Forget the Spicy Tuna Rolls; Most Fans Still Just Want a Dog
By Ken Belson
BOSTON — The Fenway Frank. The Dodger Dog. The Cincinnati Cheese Coney. They are, for better or worse, the gastronomic benchmarks at baseball stadiums across the country, and as much a gustatory ritual as beer, peanuts and Cracker Jack.
The humble hot dog and its culinary cousin the sausage have also managed to withstand the onslaught from food courts, luxury suites and expanded, health-conscious menus that fill the nearly two dozen ballparks built since 1990.
“It seems like no matter what they add, the No. 1-selling item remains the hot dog,” said Chris Bigelow, a consultant to stadium concessionaires. “It must be a Pavlovian response: you come to a ballpark, you have to have a hot dog. It’s true in the suites, too, despite all that catering.”
Fans are expected to gobble 26.3 million hot dogs and sausages at major league parks this season, according to estimates by the National Hot Dog and Sausage Council. In many parks, hot dogs make up roughly 10 percent of food and beverage sales, and they are also a fan favorite in Japan and other baseball-loving countries.
Hot dog and sausage consumption around the majors has remained remarkably steady during the last decade or so, even as teams have turned their stadiums into designer dining destinations, with steakhouses, themed restaurants, brew pubs and waiter service. They have also withstood a public health campaign in New York that requires that calorie counts be posted on menus, including many of those at Citi Field and Yankee Stadium, where hot dogs remain top sellers.
Given the more elaborate dining options at these and other new ballparks, hot dogs may even end up being a default for diet-conscious fans.
“From a calorie perspective, a hot dog and a light beer might be one of the better options,” said Brian Elbel, an assistant professor of medicine and health policy at New York University, who conducted a study that showed that posting calorie counts in restaurants did little to change consumer eating habits. The introduction of veggie dogs, with one-third the calories and almost no fat, have failed to unseat the all-beef or beef-pork frank.
There is no shortage of theories on why the hot dog remains the top-selling food item at ballparks, and books and scholarly articles have even been written on the topic. Hot dogs can be boiled, steamed, grilled or barbecued, and filled with beef, pork, turkey and a variety of spices. They can be tailored to suit one’s taste with mustard, relish, onions, sauerkraut and any number of other toppings.
The all-American hot dog is also relatively cheap, can be eaten while watching the game and requires only one hand (leaving the other one free to hold a beer or a cellphone, or to catch a foul ball). For most fans, they are also often the only prepared food served at their seats.
Hot dogs are also among the most profitable foods served at ballparks. They are precooked and need only to be steamed or caramelized, keeping the preparation time brief and the turnover high. They take up half as much space as a hamburger on a grill and require less ventilation when cooking. Fans apply their own condiments, reducing labor costs.
“We believe in hot dogs, they’re our bread and butter,” said Rick Abramson, the president of sport service at the Delaware North Companies, which handles the concessions at nine major league ballparks.
Hot dogs and baseball have a long history, though the details of their relationship are as murky as the hot water that dirty dogs are cooked in. Harry M. Stevens, a vendor at the old Polo Grounds in New York, is widely credited with marrying the dog, the bun and baseball when, in 1901, he started serving “dachshund sausages” on rolls.
Thomas Aloysius Dorgan, a cartoonist, was supposedly at the game and could not spell dachshund, so instead wrote “hot dog.” Researchers later found that Dorgan was not at the Polo Grounds in 1901, and discovered references in The Yale Record from 1895 to students who “contentedly munched on hot dogs.”
Babe Ruth's hot-dog-eating binges were so extreme, they sidelined him from games.
“The traditional American hot dog has not taken a back seat to designer food,” said Becky Mercuri, who wrote “The Great American Hot Dog Book.” “They’ve introduced everything from salad to sushi, but frankly speaking, the hot dog is still king.”
Read the rest of the story here.
Showing posts with label food. Show all posts
Showing posts with label food. Show all posts
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Dining Destination...BEIJING????
Culture of eating well has blossomed in China
BEIJING, China (AP) -- My last houseguest had 13 restaurants on his to-try list, including three renowned for succulent versions of crisp-skinned Peking duck, one popular for its tongue-tingling Sichuan cuisine and a Uighur joint, known as much for the ethnic minority's cumin-spiced lamb skewers as its exuberant floor show.
"I never thought Beijing would have so many things!" he said hungrily after hours of online research.
Gone are the days when the traditional Chinese greeting "Have you eaten yet?" seemed like a bad joke in the dour capital where, as recently as the 1980s, staples were rationed, state-run canteens dished out the slop of the day in chipped enamel bowls and restaurants were few and far between.
Today's Beijing is packed with eateries at every corner, open at all hours and offering regional cuisines of all kinds -- a reflection of China's stunning economic success after almost three decades of convulsive growth.
And the run-up to the August 8 Beijing Olympics has underscored the quantum leap in the quality and variety of fare on offer, with menus and manners being polished in anticipation of the crowd of 500,000 visitors during the games.
From al dente hand-pulled noodles splashed with bracing black vinegar from Shanxi province in the north, to fingernail-sized chicken pieces buried in a mountain of dried chilies from Sichuan in the southwest, to the rich, sweet braises of the east, there is something to pique every palate. Don't forget the street food -- handmade pork buns, candied fruit and egg, lettuce and crisp fried dough rolled in a freshly made flour crepe, a Chinese burrito of sorts.
