Lunch of the Week: Teriyaki Tilapia Obento

My new lunch-box

 My new lunchbox arrived today!

Well, technically, I think it arrived yesterday, but either way, it's here now, and after an arduous walk up and down hill in today's "feels like 36" weather, I finally have my lovely, faux-laquered bento box.

To celebrate, I've packed a lunch for today consisting of the following:

• Zushi Rice, consisting of medium-grained calrose rice that was simmered in straight water before being seasoned with rice wine vinegar and just a tiny amount of sugar (to take the edge off the vinegar);
• Red Bell Pepper Rings, taken from "ancient"-strain peppers that have more of a pepper shape than a bell shape;
• Green Beans, simmered in water that was seasoned with Tamari (a traditional, light soy sauce) and crushed ginger;
• Teriyaki-Glazed Tilapia, also with ginger, and;
• Topped off with a cheddar-cheese CalorieMate and a Gouda Babybel.

When you put that all together, it looks something like this.

"It's taken on an international flavour, much like myself."

My dearest friend among suborder
Serpentes, the Mexican Black King Snake.

Someone on the Facebooks pointed out, after reading my culinary artist's statement, that the general tone of the document suggested I should stick to the traditional foods of the area in which I am. I'm pretty sure I actually said the opposite in the body text, but in case it was missed or I imagined it, I meant quite the opposite.

I live in an area that doesn't really have its own cuisine. A few minor delicacies, but for the most part, our foods are cribbed from French cuisine (in formal dining) and a smattering of UK and other Western European cuisines. Much like in the US, our Chinese is Americanized, our Italian is pathetic (seriously, Vitos is the worst excuse for Italian and Greek I've ever tasted), and pretty much everyone else is misrepresented - only our Japanese and our Indian is really all that authentic, at least in the city in which I live.

Home cooking, for a truly disappointing number of the locals, is Meat and Potatoes, plus whatever fast-mix "ethnic" foods might be conjured from the supermarket aisles.

Pretty early in my life and right through the bulk of high school, I developed a fascination with Japanese culture that really only broke when I stopped dreaming of going there to teach English - a dream that broke when I met the girl worth fighting for and decided to stay. During that time, I developed quite an appreciation for a number of facets of the culture, up to and including the food.

During my first year at NBCC I did what I could to incorporate that fascination into my learning - mostly by watching Japanese chefs do their thing and coming to understand the composition of traditional Japanese meals. In the end, I haven't learned that many Japanese recpies - about the only thing I can prepare from memory is my zushi rice and the only other recipe I have written down that's authentically Japanese is the batter I use for tempura. More importantly, I've learned techniques and customs, which can be used in nearly any other form of cuisine - in essence, when I cook Japanese I often use a western flavour pallet. I also learned the ethic of leaving the flavour of the ingredients as untouched as possible - seasonings have a place on stage, but as the backup chorus and not the chief tenor.

During my second year, my interests turned to Italian. Like me, my mother trained in the culinary arts in her youth (a dream I screwed up, as I understand it. XD), and I had the good fortune to have my household menu be rather broad. Italian spoke to me. Many of my mom's best recipes are at least Italian in essence, such as her Lasagna, and one of the earliest savoury dishes I learned to prepare was a nice, hearty Bolognese sauce. Again, I didn't lock down recipes as much as I locked down techniques - pasta making being something of a skill focus for my entire second year.

The only other thing I learned that year was the importance of an understanding of ingredients - this one time, I got Chef Ritter to order in eight different types of Mushrooms so that I could spend a whole week working with them and learning the difference between the different types.

I haven't met a Mushroom I don't like... yet. Anyway, the fact of the matter remains that I don't believe in borders in cuisine. My favourite tool for plating will always be chopsticks, my favourite seasoning will probably always be garlic, and my preferred cooking oil will certainly be clarified butter. My point was that, before we start messing around with the cutting-edge trendy techniques more akin to hardware stores and medical supplies, we should ground ourselves in authentic, traditional techniques.

Grilled Chicken Breast with Sweet Potato Risotto and Sauce

As it happens, I eat a lot of chicken. That's because it's cheap right now - whole chickens are under $2 a pound these days - and I can stretch a whole chicken pretty far. This particular dish uses a lot of chicken without using all that much at all.

