Balance of Food

Beef tallow vs. avocado oil for French fries: a contrast of frying approaches

Tallow Fries now in Ohio, Colorado, Florida, Texas and Oklahoma

By March 1 ALL locations. Fries will be RFK’d! pic.twitter.com/m3pVaulppW

— Steak 'n Shake (@SteaknShake) February 25, 2025

We are not on the horns of a dilemma in that the choice in front of us is not a situation in which one has to choose between things that are unpleasant or undesirable. On the surface, French fries cooked in beef tallow is pleasant or desirable.

Steak 'n Shake fries played into the new reign of the very dangerous Health and Human Services secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. This is where the dilemma resides.

The fast food chain announced switches from vegetable oil to beef tallow on the concept that beef tallow is better for you than vegetable oil. The influence of a very dangerous person.

Sweetgreen is offering a contrast: Ripple Fries air-fried in avocado oil and seasoned with a blend of salt and herbs.

My local Steak 'n Shake in my area had no signage about the beef tallow in the French fries. Then again, I am not in RFK Jr. territory.

I can contrast the current product with the previous version cooked in vegetable oil. The regular French fries are really good. Yes, the beef tallow did improve the taste. The quality of the beef tallow could be better but yes, there is a taste difference and a positive one.

We chased after McDonald's for years to convert to a fat free of trans fat. Reportedly, McDonald's used beef tallow at one point, which upset Hindus and vegans, among many groups. That fast food chain finally did come up with a fat that was trans fat free but the taste suffered as a result.

Your humble narrator adores Steak 'n Shake French fries even in vegetable oil as a contrast to the tasteless McDonald's fries. Always try a few fries without ketchup to see if the actual fries are tasty. Both versions of Steak 'n Shake blow away what comes out of McDonald's.

The beef tallow McDonald's fries would be a serious contender. The criticism of McDonald's was that they used it while hiding that information from vegans and Hindus, among others. Steak 'n Shake customers are entitled to that same transparency. Our dismal experience with a hipster place in San Francisco advertising "duck fat fries" that were not cooked in duck fat reminds us that transparency and ethics are important.

Cutting way back on major label fast food

Steak 'n Shake switching to trans fat free oils

Hipster vs. Classic: sincerity in ingredients

BalanceofFood.com fast food coverage

Steak 'n Shake is advertising the 100% beef tallow with the slogan: "America deserves the best." America clearly doesn't get the best, especially in fast food. The quality of beef tallow is likely a concern. You can buy better beef tallow and cook French fries in that at home and get a better product.

America's love of fast food, and not high-quality fast food, means the country gets what it deserves: not that much.

We know little of the history of Steak 'n Shake in terms of trans fat free oil options. We covered this story in 2007 and even then, details were vague.

I don't eat too many French fries these days so if I am torn, fries cooked even in cheap beef tallow could break a tie.

I live a lot closer to a Sweetgreen. Despite my love for healthy food, I rarely go to Sweetgreen. Too expensive and sometimes too healthy.

Their brand new Ripple Fries, air-fried in avocado oil and seasoned with a blend of salt and herbs, was opportune to measure its healthier approach. The advantages: Being air fried with very little oil and using avocado oil instead of a seed oil. Then again, less oil is used in air frying.

The location had plenty of obvious presence of the new Ripple Fries. The price point was $4.85 vs. $3.89 at Steak 'n Shake. I was worried that the portion would be too small but the portion size was decent.

ripple fries have entered the chat 🍟

let us introduce you to the good fry. made with five ingredients you can pronounce and air-fried in avocado oil.

pair it with pickle ketchup or garlic aioli. choose wisely. pic.twitter.com/Nl00l4z3vN

— sweetgreen (@sweetgreen) March 4, 2025

We used a local, sugar-based ketchup for the Steak 'n Shake fries while relying on Sweetgreen's choice of garlic aioli or pickle ketchup. The garlic aioli had more flavor than I thought it would. The pickle ketchup was okay, not tasting anything like pickles or ketchup.

The Sweetgreen fries are about what you would expect from an air fryer. Not really crispy but if you lower your standards, they would be fine. You think of that more as real potatoes instead of traditional French fries. A cross of chips, wedges, and fries.

They were better seasoned and felt more nutritious than the Steak 'n Shake. They can't live up to the Steak 'n Shake in consistency and taste yet a quality product on its own, especially with the garlic aioli.

