I was on an elevator the other day when a woman popped on in front of me clutching a baggie full of carrot sticks. I said something witty like "great snack, but noisy eh?" Of course she gave me one of those looks that says "you're not supposed to speak in an elevator you know!" I was actually quite surprised to see someone with a "healthy" snack, considering that chips, chocolate bars, cookies and ice cream are far more popular.
And when do we snack? We snack when we're bored, when we're tense, angry and we even snack when we're busy. So that about covers a typical day for most fo us. Snacking has become a way of life and a snack is now a substitute for what used to be a meal. The great news is that snack companies like the pretzel and chip makers are recognizing the role that snacks are playing and are lowering the fat content, sodium content and event the cholesterol count of their snacks.
We have to be careful though of our snacks. When we're young, a cookie snack is great. Lots of calories that a young metabolism can burn off fast. As we grow older though, our metabolism slows and that cookie snack shows! So for us older snackers, we're better off looking at the carrot sticks, celery sticks, air popped popcorn, pretzels and fresh fruit. In fact modern packaging and marketing are making that pretzel and baked tortilla chip sound almost as yummy as those high fat potato chips.
There was a study done at the University of Toronto that had two groups of men eating the same number of calories for two weeks. The difference was that one group ate their calories over three meals during the day and the other group snacked their calories throughout the day. Who was healthier? The snackers as it turns out showed lower levels of insulin and cholesterol in their blood. Eating more smaller meals and less bigger meals actually boosts the metabolism and burns more calories.
The University of Toronto study was a bit more educational than the Hostess Twinkie survey. In the mid nineties, Hostess surveyed people about their snack habits. Eleven percent of people polled actually felt more guilty about a between meal snack than cheating on their taxes. Almost 40% of women felt guilty over their snacking habits versus 19% of men. Almost one third of the people polled made "snacking less" their New Years resolution. Unfortunately the survey doesn't tell us how many kept their resolutions! If Hostess took their survey now, I'm sure people would feel differently about snacks, especially the healthy ones.
SNACK TIDBITS
Only 19% of snackers reach for fresh fruit, 35% for chips and pretzels and 31%
on cookies and candies .The pretzel was invented in the Middle Ages by an
Italian monk who wanted to reward his students with a baked treat shaped like a
pair of arms, folded in prayer.Tortilla chips are one of the fastest growing
snacks, predicted to out sell even potato chips by the millennium!
And
what did I nibble on while writing this article? For those in the know, its
Girl Guide Cookie season. I can justify my cookie snack by supporting a worthy
organization. Bon Snack-etit!
I love summer and I hate summer. I love picnics and eating outdoors and I love summer festivals and junk food! I'll have to spend the whole month of August exercising to rid myself of that extra donut roll I've acquired. Of course junk food is called "fast food" because it disappears so fast. I've catered and endured a number of outdoor music festivals and this weekend's Folk Festival is our last gasp before fleeing to the island. Our job is to feed the multitude of volunteers it takes to mount a successful festival that spans four days. Over 600 volunteers, organizers and artists have to be fed two meals daily. Its a lot of work, but a lot of fun too.
Every artist has special requests to look after. Emmylou Harris (or her band) like Jack Daniels and Heineken, the Doobie Brothers are partial to Coors and Coors Lite and there are a lot of vegetarians travelling with Bruce Cockburn. We fed Julio Iglesias recently and his special request was to eat a large T-bone steak just prior to his concert. Some request only mountain fed spring water and others want water that isn't French but no one wants just plain old tap water anymore. One of those public affairs shows in the States recently held a blind tasting of some bottle water and they slipped in some good old Los Angeles tap water as well. Guess who the winner was? LA tap water was first and in second place was Edmonton tap water (charcoal filtered). You're paying for a lot of hype when the cost to a reseller of a 500ml bottle of water is 50 cents!
What do the festival patrons get to eat? Hamburgers, cheeseburgers, hot dogs, french fries, big donuts, mini-donuts, ice cream, quesadillas, pizza, pita sandwiches, popcorn, potato chips, peanuts, cookies and all flavours of soft drinks. We shouldn't forget the "Beer" tent as well. Most outdoor festivals now have a beer tent, a spot where parents can go and the kids can't. I truly believe it is the latter that makes the "beer tent" so successful!
