Stuffed Mushroom Delight Q&A

Eating and buying locally has been a topic of discussion on our blog in the past. Should we buy locally? Is it really that worth it? Does it really taste that good? Here to give us a first hand perspective on eating and buying locally is Megan Convery, a fourth year nutrition major at the University of Texas. She recently conjured up some stuffed mushrooms made from mostly local ingredients, save for olive oil, salt, pepper, and garlic, that were very popular at a potluck she attended. A quick Q&A with her revealed the following:

Why did you decide to buy local?
I decided to cook these mushrooms after being invited to a ”Locavore Potluck” party.

What does ‘local’ mean to you?
Local to me means within a 75 mile radius. I believe San Antonio is local to Austin. If food is grown there then sold in Austin, I would consider it to be way more fresh than food from other states.

Where did you get your ingredients? 
I got my ingredients from the Downtown Austin Farmers’ Market, off of Guadalupe and 4th.
*The Downtown Farmers’ Market is hosted by the Sustainable Food Center.
For more info click here.

Which ingredients did you buy locally? 
Specifically, the mushrooms came from Kitchen PrideMushrooms, located in Gonzales, Texas. The Italian Sausage came from the free range Berkshire pork at Peach Creek Farms, in Rosanky, Texas. The marcapone cheese that I needed for my recipe was substituted with local goat cheese from CKC Farms, in Blanco, Texas. I found local parsley and scallions from assorted local produce booths.

If I Die Far From You: Part I

Mexico, beautiful and beloved,
If I die far from you
let them say I am sleeping
and bring me back to you. 


This is the rough translation of Mexico Lindo y Querido, one of the most popular and typical songs of Mexico. It represents a common experience of the Mexican people — that of displacement and immigration. As a Jew and a Mexican I come from two cultures that have experienced forced migration and displacement. As a semi-exile, I have lived the experience. I will not relate the details of my exile in this essay, but I, like so many Mexicans, cannot return because of extenuating circumstances. I use semi-exile because I grew up in two countries and one is no longer available to me. The pain this has caused is difficult to describe, it hurts in a very deep way. I can’t imagine what it must be like for those who made their entire lives in Mexico. Home is one way we identify ourselves and losing your home is a bit like losing a piece of your soul. I often find myself getting angry. Angry that my grandmother may never see her hometown again; that I cannot visit my family, and that a government can get away with atrocities. Mostly, I miss the sights, smells and simplicity of my childhood.

Making Mole with my Grandmother

So what does this have to do with food?  Food is culture; it is the shared experience of a region.  Traditional cooking connects us to the land and customs we were raised with. The smell and taste brings back memories of meals shared with loved ones, living and dead. When I make enchiladas or mole I remember the wisdom of my grandmother, “The chef gets the first enchilada and it should be eaten with your hands” and how her breath smelled like onions when she hugged me. I think of my aunts making tamales and gossiping, and the first time I tried coffee with cinnamon and cloves on a road trip to Veracruz.

Food invokes all of the senses, it connects us, but it also distinguishes us. That is its power. When we eat the food of home we are honoring the sacredness of place.

The last few centuries has seen quite a bit of human emigration and immigration, but we still long for home. That is why we cling to traditions, even in a world that is becoming increasingly globalized. We claim Italian, Japanese, or Mexican heritage even when our families have lived in this country for generations. Our bodies contain memories of our ancestral past and it takes a long time to adjust. Forced migration affects more than individuals. It can change whole communities for generations and often it is painful.

Happy Travels: Border Crossing Bridge El Paso/Juarez

So far the best remedy to my own angst has been to break bread (tortillas) with people from my culture who share my situation. It will never taste exactly the same, but it connects me to what was lost. It also inspires me to move forward because in spite of the difficulties, people are incredibly adaptive and resourceful. Remember your home, it is part of who you are. But also remember that it is not impossible to root yourself elsewhere. It just takes time.

