Food Jewelry. Beautifully delicious.

http://www.indiepublic.com/photo/box-of-chocolates-ring?context=user

There's a website that I thought I'd share with everyone. It's called Indiepublic and they have the most creatively scrumptious jewelry I've ever seen! It's so darn creative that my hats are way off to them! I would totally wear this "Box of Chocolates" ring I found(link above), and other creations such as, the chocolate fondant bracelet! One problem. I just can't figure out how to order any of this stuff. How frustrating!

There's even a nifty pair of Nutella handcuffs, that I swear, Foti MUST own one day.

Here's a fun tongue twister: What a fun, foodie find, I found today!

Craving soda? Grab ZEVIA!

Today I was craving soda! We all know that soda is absolutely horrible for you. Even the diet ones aren't so great for your diet after all. While I was at the grocery store, I asked someone for a sugar free, natural alternative to soda and she recommended ZEVIA. Luckily, I was able to get one because pretty much all the flavors were completely sold out!

Where's the sweetness come from?Mostly from stevia, an herb many times sweeter than sugar.ZEVIA products are 100% natural, with zero calories. YAY! The after taste is slightly reminiscent of splenda, but it's still pretty tasty. I got the ginger root beer today and it was really good. Knowing that it's sugar free and all natural makes it tastes even better.

For more info on Stevia, visit stevia.net! Below is an excerpt from their webpage.

If you've ever tasted stevia, you know it's extremely sweet. In fact, this remarkable noncaloric herb, native to Paraguay, has been used as a sweetener and flavor enhancer for centuries. But this innocuous-looking plant has also been a focal point of intrigue in the United States in recent years because of actions by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

The subject of searches and seizures, trade complaints and embargoes on importation, stevia has been handled at times by the FDA as if it were an illegal drug.

Since the passage of the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA), stevia can be sold legally in the United States, but only as a "dietary supplement." Even so, it can be found in many forms in most health-food stores, and is also incorporated into drinks, teas and other items (all labeled as "dietary supplements"). It cannot, however, be called a "sweetener" or even referred to as "sweet." To do so would render the product "adulterated," according to the FDA, and make it again subject to seizure.

Craving Indian Food...

I'm not sure if it's because my husband can't stop talking about Slumdog Millionaire or that I haven't had in ages, but I want Indian food. Now! (Maybe it's both.) I love this little place called Clay Pit in Austin. They have great Indian food with fun cocktails like Mango Margaritas. I think Foti will take me today since he's off. I'm super excited. We definitely need to get out and make ourselves mingle sometimes.

On the subject of Indian food, there's a great book I wanted to recommend. It's call Easy Indian by local chef, Suneeta Vaswani. I had the pleasure of working and learning from her when I was the culinary director of Sur La Table many moons ago. She teaches by telling fascinatingly beautiful stories. It's truly an amazing treat to be a part of her classes. She still teaches all over Texas and I strongly recommend her class to anyone that loves to cook authentic, ethnic cuisine. It's a true learning experience. She makes the best garam masala and chutneys too. But, everything she makes is the best! If she had a restaurant, she would make a killing, because no one could compete with her. On top of it all, she manages to make it look easy.

Cheers to Indian Food!

Mickey D's. Billions Please.

What is the world coming to? Although they're known for their golden arches and having the best fries in fast food, it seems millions are eating at Mickey D's on a more regular basis. Good Lord from heaven. I've been on my health kick rampage and McDonalds is on the up and up.

Ironically, I've noticed them slowly raising their prices and they're still making profits! Wow. Because even after raising their prices, they're still cheaper than 90% of restaurants(fast food joints included.) Who can compete? Burger King, Wendy's and Taco Bell. I bet they're all up in profits. Worst of all, they're marketing to children. No wonder we have such a child obesity problem in this country. I think it should be illegal to market high fat, high calorie foods to children under 10 years old. In my opinion, it's child abuse to feed your kid that crap on a regular basis. You wouldn't let your child smoke, so why predispose them to obesity and diabetes? That's just me. MAYBE once a month or for a birthday party, if kids even have birthdays there anymore, which I doubt.



I do feel for parents and everyone right now because healthy/organic food is so expensive nowadays. I KNOW most of it's a scam too. Yes it's healthier, but how much harder is it to grow a regular carrot, than an organic carrot? Not so much. Sure there's no pesticides or growth hormones, which is definitely beneficial. No doubt. Here's the discrepancy I'm talking about: Whole Foods had a small bag of carrots for $3.99 and a local grocer had "regular" carrots for 69 cents a bag. Whoa! That's WAY too much to profit on carrots. I could go on and on, but I won't. The examples are painful and endless. It's just such a jip. If most people knew what grocery stores did to profit it would sicken us to death. The mark up is so high and they throw disgusting amounts of food daily.

Now, McDonalds comes out #1. Go figure. Below is a direct excerpt I found.

As North America dips into a further recession, consumers are seeking lower prices. That seems to be the case, as McDonald’s has experienced a surge in profits and has announced it will invest $2.1 billion to open 1,000 new stores worldwide. Same-store sales were also up an impressive 7.2% Q4 net income was down 23% to $985.3 million ($0.87 per share), from $1.27 billion ($1.06 per share) year over year in the same period, missing Wall Street expectations. McDonalds also attributed the surge in sales from higher demand as consumers seek lower food prices.

SOURCE: business2press.com
Posted on 26 January 2009 at 6:37 pm in Business by Hercules K

Casu Marzu.Not your average cheese.

Since I'm on my nasty food rampage, I thought I'd blog about casa marzu. It's not French or completely inhumane. It's just intriguingly disgusting.This Sardinian favorite literally translates into “rotten cheese.” Not to mention, there's thousands of living maggots that live in this cheese.

