Cooking by Volcano?

According to the BBC the restaurant, El Diablo, in the Canary Islands has the word's most unique BBQ grill. Meat is cooked there over an active volcano at temperatures of 400C to 600C. Sadly you won't see any glowing lava as in Hawaii, the volcano at El Diablo has not erupted since 1824. But it still cranks out some serious heat. So hot in fact that nine layers of basalt rock was put under the restaurant base to protect patrons.

"Today, the restaurant’s floor-to-ceiling windows offer panoramic views of the park’s volcanic calderas, cones, craters and black lava fields. The landscape has remained virtually unchanged since the last eruption, thanks to minimal rainfall and government protection."

Crazy food or Fun food?

“Some people ask the secret of our long marriage. We take time to go to a restaurant two times a week. A little candlelight, dinner, soft music and dancing. She goes Tuesdays, I go Fridays.”
-Henry Youngman

Attempts by restaurants to server healthy or diet food usually fails because when people go out to eat, they want a meal that entertains and tastes great. Why buy something simple, boring or with no taste? And yet, do restaurants go too far? Are they to blame when they create a meal that gives you a day or more worth of calories on one plate?

Men's Health is one of many groups that watches what's being served and warns of extremes and offers alternative with their Eat This, Not That books and articles. In a recent story they identify the Craziest Food Creations that were added to the NOT THAT list. But hey, I'm willing to live dangerously and try some of the following:

1. KFC Double Down (A bacon and cheese sandwich where the bread is replaced with two fried chicken breasts)
2. Burger King Meat Beast Whopper (how do you make a whopper even bigger? Add bacon and pepperoni)
3. White Castle Surf & Turf Sliders with Cheese (a cheese burger with a fish patty added. Photo above.)
4. Denny's Fried Cheese Melt (how can you improve a cheese sandwich? By inserting fried cheese sticks along with the melted cheese of course!)
5. IHOP New York Cheesecake Pancakes  (A cheesecake mixed inside a pancake? Crazy! I've got to try it.)
6. Applebee's Quesadilla Burger (With meat to fill a quesadilla, this is one big burger!)
7. Claim Jumper Widow Maker Burger (never heard of Claim Jumper but the Widow Maker contains enough fat to frighten the strongest of hearts - bacon, onion rings, avocado, mayonnaise, and a double serving of cheese)
8. Friendly's Grilled Cheese BurgerMelt  (Can't decide between a hamburger and a cheese sandwich? Have both. This burger uses two cheese sandwiches to replace the buns.)
9. Applebee's Provolone Stuffed Meatballs with Fettuccine (like cheese-stuffed crust pizza? How about meatballs stuffed with cheese?)
10. Burger King New York Pizza Burger  (looks like the burger is the size of a small pizza)

Bottom Line

Crazy? Tasty? Fun or Abomination? You decide.

What the fork???

“The true Christian is in all countries a pilgrim and a stranger” -George Santayana

For our wedding anniversary my wife & I traveled to Plimoth Plantation to share a Harvest Feast dinner with the "pilgrims". I put pilgrim in quotes because one of the Plimouth residents we spoke to objected to the term. "This isn't the Holy Land", he said. It turns out that only half the residents were religious pilgrims, the other half were loyal Church of England members. When the Pilgrims chartered the colony and the Mayflower they realized that their congregation was mostly weavers and tailors. For a colony to succeed they needed a blacksmith, cooper, baker, tanner, etc. So they opened up the colony to "outsiders" to get these skills with a promise that the outsiders would allow the pilgrims to worship according to their own dictates.

Anyhow, back to the Harvest Feast dinner which I mentioned. As the "shallet" (salad) course was served it quickly became apparent that there were no forks! Each place setting contained only a large spoon and a slightly dull knife. The shallet also had no dressing which is a good thing when forced to eat it with fingers.

While my wife & I enjoyed the meal, we both agree that Plimoth failed in its mission to educate. There was no discussion of why the fork was missing or what were the proper 1627 manners for eating. No mention of where the ingredients came from or why the dishes served were selected. Was the food served common or a rare treat? The only way to know was to ask one of the "locals" at the meal and that was often very difficult since they stay 100% true to character and refuse to speak of anything beyond 1627.

