FlavBlog

I enjoy reading immensely. One can find my head in a book reading on the bus to and from work, at my work commons during lunch, walking the streets of Capitol Hill, or sitting on my couch at home. For the last year, I’ve read a variety of different food books.  A large portion of my nonfiction reading for the past couple of years has focused on food literature. Some reads have influenced me in a way that it altered our purchasing, cooking, and eating habits. Others, I found entertaining and generated fond memories of past and hopefully future food-related travels. The rest were simply informative and helped me add random trivia or food facts to conversations. What food books have influenced you recently?

"Food Rules, An Eater’s Manual." By Michael Pollan:  Easy to flip through health guide for eating. Some of the "rules’ seem obvious- "19. If it came from a plant, eat it; if it was made in a plant, don’t (pg.41)," wise but rarely thought about- "27. Eat animals that have themselves eaten well (pg.61)” and necessary- "44. Pay more, eat less (pg.99).” The one we live by in our home: "51. Spend as much time enjoying the meal as it took to prepare it (pg.113)" Recommended to people who should learn about a healthy eating lifestyle.

"Eating Animals," By Jonathan Safran Foer:  Foer’s "Eating Animals” made me conscious think about all the animals I’ve eaten since a kid and will continue to eat as I grow old. He does in a subtle manner push a veggie lifestyle. But to be frank, I will never give up meat. I like it too much. The least I can do is to make a conscious choice to eat ethically treated meat and seafood versus factory farmed. On his website he has a Call for Action. I thought this aspect was missing from the book, which begged for people to act. Recommended to people who eat way too much meat.

"The Edible Series" A Global History. (Hamburger. Cheese. Pizza. Pancake.):  Each subject matter stands alone in roughly 125 pages and there are several other single subject matters in publication. They review the food from it’s origins, focuses on subgroups within the subject matter, and offers a short list of recipes. The books are brief enough to keep them entertaining and yet filled with trivia (e.g. the first fast food hamburger stand in CA selling burgers for a few cents). These books are not for the person who wants an extensive thorough background on a food subject. Recommended to people who play Trivia or watch Jeopardy. 

"Eat My Globe," By Simon Majumdar:  Majumdar spent one year traveling around the world eating everything he could. His descriptions are not for the faint hearted, but for those with tough stomachs. He is raw and brash and at times it can be disappointing because of his fast paced travel schedule. He did hit some excellent food cultures of the world (France, China, and Argentina), but was rather brief and apologetic about other food meccas, specifically San Francisco. Recommended to people that read arm chair travel.  

"Beans, A History," By Ken Albala: Albala offers the most extensive review of beans I have ever seen or read. The legume’s history ranges from various Western nations and parts of Asia. I chose to read the book because I rarely buy, order, or eat beans and thought maybe if I learn more about them…..I’ll want to include them more often in our cooking. Recommended to people who think they know everything about beans.

"Grape vs. Grain," by Charles Bamforth: Bamforth sets up a entertaining debate of grapes (wine) versus grain (beer).  Which one wins?  Probably beer, at least he spends more pages talking about it. I enjoyed the descriptions of the different malts, grains, and hops. However, I found the wine sections lacking in detail and breadth. Regardless, he challenges one to reach out for the variety of flavors and blends a beer has to offer, and brings up an interesting point that beer has amazing complexity. Recommended to people who think they dislike beer.

"The Botany of Desire," Michael Pollan:  Pollan sets out to describe four subjects: apples, tulips, cannabis, and the potato. He nails each one in a picture perfect sense. He sets out to say that there is still hope for maintaining a unique apple species. The largest variety of cut flowers are sold daily at the Aalsmeer flower market. The cannabis bud continues to ignite controversy in both theory and use. The NewLeaf genetically modified potato was stuffed, yet other genetically modified preservative "food" remains on the table.  Recommended to people who desire more truth and detail about botanical delights.