One critique: I had to wait for the Steak 'n Shake fries but they came out hot. I got the Sweetgreen fries right away and they definitely weren't hot. Speed is fine but I can wait for hot fries — every single time.

Preserving the integrity of Belgian frites

Wendy's new natural fries delivers by major chain fast food standards

I don't have issues with vegetable oil, beef tallow, seed oils, and avocado oils. I can even deal with air fried as long as you don't accept that as actual fried. If I had a coupon for each one, I would get both of them. They each have good points and, with a hot fresh version of the Sweetgreen fries, would be a good snack choice.

I say this as a former French fry aficionado: enjoy fries. Eat quality fare. Not too much. Like Michael Pollan has said, cook them at home. Get quality beef tallow or duck fat. Air fry them with a bit of avocado oil. Just get them to be a bit more crisp.

Temptation of the Week: Size of the French fries

What's Tempting: 6 French fries

Temptation of the Week: French fries naked

Twitter captures: @SteaknShake; @sweetgreen
photos credit: me

The milk(person) would be ideal to get home delivery of high-quality dairy

Living in a colder climate, ideally you would go to the grocery store less often when the weather is frightful. I can handle shopping for almost any food I consume — except for milk.

Short of going back a few generations and drinking powdered milk, you have to go to the store for milk. I loathe the store where I buy my milk most often because of their asinine approaches to milk in the last few years.

They had the $2.49 (per gallon) pandemic priced milk. Not great tasting milk but tasty enough to drink. The high-end organic milk was an option but without significant financial help during the pandemic, that was too much of a luxury. There is a correlation between great tasting milk and cost.

My local store got rid of the low cost milk and raised the price of the low mark milk, which was not drinkable IMHO. So I switched to the organic milk. $6.99 per gallon but you could buy 2 gallons of milk for $12. This is great if you have a spouse and kids and more difficult for a single person.

The store recently got rid of the high-end organic milk so I was stuck buying the medium quality milk, a different milk at $4.49-$4.99/gallon.

I've only seen the milkman in old TV shows and as a punchline to a potential amour for lonely housewives of bygone eras. Imagine getting your milk delivered in glass bottles delivered right to your door and not in an Instacart-type transaction where they can't find half of what you want from the store.

People back then got top quality milk and cream products, full-fat buttermilk. Chocolate milk that was full fat and sweetened with sugar and not high-fructose corn syrup: milk you would feel proud to have your children drink.

You can make full-fat buttermilk substitute with lemon juice of vinegar with whole milk, but getting full-fat buttermilk requires a person with a truck making deliveries.

Carrying home a gallon of milk from the store is pretty easy for those with cars. Carrying a gallon of milk, even 2 gallons, is harder, especially as you get older. Even dragging a gallon of milk on a bus is more cumbersome. Going out to the store, mostly for milk, with icy conditions is a risk you may not want to take.

You wake up and find glass bottles of dairy products that taste good and you only have to lift them from your back stoop to your refrigerator. The creamy bit at the top of the bottle of milk; can't get that with modern milk in the plastic jug.

Milk people worked as a concept where people had houses with back stoops, where people felt safer than perhaps now. Glass bottles is nostalgic along the lines of drinking Mexican Coca-Cola in glass bottles. The idea of reusing glass bottles instead of throwing out the plastic jugs of the modern era sounds wonderful for the environment. Those plastic jugs also pile up in your kitchen if the weather is too frightful.

Nostalgia can be cute up to a point. The idea isn't practical in the modern times, however tempting the practice is. I would be willing to get high-quality dairy products delivered, even if not in glass bottles.

The current solution is a different grocery store along a bus line with a high-end milk that is mostly good and expensive. Food prices likely won't come down with the new administration, at least in the United States. Or I could stop drinking milk. This is a good source of protein and I am not doing well in getting protein otherwise.

photo credit: this Reddit page

One-dish recipes from TikTok videos: Do these qualify as cooking?

Your humble narrator has a few quirks in the world of food. I have had a fear of funerals for more than just death. Casseroles. "Here, honey. Here are 10 casseroles to get you by so you don't have to cook during grief." Ugh.

Yet I was fascinated by the single pot or slow cooker type meal. You may have seen them in TikTok videos. Easy. Convenient.

