Foodie Movie Alert: Deliman

In 2015, foodies should keep an eye out for the documentary called Deliman.  As the movie’s description summarizes, “Jewish culture reflects the heart of a vital ethnic history. As that culture continues to shift and adapt alongside mainstream America, delicatessen food- as its name suggests- remains a beloved communal delicacy. In Houston, Texas, third-generation deli man Ziggy Gruber has built arguably the finest delicatessen restaurant in the U.S. His story- augmented by the stories of iconic delis such as Katz’s 2nd Avenue Deli, Nate n’ Al, Carnegie, and The Stage- embodies a tradition indelibly linked to its savory, nostalgic foods.”

A Tuesday night in Getsemani

Vacations for me always have a tipping point. There is the half where I relish feeling lost and anticipate what every new street will reveal to me, and then there is the later half of the trip when I start to feel local-ish after I have located the places that speak to my soul. In Cartagena, this place is the Getsemani district. My introduction happened incidentally, when my boyfriend took me to a rooftop hostel party, and directly when I went to seek out yoga at the cultural center. From that point on, I couldn’t get enough. The streets are quiet, almost impassable by car, and laced with street art. It is beyond quaint. And now, the barrio that used to be plagued with prostitution and drug problems is now the hippest, coolest neighborhood around. Rings a familiar tune doesn’t it?

The hub of the neighborhood is the open courtyard flanking the 17th century church in the Plaza de Santisma Trinidad. Filled with kids playing soccer, food vendors, live music, and people doing what they do best in Cartagena, relaxing. So where did I go? Well, I was planning to visit Trattorio Di Silvio, a rustic pizza place where we could eat on the rooftop under the stars...but we got distracted by Pacifico and stopped there for the house special,  seafood paella. The meal started off with a bloody mary, of which I am afraid we are ridiculously specific, and aside from missing the olives and us liberally pouring in more hot sauce, I’d say we were happy. Next came the Gaelic Pulpo.

I have become a far more adventurous foodie through having this blog and traveling more...and my father would be pleased to see how much seafood I consume now, despite his then failed attempts in my youth to get me to appreciate it. I get it now...but I still don’t understand people’s love affair with shrimp. But I digress. The pulpo was also a new texture to get accustomed to. It had a strong aroma, that was enhanced by olive oil and what I believe was paprika. It was a chewy piece with the little suction cups from the tentacles popping in your mouth as you ate. I was doubtful at first, but I ended up eating the majority of the dish.

Next came the paella, meaning to eat from the pan, and originates of course from Valencia, Spain. Interesting note: In Spain, rice was introduced to the country by the Moors over 1200 years ago. The Spanish term for rice is ‘arroz’, which stems from Arabic, not Latin like most of Castilian Spanish. The paella that we had was filled with calamari rings, mussels (other pieces of unidentifiable seafood) and topped with an entire lobster and a crab to accompany him. The waiter served us a few spoonfuls and then we liberally squeezed lime over the top and dug in. The flavor was pure ocean, if that resonates with anyone.

After dinner we wandered over to Demente, a tapas bar with a retractable roof and rocking chairs, that has come to be one of my favorite places. A quick glass of cava later and we were out exploring the streets, and me, camera in hand, was in search of street art. Down the street from Pacifico, I found what I was looking for. Here are some of my favorite images.

As somebody with the heart of a revolutionary, here is a final note on why I love this neighborhood, "On November 11, 1811, Pedro Romero, head of the Getsemaní Lancers, led a revolt that resulted in eventual independence from Spain. Since then, the residents have dedicated themselves to maintaining this fiery, celebratory and heroic spirit.” (http://in-lan.com/en/travel/cartagena-re-writes-itself/)

Article: How to use fruit peels to filter your water

With more and more eco-conscious people replacing their bottled water intake (and for good reason) with tap water, there is a growing demand for water filtration devices. But you don't need to go out and buy a fancy device to ensure that your tap water is free from pollutants. Researchers with the National University of Singapore have recently discovered a simple do-it-yourself method for filtering water using nothing more than fruit peels and rubbing alcohol, reports Wired. Researcher Ramakrishna Mallampati originally thought up the method as an easy, cheap way for rural communities in the developing world to purify their water. He found that apple and tomato peels -- two of the most widely consumed fruits in the world -- were remarkably efficient at absorbing a wide variety of harmful pollutants, and that they could be transformed into effective water filters with only minor preparation.

