Sacramento Food Film Festival

"Wait, Sacramento is having a Food Film Festival?" I thought in amazement. Discovering this event felt like someone designed and custom tailored a city-wide event according to my own personal interests. Even better, it meant that these issues were of interest not just to me, but to a much larger local community.

So today, off I went to the Guild Theater (pictured above) for a morning full of educational documentaries on the US food system. You might be thinking that this could put you to sleep, but in reality, it is a universal subject that affects each and every human being in our country, because seriously: we all need to eat. What we choose to eat and how speaks volumes about our values.

The three films I viewed were all awesome. I saw:


* The Last Crop: This locally filmed documentary followed a local husband-and-wife team (the Mains, above) who have organically run Good Humus Farm in the Central Valley since 1976. The film focuses on their struggle to obtain a land easement that would conserve their farmland for future generations. Their criteria: The land must be farmed, organically, by farmers who live on the land.

There were lots of fun interviews done locally here at the Davis Farmer's Market and local Natural Foods Co-Ops. Most surprising to me was how little California land is being conserved for farming - shocking, considering how much of the world our state provides with year-round produce!


* Dive: I expected this indie documentary to be another homage to the joys of "freeganism" - you know, hipsters retrieving gourmet delights from dumpsters, bemoaning our consumerism and wasteful society, eating like king's off of other people's only semi-expired meat, eggs, produce and dairy products...

I was only half right.

While the creator of the film starts off gloating over the spoils of his dumpster-diving expeditions, his perspective evolves to questioning why the still-good food isn't being donated to local charities and food banks. I learned that under the Good Samaritan Food Donation Act passed by Bill Clinton, grocery stores are protected from being sued for giving away their excess food to non-profits.

Yet many stores remain overly conservative, only giving away bread and dry goods while valuable fresh goods spoil in dumpsters. The film director hopes to foster ties between grocery stores and the truly needy of society so that the 30 million tons of wasted food our country produces each year can go to a better use than sitting in landfills.


* Lunch Line: This film sought to understand our school lunch system: where it came from (the government's desire to use excess food during the Great Depression), how it changed over the years (it became free to all but received no additional funding), and what needs to change now.

I had never stopped to think about school lunch as a form of socialism, but I learned that when it was first implemented, that's how some folks saw it and why they didn't like it. This film was entertaining and funny - the creation of the school lunch program is explained in terms of Twilight - yes, that's right, werewolves and vampires! You gotta see it to get it.

Another valuable point made that struck me is that it's one thing to jump on board the Jamie Oliver Food Revolution bandwagon and demand better school lunches, but it's another thing to find the funding to make it happen. My own school district cancelled all bus routes this week, so obviously they have significant budgetary concerns, landing school lunches near the bottom of their priority list.

A student at our local high school shared with me the following regarding his daily school lunch:

"You can get a small slice of pizza, or a smashed, nasty cheese-burger or a salad made of only iceberg lettuce. Obviously, the salad is a better choice, however, they run out before most kids even get into the line. Sure, each choice has fruits and veggies. The fruits are bruised, old, waxy and small. Oh yeah, and you only get one. The "veggies" are two or three baby carrot sticks with maybe a leaf or two of lettuce.

I have had several milks which are WAY, and I stress WAY, past due date as well. Many kids get a taco bowl for lunch which is a burnt taco bowl with super greasy, nasty meat, refried (again with the fried) beans with more iceberg lettuce and jalepenos. As a student of River City High School, I agree, they could do much, much better."

Clearly we can do better, but where is the funding going to come from? What price are we willing to pay to ensure that children (who obtain half of their calories every day at school) can be nourished? Should kids who are able to bring their own lunch from home rather than pay for rubbish? These are questions that I'll be pondering for a long time yet.

Does West Sacramento Need a Food Revolution?

I have been an avid Jamie Oliver fan since I began watching "The Naked Chef" in high school, charmed by this quirky, charismatic chef with an irresistible accent. I admire him now as a person who has not been content with professional success, but has used his fame to promote positive change in child nutrition all over the Westernized world.

After watching the most recent episodes of his "Food Revolution" television show, currently set in my home state (but in LA), I began to wonder how Oliver's cry for change applied to my own neighborhood. I decided to do some investigative work on West Sacramento school lunches, choosing to examine a K-8 school, the local public high school, and a charter school.
Example #1: Southport Elementary (K-8):
The menu I found online is conveniently vague, often citing "veggie" or "fruit", but we all know that not all veggies and fruits are created equal. In some schools, pizza sauce and french fries qualify as veggies! And throwing a scoop of bagged salad and a scoop of canned peaches doesn't exactly make up for a poor quality main dish, in my opinion.

The main dishes being served to the children sound heavily processed, previously frozen as opposed to freshly made, and heavy on fat: chicken alfredo, chili dogs, pizza, chicken nuggets, corn dogs, and tater tots. This menu was used in all the K-8 schools in the Washington Unified School District from May-June 2011.
Example #2: River City High School:
I found the worst food overall on this incredibly outdated menu from last November, although there does appear to be more variety compared with the K-8 schools, which could be good or bad. Nearly every daily featured main dish appears to be fried, processed, or both. Chicken Fried Steak. Rib B Que Sandwich. Popcorn (read: fried) Chicken. Most mysteriously: Pepperoni Stuffed Sandwich. (?)

Hamburgers and pizza are available every day and a high school student could ostensibly subsist on a daily diet of these two items. I have the sneaking suspicion we're not talking about grass-fed beef or whole wheat buns.

The saving grace is that a salad bar is available daily and the menu proclaims that "all options come with fruit, salad and milk". Again, there is vagueness - is this fresh fruit or processed? Low fat milk or chocolate milk with as much sugar as a candy bar? Are we counting French fries as a veggie? Huge room for improvement here.
Example #3: West Sac Prep Charter School
By far the best of the bunch, which is obviously tied to the fact that they are independent from the universal school district menus. All students receive breakfast and lunch at no charge to their families. While a menu was not available online, the school's website says that school meals include:
- All Natural turkey & beef products are purchased from Niman Ranch
- Meals have no trans fats, reduced sugars and are high in whole grains
- Organic lettuce & vegetables
- Meats purchased from Applegate Farms (even our hot dogs are organic)
- Tillamook Cheddar & All Natural American cheese ( with no dye added)
- Barilla Plus Pasta (a whole grain product)
- Two vegetarian options daily (!!!!)
As a final clincher, their plates are biodegradable & compostable!

Conclusion: Dear Washington Unified School District: We can do better. We must do better. Others have done it, and so can we. We need fresh, healthy meals in our cafeterias and a school garden in every school. This is a challenge to rise to the occasion.

Should Celebrities Be Chefs?

Would this man eat soup for dinner?

One thing that interests me is the celebrity chef phenomenon. America is head over heels for them, including many Food TV personalities like Rachel Ray, Emeril Lagasse and Bobby Flay. I think it’s interesting that we are more likely to seek out and trust recipes that are endorsed or created by names we recognize.

There are also recipes out there from ordinary celebrities who have taken a fancy to cooking. Last night, for example, we made a recipe titled “Robert Redford’s Lamb Chili with Black Beans”. Now, I don’t know if the ruggedly handsome actor actually came up with the recipe or if it’s a recipe that he enjoyed and merely contributed to the cookbook we were using. When I think of the kind of chili Robert Redford would eat, I imagine a hearty, thick, rich concoction - the kind of filling dish that any cowboy would enjoy in front of a campfire.

This recipe, however, was nothing like my fantasy, and was more of a soup in consistancy than a chili. It featured a TON of sauce (that caused me to squander a good deal of excellent homemade chicken broth, grrr!), interspersed with a few hard-to-find black beans and huge chunks of rather tough lamb meat. (Although I freely admit the toughness could be the fault of the cooks.) The flavor was decent, it just wasn’t what I pictured the Out of Africa tough guy to recommend for dinner.

Am I alone here or are have you ever been led astray by a celebrity chef?

On Food and Memory

I feel the same way about produce as this girl

I remember a while back, my friend Heidi showing me an article by Andrew Knowlton, aka "the hot guy from Bon Appetit magazine". This was my introduction to the man known as The Foodist.

In perusing one of the lucky 25-cent magazines I scored from the library, I saw a Foodist column in which he posed a thought-provoking question: What is your first food memory? (His was Halloween candy, by the way.)

The question got me reflecting on my own earliest edible memories. While food played an influential role in my life, it took me a while to sort through all of the memories. I find it increasingly hard to pinpoint specific time frames in the expansive, mostly unstructured pool of memories that constitutes My Childhood.

I came up with two experiences, although I couldn't tell which one came first, but both occurred while my parents I lived in a tiny rented house built in the 1940's.