It's made from Italian sheep’s milk, then soaked in a brine, lightly smoked, and usually ripens uncovered outside in the open. Maggots (AKA:cheese flies) are free to lay eggs inside of it. (Ewww.) Eggs hatch into thousands of maggots as they continually feed on the cheese. This process triggers enzymes that continue fermentation and the cheese to decompose. Believe it or not, this cheese is highly coveted by chef and foodies in Italy. It's local delicacy that people travel from all over the world to have at least once. I hear it's extremely pungent, has the texture of cream cheese and tends to burn the tongue a bit. It's like an over ripe Gorgonzola with living, breathing maggots. In fact, locals say that the cheese is only okay to eat if the maggots are still kicking and alive. Once the maggots are lifeless, the cheese is deemed too toxic for human consumption.


I'm sure the fact that Casa Marzu has been declared illegal unhygienic makes it more appealing to some. Obviously, it's can't be sold in public shops. Sometimes maggots can take up residency in the intestines if you have weak stomach acid(because this obviously kills them, but who knows the acid levels of their stomachs?) They can eat through intestinal walls and cause abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, internal bleeding and diarrhea. Is all this really worth the risk? No, if you ask me.

Despite ALL this, locals and tourists continue to buy this black market item out of "tradition." Locals swear it's been done for hundreds of year. ( I can personally name a ton of food practices that have been practiced for hundreds of years, but would not be acceptable to most people today.) Of course sellers will tell you this is an aphrodisiac. It's yet another concocted way to sell you an over priced rotten cheese.

How did CASU MARZU really come in to being? I have a theory of my own.

I believe many years ago a cheese maker had a family to feed. Maybe s/he was tired or forgetful one day and left a precious wheel of cheese out. S/he couldn't afford to get rid of this potential profit and was forced to to think of a clever solution. Perhaps they made up a story to a friend or naive tourist about how this was a unique, intentional creation that only few people could ever experience. Maybe they "fudged" and said it was safe, unique, local and even better, an aphrodisiac. Some people ate it and were fine. Others got sick and I'm sure they were dubbed weak or advised it wasn't for the faint of pallets. So, the "legend" of Casu Marzu lived and continues. That's what I'm pretty sure happened. I think casu marzu was a mistake made profitable with creative spin. Make your own call.

Just because the French have pissed me off...

I had to put this clip on. I didn't "work" today so I've had plenty of time to blog.

My not so secret crush, Gordon Ramsay is truly amazing. Not simply because he's a phenomenally talented chef, genuis entrepreneur, or that manages to tell people off in the most honestly entertaining way I've ever seen. I because this man has fierce tenacity and passion. He came from nothing and created a world of his own. He has a fascinatingly rich story behind his success. I admire him so much.

But, that's not why I'm putting this clip on my blog. I just think he's painfully hilarious and plus, I needed a good laugh!

Yet another reason why PETA ain't so crazy.

Speaking of crazy, the French are probably the only people who can make Britney Spears look normal. Sorry Brit! You know I love you, but you are pretty wacko. Yes, and that's why we love you.

Back to why PETA isn't so nuts. I heard from a chef friend of mine about the Ortolan. It's a small garden bird that the French love to feed, drown in alcohol and then, eat whole. This bird can be found near wineries in France, but DOESN'T destroy wine crops. It's diet consists of beetles, insects, and nuts. It's nests' are low to the ground so it never really has a chance to escape while it tends to it's eggs.

Above is a video of Jeremy Clarkson from the BBC eating Ortolan. He's the host of Top Gear and Lord only knows why he's attempting to explain food. Anyway, they all eat this bird under a white napkin, which I think represents their shame. It's a total disgrace. With so many things to eat, especially in Europe, why pick on this defenseless creature. Are people so gluttonous that they need to eat EVERY living creature?! I understand we're the higher species. I get that. However when you have to eat your meal under a napkin in shame, I believe that's your conscious speaking directly to you. Where's the appeal in that really? It's just a stupid thing that a chef/cook came up with to grab people's attention and it worked. Now, highly pretentious, ignorant, affluent French people and/or tourists eat these poor Ortolan just so their other mind numbingly pretentious friends go, "ohhh and ahhh."

I say, "Ughh and Ewww."

Even though I eat meat, it's stories like this that have me think twice. I've increased my consciousness and awareness of blatant, unnecessary cruelty in the food industry. Why do people come up with this stuff? Just for the sake of a unique dining experience that carries that coveted "wow" factor. I know it's harder to be creative with things that are abundant on this planet, but as a chef, it's kind of your job. Chefs who think, " I'll get obscure ingredients and come up with a bizarre ritual to prepare them. There's no such thing as animal cruelty. I'm THE bigger animal. I eat all animals that are smaller than me. In fact, some may consider me to be a culinary genius for finding new animals to eat in weird ways." Wrong-o bub. Frankly, it's all crap and they're ignoramuses. They just are.

It's stories like this that allow me to pay $10 stinking dollars for an organic, hormone free chicken. Moreover, it's why I refuse to eat veal or foie gras. Period. In fact there's a website :http://www.nofoiegras.org that does a great job with education on that particular subject matter. I strongly encourage all people to learn about what they put in their bodies. Especially be educated on what goes in your child's bodies. On I side note, I will totally be a crazy "Martha Stewart" mom and make my own organic baby food. The horrific ways we are over producing and inhumanely processing food(not just meat) in this country scares me. No way would I start a baby's life with manufactured crap.

UGHHH. No more. I'm gonna eat my vegan mushroom burger now and think, "serenity now." It's not that serious, but I am sympathetic to the Ortolan. And I'm one more step to ending the sick love affair I have with meat. Why must you taste so good?