Meat is involved. Chicken broth. Often, there is a small, bite sized pasta involved. The only debate in a lot of these recipes are whether there will be a whole block of cream cheese dropped into the dish. The answer most of the time is definitely "yes."

The recipes are centered around the 1-pot dish. Lots of pre-shredded cheese and raw ground beef.

Recipes in motion make for interesting videos. Watching cooking shows such as America's Test Kitchen can seem slow between the PBS and television aesthetics. Why wait 12 minutes when you can get the essence of a recipe in 3 minutes?

The recipe trend reminded your humble narrator of Ree Drummond, aka The Pioneer Woman, from the Food Network show of the same name. Very easy, simple to make, ingredients likely on hand. Drummond has 5 children and her hard-working, hungry husband, Ladd.

Is this cooking? Does it matter if this isn't cooking?

Recipes in motion is a good way to get a better sense of what a recipe looks like. Your humble narrator likes to do searches for recipes, such as a white clam sauce using canned clams. The words tell you the basics yet video proof is easier at times and gives you a better sense of the dish at hand.

There is a single caveat of note. These recipes are designed to feed a family or a few friends. Single people can make these dishes but there will be lots of leftovers.

The beauty of recipes, even the 1-pot kind, is that you can adapt. Maybe you make your own spaghetti sauce instead of pouring in a version from the grocery store. You could use sour cream for the proverbial cream cheese. Impossible or Beyond works just as easily as ground beef. 

Perhaps you don't feel secure about "regular" cooking and these videos are a way to show your family or a prospective partner that you can do more than boil water.

We understand anxiety and how the effort behind cooking might be more difficult. The ease of dumping ingredients into a pot and having them cook together can save time and unneeded anxiety.

You might cook a fancier meal for Christmas Day but a 1-pot option for Boxing Day would be a time and energy saver.

If you are already "wasting" time scrolling on your phone, you might as well be looking for future dinner ideas.

While I am not a huge fan of casseroles, I could watch chicken pot pie recipes for 20-25 minutes at a time. Not all cooking has to be complicated.

video credit: What the Duck
photo credit: TikTik/easydinnerideas

Food documentaries to increase your knowledge of the food chain

We review films on a regular basis on our sibling blog — CanadianCrossing.com. We even write about film for this blog about food issues and documentaries.

We have run across some food documentaries of late so we have reviews about the merits of these food documentaries. You might think seeing a food documentary means you don't have to watch others. True in some cases and not the complete truth with other films.

Food and Country

Ruth Reichl has a documentary about the state of the food system over the last 5 years and beyond. You might recognize Reichl from her work as The New York Times restaurant critic. Reichl takes us through the perils of COVID-19 on farmers and restaurants. One farm had geared its efforts to restaurants and had to pivot since eating out became a problem during the pandemic.

The backstory is presented, going back to Earl Butz in the Department of Agriculture under Richard Nixon. The film showcases the limited control of major production with Tyson, Cargill, and 2 Brazilian owned companies.

Food and Country points out notable solutions to improve the situation, such as getting more Black people to become farmers and the efforts of White Oak Pastures in Bluffton, GA with regenerative and organic farming.

Reichl throws in a bit of her story but is wise enough to limit that in the documentary. A good overview if you know little to nothing but a lot you may have seen before if you are clued into the food supply concerns.

AARP ran a free screening of Food and Country about a month ago. This should stream soon.

Common Ground

The primary focus of this food documentary is regenerative agriculture, the true opposite of monocultures. No-till policies help regenerate the soil. Using cattle to pollinate the grassland. This also puts carbon into the ground to help the climate crisis as well as improve the soil.

A number of celebrities are involved in the narration of Common Ground and are seen on-screen, including Laura Dern, Jason Momoa, Woody Harrelson, Donald Glover, Ian Somerhalder, and Rosario Dawson.

The tone is kind of "duh. of course we should be doing this." Normally, that can be annoying but this is obvious.

Common Ground is the follow-up film to Kiss the Ground. You can find out if there is a screening near you or to request one. Common Ground has run in select theatres and should be streaming in 2025.

Tea Creek

Jacob Beaton tells us that Indigenous food sovereignty used to be 100%. Beaton runs Tea Creek, an Indigenous food sovereignty training center in northern British Columbia in Canada. The documentary ties in with Indigenous populations having to move to less desirable farm land and the Indian Act restricting what Indigenous people could do in terms of farming.

