atlantalarry

The various "100 best things" lists

Over the past week or so there has been an increase in the facebook apps  of the form "100 things to do, eat, visit, etc."  I don't have any objections to them, and in fact they're sort of fun to peruse.  At the same time the subjectivity involved in choosing the most notable 100 of anything lends a sort of pointlessness to the lists.

The lastest to enter my attention span is a "places to visit" sort of list.  The Sears Tower, Grand Canyon, and Gateway arch all made the cut, but Savannah's Mercer house, White Sands desert, and the Brooklyn Bridge didn't.  I suspect the Big Chicken wasn't even considered, and it's at least as artistically significant as the Gateway Arch.

I'm aware that ranking things is a very human characteristic, but I first became skeptical of "100 things" lists when I began mulling over the 100 greatest English language novels, and 100 greatest operas lists.

James Joyce's Ulysses was at the top of the novels lists.  Really?  Better than Confederacy of Dunces, or Catch 22?  The relative merits of a novel depends on one's purpose in reading it, and I don't doubt Joyce's brilliance, but I've made repeated unsuccessful attempts to read Ulysses.  I've started it so many times that I've practically memorized the scene with Steven Dedalus and Buck Mulligan in the Tower.  Then I bog down.  Perhaps I have a lowbrow streak, but I've read the latter two books repeatedly.  I don't think it's American chauvanism on my part either.  I think Terry Pratchett is one of the finest living English language writers, and if memory serves me correctly none of his books made the "100 greatest ..." list.

As for the opera list, Wagner's Ring Cycle was at the top of the most widely circulated list.  As good as it is, it's a ponderous, overly long, somewhat jingoistic opera, guaranteed to bring about a terrible case of sore buttocks, even with frequent intermissions.  There are many brilliant and accessible operas to choose from.  The Barber of Seville, Il Trovatore, and any of Gilbert and Sullivan's works make arguably much better connection with audiences than the 15 hours of the Ring Cycle.

These lists may be worthwhile to expose a person to places, foods, novels, operas, symphonies, or other types  of thing which that person might not otherwise encounter, or to test one's exposure to a wide range of experiences.  But you shouldn't stress out too much if you've never eaten haggis, or been to the Gateway arch, or read Ulysses, or suffered through a live performance of the Ring Cycle.  Instead figure out what you really find fulfilling, and make your own list.

The pink slime dilemma

Whether you call it "pink slime" (the most popular term) or "lean finely textured beef" (the beef industry's preferred name for the substance) that particular emulsified food product consisting of beef trimmings treated with ammonia has become one of the most notorious food additives of the past few decades.

Various forms of meat slurry are not unique.  The popular engineered food "chicken nuggets" are produced by a similar process.  And those longtime slurries of the processed meat world, hot dogs and sausages (unless you make them yourselves), have always included components that it's best not to think about if you intend to eat them.  Meat slurries and chemical additives are among the reasons I mostly eat food from plants, and overwhelmingly buy those foods in a form which makes them easily recognizable to me.  The tomatoes I buy or grow look like tomatoes.  The beans are clearly beans.  Even the flours I buy tend to look like what they are purported to be, and if I buy organic whole wheat the likelihood that it is really ground grain is high enough for me to accept.

The argument that pink slime is being treated unfairly may have a grain of truth to it.  Pink slime has the disadvantage of being pink and slimy.  It also had the misfortune to have its derisive popular name stick.  The likelihood that the industry's chosen name, "lean finely textured beef" is ever going to gain currency is nearly zero.  But on the other hand pink slime is probably no more unsafe (or in my opinion unappealing), than the tens of thousands of other highly processed food-like products foisted upon the public every year.

There are two interesting arguments I've seen advanced defending pink slime.

The first is that the controversy is killing companies, and consequently jobs.  That's true, but industries are hurt by negative publicity all the time.  The same argument could be used to defend the tobacco industry, or to remove toy safety regulations.  Consumers have indicated clearly that they don't want to eat a slimy, pink, ammonia-processed food additive in their hamburgers.  The USDA actually approved the stuff.  So if you would like to use the "job killer" argument blame the consumer. 

The second is that pink slime serves a resource friendly and animal friendly purpose by using more of the cow.  True, as far as the argument goes, but not eating beef is an even better way of conserving resources (the inefficiency of cattle as a food source is well documented).  Likewise not killing the cow at all is a kinder act than making sure that every bit of cartilage and ligament winds up in the hamburger or hot dog..

My own preference, and there isn't any means of enforcing it except by increasing the availability of nutritional information, and knowledge of the process by which food gets to our table, is for people to eat real food rather than highly processed and highly engineered extruded "product".

As a start, I think everyone should read the book Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal, by Eric Schlosser.  It goes into a great deal of detail on how factory farming and the fast food industry operates.

