Dae Jang Geum 대장금(大長今)...not the TV show

If you're East Asian in any way - Korean, Chinese, Japanese... you've probably heard of Dae Jang Geum. Dae Jang Geum was a Korean TV series based on the only female Royal Physician in Korean history. Because details of her life are vague, the show took a lot of artistic license in its plot, portraying her as a palace chef-turned-doctor caught in scandals of hidden identities and plans to overthrow the emperor. The show caught Asia by storm and for a while everyone was interested in Korea, Korean history, and Korean food. They even built a Dae Jang Geum theme park (pictured) complete with cardboard cutouts of cast members and fake, flimsily-built historical buildings.

But this post is not about that.

On 10th Ave, just behind Community Natural Foods, there is a little Korean strip mall with a Korean grocer, an acupuncturist, a travel agency, and Finn Maids. In the corner spot, there's another Dae Jang Geum - a restaurant clearly trying to ride on the success of the eponymous TV show.

It's the "go to" Korean place for my family, and we decided to take Ezra there for his last night in Calgary to satiate his beef cravings. Some might like the restaurant's comfy set-up, where every seat is a private booth. On the other hand, some might be put off by being sequestered from other diners so you can't ask the waitress to grab you what the next table over is having, or worse yet, see if the waitress is coming in the first place! Korean cuisine newbies might also be put-off by the menu, which is riddled with Engrish, like "deep fried dumpings", and has a Korean-only "golf menu". They're also not picky about which language they screw up, referring to "appertizers" as "牙胃前萊"...I guess the fact that they even have Chinese on the menu is something to applaud. Not to worry though, the menu is full of photos and each item is coded, so you don't have to embarrass yourself trying to pronounce words like "bulgogi" or "bibimbap", but be warned that most of the waitresses speak very limited English.

It's weird because in our household, our dinner table would usually be set with different kinds of meat - something reddish (beef or pork), poultry, and fish and/or seafood (and my mom wonders why we always have leftovers?) But at Dae Jang Geum, all thoughts of variety are thrown out the window in favour of one thing - "Big Kal Bi", or marinated short ribs. (It's actually "bul kal bi" in Korean, but I swear it says "big kal bi" on the menu.) Tonight was no exception. My mother, who occasionally has issues with portion control, decided to get three orders between the six of us, which meant two short ribs each.

But before that, there was banchan. I first learned the word from Elyse Sewell (of ANTM fame) and thought it meant "appetizers", but my real Korean friend Jun set the record straight and told me that it means "side dishes". Whatevs, I'm still calling this photo "Kimchi (because it's in the foreground) and Banchan (because the other "side dishes" are in the background)


The banchan was pretty standard - there was kimchi, bean sprouts, pickled shredded daikon and spicy pickled daikon. Usually I'm a little averse to kimchi because I find it a little too spicy, but I was ok with this one.


Knowing that we're about to embark on a meat fest, the Big Kal Bi comes with a nice green salad. Though it might just look like a pile of lettuce, it's actually got thin strips of green onion that give a bit of a bite, and is dressed with a sweet/savoury miso/ginger dressing.


Strangely enough, when faced with a pile of meat, my siblings like to fight for the vegetables. My sister tries to call dibs on every mushroom that finds its way on the grill while I'm content dipping my meat in the miso paste and wrapping it in a lettuce leaf instead of digging into the rice (though the metal bowls with covers are cute).

Think that's a lot of food? In addition to the Big Kal Bi, we also ordered tons of sides. Though we "try" it almost every time we go, my mom tried to get us to "try" the seafood pancake (pajeon) again, but that was vetoed in favour of two (!) orders of deep fried "dumpings"


I do love crispy things, but was a little taken aback when I realized the dumplings tasted they were filled with... tofu? No one told me they were going to be vegetarian! Not that I don't love vegetarian food, but I thought they could've done a better job masking the soy taste, and making the filling look less... grey.

We also ordered not one, but two soups. One was a spicy kimchi noodle soup, while the other was a "not so spicy" tofu and miso soup. I've never pegged Ezra as a spicy food person, given his dislike of Indian and Mexican foods, but here he is, slurping away at his dark red soup:


Every time we order the "not so spicy" soup, we always have a moment of regret because it's not not spicy. I tried to warn my mom, but she wouldn't hear of it and turned to the waitress for help.

"This soup isn't spicy," the waitress explained. "This other one has a chili symbol beside it on the menu; it's spicy. This one doesn't."

