Food Rumblings

More and more people are questioning where their food comes from all the time, especially in light of the recent increase of recent food-borne illnesses from E. Coli and other bacteria.  In addition, obesity and secondary health problems are on the rise.  Given all of the media attention on food, the release of a new documentary called Food, Inc. seems incredibly timely.  The movie, produced by Robert Kenner and Eric Schlosser (of Fast Food Nation), has been in the works for about six years and includes interviews and information on food regulations.

The movie posits that profit is the highest priority of the food industry – above and beyond consumers’ health or farmers’ needs.  The movie features experts such as food author Michael Pollan and Gary Hirshbirg, founder of Stonyfield Farm, producer of organic yogurts and other foods.  After discussing the problems today, the movie is to discuss the future of food.  The movie opens in limited release on June 12 and has further showings around the country starting on June 19 – show times are available on the Food, Inc. website. 

I’m eager to see the film to learn more about the food industry and to hear the possible solutions.  Supposedly, the movie also delves into the horrors of processed foods – I agree that whole foods are better, but feel most things are fine in moderation – I’m curious to see if the film changes my mind.

I love pizza – in restaurants, as take-out, or made at home.  However, making pizza at home poses a few challenges.  I don’t normally have time to make pizza dough from scratch (plus, it feels too much like baking, which isn’t my favorite thing).  I’ve tried refrigerated pizza dough, but it always ends up misshapen, uneven, and full of holes.  (Probably due to my lack of rolling and baking finesse).  I’ve also tried the store bought prepared pizza doughs, like Boboli, but the taste and texture don’t quite do it for me.

But, necessity is the mother of invention (and pizza is a necessity!).  In the past few months I’ve started noticing Naan bread in supermarkets – with the bread or fresh bakery items.  Naan bread, if you haven’t tried it, is a type of soft flatbread eaten in India and other countries – it’s available at most Indian restaurants and it’s delicious.  My husband and I started snatching it up and eating it as, well, bread.  As we continued to buy it, it occurred to me to vary its usage.

I started making Naan bread pizzas and my pizza-making dilemmas were solved.  Naan bread works perfectly as a pizza crust, albeit a non-traditional one!  The size we buy is perfect for a personal pizza, and there are usually 2-4 per package.  I’ve since made several with all manner of ingredients.  I started with the traditional red-sauce, cheese, and veggie combos but soon began to experiment.  One of our favorites included an egg on the top of the pizza (this may sound strange, but it’s fairly common in Italy) – the egg bakes to a lovely consistency in the oven, and the soft yolk is wonderful with the crust.  I used a whole wheat Naan bread, drizzled on olive oil,  a little chopped garlic and my other toppings.  Then, you crack the egg right onto the pizza and bake it at 375 degrees until the egg whites are just cooked through (roughly 10 minutes).

Another favorite non-traditional pizza topping is potatoes, also more common in Italy.  Add slices or chunks of roasted, baked, or boiled potatoes on top of your pizza (a great use of leftover potatoes).  I added mine to an olive oil and ricotta base and threw some leftover peas on top for color and extra veggies (I figured if I was going to be non-traditional – I might as well go all out!)  I seasoned with kosher salt, parsley, and oregano.  It was unusual, but delicious.  Next time you’re craving home-made pizza, give the naan-traditional kind a try!

Gourmet’s website has an eggscellent slide show right now on several varieties of eggs, including the ostrich egg, which brought back fond memories of my honeymoon in Aruba.

Before visiting Aruba, I did a lot of online sleuthing in preparation – I  especially wanted to discover the best spots to grab a bite to eat.  I was really excited when I discovered that there is an ostrich farm on Aruba!  For one thing, my husband and I had never seen an ostrich in person, and they’re pretty fascinating on their own.  Even better, the ostrich farm has a gift shop and a restaurant where they serve dishes made with ostrich meat and ostrich eggs.

If you’re not familiar with ostriches, they’re giant!  They look like giant, ambling, prehistoric birds that came straight off the set of Jurassic Park.  We opted not to go on the open-Jeep tour when I found out that they might be attracted to my glasses and would peck at them, me, and anything else shiny including jewelry.  However, we didn’t need to go on the tour, as the ostriches were perfectly happy to strut and pose for us from the other side of a chain-link fence.  And we were perfectly happy to have the fence there.

In the Savanna Lodge Bar and Restaurant at the ostrich farm, they serve a unique African-Caribbean fusion food.  We were able to sample an ostrich shoarma which is a pita sandwich filled with ostrich meat and an African spice mix.  It was delicious and the meat tasted very much like steak.

We were also lucky enough to try an ostrich omelette.  Since the ostrich is a very large bird, they lay very large eggs – so our ostrich omelette probably only used about an 1/8th or a 1/10th of an egg.  It tasted basically the same as a standard omelette made from a chicken egg, but the novelty factor was fun.

I also sampled African milk tart for dessert, which was sweet and very good.  I remember it being a bit like flan.

The gift shop even sold ostrich egg shells; unfortunately, stock was low and most had been broken by previous tourists.  It’s unlikely that we would have managed to get one home unscathed anyways, but they really are interesting conversation starters!  If you get the chance, ostrich meat and ostrich eggs are worth sampling.

My husband is a soft pretzel aficianado…perhaps because he lived outside of NYC when he was a child, where he had access to the real deal.  Most pretzels just don’t stack up, though - too sweet or too salty – they just don’t taste like the classic NY ones that my husband loves.

In an attempt to recreate a piece of my husband’s childhood, I ordered Dutch Country Soft Pretzel Mix for him awhile back.  The other day he eagerly opened the mix, prepared it, let it rise, and baked them to perfection.  Aside from the expected stickiness that occurred when he attempted to roll and shape them, they were easy to prepare and tasted great.  The highest praise I can think of is to say that I loved them, and I am not much of a pretzel lover at all…perhaps because I never had the good ones!  They are equal parts chewy and soft but they maintain their inherent pretzel-ness and won’t be mistaken for bread.  They’re great dipped in mustard or other condiments, but are equally great on their own.  And, despite having to mail order them, they are still a reasonably priced snack mix – knot to worry!

I love bagels in all their chewy, bready goodness.  Plain bagels, flavored bagels, with or without cream cheese, I love them all.  So, I was excited when I saw an ad (and, even better coupons!) for Einstein Bros Bagels new Bagel Poppers – cute little bagel bites that you can dip, pop in your mouth, and enjoy on the go.  Or so I thought.

I stopped by a local Einstein’s franchise this weekend and split two order of bagel poppers with my husband – blueberry and cinnamon sugar.  (We skipped the third flavor, an unappetizing sweet cream cheese).  I expected them to taste like, well, bagels.  We were sorely disappointed to find the bagel poppers tasted more like donut holes than bagel holes.  The blueberry variety had a sticky glaze on the outside that stuck to my fingers and made the poppers cloyingly sweet (and I love my sweets).  The cinnamon sugar flavor tasted more like fried dough dipped in cinnamon sugar.  Neither variety would be a good option for food on the go.  Despite being served in a plastic travel cup with a lid, the bagel poppers are too sticky and messy to enjoy without a napkin, or preferably a sink nearby.  If you don’t want to start your day with dessert, you’d do best to stick with your traditional bagel. And if you do want a sugary jolt to start your day, I’d recommend sticking to a classic donut.  If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!