New for 2014...posting regularly!!!!!!

So, yeah.

I haven't been writing here much lately. Life, I guess. It's been kicking me in the pants this past year. School, work, my living situation, these have all contributed to my not-having-as-much-time-as-I-would-like-to-write-about-the-things-I-love problem that I have been experiencing. I'll be changing that starting next week. Talking about food and food-related issues is easy for me. Finding the time is another matter entirely. It requires that I MAKE the time and that's not my forte. I think limiting my posts to once a week should help in this endeavor. Some of the things I'll be talking about in the next few posts: tasty things I have eaten, restaurants I have been to, food justice, and a word that is used in the food critics' lexicon I hate more than cheap, frozen burritos.

Until next week...

-Jay

Coming to terms with my budding Tonkotsu addiction

You see this picture on the right? This abso-fuckin-lutely beautiful, awe-inspiring, foodie boner-inducing photograph of a bowl of tonkotsu ramen? I have amazingly vivid dreams about this bowl; with its pork-based broth, bejeweled with tiny droplets of pork fat, its thin slices of pork, its hanjuku tamago, (egg soft-boiled in rice vinegar and soy sauce,) and of course, the ramen noodles. Not the nineteen cent dried bricks of noodles you get at the supermarket, but real, fresh made ramen noodles cooked ever so slightly beyond al dente. Cover it with some chopped scallions and call it done. No need for special toppings nor special sauces. Even sriracha is completely unnecessary, (normally I would find such thought blasphemous.)  Like a fiery, passionate lover, it will seduce you, intoxicate you, and leave you starving for more. Eat this and you will spend an inordinate amount of time not wanting anything else.

I get mine from Umami Ramen and Dumpling Bar here in Madison. It's pretty damned good. I wouldn't say it's great, though. It occasionally suffers from consistency issues and it is really the only trick in town for real ramen. This is most unfortunate in that I see a movement in the U.S. to educate people about real ramen. Most major cities have a bustling ramen scene these days and Americans are starting to see ramen for what it can truly be...

...delicious!

Make it local: the best thing I've put in my mouth in quite awhile

The picture on your right is Poutine with Foie Gras. If you don't know what poutine or foie gras is, I suggest you look it up. I love these two things separately. Put them together, and it becomes one of the best things I've ever eaten, period.

Here in Madison, you can find this lovely dish at A Pig in a Fur Coat. It's a newer restaurant on Willy St. that occupies the space that used to be the now defunct La Rocca's Pizza. It's one of those new gastronomic ventures that somewhat defies the conventional restaurant format. It doesn't confine itself to any specific ethnicity. Nor does it present itself as any type of "fusion", whether referring to ethnicity or cooking style. They simply use local ingredients whenever possible and cook great food without overthinking their menu and without any pretense. It embodies everything I want in a restaurant: immaculately prepared food, local ingredients, but in a casual setting. It's a place where I can eat foie gras without having to worry about which fork to use and whether or not I'm dressed appropriately. It's an indulgence without it being a special occasion.  It's haute cuisine in blue jeans.

And I love it.

The basics

So, I am a Facebook junkie. I spend WAY too much time perusing its confines, reading people's mundane daily life adventures, stalking their photos, and giggling at the funny memes they post that I saw on Reddit two months previous. Occasionally, someone of my acquaintance posts something that gets me thinking. Today, for instance, my cousin on my mom's side, Kory, posted a question: 

"What are 5-10 of the most common food items that you have in your fridge/ kitchen at any given time?"

That got me thinking...what do I ALWAYS have in my cupboards and fridge? What do I consider "basics" for my daily culinary needs? I spouted off five of six items in the comments without much thought to it and I wish I hadn't. I wish I had pondered the thought further. I know she was looking for answers partly because she has some immediate ideas mulling about inside her head concerning food. For me, the idea has turned into an academic exercise with broader implications. I wonder what kinds of regional differences one would see if you asked this question of people from around the country, around the world! How has my own idea of what constitutes "basics" changed over the past 10 years? 20 years?

