At the supermarket the other day I stumbled across the vitamins aisle. I'm in the market for two specific supplements, so I thought I'd at least have a look.
The first is vitamin D. It has long been believed D supplements can be beneficial for folks with MS, and the formal scientific evidence for this is mounting. I'm not looking to megadose or anything, but figure regularly suplementing my D intake would probably be a good thing.
The second thing I was looking for was flaxseed oil. I've used flaxseed in cooking before (it makes a good binding agent in baked goods), but never taken it as a supplement. The reason I would do this is because it is a very good non-animal based source of omega-3 fatty acids, another nutrient of probable benefit to MS patients. As I usually do when buying anything with ingredient lists on the bottle I turned the bottle around to read the list. This is important to do, given the pencant shown by producers for slipping animal-based ingredients in places you wouldn't necessarily expect them.
The big thing I look out for in medicine and the like is gelatin. Those gel-caps may be easy to swallow, but are often made of a substance I avoid. The ingredient list clarified what the gel-caps were made of in the product I was looking at. Sort of.
"non-bovine". OK, thanks. But that raises more questions than it answers. How about porcine? If the gel-caps are non-animal product in origin, why specify cow? Is there a big Hindu market for flaxseed supplements I don't know about? Wouldn't most folks interested in non-bovine material also want to know if pig skin is involved?
I was too confused by all this to buy anything. I'm all for full disclosure and 'say what you mean' and all, but can't figure out just what they are trying to say (beyond the obvious literal 'no cow')
Showing posts with label food. Show all posts
Showing posts with label food. Show all posts
Friday, April 27, 2007
Sunday, March 11, 2007
Passions (3: Cooking)
I first became intersted in cooking in the late 80s.
At first it was out of a feeling that some day I would need those skills if I wanted to eat anything interesting. I was living on campus, so didn't need to cook right then. I did some, but I wasn't passionate about it really. Not yet.
In 1992 I moved into my own apartment and that changed. Being partial to eating (not in the gourmet sense, more in avoid starvation mode) I began cooking for myself. Being financially challanged helped out as well. I didn't rely on convenience foods and restaraunts because at that time it just wasn't possible. Developing the skill and creativity to whip up a spaghetti dinner for under a buck was a very real alternative to bending over backwards to have it prepared for me.
I had been raised in an environment where food preparation was an expression of affection. I never really had to explore that, though, previously. As I began having to cook I discovered I liked it. A lot.
It also 'put me in touch with my roots' in a way. In addition to the role food played in my family dynamics, I descend from long lines of farmers. I am proud of that fact.
My ancestors would probably shake their heads at my food choices. The idea of living close to the land (favoring minimally intensivly grown local produce) they'd probably understand, but I'd imagine my love of Asian and African cuisines would strike them a bit odd. That and my vegetarianism, but now is not the place to talk about that.
This is the place to discuss what I eat daily now. Unfortunately, I rely fairly heavily on microwavable prepared meals right now. Why am I, an admitted foodie, eating out of my microwave? Two reasons, common cause.
1) Cooking can be pretty time consuming. I find myself needing a lot of downtime, and there often just aren't enough hours in the day to do more than pop something in the nuker.
2) The act of cooking can be physically challenging in itself. Take spaghetti for instance. Getting a pot full of boiling water off the stove and over to the sink for the pasta to drain is difficult, given the problems I have with lifting and balance.
But I still try a little at least. And I still enjoy browsing cookbooks.
Necessity isn't just the mother of invention. It can also be the mother of passion.
And when you have passion, well ... you do what you can. And sometimes, what you can't.
At first it was out of a feeling that some day I would need those skills if I wanted to eat anything interesting. I was living on campus, so didn't need to cook right then. I did some, but I wasn't passionate about it really. Not yet.
In 1992 I moved into my own apartment and that changed. Being partial to eating (not in the gourmet sense, more in avoid starvation mode) I began cooking for myself. Being financially challanged helped out as well. I didn't rely on convenience foods and restaraunts because at that time it just wasn't possible. Developing the skill and creativity to whip up a spaghetti dinner for under a buck was a very real alternative to bending over backwards to have it prepared for me.
I had been raised in an environment where food preparation was an expression of affection. I never really had to explore that, though, previously. As I began having to cook I discovered I liked it. A lot.
It also 'put me in touch with my roots' in a way. In addition to the role food played in my family dynamics, I descend from long lines of farmers. I am proud of that fact.
My ancestors would probably shake their heads at my food choices. The idea of living close to the land (favoring minimally intensivly grown local produce) they'd probably understand, but I'd imagine my love of Asian and African cuisines would strike them a bit odd. That and my vegetarianism, but now is not the place to talk about that.