In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto is another book with excellent descriptions of our descent from eating food to eating highly engineering food-like product. I think the bar should be set higher for what we consider acceptable eating habits. "It won't kill you", while a good criteria at the extreme end, is hardly an encouraging endorsement of any food or diet.

 

 

 

Smoothie with a bit of a kick -- Habanero spinach smoothie

I experiment with food combinations with an enthusiasm that has often horrified my friends and relatives.  Sometimes the more unusual combinations are quite tasty, and only sound awful.  Sometimes they are just awful.  I also browse the Dekalb Farmer's market, and the various ethnic specialty grocery stores in metro Atlanta for new ingredients, and follow studies in the scientic press on possible beneficial (or detrimental) effects of various food components.

Lately I decided to add more hot peppers to my diet, based on studies indicating that capsicain, the chemical which makes hot pepper hot, might lower blood pressure and cholesterol.

Since I'm drinking a lot of smoothies these days, I decided to try a smoothie with habanero pepper (for breakfast, no less!)

Here's what I came up with.  It was actually quite tasty.

1 avocado

1 medium tomato

1 banana

1/2 cup frozen blueberries

2 cups soy milk

1 cup spinach

1/4 habenero with seeds

1 T flax seeds

1 T chia seeds

1 T walnuts

1 t cinnamon

I ground the dry ingredients (flax seed, chia seed, walnuts) first, then added the other ingredients and blend until smooth. By my standards, it's hot, but not blazingly hot.  If your tolerance for heat is lower, you could try using less habanero, or subsitute a milder pepper.

Yet another soymilk-based vegetable/fruit smoothie

Normally my breakfast and lunch are the meals where I get creative, and concoct combinations which one of my past co-workers called my "dare foods".  At dinner (aka supper, as we always called it when I was growing up) I'm also usually preparing the meal for my wife, so I have to be a bit less daring, and somewhat more conventional.

This evening my wife is at her office late,  so my evening meal is for me alone.  I went with the criteria I use for the breakfast and lunch.  That goal is to pack as many different nutrients and beneficial substances into the meal as possible.  Often the best way to do that is to make a smoothie.

Tonight's  smoothie consisted of:

2 cups soymilk

2 cups kale leaves

1 medium tomato

1 medium apple

1/2 cup blueberries

1 teaspoon cinnamon

2 teaspoons olive oil

2 tablespoons rice based protein powder

I'm drinking it as I type this, and it's really good ... at least by the wide ranging standards of my palate.  My guess is that on my scale of 1 to 10, which ranges from 1 (foods only I would eat) to 10 (dishes most people would find tasty) this is about a 7.  If you like smoothies you should give it a try.

Cold Kale and Apple soup

The highs have been greater than 80 degrees fahrenheit here in Georgia (27 C).  Consequently I've been assembling a list of cold foods to add to my menu rotation.

I'm not a raw foodist by any means, but I do appreciate the health benefits of eating raw vegetables.  So I've been experimenting with cold, raw blender soups and smoothies, and browsing raw food recipe books for ideas.  I stumbled on one of by favorite cold soup recipes by accident.  It's a modified version  of a smoothie from the book 12 Steps to Raw Foods: How to End Your Dependency on Cooked Food

 

While Ms. Boutenko's version included lemon, and two cups of water, I didn't have lemon on hand, and wanted to use up some kale I had in the refrigerator.  I used the amount of apple she recommended, but increased the amount of kale, decreased the water by half, and added basil and parsley.  The increased solids transformed it from a smoothie to a cold soup.  In subsequent versions I added a medium tomato to the mix.

So here's the finished recipe:

4 cups chopped kale leaves

1 large or two small apples, cored but with the peel left on

1 medium tomato

2 teaspoons dried basil

2 teaspoons dried parsley

1 cup water (add more if the consistency is too thick)

Blend until smooth.

I'd highly recommend Ms. Boutenko's book, too.  I almost always modify recipes significantly, but the smoothies and soups in her book provide a great starting point for an introduction to green smoothies and blender soups.

 

Crafting the ultimate healthy breakfast -- a work in progress

Partly as a result of turning 60 (and a subsequent increase in my sense of mortality), and partly as the result of a recent physical which revealed elevated LDL (the "bad" cholesterol) and elevated blood pressure, I've doubled down on my eating habits and exercise regimen.  I've always been very healthy and active, and intend to stay that way for as long as I can stave off the inevitable decline.  I don't view this as frightening, or even sad.  In fact, at the moment I'm having fun with it.

I'll describe my revised exercise regimen in a future post, but one of the more fun things about embarking on this project is menu planning.  I love to cook, and I love to plan menus and shop for ingredients. 

One decision I made was to make breakfast my central meal.  The criteria I've set is low fat, low sodium, high fiber, and densely packed with nutrients, including a wide range of phytochemicals.  Variety is good from a nutritional standpoint, but I'll shift most of the variety to dinner, since that is the meal my wife also eats, and I don't want to create monotonous meals for her.    For breakfast and lunch, the important thing for me is the highest nutritional value packed into the fewest possible calories.

