Friday Food Politics: New York City vs. Trans Fats, Final Edition

So New York City has finally banned trans fats. A reader asks for my opinion on this legislation. Two thoughts:

1. Why not ban all trans fats served in restaurants? Under the new law, a restaurant can still serve a bag of pre-packaged chips with trans fats but can't fry their own chips in oil containing trans fats. I understand the importance of pragmatism in politics, but this seems simply hypocritical to me. A trans fat eaten in a restaurant is the same no matter what the source, pre-packaged or not. If the concern is that a consumer might not know that the fried or baked goods served in a restaurant contain trans fats, then require labeling, just like is required on packaged products. Anything else is hypocritical.

2. I'm opposed to all food bans that are meant to protect individuals from themselves. This is the foundation of my beliefs on these food politics issues, and is based on my own moral and political values regarding individual freedom. Where does it stop? If we can't have one gram of trans fat b/c it is so bad for us, what's next? I'm not a health scientist, but my intuition is that a few grams of trans fat can't be nearly as bad as tens of grams of saturated fat, so will they ban rib-eye steaks next? What about chicken-fried bacon?

The Center for Consumer Freedom, which is funded by Big Food, put up an ad suggesting that pizza, hot dogs, corned beef, and coffee are next. Yes, it's hyperbole, but the principle is correct. A ban on any unhealthy food can be justified using exactly the same reasoning that the New York Board of Health has used in this case. And despite my reservations about advocacy funded by agribusiness, I'll support the Center for Consumer Freedom much more readily than the the "scientific" busybodies at the Center for Science in the Public Interest.

For a hilarious take on all these issues, but with a real nuanced political message, I highly recommend Thank You For Smoking.

Addendum: The bad qualities of trans fats are well-known (raises bad cholesterol, lowers good cholesterol), but the positive culinary qualities are less well known. Partially-hydrogenated oils (which is where most of the trans fats we consume come from) are inexpensive, have a long-shelf life, are solid at room temperature (= good for shelf stability), don't break down in a hot fryer, and make for exceptionally flaky pie crusts and biscuits. Do note that most of these qualities are also true of animal fats, such as lard, but that restaurants and industry switched to hydrogenated oils b/c of the health risks of saturated fats. Shucks.

Friday Food Politics: McDonald's vs. Chinese Culture Edition

My favorite food podcast is Good Food by KCRW. This week's was great, with commentary by food science guru Harold McGee on "meat glue", but I found the interview with Harvard anthropology professor James L. Watson especially interesting.

Watson is the author of Golden Arches East: McDonald's in East Asia, which has just come out in a second edition almost ten years after it's initial publication. I had never heard of Watson or the book before, but his thesis is counter to the conventional wisdom on the influence of corporate globalization on local food cultures.

Watson suggests that the "culture imperialism hypothesis" is mostly incorrect, and that corporations do not simply replace local food and local culture with sanitized global cuisine. The Chinese visiting McDonald's are not "puppets" of corporate power, but have their own agendas for eating there. Watson argues that McDonald's is more the "caboose" than the "locomotive" in the globalization happening in China. The transformation from a traditional society to one with a large, consumer-driven middle-class is not due to the growth of McDonald's in East Asia. On the contrary, McDonald's growth in East Asia is made possible by the transformation that precedes its entry. He offers the perspective of those on the ground experiencing rapid change first-hand, rather than the perspective of distant observers with pre-conceived notions about how traditional cultures should evolve.

Listen to the whole thing here, or pick up Watson's book.

How to access expired website content from America's Test Kitchen

UPDATE: America's Test Kitchen and Cook's Illustrated have updated their websites, so this trick no longer works. I very much encourage everyone out there to get a subscription to Cook's Illustrated or cooksillustrated.com - it's well worth it...

Just discovered a way to access all the expired content on the America's Test Kitchen website.

Click here for this old review of chef's knives.

Didn't work huh? You should have ended up at http://americastestkitchen.com/cooksbounce.asp, with message saying "Expired Content".

Now try this link. (If you're not already registered on the website, you can type in frugal.foodie@gmail.com and hit submit to get through the registration.)

It worked, right?

Here's the trick:

• 1. Right click on any expired link on the site. Copy it.
  
  
• 2. Paste the link into your browser address bar.
  
  
• 3a. If the link includes this sequence at the end, "&iSeason=", change the number after the equals sign to a 6 so that it reads, "&iSeason=6".
  
  
• 3b. Or simply add "&iSeason=6" to the end of the url if nothing is there.
  
  
• 4. Type in your e-mail (or frugal.foodie@gmail.com) to get through the registration, and there you have it, all the America's Test Kitchen content you could ever want.

