Balance of Food

Making tomato bread a worthy dish at home

You may have been to Spain and had one of the better tapas dishes: Pan de cristal con tomatoe. Otherwise, the dish is known as tomato bread.

You can't readily find the local Spanish bread or the amazing Spanish tomatoes. Yet you can replicate the dish in a decent manner and save a bunch of money.

The ingredient list is simple: tomatoes, bread, a garlic clove, kosher salt, and extra virgin olive oil. This is why quality is so crucial.

Ideally, you have a local source for tomatoes and crusty bread. You can even find local garlic this time of the year.

Cut the bread into thick slices. Toast said bread. When lightly toasted, cut a garlic clove in half. Rub the halved garlic clove on the toasted part of the bread.

Cut the tomato in half down the equator of the tomato. Grate the tomato. I mix the kosher salt and olive oil into the tomato mixture.

Spoon the tomato mixture on the toasted bread. Eat.

Pan de cristal con tomatoe is one of the best known Spanish tapas. This menu is from the Jose Andres restaurant Jaleo in Chicago. The $14 price tag is reduced to $7 if you go during the Sangria Hour as defined by 4-6 pm local time. We don't know if the portion size is reduced as well.

The Spanish tomatoes and the wonderful bread do make a difference. Still, you can replicate this dish at home, especially with local tomatoes still in bloom.

The beauty of pan de cristal con tomatoe is that you are experiencing amazing local ingredients simply prepared. If you can make toast, you can make tomato bread. This can be a local dish, whether you are in Seville, Madrid, or Barcelona as well as Toledo, Spain, er, Ohio.

Your local version will likely not be as good as getting the same version late at night in a tapas place in Spain. Your local version will taste better than a lot of foods you can get anywhere in the world.

Eating local is easier and better in California than in New Hampshire. Tomato season is a lot shorter in New Hampshire than California. Yet everywhere in the United States has a local tomato season, however short that might be.

This is an ideal time for local tomatoes. Savor them while they are here. Throw a tapas party and serve pan de cristal con tomatoe aka tomato bread. They might think you went to Spain instead of the local farmers market.

Food shows downplay the wonderful impact garlic could have in a dish

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With rising costs for restaurants and buying items in the grocery store, fancy dishes such as this one can be made for relative pennies. You can freeze the sliced bread you don't use. You can even save the cut garlic gloves for a later dish so you aren't wasting the garlic.

A baguette at the farmers market isn't that much more than a regular, lesser quality loaf of bread in a grocery store. Tomatoes at the local farmers market taste way better than what you find at a grocery store. More of your money goes to local vendors who keep the money in the community.

If you are a relative novice cook, making tomato bread can boost your confidence with little risk of messing up the dish.

photo credits: me; Jaleo restaurant in Chicago

Gift a umami filled bottle for a party instead of wine

We know the drill. Someone throws a party. You are the guest and you bring a bottle of wine as a gift for being invited to the party.

Your humble narrator loves being a guest but hates buying wine. Would love to have a system like a wedding shower with a registry, and you pick a bottle of wine from their list.

Wine is my blind spot. I could buy a 40 oz. bottle of La Fin du Monde, a great Quebecois beer. I could bring some great Michigan fruit-related hard cider.

I don't really want to bring alcohol to a party these days. I do so because the unofficial rules require this.

If I were throwing the party, I wouldn't mind a couple of bottles of wine for cooking. I would want to invite people who would know me well enough and say, "In lieu of wine, I'm bringing you a bottle of Red Boat Fish Sauce." I would love that instead of a bottle of wine.

Fish sauce is the key, though Red Boat is one of the best. Umami in a bottle. I cook with fish sauce quite a bit. I would use up a bottle of fish sauce. I wouldn't drink it, unlike a bottle of wine.

A bottle of quality fish sauce is comparable to the cost of a decent bottle of wine, so the cost factor isn't an issue.

You aren't even limited to fish sauce.

A bottle of banana ketchup from the Philippines.

A jar of ajvar from Eastern Europe.

