Mark Twain complained constantly about the food as he traveled through Europe in 1879. To him, even the coffee and tea didn’t taste right. Twain was homesick for a tasty raccoon like those he ate in Missouri; for the fried sheep-head and croakers he ate in New Orleans as a Mississippi riverboat captain; for the big trout he caught in Lake Tahoe. At one point, Twain wrote down a menu of all the foods he wanted to eat immediately upon returning home. If held, this private dinner would have included 80 dishes!
In his new book, Twain’s Feast, Andrew Beahr sets out to find eight of Twain’s favorite foods in today’s industrialized food scene. He avoids typical American “comfort food” - fried chicken, apple pie and porter-house steak. Instead, he chooses foods that were wild in Twain’s day.
Beahr tracks down the now endangered Illinois Prairie Chickens doing their provocative mating dance in the tall field grasses. He gazes into the waters of Lake Tahoe and conjures ghosts of the now depleted trout that Twain loved. He listens to farmers who grow cranberries and who make maple syrup in rural New England describe their physically demanding work that brings a dismal return in today’s highly competitive commercial marketplace.
Twain would be amazed to see the 600 pounds of raccoon meat that has been ‘harvested’ annually since 1947 by the citizens of Gillette, Arkansas for their annual Coon Dinner. Beahr puts on gloves, picks up a knife and helps strip the pungent, sticky fat off freshly boiled raccoon meat. After seeing it brined, boiled, smoked and finally barbecued, he tries a piece. Its flavor muted by serious over-cooking reminds him of, you guessed it, chicken!
Most of us would find an annual dinner of raccoon meat one dinner too many. But back in the 1900’s, fresh raccoon meat was standard fare in New York City’s forty public markets. Patricia Marx, writing in a recent New Yorker, reminds us that thousands of foods were available, many of them unthinkable today, like groundhog, porcupine and wild swan. In “On and Off the Avenue”, she sets out to canvas the city that still holds the title for having the highest density of food markets in the nation.
What has changed in the past few years is the way foods are sold. Marx notes the decline of New York’s small ethnic and independent groceries that flourished on local foot traffic. Large and highly specialized stores dominate the marketplace. She visits several expensive gourmet markets; upscale grocery chains; a bargain-filled discounter; and gigantic Costco that pushes the limits of the category with its non-food items. She includes Fresh Direct the online shopping service, and quirky Stew Leonard’s discount warehouse in the Bronx that houses a petting zoo and employees dressed as animals.
And how are we managing our waistlines in an America where one can buy food at any price and at any time of day or night? Marion Nestle, the go-to food nutritionist and blogger, is guardedly optimistic. In a recent post on Food Politics she reports that American obesity levels did not rise between 2008 and 2010. (The study was released by Center for Disease Control and Prevention.) Nestle is not sure why – perhaps people are eating less during this recession? This doesn’t change the fact that thirty-five percent of American adults and seventeen percent of adolescents are obese. Is help on the way?
News Flash: TV Chef Paula Deen, who serves her hamburgers on glazed donuts has type 2 diabetes. Why she waited three years since her diagnosis to let her fans know has a lot to do with her new role as drug spokesperson for Victoza, a prescription drug for type 2 diabetes. The American Diabetes Association’s claim that diabetes can be inherited isn’t correct says Nestle. It’s all about diet. Paula has chosen to promote a new, unproven drug that costs $500 a month rather than advocate a healthy lifestyle. We know whose side she’s on. Mark Twain didn’t know how good he had it.
BONUS RECIPE: Lamb Ragout with Artichoke, Peas and Lentils
http://www.chezm.com/welcome-to-recipes/67-lamb-dishes/689-lamb-ragout-artichokes-peas-lentils
http://www.chezm.com/welcome-to-recipes/67-lamb-dishes/689-lamb-ragout-artichokes-peas-lentils