Here's my current regular breakfast.  I'm still working on lunch.

The meal consists of a warm cereal, a smoothie, a tangerine or banana, and a glass of herb tea mixed with psyllium husk.

The warm cereal consists of the following ingredients:

1/4 cup steel cut oats (aka "Irish oatmeal")

1/4 cup oat bran

2/3 cups blueberries

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon turmeric

2 teaspoons olive oil

I just cook the steel cut oats (it helps to presoak overnight so that the cooking time is faster, mix in the bran and cook for another five minutes, then add the other ingredients.

The smoothie is a particular point of pride for me.  Despite ingredients that may seem bizarre, it actually tastes quite good.  The ingredients as my current recipe stands are:

 

1 cup raw kale

1 medium tomato

1 cup blueberries

1 tablespoon flax seeds

1 tablespoon chia seeds

1 tablespoon raw cocoa nibs

2 cups soy milk

1 tablespoon vegan protein powder

1 teaspoon cinnamon.

I grind the flaxseed, chia, and cocoa nibs before adding the other ingredients.

 

My plan for lunches is to emphasize legumes and whole grains.  I don't have the complete details worked out, but yesterday for lunch I ate some hummous I'd made on whole wheat pita.  Along with that I drank a smoothie consisting of:

2 cups raw kale

1 gala apple

1 medium tomato

1 cup water

I intend to keep tinkering with the breakfast menu, but it will generally stay somewhat invariable.  The lunch will consist of similar elements (eg, beans and grains with a vegetable smoothie), but will vary somewhat in the specifics.

So far, so good.  I have an appointment in four months to revisit the blood work.  If the numbers are still less than optimal, it won't be from lack of effort.

 

 

Vegan night at Kasan Red

For about the past three weeks Kasan Red, a restaurant on the corner of Glenwood and Flat Shoals in East Atlanta, has been hosting a vegan night on Tuesdays.  In addition to the standard menu they have an assortment of vegan selections.  Here is a description I posted on a couple of East Atlanta forums:

=====================================================================================

Tuesdays Kasan Red offers a vegan menu (along with the regular menu). You can get coupons at SOPO for five dollars off the starter/entree/dessert combo.  I went last night, and below is the mini-review I posted on another forum:

=========================================================================

I picked up one of the coupons from SOPO yesterday evening, and had dinner at Kasan Red.  Since I
don't generally eat out on weeknights and considered this a special exploratory expedition, I went all
out and ordered a starter, entree, and dessert.  It turned out pricey, but an overall good experience, and
one consolation is that there was so much food that I don't have to prepare lunch this morning.

My selections were the Veggie Panini, the Vegan Rosti, and a chocolate tart.

It was all delicious.  I particularly liked the Veggie Rosti.  Also the sweet potato chips were among
the best I've ever had.

The one thing I wish were done differently is the choice of bread for the Panini.  I love Panini, but wish
there were more availability of whole grain focaccia.  My motivation for my veganism is mixed
(compassion towards animals, environmental and ecological concerns, global economics, and health),
but the part of me which is focused on the health aspects much prefers whole grains to white flour, and
I'll bet there are many other vegans out there who agree with me.

All in all it was a great experience, and the folks there were really friendly.

Green Sprout Restaurant

I made a decision a few months back to write only when I have something to write about, and to write about anything which interests me, not just the urban and neighborhood issues which made up most of my subject matter when I was at my most active blogging.Lately I've been exploring vegetarian and vegan restaurants in Atlanta.  I wrote the review below of Green Sprout for HappyCow's Vegetarian Guide.

As a vegan, Green Sprouts is on my top five list of restaurants in Atlanta. 

First of all, the staff understands the concept of vegan, so I don't have to interrogate them about where the food comes from and what animal products may be hidden therein.

Secondly, the menu is extensive and varied, so I'm not confined to a third class afterthought section of the menu, which even happens all too often in ostensibly "vegetarian" restaurants.

Finally, the food is absolutely delicious, so I feel very comfortable bringing my non-vegan friends along with me.

It's also an excellent restaurant for a group of people to order a selection of menu items and share. I went in a party of five yesterday, and consequently got a really broad sampling of choices, from an odd but tasty sauteed potato dish, to a tofu skin wrapped bean sprout dish, a butternut squash selection, and a couple of stir fried noodle dishes.

The last time I was there, I ordered one of the simulated chicken dishes (Empire Chicken). While I realize many vegans object to that sort of dish, it was eerily convincing, and very tasty. Since a large part of my decision to go vegan was ethical,
I think well prepared dishes of that sort serve as
a "soft landing" means of introducing people to the possibility of veganism.

Many kudos to this wonderful restaurant.