Just another quick tip from the Frugal Foodie...

UPDATE: I posted this tip at Chowhound and eGullet earlier today, but both posts were removed by administrators. This may be more controversial than I initially thought.

To clarify: I don't advocate doing anything illegal to access restricted content on the internet. I don't believe this work-around is illegal, so please follow your own conscience in using it. I'm a big fan of America's Test Kitchen and Cook's Illustrated, and certainly don't want to harm their business. I may just go ahead and alert them to this gap in their security myself. Thoughts from any visitors on the ethics of this would be appreciated...

Friday Food Politics: Cities vs. Trans Fats Edition

New York trans fat ban expected to pass.

Louisville Official Seeks Trans Fat Ban

Those who've been following my Friday Food Politics series can guess my opinion...

Friday Food Politics: Virginia Postrel vs. The Conventional Wisdom Edition

Chains do more than bargain down prices from suppliers or divide fixed costs across a lot of units. They rapidly spread economic discovery—the scarce and costly knowledge of what retail concepts and operational innovations actually work. That knowledge can be gained only through the expensive and time-consuming process of trial and error. Expecting each town to independently invent every new business is a prescription for real monotony, at least for the locals. Chains make a large range of choices available in more places. They increase local variety, even as they reduce the differences from place to place. People who mostly stay put get to have experiences once available only to frequent travelers, and this loss of exclusivity is one reason why frequent travelers are the ones who complain.

That's Virginia Postrel, in an Atlantic Monthly essay titled, "In Praise of Chain Stores: They aren’t destroying local flavor—they’re providing variety and comfort". Read the whole thing before it goes behind the subscription wall.

My chain restaurant philosophy is similar to my general restaurant philosophy. Few restaurants are good at everything, but many restaurants are good at something. Seek out those good things, and enjoy.

A list of chain restaurants.

A few chains I like: In-N-Out Burger, Chipotle, Ruth's Chris, Krispy Kreme, White Castle

A few chains that are passable: Panera, Cheesecake Factory, Wendy's (the frosty!), McDonald's (the fries!), Starbucks, Benihana (great birthday memories as a kid)

A few chains that suck: Olive Garden, Denny's (just ate at one for the first time a few weeks back, even the average New Jersey diner is 10x better), Ruby Tuesday's (worst burger of my life), Red Lobster

Friday Food Politics: NYC vs. Cured Meats Edition

If I really am dedicated to cooking by the seasons and supporting local agriculture, I thought, now would be the obvious time to buy a whole pig. Ideally, I would break it down into primal cuts, put the hams in salt for the next month, and then hang them at room temperature for two years, allowing them to slowly dry into prosciutto. And why not grind up the dark, fatty shoulders with salt, pepper and juniper, stuff the mixture into casings, and then leave the sausages in a cool room for six weeks to naturally ferment, developing delicious, tangy porcine flavors?

I can’t, because the United States Department of Agriculture and the local health departments do not allow commercial processing of meat without refrigeration.
....
What we need is to invert the logic now applied to meat safety. Rather than apply refrigeration standards to an ancient and safe method of preservation, we need an alternative set of standards that take into account what salting and drying can do to discourage the growth of bacteria. Federal and local health officials should recognize artisanal methods as an alternative to refrigeration.

That's Chef Peter Hoffman of Savoy in NYC, writing in the New York Times.

Authorities treat food safety like it is a positive problem, with an answer determinable through science. But food safety is a normative problem, with an answer determinable only through value judgments. What does it mean for a food to be safe enough to eat? Safe enough for an infant? For the elderly? One way out of this conundrum is to leave food safety decisions to individuals themselves.

I quote Bourdain: "Food that’s too safe, too pasteurised, too healthy – it’s bad! There should be some risk, like unpasteurised cheese." So say we all.

For those interested in one approach towards rulemaking in a free society, read Virginia Postrel's book, The Future and Its Enemies. From an excerpt in Reason Magazine:

There are many dynamic systems in the world, many areas of life that evolve and improve through trial-and-error learning, from "digital organisms" that evolve better computer programs to global financial markets, from adaptable architecture to international science. Looking across these various processes, we can find patterns in their fundamental rules, though we can fully apply those patterns to a specific case only when we understand that particular system. Here we can only begin the exploration by laying out some general principles. As an overview, dynamist rules:

• allow individuals (including groups of individuals) to act on their own knowledge;

• apply to simple, generic units and allow them to combine in many different ways;

• permit credible, understandable, enduring, and enforceable commitments;

• protect criticism, competition, and feedback;

• establish a framework within which people can create nested, competing frameworks of more-specific rules.
  