And that's just from within the country.
Sushi and sashimi? Ocean fresh. Persian grilled meats and stews? In the heart of the city. Fish and chips? Beer-batter or breadcrumbs, take your pick. Greek, Vietnamese, Italian, German, French, Ethiopian, Spanish, Singaporean, even kosher ... the list goes on.
"Simply put, we've gone from eating just to fill our stomachs to the stage where we are open to the complete pleasures of the dining experience," says Chitty Chung, editor-in-chief of Beijing's Food & Wine magazine.
That includes not only an awareness of a restaurant's environment, the chef's concepts, quality of service, the pairing of food and wine, and nutritional balance, but also a willingness try new things, says Chung, who recommends Dadong Roast Duck Restaurant not only for the namesake fowl, but also for its light modern twist on traditionally heavy Shandong fare.
"People's eyes are opening up and they are becoming more international. They are ready to accept and taste food from other parts of the world," she says. "The choices are far beyond your imagination."
So are the numbers.
There are more than 40,000 restaurants in Beijing, 90 percent of which are privately run -- a far cry from the few thousand state-owned eateries that were found on the streets during the early 1980s, says He Zhifu, secretary-general of the Beijing Association for Food and Beverage Industries.
They run the gamut from the simple (mom-and-pop dumpling place) to the showy (the starkly modern Green T. House, where dishes are decorated with curling tree branches, and the Whampoa Club, where roast spring onion ice-cream can be enjoyed in a dining room that sits beneath a massive glass goldfish pond) to the bizarre (Guo Li Zhuang which serves the penises and testicles of various animals -- dogs, yaks, ox -- cooked in a variety of ways.)
And some of the tastiest -- and most authentic -- regional treats can be found in the restaurants affiliated to the provincial government offices that have set up in the capital.
In all, Beijing's restaurants rake in more than $4 billion annually and the revenues are still growing, a lucrative streak that has boosted the street cred of the city's food scene and drawn big names despite tainted product scares last year. Chef Daniel Boulud -- a cult favorite in New York who has grabbed headlines for his $150 ground sirloin burger filled with short ribs braised in red wine, foie gras and black truffles -- has just set up shop in a compound that used to house the U.S. Embassy. Le Pre Lenotre, sister restaurant of the three Michelin-star Le Pre Catelan in Paris, opened to great buzz in the Sofitel Wanda Beijing.
The also-very-French Fauchon is peddling its gourmet treats in a high-end mall and Philippe Starck designed the trippy, down-the-rabbit-hole Lan club and restaurant. Last month, Zagat, a global dining guide with a fierce hold on the American market, launched its Beijing edition.
"Beijing has a concurrence of circumstance at present," says Malcolm McLauchlan, general manager of 1949, The Hidden City, a cluster of ambitious restaurants overlooking the shady courtyard of a former factory. He checked them off: a rapidly growing middle class, relatively little competition and Olympics-driven tourism.
Prior to the boom, the few and far between restaurants offered just a limited number of dishes. They opened late, closed early and were staffed by servers who seemed to take pride in being as disagreeable as possible. Their favorite phrase was "mei you," loosely translated to mean "we're out." Definitely no Haagen-Dazs, McDonald's or Starbucks.
State-run food stores offered a limited choice of essentials, like meat, flour, oil and eggs. Milk, yogurt, bread, bottled fruit and bai jiu -- China's version of moonshine -- were plentiful. But that's it.
"Now we can eat whatever we like without seasonal and geographical limitations," says Xu Yimin, editor-in-chief of Chinese and Foreign Food magazine, who lists the delicate but juicy dumplings of the Taiwanese chain Din Tai Fung as his favorite.
"Although food prices keep going up, peoples' love for tasty food hasn't changed," he said. "Eating has become a culture."
BEIJING, China (AP) -- My last houseguest had 13 restaurants on his to-try list, including three renowned for succulent versions of crisp-skinned Peking duck, one popular for its tongue-tingling Sichuan cuisine and a Uighur joint, known as much for the ethnic minority's cumin-spiced lamb skewers as its exuberant floor show.
"I never thought Beijing would have so many things!" he said hungrily after hours of online research.
Gone are the days when the traditional Chinese greeting "Have you eaten yet?" seemed like a bad joke in the dour capital where, as recently as the 1980s, staples were rationed, state-run canteens dished out the slop of the day in chipped enamel bowls and restaurants were few and far between.
Today's Beijing is packed with eateries at every corner, open at all hours and offering regional cuisines of all kinds -- a reflection of China's stunning economic success after almost three decades of convulsive growth.
And the run-up to the August 8 Beijing Olympics has underscored the quantum leap in the quality and variety of fare on offer, with menus and manners being polished in anticipation of the crowd of 500,000 visitors during the games.
From al dente hand-pulled noodles splashed with bracing black vinegar from Shanxi province in the north, to fingernail-sized chicken pieces buried in a mountain of dried chilies from Sichuan in the southwest, to the rich, sweet braises of the east, there is something to pique every palate. Don't forget the street food -- handmade pork buns, candied fruit and egg, lettuce and crisp fried dough rolled in a freshly made flour crepe, a Chinese burrito of sorts.
