Gran Cocina Latina

<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyEotsSMFeLrUU6cVvvEx-mxaO-BciP2LSjtclW0Ac1qB4cE7r-qI7Cn_IkeIeTEg8Tsr5TGRYHclG4WzJZd_nt32robQ5cRzZJE3vmMDBMUytPjyHUYvxtwwXjZjD-Sgs0tXL7lzMaCUz/s1600/grilling2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="492" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyEotsSMFeLrUU6cVvvEx-mxaO-BciP2LSjtclW0Ac1qB4cE7r-qI7Cn_IkeIeTEg8Tsr5TGRYHclG4WzJZd_nt32robQ5cRzZJE3vmMDBMUytPjyHUYvxtwwXjZjD-Sgs0tXL7lzMaCUz/s640/grilling2.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Chicken and corn made according to recipes from <i>Gran Cocina Latina</i></td></tr></tbody></table><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1MVh4KpOIiHrGAn0DHapTVEdyv_Bd2JSIKVcr6Cjy5Sv0iqmoKXrbemAMt2nMgUx8E9gaoAwcIOni-exmgIDC49_3hcZXeHYHTAgjEYZNM-o_PQv6jWABC3PsuYwPlam-E2en0VFSzrK-/s1600/grilling3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1MVh4KpOIiHrGAn0DHapTVEdyv_Bd2JSIKVcr6Cjy5Sv0iqmoKXrbemAMt2nMgUx8E9gaoAwcIOni-exmgIDC49_3hcZXeHYHTAgjEYZNM-o_PQv6jWABC3PsuYwPlam-E2en0VFSzrK-/s320/grilling3.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Using indirect heat over aluminum drip pan</td></tr></tbody></table>Mainly because of its historical content, I have been reading Maricel E. Presilla's gigantic and ambitious cookbook titled <i>Gran Cocina Latina</i>. By gigantic, I mean that it weighs close to 4 pounds, and has 900 pages. By ambitious, I mean it covers every culture and country in South and Central America, including pre-Columbian, colonial, and modern food history and hundreds of recipes. There's lots of emphasis on the author's native Cuba, but plenty about all the other countries as well.<br /><br />After a couple of days of reading, I also wanted to taste. So for dinner tonight, I chose "Grilled 'Leaping Frog' Chicken" from Argentina (p. 665), a simple recipe for using a spice rub after flattening a whole chicken -- sometimes called butterflied, but the author depicts the final shape as frog-like. Her description of grilling was a bit sketchy, but we used the indirect heat technique that's worked for us before when doing whole chickens. I also followed her suggestion to steam or boil corn on the cob and then briefly finish it over the fire (p. 237). I served the corn and chicken with some sliced tomatoes with cilantro, an herb that often flavors South American and Mexican dishes.<br /><br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggQkaCTTFXMMMaOjozoXl8rz6QkeIQ3CnG95WFo_cQuPaZ-CVKA26r-7aJzVzMzbiMnUJdUxgyXDTdyivD1KJadrEed7QixrYWy5YDvtRByeBR8KAFRoAY2baNRyZnZ80lD2_aMvxmIOUV/s1600/gran+cocina+latina.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggQkaCTTFXMMMaOjozoXl8rz6QkeIQ3CnG95WFo_cQuPaZ-CVKA26r-7aJzVzMzbiMnUJdUxgyXDTdyivD1KJadrEed7QixrYWy5YDvtRByeBR8KAFRoAY2baNRyZnZ80lD2_aMvxmIOUV/s320/gran+cocina+latina.jpg" width="275" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I'm reading a copy from the public library.<br />It has the dust jacket.</td></tr></tbody></table>I'm not finding the organization of the book to be satisfyingly clear. The first chapter is fine: it includes a necessary and highly enlightening discussion of cooking utensils and appliances. There's a wonderful description of women who sit on the floor to prepare food and of how an old-fashioned cook can dice an onion one layer at a time. Presilla is completely convincing that the result of using a box grater or a mortar and pestle can be very different from using an electric appliance for similar prep. (Alas, today I smashed both my mortar and pestle while crushing the garlic for the spice rub -- this hasn't ever happened in the 30 years or so I've owned it. Guess I'll have to buy a new one.)