Michael Pollan on Class, Glamour, Food TV & Lots of Other Stuff

DC Jason just sent me a link to Michael Pollan's NYT manifesto that hits just about every big point that relates to Americans current relationship with food and cooking. It's a brilliant article, really, starting with Pollan's childhood memories (from Julia to Swanson and back, without missing a beat) and closing with the most simple, yet unlikely to materialize, solution to America's obesity problem.

It's long, but well worth a full read. But in the meantime, a few quotes:

Cooking for her was so much more than a means to a meal. It was a gratifying, even ennobling sort of work, engaging both the mind and the muscles. You didn’t do it to please a husband or impress guests; you did it to please yourself. No one cooking on television today gives the impression that they enjoy the actual work quite as much as Julia Child did. In this, she strikes me as a more liberated figure than many of the women who have followed her on television.

So-called fancy food has always served as a form of cultural capital, and cooking programs help you acquire it, now without so much as lifting a spatula.

Even the most ordinary dish follows a similar arc of transformation, magically becoming something greater than the sum of its parts. Every dish contains not just culinary ingredients but also the ingredients of narrative: a beginning, a middle and an end. Bring in the element of fire — cooking’s deus ex machina — and you’ve got a tasty little drama right there...

B&O American Brasserie Open

There's not a lot of encouraging news in the restaurant world these days, especially not here in Baltimore. Between the closing of favorites like Ixia and the recent "Baltimore=The Wire" episode of No Reservations, Baltimore food lovers are smarting a little bit.

Maybe that's why the opening of B&O American Brasserie (410-692-6172, 2 North Charles Street, adjacent to the new Hotel Monaco) is garnering so much attention. For weeks, local food writers have been buzzing about the restaurant, which as of yesterday is open for breakfast and dinner (it will also be open for lunch starting August 17th).

The menu is of the local, fresh, American sort - lots of seasonal ingredients, a raw bar and a great cocktail menu. I haven't eaten there yet, but based on what I've heard, the space is cool and the food is tasty.

All of that is great for Baltimoreans who love food, of course, but what I'm really excited about is a little more personal. I'm excited about the chef.

Chef E. Michael Reidt is a CIA grad and was named a Food & Wine Best New Chef in 2001, when he was cooking Brazilian-inspired food at Bomboa in Boston. In the years since, he's helmed several restaurants in central and southern California and he's gotten press in a bunch of foodie and mainstream publications. He's a chef with national buzz behind him and that is, I think, exactly what Baltimore needs.

Not to take away from the rest of the chefs in town -we've got some excellent people weilding knives around town. But Baltimore is a hometown kind of place, which is mostly a good thing, but it can also be limiting. Sometimes you need somebody from the outside to raise the profile of a city. It might not be fair to the chefs who have been turning out creative, quality food in Baltimore for years, but Reidt's arrival has the potential to change the national perception of the Baltimore food scene.

And that, really, is a fantastic thing for everybody.

[Photo of Chef E. Michael Reidt courtesy of B&O American Brasserie.]

Old School Thursday: Thank You for Being a Friend Edition

It’s a quiet day in food world. The only major event was the death of Jacob Perkins (1849). Perkins received the first U.S. patent for a refrigerating machine.

Just as well, anyway, since that gives us plenty of time to celebrate National Cheesecake Day. I’m actually not a huge fan of cheesecake myself (I’ll eat it, but I don’t order it), but I am a huge fan of the Golden Girls. And what’s more golden than cheesecake?

As an aside, I just learned from IMDB that the Golden Girls ate over 100 cheesecakes during the show's run (seven years) and that Bea Arthur hated cheesecake. Learning something new every day.

Bourdain on Baltimore: My Thoughts

The short version:
Not the show I hoped to see, but (unfortunately) the show I expected to see.

The much, much longer version:
From the time I heard Anthony Bourdain was visiting Baltimore, I was concerned that the show would fail to capture the whole personality of the city. I'm sure everyone thinks this about their home, but to me Baltimore seems like an unusually difficult location to sum up in just a few words. The charm in "Charm City" comes from a quirky diversity, a great sense of humor and some serious resilience. That's a tough thing to capture quickly.

Back in January, when Bourdain first blogged about his visit to Baltimore, I had this to say:

So it sounds like he understands at least one part of the city. I'm sure it'll be a great show. And I know I shouldn't really complain until I see it, but I will anyway. How come Cleveland got the quirky, artsy, foodie edit, while Baltimore gets the "The Wire is real" edit?

I said that as someone who's a fan of The Wire. I don't pretend that what the show depicts doesn't exist. But it's only one part of the city.

My concern doubled when I heard that Baltimore would share an episode with Detroit and Buffalo. A) that's less time to delve into quirks and b) those three cities don't match. I've been to both Buffalo and Detroit. Detroit was one of the saddest places I've been and Buffalo is great except for the unrelenting cold. But the three cities don't naturally fit together.

