Source: Processed People

They ask, “how did we get here and what do we do?” Check out the trailer:

Eat frank food!

We’ve written about water for last year’s Blog Action Day, but some recent movies have got me thinking again about water, and wanted to share them.

View of Manhattan from Roosevelt Island

I recently watched the documentary No Impact Man. This guy Colin Beavan takes his family on a one-year quest to have no impact on the environment – meaning walking, biking, scooting everywhere, no electricity, no new clothes, no toilet paper, and of course, no water in plastic bottles. While many of us don’t live in places like New York City where it’s a bit easier because of the accessibility of farmer’s markets within walking or biking distance, the documentary makes one question what each of us can do to lower our impact.

Georgia Aquarium

For anyone who talks about caring about the environment or where their food comes from, check it out (streaming on Netflix) and the follow-up initiative, the No Impact Project. In any case, the Beavan’s taking their no impact to the nth degree really raises how far we have become as a society in how we treat our food and drink.

Waters of the Cape of Good Hope, Cape Town, South Africa

If you’ve ever drank water (duh), you need to watch Tapped, a documentary about the bottled water business. Winner of multiple awards, this movie examines some startling information, not only about how much we consume (29 billion bottles purchased by Americans alone in 2007), but also the terrible consequences of the business. A few notes:

• Everyone – EVERYONE, YOU, ME – will have an issue with having accessible, clean, drinking water by 2030. That’s not so far away.
• Only 1% of the Earth’s water is drinkable.
• Groundwater rights depends on the state, so big companies own water rights in small towns, like Nestle (which owns Poland Springs) in Maine.
• Though the International Bottled Water Association (yes, there is one) says they only take .02% of available groundwater, critics say by doing so in small areas, fish populations get depleted…among other things.
• 40% of bottled water is filtered tap water. (My way is cheaper!)
• Places nearby refineries making plastic bottles have higher rates of birth defects and cancer. In Corpus Christi, refinery workers are forbidden to let citizens know they have a right to clean air and water. Air and soil are contaminated. Birth defects are 84% higher than the state average.

Jellyfish at Dawn, Wilmington, NC

Wait! It gets better! Have you switched out of individual bottled water because of BPA and stuff? You might still drink water at the office from the water cooler, even filling your aluminum bottle with it. Well, it turns out that most 5-gallon bottles have BPA, and these low doses of estrogen can lead to cancers of the breast and prostrate, ADD, diseases of the liver, ovaries, uterus, low sperm count, and it goes on and on…. So you might think you’re safe refilling at the water cooler, but think again!

The movie is streaming on Netflix (oh, Netflix, how I love thee). See the trailer here:

The smart guys at McKinsey recently came out with a key report, Charting Our Water Future. They are part of a group, the 2030 Water Resources Group that comprises of some big business, including the Barilla Group, The Coca Cola Company, Nestlé (yes Nestle), New Holland Agriculture, SAB Miller, Standard Chartered, and Syngenta.

Folks are starting to recognize this issue more and more. University of Canberra in Australia is discontinuing sale of bottled water by World Water Day 2011. World Water Day (March 22) theme this year is: Water for Cities: Responding to the Urban Challenge. Find out here what you can do.

Essentially, something’s gotta be done because we’re all going to be effected – whether you want to know or not.

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I am now a weekday vegetarian.*

*Some exceptions: i.e. birthday meals at the Brazilian steakhouse, holidays during the week. I’m not perfect, OK. For more about this, see video at end of post. Even Anthony Bourdain is reducing his meat consumption.

For most of you, you might be thinking, big deal. You have to understand this in context. I. Did. Not. Eat. Vegetables. Until. After. I. Turned. 31.

31. That’s Yoda in dog years.

I tried once in college to become vegetarian, but since I didn’t eat veggies, I ate pasta for three straight days and got bored, not to mention hungry. So why now? One, my big kid tastebuds have started to grow in and I no longer gag on tomatoes or shiver at spinach. Two, as ZomppaPatty noted, I’d prefer to live out my years as healthy as possible, however long that will be.

