Good Dirt On Food

It’s after dinner and I’m watching Sunday night Football and a commercial comes on for a light beer. There are lots of commercials for light beer. While I’m enjoying the game I’m enjoying one if my favorite beers, Gulden Draak, a fine Belgian beer that is a perennial award winner. I admit it. I don’t understand the appeal of light beer and never have. I know that the major US brands control about 80% of the beer market but I don’t get it. Light beer? Why waste your time. No taste, no body, no complexity. I have been at parties where there is only light beer and I pass. I generally pass on those major American brands altogether. I know the history and how the brew masters actually wanted to get away from the European taste but I am not a fan and have never been. No Budweiser, no Coors, no Miller. In college with beer as the drink of choice at parties I didn’t consume much. I paid my 5 bucks but knew I would only have one serving and usually did not finish that.

In the late 80s I took a trip to Munich. It’s a beautiful city and I was there for a couple of weeks. There are Biergärtens all over the city and the first couple of times I went into one I just had a light meal and a soft drink. A few days later I found myself walking past a brewery. The vats were visible through the window and I stopped to watch the action for a little while. There was a sweet smell in the air in front of the building. I noticed the name “Weihenstephan” and went on my way. A couple of hours later I walked into a Biergärten and ordered a Weihenstephan Bavarian beer with my meal. That was the first time I had really good beer. I enjoyed one about every other day until I left.

When I got back home I started searching for the kind of beer I had in Munich. Alas, I was disappointed for years. But things started to change as microbrews became more and more available. I started to find beers that were more like Germany than the US. I think it was 1998 and I was on a trip to Vancouver BC with my family. We had dinner in one of our favorite restaurants in Vancouver, CinCin. CinCin has a great wine list and I usually ordered wine but they had an interesting beer list which I had not noticed before. I talked to the waiter and described the kind of beer I liked and he suggested a Belgian beer, Trappistes Rochefort 8. It was the best beer I had ever tasted! Dark, creamy and a wonderful combination of flavors on the palette and a great finish; caramel, chocolate. A love affair was born.

Again, years passed and I could not find it in stores and forgot the name. I frequently described it but could not get a match. 2004 and I’m on a business trip in Orlando, FL. I was staying at the Ritz-Carlton and my second night there I went into the bar to get a light meal. I looked at the wine/beer list and something struck my brain. I was looking at a name and my memory was being jogged. I asked the bar tender if I could see the bottle before I ordered and there it was, my long lost Rochefort. Yeah, baby! I ordered one and wrote down the name. When I got back home I found a store that sold it. When I opened EvZE World Gourmet in 2005 this was one of the items that I said we must sell.

We found a distributor and of course found a lot more fine beers. We sample everything we sell and I have had and have the pleasure of tasting some great beers. Now there are a number of great beers from all over the world including some very fine US microbrews which I hope become macrobrews. With the availability of all of the great beer why waste time with a light beer? Don’t like dark ales like Rochefort or Gulden Draak, then try Bavik (think Stella Artois) or a “lighter” ale like Val Dieu Blonde Ale. These beers have taste and are not just watered down beerish.

June 19, 2009

FDA Warns Consumers Not to Eat Nestle Toll House Prepackaged, Refrigerated Cookie Dough
Nestle Voluntarily Recalls all Varieties of Prepackaged, Refrigerated Toll House Cookie Dough

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are warning consumers not to eat any varieties of prepackaged Nestle Toll House refrigerated cookie dough due to the risk of contamination with E. coli O157:H7 (a bacterium that causes food borne illness).

The FDA advises that if consumers have any prepackaged, refrigerated Nestle Toll House cookie dough products in their home that they throw them away. Cooking the dough is not recommended because consumers might get the bacteria on their hands and on other cooking surfaces.

Retailers, restaurateurs, and personnel at other food-service operations should not sell or serve any Nestle Toll House prepackaged, refrigerated cookie dough products subject to the recall.

See the full article: FDA News Release.

Here is Nestle’s official news release: Nestle USA Recall

Toll House Cookie Dough Products

Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt is always one of our top selling products at www.evze.com. We have shipped it to almost every state in the country! It’s a great salt for every day use. Easy to pinch out of the salt box, it tastes wonderful and the price is right at $2.99 for 3 pounds.

We are not big “salters” in my family and rarely does someone add salt at the table. I thought 3 pounds of salt was a lot but it gets used without a problem. I use it to salt water for boiling pasta, potatoes and steaming vegetables. And it gets used for baking and as a flavor enhancer with a pinch here and there usually with pepper. Of course, it is used for brining especially with barbeque season upon us.

This video made by Alton Brown for Diamond Crystal explains why it is a choice salt by so many. However, I do think it is odd that he wipes his hands on his pants… I hope you find it informative.