Unfortunately, now that I've watched the episode, I see that my fears played out. After a quick perusal of the internet, I see that I'm not the only one who feels this way, either - there are tons of comments on Bourdain's blog that echo my sentiments.

In the interest of keeping it short(ish), here's where I think the episode got it wrong:

• Baltimore isn't a Rust Belt city, and the episode didn't even try to portray it as such. It wasn't about the disappearance of industry. To be fair, Bourdain's blog post addresses this issue. But it still got in my way.
• The Baltimore segment of the show only included individuals associated with The Wire. That's going to skew the edit no matter what. Plus, I couldn't help but think that there's at least one blue collar musician in Baltimore as entertaining as the Buffalo guy. And it was largely thanks to him that Buffalo got a good edit.
• That crab cake at Mo's was a travesty. So was the drink. Which Bourdain called "an indigenous beverage." It was blue. BLUE!
• I agree with one commenter's observation that there's a big dissonance between the show's dialogue about hope and improvement (Snoop specifically mentioned that the city is less dangerous now than it used to be) and the visuals (all boarded up row houses and run-down streets). Similarly, Bourdain gives a little lip service to John Waters, who's version of Baltimore is just as real and as entertaining as the one on The Wire, but doesn't back it up visually at all.

While I don't think it would've been interesting to just show Baltimore's nicer food scene - every city's got a Cindy Wolf, right? - many of my issues with the show could have been resolved with about one minute of b-roll showing the different areas of the city. The run-down west side plus a bit of Fells, downtown, Little Italy, Hampden, maybe a market, Hopkins and, say, Roland Park. Add some voice over addressing the importance of neighborhoods and the overarching quirkiness Baltimore offers and you've painted a much more honest picture of the city without masking the problems, but putting them in larger context.

All of this said, there were some things I liked about the episode. Both Snoop and Jay Landsman made it clear that Baltimore's their home because this is where they come from, and where their families and friends live. It's a hometown. That's very true. And the pride and humor that Bourdain references (though more clearly on his blog than in the episode) are real.

Also, though it glossed over in the episode, I thought it was interesting that all the food shown was, at its core, southern - lake trout, greens, pit beef. Add in the seafood and you've got something uniquely mid-Atlantic that really does belong to Maryland, but it was an interesting reminder that our culinary roots are southern.

Of course, that's just one more reason that the tie-in with cities like Buffalo and Detroit feels forced.

Overall, I'm sorry that the episode disappointed me, especially since I don't expect that we'll get a chance for a do-over. But, hey, you never know.

[Photo from the Travel Channel website.]

Update: Thanks to Andrew Green and Justin Fenton at the Sun for the links, and for two articles that capture both the problems and the hope in the city.

Artsy Wednesday: Mondrian Cake and Artsy Desserts at the SFMOMA

I owe a big thank you to Libby for sending me this article and this blog post on pastry chef Caitlin Williams Freeman's cool cakes. Freeman makes the desserts at the Blue Bottle Coffee Bar, in the sculpture garden of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, drawing inspiration from the exhibits at the museum and from other works of art.

The blog post includes desserts by a few other artsy pastry chefs - they're all pretty amazing.

As a fan of both Mondrian and dessert, and having tried (and failed) to mimic modern art via pastry, I have nothing but admiration for Freeman and her fellow pastry artists.

Well, admiration as well as a burning desire to visit the SFMOMA while wearing a YSL Mondrian dress. Too matchy? Yes. But also the kind of dorky thing I love.

Ideabook Tuesday: Houseboats

I'm back from our long weekend at Alicia's family's Keuka Lake cottage and I've got more than a few stories (some of which are even food-related). But I'm all caught up with work, I don't have time to write about the trip. So in the meantime, houseboats!

Living at Sea: The Allure of Houseboats

houzz- home design, kitchen design, bathrooms and more

Trendy Monday: Pushing the Cereal Envelope

Last week, Virginia (from Deep Glamour) forwarded me an email about a new dish at New York's Waverly Inn: Duck and Trix.

It's an appetizer that pairs a duck breast dressed in a sweet port wine reduction with a dish of carmelized Trix brittle. UrbanDaddy (the originator of the email) says:

"When the chef who keeps the city's power brokers well fueled starts offering up under-the-radar appetizers utilizing kid food, you know it's time to start eating cereal for dinner."

I beg to differ. What I think this means is that Waverly Inn chef John Delucie might need to take a step back from the Adult Swim, check his need to be kitschy, and focus more on the food and less on how the Daily Candy editors can wrap a pun around the description.

Not that I'm against cereal for dinner: just last week I made that cornflake crusted chicken. And maybe I'm a little biased because I've never liked Trix, not even as a kid.

But seriously now. Life is not a Top Chef vending machine Quickfire. And even if it was, I just might prefer the Cheeto stuck in the Snickers. At least it's unpretentious.

