You are currently browsing the monthly archive for July, 2008.
Council bans new fast-food outlets in South L.A. (LA times)
A law that would bar fast-food restaurants from opening in South Los Angeles for at least a year sailed through the Los Angeles City Council on Tuesday.
The council approved the fast-food moratorium unanimously, despite complaints from representatives of McDonald’s, Carl’s Jr. and other companies, who said they were being unfairly targeted.
Councilwoman Jan Perry, who has pushed for a moratorium for six years, said the initiative would give the city time to craft measures to lure sit-down restaurants serving healthier food to a part of the city that desperately wants more of them.
“I believe this is a victory for the people of South and southeast Los Angeles, for them to have greater food options,” she said.
The ban covers a 32-square-mile area for one year, with two possible six-month extensions.
With the City Council coming down hard on taco trucks, is there anything you can eat in L.A. anymore?
And what exactly is classified as “fast food”? What sort of alternative dining options are they trying to promote, and what plans do they have in this regard?
When I first visited little Manzanita, on the Oregon coast, some six years ago it was pretty no-frills. It seemed like the only place to get something to eat was at the Sand Dune Pub or a small bistro that is now defunct. Nowadays there’s much more options – two pizza places (one, Marzanos, has a nice hot oven and churns out a suprisingly good—albeit pricey—pie), a Mexican restaurant, 3 markets (including a natural foods/homeopathy type store), a seafood restaurant, donut shop, a bakery/deli, and a coffeehouse, in addition to the aforementioned Sand Dune Pub (which makes a decent burger using Montana country beef…and has tater tots) and an upscale (for beach standards) restaurant just off the 101.
We had a house just steps from the beach, but more importantly, steps from this Chicago hot dog stand.
The gentleman and his lovely wife owned the house behind where he sets up shop for an 11:30 am opening each day.
He uses Vienna Beef, so it’s the genuine article.
With all the fixings to “drag your dog through the garden”, including tomatoes, the toxic-green relish, sport peppers, celery salt, etc.
He even obliged my request for extra sport peppers. God I love those things. Great dogs, I ate here three consecutive mornings.
Just up the main drag of Laneda is the Bread and Ocean, a wonderfully charming little bakery and deli.
Bread and Ocean is staffed with young whippersnappers during the summer, who crank The Strokes in the kitchen and on sunny days seem always itching to split shift and catch some rays in the sand.
In addition to a small handful of indoor tables, they have a small patio off to the side.
The menu board.
The pressed, toasted panini featured creamy brie, roasted onions, arugula, and a wonderful serrano ham — nice touches for beach food.
They do a good job with baked goods here, as I thoroughly enjoyed this orange & almond poppyseed roll. They feature daily specials, including — on Fridays — their refined sugar-free, whole wheat cinnamon rolls (suprisingly good) and a pain au chocalate with dried cherries that we brought back with us to Portland.
Manzanita, Oregon
Oregon
USA
As it so often happens while on the Internet, something triggered a long lost memory in the back recesses of my mind, and I performed an impromptu search for somebody I went to high school with—briefly—in Ankara, Turkey, some 21 years ago.
I didn’t find that person, but I stumbled upon the guestbook for my old high school. Email links were paired by the names of each classmate who wished to allow long-lost connections to contact them, save one. Instead, the link was titled “In Memoriam” and led to an obituary in the Ft. Worth-Star Telegram, whereupon I learned a woman—who I knew in passing during high school—had just last fall lost a five-year battle with breast cancer.
It made me suddenly very, very sad. I’m going to try to not look at the stars tonight.
Injured vets tell pull Dick Cheney invitation over security demands. (NY Daily News)
When Cheney spoke to the group in 2004, his handlers imposed the same stringent security lockdown, upsetting members, officials said.
Many of the vets are elderly and left pieces of themselves on foreign battlefields since World War II, and others were crippled by recent service in Iraq and Afghanistan. For health reasons, many can’t be stuck in a room for hours.
“It was a huge imposition on our delegates,” added David Autry, another Disabled American Veterans official.
