You can bury a lot by calling it rustic.
Tyler Florence
Hospital Food
Brian has been recently hospitalized for five days and treated for a few stones in his bile duct. It is all part of an ongoing problem called PSC or Primary Sclerosing Cholangitis. Basically, his bile ducts don’t work right and are scarred causing a backup of bile into his liver which has cirrhosis. He needs a liver transplant and is on the UNOS list to get one.
If all of that isn’t quite bad enough consider the food he was given to help him get better.
1. Coffee. Forgive me here but is this really at the top of the health chart? It might soothe someone who needs it, ie me. But to someone who suffers from heartburn and is fighting to stay out of pain it isn’t very understandale. I drank every cup they brought him.
2. Carrots. He is allergic. We told them. They brought cooked carrots. They then quizzed me on why he wasn’t eating.
3. Fake mashed potatoes. I don’t really get this other than it must cost less to produce and be easier to make for the several hundred patients. They had a bad aftertaste that was something metallic. Not really home cooking at it’s finest.
On the upside. The rolls, applesauce, jello, salad and popsicles were alright. It’s just that they rarely asked what he would like from one meal to the next. I am sure that in terms of his dietary restrictions they were doing the right thing. Unfortunately they also were trying to just get him to eat under extremely rugged circumstances and feeding him food that was variously overcooked and cold by the time he was able to eat it. I cannot say I’d do better but I do not think I would do worse.
I love alliteration, and as a matter of fact, wine
I was blessed to be sent to Napa Valley California on a trip for work. The visitor’s center where I work is part of a group called the Guest Relations Association, or GRA for short. This trip was all about taking public tours and evaluating what was well done and what could be improved, in order to make our own facility better.
We visited about 10 different venues, each with their own charm and interest encompassing everything from Giants Stadium (a great tour) to the Jelly Belly Factory as well as several breweries and wineries. We also had the pleasure of taking Wine Tasting 101 at Copia, the American Center for Wine, Food and the Arts. Here are some useful wine tasting notes I learned in this useful class.
Swirl – This adds oxygen and rounds out the flavors. Try a careful taste both doing this and not, it makes a huge difference. This is also where you see the legs which are streams of wine down the sides of the glass. These are largely sugars and alcohol. Good legs really isn’t that meaningful.
Sniff – Interestingly enough, you smell based on your own life experiences. Tastes can be as bizarre as leather, cut grass, mold, dirt and as wonderful as sun warmed raspeberries or juniper berries.
Sip – Take a good sized taste, roll it around in your mouth and really taste it. Sipping on wine might sound romantic but won’t help you figure out if you like a bottle/
Savor – Really think about it, feel it. Take time to make it worth while.
Spit/Swallow – Pretty much what it implies.
Now for the V’s. Take notes on
Vintage – the year can make all the difference
Varietal – the grape – what you liked about it
Vinyard – the producer
Then you can remember what you liked the next time. I have been pleasantly surprised at the enjoyment I have gotten from each glass after taking this class. It becomes more academic than just swill, and that’s another S. Cheers!
philosophy: part 1
Food is our common ground, a universal experience.
James Beard
This is a truth I believe in. Everybody eats. I don’t know anyone who doesn’t. Well, my cousin Seth only eats like 2 food groups, Thai being the one I can actually remember. But other than that, everybody eats. Think of how many people and cultures there are in the world. Food is comfortable. Once on a mission trip to Spain I craved a Chipotle burrito and a Red Robin burger. I didn’t crave the burrito so much as the comfort of home. Now, in the states I have memories of Spanish food. Funny how our minds work. The grass is always greener I guess.
Whimsy
For lunch we went to the first of today’s two office Christmas Parties. It was held at the Gaylord Palms Hotel which is a couple of miles from the mecca that is Disney. It is a bit of Disney in itself with a huge atrium in the center that boasts areas that are ‘historically’ Florida by nature – Key West, the Everglades and St Augustine. What it also boasts is a free (if you pay $12 for parking) Gnome hunt. That’s right, they give you a hint sheet and you wind your way through lagoons, waterfalls, castles and swamps looking for twenty hidden gnomes. We found 16 including the gnome who had plummeted from his ledge to his destruction. Not bad for first timers.
We also ate at the Villa de Flora Italian Buffet. As buffets go, it was pretty good. I would recommend the tomato basil soup with sun-dried tomato pesto and parmesan on top and the lovely chicken piccata and I hear that the salmon w/ pesto was good but not terribly pesto-y.
The desserts were pretty good – the chocolate chip cookies being the standout.
We had fun searching for gnomes and wearing sweaters in the air conditioning. This is a nice Floridian thing to do, after you mow the lawn of course.
My Urban Pantry 