THERE ARE THOUSANDS AND THOUSANDS OF FOOD BLOGS, BUT ONLY ONE CULINARY NO-NO!
True confession: During the recent Christmas season I may have committed a Culinary no-no.
Worse yet, it may actaully have been not one but 24.
As usual, the no-no is coming. But first, some background from a previous blog:
My lovely wife Jennifer is not a wine snob. But she loves wine.
I’ve blogged that Jennifer is a definite connoisseur, oenophile, slave to the grape.
She even owns this Christine Alexander top:
Jennifer’s female friends also have a unanimous admiration for wine. They get absolutely gleeful on Facebook when they share memes and what not about their favorite adult beverage.
Jennifer is no highbrow. However, she can just by tasting determine which bottle purchased at Sendik’s was $10.99 as opposed to the one at $21.99.
—Culinary no-no #732, April 10, 2022
Knowing full well the above information and that, as I’ve been told, “happy wife, happy life,” this past November I snuck off to one of my all-time favorite shopping destinations. Aldi. LOL.
And I had to get there ASAP. Aldi first pioneered the Wine Advent calendar concept back in 2018. The product sells out almost immediately every year. Others have caught on. Numerous other retailers also sell their own versions.
Let’s see what Aldi offered in 2022:
The Holiday Magic Wine Advent Calendar included twenty-four 187-mL plastic bottles inside, including 1 bottle each of:
“Candlelit Memories” Red Blend, 13%, France
“Celebrate Friends” Merlot, 14%, Republic of North Macedonia
“Handle With Care” Cabernet Sauvignon, 13.5%, Bulgaria
“Handmade Ornaments” Macabeo, 12.5%, Spain
“Hibernate With Me” Red Blend, 12.5%, Italy
“Holly Jolly” Sweet Red, 12%, Italy
“It’s Cold Outside” Merlot, 12%, Italy
“Lovely Branches” Merlot, 13.5%, Bulgaria
“Peaceful Forest” Cabernet Sauvignon, 13%, Italy
“Singing Snowman” White Blend, 12.5%, Hungary
“Snow Fun” Vino Rosato, 12%, Italy
“Snowy Slopes” Red Blend, 12%, Spain
“Snowy Song” Riesling, 12%, Republic of North Macedonia
“Special Delivery” Red Wine, 13%, France
“Through The Forest” Pinot Gris, 13%, Hungary
“Warm Friend” Red Blend, 12%, France
“Winter Adventure” White Blend, 12.5%, Portugal
“Winter Getaway” Red Blend, 12.5%, Portugal
“Winter Vacation” Chenin Blanc, 12%, South Africa
“Wintertime Wonders” Grenache, 14.5%, Spain
Jennifer received an early Christmas present, 24 of them, and was very, very pleased. As far as I know, she rather enjoyed all two dozen of those tiny servings.
Being the magnamious hubby that I am Jennifer also opened, not a calendar per se, but a box of assortments from QVC produced by Vintage Wine Estates, a family of wineries and wines located throughout Napa, Sonoma, California’s Central Coast, Oregon and Washington State.
About those calendars, Lettie Teague would have turned up her nose. She may have said asked how could you do this to that wonderful wife of yours Kevin?
Teague is the Wine Columnist for the Wall Street Journalist. And she’s no fan of what Aldi and others put on their shelves every Christmas.
“All the bad wine in the world seems to have been packaged into tiny bottles destined for these grown-up friendly takes on the traditional dispensary of toys and treats, one for each of the24 days leading up to the Christmas holiday,” writes Teague.
“Like so many wine lovers I was seduced by the cute packaging, the little door to be opened each night to reveal a different red, white, or sparkler, only to be disappointed each time.
“I’ve had unspeakable red wines, bitter white wines and some truly terrible sparkling wines packaged in a festive disguise.”
Teague concludes she hopes wine calendars disappear in 2023. Her dogs did get a pet food calendar, the only one she’ll purchase later this year.
That’s her choice. But I can assure you on this topic, Teague’s review means nothing in the Fischer household.
In the past I’ve written about the large number of bozos who are complete jerks to their servers in restaurants. I have no patience for those idiots. If they behave that way away from home imagine what they must be like at say someone else’s dinner party.