The training center gives Indigenous people expertise and confidence to farm the land. Farm techniques also help the people take care of the land. The film talks about the importance of the 3 sisters: corn, beans, and squash. They also share the bounty with the Indigenous community, a trait of their people for hundreds of years.

The center does its best yet has run into financial difficulty.

These techniques and inspiration can also apply to non-Indigenous people so don't limit yourself in watching the documentary. This will be hard to find outside Canada yet is the most important documentary in this article.

Tea Creek is available in Canada in the Absolutely Canadian section of CBC Gem. Hopefully, there will be a U.S. deal.

The Michoacan File

On the surface, The Michoacan File is about the quest to get UNESCO certification for Mexican cuisine. That part of the documentary isn't that interesting. The telling of the story of Mexican food over centuries, the connection with the Philippines, the connection with France, the matriarchal angle of Mexican cooking, Baja California cuisine, Tex Mex, and so much more.

Milpas and the 3 sisters: corn, beans, and squash. The different names for chiles, depending on their state in the moment. This is a wonderful history of cooking that goes way beyond tacos and tostados.

The film centers on the Michoacan region as a gateway to get the UNESCO certification. They have to leave their comfort zone and cook in a foreign land where they are not wanted in the kitchen.

You can likely watch this film on demand at some point.

Crush: Message in a Bottle

We don't really cover wine, even if wine is made from food (grapes). People cook with wine so we should include this documentary. A nice overview of four seasons with the battles and challenges in the wine making process. This takes place in the Niagara region of southern Ontario, an up and coming wine-making area.

Crush: Message in a Bottle is ideal viewing while drinking a glass of wine. The film is available via TVO (TV Ontario) in Ontario in Canada.

Singing Back The Buffalo

Singing Back The Buffalo is a documentary about bringing back buffalo populations to Canada and the United States. The film reinforces the regenerative agriculture argument of buffalo pollinating the grasslands. Buffalo are falsely seen in some circles as a threat to cows. Of course, buffalo is a nice alternative to cows in terms of grass-fed meat production with more Omega 3s and lower in fat.

Tasia Hubbard is a very good filmmaker and makes the buffalo a subject worthy of contemplating.

BalanceofFood.com film coverage

40 Acres is a feature film about Black and Indigenous farmers defending their farmland in a post-apocalyptic world. There is a bit too much killing yet tells a good story about how important farming is, especially when food is scarce.

Seeds is actually about seeds: how an Indigenous influencer gets tricked into endorsing a company that wants to patent seeds and steal her grandmother's seeds. This film also mentions the 3 sisters (corn, beans, and squash). A bit violent toward the end of the film yet an important message.

Both these films are in the film festival stage. They are both Canadian, which means they could end up on Crave within the next year and eventually on demand in the United States.

We know a lot of this content deals with Canada. These films played at a film festival in Canada and Canada does a lot of documentaries. Plus, Canada is similar to the United States in some ways.

photo credits: Tea Creek; Crush: Message in a Bottle; Singing Back The Buffalo
video credits: Greenwich Entertainment; Common Ground Film; Windsor International Film Festival; Veneto International Film Festival

Food as art has a very small audience

Your humble narrator isn't the biggest fan of ultra fancy dining. A fancy meal every so often allows you to grow as a dining human being. Fancy is fine but ultra fancy is more theatre and art than food, especially at those prices.

My friend IRL Monica Eng covers the food industry for a long time in different formats. Eng recently wrote about Charlie Trotter tribute dinners run by Grant Achatz. 

In Chicago high dining circles. Charlie Trotter and Grant Achatz were and are well-known names. If you want to be seen as being cool, then you would dive into this opportunity. "Hey, look. I got into this exclusive experience. You didn't. I am better than you." 

Eng points out the cost for the tribute dinners (Trotter died in 2013) is $175-$235 per person. This does not count tax, tip, and drinks. From the article: "Wine pairings, starting with Champagne and ending with port, range from $135 to $345 for ultra reserve vintages. Non-alcoholic pairings cost $75." I suppose a Mexican Coca-Cola is out of the question.

Trotter and Achatz's restaurants (Achatz worked at Charlie Trotter's restaurant) are about pageantry and being seen more than the food itself. You pay through the nose for that luxury.