The first is more like a series of experiences that have merged into one collective memory. It is cold, dark, early in the morning, wintertime. My father and I huddle in front of the wall-mounted space heater eating the same breakfast every day: Cheerios with milk, topped with either canned applesauce, or browning bananas that were seemingly always overripe. Strange - to this day I still dislike all of those foods, individually but especially collectively.

The second memory occurred in the summertime. I am sitting on a couch bathed in golden sunlight, with freshly picked apricots from the tree in our backyard. I am engaged in the process of learning how to twist the two halves apart and pick out the brown pit, then sink my teeth into the blissfully sweet flesh. The contrast of these two memories perhaps proved prophetic: to this day, I still prefer the weather and food of summer.

What's your earliest food memory?

Simple Pleasures

Last night after yoga class, I swung by the library to pick up an audio CD by Anne Lamott that I had on hold. I walked by the Friends of the Library stand and behold, there sat three shiny good-as-new copies of Bon Appetit. For 25 cents each.

Later that night, as I lay in bed under a down comforter and flipped through the pages, I realized that Molly Wizenburg, whose book "A Homemade Life" I just finished and enjoyed, writes a column for the magazine. Hm, I just might need a subscription.

Slow Food in Sac

The Slow Food Movement began in Italy in the 80's as a backlash to a McDonald's popping up near the Spanish Steps in Rome. Propelled in the US by supporters such as Alice Waters, the movement has spread worldwide with a mission to preserve traditional and regional cuisine, as well as relying upon local ecosystems to obtain food.

Sacramento does have a Slow Food chapter, but their activities usually sound like elitist fundraisers that are quite beyond my meager budget. I was excited to hear that the organization recently award "Snail" awards to a number of local restaurants for their efforts to promote local, sustainable food.

The awards were given to (drum roll, please): Grange, Ella, Hot Italian, the Kitchen, Magpie Caterers Market and Cafe, Mulvaney's, OneSpeed, the Sacramento Natural Foods Co-op Deli/Cafe, Selland's, Taylor's, Tuli Bistro and the Waterboy. I have been to several of these already,Magpie being one of my all-time favorite local spots. Hot Italian wasn't my style but I appreciate that they compost their leftovers! I do hope to support these institutions with my patronage. A few may be reserved for special occasions due to the higher cost, but the quality promises to make for a memorable experience. After all, why eat at chains when there are brave and innovative restaurants who are changing the way we eat, the way we live?

The Fattiest Foods in the States

What are the Fattiest Foods in America today? I read a fascinating article on health.com which outlined a particularly unhealthy regional specialty from each of the United States.

My home state of California, known for its love of sustainable and healthy cuisine, met its match at the popular In'N'Out Burger.
Sure, the chain may be famous for the freshness of its ingredients and the cleanliness of its facilities. But the Double Double burger turns out to have twice the fat (40 grams) as a McDonalds Double Cheeseburger. Better stick with a single next time we're in the mood for a burger.

In reading the rest of the article, I was in awe of the diverse and surprising concoctions that some states call comfort food. There's Indiana, where a fried-brain sandwich may be on the menu; or North Carolina, where locals go hog-wild for livermush, "a dish with at least 30% pig liver and a mixture of pig head parts and cornmeal".

As far as senseless indulgence goes, my vote lies with Georgia. Only the South could produce the Luther Burger:
That's a "ground-beef patty, topped with cheese and bacon between two donuts instead of a bun". Paula Deen kicked it up a notch by adding a fried egg. Was this really necessary, Paula?

Check out the link to see where your state's weak spot lies!

Miracle Berry

Last night, I attended a free Yelp event where I encountered a most intriguing new product. Miracle Berry hails from West Africa originally, and is now available in pill format in the US as a red pill that dissolves on the tongue. For approximately 20 minutes afterwards, anything sour will taste sweet.

My favorite thing to eat while "flavor tripping" was lemon slices. It tasted like drinking delicious lemonade. Also on the table: balsamic vinegar and hot sauce. Funniest moment: my husband taking a shot of the hot sauce. Sure, the miracle berry made it drinkable, but the physical effects of the heat were still evident. Moments after taking the shot, my husband was coughing, hiccuping and sweating. I guess the berry could fool his tongue, but not the rest of this body!

I don’t recommend eating other sweet things while the effects of the pill last, because the flavor will be noticeably off. The mini cupcake I had towards the end of my 20-minute experience was not satisfying because of the strange stuff going on with my taste buds.

But I would love to try Miracle Berry again, especially with lemons!

