Just back from our (or rather John’s) weekly trip to Queens Farm and then Whole Foods.  Even though the kitchen was overloaded with tomatoes, eggplants, and other local treats we bought heirloom tomatoes.  And here I am thinking to myself, yet another phrase that the mom and pop organic industry is spreading to make me think they are on the cutting edge of whatever it is we should be eating to stay healthy and keep them in business.  But I was wrong.  A quick Google search led me to wikipedia (why didn’t I just search wikipedia?) where there was an article on heirloom tomatoes.  Heritage, or heirloom tomatoes are not genetically modified (unless indicated otherwise).  They reproduce automatically which is great cause I like my organic food to be on auto-pilot so long as it does pull a Little Shop of Horrors on me and turn the food chain on its back.  Now it is time to start eating the food we bought because alas the trouble with organic food is that you can’t store it for the winter!

I am in Tucson, Arizona this week and while the only grass I see here is on the prized golf courses, several places are peddling grass fed beef.  I feel bad for the golfers but I guess that explains the Titleist in my burger!  Seriously though, I think the beef here in Arizona is pretty good.  I am slowly coming to the conclusion that any place that is ‘known’ for their beef probably mass produces it and therefore has junk quality.  Take the US Midwest for example.  Kansas City, known for their BBQ, Memphis, known for their BBQ, St. Louis, not known for their BBQ but close enough to the other BBQ towns are all big on corn-fed beef!  The restaurants even advertise ‘Fresh Kansas City Corn Fed Beef’  WTF, are among the acronyms that come to mind.  Aren’t these places known for their beef?  I guess it’s the preparation that they’re known for and yes, it’s pretty darn good and ya’ll come back now!

I went to Austin to start the month of August off and the beef is good as well and Austin’s hippie/hipster/yuppie sub-culture somewhat demands grass fed or at least menus that say so.  I am not sure how much is truly grass-fed.  My trip was followed by a week in Calgary, Alberta and let me tell you something Mr. Midwestern Cattle Rancher….  Your stuff will never compare to what is up north in Canada.  Alberta is full of open space and it is just about expected that the beef is grass fed.  The worst steak in Alberta was better than the best beef I’ve had in the USA. This whole USDA thing and whether it’s local or not means nothing to me any more.  If you want beef, go to the farm and watch them feed the cows but I would rather just fly over to Calgary or Edmonton for a steak.  And while you’re there you can even have Caribou, Venison, Elk, Bison, and Wild Boar.

And so now you may think that I’m upset and bitter about the fact that good ol’ USDA isn’t really that good.  I look at the bright side.  This year I had my fill of well prepared BBQ in Kansas City and well raised beef in Alberta and now I can go back home maybe go for a more meatless or balanced diet.  Of course I can still ridicule at such farmers who feed their cows gummy worms!

Am I the only one troubled by this statement?  Milk-fed veal as opposed to the kind that eat Cherrios or beer nuts?  Has the world gone mad?

Samantha Bee from the Daily Show, sarcastically says, she always has whole milk in the fridge. “My children are milk-fed veal. I am force-feeding it to them to tenderize them for Christmas dinner.”

Interesting article in the Washington Post on a former Coke executive and how he regrets the result of his work as a top marketing executive of Coke.  He feels like he contributed to the obesity issue of the day.  Disney is no longer going to accept ads or sell soft drinks at their parks.  NYC Mayor Bloomberg wants to ban sugary drinks over 16 ounces.

The comebacks from Coke are so transparent.  They hide behind their diet, low calorie, and no calorie drinks which are just as bad.

This morning there was a large salad bowl on the kitchen table.  At first I thought we were leaving cookies for some kind of vegan Santa Claus but alas it was for us, the people who live in the house.  Our mother had prepared koliva to remember the dead.  Some is brought to the church and some stays here.  Everyone makes this a little differently and whether you believe in its traditional purpose or not, it is very healthy.  I had a variation of koliva at Kafana, a Balkan restaurant in New York City’s Lower East Side as a dessert dish; I think they call it zito.