And that's just from within the country.
Sushi and sashimi? Ocean fresh. Persian grilled meats and stews? In the heart of the city. Fish and chips? Beer-batter or breadcrumbs, take your pick. Greek, Vietnamese, Italian, German, French, Ethiopian, Spanish, Singaporean, even kosher ... the list goes on.
"Simply put, we've gone from eating just to fill our stomachs to the stage where we are open to the complete pleasures of the dining experience," says Chitty Chung, editor-in-chief of Beijing's Food & Wine magazine.
That includes not only an awareness of a restaurant's environment, the chef's concepts, quality of service, the pairing of food and wine, and nutritional balance, but also a willingness try new things, says Chung, who recommends Dadong Roast Duck Restaurant not only for the namesake fowl, but also for its light modern twist on traditionally heavy Shandong fare.
"People's eyes are opening up and they are becoming more international. They are ready to accept and taste food from other parts of the world," she says. "The choices are far beyond your imagination."
So are the numbers.
There are more than 40,000 restaurants in Beijing, 90 percent of which are privately run -- a far cry from the few thousand state-owned eateries that were found on the streets during the early 1980s, says He Zhifu, secretary-general of the Beijing Association for Food and Beverage Industries.
They run the gamut from the simple (mom-and-pop dumpling place) to the showy (the starkly modern Green T. House, where dishes are decorated with curling tree branches, and the Whampoa Club, where roast spring onion ice-cream can be enjoyed in a dining room that sits beneath a massive glass goldfish pond) to the bizarre (Guo Li Zhuang which serves the penises and testicles of various animals -- dogs, yaks, ox -- cooked in a variety of ways.)
And some of the tastiest -- and most authentic -- regional treats can be found in the restaurants affiliated to the provincial government offices that have set up in the capital.
In all, Beijing's restaurants rake in more than $4 billion annually and the revenues are still growing, a lucrative streak that has boosted the street cred of the city's food scene and drawn big names despite tainted product scares last year. Chef Daniel Boulud -- a cult favorite in New York who has grabbed headlines for his $150 ground sirloin burger filled with short ribs braised in red wine, foie gras and black truffles -- has just set up shop in a compound that used to house the U.S. Embassy. Le Pre Lenotre, sister restaurant of the three Michelin-star Le Pre Catelan in Paris, opened to great buzz in the Sofitel Wanda Beijing.
The also-very-French Fauchon is peddling its gourmet treats in a high-end mall and Philippe Starck designed the trippy, down-the-rabbit-hole Lan club and restaurant. Last month, Zagat, a global dining guide with a fierce hold on the American market, launched its Beijing edition.
"Beijing has a concurrence of circumstance at present," says Malcolm McLauchlan, general manager of 1949, The Hidden City, a cluster of ambitious restaurants overlooking the shady courtyard of a former factory. He checked them off: a rapidly growing middle class, relatively little competition and Olympics-driven tourism.
Prior to the boom, the few and far between restaurants offered just a limited number of dishes. They opened late, closed early and were staffed by servers who seemed to take pride in being as disagreeable as possible. Their favorite phrase was "mei you," loosely translated to mean "we're out." Definitely no Haagen-Dazs, McDonald's or Starbucks.
State-run food stores offered a limited choice of essentials, like meat, flour, oil and eggs. Milk, yogurt, bread, bottled fruit and bai jiu -- China's version of moonshine -- were plentiful. But that's it.
"Now we can eat whatever we like without seasonal and geographical limitations," says Xu Yimin, editor-in-chief of Chinese and Foreign Food magazine, who lists the delicate but juicy dumplings of the Taiwanese chain Din Tai Fung as his favorite.
"Although food prices keep going up, peoples' love for tasty food hasn't changed," he said. "Eating has become a culture."
Sunday, April 27, 2008
Do We Vote What We Eat?
What’s for Dinner? The Pollster Wants to Know
By Kim Severson
IF there’s butter and white wine in your refrigerator and Fig Newtons in the cookie jar, you’re likely to vote for Hillary Clinton. Prefer olive oil, Bear Naked granola and a latte to go? You probably like Barack Obama, too.
And if you’re leaning toward John McCain, it’s all about kicking back with a bourbon and a stuffed crust pizza while you watch the Democrats fight it out next week in Pennsylvania.
If what we eat says a lot about who we are, it also says something about how we might vote.
Although precincts and polls are being parsed, the political advisers to the presidential candidates are also looking closely at consumer behavior, including how people eat, as a way to scavenge for votes. The practice is called microtargeting, as much political discipline as buzzword. The idea is that in the brand-driven United States, what we buy and how we spend our free time is a good predictor of our politics.
Political strategists slice and dice the electorate into small segments, starting with traditional demographics like age and income, then mixing consumer information like whether you prefer casinos or cruises, hunting or cooking, a Prius or a pickup.
Once they find small groups of like-minded people, campaigns can efficiently send customized phone, e-mail or direct mail messages to potential supporters, avoiding inefficient one-size-fits-all mailings. Pockets of support that might have gone unnoticed can be ferreted out.
