Balance of Food

Food television notebook: New MSNBC special and Fridge Wars

Andrew Zimmern and MSNBC proved to be a good combination on the What's Eating America series that ran earlier this year. Zimmern took us through how food connects to the issues in American society.

The impact on food and issues such as immigration and climate change was covered rather well in depth, especially for television. MSNBC has shown the episodes here and there. Zimmern has also appeared on various shows on MSNBC.

Zimmern teamed up with Joy Reid to host Food and the Pandemic: Recipe for Disaster. The show put the ongoing food issues and how the pandemic has heightened these concerns.

People waiting in lines for food distribution, often in long lines of cars. Those waiting in their cars in San Antonio for as many as 18 hours before the food bank opened. A lot of those people thought this wouldn't happen to them.

They talked with country music star Brad Paisley, who along with his wife, actor Kimberly Williams-Paisley, run The Store, a place in Nashville that looks and acts like a grocery store where customers don't get the bill at the end. The concept, which Paisley said was inspired in a place in Santa Barbara, CA, is that customers get to pick the food themselves as opposed to being handed a box at a food bank.

There was a wonderful segment about Karen Washington, who is working to encourage urban farming. The key stat in that segment was that fewer than 2% of U.S. farmers are Black. As we've learned in many other areas, role models build confidence that others can follow. 

The show talked about food deserts and defining that as having to travel more than a mile in an urban setting. While we know about this topic, seeing this on cable news was rather remarkable. They also covered the challenges of those with diseases that compromise their immunity system is built on limited food choices.

They talked about the food bank in San Antonio is still feeding 250,000-300,000 people on a monthly basis. The stories may have disappeared from the headlines but the need is still there.

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

BalanceofFood.com television coverage

Restaurant owners are struggling to keep themselves afloat. Some are helping feed others. Zimmern noted that a lot of food that normally went to restaurants needed to find a home where people could find and eat the food. This in a country that struggled with food waste even before the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.

We don't say this lightly. This could be and should be a weekly update. More inspirational and hopeful stories on those using time an resources to help those in need to get good, quality food.

Food and the Pandemic: Recipe for Disaster gets another airing tomorrow night at 10 pm Eastern on MSNBC.

Transplant makes U.S. debut on NBC

Fridge Wars from CBC to air on the CW

She doesn't see meals when she looks in the refrigerator. This was the gist of a comment from a family on Fridge Wars, a Canadian show from the CBC that recently ran on the CW.

The concept is 2 chefs battling each other based on replicas of what the family had in the refrigerator. The families then judge the creations based on look, taste, and originality.

Each chef cooks for 2 different families in the hour-long program.

I swear I saw something similar on the Cooking Channel where the chefs actually cook in the kitchens of the families using their refrigerator content.

The Fridge Wars chefs get extra help from foods and equipment, mini-ads within the program. We have found that highly tasteless on U.S. shows. Seeing that from a show on a Canadian public broadcaster is degrading.

The show also gets caught in the TV trap of plates that look good as opposed to tasting good: 2 of the 3 categories have nothing to do with how the food tastes.

The chefs do use a lot of vegetables, make some dishes that are gluten-free, and show off creativity in an area where regular people actually struggle: taking what is in a refrigerator and turning the food into a meal.

Fridge Wars was made before the pandemic so there are no pandemic references in the show.

Emma Hunter is more comedian than host on the show and in real life. Hunter is engaging and plays up awkward moments with an ease Alison Sweeney (The Biggest Loser) could study for 20 years and still not master. Sweeney replaced Caroline Rhea, who was more approachable as the host and coincidentally, also a Canadian comedian.

Fridge Wars is available through the CW in the United States and CBC Gem in Canada.

photo credits: Food and the Pandemic: Recipe for Disaster; Fridge Wars

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

I don't carry around a bracelet with the initials WWABD. I do ask myself lately how Anthony Bourdain would have dealt with a pandemic such as COVID-19?

Can't really travel, can't celebrate food in restaurants, can't produce intimate television such as the great shows Bourdain produced.

