Food In The Fort

Last summer, I decided to share the pleasure of my required school reading with Leo by making him suffer through Freakonomics. Such a bad book. The problem is that it is so much fun when you’re reading it; but then if you stop and think about it… Anyway, turn about is fair play, so we followed this up with Joanne Chen’s The Taste of Sweet: Our Complicated Love Affair with Our Favorite Treats. Like Freakonomics, this book is breezy and enjoyably written but, happily, it lacks the chapters which cause me to go on rants about the author’s racism and deliberately deceptive use of statistics.

However, The Taste of Sweet does share a Freakonomical feature: both authors like to toss off assertions of dubious scientific accuracy. A case in point: when discussing the role of fiber in our diet, Chen quotes pediatric endocrinologist Robert Lustig who says that bacterial DNA found in stool samples of ancient humans proves that people used to eat about twenty to thirty times more fiber than we do today. This is given as evidence to support the idea that this is the ideal human diet, not just what those undoubtedly very regular people had available to eat.

Without a doubt, the chapter that both Leo and I found the most interesting was “The Real Taste of Strawberry” in which Chen describes how flavors change over time to adapt to current tastes. And she’s not just talking about artificial flavorings. Fruits and vegetables themselves are constantly being selected and manipulated in order to provide a more idealized taste: a more strawberry-flavored strawberry or sweeter sugar cane. As Chen notes, “Humans have been trying to have it their way with nature for a very long time,” and “Real flavors, in fact, aren’t any more consistent than fantasy ones.” And speaking of fantasies, apparently “healthy” tastes like raisins and spice, with a hint of creaminess, at least to food engineer Marie Wright who had embarked on a quest to create a “healthier” tasting oatmeal flavored cookie.

Overall, Leo and I enjoyed reading The Taste of Sweet, in spite of its problems. It’s readily apparent in the numerous interviews and history Chen cites that she has done her homework and the result is an easily digestible yet thought provoking book. However, Chen’s own conflicted relationship with sweet foods gives her analysis an unbalanced feel. Her celebration of the role of sweet foods in our culture is undercut by a generous helping of guilt. In this, Chen certainly parallels most Americans’ relationship with sweets. To paraphrase from her chapter “Guilty Pleasures,” we all have trust issues with delicious food and the more indulgent it seems, the more suspicious we think we should be.

Note: This review was co-authored with Leo.

Updated: Unfortunately, Ethiopian Restaurant has closed permanently.

We both grew up in the Cooperstown, NY area. Now, if you’ve ever been to Cooperstown, you know it’s a very small town surrounded by even smaller towns and lots of fields. Sure, there were a few smallish cities not too far away but in general Cooperstown is the epitome of small town America. Small towns have a lot of advantages, and we both have fond memories of growing up in one. However, if you’re looking for ethnic cuisine, then you’re probably not going to find it in a small town. After all, Cooperstown didn’t even have a Chinese restaurant until the early 1990s (and then oddly, all of a sudden, it had two).

Which is why one of the things we really value about living in Fort Wayne is the large array of ethnic dining to be found. We both love trying new things, plus we’ve found that if you really want to learn about a culture the two most direct routes for doing so are through its music and its food. So, as you might imagine, we were delighted to read about the opening of the Ethiopian Restaurant a few months ago and wanted to visit it right away. As things usually work out though, one thing led to another, and “right away” ended up being four months later. Honestly though, after tasting Ethiopian Restaurant’s food, we’re sad we waited so long. Read the rest of this entry »

I don’t like to be a hater, but I’ve got to say that after two attempts at this mix I’m giving up. My theory is that having to bake the crust part first somehow prevents it from joining together harmoniously with the lemony goo, but whatever the science behind it may be, I can’t make it work! I came out with a rock-hard crust and an almost sickeningly sweet lemon custard resting on top of it. And to make matters worse, the lemon stuff hadn’t sufficiently jelled (although I followed the instructions and took it out of the oven when it began to brown on top) – what a mess. My daughter also tried this mix with similarly unsatisfying results. I remember going to her dad’s house, seeing it on the stove and having to ask what it was. Not cool.

As I so often do in times of food crisis, I turned to Diana Rattray of About.com’s southern cooking section for her wisdom. It seems that baking the crust first is standard, although with her addition of two sticks of butter, I’m betting things come out a mite tastier. Here’s how Diana does it.

If you think I’m being too harsh on poor Krusteaz, here’s someone who has a more positive impression.