This is the place to discuss what I eat daily now. Unfortunately, I rely fairly heavily on microwavable prepared meals right now. Why am I, an admitted foodie, eating out of my microwave? Two reasons, common cause.
1) Cooking can be pretty time consuming. I find myself needing a lot of downtime, and there often just aren't enough hours in the day to do more than pop something in the nuker.
2) The act of cooking can be physically challenging in itself. Take spaghetti for instance. Getting a pot full of boiling water off the stove and over to the sink for the pasta to drain is difficult, given the problems I have with lifting and balance.
But I still try a little at least. And I still enjoy browsing cookbooks.
Necessity isn't just the mother of invention. It can also be the mother of passion.
And when you have passion, well ... you do what you can. And sometimes, what you can't.
Sunday, February 18, 2007
Chili peppers again
Stumbled across a post on a report in Science (2/15/2007) about evidence of the use of Chili pepper 6100 years ago in Ecudor! This would be big news without anything else being involved, but here is the kicker: they are domestic, rather than wild varieties. This is important, because it implies 1) agricultural sophistication and 2) probable trade, since peppers don't grow wild in the region. Doesn't really apply to my questions about chili in Asian cuisines (I think I've traced that to trade with the Portegeuse now, at least for Vietnam) but is still really interesting.
I'm sure some folks who know me are wondering if I watched Family Guy tonight and if I have any comments (MS was used as a plot point). I did and I do. But not right now.
Some day my blog will have something to say about this.
Sorry, yesterday you got a freebie. Todays pop culture reference is up to you to decode.
I'm sure some folks who know me are wondering if I watched Family Guy tonight and if I have any comments (MS was used as a plot point). I did and I do. But not right now.
Some day my blog will have something to say about this.
Sorry, yesterday you got a freebie. Todays pop culture reference is up to you to decode.
Friday, February 16, 2007
3 Sodas From the 80s ....uh ... and 70s
Short list today:
THREE SODAS I MISS
3 - Rondo
This was a citrus soda from the late 70s. I don't remember much else about it, other than I really liked it. It was from a major manufacturer, I believe.
2 - Orbitz
No, not the travel web site. This non-carbonated beverage came in a variety of fruit-based flavors. The gimmick here was each bottle had balls of (I think) tapioca floating in it. You can still find soy drinks using the same gimmick in Asian groceries. A really fun experience. The tapioca balls were an attention grabber.
1 - Surge
Or should I say SURGE! Another citrus-flavored drink. Heavily promoted circa 90-91. Sort of on the 'energy' bandwagon, but predating that trend in this country at least. I still wear my Surge t-shirt, and someplace have a keychain that says "SURGE!" when you press a button.
THREE SODAS I MISS
3 - Rondo
This was a citrus soda from the late 70s. I don't remember much else about it, other than I really liked it. It was from a major manufacturer, I believe.
2 - Orbitz
No, not the travel web site. This non-carbonated beverage came in a variety of fruit-based flavors. The gimmick here was each bottle had balls of (I think) tapioca floating in it. You can still find soy drinks using the same gimmick in Asian groceries. A really fun experience. The tapioca balls were an attention grabber.
1 - Surge
Or should I say SURGE! Another citrus-flavored drink. Heavily promoted circa 90-91. Sort of on the 'energy' bandwagon, but predating that trend in this country at least. I still wear my Surge t-shirt, and someplace have a keychain that says "SURGE!" when you press a button.
Friday, February 2, 2007
Curried mock duck
My single favorite dish is curried mock duck. So, being on a food history kick lately, I thought I'd look into this dish's history.
Apparently I've picked another difficult-to-research topic to get interested in. So far, I've only found one restaraunt outside Minnesota that has the dish I'm thinking about. This restaraunt isi n Chicago. Still Midwest, which strengthens my suspicion that curried mock duck is a 'restaraunt' dish rather than a traditional prepration. Also strengthening my gut feeling is that although there are certainly Vietnamese restaraunts outside Minnesota, expatriats of my home state complain about not finding this dish, which is common in these parts
'But wait', you may say, 'there are restaraunts with this dish in their online menus from NY, LA and so on.' Yes, but look closely at the descriptions. In these locations 'mock duck' is soy based. Around here, it is seitan (wheat gluten).
Definatly need more research on this before I can really feel like I'm getting a grasp on the question.
Tommorrow tune in for a very special blog entry.