Chicken Suprême with Risotto

There's a fundamental premise in cooking that we're all taught early - the mother sauces (Espagnole, Veloute, Bechamel, Tomato, and Hollandaise) and their derivatives. Suprême is a derivative of a chicken veloute, which is made by infusing the veloute with mushrooms and adding cream. The result is far more subtle than one would expect. Here I have paired the mushrooms with another fall vegetable - sweet potato.

Stage One: Preparing the Stock

A number of the components of this dish use chicken stock as a base ingredient. I've never given my recipe for chicken stock, so here is a brief explanation of how I do it. If you're also making your stock from scratch, do so a day or two in advance.

Take one whole chicken, and remove the breasts and legs for later use. Place at the bottom of a slow cooker with one small onion, quartered, and five chopped stalks of celery. Fill a cheesecloth pouch or cloth tea bag with black peppercorns, sage, and thyme. Fill with water and allow to stew for 4-6 hours, tasting the flavour hourly and adjusting as necessary. Chill stock immediately. Once chilled, remove fat layer (now solid) with a spoon or ladle. Strain. The meat remaining on the chicken may be picked clean for sandwiches, salads, and the like - the bones and skin should be discarded along with the other ingredients. The stock is now ready for use.

Stage Two: Preparing Sauce Suprême

As I mentioned, suprême is derived from a veloute, which is a white sauce made by thickening stock with a roux. Before you begin cooking, bring the stock back up to a warm, but not hot, temperature. In a saucepan, melt 2 tablespoons of butter (european-style, or cultured, butter where possible), and add 2 tablespoons of all purpose flour. Stir consistantly until a thick paste is achieved. Continue to cook roux over medium heat until it has obtained a rich blonde colour. Begin adding stock a ladle-full at a time, using a whisk to beat out the lumps of the roux. Continue adding stock until you have added approximately 1 L, and season to taste with salt and white pepper - white pepper is preferred for both its different flavour and its lack of impact on the appearance of the sauce. Simmer on low heat until the desired consistency is reached. A well made chicken veloute will appear to have taken on cream, when no such liquid is used.

Once you have the veloute, add 1 cup of sliced white button mushrooms (or any blend you like), and 1/4 of a small onion, diced. Allow to simmer for 15 minutes, then pulse in the blender. Strain through cheese cloth to remove remaining solids. The result should be a thick, warm-grey sauce. Adjust the seasoning if desired and add a squirt of fresh lemon juice, and 1/4 cup of heavy cream (35% milk fat, usually sold as whipping cream)

Covered, this sauce will keep for up to one week under refrigeration. I've never had much luck with freezing it.

Mise en place for this dish. Note some absent utensils.

Stage Three: Putting it all together

When cooking a meal with multiple components, it's important to have as much of your prep done as possible in advance, which lets you clean as you cook, and lets you time your cooking better. I don't have a time for cooking this dish because it takes long enough to make the risotto that the chicken will be cooked thoroughly (though not overdone) by the time it is ready. Start by preheating your oven to 350 and bring both the stock and the sauce back up to a high temperature (boil the former, but try not to boil the latter).

The mise is simple for this dish, as dishes go. Fine-dice one half of a small onion and set aside, prepare 1/2 cup of shredded extra old white cheddar (Parmesan would be more traditional), and dice 1/2 of a large yam. Lay out one of the chicken breasts you saved earlier and salt the skin side - season with sage, thyme, basil, and finely minced garlic. Immediately put the sweet potato into the stock to cook. Rinse about a 1/2 cup of arborio or long grain white rice until the water runs off clear and drain as well as possible.

Melt cultured butter in an all-metal frying pan over medium heat. Place the chicken breast skin-side-down and allow to cook until a rich golden brown. Turn over and sear before throwing into oven. Take another pan, add two tablespoons of water, and sweat the onions until they are translucent. Add the rice and toast it gently over about 40% heat.

Preparring a risotto is easy, but time consuming. One quarter-cup at a time, add stock and let it "cook away" before adding the next ladleful. Repeat this process until the rice is al-dente. Include cubes of the sweet potato - if you are feeling fancy, blend the potato into the stock to get a more uniform product.

Next add a double-shot of cream, and the cubed cheese. Cook thoroughly until thick.

To present this dish, form a round bed of the risotto (I would have used a ring-mold if I was working), over which you lay the chicken, and nape the whole dish with the sauce. As an afterthought  I think this would have been quite good with some sauteed asparagus with a little extra lemon.

Selected Meal: Country Style Roasted Chicken

So, I know I promised articles on the full menu, but the thing is, the menu itself got abandoned pretty quickly. Instead, I'm just going to post some of those recipes I think everyone should have a rough idea.

