4 posts tagged “food”

It looks like the MTV need has been overtaken by Food Network. Business Week's Magazine (Jan. 8, 2007) article says the Foodie net is doing well with the 18-34 demographic, talks about cleavage and attractive hosts, its 90 million subscribers, meals that can be prepared really quick (30-minute), young girls cooking more than the previous generation, concern with nutrition in fast-food joints, organics, and more.

Okay, forget all the stuff going on about the E. coli mess. Buried in all of this information reported by MSNBC are these two nuggets:

Taco Bell President Greg Creed said he would support the creation of a coalition of food suppliers, competitors, government and other experts to explore ways to safeguard the food supply chain and public health.

Bryan Silbermann, president of the Produce Marketing Association, a trade groups that represents restaurants, farmers and other companies in the produce supply chain, said such an industry coalition already exists.

The group was formed two years ago and has been particularly active since September, when three people died and more than 200 became ill because of a spinach-related E. coli outbreak.

“The largest restaurant and supermarket chains have been active in this process,” Silbermann said. “As far as I’m aware, Taco Bell has not been involved.”

Hmmm, there is an organization designed to do this, so why not climb on board instead of reinvent the wheel, Greg? Or is this about you wanting TB to control the turf?  

On a lark, I bought one of these food packs that could be used in an emergency situation when you might be without gas or power to cook with. The Chef's 5 Minute Meals - self-heating beef chili and beans was unexpectedly better than I anticipated. What this product does is use salt water interacting with a magnesium packet to produce steam and heat the trayed meal inside its box.

It was a bit disconcerting that this packet would be cooked top side down. I had some concern about what would happen were the package of food not sealed properly and leakage occurred into or out of the food tray. Well, nothing along that line happened. Doesn't mean it can never happen, just did not occur this time.

The cooked meal smelled similar to Dennison's chili with beans and the flavor was good but very mild. I also left it steaming a couple of extra minutes and the dish was not really hot. I would call it moderately warm. Perhaps this happened because the entire package was sitting on a tiled counter that acted as a heat sink and took away some of the energy that should have gone into the food. Next time I do this I will put the works on teh stove burner grids. Still soemwhat a heat sink, but not nearly as massive as the tiled surface was. (okay, let's not get into a physics discussion here).

Another temperature consideration was that this was done inside with the ambient about 62 F. That would seem to indicate that in a colder setting, like no heat at all due to whatever, the food would be cooler yet.

Well, if you wnat to check it out, remember, the actual food inside only acounts for about 50% the package's volume (9 oz.). That makes routine use expensive, but in an emergency, who cares about cost when you wnat a bit of beef chili with beans and have no other way to get it hot.

Here's the nutritional information:

Box is one serving; 9 oz/255grams
Calories: 220
   from fat: 45
Total fat: 5 g. (8% of Daily Value)
   saturated fat: 2 g. (9%)
Cholestrol: 40 mg (13%)
Sodium 590 mg (25%)
Total carbs: 25 g (8%)
   Dietary fiber 5 g (21%)
Sugars 6 g
Protein 19 g
Calcium 6%
Iron 20%

Link

Okay, a little far out, but I can relate to student's protesting the institutional muck most serve - as a matter of fact, I worked in the cafeteria while working on my bachelor's degree, so not only ate it, but prepared it. Can you see an Ivy League battle for a really great student breaking down to: "if you pick us, we'll make sure your personal favorites are prepared each day in the cafeteria?"  This CNN article is several years late in talking about this practice. I never did followup on some recipes I put together for the head of the cafeterias at San Diego State University when they were looking at doing something very similar about four years ago or so. Where I got my doctorate, the cafeteria had to cook a variety of menus daily to reflect the tastes of the large (proportionately) foreign student population.