Entertaining Friday: KEUKA LAKE!

This is where I'm being entertained, as we speak:

This picture was taken last year, but you get the idea: pretty lake, party boat, wine country, no kids. Highly, highly, highly enjoyable.

Old School Thursday: Fish & Chips & Ice Cream Edition

Today is National Vanilla Ice Cream Day, and that’s fitting, since it’s also the 105th anniversary of the invention of the ice cream cone (by one account). The cone was supposedly created by Charles Minches, for his customers at the St. Louis World’s Fair.

Today is also St. Phocas the Gardener Day. He is the patron saint of farmers and gardeners and, apparently, really bad saints’ names. Phocas? Not terribly surprising that it never caught on with the Catholic parents.

And finally, today in 1894, Arthur Treacher, of fried fish fame, was born.

Which makes today’s celebration easy: a trip to the farmer’s market, a basket of fish and chips and a vanilla ice cream cone for dessert. Happy July 23rd!

Artsy: Food in the Arts Blog

I am, quite obviously, a big huge geek when it comes to anything that combines food, social history and art. Much to Cooper's chagrin, my basement walls are covered with a timeline charting major events in food, art and regular history from the start of civilization until today. My bookshelves are filled with books - both fiction and non - related to food and art and culture. My internet bookmarks include a category called "social history of food."

So imagine my great, great interest when I first clicked on Bill Moore's blog, Food in the Arts. Moore is a retired professor of art history and on his blog, he examines the literal inclusion of food in art, and what it means in the larger context of society.

Swoon. Seriously.

Moore's project, which he dubs "Artists at the Table," has been underway since 2003 and in that time he has collected around 1600 images of art that includes food. On the blog, they're categorized into 25 thematic chapters, and he does have possible plans to publish the content one day.

Ideabook Tuesday: Sleeping Porches

The summer before I started eighth grade, I spent a long weekend on Keuka Lake, in New York's finger lakes, with my friend Tracy and her family. We spent our days swimming in the lake and bumming around the tiny town of Penn Yan, and our nights being gossipy 12 and 13-year olds on the pier then, when it got too late, on the sleeping porch.

I'm sure it wasn't my first introduction to the sleeping porch, but it made a big impression. The weather in upstate New York is perfect for sleeping outside in the summer, and screened porches make it possible to do so without being woken up by mosquitos.

I've been back to Keuka since that first trip and I'll be visiting again soon - Alicia's family has a house there. This will give me something to think about while I'm doing laundry and packing and doing more laundry:

DIY Projects: Outfitting a Sleeping Porch

houzz- home design, kitchen design, bathrooms and more

Trendy Monday: Herbs on the Table

Friday afternoon, I was in the yard, doing a little herb-related housekeeping (especially around our mint, which is clearly the superhero of the herb family), when I decided to experiment with the clippings.

Now, I'm certainly no Martha, and I know that these arrangements are disheveled at best, but I'm still pretty pleased with the results. The dining room smells great (still) and I'm so happy to find a new way to keep the herbs from going to waste. Especially all that mint. There are only so many minty cocktails one girl can drink.

Question: How'd That Chicken Turn Out?

Answer: Not bad:

Nice, in-focus picture, huh? That's what happens when I remember to take a photo mid-meal.

As I mentioned on Friday, I was in a picnicky kind of mood, which was handy, since I was already planning on making oven-fried chicken (based on this Chowhound recipe). I wasn't planning on making much else, though, so instead of actually cooking anything to match, I picked up some pesto pasta salad and mozzarella from Ceriello, plus a couple of tomatoes from the market (we've got basil in the yard). Alicia brought over cornbread, we opened some rose, pretended the dining room table was a gingham cloth on the ground outside and that was that.

But the chicken? How was it? Again, not bad. The cornflake crust was good (though I'd spice it up a bit next time) and the chicken itself was cooked really nicely. Unfortunately, since the chicken's not actually fried, the skin never gets crispy - so it's kind of weird and yellow and slimy. Next time - and I will make this again - I'll remove the skin. Sad, kind of, since the skin is such a great part of fried chicken.

But at least now we know. And overall, not a bad meal, especially for a quiet, mid-summer Friday night.

Sweet, Sweet JBJ

Occasionally I post a link to something that even I, despite my impressive capacity for tenuous connection-creation, can't connect back to food. This is one such link.

Here's the short version: the blogger attempts to evaluate Jon Bon Jovi's claim to have "seen a million faces, and rocked them all." While I'm not sure his argument is completely sound, I'm a sucker for a) Venn diagrams and b) anything and everything Bon Jovi (and most of my friends can attest to this. The Bon Jovi part, at least.)

I mean, Bon Jovi's awesome. Everyone agrees with me, right?