To make use of Mallampati's technique yourself, begin by peeling your apples and tomatoes and placing them in a rubbing alcohol solution and letting them soak. Next, remove the peels and let them dry out. Once they're thoroughly desiccated, simply place the peels in a container of water and wait. After a few hours, remove the peels from the water and it's ready to drink. Mallampati found that the apple and tomato peels together were reliable absorbents of toxic heavy metal ions, dissolved organic and inorganic chemicals, various nanoparticles, dyes and pesticides. Note that the method does not remove pathogens from the water, just a wide variety of pollutants, so you shouldn't use it as an all-encompassing water purifier. But if you're worried about any of these other pollutants finding their way into your water supply, the technique should help make your water much cleaner.

Fruit peel filtration ought to be most beneficial to rural communities around the world that lack access to clean potable water. Fruit peels are plentiful, and often discarded as useless biowaste. Re-purposing them for water filtration will offer a cheap and accessible way for communities to hydrate themselves in a safer manner. "We don't want to do any sort of commercialization," said Mallampati, "so we're working with NGOs that can take the technology to the people and explain it.” Mallampati isn't stopping at apple and tomato peels either. Research efforts are already underway to test other kinds of fruit peels, particularly the peels of fruits local to communities that need clean water the most.

SOURCE: http://www.mnn.com/food/beverages/stories/how-to-use-fruit-peels-to-filter-your-water#ixzz3I1FyxiMY

Foodie Movie Alert: The Tasting Menu

"Taking place during the final evening of a world-famous Catalan restaurant before it closes forever (read: Ferran Adria’s El Bulli), Roger Gual’s third feature, following the marvelous, co-directed Smoking Room and the less marvelous Remake, interweaves several storylines and inevitably leaves us wanting more of some of them, less of some and none at all of others. Presales have been brisk for a project that has been designed with a broad audience base in mind. Initially uptight and a little pretentious, Menu takes a long time getting its characters onto the table, with a perhaps disproportionate number of Spaniards and Irish, dictated by production considerations, present on the restaurant’s final night. They include insecure doctor Marc (Jan Cornet, most familiar to non-Spaniards for Almodovar's The Skin I Live In) and beautiful, best-selling writer Rachel (Claudia Bassols), separated but meeting again for the meal of a lifetime; the mourning Countess D'Arcy (Fionnula Flanagan); the mysterious Walter Reilly (Stephen Rea), with whom the maitre d’ Max (Spain-based Canadian Andrew Tarbet) becomes increasingly obsessed as the evening wears on; and Isao Kamiyama (Togo Igawa) and Yoshio Takamura (Akihiko Serikawa), potential buyers of the restaurant, accompanied by gauche, motor-mouthed Mina (Marta Torné, the director’s real-life partner). The first hour strives a little too hard for witty chic, and though it hits the mark only occasionally – the comic timing sometimes runs with less than quartz precision -- there is pleasure in watching the tropes of farce being played out in such hushed surroundings, with notes and gifts being passed across tables and reaching the wrong person. After an hour, they all learn that a boat is sinking nearby and rush out to help, allowing the script to make its thudding metaphorical point that sipping cocktails when someone’s drowning is simply not good form. The food, too, is milked for its symbolism. Over the last couple of reels the film shakes off its self-conscious inhibitions and displays some healthy unruliness, and just as we're warming to a group of characters whose indulgences have been not only culinary but emotional, it's all over. Given that the characters are mostly just sketches and that the script doesn’t seem sure about whether to laugh at them or feel for them, the performances are fine. Flanagan and Rea take their time and ham it up deliciously, despite looking a little lost amongst all the frenzied activity: The most haunting image of the entire film, indeed, shows Reilly sitting alone on a railway station platform as dawn comes up. The film is a food fetishist’s delight, with close-ups of hands lovingly chopping and shaping: but the affectation of it all is neatly exposed later as, after the desserts fail to arrive, head chef Mar (Vicenta N'Dongo) ask her team, “Can you make something out of sea water?” Menu's script could have done with a little more such bite.
Emili Guirao’s photography is richly textured, approaching both dim interiors and sunlit exteriors with equal care. Stephen Mckeon's score is pleasantly melodic, but sometimes seems an odd throwback to the '60s, when la-la’s from a female chorus and lush strings signaled sophistication. The film signs off with The Divine Comedy’s wonderful Perfect Love Song, whose three minutes of elegance and wit the film itself has mostly been unable to match. Much of it was shot not in Catalunya, where it is set, but in Ireland. Languages spoken are basically Catalan, Spanish and English.”

