starring the swedish chef

swedish chef take one from andrea davila on Vimeo.

grace and i made this one lazy saturday afternoon. the storyline is a little weak, i know, but it's our first try at stop motion, so be kind. i'm envisioning a whole cooking show with the swedish chef as the host, and puppets as special guest. and he'll teach real, useful, easy recipes! what do you think??

locavores

there is a jungle of tomato plants on my fire escape that i'm proud to have raised from seeds. they are working their way towards bearing food, along with some baby carrot and green bean plants. i also have a container for herbs, with basil, thyme, rosemary and spearmint. i'm very proud of my little garden, glad to look out the window and see the flash of green and excited to watch them spring to life from wet dirt and brown seeds. i'm working on become more conscious of the slow, fickle process of growing food- fighting with the previously friendly squirrels, furiously watering and watching lifeless leaves expand, tracking mud all over the kitchen floor while re-potting- and i find myself loving every moment of it. but as much as i've enjoyed gardening, i've noticed something very worrisome. it is very, very expensive. for as much money as i've spent on containers, dirt, plant food, seeds and cages, i could have bought a summer's worth of tomatoes at the farmer's market. i justify it as my hobby- just like buying music is for grace- but i'm troubled by the (and my!) overtly moralistic rhetoric of "home-grown food is the right/best way to eat."


if you haven't read it yet, the nyt freakonomics blog is a great find. the economic implications of everyday minutia are startlingly explored, and while it's sometimes a little far-fetched, it's always interesting. this post in particular about the sustainability of the home grown food movement is useful in framing questions of class, privilege and foodie culture. moreover, if those of us who can afford to, continue to grow our own food, not only will we lose the opportunity to purchase the variety of food we currently can at cheaper prices, but prices will rise for those who cannot afford the same luxuries. it's unclear to me whether this is a desirable outcome, since clearly food costs are only now starting to reflect true costs of production, and no one is happy, despite all the whining in the food community about big box stores and growers. a typical conundrum in the fractured global marketplace - finding solid economic + cultural evidence that retaining local control/practices/culture is preferable when dispersed and disparate large-scale ventures can offer similar goods and services for a fraction for the cost.

food + money: rising food costs

a little late, but a very interesting article in slate on the disjunction between rising food costs and the fiscally unrestrained foodie industry. class discussions about fresh, organic food vs. processed food are commonplace now, but still foodie-centric blogs make a bigger deal about seasonal ingredients and fancy meals than cheaper alternatives. why?

and more importantly, why are we so unwilling to enjoy our food while thinking about costs at the same time? even personal finance bloggers, when asked, admit to splurging on food expenses more than anything else. is it not possible to enjoy your food AND be frugal about it? especially with organic food costs rising to astronomic highs!

i admit, i'm not exempt from culpability here- i just mentioned that my dinner at momofuku ko was the highlight of my dining this year. and yet, it also just happened to be the most expensive. coincidence? perhaps you could make an argument that price correlates with quality in food, but if you've ever gone to a taco truck, or queens, for that matter- you know that it is not true. i think it must be that we're motivated to value things that are highly valued around us; my memories of dinner at momofuku ko have only heightened since reading the dizzying reviews. but what about creating a culture around valuing cheap, but good, food? after all, as the slate article says "we rhapsodize about la cucina povera—that is, "poor food" like polenta, beans, and braise-worthy cuts of meat like short-ribs and pigs trotters—but we rarely talk about cooking in terms of dollars and cents."

in this vein, i was encouraged to see the nytimes, that bastion of rampant foodie worship, review suburban chain restaurants, like applebee's and outback. and, much to their shocked surprise, they found the food to be pretty good.(i actually found their surprise to be a little condescending and offensive, but that's another story) conversely, i found it disheartening to see a major foodie outlet, serious eats, pick up the story of rising food costs with little discussion. the few comments made revolved around blaming the larger agricultural system and encouraging people to grow their own food. while growing your own food is a wonderfully worthwhile and satisfying endeavor, so is making a grocery list/budget, which is much, much easier.

as someone who enjoys food, it's a good exercise for me to understand the financial implications of my eating- which is why i've started posting the costs of each of the recipes i make. food and money, as we see from this more in-depth economist article are much more intertwined in the macro global system than in our everyday grocery-shopping lives. it would benefit us all to remedy that.

what to eat at disneyland

in case any of you dear readers decide to visit disneyland soon, be assured that the food is not universally awful, like i first thought. since most of my associations with disney food are about those candy buttons you peel off paper, i was worried about being able to eat well while at disneyland. i consulted with Chowhound and found list after list of suggestions for what to eat at disney theme parks, which i promptly printed out and stuffed in my luggage. upon arrival at disneyland, i was proud to pull out my list (my entire family thought i was insane) and point us in the direction of the best food in the park.

okay, it's obviously not the healthiest food in the world, but it's tasty and it's in a theme park, which makes it extraordinary.

at the far end of main street, right near the statue of walt and mickey there is a bright red wagon that only sells corn dogs. they are hand dipped and they are delicious. honestly it may be one of the best corn dogs i've ever had in my life(sorry castilleja camp!).

directly across the walkway from the jungle cruise is an outpost hut called bengal barbecue that has these great spicy or sweet beef skewers, plus an all veggie version that is probably best all-around eating for vegetarians in the park. they also have bacon wrapped asparagus, which i was dumb enough not to get. my brother's girlfriend got them though (i love her already!) and let me share.


right outside the tiki room (my favorite attraction as a child) is dole's pineapple stand, which serves creamy pineapple frozen yogurt. you can get it as a float too, but you'll save a couple bucks, and get more food, if you get the yogurt and juice separately.

i'm embarrassed to say this, but i also ate an entire fried chicken dinner from Market Square right outside the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. it was actually pretty good, partially because i took a chowhounder's advice and asked for it "well-done", so they'd have to make me a new plate instead of giving me what was under the heatlamp.

fyi for the frugal: none of this food was cheap, or even inexpensive. it was very overpriced and for that reason, i also ate some pulled pork sandwiches we brought from home. so if you're not comfortable spending so much money for food whose primary redemption is that it is convenient and not totally awful, then just bring food with you.