What I Eat When No One Is Watching

Deborah Madison, former chef of San Francisco vegetarian restaurant Greens, recently came out with a new book called What We Eat When We Eat Alone. More than another vastly popular cookbook (though she has put out quite a few), the book is an exploration and study of the quirky, peculiar tendencies of solo diners, complete with select unusual recipes.

When I heard about this topic, I realized that, like many of the folks examined in this book, I do not eat the same foods when I’m alone as when I eat with others. And what I eat when I’m alone now is different from a year or two ago. Back then, my favorite guilty pleasure - don’t judge!- was spinach dip with sourdough bread with a side of Spaghettios.

Ahem.

Now that I’m married, when I eat alone (as I did last month when my husband took off on a deep-sea fishing trip), I’m more likely to make things my husband won’t or can’t eat. Mushrooms. Eggs. One day while he was gone, I made both- a frittata.

But I still think the spinach dip/Spaghettio combo sounds delicious. What do you eat when you’re alone?

Weekend Getaway: Sensational Sebastopol

I am constantly amazed by the endless possible day trips in Northern California where I live. This weekend, we chose to explore the region surrounding one of my favorite small towns, Sebastopol, which lies between Bodega Bay and Santa Rosa.

We started our trip at the popular Wild Flour Bread bakery in Freestone, which is just outside Sebastopol, located on the aptly named Bohemian Highway. Opened in 1998, this bakery has been been given many awards and has a loyal following for their moist scones, gooey sticky buns, and quality breads.

The chalkboard menu

The lady behind the counter was friendly and let us sample the breads before we bought them. We bought a Bohemian Bread (a sticky bun flavored with apricots, pecans and orange peel) and Garlic Rosemary Bread for some sandwiches the next day. Then we meandered around the garden in back, where we saw everything from rows of ripened raspberry vines to leafy green kale, apples trees, herbs, and tomatoes. They use coffee grinds from the coffee they sell, along with kitchen scraps, to make the compost that helps their garden thrive.





Sebastopol was our next stop. This is a quirky town, where you can find unique stores like Bee Kind, source of beekeeping supplies and all things bee-related, like candles, health supplements, and every kind of honey imaginable.

There are many vintage clothing shops, like this one, which made us feel like we were transported back to the 70's. (Always wondered why everything was so hideous back then. Theories, anyone?)

For lunch, we ate on the patio at the beautiful French Garden restaurant. The landscaping was immaculate-


The atmosphere was supremely relaxing, and the food would fit in at the Louvre as an example of fine art! See for yourself...

Vegetable tabbouleh with quinoa

Beet salad

Buckwheat Crepe with Nutella and caramelized fruits from their farm

Did I say "their farm"? I did! The restaurant grows most of their own produce on a 30-acre bio-intensive farm just up the street. Then- quelle chance (what luck)! Our waitress informed us that the farm was offering free tours that day! After falling in love with the food we had eaten for lunch, we couldn't resist visiting the farm itself. Here it is...


After soaking in the view of the ideally situated farm, we met Farmer Don. Here he is on his old 1940's-era tractor.

Don was in the middle of doing some old-fashioned weeding, but he took the time to explain to us that bio-intensive farming means that before planting their seedlings, they break up the bottom soil, add compost and then replace the top soil, thereby improving the quality of the soil. The food we eat, he explained, is only as good as the soil it's grown in. The farm uses no pesticides. Don seemed to genuinely enjoy his work, and we were impressed that he took time from his work to chat with us. He even generously told us that we could help ourselves to whatever vegetables we wanted! So we scouted out some produce....

And left with two kinds of sweet peppers, crisp romaine lettuce, heirloom tomatoes, shockingly bright yellow squash, perfect zucchinis, and multi-colored potatoes and carrots.

Everywhere we went, we met kind, friendly people, such as the people who run Rose and Thorn, a little shop that sells garden supplies, eggs, chickens, and has a small farm attached.

The chickens and roosters wander around the farm and the beautiful picnic area, mingling with the customers and posing for pictures, and sheep and goats graze peacefully alongside them.
At last, we had to move on, but made one last stop in Petaluma. This town is an antique hunter's dream, one of the biggest stores being Vintage Bank Antiques.
Another hidden treasure? Cucina Paradiso, where you can get delicious Italian food like rigatoni with sausage and roasted red peppers...
Or the Ravioli della Casa, filled with Swiss chard and topped with fried sage, butter and tomato sauce.
Right next door you will find Cocolat, purveyor of all things chocolate. Peruse their selection of truffles and chocolates, or try a dessert or European sipping chocolate. They even offer a chocolate fondue for two, although we went with chocolate cake and hot chocolate.