Here's a list of the top ten items I always have in my cupboards/refrigerator:

1. Rice
2. Noodles
3. Butter
4. Flour
5. Sriracha
6. Sugar
7. Potatoes
8. Spices
9. Salt
10. Oil

What's in your cupboards that you cannot do without?

New year, new experiences

If there's one thing I absolutely love doing, it's trying new restaurants. I liken it to the "thrill of the chase", finding a new place that I deem worthy of my hard-earned food dollars, or a new dish that I will rave about ad nauseum and try multiple times unsuccessfully to recreate at home. Some of these restaurants are brand new, recently opened. Some are established kitchens that I haven't gotten around to trying for one reason or another, (mostly because they're pricey, but I do miss restaurants from time to time.) I just knocked one off of my list recently: Forequarter, the Underground Food Collective's current restaurant. I took a date there last week with high expectations and they didn't disappoint. I have a list of Madison restaurants I want to try in 2013:

L'Etoile - a Madison institution that is also it's most expensive
Nostrano - a relative newcomer, but has established itself well out of the gate
Merchant - I'm not sure how I've missed coming to this place. I've known about it for awhile
Quivey's Grove - an old standby of many people I know
Greenbush Bar - I'm a sucker for Italian food
Red Sushi - my foodie friends have been raving about this one
Sushi Muramoto - anything involving Shinji Muramoto is going to be good, period
Swagat - new Indian restaurant on the west side



So, what restaurants do YOU want to try in 2013? Go on! Be adventurous!

Make it local. Episode 2: Food carts for the masses.

Despite Madison being the 82nd largest city in the United States, it does have a pretty vibrant food cart scene. Between Library Mall and the Capital square, there are quite a few choices in terms of ethnic cuisines and styles. My current favorite on Library Mall is Surco, a Peruvian cart that serves the best Chicken Adobo over cilantro rice and green lentils. I buy a half-order and a soda for lunch and it sets me back $6. So damned tasty!

Speaking of food carts, Madison is celebrating it's food cart scene with Isthmus ala Carts. It's at Olin Park on Friday, May 11, 2012. 4-8pm $15 in advance or $20 at the gate gets you all the food you can eat. All of the participating carts will be serving sampler-sized portions of their best dishes. Try out any and all of the carts you like for one low price. I will most likely be there! Come say hi to me!

Monsanto: the company you love to hate.

Those of us in the food 'blogosphere' have spent countless hours hating Monsanto and everything they stand for. They are the largest crop seed company in the world. They make bio-engineered seeds with their patented pesticides. They were one of the major players in the production of the defoliant Agent Orange, (along with Dow Chemical) We've read the stories of farmer's, who themselves never bought Monsanto seed, being sued by the company because their non-Monsanto seed had cross-pollinated with Monsanto seed, giving their crops the 'advantages' those seeds claimed and were patented. Farmer's who have run into this dilemma have been given a choice, switch to Monsanto seed or allow your fields to go fallow and replant the following season. Most farmer's have capitulated and signed contracts to buy Monsanto seed long term. Those who stood up and fought have been crushed under the weight of a massive multinational corporation and a legal system that protects the interests of large businesses over small ones.

I bring this up for two reasons: 1.) This article about another class-action lawsuit won by Monsanto. And 2.) The term that is always brought up when discussing Monsanto, 'GM crops'.

Genetically modified crops have gotten a bad rap lately and I wish they would find another technical term that could be applied to what Monsanto creates. We have been genetically altering crops for thousands of years. What Monsanto does is make seeds by creating an artificial DNA sequence and embedding it into the plant's genome. This embeds the company's patented pesticides right into the genome. This HAS proved effective at increasing crop yields and made them drought resistant, but it has also created superbugs, who are resistant to the pesticides, and legal headaches for farmers and anyone associated with them.

I could probably write a 20+ page paper on this topic, but I'll save it for a future class. Have a great weekend!

Inspiration can be so random sometimes.