SOURCE: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/tasting-menu-film-review-578720

Foodie News: Why The Organic Chicken Crossed The Road

Giant scissors in hand, the chicken crossed Church Street—to get to work grilling some other chickens in the cause of serving healthful food that tastes good. The giant chicken—a prep cook in disguise—cut the ribbon at the grand opening Monday of Chick-Lets Organic Grille at 135 Church St. across from the Green, one of New Haven’s newest restaurants. The restaurant serves chicken wraps, salads, and sandwiches in addition to some specialty items and vegetarian sides. Yesterday, the sides included falafel balls, baked sweet potatoes, roasted potatoes, stuffed delicata squash, and whole-wheat mac-and-cheese. After the ribbon was cut, Mayor Toni Harp ordered a wrap—a spinach wrap with spicy Cajun chicken, cheese, spinach, olives, and Caribbean jerk sauce. She had seen the restaurant before on the way to work—it is only a few hundred feet from the entrance to City Hall—but this was her first meal there. “I like it,” she said of the food. She said she is also excited that the restaurant is getting food from local farms and hiring New Haven residents.

One of those New Haven residents is Sherman Atkins, a pot washer and prep cook. He was the man in the chicken suit. He said that about 100 people came in for lunch during the grand opening, compared with the 50 or 60 that the restaurant usually sees during the week. Owner Alberto Giordano said he started the restaurant for many reasons. Prime among them is his desire to bring healthful food to the masses.“There’s such a misconception about food,” Giordano said. “People think healthy food is boring or doesn’t taste good.” His customers challenge this belief. Kathryn Garre-Ayars said she loves the variety of foods – especially the whole-wheat pasta and sweet potatoes; she is president and CEO of the Healthy Eye Alliance, an organization located a few floors up in the same building as the restaurant. And Anne Benowitz, a New Business Development Executive at the Greater New Haven Chamber of Commerce, dubbed the food “fabulous.”

Giordano grew up in the restaurant business. His parents owned restaurants, and he earned his keep washing dishes, cooking, and waiting tables. His interest in healthful food specifically started when he was a teenager. Giordano grew up in Milford, and in high school started to play jai alai, a Spanish sport popular in Connecticut at the turn of the century. Players take turns hurling a ball slightly smaller than a baseball at a wall, and trying to catch and return their opponents’ throws. Giordano noticed a correlation between what he ate and his athletic performance.

“When I was young, like every other teenager, I ate fast food,” Giordano said. It made him feel heavy and sluggish. So he decided to experiment cleaning up his diet. “I was amazed at how much better I felt,” he said. Giordano kept playing jai alai while attending college part-time. He got a degree in manufacturing engineering at Central Connecticut State University, but he didn’t do anything with the schooling. He played amateur jai alai in Orlando and Dania, Florida while in college, and moved on to the professional leagues in Milford in 1989 when he graduated. Giordano said that he made hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, but he didn’t get more specific.

Giordano knew that a career in jai alai wouldn’t last him his whole life—it’s a physically demanding sport, he said, and professionals often retire young. He sought a career that would support him in his future, so he went into the financial industry. He got certified as a financial adviser and worked for a few different companies. But he didn’t like how people were treated in corporate America. He said big companies fail to care about their employees as people. “At the end of the day, I’m with a big company, and I’m just a number to them,” Giordano said. He said that he has seen many colleagues sacked “as quickly as you can blink an eye” for underperforming after years and years of good service. He is still working at a financial services company, PrimePay, as he gets his restaurant up and running. Giordano said he hopes to treat his employees better. He has nine – two cooks, two managers, and five people who prepare food for customers. Atkins, who wore the chicken suit for two and a half hours Monday, said that Giordano is inspiring and “always on top of his game.”