After arriving back at home I looked up forks on Wikipedia. It turns out Shakespeare ate with his fingers (and knife and spoon) as did all the early Americans in the 17th century. Before Christ the fork was used primarily as a serving utensil (by the ancient Greeks, and ancient Hebrews, I Samuel 2:13). Romans may have used metal forks for eating and this custom was preserved in the Byzantine East but lost in the European West during the "Dark Ages". The custom traveled from Constantinople back to Italy in the 11th century but took 500 years to become popular and common with Italians. (How do you eat spaghetti without a fork?)

The fork's adoption in northern Europe was [even] slower. Its use was first described in English by Thomas Coryat in a volume of writings on his Italian travels (1611), but for many years it was viewed as an unmanly Italian affectation. Some writers of the Roman Catholic Church expressly disapproved of its use, seeing it as "excessive delicacy": "God in his wisdom has provided man with natural forks — his fingers. Therefore it is an insult to Him to substitute artificial metallic forks for them when eating."

Some nobility in Europe would bring their personal fork to dinner but it was not until the 18th century that the fork became commonly used in Great Britain and America. So we can assume that George Washington used a fork.

Bottom  Line

Be grateful for your fork!  Dinner is a lot messier without it.

P.S.
I recall a Chinese meal of Cantonese Lobster. The lobster was chopped and covered in a thick sauce but NOT deshelled. What a mess trying to remove the sauce-covered shells. It did not matter if you used forks or chop sticks - there was no way to eat this meal without getting messy. I've never ordered it again.

The 50 Fattiest Foods in the States

“No diet will remove all the fat from your body because the brain is entirely fat. Without a brain, you might look good, but all you could do is run for public office.”-George Bernard Shaw

If you're weary of dieting and eager to splurge on something "not doctor approved", then check out the The 50 Fattiest Foods in the States. Many of the items listed are fried, like catfish, chicken fried steak, corn dog, cheese curds (my favorite), empanadas, fried pastry, and frybread. Or are giant-sized portions like the 10-pound hamburger, Quadruple Bypass Burger, 7-pound burrito, 2-foot long hot dog, and the Ben & Jerry's Vermonster.

Some of the 50 items are over the top like a BLT with over a pound of bacon, pictured above, with 20+ strips! Some items on the list are puzzling like Virginia Ham. Fatty, yes, but is a slice of ham really in the same league as a 2-foot hot dog or the monster BLT?

Bottom Line
Always consider the sauces used in a dish. The Crab Louis Salad from Washington state looks healthy but has a heavy mayo dressing that pushes the dish to a day's worth of fat. In other dishes watch out for cream, butter and/or cheese as in New England Clam Chowder.

Hot! Hot! Hot!

Me mind on fire, me soul on fire
Feelin' hot hot hot –
Lyrics to Hot! Hot! Hot!, sung by Buster Poindexter

Do you like hot foods and hot peppers but sometimes bite more than you can chew? Here are some do’s and don’ts when your mouth and tongue are on fire.

• Don’t drink water or alcohol. These spread the burning chemical, called capsaicin, around but do nothing to block it.

• Consume something acidic – lemon aid, orange juice, tomato juice, etc. Suck a lemon or lime. Eat a bit of mild salsa.

• Dairy helps – milk, yogurt, and sour cream are acidic but in addition the milk protein casein breaks up the hot capsaicin. You need milk fat to get this protein – skim milk is not so effective.

• Starch helps – bread, rice, tortillas, and other carbohydrates coat your mouth and provide some protection against capsaicin. The sugars in starch also lessen the impact of the heat.

Bottom Line

When working with super hot peppers, don’t forget that your fingers become coated and are weapons of pain. Rubbing your eyes with capsaicin stained fingers is an experience you won’t soon forget. I once had a burning pain under my fingernails when scraping the seeds out of peppers.

And remember, no matter how bad it feels, nothing is really burning - no physical damage. Capsaicin merely triggers the heat sensation in our nerves.

5 Eating Habits to Kick

Don't want to argue, I don't want to debate
Don't want to hear about what kind of food you hate
You won't get no dessert 'till you clean off your plate
- “Eat It” lyrics by Weird Al Yankovic

Women’s Health Magazine describes five eating habits to kick under the title, Quit the Clean-Plate Club. This is a popular meme as I found many web sites under “Quit the Clean-Plate Club” such as this one from Denver’s Children’s Hospital or this one from DailySpark.com.

Here are the five bad habits:

1. Eating your meal in a rush.
It takes 20 minutes for a stomach to register that it’s full. By gobbling food quickly you’ll consume more than the body needs and exceed the full feeling. Slow down and enjoy the food.