Case in point: I had mentioned yesterday the idea of Slow Food UW starting their own food cart. I had read a post on Facebook from the Vendy Awards that had a link to this story about food truck lobbying in Philadelphia and it mentions this guy, Andrew Gerson, who's spearheading this movement. What struck me about the guy wasn't his activism, but where he went to school and the title of his master's thesis.He went to the University of Gastronomic Sciences in Turin, Italy. Not a gastronomic sciences department at some university, an entire fucking university!!!! God, I love the Italians! And the title of his thesis? "Food Trucks Can be Utilized to Promote Sustainable Agriculture in Urban Environments." I so wish I could find this thesis and read it! Maybe I should write this guy. Anyway, the title makes so much sense to me. What better way is there, (besides farmer's markets) to promote local, sustainable foodstuffs at the ground level than a food cart? I haven't had a chance to talk much with the Slow Food UW kids yet. Perhaps I should pass this idea on to them when I do.

I do wonder, though, is this an idea worth trying? Besides the obvious learning curve, start up costs, licensing, etc., what could keep this from working?

My budding food activism

As a student, my time is partitioned out in multiple directions,

sometimes simultaneously. Getting a job means even less free time.

 Despite not having enough hours in the day, I want to connect with the food scene here in Madison in some meaningful way. I see it as a part of my continuing education in all things food. Starting a food-oriented Facebook group was just the start. I'm looking at two other groups to get involved with this year: Slow Food UW and F.H. King Student Farm.

Both of these groups are student organizations within the UW. Slow Food UW is a student run extension of the Slow Food movement with an emphasis on educating fellow students, creating a relationship between local farms and the university, and redirecting university food service resources towards more local and sustainable food purchasing practices. F.H.King Student Farm is pretty self-explanatory: they have a two acre plot on campus and a greenhouse they use to grow crops.

Both organizations have internships that I could apply for. F.H. King would be during the growing season only. Slow Food UW is year around and has several different internships to choose from. I'm not sure what direction I want to take just yet, but I do have a rather grandiose idea for the Slow Food folks...they should open up a food cart!

Tomorrow's post will explain why this idea came to me, after reading about someone's Master's thesis. Stay tuned!

I got a J-O-B!!!!!!

Is it food related?

Of course it's food related! Keep reading!

I like to pretend that I have this massive audience that isn't a majority of my Facebook friends and doesn't know too many of the particulars about me and my daily life. But, perhaps someday I will have a legitimate "readership" who requires some of the more mundane details for contextual purposes.

I can dream, can't I?

For those few of you that don't know, I'm an adult student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison studying anthropology. My main area of focus is food, it's social and cultural relevance, and the like. I needed a part time job and I found one this week. I'll be working in the production area at the Babcock Hall Dairy Plant, which is part of the Food Science Department here at the UW. Now, I'm not a Food or Agricultural Science major, I'm less interested in the biology of food than I am the cultural aspects of it, but I am interested in how food is produced. As a student employee, I could be helping in several areas: milk bottling, ice cream making, cheese making, and delivery of said products. I am most interested in making cheese. I've always wanted to learn how. I'd be working with a guy by the name of Gary Grossen. He's the UW's master cheesemaker, 20+ years of experience, and he wins awards for his Gouda cheeses, including the Cheese and Butter Grand Champion at the World Dairy Expo in 2011.

All in all, I'm pretty excited. Tomorrow, I'll talk about something else I'm considering getting involved with that is food related...and another idea that borders the line between workable idea and delusion of grandeur!

Cafe Mob-Madison:putting our money where our mouths are.

I started a Facebook group.

I've started one or two of them before, but they were always meant to be ironic and/or funny. I am one of those people that can come up with lots of ideas, from the most mundane to absolute delusions of grandeur, but what I rarely do is follow up on any of my ideas. If I think an idea has enough potential to become something great, I'll pass it off to someone with the energy and single-minded determination I don't have to get it done. I'm often not motivated by anything more than just wanting something get done that has utility to it, or I just think the idea is neat, but I lack the attention span to see it through.