Giordano came up with the idea for Chick-Lets back in 2009. He shared the idea with his family over a dinner out at Carmine’s, an Italian restaurant in Manhattan. “My daughter was on board,” Giordano said. “The rest—‘Are you kidding me?’” But Giordano said his family’s original skepticism has turned into staunch support. Now, he said, they are behind him 100 percent. Chick-lets originally opened in Bridgeport last summer to test out the business concept, said Tyler Gianakos, a manager who owns 25 percent of the company. (Giordano owns the other 75 percent.) Giordano hired Gianakos as an intern in Bridgeport. Chick-Lets still served organic chicken in Bridgeport, Gianakos said, but the clientele there wasn’t that interested in organic food.

“People used to ask for chicken without the organic,” Giordano said. Chick-Lets served some fried foods back then, but Gianakos and Giordano said that type of cuisine wasn’t what they wanted to do. So Chick-Lets moved to New Haven, which Giordano considers a more health-conscious area.  He cut fried foods from the menu—a tour of the kitchen revealed no deep fryers and only two small bottles of cooking oil. Giordano found the 135 Church St. location, the former site of the deli Roly Poly, while walking downtown during a snowstorm in January. He jumped on the opportunity—he made a presentation to the owners of the building, who liked his idea. So he started renovating the space. He had to install more ventilation, plumbing, and electrical systems to support all of the kitchen appliances.

“It was a challenging space,” Giordano said, but he’s grateful for the location. The restaurant sits right next to the federal courthouse and across the street from the New Haven Green. CT Transit stop just a few feet from the door. Despite the location, Chick-Lets isn’t seeing as much business as Giordano would like. Giordano said that the lunchtime line is “out the door,” but the line was well contained in the restaurant on a Tuesday before the grand opening when a reporter stopped by. Giordano said that he is struggling to attract business in the evening. (That block gets less foot traffic then other parts of downtown with more nighttime businesses.) The restaurant stays open until 9 p.m., but after the sun set, there were so few customers that Giordano needed to interrupt an hour-long interview only once.

Starting a business isn’t easy, and Giordano said that he doesn’t expect to start making money for about a year. “We have break-even numbers,” Giordano said. “Some days we’re close to them, and some days we’re really off.” He knows that this is a huge risk for him and his family. “I literally dumped every single dime of my retirement money into this concept,” Giordano said. He runs the risk of getting fired from his job at PrimePay for underperformance—he had to take a bit of time off from his day job to get Chick-Lets up and running—and he also runs the risk of Chick-Lets not turning a profit.

Giordano said he expects his profit margins to be small. “Organic’s expensive,” he said. “I’m paying top dollar.” He buys the vegetables from vendors at the local farmers markets in Wooster Square and on the New Haven Green. The chicken comes from a Connecticut organic farm, but he declined to provide more details citing agreements with his supplier. Every day, Giordano wakes up at 5:30 a.m. and is in the restaurant within the hour. He said that he doesn’t get to sleep until 2 in the morning. He spends a few hours every day doing conference calls for PrimePay.

“My dream is to get this up and running to the point where I can leave corporate America,” Giordano said. Eventually, Giordano hopes to franchise Chick-Lets. He said he wants to open five locations in Connecticut, with each restaurant built within the local community – buying from local farms and supporting the local economy. “I don’t know if it’s possible,” Giordano said. “But we’re going to give it a try.”

SOURCE: http://www.newhavenindependent.org/index.php/archives/entry/why_did_the_chicken_cross_church_street/

The pro’s and con’s of coffee

I simply adore coffee. Before I even had tasted my first cup, I had fallen in love with the smell of my father brewing it. After I tried it, my interest only grew. One of my early jobs was at a coffeehouse called Zuzu’s (for those who can remember that far back, it was where The Russell now operates) and before I could work on the floor, I had to take an intensive training course on the coffee growing regions, roasting process, and every other aspect that you can imagine about this little bean.