Even if I didn't love Bon Jovi enough just on his own numerous merits, I will always have a soft spot in my heard for him thanks to the events of New Year's Eve, 1999-2000, when my friend Bill (note: high school friend Bill, not Jen/Maddy/Will/Bill) fell off a chair during a particularly rousing rendition of "Livin' on a Prayer." He got back up and kept going, even taking an unexplained late night stroll from Canton to Federal Hill. When he got up in the morning and his shoulder hurt, he got it checked out. He'd broken his collarbone, and didn't even notice. (He's fine now, so the story has a happy ending.)

Such is the power of the JBJ. Also, apparently, youth + alcohol.

Ooh. Booze. That might be the link back to food. Done.

Entertaining Friday: Dejeuner Sur L'Herbe

I'm in the mood for a picnic today - just in time for what looks like rain. No matter. I've already got chicken soaking in buttermilk, ready to coat in corn flakes and bake and in a few minutes, I'm heading to the store for the rest of my provisions. Tonight we're going to have a picnic-style dinner, even if we're actually inside, sitting at the table and watching rain fall.

From KFC to French Laundry

Yesterday, DC Jason sent me a link to one of those blogs that's totally narrow in scope and also totally cool: Fancy Fast Food.

The blog description:

These photographs show extreme makeovers of actual fast food items purchased at popular fast food restaurants. No additional ingredients have been added except for an occasional simple garnish.

It's pretty fascinating. Not to mention time consuming. Sometimes I wonder how some bloggers manage to do as much as they do. They must just need less sleep than I do, that's what I figure.

Old School Thursday: Enjoy Your Quiet July Edition

As fitting for the middle of July, today’s just not very busy. Which is nice, since that means you can give your full attention to celebrating National Corn Fritters Day.

In other news, today in 1827, Josiah Spode II, the inventor of Spode porcelain, died. His porcelain became the standard for English bone china – a standard that endured for long enough that I got a Spode cake plate as a wedding gift. It’s very pretty.

And that’s about it for “other news.” We haven’t had a day this quiet in weeks.

Too Soon?

I think that I'm jumping the gun on tomatoes this year, but I can't help myself. Look at how great these tomatoes (from Planet Produce) look with Ceriello mozzarella and basil from the backyard:

We had these for dinner last night, with just a little drizzle of balsamic. It might be early in the season, but they were fantastic.

Plus, I was inspired by this crab and avocado salad Cooper got at Mari Luna last Saturday:

Speaking of Mari Luna, has anyone had a bad meal there ever? It's fantastic and so consistent. Plus, loud enough to be totally kid-friendly.

But I digress. Tomato season might not have officially started in these parts, but it has started at my house. I just can't resist.

[Crab salad photo by Alicia Barger.]

Bone Marrow Drive at Ryan's Daughter this Sunday

Jonathan (left) and Brad post-throwdown.

Longtime readers will (maybe) remember that my very first throwdown experience was of the latke variety. Two and a half years ago, I was invited to a holiday party at the home of our friends Brad and Eileen. The highlight: a latke cookoff between Brad and his high school friend Jonathan. Jonathan won, but it was close. Much hilarity and trash talk all around.

This past March, Jonathan was diagnosed with acute leukemia. No one ever expects that kind of diagnosis, and probably least of all an active and apparently healthy 32 year old guy. Since his diagnosis, Jonathan has been in and out of Hopkins receiving treatment.

Recently, Jonathan's doctors told him that chemotherapy alone isn't enough for him to make a full and lasting recovery - he needs a bone marrow transplant. Currently, no one is a 100% match for Jonathan's bone marrow.

His family and friends have worked hard and quickly to organize bone marrow drives in a bunch of cities - Baltimore included. The Baltimore drive will take place this Sunday, July 19th, from 3 PM to 9 PM.

If you're in a position to donate, please consider coming by Ryan's Daughter. The test is simple and only takes a minute - just a cheek swab. And then you can treat yourself to a Guinness for the effort.

To read more about Jonathan and about bone marrow transplants, visit http://www.teamhaupt.org/.

Manolo the Allergic

At the insistence of Manolo the Shoeblogger, I read this Financial Times article about Manolo the Shoemaker. And look what I learned about the Maestro:

He is allergic to acetic acid, so can’t stomach wine or vinegar.

Quelle horreur! I mean that seriously. No wine or vinegar? I'm not sure what I'd do.

Ideabook Tuesday: Stockholm Style

In 2001, I spent a few sunny, gorgeous days in Stockholm. I loved every second of it. How could I not - sailboats and pretty, friendly people and H&M on every corner and, OK, bad food, but also this:

From the second I stepped off the plane and into the most perfectly designed airport restroom imaginable, until the morning I boarded a plane back to Heathrow, I was totally enchanted by the city's mix of traditional European charm and ultra-functional Scandinavian minimalism. It's great and anybody who has a chance to visit really should.