One of the lessons learned is that while these centenarians didn’t cut out meat entirely, they didn’t eat it very often. So I’m a-changing my ways. For real.

The other thing that I picked up that I need to start implementing is the notion of Hara Hachi Bu.  According to the healthy seniors living in Okinawa, before each meal, they say to themselves, “hara hachi bu, ” a reminder to eat until only 80% full. Since food takes about 20 minutes to digest, you’ll soon realize you are actually full. Jenny from the Nourished Kitchen wrote a great piece on this.

This is something my mom told me for years, but for some reason, I always practiced negative hara hachi bu, if there is such a thing. I ate 20% MORE AFTER I was full. It was like I couldn’t stop until my stomach hurt. In fact, ZomppaLiz likes to make up stories of when I would outeat the football players at the all-you-can-eat cafeteria in college (only partly, sort of, kind of true).

It makes sense, watch portion control, live healthier longer.

Another key point that the Blue Zones speak of is the notion of having a greater purpose. Last year, I wrote about Dan Buettner’s piece on finding one’s Ikigai. Forget what that means? Take a look – one of the best “diet” tips ever – as well as a real impetus to reach for what ZomppaPatty speaks of: growing old and healthy with the ones near and dear.

Life is not about cutting things out, but about living well. Yes, that means Hara Hachi Bu for me. But it means that I am also more aware of the foods I eat. People often think of chicken liver as gross, but I adore it. The centenarians all eat meat, and when they do, they utilize as many parts of the animals so as not to waste as well as for nutrients. Liver is high in iron and can be so tasty when made properly.

You might be wondering why I’m writing a meat post on this discussion about becoming a weekday vegetarian. One. I am a fan of pate. Two, since I don’t eat meat on the weekdays, I want the meat I eat on the weekends to be a delicious treat. Three, pate allows me to utilize more of the chicken. Four, pate fills you up quickly, so you don’t have to eat a lot of it. Five, pate is such a nutrient-dense food. In other words, big flavor, not a lot, nutritious.

Rather than question how it is made or overspending, I make my own. For less than $3.00 for organic chicken livers, you can impress your loved one from now until 108.

Thank goodness for the weekends.

Homemade Chicken Liver Pate

Chicken Liver Pate
1 lb. chicken liver
6 TB butter
2 TB olive oil
1/4 cup orange juice
1 cup chicken stock
2 TB dijon mustard
1/2 tsp rosemary
2 tsp black pepper
2 garlic cloves, crushed

1. Melt 2TB butter
2. Add chicken livers and saute 10 minutes until brown
3. Add orange juice, chicken stock, rosemary, dijon mustard, pepper, and garlic clove
4. Boil until liquid is pretty much gone
5. Cool and put in food processor with 4TB of softened butter
6. Add salt to season and puree

Curious about weekday vegetarianism? Check out this TedX video with Treehugger’s Graham Hill:

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This post originally appeared on Grist:

Once every five years, the federal government goes to great lengths to update its recommendations for how Americans should eat. In fact, Congress mandates that the Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA) be based on the most current science available. Yet over the years, the DGA process has been wrought with politics, which should come as no surprise. With each cycle, we gather to witness just how strongly the food industry has managed to exert its influence.

Last week’s release of the 2010 version was no different. Like most versions before it, it inspired plenty of spin and criticism. But really, what does it matter?

Food Pyramid

The time has come to ask, are dietary guidelines just another charade, a waste of taxpayer dollars? Who even pays attention, except for a bunch of dietitians, food industry lobbyists, the media (for about a minute), and a few policy wonks like me and my fellow Grist contributor Tom Laskawy? The general public barely notices; and after the initial media blitz, it’s back to business as usual for the next five years.

Now, the guidelines do play an important role in setting nutrition standards for the federal food assistance programs, and I certainly don’t mean to belittle this important purpose. But given the huge disconnect between actual science (which the DGA is supposed to be based on) and what comes out the other end, why do we keep bothering to engage in this hopeless charade?