You get some fancy food, not much on any one plate:

"The meal starts with a ring of Osetra caviar, sea urchin, vodka créme fraiche and daikon that sings of the sea with a whisper of fruity sweetness. Other standout courses include:

• Summer-kissed heirloom tomato soup with crunchy dried tomato bits and an avocado coriander sorbet.
• A slice of rare venison over shredded oxtail infused with cherry juice and surrounded by a rich mole and cashew vinaigrette.
• Buttery Peruvian sea bass over chanterelles and a veal reduction.
• Puddingy banana bread, laced with warm chocolate ganache and topped with a coconut cookie, ripe bananas and malt ice cream that I still can't stop thinking about."

The article shows some pictures. Eng said in the article, "No, you will not still be hungry after this meal. If I was full, anyone would be full." She is likely correct, simply because there are a number of courses. The goal shouldn't be all you can eat at a family style restaurant. When you paying a lot for fancy food, the portions will be tiny. That is a key part of the panache.

One of the lures of the tribute dinners is to meet like-minded people who did Trotter's when that restaurant was still active. Perhaps you can't — or won't — put a price on that kind of experience.

The lure of eating at a restaurant with a celebrity chef

Don't fall for a restaurant that says it is 'approachable'

That isn't what food should really be. Art and performance can be in that realm. Food should be reasonably approachable. You can go to museums and see some of the greatest art in the world. Of course, museums are financially subsidized.

The costs are ridiculous yet the money is only part of the issue. You can go to Chez Panisse in Berkeley (lunch in the photo at the top of this column) and pay a lot for a very good meal. Lunches upstairs are cheaper than dinner downstairs. You could go to Swan Oyster Depot on Polk Street in San Francisco, pay a lot of money (cash only) for some amazing seafood. The ambiance is way more casual so bragging rights aren't a big deal.

You could find a quality place and spend $100-$125 (per person) for a very nice meal with wine. A nice quiet meal with no publicity.

Theoretically, one could participate new in this process, dish out the money. If they even think in their head that they didn't get value for the money, one can't say it was so-so. You have to praise what you consumed, regardless of the reality. That doesn't sound encouraging.

What's Tempting: Recreating spirit of Chez Panisse

What's Tempting: Chez Panisse for lunch

The design of the Charlie Trotter original and tribute experiences is to be exclusive, not inclusive, even more than just fancy dining. They are considered great chefs not because of the way they cook or how the dishes turn out but by charging large sums of money for that exclusive experience.

If I am ever in Cetara, Italy on the Amalfi Coast south of Naples, I am headed for Al Convento, Pasquale Torrente’s place featured with Anthony Bourdain on No Reservations. I wouldn't care how much the bill would be. All of the dishes Bourdain ordered looked so good. Cetara is known for local anchovies.

A memorable meal with a beautiful ocean view. I would take pictures and show them on social media. No one around me would be bragging that they were there because of the company, just the food. I want to dine out for the food and not some fancy exclusivity.

BalanceofFood.com travel coverage

"A two-hour meal of eight set courses introduced by servers explaining how the elements reflect Trotter's passion for jazz, Japanese cooking, game meat, seasonal produce and even Nancy Silverton's panna cotta."

Ultra fancy dining requires a level of trust of epic proportions. If you had a boatload of money AND a lot of trust in Charlie Trotter, you would likely salivate at the above description. You have to trust Achatz and the others who put together the tribute dinners maybe even more than Trotter.

I do struggle with trust, especially in food relationships. I trust Alice Waters now but there was a time when I didn't have that trust.

This is the difference between fancy dining and ultra fancy dining. I can trust fancy dining for an occasional treat. I struggle to trust ultra fancy dining, even if I had the money to justify an evening's meal. 

photo credits: me; No Reservations

Alcohol is useful in cooking but won't completely cook out

#CulinaryTruth Alcohol never completely cooks out of anything...ever.

— Alton Brown (@altonbrown) April 10, 2021

Cooking shows are supposed to be accurate. They usually are, except for the constantly repeated mantra: "The alcohol will cook out." You can say it 3 times in a mirror but that doesn't make it true.

Most of us don't have an issue as to whether the alcohol cooks out. The concern is for those where alcohol is a concern and they are being told a dangerous lie.

You likely enjoyed when McDonald's cooked your French fries in beef tallow a couple of decades ago. The Indians who don't consume anything from cows as well as other vegans were upset to find out they had consumed beef tallow unknowingly.