I have been perfecting a roasted chicken. Roasting poultry is one of those things that every chef "knows" how to do, but not every chef (or even every cook, for that matter) feels they can do well, or make exciting. In terms of chicken itself, there are a few techniques that really help the bird do what it needs to do. Here's my recipe for a "country style" chicken that draws upon some of my favourite flavour combinations to produce a moist, robust bird as suited to a Sunday dinner as to sandwiches.

Country Roasted Chicken with Pan Gravy

Ingredients

• 1 Whole Chicken
• 1/2 cup cultured butter (salted)
• 1/4 tsp garlic paste or minced garlic
• 1 Whole Lemon
• Herbs de Provence
• Lemon Pepper (alternately, lemon juice and crushed black pepper)
• Cayenne Pepper
• Sticks of Carrot and Celery (see below)
• 1/8 c of Flour, approximately.

Procedure

1. Preheat oven to 350F and remove middle rack.
2. If the chicken includes giblets and the neck, remove both. Retain for later use.
3. Make an incision along the breastbone.
4. Combine butter and garlic paste until well mixed and carefully stuff between the skin and flesh of the breasts. This will help to keep the bird moist and avoids the need for basting or barding the bird. Using compound butters in this way is the preferred method of roasting a chicken in a commercial setting.
5. Season exterior of bird with Herbs de Provence, Lemon Pepper, and Cayenne.
6. Line a deep pan with the carrots and celery, to elevate the chicken from the bottom of the pan, along with the neck and giblets.
7. Roast until thoroughly cooked - use a calibrated thermometer to get the accurate temperature, which should be 165F. This should take about 45 minutes.
8. Set the bird on a board to rest while you prepare the gravy. Discard the carrots and celery (or retain for other recipes). The neck and giblets are also to be discarded.
9. Deglaze the pan with (in order of preference) white wine, chicken stock, or water.
10. Sift in flour and whisk, as needed, until the gravy is the desired thickness.

Pauper Kings: A Gentleman's Menu for the Fortnight of Nov. 16

As has become my practice over the years, I'm making a menu for the next two weeks, to get my groceries pinned down. I thought I'd share it here, and maybe we'll do some food posts again for a while. Don't worry: I have two more fish profiles planned as well!

The Pauper Kings

Dinners:

• Friday - Mussels with Garlic Drawn Butter and Fresh Bread - Just what it says on the tin - fresh Atlantic Canadian mussels pan-steamed in a wine-stock sauce and eaten with herb-cultured butter and bread.
• Saturday - Salisbury Steak with Mushroom Sauce - Salisbury Steak with a home-made mushroom espagnole and served with sweet potato dollar fries, green beans, and beats. Nothing at all like a Swanson TV dinner.
• Sunday - Country Chicken - A favourite returns - lightly-dredged chicken leg is pan-fried to perfection and served with sweet potato dollar fries and fall vegetables.
• Monday - Pork Tenderloin Chops with Mushroom - A home-brew variant on a childhood favourite - moist, tender pork is enveloped in a home made mushroom-cream pan sauce and served along side mashed sweet potato, green beans, and beats for a hearty fall meal.
• Tuesday - Penne Bolognese - Whole-wheat penne rigate in a bolognese sauce of my own perfecting - a smattering of shaved cheddar cheese makes a mockery of all it means to be trained in Italian cuisine.
• Wednesday - Revived Mother-and-Daughter Ramen - Ramen noodles in home-made chicken stock with fried egg for a topper. Eating noodles doesn't mean eating poorly.
• Thursday - Pork Schnitzel with Fries and Fall Vegetables - Pork Tenderloin trimmed and beaten, breaded with seasoned crumb, pan-fried. Served with crinkle cut fries, green beans, and beets. Mayonaise for fries, and a squeeze of lemon per the direction of acclaimed Master Chef Markus Ritter of Europa.
• Friday - Stuffed Haddock Fillet with Fall Vegetables - A MacEwen Family favourite, and rapidly becoming mine as well. Haddock fillet is stuffed with seasoned crackers and baked en papillot with the vegetables to be eaten alongside and lemon. No starches are necessary or welcome - you'll want a whole fish to yourself.
• Saturday - Taco Night - What's there to tell? Softshell tortilla "tacos" with a well-spiced beef stuffing, home-made salsa, and all the fixings. What could be more appropriate than summer food in november?
• Sunday - Pork Fried Rice - Fried Rice is a favourite of mine, a quick-and-clean ritual that requires exacting control of temperature, seasoning, and elements in order to achieve perfect flavour. I have tried for years to perfect a fried rice, and this is the closest things come without a wok.
• Monday - Chicken Fettucini Gratinate alla Novembre - A variation on an acclaimed dish used in the Italian Night event at the Lady Dunn Diningroom that I cheffed. Chicken leg meat with green beans in a citrus-augmented alfredo sauce, with fresh whole-wheat fettucini pasta, parmesean, and broiled to a molten perfection.
• Tuesday - Winter Vegetable Ragout on Toast Points - Taking my cues from Chef Markus Ritter, a selection of some of the remaining green beans and beets are to be sauteed with just a little bacon and reduced in a thick creamy sauce, then used as a delicious additive to points of toasted, home-made bread.
• Wednesday - Minestrone - Which I will hopefully remember not to thicken this time - a fantastic, tomato-flavoured vegetable soup as hearty as any cream. 
• Thursday - Pizza - I prepare a pizza of my own devising and bake it at home on a crisp, thin crust. Would that I had a wood fire upon which to, well, fire it!