That changed this past weekend when I started Cafe Mob-Madison. Most people know what a flash mob is, (and if you don't, Google it!) and some people have even heard of a cash mob; where a group of people get together, set a minimum amount of money to spend per person, and then collectively go into a struggling, locally-owned business at the same time and buy stuff. It has an immediate economic impact on said business, but the event can also provide free advertising as well, either by exposing group members to a business they may have never been to before, and/or the event can receive local press, exposing even more people to a place they may not be aware of.

The idea behind Cafe Mob is to organize a cash mob that is specific to restaurants here in Madison. I'm a food guy. For fucks'sake, I blog about it! The least I can do as a food guy who gives a shit about the local dining scene is support it any way I can. I'm a college student, so my food dollars are stretched pretty thin already. But, I know plenty of people who aren't in a position of having to know every conceivable way of making ramen into a complete meal and are willing to spend some of their hard-earned food dollars on good locally owned restaurants that may be struggling a bit. The group is open to anybody. There's 35 members so far, several of whom I've never even met. I'm excited to see where this goes.

That's all for now. In the future, my posts are going to become shorter. I think I could write almost every day if I stick to just one central idea per post. I tend to wander a bit at times, but we'll see how it goes.

Your intestines and you: a quick owners guide.

I've been away for awhile and I'm not as sorry about it as I should be.
There are some people who actually read this stuff and it ceases to amaze me that this is so. Alas, I am a busy boy these days with school and other less noble pursuits. Compounding any disappointment you may have for my recent lack of material is the fact that I will not be talking about food today. Instead, let's talk about you.

But first, let's talk about me.

In 2006, at the tender age of 33, I was diagnosed with a condition called Diverticulosis. It is a weakening of the colon wall that forms a small pouch. Occasionally, tiny bits of mostly digested matter will get stuck in that pouch and will become infected, causing the intestines to become inflamed and causes a great deal of abdominal pain. My doctor back then wouldn't initially diagnose me with the condition, saying that I was too young to have it. He had never seen a case of diverticulosis in anyone under the age of 55. If the affected part of the intestine becomes too much of a problem, doctors can simply remove that part of the intestine. (you have a lot of intestines to work with) My condition is not that severe. However, it has nearly put me in the hospital twice. The latest bout with it was in early January and I had never told a doctor that my pain level was a "9" before that day. I didn't eat solid food for 4 days afterward and ate nothing but food that had the consistency of baby food for several days more. In a word: it sucked.

Now, how can you, humble reader, be lucky enough to experience this horrendous affliction? For starters, you can do what I did leading up to my diagnosis and eat less than a quarter of the daily recommended amount of fiber for a healthy 33 year old male. Eating nothing but processed foods will help you along with that. Add a tremendous amount of stomach-gurgling stress and you will be well on your way to diverticulosis hell! Also, to relive those wondrous moments of pain, continue to eat a low fiber diet and/or be stressed out as much as possible. Your colon won't thank you for it!

That's all for now. Next time, we'll talk about the other food relating excitement I'm dealing with these days. Until then, happy eating! (or something)

Happy New Year!!!!!

A happiest of new years' to all of you! I hope all of you are feeling better after a long night of over-consumption of, well, everything! You had a day of recovery. Today is a new day. There is football to be watched, (Go Badgers!) tasty bar food to be eaten, drinks to be drunk, toasts to be proposed, and a good time to be had by all, yet again.




To update all of you as to the recent goings on of this gourmet, gourmand, and glutton, I haven't written in awhile. Sorry about that. Finals at school and then the holidays got in the way of anything even remotely linked to passion within me and writing about anything other than neoliberalism and the current state of capitalism around the world was impossible. I am back, however, and things are going well. I was recently mentioned in an article on Eating Madison A to Z, having tried a new restaurant, Limon, with JM and Nichole. The food was pretty tasty and the conversation we were having about several of the restaurants in town was lively and a whole lot of fun. If you're interested on an honest opinion about just about every freakin' restaurant in Madison, (Limon is restaurant #758 for them) give Eating Madison A to Z a try.