<br /><br />Next, several chapters deal with specific foods, such as "Table Condiments," "Tropical Roots and Starchy Vegetables," "Rice," and a couple of others. After these, several chapters deal with types of food like "Little Latin Dishes." There's an entire chapter on "Empanadas" followed by a series of chapters on other individual dishes or preparations like "Cebiches." After a while the book gets back to specific foodstuffs like salads, breads, fish, poultry, and meat. Finally there's "Dulce Latino."<br /><br />Each chapter provides detailed descriptions of the varieties of each type of food: for example, a illustrated list of dozens of peppers, a description of many types of beans, or of various brands of rice (warning that if you change rice brands, you may need different amounts of water and different cooking times or methods). Very valuable historical, ethnic, agricultural, and social information about the foodstuffs and dishes are interspersed in these chapters. And of course, each chapter includes many traditional recipes, recipes from the author's friends or acquaintances, original recipes from her restaurant, and recipes from other sources. Reading through the book requires intense concentration to follow these many different trains of thought.<br /><br />The information is so interesting and important, however, that I have found the patience to sit with this tome and carefully go through the narrative portions, as well as scanning through the recipes. (I'm about 2/3 done.) There's so much to think about in terms of the many cultures and historic influences. For example, there's a very traditional Cuban dish called "Moors and Christians;" that is, black beans and white rice. Consider this: the black beans in this dish are one of the key New World species -- we all know the trio of corn, beans and squash that natives of North and South America relied on. And the white rice...<br /><br />In "Moors and Christians" the white rice represents the Christians, that is, Europeans, and it did definitely come from the Old World. Columbus brought rice and probably seeds for cultivating it on his second voyage. From at least 1515, Presilla writes, "rice was part of the Spanish settlement in the New World." Soon it grew on all the Spanish Caribbean islands, and the Spaniards viewed it as a very important staple food.<br /><br />Rice wasn't really native to Spain, though: it had been introduced by the Arab conquerors known as "Moors." And as time went on, "rice became one of the most important foods in the diet of the African slaves. Gradually rice was embraced by everyone.... Even the potato-eating Indian farmers of the Andean regions succumbed to the lure of rice."<br /><br />Some of the varieties of rice used in modern South American cuisine in fact later came from other parts of the Spanish Empire; for example, "via the galleon trade with the Philippines or ... from Dutch and Portuguese traders who had long-established contacts with the rice-growing regions of Asia and the Indian Ocean."  Latin-American cooks also valued and still value rice from the American South; for some dishes they prefer "Carolina" rice or even Uncle Ben's. (All quotes from p. 287).<br /><br />"For seven centuries, Moors and Christians fought one another in Spain," the author writes, "but in the guise of black beans and rice they surrendered to each other's charms within the all-embracing New World pot. Like the hybrid culture that flourished in medieval Spain, the rice dish known as <i>moros y cristianos</i> is an exemplar of exchange between civilizations." (p. 310)<br /><br />I find a key to Presilla's viewpoint about food at the beginning of the book. She says of her many travels collecting recipes and food histories: "Again and again, I was forced to remember that food is always deeply political." (p. 2)<br /><br /><i>Note: I heard of this book <a href="http://www.rachellaudan.com/2013/09/latin-american-cuisine-unity-beyond-the-nation.html">on the blog of food historian Rachel Lauden</a>.</i>