2. Eating while distracted by TV or computer or driving.
If you snack while reading email or watching TV you may be surprised to find you ate a whole bag of chips or the entire container of ice cream. Focus on the food you eat (see slow down above) or bring out only single servings portions so you don’t keep eating until a larger package is gone.

3. Eating while bored or stressed.
A high-carb snack will give you a temporary energy boost but the blood sugar crash afterwards will leave you craving more. Nosh only when hungry. And keep food away from easy reach at the computer or TV chair.

4. Cleaning your plate.
Portion sizes and plate sizes keep going up and people feel guilty about not cleaning their plate. Eat half a plate and save the rest for another meal.

5. Eating meat at every meal.
Americans eat way too much meat. In an ideal meal the vegetables will out mass the meat 2 to 1. Think of a stir fry or salad with thin strips of meat and a lot of other stuff. Limit big-meat meals to one day a week – the Sunday Roast? Try meatless alternatives. Portobello mushrooms can be grilled or sautéed just like meat and are a great substitute. Enjoy pasta without the meatballs – be creative with the sauces. Beefsteak tomatoes make great sandwich filling (BLT without the B?) and there’s the British Tea tradition of Cumber sandwiches.

Bottom Line

Food is one of life’s pleasures. Slow down and enjoy every bite.

Bonus
I used the word “meme” above which may be new to some readers. It was penned by biologist Richard Dawkins at the end of his book, The Selfish Gene (1976), where he compared the propagation of ideas (memes) to that of genes. Ideas/themes must compete to survive and some memes spread like a virus – e.g. hit videos on YouTube.

Saving Money When Eating Out

“Why does Sea World have a seafood restaurant?? I'm halfway through my fish burger and I realize, Oh my....I could be eating a slow learner.” - Lynda Montgomery

On http://www.wisebread.com/ the article Five More Tips For Eating In Restaurants And Sticking To A Budget and the comments that follow suggest these ideas to save money:

1. Eat Early – You get more value for your money at Breakfast and Lunch. We have local places where the price of a hamburger goes up $5 on the dinner menu.
2. Look for places serving breakfast & lunch all day long - At many diners you can get a giant breakfast for under $10 any time of the day. Hamburger & sandwich deluxe platters should also be under $10.
3. Don’t stuff yourself - If you do go out for dinner, immediately set aside half the plate for takeout so you’re not tempted to eat it. You’ll get two meals or more this way. (Most Dinner portion sizes are way too big to be healthy). When I order a meal special that includes a “free” desert I order my desert as takeout in a doggy bag.
4. Share – Order the dinner special with soup, salad, etc. and share it with your spouse. Watch out for sharing fees! When we share my wife will order a token item like a bowl of soup or small salad for her “meal” since she is dieting.
5. Order take out – Another way to avoid a sharing fee is to order the food to go. You may find that two main courses can be shared at home to feed an entire family.
6. Order an Appetizer as your meal – Just yesterday I ordered Peking style noodles (an appetizer) and a small soup as my lunch. It was way too much food so I have leftovers for a second lunch. Be careful here. Some appetizers are disappointingly small and not a meal bargain (like bruschetta).
7. Order the kid’s meal – this one is tricky as many places do have a age limit or restrict takeout of kids meals. But if there is no restriction, you might be quite satisfied with the child’s portion size.
8. Watch out for Beverage prices – my wife and drink just water with lemon when we eat out. The price of soda can be $2 or more a glass and alcohol even higher.
9. Skip dessert – Why pay $6 or $8 for a slice of pie when you can buy a whole price for the same price? Go out for ice cream instead or buy a pie to eat at home.
10. Use Coupons – we get restaurant coupons in the mail, in the newspaper, online, etc. The best are buy one get one meal free.

Bottom Line

I love to eat out and it is not cheap. When I was unemployed over the summer, we made a rule of no meals out. And yet we did not suffer. Buy a good steak and a whole pie at the grocery and you can have a meal almost as good as eating out but at a ½ to ¼ of the cost.
Also consider why are you eating out?

• Too tired/busy to cook? – Make large batches of pasta/lasagna on the weekend and freeze it in meal size portions for a quick microwave dinner when in a rush.
• You like to socialize by eating out – Try dinner parties at home
• Are you a bad cook? – take cooking classes. Ask a friend to teach you some recipes. Anyone can make mac & cheese at home!
• For the variety – when I eat out I like to order foods I would not make at home because they are too complex or too lengthy to prepare. Why order something that you can make (perhaps better?)