The last time I posted here, I started on about my Great Madison Burger Challenge. I will compose a list of places I'm going to try later this week or next week. I have already been to two bars on my list, (Paradise Lounge and  Dexter's Pub) and I will write about those soon. Again, if you have any suggestions of a good burger within the city limits of Madison, feel free to comment here and I will add it to the list.

Until next time, cheers!

The Great Madison Burger Challenge: brought to you by...me.

I've posted about hamburgers once before, but it's a topic I will happily rehash time and time again. I am an unrepentant carnivore. I can appreciate vegetarianism from an intellectual point of view. I understand some of the health benefits of a veggie diet. I can also appreciate vegetarian cuisine when it's done right. Indians and Greeks have had thousands of years to perfect their all vegetable dishes and they do them well. Vegans, on the other hand...

...that's for another post.

Let's get back to burgers, shall we? Madison has surprised me in that I am not lacking for choices in the tasty burger department. We have chains here, same as anywhere else, (Culver's Butterburgers started not too far from here in Sauk City, WI) but Madison has a fair number of local places, restaurants and bars, that serve a good to great burger. I've tried most of them. Now, I'm going to try them all.

This coming week, I will start my Great Madison Burger Challenge. I am going to make up a list of restaurants and bars to find the best burger in town and report my findings here. If it is a place I haven't been to before, I will go more than once before writing about it. I have a list in my head that I'll write down here. If I am missing anyone's favorite burger joint, feel free to offer your suggestions to me. I do have two caveats: no fast food burgers. This includes Culver's. There will be a few chains on my list, but fast food burgers, after all is said and done, simply don't measure up to the standards I have for a truly great burger, so they will be avoided. And, all bars and restaurants must be within Madison city limits. No suburbs.

Here's my current off-the-top-of-my-head list:

Dotty Dumplings Dowry
AJ Bombers
Weary Traveler
Plaza Tavern and Grill
Five Guys Burgers
Harmony Bar and Grill
Blue Moon Bar and Grill
Old Fashioned
Cooper's Tavern
The Great Dane
Graze

Again, if I'm missing anywhere you find to have an awesome burger, please let me know.

Happy Thanksgiving to all!!!!!!

I won't be posting this week. I have stuff with the family to do, pumpkin pies to bake, lots of food to eat way too much of, and school work to knock out with three and a half weeks left in the semester. It's crunch time in more ways than one. Until next time, have a great holiday!

Make It Local: Episode 1, Pimp My Apiary

I have a laundry list of things I want to do and try with this blog. My mind doesn't focus on any single thing for very long. (those of you who remember my banana bread making escapades may beg to differ, but I digress) One of my goals in writing here is to promote the eating and production of sustainable local foodstuffs. I believe very strongly in the idea that local, sustainable food production goes a long way to promoting a healthy lifestyle, plus a healthy and vibrant community. In my mind, being able to produce and distribute quality local food at a decent price and make a buck or two in the process is a win/win for all! So, without further adieu, allow me to 'pimp' my first local producer, or in this case, potential local producer: Mad Urban Bees LLC.

Mad Urban Bees LLC is the brainchild of a good friend of mine, Nathan Clarke. For the purposes of full disclosure, no, Nathan is not paying me to write about this. He wouldn't need to even if he wanted to. Nathan is an all around great guy. I have known Nathan and his wife, Beth, for a number of years now. They are what you could most certainly call 'self-sufficient' and 'sustainable'. A high percent of the food they and their two daughters eat throughout the year they grow themselves. They buy local whenever they can, including meats, cheeses, and veggies. Nathan brews his own beer, mead, wine, and other goodies that he loves to share with friends and loved ones. (I have partaken in eating and drinking in his humble abode more than a few times. My memory has been a bit 'fuzzy' regarding these events, but a good time was always had by all!) Nathan has also been beekeeping for the last five years. He owns two hives in his back yard and has helped others start their own. His commitment to all things local and sustainable has lead him to start Mad Urban Bees. He wants to expand his two hives to forty or fifty hosted by local businesses and residents throughout the city of Madison. This would be one of the first apiaries in an urban setting in the United States. He has a page on Kickstarter.com where people can donate to the start-up of his business. As of this writing, forty seven people have contributed $2,275. His goal is $7000 by January 3rd, 2012. He has some awesome gifts awaiting those who contribute, ranging from a personal thank you and updates on the project's progress for a $10 donation, all the way up to a honey themed four-course meal for two, a case of honey, t-shirts(gotta have the swag!) and a beehive donated in your name to Heifer International for a $1000 donation.