After all is said and done, who doesn’t love a good cup of coffee? There is just something so “addicting” about it! Then you start to read the news. And news, like religion, can be used to justify any point of view, making the benign subject of your morning beverage into somewhat of a controversial issue. Some pro’s: contains antioxidants, may protect your brain in your older age, contributes to a lower risk for type 2 diabetes, lower risk of liver disease, lower risk of depression and suicide and might even help you to live longer. Now for the pro’s: can cause anxiety and problems with sleeping, and here’s the shocker, can be addicting (!?). So maybe you want to read more: http://authoritynutrition.com/coffee-good-or-bad/ or maybe you are interested in some alternative beverages that will satisfy you in the same way.

Hot Maca: A few tablespoons of maca powder blended in a cup of warm (note: if you add to HOT liquid, then it loses its benefits) almond or coconut milk, with a dollop of raw honey and cinnamon could give you the lift you need in the morning. Maca has adrenal boosting properties, reduces stress, is rich in vitamin B vitamins, C, and E. It provides plenty of calcium, zinc, iron, magnesium, phosphorous and amino acids, promote sexual function of both men and women, relieves menstrual issues and menopause, balances your mood, clear acne and blemishes and assists in general health.

Dandelion Herbal Coffee Blend: Roasted dandelion, chicory root and maca combined together can give you the taste you crave, but in a different package. Dandelion rich source of beta-carotene that our bodies convert into vitamin A. It's also rich in vitamin C, fiber, potassium, iron, calcium, magnesium, zinc, phosphorus, B complex vitamins, trace minerals, organic sodium, and even vitamin D as well as containing more protein than spinach. Chicory root supports digestive functions and the liver, high in antioxidants and toxic to harmful organisms.

Matcha Green Tea: These are nutrient-rich young leaves picked from the tips of shade-grown Camellia sinensis plants. They are high in antioxidants, loaded with catechin, helps you to relax, boosts memory, increased endurance, burns calories, detoxifies the body, strengthens immune system and lowers cholesterol levels. Plus, it’s all the rage these days.

Or, if you want to stick with your standby cup of joe, I wouldn’t blame you. However, I might suggest a small tweak to your morning routine. Go organic and fair trade. It’s better for your body, the coffee farmer, and the world. And try to trade in your traditional coffee brewer (which boils the grounds and makes your coffee taste bitter) for a french press, aeropress, or chemex and experience the real flavor of coffee. And NEVER, add sugar to a good cup!

Foodie News: A Start-up Has Invented Veggie Burgers That ‘Bleed’

I am all for new food inventions. But this?!

A biochemist named Patrick Brown has come up with yet another alternative strategy to produce entirely meatless hamburgers that look and taste very much like meat. That's one above, looking sufficiently burgerlike; it's even got that pristine medium-rare thing going on. Patties now being made by Brown's Impossible Foods are suffused with something called heme, it turns out, a molecule that comes from the roots of nitrogen-fixing plants but has the iron-tinged character of hemoglobin. "I remember this is what it felt like to get punched in the face," Brown tells the Wall Street Journal, relating the instant he realized that the vegan substance could be used to simulate the role most traditionally played by blood in a bloody rare hamburger. Now Impossible Foods has $75 million in venture capital, including cash from Bill Gates and Google Ventures.

The latest high-tech approach is one of three paths for the veggie burger. There are cheffed-up versions like Brooks Headley's Superiority Burger, more hippie-esque approaches like this guy's fully-funded kale burger, and then all the lab forays in a third category. The focus of start-ups like Beyond Meat and Hampton Creek Foods has been on replicating the texture of meat, sinewy muscle fiber and all; Modern Meadow, which is pioneering 3-D-printed meat and leather at its Brooklyn Army Terminal headquarters, closed on $10 million in Series A funding.

These companies produce everything from synthetic eggs made of pea protein to soy-plumped pseudo chicken breasts using perhaps thousands of proprietary techniques, but meanwhile, the industry seems to be closing in on the veggie burger, which remains something of the grail for our collective vegetarian future. At $20 a patty, the Impossible Foods burger may be the closest yet we've come to replicating In-N-Out, so it seems natural it's attracted such ambitious amounts in funding. Why grow the cow from stem cells in a petri dish to make a $325,000 burger, after all, when you can make one with plant blood for $20?