But if you can't get there, checking out the home of Benita and Martin Larsson (of the blog Chez Larsson) is the next best thing:

Houzz interview: Chez Larsson's beautiful Stockholm house

more home design ideas on houzz

Trendy Monday: What Recession?

For reasons that I will get into later, Cooper and I had brunch yesterday at the Rusty Scupper. It's an older and famous, if not quite venerable, Baltimore restaurant, though neither one of us had ever been there. I'd always thought of it as kind of a touristy place (it does have a great view) or a place that people took clients from out of town (though I never did - people in advertising consider themselves too cool for a touristy restaurant.)

It's also expensive. Brunch was a buffet and, at $37 a person, not one for the faint of wallet. When we arrived, I expected a dining room that was half-full, at best. Maybe some tourists, maybe a handful of special occasion diners.

What we saw, instead, was a packed dining room filled with a mix of people, both local and otherwise. Couples, families, groups of friends. Some dressed up, as we were (somewhat), some dressed way, way, way down. But nobody seemed to be sweating the price tag.

That makes me wonder: what, exactly, is the Rusty Scupper doing right? It's not the only brunch buffet in the city, so is it selection that keeps it busy? Location? Marketing? Some combination of all three?

All I know is that maybe some of the more struggling restaurants around town might want to check out the RS as a bit of a case study. I'm not suggesting that everybody should start serving four kinds of oysters on the half shell every Sunday, but there just might be some lessons to learn from this spot.

[Photo from the Rusty Scupper website.]

Please Say No

Does this mean that in a few weeks, the Eastern Shore's going to be full of Manhattan-ites looking for the authentic crab house experience?

(via Dara)

Artsy: The Futurists' Failure

Is it possible to write about Italy without writing about food?

Just out of college, fresh from my art history classes, I might have said yes. After all, it's not like every Italian work of art is food-centric. But after reading this Slate series by Kate Bolick, I'm not so sure.

The series starts traditionally enough, with a trip to Italy. Bolick and a small crew of intellectual/academic friends headed to Rome and Milan this past February to explore the world of the Futurists, 100 years after the publication of their not-actually-that-famous Manifesto.

But let me skip to the end. Several months after the trip, back in New York. Bolick and one of her co-travelers, artist Karen Azoulay threw a Futurist-inspired dinner party. The dinner sounds kind of insane, but totally cool in that way that theory-based dinners are cool. It's a natural product of studying the Futurists, anyway, since they're one of the few artistic movements (that I'm aware of) that published a cookbook.

The Futurists were really proto-Wylie Dufresnes, seeking to bring science into the kitchen and to change the way people think about food in general. They understood the powerful role food plays in our lives - Cookbook author and Futurist leader F.T. Marinetti wrote:

"A given taste of something can sum up an entire area of life, the history of an amorous passion or an entire voyage to the Far East."

Totally. Of course, Marinetti sought to destroy the food that would remind Italians of their heritage, just as he wanted to destroy museums and libraries and other institutions that house the past. He felt that escaping the past and forgetting it was the only way to embrace the future.

And maybe he was right, for Italy anyway. Not entirely, of course - technology hasn't completely avoided Italy. It's not like Italian teenagers aren't texting all over Rome, just like the kids in America and Sweden and Australia and everyplace else. But Italy's brand, for lack of a better term, is still rooted firmly in the past. The way, way, way past. And the food is a part of that.

In the article, it's not the dinner party scene that makes this painfully obvious - that's expected, and still feels pretty avant-garde, actually. No, it's the trip. The friends amble through Italy, dizzying themselves with technology-obsessed art and discussing the less appealing aspects of Italian Futurism (the fascism and misogyny).

And eating. They look longingly at spinach and ricotta tarts, even as they munch on pizza bianca and seek out pasta carbonara in the shadow of the Coliseum. The food they eat has been a part of Italian culture for centuries and it looks likely to stick around for centuries more.

The author is conscious of it, too, and one of her guests admits that if he was a teenager growing up among the classical ruins and Renaissance worship of Italy at the dawn of the 20th century, when the rest of the world was moving full steam ahead into the future, destroying the past might have seemed like the only way out.

To answer my initial question, no. I don't think it's possible to write about Italy without mentioning the food. Not to write well, anyway.

On the last page of the magazine, Bon Appetit runs a column called "Feedback," in which celebrities answer a handful of questions about their food preferences. They're always asked "of all the places you've traveled, where did you have the best food?" Invariably, they answer, "Italy."

It's a blessing to have that kind of reputation - to the outsider, anyway. But to a frustrated teenager yearning for something new, I can see why all that pasta, and everything it means, might feel more than a little stifling.