Gran Cocina Latina

Chicken and corn made according to recipes from Gran Cocina Latina Using indirect heat over aluminum drip pan Mainly because of its historic...

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"The Lunch Room" -- a Vegan Restaurant

<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXbnGoK_XssM1YJr8ESUIEoqPv_nzNSxl6uKJPeypaKo8Vt4msr3ZSN1-fL0RnCkDmrhy8vHwnYPKSVx8blkJm8B6cdzK05kzrklzpXScqVORrGIGwNWdMQNvaZwaD7NUw_jEUKuIFrPA8/s1600/lunchroom3961.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXbnGoK_XssM1YJr8ESUIEoqPv_nzNSxl6uKJPeypaKo8Vt4msr3ZSN1-fL0RnCkDmrhy8vHwnYPKSVx8blkJm8B6cdzK05kzrklzpXScqVORrGIGwNWdMQNvaZwaD7NUw_jEUKuIFrPA8/s400/lunchroom3961.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Vegan hash and bagel with cashew spread</td></tr></tbody></table>Today for lunch we tried The Lunch Room, a new vegan restaurant at Kerrytown near the Ann Arbor Farmers Market. Very convenient as the market today was host to the Kerrytown bookfest where we started our morning. We were quite hungry and appreciated the quick service. Once we put in the order at the counter, our food arrived at the table without much of a wait.<br /><br />I admit, my culinary expectations for The Lunch Room were pretty low. Vegan food has never seemed too appealing to me, unless we are talking about a vegan side-dish to go with meat or eggs. However, my choice of hash, mostly vegetables with seitan sausage, a spicy soy product, was in fact delicious. The non-meat texture of the seitan wasn't important as the morsels were quite small. The potatoes were crunchy from being perfectly fried and the other vegetables weren't overcooked, so they had a little crunch too.<br /><br />Len enjoyed his bagel with cashew spread and tomato; he drank his coffee black, preferring not to try the almond milk they offered as a whitener. Bagels of course are always vegan, and cashew spread is its own thing.<br /><br />My main problem with vegan food -- that it tries to masquerade as meat and cheese -- wasn't an issue here. Some of the other things on the menu look as if they have this problem. I wish the restaurant would offer more variety of traditionally vegan dishes made just as they always are without any pretense. I'd like to go back and try some of their sweet pastries with afternoon coffee -- I always drink black coffee so I won't even miss real milk or cream.<br /><br />Our friend Pam's interesting sepia-toned photos of New Zealand decorate one of the walls of the restaurant, a very pleasant, newly decorated space. We ate at the restaurant's tables in the quiet courtyard between the various Kerrytown buildings.<br /><br />Update: I checked the <a href="http://thelunchrooma2.tumblr.com/menu">Lunch Room website</a> -- Sundays they serve only breakfast, so there are a variety of sandwiches and main courses on the regular menu that I didn't know about. I would like to try some of them, like the Pad Thai and Thai slaw at some point.

"The Lunch Room" -- a Vegan Restaurant

Vegan hash and bagel with cashew spread Today for lunch we tried The Lunch Room, a new vegan restaurant at Kerrytown near the Ann Arbor Farm...

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What's in your lunch box? An extended answer.

Elaine writes about lunches at home and at school:<br /><blockquote>I just wish someone would make me the Bon Appetit lunches--an awful lot of work even for a retired person. I usually eat at home, often one of the Yoplait yogurts that you decry for their lack of good nutrition, a piece of fruit and some bread and butter and jelly. (Or cookies or pie or cake if we have some). I think eating the yogurt in addition to a sandwich would be excessive, but instead of it's not so bad. I used to often pack the same lunch when I was working. </blockquote><blockquote><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/89/2828/1600/delmar-harvard.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/89/2828/320/delmar-harvard.jpg" style="float: right; margin: 0px 0px 10px 10px;" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Delmar-Harvard Elementary School where we ate those lunches<br />(though the cafeteria was in another building)</td></tr></tbody></table></blockquote><blockquote>I mentioned earlier this year that I've gone back to peanut butter after many years hiatus, but now I sometimes use creamy style horseradish instead of jelly. I remember once as a kid that Mom put butter on my peanut butter sandwich instead of jelly. It was probably worse for me and tasted weird. I also remember the Halloween peanut butter open face sandwiches, cut round with jack-o-lantern faces. Those were served at home on Halloween, before we went back to the school parade. (Butterscotch pudding with jack-o-lantern face was I think for dinner dessert). I loved those! </blockquote><blockquote>As a member of the local school parent council when the kids were small, I designed and administered a survey at the elementary school to see what the kids liked and didn't--most of the disliked stuff went into the trash, since there were no eating enforcers. The items they hated the most were green and gold salad (cheese and peas) and Reuben sandwiches. We shared our results with the cafeteria directors but am not sure we got much attention. The staff wanted to open the minds (palates) of the children, but the kids were pretty much completely closed to some of the ideas, and I doubt they actually tried some of the food.</blockquote>

What's in your lunch box? An extended answer.

Elaine writes about lunches at home and at school: I just wish someone would make me the Bon Appetit lunches--an awful lot of work even for ...

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What's in your lunch box? Another answer.

