Eat Good, Eat Well

Unlike most farmer’s markets and CSA’s in the area, the MIT Produce stand will continue to operate through the winter.  It’s a great, inexpensive alternative to local chain supermarkets.

“Beginning Tuesday, October 27th, the MIT Produce Market will move to its winter location in the TSMC Lobby of the Stata Center. The market will continue on Tuesdays from 12pm – 6pm through March 30, 2010. The market will be closed on December 22 and December 29. The MIT Produce Market is operated by Russo’s, a family-run company that has been serving the Boston area for over 75 years. Russo’s won top honors in Boston® Magazine’s 2007 Best of Boston® contest for Best Produce.”

I started off this series by mapping all the farmer’s markets near me to see if it would be feasible to buy the majority of my food from local suppliers.  The next logical step was to actually head to one of the markets and see what the selection was like.  Here are my pictures to the Central Square Farmer’s Market, at the corner of Norfolk and Bishop Allen drive, in Cambridge.

Click to see the Flickr Album – it shows selection, prices, and the general atmosphere.

You could go the instructables method and use your leg to sharpen your knives or you could just go to DA Bucci and Sons, a professional knife sharpening outfit located in Stoneham, MA.  I went with some friends there a few days ago to get some work done and we all agreed they were fantastic.

I got my chinese chef’s knife sharper than it has ever been and my friend brought four of his knives, including an 8″ Shun that came back wickedly sharp.  Every knife cost only $2.50 and they can usually finish them while you wait, though we had to come back the next day.

The shop also carries a wide range of restaurant gear and all manner of knives, both new and used.  I think I saw a guy sharpening what looked to be a pretty hefty sword in the back too.  These are probably guys you don’t want to piss off…

DA Bucci & Sons
260 Main St, Stoneham, MA
(781) 438-5055‎

Hours: Mon-Fri 7AM-4PM; Closed Weekends/Holidays.
I highly recommend you call before heading there to make sure they’re open and to check how busy they are.

This is why I’m such a big fan of the New York Times: fantastic, in depth reporting by journalists who actually know something about what they write on.  I hope NYT finds a way to survive in the new market for news.

My favorite passage (so far) from this issue:

[On why experiments with making Britain's school food system healthier have had mixed results:]  What’s really happening is about more than old habits dying hard or the love of frying. The reason the world is still waiting for the Messiah is that most people don’t actually want one, no matter how many fresh fruits and vegetables he’s carrying. Oliver expects some of the same pushback in Huntington, whether it comes from recalcitrant teenagers, petty bureaucrats or parents who don’t like being told they’ve failed.

See the original article, or go directly to the Magazine’s Food Issue.

In this TED Talk, Architect Carolyn Steel makes a more-convincing-than-average argument for developing government policy and architecture cities to encourage sustainable eating.  She argues that people need to be more intouch with where their food comes from, so that they will value it more and pay more attention to eating sustainability and nutritiously.  Beyond the individual level, her ideas have impacts on how cities should be planned to encourage such habits.

Ms. Steel makes as compelling an argument for responsible eating as I’ve yet heard, but it still doesn’t seem like her “sitopia” is an attainable solution. Yes, increasing awareness of where food comes from would help everything from nutrition to family bonding, but can our energies be spent better elsewhere?

I think we should be specifically targeting the 1 billion starving and 1 billion obese that she mentions in her talk. Obese people contribute to unsustainable healthcare costs and promote irresponsible eating and marketing habits. Helping the starving would allow hungry children to pay attention in school and hungry parents to look for work.

Neither of these two groups would benefit greatly simply from eating local or getting in touch with food culture. The obese have plenty of food and the starving don’t care where theirs comes from.

How about this for an idea: Sallie James of CATO says Walmart can provide cheaper access to fresh fruit to the poor.  Activists might be repulsed at the thought of Walmart being mentioned in the same breath as good food or nutrition, but the fact remains that the mega-chain has the most efficient distribution system in the world and an enormous percent of market share, particularly in the working class demographic.  Why not let Walmart get better food to people and make money too?

A New York Times article published on Friday says that the important thing about eating together as a family is actually eating together: what you eat, when you eat, where you eat, or even whether you look at each other while slurping down big mac’s doesn’t seem to matter as much. The article argues that to promote family interaction, its fine to gather in front of the TV is that is easier than forcing schedules around to accommodate dinner.

