Friday, February 10, 2012

Smoke: Both the literal and the lingual sides.

Cedar Wood Flash Smoked Black Cod, Jerusalem Artichoke Puree, Green Beans

Fire and smoking stuff (Food) is awesome. I have loved fire since even before my first trip to the Markham Fire Captain's office where he lectured me (a tiny, yet loving second grader) for lighting my parents bathroom on fire. Note to young self, towels are quick igniters.

Fun little story; my very first cooking experience was when I was 7 years old on a camping trip. My bro and I were playing with fire (as you do) near a lake when we noticed the crayfish were bigger there then what we were use to seeing. Feeling peckish, we grabbed a net and giant worms we dug up to haul in a half dozen. Using a metal coffee cup we thought nobody would miss and very little adult supervision, we built up the fire, brought water to a boil in the cup, threw in the crayfish and watched them grow red. It was awesome, fire, catching sea bugs, KILLING THEM, then eating the spoils...
We pulled them out, cracked their tiny lifeless claws and gorged in. I remember thinking they taste like garlic cheese puffs...
In hindsight, I am saddened we did not salt the water (or make a court bouillon for that matter) and most unimpressive, totally didn't eat the tail meat. Stupid little boys.

On the verbal side of smoke, I was annoyed to read about a Billionaire's off-comment regarding the potential health hazards of farmer's markets in Ontario. I have posted the link below, but here is my food for thought;

I have been lucky enough to live close to a farmers market in every area I have inhabited in Ontario and there is one pivatol difference I would like to make between them and a supermarket. Sense of community. I am a strong believer of local food identity and I rarely need to look further than the local farmers market to see what an area produces best. True, health hazards are a real threat and potentially more so in open air, but it's not a documented pandemic problem. I can't find any recent cases of mass poisonings stemming from local markets but how many recalls do we hear of from supermarket products?

http://www.680news.com/news/national/article/332258--country-morning-beef-burgers-no-name-club-pack-beef-steakettes-recalled

(knock on wood...THEN SMOKE IT)...

I think what irks me about the comment is that it was made from a dude who is a leading supermarket retailer and is motivated by the non-existence of those farmers markets, or, at the very least, the homogenization of them *cough LONDON cough*, which would take away a great source of community and local food identity.



-Jerek


http://ca.news.yahoo.com/blogs/dailybrew/billionaire-grocer-galen-weston-slammed-offhand-quip-farmers-204837861.html

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