Evelyn wrote about what's in lunch boxes packed at her house:<br /><blockquote>I read your blog entry about packed lunches, and I think maybe I don't agree with some of it. <br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEha3l4WWe8AMD0PHeWKyUstbbFTBp-froQfJb94LFkcAiCZzbjv1ImYuzCe5Ak1PNJ9dVTVSQL2gcThF0zjgmblE2fFnhj_qHioTkyH1RKBwZDqRVNOvMr1JAqz6gDJFf0VFBU1u7R-MTPl/s1600/pesto-chicken-rolls.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="228" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEha3l4WWe8AMD0PHeWKyUstbbFTBp-froQfJb94LFkcAiCZzbjv1ImYuzCe5Ak1PNJ9dVTVSQL2gcThF0zjgmblE2fFnhj_qHioTkyH1RKBwZDqRVNOvMr1JAqz6gDJFf0VFBU1u7R-MTPl/s320/pesto-chicken-rolls.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pesto-Chicken Rolls <a href="http://www.bonappetit.com/recipes/family-meals/slideshow/25-quick-and-easy-school-lunches-to-pack-for-your-kids/?slide=25">from Bon Appetit</a></td></tr></tbody></table>For example that <i>Bon Appetit</i> article -- maybe a little pretentious, but I am going to show it to Alice, because I bet she would get up early to make herself some of those lunch ideas. They actually sound very good for dinner with leftovers for the lunch. Maybe that's why it sounds pretentious -- I seriously doubt anyone really makes those only to pack in a lunch, whereas as a leftover that would be completely reasonable. Miriam even made sushi for dinner a few times for the purpose of taking it in her lunch the next day. </blockquote><blockquote>I don't think that Miriam and Alice's lunches are too far off from the norm, or they would rebel, and yes they often have a piece of candy or a yogurt, but they don't seem all that much worse than what you described you bringing healthwise. For example, today Miriam had a PBJ sandwich, 5 ritz crackers, a bit of candy, a peach, and a chocolate milk (It's not really just her lunch -- she has been eating a little lunch at school and finishing it up the rest for afternoon snack). </blockquote><blockquote>Alice had the same crackers and candy, but she had a tortilla wrap with melted swiss cheese for her sandwich, a fruitable for her drink (it is fruit juice with water added), and blueberries for her fruit. This seems to be well within the range. Yes, it has more sugar than you had, but not enormously more. </blockquote><blockquote>My own lunch was leftovers from the salad last night for dinner -- quinoa, avocados, tomato, corn cut off the cob, garlic, onion, and the wonderful Cajun seasonings you brought me from Baltimore (which I have been adding to pretty much everything all summer). That is just as pretentious as any <i>Bon Appetit</i> lunch in that article! But this was an exceptional day -- on Tuesday I didn't have time to make a lunch at all and had a pain au chocolat from the coffee shop. And  I'm sure that kind of lunch is exactly what Michelle Obama is talking about.</blockquote>

What's in your lunch box? Another answer.

Evelyn wrote about what's in lunch boxes packed at her house: I read your blog entry about packed lunches, and I think maybe I don't...

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What's in your lunch box? First answer.

Arny wrote on my FB page:<br /><blockquote>"This is my 60th consecutive year of going to school. When I'm not on sabbatical, I nearly always bring a lunch bag. Nowadays it's usually a small insulated bag that lasts a year or two. I still use a couple of baggies; I haven't made an effort to find the right containers for the peanut butter and jelly sandwich and the cup of carrots, but I do recycle the coke can, and the apple doesn't need packaging."</blockquote>

What's in your lunch box? First answer.

Arny wrote on my FB page: "This is my 60th consecutive year of going to school. When I'm not on sabbatical, I nearly always bring a...

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What's in your lunch box?

