Released today. Designed by street artist Shepard Fairey, whose images have been copied onto foodie items all over America (see post below).
The Team of Revelers has raised a little bit more than $24 million dollars so far, and yet we're getting e mails from Michelle Obama almost hourly, asking us to donate to Barack's Big Day. That's because The Inauguration donation goal is $40-$45 million dollars.
Make a donation on or before Thursday Jan. 8 by midnight, and you could be palling around with Cindy at The Inauguration. Did we donate? To quote our fave Cupcake candidate, from back in the good ol' days of the campaign, You Betcha!
Well, here's the historic photo for the historic moment in which--historically--all the living Presidents and the President-elect gathered at The White House for a Historic Lunch."One message that I have and I think we all share is that we want you to succeed. Whether we're Democrat or Republican we care deeply about this country," Bush said. "All of us who have served in this office understand that the office itself transcends the individual. We wish you all the very best, and so does the country."
A video about the Oval Office photo op, from MSNBC:
Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy
From the Six Degrees of Obama Foodorama playbook: Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) is the proud creator of the very first recipe to come out of this year's Senate, a hip version of cooked man.
Grilled Panetta: Sounds faintly Italian...and since Panetta's from the Central Coast region of California, may we suggest a stunning 2004 Eros from Sunstone vineyard in Santa Ynez? It's a merlot-based wine, soft and creamy and dry, one of the best Bordeaux-style reds to come out of the valley with notes of chocolate, blackberry jam, coffee. A bold and interesting choice to go with cooked civil servant. We like Eros because the 111th Senate promises to be a huuuge Barackanalian lovefest when Bam takes office...
In a move that we regard as pure, unadulterated genius, Barack has offered the position of Surgeon General to Dr. Sanjay Gupta, neurosurgeon and chief medical correspondent on CNN and CBS, according to Howard Kurtz at Washington Post. Appointing such a well-known public figure will go a long way towards raising awareness of health issues. But it's also an excellent move in terms of changing the amazingly bad American food safety barfscape.
Dr. Gupta has been terrific at drawing attention to dangerous food safety policies. His May 2007 CNN special report, Danger: Poisoned Food, was an excellent round up of food safety challenges. In addition to explaining E coli in understandable terms, Dr. Gupta focused attention on the work of Sens. Dick Durbin (D-Il) and Chuck Schumer (D-New York) and Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn), who are the most ardent critics of current US food safety policy. He also highlighted the work of pre-eminent food poisoning expert Bill Marler, who we think is Obama's best hope for immediately changing the barfscape of food safety.
Last night the Today Show cancelled their morning spot (set for this AM) with Ann Coulter, the conservative writer who is as scathing and anti-Dem as she is wispy & blond. Now, Today is "caving" to charges of "liberal bias," courtesy of Drudge Report, among others, and Coulter will be appearing on Today tomorrow. Got that?
We'd like to point out that Coulter doesn't even have to order Chinese food specifically to eat "Chinese" food, because America is the largest importer of Chinese food products on the planet (about $325 billion's worth of food in 2007). The jumbled Country of Origin labeling policies in teh US ensure that everyone can eat Chinese food all day, every day, and never even know it. And happily for Coulter, it's conservative, Republican administration free-trade policies that have led us to be dependent on the most poisonous food supply in the world. Melamine contamination is just the latest in a string of food scandals originating in China, and this will, no doubt, be one of the biggest food challenges Obama faces after he takes office. Even better, it was also the Republicans who eviscerated both the USDA and FDA as food safety agencies, making them the tools of Big Ag, and interested more in profit than in protection--another huge food safety challenge for Obama. We hope Coulter keeps this in mind when she's being treated for kidney stones from consuming melamine-laden food, or praying to the porcelain God when she's infected with E. coli. Yep, the conservative faction has been swell for the American food chain!