While the 2005 version’s take-away message seemed to be that Americans needed to eat more whole grains, this time, the media fixated on the DGA’s warning to eat less salt. (It seems we can only handle one basic nutrition concept every five years.) But as I told Andy Bellatti for his blog post on this topic, such advice is doomed to failure because of our toxic food environment. Such reductionist messages also provide industry an opportunity to retool its junk food to downplay the “bad ingredient” du jour:

Telling people to cut back on salt in the current food environment is like telling fish not to die in a polluted stream. Just like we have restrictions on pollutants in water and air, we need regulations that restrict salt in food. But of course, the food industry would go ballistic over that idea. Big Food is happy to have Uncle Sam keep doling out meaningless advice. And, we are likely to see more “low-salt” junk food soon, just as we saw “whole grain” Reese’s Puffs cereal in 2005. That worked so well.

SODA!

Things did get a little better this time around. Veteran food politics maven Marion Nestle declared herself “in shock” at such obvious DGA statements as, “avoid oversized portions,” “drink water instead of sugary drinks,” and the most straightforward and useful piece of advice, “make half your plate fruits and vegetables.” But somehow even these no-brainers didn’t make it in the government’s 90-page “policy document,” as Nestle explains.

Despite these modest improvements, most messages in the 2010 DGA remain lame. While some experts are understandably pleased that the government is finally telling Americans to “eat less,” I doubt that such vague advice will have enough tangible meaning to be effective, especially with the food industry constantly telling people to “eat more.”

I went back to read my take on the 2005 update and realized that very little has actually changed. In an op-ed piece published in the San Francisco Chronicle, “Why Uncle Sam won’t tell you what not to eat,” I concluded:

Americans need is to be told outright: Stop drinking so much Coke. People don’t think in terms of ingredients. Most consumers don’t even buy ingredients anymore because they don’t cook. We think in terms of packaged-food brand names and fast-food menu items. Imagine dietary guidelines that said: Stop eating Big Macs, Doritos and Oreos. Those are recommendations most Americans could understand, but not ones we are likely to hear. Until people are told the entire truth, instead of meaningless messages such as “eat less,” the nation’s health will continue to suffer.

CHIPS!

As long as Big Food continues to influence the process, the dietary guidelines will never be that blunt. But the larger problem is really the disconnect between our agricultural policies and public health. Rather than tweaking guidelines, the government should figure out how to subsidize more of the foods we should be eating, instead of those we shouldn’t. That’s when eating a truly healthy diet will actually be within reach for everyone. But until then, maybe the feds should just stop bothering to tell Americans how to eat right.

Because, who’s even listening?

Braided heirloom corn from family fields. This corn will continue to dry and be used as a food source.

The answer to this is complex. There is much to be said of popular journalists like Pollan whose work has reached many in the U.S. who otherwise may not have become conscientious about the role of industry in food production, which has had damaging social, economic, environmental and health results. Understanding food sources and processes is undeniably a good thing—to know where your food comes from and to teach others, like your own family and children, to also question and explore.

Harvesting white corn at my family farm in Peru

However, while watching a recent Oprah episode where Pollan was a guest and Oprah staff were challenged to go vegan for a week, I was struck by two thoughts, like little lighbulbs going off above my head. Mind you, these thoughts are tangents that actually have very little to do with Pollan whose investigative approach to some of the biggest diet problems of our time is highly influential. The first thought I had was when Pollan asserted that American tradition has historically included eating meat—“we are big meat-eaters in this country, we always have been”—which is why he believed many Americans struggle with the idea of not eating meat. Pollan’s personal choice was to eat meat provided by sustainable farmers who could offer naturally-raised alternatives to the current standard of hormone-infused, questionably raised animals. While the number of conscientious farmers in both rural and urban contexts grows, hopefully setting a new standard, the notion of any singular American historical tradition begs the question—whose tradition?

A meat rack in Little Italy, New York (I think for St. Anthony's celebration)

The second issue I was struck by was that in making an argument for veganism, Oprah’s guest Kathy Freston pointed out that Pollan’s selection of meat was not affordable for many—to which Oprah responded jokingly that she could afford it. The problem is that many of us, especially those with large families, single-parent households and others struggling with the ups and downs (and waaaay downs) of our economy, cannot consistently afford these options.