I suppose Bourdain would have picked a remote spot, eaten well locally, managing to do that without cameras or voiceovers. Those that move at a fast pace find slowing down to be difficult. Anthony Bourdain would have been 65 today. He might not have liked the idea of slowing down even at 65.

Many of us are discovering cooking during the pandemic. You often saw Bourdain eating out: when he could, Bourdain would eat in people's homes. He really enjoyed eating at home with people and learning how to approach certain dishes.

Eating and sharing with people has also gone by the wayside in a pandemic. Pick the people you are with and make the best of it. So many people are alone during the pandemic; some would rather be alone.

Being alone heightens anxiety and depression. With food, you are not alone. Then again, you can feel alone surrounded by people, even with social distancing.

Bourdain might tell us to reflect on our food travel memories. Ours aren't as spectacular or extensive as his were. We have the books and TV shows of his adventures. We can only imagine what happened off-camera.

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

Anthony Bourdain legacy: Find your own food adventure

We do have food travel memories. Eating raw oysters for the first time at the Ferry Building farmers market in San Francisco. The local canned tuna fish I bought in Victoria and ate on an Amtrak car traveling from Seattle to Chicago. The late night Belgian frites in Amsterdam. The dark chocolate gelato in the outdoor seating at the bar in Rome. The strawberries and raw milk snack in Santa Monica.

The childhood car rides through the U.S. South: pecan logs at Stuckey's, grits at numerous diners, the hockey-puck like hard chocolate chip cookies we got from my grandma's friend and how the warm Southern summer made those cookies edible from the heat.

Bourdain would likely tell us to explore "ethnic" grocery stores and aisles to travel the world without leaving your city. He would suggest ordering out from family-run restaurants and ignoring the greed of restaurant delivery apps (more money in the pockets of the people making the food).

He also would spend a lot of time cursing in several languages about how all of this sucks.

Anthony Bourdain takes CNN's Parts Unknown to the mysterious land of Newfoundland

Eating outdoors is a part of summer. Some cities will close off streets to increase social distancing. Shop well and set up a picnic in a nearby park, keeping your distance. Take a dish that you learned and eat it outdoors. Not the same as food travel but the best we can do during a pandemic.

BalanceofFood.com travel coverage

As we noted last year and worth remembering: "Anthony Bourdain's legacy lives within us. Travel more to learn about people through food. Read one or several of his books. Write your own book and dedicate that book to the spirit of Anthony Bourdain."

photo credit: Instagram Anthony Bourdain

Amy Schumer Learns to Cook but are we learning by watching the show?

Pandemic programming isn't just alliteration. Cooking in a pandemic is a skill people are learning or re-learning. The premise of Amy Schumer Learns to Cook is Amy Schumer (comedian, actor) doesn't know how to cook and her husband Chris Fischer (chef) does know how to cook.

The Food Network show has 8 episodes crammed into 4 1-hour shows. Each segment starts out with a cocktail since Amy Schumer does know how to mix drinks. Alcohol isn't food, unless that food is grain alcohol Jell-O, a lesson I learned when I was 18.

The show is casually produced with Jane, the nanny, handling a camcorder and the graphics listing the dishes are written on cardboard. That is the pandemic part. There are many more bleeps than you find in a typical cooking show.

Are we there to learn or to be entertained? Schumer is compelling with her humor and interest in cooking. The audience theoretically would tune in to also learn how to cook.

Let's look at the mushroom pasta from episode 2. Fischer cuts up some oyster mushrooms and onions. He sauteed the mushrooms and then sets them in a bowl while he sauteed the onions. Garlic, butter, olive oil, thyme, salt, parmesan cheese, and a bit of pasta water go in with the onions and the mushrooms when they go back into the pan.

Without any sense of proportion, an established chef could duplicate that but most at-home cooks would struggle. You learn how to put a bunch of stuff together but not really learn cooking.

Fischer steams in a way I haven't seen on any cooking show in that the food touches the water. We can't see what happens but steaming isn't what that looks like.

