Archive for the ‘Portfolio’ Category
In Honor of Fathers (and Daughters)
I wrote this piece a couple of years ago for EcoSalon, right after my father and I had gone on a road trip together. Just a few weeks ago I was traveling across a well known route between Washington and Utah, headed to Moab for a few days of exploring red rock. Road trips have always been a tradition, and we try to keep it as such. I realize how special trips like these are, and how conscious we are about both making time for them. And that’s what a healthy relationship is: making time for each other.
I reread the essay today in honor of Father’s Day, and figured it was worth reposting. Because the special father daughter bond always deserves appreciation.
For the Love of Brewing Coffee Outdoors
I drink coffee outside whenever I can. If there’s sun and a terrace, you can bet that I will be on it. But even better than just drinking coffee outdoors? Brewing coffee outdoors.
Tracking Down Good Coffee in Montmartre
People often ask me where they should go when they come to Paris. It takes time to make personal itineraries for people (I really should start charging…), but fortunately I write enough roundups that I can just start sending links instead. Case in point: my favorite coffee spots around Montmartre.
A New Column! And It’s All About Coffee…
I am a bit behind on this announcement, but last week my new column for The Kitchn launched. And what is it about? Take a wild guess…
Coffee!
Titled “Smart Coffee for Regular Joes” the column is going to take on the coffee world, looking at the ins and outs of how to make coffee, exploring coffee culture in other countries, and celebrating the drink that so many of us love.
“Coffee isn’t just a drink, it’s a cornerstone of our everyday. A building block of our routines and our social interactions. Coffee fuels us.”
Read the first installment of the column and follow along in the discussion. What do you want to learn about in the coffee world?
2,592 Reasons to Hate Coffee Pods
Well, actually I didn’t write that many. But I did go on an anti coffee pod rant this week.
“If you’d had asked coffee specialists that this was going to happen, they would have told you, ‘That’s ridiculous,’” Mark Pendergrast, author of “Uncommon Grounds,” told the Seattle Times. That’s because coffee pods are ridiculous, but just like with so many other things, we’ve traded convenience for taste. In the process we’ve ended up with a product that’s really bad for the planet. For example, all of the K-cups (the name for the Keurig pods) sold in 2013 could wrap around the Earth 10.5 times.
Coffee pods. Wrapped around the earth 10.5 times. Think about it.
You can read the full rant – which includes all the environmental, economic and quality reasons not to drink single-brew coffee – on Foodie Underground.
Image: Mother Jones
What is Food Gentrification?
Have you heard about the new term “food gentrification“? It’s this week’s topic on Foodie Underground.
“Food gentrification” started as a hashtag by writer Mikki Kendall, who wrote about the impact of turning ordinary products into trendy ones, and the ultimate social impact. “My grandmother was a master of turning offal into delicious, and I still use many of her recipes to this day. But now, once-affordable ingredients have been discovered by trendy chefs, and have been transformed into haute cuisine. Food is facing gentrification that may well put traditional meals out of reach for those who created the recipes,” Kendall wrote in January.
Just like rebuilding neighborhoods has shot up real estate prices and pushed out locals, rebuilding the food movement, putting certain common-day vegetables on a pedestal, in turn making them more expensive, is pushing people away from eating them.
There was a time when we all had access to fresh food and ingredients. Think back to our grandparents. There were few things available, but the things that were available were real food. There were vegetables, there was fruit and there were no Doritos. Often there was a garden. People ate real food simply because it was the only thing available.
Hop on over to Foodie Underground to read the full article.
Refilling Your Wine Bottle at a Different Kind of Wine Bar: En Vrac, Paris
The first time I went to En Vrac, I immediately fell in love. You come here not just to buy wine, but to enjoy a different kind of wine buying experience. Because here, you fill your wine bottle from a stainless steel tank. Yes, wine in bulk.
When it Comes to Food, Are We Superficial?
I’ve been thinking a lot about food and food marketing lately, and feeling a bit frustrated that we’re quick to hop on board and buy trendy foods instead of just eating what’s good for us. It’s the topic of this week’s Foodie Underground column.
“We like to accuse the industrial food world of using food marketing to keep people eating unhealthy, citing examples of sugar cereal that’s branded as part of a complete breakfast. But let’s not kid ourselves, the healthy food world does it too.
Take the example of superfoods. First of all, there is no exact definition of the word “superfood.” You can slap that name on any food that is power-packed with nutrients. Second of all, do you know where your superfoods are coming from? Sure, goji berries might be good for your health, but the majority of them are grown on industrial fields in China. We say we want to be locavores and then we go dousing our salads in berries and grains that are imported from across the world.”
Read the full article here.
Food Waste: Creative Solutions to a Big Problem
Did you know that about 40% of the food produced in the US goes uneaten? Food waste is a serious issue.
I was happy to contribute a piece to one of my favorite food sites Civil Eats on the topic, profiling different businesses and organizations that are putting food waste to use in interesting ways. My favorite? A company using beer grains to make granola bars and another making brownies out of leftover grapes from the winemaking process:
4. If you’ve ever brewed your own beer, you know that it takes a lot of grain. And what happens to that grain once the beer is done? Some brewers compost with it, some (of the very committed) bake with it, but most often it gets thrown out. That’s why Dan Kurzrock and Jordan Schwartz launched Regrained, a business that makes granola bars out of spent malted barley. According to the pair, “only 10 percent of the ingredients used to brew end up in your glass.”
5. In winemaking, all the leftover stuff that comes after the grapes have been crushed is called pomace. More often than not, it’s destined for the compost or the dump. But Whole Vine Products takes a different route, using this byproduct in baked goods. In fact, they work with a local mill to turn the pomace into a gluten-free flour. They also make culinary oils from the grape seeds. Anyone care for a Cabernet brownie?
Read the full article and learn about the other projects, including making jam from food waste, here.
Image: Regrained
The Obligation of Food Lovers
“If you are a food lover, then you have an obligation to think about what you’re eating. You have an obligation to know where your food comes from, and you have an obligation to know how the broken food system is negatively affecting so much of the population. We have to start to learn how to turn passion for food into a passion for improving the food system, taking the pleasure that we get from eating and transforming it into advocating for real food, not only for the privileged, but for everyone.”
From this week’s Foodie Underground column on EcoSalon.
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