<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBaRBvbdbeWZR8hGUow8G8ufCtuSBevzDGH4KsYMYfQuT5rqF6JQulS0Y_Y_evgMxQWeeKBRqBShlZrJggDa14bdiohUNdt2aPpekdu4p9dKPLqpGvtMdGJbVZ76uPb70LwX6B_FDTRMqC/s1600/mona_lisas_dachshunds_canvas_lunch_tote.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBaRBvbdbeWZR8hGUow8G8ufCtuSBevzDGH4KsYMYfQuT5rqF6JQulS0Y_Y_evgMxQWeeKBRqBShlZrJggDa14bdiohUNdt2aPpekdu4p9dKPLqpGvtMdGJbVZ76uPb70LwX6B_FDTRMqC/s400/mona_lisas_dachshunds_canvas_lunch_tote.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mona Lisa Lunch Tote from <a href="http://www.cafepress.com/+mona_lisas_dachshunds_canvas_lunch_tote,690632398">Cafepress</a></td></tr></tbody></table>School started yesterday, so I've been thinking about what goes in all the lunch boxes and lunch bags all over the country. I remember from childhood the smell of a lunch in a brown paper bag. When I was in elementary school, I went home for lunch almost every day. But in Junior High, I remember the smelly brown bags with wax-paper-wrapped sandwiches, probably on white bread, and an apple every day. Maybe a carrot stick or a cookie. Inside the sandwiches: peanut butter (no jelly for me) or sliced cheese; cream cheese or some sort of meat; maybe tuna fish. My mother, who packed our lunches, didn't think it was a lunch without a sandwich. I almost always brought my lunch right through high school. I didn't like and rarely ate cafeteria food -- for one exception, <a href="http://regional-food.blogspot.com/2011/10/its-school-lunch-and-chili-month.html">see this</a>.<br /><br />Here's what I think is odd: the lunches my mother packed would mainly comply with the advice that parents are getting now to encourage healthier eating. If the food industry made small-sized bags of potato chips then, we never heard of them; Lunchables were distantly in the future. Yogurt wasn't a commonly sold or eaten food until some time after I was in school; it seems to have become a staple of lunches brought from home. Most yogurt -- especially the ones targeted to kids -- is a heavily sweetened and not particularly wonderful food masquerading as healthful.<br /><br />The lunches we rejected from the cafeteria were probably no better in nutritional value than the ones that are under scrutiny now, and probably didn't taste any better than the nutritionally improved ones kids are rejecting, either. I suspect that politics is behind some of the big objections that kids (no doubt encouraged by their parents) are making to the changes in school cafeteria food when the objectors seem to all be from tea-party country and they mention Michelle Obama by name and hold her responsible. I have this funny feeling that only a satirist (like <a href="http://www.theonion.com/articles/mom-unaware-little-note-she-packed-with-sons-lunch,29281/">The Onion </a>or Andy Borowitz) could do justice to the politicization of school lunch contents as well as to some of the other excessive trends.<br /><br />Lunch boxes, for some reason, weren't cool when I was a lunch-taker; neither were thermoses. I think they were for littler kids. After lunch, we could throw away everything that came with lunch. That didn't usually include any food: we were all inducted into the Clean Plate Club though no one ever named it. A few years after I was in school, instead of waxed paper or waxed sandwich bags, plastic baggies became common. Much more recently, schools have been nudging both mothers and kids towards reusable containers instead of disposable wrappings.<br /><br />Will this trend continue? Two years ago, an article in the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/27/business/energy-environment/education-officials-and-retailers-push-for-environmentally-friendly-school-lunches.html?_r=0"><i>New York Times</i> reported</a> "Sales of environmentally friendly back-to-school products are up just about everywhere." By that time at Miriam and Alice's Oak View Elementary school, kids had already done an experiment to compare the trash on a day when everyone brought lunch in disposable bags and on a day when everyone who could brought their food in reusable containers. The resulting trash quantities really impressed the whole school! Nobody wanted to be seen making piles of trash like that.<br /><br />In the family, Miriam says she plans to take only a little bit for lunch because she'll be eating very early, so she got  a new small lunch box to start Junior High. Alice says she doesn't have a new lunch box yet. <a href="http://regional-food.blogspot.com/2012/10/school-lunch.html">Last year in Minnesota</a>, they did eat school lunches, which were designed to have healthy food and lots of vegetables in them and also were usually served on reusable plates. They also had a deal with a farm to send the edible leftovers and plate scrapings to the pigs.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2BgWFCBXi6Qrs4wqsxMOVvZAWvKT4fNLTMbepqmDVJqux4jqABMmAMoyPoSrMkTfS7GhC8OyAGnJObxvAZ1PBaTjHOvwaq8Sm8VTfVZueutRFAe4e8gbU9t5n9aQhbpy5ilb_Aw3UBj2j/s1600/bento-lunch.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2BgWFCBXi6Qrs4wqsxMOVvZAWvKT4fNLTMbepqmDVJqux4jqABMmAMoyPoSrMkTfS7GhC8OyAGnJObxvAZ1PBaTjHOvwaq8Sm8VTfVZueutRFAe4e8gbU9t5n9aQhbpy5ilb_Aw3UBj2j/s320/bento-lunch.jpg" width="284" /></a></div>Overall, in lunch boxes this school year, I suspect that there will be lots of interesting and exotic foods as mothers strive to meet more and more competitive demands for health and fanciness. A few mothers might follow the trend of making highly decorative Japanese lunches, as illustrated by a screen shot from google images. A few might make labor-intensive gourmet treats based on recipes like those in a<a href="http://www.bonappetit.com/recipes/family-meals/slideshow/25-quick-and-easy-school-lunches-to-pack-for-your-kids/?slide=1"> pretentious article in <i>Bon Appetit</i>.</a><br /><br />Most kids' lunches, according to the news, will be some combination of convenience lunch food like yogurt cups and mini-bags of chips or carrots and traditional choices like my mother made. I hope there's really a trend towards better health and environmental responsibility, but that might be wishful thinking.