Please look at those flecks of chili in the soup and tell me that it's not spicy. After this photo was taken I actually found a slice of jalapeno floating around in there. No joke. I was ok eating the tofu and the bits of seafood, zucchini, and daikon, but could barely bring myself to slurp up the spicy broth. If you're spice averse, don't be tricked by the miso/bean paste (I don't remember what it's called on the menu) soup! I think there's a beef soup on there and a dumpling soup that are actually mild.

Despite these minor quibbles, the meal was delicious overall and the waitresses were great about switching the grill so that it (and our meat) wouldn't get covered in charcoal. We ended up with *tons* of leftovers. We cooked everything up on the grill before packing it into styrofoam boxes, including the bones, which my mom used to make soup the next day. Dessert came with our meal, and it was a cold, sweet, rice-based syrup. After finishing our bowls of this surprisingly refreshing dessert, we packed everything up and headed home.

Dae Jang Geum
1324 10 Ave SW
Calgary AB
(403) 228-1120

Read More...

Our second anniversary at Punk Rock Wingo

Part of the reason behind the timing of Ezra's visit was because last Tuesday was our second anniversary! (I don't know how we've been dating for two years either... is it lame for non-married couples to celebrate anniversaries? Discuss.)

I'd thought about taking Ezra to Broken City one night to relive the punk rock/indie shows of my youth when I read Andree of are you gonna eat that?'s blog entry on Punk Rock Wingo, which happens every Tuesday night.

But Ezra was only here for one Tuesday. The Tuesday of our anniversary.

If I were some normal chick, I would've suppressed any thoughts/information about this event to Ezra in favour of a dressy, formal dinner at a fancy restaurant complete with wine pairings.

But I'm not normal. My mom says so, because I didn't study business, medicine or law, and I don't have a 9-to-5 job. My mom even says Ezra and I are an abnormal couple because we prefer spending the day studying with a pot of tea at Steeps instead of shopping as "normal" couples do.

Since we're happily abnormal, we were pumped about the combination of cheap wings and cheap bingo for our anniversary, and pumped that my brother didn't have his late class anymore so we could head down there without relying on Calgary's terrible public transportation and taxi systems.

I ignored Andree's footnote about when bingo started and only caught the note on the Broken City website, which said Punk Rock Wingo was from 4:00 pm - close on Tuesdays, so we were a bit thrown off when the bar was almost empty when we arrived just after 6, save a group in a reserved section by the windows. After grabbing some $3.25 AGD, we asked one of the employees when bingo started.

"My shift is ending, but I think it starts around 10."

What?! We were not about to sit there for four hours, but fortunately the corner of 11 Ave and 5 St (soon to be part of "SoDo") is perfect for Ezra - The Keg's right on the corner if he feels like steak, Red Door Bistro's right next door if he feels like oysters (I have no idea why he keeps on joking about going out for oysters all week), then there's the 24-hour Gerry's a block over and of course, bars. For me, there's SobaTen, but Ezra doesn't like noodles in soup. :(

Anyway, as we were slowly sipping our AGDs, the crew began to meticulously set up the wall of prizes, so we began to suspect that bingo was going to start sooner than we thought.


When I took this picture I thought they were done setting up the wall, but then there were more prizes! And lights to make the whole thing more appealing.
So Ezra went up to the bar to ask when bingo was starting. 8 pm. By then, it was past 7 so we figured we would go back to Plan A - stay and have wings for supper before getting into the bingo.


Wings at Broken City are usually $8.50/lb, but on Tuesdays (starting at 4), they're only $4. I also begged Ezra to grab an order of sweet potato fries, and he grabbed a second (of 6) AGD for himself. I got a DD special (aka water).


Ezra chose apple bourbon wings for our first round, and they were covered in a delightfully sticky BBQ sauce which did indeed have a hint of bourbon in it. For our second round of wings, we got honey garlic - we had trouble finishing these, perhaps because we were already full, or perhaps because they were a little *too* sticky... too much honey, not enough garlic. According to their online menu, other flavours available include AGD (cheap AGD pints with cheap AGD wings?! whaaaat), Coca-Cola, citrus teriyaki, salt & pepper, hot, and "gawd Ff---n dang", whatever that means.


And of course, the sweet potato fries were soooo gooood. Not only because they're my favourite food, but because Broken City does them well. While I do like my sweet potato fries "au naturel" as well, Broken City spices them up by sprinkling their perfectly cooked fries (not burnt but not mushy) with seasoning (sort of like the stuff you find sprinkled on salt & pepper squid in Chinese restaurants, or salt & pepper wings), creating a nice balance of sweet and savoury. And they give you just enough so that you finish just when the fries start getting cold and gross. Perfect.

