Hamburger America: the book AND dvd!

I pestered my local library to start carrying Hamburger America, the book, and they got a copy, which I have now checked out. When I took a look at the cover, there’s a sticker the library put on that says “1 disc included.” Do you know what that disc was?

That’s right, Hamburger America, the movie!

So, you realise I have to share the film with as many people as possible, yeah? I’ve already made my parents watch it, and I thought my father was going to have a heart attack merely watching Solly’s butterburgers being made. “Oh my God, that’s BUTTER?!” he freaks while watching a woman slab on a hefty dollop of butter onto a bun before mushing it down onto a burger.

Potential food rule: Butter makes everything better. This rule may have to be tested out on a butterburger of my own with a veggie patty. Yes, I’m game enough, but I don’t know if I’d want quite as much butter as Solly’s Grille tops theirs with. Seriously, the camera zooms in on these burgers, and you can see the golden liquid dripping on the sides! The film even shows a patron sopping up some of the butter with half of his burger. It should also be mentioned Solly’s Grille is right across the street from a medical center treating heart diseases. Surprisingly, though, the owner of Solly’s Grille mentions two men in their 90s who’d been coming to Solly’s Grill for decades, and seem to be doing just fine.

Potential food theory: Butter makes you live longer.

I can imagine cardiologists cringing at the thought of a butterburger, but I’ll bet a few of those people that work at the nearby heart care center make dashes across the street to get their butterburger fixes.

Eventually, I’ll have to break down and buy this book, so I can have the book and dvd on hand for future reference and edification, as well as to share it with people who aren’t yet my friends, but someday will be (aw!). Yesterday I began reading the book, and currently I’m in the Louisiana section, where Port of Call in New Orleans is listed. There is only one place listed in Florida, Le Tub of Hollywood. In America, it seems the best states for burgers, according to George Motz, are California (9 entries), Oklahoma (7 entries), Ohio (6 entries), Connecticut (5 entries) and Texas (8 entries).

If you want to know more about Hamburger America or George Motz, the brainchild behind the projects, go to the website: HamburgerAmerica.com. Motz has a blog where you can catch up on what’s current–at the moment, the most recent entry is on the book tour he’s doing. If you live in Orange County in Florida, you’ll be happy to know that the Orange County Library System has two copies of Hamburger America, both of which are currently checked out–one by yours truly. Don’t worry, I’ll be returning mine shortly once I’ve finished reading it and have made a few of my friends watch the dvd. If you can’t wait, though, you can buy it online through Shop OCLS, with Amazon.com, or get a used copy with Abebooks.

When is a glass of wine not a glass of wine?

I was poking around BBC News and came across this article: Doctors slam ’supersized’ drinks.  Per the title, I had thought the article dealt with the enormous soda cups, where a “small” is a miniature bucket, like the one I bought last week at the cinema–it was huge!  I couldn’t finish it all!

Actually, the article didn’t deal with soda, but rather the increasing trend of pubs and bars in the UK of offering larger glasses as the standard size for wine, and adding more liquor into mixed drinks than previously.  In the article, it explains “[t]he 125ml wine glass used to be the standard size but now just 16% of pubs and bars say it is their normal size.  Some 73% say 175ml is the new “standard” and 250ml the large.”

On one hand, you have the industry leaders professing they’re merely offering “value,” but the article states that 250 ml is equivalent to a third of a bottle of wine, which is a large amount in one sitting on its own for me, being the One Drink Wonder.  Couple that with two or three more glasses, and you have someone drinking at least a whole bottle on their own in only a few (huge) glasses and may not even realise it, counting glasses rather than the liquid amount.

Greg Mulholland, a Liberal Democrat, is proposing a bill in the House of Commons to standardise the 125 ml as “a glass,” and to make all restaurants, bars and pubs carry the size.  In this situation, I think that the restaurants can go ahead and offer the larger sizes for their customers should they so choose, provided the customers are well-informed.  In this earlier article on the wine glasses, I like the proposal that a reader by the name of Eddie in Edinburgh proposed:

I don’t like the idea of force, or compulsion. It might be a better idea to change the labelling, so instead of 250ml, it says Approx 3 Units - assuming a reasonable norm of about 12% by volume. I’ve noticed increasingly that more alcoholic beverages purchased in shops are doing this, maybe we could extend it to all drinks in pubs - how many units are in that pint you just quaffed…

Upon reading the rest of the reader comments, it was interesting to see a good many people support the legislation, whereas many others opposed it, likening the action to be that of a “Nanny State,” and telling people to “grow up” and the government to “stop dictating us.”