“This is essentially the way Williams-Sonoma knows which of its catalogs to send you,” said Christopher Mann of MSHC Partners, a political communications firm, which has used microtargeting to help dozens of successful candidates, including Gov. Christine Gregoire of Washington and Gov. Tim Kaine of Virginia.
Although gender, religion and other basic personal data are much more valuable for pollsters, information about eating — along with travel and hobbies — are in the second tier of data used to predict how someone might vote, he said.
So, for example, Mr. Mann knows that someone who subscribes to lots of gourmet cooking magazines is more likely to be a Democrat or at least more open to progressive causes. That can help a campaign decide if it’s worth spending money courting that person’s vote.
Although Karl Rove was not the first to use microtargeting in a campaign, he brought it to new levels of sophistication and prominence, dividing swing voters into groups like “tax and terrorism moderates.” The strategy helped send George Bush back to the White House in 2004. Matthew Dowd, the former chief strategist for President Bush who is now a political commentator for ABC, helped orchestrate that effort. The Bush team studied food preferences, among dozens of other traits, as a shortcut to finding independents who might lean Republican, he said.
For example, Dr Pepper is a Republican soda. Pepsi-Cola and Sprite are Democratic. So are most clear liquors, like gin and vodka, along with white wine and Evian water. Republicans skew toward brown liquors like bourbon or scotch, red wine and Fiji water.
When it comes to fried chicken, he said, Democrats prefer Popeyes and Republicans Chick-fil-A.
“Anything organic or more Whole Foods-y skews more Democratic,” Mr. Dowd said.
But consumer information has to be studied in context. “I don’t know how much you can use food or drink alone to determine how they will vote,” he said. “You can’t have a candidate with a Pepsi-Cola and Pizza Hut box and think that’s going to win an election for you.” Jeff Navin, managing director of American Environics, a progressive research and strategy firm, agrees.
“Knowing that your base drinks gin doesn’t give you a clear idea on how to communicate with them effectively on issues,” he said. “But if you take it a level deeper and say, are there psychological drivers that will help understand the values behind the behavior, you can speak to those values and persuade voters.”
Mr. Navin offers an example from his firm’s ongoing survey that periodically asks 1,800 people in-depth questions about their lives. In last summer’s polling, the latest available, Mrs. Clinton scored high among voters who also had favorable views of McDonalds, Wal-Mart and Starbucks.
That led his team to conclude that Clinton supporters put a high value on national brands.
Although the landscape in the Democratic race has shifted since the poll was conducted, Mr. Navin said, back then the name Clinton was the most popular national Democratic brand.
Mark Penn, a microtargeting expert who was dismissed as chief strategist for the Clinton campaign last week, wrote a book on the subject: “Microtrends: The Small Forces Behind Tomorrow’s Big Changes” (Twelve, 2007).
Although Mr. Penn, who claims credit for coining the term “soccer mom,” didn’t specifically seek out research on the dining habits of voters, he does use food as a way to define the candidates.
Specifically, he points to Mr. Obama’s comments about the rising price of arugula at Whole Foods during a campaign stop in Iowa. “He has more of the arugula vote,” he said in an e-mail message last week. “Senator Clinton’s voters are more likely to be making ends meet and so they do a lot more cooking at home and a lot less eating out at expensive restaurants.”
Although Mr. Obama’s team is also using consumer data to target voters, the campaign is focusing more on what one adviser called “macrotargeting.” The idea is to build a unified, all-encompassing Obama brand that works well across all kinds of media platforms. “I would say we’re old-fashioned in that you have to look at America as a whole,” said Bill Burton, Mr. Obama’s national press secretary.
That’s not to say they don’t have specific information about voters, he said. And the campaign isn’t above using food to gain an edge. After the founders of Ben and Jerry’s endorsed Mr. Obama, the campaign blog quickly suggested a new ice cream flavor that plays off of a favorite campaign slogan: Yes, Pecan!
Whether a campaign uses a lot or a little consumer information, it can cause trouble if not interpreted correctly, some political veterans cautioned.
An environmentally minded independent who trends Democratic might buy organic milk, but so might an independent conservative who is more concerned about the health of her children than the state of the earth. They buy the same product, but for different reasons. Send an environmental message to the conservative and you could lose her vote.
That’s why some, notably James Carville, a Democratic strategist and CNN political commentator, see microtargeting as a waste of time and money. Although he believes the cost of food is a fast-rising issue among voters, knowing what they eat doesn’t win elections.
“Suppose I found out people who drink cappuccinos are Democrats and black coffee drinkers are likely to vote Republican?” he asked. “So what? All kinds of other things are more predictive and less expensive to find out.”
Besides, the lines between who eats what continues to blur. Republicans are not necessarily red-meat-eating bourbon swillers, and not all Democrats are carrying their lattes to the farmers’ market.
Mr. Mann recently saw someone on a Metro train in Washington with a Bush/Cheney sticker on his bag reading “Animal, Vegetable, Miracle,” Barbara Kingsolver's meditation on eating local food.
Some people who cook and serve food have been students of microtargeting for years. JoAnn Clevenger, the owner of the Upperline restaurant in New Orleans, doesn’t need a data set to identify how customers might vote. She just watches what they order.