Lunches: Low-Budget Ramen Noodles with Veggies.

Breakfast: All-Home Trucker's Breakfast - Two eggs with bacon, mushrooms, and onion on home-made buns cooked fresh each morning.

Snacks: A small selection of chips and crackers

Beverages: Egg nog, soda, and a wide selection of teas both hot and iced.

I also had an interesting idea regarding an online business... more on that later, however.

A Sore Throat

In my last post, I took the opportunity of having both a willingness to write and the time to do so to slam the product of one of my employers' new teas for containing food additives like maltodextrin, which those who know me know was neither an especially gutsy move (by my usual standards) nor a move that was long in coming. The potential risk, knowing that the only member of that company's staff who has the address to this blog or the inclination to investigate my online habits, was very low, as was the potential gain. While that person did suggest that I make a retraction, I think that the reaction of a few clients in person to the ingredient listing is justification enough of the argument myself, and so it stands.

The point isn't that we're now marketing teas with synthetically-derived sugars and sodium-free salts (such as calcium chloride); I eat such products fairly regularly under the guise of soft drinks, fast food, and even in some middle-run restaurants. The point of contention is that we're doing so without dropping our usual reliance on the "tea benefits" (always careful to avoid sounding like medical advice), benefits which might not be undermined by the presence of artificial sugars but should certainly have them taken into account.

It seems to me to be a variation of the marketing for homeopathy at this point. While I do not deny that heavy consumption of various teas has specific health benefits to the drinker, there are other questions to be asked, which often include "so, what else is in your tea?". Just as homeopathic medicines are often in solutions so weak it is probable that no amount of the indicated "cure" is present in the given dosage, your tea, no matter the grade, is not going to do you that much good if it is primarily a vehicle for the delivery of milk and sugar.

Does that mean I never take sugar in my teas? No, but I have never stood upon the teas I usually sweeten as barriers against anything but acute dehydration (in the worst case) or as anything more than a palate-stimulant (in the best case). While I have always placed some small credit on herbalist cures for minor ailments and as treatment of specific symptoms, I have also remembered that one of the best treatments for inflammation is Asprin, which is itself derived from willow-bark, with the active ingredient in higher concentration. 

While I find a cup of herbal tea often enough to soothe whatever problem I am having, the herbals I lean on are always the ones with the greatest concentration of the ingredient I actually want. Today I am feeling headachey. I have a sore throat from sleeping with my mouth open and I am heavily congested. A bad habit of swallowing a certain amount of the product of my presently over-active sinus is leaving me feeling slightly nauseous.

I therefore want, primarily, two things: ginger, and lemon. Ginger is noted in cases of both nausea and congestion as a mild expectorant and a means of settling the stomach. It is of such utility that even people who stand against the concept of natural remedies accept ginger tea with a bit of lemon as a way to stave off a forming cold, which is what I probably have. Lemon is itself noted in the culinary world for cutting grease (which is the reason deep-fried or breaded foods are often better with a squeeze of it) and this affect, I find, works on mucous as well.

I do, however, find ginger and lemon exceedingly boring in the strengths at which it can be infused - a lemon-ginger sauce would be another story - and so I have chosen to use it as an additive for a green tea. The green I chosen, I am told, has anti-inflamitory properties.