I can’t help but draw similarities to the wine consumption sizing issue to that of the sizing issues we have in the United States with food.  It’s well-known that portions have gotten larger in many restaurants, especially those national and regional chains, and there have been dietitians who have pointed out that the more on the plate, the more we eat.  It may also be true for alcohol for people; I know it’s true for me when I’m unable to measure the amount of, say, beer I’m drinking because rather than the standard bottles, I’m drinking from a large 1.5 litre bottle of La Chouffe.

Although I’m unsure if a blanket decree is in order for Britain’s wine glasses, I think it would be helpful, as suggested, to indicate the amount of units a patron would be drinking, and also to provide smaller glasses for those interested in merely whetting their whistle.

2008: The Return of the Green Fairy

For those of you who didn’t know, the ban on absinthe in the United States has become relaxed enough for a few distillers to start selling the drink on US shores. The United States now joins the European Union with a renewed look at an old and vilified drink. Per this article from the New York Times, “One reason legal barriers have fallen is that, as The New Yorker reported in 2006, the regulated chemical thujone, found in wormwood and once thought to have been the cause of absinthe’s lure and its dangers, did not show up in any significant quantities in analyses of historical absinthe. So these authentic replicas, despite containing wormwood, do not pose a legal challenge” (emphasis mine).

This revisit of the Green Fairy in the US can be attributed to an attorney by the name of Robert Lehrman, hired by Kübler of Switzerland, makers of… yep, absinthe. The inquiries began in 2000, and the regulations were only loosened late last year, so Lehrman had a seven-year fight on his hands. Granted, this is good for the Kübler distillery, but also good for other distilleries who are willing to be subjected to the rigorous approval process by the US government.

In Alameda, California, St George Spirits distillery has become the first in the United States to introduce American-made absinthe onto the market since 1912. At the moment, I’ve only been able to find information on only two other makers of absinthe who have been given the green light to sell in the US market aside from Kübler and St George: From France, Combier Distillery’s Lucid Absinthe Supérieure, imported by Viridian Spirits LLC, and a South American brand I haven’t been able to find further information on aside that it might be Brazilian in nationality. I found Absinto Camargo online, which is a possible candidate for this mystery. Any help in clarification would be greatly appreciated!

When Hao and I had initially found out about the loosening of the ban, we went to the nearest Total Wine (also known among friends as the Alco-Mall) to see if we could possibly procure a bottle. We roamed the aisles with no success, and upon asking a store employee, I found out why: it’s too new. Having done more research online, which I am now sharing with you, with only a small handful of distilled versions of absinthe being sold legally inside the US, there isn’t enough product to flood the market, or at least the shelves of our local Total Wine… yet. Perhaps within this year, as more absinthe producers apply to import into the US, or as more home-grown distilleries create some Yankee absinthe, we may see a bottle or two show up at Total Wine and ABC Liquors, along with other mom & pop liquor stores.

If you’re interested in consuming the Green Fairy, you will probably want to do a little research in order for you to figure out where you can purchase absinthe, as well as what brands to buy and what “Absente” to avoid. One of the websites I recommend is The Wormwood Society, which will explain to you the current US policy towards absinthe (10 mg of thujone per liter or less is acceptable for sale and consumption), and has recipes for absinthe cocktails, lists a review guide, showcases top-rated bottles (some made and packaged before the ban, making the bottles nearly a century old!) and a segment on “Absinthe Science,” dispelling the myths and hype of wormwood.

For more on absinthe, follow these links:

Websites

• The Virtual Absinthe Museum - Loaded with FAQs, absinthe history & lore, as well as a place to buy prints of absinthe posters and so forth, the Virtual Absinthe Museum is a wonderful primer for people wanting to learn more about this illustrious liquor.
• La Fee Verte - This website has a ton of information, especially notable for its Buyer’s Guide, which should steer you in the right direction as far as what absinthes may be right for you, and which ones you should avoid. There’s an exhaustive list of different brands from all over the world, and some of these have ratings and reviews. Very comprehensive!

News articles

• Reason The Green Fairy Gets a Green Card
• Wired Barely Legal: American Absinthe Passes the Taste Test
• The New York Times Absinthe Returns in a Glass Half Full of Mystique and Misery

Where to buy

• Absinthe Classics - Six ranges of absinthe are sold on this site, sent from the United Kingdom by courier to the United States and Canada, as well as other parts of the world. Prices are given in Pounds Sterling, so please use the online currency converter to figure out how much it will be in your nation’s currency.
• D&M Wines and Liquors - Currently selling Kübler and Lucid on its website.
• K&L Wine Merchants - Also currently selling Kübler and Lucid, as well as some liquors made without the grande wormwood, which would explain why the bottles are half the cost of the real absinthes.
• The Jug Shop - Selling Lucid and Kubler, but is also listed as a seller for US-made St George… but out of stock at the moment.
• HiTimeWine.net - Also selling Kubler and Lucing, with a listing for St George, which is also out of stock.