In no way is this intended to be a diatribe against Pollan, Oprah or Freston. But what these little lightbulbs intend to point out is that 1) There is a disparity between good food and cost and 2) There is a long history of food practices often swallowed up or marginalized by the notion of any singular American tradition. For example, in the Americas, which include Canada, the U.S., Central and South America, there are long-standing cultural traditions where meat was historically not the staple of daily diets. While we are all impacted in some way (some more than others) to issues of access, affordability and conscientiousness about food, I believe we also need to look for the strengths in all of our communities that are reminders of existing and potential resistance to industrial food monocultures. It’s important to be aware of and open to the understanding that conscientiousness comes in many forms and traditions that are part of the fabric of these lands.

Bison at Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming. Wild bison was an ancestral food source for many American Indian peoples.

For example, many Indigenous communities represent sites where the worst violations of human relationships with food have occurred and where the best practices in food conscientiousness can be found side by side. Working with Indigenous communities in North and South America, and being an Indigenous person from Peru, I have seen how our disconnect from food traditions for various reasons has resulted in our deteriorating physical, mental, emotional and spiritual health. But I have also seen food traditions maintained and revitalized where conscientiousness is ingrained in amazing cultural practices. For example, in my community in the highland Andes, we raise animals from birth, care for them, love them, work alongside them. Children in my community are raised with a sense of responsibility for small to large animals and develop empathy as a result. We believe that every living thing merits our respect and attention—from our water sources to our trees and mountains, to the very crops we plant. Furthermore, in my community, eating meat is not a daily affair. We prefer grains, corn, vegetables, legumes, potatoes. Meat is reserved for special occasions.

Anishinaabe fishermen will set out to spear walleye during spring each year, exercising their treaty rights with the U.S. government.

In other parts of the Indigenous Americas, the process of hunting for meat is seasonal, carefully planned and involves various traditions that bring together family and community and where respect is demonstrated through offerings made to the animals. Nothing is ever supposed to be just taken. For example, among Algonkian peoples, stories are told of the beautiful gifts of life that each living creature, from plants to animals, made at the time of creation of human beings. These stories serve as cultural markers for Indigenous people that remind us of the instructions provided to us by our ancestors—how to live well with everything around us.

Amazing artwork by Ojibwe painter Rabbett Strickland. Title: Assimilation. Citation: http://www.rabbettstricklandgiclees.com/artwork.htm

These beliefs were prevalent prior to the subjugation of Indigenous peoples in the Americas, and understanding this history shows us just how deep attacks on food traditions can be. For example, during different periods in history, Indigenous peoples in the U.S. were forced to give up their lands, religious practices, their lifestyles and even their children to make way for settler expansion and domination where Indigenous people were considered sub-human. Starting in the 19^th century, entire Indigenous hunting, fishing, farming and gathering societies were forced onto reservations where they were not allowed to leave and made to be dependent upon government rations of processed foods. Known as commodities, these foods, many of which were given to starving people, were not only often rotten, but also a complete departure from the natural way of living Indigenous people had known for thousands of years.

The proposal for Indigenous people to reclaim their foods has been strongly made by Indigenous scholars, researchers and community members, as instrumental to a process known as decolonization, or resisting, reclaiming and rebuilding Indigenous communities.

Given these histories, it’s not hard to see why the notion of what is American tradition needs a lot of work. We need to understand how diverse cultures, including Indigenous communities, have been impacted by past and present attacks on their food systems, while simultaneously recognizing that “tradition” is made up of lots cultures—European, Asian, Latin American, African, and so forth—that carry histories and lessons that we can all share.

My absolute favorite: Indian pies and cookies made by my dear friend's mother for a Jemez Pueblo feast day

Today, in spite of our difficult histories, Indigenous communities in the Americas still exercise traditions that assert strong beliefs about land and foods. We offer our prayers and our actions to demonstrate that we still remember how to live carefully. Yes, we have been invaded for a very long time by non-foods, Western chemicals and now GMOs, but we also have within our communities generationally-perpetuated ways of nurturing foods. And these ways do not cost a lot, just our time, just our participation.