Apparently I've picked another difficult-to-research topic to get interested in. So far, I've only found one restaraunt outside Minnesota that has the dish I'm thinking about. This restaraunt isi n Chicago. Still Midwest, which strengthens my suspicion that curried mock duck is a 'restaraunt' dish rather than a traditional prepration. Also strengthening my gut feeling is that although there are certainly Vietnamese restaraunts outside Minnesota, expatriats of my home state complain about not finding this dish, which is common in these parts
'But wait', you may say, 'there are restaraunts with this dish in their online menus from NY, LA and so on.' Yes, but look closely at the descriptions. In these locations 'mock duck' is soy based. Around here, it is seitan (wheat gluten).
Definatly need more research on this before I can really feel like I'm getting a grasp on the question.
Tommorrow tune in for a very special blog entry.
Thursday, February 1, 2007
The Asexual Lifestyle of Cultivated Garlic
As a title, "The Asexual Lifestyle of Cultivated Garlic" has a lot going for it.
It is relatively short and to the point. Contrast this with many Victorian-era titles, which often go overboard explaining what the work is about. My subtitle to the earlier post "Puree" was pretty much a riff on these titles. I've always been a fan of short, sharp, shock titles (being of the Chaos UK literary school ... I lie here. There is no such school, literary or otherwise.) In my own writing I often use one-word titles.
It grabs your attention, mainly due to ...
It sounds a little rude. I mean, the word "sex" is right up there front and center. Never mind that the context is asexual plant reproduction. The word jumps out at people.
It is a bit surreal. Seeing the title, most will assume I am not really talking about garlic, sex or no sex. There has to be a literary term for this kind of misderection; I feel no shame in not actually knowing that term. Think Zen koan here. But enough tree-hugging hippy crap for today.
The one area this title really falls down, though, is in having anything to do with the actual blog entry here. Although I have just spent most of this entry talking about it. This is the kind of thing that short-circuits robots.
What I really wanted to say, before getting off on a tangent, was "DUH!"
I have mentioned before looking for pre-chilli 'heat' in Asian and African cuisines. Black pepper was undoubtedly important (I was overly dismissive of it earlier), but I couldn't think of other bases for fiery cuisine.
Ginger. Duh.
And after slapping my head, mustard, I thought,
I still haven't found a definitive source on these cuisines before chilli peppers. But I have a much clearer grasp on the possibilities now.
It is relatively short and to the point. Contrast this with many Victorian-era titles, which often go overboard explaining what the work is about. My subtitle to the earlier post "Puree" was pretty much a riff on these titles. I've always been a fan of short, sharp, shock titles (being of the Chaos UK literary school ... I lie here. There is no such school, literary or otherwise.) In my own writing I often use one-word titles.
It grabs your attention, mainly due to ...
It sounds a little rude. I mean, the word "sex" is right up there front and center. Never mind that the context is asexual plant reproduction. The word jumps out at people.
It is a bit surreal. Seeing the title, most will assume I am not really talking about garlic, sex or no sex. There has to be a literary term for this kind of misderection; I feel no shame in not actually knowing that term. Think Zen koan here. But enough tree-hugging hippy crap for today.
The one area this title really falls down, though, is in having anything to do with the actual blog entry here. Although I have just spent most of this entry talking about it. This is the kind of thing that short-circuits robots.
What I really wanted to say, before getting off on a tangent, was "DUH!"
I have mentioned before looking for pre-chilli 'heat' in Asian and African cuisines. Black pepper was undoubtedly important (I was overly dismissive of it earlier), but I couldn't think of other bases for fiery cuisine.
Ginger. Duh.
And after slapping my head, mustard, I thought,
I still haven't found a definitive source on these cuisines before chilli peppers. But I have a much clearer grasp on the possibilities now.
Wednesday, January 24, 2007
puree
.... in which Dave surfs the net and finds various and sundry things, throws them all in a blender, and makes a blog entry from the resulting slurry.
If there is a common theme here it is food.
Historical Cookbooks
A great selection of historical cookbooks has been placed online by MSU. Actually, it appears to have been online for some ime. I spent many an hour pouring over the summaries of these books. Some of them I actually skimmed the book! (Today's obsession: corn bread/pone/cakes/etc.) Most of the books date from the turn of the century (19th to 20th). This is a great historical resource. It will take some work to actually use many of the recipes, but sounds like a fun little project. Also note the role cookery played in sufferage and other social movements. Since this is primary source material no one is spelling this out, but lots to think about while browsing these cookbooks.
Hitler and Vegetarianism
Anyone who talks about the history of vegetarianism has probably had this experience: Mention that Gandhi or Shaw or Killer Kowalski was a vegetarian and be met with the response "but so was Hitler". Two points:
1) and? So? This is a common form of argument known as reductio ad Hitlerium.
and ...
2) was he? See the here and here. The second one goes into why this seems so important to many meat-eaters. Also see links on animal protectionism in Nazi Germany (sorry, that one is in German) and vegetarian societies in Germany.
