The New York Times this morning has an op-ed piece by Dan Barber - best known as chef and co-owner of the Blue Hill and Blue Hill at Stone Barns restaurants - in which he writes the seed business, and how âjust 50 years ago, some 1,000 small and family-owned seed companies were producing and distributing seeds in the United States; by 2009, there were fewer than 100. Thanks to a series of mergers and acquisitions over the last few years, four multinational agrochemical firms â Corteva, ChemChina, Bayer and BASF â now control over 60 percent of global seed sales."
Barber argues that this is alarming, with the potential to have an enormous impact on the food we grow and eat. âBig Seed,â he writes, âkeeps getting bigger, doubling down on a system of monocultures and mass distribution. The problem is not that these seed corporations are too big to fail. Itâs that they are failing to deliver what growers need to grow and what we want to eat.â
Barber writes that âtodayâs food culture is experiencing a tectonic shift as the rebellious stakeholders of our modern food movement â farmers, independent retailers, nutritionists, educators, chefs and ever-more-informed eaters â upend the marketplace. Their work is like those points in a Seurat painting, dizzyingly complex, but coordinated in impact.
âThe more that Iâve come to understand its intricacies, the more I appreciate that lasting change in our food system has to begin with seeds.â The problem, he suggests, is that the architecture of the seed business is working against diversity, innovation, and even flavor.
Location: right behind you. no, over there. Gender:
Posted:
Dec 12, 2018 - 7:18am
haresfur wrote:
1) Because I was trying for tender texture but med-rare (with a touch of post-SV smoke from the barbie) 2) See SFW's response 3) Because I'm an idiot
I guess it would never have occurred to me to even try sous videing that. But, I lack a sous vider, so my knowledge of such things is limited.
Storytime: There's a REALLY good barbecue joint here. I've heard multiple instances where out of state visitors from Texas, Memphis, KC, etc. who go there, as such people do, to scoff at the poor quality of anything not of their home area and have come away as converts. The place is just damn good. Housed in an old gas station/garage, so even the provenance is there. A couple of weeks ago, the in-laws were in town and because feeding them can be a dicey proposal, we punted and ordered takeout from the BBQ joint. We ordered a LOT of food with hopes that there would be leftovers and I would find myself in brisket lunch heaven for a couple of days. Not so. The father-in-law can be...a bit of a glutton...and consumed nearly a pound and a half of delicious brisket. I got maybe half a cup before it was all cleaned out.
Long story short, I guess I should prep the smoker for a brisket very soon, 'cause I've still got a hankerin'.
Fifty percent to 60 percent of what I eat never makes it to print. I write mostly about those discoveries that I enjoy and want to share. That’s the goal, after all. I spare the gnarly details of much of what I eat, even if most of what I reject isn’t exactly gross. I want to tell you where to eat, not where not to eat.
Every once in a while, though, I do eat something I wish I could give back — like the “barbecue” brisket at the newly opened Left Coast Brewing Co. in Irvine. This is the second outpost of Left Coast Brewing. The original resides in San Clemente. But this is the first location with a full kitchen and food menu, for which they’ve chosen barbecue as a theme. Barbecue should be the perfect complement to a great lineup of beers.
If only.
The beers are great. But trust me: Do not eat here. The barbecue is genuinely wretched. The menu states that the brisket is cooked for 72 hours, which is, I suppose, interesting. But cooked how? Sous vide? Boiled? It is certainly not barbecued. This is how I imagine 3-D printed meat might taste if the printer were running low on toner.
If it tastes of anything, the closest comparison might be amateur corned beef. But that’s too generous a comparison. It’s as if the beef has been floating in a hot tub for 72 hours until every ounce of flavor has been leached from it, leaving behind a sterilized spongy mass with the faint flavor of latex gloves. The fat on barbecued brisket should melt in your mouth, not bounce between your teeth like a rubber band. The meat’s weird texture allows it to be sliced like bacon. This is a crime against the entire universe of barbecue.
Opening a restaurant is hard, I know. Most new restaurants go through a period of recipe testing. I can’t imagine the recipes that must have been rejected before someone tasted this version and said, “Yes, that’s it. We have a winner!”
No amount of sauce, delicious or not, can save this travesty. It is easily the worst thing I’ve eaten this year.
On a positive note, the cornbread and the pickle were both delightful.
I rarely eat anything in Irvine. The food is as sterile, lifeless and ho-hum as the city. If you want good bbq here I suggest Felix's BBQ with soul. There are two locations. One in Oceanside and one in Lake Elsinore of all places. I keep trying to get the owner to consider opening one in Orange County but no go so far. We traveled down to Oceanside for a Bernie rally and happened upon this place. It was one of those fluke things that panned out. Everything I have tried has been delicious. Felix comes in every morning and bakes the desserts for the day and they are just as delicious and authentic as the rest of the menu. We don't go anywhere else for BBQ anymore. Nothing else compares and the 40-45 minute drive is worth every mile.
"This is how I imagine 3-D printed meat might taste if the printer were running low on toner."
The menu describes the meat as “72-hour brisket.”
OK.
Fifty percent to 60 percent of what I eat never makes it to print. I write mostly about those discoveries that I enjoy and want to share. That’s the goal, after all. I spare the gnarly details of much of what I eat, even if most of what I reject isn’t exactly gross. I want to tell you where to eat, not where not to eat.
Every once in a while, though, I do eat something I wish I could give back — like the “barbecue” brisket at the newly opened Left Coast Brewing Co. in Irvine. This is the second outpost of Left Coast Brewing. The original resides in San Clemente. But this is the first location with a full kitchen and food menu, for which they’ve chosen barbecue as a theme. Barbecue should be the perfect complement to a great lineup of beers.
If only.
The beers are great. But trust me: Do not eat here. The barbecue is genuinely wretched. The menu states that the brisket is cooked for 72 hours, which is, I suppose, interesting. But cooked how? Sous vide? Boiled? It is certainly not barbecued. This is how I imagine 3-D printed meat might taste if the printer were running low on toner.
If it tastes of anything, the closest comparison might be amateur corned beef. But that’s too generous a comparison. It’s as if the beef has been floating in a hot tub for 72 hours until every ounce of flavor has been leached from it, leaving behind a sterilized spongy mass with the faint flavor of latex gloves. The fat on barbecued brisket should melt in your mouth, not bounce between your teeth like a rubber band. The meat’s weird texture allows it to be sliced like bacon. This is a crime against the entire universe of barbecue.
Opening a restaurant is hard, I know. Most new restaurants go through a period of recipe testing. I can’t imagine the recipes that must have been rejected before someone tasted this version and said, “Yes, that’s it. We have a winner!”
No amount of sauce, delicious or not, can save this travesty. It is easily the worst thing I’ve eaten this year.
On a positive note, the cornbread and the pickle were both delightful.
But, to have three meals pre-arranged and have them be something I never would've cooked on my own
I think that's the attractive part. Not having to think about what to eat, plus some knowledge transfer in how to cook something in a slightly different, and sometimes surprising, way.
Meal kits seem to have run their course here. People talking about them being too rigid, portions being probably a bit too reasonable (no leftovers) and mostly, a LOT of packaging waste.
I can see how that might be true for some. With one dish we added more shrimp because that's how we like it.
Though the packaging isn't particularly problematic (no more than usual anyway). Veggies aren't wrapped. Just small spice containers and the meat in vacuum. Everything together in one plastic bag. Not optimal, but not excessive either.
