelena in Napa Valley has undertaken a major renovation of its cellar after discovering that both the winery and its wines have been contaminated by TCA (2,4,6 trichloranisole), a chemical compound responsible for the off-flavors in corky wines."

World's Caviar Faces a Ban: "The United Nations agency that controls trade in endangered species has halted exports of caviar until the countries where it is produced comply with an agreement to protect sturgeon... As a result of the ban, the legal supply of Caspian caviar in the United States ’Äî is likely to dry up once the 2003 harvest is consumed."

Julia Child

08.20.04

Julia Child's kitchen (photo: © WBUR.org)

A panorama of Julia Child's kitchen

Julia Child: The Myths

Julia Child: Encyclopedia

The famous peg board wall

What Julia really taught us

The very last interview with Julia Child in City Magazine

Only So Many Fish in the Sea

08.01.04

Holy Rock Lobster (1) - David Foster Wallace on lobster-cide in the lastest issue of Gourmet Magazine.

"Oh no, not her again." Gourmet Magazine's Caroline Bates goes shopping for her seafood dinner.

Know your fishmonger. "The time: 5:30 p.m. The place: a restaurant kitchen. The activity: setting up stations by the stove. A normal enough snapshot, except that at the end of the line, two chefs are maniacally removing the spines from -- eels." Olivia Wu in the SF Chronicle.

Tuna Mobsters: "Only one of these big tuna can be worth as much as the most expensive Mercedes-Benz...How do you expect criminal organizations not to want to be in on it?" World's tuna depletion demands urgent action.

"Big as a Porsche, fast as a Porsche, and as valuable as a Porsche..." Slide on up to the sushi bar.

The Big One that didn't get away.