Showing posts in the “food” category
Adam Sobsey ·
19 Mar 2010, 10:51 AM ·
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The abstinence marches on…
A Brief History
What is Lent, anyway, and why abstain? A time of penance, sacrifice, discipline; like Ramadan in Islam. (Many, many cultures have such a rite.) “Lent” comes from a Teutonic word that just means “spring,” and it’s appropriate symbolically if not quite linguistically: The period actually leads up to spring rather than falling during that season. The idea seems to be a dark-before-dawn one, in which you volunteer some late-winter forbearance and renunciation in anticipation of the glorious blooms of April. (But to leave it tied only to natural cycles rather than heavenly obedience is rather pagan.) It’s a kind of preemptive spiritual spring cleaning.
The 40 days of Lent coincide numerically with Jesus’s time in the tomb and with Noah’s flood, although the origins of Lent are not Biblical; the practice seems to have emerged in the first few hundred years A.D. (It’s always a surprise to discover how many so-called “Biblical” things aren’t actually in the Bible. Eve’s apple? Not necessarily an apple. Just a “fruit.”)
So you start on Ash Wednesday, which is easy to spot because it’s the day after Mardi Gras (and you see people with the telltale sign on their foreheads), and you go for 40 days until Easter Sunday. But that looks like fuzzy math—40 days don’t go as far as they used to, it seems—until you recall that you’re supposed to skip Sundays, which are a celebration day; that makes it compute properly. Originally, Lent seems to have required total fasting, so you needed to eat on Sundays in order to survive. But the age of asceticism is long gone, so most people just swear off meat, or pick some other thing. (For the purposes of my experiment, I am including Sundays in my not-drinking. As a nonreligious person, it isn’t important to me to break my abstinence once a week.)
For what it’s worth, not every Lenten tradition goes 40 days. The Roman Catholics jump off the wagon on Maundy Thursday; the Eastern Orthodox tradition begins Lent on “Clean Monday” (the day before Mardi Gras). The Ethiopian Orthodox Lent lasts 56 days (it starts earlier). For the hoping-against-hope types, there is no apparent sign of traditions that end Lent on Palm Sunday, a week before Easter. Nor does Good Friday serve as a drop-off point. In any case, Easter itself seems to make the most sense. That holiday, like its seasonal cousin, the Jewish Passover, celebrates rebirth, life, feasting, redemption; and there, again, is that promise of spring. New shoots; mating season; Kabinett-level Riesling, with its sprightly verve and freshness. (The wine writer Oz Clarke once wrote that you should welcome the first signs of spring by popping and pouring a Kabinett-level Mosel Riesling. It’s good for breaking Lenten teetotalling for another reason, too: only about 8% alcohol.)
A Cheaper Date
My SLF, Heather, is a real team player and is also not drinking in solidarity. She doesn’t drink as much as I do and so this has been no big deal at all for her. When we go out to eat, the biggest deal is a good one: the bill is so much lower! I had forgotten, even though I sell people alcohol with their food on a regular basis and rely on it to make an adequate living, how expensive it is to drink in a restaurant. You can easily double your bill with a cocktail and a decent wine. (Sin tax in its full glory: the markups can be, in disreputable places, unconscionably excessive.) Our dinner the other night was only $44 plus tip in a restaurant where it’s pretty easy to spend $100 if you find a wine you can’t resist diving into.
But I haven’t wanted to eat in restaurants much since Lent began, and not just because it’s less fun to dine out when you aren’t drinking. I’ve found that I crave less and less restaurant-type food. Meats, fats, salt—the hallmarks of most out-of-the-house food—lose appeal for me when there isn’t alcohol to go with it. I’ve been craving vegetables, grains, and fish (all of which I generally prefer anyway) even more than usual. I am tempted to speculate that this has to do with the metabolic function of alcohol. Does it help break down the tougher fibers in animal proteins, or “cut” fat in some chemical way? Is my body losing interest in heavy-gauge food out of physical self-preservation?