 

Kitchen Pimpin’ Obesity

The Lonestar State has the highest percentage of overweight adult males at 75.5%, only second to Alabama’s 75.9%. There are plenty of attempts to educate the population on how to eat — nutritional charts and dietary recommendations, for instance — but these are not solutions. The majority of us know that we need to consume more vegetables, but we are less compliant to do so because we don’t enjoy being told what to eat (maybe more so what NOT to eat). Our diet is really a personal relationship with food. We need personalized methods to improve our individual ways of eating. Instead of a massive health campaign telling people to eat healthier and exercise more, a more impacting solution would be to create a healthier environment that empowers people to learn and care for themselves. In other words: get cookin’. In particular, get young males like myself into kitchens to cook for our family and friends.
I got the idea from Coolio’s recent (and amazing) cookbook, Cookin’ with Coolio: 5 Star Meals at a 1 Star Price. The former multi-platinum rapper grew up poor with little knowledge about food, stating that he had the skill of making something out of nothing. He learned how to cook, probably something unique amongst the male youth of his childhood community. What is cool about Cookin’ with Coolio, is that it empowers young men to build confidence, take control of their health, and potentially prevent obesity by learning how to successfully cook real food at home on a tight budget. By presenting his personal story as a living example, Coolio shares his recipes and cooking techniques so that people in lower-income situations can utilize their resources to become successful “Kitchen Pimps”. Taken at face value, this cookbook might seem like a comical sales gimmick, but Cookin’ with Coolio is a masterpiece for public health and could benefit thousands suffering from malnutrition and obesity.

Click the photo to check out his cooking show!

How does Kitchen Pimpin’ prevent obesity?
Cookin’ with Coolio helped me realize that home cooking is more than a luxury; it is an approach to solving the obesity epidemic. There are many people that are too reliant on fake industrial foods, and “[Coolio] want[s] people to know that just because you’re poor, you don’t have to eat fast food every day.” Eating healthy food is more complicated when you are in a difficult economic situation. Some people insist that we need to eat only vegetables grown locally and spend a lot more for our food. Coolio argues that is not necessary for most: “Whole Foods and Gelson’s have a lot of great stuff, but [normal grocery stores] have everything you need to make haute cuisine at home.” Kitchen Pimpin’ and learning the art of “The Ghetto Gourmet” brings awareness to the more realistic problem and solution in our national obesity epidemic that people need to learn more about food and how to cook at home. Instead of focusing all of our attention on paying more for ethical foods (which isn’t necessarily a bad thing), we should educate the population about food and create the environments and resources needed to get people cooking.

In the Eyes of a Hunter

As a disclaimer, I would like to say that this post may offend some animal rights’ activists, so please read at your discretion. Also, the name of the hunting ranch has been changed, for confidentiality purposes. The following is a first-time hunter’s experience, through the eyes of a Nutrition student:

Having grown up in the typical suburb of Arlington, Texas, I never got to hunt when I was a child. In some ways, I wish I would have been a minimalist country boy. Life would have consisted of sitting around, eating hearty food, and shooting animals. Heck, I would love to be able to pee off of my back porch.

I recently went with two friends on a private hunting trip on Marietta Selleck Ranch (MSR) in Cotulla, Texas. The hunting trip was not exactly what you might imagine. The package we paid for included a whitetail buck, a doe, and unlimited hogs and whatever else they thought we could shoot. Along with that, we had all meals cooked for us, excellent lodging, and pretty much full range to do whatever we wanted on the 3000-acre property. Aside from the abundance of open, dry, South-Texas fields, the owner of MSR had built a large slaughtering barn, an apartment complex for paying hunters, a 4-person luxury lodge, and a personal farm-style house with an outrageous “trophy room” (more on this to come). The ranch has 500+ white tail deer, your typical Texas game (hogs, javelinas, etc.), and plenty of exotic animals for really big spenders. Aside from the delicious meat that I took home, I left the hunting trip with a lot of perspective on food systems, specifically in the meat sector.

The Main Attraction in the Trophy Room

Upon arrival, we walked into the “trophy room” and were absolutely blown away. The professional hunters travel to Africa quite often to hunt the types of animals you see in The Lion King. The mounted animals include antelope, lions, leopards, hippos, crocodiles, and pretty much every African animal you can dream up, mounted 3 stories high. They want to bring back a giraffe eventually. Even crazier, we got to watch the guys work with the fresh zebra skin. They purchased the zebra with the intent to have them around the house as pets. The zebras turned out to be wild and not too friendly. In effect, the wife said that she would prefer them to be turned into rugs! The week before my friends and I arrived, a group of nine hunters from Michigan shot about $300,000 worth of animals. MSR threw in two zebra kills as a bonus, but the ranch kept everything, of course.