Yesterday, I could drink enough of this tea, regularly enough, to stave off the effects of my cold and feel relatively productive, if not downright okay with the way my life was going. Today, however, I am feeling somewhat more ill. I am instead drinking a heavily-spiced tea with lots of cinnamon and cloves (Teavana's Mahraja Chai Oolong) and leaving the treatment of my symptoms up to the judicious use of Strepsils and chemical decongestants.

Musings on the Nature of Food (and Tea)

So I have, as it happens, a relatively nice little kitchen, considering the size and style of my home, and it's certainly something you could describe as being above pay grade. I guess some of you might have thought of that as a given, considering the amount of work I do, and my past experience as a chef, but like most other things, the nature of my kitchen is one of life's little consequences that has to do more with the way in which I hunt for a home than any prowess on my part in choosing this one.
When you have a kitchen that looks like this one, you like to use it, and I generally try to keep my fridge and cupboards stocked, since it staves off the Delivery Devil and my terrifyingly poor spending habits. I spend what some of my peers consider to be a small fortune on food every week (when I'm using my kitchen), but it's still far cheaper than the steady stream of delivery, take-out, and on-the-fly dining that pretty much ruined my September.

The reason why my grocery bills look high is that I tend to get fussy about the groceries I buy, particularly if I have the good fortune not to be hungry when I'm doing it. I find good cuts of the meat I want, buy fresh produce, and keep the herbs, spices, and staples well-stocked. Some of my friends are surprised to learn I make my own bread from scratch (I still have not figured out the right way to use this bread-maker. Admittedly, I also only do this on occasion) or that my only use for instant ramen is that it's the cheapest way to buy the noodles. I've managed to avoid the various forms of powdered boullion in over a year, and while I salt my food rather conspicuously, I still use less salt than most anything I've found packaged.

Not every jam is home made (but it can be) and not every stock or broth is made from scratch (though it's about a 50/50 wash at the moment). Sometimes my makinori zushi came from the store and not my kitchen, but that's rare.

See, my groceries cost a lot because I take food seriously. I scrutinize the labels carefully and take only the foods that fit my increasingly narrow parameters of what I'm really willing to put into my body. Does that mean I never eat hamburger helper, kraft dinner, or McDonalds? No - no more than not being a smoker means I don't have the odd cigar on special occasions, or the fact that I'm not a drunk doesn't mean I don't enjoy occasionally getting sloshed.

I want my food to be what it is - not what marketing committees think it should be to appeal to the widest possible audience. If I want say I want rosee sauce for my pasta, I really mean I want a white-wine veloute seasoned heavily with garlic, oregano, and anise and thickened with the pulp of fresh tomatoes and parmesean cheese. If I say I want a hamburger, I mean I want medium-fat ground beef bound by its own fat and seasoned with salt, pepper on worchester shire, on a bun (flour, water, salt, and yeast), usually dressed with mayonnaise (oil, eggs, salt, and vinegar), lettuce, tomatos, cheese (havarti, usually) and sometimes a little bacon (salt-cured pork, smoked) or sauteed mushrooms. No more than what I said.

While I recognize that most food additives are harmless (like maltodextrin) or at least considered harmless (like corn syrup), I do for the most part prefer to have the real thing. I like, for example, to bake with beat sugar, though I'm trying to find a Canadian source since we grow so damn much of the stuff. My three favourite Root Beers (on which I am quickly becoming something of an expert) are all made with sugar (two with cane, one with beetroot) and without HFCS. They have remarkably more dimension, and are remarkably more satisfying to one's thirst, than either major soft-drink-producer's offering. A cranberry juice whose main ingredient is actually pear is (a)more a virgin cocktail and (b)much less satisfyingly tart.

Now, where the tea comes in is that I still work for a major tea retailer, and I tend to drink a lot of our own product, both at home and at work. I have lots of interesting teas to choose from (98, in fact), and quite a lot of these teas are really very good. Teas and fruits are all grown according to some arcane EU standard I can barely remember the name of but which is much more comprehensive than, for example, the USDA Organic certification.

As it happens, I do have one USDA organic tea. It's grown in Rwanda, so it's out.

Lots of teas, even the flavored ones, are additive-free. More and more, though, the favoured teas are beginning to contain interesting ingredients, like maltodextrin, as a consequence of lowering our own buying standards. The additives are, by and large, ingredients in the production of ingredients we use to make our flavoured teas.