Hard to know. In the mean time, I have found myself satisfying what deeper wine cravings I have by reading more about wine, thinking more about wine, even buying wine. Not long ago, I fell in love with Heidi Schrock’s scrumptious, dare I say springlike Furmint from Rust, Austria, and ordered a case for the restaurant where I work. (Well, actually, half a case, as I’ll be buying the other half.) I went into one of my favorite local liquid shops not long ago—for tea, I swear—and walked out not only with my indispensable long qing but also a bottle of Cinsault (all by itself? unblended? cool!) from Domaine Faillenc Ste. Marie, a wonderfully funky family winery in Corbieres down in the South of France. I’m excited to drink these. And I plan to check out an auction of old wines this Saturday. I really shouldn’t go, but there’s this 1989 Barolo…
I’m sorry there isn’t more drama here: no night-sweats, no binges on rum raisin ice cream, no renting the movie Barfly and watching it 100 times in a row. But I think I have made a rather significant discovery. More on that next time.
food abstinence, Lent, wine
Adam Sobsey ·
17 Mar 2010, 7:16 PM ·
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I wrote at the end of my first post that, for the first Lenten week of not drinking, I was very, very hungry. No real surprise there: I was using alcohol less as an intoxicant than as fuel. It’s got lots of calories in it, so a drink can substitute, to some degree, for food. It wasn’t lost on me that I tended to get the hungriest after work, during which time I’d burned a lot of energy. I’ve been accustomed to sitting down to a drink after work because it marks the end of the labor period—I think a lot of people look forward to that end-of-the-workday tipple, as an indicator to the brain and body that one part of the day has ended and another is beginning—but what I didn’t realize was that I was also replenishing my sugars. It was Gatorade for Grownups.
All that reminded me of something I once read about Jimmy Page, the Led Zeppelin guitarist. At one point, the story went, he was trying to drop down from 135 pounds to 125 (!), and consumed only vitamin-infused banana daiquiris for perhaps as long as two years. Well, banana daiquiris and heroin. But the point is that it wasn’t just the bananas that Page was subsisting on; the rum had sugar in it, too. The human body will try to make nutrients out of whatever you put into it. A glass of wine has somewhere around 100 calories in it.
But back to that other reason for drinking after work: habit. When you pop the cork, order the beer or shake the martini at the end of the day—no matter whether your day ends at 5:00 or midnight—you’re sending your body and mind a signal as strong as an alarm clock: that thing you were doing, working, is over; time to do the next thing. For many of us, that signal is sent as part of a larger social broadcast that may involve going out with colleagues, going home and cooking dinner with family members, or any number of other activities that contain, as part of their cluster of signs to the cortex, alcohol. That’s why the thing we know as alcohol abuse may be much less a genetic or physiological problem than we think: substance use and abuse is deeply connected to the context in which we engage in it, and in healthy settings even excessive consumption isn’t anything like abuse. Just before Lent began, Malcolm Gladwell published an article in the New Yorker about this phenomenon. A book I reviewed for the Indy a few years ago, The Cult of Pharmacology, makes a similar argument. Routine and ritual are the anchors of healthy drinking.
These days after work, I’m still hitting the bottle, but it’s a liter bottle of water, which I don’t even bother pouring into a glass. (One of my colleagues claims that this indicates a third thing I’m satisfying at the end of the workday: an oral fixation. But I don’t much care for Freud.) While Brad swigs 7&7s and Graham a single-malt scotch and Petrie a glass (or four) of Vouvray, I’m staying inside the circle of the rite by glugging artesian water. It’s one of the reasons why, so far, abstaining for Lent hasn’t been a killer. I’ve got more than two weeks to go, or less than two weeks, or exactly two weeks—it depends on whose calendar you keep. Turns out that this particular ritual, like almost every other, has variations. More on that next time.