[Images: Graphic art by F.T. Marinetti; Cover of the Futurist Cookbook; Dynamism of a Soccer Player by Umberto Boccioni]

Entertaining Friday: French Country Dining

I have a recurring daydream. It's about a dinner party. A big one, full of interesting conversation and great, late-summer food. All the guests are seated at an impossibly long, simply dressed wooden table. They drink cocktails made with farmers' market ingredients and some of them, inexplicably, wear Gael Greene-style hats. It takes place in my backyard. There are lights in the trees and everything's green and which, in the daydream, kind of looks like this:

Everybody gushes over the simple, but delicious food that's on their plates. Which looks kind of like this:

Unfortunately, in real life, my backyard is a bumpy mess that would never stand up to a super-long table and, anyway, the late summer is usually so muggy and buggy that eating in the yard wouldn't really be practical.

But a girl can dream, right? Which is exactly what I did when I read this August F&W article about Le Pain Quotidien founder Alain Coumont and his gorgeous home in the south of France and the fabulous entertaining he does there.

I tried to quell my jealousy by reminding myself that Coumont probably works so hard during most of the year that he barely gets a chance to breathe, so really he only actually enjoys those couple of summer months that he and his wife and daughter spend at their home, which is 30 miles outside Monpelier.

Unfortunately, that didn't really work. I'm still jealous - and now actively trying to figure out how to level out my backyard so it can handle a table of this magnitude. I wonder if Cooper can build a temporary platform that we can store in the garage. It's probably time for him to start a new project anyway...

[Photos from Food & Wine, August 2009. (c) Martin Morrell]

Old School Thursday: Diet Coke! Microwaves! Refrigeration!

Today is all about technology. Well, mostly – it’s also National Sugar Cookie Day. Not technological exactly, but considering how many sugar cookies are produced each year using modern technology and manufacturing processes, it’s close enough.

First, today is Jacob Perkins’ birthday (1766). Perkins received the first US patent for a refrigerating machine. Over a hundred years later, in 1869, Henry Tibbe invented the corncob pipe, which doesn’t exactly help us eat better, but it is at least made of food and it has certainly claimed its spot in pop culture history, thanks to a certain snowman.

A few years after that, in 1872, John F. Blondel patented the first doughnut cutter. In 1887, another John – Dickenson this time – introduced paper napkins at an annual company dinner. But wait – the 19th century isn’t through with its contributions. In 1894, Percy LeBaron Spencer, patron saint of the working mother, was born. He’s the fabulous man who invented the microwave (in 1946 after, famously, he noticed that a chocolate bar in his pocket melted after being exposed to radiation).

Finally, today should probably be a national holiday because 27 years ago, Diet Coke was introduced. Diet Coke, without you, I’m not sure where I’d be right now. Probably still asleep.

In addition to all the technology and the important births, today is the anniversary of the death of US President (and fellow W&M alum) Zachary Taylor (1850), who supposedly died after eating too much strawberry ice cream on the 4th of July and developing peritonitis.

So, to celebrate? A little strawberry ice cream, a lot of Diet Coke, and maybe some doughnuts served on paper napkins and warmed in the microwave.

Artsy Wednesday: Texture Reprise

It's been a month since I first wrote about the texture-over-taste phenomenon and since then, I can't stop thinking about it. Cooper finds it fascinating, since his palate is so developed, that I can discern between different ingredients by the way they make my mouth feel. And he's not the only one. I've probably told twenty people about the article, usually in the course of explaining that while I can barely discern sweet from sour, my palate isn't totally useless.

This past weekend, though, I discovered just how lucky I am to have texture to fall back on. Sunday night, Alicia handed Cooper a banana pepper, picked fresh from her garden. He sniffed it and was blown away by the intensity of the smell. The pepper made its way around the table, with each person agreeing that it smelled great. Then it came to me.

I held it to my nose, ready for the onslaught. And...nothing. I held it closer. Still nothing. I literally had that pepper in my nose and I still couldn't smell a single thing. The next night, as I prepared to cook with the same pepper, I took a final sniff and I got a few notes of, well, fresh pepper. But that's it. No wild intensity. No wow.

A year and a half ago, when everyone and their brother - including me - was writing about supertasters, I wrote a post called "Thank God I'm Not a Supertaster" (and I meant it). Little did I know then that I am barely a taster. So am I the only non-tasting food blogger out there? I wonder.

Either way, I certainly am glad I've got texture to fall back on. Now let me get my hands on something carbonated and acidid - stat.

Ideabook Tuesday: Mailboxes

I like my mailbox, in all it's industrial, stainless steel glory, but now I'm wishing we'd been a little more creative with that part of our home design. I guess it's never too late, since mailboxes aren't usually a huge investment. But "new mailbox" is so far down my list of things to do that it's not even visible.

But still, some cool mailboxes:

Special Delivery: Cooler-than-Usual Mailboxes

more home design ideas on houzz

Happy Birthday, Alicia!

Today is Alicia's birthday - we kicked off the celebration last night by letting her cook us her famous Insider Burgers and zucchini pie. This week's a busy one, but we'll continue the celebration later in the month with crabs (and karaoke?) at Costa's. Because if one day is good, a whole month is better, right?