Get some Romesco sauce from Spain.

How about dark sesame oil from Japan.

Find a good adobo sauce or butter chicken sauce.

Add flavor to an otherwise bland kitchen instead of yet another bottle of wine.

A fun little trick: Love using ajvar but it goes bad very quickly. Pour the contents into an ice tray to freeze portions.

Let the ice cube serving of ajvar thaw in the refrigerator and use in a dish. A small amount adds a lot of flavor to a dish.

The idea is that you might go down a certain, unnamed aisle in the grocery store and wonder what to do with a condiment that isn't typically in your pantry. Once the condiment is in your pantry, then you feel compelled to research ways to use that in your meal planning.

Would you rather have 10 bottles of wine, 3 of them that could have been better? Would you rather have 7 bottles of wine and 3 umami based containers?

Maybe you don't cook too often and a bottle of banana ketchup would gather dust in your cabinet. Fish sauce is subtle as long as you don't smell it. I do smell it but I can handle that smell. Tastes way better than the smell.

A Romesco sauce and ajvar have ingredients you will recognize. This could be a way to travel without leaving your kitchen.

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You may not want 10 umami containers after a party but the gift of umami can bring unexpected joy. Maybe you put Romesco sauce on your scrambled eggs, like you would with a Mexican salsa. Maybe you add an ice cube or two of ajvar to a Sloppy Joe mix.

Maybe you have chicken thighs in your freezer, which would pair well with adobo or butter chicken sauce.

Try a little bit of anything new in your kitchen. Wine has its limits in cooking. Umami has more unleashed possibilities to add flavor to your food.

photos credit: me

Food shows downplay the wonderful impact garlic could have in a dish

We love garlic. We wish food TV shows loved garlic as much as we love garlic.

Yes, some people are afraid of garlic so food shows, even on PBS, have to assume everyone is scared of garlic. They aren't scared of onions. They chop onions in tiny pieces.

The spiel is essentially the same. Slice the garlic so the garlic won't be too strong.

They rarely point out that the smaller pieces you have of garlic, the more flavor you will get. Yet they never cut the garlic into smaller pieces.

That common denominator means garlic goes in, just not to do what garlic could to improve a recipe.

The garlic press can get garlic into tiny pieces without resorting to a knife. This can be good if your clove is small enough. Wrestling a larger clove into a garlic press is an activity that would never make it into a cooking show. Watching Mary Berg use a garlic press on Mary Makes It Easy proves she makes it easy by not getting all the garlic into her dish.

"[G]arlic that has been tragically smashed through one of those abominations, the garlic press, are all disgusting. Please treat your garlic with respect … don't put it through a press. I don't know what that junk is that squeezes out the end of those things, but it ain't garlic." — Anthony Bourdain.

Chopping garlic into small places gives you more of the garlic in a dish than a garlic press will provide.

Alton Brown has an excellent episode on garlic: Season 4, Episode 11 of Good Eats called In The Bulb of the Night (Garlic). Brown counsels an unseen Count Vlad of the virtues of using garlic in recipes.

Brown cooks up for Count Vlad the 40 Cloves and a Chicken dish and Vlad's Very Garlicky Greens.

Brown is one of the few who goes into the power of smaller pieces and celebrates the beauty of strong garlic into a dish, especially with a skeptical vampire in his midst.

He doesn't introduce one of his many scientific replicas to reinforce the magic of smaller pieces. Otherwise, the episode is a joy to those of us who love garlic more than most cooking shows.

The cautious count is definitely a metaphor for the other cooking shows that seem as afraid of garlic as Count Vlad is on the program.

There was a Match Game '75 episode that mentions garlic. Start at the 6:00 mark in the video for the question. There may be some questionable answers but this survived broadcast standards in 1975. Margaret, the contestant, gives garlic as her answer. She ends up winning by a soupçon of garlic, thanks to Patti Deutsch.

Back then, garlic had a bad reputation. We should know better now to get more people to appreciate what strong garlic can bring to a dish.

Garlic may be in season at your local farmers market. If you are going to experiment with garlic, buy local garlic.

Some of us with heartier palates want a strong blue cheese flavor in a dish, more umami such as fish sauce, and yes, a stronger garlic flavor. We love the cooking shows to be "now, with extra garlic."

photo credits: me; Food Network; Good Eats
video credit: Match Game Productions

The Original Farmers Market in Los Angeles is losing a famous neighbor in CBS

If you got a new job back in the day where people went physically to a work location, you might be excited if your new job was located next to a farmers market. For many years, the folks who worked at CBS in Los Angeles had such a luxury.

The Original Farmers Market is on West 3rd Street on Fairfax Avenue in Los Angeles. CBS is at Beverly Blvd. (7800) with West 3rd Street being its southern border.

If you watched The Price Is Right, Match Game, The Carol Burnett Show, Tattletales, or any of the countless shows produced at CBS, you could have a sense of the history of that building.

Unfortunately, the Original Farmers Market is losing its most famous neighbor. CBS sold the building and is moving production of its shows out to Glendale in northeast Los Angeles.

The Original Farmers Market is not a traditional farmers market like you may visit on a regular basis. The location mostly has restaurants and a cute gourmet grocery store.

Still, the neighbors were a good fit. People in television who want to eat well. A farmers market that might get more business because of being located right next to a broadcast network.

CBS sold Television City to Los Angeles real estate investment company Hackman Capital Partners for $750 million in 2018. The company announced a $1.25 billion redevelopment of the facility, which is why the shows are leaving Television City. We don't know if those shows will return to West Hollywood, much less 7800 Beverly Blvd.

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In January 2019, I took the 720 bus from Santa Monica that went down Wilshire Boulevard to the Original Farmers Market. I got off at Fairfax, where the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures now stands. I walked 0.6 miles up Fairfax. People who live in Los Angeles would likely be shocked I walked that far. LA is very car-reliant.

While I was at the Original Farmers Market, someone mentioned how close we were to CBS. Since I walked in from the south, I hadn't noticed the large complex just to the north of the market. After a wonderful stay at the market, longer than I expected because it actually rains in Southern California, I walked north and crossed West 3rd Street to the southwest corner of what was CBS.

The tourists were more likely to notice a farmers market on their quest to see CBS where I approached the trip in the complete opposite vantage point. I was happy with my bonus. I remember Johnny Olson distinctly telling people if they wanted to be on The Price Is Right that the address was 7800 Beverly Blvd. in Los Angeles. There I was at the place with all those shows I watched as a child.

I've seen Match Game reruns where they mentioned the nearby farmers market. They joked about mugging the audience members in the parking lot after the show. You can't see the parking lot from Fairfax Avenue.

I can imagine CBS stars shopping at the Original Farmers Market maybe in a simpler time when that was more prevalent. Fresh, local produce is usually incentive enough to go shopping but a celebrity sighting could boost your interest in going to a farmers market. Unfortunately, that is less likely now that those shows will be in Glendale and not West Hollywood.

We could look at the arrangement as a blessing for multiple decades to have the entities close to each other. Yet we are sad that the relationship will not continue. You can visit the Original Farmers Market at Third and Fairfax and imagine that Carol Burnett and Richard Dawson went there on a lunch break, imagining what they might have bought.

photo credits: me
map credit: Google

The Bear mocks the basic sandwich establishment for another unneeded high-end restaurant

The Bear is about a high-end chef who comes back to his family Italian beef sandwich establishment after his brother's suicide. The premise is that after trying to make this seemingly fish out of water scenario work, they tear down the Italian beef sandwich establishment from within to make room for a high-end restaurant.

People figure your humble narrator is into the show because 1) the nuance of how restaurants work and 2) living in the city where the show takes place.

I struggled to get through Season 1. Pardon this pun but the show was a bear to watch. Too much fake drama no matter how "realistic" the show was about the restaurant world.

If you didn't care about the food and restaurant themes, you would complain about the terrible writing, vague attempts at character development, the soliloquies that are more hilarious than meaningful, the details the creators clearly get wrong, the way character relationships jump around with alleged off-screen resolution.

Let's get to the real hero and villain of the story. The villain is a place such as the Original Beef restaurant (Italian beef). The hero is a place such as The Bear, the new high-end restaurant.

In Season 1, Episode 7, Richie (old guard) and Sydney (new guard) have a discussion about those workers who won't have access with all the fancy changes. Richie is the old guard. Sydney is the new guard. 

Sydney said this is about the business model. As empathetic as the character is, she doesn't care about the current customers or the future customers. Sydney is also obsessed to have a Michelin star. There are plenty of wonderful restaurants without a Michelin star who do better by their customers but the star is the golden calf.

Watch that scene even if you don't watch anything else from the show. Not every restaurant needs to be the mighty high-end restaurant. Fewer people will be able to eat out other than going through a drive-thru and trying to eat a cheeseburger while stuck in traffic. The Bear isn't about them; it's the competition for the rich people who can afford to eat at The Bear.

Interestingly. Sydney is one of the few decently developed characters in the whole show.

In Season 2, they rehab the building to turn the old place into the new place. Realistically, they could take over one of the many closed high-end restaurants but that wouldn't make for TV "fun" by discovering the building has mold inside.

Usually, high-end places, especially in River North, the downtown neighborhood in Chicago where the show takes place, has valet parking. Not sure where the cars would go for the high-end place since the Italian beef establishment had benches for eating outdoors and is accessible by nearby buses.

Putting the new restaurant in the old building is a metaphor that is actually relevant. Since the place will have very limited seating, they will need to turnover pretty quickly where high-end people tend to enjoy relaxing at dinner.

High-end restaurants are about better ingredients, which is a good thing. Using local farmers and eating locally. No high-fructose corn syrup or GMOs (hopefully). The kind of food that all of us deserve, not just high-end earners.

They are also about trusting the chef, using very little of said ingredients for higher prices. The concept is if they charged $5 less per dish, the alleged value would diminish among those high-end earners. They may have to go home for dessert since they won't get enough to fill up at dinner but that is the sacrifice of high-end eating.

I've heard enough high-end restaurant owners talk about how accessible their places are. You don't have to wear a tie or a long dress to go but you still need money and lots of it. They aren't interested in you otherwise. As Sydney would say, that is the business model.

Bourdain Day 2023: Celebrating a loss with food

Carmy and Michael (the dead brother) were very different people. Michael belonged in the Italian beef world while Carmy should be in the high-end world. The Bear shuts down Michael and then his world since there is only room for one and that is the high-end choice.

Places such as Original Beef are often there for decades, establishing loyalty and giving back to the neighborhood. High-end restaurants are not about loyalty, unless it's one-sided (customer to restaurant). They usually only last a few years before the owners get bored or burned-out or aren't making tons and tons of money. They don't care about the neighborhood. The land stays dormant until something else eventually comes along to fill the space.

Your humble narrator appreciates high-end food when delivered honorably. More and more, you can do almost as well at home without the pretense, small portions, or the dramatically high costs. With the money you save, you can treat yourself to an Italian beef sandwich: get it dunked in the jus and order the giardiniera, even if all they have is spicy.

Both seasons of The Bear are available on FX on Hulu.

Editor's note: If you are looking for a film that delves into the insanity of high-end restaurants, our sibling blog, CanadianCrossing.com would recommend Nose to Tail. The drama is intense but unlike The Bear, the drama feels real.

photo credit: The Bear

California bacon is a reality even with the unfortunate grace period

California voters passed Proposition 12 in 2018. The goal was to improve lives for the pigs that provide bacon and other pork products. Fresh pork has to be born to sows with at least 24 square feet of space, allowing a breeding pig to turn around and extend its limbs. The proposition also banned widely used gestation crates to protect sows from other pigs.

The law finally went into place as of July 1, though there is a 6-month grace period so some pork sold in California will still be covered by the old rules. We would be very curious if there was labeling as to how well the "old pork rules" pork would sell in the grocery store.

The measure also included space requirements for egg-laying hens and veal calves. They didn't run into the kind of issues over pigs since the pork industry fought back a lot harder. The Supreme Court of the United States ruled 5-4 in favor of Proposition 12.

Massachusetts also passed a similar law that should go into effect soon.

Besides getting better quality bacon and other pork products, the idea is to push the industry nationwide to better standards for pigs across the board. California has enough economic pressure to make a difference at the start. California consumes roughly 13% of the nation’s pork but produces a insignificant amount of the total production.

Those who buy bacon and other pork products at farmers markets are likely getting meat from pigs that are treated much better than the conventional standards in the United States. The idea behind Proposition 12 is that people who shop in grocery stores have that same kind of access.

These are the pigs in Spain that give us jamon iberico. These pigs roam free and eat amazing acorns, the bellota, among other natural foods as part of their diet. They roam freely with not a cage in sight.

The United States isn't alone in the cruelty level of keeping animals but is sadly #1 in this category. This is why buying meat products at farmers markets is gaining in popularity.

This is proof that the U.S. can and should do better by the animals where we get food.

BalanceofFood.com local/state food policy coverage

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During my last trip to San Francisco, I ran into millionaire's bacon. Millionaire's bacon is enhanced with a sweet and spicy flavor.

You shouldn't have to feel like a millionaire to eat quality bacon from well-grown pigs. That level of bacon should be readily available to a farmers market addict or a house spouse frantically shopping with 3 kids in tow at a Ralph's or a Safeway.

video credit: KCRA 3 Sacramento
photo credits: Serious Eats; me

Bourdain Day 2023: Celebrating a loss with food

Journalists work hard not to be the story. Anecdotal stories are nice yet not very insightful. On Bourdain Day 2023 (which is Sunday), this story is anecdotal, hoping this can inspire others.

Anthony Bourdain kept pouring into my head last month after my long estranged brother passed away. Like Bourdain, the end path to escape this world was sufficiently similar.

I ended up inheriting a few food-related items: some food, a heavy cast iron pan, and a Le Crueset dutch oven. The latter 2 items were on the stove, like they were ready to be used really soon.

When we went through the kitchen, there was a porcelain doll. His friends said her name was Gladys. I said, "oh, after our grandmother." The people in the kitchen didn't know who Gladys was.

Speaking of cast iron pans, I fondly remember Gladys making sausage biscuit gravy in a cast iron pan when we were kids. I didn't even know this existed before she made the dish. The dish was glorious. My mother (daughter of Gladys) was surprised how much we both loved the sausage biscuit gravy. My mother never made that for us, maybe because she knew her version would pale by comparison. I still remember that sausage biscuit gravy with great fondness.

The fact that we held our grandma in high regard is part of the cooking legacy for both of us.

Turns out, my brother and I both loved cooking Italian food despite the fact that neither of us had a drop of Italian blood. We both grew up on Ragu spaghetti sauce and Kraft already grated Parmesan cheese in the green cylinder so we both took great lengths to escape that childhood path. We both learned what a real ragu is in Italy.

My brother was known for making Sunday gravy. This is ironic a bit given that Bourdain Day is on a Sunday this year. A long cooking sauce to break down the connective tissue of the meat in the sauce. That would have been a good memory of cooking in the kitchen.

The Bourdain No Reservations episode in Naples is worth the watch to see an Italian grandma making a Sunday gravy.

The reality is that if I were the one cooking the Sunday gravy, my brother would tell me everything I was doing that was wrong. The definition of "wrong" was doing things differently than how he would make the dish. That would not make such a good memory.

Using his cookware. Eating his food. This will spark thoughts about him as treasures will do. That is a good legacy, whatever our differences might have been.

Anthony Bourdain talked often about eating with people he might have disagreed on numerous fronts. Food brings people together, which is why we celebrate Bourdain Day each year on his birthday on June 25.