Etiquette experts and therapists recently weighed in on what dinner hosts can do when guests act inappropriately:
The guest who makes rude or inappropriate comments.
Creating a warm and convivial environment for guests is part of your job as the host, and if one person is threatening that, it’s impolite not to address the situation.
Take this tip on discretion from Jodi R.R. Smith, an etiquette consultant and author of three books on modern manners based in Boston: “If a host is concerned about confronting a rude guest, the host can do so without embarrassing the guest by asking the guest to ‘help in the kitchen’ and having the conversation away from prying ears.”
It’s typically not a surprise when your disruptive guest (we all have one in our family or friend group) begins their soliloquy on “women these days” or all their other inappropriate opinions, so head off these remarks before your event.
“Take time before your event to talk to them about your expectations of their behavior during the event,” Juulia Karlstedt, an accredited counselor specializing in anxiety management in Edinburgh, suggested. “Be clear about the consequences of engaging in inappropriate or combative conversation. And if they do engage in the behavior during the event, follow through on those consequences. Pull the guest aside, keep your tone neutral, and hold the boundary you set.”
In the moment, try changing the topic of conversation to diffuse any conflict, ignore the remark and choose a more neutral topic. Smith suggested this script: “Let’s leave that for the politicians to argue.”
To minimize the chance of awkward conversations or one rude person dominating, hosts should prepare conversation starters or parlor games to keep the night fun and festive, Smith suggested.
“As a guest, you should arrive at the event with some interesting tidbits and stories to share,” Smith said. “When someone asks ‘What’s new?’ you should have an answer at the ready. ‘Oh nothing’ or ‘same old’ is a conversation killer.” The guest who won’t leave.
″Growing up, my best friend’s grandfather would go upstairs to put on his pajamas, slippers and robe. Then he would call down from the top of the stairs, ‘Thank you all for coming! It is time for me to sleep and you to go home.’ This worked well for a lovely and avuncular gentleman, but won’t work for most hosts,” Smith said.
If changing into your jammies is a step too far for you, winding-down activities like tidying up, stopping the music and turning on the lights is a great way to signal to guests that the party has ended. Guests who don’t (or won’t) take the hint may need a more direct approach.
Try this script from Tina Alvarado, a licensed marriage and family therapist in Seattle: “Gosh, it’s so late, I’m getting sleepy. I’m going to have to call it a night,” or “I’ve had such a great time with you tonight, but it’s time for you all to head home. I’m really looking forward to the next time we do this. Let me walk you out.”When sending out invites, consider letting guests know your event’s start and end time to prevent misunderstandings.
So the host has some options. What responsibilities do guests have, especially when it comes to the lost art of manners?
Sandy Lindsey is an award-winning writer and was recently published in The Epoch Times:
Arrive on Time
The first rule of good culinary manners has nothing to do with food. Your hosts have gone through a lot of time and effort to create a memorable, enjoyable meal, but if they have to delay serving it until you decide to show up, it can ruin it for everyone else. You’ll also miss out on mingling with the other guests; once seated for the meal, it’s not always easy to talk to everyone.
Arrive no more than 15 minutes early, and leave only after the meal has been completed; leave no sooner than 15 minutes after the meal is done. Send a written “thank you” note within two days after the event.
Fine Dining 101
If you find yourself confused by the array of utensils at a formal dinner, watch to see what your hosts use. If you’re dining at a restaurant, see what utensils others are using. If in doubt, start with the fork and knife placed at the outside, such as the smaller fork for salads, and work your way in with each successive course.
Pass food to the right, helping yourself to a small portion—youcan have seconds after everyone has been served—and never reach across the table to load food onto your plate or grab a dinner roll, even if it’s “right there.”
Napkin Knowledge
When you take a seat, place your napkin in your lap, folded in half with the fold against your waist. Resist the urge to unfurl it with a dramatic snap of the wrist. Use it by delicately pressing against your lips to address any errant food bits or sloshed drinks.
If you must leave the table for any reason, place the napkin on your chair or to the left of the plate to let the waiter know you’ll be returning. At the completion of all courses of the meal, when the hosts place their napkins on the table, do the same.
