Cooked by Michael Pollan

Cooked is a book by a well-known food critic and cook, Michael Pollan.  The book was written in 2013 and was published by The Penguin Press.  In Cooked, Michael Pollan talks about the evolution of cooking when looking into how we prepare food.  He mentions repeatedly throughout the book that cooking sets humans apart from any other animal on the planet and it makes us both unique and evolutionary.  The evolution of food has defined the human race and has shown to be the source of human expansion and culture in his research.

Food has made humans who they are and has even set apart different cultures and regions based on the potential foods available to those people and the way they choose to prepare them.  Humans have chosen several different ways to prepare foods based on the ingredients and resources available.  Many cultures used preserving methods to keep their produce and meats for longer than the original season would allow which opened the door for hundreds of cultures to find their own ways of preserving their food.  Cultures have smoked, salted, roasted, and fermented their foods to keep them for longer periods of time.  These methods have ultimately produced many of the foods that we know and love today including beef jerky, cheese, and pickled meats and vegetables.

Those flavors associated with the preservation methods eventually began to be what people’s pallets were accustomed to and they began to use those methods on all of their foods.  These traditions eventually transitioned to becoming the base of an entire culture or group of people and it has become what the culture is ultimately known for when discussing food.  Some methods have been used for thousands of years and are still enjoyed today by a wide variety of people because of the flavors produced and the potential benefits of eating those foods.  Whether the methods were invented because of necessity or out of choice really did not matter, the result was a global food culture that shaped the lives of communities around the world.  How we decide to cook things is not just our personal decision, it is rooted in deep cultural backgrounds that we may not even be aware of.

One thing that Pollan talks about is the changing of foods based on the scientific advancements around the world as well as the stress media puts on the world of food.  In today’s modern culture, people are told that bacteria is bad and can have some devastating effects on us when in reality a lot of bacteria is actually vital to our health and wellbeing.  Not having any bacteria can lead to a laundry list of problems for our body’s especially in the intestinal tract.  One area that Pollan talks about is the subject of fermentation.  Fermentation is the result of bacteria breaking down foods but this does not necessarily mean the foods are bad for consumption or dangerous to our health.  Cultures have been fermenting foods for thousands of years without any sort of regard for bacteria.  The foods that are fermented actually contain a great deal of good bacteria that is good for our bodies and helps keep our systems strong and functioning.  Take the area of making cheese for example.  In the book he talks with a woman who has been making cheese for years in an old wooden barrel that is home to countless bacteria.  Pollan paid a scientist to run bacterial tests on her wooden barrel as well as a stainless steel container that had been completely disinfected and they asked the woman to make cheese in both.  With that being said, not all bacteria is good bacteria and the one they were monitoring closely was E. Coli which is very dangerous for humans to consume.  The woman proceeded to make cheese in both containers and the tests were performed to test the levels of dangerous bacteria to see if the cheeses were acceptable for human consumption.  The results showed that the E. Coli levels of the cheese in the stainless steel tub were at levels that were not safe for human consumption but the levels found in the wooden barrel were minimal from the good bacteria found in the wood making the old fashioned cheese safe to eat.  The author stressed the importance of good bacteria in our diets and in the way we make food and that the disinfect everything mentality isn’t the best approach to safe eating.  The results of the simple experiment clearly proved his beliefs.

Cooked by Michael Pollan is not just about the wide range of foods found around the world and the different ways people have preserved and made food for centuries, it is about how cooking defines us as humans.  The ways we prepare our foods are different from any other animal or lifeform on the planet and it makes us stand out among the vast population of life.  He finally stresses the importance of balance in our cooking and how imbalances can lead to a wide range of problems for millions of people especially when looking into bacteria.  The book was a great read and I would highly recommend it to a friend.

Kim Ahn’s Noodle House Review

Restaurant Review: Kim Ahn’s

Kim Ahn’s is a Vietnamese noodle house located in my hometown of Harahan, Louisiana.  The restaurant opened about a mile from my house when I was in high school and it gained popularity quickly with their authentic Vietnamese dishes.  They were mainly known for their beef broth soups known as Pho.  The owner made fresh broth every night and they had a wide variety of options to choose from for what to put into the broth as far as meats and types of noodles.  Kim Ahn’s doesn’t only have mouth-watering Pho, they have some fantastic dishes that are made fresh and from scratch every day.  The food is dense with flavor and absolutely delicious on a number of levels.  People love the place because of the customization aspect you have with your Pho.  The Pho has a choice of noodle (egg, clear, or rice) and a choice of meat (pork, beef, meatballs, shrimp, or seafood lovers) along with a wide range of vegetables that are up for use in the soup.  People can pick and choose to make their dish even better for them which is ideal in the food culture we live in today.

