late breaking news

this was in my pharmacy newsletter this morning:

Caloric restriction may prevent disease, increase life span, researchers say.In a front-page story, the New York Times (7/10, A1, Wade) reports that, according to research published in the journal Science, "people could...fend off the usual diseases of old age and considerably extend their life span by following a special diet." The approach, "known as caloric restriction," contains "all the normal healthy ingredients, but" with "30 percent fewer calories than usual." Past research has shown that "mice kept on such a diet from birth" may "live up to 40 percent longer than comparison mice fed normally." To investigate whether the same would "be true in people," researchers began "two studies of rhesus monkeys" over "20 years ago."

The Wall Street Journal (7/10, Winstein) reports that findings from one of those studies "appear to validate" the "technique...as a way to live longer," providing "new impetus to researchers and companies" that "are searching for a drug to mimic the beneficial effects of a meager diet in humans without the feeling of near-starvation." The study "began in 1989 with 30 rhesus monkeys and added 46 more in 1994." Researchers restricted "half the monkeys' diets, reducing their calories by 30 percent, when the monkeys were fully grown, or about 10 years old."

The Los Angeles Times (7/10, Kaplan) reports, "Over the course of the study, the monkeys that ate the regular diet were three times more likely to die of an age-related disease than their counterparts on caloric restriction." These results were "welcomed by scientists who study the biological mechanisms of aging and longevity." Susan Robergs, of the Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University, noted that "it adds to the evidence piling up that caloric restriction...is a healthy way to stay alive and healthy longer."

But, Dr. David Finkelstein, of the National Institute on Aging, noted that "what we would really like is not so much that people should live longer, but that people should live healthier," the AP (7/10) reports.

cloudy with a chance of meatballs

did anyone else love this book when they were a kid? such a creative story, and what a fantasy. can you imagine all the food you ate everyday just falling from the sky at the appropriate time?it was absolutely one of my favorites, especially the part where things start to go haywire and it does nothing but rain cream cheese and jelly sandwiches all day (another childhood favorite - cream cheese, strawberry jelly, and bananas on pumpernickel). well, they have made it into a movie, and people, it's 3-D! i saw my first preview for it today, before up (a great 3-4 kleenex pixar endeavor). it looks like they changed the plot a bit, save the food falling from the sky. we'll see. it opens fall this year.

culinary tourism

midwest living this month lists the midwest's top five food towns. they are, as listed:
1)madison, wisconsin
2) traverse city, michigan
3) ann arbor, michigan
4) bloomington, indiana (this i totally agree with; you can get any kind of food there, except kosher)
5) des moines, iowa

the magazine then goes on to list 60 other restaurants/eateries "worth the trip". not one is in cincinnati, but there are 3 in dayton. what the hell?

the green fairy

i apologize for how...affected...this next sentence sounds. a few years ago while i was studying in prague, i encountered absinthe for the first time. and when i say "encountered", i mean saw it in the real world, not a book or movie. i have to admit, i completely wussed out and did not try it. the tales of the green fairy and madness were enough to quell my thirsty adventurism.

i kind of forgot about it until i saw "green fairy tales" in gourmet this month, which basically says the reports of hallucinations, etc, are greatly exaggerated. first created by pierre ordinaire (which sounds like a made-up name, but is actually real) in the late 18th century, absinthe came into vogue in france after phylloxera knocked out wine as a competitor. distilled from wormwood, absinthe contains thujone and 60-70% alcohol.
thujone is thought to be the cause of "absinthism", a condition characterized by hallucinations, sleeplessness, and convulsions, which led to the ban on absinthe in the early 20th century.
Dirk W. Lachenmeier (et al) apparently has looked into the toxicity of thujone quite extensively, since most of the scientific literature i found was authored by him. in one publication from 2006, absinthe was prepared according to traditional recipes to test the thujone concentrations. they found that the preparations did not contain levels of thujone above the current legal limit of 35 mg/L. it is thought that absinthism was actually caused by adulteration of absinthe with toxic plants such as sweet calamus or tansy. adulteration with antimony and copper sulfate is also a possibility, or it could have been good old fashioned chronic alcohol intoxication. also, the hypothesis that the structural similarity between thujone and thc caused stimulation of the same receptors in the central nervous system proved erroneous after experimentation.

wormwood has a very interesting history, insanity and cut-off ears aside. medical use of wormwood can be dated back to an egyptian document from 1552 bc. the name "wormwood" is derived from its anthelmintic properties. pythagoras recommended wine-soaked wormwood leaves to alleviate labor pains and hippocrates used wormwood extracts for treating menstrual pain and rheumatism. shakespeare even mentions it in romeo and juliet (act I, scene 3) "for i had then laid wormwood to my dug, sitting in the sun under the dove-house wall... but, as I said, when it did taste the wormwood on the nipple of my dug and felt it bitter, pretty fool, to see it tetchy and fall out with the dug!". yeah, we're talking about weaning.
during the french conquest of algeria (1830-1847), soldiers were given wormwood to prevent parasites and fevers. on their return to france, the soldiers discovered absinthe to be a tasty substitute.

previous to the ban, absinthe was defined by swiss law to be "every spirit drink, without regard to its method of production, that contains aromatic compounds of wormwood herb in combination with other aromatic compounds derived from plants such as anise and fennel". today's recipes are similar.

so now i am even more curious. and less afraid. an absinthe cocktail seems mysterious and intriguing, i won't pass it up next time.

for more complete info, look here.

food & wine march

my eww gross moment: people eat pig face. this is totally ethnocentric of me, but i would say face is the most objectionable part of the animal to eat. eating muscle and fat is bad enough if i let myself think about it, but a face? ick.

curiosity: lettie teague talks about ordering the cheapest bottle of wine at swank restaurants in dc and new york. sometimes unusual and wonderful wines can be discovered. however, she recommends never ordering the south african pinotage. i am extremely curious about this wine. i have heard it tastes approximately like liquid shoe leather. and not the shoe leather of a salvatore ferragamo. more like an old birkenstock worn backpacking through south america. has anyone tried it?

interesting: achieving healthy eating by the "rainbow" method. a variety of colors in the diet brings of variety of vitamins and minerals. (skittles do not count)

excited about: the best new greek wines, none of them more than $35.

recipes i can't wait to try:
gianduja tart with chocolate-cookie crust
beet salad with tangerines (the orange part of the rainbow)
wasabi flank steak and miso-glazed potatoes

food & wine february

as part of my new year's resolutions, i plan on reading my food & wine every month, extracting the recipes/articles i want to save, and donating the rest to jessie, who is a high school teacher and collects magazines for student projects. i also have about 2 years of back issues to go through more seriously than a lazy flip while watching tv.

interesting tidbits this month:
"poor food" - in these economically strained times, we should celebrate using modest resources with "intelligence and creativity" - think mock oyster. a great thought, complemented by an article describing a dinner party featuring french chef michel bras (inventor of the chocolate molten cake), whose star creation for the evening elevated the humble onion. nevermind the dinner was served using linen napkins silkscreened with the menu and guest list (really, could we be more extravagant?).

recipes i can't wait to try:
six layer coconut cake with passion fruit filling (sounds ethereal)
yogurt-marinated lamb kebabs with lemon butter (too much meat on a stick is not possible)
goat cheese cheesecake with honeyed cranberries (i already bought the goat cheese, much to brian's chagrin)