Test Tube Hamburger

There are things that make you pause and wonder if we are evolving as upright mammals. Last week I saw abdominal Spanx for men in the department store, that made me pause, if you overeat while wearing your new slimming Spanx will you explode?


Recently I read an article in the New York Times on a test tube engineered hamburger, this also made me pause. Are you serious? Escoffier is rolling over in his grave and Einstein is smiling!


MAASTRICHT, the Netherlands

As a gastronomic delicacy, the five-ounce hamburger that Mark Post has painstakingly created here surely will not turn any heads. But Dr. Post is hoping that it will change some minds. The burger was created at phenomenal cost — 250,000 euros, or about $325,000 dollars.

The burger consists of about 20,000 thin strips of cultured muscle tissue. Dr. Post, who has conducted some informal taste tests, said that even without any fat, the tissue “tastes reasonably good.” For the London event he plans to add only salt and pepper.

Not exactly the dollar menu but I'm sure someone will pull up to the laboratory drive through window...."I'll take a the Stem Cell Vitro Burger with cheese, hold the onions"

From a culinary perspective I'd like to know if it's engineered towards being 80/20, ground chuck, Wagyu, Kobe, or some mystery frozen burger puck.

A Few Thoughts About the Attributes of Flavor

After building a list of what flavor means to me I conveniently stuffed them into a pig, which somehow seemed very appropriate!

Food or Faces?

The fact that you are viewing this website may indicate you have a problem, at least according to these articles. Are you guilty of taking pictures of food instead of people while eating out? I'm siding with food writer Josh Ozersky who stands up for it. According to the Huffington Post It's actually a trend called "Foodstagramming", which has some restaurants upset.

Two of my favorite sites for food images are Foodspotting and TasteSpotting. Food or faces? your choice, I guess that's why Facebook exists.  I don't mean any disrespect to the people I eat out with, you are all far more interesting than crispy pig ears and artisan salami.

Huffington Post
Instagramming Your Food May Signal Bigger Problem Researcher Says

"The concern becomes when all they do is send pictures of food," Taylor told HuffPost. "We take pictures of things that are important to us, and for some people, the food itself becomes central and the rest -– the venue, the company, et cetera -- is background."

CBC News, British Columbia
Posting pictures of meals online? You may have health problems

"You don't take pictures of who you're with, you take pictures of what you're eating,"

Eater
Expert: Photographing Food May Be Sign Of Mental Illness

"In the pro-food corner, food writer Josh Ozersky defends food photography in this week's Eat Like a Man column. "Anybody that has any objection to the use of smartphones and their cameras, for any reason, needs to pipe down right now," he writes. He suggests that taking pictures of food might even be a sign of mental strength. "If anything, shooting food pictures is an act of impulse control, delayed gratification, and long-term planning. It would be a lot easier to just gobble that food up..."

Flavor Math 101 For The Day - Figonometry Equation

Fresh Figs + Truffle Oil + Honey + Gorgonzola + Fresh Herbs = Zero, because they vanished after applying this equation. 

Savory Rhubarb "Jam"

Rhubarb season is running extra long this year because the summer heat has been delayed until recently. This is fine with me because we've been able to harvest rhubarb 3 times now.

We've made plenty of rhubarb-strawberry pie, and rhubarb compote for ice cream, so I thought I'd experiment with a savory preparation.

Straight out of the garden.


Place the sliced rhubarb in a heavy pan with water, sugar, salt, pepper, fresh thyme, rosemary, and sage.


Cook mixture down until very thick and producing volcanic-like activity.


We ate this with pork and consumed half a jar! It was a perfect balance of sweet, bitter, salt, and savory herbs.

Wish You Were Here

This could definitely become a weekend morning ritual. I'll have coffee with that please....