What's in your lunch box?

Mona Lisa Lunch Tote from Cafepress School started yesterday, so I've been thinking about what goes in all the lunch boxes and lunch bag...

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Sustainable Fishing

<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRrLRpzslIFVINTfnXinkJF0Y2QllyseD9nPjTZlt3D1DRi-VbHZ1N6L9-Geh77dJtoLuARDLHhf6iqFKjmlui3HndTpxNfDRsJb_1gNVPNZMNWVhXZNaZipdWOYj82UF2wz67Kkblkvj1/s1600/petersburg3315.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRrLRpzslIFVINTfnXinkJF0Y2QllyseD9nPjTZlt3D1DRi-VbHZ1N6L9-Geh77dJtoLuARDLHhf6iqFKjmlui3HndTpxNfDRsJb_1gNVPNZMNWVhXZNaZipdWOYj82UF2wz67Kkblkvj1/s400/petersburg3315.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Truck parked near the docks in Petersburg, Alaska</td></tr></tbody></table>Alaska salmon is all wild, never farmed. The <a href="http://blueocean.org/">Blue Ocean Institute</a> and <a href="http://www.montereybayaquarium.org/cr/SeafoodWatch/web/sfw_factsheet.aspx?gid=49">Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch</a> both rate it "green" -- that is, one of the most sustainable fish. "Abundance of salmon, particularly Pink and Sockeye, is high in Alaska due to good management and healthy habitat," writes Blue Ocean. "The majority of salmon is caught with purse seines, followed by gillnets and troll gear. These fishing methods cause little habitat damage and result in moderate levels of bycatch, typically other fish."<br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3PNCt5SFmEZ3C1TxF9mT_swyQWRRRSFmH-waIZmLoCORJNhoV9b6Hbe5_I5l3CpyfqOnifaSPcP1ZMy9sZZZ2JJ24TCBRgljDqQaOZbcxUuPVwyxU3CzlZXN5ZK0li2OFQEBhmUXldjVZ/s1600/tlingit-food.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3PNCt5SFmEZ3C1TxF9mT_swyQWRRRSFmH-waIZmLoCORJNhoV9b6Hbe5_I5l3CpyfqOnifaSPcP1ZMy9sZZZ2JJ24TCBRgljDqQaOZbcxUuPVwyxU3CzlZXN5ZK0li2OFQEBhmUXldjVZ/s400/tlingit-food.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tlingit food, display in Sitka National Historical Park</td></tr></tbody></table>The Tlingit tribes that have lived in southeast Alaska for centuries depended on salmon, which they preserved by smoking or drying to make a variety of long-lasting foods. Traditionally, they also ate other seafoods, including seal meat, and used seal fat to preserve berries. Their fishing and hunting practices were very sustainable and efficient, but of course the population was small and there were no exports.<br /><br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3-sSJ7V0uCtRWmtkoGRabd6ZMbAA4D2KVRHWEA7qgmM0MhC_EqbfpBGBiyecJ-7ob5Hzaqja0EVoyhdwAvP5t4J9hn5LhHgJLFPxbZFqXKLt18FbUa3ST-afboRAaV_7XH1BsOamwPexM/s1600/petersburg6128.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="211" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3-sSJ7V0uCtRWmtkoGRabd6ZMbAA4D2KVRHWEA7qgmM0MhC_EqbfpBGBiyecJ-7ob5Hzaqja0EVoyhdwAvP5t4J9hn5LhHgJLFPxbZFqXKLt18FbUa3ST-afboRAaV_7XH1BsOamwPexM/s320/petersburg6128.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Boats in Petersburg (Len's photo)</td></tr></tbody></table>Now the Alaska fisheries are among the most productive anywhere, and their products both fresh and preserved, go all over the world. In view of the utter depletion of other fishing grounds, such as Atlantic cod, it's encouraging that Alaska fisheries still seem sustainable.