And as for libs being the only ones who like to eat local: Keep up, Coulter, keep up! In a letter last week to the New York Times, former White House Executive Chef Walter Scheib (pictured) says that both the First Families he cooked for "dined regularly on organic foods." Scheib further points out that "there was a small garden on the roof of the White House where produce was grown..." and "nearly all the product used was obtained from local growers and suppliers." A garden on the White House roof? Sounds suspiciously like food was being grown within fifty yards of where it was being eaten...by conservative Republicans!
In wildly important news to those following food and ag policy developments, the New York Daily News is reporting that current Secretary of Agriculture nominee Tom Vilsack may instead become the nominee for Secretary of Commerce in Obama's cabinet (Vilsack, pictured). Ken Bazinet breaks the story on the NYDN blog The Mouth of The Potomac, and credits "a well placed source." Yesterday, Obama's first choice for commerce secretary, New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, stepped down, citing a "pending investigation into a company that has done business with his state," according to Bloomberg News. As Obama scrambles to have an economic stimulus package in place on Day 1 after The Inauguration, an absent Secretary of Commerce is a huge problem. Tossing Vilsack into the commerce position makes sense; his economic policies while governor were almost as good as his ag policies were questionable.
Vilsack's jump into the commerce position could well cause rejoicing among foodists looking for big changes in American food and agriculture policy. His nomination as Ag Secretary caused a great deal of protest, despair--even outrage--in the sustainable food world; he's been described as everything from the "Mouthpiece of Monsanto" to the "Satan of Seedsavers" for his policies while governor of Iowa. Among other things, Vilsack was a supporter of pharmaceutical corn; he lobbied hard to get seed pre-emption bills into state legislative bodies; he was pro genetic engineering; and he favored questionable Farm Bill policies (such as giving cash to landowners for not growing crops). Even before Vilsack's nomination was official, the Organic Consumers Association created a petition that got more than 55,000 signatures against him; and once his nomination was announced by The Transition, OCA created a petition to block his confirmation.
After two months of mind-boggling recounts, which have reminded us of a meta-hybrid of Gossip Girl & Mad Men (The spin! The stolen kisses-er-ballots! The scandals!), Democrat Al Franken is officially in the lead for the highly contested Senate seat in Minnesota, beating incumbent Republican Norm Coleman by 225 votes.
used as a sweetener, fed to livestock, or lastly, used in food. For a variety of reasons, the price of corn has been skyrocketing, and Cornflation has serious consequences. And because--as Michael Pollan keeps reminding us--food is related to everything, Franken's win is also crucial for future energy policy and, of course, jobs. A topic of huge debate in The Obama Era: The use of corn ethanol and cellulosic ethanol (which is derived from grasses, woodchips, and non-food crops). Franken is pro corn ethanol, and already being criticized for his position, by a whole variety of opinionated thinkers who believe corn ethanol is not the route to take to get us away from an oil-based economy. Franken is also pro cellulosic ethanol, but cellulosic ethanol is still largely a fantasy; we don't have the infrastructure to produce it.
But we do have a big corn ethanol infrastructure, and it looks like this is one of the main directions we're headed for "renewable energy." Barack's pro corn ethanol, as anyone who isn't in a coma is aware. And Barack's nominee for Secretary of Health and Human Services, Tom Daschle, is a big pro-ethanol guy, too. Daschle just spent his recent hiatus from Washington politics working for Alston and Bird, a law firm that is a major ethanol lobbying entity, and he sits on the boards of three ethanol companies (or did; we're guessing that Daschle has resigned by now, in advance of his confirmation hearing). Agriculture Secretary nominee Tom Vilsack is pro ethanol, too.Other crops getting pushed aside, corn prices rising here and abroad, meat prices rising, food insecurity globally--none of it is good. Barack has said he'll keep the current federal mandates for ethanol production in place, which move us from about 7 billion gallons today to 36 billion gallons by 2022. That's a lotta corn! And it's pretty much guaranteed to happen, because corn's the only biofuel we have. There's also the alarming problem of corn ethanol creating Global Warming issues...but that's such a monster topic, it can't possibly be covered here. Google it, why doncha...