Wild rice just harvested by canoe by Wisconsin Anishinaabe men. The rice is considered one of the sacred foods of the Anishinaabe and will nourish many families throughout the year.

You may be thinking that regardless, it does cost more to produce real food in the U.S., especially with an organic label. But isn’t it interesting that what is considered normal (as in naturally-produced foods) in Indigenous communities like mine, is so prized now by wealthier post-industrial societies? Just as important as asking how we’ve gotten away from these practices is asking why we’ve gotten so far away. We have only to examine our histories, including both how we’ve been targeted and how we’ve resisted, to start learning some answers.

I would argue that it’s not necessarily about the price tag. Our food issues require more than trying to be conscientious about food through learning about its sources and critiquing unsustainable agribusiness. What is required is a re-examination of our history, our humanity, our cultural philosophies, and our own daily practices where our beliefs are enacted in order to remember that we all have instructions rooted somewhere that remind us how to live well with each other and our earth.

But is it always? A USDA study showed that bags of fresh broccoli and spinach lost much of their nutrients just by being exposed to the lights in a grocery store. Vegetables that are flash frozen (not soaked in sodium BPA-lined cans) could retain some of those lost nutrients. Read this Slate article by Daniel Engber for more information.

A tip? Next time you reach for that bagged spinach, reach for the one in the far back that’s been hidden in the dark.

I have this romantic notion of myself as some sort of a wayfarer who floats along effortlessly from town to town, bringing only myself and the essentials—like a yoga mat, Nalgene water bottle and samurai sword. But the reality is that I’m more like a crazy lady who brings random stuff, including papers—A LOT of papers of all sizes, from post-its to flipchart paper all scribbled in what appears to be Sanskrit.

An example of my random stuff: A balance ball, Peruvian wall hanging, envelopes and, oh, yes, flipchart paper.

This is how I move from place to place.

Now that I have found myself in the southwest again after a stint on the East Coast, Midwest and West Coast, I’m finally settling in to a space that I can call my own. Well, at least for a little while anyway. And for a moment, the rush and madness of moving, unpacking, furniture-buying and settling in have stilled.

Beautiful stillness at the Grand Canyon

So I decided to take advantage of this moment by de-flowering my new kitchen with a baking spree. Mind you, I’m not a baker (or a candlestick maker, sorry I couldn’t resist the rhyme). But I do love to eat baked treats and find a sense of inner peace in making them. Oh, who am I kidding? It’s actually very stressful for me to bake—I constantly worry about things like making sure all the ingredients are in and in the exact amount, mixing versus folding, and I often find myself substituting ingredients, which my fiancée loathes. “But it’s healthier to use applesauce instead of butter,” I tell him, while he shakes his head and then punishes my effort to keep him heart-attack free by not touching the vegan-flourless-carob-wheatgrass-cardboard cake I’ve presented to him.

The Quaker Oatmeal man! This box reminds me of my childhood.

Yes, there are many debates on what is healthy and what is not, and loads of opinions on what tastes good and what doesn’t. Personally, I love my family’s alternative recipes that call for things like quinoa or sesame flour, agave nectar or maple syrup and applesauces and veggie purees in lieu of butter. But every once in a while, like my dear Buttah-man, I like something made just the way the recipe calls for it—butter, white flour, sugar and all—such as found in oatmeal cookies.

Mixing together the Crumbs version dough

There is something really comforting about a good oatmeal cookie, not to mention you kinda feel a teensy bit healthier by eating one. However, I could not decide just which oatmeal cookie to make. So I opted to try three different versions and to let the old Buttah-head be the judge of which cookie he preferred. Would it be the Crumbs version, perfected by Mia Bauer and her New York-originated bakery specializing in cupcakes? Would it be the Jessica Seinfeld Double Delicious cookbook version—a healthier alternative? Or the Quaker Oats recipe I remember from my childhood?

Quaker Oats version dough--wonderful and classic

After a couple hours of mixing AND folding, a few mistakes like making huge batches or adding too much salt since I’m terrible at eyeballing, I cranked out batch after batch on my two little cookie sheets.