This variety of fast food and plethora of temporary establishments has me thinking again of my "spare tire", my "love handles" my "ampleness". I'm looking forward to a steady diet of exercising instead of a steady exercise of dieting. So here's the last word on food and diets.
Never eat
more that you can lift. - Miss Piggy
It's OK to be fat. So you're fat. Just be fat and shut up about it.
- Roseanne
I went on a diet, swore off drinking and heavy eating, and in 14 days
I lost two weeks.-
Joe E. Lewis (American comedian)
I cater to one company which uses upwards of 100 litres of coffee daily. We brew it early in the morning into insulated (thermal glass) airpots for delivery to different meeting rooms. The coffee we were using was "ho hum" and we needed a change so I embarked on an aromatic journey that found me literally "abuzz" from the after effects of too much caffeine.
The coffee wholesaler I chose had almost 60 varieties of coffee to choose from. From a dark French Roast through to a Vienna Roast and finally down to a more moderate American Roast. I narrowed my tasting down to just 10 varieties, passing by a Vienna Roast "Caffe Sorrento" in favour of a more moderate "Gourmet Medallion". Trying to find names for that many varieties of coffee has to be a challenge in itself.
Most of us have seen the "Juan" ads of coffee from Columbia. For years I believed that you could only get coffee from South America. How wrong. Coffee is now grown in more than 50 countries world wide. Coffee is very susceptible to frost and can only be grown in tropical regions. The coffee bean we buy in the stores also bears no resemblance to what is actually grown.
The coffee bean comes from a berrylike fruit that is actually called a "cherry". This cherry is so named because after 6-8 months they are ripe and a deep red color. Inside this cherry are two beans that must be separated from the pulp and skin and then must be dried. This process is called curing and may take place simply by placing the cherries in the sun to dry or to be soaked in water. These hulled beans are green, not brown and are sorted, graded and exported. On arrival these green beans are then roasted which reduces the acidity of the beans as well as allowing the aromatic oils of the bean to develop into the aroma and flavour we know as "coffee".
The degree of roasting a bean receives determines both the delicacy and the richness of the coffee. For instance, a dark roast will give you a strong flavour and aroma and is a coffee that should be taken black. On the other hand, a light roast has more subtle flavours and would tyically be better consumed with milk or cream. The strength of the coffee is determined by the ratio of coffee to water.
The roasting of the coffee is an art form in itself. But you still have to choose the type of coffee or the bean. There are two main types of coffee bean; the Coffea arabica which grows on steep mountain slopes at high altitudes and the the Coffea canephora (also known as robusta) which is grown on the lower slopes. The arabica is the preferred bean and accounts for almost 70% of coffee sales, whereas the robusta is generally used for blends and instants and lacks the flavour of the arabica bean. Interestingly enough though, the robusta has a higher caffeine content than that of the arabica.
So now you've chosen the type of bean, how about where it is grown? We have Brazilian, Columbian of course, Costa Rican, Guatemalan, Indonesian, Kenyan, Nicaraguan, a Jamaican Blue Mountain and even a Tanzanian Kilimanjaro! So lets just say you've managed to choose a bean and a roast, now how are you going to brew it? The type of coffee maker dictates how the grind should be. Coarse, medium, medium to fine, espresso, fine and even pulverized. The faster the water moves over the coffee, the finer the grind. Water that lingers or is allowed to "infuse" would require a coarser grind. The ratio of coffee to water is also important. A general rule of thumb is one ounce of fresh ground coffee to 20 ounces of fresh cold water. This ratio can vary depending upon the condition of the water. Hard water with more minerals can actually extract more coffee with softer water the reverse.
I've found there is never a dull moment with coffee. Many different variables are possible, which is one of the reasons that coffee is so popular. Coffee did receive a bit of an unfair boost over tea in North America back in 1776. It was called the Boston Tea Party and since that time, coffee overtook tea as the national beverage of the Americas.
COFFEE
TIDBITS
Coffee is believed to have been grown first around the Red Sea, most
probably in Ethiopia. There have been records found that dated coffee
cultivation in Yemen as early as the sixth century.
Coffee drinking spread throughout the Arab world who brought the drink to
Europe. Initially it was viewed as an "invention of the devil" until Pope
Clement the Eight tried it and gave it his seal of approval.