Autry said vets would’ve had to get up “at Oh-dark-30 and try to get breakfast and showered and get their prosthetics on.”
Once inside, they “could not leave the meeting room, and the bathrooms are outside,” he said.
City and State Brace for Drop in Wall Street Pay. (NY Times)
A review of the latest statements from the largest financial companies based in the city shows that they intend to hand out about $18 billion less in pay and benefits in 2008 than in 2007. The cutting of payrolls is well under way, but the full effect will not be felt until the year’s end, when bonuses for employees based in New York could shrink by $10 billion or more, according to city officials and compensation experts.
…
“One of the things that highly compensated people do is they spend money,” Mr. Bleiwas said. “So when Wall Street suffers, the pain ripples through the rest of the economy.”The impending decrease in the personal income of so many New York-area residents, Mr. Bleiwas said, “is a significant reduction which will affect not only state and city coffers but also have a direct impact on other sectors.” He said the jobs on Wall Street pay so well that on average, each one spawns two jobs in other fields in the city and a third in the surrounding region.
California becomes first state to ban trans fats. (IHT)
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger of California signed a bill banning trans fats in restaurant food, making California the first U.S. state to ban the use of the cooking oils linked to artery-clogging cholesterol.
The new law, modeled after a ban implemented in New York City, prohibits the use of partially hydrogenated oils, which contain trans fats, by the state’s 87,000 restaurants beginning in 2010 and in all baked goods sold in the state starting in 2011.
Now if they could only also ban Jingle All the Way.
AP: Food industry bitten by its lobbying success (AP/Yahoo! News)
One of the worst outbreaks of foodborne illness in the U.S. is teaching the food industry the truth of the adage, “Be careful what you wish for because you might get it.”
The industry pressured the Bush administration years ago to limit the paperwork companies would have to keep to help U.S. health investigators quickly trace produce that sickens consumers, according to interviews and government reports reviewed by The Associated Press.
The White House also killed a plan to require the industry to maintain electronic tracking records that could be reviewed easily during a crisis to search for an outbreak’s source. Companies complained the proposals were too burdensome and costly, and warned they could disrupt the availability of consumers’ favorite foods.
The apparent but unintended consequences of the lobbying success: a paper record-keeping system that has slowed investigators, with estimated business losses of $250 million. So far, nearly 1,300 people in 43 states, the District of Columbia and Canada have been sickened by salmonella since April.
@Toro Bravo. With peas and potatoes. Delicious. Followed up by the excellent spicy octopus and prawn stew, paired with an ice cold lager. Summer.
The Jesus and Fucking Mary Chain. Tonight at the Wonder Ballroom. Fuckin’ eh.
Rush is playing “Tom Sawyer” on the Colbert Report right now, and I have to sheepishly admit…they are friggin’ RULING.
In Paris, Burgers Turn Chic . (NY Times)
Beginning a few years ago but picking up momentum in the past nine months, hamburgers and cheeseburgers have invaded the city. Anywhere tourists are likely to go this summer — in St.-Germain cafes, in fashion-world hangouts, even in restaurants run by three-star chefs — they are likely to find a juicy beef patty, almost invariably on a sesame seed bun.
“It has the taste of the forbidden, the illicit — the subversive, even,” said Hélène Samuel, a restaurant consultant here. “Eating with your hands, it’s pure regression. Naturally, everyone wants it.”
I love how the crowd (presumably a majority of whom are New York Yankee fans) are jeering their own team’s pitchers, especially when they give up a walk, or a sacrifice-scoring fly ball. Yes, these pitchers are ostensibly from other teams throughout your league. But this is an expedition, and at the very least you’re fighting for home court advantage. Classy.
Men’s Health blesses the fried pig skin–booze–jerky–sour cream–coconut–chocolate hexagonal snack cadre. I usually eat all of those, in one dish. For breakfast.
Wholesale prices soar in June; Sales are sluggish. (CNBC.com)
The economy showed the depth of its twin problems on Tuesday, slow growth and rising inflation, as the nation wrestled with a teetering financial system, a slumping dollar and rising prices for food and fuel.
