Nawlins

            I have no real way to describe New Orleans.  Its food is reflected in the attitude of its people, both genuine and sassy.  My first New Orleans dish was an alligator po’boy, but it was no ordinary alligator po’boy, it was a smoked alligator sausage po’boy.  This was a perfect way for the smoked flavor to work its way into the alligator without overpowering it, while still providing the fennel flavor we all associate sausage with.  It was served with a Creole remoulade, tomato, lettuce, and pickle.  The only thing that I would have done differently with the sandwich itself is remove the tomato seeds.  The green slimy seeds can be easily removed and significantly subtract from the bitterness of a dish.  Some people, such as my dad, love the green slimy seeds, but I despise them.  The fries that were served with the po’boy were just as simply delicious.  They were thin and had a spice mix similar to that of Tony Chachere’s or Bojangles coating them.  Overall, the dish was fantastic and I can’t wait to go back to Huck Finn’s.

            I cannot decide if the best part of New Orleans is being with people I love, thinking of the food I’ve eaten, or thinking of the food I’m going to eat.  While I do enjoy looking forward to eating everything in the city of New Orleans, the anticipation is killing me.  Tomorrow we are all going to a restaurant called Daisy Dukes.  I am already planning on getting half of a catfish po’boy and a cup of gumbo.  I would also enjoy having some of Café Beignet’s famous beignets.  I believe Tuesday we are all going out and getting a few pounds of boiled crawfish and embarrassing ourselves trying to pry open the little creatures.  I have had them before, but I don’t even remotely remember how to eat one.  Hopefully buying four pounds of them will give me the practice I need to become a professional.  The food here is a little more expensive than I thought it would be, but I guess that’s the price you pay for greatness.  Hopefully I can make it to the many food adventures I have planned and provide a few more reviews soon!  Please let me know if you have any comments, especially if they are suggestions for where to eat in New Orleans.

Pizza

Pizza is the cook’s blank canvas.  It is a way to express feelings, emotions, or attitude.  As a lot of you already know, I love making pizza.  Growing up I never really like it.  I was only ever interested in the crust; I never wanted anything to do with the rest of the pizza.  There were only slight differences in Pizza Hut, Papa John’s, or Domino’s.  They all tasted like greasy cardboard that had some government cheese spread on top.  I don’t even want to talk about the school cafeteria’s square pizza.  I hate to sound like such a food snob because I love and appreciate all kinds of food, but my past experiences with pizza have just been awful.  While Domino’s did recently improve their recipe, all they really ended up doing was adding garlic salt all over everything.  That is not what pizza was meant to be.

Pizza is a great way to show off creativity and a little bit of who you are as a person.  For example, I love making barbeque pizza with barbeque sauce and tons of cheddar cheese because I am fat and love barbeque.  People from New York love chewy, thin crust pizzas so that they can fold it in half while eating it.  I don’t really understand the purpose of folding a pizza, but to each his own.  People in Chicago are famous for their deep dish pizza.  This reflects their go big or go home attitude.  Some people enjoy more sophisticated pizza such as Wolfgang Puck’s salmon and caviar pizza, while others love taking leftovers and throwing them on some dough.  I’ve even been known to make a pizza using leftover Chinese food along with a chopped up eggroll.  I don’t want to ramble too much about different types of pizza because I want each and every one of you to try a unique pizza.  I started out using Marcella Hazan’s recipe for simple Italian pizza dough, but I always found that I needed to add some form of sugar whether it was brown sugar or honey powder.  I found another recipe that is very similar to Ms. Hazan’s recipe except it contains brown sugar, which helps the yeast produce CO₂ and gives a thicker crust.  Have fun and post your ideas in the comment section!

Pizza Crust Recipe: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/jays-signature-pizza-crust/

Nutrition... and All That Jazz

            As I sit here shoving as many Girl Scout cookies into my mouth as a possibly can, I begin reading the stories on the box, trying to fully immerse myself in the greatness of these cookies.  I accidently turn the box one too many times and find the nutrition facts panel.  I try to look away as if the head of Medusa were glaring right at me, but it is too late.  The bold saturated fat percentage is already burned into my brain.  Does that keep me from grabbing another cookie?  Absolutely not, but it certainly should!

            This whole fiasco gets me thinking about the nutrition and overall eating habits of our country.  There is no denying that what we are putting into our bodies is awful for us.  The real question is where the blame falls.  Is it the responsibility of food manufacturing companies to create healthier options?  Is it the responsibility of the consumer to either buy healthier options or inform the manufacturers that they want healthier options?  Is it the government’s responsibility to inform its citizens of the consequences of eating such unhealthy food?  After all, the government’s job is to serve and protect, but are they really responsible for protecting us from our own choices?

            I have been slowly working my way through a book by the brilliant Jeffrey Steingarten.  In his book, The Man Who Ate Everything, he discusses what is known as the French paradox.  He attempts to answer the question why the percentage of obese Americans is over three times that of France, while the French consistently consume cheese, bread, pastries, and other forms of saturated fat.  He worked vigorously to find a connection between the French lifestyles and their relatively low rate of obesity.  The final verdict was inconclusive due to so many conflicting studies.  The most common theories involve France’s red wine consumption, eating habits, and fat sources.  While some studies show that certain phenols in red wine help prevent heart disease, recent studies show that there isn’t a strong enough correlation between the two.  The eating habits of the French are the most likely source of the paradox.  While Americans tend to eat large meals quickly, the French tend to eat meals more slowly and divide them between multiple courses.  Eating more slowly gives the lateral hypothalamus time to send the signal that you are full and need to stop eating before you have time to shove those extra mozzarella cheese sticks down your gullet.

            Back to my earlier point!  The real question is, who is responsible for our eating habits?  If we can find out who should take charge, we can take the necessary steps to solve the problem.  While I’m sure most of you think that consumers should take responsibility because they are the ones consuming the food, I feel obligated to remind you that most of us don’t have our own food chemistry set at home to play with.  There was virtually no way for consumers to instinctively know that trans fats were bad for their health until the government took initiative and ran studies on the correlation between these fats and the heart disease.  In fact, recent news suggests that companies knew of the harmful effects of trans fats, but decided not to publish the results.  Isn’t it funny how that works?  I personally feel that most of the responsibility falls on the government to inform the general public about these health issues and ways to find/create healthier options.  As much as I despise the government sticking their nose in my business, its job is to protect and serve the good of the people.  I think it is time for them to man up and take action to solve this health crisis. 

This certainly does not get everyone else off the hook.  It is also the responsibility of the manufacturers to disclose any findings about how their products affect consumer health.  Last, but not least, it is the responsibility of the consumer to look out for themselves and stop shoving Girl Scout cookies in their face like they are in some sort of contest.

            I know this was a rather long post, but if any of you troopers who made it through the whole thing have any food science related questions such as what a trans fat is or why it has negative effects, please feel free to contact me.  If I do not have the answer I certainly know people who do.  Thanks for reading and I will hopefully have a new recipe ready by next week!