“The Republicans are more formal and have more attention to structure when they eat,” she said. The classic example would be her delicate trout meunière.
Democrats tend to order earthy, down-home food with lots of juice for sopping, like Cane River country shrimp with garlic, bacon and mushrooms.
But lately she’s seen a lot of interest from both sides for her Oysters St. Claude. The oysters are coated with corn flour, gently fried and then slipped back into their shells and covered with an adventurous, Morrocan-style sauce seasoned with ground whole lemons, garlic, cayenne and paprika.
It’s the ultimate crossover dish, and she believes it’s popular this year because voters are being pulled in several directions.
“You have a respect and a yearning for the past,” she said, “but a feeling like you want something new and exciting that says let’s go all the way.”
By Kim Severson
IF there’s butter and white wine in your refrigerator and Fig Newtons in the cookie jar, you’re likely to vote for Hillary Clinton. Prefer olive oil, Bear Naked granola and a latte to go? You probably like Barack Obama, too.
And if you’re leaning toward John McCain, it’s all about kicking back with a bourbon and a stuffed crust pizza while you watch the Democrats fight it out next week in Pennsylvania.
If what we eat says a lot about who we are, it also says something about how we might vote.
Although precincts and polls are being parsed, the political advisers to the presidential candidates are also looking closely at consumer behavior, including how people eat, as a way to scavenge for votes. The practice is called microtargeting, as much political discipline as buzzword. The idea is that in the brand-driven United States, what we buy and how we spend our free time is a good predictor of our politics.
Political strategists slice and dice the electorate into small segments, starting with traditional demographics like age and income, then mixing consumer information like whether you prefer casinos or cruises, hunting or cooking, a Prius or a pickup.
Once they find small groups of like-minded people, campaigns can efficiently send customized phone, e-mail or direct mail messages to potential supporters, avoiding inefficient one-size-fits-all mailings. Pockets of support that might have gone unnoticed can be ferreted out.
“This is essentially the way Williams-Sonoma knows which of its catalogs to send you,” said Christopher Mann of MSHC Partners, a political communications firm, which has used microtargeting to help dozens of successful candidates, including Gov. Christine Gregoire of Washington and Gov. Tim Kaine of Virginia.
Although gender, religion and other basic personal data are much more valuable for pollsters, information about eating — along with travel and hobbies — are in the second tier of data used to predict how someone might vote, he said.
So, for example, Mr. Mann knows that someone who subscribes to lots of gourmet cooking magazines is more likely to be a Democrat or at least more open to progressive causes. That can help a campaign decide if it’s worth spending money courting that person’s vote.
Although Karl Rove was not the first to use microtargeting in a campaign, he brought it to new levels of sophistication and prominence, dividing swing voters into groups like “tax and terrorism moderates.” The strategy helped send George Bush back to the White House in 2004. Matthew Dowd, the former chief strategist for President Bush who is now a political commentator for ABC, helped orchestrate that effort. The Bush team studied food preferences, among dozens of other traits, as a shortcut to finding independents who might lean Republican, he said.
For example, Dr Pepper is a Republican soda. Pepsi-Cola and Sprite are Democratic. So are most clear liquors, like gin and vodka, along with white wine and Evian water. Republicans skew toward brown liquors like bourbon or scotch, red wine and Fiji water.
When it comes to fried chicken, he said, Democrats prefer Popeyes and Republicans Chick-fil-A.
“Anything organic or more Whole Foods-y skews more Democratic,” Mr. Dowd said.
But consumer information has to be studied in context. “I don’t know how much you can use food or drink alone to determine how they will vote,” he said. “You can’t have a candidate with a Pepsi-Cola and Pizza Hut box and think that’s going to win an election for you.” Jeff Navin, managing director of American Environics, a progressive research and strategy firm, agrees.
“Knowing that your base drinks gin doesn’t give you a clear idea on how to communicate with them effectively on issues,” he said. “But if you take it a level deeper and say, are there psychological drivers that will help understand the values behind the behavior, you can speak to those values and persuade voters.”
Mr. Navin offers an example from his firm’s ongoing survey that periodically asks 1,800 people in-depth questions about their lives. In last summer’s polling, the latest available, Mrs. Clinton scored high among voters who also had favorable views of McDonalds, Wal-Mart and Starbucks.
That led his team to conclude that Clinton supporters put a high value on national brands.
Although the landscape in the Democratic race has shifted since the poll was conducted, Mr. Navin said, back then the name Clinton was the most popular national Democratic brand.
Mark Penn, a microtargeting expert who was dismissed as chief strategist for the Clinton campaign last week, wrote a book on the subject: “Microtrends: The Small Forces Behind Tomorrow’s Big Changes” (Twelve, 2007).
Although Mr. Penn, who claims credit for coining the term “soccer mom,” didn’t specifically seek out research on the dining habits of voters, he does use food as a way to define the candidates.
Specifically, he points to Mr. Obama’s comments about the rising price of arugula at Whole Foods during a campaign stop in Iowa. “He has more of the arugula vote,” he said in an e-mail message last week. “Senator Clinton’s voters are more likely to be making ends meet and so they do a lot more cooking at home and a lot less eating out at expensive restaurants.”
