Happy Wednesday!

This pic is hilarious! Copyright be damned, it's too good not to share. Hope it makes you laugh the next time your back is against a wall and the floor has fallen out from under you! My guess it's a vintage amusement park ride relying on centripetal force and a moveable floor. This is actually a scan of a greeting card I bought recently. Click on the image to see a larger picture.

Weird Meat

Oh the things they do to soybeans. This here is a fine example of what is called a "meat analogue", a term used for food that approximates the aesthetic qualities and/or chemical characteristics of certain types of meat. This particular specimen is a product of Taiwan and is soy and sesame oil flavored. The characteristic that comes closest to approximating the aesthetic quality of an actual cooked chicken is it's texture. That is, slightly overcooked, all white-meat chicken texture. That being said, I must report that it was surprisingly NOT as disgusting as I feared. However, I will not recommend it, nor will I eat it again voluntarily.



Fascinating, fascinating, these efforts to approximate animal flesh. How DO they get that fibrous texture? Preliminary research reveals that this soybean based product is a type of Texturized Vegetable Protein (TVP), produced possibly through a process called extrusion cooking. Production of TVP uses as its starting point the byproduct of soybean oil manufacturing. After the soybeans have had the oil removed from them, the meal is ground into flour and water added to form a dough. This dough is cooked in an extruder. Upon exiting the die, superheated steam escapes as well, rapidly producing an expanded, spongy, yet fibrous matrix that is similar to the texture of meat. TVP is high in protein and can be low in fat.

The world of soy processing is vast and varied, and I am but a humble blogger, so I hesitate to say with certainty that this is the origin of my fine unfeathered friend. They may do business differently in Taiwan. If you must know, you would do well to attend the 11th Annual Practical Short Course on Texturized Vegetable Protein & Other Soy Products in August. It will be in Texas.

Moving on but staying close to the subject of weird meat, have you heard about in vitro meat??? That's right, animal muscle tissue cultured in controlled environments for the purpose of human consumption. Any kind of animal muscle tissue is a potential source of cells for production...even human. Why? So that animals won't be killed, so that water and energy used to raise animals for their flesh will be conserved, so that animal farts will contribute less to global warming. PETA last year announced a $1 million prize for the first company to bring lab-grown chicken meat to consumers by 2012. At this very moment, scientists (although not many) are scurrying about, science-ing their own little pieces of the puzzle. Last year they met in Norway at the first international In Vitro Meat Consortium.

What are the great challenges in the field? One researcher, whose work involves producing cultured tissues into mass-produced forms like sheets, believes the technology is doable, but that what stands between the world and shmeat are production models, production facilities, venture capital — and consumer demand.

Interesting, eh? I will point you in the direction of several sources for learning more:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=90235492
http://www.futurefood.org/in-vitro-meat/index_en.php
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=test-tube-pork
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_vitro_meat

City of Love

Within the thick carpet of Parisian rooftops lies wonderfully rich cultures of food and drink, and none the poorer is the culture surrounding the baguette. Like so many other Americans that came before me, I am in love with French baguettes. The first time I was in Paris even the bread on the ham and butter sandwiches at the airport was delicious.

For me, it's all about texture. Rarely if ever do I come across such heavenly crisp, crackling crust and tasty, tender insides (aka crumb) here in the U.S. The thickness of the crust is also perfect. So just what is it that accounts for the difference in quality? It's generally agreed amongst artisan bakers that the difference is in the flour. Americans use high-protein flours while the French use lower protein flour, resulting in the different textures. And the reason why a decent baguette is so easy to find in Paris? The answer lies in the business models of French flour mills. A few major mills license the right to bakeries to use their flour and recipes to bake the baguettes.

"We will have many baguettes, we will have the best baguettes!", I said to Max before our recent trip to Paris. We will explore Paris via its baguettes! And so, armed with recommendations from Clotilde's Edible Adventures in Paris, It Must've Been Something I Ate, and a tub of creamy fresh butter, Max and I visited five bakeries in two days, sampling some of the most well known baguettes in town. Sadly, I have only souvenir photos to show because baguettes are transient beings with tragically short lives:

Look at it--just look at it! Our first one, against a romantic cobblestone backdrop no less.
If you go ask specifically for the Piccola baguette. Coquelicot. 24 rue de Abbesses, 18th.


This one was a winner with me as well. Refined crumb, taught, crisp crust, still warm!
Gosselin. 125 rue Saint-Honore, 1st.


Thumbs down, too hard and chewy. Julien. 75 rue Saint-Honore, 1st.


Winner- refined and hearty at the same time, much nuttier than the previous ones. Try their sweet brioche (delightful). Known for croissants (good, not spectacular). Had chocolate chip cookies (OK). Kayser. 8 rue Monge, 5th.


Modus operandi: park bench, tub of fresh butter. Luckily we got some warm days.

Fun with Repeat Patterns!

Hello! If you'd like to learn how to make repeat patterns, here's a how-to post from Design Sponge. The above is one I made recently, inspired by sprouts and spuds (yes, the tubers are holding hands!) If you print out a bunch of these squares and tile them, they will form a continuous decorative pattern. I want to make a fabric out of it (just putting it through my home printer), but what would I do with it? Any suggestions?

Made Some New Friends

Noop (the pink guy) and Moochi were made over the holiday break from patterns downloaded from Funky Friends Factory. It was so much fun seeing them take form. Noop is now here in SF with me, but Moochi is still in Brooklyn with my sis Jenny. Another monkey will be on its way to my other sister in Manhattan, as soon as I'm done with it.

Such a nice, sweet little monkey, just like my sis!


This guys funny!

Equally amusing, if not more when flat

A Veritable Feast

One 18 pound turkey, four lobsters cooked two ways, two types of stuffing, braised Chinese mushrooms, sauteed pea shoots and baby bok choy, tofu with ground pork and rice. Soooo goood. Here, you see the chef enjoying her favorite part of the bird- the neck.

Thank you for cooking all day to create this amazing New Years feast Chan clan!!!

Eye Candy

There was an international potluck event at work yesterday. I made steamed chicken with black mushrooms and baby bok choy. Always being one to believe that one eats with the eye as well as with the mouth, I decided to do this classic Chinese dish up a bit, just a lil fancy fancy: