I just got back from a great dinner at this Brazilian BBQ place called Midwest Grill. It was awesome - if you’re a carnivore. Lots of waiters carrying around meat skewers on platters, yummy caipirinhas. It was a ton of fun.
I have found my new favorite salad dressing - Trader Joe’s Sesame Soy Ginger Vinaigrette . It is SOO good!!
The new Trader Joe by Union Square seems to be a lot less busy.. isn’t that weird? A couple weeks ago I waited 45 minutes in line just for the privilege of shopping in there and today I was in and out in 10 minutes!
In no particular order:
In the WSJ today, an article discussing potential plans to shift spending of the food-aid budget to overseas goods to feed starving foreigners. Today, food-aid programs are required to buy produce only from American farmers.
Charities and U.S. farmers (obviously) are opposed.
“Charities fear that slashing funds spent on U.S. commodities would erode the farm sector’s interest in food aid. They doubt they could win as much congressional support for their efforts solely on the principle that fighting famines is important.”
But it’s shocking that they are…
” Andrew S. Natsios, administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development, which oversees the food-aid program, calls the opposition “morally indefensible.” He asks: “If you can get more food for the money, why not do it? Just to protect the cartel?” The opposition from religious-based charities is particularly galling to the administration, which had assumed their support.”
Shipping food from the U.S. is expensive!
“75% of food aid must be shipped on vessels owned by U.S. companies — a sop to that industry, which charges some of the steepest prices on the high seas.”
“Most aid organizations acknowledge that buying food locally could help feed more people in times of emergency. But they’re only willing to back Mr. Natsios’s proposal if it’s funded by additional spending, rather than a cut in the funds spent on U.S. commodities. To preserve funding for the food-aid program, the charities believe they must take into account the financial interests of farmers at home.”
This is so stupid. Charitable organizations have no incentive to promote efficiency. Any efficiency gains result in budget cuts, and if you are an organization, why would you want free money to disappear? I understand the farmers’ and shippers’ interests, but it’s sort of shocking that charitable organizations won’t support the initiative.
“Distributing U.S. wheat, corn and beans is an important operation of their [charity] activities abroad. For Catholic Relief, donations of commodities and transport costs, which come largely from the U.S. government, totaled $281 million, or just over 50% of its fiscal 2004 budget.”
So they spend our donations inefficiently to transport expensive food from the U.S. that could be purchased much more cheaply in Africa?
From Google to Noodles: A Chef Strikes Out On His Own [NYT]
The NYT reports on the chef who left Google is planning to open a healthy cafe offering sustainbly farmed food near Stanford. Wow.
“Mr. Ayers has worked at expensive restaurants and middle-brow chains, cooked privately for families and ran the prepared foods department at a Whole Foods Market. But it is his Google friends - lawyers, business development professionals, engineers and financial experts - that he expects to draw on most of all.
Born in Chicago and raised in Brooklyn, N.Y., Mr. Ayers had a varied résumé even before he started cooking for Google. His love of music led to behind-the-scenes cooking jobs at various music festivals, and Google says on its Web site that Mr. Ayers formerly cooked for members of the Grateful Dead. (It was after Jerry Garcia’s death, when the band dissolved, Mr. Ayers said.)”
Went to Momofuku a couple of weeks ago — the ramen is delicious! Okay, well you can’t really think of it as ramen, because if you do, you will be disappointed. The noodle soup they serve is *not* ramen. It’s just pork noodle soup, but they use Berkshire pork and Berkshire pork is soo good. The noodles they use aren’t ramen noodles! They are like regular Chinese noodles…
Their BBQ pork buns are yummy as well.. sort of like eating Peking duck, but with with Berkshire pork instead! Aaah, good food.
I have to warn you though, the food at Momofuku isn’t very affordable though. But they do provide a LOT of noodles.. which is pretty unusual I think. So if you are a carb-lover, this is a good place to go. But watch out for the sodium levels! They are high!
Oh and check out the peaceful wooden decor. Very relaxing.
Links:
Enjoy!
“This is an Excel function. It also would work in Microsoft Access. The factory is using Excel or Access to store all the logos for the different jeans they make and then print them onto leather. This is what happens when there is a bug in their software.”
Hehehe
Reminds me of the dumpling war in the East Village.
Fun! Cool!
True or not, I guess it doesn’t hurt to try the recipe out!
I love you, Craig!
Ever wonder what the food will look like on your next flight? Well… this website is devoted to photos of food served on airlines!
Assembling food assembly line style.
What?! Why don’t adults love those stories??
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