They have also begun to branch out their menu to attract more customers and they resorted to buying the next business over just to increase their seating.  The original place only had seating for about 30 customers and now they can seat around 80 at a time.  The food comes out pretty quick which keeps the customer base flowing smoothly.  The food is also pretty cheap making it a great lunch attraction for a variety of people.  I am always so surprised at how many people are in the restaurant but then again it is some great food.  They may have started small and slow but they have exponentially increased their business.  I was never really aware of the style of cooking from the Vietnamese culture but this restaurant was the first to open my eyes to the possibilities of their cuisine.  The business does a great job and it is one of my go to places to eat when I am home.

La Bouche Creole Cookbook

La Bouche Creole is a cookbook that my family has used for years for great creole and Cajun recipes.  The book is old fashioned and appeals to middle to elderly aged group of people in the lower and middle classes.  The dishes range anywhere from easy to extremely difficult and complex but all of the dishes seem to be relatively affordable to make.  Some dishes may take an hour to make such as Dirty Rice and some may take the entire day to prepare such as Chicken and Andouille Gumbo (I have made it before and it is neither easy nor fast, the process is slow and meticulous).  The creole nature of cooking is to take simple ingredients and make the most of them which appeals to a wide variety of people.  The dishes are also designed to feed a decent amount of people which is another appeal to the lower and middle class because the families may need to make the most out of each meal.

The layout is nothing flashy or intense.  It is simple with few pictures aimed to give the consumer a great deal of recipes to choose from while still sticking to a traditional creole and Cajun background.  The feel of the book makes you feel part of a culture.  The pages are thick and old and the recipes are classic and traditional.  This is not the cookbook for a fancy hipster!  It is the cookbook for someone looking to take a trip back to a more cultural time of food culture and the wonders it holds.  These recipes aim to keep a culture alive and give the consumers some great food that brings people together in the process.  In addition to the recipes the book has to offer there are also some interesting groups of facts relating back to the early Cajun times and how the culture came to be.  These help to keep the culture alive through those people who take place in the cooking of these amazing recipes.

The language throughout the book is old southern Cajun and appeals to a mass of people in that region.  Words such as trinity are used in a variety of the recipes which refer back to the holy trinity of cooking Cajun food being the roux made with green pepper, onions, and celery.  If a person wasn’t familiar with this kind of lingo then they would have difficulty following the procedure of the recipe.  The language otherwise is easy to understand in my opinion but I may have a bias since I have grown up with that language my entire life.

The visual appeals of the recipes are that they are straight to the point and have few pictures and decorations. The book is meant to give you a feeling of cultural simplicity and it does a fantastic job of that.  I remember looking at the book when I was a kid and not being able to flip through to look at all of the pictures (there were so few to look at).  This helps the book appeal to those who are serious about cooking and keeping the Cajun and creole culture alive in there cuisine.  People who use this book didn’t buy it because it was fancy and fun to look at, they bought it because it was deeply rooted in the culture that they love so much.

In regards to Smith, I found little methodology in this book to relate back to.  There seems to be little use of methodology in the cookbook and it seems to just be straight forward in keeping the culture of Cajun people alive.

Tilapia: One of the Worst Things You Can Eat

As we walk around in the supermarket, we may come across Tilapia fillets in the freezer section and it seems to be a pretty healthy protein to be add into your diet.  Wrong!  The promises of healthier body and a leaner alternative to beef given from Tilapia are completely false.  Farm raised Tilapia is a product that is being bashed in the food world for their lack of nutritional value and their high risk of contamination and toxins.

Tilapia are generally labeled to be high in Omega-3 fatty acids which are good for the heart, joints, brain, and overall health.  The truth is the tilapia do not have the normal diet of a fish and therefore lack the healthy source of Omega-3’s.  A typical serving of a wild caught salmon will give the consumer 2000mg of Omega-3 fatty acids when the tilapia will have as little as 135mg.  This lack of nutritional value is a big concern for the food community when the packages are labeled to be a good source of the healthy nutrient.  The tilapia also has a hidden secret, it is extremely high in Omega-6 fatty acids which have shown in medical studies to be harmful to the heart and brain.  These high levels of Omega-6 come from the diet and farming conditions that the fish are subject to.

The fish is mostly farm raised where they are pumped full of hormones to make them grow much faster on less feed.  The effects of these high level of hormones given to the fish is not yet known but could potentially be damaging to the consumers liver.  In many countries where the fish are farmed there is little regulation on sanitation and processing so in many instances there has been reports of the fish being fed pig and chicken feces to give them a cheap alternative to regular fish feed.  This not only leads to unhealthy fish, but it causes high levels of toxins and bacteria to build up in the fish populations of the farms.  In order to combat these toxins and bacteria, the farming locations pump the population full of antibiotics which can cause new strains of bacteria to form causing contaminated food.