Although Mr. Obama’s team is also using consumer data to target voters, the campaign is focusing more on what one adviser called “macrotargeting.” The idea is to build a unified, all-encompassing Obama brand that works well across all kinds of media platforms. “I would say we’re old-fashioned in that you have to look at America as a whole,” said Bill Burton, Mr. Obama’s national press secretary.
That’s not to say they don’t have specific information about voters, he said. And the campaign isn’t above using food to gain an edge. After the founders of Ben and Jerry’s endorsed Mr. Obama, the campaign blog quickly suggested a new ice cream flavor that plays off of a favorite campaign slogan: Yes, Pecan!
Whether a campaign uses a lot or a little consumer information, it can cause trouble if not interpreted correctly, some political veterans cautioned.
An environmentally minded independent who trends Democratic might buy organic milk, but so might an independent conservative who is more concerned about the health of her children than the state of the earth. They buy the same product, but for different reasons. Send an environmental message to the conservative and you could lose her vote.
That’s why some, notably James Carville, a Democratic strategist and CNN political commentator, see microtargeting as a waste of time and money. Although he believes the cost of food is a fast-rising issue among voters, knowing what they eat doesn’t win elections.
“Suppose I found out people who drink cappuccinos are Democrats and black coffee drinkers are likely to vote Republican?” he asked. “So what? All kinds of other things are more predictive and less expensive to find out.”
Besides, the lines between who eats what continues to blur. Republicans are not necessarily red-meat-eating bourbon swillers, and not all Democrats are carrying their lattes to the farmers’ market.
Mr. Mann recently saw someone on a Metro train in Washington with a Bush/Cheney sticker on his bag reading “Animal, Vegetable, Miracle,” Barbara Kingsolver's meditation on eating local food.
Some people who cook and serve food have been students of microtargeting for years. JoAnn Clevenger, the owner of the Upperline restaurant in New Orleans, doesn’t need a data set to identify how customers might vote. She just watches what they order.
“The Republicans are more formal and have more attention to structure when they eat,” she said. The classic example would be her delicate trout meunière.
Democrats tend to order earthy, down-home food with lots of juice for sopping, like Cane River country shrimp with garlic, bacon and mushrooms.
But lately she’s seen a lot of interest from both sides for her Oysters St. Claude. The oysters are coated with corn flour, gently fried and then slipped back into their shells and covered with an adventurous, Morrocan-style sauce seasoned with ground whole lemons, garlic, cayenne and paprika.
It’s the ultimate crossover dish, and she believes it’s popular this year because voters are being pulled in several directions.
“You have a respect and a yearning for the past,” she said, “but a feeling like you want something new and exciting that says let’s go all the way.”
Friday, November 2, 2007
The Oink-less BLT?
It sounds like a sci-fi nightmare: giant sheets of grayish meat grown on factory racks for human consumption. But it's for real. Using pig stem cells, scientists have been growing lab meat for years, and it could be hitting deli counters sooner than you think.
Early attempts produced less-than-enticing results. Then, in 2001, scientists at New York's Touro College won funding from NASA to improve in vitro farming. Hoping to serve something, well, beefier than kelp on moon bases and Mars colonies, the scientists successfully grew goldfish muscle in a nutrient broth. And, in 2003, a group of hungry artists from the University of Western Australia grew kidney bean-size steaks from biopsied frogs and prenatal sheep cells. Cooked in herbs and flambéed for eight brave dinner guests, the slimy frog steaks came attached to small strips of fabric — the growth scaffolding. Half the tasters spit out their historic dinner. (Perhaps more significant, half didn't.)
Today, scientists funded by companies such as Stegeman, a Dutch sausage giant, are fine-tuning the process. It takes just two weeks to turn pig stem cells, or myoblasts, into muscle fibers. "It's a scalable process," says Jason Matheny of New Harvest, a meat substitute research group. "It would take the same amount of time to make a kilogram or a ton of meat." One technical challenge: Muscle tissue that has never been flexed is a gooey mass, unlike the grained texture of meat from an animal that once lived. The solution is to stretch the tissue mechanically, growing cells on a scaffold that expands and contracts. This would allow factories to tone the flaccid flesh with a controlled workout.
Lab-grown meat isn't an easy sell, but there could be benefits. Designer meat would theoretically be free of hormones, antibiotics, and the threat of mad cow disease or bird flu. Omega-3 fatty acids and vitamins could be blasted into the mixture (see illustration above) or dispersed through veins. Revolting? You bet, but have you ever visited a sausage factory? Currently costing around $100,000 per kilogram, a choice cut of lab meat makes Kobe beef seem like a bargain. But meat-processing companies hope to start selling affordable factory-grown pork in under a decade. Bon appétit.
Originally posted at:
http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/research/4212533.html
Early attempts produced less-than-enticing results. Then, in 2001, scientists at New York's Touro College won funding from NASA to improve in vitro farming. Hoping to serve something, well, beefier than kelp on moon bases and Mars colonies, the scientists successfully grew goldfish muscle in a nutrient broth. And, in 2003, a group of hungry artists from the University of Western Australia grew kidney bean-size steaks from biopsied frogs and prenatal sheep cells. Cooked in herbs and flambéed for eight brave dinner guests, the slimy frog steaks came attached to small strips of fabric — the growth scaffolding. Half the tasters spit out their historic dinner. (Perhaps more significant, half didn't.)