Continental or American?
We’re not talking about cars, but rather two styles of using forks and knives. Neither is wrong; it’s simply good manners to follow the lead of your hosts. The American style has you using a knife to cut the food with your right hand, then taking the fork in your right hand to eat. In Continental style, cutting is done with the right hand, and the fork remains in your left hand to hold it and to then eat it.
Watch your hosts to see if they hold their fork with the tines “up” as they eat or if they hold it with the tines curved down to hold and eat their food.
Be Helpful and Fun
When dining at the host’s home, offer to assist with any last-minute tasks such as arranging chairs or setting the table. Prior to eating, while everyone is mingling, step in and help if a drink or a plate of hors d’oeuvres is spilled.
Dinner conversations don’t have to be stilted and dry; while ribald humor is never appropriate, people have more fun when they’re laughing, so feel free to put your wit on display. Note that this isn’t the same as monopolizing the conversation—get the conversation going, then sit back and enjoy it. After the meal, as the guests are leaving, offer to help clear the table, wash dishes, or take out the trash.
International Eats
Now that you’ve mastered the many forks on the table; here’s some additional trivia if you’re going to travel to other countries.
Thai Technique
In Thailand, you never put a fork in your mouth. A fork is used to manipulate food onto the spoon, which is your primary eating utensil, and must be held in the right hand. No utensils are used for sticky rice, which is a hand food that is balled up before eating.
Mexican Manners
Step away from the cutlery in Mexico when eating tacos. Tacos are a “hands on”—two hands for a firm grip—meal. If you’re concerned about drips, that’s what the napkin in your lap is for. To use a fork and knife, unless the taco has completely come apart, is pretentious.
Chopstick Concerns
Resist the temptation to stick your chopsticks upright in your rice. When not in use, lay them parallel to the table edge. Upright chopsticks in a bowl of rice is a funeral custom in most Asian cultures—in Shinto and Buddhist cultures specifically.
THERE ARE THOUSANDS AND THOUSANDS OF FOOD BLOGS, BUT ONLY ONE CULINARY NO-NO!
They all have something in common.
Cranberry Brie Bites
Stuffed Mushrooms
Pigs in a Blanket
Ham & Cheese Sliders
Deviled Eggs
Cocktail Meatballs
Town and Country writes they are just some of the appetizers that will make for the best holiday dinner ever.
So what’s wrong with them?
You’ve got to ask noted English food writer, journalist, and television cook Nigella Lawson.
The 62-year old told podcats hosts Emily Maitlis and Jon Sopel this week it is “madness” to serve starters with Christmas dinner.
Why?
They ruin what a feast the main meal is. Lawson believes eating too much during Christmas get-together can leave people a “bloated wreck” rather than happily full and warm.
“I don’t know why people do starters for Christmas lunch. I never have – that seems a madness. But I also think there is a way in which for so many people it does become a sort of obscene overindulgence. So people are not eating because it is pleasurable; they’re eating because, somehow, people feel it is [pleasurable] when they should be eating non-stop.”
Another Lawson Christmas no-no: buying presents for people who don’t need them.
“You can give them a card to say I’ve donated in your name in lieu of a Christmas present, so you can feel like you’re doing something,” she suggested. “You want to celebrate being with your family in ways we haven’t been able to, but you don’t want it to tip into the obscene.”
As for me, I say eat hearty. It’s Christmas. Man does not live by prime rib alone. Please pass the shrimp cocktail.
THERE ARE THOUSANDS AND THOUSANDS OF FOOD BLOGS, BUT ONLY ONE CULINARY NO-NO!
Recently the Fischer family attended First Stage Milwaukee’s production of “Rudolf.” After the evening show we headed for a bite to eat and ended up at Franklin’s Point After Pub & Grill. The hour was roughly 9:15 when we were seated.
I had perfectly prepared walleye pike paired with onion rings.
Jennifer dined on pot roast sliders (she’d eat pot roast on a Volkswagen bumper).
Kyla enjoyed half of her monstrous burger.
Service was great.
OK Kev. So what’s no-no? Nothing at all with the Point After.
Try the time of day.