Hat tip to Michael Ruhlman.

Friday Food Politics: Fisherman vs. Crabs Edition

In the past, fishing families have gone on strike, basically stopping the commercial fishery, to try to prevent the large northern boats from dominating the central California catch. The industrial boats snap up nearly all the crab at the beginning of the season, selling them at rock bottom prices to processors who freeze them.

The cooked crab and picked crabmeat available in retail markets often comes from these crabs that are processed at the beginning of the season. Small crabbing families cannot compete in this scenario.

Consumers also suffer. Such a crab season offers a bumper crop of cheap crab at the beginning, and small and poor-quality crab the rest of the season. A solution, such as limiting the number of pots lowered per boat, has yet to be hashed out by wholesalers, fishing families and regulatory agencies.

That's from an article in last week's SF Chronicle. Read the whole thing for helpful advice on how to shop from local fishermen.

Would IFQ's (Individual Fishing Quotas) help solve the problem? In general, I think regulators should focus on the environmental harms and let technologies, such as boat size, be worked out freely between suppliers and consumers. I like small fishing families and fishing towns, and I'll spend my money to support them. But protectionism just ain't right.

Buy This Cookware Set: Kirkland Signature 14-Piece Hard Anodized Cookware Set

While the most important thing you can do to improve your cooking is to buy a better knife, the second most important thing is almost certainly to buy better cookware. If you've only cooked with cheap, thin pots and pans before, you'll be amazed how much easier things are when you have a couple of sturdy pots and pans to work with. Your onions won't burn anymore and your eggs will cook evenly. Your pans won't warp until they're curvier than Scarlett Johansson. In short, good cookware makes good cooking much easier. You need some.

Two caveats before I offer my recommendation:

1. I'm assuming you currently have no adequate pieces of cookware. Maybe you're in your first apartment after college and have never bought cookware before or you own a cheap set that is now fit only for the scrap heap. If you do own some decent cookware, you're probably best off filling in the gaps in your collection with individual items rather than a whole set.

2. You plan on cooking at least some serious, multi-component recipes, or at some point you plan on having more than a few people over for dinner. If so, you'll appreciate having a lot of cookware, and a set may be right for you. If not, you're probably best off just getting a big pot, a small pot, a big pan, and a small pan.

On to my recommendation...

I love Costco. Probably not as much as I love Trader Joe's, but still quite a lot. The best purchase I've made at Costco (and maybe the best purchase I've ever made anywhere) is this cookware set: the Kirkland Signature 14-Piece Hard Anodized Cookware Set.



I agonized over this cookware decision. I knew I wanted a set, but with a limited budget most of the recommended cookware by All-Clad or Calphalon was way out of my price range. I also considered this Wolfgang Puck set, but had concerns about the durability of the disc bottom.

Thus I went for the Kirkland Signature, and I couldn't really be happier. You can follow the link for all the details on what's included, but the most important thing is that the whole set only costs $150. The direct comparison is this Calphalon set for almost $600, and that one doesn't even include as many pieces. I would honestly recommend to someone that they pay the $50 Costco membership just to buy this cookware set. It's even a Consumer Reports best buy.

Kirkland Signature is Costco's house label, which means that you're paying much less of a markup. The cookware is made of anodized aluminum, which is great because aluminum is almost as good as copper in terms of conductivity (higher conductivity means the pan heats evenly). Regular aluminum reacts with acidic food (which is why cookware is often lined with non-reactive stainless steel), but anodized aluminum has been treated with electrolysis to form a corrosion and stain resistant surface layer of aluminum oxide.

The only caveat is that the cookware is "non-stick", meaning that a non-stick coating has been bonded to the surface. Why is non-stick less desirable? For one thing, non-stick is less durable, and won't last long if you don't treat it well. I treat my cookware well, only using non-metal utensils and washing by hand with non-abrasive sponges. After over a year of hard use, my cookware set is still in great condition. I expect the set to last many years more, which is almost unheard of for non-stick cookware. And Costco has a 100% customer satisfaction return policy, so if the set breaks down too quickly you can always return or exchange it.

The other problem with non-stick is that food doesn't brown very well in the pan. Browning means flavor (see "maillard reaction"), so cooking with non-stick can mean less flavor when you make pan sauces or braising liquids by deglazing the fond (the brown bits) that has built up in the pan while cooking meats or vegetables. Saying all that, the Costco set browns better than other non-stick pieces I've used. Plus, non-stick pans are really easy to clean, which is a huge bonus when you have no dishwasher and do everything by hand, like I do.