Of course, you can't forget the bingo. It was obvious some people already knew the routine when a crowd quickly gathered around the bin of bingo daubers as soon as they were brought out. The bingo is cheap; $1 buys you a card that's good for a round consisting of three games - line in any direction or four in a corner, kite or x, then blackout. We started off buying just one card per round, then timidly upgraded to two cards per round. Ezra joked that next time we should get five cards each, and even the busser was in on the act, carrying three cards around with him as he picked up empty glasses and baskets and mopped up puke.

Fuelled by cheap beer, wings, and loud punk music, bingo gets a little rowdy! Every game starts with a rousing "Hell, yeah!" or "Fuck, yeah!" from the crowd, and potential winners are met with a "Bullshit!" from the crowd. If the potential winner was actually bullshitting, then they are smacked with a paddle. (Bingo regulars like to trick their novice friends into calling bingo just to watch them get smacked.) After each round, everybody takes their non-winning sheets and pelts them at the winner.

The prizes are all sponsored by the "hipster" places on 17th - there are gift certificates for an hour of tattooing or a free piercing and free pizza from Wicked Wedge in addition to larger prizes like a bong from the Hemporium or various puzzles and games. Ezra and I were going for the Trivial Pursuit set, and I kind of had my eye on a little purse (given away during an inter-game round of rock, paper, scissors) or a pair of shoes (probably didn't fit me) but we didn't win anything.

No matter, it was probably one of the best outings we've had so far, and now that Ezra's gone, I'm looking for someone to spend Tuesday nights with me to yell "Bullshit!" at strangers and nosh on wings and sweet potato fries.

Anybody game?

Broken City
613 11 Ave SW
Calgary AB
(403) 262-9976

Punk Rock Wingo is every Tuesday night. The wings special ($4/lb) starts at 4 pm, while bingo starts at 8 pm.

Read More...

Dragon Pearl (龍珠)

Ezra lucked out of having to go to kickboxing last Monday because I had work! My company launched its annual 12-week challenge where participants compete to lose the most percent body fat (evaluated using callipers by one of our trainers) from initial body fat in order to win a $1,000 shopping spree. We had our launch party at Perry Thompson's new photo studio in Inglewood, who is doing before and after photos of all the contestants. My job was to embarrass myself in front of the small crowd of participants that showed up while explaining to them the folder-full of nutrition handouts I prepared just for this event (they might work out with their trainers, but they sure as hell are not eating with me!) as well as pushing my services and the three(!!!) workshops that I'm doing next month.

After the small event, where the only refreshments were juice boxes and Diet Coke, Ezra and I walked up and down 9th Ave SE to figure out what we should do for supper. In the end, we found ourselves diagonally across the street from Perry's at Dragon Pearl.

When I was young, we would sometimes go to Dragon Pearl for northern Chinese food like sticky rice, steamed buns, soup dumplings, and beef tendon noodle soup. Since then, it appears that Dragon Pearl has stripped these authentic treats from the menu and has focused on its target audience - non-Chinese people.


Ezra didn't go for his favourite soup (Chicken Cream Corn) and opted for the hot and sour soup instead. We then chose one dish each - I went for the Mixed Vegetables and Tofu, and he chose the Pineapple Shrimp.


Dragon Pearl might be doing "fake" Chinese, but they do it well. Both dishes were loaded with a variety of vegetables that were cooked to the point that they still held their crunch. The oyster sauce in the mixed vegetables was not too salty, but I found the pineapple shrimp to be too sweet/tangy. Will not be ordering it again.

In the end, it was way too much food for Ezra and I to handle, and we ended up packing a bit of everything to go. The servers were really gracious about it and even offered to pack up the rice too. Maybe that's why people keep coming back - aside from the great "fake" Chinese, they have courteous, quick service, and a comfy atmosphere.

Our bill came with fortune cookies that both contained double fortunes. He got some "pat yourself on the back" ones like "You are admired for your sense of humour," and "You will finally be able to enjoy the fruits of your labour." While I just got told what not to do.


Here's what not to do - Don't come to Dragon Pearl if you're looking for authentic Chinese food, and I'm a little bummed that there's now one less place that I thought served northern Chinese food in Calgary. Do come to Dragon Pearl for great service, a cozy atmosphere, and your favourite "westernized" Chinese favourites like hot and sour soup and ginger beef.

