Melissa and I were away for the long weekend, and we find ourselves catching up with a few interesting pieces.
Dan Barber wrote an in-depth op-ed piece for the New York Times that articulates many of the problems with our current agricultural system. Unfortunately, he uses taste as the lead-in to his many useful points. A cry for flavor smacks of food snobbery to many, even if he's right that small farms and local distribution networks make for better-tasting ingredients. Most people in the country don't know or don't remember that non-industrial food tastes better. When factories have placed uninteresting eggs into every store in the country, who knows about small-farm eggs? Food snobs and those lucky enough to live in an area where they can buy that level of food.
Food and Wine magazine offers advice on cooking locally, if you live in California or Vermont. I don't envy a national magazine that has to cover local eating, since by definition readers' options will be different in different parts of the country. Still, it's always nice to see the topic brought to national attention, and the article does offer some insights for the locavore in winter.
Chow provides a primer on the cutting-edge science used in famous kitchens. The writer even knows to warn you away from the term "molecular gastronomy."