Say "virtually." Journalists use "allegedly" or "police said." Like when dietitians and many others on the mainstream side of food say that sugar and high-fructose corn syrup are virtually the same. There is a wide difference between them. At least they aren't saying they are the same.

The alcohol is the reason why you put that into dishes. Alton Brown has noted that tomatoes are rich in alcohol-soluble compounds.

The world is now filled with fake cocktails for those who want the taste of alcohol. Your humble narrator has tried a ton of them and rejected all that taste like the alcohol in question.

Here comes the nerdy part about what happens to the alcohol when you cook, courtesy of America's Test Kitchen.

Alcohol evaporates when it’s heated. So in theory, cooking will make it evaporate away. And, because the boiling point of ethanol (173 degrees) is lower than that of water (212 degrees), it seems like you should be able to cook off all the alcohol in a dish without cooking off all of its water.

In practice, it doesn’t work that way. When alcohol and water are combined, they dissolve into each other, forming a solution whose boiling point is neither 173° nor 212°, but variable, depending on the ratio of the ingredients.

The more you cook off alcohol from a dish, the lower the ratio of alcohol to water in the dish becomes, which means the alcohol cooks off more and more slowly. Finally, when the alcohol level reaches about 5 percent, it plateaus, and won't get any lower.

The story notes that a stew containing wine, simmered at 185° for 10 minutes, has as much as 60% of the initial alcohol while that same stew simmered at 185° for 2½ hours has about 6% of the initial alcohol.

This comes up for alcoholics as well as those on medicine where you aren't supposed to drink, such as antidepressants.

A trick I use is to buy small bottles of wine (as seen above) and use them for cooking. This can be helpful in situations where you are living with someone who might be tempted by a whole bottle. This example won't help every case but a great option where that is viable.

Your tomato dish or whatever you are cooking will be just fine without alcohol. Stock and white wine vinegar are good options but there isn't a limit on them. The America's Test Kitchen story notes that "fruit juice naturally contains alcohol" so keep that in mind.

Twitter capture: @altonbrown
photo credit: manufacturer (not an endorsement of a specific company)

Tim Walz would be a step forward on food policy

The stereotype is that a vice president has an important job yet usually doesn't do a whole lot. A U.S. vice president who spent time on food policy would be a great start.

Tim Walz is the governor of Minnesota and the vice presidential pick to run with Vice President Kamala Harris on the Democratic Party ticket. Walz has been praised for his work on getting school breakfasts and lunches to be free in Minnesota.

Eater.com pointed out Walz's understanding of the "connection between food and climate change."

Walz is from a Midwestern state where they understand food. Harris is from California, a state that understands about the growing of food.

One reason to love the #TimWalz pick is his love for #schoollunch funding. https://t.co/WuMqd1Atr0

— Chad Rubel (@balanceoffood) August 6, 2024

Reducing the stigma of lunch debt. Knowing first hand having been a school teacher that kids learn better when their stomachs are full.

We feel confident that the Minnesota governor knows that turkey is meat. Turkey is a big deal in Minnesota. The fact that Walz's daughter Hope is vegetarian means he has a resource to understand that approach to food.

Needing a radical 'New Deal' from the next Secretary of Agriculture

Michael Pollan for Ag Secretary?

The reality is that the status quo, of which Vilsack is a champion, feels like everything is fine with the U.S. food approach. The days of drafting Michael Pollan as secretary of agriculture is beyond a pipe dream.

If Americans voted based on food policy, the Democratic Party would win every time. Then again, if they voted on food policy, voters would want the Green Party or a left of center party such as the New Democratic Party in Canada.

Shopping for vegetables is a reality, not a political stunt

As we've seen in politics, the secretary of agriculture doesn't really tackle concerns over the food supply. When I covered U.S. politics, those who rooted for Tom Vilsack (former Iowa governor) were likely disappointed at his 8-year stint in that cabinet post. Those people were surprised that President Joe Biden brought back Vilsack for the same post. That said, Vilsack is miles ahead of Sonny Perdue in that capacity.

There is proposed legislation to establish the Federal Food Administration under the umbrella of food safety and promoting nutrition. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL.) and Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) introduced the legislation.

Food and Drug Administration (FDA). United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). Health and Human Services (HHS). All of these agencies sort of cover these topics yet the USDA is more about promoting food and the FDA is more about drugs.