Have you had any luck with this mix? Am I (and people who share my genetic material) just not cut out for this? Do you have a better lemon bar recipe than either Diana Rattray or Krusteaz? Let us know! Until we’ve been shown the error of our ways, Krusteaz Lemon Bars mix gets a paltry two garlic bulbs (it’d be only one, but hey, at least they taste like lemon).

I had been craving a fish fry for ages so, despite the fact that Leo and I had just made pan-fried fish on Thursday (it’s just not the same!), I decided to take the kids to Ya Boy. In case you are unfortunate enough to be unfamiliar with this wonderful establishment, it’s at the corner of Anthony and McKinnie, across from the 99 Cent Pus store – your one-stop-shop for knock-off purses, perfumes and bling. Being situated in this less than lovely part of town, Ya Boy does boast some unusual features such as bullet-proof glass separating you from the food preparation area and a little lazy susan contraption that allows them to give you your food without actually handing it to you. Brings back fond memories of liquor stores which sold vodka to minors in NYC when I was an undergrad… Read the rest of this entry »

This two-headed  lollipop by Luxus is one of our favorites. Rompope is a sort of Mexican eggnog and a real winner as a lollipop flavor. It goes especially well with the mild, chalky chocolate that was at the other end. One note of caution: these lollipops are Formica counter top hard. Those with soft enamel or otherwise bad dentiture would be wise to lick, not bite.

This post was part of our Mexican Candy Shootout! series. You can find all the posts in this series here.

We have no idea what this is, but it’s wonderful. Except for the pits, which are most of it. It’s kind of like eating a pomegranate – a lot of work for little payoff. The fruit (we guess it’s fruit) is sweet and slightly spicy; hazmat procedures might be called for with this baby; it sticks to everything. Just like the Rollo Coco, good luck removing the wrapper. But don’t let our warnings dissuade you. It’s a delicious, if sticky, treat.

Update: After some fast googling we find that this is, indeed, simply tamarind pulp.

Quick trivia: Tamarind is an essential ingredient in Worcestershire sauce.

This post was part of our Mexican Candy Shootout! series. You can find all the posts in this series here.

Coconut rolls are a sweet staple of Mexican candy. You’ll find them in a dizzying array of shapes and colors much like the ubiquitous gummi. There’s no particular reason why we selected the two we did for comparison and we recommend that you try them all because they’re quite tasty treats.

Delicias del Triunfo has concocted a marvelous confection of shredded coconut, sugar and oil in a handy stick. What more could you want? A perfect candy except for the thoughtless wrapper design. The plastic wrapper is sort of tucked into the ends of the roll in such a way that makes detaching it from the candy problematic; little bits of plastic easily get stuck to the candy. Still, if you can avoid ingesting the wrapper bits – and what’s a little cellophane among friends? – this one’s a real winner.

La Coculense has managed against all odds to squeeze several extra helpings of sugar, artificial flavoring and yellow food dye into this compact coconut bar. While coconut lovers will like this one, we think Rollo Coco has the edge in the tight coconut roll market. Catherine does give props to the wrapper; unlike the Rollo Coco covering, this one came off without putting up a fight and leaving shreds of plastic.

This post was part of our Mexican Candy Shootout! series. You can find all the posts in this series here.

There’s very little we can say about this product from Lorena. We bought it because the colorful, grimacing cartoon fruit amused us and we thought it was candy. However, it turned out to be a condiment. Although it was interesting to have a little bit of spice on the candies, we remain unconvinced that fruit routinely needs to be seasoned. Perhaps we will come around in time, but until then the cartoon fruit on the Pico Sitos cannister mocks us from the rear of the spice rack.

We bought this Lucas product because it looked cool; unfortunately, our package was quite stale and disappointing. We wanted to like it, but since the “spaghetti” had the texture of real pasta which had had the misfortune of being overcooked and then left out for hours, it was hard to arrive at a favorable opinion. Although we should say that Catherine enjoyed the slightly sweet, slightly spicy sauce, Leo didn’t find anything redeeming about it. Perhaps if we had gotten a fresher package things would have turned out better but, as it was, it was a sweet and salty choking hazard.

This post was part of our Mexican Candy Shootout! series. You can find all the posts in this series here.

This Nestle product tastes and smells like Swiss Miss instant hot chocolate mix or the really cheap chocolate “flavored” Easter bunnies. If you’re craving chocolate, you would be hard-pressed to do worse. Needless to say, we didn’t like this one, which is kind of sad since Carlos looks like such a jovial monarch. We can only conclude that he has been corrupted by the high-pressure world of candy endorsements and forgotten his people. Viva la revolucion!

 This post was part of our Mexican Candy Shootout! series. You can find all the posts in this series here