Today, scientists funded by companies such as Stegeman, a Dutch sausage giant, are fine-tuning the process. It takes just two weeks to turn pig stem cells, or myoblasts, into muscle fibers. "It's a scalable process," says Jason Matheny of New Harvest, a meat substitute research group. "It would take the same amount of time to make a kilogram or a ton of meat." One technical challenge: Muscle tissue that has never been flexed is a gooey mass, unlike the grained texture of meat from an animal that once lived. The solution is to stretch the tissue mechanically, growing cells on a scaffold that expands and contracts. This would allow factories to tone the flaccid flesh with a controlled workout.
Lab-grown meat isn't an easy sell, but there could be benefits. Designer meat would theoretically be free of hormones, antibiotics, and the threat of mad cow disease or bird flu. Omega-3 fatty acids and vitamins could be blasted into the mixture (see illustration above) or dispersed through veins. Revolting? You bet, but have you ever visited a sausage factory? Currently costing around $100,000 per kilogram, a choice cut of lab meat makes Kobe beef seem like a bargain. But meat-processing companies hope to start selling affordable factory-grown pork in under a decade. Bon appétit.
Originally posted at:
http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/research/4212533.html
Gather Your Friends for Indy's Premier Food and Wine Event!
7:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. Friday, November 2, 2007
Ritz Charles, 12156 N. Meridian Street
• Taste over 300 wines from around the world• Sample culinary creations by more than a dozen of Indy's top chefs, including chefs from these restaurants and others:
• Adobo Grill• Artist’s Vineyard• D’Vine A Wine Bar•ELEMENTS• Fleming’s Prime Steakhouse & Wine Bar• Ivy Tech Culinary School• Just ’Cause Catering• Lulu’s Restaurant & Cocktails• McCormick & Schmick’s Seafood Restaurant• Melting Pot• OAKLEYS bistro• R bistro• Taste Café & Marketplace
Thanks to our table sponsors:
• AXA Advisors• BOMA• Customer Loyalty Research Center• Mike and Jeannie-Regan Dinius• Capitol Construction• Cathy's Concepts• Marigold • Abrasive Processing & Technologies • Sallie Mae • The Holland Family• Lakeside Building Maintenance• Lewis & Kappes• Mainscape • Baker & Daniels • Hendrick Regional Health • Global Plastics• Bingham McHale• Cindy Kelly & Friends of Second Helpings• Steel Dynamics
• All proceeds benefit Second Helpings.
For ticket information, visit us on the web at:
https://www.secondhelpings.org/harvest/default.asp
Ritz Charles, 12156 N. Meridian Street
• Taste over 300 wines from around the world• Sample culinary creations by more than a dozen of Indy's top chefs, including chefs from these restaurants and others:
• Adobo Grill• Artist’s Vineyard• D’Vine A Wine Bar•ELEMENTS• Fleming’s Prime Steakhouse & Wine Bar• Ivy Tech Culinary School• Just ’Cause Catering• Lulu’s Restaurant & Cocktails• McCormick & Schmick’s Seafood Restaurant• Melting Pot• OAKLEYS bistro• R bistro• Taste Café & Marketplace
Thanks to our table sponsors:
• AXA Advisors• BOMA• Customer Loyalty Research Center• Mike and Jeannie-Regan Dinius• Capitol Construction• Cathy's Concepts• Marigold • Abrasive Processing & Technologies • Sallie Mae • The Holland Family• Lakeside Building Maintenance• Lewis & Kappes• Mainscape • Baker & Daniels • Hendrick Regional Health • Global Plastics• Bingham McHale• Cindy Kelly & Friends of Second Helpings• Steel Dynamics
• All proceeds benefit Second Helpings.
For ticket information, visit us on the web at:
https://www.secondhelpings.org/harvest/default.asp
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Donations Sought for Food Pantry
The Julian Center operates a food pantry for women and children exiting our shelter. The pantry was started to help women continue to live violence-free lives. We also accept referrals to the food pantry from other social service agencies in Indianapolis.
What kinds of items are needed?
Our clients need the same items you might use in your household. Items commonly requested include:
gift certificates to local groceries for fresh produce, meats, and dairy
boxed pastas
canned pastas
macaroni & cheese
canned fruit
canned tuna/meat
paper products
peanut butter
jelly
cereals
liquid baby formula
boxed easy meals
spaghetti sauce
coffee
baby food
diapers
laundry detergent
bleach
aluminum foil,
waxed paper
plastic wrap
plastic storage bins
toilet paper
cleaning supplies
Where do I drop off my donation?
The Julian Center's food pantry is located in our Shelter at 2021 North Meridian Street (entrance is off the alley behind our Administration Building at 2011 North Meridian Street). We are currently accepting donations of nonperishable items.
How can I organize a food drive?
If you are interested in coordinating a food drive on behalf of The Julian Center, please contact the Volunteer Coordinator at 317.941.2212, before finalizing your volunteer efforts. Our staff will gladly provide you with the latest information on needed items and other groups that are planning similar activities.
For more information on donating to The Julian Center, e-mail us by clicking here.
What kinds of items are needed?