We normally don’t eat that late and don’t make a habit of it. One health expert suggests that’s a very good idea.
Dr. Joseph Mercola is the founder of Mercola.com. An osteopathic physician, best-selling author, and recipient of multiple awards in the field of natural health. He writes:
Are Late Dinners Wrecking Your Health
(Photo:Iryna Inshyna/Shutterstock)
STORY AT-A-GLANCE
Fasting is an ancient health intervention embraced for its rejuvenating effects. In more recent years, researchers have demonstrated that less challenging forms of fasting, such as time-restricted eating (TRE), are just as effective as longer water fasts, helping your body repair cellular damage, reduce inflammation, improve brain function and much more
90% of people eat across a span of 12 hours a day, and many across even longer timespans, which is a recipe for metabolic disaster. I believe this is part of why more than 93% of Americans are metabolically unfit
Most TRE regimens call for eating during four to eight hours of the day and fasting for the remaining 16 to 20 hours. The sweet-spot is probably six hours of eating and 18 hours of fasting
An often-overlooked caveat with regard to this timing is that you want to eat your last meal at least three hours or more before bedtime. This is important, as it helps protect your mitochondrial function
Cellular repair begins approximately six hours after you’ve ingested your last calories, so if you’re eating across 15 hours a day, your body only has three hours in which to repair itself. If you eat for only eight hours and fast the remaining 16, your body will have a solid 10 hours in repair mode
Fasting is an ancient health intervention embraced through the ages for its rejuvenating effects. In more recent years, researchers have demonstrated that less challenging forms of fasting, such as intermittent fasting and time-restricted eating (TRE), are just as effective as longer water fasts, helping your body repair cellular damage, reduce inflammation, improve brain function and much more.
According to Satchin Panda, Ph.D., who has conducted important research into the impact of meal timing on circadian rhythm, 90% of people eat across a span of 12 hours a day, and many across even longer timespans, which is a recipe for metabolic disaster.
I believe this is part of why more than 93% of Americans are metabolically unfit. In July 2022, the Journal of the American College of Cardiology posted an update on the metabolic fitness or flexibility of the American population. In 2016, approximately 88% were metabolically unfit. As of 2018, it’s over 93%.
Metabolic fitness includes things like blood glucose and blood sugar, blood pressure and weight. This means 14 out of 15 Americans could benefit from improving their metabolic health, and TRE is one of the easiest yet most powerful interventions for reducing insulin resistance, restoring metabolic flexibility and losing excess body fat.
How TRE Can Improve Your Health
For most people, TRE is the easiest to implement as you get to eat every day, albeit only within a certain window of time. Most TRE regimens call for eating during four to eight hours of the day and fasting for the remaining 16 to 20 hours. The sweet-spot is probably six hours of eating and 18 hours of fasting.
As explained by Steve Hendricks, author of “The Oldest Cure in the World: Adventures in the Art and Science of Fasting” in a Salon article:
“As researchers explored the mechanisms, they found that longer fasting periods gave the body time to make more repairs. Our bodies are constantly repairing and replacing damaged cellular parts — patching up faulty DNA, recycling worn-out organelles — which, if not taken care of, can result in disease.
But these repairs usually occur at a very low rate because the body is so busy doing all the other tasks that make up our lives, including the immense work of digesting our meals, processing the nutrients from those meals, and putting the nutrients to work in cells all over the body.
But when we stop eating for long enough, the body takes advantage of the break from all that heavy work, and our cells use the downtime to supercharge their repairs.”
Why Late-Night Dinners Sabotage Your Health
An often-overlooked caveat with regard to this timing is that you want to eat your last meal at least three hours or more before bedtime. This is important, as it helps protect your mitochondrial function, which in turn helps protect against any number of chronic ailments and diseases. But leaving only a two-hour gap is still on the riskier side. As explained by Hendricks:
“It’s a lot of work for the body to switch from its daytime mode of digesting and processing nutrients to its nighttime mode of making repairs, so the body doesn’t start those repairs in earnest until it’s absolutely sure we’re done eating.
About 6 hours after we eat or drink our last calories the repairs start, and they ratchet up slowly, hour by hour, until they reach a kind of repair overdrive after another 6 hours, which is to say 12 hours after our last consumed calorie.”