But again, I really have a "so what even if he was" attitude here. Hitler was a non-smoker. Go bug the Lung Association people about Hitler and their pet cause. Me? I don't need to hear any more.
History of Chop Suey
I've always thought the story about Chop Suey being created for a conference with Chinese and American attendees was truth. Turns out that is not how it happened.
Before Chile
This is what I was looking for at the start of all this surfing around. I'm curious: many cuisines rely on chile peppers, but that is a new world ingredient and thus not available pre-1500s. What occupied the spot in, say Ethiopian cuisine, that chile does today? I'd imagine in some cases black peppercorns, but there has to be more than that. Oh well. Quest for an answer continues.
And no, this is not the weightier post mentioned yesterday. And I got the boabab tree thing wrong - it is not the oldest. On the other hand that was in parentheses, and such parenthetical musings can be disregarded.
If there is a common theme here it is food.
Historical Cookbooks
A great selection of historical cookbooks has been placed online by MSU. Actually, it appears to have been online for some ime. I spent many an hour pouring over the summaries of these books. Some of them I actually skimmed the book! (Today's obsession: corn bread/pone/cakes/etc.) Most of the books date from the turn of the century (19th to 20th). This is a great historical resource. It will take some work to actually use many of the recipes, but sounds like a fun little project. Also note the role cookery played in sufferage and other social movements. Since this is primary source material no one is spelling this out, but lots to think about while browsing these cookbooks.
Hitler and Vegetarianism
Anyone who talks about the history of vegetarianism has probably had this experience: Mention that Gandhi or Shaw or Killer Kowalski was a vegetarian and be met with the response "but so was Hitler". Two points:
1) and? So? This is a common form of argument known as reductio ad Hitlerium.
and ...
2) was he? See the here and here. The second one goes into why this seems so important to many meat-eaters. Also see links on animal protectionism in Nazi Germany (sorry, that one is in German) and vegetarian societies in Germany.
But again, I really have a "so what even if he was" attitude here. Hitler was a non-smoker. Go bug the Lung Association people about Hitler and their pet cause. Me? I don't need to hear any more.
History of Chop Suey
I've always thought the story about Chop Suey being created for a conference with Chinese and American attendees was truth. Turns out that is not how it happened.
Before Chile
This is what I was looking for at the start of all this surfing around. I'm curious: many cuisines rely on chile peppers, but that is a new world ingredient and thus not available pre-1500s. What occupied the spot in, say Ethiopian cuisine, that chile does today? I'd imagine in some cases black peppercorns, but there has to be more than that. Oh well. Quest for an answer continues.
And no, this is not the weightier post mentioned yesterday. And I got the boabab tree thing wrong - it is not the oldest. On the other hand that was in parentheses, and such parenthetical musings can be disregarded.
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
Dave reads books III: Crops
Two more books I've read recently, both viewable online. You can read them too!
Lost Crops of Africa
Lost Crops of the Incas
The topics should be obvious from the titles. Neither is exactly light reading, but I found both enjoyable, even if my eyes did glaze over when they got to talking about nutritional compositions.
Each is an overview of domesticated plants used as food crops, but only used regionally if at all today. This is not entirely true, as some more commonly available crops are included, especially in the Africa book (I would hardly consider okara or longbeans lost. I could purchase both in the mainstream supermarket I frequent!)
Both books suggest possibilities for increased use of the foods covered. I was more interested in the descriptions of the products and how they are used. I'm a cook, not an agronomist.
Books like this are great for trivia hounds. Did you know the leaves of the Boab tree (oldest known living organism) are edible and are in fact used as food?
Overall, these books left me with a strong urge to rent a garden plot and grow little known South American root crops.
But it seems silly to review books one could read simply by following a link. If hints at new culinary adventures sound appealing these books are well worth taking a look.
Lost Crops of Africa
Lost Crops of the Incas
The topics should be obvious from the titles. Neither is exactly light reading, but I found both enjoyable, even if my eyes did glaze over when they got to talking about nutritional compositions.
Each is an overview of domesticated plants used as food crops, but only used regionally if at all today. This is not entirely true, as some more commonly available crops are included, especially in the Africa book (I would hardly consider okara or longbeans lost. I could purchase both in the mainstream supermarket I frequent!)
Both books suggest possibilities for increased use of the foods covered. I was more interested in the descriptions of the products and how they are used. I'm a cook, not an agronomist.
Books like this are great for trivia hounds. Did you know the leaves of the Boab tree (oldest known living organism) are edible and are in fact used as food?
Overall, these books left me with a strong urge to rent a garden plot and grow little known South American root crops.
But it seems silly to review books one could read simply by following a link. If hints at new culinary adventures sound appealing these books are well worth taking a look.
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