Our clients need the same items you might use in your household. Items commonly requested include:
gift certificates to local groceries for fresh produce, meats, and dairy
boxed pastas
canned pastas
macaroni & cheese
canned fruit
canned tuna/meat
paper products
peanut butter
jelly
cereals
liquid baby formula
boxed easy meals
spaghetti sauce
coffee
baby food
diapers
laundry detergent
bleach
aluminum foil,
waxed paper
plastic wrap
plastic storage bins
toilet paper
cleaning supplies
Where do I drop off my donation?
The Julian Center's food pantry is located in our Shelter at 2021 North Meridian Street (entrance is off the alley behind our Administration Building at 2011 North Meridian Street). We are currently accepting donations of nonperishable items.
How can I organize a food drive?
If you are interested in coordinating a food drive on behalf of The Julian Center, please contact the Volunteer Coordinator at 317.941.2212, before finalizing your volunteer efforts. Our staff will gladly provide you with the latest information on needed items and other groups that are planning similar activities.
For more information on donating to The Julian Center, e-mail us by clicking here.
Sunday, October 21, 2007
Creole Creamy Succotash
Here's a recipe I created based on a Cajun dish called Corn Maque Choux.
8 oz. Andouille Sausage*
2 Tbsp Unsalted Butter
1 ea. Medium Yellow Onion, diced
1 ea. Red Bell Pepper, diced
1 ea. Green Bell Pepper, diced
3 ribs Celery, diced
2 Tbsp Garlic, minced
2 cups Yellow Corn Kernels
2 cups Baby Lima Beans
1 cup Cut Okra
1 cup White Wine
1 Qt Heavy Cream
1 Tbsp Creole Seasoning
2 tsp Dried Thyme
2 tsp Dried Oregano
1 tsp Black Pepper
1 tsp Cayenne Pepper
1 Tbsp Kosher Salt
Remove the casing from the Andouille sausage and dice the sausage. The diced pieces of sausage should be approximately the size of the lima beans. Melt the butter in a large heavy bottom pan and brown the diced sausage.
Add the onion, red and green peppers, celery, garlic, corn, lima beans, and okra to the pan. Sweat the vegetables until the onions are translucent, but do not allow vegetables to brown.
Add the white wine, Creole seasoning, thyme, and oregano and cook until the wine is reduced by 2/3. Add the heavy cream and cook until the vegetables are tender and the cream is reduced by 1/2.
Season to taste with salt, black pepper, and cayenne.
Serves eight (8) as a side dish, or four (4) as a main dish served over white rice.
* If Andouille is not available, a quality hot smoked sausage may be substituted.
8 oz. Andouille Sausage*
2 Tbsp Unsalted Butter
1 ea. Medium Yellow Onion, diced
1 ea. Red Bell Pepper, diced
1 ea. Green Bell Pepper, diced
3 ribs Celery, diced
2 Tbsp Garlic, minced
2 cups Yellow Corn Kernels
2 cups Baby Lima Beans
1 cup Cut Okra
1 cup White Wine
1 Qt Heavy Cream
1 Tbsp Creole Seasoning
2 tsp Dried Thyme
2 tsp Dried Oregano
1 tsp Black Pepper
1 tsp Cayenne Pepper
1 Tbsp Kosher Salt
Remove the casing from the Andouille sausage and dice the sausage. The diced pieces of sausage should be approximately the size of the lima beans. Melt the butter in a large heavy bottom pan and brown the diced sausage.
Add the onion, red and green peppers, celery, garlic, corn, lima beans, and okra to the pan. Sweat the vegetables until the onions are translucent, but do not allow vegetables to brown.
Add the white wine, Creole seasoning, thyme, and oregano and cook until the wine is reduced by 2/3. Add the heavy cream and cook until the vegetables are tender and the cream is reduced by 1/2.
Season to taste with salt, black pepper, and cayenne.
Serves eight (8) as a side dish, or four (4) as a main dish served over white rice.
* If Andouille is not available, a quality hot smoked sausage may be substituted.
Wednesday, October 3, 2007
I'd like to invite you to lunch....
You are Cordially Invited To Attend
The Buffet Exercise
Of
Second Helpings
Culinary Training Class #47
12:00 NOON on THURSDAY, October 11, 2007
1121 Southeastern Avenue
Indianapolis, IN 46202
Space is limited, so you must
RSVP:
Call (317) 632-2664 ext. 10
Or
e-mail
tiera@secondhelpings.org
The Buffet Exercise
Of
Second Helpings
Culinary Training Class #47
12:00 NOON on THURSDAY, October 11, 2007
1121 Southeastern Avenue
Indianapolis, IN 46202
Space is limited, so you must
RSVP:
Call (317) 632-2664 ext. 10
Or
tiera@secondhelpings.org
Welcome to my blog....
Welcome to my blog. I have no idea how I'll be able to keep this updated but it will be an adventure and I hope you'll check back in from time to time to see what sort of progress I've made.I have no real mission here; I imagine we will regularly talk about food. I will most probably share some recipes, tell a few stories from my own life and perhaps some stories about my students here at Second Helpings. I will also use this as a way to disseminate some important information that comes across my desk.
Wish me luck, I hope you'll come along for the journey!
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