Double Delicious version ready for the oven

What resulted was a taste test battle. (Drum roll please). All three versions were yummy, but Buttah-beard loved the Crumbs version and I loved the Double Delicious version: The Crumbs cookie is buttery and has a nice crunch to it, but can be somewhat soft at the center, making it perfect for butter-loving cookie enthusiasts. For me, the healthier alternative cookie was tastier, not because it was healthier with only 5 grams of fat per cookie, but because it was moist. And of course, because it involved chocolate chips. The moisture is due to the puree—Jessica’s recipe called for a sweet potato puree, but since I had pumpkin puree available, I used that, and it was awesome!

Crumbs oatmeal cookies: Big and buttery

Double Delicious/JS cookie: Moist, chocolatey and lowfat

Quaker Oats Vanishing cookies: A tasty, salty crunch and childhood favorite

Butter or not, if you are battling different versions of your favorite cookie, we’d love to hear about it! Which one did you pick and why? And by the way, Happy New Year! Wishing you much butter (in moderation), buttah and health in the New Year!

All three versions ready for eating. Mmmmmm!

Crumbs Oatmeal Cookie (Rise and Shine Oatmeal Cookies—by Mia Bauer, Crumbs Bake Shop in a Box, The Recipe Studio Publishers, 2008)

Ingredients:

3 cups of oats
1 ¼ cups flour
1 ½ tsp baking soda
¼ tsp kosher salt
¾ cup butter (room temp)
1 cup brown sugar
¾ cup sugar
1 egg
¼ cup milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup raisins

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F
2. Grease cookie sheets
3. Mix oats, flour, baking soda and salt in a bowl
4. Cream butter, white and brown sugar, eggs, milk and vanilla in mixer
5. Fold in dry ingredients and raisins gently
6. Using a spoon or ice cream scoop, drop mixture onto cookie sheet
7. Bake for 14-15 minutes
8. Remove and cool

Double Delicious (Jessica Seinfeld version, slightly modified—Double Delicious: Good, simple food for busy, complicated lives, William Morrow Publishers, 2010)

Ingredients:

1 ½ cups oats
1 cup white flour or whole wheat pastry flour
½ cup raisins
½ tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp nutmeg
¼ tsp salt
6 tbsp canola oil
½ up light brown sugar
½ cup pumpkin puree
2 large egg whites
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 cup of semi-sweet or bittersweet chocolates

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Coat baking sheets with cooking spray
2. Mix oats, flour, raisins, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt
3. In another bowl, using a wooden spoon, mix oil into the brown sugar until well combined. Mix in the pumpkin puree, egg whites and vanilla. Add chocolate chips.
4. Add the flour mixture in, stir until a thick dough forms. Drop the dough by tablespoonful onto the cookie sheets
5. Bake the cookies until brown around the edges or for about 12-15 minutes

Quaker Oats recipe (Vanishing Oatmeal Raising Cookies—taken right off the box top)

Ingredients:

½ cup (1 stick) butter, softened
¾ cup brown sugar
½ cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp salt (optional)
3 cups Quaker Oats
1 cup raisins

Directions:

1. Heat the oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Beat butter and sugars on medium speed until creamy
3. Add eggs and vanilla; beat well
4. Add combined flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt; mix well
5. Add oats and raisins; mix well
6. Drop dough using rounded tablespoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets
7. Bake 8-10 minutes or until golden light brown.

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Source: GreenDeals

Source: Summer Tomato

Can you believe it? I can’t.

Over the last several years, the issue of what is real, authentic food has surfaced, oftentimes loudly with great passion on all sides. I loved the discussion y’all brought on about my post about being a snob and eating organically. It definitely isn’t easy, and sometimes, just too expensive for me. But as some of you raised, even the food industry has corrupted that word – labels sometimes show up that says organic, but is not.

A U.K. food company director was jailed for fraud – he stuck “organic” labels on food that was pumped of synthetic additives.

Organic foods from China are not always what they seem, according to a Public Radio International report. But the organic food industry is a $26 billion one in the U.S. Lots of money to be had.