The Labor Department reported that soaring costs for gasoline and food pushed inflation at the wholesale level up by a bigger-than-expected 1.8 percent in June, leaving inflation rising over the past year at the fastest pace in more than a quarter-century.
Over the past 12 months, wholesale prices are up 9.2 percent, the largest year-over-year surge since June 1981, another period when soaring energy costs were giving the country inflation pains.
Even the skin is really good.
Anheuser-Busch Agrees to Be Sold to InBev. (NY Times)
A million jingoistic heads explode in unison.
Blue cheese-thyme burgers (New Seasons) on Grand Central rustic bun.
And thus, fuck off iPhone.
And BTW, send that bill for that $175 early cancellation penalty fee straight to a collection agency. I’m positive when I have to get another 30-year mortgage in 6-7 years, it will be an albatross around my neck.
A university professor in Minnesota posts on his private blog some thoughts about faux outrage when some guy smuggled a cracker out of church, and it invokes over 3000 comments, dozens of death threats, and demands of retribution from the Catholic League.
I wish I were making this up.
Now, if some guy was smuggling tenderloin out of a churrascaria, I could see somebody getting a bit uppity, but we’re talking about a cracker. Cracker.
Of all the macaronis, elbow is the most erstwhile.
McDonald’s Makes Jesus Cry. (Chris Kelly @Huffington Post)
What did McDonald’s do to cross the AFA, its president, Donald Wildmon, and — by extension — Jesus (R-Nz.)? They donated $20,000 to the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce. McDonald’s’ revenue runs about five billion dollars a quarter, so you can see their profound commitment to destroying the family through sodomy.
The AFA says that by donating one thousandth of one percent of its 2007 earnings,
“McDonald’s has chosen not to remain neutral but to give the full weight of their corporation to promoting the homosexual agenda.”
Which seems like a kind of shrill definition of “full weight,” but maybe it’s like the Quarter Pounder®, and it’s the weight before cooking that counts.
It feels a little like the American Family Association was looking for someone to boycott and it was just McDonald’s’ turn. They’ve already boycotted Sears, Kohl’s, Kmart, Target, Old Navy and IKEA. As a result, they’re naked and don’t have anywhere to sit. The McDonald’s boycott follows boycotts of Burger King, Carl’s Jr., 7-11, Proctor & Gamble and Kraft, which means Donald Wildmon hasn’t eaten anything for sale in America since the late ’70s. You’d think he’d be dead, but no.
Menu from recent G8 summit in Japan where world leaders discussed what to do about the recent world food crisis.
Taqueria La Estacion is located on Killingsworth in Northeast Portland, just south of where the street joins with Lombard to create the confluence that is the Gartner Meat Market Frontage Road Express Throughway.
It hilariously occupies what appears to formerly be a British-themed snackbar/pub/lair.
As you can see, Estacion has some unique Mexican specialties other than tacos that immediately distinguishes it from other taquerias. But this is a post in the Taco Survey, so those items will have wait for another post.
The taco triumvarite. I subbed chicken for carnitas, as the menu did not offer the latter. On this day I added an extra pastor. That tortillas here are commercial.
The pastor. Very good.
The asada. I bit gristly and lesser than as-crisp-as-I-like in pieces.
The chicken. The weakest of the bunch, but chicken tacos are usually the Stephen Baldwin of any taqueria family.
A fully dressed taco.
The garnish bar…
…which features bright and vibrant red and green sauces…
and includes a spicy, orangish habanero sauce (fiery) and a chunky table sauce (on the right). This particular salsa was quite unique, in that it uncannily tasted almost exactly like Herdez’s canned Salsa Casera. I’m not saying it was the brand stuff — the texture was different as this was nice and fresh — but the taste similarity was remarkable.