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Bourdain Day is a way to celebrate the love of food and food cultures

The mourning process has as many layers as 3 pieces of baklava stacked up on a plate, even if you are estranged. I love the idea of enjoying his Sunday gravy at the same table with him. A nice Italian loaf made into garlic bread by rubbing a split garlic clove over the bread to fare la scarpetta. That is the act of mopping up every drop of the sauce with the bread.

We both learned that ritual at a homemade Italian restaurant in the small town where we grew up. Not that either of us knew the word scarpetta as kids. I do love that sauce and the memories behind that sauce.

The conversation might have pleasant tones here and there. Most of the conversation would be critical thoughts and observations that unfortunately dominated a lot of conversations we did have. Still, the idea of having homemade Sunday gravy with him would be worth that risk.

The best I can hope for is to make Sunday gravy with that Le Crueset dutch oven and think of my brother. Sure, there would have been criticism of how my version was inferior by comparison. I wouldn't expect any less.

From what we could tell, Anthony had a good relationship with his younger brother, Christopher. Not a perfect relationship but reasonably good. I've been thinking about Christopher, now having a better idea of what he has gone through. A lot of differences and similarities. My sibling likely loved Anthony Bourdain and saw him as a role model. We had that in common, if my assumption is correct. If nothing else, we could have traded our favorite Bourdain adventures over Sunday gravy.

I do promise that I will have good memories every time I use something food-related that belonged to my brother. That is a legacy I can appreciate.

photo credit: me (x3); Instagram Anthony Bourdain

Demand for food banks may not be visible but is ever increasing

"Why is he still complaining about food insecurity and the need for food banks? The economy is doing really well. Those long lines during the pandemic. That was just the pandemic."

We wrote about those long lines 3 years ago during the COVID-19 pandemic. We thought these images would make a meaningful impact: spotlighting the number of people who are getting in long lines, lining up hours before the food banks open up.

"Let us remember these images when the pandemic subsides. Hunger is real for a lot of people. They should feel no shame for getting help."

So where are we in 2023?

"We used to spend $1.5 million per year on purchasing food. We spend now up to 1.8 million per month on food." — Neil Hetherington, CEO of the Daily Bread Food Bank in Toronto.

Imogen Birchard, a producer on Front Burner from CBC News, pointed out in her story that "In March, when Canada's unemployment rate was hovering at a near record low of 5%, the Daily Bread Food Bank broke their monthly record with 270,000 client visits up from 60(,000) to 70(,)000 pre-pandemic."

Congressional Republicans decided that too many people on food assistance needed to get off the rolls. The age was raised to 55 from 49 for adults without children to receive Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits for 3 months in a 3-year period unless they work a minimum of 20 hours per week.

This was part of the debt ceiling deal where the Republicans blackmailed the White House to get this concession. Let's not forget that in a "good" economy, people 50-54 already have trouble getting hired.

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities in new research said the change could result in almost 750,000 adults ages 50 to 54 losing their federal food assistance.

The White House did get work requirements waived for veterans, individuals who are homeless or facing housing instability, and youth aging out of foster care.

3 months of help, not much help within that amount, over a 3-year period when a lot of people can't find regular work. That feels cruel in an actually good economy, which isn't what we have now.

Even if they do find work, hours can easily be cut to below 20 hours a week, putting their limited benefits in danger through no fault of their own.

The numbers show the need is growing for people who work full time. Even with that level of income, some people are struggle to make ends meet without food assistance.

"The greatest concern and that that I want to impart is unemployment is low. And if we get to a situation where combating inflation through higher interest rates results in a slowing down of the economy and increased unemployment rates, we will be in a state that food banks have never been in before. Well, we're there now, but we will be. It's a crisis on a crisis on a crisis, and we're just getting to that third one." — said Hetherington.

While we dispute the employment numbers in both Canada and the United States, Hetherington makes a good point in one regard. A bad situation will become worse if (when?) employed people get tossed out of their jobs.

Food banks are dealing with one variable that usually isn't a factor. The rising costs of food mean they can't buy as much food for the same amount of money. Their food dollars don't go as far, just like their clients.