This means that if you’re eating across 15 hours a day, you’re only fasting nine hours at night, and since cellular repair doesn’t kick in for six hours, your body only has three hours in which to repair itself. Is it any wonder then that degeneration sets in?
“If you eat for only eight hours and fast the remaining 16, your body will have a solid 10 hours in repair mode. With that in mind, set your eating window early in the day so that your last meal is around 3 p.m.”
If you eat for only eight hours and fast the remaining 16, your body will have a solid 10 hours in repair mode. With that in mind, Hendricks recommends setting your eating window early in the day so that your last meal is around 3 p.m. Many who recommend TRE typically recommend simply skipping either skip breakfast or dinner, but skipping dinner would be the better choice.
Benefits of Making Dinner Your Smallest, Lightest Meal
Research also suggests making your earliest meal the largest and subsequent ones increasingly smaller allows your body to work better. As suggested by Hendricks, “Follow the adage ‘Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, and dinner like a pauper.’” The reason for this is because your circadian rhythm is hardwired to process food most efficiently early in the day. Hendricks explains:
“Take our body’s management of the hormone insulin, for example. Insulin’s job is to move glucose (the sugar from our meals) out of our arteries and into the cells that use the glucose for fuel. Cued to a circadian rhythm, our pancreases make a lot of insulin in the morning and early afternoon, but production wanes by mid-afternoon.
When we eat in the late afternoon or at night, there’s less insulin in our bloodstream, so glucose lingers longer in our arteries, where it dings up the arterial walls. Over time, the arteries can harden, putting us at risk of heart attacks, strokes, dementia, and other calamities.
This rhythm of insulin is so potent that you can feed prediabetics the same meal at 7 a.m. and again at 7 p.m., and although their blood sugar will hardly rise after the morning meal, after the evening meal the sugar lingers so long in their blood that some of them will test fully diabetic … Evidently, we just weren’t made to process nutrients late in the day.”
Same Principle Works for Poisons Too
A rather macabre illustration of this came out of a 2012 analysis of 15,000 people in Sri Lanka who had attempted suicide by drinking pesticide. Those who drank the poison in the evening died half as frequently as those who poisoned themselves in the morning.
The mechanism that helps explain this discrepancy is that the digestive tract absorbs poisons more rapidly and distributes them throughout the body more efficiently when consumed in the morning.
The same principle applies to chemotherapy. As noted by Hendricks, “Against some cancers, chemo can be up to five times less toxic to the patient and twice as effective against the cancer when delivered at the right hour.”
Early Supper May Aid Weight Loss Efforts
As reported by MedicalXpress, recent research has confirmed that eating earlier in the day provides added benefits, over and beyond the practice of only eating within a limited time window.
One study, published in the October 4, 2022, issue of Cell Metabolism, showed that even when everything else is equal, simply shifting the eating window by four hours, so that volunteers ate their meals later in the day (eating between 1 p.m. and 9 p.m. rather than 9 a.m. through 5 p.m.), doubled the likelihood of being hungry and increased fat accumulation. As noted in the abstract:
“In this randomized crossover trial that rigorously controlled for nutrient intake, physical activity and sleep, Vujovic et. al. found that late eating increased hunger, modified appetite-regulating hormones, decreased daytime energy expenditure, and altered adipose gene expression consistent with increased adipogenesis/decreased lipolysis. Together, these findings may explain the increased obesity risk in late eaters.”
The Many Health Benefits of Intermittent Fasting
The full list of benefits associated with TRE and other intermittent fasting regimens is a long one. Without attempting to create an exhaustive list, here’s a sampling of what intermittent fasting can do for your health:
Promote insulin sensitivity, which is crucial for your health. Insulin resistance or poor insulin sensitivity contributes to nearly all chronic diseases
Promote leptin sensitivity and normalize ghrelin levels, also known as the “hunger hormone,” resulting in lowered hunger
Improve blood sugar management by increasing insulin-mediated glucose uptake rate
Lower triglyceride levels
Increase human growth hormone production (HGH) — Commonly referred to as “the fitness hormone,” HGH plays an important role in maintaining health, fitness and longevity, including promotion of muscle growth, and boosting fat loss by revving up your metabolism. Research shows fasting can raise HGH by as much as 1,300% in women and 2,000% in men.