"Salt: A World History," Mark Kurlansky:  Kurlansky explores every aspect of salt: cultural and religious history, chemistry, and economics. This text exclaims the significant use of salt throughout Chinese, British, Middle Eastern, and United States.  Salt’s amazing ability to be used in so many contexts both within and outside the world of food makes it one of the worlds most important minerals. Recommended to people who like history.  

"Fat, An Appreciation of a Misunderstood Ingredient with Recipes" By Jennifer McLagan:  McLagan stresses the importance of fat in the diet for a healthy lifestyle. Yes, fat, the part people cut away, throw away, or request to be removed before purchase.  Fat is demonized by our society, and McLagan goes into great detail to contrast many of the preconceived notions about fat.  Her book provides specific examples of fat’s benefits, types, and recipes. Recommended to people everyone who eats and enjoy fat.  

"Shark’s Fin and Sichuan Pepper," Fuchsia Dunlop:  Dunlop took me back to the sights, sounds, smells, and tastes of Sichuan, China. This is one of my favorite non-fiction books of the year because it brought back the memories of the hot, spicy numbing Sichuan pepper hot pot, tea in the People’s Park at Chengdu, Buddha’s hands in the Red Sea (pig feet)  at the Chengdu cooking school with Mr. Lee, or the fried bread balls with a sweet sugar sauce at the Wolong Manor Hotel. I laughed out loud as I read Dunlop’s descriptions because many people share similar eating and cultural experiences as Westerners traveling in China. Recommended if you have ever traveled to China or desire to travel to China, this is the book to get you started or to rekindle old memories.

I enjoy good beer, the only thing left for me to do is to make it myself (something I’m in serious discussion/thought about doing). By beer I don’t mean the absolute crap, that the politicians in D.C. suck down in the name of votes, I’m referring to beer that has complex flavor, that says life is good, that is usually not mass produced, that can give you a headache after one glass, and that uses a careful selection of ingredients.  This summer is no different because I’ve been tasting some outstanding beer.  I thought it was only appropriate to do a gigante post on some adventures around beer that I’ve enjoyed this summer. This includes travels that had a beer adventure, a great book on beer I read, a festival I attended, and a recipe we made involving brew.

I’d like to start with a book I read after a recommendation by Seed Magazine called Froth: The Science of Beer. I actually picked up a copy on our recent “food rampage” trip to Portland (link via Dawn and Eric, Wright Eats) which of course always includes an hour or more in Powell’s City of Books.  Mark Denny writes for all types of readers because he puts the more difficult math and science it at the end of the chapter so people can skim or skip it if they aren’t into math.  He talks about where the bubbles in beer come from, how they move about the glass, and why different types of beer have their various characteristics.   He dives into the history and advances in beer making, not forgetting to describe in depth how and why America has 3-4 major “macro-breweries” that manufacture what he basically calls excrement.  Upon reading this book, I learned quite a bit about the whole process for the microbrew and the homebrewer.  I have a totally new appreciation for how vital the strain of yeast is in making a quality beer.  By weaving in the science  I now feel like I really understand how beer is constructed like through a trial an error process, how it gets its amazingly divergent flavor profile, and the beauty of the variety in hops and malt selection.

Here are a few of the beers that I’ve recently tasted and enjoyed:

Dog Fish Head Palo Santo Marron: ABV 12% | Dog Fish

This is beer is a very serious brown ale aged in handmade wooden brewing barrels. The casks are made from Paraguayan Palo Santo wood.   Palo Santo means “holy tree” and this wood has been used in many South American wine-making communities.  The pour was all coffee and caramel-like in the glass.  The head doesn’t stay around very long, but there is a bit of it left around the edge of the glass after it falls.  This beer was very smokey on the initial smell, with a rum like quality that made me think of a Captain Morgan being poured.  The taste profile was quite different from a standard brown ale…it was much more complex with dark fruit (maybe even a little fig), coco, and some definite smoked wood flavor.  The mouthfeel wasn’t its strongest suit because it seemed a bit more watery than one would expect for all the complexity of the taste.  The mouthfeel would not deter me from absolutely recommending it however.  You will notice that it has very high alcohol content (12% ABV) so  it is a sipping beer for sure.  I’d like to try another one on a rainy day in fall when this darker stuff is more typical of what I drink during that season.