There are some fun extemporaneous moments. Fischer wanted to make a potato and radish salad in episode 4. Schumer asks if they can do mashed potatoes instead. They do. A random pot of cooked down tomatoes in episode 2 becomes a mystery pasta "that no one asked for," said Schumer.

Good Eats is the grand exception where measurements are given on cooking shows. Fischer's approach is to be more vague than Bobby Flay, which we didn't think was possible.

Fischer is good at incorporating vegetables into dishes. The Greek salad dip in episode 3 was ingenious. His obsession with fennel and onions drive Schumer bonkers. The dishes are very simple, rustic. The crab, tomato, avocado salad is pretty straightforward. You learn to put things together and hope they come close to matching what happens on the screen. You do miss a camera angle or two. Schumer often has to come in and ask Fischer what he just did. At one point, Schumer misses a step and says that she will have to watch the show to see what happened. Good luck.

The chocolate peanut butter cookies get a substitution in episode 1 since they have almond butter, not peanut butter. They pass it off as a pandemic result since they ran out of peanut butter.

The premise is that Schumer learns all along but the final episodes pour it on that Schumer learned a few skills along the way. Her chopping skills do improve.

Hitting a plateau in the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic

Cooking Channel needs to bring back Laura Calder, focus less on celebrities

BalanceofFood.com television coverage

Amy Schumer Learns to Cook shows the future of post-pandemic food shows -- well, not the shaky camera work anyway. Matching a person who knows how to cook with someone who doesn't is a more educational way to learn how to cook. The cook knows a lot, almost too much. The ingenue likes to eat but doesn't know how to get there.

We don't learn to cook from the expert. We learn from the clueless person who is learning to cook in front of our eyes.

photo credit: Amy Schumer Learns to Cook/Food Network

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

What's Eating America with Andrew Zimmern is shining a light on food-related society issues. The 5-part series is running on MSNBC Sunday nights at 9 pm Eastern.

The opening episode devoted 2 hours to the ties between immigration and the food supply. Subsequent episodes covered climate change, addiction with voting rights and fresh food fail coming up.

The immigration and climate change episodes relate all too well to food supply concerns in the United States. Great to have a 5-part series, but wish all the episode were devoted to concerns in the food supply chain.

The addiction episode was more about Zimmern's addiction issues and the impact of alcohol and drugs in the bar and restaurant industry. The voting rights and voting suppression issue is crucial, but looks to be not really food-related.

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

In the immigration episode, you might have recognized Cristina Martinez, who runs a popular barbacoa restaurant in Philadelphia. Full Frontal with Samantha Bee profiled the impact of immigration on food in 2018.

Samantha Bee, a documented immigrant herself (she's from Canada), guided the audience through a path of undocumented immigrants in kitchens. Bee talked with Martinez at her popular barbacoa restaurant in Philadelphia as well as undocumented restaurant employees who didn't want their identity revealed.

Behind the jokes, Stephen Colbert shines light on plight of farm workers

'Colbert Report' to shine spotlight on farm workers and their sacrifices

Zimmern points out that these are skilled workers given the work that they are doing and that most Americans won't do. He notes that immigration reform would extend the use of food trucks to bring different cultures at lunchtime.

Watching Zimmern pick strawberries shows the need for immigrant workers. Watching that footage reminded us of Stephen Colbert on the Colbert Report taking us through the arduous process of picking fruits and vegetables.

Zimmern's style is easygoing, curious, and relatable to people of all classes. The show bounces to all parts of the country whether that is the lack of perch in Lake Michigan to the dead oysters in Apalachicola Bay, Florida. Chef and humanitarian José Andrés helps out in the immigration episode.

168 hours in a week should be long enough for cable news to cover food-related topics. Sadly, that isn't true. Zimmern is a chef who does a lot of television and knows the impact of food in our society. 6 hours is not a long time to cover food issues. The show hopefully will inspire more food journalism on cable TV news.