I think it's an awesome idea and I want to support Nathan in any way I can. One more local, sustainable business in Madison is good for our economy, our health, and our community as a whole. Donate today. Do it!!!!!

A short rant about mediocrity and Madison.

There are those days where I get mad at the city I currently live in. I'm not from here, but I do take some pride in my adopted home. I was far beyond proud when my fellow Wisconsinites took to the streets this past February to protest the heavy-handed, short-sighted, and downright mean policies of an incoming governor. I'm proud to live in a state that loves its cheese heritage and craft beers. I love that I live in a city of 230,000-plus, yet I can drive 20 minutes to the west and fish for brown trout in a fast-moving stream in the middle of nowhere. I love not living amongst a sea of strip malls and used car lots like I did down in suburban Illinois. I do like it here.

What I get angry about is the fact that, while Madison, Wisconsin is said to have the highest number of restaurants per capita of any American city over 200,000 people, it has A LOT of mediocre food. There is an abundance of chain stores here, but there are plenty of locally owned establishments as well, and some of them are quite good. But, the food culture here seems stunted, as if there is no real sense of identity. Again, please don't get me wrong, there is good food to be had, but for every L'Etoile and Shinji Muramoto, there's twenty or thirty Samba's or Parthenon Gyros.

What has set me off was a trip to Chicago this past weekend. Some friends and I celebrated a birthday at Fogo de Chao in the Loop. It's part of a Brazilian steak house chain that opened in Brazil in the late seventies and now has sixteen restaurants around the U.S., mostly in major cities. The experience was amazing! The meat never stopped! It was quality food, tasty drinks, excellent service, a wine list that wins awards, and an upbeat atmosphere. It wasn't cheap, mind you, (a date night could easily set you back $200+,) but it was well worth it.

Here in Madison, we have Samba. It's owned by a couple who also own several other restaurants and a couple of liquor stores and are taking turns serving time in prison for tax evasion! The last time I was there, (also for a friend's birthday,) the lamb was game-y, some of the other meats weren't very well cooked or spiced, the salad bar was pretty good, the drinks were ok, and the service absolutely sucked. All of this and I only paid $10 less for the meal than I did for Fogo de Chao.

I'm not sure I have anything constructive to say about Madison's food scene at the moment. There are quality restaurants here and places I love, but some folks here have an attitude that the scene here is on par with Chicago, and I'm here to tell you...it's not. I'm going to sleep on this one and we'll see if I have anything more to say about this issue. /rant

I *heart* chili!

I *heart* it so much, I'm going to share a recipe with you.

It's November and in Wisconsin that means 40 to 50 degrees Fahrenheit during the day and below freezing at night. By February, we'll be lucky to have seen the sun for more than three hours in a week and Ice Road Truckers will be starting their runs across Lake Mendota's three feet of ice. Wisconsinites take this all in stride; we are a hardy bunch, and fourteen below zero weather doesn't stop us from carrying on about our day. One of the ways we in the north get through our winters is consuming a fair amount of soups, stews, and anything we can cook in a slow-cooker for hours on end. Both East and West coasters love to make fun of us chubby, pasty-white Midwesterners. But unlike coasties, we can survive arctic temperatures with minimal discomfort and can maintain a relative amount of sanity after five months of frigid weather. (Though I will admit to the fact that this is made easier by fostering a certain level of lunacy to begin with.)