Storing the zebra skin in a cooler

After some initial rifle practice, a hunting guide and I went into the deer blind, which is a closed-in stand on top of a tower from which you scout the area. I was thinking there would just be an abundance of deer surrounding the corn feeder after it went off, but that was not the case. A few does and bucks may walk by, but they do not flock to the deer feeder. You may sit for hours and only see a couple of deer, but there is something very calming about waiting for the perfect animal. I sat in the deer blind a few times over the weekend and just cleared my mind as I waited for my championship buck to make his appearance.  Just sit quietly as the wind bites at your face, and a sense of stalking your prey will overtake you. A few deer trickled in, here and there, but I think I only saw about 5 bucks total. As a first time hunter, I was obviously anxious to shoot the first potential buck.

Waste Not Want Not: Lessons from My Grandparents

 A typical Mexican Jewish meal with my family

This Thanksgiving I reflected on the hundreds of times I have gathered around my grandparents’ dining room table.  I thought of the all the meals we had prepared and eaten together, the homework assignments tackled, and the hot cups of coffee enjoyed while sharing stories of the past.  Their early experiences with food have shaped the way I view food and waste, and the lessons they gave me as a child are still the most valuable I have ever received.

My grandfather was born to an upper-middle class Jewish family in New York City a few years before the stock market crash of 1929. When he was still a toddler his father died unexpectedly, and his mother was left to care for four children. The stress, compounded by the failing economy, was too much for her and she descended into madness. My grandfather and his siblings were left to fend for themselves. He would tell stories of growing up on the streets of Brooklyn, but mostly he spoke about being hungry. These childhood experiences with hunger would shape him. He was an excellent cook, spoke of his favorite foods with religious zeal, would eat crumbs off the table, and became very upset if food was thrown away. He was also the most thorough chewer I have ever met. He chewed everything at least forty times (including Jell-o!), believing it was both good for digestion and that it made the eating experience more enjoyable. He died last year at the age of 85 and I am sure his appreciation for good food was responsible for his longevity.

My grandmother was born to poor farmers in Northern Mexico. Their knowledge of the land combined with thriftiness meant she never experienced hunger. She taught me how to cook and the only time she scolded me was when I wasted food. “You cook like you’ve never been hungry,” she would say if I cut too much off the end of a chili or tomato. One time I cleaned a knife that still had some chopped onion on it and she said, “Chefs waste so much food…better to be a cook.” Her inability to say anything directly has always frustrated and fascinated me, but the message was clear: Food is sacred and cooking is an act of love.

Food and Mood

Last time we met, I introduced a story I’m going to tell throughout my string of Food Studies blog entries.

The story is now officially beginning and it all started in a bathroom stall at the Miami International Airport this summer. I was in there on the verge of vomiting, not because I ate bad airport food, but because I was hyperventilating and nauseous with extreme anxiety. I was about to take off on my first solo international flight, to a third-world country in which they were still rebuilding after a civil war that ended only in 1992. The realization of “what the heck did I get myself into?” finally hit me.

I managed to collect myself to board the plane. I hate takeoff though, so my anxiety attack crept back upon me as the plane was about to rip from the runway. I was sitting there clenching the armrests—as if somehow gripping them could save my life should the plane spontaneously combust—and I could that see the man next to me had the “oh great I ended up next to the crazy girl” look on his face.

Looking down over El Salvador

“It’s my first time to El Salvador,” I told him in Spanish, as if that would explain everything. “Ah,” he said and then turned away to talk to his chubby son who was playing a GameBoy.

I thought that was the end of our conversation so I then resorted back to my nervousness, but after awhile the man turned to me and said “You need to eat the coconuts there.”

Welcome to the Food Studies Project

Hello, I’m Asiago, lead organizer for The Food Studies Project. My last name is “Heron” named in honor of the Great Blue Heron. I am told by people during my time at UT Austin that I have an inspiring personal story to tell. I would like to share an abridged version of my story, give thanks for the education I have received, and invite you all to come fly with me this winter. I have always had an interest in food, probably because I was pulled out of elementary school when I was seven years old, and spent most of life at home eating and watching the Food Network. Sadly though, I did not learn much about food or cooking sitting in front of the television. I just ended up eating more. It got to the point that I had to eat something every time I sat down to watch TV. By the time I was 13, I was already an obese teen who spent his days playing games, only pausing to go steal cigarettes and food, which I called “Game Fuel”, at my neighborhood market. My life was wasting away because I never left the nest, never built the courage to take that first leap. I started learning how to fly when I decided to go back to school at the age of 20. I started a new life thanks to junior college. At the time, I could not imagine that taking a Spanish class would not only guide me to UT Austin but also teach me how to fly around the world.