What's Eating America with Andrew Zimmern runs Sunday nights at 9 pm Eastern on MSNBC. You can catch up (with authentication) on previous episodes.

photos credit: What's Eating America with Andrew Zimmern/MSNBC

Valentine's Day should be about being good to yourself

The Jazzaguy episode late in Season 4 of Schitt's Creek features David and Stevie (Dan Levy and Emily Hampshire), who are not a couple at this point, being serenaded with gifts because the motel thinks they are newlyweds. They keep the ruse going to get free alcohol. They end up being sunk in with the lovers' curry.

Valentine's Day is the one day where lovers and those not in a relationship are perplexed on how to spend the day.

Fancy restaurants with special menus are not a good way to go. Something more romantic, more intimate is a better way to go. This advice works whether in a relationship or being self-partnered, as Emma Watson so eloquently portrays her status.

Fat Tuesday and Valentines Day back to back offer new temptations

What's Tempting: Home cooking on Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day reminds us to set high standards in bacon, love, and food

Valentine's Day can be healthy with heart-shaped fruits and vegetable slices

Maybe you just started dating someone around Valentine's Day. Maybe you are in a committed relationship that is in really poor shape. Valentine's Day is for everyone, regardless of status. If you are good to yourself, you can celebrate Valentine's Day in style.

Get dressed up. Put on your best sweatpants. Cook a nice steak. Have an extra serving of quinoa. Share French fries with someone. Get a smaller size of French fries just for you. Make a large salad with a lot of healthy foods or load up a salad with bacon and blue cheese. 

Make your favorite food. Cook for an elderly neighbor who doesn't get out much. Have those tacos from the place down the street. Learn to make a dish from your SO's homeland or your homeland, ancestral or otherwise. Make something from your adopted homeland.

Go vegan or vegetarian for a day.

Is it better to eat alone to stay fit?

Should Valentine's Day be about food?

BalanceofFood.com holidays coverage

Weddings are a day celebration. Love is forever, even when it's not. February 14 is a day to celebrate Saint Valentine and an even better day to celebrate yourself.

Avoid the bad chocolates from a heart-shaped box and the fancy dinners. Concentrate on yourself and a loved one, if you have one.

Schitt's Creek is available in the United States on Pop TV and Netflix and in Canada on CBC and CBC Gem.

photo credit: Schitt's Creek/CBC/Pop TV

Ranking food and drink Super Bowl LIV ads

Super Bowl ads are mostly about foods that dentists "recommend" you consume. We'll skip those for later. Avocados have made a traditional visit to the Super Bowl ad arena. Hummus is relatively new, especially since some Americans are nervous about "foreign food." Sabra is trying to change that with its hummus ad. Numerous celebrities talk about what they dip into hummus.

The ad featured 19 celebrities, not counting Chester Cheetah (Cheetos), in 30 seconds. If you knew every celebrity in the ad, you are not me. The variety of so many people exemplifies the variety of ways to enjoy hummus. The ad used the hashtag #HowImmus. The suffix -mmus works well to not be confused with the late shock jock Don Imus.

I recognized Ric Flair, Jaleel White, Scary Spice/Mel B., and Boomer Esiason.

Not sure if the ad will shine through on Super Bowl Sunday. Running the ad over the next few months will make a stronger impact.

Avocados from Mexico brought out Molly Ringwald in its campaign. The campaign ran a couple of ads earlier in the week where Ringwald praises avocado in a car, envious of its ability to sleep in a car and another ad where she places a crown on an avocado.

The actual Super Bowl ad was a fake shopping channel for accessories for the avocado. That was the lamest of the 3, especially compared to ads from previous years. Ringwald did well in the ad. The other ads were better and more subtle. The campaign would benefit from running those ads in the next few weeks rather than the actual Super Bowl ad.

Planning the #SuperBowl menu? #hummus #guacamole good ways to eat healthier. Chips made with blue corn or those bean/rice chips a grand suggestion. #snacks #SuperBowlLIV

— Chad Rubel (@balanceoffood) February 2, 2020

We realize Super Bowl ads aren't supposed to showcase the attributes of the product. Planters is a company with Super Bowl ads experience but fell into the trap in Super Bowl LIV with a gimmick ad.