One of the ways I survive winter is making chili in my slow-cooker. As I write this, my first batch of chili of the season is simmering in my kitchen and it will be doing so for the next ten hours, (for a total of twelve hours.) I was given the recipe almost twenty years ago by a guy who lived on the same floor as I did when I was stationed at Castle Air Force Base in California. For the life of me, I can't remember his name, only that his nickname was "Tex". He was from somewhere just outside of Houston and one day, after I made some chili in the first slow-cooker I ever owned, (my mom's old slow-cooker from the early 80's,) he decided that it was his civic duty as a Texan teach a "yankee" how to make chili properly. I have used this recipe, tweaking it every now and again, ever since.

It is now MY civic duty to share this recipe with you. Feel free to tweak as you wish:

Jay's Texas chili recipe

3 tbsp Bacon grease
2 lbs. beef stew meat or tri-tip, cut into cubes
1 medium white onion, diced
1 red bell pepper, diced
1 green bell pepper, diced
1 Jalapeno pepper, diced
3 cloves of garlic, diced finely
1 14.5 oz can of chopped tomatoes
1 29 oz  can of tomato puree
2 16 oz cans of beans, (red, black, kidney, whatever you like)
3 tbsp chili powder
1 tbsp of cumin
1 tbsp white flour
1 tbsp of vegetable oil

In your slow-cooker, mix in tomatoes, puree, beans, chili powder, and cumin and set the temperature to Low. Cook two or three strips of bacon in a frying pan to draw out grease. Eat bacon when done. (Mmmmm...bacon.) Saute onions, peppers, and garlic in bacon grease on medium heat until onions are translucent. Pour contents of pan into you slow-cooker and mix.  Lightly coat stew meat in flour. Pour oil into pan and cook meat on medium-high heat until lightly browned. Pour contents of pan into slow-cooker and mix. Cook chili on low heat for a minimum of 8 hours, stirring every 2 hours or so.  I cook mine for at least 10 hours. Feel free to thin out chili with water or beef stock if it becomes too thick during the cooking process.  After cooking is finished, you may eat right away, but chili, much like good stews and soups, is better after it has cooled for at least 12 hours, allowing the flavors to "marry" further. If you choose to do so, simply reheat, serve with your favorite toppings and enjoy!

The critic within us all.

I love to eat out at restaurants. The food is, of course, the main motivation for my visit, but I do enjoy the full experience of dining out. However, if the food is REALLY good, I have no qualms about overlooking the more negative aspects of my meal. I have dined within houses of ill repute with nothing but fond memories. Sketchy kitchens, war zone-like neighborhoods, bad service, and restaurants with the personality and charm of a maximum security prison will not deter me from a great meal. Food is king in my dining experiences. Everything else is just filler.


During the time I have spent so far putting this blog together, I have thought about what direction I wanted to take it and I, ultimately, asked myself this question: do I want to write as a food writer, or do I want to write as a food critic?


I have my favorite food critics. The one I turn to for restaurant reviews, first and foremost, is Raphael Kadushin. He is a regular contributor to Bon Appétit, National Geographic Traveler, Condé Nast Traveler, Epicurious.com and Concierge.com.  He also writes restaurant reviews for a local alternative newspaper here in Madison called the Isthmus. (He's based out of New York, but he's also an editor at the University of Wisconsin Press.) His word is law when it comes to my choosing of restaurants to frequent. His tastes and his opinions have been spot on with my own since the very first article of his I read back in 2006. He's honest, first and foremost; sometimes to the point of brutality. There are restaurants here in Madison, (as, I'm sure, in other places,) that hate his guts. But, he will honestly try to find some good in a bad restaurant, as well as criticize individual dishes in restaurants he likes. These are the qualities I look for in a restaurant critic. There are other critics that write for the Isthmus that I don't like so much. Either they are nothing more than free advertising, not seeming too willing to criticize anything, or they exude a snobby, "too-good-to-eat-here" attitude that rubs me the wrong way. I'll stick with Raphael, thank you.