Now, I still drink these teas, since they're still better for me than the steady stream of soda I send flowing down my gullet - but that's like saying I still cut my wrists, because it's better than cutting my throat.

I won't publish a list of the teas with the ingredients I don't approve of, partly because it would be hypocritical to continue to drink them if I did (and I do like them), and partly because it's probably damaging to my career goals with that company. What it won't do is violate the terms of my employment, especially if I leave you with this final piece of advise, which goes for everywhere food is bought and sold.

Always check the ingredients listing.

Friday is Fast Night: Beef Hot Pot

A few of you probably caught on through Twitter that I was finally going to kick off food week, weeks after the reveal. That's ten points for being patient, and ten more points for following the feed.

Beef Hot Pot

Friday is pay-day for me, and that also makes it grocery night. Where I work most Fridays (I actually lobby to work Friday-Saturday-Sunday most of the time), I usually don't do the groceries until after I've worked, which means what whatever I choose for Friday's supper has to be something I can put together quickly - usually a stir-fry or a close relative. A few of you probably know that my first international cuisine love affair was Japanese, and sukiyaki was one of the first dishes I learned how to prepare. Of course, this isn't a proper sukiyaki, just my response to it. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Beef Hot Pot - Duke Brunswick Variation

This dish combines beef loin, mushrooms, cabbage, noodles, and a umami-focused stock. This simplified version (Auditor's Note: "Duke" is my shorthand for recipes that include short-cuts) is streamlined for the busy home kitchen. Serves 2

Ingredients

• ½ kg. Beef Loin, Striploin, or Tenderloin, cut into strips
• ¼ head of green cabbage, sliced into strips
• ½ Red Onion, sliced to half-rings
• 4 or 5 Large Button Mushrooms, Sliced
• ~1 L beef stock, preferably low-sodium packaged
• 1 Ramen Noodle Cake, per Pot Noodle
• Trace quantities of soy sauce, canola (or vegetable) oil, black pepper, and sage.

Procedure

1. Over medium heat, bring stock to a boil. Cook noodles and reserve both cooked noodles and stock separately. Allow stock to simmer.
2. In frying pan, heat a thin layer of oil. Stir-fry, in order, onions, cabbage, and mushroom, seasoning with pepper, and powdered sage. Once tender, lightly toss with soy sauce. Add to stock.
3. Replace noodles into the pot.
4. Add the raw beef slices. Simmer until cooked to taste.

Traditionally, hot-pot dishes are served communally out of a large pot kept hot at the table, from which the diners serve themselves. For this particular meal I recommend nothing more to drink that clear, cool water. There should be flavour enough in the meal itself.

Variation: Brunswick Variation - use fresh beef stock prepared in situ in place of prepared product.

A Return to Basics: Making grocery lists

I cut my teeth on blogging about things other than my day by starting to write about food. I was just finishing up high school when I started my first food blog, which fell by the wayside when cooking became my career of choice and I suddenly had more important things to do with food than write about it. When my last cooking job essentially blew up in my face, I was bitter enough about the whole experience that I really stopped cooking altogether, never mind writing about it.

In much the same way as working with tea got me thinking about food again, writing about it's made me want to write again. I want to share something really basic I think that most people my age don't really know how to do... and that's write a grocery list.

Bugs in my Beverage? Absolutely!

Starbucks in the US (and possibly here) is changing some of their ingredients.

Their Strawberries and Cream Frappucinio, which is the absolutely coffee-free beverage shown on the right, has inspired a consumer backlash. Why's that? Well, that's because they're replacing the old synthetic red dye with extract of cochineal, a natural red dye that was the benchmark for the hue we now call Crimson.

This is excellent news, right? One less synthetic ingredient in mass-consumed food.

But Zac, you only ever use this space to complain!

What do Potatoes have to do with Wheat?

Public Domain Image

Nutrition was required learning when I was studying the culinary arts, and it was actually a course I did fairly well in, and had a bit of an interest in. I'm a big proponent of the idea of nutritious food being more than the steam from the carrots and a lick of the salt-cube. (Undergrads Reference, for those who haven't seen the show).

There was one thing, though, that always bugged me about nutrition, and for a while I was starting to wonder how a bunch of comparatively uneducated tradespeople had bested governmental nutrition panels... and then I remembered that government committees have no place in science.

Below the jump, I'm going to go on for a bit about nutrients, and then I'm going to explain why I have it in for potatoes.