Dragon Pearl
1223A 9 Ave SE
Calgary AB
(403) 233-8810

Read More...

Checking out the neighbourhood pub - Shillelagh's

After lunching at Peters', Ezra and I headed home so he could unpack his stuff and get settled in before we headed out to what was supposed to be an early supper/mini Tribune reunion with our friends Tiffany and Adam at the Wild Rose Brewery.


We met at 5:30, so no one was particularly hungry and/or perhaps a little shy about eating if no one else was. So a couple beers (well, just one for me, because I was driving) and two and a half hours later, the conversation wound down and we went our separate ways.

"I'm so hungry I'm going to pass out!" I said to Ezra after we'd gotten into the car.
"Where do you want to go eat?"
"I think my mom said she's making tacos."
Ezra made a face. Apparently he doesn't like Mexican food. We decided to try out something close to home, but when we pulled into the parking lot in front of Sorrentino's, Ezra asked if we could see if things were busy at the pub, Shillelagh's (pronounced She-lay-lee's).

Although Game 2 of the Stanley Cup playoffs between the Flames and the Blackhawks was on, the crowd wasn't too large or rowdy and we managed to find a table for two by the wall. I ordered a bison burger (with Jack Daniel's BBQ sauce!) and he got a baked lasagna.


I enjoyed the burger, though if I hadn't read the word "bison" on the menu, I wouldn't have guessed it. (Don't worry, it costs the same as a regular burger... wait a minute...) The BBQ sauce was good, though I would've liked more, and I enjoyed the lightly-toasted, herb-flecked bun. It's a little weird how they put the toppings outside the bun, but of course, it's not very hard to put it inside.

For 99¢ I could've gotten a side order of sweet potato fries (quite possibly my favourite food), but I was craving something light so I went for a salad instead. I'm always impressed when restaurant salads are more than a pile of chopped up iceberg with maybe a slice of tomato and/or cucumber on top.


Check out the artfully arranged tomato! The carrots! The spring mix!
Ezra's baked lasagna was less impressive - it looked and tasted like it came out of a box, with a melted processed cheese slice on top.

Shillelagh's was a lot of fun, and after years of wondering what went on in that seemingly tiny pub (it's actually pretty spacious and spans two floors) I'm glad I finally got to experience it. It wasn't a fancy sit-down dinner, but it wasn't Old El Paso soft taco kit, either.

Shillelagh's Pub
323-1851 Sirocco Dr SW
Calgary AB
(403) 255-4747

Read More...

A Calgary "institution" - Peters' Drive-In

As some of you may know, my boyfriend Ezra is here in Calgary visiting me for 10 days. We've both been pretty busy, and the past two days the weather hasn't exactly been our friend (how do you go from +22°C one day to -1°C with wet snow the next in late April? Oh, Calgary...) so even when we do go out, we usually find ourselves in a café with a laptop and/or a book in front of us.

Fortunately, we've still managed to hit a few foodie spots and hopefully will squeeze in a little more activity before he goes back home to Winnipeg.

Ezra arrived at around lunch time last Saturday, so I gave him two choices: sushi (at Misai) or burgers and shakes. He chose the latter.


The last time I went to Peters' Drive-In was probably in high school, as it was relatively close (a driveable distance, especially if you have a spare right before or after lunch). Simply put, Peters' is a Calgary institution - it survived the mad cow scare in 2003-2005, and didn't lose its steady stream of customers even when people got sick from E. Coli-contaminated marshmallow shakes in 2005. There's a rumour that Gus Pieters, the founder, has vowed never to expand Peters' beyond its one location because he wants it to be a unique experience.

The weather was nice, so we opted to park and grab a picnic table, which I'd never done before (I'd always just whipped through the drive-thru). We went up to the window to order and I couldn't help but notice that all the staff were wearing scrubs! We got just the basics - a cheeseburger for me, a double cheeseburger for him, and an order of small fries and a maple walnut milkshake to share.


The burgers were nice and meaty, but a lacked a bit of that charred taste you'd expect from a burger. It was loaded with condiments - onions, lettuce, relish, ketchup and mustard, which in turn made the bun a little soggy and the whole presentation a little sloppy.

The fries were definitely an afterthought - unseasoned (though the lady behind the counter did offer us salt) and not at all crispy. We forced ourselves through half the container and chucked the rest.