The Cornucopia Institute, an advocacy group promoting family-scale farming, filed formal complaints against Target in 2009 that some of its products labeled organic were not really organic. According to the complaints, some of the companies that sell through Target, like Dean Foods, quietly shifted away from organic ingredients taking advantage of consumer confusion of “organic” and “natural” labels.

Meanwhile, many local, small-scale family farms may grow and harvest everything organically and according to the guidelines of the Organic Trade Association, but don’t want to or have the resources to go through the hoops and costs of getting the pretty little certified organic label.

Yet everywhere we turn, we see “REAL FOOD,” “PURE,” “NATURAL,” “AUTHENTIC,” “ORGANIC.” What does it all really mean? Kelly the Kitchen Kop just raised a most fascinating discussion about whether Qorn and other “meatless meat” products are real food.

How do you define food versus foodstuffs?

What I do know is that I’m confused and wary of what’s out there.

I’m not obsessive – I do like my Bojangles once or twice a year, and I won’t say no to the peanut M&Ms at the movie theatre. But I find myself having a hard time sometimes describing how I want to eat – food that my great-grandmother would recognize, food that tastes right because it hasn’t been invented in a test tube, food that I don’t have to wonder will give any children I have two heads or an extra finger (though that COULD come in handy in some cases, the finger, not the head). I want plums that don’t make my lip to swell up anymore because it was washed in “good for me” pesticides. I want beef jerky made with nothing but beef and spices, and not that beef stick stuff you find in roadside convenient stores.

I want good food, but since I can’t seem to call this food, “real” or “authentic” or “pure” anymore, as these words have been corrupted, I’m making up a new word.

I’m calling the food I want frank food.

Why frank food? Frank means: forthright, honest, blunt, truthful, candid, aboveboard. Frank foods by definition cannot be adulterated. It is aboveboard. Frank food unabashedly tells you what it is, and it will tell you truthfully when you’re lying.

Frank food is a real, goodness apple that is guileless, unadulterated and uncorrupted with pesticides. Frank food is butter, made with frank milk, free of rBGH and hormones – not margarine or Crisco or something else created out of a laboratory. Frank food is the grass-fed, free-range roadmeat that Hunger and Thirst harvests, fresh and local.

Frank food is what our dear friend at Eat Well, Eat Cheap raised as a great new year’s resolution, inspired by Salon’s Francis Lam who vows to no longer eat “cheap chicken.” Instead, frank chicken is well, frankly, chicken. Nothing added. Since frank chicken costs more, for me, that also means less chicken and meat, which is not a bad thing.

Another frank food is dal, a traditional thick stew usually of lentils or or beans, found in many South Asian cuisines. This Dal is courtesy of Zomppa Tsering, a recipe passed down for generations in the Indo-Tibet region. This frank food is also fairly inexpensive to prepare – hooray! The measurements may be a bit off, I tend to be very generous with my spices – I throw them in until I like the color and keep adding. This dish is chock full of protein, healthy, easy, and can last for days – just freeze any leftovers. I made this in my fancy new Christmas present!

Truly, a frank food without much pretense. It is what it is, and what it always has been.

Zomppa’s Dal with Spinach

Dal with Spinach (courtesy of Zomppa Tsering)
1 cup dry red lentils (soak for at least an hour)
1 red onion, chopped
2 TB ground ginger
3 cloves garlic, chopped
2 TB turmeric
2 TB cumin powder
1/2 tsp chili powder or chili flakes (optional)
2 large tomatoes, finely chopped
1 bag baby spinach
3 cups water, chicken or vegetable stock
Oil

1. In large pot, saute onions in 2 TB oil until translucent
2. Add garlic and ginger, saute for 30 seconds
3. Add turmeric for 30 seconds – do not burn
4. Add tomatoes and saute until well mixed and soft
5. Add cumin
6. Add lentils and combine well, add additional spices if so desired, constantly stir for 2-3 minutes – do not burn
7. Add water or stock. Adjust according to thickness desired (lentils will soak up liquid)
8. Salt to taste
9. Cook over medium heat until lentils are soft (about 20 minutes)
10. Add baby spinach in last 5 minutes of cooking

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