Based on this blog which does nothing but rate wines from Trader Joe’s, I bought a bottle of wine last weekend. Haven’t had the courage to open it yet, but one never knows.
Reader Jason Cohen has written a (very) long article in Cincinnati Magazine on goetta. You know what that is, yes? From the Urban Dictionary “It’s a mixture of pork, beef, oats, and seasonings, packaged into a roll and then fried and served hot. Goetta goes well with just about anything, but it’s most commonly served as a breakfast dish alongside eggs, bacon, or pancakes.” According to Jason, Simpatica has it on the menu now and then. It sounds sort of Spam-like to me.
Among the million iPhone applications, is one from Epicurious, the folks behind Gourmet Magazine. I try to carry frequently used ingredient lists around with me, but with this new app, when you find an unexpected ingredient, you can search for recipes based on it. From the New York Times:
“If you have an iPhone and the free Epicurious app, you can check with the staff at Bon Appétit, Gourmet, and assorted chefs. The app allows you to search 25,000 recipes – all reputedly tested by Epicurious staff or its partners – to find your dish and create a shopping list on the spot.”
This would be fun at the farmers market when new and interesting stuff is available. I especially like some of the built-in categories: “I Can Barely Cook,” “Party Snacks” or “Dishes Kids Love”. I couldn’t figure out how to link to it, but if you search Epicurious in iTunes, you’ll find the program. It’s free.
Belgium now has a “Weekly Meatless Day”. The Belgian city of Ghent, one of the 370 European climate cities, is the first worldwide to officially promote a weekly meatless day. According to Vegetarisme.be,
Ghent’s motivation to introduce the ‘Meatless Thursday is twofold:
- Any reduction of meat production and consumption, which leads to greenhouse gas emissions and the degradation of soil, water and air, desertification and deforestation, will bring enormous benefits for the environment.
- Ghent also wants to be a healthy city. A well balanced vegetarian meal is not only sustainable but also healthy. Belgians, and Europeans in general, eat too much meat and not enough vegetables, which has serious consequences for their health. Too much meat heightens cholesterol levels as well as the risk of some cancers, diabetes and obesity.
In an interview today on NPR (which I can’t link to because the site is down), a chef at a well known restaurant said that 70% of his customers picked the vegetarian lunch the first week.
The NY Times Frugal Traveler did a huge article on Portland in last Sunday’s paper. It is full of information on food carts, along with a few restaurants and coffee houses. Overall, it’s pretty good, although I don’t think the man knows much about coffee. Easy to miss, there is also an online video about our food cart scene here. It’s well worth reading if you want to feel even better about our city
As a Cincinnati native, goetta is far from Spam. It’s more like a sausage patty, but crispier…and more amazing. There are at least two goetta fests every year to celebrate the godsend that is goetta. And my favorite diner back home serves GLTs – Goetta Lettuce and Tomato sandwiches – that can drop panties.
Goetta sounds more like meatloaf. Isn’t Spam miscellaneous and scary pig parts and chemicals? I’d love to see a recipe for Goetta because those GLTs sound good.
Frank Bruni is leaving the NYTIMES – perhaps they’ll make you the next Food Dude of the Grey Lady? Then they wouldn’t have to pay you to travel to Portland to write all the Portland articles that appear in their pages.
I was also hoping for some Morgan Brownlow details. http://www.oregonlive.com/dining/index.ssf/2009/05/star_chef_morgan_brownlow_walk.html
There really haven’t been any… very mysterious.
Cool! I was in Ghent about two weeks ago and found it to be the easiest place in Belgium to find vegetarian options. I found a wonderful veggie burger bar that offered about a dozen varieties of house-made burger patties (not just your run-of-the-mill dry soy burgers). I think that kind of business would fare well in our city. Hmmm…
CONGRATS! to Lizzy Caston for sharing her Food Cart insight and expertise with the NYT – nice! Now I am craving Bosnian food.
Recipe: http://www.cincinnatimagazine.com/article.aspx?id=76888
Goetta sounds to me like what my family called scrapple. It was a mixture of meats and oats or cornmeal. My mother’s stepfather would make it in a loaf pan and then slice it and fry it and sometimes serve it with syrup.
I have actually tried the goetta at Simpatica and it is really good. It’s not something that would usually interest me, but I got to try it once and it was very tasty. And yes, I suppose it is closer to scrapple than to spam, but it really isn’t like scrapple.
I think NE 28th Ave, has someof the best sidewalk seating on the north side. As we’ve done for the last 6 and a half years Wine Down will provide live music every weekend (providing the weather of course). So tonight have some great dinner maybe our Laurelhurst Burger and listen to local blues and slide guitar legend Terry Robb playing from 7 to 10pm. So if your into Blues and slide guitar stop by if you can find a spot outside. We are the only place in the city that does live music on the sidewalk that I know of for almost 7 years. And don’t forget tonight Happy Hour after 10 tonight including all our beers for 2.50 a pint.
Holy bologna! Just caught that you linked to my Trader Joe’s Wine Compendium and I’m blown away – what an honor Food Dude. Let me know which wine you picked up and if you liked it.