Fortunately, the milkshake was as good as I remembered them, though I hadn't had that particular flavour before (I'm usually a chocolate or mocha kinda girl.) It's so thick I needed to pull twice on the straw the first time around, and it was full of the yummy, artificial maple flavour you'd expect in a milkshake (this is not a cabane à sucre or anything.) The little bits of actual walnut gave a nice bit of texture without being a choking hazard.

The atmosphere was also awesome - there were lots of young families at the picnic tables around us, and apparently some sort of biker club likes to meet on sunny Saturdays.

If you are a Calgarian and you haven't been to Peters' yet, you should go (especially once it warms up again), if only for a milkshake.

Peters' Drive-In
219 16 Ave NE
Calgary AB
(403) 277-2747

Read More...

My last date with Shefali

Depending on how you feel about getting your picture taken, you might think I'm a really good friend or really bad friend for not taking any pictures of my friend Shefali on our last date together before she moved to Toronto and its bigger, greener pastures.

I met Shefali this summer through work, and we became close after we drove up to Red Deer together for a company meeting. Even after I quit my job to finish my internship, we've still managed to stay in touch. Usually Shefali and I eat out at some franchised restaurant in north Calgary, we've done Earl's, Milestones (Ridiculously GIGANTIC portions), Applebee's and Ricky's, just to name a few. Recently we've moved on to a couple dessert dates at The Chocolate Bar on 17th, but this time, I was helping her drive some stuff down to the Greyhound station, so our original plan was to continue south into Inglewood and treat ourselves to Nectar instead.

Well, what ended up actually happening was that by the time we'd finally gotten her six bags on the way to Toronto, we were starved for some real food. So after finally finding some free parking in Inglewood (why are there ParkPlus signs, but not ParkPlus machines?), we made our way over to Spolumbo's - after all, it's a "Calgary institution", and we'd both never been.


I got the 9th Ave Sub, even though I still have no idea what's in it - two different types of salami with provolone, I think. Shefali got a panini of some sort (This would be about the time where it's ok to call me a bad friend, but you should keep in mind that this happened two weeks ago.)

I was definitely surprised at how unsalty the sandwich tasted, despite all the cured meats. There was also a hint of sweetness, that I think might've been from the mustard (or the bread? or the mayo?) Although I'm not usually a fan of pickles, I forced myself to eat them because that's what I do with foods that I don't like, and they weren't that bad (though I wouldn't be surprised if they're just the kind that comes in the bag that they have at fast food restaurants) and went well with the sandwich. In fact, when Shefali and I both had half a sandwich leftover, I asked them to wrap up my pickles too. (I didn't finish the pickles that I had left after finishing the sandwich though.)

After Spolumbo's, we both still had some time before I had to go to kickboxing, so we decided to check out Choklat, the new chocolate shop that just opened in Inglewood. It's a tiny, unassuming shop, but it holds the only chocolatier in western Canada that makes their chocolate from cocoa beans that they source, as opposed to buying chocolate in bulk and melting it down to create their own concoctions. And although you're not greeted with rows and rows of chocolate on display when you walk in (their website explains why), you will certainly be hit by the strong, tantalizing aroma of chocolate.

Cheryl of Backseat Gourmet took her daughters there this weekend (and her blog post is why I'm blogging right now, really) and was able to take full advantage of its entire gamut of services, which includes chocolaty baked goods, top-quality chocolate bars, and custom-made truffles - you choose the centre, the chocolate and the coating (guess what my mom's getting for Mothers' Day because I was too cheap to buy her a $14.95 pack of almond bark for no reason?)

When Shefali and I arrived, it looked like they were just about ready to close up shop, as the lone lady behind the counter (who had a cute Australian accent, btw) told us right when we walked in that she'd cleaned up all her truffle-making materials for the day. Still, the baked goods were ripe for the picking, so Shefali and I both grabbed a brownie. She also grabbed some caramel squares for her soon-to-be ex-roommates; one dark and one milk for each.


I actually didn't get to my brownie until after supper, what with not wanting to be *too* full before kickboxing. I was a little worried about how light the colour was - would it be too milky? Too sweet? Boy, was I wrong; the brownie was so rich and chocolaty that it's the only brownie I've ever had where I actually had to grab a glass of milk to wash it down. It was really good, and it makes me excited to try their truffles, which is their specialty.

Choklat also offers a weekly chocolate-tasting and wine-pairing workshop called Choklat Snobbery 101 and a truffle making workshop every once in a while. I might ask Tiffany to come with me to one of these, even if it means missing kickboxing for a night!

Spolumbo's Fine Foods & Deli
1308 9 Ave SE
Calgary AB
(403) 264-6452


Choklat
1327A 9 Ave SE
Calgary AB
(403) 457-1419

Read More...

