Changing the way you eat and making a difference

 I highly recommend renting Food, Inc. The film will change the way you look at food in the grocery store. When you pick up a steak at the store, do you know where it came from? What did the cattle eat before it was turned into beef? Did the beef come from cattle that lived in feedlots?

I'm not saying you should swear off all food products without knowing the origin. (I'm still going to go to my favorite restaurants even if I don't know where the meat came from.) But the film will make you think about how cattle, chicken and hogs are grown before they are slaughtered and processed.

Food, Inc. recommends 10 things you can do to make a difference:
1. Stop drinking sodas and other sweetened beverages.
2. Eat at home instead of eating out.
3. Support the passage of laws requiring chain restaurants to post calorie information on menus and menu boards.
4. Tell schools to stop selling sodas, junk food, and sports drinks.
5. Go without meat one day a week.
6. Buy organic or sustainable food with little or no pesticides.
7. Protect family farms; Visit your local farmers' market.
8. Make it a point to know where your food comes---Read labels.
9. Tell Congress that food safety is important to you.
10. Demand job protections for farm workers and food processors, ensuring fair wages and other protections.

I can't always follow the rules. It's expensive buying all organic, especially since I'm a student. But I can definitely start examining what food I should buy with the budget I have. I already go to farmers' markets and buy the more expensive milk from a local dairy. I drink soda rarely and I read labels to try to cut down on products that have high fructose corn syrup. Critics say corn syrup contributes to weight gain.

Am I still going to get Dominican fried chicken in my neighborhood even though the restaurant owner probably got the cheapest chicken? Yeah. But I can eat out less and cook more vegetables.

Before I watched the film, the book that really changed my view of food was The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan. Pollan, who was featured in Food, Inc., explained in utter detail where our food comes from: how corn is processed to make most every processed food product on the shelf, what it means to buy organic food that really comes from large corporations and how a small farm can lead to healthier food than going to a grocery store.

Click on this Grub Street New York post to read how Pollan eats.

KFC Double Down and IHOP pancake stackers: All in a day's work

I used to be a hard-news journalist and it was a dangerous job.

My editors asked me to taste-test the KFC Double Down and IHOP pancake stackers during the last week I worked for the Poughkeepsie Journal. Five of us ate samples of the items.

Click on this link to read about our reactions as we eat the Double Down and stackers.

Heading on a road trip

Hi guys,

I've been pretty busy finishing up things at my old job, and moving from Beacon to New York City, so I haven't been posting as much. I'll be visiting family this week.

When I start culinary school in June, I want to write about how my classes affect the way I cook at home.

Thanks for reading and I hope you come back for more.

- Jenny

A whole lotta Dominican fried chicken

All this food is just $8. That's right. Just $8. I ordered TWO of these Dominican fried chicken dinners, and I have a lot left over.

Since I moved to New York City on Wednesday, I've been exploring the neighborhood. Tonight, I got takeout from El Nuevo Ambiente because of a review on Yelp.com. With a mix of Spanish and English, I ordered chicharron de pollo, or fried chicken. I waited at the counter, while I watched the waitresses chop up half-chickens and put them in tin containers.

I noticed one employee heaping rice into a container. I knew I definitely wasn't going to finish that. And when they pushed the two bags of food toward me, I thought to myself, Maybe I should have ordered just one dinner, not two. 

When I got home, I devoured the chicken. It was moist and tender like good fried chicken should be. The skin was dark and crispy. I poured beans over my rice—the perfect complement to the salt in the chicken.

I tried to eat more, but I couldn't. The rest will have to wait until tomorrow.




El Nuevo Ambiente
4986 Broadway
(between Isham St. and 211th St.)
New York, NY 10034

Cheese made by The Amazing Real Live Food Company!

When my husband came home from a long day of work the other night, all he wanted was a piece of toast spread with Farmer's Cheese made by The Amazing Real Live Food Co. in Pine Plains, N.Y.

The spreadable roasted garlic cheese is vivid with flavor. Even if I added roasted garlic to cream cheese I bought from a grocery store, I don't think it would replicate the taste of Farmer's Cheese.

I bought it at the Beacon Farmers' Market a few weeks ago. From what I understand, this probiotic cheese made by The Amazing Real Live Food Co. is enhanced by bacterial strains. You probably eat more probiotics than you realize because the bacteria is already found in yogurt, miso and fermented and unfermented milk.

What are probiotics exactly? They are bacteria that may help with digestion and protect the body from harmful bacteria, according to nutritionist Katherine Zeratsky at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. She writes about probiotics here.

Those who are lactose intolerant or who feel uncomfortable after eating too much dairy may be able to digest probiotic cheeses better.

I learned more about probiotic cheese after tasting it. But I don't buy the cheese for health reasons. I get it because it tastes amazing.

I'm going to culinary school

After six and a half years of covering government and politics for newspapers, I'll be carrying kitchen knives instead of pens and a pad of paper when I head to The French Culinary Institute in New York City in June.

Cooking is my sanctuary. When I came home from a long day at work, I would make a meal and whatever stress I had would be smoothed out. The simple act of chopping onions, sauteing them in oil and smelling the aroma would relax me. I could concentrate on each step of a recipe and that would be the only thing I would be thinking about---not work, not deadlines, not upcoming assignments.

After I started the Hummingbird Appetite blog a year ago, I began cooking a lot more. The blog helped me realize that I wanted to fuse food and writing as a career. But for a time, I was too afraid to make that switch from hard news journalism to food until my husband blurted out the obvious.

"Why don't you just go to culinary school?" he said. "You talk about food all the time."

"Really?" I said, giving him a tight hug.

I had thought school wasn't an option if we would only be living on one person's salary and tuition was so expensive. But Matt was very supportive. I saved money and took out loans. This week, I got a letter reminding me to attend orientation.

There's uncertainty in making this change. I don't really know what I'll end up doing. I just know it will have something to do with food.

7/3/2011 update: It's been more than a year since I wrote this post and I have to smile. I still want to combine food and writing. But writing---I know how to do. Cooking is what I need to focus on. That's why I got a job as a line cook.

Wild garlic

I never cooked with wild garlic until I bought some at the farmers' market. They look like scallions, but they're not. I used wild garlic in place of regular-sized bulbs. They're not the perfect replacement, but wild garlic is a nice change if you want to cook with a seasonal ingredient.

On another note...

I know my posts are sparse, but I've been working a lot and getting ready for a big change. I'm not ready to announce it on my blog just yet. But I'll tell you soon...