Happy birthday!

Trendy Monday: Old Drink, New Twist

Last week, after reading Pete Wells' drinking dictionary, I was inspired. My yard is so chock full of herbs right now, I figured, it would be nearly criminal not to do a little mixing. Inspired by Wells, I dove into the mint and made a couple of totally refreshing, summery gin juleps. (I modified the recipe a bit, adding some selzer to cut the intensity of the drink, and that was a good call.)

So that was the first old drink (the julep) made with a new twist (gin).

Over the weekend, my high school friend Caroline wrote on Facebook about a drink she'd had at a restaurant in San Francisco, where she lives - a cucumber gimlet. Intriguing, right? She described it as cucumber-infused vodka, lime and a little sugar, served in a martini glass with three slices of vodka-soaked cucumber.

Drink number two: old drink (the gimlet) plus new (cucumber).

Two's not quite a trend, of course, but it's close. Also, in this case, just because something's new doesn't make it good. Case in point: the Tanqueray and pickle juice martini (pictured) I had at Bluecoast a few weeks ago. That drink even traumatized me enough to inspire a whole Deep Glamour post.

So...possibly not yet a trend and, even if it is one, maybe a bad one.

But that julep really was good. So maybe not.

Celebrating America...with Pig

It's a good thing our friends like pork.

To continue the Summer of Swine here at the Pollards, and to celebrate freedom and liberty and all things American, Cooper dragged out the Caja China and we roasted our second pig on Saturday (story of the first pig is here).

This weekend's pig was a big guy, a 67-pounder ordered from Ridgely & Ferrens, right in Towson. Ordering the pig was easier than I'd anticipated and when I picked it up, it was defrosted and ready to marinate.

Cooper and Mike completing the final turn of the pig

This time, instead of relying on the Caja China folks for the marinade, Cooper created his own, a spicy and tart vinegar-based concoction with definite roots in North Carolina sauces. On Friday night, he injected the pig with a vat of the stuff, literally tripling the amount he used on the first pig. The result was fantastic - the meat was super juicy and infused with flavor.

Mike covering my brand new potholders with pig juice, while pretending to eat the foot

One of the cool things about the Caja China is that it can handle up to 70 pounds with no change in cooking time. So even though this pig was 18 pounds heavier than the one we cooked at the beach, they both took about four hours to cook.

Which meant more time to relax and more time to eat.

The kids' swingset and "grownups' swingset," as seen from the deck

Of course, despite everyone's best efforts, we still have a ton of pork left over - which means it's pig leftovers all week chez Pollard. Tonight: tacos. Tomorrow: who knows? Suggestions are welcome!

[Bottom two photos courtesy of Alicia.]

Entertaining Friday: Fourth of July

I love this time of year.

Some people love Thanksgiving, others are all about New Year's Eve. They're fine, the fourth of July is, hands down, my favorite holiday.

When I was a kid, we'd kick things off with Sherwood Forest's third of July fireworks, viewed from the water. On the fourth, we'd wake up early to go to the Severna Park parade - one glorious year, I was in the parade - then spend all day swimming at the Ben Oaks beach (on the right, that's Dixon, raking the beach last summer). At some point, I'm pretty sure our parents fed us something (though I can't guarantee we didn't just eat ice cream). We played games, like the three-legged race and the egg toss, with candy for prizes. And once it got dark, a few of the dads were dispatched to the skinny little strip of land between the pond and the river to shoot off illegal fireworks. It was great.

Since I don't live in Ben Oaks anymore, my new fourth of July traditions aren't exactly the same, though they do capture the same spirit. We start the day off with the Towson parade, followed by an hours and hours long cookout.

Most years, I make a flag cake (the one on the left is from last year). This year, however, I'll be flouting tradition in favor of these lemon cheesecake squares (plus brownies provided by our friend Kerry and possibly a special surprise from Alicia).

Also on the menu? Piggie, of course, along with the usual summertime suspects, like corn and tomato, basil and mozzarella salad and this pasta.

Parade in the morning and pig in the afternoon. Do days get any better than that?

Happy fourth of July, everyone!

Whither the Francophile?

It seems to be "France and its food sucks!" month (related: here and here). Interesting. Most of the food I've eaten in France has been pretty good, but I've a) only been to Paris and b) never tried traveling there, or anywhere, with kids.

Restaurant Review Reprise: Hamilton Tavern

This review originally appeared on Examiner.com back in March.

Last night Cooper and I found ourselves with an unexpected babysitter and no dinner plans - a pretty nice surprise all the way around. We weren't up for a big, fancy dinner, but we wanted to go out, so we headed over to Lauraville to Hamilton Tavern (5517 Harford Road, 410-426-1930).