Double Wide India Pale Ale: ABV 8.5% | Boulevard Brewing Co.

I used to drink Boulevard beers (Kansas City, MO) back when I lived in Nebraska.  It was one of the few decent local micros on tap in many of dingy bars I hung out in as a poor Ph.D student.  However, back then Boulevard was mostly known for their Boulevard Wheat beer, which is very popular in that area and served with lemon.  So when I noticed the Double Wide IPA on the shelf I was nearly in shock that they made such a potent brew.  To be frank, I wasn’t expecting the pungent-like qualities of the Northwest IPA I enjoy regularly out here in Seattle.  This beer poured like a champagne.  It has a monster head with larger bubbles and even by pouring slowly it didn’t stop it from showing itself (see pic).  This IPA is pretty hoppy and zingy with more lemon citrus than orange or lime flavors and it is also fuller texture than some NW IPAs.  They also have a Single Wide IPA which I just picked up today and will be curious to see how Boulevard’s standard IPA tastes.

Portland Beer Festival: Portland, OR

While down in Portland four of us stopped by the Beer Festival (July 17-19) in the Pearl district in downtown PDX.  It was 20 bucks a head including a 4oz free taster glass and 20 beer tickets which typically average about 1 dollar each.  Some beer tastings are 1 ticket, others can be up to 8.  The festival was very well organized and had one side dedicated to draft choices, the other for beers out of the bottle (including aged Belgian Ales, etc).  The highlight at the festival was the beer that we all pooled our tickets together to taste called the DeuS (Brut Methode Champagnoise).  This beer was being called “epic” by the festival organizers so we had to wait in the long line to taste it but it did not disappoint.  It is one of the more fascinatingly complex beers I’ve ever tasted.  The Deus is brewed by Bosteels Brewery, it is then shipped to the Champagne region of France to undergo the full Methode Champenoise (one of two in the world that does so) which really makes this brew special.  The taste was uncharacteristic of many belgian brews.  We all agreed that it had some major flavor components that stood out (and this is a simplification to be fair):  Mr Clean pine cleaner, JagerMeister, Sprite, syrup.  So this isn’t really a beer you drink with a brat or slab of ribs.  This is for sippin’.  I’ve never seen it in any of the beer shops, but it allegedly sells for between 40-60 a bottle.

Powerhouse Brewery | Puyallup Washington.

We stopped in recently for a bite to eat and to taste few of their beers.  I was quite impressed on a number of counts.  First of all the building was refinished from an old railroad powerhouse right smack in the middle of Puyallup’s downtown.  It is a tiny place inside and doesn’t appear to seat that many people, but it has a unique “power” theme throughout.  The beers I tried were all above average.  The Summer Seasonal ale was a little hopped and had a nice bitterness that many summer ales lack in my opinion.  Robin had a nice Belgian White, that wasn’t as sweet as they usually are, but still had a nice balance of malt and hops.  The 4 Alarm Nitro Stout was outstanding with a rich texture as typical from a nitro but it carried nice coffee flavors, tobacco, and dark chocolate.  The IPA was traditional for the northwest, but well crafted with quite of bit of citrus zing and yet not overloaded bitter hop taste.  The food is as typical for a brewpub, well below our standards.

Finally, a beer themed dessert recipe that we recently enjoyed.  It started with a bottle of SteelHead Scotch Porter (ABV 6%, Mad River Brewing).  This beer has a dark and roasted malt flavor.  It also has a wonderful nuttiness and a hint of chocolate.  We imagined it would go perfectly with cherries in a cherry porter ice cream after being inspired by some food blogs and Boundry Bay Brewery in Bellingham Washington who serves Cherry-porter ice cream from time-to-time.  The recipe was adapted from David Lebovitz’s vanilla version. We also accompanied the ice cream with a Cherry Frangipane Galette (via Martha Stewart’s Baking Handbook)

Cherry Porter Ice Cream

1 cup (250ml) whole milk

A pinch of salt

3/4 cup (150g) sugar

2 cups (500ml) heavy cream

5 large egg yolks

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract (if you want)

1 cup pitted, halved Bing cherries

1/2 cup  of nice rich Porter

1/4 cup corn syrup

1. Heat cherries, Porter and corn syrup in a heavy bottomed sauce pan until reduced by about a quarter. Set aside to cool.