A new favorite of mine here in the blogosphere is Eating Madison A to Z. Some years ago, I was involved with a few friends of mine in a group we called Saturday Lunch Group. Almost every Saturday afternoon for more than two years, we would get together to eat lunch at a different restaurant. We had a simple rule that at least two people in the group, (there were three of us most of the time,) had to have not ever eaten at that restaurant. We complied a list of nearly one hundred restaurants. I was impressed with this number for a long time...until I ran into the Eating Madison A to Z folks here on the internet. As I'm writing this, they just posted their 734th restaurant review!!!! I feel like a slouch by comparison! They use the "Eats" list of the Isthmus as their guide to choosing restaurants to review, put them in alphabetical order, and off they go. 734...that boggles my mind!


So, then the question becomes, "Do I want to write restaurant reviews?" The short answer is: yes. But, I won't do them very often. As I have said before, I'm a student and I live on a students' salary. (Thank goodness I like ramen noodles!) I think, for our purposes here, I'll do one restaurant review per month and incorporate the format into the blog, along with the rest of it. As an amateur food writer and as an anthropology student, I think a holistic approach works best; a little bit of everything will work well with what I envision this blog to be. Food writer or food critic? The answer is...yes.


Next time, we'll talk about chili. I even have a recipe for ya! Until then...cheers!

What is "authentic"?

It's not as simple a term as one would like to think. 


Authentic conjures rustic imagery: old wooden tables, copper pots, cast-iron skillets, old women wearing aprons while stirring giant pots of bubbling stew, misshapen loaves of crusty bread, at least it does in my head. You probably have your own ideas as to what is authentic to you when it comes to food....




...and therein lies the issue with the word "authentic" as it is applied to cuisine.


Cuisine, much like language or society, is a living, breathing organism, constantly evolving; in a never-ending state of flux. Authentic is static. It is an snapshot of a time, a place, a person and/or group of people. What is currently labelled authentic may have been something new and different 20, 50, 100 years ago. As technologies, access to foodstuffs, and tastes change, so do recipes. And often those recipes are interpreted and reinterpreted within the same ethnic context time and time again. I could eat a plate of tagliatelle alla bolognese from two different restaurants in Bologna and, while they may look the same, they probably won't taste quite the same. One might decide to use tomato sauce, while the other uses puree. One might use a little more pancetta than the other. Is one of these authentic while the other isn't? Who decides this?


You do, actually.


Authenticity is a product of nostalgia. What is authentic is what you grew up with, what is familiar. Some ethnic cuisines have put more effort into defining authenticity, however, even to the point of creating culinary schools and societies that apply empirical methodologies in establishing authenticity, (often for legal purposes as the world becomes more globalized and producers what to protect their products from cheap imitation.) An example of this would be the Accademia Italiana della Cucina (Italian Academy of Cuisine.)


Which leads me to authenticity of cuisine in America.


As I said before, authentic is tied to the idea of nostalgia. In post-modern America, nostalgia is a powerful force to be reckoned with. As everything around us becomes commodified, one of the unfortunate side effects of this commodification is a steady loss of the meanings we apply to everything around us. Shopping for food once had meaning beyond just purchasing sustenance for yourself or your family. Shopping was a social event, allowing one to create and maintain social ties to friends, family, and food producers. Unless you regularly buy food from a farmer's market, you probably don't know where you food comes from, other than maybe a little tag on the packaging, telling you which state or country your apples were grown and shipped from. Our way of life has become so commodified, in fact, the very ideas of nostalgia and authenticity are in and of themselves commodities. "Authentic" foodstuffs are regularly packaged and sold to consumers in hopes of connecting with that sense of nostalgia, a commodity that people will pay top dollar for these days. For when the present begins to lose meaning, we quickly turn to the past.


I'm sure I'll have more to say on this subject, but for the sake of time, attention span, and space, I'll stop here. Next week, I'll talk about my curiosity about restaurant reviewing and perhaps I'll post a chili recipe. Until then, have a great weekend!