I've been anxious to try Hamilton Tavern ever since it opened. Word was that it's a fun bar with interesting drinks (appropriate for a place owned by a Tom Creegan, one of the co-owners of Brewer's Art) and a brief, but excellent menu. I'd also heard that it's loud, loud, loud. So we came prepared for that.

Overall, Hamilton Tavern didn't disappoint. My first impression was that it's a very cute place - rustic decor, lots of wood, feels very pubby (in a good way). Cooper was happy to see Brewer's Art's famously potent Resurrection on tap and I was seriously impressed by the list of wines by the glass, which is short, but inexpensive and experimental. I had a couple of glasses of a $6 Malbec that was really pretty great.

The only real glitch in our whole meal came at the very beginning, when we were waiting for a table. The place was full when we arrived, but we only had to wait a minute. That was fine, and we were just going to grab a drink at the bar (we'd also run into my friend Dave as soon as we walked in), but when we tried to catch the bartender's eye, she assumed we were asking about our table, so she'd say, "It'll be just a minute" then move on to something else before we had a chance to order. Then, when we did sit, at a table in the back corner, it took a few minutes for our waiter to get there.

Little things, though, in the grand scheme of our visit. Once we sat, we had a clear view of the whole space, which really is very nice-looking. Plus, in our corner, the noise level wasn't so noticeable. We spoke to each other in totally normal tones and had no trouble hearing (this might be a bigger issue on weekend nights, when the bar is more crowded. I don't know.)

Before dinner, we ordered the fried pickles, served with a goat cheese sauce, and half a pound of steamed shrimp, which came with hush puppies and onions. The shrimp were excellent - perfectly seasoned (which is, I think, harder than it sounds). The pickles were great, too. Really hot at first, but once they cooled off a little, the tangy-fried combination was fantastic. I'm a fan of both pickles and anything fried, but these were especially good. I liked them better than the fried pickles I had at Rocket to Venus last year.

For dinner, I went with the burger, which is made with beef from local sweethearts Roseda Farms, and it did not disappoint. It was perfectly cooked and perfectly tasty (then again, how bad can a cheeseburger be?). Cooper's oyster po'boy delivered as well, though he did say he wished the sandwich was a little juicier overall. I tried an oyster and while it might have been a little more fried than we both like, it did have nice flavor. We both skipped the potato chips - I got a salad (which was fine, but I wish I'd gone the full glutton and just gotten the chips) and Cooper had the onion rings. I love onion rings, but as I said to Cooper last night, they usually all taste the same to me - like the ones you can get at Burger King. These were different, though. They were crispy and battery, of course, but the (very sweet) onion wasn't at all stringy and when we bit into one of the rings, the whole onion didn't slide out of its shell. THAT was a nice surprise.

For dessert, we split a chocolate chip and Bailey's bread pudding that was good, but maybe could've had a little more Bailey's flavor. But we were full anyway, and that's nitpicking.

Overall, it was a great meal, a cute place, and good service (we did like our waiter very much). Not terribly expensive, either - we had two drinks each, two appetizers, two entrees and one dessert and the total bill was $60 plus tip. Not so bad. More than worth it, considering the quality of the food and the really great atmosphere. I think it's the perfect restaurant for right now - fun, interesting and not too pricey.

Old School Thursday: Not So Food-Related Edition

Today is kind of a busy day in random details history, if not in food history. It is National Anisette Day – anisette is anise liqueur and, while I’ve never had it, I’d probably like it, considering my obsession with black jelly beans. So I feel somewhat sympathetic to the anisette lobby. Good for them for getting their own day.

In actually food-related news, today in 1931, Stephen Moulton Babcock developed a test to measure the fat content of milk, helping to standardize commercial milk production. Helpful, sure, but mostly interesting to me because I have a cousin named Stephen Babcock (Babcock is my mom’s maiden name). I don’t think we’re related to the agricultural chemist, but just to throw in some family trivia, this Nigerian university is named after my great-grandfather.

Back to the food-related news. A year after Babcock’s discovery, Dave Thomas, famous to all who love fast food as the founder of Wendy’s, was born.

That’s it for actually food-related stuff. But today is also a hotbed of random occurrences that inspired pop culture. In 1566, Nostradamus, who has inspired countless books and characters, died. In 1926, Emile Coue, the original Stuart Smalley (I wrote about his birth here) died. In 1947, something crashed near Roswell, New Mexico, inspiring thousands of TV shows and movies. And finally, today in 1982, a guy named Larry Walters tied 45 helium-filled weather balloons to a lawn chair and hoisted himself up 16,000 feet over Long Beach. He was fined a couple thousand dollars, and there is no word on whether he’s receiving royalties for inspiring the plot of Pixar’s Up.

At Least It's Not Dead

Cail is becoming quite the grocery store paparazzi (paparazzo?). From Facebook yesterday:

The caption? "Personally, I'd think irony would be more dry."

(As a side note, some of her friends mentioned that they really do like the Irony Pinot...)