We're happy there might be another Democrat in the Senate, but as with everything political, this news needs to be taken with a grain of salt...Franken's win is still subject to more court challenges, by the way...
*In an op-ed piece in yesterday's New York Times, Ag activists/farmers Wendell Berry and Wes Jackson lay out exactly why growing a single crop, such as corn, will lead to the ultimate destruction of America's ability to produce food. A far more sustainable solution? Soil protection and grain-bearing perennials. Read A 50-Year Farm Bill here.
* Pic of Al Franken enjoying corn at the Minnesota state fair on August 2, 2008, from Aaron Landry's photostream at Flickr.
Malia and Sasha Obama started school this morning at Sidwell Friends School in Washigton, DC. Malia, 10, is in fifth grade; Sasha, 7, is in second. Sidwell has two separate campuses, and a fantastic, soooo 21st century lunch program with a local/organic/sustainable ethic that promotes environmental stewardship.
Barack left Chicago this evening and flew to Washington, DC with members of his staff, according to the New York Times. For the first time since winning the election, Bam rode on a Boeing 757-200, part of the Air Force's Special Mission Fleet. It's the same kind of plane he'll be flyin' around in after January 20; once he's been inaugurated, the plane will officially be referred to as Air Force One.
As Hamas promises to make the Gaza Strip "a cemetery for Israeli soldiers," we couldn't help but be reminded of all the Middle East politics-of-fear mongering that went on during the campaigns over the summer. And we find it very interesting that in this spoof cover of New Yorker magazine depicting Barack and Michelle as Orthodox Jews, Barack carries food from historic New York Jewish deli Zabars, rather than, say, a Torah, or guns. On the real New Yorker cover that depicted Barack and Michelle as terrorists, Michelle had a gun slung over her back. This Jewish version, created by Rick Meyerowitz, appeared on Huffington Post on July 16, when Barack (Baruch) was being variously "accused" of being Jewish, Muslim, and a socialist/Marxist...
Some guys get down on bended knee to propose; Barack, the foodie obsessive, had a waiter bring Michelle an engagement ring on a covered platter, and pretend to be presenting dessert. This and other riveting Obama intimacies are revealed during an interview with The First Couple, airing tonight on CNN.
In case you had even a tiny doubt that Barack is perhaps the most food-centric chief executive since Thomas Jefferson, the Chicago Sun-Times is reporting that Barack's top secret, two-second career as a restaurant critic will come to the attention of foodies everywhere in the week before The Inauguration.
In 2001, while he was just a lowly Senator, Bam appeared on an episode of Check, Please!, a popular Chicago foodie show on channel WTTW 11. Now in its eighth season, the show focuses on local restaurants and chefs, and provides commentary and recipes. Bam was one of three "celebrity" guests who appeared to discuss their favorite restaurants and critique one another's choices, but the episode never appeared, for reasons that remain unclear, according to a network spokesperson. The network is, so doubt, simultaneously bummed that they originally left Bam on the cutting room floor, and thrilled that they were clever enough to dig out the old footage.
Bam offered Hyde Park eatery Dixie Kitchen & Bait Shop as his restaurant of choice. Dixie Kitchen describes itself as the place to go on the South Side for Southern "road food," and offers Cajun, Creole and Southern-inflected cuisine. The Hyde Park location is pretty close to Bam's house, as well as near his old stomping grounds by the University of Chicago. We're sure Dixie Kitchen is being added to the list of places to visit on the Experience Presidential Chicago tour, and will soon be flooded with new tourists. Wow, Barack's economic stimulus package is working already!Bam's episode of Check, Please! will appear later this month, before The Inauguration, with more Obama archival footage edited in, of course. We're sure they'll have loads of pix of Barack eating, since he's as well known for that, these days, as he is for flashing the shaka and kissing babies.
Update, Jan. 6: The producers of Check, Please! claim that the episode never aired because Barack "dominated the conversation" with the other amateur restaurant critics, making them look too amateurish.