A cute story of the discovery of coffee has a ninth century goatherd named
Kaldi who was tending his flock when he noticed his animals got very
frisky after eating the berries of a certain tree. He tried these and
like Pope Clement, discovered a "caffeine rush"!
My father was a Scotch drinker and when I came of age I tried it but could find no redeeming qualities. I was more interested in beer (the stubby bottles), pop wine (remember Baby Duck!) and rum when I wanted to tie one on. Over the years I had tried a Scotch here and there to be polite but never quite acquired a taste, until now that is.
When I speak of Scotch I'm speaking of a Single Malt, not a blend. Its the single malts that have become quite popular lately and its obvious the Scotch I had tried in the past were most likely one of the many blends that are available. So I learned that all Scotch is not alike! Most whisky made in Scotland is made from wheat and other cereals and distilled in a patent or continuous still. Malt whisky is made from malted barley and distilled in copper pot stills. A blended scotch is a mix of grain and malt whiskies and generally a blend will have less malt and more grain.
History is vague when it comes to determining when Scotch whisky was actually first distilled. We do know that the first distilled spirits were "arrack", distilled in India around 800 BC. Aristotle wrote of distilling in 384 BC and then we jump to 1494 with a reference to a Friar Cor making "aqua vitae" (water of life) by order of the King! This early Scottish reference had him making "eight bolls" of malt which would be the equivalent of 1500 bottles.
Science had nothing to do with the early distillation of spirits. These spirits were most often quite potent and sometimes harmful even though the early whisky was lauded for its medicinal qualities. The overall preservation of good health, relief of colic, palsy and the pox were all good excuses for drinking scotch from cradle to grave. Whisky became an integral part of Scottish life. A stimulant during long cold winters and a great part of the Scots social life as well, for whiskey was offered to guests upon their arrival.
My palette is not as discerning as I would like it to be but it it is varied enough to distinguish between the different malt whiskies available. Four things affect the taste of Scotch; foreign casks, peat, yeast & the sea. Scotch is aged in casks that have previously been used to make bourbon and casks that have been used to age Sherry. Each can yield their own flavours but the bourbon casks, which have been charred on the inside yield more color. Distilleries on the island of Islay (EYE-la) like Lagavulin and Laphroaig are located on the coast by the sea. The effect of the salt air on the casks is subtle but still contributes to the overall flavour of the scotch. The peat, which has been used as a fuel for centuries is essential to scotch for the peat smoke is used in both the drying and flavouring of the malt before it is fermented. Of course the island of Islay swears by their peat which is sphagnum moss with traces of decomposed seaweed, heather roots and salt grass, all of which contribute to the make up of the whisky. If you find your scotch has a fruity or floral flavour, that is the yeast that ferments with a liquid called the wort (from the malt).
Or course as soon as something became as popular as Scotch Whisky did, the government jumped in to tax it. Taxation as early as 1707 drove most distillers undergound. Smuggling was a way of life for many for almost 150 years until they passed a law which sanctioned the distilling of whiskey in return for a modest license fee. In 1777 there were only 8 legal distilleries and over 400 illegal stills. It was very much a way of life and a smuggler was held in high regard!
With the invention in 1831 of the Patent Still which led to large scale production of grain whiskey, Scotch became more popular to a wider market. It received an even greater boost when in the 1880's a plague hit the vineyards of France (the phylloxera plague). This plague depleted the supply of wine and of course Brandy. Scotch whisky was there to take the place of brandy and gained in popularity as a result.
(This article was written with the assistance of a 17 year old. Scotch that is. Murray McDavid from the Highland Park distillery in Kirkwall on the Orkney Islands. A very smooth single malt, nicely peated and aged in Sherry oak casks.)
SCOTCH
TIDBITS
In 432 AD, St. Patrick who was a native of Scotland, was sent to Wicklow
to spread Christianity, was also said to have introduced distilling.
In 1842 my favourite distillery, Glenmorangie, was founded at Tain by
William Mathieson.
For more information or if you wish us to plan your function, please contact Jordan Sorrenti at food@cateringinthecity.com or by fax at 403-243-7454 or phone at 403-243-7171.
Our Catering Kitchen is located at 3610 Burnsland Road S.E. Calgary Alberta, T2G 3Z2.