nomenclature

Heads up: high fructose corn syrup has a new name, "corn sugar." It's still terrible for you.

tastes like?

When I was an intern at Equal Exchange way back when, I met their quality control person whose only job was to taste coffee. Apparently becoming a real, profession coffee connoisseur involves a lot more than just really liking coffee. At that time, the quality control person had undergone a two or three year apprenticeship with some coffee guru, who taught her to nuances of coffee tones and flavors -- much like becoming a sommelier. Cool job, right? Well, doing this kind of work actually requires something more than just an aesthetic sensibility and experience; it requires a natural aptitude to taste flavors with a greater intensity than most people. They're called supertasters. And it's not all wine and coffee for supertasters. Supertasters tend not to like some very common foods because, well, they don't taste very good if you have an acute palette. Brussels sprouts, cabbage, kale, grapefruit juice, green tea, spinach, soy, carbonation, chili peppers, tonic water, olives -- all of these things are commonly inedible to supertasters. They just can't help it.

Pura Masa

Eventually I'm going to do some posts on bread and bread-baking, specifically a bit about why it's important and how it has changed (us) over time. But not yet.

But I did see an article at Wired today, commemorating the hundred-year anniversary of the first fully automated bread factory in the US, and I thought it was interesting:

1910: Ward Baking Company puts a fully automated bread factory into operation. The mechanized factory in Chicago churns out hundreds of perfect loaves a day, untouched by human hands.

Though the author claims in the lead that automated bread was not "the greatest thing since sliced bread," the article goes on to extol the contribution of industry to the mechanization of craft labor because it eliminated germs. Only the nerds at Wired could possibly look at the automation of bread production in 1910 and think, "Wow. How great." As if scientific management and the destruction of craft labor were good things.

What do you call that kind of roll?

Director of the recent Oscar-winning documentary, The Cove, helped bust an L.A. sushi restaurant for selling endangered Sei whale meat to customers. And, surprisingly, "illegally selling an endangered species product" is only a misdemeanor.

If you haven't seen The Cove yet, do so. It can be hard to watch in some parts, but it's very well done and a real eye-opener.

We're all screwed!

The Washington Post has a piece up about the food industry's efforts to remove BPA--the nasty, cancer-causing plastics recently removed from Nalgene and Sigg water bottles--from canned foods. Upon reading an article on BPA in canned tomatoes, I decided to stop buying them altogether. But it looks like the food industry has a much bigger problem on its hands: it just can't figure out where the BPA is coming from?

Major U.S. foodmakers are quietly investigating how to rid their containers of Bisphenol A, a chemical under scrutiny by federal regulators concerned about links to a range of health problems, including reproductive disorders and cancer.

But they are discovering how complicated it is to remove the chemical, which is in the epoxy linings of nearly every metal can on supermarket shelves and leaches into foods such as soup, liquid baby formula and soda. It is a goal that is taking years to reach, costing millions and proving surprisingly elusive.[...]

"What we're hearing is, the stuff is just omnipresent."

Only spray-on glass can save us now.

History of the Senses

My partner and I hosted a large birthday brunch yesterday, and some kind visitor left us with a large bag of oranges. Today as we were doing our best to eat the leftovers, we got into a conversation about oranges. I asked K. if she thought they were an Old World fruit or indigenous to the New World. Since neither of us knew the answer, we consulted wikipedia, and made a very interesting discovery.

Oranges are indigenous to Southeast Asia, but what's really interesting is that they were not introduced into Europe until the early Renaissance. So, if Europeans didn't eat oranges until the 16th century, what about the color "orange"? Where does that come from?

According to wikipedia (which provides an awesome etymology through its many successions), the word "orange" denoting a color didn't appear until 1512 (or 1542, depending on which page you consult). Prior to the 16th century, the color "orange" was called geoluhread, which wiki tells us translates to "yellow-red."

K. speculates that perhaps this is why we have no rhyme for the word orange.

I'd slap that shit off the table

Somehow it doesn't seem ethical, but a 70 year-old lobster dubbed "Larry" is on the menu for $275 at New York City restaurant.

When asked whether preparing such an old creature gives him pause, McLaughlin said that “to a certain degree, it does.” However, the lobster is being given his “just due” at the restaurant and that he “will be enjoyed.”

The banking executive who wrote us figured the lobster would probably die to satisfy someone’s bragging rights.

Of all the lobsters I’ve dined on recently, and I’ve dined on many, Oceana’s have been my favorite. But this 11-pounder is not for me. It’s his age that moves me -- we don’t often contemplate the age of the animals we eat. When I asked about the lobster, I wasn’t told the age until I specifically asked: How old is he?

Just think of it: that bastard lived through the entirety of WWII, was 30 years old when humans walked on the moon, and was well into his silver years when the internet was born. Via Harper's.

drink it up!

Since my homeboy Gerry Canavan just finished his exams, here's a tribute to his love of soda, idiosyncrasy, and weird obsessions:



By the way, this place is called Galco’s Soda Pop Stop, and it is located at 5702 York Boulevard in Los Angeles.

May or may not be edible

In the search for the perfect wedding cake, Kendra came across Cake Wrecks, a blog for when professional cakes horribly, hilariously wrong (or right).

My favorites:

Tom Selleck cake
Babies riding carrots

Dead clown cake (or: The only good clown is a dead clown . . . cake)

From Kendra, my resident snack expert, comes this gem:

Designer of Pringles carton buried in crisp tube

The designer of the Pringles crisp tube has died – and had his remains buried in one of the containers.

Dr Fredric J. Baur, who was 89, had told his family to ensure his final resting place was the inside of one of his most famous creations.

They honoured his request by having his ashes buried in a Pringles tube – and a m

ore conventional urn for the overflow – at Arlington Memorial Gardens in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Deep Fried

State Fair Food: so delicious!

This food all looks pretty great, but as with most Fair Food, I'm guessing it looks (and sounds) a lot better than it tastes. (Deep friend snickers bars, for example, bring together flavors and textures that may be complimentary, but in no universe is such a combination necessary or desirable).

I'm holding out for the day when I will finally behold a staple of State Fair food fun: the butter sculpture. I guess they don't make butter sculptures in Texas.

Thanks, Metafilter.

vegetate

"Our task must be to free ourselves . . . by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature and its beauty."

"Nothing will benefit human health and increase chances of survival for life on earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet."

- Albert Einstein

Didn't we all already know that vegetarians, in addition to being super-sweet and totally awesome, are also smarter than everybody else?

But now science has proved it:

High IQ link to being vegetarian

Intelligent children are more likely to become vegetarians later in life, a study says.

A Southampton University team found those who were vegetarian by 30 had recorded five IQ points more on average at the age of 10.