2. To make the ice cream, set up an ice bath by placing a 2-quart (2l) bowl in a larger bowl partially filled with ice and water. Set a strainer over the top of the smaller bowl and pour the cream into the bowl.

3. Heat the milk, salt, and sugar in a saucepan until sugar is dissolves, then set aside.

4. In a separate bowl, stir together the egg yolks. Rewarm the milk then gradually pour some of the milk into the yolks, whisking constantly as you pour. Scrape the warmed yolks and milk back into the saucepan.

4. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly and scraping the bottom with a heat-resistant spatula, until the custard thickens enough to coat the spatula.

5. Strain the custard into the heavy cream. Stir over the ice until cool, add the vanilla extract, then refrigerate to chill thoroughly. Preferably overnight.

6. Freeze the custard in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions.  Then fold-in the Cherry Porter mixture carefully with a spatula by hand.

The ice cream tastes roasted and nutty with a hint of tartness from the cherries, and a rounded cream texture.

Cherry Porter Ice Cream with a slice of Cherry-Frangipane Galette

Most Americans drink milk each day, but very few people understand its history or production. In her James Beard award winning book, “Milk, the surprising story of milk through the ages: along with 120 adventurous recipes that explore the riches of our first food,” Anne Mendelson sets out to demystify the beginnings and current perspectives on taste. She creates an informative approach to the grocery store labeling of raw vs. pasteurized, organic vs conventional. The book contains recipes ranging from homemade yogurt, sour cream, and true buttermilk and it highlights cultural regions around the world (Turkish Style Yogurt, Polish Cold Beet Soup, & Russian Pot-Cheese Fritters). Most of the recipes require non-homogenized milk, which can be difficult for some people to locate. Fortunately, we have a variety of raw milks to select from living in the Pacific Northwest.

While Michael and I did not test out any of the recipes, we did purchase three types of milk for a small taste to determine if we could taste some of her descriptions in “Milk.” Since eating cookies is usually involved with milk consumption, I made the Cooks Illustrated Big Chewy Oatmeal-Raisin cookies as an accompaniment. The Milk selections were as follows:

• Dungeness Valley Creamery Whole Raw Jersey milk ($6.99 64oz, independent privately owned in Sequim, WA)
• Sunshine 2% Reduced Fat milk ($2.99 64 oz, independent privately owned in Portland, OR)
• Organic Valley Family of  Farms Reduced Fat 2% Ultra Pasteurized milk ($3.99 64 oz, family cooperative in Northwest)

We decided to double blind the samples and decode them at the end, so we could be as objective as possible. From the outset, we noticed that there was a clear difference in color of each type of milk. The Organic Valley and Sunshine appeared bleach white, whereas the Dungenness Valley reflected a creamy yellow tone. Sunshine’s texture coated my mouth, more than the Organic Valley’s watery consistency, and had a hint of sweetness. It tasted like the milk from my childhood basic grocery store. Finally, the Dungeness Valley’s buttery, nutty, richer flavor cleared the path as the distinct winner.  Although the most expensive, Dungeness Valley was well above the other two and after reading Mendelson’s “Milk,” you learn why it is critical to seek out the Jersey cow milk for the “real” milk flavor. For example, Jersey cows produce less pounds of milk compared to the conventional cow and the molecular structure (large milk fat globules), density, and texture of Jersey milk results in an earthier, rustic flavor and darker color.

We’re gearing up to add some other local milk into another taste test, including SeaBreeze Farms among others. And, if you haven’t tried the Cooks Illustrated Big Chewy Oatmeal-Raisin cookies, they go perfectly with a glass of Dungeness Valley Milk.