The fact that it helps build muscle while simultaneously promoting fat loss explains why HGH helps you lose weight without sacrificing muscle mass, and why even athletes can benefit from intermittent fasting
Suppress inflammation and reduce oxidative damage
Upregulate autophagy and mitophagy, natural cleansing processes necessary for optimal cellular renewal and function
Boost fat burning and improve metabolic efficiency and body composition, including significant reductions in visceral fat and body weight in obese individuals
Prevent or reverse Type 2 diabetes, as well as slow its progression
Improve immune function
Lower blood pressure
Reduce your risk of heart disease — One study found those who fasted regularly had a 58% lower risk of coronary disease compared to those who never fasted
Reproduce some of the cardiovascular benefits associated with physical exercise
Boost mitochondrial energy efficiency and biosynthesis
Shift stem cells from a dormant state to a state of self-renewal
Reduce your risk of cancer
Increase longevity — There are a number of mechanisms contributing to this effect. Normalizing insulin sensitivity is a major one, but fasting also inhibits the mTOR pathway, which plays an important part in driving the aging process
Regenerate the pancreas and improve pancreatic function
Improve cognitive function, thanks to rising ketone levels
Protect against neurological diseases such as dementia, Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease, thanks to the production of ketone bodies (byproducts of fatty acid breakdown, which are a healthy and preferred fuel for your brain) and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF, which activates brain stem cells to convert into new neurons, and triggers numerous other chemicals that promote neural health)
Eliminate sugar cravings as your body adapts to burning fat instead of sugar
TRE Is an Ideal Health Strategy for Most But Not All People
Remember, 95% of the US is metabolically inflexible and insulin resistant. For them TRE is an amazingly powerful strategy to regain metabolic flexibility. However, I recently learned from Dr. Ray Peat’s work, that if you are in the 5% of the population that is metabolically flexible and not insulin resistant, then TRE could be counterproductive. I now have extended my eating window to 8 to 10 hours and occasionally 12 hours in the summer.
In closing, a large and growing body of medical research supports the use of intermittent fasting strategies such as TRE. As noted by Hendricks:
“Early time-restricted eating (eTRE), as the practice is known, has been declared safe in study after study, and scientists in the field now recommend nearly all adults eat in a narrowed window, starting an hour or two after waking and ideally closing 6 to 8 hours later, although windows up to 12 hours will deliver health benefits.
For those who wish to eat dinner at the normal time, scientists advise keeping it light and earlyish and stacking most of the day’s calories before mid-afternoon: breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, dinner like a pauper … Scientists also say adolescents can safely practice a TRE of about 12 hours, but the verdict is still out for younger children …”
Ever since a letter in a medical journal identified monosodium glutamate as the source behind unpleasant health effects dubbed “Chinese Restaurant Syndrome,” MSG has been tagged as an unwelcome addition to cooking. However, fans of MSG say there is no proof that it’s a hazard. National Public Radio correspondent Allison Aubrey investigates why MSG’s reputation can still be tough to swallow.
THERE ARE THOUSANDS AND THOUSANDS OF FOOD BLOGS, BUT ONLY ONE CULINARY NO-NO!
During the 1990’s before our beautiful Kyla was born Jennifer and I visited Orlando theme parks including Universal.
At the time the most popular celebrity chef Emeril Lagasse had his own cooking TV show taped with a studio audience.
Emeril had several restaurants like the one at CityWalk in Universal Orlando.
So on our first trip to Universal Jennifer and I just had to go.
Note midway in the picture below to the far right there’s a staircase in the main dining room. It leads up to another dining area where we were seated.
Getting up those steps was no small feat given Jennifer’s mini-dress and heels.
We had a great time. The atmosphere was top notch, creating quite a buzz. Food and service: excellent.
Regular readers know that more often than not the no-no takes a while to surface. What could possibly be a problem?
The coffee.
What’s the hip phrase these days? No bueno.
Tasted like it was scooped right off the bottom of Lake Michigan. God awful. Not what we expected. And at times Jennifer prefers a good cup of Joe over me. She didn’t care for it.