If you ever find your way on the back road to the airport, or if you are a pervert and like to frequent the underage strip club next door, stopping by Estacion for food is a perfectly fine decision. I’ve heard good things about other items on their menu which I have yet to sample. Interestly enough, there’s a taco truck in the parking lot (a hundred yards away) that shares the same name as the taqueria (“La Estacion Express #2”) yet holds different hours (it was closed when I visited). I suppose it’s a niche adjunct to the restaurant proper. If not, it stands as the most brazen example of copyright infringment in history of American taquerias.
La Estacion Express
Just south of NE Lombard/NE Portland Highway. The entrance is on NE Killingsworth, just west of NE Cully. There’s no listing for phone, address, etc., so you’ll just have to check it out for yourself, you lazy fucker.
Salmonella signs point to peppers. (Baltimore Sun)
Investigators are seeing more signs that the salmonella outbreak blamed on tomatoes might have been caused by tainted jalapeno peppers and have begun collecting samples from restaurants and from the homes of those who have been sickened, according to health officials involved in the probe.
Some coffee fans get grim delight in Starbucks woes. (Reuters)
Financial woes at Starbucks Corp., which is planning to close 600 underperforming U.S. stores, is evoking glee and little sympathy from aficionados who say they resent the coffee shop giant and favor small independent cafes.
“I’m so happy. I’m so not a Starbucks person,” said Melinda Vigliotti, sipping iced coffee at the Irving Farm Coffee House in New York. “I believe in supporting small businesses. Starbucks, bye-bye.”
“Amen,” chimed in Keith DiLauro, a local caterer. “They went too big, too fast.”
Seattle-based Starbucks burst onto the national scene in the 1990s and grew to more than 6,000 locations around the world. But with cups of coffee that can cost several dollars, it faces a slowing economy and slowed consumer spending.
Jesse Helms died yesterday.
He was representative of the virulent racism, homophobia, and hypocritical mendaciousness that’s all too common in politicians and the American body politic. It is only fitting that he died on Independence Day, as he serves to remind us of a part of ourselves (as a nation) and of the ugly caricature that we may yet shed.
While the American media and fellow politicians go into full hagiography mode, out of respect for the dead, naturally, let’s not whitewash what this man really was. So leave it up to a British publication to really get his obit right.
Secret report: biofuel caused food crisis. (The Guardian)
Biofuels have forced global food prices up by 75% - far more than previously estimated - according to a confidential World Bank report obtained by the Guardian.
The damning unpublished assessment is based on the most detailed analysis of the crisis so far, carried out by an internationally-respected economist at global financial body.
The figure emphatically contradicts the US government’s claims that plant-derived fuels contribute less than 3% to food-price rises. It will add to pressure on governments in Washington and across Europe, which have turned to plant-derived fuels to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases and reduce their dependence on imported oil.
Senior development sources believe the report, completed in April, has not been published to avoid embarrassing President George Bush.
I frequently troll and make an ass out of myself at Portlandfood.org, but other than that it really is a boon for the Portland food community. ExtraMSG has paid for the hosting and has performed the legwork to make it the definitive Portland food resource for the last 4+ years.
From a recent post:
I am currently moving the site to new servers. During the next week, the site may be down intermittently or even slower than it has been lately as I back up numerous domains that I have hosted on the server. I will try to move Portlandfood.org sooner than most other domains, but it’s one of the most difficult sites to move and I want to make sure it is working properly before I finish the migration. Bear with me. Things will get better.
Some of you have offered to send me money or whatever to help. No need. If you want to help me out or give me some sort of remuneration, buy dinner at Kenny & Zuke’s. Introduce a new friend. Have your office cater. That will do much more for me than sending $20, $50, or $100 to me personally and you’ll get a full belly in return. Thank you, though.
-Nick aka Extramsg aka Zuke
Speaking as someone who has offered help, I therefore command you to visit Kenny & Zuke’s, where many delicious foodstuffs (amongst which includes the finest smoked pastrami this side of the Willamette River…hell, the Snake River) and a varied array of refreshing beverages are available for purchase, right in the heart of beautiful downtown Portland, just seconds away from our fine burg’s “meatpacking” district, located near ground zero of the incredibly stylish and well-coifed Ace Hotel.