Food safety would be helpful given e-coli spills from factory farms but we are concerned that "food safety" will be making sure we have more UHT milk. 

Unfortunately the Federal Food Administration won't see the light of day as long as the Dems don't control the House of Representatives. The presidential race is crucial yet the lower ballot races also matter a lot.

We know some of the right-wing side of government don't want another federal agency. They don't complain about the Transportation Security Authority (TSA). They might want a better run food system.

BalanceofFood.com school lunch coverage

BalanceofFood.com politics coverage

Reverse the monoculture mentality of Earl Butz. Diversify farm ownership so farms aren't "too big to fail." Have a smarter immigration policy so more crops aren't wasted on farms. Stop making front and back labels on food being a shell game approach. Make declaring one's self organic a hell of a lot easier. Treat chickens, cows, and pigs with more dignity.

Create a food system that feeds more Americans without relying on bragging as much about food banks. Just some of the many ideas I would incorporate as a secretary of food safety and nutrition.

BalanceofFood.com U.S. food policy coverage

BalanceofFood.com agency alphabet soup coverage

This may seem naive but I think there could be true bipartisan agreement on improving the food supply. Most Republicans aren't rich and many of them go to food banks. The corporate mentality toward the food system clouds people's thinking.

photo credit and video credits: I Am Grambling
Twitter capture: @balanceoffood

Preserving local summer fruit to get through a rough winter

I recall the Ant and the Grasshopper from my childhood. The Aesop fable shows an ant preparing food for the winter while the grasshopper dances away in the summer. Winter comes and the grasshopper is starving and asks the ant for food.

If you live in a space where winters can be terrible, going out and finding fresh fruit is problematic. Yes, there are individual quick frozen (IQF) options but they can be expensive.

Our solution involves being more ant than grasshopper. Buy up local fruit. My local farmer sells blueberries in 5 lb. boxes. Get the box home and put the blueberries into containers. Put the containers in the freezer. Wait for winter to come and then enjoy local summer fruit in winter.

"The fruit won't be as lovely as it is in late July." You are correct. Not as lovely yet very good in other ways. I make blueberry lemonade in the winter. I sometimes will pop a few straight out of the freezer. Pure blueberry goodness.

Alton Brown offers a way to frozen strawberries that sounds impressive. While we think strawberries are better than blueberries, we think frozen blueberries do better than frozen strawberries. Plus, I am not using dry ice in any form.

I also love the convenience of not adding fruit to my winter shopping list. I don't have to run out into a blizzard to chase down fruit. I don't have to succumb to buy a Driscoll box in the middle of winter.

Podcast: Making blueberry season last as long as possible

Some will take fruit and can the fruit or make jams. Hats off to you if you have that energy, kitchen space, and patience. I have none of those things. My method may not win blue ribbons. I get local blueberries at the opposite time of the year.

BalanceofFood.com farmers market coverage

I do take some of the blueberries to put them in a smaller container to thaw them in the refrigerator. That is a common question I get when I tell people about this way to get summer goodness in the middle of winter.

I do supplement the winter blueberries with seasonal apples at the winter farmers market. I just know that if the weather gets really bad, I don't have to worry about getting fruit and Vitamin C in a blizzard.

If you are the grasshopper and your friend is the ant, you have to decide about helping out the ant. Include a life lesson to prepare something for winter. 

Let us know what you do for local fruit when winter comes. Being a grasshopper sounds more fun in the summer yet the ant wins out in winter.

photos credit: me

Bourdain Day 2024: Dealing with reduced enthusiasm

For those of us who wished (wish?) to have the kind of life Anthony Bourdain enjoyed in the second half of his existence, reduced enthusiasm feels very unlikely. Travel more than 200 days each year, eat and drink well, and having amazing adventures.

If you are around the age, okay a bit younger than Bourdain was at the end of his life, your enthusiasm is not at the level where it used to be. Less energy, less focus. Generating that level of enthusiasm leads to thoughts of nostalgia to times when you had the adventures that shaped your youth.

Parts Unknown was less physical, less snarky, and less adventurous than No Reservations. The Anthony Bourdain speed wasn't in 5th gear, maybe more like 3rd gear.

Bourdain, who didn't have much good to say about Scandinavia, did a trip to Copenhagen for Parts Unknown. That episode was mostly about going to Noma.