Unless you stayed off the Internet for a week, we know that Mr. Peanut was "killed" in the Planters ad. Mr. Peanut let go of the tree branch to save Matt Walsh and Wesley Snipes. You would have to put in about $250,000 in quarters in a slot machine to get Mr. Peanut, Matt Walsh, and Wesley Snipes.

The Planters ad from Super Bowl LIII had the peanut-shaped vehicle as well, a funny Charlie Sheen cameo, and a funny joke about kale chips. A variation on that ad would carry over well in the winter ad season.

The actual Super Bowl ad was rather sad. We knew the death was a hoax and Planters pretty much wasted its money. Like Avocadoes from Mexico, they buried the lede, running the better ad earlier in the week.

Michelob Ultra pure gold ran an ad that appeared to be more about converting more American farmland to organic. The ad points out that less than 1% of America's farmland is organic. The phrasing sounds fun: buy a 6-pack and they will convert 6 square feet of farmland to organic.

The fine print points out that the beer company will contribute 2¢ per 6-pack up to $1 million. The "funds paid to farmers (are) in the form of transitional barley premiums." That feels technically true but more self-serving and not useful beyond for anyone else.

The upside is more about pointing out to a huge TV audience about the importance of being organic. Buying the beer will be up to you.

Super Bowl ad analysis in recent years

2019   2018   2017   2016   2015   2014   2013   2011

Cheetos Popcorn, like Cheetos, stains your hands orange when you eat them. There you can't touch this, which is the only reason for the return of MC Hammer. Young people may not be familiar with the Hammer; those of us who remember him know that he stole the music from Super Freak by Rick James, a way better song.

The problem with the ad, besides the return of MC Hammer, is that you have a new product and the ad says nothing about the new product. The ad would have been okay for the regular Cheetos product.

The new Pringles ad plays on the stacking flavors theme in recent Super Bowl ads. This is a rare Super Bowl ad in that the celebrities outshine the product. Rick and Morty is a great get. Most parents might object that their kids cartoon heroes would hawk potato chips.

The Pop-Tarts pretzel version with cinnamon sugar was a strong ad that told the virtues of the product. A product launch (are you listening, Cheetos?) to promote a product. We would be skeptical over getting too excited until we taste the pretzel element in the breakfast pastry.

Felt like the Little Caesar's delivery ad was an ad for Rainn Wilson, which was good for him. The idea that Little Caesar's delivery is the best thing since sliced bread is cute and might last longer if shown more often in the next few weeks. As a long-time customer of its Crazy Bread, delivery won't be its strong suit. The franchise is built on people coming in unlike its primary contenders, Pizza Hut and Domino's. Still a more entertaining ad than anything Domino's has ever done.

The Doritos cool ranch ad with Sam Elliott and Lil Nas X might have been one of the best Super Bowl LIV ads. The mix of old and new cowboys was entertaining, each adding his cred to the ad. Doritos might have paid more for their celebrities, but you have to invest to draw out success. The good news for Doritos is this ad may help all its flavors not just Cool Ranch.

Super Bowl LIV through the eyes of Canada

BalanceofFood.com advertising coverage

Here are the borderline food/drink categories, not necessarily the ads themselves, in order of appearance:

Snickers fix the world with a large sinkhole: very visual ad that ties into the huge hunger that Snickers apparently fills.

Mountain Dew Zero Sugar with a knockoff of The Shining with Bryan Cranston and Tracee Ellis Ross: loved the ad, though no connection to anything. People will struggle to remember that this ad is from Mountain Dew Zero Sugar.

Coca-Cola Energy with Martin Scorsese and Jonah Hill. Hill doesn't want to go to a lame party; Scorsese wants Hill to come. This idea should have been thrown out in the initial session. Hopefully, they will remember to cash the check and forget they were ever in this ad.

Pepsi Zero Sugar with black labels on its bottle off of the use of the Rolling Stones song Paint It Black. Good update of a great song. A better commercial than the product itself.