It’s been about 30 years since and I’ve never had coffee anywhere near as dreadful as Emeril’s. Until now.
Last Sunday after church Jennifer and I needed a quick lunch/brunch stop before I had to be at MSOE to work two basketball games. We chose Fuel Cafe on S.5th Street.
Good service. Good food. But just like Emeril’s the coffee might not even be served to a guy on death row. And this time try twice as horrific as Emeril’s. Spoon stand up straight in the cup horrific.
Fuel Café really shouldn’t but it brags about its coffee. No one can accuse the joint of false advertising. Bitter battery acid.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not suggesting you stay away. Just go for tea, beer , wine, or a cocktail and hold the sludge in a cup.
BTW: Emeril no longer has any restaurants in Orlando.
THERE ARE THOUSANDS AND THOUSANDS OF FOOD BLOGS, BUT ONLY ONE CULINARY NO-NO!
Did you have a nice Thanksgiving meal a few weeks ago?
You know, the most anticipated dinner of the entire year?
Your holiday feast may have looked something like this, just the kind of display that drove Herman Munster to faint.
Note the cranberries. Were they on the table at your Thanksgiving? Will you eat them this month? January? February? Next spring or summer?
Probably not. And maybe they didn’t turn up last month with all the stuffing and potatoes and green beans.
According to a November 2019 Harris Poll Americans secretly hate but feel obligated to eat cranberries because of tradition. And talk about your no-no: 31 percent said they serve cranberry sauce in the shape of the tin can, as opposed to mashing it up.
The biggest dislike among Thanksgiving items was definitely cranberry sauce with many surveyed calling it “disgusting.”
The top offenders are:
Canned cranberry sauce (29%)
Green bean casserole (24%)
Sweet potatoes / sweet potato casserole (22%)
Pumpkin pie (21%)
Turkey (19%)
TURKEY????
One of my very first Culinary no-no segments from December of 2007 (#30 to be exact) was that we don’t enough cranberries. Thanksgiving comes and goes and then POOF. No more berries.
From a strictly health perspective that would be a mistake.
THERE ARE THOUSANDS AND THOUSANDS OF FOOD BLOGS, BUT ONLY ONE CULINARY NO-NO!
Come Thanksgiving there are distinct possibilities:
1) You will eat too much
2) You will get stressed
OVEREATING
Guaranteed. You will stuff yourself.
Then you will get tired. Downright sleepy.
It’s a given. Like death and taxes.
Why?
Is it because there are 27 sides on the dinner table?
Well, no.
The answer is a word I know you’re very familiar with and use frequently: tryptophan.
That’s a vital amino acid inside turkey. As you keep gorging on white meat later this week keep telling yourself the pigginess is absolutely worth it because your body doesn’t make tryptophan.
So there you have it. Tryptophan is making you feel like a nap. But there’s more. It’s the tryptophan inside the turkey and the serotonin and melatonin the tryptophan they produce. Put the two hormones together and what have you got? One tired puppy.
Of course how many logs you want to saw depends on how much turkey you eat. Cut back on the turkey and your troubles are over, right? No.
You’ve got your ham. And chicken. Red meat. Pork. Substitute any or add on your feast and you know what? They all have Tryptophan.
Oh, forget that annual ritual of not eating breakfast or lunch on Thanksgiving? Big time no-no. Now you have a quick huge rise in the amount of food at dinner, an average of 3,000 calories. The nasty tryptophan works best when your stomach is empty. You’re inviting a classic turkey coma.
Jared Miller writes on WebMD:
You shouldn’t let the risk of falling off the wagon ruin your holiday fun. Here are a few suggestions on how you can forgive yourself for indulging in the delicacies of Turkey Day:
But… I’ll undo all of my hard work. Do you worry that if you allow yourself that second serving of turkey or a bigger slice of pumpkin pie, you’ll suddenly put on all the weight you lost since you started making better food choices and exercising more? Dietician and upwave review board member Shoshana Pritzker, RD, CDN, reminds us, “One meal isn’t going to make you fat, or get diabetes or high blood pressure or any of those other illnesses or ailments that come from overeating all the time.”