The tilapia may often times seem like a great option to cut the fat down in your diet but the fish is not all it is labeled to be.  The product might actually be doing more harm than good!  We need to consider the farming conditions of all of the food we consume because we never know when issues such as the one with tilapia will arise and potentially be harmful to our health.  If you are out shopping and looking for some fish to put into your diet look into wild caught salmon, Alaska pollok, cod, and Atlantic Mackerel.  Stay clear of the tilapia!

http://www.eatthis.com/tilapia-is-worse-than-bacon

 

Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead

Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead is a documentary on Netflix that talked about the dangers of the lifestyle choices we make every day.  These choices in food and activity can have a detrimental impact on our livelihood.  Joe is the main character of the film and he was extremely obese with a long list of health problems associated with his lifestyle choices of poor exercise and eating habits.  Joe decided to go on a 60 day juicing fast to combat his health issues. This fasting required him to only consume juices from fruits and vegetables along with nuts and beans for 60 days.  Yes, this means he did not eat anything for the fasting period!  Everything he consumed was fresh produce placed into a juicer for every single meal.  His results were astonishing!  He began the fast weighing 390lbs with an abundance of medications for his health problems.  By day 61 he was down 90lbs and was completely taken off of his medications and he felt better than he had ever felt in his life!

How is this possible?  Everything he put into his body was under the category of micro-nutrient which are the vitamins and minerals that keep our body running the way it should.  He completely eradicated his health problems and continued to use juicing in his everyday routine as he incorporated foods back in to his diet.  He has never felt better and he continues to improve his body.  He also helped out a man, Phil, that he had met on the film that was suffering from the same health problems as him.  Phil was 429lbs and was in serious need of a life change.  Joe introduced Phil to the juicing fast and Phil got on the plan and had amazing results.  He originally was only going to do a 10 day fast but when things were going so well he decided to continue on to the full 60 days.  Phil lost close to 100lbs in 60 days and completely eliminated his need for medications.  He continued to use the juicing in his everyday diet in a very similar manner to Joe and over the course of 10 months he lost an astonishing 202lbs!

This video opened my eyes to the importance of micro-nutrients in our diet and how the processed foods that we have so readily available to us today can cause much more damage than we may give them credit.  Making the better choices of nutrient intake in our diet can do more than just improve our energy and overall sense of well being, it can improve our bodily functions and help us to live longer and happier lives.  I must say that by the end of the video I was highly considering investing in a juicer and incorporating it into my daily routine.

 

The Holy Trinity of Cajun Cooking

In Cajun cooking, there is a base to almost all dishes called a roux.  A roux is made with what is known as the holy trinity of Cajun cuisine: green bell pepper, onion, and celery.  The roux is a labor of love but it is a must for a variety of traditional dishes including gumbo, creole, couvillion, and ettouffee.  It not only thickens the sauce or liquid of the dish, it ads a depth and incredible dimension of flavor to the dish.  It is made by taking equal parts fat or oil (you can use anything from bacon fat to vegetable oil) and flour and mixing it with the holy trinity of vegetables chopped finely in a hot skillet.  The process of making a roux requires constant stirring(and I mean constant!) and usually takes anywhere from 45 minutes to 2 hours to make, depending on the desired color.  The roux will cook down to a thick paste that will turn a deep brown color.  Once the roux is made, water or other liquids such as cream or crushed tomatoes are added to the mix and the dish will begin to come to life.

The roux is something that can make or break a Cajun dish.  If a person is making Gumbo for instance (traditional soup like dish served over rice with sausage, chicken, seafood, and ochra), the color of the roux is a fine detail that people pay attention to because certain colors will produce certain tastes.  On the flip side of things, without a roux the gumbo would not be Cajun at all!  The roux thickens the liquid and gives it a depth of flavor that is not easily copied by any means.  Without the roux the gumbo would simply be a hearty soup and a proud Cajun would be insulted if anyone were to even consider calling it gumbo without a roux base.

I have made several Cajun dishes in my life and a roux is something I never look forward to making but I am fully aware of its importance in the taste and tradition of the dish being made.  My family always stressed the importance of the color and consistency of the roux when cooking and I intend to pass that down to my future family and keep the tradition and flavor alive.  I have messed up a few dishes in my life because the roux was poorly done and I have also made some amazing food through the slow and steady process of roux making in the beginning of the dish.  A good made roux will make the finished dish something of deep, amazing flavor that will be nearly impossible for anyone to dislike.  A good Cajun meal brings people together and it all begins with the delicate and loving process.