Heinz ketchup with I'll Be There by the Four Tops. Except for the music, this ad was not memorable. Still better than a bad ad (Coca-Cola Energy). The mothers of the people who made this ad will not remember the ad by Friday.

Reese's Take 5 ad with the corny sayings. An interesting new product that needed a better campaign. An ad that was cute with the corny sayings that will likely earn a C+ from those who grade these ads. Might have a bit more life in the next few weeks, but might save money by launching a new ad.

photos credit: Sabra; Avocadoes from Mexico; Planters; Michelob Ultra
Twitter capture: @balanceoffood

Daily Show looks into alternative meats

"Have a burger once a week." — Michael Pollan to Roy Wood Jr. on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah

Roy Wood Jr. loves burgers and fast food. His quest was to find out more about the alternative meat choices. Michael Pollan suggests Wood try some of the plant-based alternatives.

Wood's quest takes him to San Francisco to Impossible Foods. He tries the Impossible Burger at Impossible Foods. "How did you make the plant burger taste like the meat burger?" In the angel-devil scenario, the devil points out Wood is too old to switch sides.

Wood stays in San Francisco to go to Just Inc. to try real meat from cloning. "What we do is find the best tasting cows in the world. We take cells from those cows. You put that cell line in a bioreactor. The bioreactor enables the cell to double. At the end of it, you have raw meat." — Josh Tetrick, CEO, Just Inc.

He tries a chicken nugget that would cost about $50. Wood points out that a 6-pack would be $300. Tetrick points out that they don't have a burger yet.

Wood points out the plant burger costs more than the "fart burger" i.e., comes from cows.

Pollan's idea of limiting meat consumption to once a week is labeled as "crazy" by Wood. "You should be in comedy," Wood says to Pollan.

Wood refers to "broke-ass carnivores" such as himself. Ignoring the fact that eating hamburgers with buns means you are not a carnivore, Wood hits on the issue in the marketplace. People can switch if the costs are comparable. Those who can afford the Impossible Burgers aren't people likely struggling with food costs. The cloned meats will come down in price over time.

BalanceofFood.com Daily Show coverage

BalanceofFood.com fast food coverage

The true efficiencies in switching to alternative meats will come in getting the price point to be seen as viable in the average consumer. This is grossly unfair given that mainstream meat production is subsidized by cheap feed and practices that sacrifice quality and taste. Fast food burgers should cost twice as much but the reality is that consumers won't pay that much.

The "good news" is that the alternatives don't have to taste as good since the quality marker is a typical fast food burger.

Pollan may have the solution: eat better quality meat but eat less meat.

video and photo credit: The Daily Show with Trevor Noah

Checking out Canadian food ads from fall 2019 NHL Center Ice free preview

Editor's note: The following is a slightly condensed version of a feature from our sister blog, CanadianCrossing.com. The full feature can be found here. The column is reprinted here with full and complete permission.

Eggs for breakfast make sense. Eggs for lunch? The brother thinks eating eggs for lunch is weird. The sister thinks eggs for lunch is fine. Then again, the sister thinks her brother's girlfriend looks like their mother. That might be a little weird. Eggs anytime is fine.

Another Tim Hortons trading cards zamboni ad with Sidney Crosby and Nathan MacKinnon is not that exciting. What is exciting is the new addition to the ads. Recently retired NHL Hockey Night in Canada legend Bob Cole is the voice of the Tim Hortons ad. You have to love that Cole is 1) still working; and 2) is still a part of the NHL even via an ad for a donut shoppe. Take that, Rogers.

"If food matters to you, you're a food lover."

Food lovers might not be into canned cranberry sauce. The Loblaw's ad lets us know you can be a food lover who is into canned cranberry sauce. Aimed for Canadian Thanksgiving, the ad can work for the American readers for the U.S. Thanksgiving.

Jon Hamm thinks he is a real Canadian in this latest incarnation for Skip the Dishes. Hamm thinks he is now a Canadian citizen and wants to celebrate by having food delivered.