The core ingredient, wheat, is boiled and then laid out on a cloth on the kitchen table to dry out.  I bet if you left this out it would sprout baby wheat!  The wheat is then mixed in with almond chunks, ground walnuts and walnut chunks, sesame seeds, pomegranate, traces of parsley, spices such as cinnamon, and raisins.  The key thing here is that everything remain dry so it does not chuck up and become mud!  Brown sugar is on the side so we can add to taste.  Keeping the sugar on the side increases the shelf life of koliva.

The other night, at midnight to be precise, there was a phone call.  All kinds of crazy thoughts ran through my mind, was it my Japanese ex who worked as a bill collector?  No wait, it was the raw milkman!  And he didn’t come for my wife but for my wallet.  As ordered, he brought a gallon of raw cow’s milk, several duck eggs, and raw butter.

The milk came in a farm-sealed plastic container and the butter in a deli style plastic container, the same kind you get potato salad.  I was hoping for glass containers but I guess this kind of food has a very short shelf life so the milk and butter won’t have time to absorb plastic stuff.  Of course having only taken two courses in Chemistry back in the ’90s I am no expert in how food absorbs plastic. webhosting info .  Anyway, I digress.

John showed me the glass of milk that he had just poured.  Looked like milk!  Having been warned that raw milk is scary and will cause you to react like that chestbuster scene in Alien or look like Kuato, I took a whiff.  Nothing strange here.  Still, I wanted to wait 24 hours to pass after John tried it before I would.  I was also contemplating the risk factors.  Was this more dangerous than jumping out of a perfectly good airplane with a stranger strapped to my back?

And so I tried some.  The clear plastic container was transparent enough for me to see a layer on top of the milk.  I had already poured half a glass, so I closed the container and shook the slightly milk to get an even distribution in pour.  I drank whatever was in the glass and poured a full glass of shaken milk.  One sip went down and it was good.  I felt something strange in my stomach.  A bit of a rumble and movement; would this be the end of my drinking of raw milk?  No wait, that was my Android ‘smart’ phone attached to my belt buzzing away.  No strange smells, I didn’t go blind, so I continued to sip.  All along waiting for something strange to happen; a hallucination would have been cool.  I emptied the glass and it was just like having regular milk, just tastier, richer, and fuller.  It didn’t blow my mind the way bungee jumping did, but it was good.

I haven’t tried the butter or the duck eggs.  You must all know that John is beyond overly enthusiastic.  Not sure if this was better for him or his recent car purchase but now we all know his weak point.  A bottle of raw milk and he will name his first born after you.

Tomorrow there are plans to make out of season egg nog.  Duck eggs (quack, quack) and raw milk; will they find raw Bourbon?

The first time I had Kambucha, I saw the stuff on the bottom and thought “shake well before opening” which of course turned into, “clean up time!”

There are various people who say this is good for you and today I had two bottles of GT Kombucha; one Lavendar and one Hibiscus.  I have no idea what any of that is.  But the nasty taste with various ad-laden websites say it is good for the liver.  It does have alcohol in it (less than 0.5%) and if you let it ferment (not sure if you need an oak barrel or if it has to be bourbon based) it turns into a higher percentage alcohol (like 0.6%).

Kombucha makes a cameo in one of my favorite TV Shows, Bored to Death Season 1, Episode 7.  The specific quote is when Jonathan and Ray are in a recently abandoned Park Slope apartment.

Jonathan: The only thing that I found in the kitchen is an unopened bottle of kombucha tea..why would they leave this? This stuff is great and so expensive!

I did have a small box of Chick-fill-A which is the fast food industry’s response to “I want more !@#$ to eat.”  This food sucks and I don’t know what is in it but I am sure it had no meat in it or anything that didn’t come out of a factory.