So buy the Kirkland Signature 14-Piece Hard Anodized Cookware Set. Your friends will never guess how great a deal you got on those gorgeous pots and pans when they're gorging themselves at your dinner parties.

UPDATE (12/13/06): The set is no longer available on Costco.com. I would suggest checking your local Costco to see if it is in stock, or buying a set off of eBay.

The Importance Of Warehouse Clubs

I thought I'd take a cue from the cookbooks of Thomas Keller and write a series about the things (stores, ingredients, techniques, people, etc.) that are essential to eating well on the cheap. My first post in "The Importance Of ..." series follows.

Ah, the warehouse club. That land of 5 gallon mayonnaise jars, 200-roll packs of toilet paper, and row upon row of products that seem best-suited for those with nine children of large appetite. But the modern warehouse club offers more than bulk size products, and I believe that a membership (even though it costs $40-50/year) is an important addition to a frugal foodie's life.

What do I buy at the warehouse club? Household goods like paper towels, toilet paper, soap, and laundry detergent are probably the most common items. But I've also bought cookbooks, clothing, and electronics, all at great prices compared to online stores or even discount stores like Wal-Mart or Target.

As for food products, there are a few things I buy regularly. Frozen chicken breasts and thighs are one, and frozen salmon fillets another. Both are great to have on hand for quick weeknight meals. I don't think you can find a better price on Parmigiano Reggiano anywhere. Soda is a great deal, particularly for those of who need Diet Coke in their veins to survive. I don't often buy huge packs of fresh meat or giant packs of canned goods, but I would definitely do so if I had a bigger family or threw large dinner parties using relatively expensive cuts of meat.

My favorite warehouse club purchase was a cookware set from Costco, a review of which I will be posting shortly. I've also stocked my kitchen with a Rubbermaid Stain Shield storage container set that has is sadly no longer available from Costco.

Costco and Sam's Club both have 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed return policies. In theory that means you can return anything you've ever purchased for any reason, but returns are at the discretion of the manager, particularly if you're trying to return something purchased a long time ago. I can report that last week I returned to Costco a broken year-old DVD player for a full refund. That alone was worth my $50 membership. So if you're buying items that might break within a year or two, such as kitchen appliances or electronics, a warehouse club is your best bet. There's no need to waste your money on an extended warranty. Even better, you can buy food and drink items without fear that you'll be getting something you don't like. If it tastes terrible, just return it.

Warehouse clubs are important. You can get high-quality products at dollar-store prices, particularly if you know how to spot a great value. I don't buy everything at a warehouse club, but the things I do buy there are a better value than I can get anywhere else.

Note: I've belonged to both Costco and Sam's Club, and I must say I'm partial to Costco. If I didn't have a Costco nearby, I'd join a Sam's Club. But given the choice, I'd choose Costco. The product selection is better suited to my slightly upscale tastes. (Example: Costco sells Heinz ketchup, Sam's Club sells Hunt's.) The meat and produce are of higher quality. The gourmet foods selection is greater. The employees at Costco are better paid. (Is this why the employees are more productive in checkout and more helpful with customer service?) My parents belong to a BJ's in Long Island, but I've never shopped there. BJ's appears to only have a 30-day return policy, which may be a deal killer for some.

Friday Food Politics: San Francisco vs. Restaurants Edition

Is San Francisco killing restaurants? That's what Michael Bauer (SF Chronicle food critic) asks over at his blog, Between Meals. His evidence:

• "Candle" tax: $200 a year
• Propane tax: $146
• Tent tax: $146
• Restaurant license, S.F.: $951
• Valet license: $244
• Place of Entertainment tax: $352
• San Francisco license renewal: $758 (an ongoing charge after a restaurant purchases the permit, which can range from $28,000 to $60,000 or more)
• SF Minimum Wage Ordinance
• In the latest election, a measure passed that requires restaurants and other small business to provide 8 to 9 days of sick leave a year
• The Board of Supervisors is about to implement universal health care, which will cost around $120,000 to to cover 80 employees

Is a libertarian chef (or restaurateur) born with every new regulation? Let's just hope San Francisco dining doesn't follow France down the hole.

On a positive note, excessive regulation in SF likely means better food in the rest of the Bay Area. Although I would expect this effect to be most predominant in inexpensive restaurants, the most recent Michelin guide may hold some evidence.

Three Stars: French Laundry (Napa)
Two Stars: Aqua (SF), Cyrus (Russian River Valley), Manresa (South Bay), Michael Mina (SF)

So only two of the top five Michelin-rated restaurants are in San Francisco. Not definitive, but certainly interesting.

UPDATE: San Fran chef's are already raising their prices. More commentary at Chow.