This was a wonderful day trip for us. What's your favorite one-day getaway destination?

Southern Biscuits, Alton Brown-style

Because the picture I posted last time made my mouth water, and because I had lots of strawberry jam and wanted to give it away to some friends with something of the baked variety, I made biscuits tonight. I found the most fantastic recipe by Alton Brown, one of my favorite Food Network celebrities. Watching Alton cook is like observing what might occur if Bill Nye the Science Guy took to experimenting in the kitchen. I love the way he uses food science to create perfectionist alpha recipes, explaining the history and culture behind each targeting dish as he goes.

These biscuits tastes exactly as a biscuit should taste, and the texture is divine- crunchy on the outside, light and fluffy inside. Paired with jam or honey, they are to die for. Note: If you use the 2-inch biscuit cutter that he suggests, you will end up with closer to 2 dozen mini-biscuits. At least I did. For medium size, try 2.5"; for large size, try 3".

With no further ado, I give you.... Alton Brown's Southern Biscuits.

2 cups flour

4 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

3/4 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons butter

2 tablespoons shortening

1 cup buttermilk, chilled

Directions

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Using your fingertips, rub butter and shortening into dry ingredients until mixture looks like crumbs. (The faster the better, you don't want the fats to melt.) Make a well in the center and pour in the chilled buttermilk. Stir just until the dough comes together. The dough will be very sticky.

Turn dough onto floured surface, dust top with flour and gently fold dough over on itself 5 or 6 times. Press into a 1-inch thick round. Cut out biscuits with a 2-inch cutter, being sure to push straight down through the dough. Place biscuits on baking sheet so that they just touch. Reform scrap dough, working it as little as possible and continue cutting. (Biscuits from the second pass will not be quite as light as those from the first, but hey, that's life.)

Bake until biscuits are tall and light gold on top, 15 to 20 minutes.

Napa, Sans Wine

What do you do in Napa when you don't drink? A lot! We took a trip with some friends recently and began at Round Pond in Rutherford with an olive oil tasting. It was actually a lot more than that - arrayed before us was an impressive spread of cheese, fruit, baby tomatoes, organic mixed greens, and lots of freshly baked bread.

These goods were sampled in a variety of pairings along with the estate-made extra virgin olive oils (Italian, Meyer Lemon and Blood Orange varieties); vinegars (two different red wine versions); and syrups (again, lemon and orange).

The sugar cubes are used to test the vinegars, which you suck out from the cube and thereby taste the fruitiness without as much of the sourness. The three blue glasses contain the olive oil (they don't want you to see the color because the color does not affect the taste one way or the other).

Here is how to properly taste an olive oil: Take a small sip and let the oil coat your mouth. Next, aerate by sucking in a few breaths of air. Finally, swallow. You will taste a wide range of flavor qualities depending on the type of olives, the age of the olives, etc., from fruity to herbal or grassy to peppery.

Here is our tour guide Linda explaining about the method of tasting the oils, which are to be used in finishing dishes, not in high-heat cooking, as heat destroys the flavor and nutrients of the oil.

My husband and I in front of the estate.
Beautiful vineyards surrounding the estate.

After Round Pond, we drove to Yountville where we had lunch at Thomas Keller's Bouchon Bakery. I bought a loaf of Herb Palladin to take home. For lunch, we had a ham/cheese baguette and a sandwich Provencal, along with a tarte au citron (lemon tart) and two of Keller's trademark bouchons (a moist chocolate "bite", somewhere in between a cake and a brownie).

We spent the afternoon exploring the shops at Yountville, mingling with the rich visitors and me jealously eying their small lap dogs. Closer to Napa, we found antique shops, an excellent kitchen store named Shackford's, and an impressive garden nursery that may help explain why most of the yards in this area are so well-kept and manicured.

For dinner, we ate at a casual local favorite called Pearl, where meatloaf and steak sandwiches are popular dinner entrees. Paul got the steak sandwich, and I got a special, the soft-shell crab sandwich.



Here's what we ended up buying: a balsamic and a red wine (Cabernet) vinegar, along with a fruit, smooth extra virgin olive oil. I can't wait to make my first salad!

Also note-worthy: The Oxbow Market, where we found Kara's Cupcakes, along with Three Twins Ice Cream which sells the most expensive ice cream sundae in the world! (One is $3,300, served with syrup made from 3 vintage dessert wines. Call a day a head of time and they'll arrange for a cello player to serenade you while you dig in.)