Turns out Hamm's citizenship was denied even though he bought a Moose Jaw, Yellowknife, and a Sault Ste. Marie (whatever that is). These ads have been hilarious. Hopefully, more Americans will find out Hamm is funny.

How the [bleep] did Pepsi get the rights to the old Hockey Night in Canada theme? TSN/Bell Media got the rights to the song when the CBC let the rights go free. Having the song play in a soft drink ad reduces the impact of the song when played for real. We see what Pepsi gets from it but Bell Media's motive can't just be money. If the song had to play in an ad, that song should run in a Canadian company commercial.

BalanceofFood.com advertising coverage

The relatively low standards of North American fast food is the platform where Harvey's can brag about being the first national fast food chain to offer 100% Canadian beef in an angus burger with no antibiotics, steroids, or added hormones.

I haven't had a Harvey's burger for a very long time, mostly because I haven't found a location lately. I would likely want to find a place, such as one I found in Toronto, where I could get all of that AND have the burger cooked medium-rare (because they grind their own beef). In a pinch, I might try this burger.

At Wendy's Canada, you can get jalapenos, onion tanglers, and avocado on any dish. This concept is aimed at burgers but French fries with onion tanglers sounds really good. Onion tanglers look like what Americans would call onion strings. Cliff's Notes and Cole's Notes are the same idea but the former is American while the latter is Canadian. You can go over those notes while at Wendy's with a jalapeno burger.

videos credit: all the respective companies
photo credit: Choose.ca

Ethnic food aisles should be seen as an opportunity without stigma

If we consider "ethnic food" to be insulting as a concept, then the ethnic food aisle in the grocery store should hang out with the dinosaurs.

Or does the ethnic food aisle serve some useful purpose, no matter how awkward the concept is in late 2019.

As a white person of a certain age, I wouldn't profess to know the damage the concept of "ethnic food" entails in some communities. I grew up some time ago in a small town where the "exotic" food was Mexican, Italian, and Chinese.

When mainstream grocery stores first put in an "ethnic food aisle," they were seen as progress to carry foods from different countries not traditionally stocked at the store.

If a grocery store had 12 aisles, 11 of them were for "regular food", "American food". There would be part of an aisle devoted to Italian since Italian food didn't fall into ethnic or regular. Italian food essentially was defined as spaghetti, red sauce, and green cans of grated "parmesan" cheese.

I live in a large city where there are a lot of "ethnic" supermarkets. There are no "ethnic" aisles in these supermarkets. Supermercado became a word in my vocabulary for primarily Mexican supermarkets. I have frequented East Asian, African, South American, Eastern European, and Middle East markets without leaving the city limits.

I also frequent "mainstream" markets with ethnic aisles. They are my favorite part of the store. The cool foods are in the "ethnic" aisle.

I do get the perception of the color of skin associated with "ethnic" foods. Though Scandinavian foods fall into ethnic and the people are pretty white. British foods end up in the ethnic section. Mexican food is making its way outside the ethnic food aisle.

"Ethnic food" can also be foods that Americans don't generally understand. Let's be honest: Americans aren't the most enlightened people when other cultures are involved.

This is my argument for an "ethnic food aisle" in a way. The aisle is a way to say "these foods exist. Travel a bit by going down the aisle."

If grocery store data showed that people were avoiding this aisle because of the "strange" foods, that would be a compelling case for not having an ethnic food aisle.

The logical alternative would be to scatter those same foods in different areas of the grocery store so consumers would go down every aisle. Some foods could easily fall into categories in other aisles. Other foods might struggle to find a logical spot.

The "ethnic food aisle" has changed as American tastes change. Some foods have moved away to other aisles.

"If you go to the ethnic food aisle, that is sort of the last bastion of racism that you can see in full daylight in retail America," said chef David Chang on his Ringer podcast in July.

The stigma of feeling different because of different foods is a real pain experienced by second-generation immigrants and others.

The Canadian sketch troupe Tallboyz had a sketch on its CBC television show this fall about a restaurant set in a secondary school cafeteria complete with lunch shaming.