If you overindulge on Thanksgiving, do your best to stick to your diet for the remainder of the season.
But… it makes me feel like a failure. Thanksgiving is all about spending time with loved ones while sharing a great meal. You don’t want to ruin the fun and spoil the food by worrying about letting yourself down. “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail,” says Pritzker. “So plan to succeed.” She recommends deciding what Thanksgiving foods you enjoy the most and go for those while avoiding other food you might eat just because it’s there. “Have smaller tastes of more of the foods you want, and don’t waste the calories on the other stuff,” she explains.
But… I won’t be able to get back on track. This is only true if you let it be. Having one afternoon where you let yourself enjoy the spirit of Thanksgiving doesn’t mean you’ll suddenly enjoy the same spirit everyday after that. It’s a choice, and in order to make the right one, Pritzker says you should reframe how you look at it: “That was one night, and I enjoyed myself. Tomorrow I’m going to get right back on track.” It’s all about maintaining a positive attitude.
But… I’ll feel gross. Eating a bunch of carbohydrates, fatty foods and sugary desserts can make the best of us avoid the mirror the next morning.
“Avoid feeling gross by coming up with something positive to do to get back to feeling good about yourself,” says Pritzker. Make this part of your plan to succeed. Tell yourself the day after Turkey Day will be about healthy choices. Go for a run in the morning and plan a few healthy meals for the day. Before you know it, you’ll be in front of the mirror patting yourself on the back.
THERE ARE THOUSANDS AND THOUSANDS OF FOOD BLOGS, BUT ONLY ONE CULINARY NO-NO!
food porn
noun
images that portray food in a very appetizing or aesthetically appealing way
There I sat in 2020 in the waiting room at a Franklin clinic as my daughter was at her braces appointment.
What to read? Hmm. This looked interesting. Golf Magazine. Top 100 golf courses…in the world.
Amidst all the beautiful, glossy, color pictures was a short feature called “Eats” about a mouth-watering dining option at a golf course in Nekoosa, WI.
Not all shanks are bad in golf! Chef Jon Keeley proves this his take on the shank. He starts with 1.5 lb bone-in Berkshire pork shank. He lets it brine for 24 hours and cooks it as a slow braise until fall off the bone tender. Served with grain mustard spaetzle (German dumpling) and topped with a carmelized cipollini onion.
Well maybe not that much. (BTW that’s the former Heart Attack Grill in Dallas. There’s one open in Las Vegas).
In 1984, author and journalist Rosalind Coward used the term “food pornography’’ for the first time in her book, “female Desire.” She wrote:
“That we should aspire to produce perfectly finished and presented food is a symbol of a willing and enjoyable participation in servicing others. Food pornography exactly sustains these meanings relating to the preparation of food.”
What’s wrong with food porn, other than the pictures usually of incredibly unhealthy dishes?
I’ve been wanting to post this for a long time. Drives me crazy. The guilty parties are just ordinary folks on social media, restaurant owners and employees.
They’ll go on Facebook or other sites and post awesome pictures of food items…AND THEN WRITE ABSOUTELY NOTHING ABOUT WHAT THEY JUST PUBLISHED. NO EXPLANATION OR DESCRIPTION WHATSOVER.
Not that I’m aiming to pick on anybody, but here are a few examples:
People go through trouble to get a nice presentation and photo and then leave the rest of us guessing.
BTW, the above food porn pictures belong to:
1) Ristorante Bartolotta in Wauwatosa, WI
2) Saz’s in Milwaukee
3) Ardent in Milwaukee
4) Honey Butter Cafe in Franklin, WI
Some chefs don’t like patrons snapping pictures of their steaks. They claim it takes away from the dining experience.
Restaurant reviewer Giles Coren in the UK says:
“I think photographing one’s food in a restaurant is easily as rude, disrespectful and brutish as making a phone call, scrolling a BlackBerry or dropping one’s trousers in the middle of the room and taking a massive dump. And the next time I see it happen, I am going to complain to the waiter and see what transpires. Just for larks.”
I say let the guy photograph his spaghetti and meatballs. Could mean some free advertising.
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This Just In... From Franklin, WI 