source: wikipedia.org

Education helped me think differently about food, and it naturally changed my unhealthy ways. Studying foreign cultures and languages brought me awareness about the importance and meaning of food. Meanwhile, my concern grew for the future of food throughout the world. My first couple of years at UT, I did not know I had this food focus in my studies. It wasn’t until I came upon Dr. Rebecca Torres’ course “Farming, Food, and Global Hunger” that I realized I had always had great interests and concerns with food in all of my classes.

The Scientist

This video has been out for a while, but I only just saw it. It took me by surprise while I was at the movies a few nights ago. I was having a nice conversation with my roommate when this video came on before the previews, and we both fell silent. I was eager to see where the video was going, what the point of it was. I knew it had something to do with sustainable farm practices, ethical treatment of animals, or organic food or something. The suspense was daunting, but when the end finally came, I was confounded. I was expecting to see an advertisement for PETA or Slow Food, something of the sort, but instead, I saw Chipotle.

I always knew Chipotle was different from other fast food restaurants, but I didn’t know it was such an advocate for naturally raised food. I was intrigued. After visiting the Chipotle website, scavenging through their links, and reading through their history, I found out a few interesting things about Chipotle I hadn’t known before. Maybe you haven’t either.

The carnitas at Chipotle is probably my favorite item to order on the menu, and now I know why. Turns out Chipotle sources 100% of their pork from farmers who follow these guidelines: raise animals in a humane way, feed animals a vegetarian diet, never give animals hormones, and allow the animals to display their natural tendencies. To add to that, 85% of their beef is sourced from farmers who follow the same guidelines, and they won’t stop until they reach 100%. Chipotle also tries to buy locally (within 350 miles from the store) when it can. Overall, I was just very impressed as I read through their facts and philosophies. There are many other initiatives Chipotle is taking to make the world a better place. Take a look for yourself here.

I was equally impressed with the video as well. I felt it went through the evolution of industrialization of food in a simple and understandable manner. I especially liked the part at 1:10 when the video shows the farmer’s remorse of how he raised his animals. I’m sure a lot of farmers feel the same way and are conflicted between providing for themselves and raising good, respectable food.

I think Steve Ells, the founder of Chipotle, is on to something good. Maybe his business model can act as a catalyst of change, and other restaurants will start doing the same. Until then, support your local Chipotle.

FYI: McDonald’s doesn’t own Chipotle. McDonald’s was an investor until 2006. Chipotle is now it’s own public stock on the NYSE.

Weekday Mindful Eater in College: Food and Time

How much time does take to eat here in college? Warren Balasco’s book “Food: The Key Concepts” motivated me to record different information about what I ate during a normal school week. I split “Weekday Mindful Eater in College” into three blog posts: economics, time, and psychology of food.

Childhood Memories of Spices

My mother always told me the key to cooking is knowing your spices. She used to keep around a special can of an invisible spice called, “Love”. Some of my favorite childhood memories revolve around spices. The first coming to mind was when my mother held a neighborhood Halloween party (back in the days when the entire street knew each other and all the kids were friends). She blind folded us kids and put variety of spices in little bowls. Then she had us sniff them and take a guess at what they were. It was really exciting to giggle, expecting to smell something smelly. Since then I have always waned to learn how to use spices in cooking.

Second memory that comes to mind was when I used to go into my mother’s spice cabinet and “make potions”. I would never taste them though. I guess I was more interested in the color and smell of them. When I was young, I remember using spices as a way to get back at my mom for upsetting me. A little chili powder in her lasagna did the trick. I even got a sick pleasure of asking her later how her dish lasagna turned out.

My curiosity in spices still grows to this day, as I still don’t know how to use them very well in cooking.  Yet, I believe that understanding spices can enhance my creativity and enjoyment in my culinary life. It has motivated me to use whole spices and process them myself. Finally, I remember once I tried making blackened chicken which called for two cups of black pepper. Then, I quickly realized that recipe said tablespoons not cups. I remember the parents scraping of layers of chicken trying to salvage the expensive poultry from being wasted. Anyways, spices are a complicated thing, but you sure can learn a lot from them. I know I did.