The food would be outstanding but served with a bullying or shameful factor that would take you back to awkward childhood moments.

Tim Carman's story in The Washington Post points to a different reality. Sales of international food items did better when there was an ethnic aisle in the grocery store. Customers knew where to find the foods because they knew where to go.

The United States (and Canada) are countries where the grocery store experience is more multicultural. Sometimes that comes with pitfalls such as the "ethnic food aisle." Many countries have more of a homogeneous shopping experience. 

A compromise might be to keep the convenience of an "ethnic food" aisle but reduce the stigma of the foods in the aisle.

Educating consumers about the foods might be a nice way to bridge cultures. A museum type experience where people can press a button to hear a story about the foods in front of them. A tap of a smartphone to a QR code can lead someone to a Web page that explains the food. Consumers can take pictures (subject to grocery store policy), go home and do a Web search and find out more about that food.

Explore an atypical supermarket on a rainy weekend afternoon. Look at labels; there may be a foreign language as well as English on the label. Buy something and create a weeknight meal tied to that food or culture.

Shedding the walls of "ethnic food" is easier when we experience something different than what we used to having. If you love ravioli, try pierogies or pot stickers. If you like a club sandwich, try a shawarma. If you love fried chicken, try Korean fried chicken.

Traveling the world in food doesn't require a passport or shots. All food and no food is ethnic food.

photos credit: me (2); Tallboyz/CBC (2)

South Park explores the effects of a processed plant-based diet

"I thought you guys were all trying to force me to eat healthy. But I've learned that a lot of this stuff is made in a factory and processed with tons of salt, just like all my favorite foods. Spaghetti O's, Rice a Roni. Here I was thinking what you wanted was stuff from a farmers market. I just didn't want my food to change. School cafeteria meat is processed crap that comes in a box. And this is just processed crap that comes in a box. I don't have a problem with it. All I wanted was to be able to eat the same garbage I always have. And this is definitely garbage. And hey, if it happens to be more ethical and sustainable, well, I guess I'm fine with that too." — Eric Cartman, South Park, Let Them Eat Goo

The message from South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone is that fake burgers are heavily processed. Eric Cartman keeps having heart attacks just from the idea of eating plant-based foods. After his first heart attack, the school goes back to eating meat. After his second heart attack, a mysterious man comes to town to set up plant-based replacements for all the meat in town under the label of Incredible Foods.

The substance is green goo that is shipped through pipelines, hence the episode title Let Them Eat Goo. The goo man is serving "synthetically modulated plant protein" where "shitty food" is served by people who already eat "crappy food."

The secondary arc in the episode is Randy Marsh's Tegridy Burger from Tegridy Farms using the waste products from marijuana production to make a plant-based burger. They start selling their Tegridy Burger outside the Burger King and its Impossible Burger.

The Tegridy burger tastes really awful but the more you eat it, the better tasting the burger gets. The implication is that eating the Tegridy burger gets you high. The actual Tegridy Burger slogan is "Tastes like shit, you won't care."

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We did talk about the processed level of the Beyond Burger and Impossible Burger. Our argument was that if you ate the burgers every so often, you would be fine. Most of the ingredients are pretty obvious, which is why we labeled them as processed not ultra-processed.

You could take a portabella mushroom, remove the stem, marinate the mushroom with balsamic vinegar and some garlic powder. Put the marinated mushroom on the grill, outdoor or indoor, and place on a hamburger bun. Not processed and makes for a nice sandwich.

Processed food from better ingredients is better than processed food from lesser ingredients. There are plant-based foods that are minimally processed and processed to the hilt. Make a choice but make smart choices within that choice.

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Cartman fought the battle over plant-based meat 2 seasons ago when he fooled his vegan girlfriend Heidi into eating Kentucky Fried Chicken under the guise of Beyond KFC.

Parker and Stone are mocking the whole plant-based experience but more specifically the idea of replacing processed foods with processed foods. The taco meat filling at Taco Bell is also processed. Eating more simple can involve meat, vegetables, and mostly a bit of both.

photos credit: South Park/Comedy Central