Update, Jan 11: Barack discussed his love of Dixie Bait's Peach Cobbler on Check, Please!, and owner Carol Andresen has now blessed the world with the recipe. Here it is:
Dixie Kitchen and Bait Shop Peach Cobbler
Filling
3.75 l (15 cups) frozen peaches (about seven 284-g/10-oz bags), thawed and drained
375 ml (1 1/2 cups) granulated sugar
50 ml ( 1/4 cup) packed brown sugar
45 ml (3 tbsp) all-purpose flour
2 ml ( 1/2 rounded tsp) cinnamon
2 ml ( 1/2 tsp) nutmeg
175 ml (3/4 cup) peach juice (juice drained from the frozen peaches is fine)
50 ml ( 1/4 cup) butter, cut into small pieces
Crust
500 ml (2 cups) all-purpose flour
5 ml (1 tsp) salt
150 ml (2/3 cup) shortening
50 ml ( 1/4 cup) butter, cut into small pieces
75 to 125 ml (1/3 to 1/2 cup) ice water
Preparation:
1. Pre-heat oven to 190 C (375 F). Lightly coat a 3.5-l (9-by-13-inch) baking pan with cooking spray.
2. Filling: Arrange peaches in an even layer in prepared baking pan. Set aside.
3. In a large bowl, whisk together granulated sugar, brown sugar, flour, cinnamon and nutmeg. Whisk in peach juice until smooth. Pour mixture over peaches. Sprinkle butter over top. Set aside.
4. For crust: In a medium bowl, whisk together flour and salt. Add shortening and butter, then use a pastry blender or gloved hands to work them into dry ingredients until mixture forms pea-sized lumps.
5. Slowly add water, adding enough and mixing only until dough holds together. Do not overmix.
6. Place dough between 2 sheets of parchment paper. Roll out dough into a rectangle slightly large than baking pan and about 5 mm ( 1/4 inch) thick.
7. Remove top sheet of parchment paper. The dough then can be cut into strips and woven into a crust over cobbler (this is the method preferred by Andresen).
8. For an easier crust, invert crust onto baking pan and carefully peel off parchment paper. Trim crust to fit just inside edge of pan.
Bake for 50 minutes to 1 hour or until the crust is golden brown. Let stand for 10 minutes before serving.
Makes 10 servings.
*Barack pic from Day Life. Dixie Kitchen pic from their website.
So...how's the foodorama at The Hay-Adams? There's only one restaurant, The Lafayette, and we've dined there many times (the dining room, pictured). The food is generally very good, and can get pricey (up to $45 for entrees, depending on what meal is being served), but it's no more expensive than any other Washington restaurant. The Lafayette also does the room service menu, so if the Obamas are eating "in" they'll be chowing Lafayette food, which is confusingly described four ways: Nouveau American, American, Eclectic, and Continental. The entire Lafayette project is a rather muscular and usually successful attempt at pleasing the international range of palates that show up at all DC restaurants, while also injecting a bit of local fare into the menu, under the guise of "American." There are no foams, no essences, no soups through straws or macerations; the place is largely devoid of trends and the kind of molecular gastronomy foodie iterations that have captured the imaginations of some other DC-local chefs.
That's probably because German-born Executive Chef Peter Schaffrath is traditionally trained (pictured). According to DC politico rag The Hill, Schaffrath came up through the cooking ranks in Europe, the Middle East, and Texas before moving to Washington. He spent twelve years as executive chef at another historic DC hotel, the Willard Inter-Continental, before taking over at The Lafayette after an $18 million renovation. He's been at The Lafayette since 2001, though when we called last night to confirm that he was still in charge, the employee who answered told us Schaffrath no longer worked there. After we questioned this, we were put on hold for five minutes, and then told that yes, Schaffrath is still Top Toque. Hmmm...wonder who's actually doing the cooking if the EC is so missing in action that an employee thinks he's been 86d? The employee couldn't tell us this, either, and explained that it was because she was "new." Or...perhaps it was a less than smart employee...a possible warning sign for a decline in service.