France has rules on supermarkets to reduce food waste. Spain was working on a similar law. Farmers struggle to get all their crops picked due to worker shortages.

Food banks now more important than ever in COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic

A "capitalist" society struggles with the idea of making sure people can get food because there must be payment. Food being wasted. People desperately needing food. We should make this work.

"I've tossed the idea by the board of directors of maybe we should you know, we have 200 food banks in the city of Toronto maybe we should shut them down and just distribute food at one location until government policy changes and that location being City Hall or Queen's Park. And and so if you need food and we serve about 12,000 per day, the 12,000 people would be inconvenienced and they'd have to come to two to Queen's Park to pick up their food. And we would do that every single day, every single day, until policy change happens. That's not like us. That's, you know, we're not that kind of an organization. But at some point we have to say enough is enough." — said Hetherington.

The lines from 2020 were a visual reminder of the impact of food insecurity in rich countries. Hetherington is suggesting another visual impact. Queen's Park is where the Ontario provincial government meets.

"But at some point we have to say enough is enough." Will that be enough for us to see what is happening with food insecurity? Should we do better before then?

photo credit: Neil Blake/Grand Rapids Press/AP

Mourning the loss of your favorite restaurant

Ouch. Surprised at how much this hurts. An end to decades of The. Best. Smoked. Meat. In. Montreal. https://t.co/BQsZWjSNEt

— Justin Trudeau (@JustinTrudeau) May 9, 2023

The funny part in Canadian politics is that Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau doesn't often give his personal opinion on matters. Yet Trudeau declares the best smoked meat in Montréal as The Main comes to a close on St. Laurent Boulevard.

Canada has a parliamentary democracy so even the prime minister represents a riding. The deli was in the Laurier--Sainte-Marie riding, south of the Papineau riding Trudeau represents in the House of Commons in the federal capital of Ottawa.

Your humble narrator has eaten at The Main at 3864 St. Laurent Boulevard, a prominent north-south running street. (Technically, north-south in relation to the St. Lawrence River. Trust me, when you are in Montréal, you have to follow that logic.)

The smoked meat was quite good. I need more practice to know which smoked meat is the best, something I won't get to do at The Main anymore.

I have also had the smoked meat at Schwartz's at 3895 St. Laurent Boulevard. The famous Schwartz's can be spotted if you are sitting in The Main. You can see the much longer lines at Schwartz's than you saw at The Main. Yet the prime minister of Canada has officially gone on the record as saying The Main had better smoked meat than Schwartz's.

The smoked meat is also very good at Schwartz's. There is more of a carnival atmosphere at Schwartz's as you may have seen on food TV shows or perhaps a trip to Schwartz's.

If you spent enough time in Montréal, you could sample smoked meat from both places. Maybe one for lunch and the other for dinner.

Trudeau isn't the only major celebrity who loved The Main. The late Leonard Cohen was also a big fan of The Main.

Montréal has a bagel battle: you get asked which bagel you prefer between St-Viateur and Fairmount. Your humble narrator is on Team St-Viateur. The Fairmount bagel is better than most bagels you will ever eat, just not a St-Viateur bagel.

If one of those were to go down, eating a Montréal bagel wouldn't be as awesome, even if your place was the survivor.

End of an era with closure of The Main, an iconic Montréal deli (The Current CBC Radio)

Some might think the smoked meat battle isn't confined to the 3800 block of St. Laurent Boulevard. Yet the competition was mostly The Main vs. Schwartz's.

The funny story is how I ended up at The Main. I was in Montréal heading for Schwartz's. There was a small incident involving the fire department. Nothing significant but I wasn't going to eat at Schwartz's that afternoon. I saw The Main across the street and had their smoked meat.

The sandwich and food was very good. So was Schwartz's. That stroke of fate meant I got to try both places.

This report from CBC News gives an all too familiar explanation for the demise of The Main. Things weren't as good as they used to be. Quality allegedly shifted after the death of the long-time owner Peter Varvaro when the deli was then sold off. Like when you are dating a person and that person seems to change and not for the better.