It’s St. Patrick’s Day. Enjoy your pint or your fingers of whisky. (By the way: Bushmills beats Jameson by a mile!) Needless to say, I won’t be able to join you. Raise a glass for me. I’m green with envy.
food abstinence, Lent, wine
Adam Sobsey ·
16 Mar 2010, 10:31 AM ·
1 Comment
I love wine. I love to drink wine, think about wine, read about wine, talk about wine. I have a modest but thoughtfully curated cellar in my house. One of my jobs involves selling wine, so I not only enjoy knowing about it, I have to know about it, and I do. Although wine is nowhere near the most important thing in my life, the subject (and substance) occupies an important place in the hierarchy. It’s a kind of refuge for me, a consolatory and contented place I can go whenever I want, which will provide comfort, pleasure and ideation. Nothing bad ever happens when wine is the matter at hand. (As long as it isn’t corked.)
Every year, some colleagues of mine at work give up something for Lent. They are not Catholic, but they use the period as an opportunity to practice some self-control, some sobriety, some healthfulness. In the last couple of years, they’ve abstained from cigarettes and/or alcohol, and this year they’ve gone vegan.
This year I decided to join them. I’m not Catholic either—and if there are readers who take offense at our bandwagon opportunism, I apologize—but I appreciate the presence in many cultures of a time of abstinence, which is tied into atonement, discipline and the heightening of awareness. As a basically nonreligious person, I could have just as happily chosen some other religion’s ritual of abstinence. But here came Lent, here came a good wintertime stretch for me to engage in a little lifestyle alteration, here were colleagues at work with whom I could find solidarity. Time to give something up.
I chose wine not only because I love it so much and the point of abstinence seems to be, partially, the renunciation of pleasure. I chose it for a couple of other reasons, too. One is that I used to fast for 24 hours once a month, and I am generally a very healthy eater and in pretty good physical shape; so swearing off meat, or junk food, or whatever, seemed a little too easy for me. (I also have doubts about the nutritional and ethical merits of the vegan diet, but that’s an ancillary issue.)
Another reason, and perhaps the only really significant one, is this: I drink a lot.
The more I thought about it, I realized that I drink more than almost anyone else I know; and if you remove my work colleagues from the picture, I’m pretty sure that I do drink more than anyone else I know.
And so, as Lent approached, I was visited by the musing worry that I might be—what? An alcoholic? I seldom drink to the point of drunkenness, but I couldn’t remember the last day that had gone by without my having had a drink. Or two. Or perhaps even three. I thought that I must at least have some sort of dependency. I wondered what it would be like to break that dependency for six weeks. Would I suffer from insomnia? Fatigue? Depression? Would regaling customers with enticing descriptions of how the J. L Chave St. Joseph “Offerus” will actually work just fine with sturgeon (because of the black olive sauce), or breaking down the finer points of Piemonte nebbiolo, drive me to salivating, or tears—or drink?
Well, so, the first week off the sauce, I was really, really hungry.
More to come very soon.
food abstinence, Lent, wine
Samiha Khanna ·
21 Jan 2010, 4:20 PM ·
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Students at the N.C. School of Science & Mathematics are hoping to break a world record on March 20 by gathering the most donations during a charitable food drive that lasts just 24 hours.
To break the record, donations must top 509,147 pounds of food. (Yes, that’s more than half a million pounds.) The food from the collection will be donated to the Food Bank of Central & Eastern North Carolina.
To put that figure in perspective, that amount of food would last the food bank about a week, said Allen Reep, vice president of development for the food bank. But it’s going to take a lot of participants. Every year, the N.C. State Fair gathers canned food at its gates in lieu of a ticket fee, and that collection usually brings in about 250,000 pounds of food—less than half what NCSSM hopes to gather, Reep said.
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Durham, Durham County, North Carolina, food, news Anoop Desai, Durham, Food Bank of Central & Eastern NC, food drive, Guinness Book of World Records, homelessness, NCSSM, poverty, recession
Joe Schwartz ·
14 Jan 2010, 6:24 PM ·
1 Comment
Almost half of the Chapel Hill’s standing committees and advisory boards served taxpayer-funded food at events from November 2008 to November 2009, receipts show.