<br /><br />Petersburg, which we visited, has only a few thousand people, but ranks sixteenth among US fishing ports, with a total of 101 million pounds of seafood, worth $65 million, caught in 2011 (<a href="http://www.ufa-fish.org/CFF/2012/25.Petersburg%20Community%20Fish%20Facts%20V%202012.1.pdf">source</a>). When we visited, most of the salmon boats were out at sea where the salmon were running.<br /><br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjASAy4A-Mj2AqstZU3oSGjlwGMLILb8RoL7Y6O7EnYlmPp31UFPYrRuJ9lL8Juft2At7tWLVDQwpJk3x0xhpf-J8wGRf4Q09LqjSaCh9SVHUcJeRUpyNNFY5VjxVFxFwkdBlRFh8LnltpM/s1600/petersburg6160.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="211" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjASAy4A-Mj2AqstZU3oSGjlwGMLILb8RoL7Y6O7EnYlmPp31UFPYrRuJ9lL8Juft2At7tWLVDQwpJk3x0xhpf-J8wGRf4Q09LqjSaCh9SVHUcJeRUpyNNFY5VjxVFxFwkdBlRFh8LnltpM/s320/petersburg6160.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Petersburg Alaska (Len's photo)</td></tr></tbody></table> Petersburg fishermen also catch other Alaska seafoods rated environmentally responsible: Dungeness crab; red, blue, and golden king crab; pink shrimp, Dover and rock sole, and sablefish. Halibut, another valued fish, is abundant in Alaska. Monterey rates it green, but Blue Ocean classifies it as yellow (not as desirable) because of the danger of mercury.<br /><br />As I wrote yesterday, we tasted several of these, as well as some type of rockfish (which I suspect is only available locally so the Alaska version doesn't appear in the ratings).<br /><br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjh8Ei9JucMC45pIjcWR6fRZcYKPcZ4JrPi8R95xbYMlscXlL6_ww0f48dn45ebwNg_Dk8lI9UJwd5FtLPOpLZXzm_Dtu8jLQ8U0PvaVIJej4UhycPDjAvP2kotOAC96B5F21oL_HLIBN5o/s1600/petersburg3304.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjh8Ei9JucMC45pIjcWR6fRZcYKPcZ4JrPi8R95xbYMlscXlL6_ww0f48dn45ebwNg_Dk8lI9UJwd5FtLPOpLZXzm_Dtu8jLQ8U0PvaVIJej4UhycPDjAvP2kotOAC96B5F21oL_HLIBN5o/s400/petersburg3304.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cannery on the wharf in Petersburg</td></tr></tbody></table>Now that I'm home, I am definitely missing the wonderful flavors of many types of fresh fish. However, I do try to comply with the suggestions of the two rating agencies that suggest responsible ways to eat seafood; as it happens, I shop for fish at Whole Foods which has partnered with both of them and committed to sell only recommended fish.<br /><br />Both the Blue Ocean and Monterey ratings agree with the fisherman in Petersburg in condemning farmed salmon for its dangers to the environment. In contrast, by inspecting a variety of farms, Whole Foods claims to have identified responsibly and safely designed salmon farms that satisfy higher standards. These farms use "carefully monitored, low-density pens and tanks without antibiotics, pesticides or added growth hormones." They also are believed to prevent the escape of fish or their toxins and diseases into the wild.

Sustainable Fishing

Truck parked near the docks in Petersburg, Alaska Alaska salmon is all wild, never farmed. The Blue Ocean Institute and Monterey Bay Aquari...

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