Of course, eating home-cooked food will typically be more nutritious than fast food even fast food branded as “family style” or sold as a “family dinner”. Then again, studies have shown that people tend to eat more when in the company of others…

Fresh Vegetables, every Tuesday from Noon to 6 at MIT!  The produce is supplied by Russo’s, a food store located in Watertown, MA, so I guess this doesn’t technically count as a farmer’s market.  Still, the MIT Produce Stand is a great, nearby alternative to chain supermarkets and another option in addition to all the other farmer’s markets nearby.

I recently stumblied upon “Grow. Cook. Eat.“, a blog by another resident of Cambridge, MA (howdy neighbor) and it got me thinking about eating local again.  I keep telling myself that I need to get out of the habit of buying crappy food at the supermarket, but the local Shaw’s is literally minutes from my apartment, and the temptation is usually just too great.

So I decided to find out how lazy I’m really being: how easy is it to go to do all of your shopping at farmer’s markets in Cambridge, MA?

First, the schedule:

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Can you tell which is which?

I recently finished a basic full stocking of my in-home bar (more on that later) and I decided to do a little experiementing with all the new flavors I now had at my disposal.  Of course, simply sampling two alcohols and comparing is dull and one dimensional.  A better question is how a spirit interacts with other ingredients.

One of the most basic cocktails is the highball.  In fact, it’s not really even technically a cocktail, since the term “highball” simply describes a liquor combined with a carbonated beverage, poured over ice cubes in a (duh) highball glass.  Both the rum-and-coke and scotch-and-soda cocktails, for example, are examples of highballs.

The Incumbent

For this battle, I went with a personal favorite: scotch-and-ginger-ale.  I use McIvor Scotch, an extremely cheap, but well-balanced and mildly spicy blended scotch that can be bought for under $15 a bottle (750mL).  The last time I paid that sort of price for a bottle of scotch, it tastely distinctly of bleach and “burning”.  A friend recommended McIvor and I was naturally incredulous, but, I too would recommend it easily as a tasty cheap scotch.

The Challenger

Probably the most underrated whiskey I know of is the Rye Whiskey.  I have to admit I’ve only just begun my forays into Rye, but I my first experiences with it have been that it neatly fills an unforunate gap between scotch and bourbon.  Rye lacks the smokiness of Bourbon, but also its sweetness.  The result is a whiskey that retains its complexity even when combined with sweet mixers.

I went with Jim Beam Rye, another bottle that costs less than $15.

The Mixer

Canada Dry Ginger Ale.  mmmm.  ”nough said.

The Verdict: RYE

I conducted the test with the assistance of my roommate Joe.  This was only fair since I knew the identity of the two drinks and would have been biased.  The decision, however, was easy.  Both Joe and I agreed that the highball made with Rye produced a sweet, easily sippable drink that still retained complexity.  The scotch, by comparison, lacked depth.  Adding a little scotch to the recipe did help, but then the flavor of the alcohol began to take over the drink.

Wait, there’s more?

In my (extremely limited) experience with cocktails, I’ve found that almost every drink benefits from a little dash of bitters.  Bitters are concentrated elixers made with strong herbs, fruit rinds, or other flavors.  Naturally, I had to see what adding a dash of Angostura Bitters would do to these highballs.  Would it change the verdict?  Widen the margin of victory?

Actually, bitters ruined everything!  This was a shock to both Joe and myself, but the looks in both our faces were in agreement: bitters overpowered the drinks and actually reduced their complexity.

…Woah!

I still don’t think I’ve fully processed what all this means.  Hopefully I can follow up this post shortly with an analysis of how literally adding flavor to a cocktail could possibly serve to lessen its total impact, but, for now, I think it’s time for another drink.

Active time: 20 minutesCooking time: long and slow (6 hrs+)

What do you do when you get home on a Thursday evening, you have no plans, there’s nothing good on TV, and you’ve already had dinner?

If you’re like me… you cook some more! I’m still in school, so I work on a limited budget, which meas I try to pack as many home-made lunches as I can to avoid eating out.

The simple trick to preparing a lunch that will taste great even after being reheated in the mircowave is to use a recipe that calls for low, slow cooking in liquid, since that’s the type of cooking a microwave recreates best.

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