An Eater's Manifesto

I just read "In Defense of Food; an Eater's Manifesto" and it was a life-changer. I highly recommend reading this book to understand the impact your eating habits can have on the environment, your community, and on your health. This is a very fascinating read. I have adopted a modified version of Michael Pollan's rules to be our family's food manifesto. We have now been living by them for a week, and it feels good to be putting our food dollars in line with our values. The resulting meals have been memorable as you will see in upcoming posts. I am going to share our slightly modified version of the manifesto with you so that you can understand how we are deciding what to eat (and thereby what we blog about!). This list, while informative, is not an adequate substitute for reading the book itself. It is well worth your time.

1. Don't eat anything your great grandmother wouldn't recognize as food
2. Don't eat anything incapable of rotting
3. Avoid food products including ingredients that are unknown or unpronounceable
4. Stay away from high-fructose corn syrup
5. For the most part, avoid food products that make health claims on the package
6. Mostly shop the peripheries of the supermarket
7. Avoid the supermarket wherever possible...try farmers markets! It is best to get food from people you meet personally! As Michael Pollan says, "Shake the hand that feeds you!"
8. Eat mostly plants - to this end we have been including vegetables all over our meals from the arugula pesto on the lamb brats to the mix of veggies included in our panzenella.
   
9. Avoid industrial meats. Only get meat that you KNOW (a pretty farm on the package doesn't count) was raised humanely and ideally on pasture.
   
10. Shoot for gastronomic diversity. Pollan makes the good point that "the greater the diversity of the species you eat, the more likely you are to cover all of your nutritional bases."
11. Regard non-traditional foods with skepticism
    
12. It is worth paying more for better food. Fun fact I got from the book: Americans spend a smaller percentage of their income on food than any other industrialized society
13. Eat meals, at the table, in the company of others. When snacking, also try to make it a table moment. When you are eating, you should focus on eating...it should not be done as a time filler.
    
14. Listen to your gut - eat only when you are hungry and stop when you are full
    
15. Eat slowly. For more info on this, check out the slow food movement.
16. The manifesto is more about celebrating the great foods that you can eat than thinking about the restrictions.
    

HAPPY EATING!

A Disaster No More!

Remember the disaster that sent us packing for Z Cucina? Jack and I decided that it would be a real shame to throw out the organic, free-range chicken that I had purchased that day from the Clintonville Farmers market. I had been trying to make it into tandoori chicken (the sauce failed pretty miserably), but to save the chicken we put it in a strainer and gave it a rinse.
The next night, it was just Jack and I for dinner and we were very happy we had saved the chicken. This disaster became the centerpiece of our very delicious dinner! This meal was made entirely from farmers market finds, and that was really exciting.


The Menu:
Peas
- cooked with a bit of bacon from the market...a great way to add flavor!
- There is something very nice about shelling your own peas. The effort of this labor seems to make them extra delicious.
Corn
- Ohio is known for its corn, and this was the first of the season. I was very excited when I saw it at the Schatz Family Farmstand.
Chicken Salad
- onions, garlic, tomatoes, and green beans all from the market!
- A delicious cilantro curry vinaigrette, made with herbs still warm from the sun in our garden
- The rescued chicken



VERY FRESH, VERY LOCAL, VERY TASTY!!!!!!

Fish Arepas

My friend Talya had just returned from Pakistan with a couple of pounds of fresh mangoes (don't tell the authorities!) , and needed to find a way to use them up before they went bad, so we decided to use them as the inspiration for our dinner. They were so soft and juicy that all you needed to do to eat them was cut a hold at one end and suck the flesh into your mouth!

We bought some haddock and rubbed it with cumin, salt, pepper, and paprika and threw it on the grill. In the mean time, we used some white corn flour to make some arepas to hold our fish, as well as a mango salsa which we were making as a topping
We chopped up some onions and peppers to add, and made a large mound on top of the arepas

For dessert we used the remaining mangoes to make a mango upside-down cake

Z Cucina by the pictures!

Z Cucina, in the Short North of Columbus, Ohio, strikes a perfect balance between fancy and no-fuss. It has all of the elements that I would consider key to a fine dining establishment: good food, a nice wine list, excellent service, and a clean and simple dining room. The menu also rotates seasonally to keep things fresh and interesting and to allow for the use of local ingredients. What Z Cucina doesn't have is equally important - - it lacks the pretension that can make some restaurants feel inaccessible. From the food to the decor, the people at Z Cucina have figured out how to provide the customer with exactly the right amount of the elegant without becoming overbearing.
We hadn't exactly planned on going out last Friday, but there had been a culinary disaster that was best solved by aborting the mission and heading out on the town. I have mostly ditched the cookbook and begun to improvise in the kitchen - - mostly with delicious results, but sometimes these grand experiments fail. I don't even remember what I was making, but it got to the point where adding things to try to fix the dish was not going to work. It is important to be able to recognize the point of no return for a dish! It was time to go to Z Cucina.
It has now been over a week since this meal and with a new menu up on the restaurant's website I don't remember exactly what went into each dish. What I do remember was that it was a very pleasant experience both in atmosphere and on the palate. I am going to give a picture tour and let the food speak for itself. If you want to know more you are just going to have to try it!