BalanceofFood.com Canada food policy coverage

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I hope to get back to Montréal this summer. A city I adore and have not been there in too long. I have a list of favorites in Montréal and plan to try some places where I have never eaten.

Even if you have been somewhere before, that approach is wonderful. Some of your favorites and perhaps, some new favorites. Unfortunately, The Main will not be one of them. I would have trusted the opinion of a Montréal person — the prime minister of Canada. Guess I will settle for the second-best smoked meat in Montréal.

You may not be into smoked meat, bagels, or even Montréal. You can likely adapt this story, like Mad Libs, and use this as a template over one of your favorite restaurants.

Twitter capture: @JustinTrudeau
photo credit: CFCF Montréal/CTV News
video credit: YouTube/Educate@DIYdocufilms

Celebrating Full Frontal with Samantha Bee for fighting for a better food system

As an actual journalist, I bemoan what passes for food journalism. The best reporters on the food system in the United States have been comedians, such as Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, and yes, Samantha Bee.

For 7 years, Samantha Bee took on topics real journalists were afraid to confront. Samantha Bee might have been afraid yet she did segments on important issues such as school lunch funding.

Full Frontal with Samantha Bee on TBS ended its run over the terribly awful Warner Bros. Discovery merger with the new TBS management making several stupid mistakes, one of them cancelling the show. We had hope the show could find a new home but that seems highly unlikely.

Having a half hour a single day a week meant the show couldn't cover as much as The Daily Show did. Still, we would love to celebrate what we had.

Full Frontal with Samantha Bee makes the case for universal free lunch

The stigma of lunch debt. The pandemic led to the USDA to waive price as an issue for the cost of school lunches. Those waivers pretty much expired about a year ago.

The economic numbers don't reflect the number of people unemployed or sharply underemployed, many of whom have children who go to school. Feeding lunch to children is crucial to their ability to learn, which benefits everyone in society.

Since the GOP controls the House, there will be zero legislation to improve the situation.

The food system is also about who is involved in your food

The impact on immigrants, no matter their status, makes a gigantic impact on the U.S. food system from farm workers to restaurant workers and even chef/owner immigrants. Samantha Bee is an immigrant from Canada (that counts) so Bee and Padma Lakshmi, host of Top Chef, talked about the impact of immigration on food.

"I think the food landscape in this country would be completely different without immigrant labor," said Lakshmi. "We all have a responsibility to reach down and pull up the people who really break their back for you day in and day out."

Bee spotlights Cristina Martinez, who runs a popular barbacoa restaurant. Martinez explained in Spanish that she came to the United States to escape her abusive now ex-husband.

The food insecurity coverage in most mainstream journalism during the pandemic was about the visual of long lines for food pantries. Once again, Samantha Bee points out the food insecurity before the pandemic and the loss of school lunches since children weren't going to school.

BalanceofFood.com school lunch coverage

BalanceofFood.com U.S. food policy coverage

BalanceofFood.com television coverage

The Daily Show is in transition after Trevor Noah left. The future of these late-night shows, once so crucial to supplementing journalism, is really up in the air.

What's Eating America devotes cable news time to important food issues

How Trevor Noah and The Daily Show poked fun at the food supply

The MSNBC series was brief and mostly got on the air thanks to the popularity of Andrew Zimmern. This is the exception in cable news, not the norm. While the Trevor Noah version wasn't as diligent about the food supply system, Roy Wood Jr. could have his own show on the topic.

In a TikTok world, the idea of 7-8 minutes for a segment devoted to a food policy concern with humor and significance finding a happy partnership feel wonderful but may be only a pipe dream.

The Food Network and Cooking Channel, both owned by Discovery, the group that took down Samantha Bee's program, would be the ideal place for a block of programming once a week on actual food policy issues. Over the air stations are required to run educational programming. We could check that box, though cable channels don't have that requirement.

photo and video credits: Full Frontal with Samantha Bee/TBS