Please note I cannot personally vouch for any of these retailers online, having not yet purchased absinthe by any means at the present time. In other words, I’m providing this information for you to do as you like with. Don’t come crying to me if the shipping costs are painful, your booze gets lost, or it turns out you don’t like the flavour of absinthe after all.

What I’m reading, what I’m keen on

Per NPR’s recommendation, I’m putting The Fortune Cookie Chronicles down as a “to-read” book in my Goodreads profile. It looks awesome, especially because it’s about food and exploring one’s heritage as an Asian-American.

Right now, I’m reading Kim Sunée’s Trail of Crumbs: Hunger, Love, and the Search for Home.  It’s wonderfully written, although sometimes Sunée has a way with words that seem too fanciful for me, too much like the poet she seems to be.  I still have a bit more to go until I complete the book, but an interesting thing to note is that at the end of many chapters, Sunée includes recipes, often those which pertain to the point in her life at the time: whispery eggs with crabmeat and herbs, croque-madame, Jansson’s frestelse, chocolate cake with mascarpone-chestnut cream, kimchi soup.  In sharing these recipes, the author shares part of her history, her personal food memoir, along with the written words of her life and emotions as she finds her place in the world.

Kim Sunée has a website, which includes a lovely blog and a travel & food section, which I hope to explore should I ever find myself in the cities… and with the money to back up my appetite and aspirations.  Any and all who may care to sponsor my dream, please contact me!  I will write a book and include you in the acknowledgements!

The Big Beef Recall

My father told me about this, as I’ve been kind of out of it lately, but right now the United States is in the midst of the largest beef recall in this nation’s history.  143 million pounds of beef is being recalled from California company Westland/Hallmark, which has a plant in nearby Polk county.

Interestingly, there are some shoulder-shrugs, as much of the meat has already been eaten, per this BBC News article.  But still, “downer” cattle–cows that are visibly sick or ill and therefore unable to walk themselves to down the line to slaughter–are at a higher risk of BSE, aka mad cow disease.  Should one diseased animal get into the meat grinder, the meat from such an animal could infect an untold amount of processed and packaged foods consumed in homes, restaurants and school lunches.

If you are curious as to what exactly the video shows, you can watch it here (I’m having difficulty with the code… or with WordPress), although you have to know the video depicts very graphic scenes, including animals being shoved with forklifts, shocked with electrical prods and blasted with high-pressure water.  It is wrong on two counts: one for being inhumane, and another for being in your food.  I agree with Wayne Pacelle, president of the US Humane Society, who stated, “A recall of this staggering scale proves that it’s past time for Congress and the USDA to strengthen our laws for the sake of people and animals.”

Interestingly, the good folks at GOOD Magazine released their new March/April issue with a surprisingly apt feature on the American beef industry.  You can see a related video on their website: Happy Meal.

Things are better with kalamansi power

My mother made my father pick kalamansi from their tree last week. The kalamansi, also known as the calamondin, is an awesome little citrus plant that is well-used in the Philippines for an assortment of home and health care activities. It’s used in cooking, skin care and also used as a remedy for a sore throat and cold, hence why my father was plopping several of these little guys in a small Office Depot bag for me on Superbowl Sunday.

Since Hao has unfortunately caught a bit of my cold, I took a big handful of kalamansi and mixed it with hot water and a wee bit of sugar to make a drink for him. It was something similar that my mother made for me once when I was sick in the Philippines on a trip we took back in ‘04. I think it really helped me out back then, and Hao doesn’t seem to be as sick as I was days ago–thank goodness.

Granted, Hao and I have different immune systems, and it could be something totally different, but I think kalamansi helped a good deal with its tart punch of vitamin C.

So give it a go the next time you have the sniffles. Tell my ma you’re sick, and she’ll go get my pop to pluck some kalamansi for you. Just don’t make the mistake of just popping one in your mouth like this guy on YouTube.   If you want to taste the flavour of the kalamansi, but don’t want to be sick to try it out, the Burnt Lumpia blog has an awesome pictorial entry on making a Kalamansi Granita.  Go make some, and I’ll try it out and tell you how you did.