Reduced enthusiasm is a reality for people of a certain age. The question is how to overcome that concern.

"You can't teach an old dog new tricks"

Your humble narrator is more a fan of No Reservations than Parts Unknown. Yet the reduced enthusiasm with a lot less sarcasm that Bourdain had on the latter series: well, we can learn from that as well.

Bourdain still ate well, having more intense and deeper conversations in Parts Unknown. He kicked up the maturity from his initial A Cook's Tour when he was in his 40s into No Reservations.

We can think that we know a lot about food at a somewhat advanced age. Then again in the last few years, your humble narrator fixed butter chicken with a jarred sauce, invented bagna cauda spaghetti, and cooked bone marrow at home.

The incentive to experiment is enhanced if you have an audience to cook for in your domicile. This does not include a cat or dog who just want a sample of your food, and quite frankly, won't offer significant feedback (unless they won't eat it). Cooking for one with reduced enthusiasm can lead to … bowls of cereal for dinner.

“I know that I will never understand the world I live in or fully know the places I've been. I've learned for sure only what I don't know — and how much I have to learn.”
–Anthony Bourdain#AnthonyBourdain #MondayMotivation #travel pic.twitter.com/nTsbessFfx

— Friends of Anthony Bourdain (@bourdainpodcast) June 10, 2024

Honoring Anthony Bourdain is making a better than average meal when your body or mind doesn't want to do a whole lot. Honoring yourself in a way. After all, the best meals Bourdain had on television were always in someone's home.

Breaking down barriers so people will try new foods

Coping with reduced enthusiasm for food

Anthony Bourdain offered good advice on what not to do with food and travel, such as his advice to stay away from the breakfast buffet at hotels. Sometimes, knowing what you shouldn't do is almost as needed as what you should do.

Shopping at local markets, a mainstay of Bourdain adventures, is a great way to jumpstart new foods and, with a lot of foods at the markets, little to no cooking required.

Bourdain Day 2023: Celebrating a loss with food

Bourdain Day 2022: Coming out of a worldwide pandemic

If reduced enthusiasm is a concern, you don't need to have 3 exciting meals every day. Think about a Saturday night dinner where you have time to put some effort into a meal. I did this on Saturday nights during the pandemic with the bagna cauda spaghetti. Listening to a jazz show out of Canada gave me a cooking soundtrack.

Take pictures of the process and meal, even if you don't post them on social media. You might be the only one who sees the meal. You can feel better looking at the pictures, knowing you are capable of making a special meal.

You can also challenge yourself to make a meal better than a local restaurant for a lot less money.

Bourdain Day 3: How Anthony Bourdain helped me get through a pandemic

On the second Bourdain Day, how Anthony Bourdain would handle a worldwide pandemic

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

Anthony Bourdain would have been 68 today.

photo credit: Instagram Anthony Bourdain
Twitter capture: @bourdainpodcast

The necessity of a grocery store boycott

Our American readers might be really interested in the idea of a grocery store boycott in response to rising grocery prices. The profits are growing as spending power is shrinking.

We are offering up a take on the current boycott against Loblaws and its many subsidiaries in Canada. Yes, we write about Canada a lot but this example is highly relevant. The boycott is for all of May so we can get some idea as to what is happening.

The Canadian company owns other food outlets, such as Atlantic Superstore, Dominion, Loblaws, Maxi, No Frills, Provigo Le Marché, Valu-Mart, Real Canadian Superstore, Wholesale Club, Your Independent Grocer, and Zehrs. While Shoppers Drug Mart is mostly a drug store, they sell groceries.

Loblaws and other grocery store companies got the Law & Order Toronto: Criminal Intent treatment this spring based on an actual price fixing scandal over bread.

For Americans who love to complain about grocery store prices, Canadians would say "hold my beer," which is better tasting beer.

A history of why the Loblaws grocery store boycott was necessary (CanadianCrossing.com)

Canada (finally) introduces a national school lunch program

Grocery rebate is a nice idea but only a short-term solution to rising food prices

Pirate Joe's had a good run in Vancouver

BalanceofFood.com Canada food policy coverage

Traditionally, we run the full story on BalanceofFood.com and link to the story on CanadianCrossing.com. This time, we invite you to read the story and learn about the ups and downs of a real, live grocery store boycott.

photo credit: @foodprofessor (where I found the photo but not knowing the original source)