Lunch: The offerings are something of a masterpiece of French Deconstructionist literary theory foodie idioms, with the word "natural" used freely and somewhat meaninglessly for the pan seared chicken breast and roast sirloin steak (natural as compared to--what?). The veal is "farm raised"--but when does veal appear in the wild? Barack reportedly likes fish, but we're wondering if the sauteed Chilean sea bass (pictured) on the menu is the single kind that's certified by the Marine Stewarsdship Council; if not, line-caught Chilean sea bass is on every seafood watch list as a fish to avoid if you're concerned about sustainability (still an open question with Barack...). The salads are good choices; though no arugula is available. But thankfully, neither are beets, an avowed Barack dislike. The $27 Kobe burger is probably a safe bet, particularly if there's hot sauce freely available for Barack; though again, "Kobe" is one of those dicey foodie monikers that's open to interpretation. Is it ground beef from cattle raised in Kobe, Japan, or just beef that's been named Kobe and raised elsewhere?
Dinner: Bam would probably like the Dover Sole with lemon-caper sauce, and this particular fish is considered a good sustainable choice. The sesame seed crusted tuna medallions are very good, and though the Asian style grilled ahi tuna salad is not really that Asian, since it has a lime and cilantro dressing (pictured), it's tasty, and both might remind Barack of Hawaii. He does like tuna, but alas, there's that niggling mercury problem with big fish--and also the problem with what kind of tuna is actually being served; recently, DNA tests by both Greenpeace and a couple of industrious high school girls found that fish in restaurants is routinely mislabeled. The veal paillard, unlike the lunch version of veal, doesn't seem to be "farm raised," but we've had it and it's finely done, as is the roasted rocky mountain lamb noisette. The Parmesan risotto that accompanies the lamb is light and savory, but doesn't quite go with the meat; on the other hand, the caramelized butternut squash risotto, an entree in its own right, is pretty fantastic, with fava beans and a fennel julienne. It's a rich and unexpected combination.
Desserts: The desserts are all variations on requisite "gourmet" fare; there are no big standouts, save for the lemon mango trifle. It's rare these days to see a trifle anywhere, and this one is excellent, fluffy yet dense, and the mango and lemon combination is a delirious sweet/sour dream. The warm apple tartin is good old comfort food, with the same caramel sauce that's tossed on the brioche in the morning; here, it's terrific. We have to object to the cheese offerings, however. While we appreciate the fact that all the cheeses are American made, three of the four offerings fall directly into the dangerous category, because they're made with raw (unpasteurized) milk, which can cause all kinds of gastro-intestinal illnesses. The Thomasville Tomme (pictured), from Sweet Grass Dairy in Georgia, the Oregonzola from Rogue Creamery in Oregon, and the San Joaquin Gold from Fiscalini Farmstead are each made with unpasteurized cow milk, and even the loosest of Fed food safety agencies warns against consumption of raw milk products these days. Do we really want the President-elect--or Michelle and the girls--to become ill with listeriosis or E. coli or campylobacter right before the Obama Era begins?? Um, nooo. The better cheese choice is the Vermont Butter and Cheese Company's Bonne Bouche, an artisanal cheese that's aged in ash, and made with pasteurized milk.
And how do you ensure general food safety in a hotel, anyway, when the First Family-elect is in residence? Transition insiders, so far, have been entirely mum on the subject. But there's a whole gang of netroots citizens ready and willing to help. Foodtasters for Obama, a group that sprang into being during the campaign, is still rarin' to go. Perhaps they can be deputized until the Bushes vacate The White House!
Barack and the family are leaving Oahu today to go to DC after a quick stop in Chicago, but perhaps they'll have a chance to eat either sashimi or laulau before they get on the plane; both are good luck foods for the New Year in Hawai'i. We're positive the press pool, in their important role as stringers for Gourmet mag, will be sure to let us know....