We wrote about the Town Council’s meeting munchies expenditures in this week’s Indy. Unlike the council, most of the town’s other food-eating groups only order grub a few times a year.
The Library Board of Trustees spent the most with $345.67 purchased.
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Chapel Hill, business, food, politics Bicyle and Pedestrian Advisory Board, Board of Adjustment, Cemeteries Advisory Board, Chapel Hill, Community Design Commission, food expense, Greenways Commission, Historic District Commission, Housing Advisory Board, Human Services Advisory Board, Library Board of Trustees, Mayor's Youth for a Sustainable Future, Parks and Recreation Commission, Planning Board, Public Arts Commission, Stormwater Advisory Board, Sustainability Committee, town council
Lisa Sorg ·
3 Nov 2009, 11:41 AM ·
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Even before the demise of the Durham Co-op grocery earlier this year (the space on West Chapel Hill Street slated to become an acupuncture clinic) there were rumblings about a new market to either supplement or replace it.
Durham Central Market announced today it receive a $25,000 Sprout Fund loan from Food Co-op 500. The loan program, financed by National Cooperative Bank (NCB), is designed to provide capital during the middle and late stages of co-op development. According to a press release, over the last three years, only seven co-ops nationwide have been awarded a Sprout Loan. The award was based on a review of the market’s business plan and pro forma financial statements. Read the rest of the release below the fold.
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Durham, food Aubrey Arnoczy, Durham Central Market, Michael Bacon, National Cooperative Bank, Sprout Fund loan, Stephen Hren
Jennifer Strom ·
6 Jul 2009, 12:17 PM ·
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After 15 years of feeding big lunchtime crowds at its popular hot and cold buffet bar and offering sit-down fine dining featuring seafood and sushi, Ninth Street institution George’s Garage closed its doors last week.
A spokesman for owner Giorgios Bakatsias says the lease has expired on the building, and that Bakatsias is pursuing “new ventures.” The 15,000 square foot space also housed a bakery and a market for takeout food, as well as an adjacent private party space and lounge called the G-loft.
Bakatsias welcomes feedback and input from former patrons and the public on the restaurant’s Web site, www.garagerestaurant.com.
Durham, food
Jennifer Strom ·
28 May 2009, 3:30 PM ·
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Food safety inspectors have pinpointed the problem that sickened patrons at Raleigh’s Evoo restaurant last month: Anchovies used in a Caesar salad dressing. At least 17 diners fell ill at the restaurant and in a nearby home, summoning multiple emergency medical teams to the scene.
Test results by federal Food and Drug Administration (PDF, 228 KB) revealed poisonous levels of histamine, an agent resulting from the decomposition of fish muscles, which causes nausea, vomiting and allergic-like reactions very quickly after exposure. The resulting illness is called scombroid food poisoning, and is most commonly associated with anchovies and sardines, as well as tuna, bluefish and mahi mahi.
The canned anchovies came from the manufacturer, Monarch, with histamine levels of 48 to 79 parts per million (ppm). The FDA considers levels of more than 50 ppm unsafe for consumption, and individual diners can experience sensitivity to the substance even at levels below that, says Andre Pierce, Wake County’s environmental health and safety director.
Monarch, a division of U.S. Foods, has issued a Class 1 (highest priority) recall of the anchovies, Pierce said.
“Today is a big sigh of relief for the restaurant,” said Evoo partner Robert Duffy. “We feel like we did everything right; there’s nothing we could have done to prevent this.”
Regulators tested both the anchovies and some tuna that were served on April 17, and while the tuna returned some results that could have caused some sensitive diners a problem, anchovies seem the more likely culprit because all of the ill patrons had eaten salad, Pierce said.
While not every diner had the Caesar salad, the same cutting board was used to prepare the anchovies and the salad greens, so other salads may have been cross-contaminated, Pierce said.