Food Politics

Though I have referred to Marion Nestle as my nutrition heroine for years, I've just finally finished the book that started it all. I'd first encountered Food Politics in one of my friends' dorm rooms in first year (Hi, Doe!), but finally got my own copy while I was in Hong Kong. A few months and a couple of other books later, here I am, trying to gather my thoughts about it.

In this book, Nestle (not related to, nor pronounced Nestlé) presents a few "case studies" of how the food industry has influenced government policy surrounding how the public is educated on nutrition and health. She starts off with the development of dietary guidelines and the food pyramid, then goes into more detail on the industry's tactics when it comes to getting the government, scientists, and health professionals on their side. She then talks about how food is marketed to kids; not just through TV, but also through branded toys, clothes, and most importantly, schools. After that, there's a section on how the supplement industry lobbied to essentially be deregulated in the States (here in Canada, since 2004 we have had the Natural Health Products Regulations, which I regrettably don't know very much about) and set the precedent for using health claims to market food as well as supplements. Nestle then finishes off with going into these "techno-foods" (foods engineered to have more desirable components, like vitamins and minerals, and/or less undesirable components, like fat, sugar, and salt.)

At times I found the book laborious to read, not because it was poorly written, but because I find it so frustrating how these companies market products that supposedly promote health, when really they care more about the health of their bank accounts than the health of the public. Also, although the impact of the food industry's lobbying in Canada is very similar, it does make me wonder how these specific situations apply here at home. Either way, Food Politics still provides lots of insight into how industry, policy, and our knowledge of nutrition are intertwined. Even as a dietitian, I catch myself saying things like, "All foods can be a part of a healthful diet." Technically, they are, but statements like that weaken the idea that some foods and dietary patterns are better for you than others.

Nestle does a great job of wrapping up the book with her conclusion, which summarizes the overarching themes that have been presented and suggests some simple modifications in public policy that will help create an environment that's more conducive to a healthy lifestyle. Since I have the fancy-pants "Revised and Expanded Edition" that was published in 2007, there's also an "afterword" section that covers the changes that have occurred in the health and nutrition movement from the consumers' and industries' sides since the book's first publication in 2002.

Perhaps it's my Albertan upbringing, but sometimes I couldn't help but cringe when she says something along the lines of, "And through this piece of legislation, "x" industry shifted the responsibility for "y" onto the consumers." Do food and supplement companies only care about selling more product, no matter what it takes? Perhaps, but from experience, I also think a lot of these companies and product developers actually believe that their novelty foods, supplements, and diets are doing good for the population. I think food producers and consumers alike have fallen prey to the idea that every scientific discovery, however minute, should change the status of certain food or nutrients, instead of waiting for long-term investigation and meta-reviews of multiple study results. Somewhere along the line, we've begun to think of food as drugs, so instead of thinking about how they fit in our overall dietary pattern, we reach for whichever food or product is lowest in fat, or lowest in sugar, or highest in antioxidants (even if we don't necessarily know what antioxidants do).

Though it's easy to say that the obesity epidemic and food choice is all a matter of individual responsibility and will power, I think Food Politics brings to light that our environment (I mean surroundings, not forests and global warming) does have an impact. I think we can agree that we need to increase the "dietary literacy" of the population, but even if we manage to do so (without the food industry muddling with our education messages), how can you not fault the food industry at least partially when we can't make the best choices for ourselves because we're not being told everything?

Eric Schlosser, author of Fast Food Nation says, "If you eat, you should read this book." And it's true - it really opens your eyes to the food industry and how it's affected the way we eat, and makes you really think about all the factors that come into play when we choose what goes into our shopping cart. I would highly recommend this book, as well as What to Eat, which goes "aisle by aisle" and talks about the different nutrition controversies surrounding the food that's in the marketplace.

Now that I'm finished with Food Politics, I'm looking to read something lighter, and I think Molly Wizenberg's A Homemade Life is just the ticket. I'm also looking to beef up my sports nutrition knowledge - I've previewed this, this and this on Google Books on the advice of some co-workers, but does anyone else have any goodies? I want to cram all this in before Ezra comes to see me because now that he's home in Winnipeg, he's scrounged up some books that he wants me to study. O_O

Till then, EatingWell just sent me some of my missing back issues (they've been sending me every *second* magazine for my subscription, oddly enough) and there's a mini-feature on beets in the February 2009 issue. Man, I miss having my own kitchen.

Read More...