"There's never enough time to do all the nothing you want." - to which I say, there is never enough time to even do what you want!
Anyway, check out my Goatmaiden post on the World Cheese Championship HERE . The first image is of the judging poster for said contest. On beyond the taste of the cheese, the world's best is evaluated on "...body and texture, salt, color, finish, packaging and... slicability and eye development" and of course the fact that you actually sent your cheese or butter in to be tested (there were only two entries in the "goat, sheep or other butter" category.)
Beyond that, stay tuned, as two posts are in the hopper ready to publish. But to tide you as I run out and take advantage of the über springlike weather, I'll link to a really interesting take on bone marrow.
I recently took myself out to eat at Graze, the "casual" little-sister restaurant of the upscale L'Etoile (which has been written up pretty much everywhere). Above is a map that hangs in the lobby between the two restaurants that points out all the farms they source items from. One thing I learned recently is that, even a restaurant that pretty much buys all of it's food from giant conglomo Sysco is still probably sourcing a lot of it's food locally (in Wisconsin, expect cheese and half and half especially).
Anyways, the most interesting thing I tried was a bone marrow appetizer. I had read a lot about bone marrow's resurgence in the last few years, and the fact that it is starting to show up on upscale menus as chef's get creative and inventive and start to rediscover how to eat "nose to tail." In the past, people had to use all parts of the animal because meat was expensive. Meat has become such a commodity in the US that we now pick and choose what parts we find acceptable, and which we think are icky or too hard to cook. Now, with Organic beef selling at $10+ a pound, we once again are starting to think about eating more than just the steaks and burgers.
Still, the few times I had tried the bone marrow inside of soup bones I'd cooked up at home, I was like, "this isn't anything special."
Well, read here to find someone who is able to wax rhapsodic about the food product much more intelligently than I. Mark Sisson, an author and former athlete (with his own line of supplements, of course) whose blog I found via Google search: "bone marrow calories," speaks well to the prehistoric attraction our bodies have to calorie dense foods; "(i)t goes marrow, liver, heart, muscle meat," he says, when speaking about how his dog chooses what meat it eats first.
The bone marrow I had at the restaurant was served in its split femur bone I believe (the servers at Graze are close to Portlandian in their knowledge of the menu, but mine stopped short of bringing me a photo of my animal - I wasn't allowed to meet the meat). The bone was beautifully white, filled with the marrow and topped with warm pickled onion which served to cut the fattiness with acidity. I am sure I ate too much of it. It really didn't have much taste, it was much more texture (more jelly-like than butter-like) and "mouth feel" (sorry to use such a bourgeoisie word, but it really does describe best the slippery, melty feel of the stuff, and the fact it kind of disappeared before you had a chance to chew it.)
I don't know if it would be worth getting again, but I am glad I tasted it. I would recommend the bone marrow appetizer at Graze to others who wanted to see what the fuss was all about, because I do believe it was a great representation of the stuff. Still, not sure if I see myself going out of my way to whip some up at home (although I will give two thumbs up for using bones in soup stock - the fat and marrow really help to add richness, and its worth it to boil them for this reason before tossing them out.)
No comments:
Post a Comment