Duffy says Evoo has discontinued using anchovies in its salad dressing, and is inviting patrons affected by the illness to dinner on the house. The restaurant was cleared by inspectors to reopen the day after the incident, and continues to maintain its A rating.
Raleigh, food, news anchovies, Evoo, scombroid poisoning
Jennifer Strom ·
6 May 2009, 2:51 PM ·
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Chatham County voters just said yes to mixed drinks this week.
With 19 percent turnout, a referendum that was the only issue in a special countywide election passed 65 percent to 35 percent, according to complete but unofficial results from the Chatham County Board of Election. The change, which takes effect immediately, means that restaurants and bars in Pittsboro, Siler City and throughout the county can serve hard liquor by the drink. Previously, only beer and wine were permitted.
PACs led by local elected officials and supported by business groups including the chamber of commerce raised funds in support of the measure, arguing that the change would provide new revenue for the county and help draw more restaurants.
Chatham County, Pittsboro, business, food elections
Jennifer Strom ·
21 Apr 2009, 4:48 PM ·
1 Comment
The 911 calls
The names and phone numbers of the callers have been redacted.
Call #1 (.wav, 3.7 MB)
Friday, April 17, 9:48 p.m. from Evoo restaurant.
Call #2 (.wav, 6.1 MB)
Friday, April 17, 10:11 p.m. from an address in the 1000 block of Vance Street, where two people who had eaten at Evoo earlier in the evening were severely ill.
Wake County health officials are trying to trace the source of more than eight possible cases of food-borne illness reported April 17, which may be connected to Evoo, a Mediterranean restaurant in Raleigh’s Five Points.
“We are currently investigating some reports of sickness,” said André Pierce, director of the environmental health and safety division of the county’s environmental services department. “The investigation is ongoing and we don’t have any results yet.”
Because epidemiologists had not yet identified the bacteria, virus or other agent that may have caused the illness, Pierce declined to speculate on any commonalities between the victims, including a restaurant where they may all have eaten.
“Typically we don’t implicate a facility until we have confirmation of lab results,” Pierce said.
However, shortly before 10 p.m., the Raleigh-Wake 911 Center received an emergency call reporting that someone was ill at Evoo at 2519 Fairview Road, said Walt Fuller, the center’s deputy director in charge of operations.
One paramedic unit was dispatched at 9:50 p.m. and called for backup upon arriving at the scene, Fuller said. A second paramedic unit, a quick responder vehicle and a fire engine all responded. In all, nine rescuers attended victims at the restaurant.
The paramedic units transported an unknown number of victims to Duke Health Raleigh, Fuller said.
In a possibly related incident, a second 911 call about sick persons, which came in at about 10:15 p.m., summoned two more ambulances and a district supervisor to the 1000 block of Vance Street nearby. Two people were taken to Wake Medical Center from that address, Fuller said.
Pierce, whose department is responsible for inspecting the 1,800 licensed restaurants in Wake County, said as far as he knew Evoo remained open Monday. However, no one was answering the restaurant’s phone Monday afternoon.
Past inspection reports on file with the county show that the restaurant, owned by chef Jean Paul Fontaine, has struggled with cleanliness issues in the last two years.
The most recent report, dated March 20, noted two “critical violation risk factors”: unsanitary food contact surfaces, including dirty utensils, and improper holding temperatures for cold foods.
Statewide health regulations list 18 factors that are given highest priority in inspections, Pierce said.
“These are those items we know are more likely to contribute to food-borne illnesses,” he said.
Evoo received a score of 92.5 out of 100 possible points in last month’s inspection, despite the deductions for the two critical violations.
On Nov. 20, 2008, inspectors cited one critical violation pertaining to food storage; raw oysters were being kept over ready-to-eat items in the walk-in cooler.
Two months earlier, on Sept. 4, 2008, the restaurant was cited for the same two categories of critical violations as the March 2009 report.
Evoo received a 94.5 score in both September and November inspections.
Raleigh, Wake County, food Raleigh
