World Flavor

The weekend before last, Jeff and I drove to Ann Arbor, Michigan to visit his brother Kevin who is getting his PhD in physics at the University of Michigan (yes, Kevin does science).

The drive is about 8 hours not including stops. We left Friday – Thursday was both of our last days at work! We got in and had a late dinner at Zaaman, a cheap and tasty Lebanese place. I got mujaddara, a dish I had never heard of, but that I thoroughly enjoyed.

On day two we stopped by the Ann Arbor Farmer’s Market in Kerrytown, where we procured cherries and cinnamon rolls.

Next we stopped at Zingerman’s Deli. I had heard a lot of hype about Zingerman’s. It has been described by many as the best deli in the country, and of course I had to see for myself.

It’s pretty small inside, and you had to stand in a line to get inside so you could stand in line to order your sandwich. The line moved fast though, and still didn’t give us enough time to decide before we got inside. The sandwich board is rather daunting, though being vegetarian I was lucky to only have about ten delicious-looking options. I went for the Leo’s Friendly Lion, which has avocado, roasted New Mexico piquillo peppers, Wisconsin muenster cheese, and tomato on farm bread.

It was delicious as promised. All the ingredients were obviously top-notch, and it was grilled to perfection. After savoring our sandwiches, we went back for some samples. The thing about Zingerman’s, which sets it above almost anywhere else in my mind, is they let you try anything. Sure, you’ve been in cheese shops where you can try a bunch of things, but have you been in a food store that will grab you a sample of literally anything that looks good to you?

We started at the cheese counter. We stared at it for a moment – they have a huge selection. A woman asked us what we wanted to try, and I finally thought to ask for a cheese similar to Montcabrer or Garrotxa, some of my favorite cheeses. She pulled out Twig Farm Tomme, a raw goat milk tomme from Vermont. I have had good tommes and also ones I didn’t like. This one was definitely good. I liked it a lot. We went on to try many other cheeses, the highlights being one with brandy-soaked raisins, Caña de Oveja – a creamy and delightful sheep’s milk cheese, and Pleasant Ridge Reserve. We bought a little bit of both Pleasant Ridge Reserve and Caña de Oveja for later consumption.

After doing cheese, we went to sample some olive oils. A very enthusiastic woman noticed that we had a bag of cherries and proceeded to get us samples of cherry jam, preserves, vinegar, and finally, a drop of 25-year-old Italian balsamic that was stored in cherry wood (that’s a $150 bottle – like I said, you can sample anything). I also got her to give us a sample of manuka honey, which is a New Zealand specialty that I hadn’t found in the US – until now! It was actually Australian made, but close enough.

That night we played Agricola and made pasta with beans at Kevin’s apartment. Sunday morning we probably ate something, but I can’t remember except for grapefruit and leftover pancakes. And we toured Kevin’s lab, but may or may not have done anything else. That night we went to a game night at some of Kevin’s friends’ house. We played Lifeboat, which was alright, 7 Wonders, which I really really liked, and Battlestar Galactica which I now hate with a passion. We ordered some pizza from Jets which was decent.

Monday we went to Zingerman’s Roadhouse for lunch. The Roadhouse is Zingerman’s sit-down restaurant. It features classic American food like burgers, steaks, and a whole menu section of macaroni and cheese. As a mac and cheese lover, this was what drew me to the Roadhouse (other than the fact that I wanted to try anything done by Zingerman’s).

The lunch did not disappoint. I got their classic mac and cheese and salad combo. I thought it was going to be too little food, but the mac and cheese was so incredibly rich that it was almost too much. The dressing was a delicious house-made ranch. Mondays there is a burger special which Jeff and Kevin got; it was a burger, fries, a salad, and any cheese on your burger for $13. They had a veggie burger which I tried and it was awesome. Kevin couldn’t decide on a cheese so we got some cheese samples. Yes, you can sample stuff here too. I also sampled their pimento mac and cheese – it was good, but I liked the one I got better.

After lunch we walked around downtown while Kevin did some work at his apartment. We went in a game store and the Liberty Street Robot Supply and Repair (aka 826 Michigan). Next we decided to go to all the other Zingerman’s locations. This included the Creamery (where we got gelato – chocolate and vanilla for Jeff, raspberry sorbet for me), the Bakeshop (where I got brownies and Jeff got a chocolate chip sourdough loaf), and the Coffee Shop, where we just got t-shirts for completing the Tour de Bacon (which is going to all the Zingerman’s within a day, though they’re not super strict on that timeline). I think that Zingerman’s is my favorite group of stores ever.

For dinner on Monday we ate at an Indian place called Madras Masala which had good Alu Palak (spinach and potatoes). We walked around more of downtown. I like Ann Arbor’s downtown; it’s lively and full of really cool stores.

Tuesday, our last day in Ann Arbor, we stopped in to the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology. I wanted to go here because they have a replica of the frescoes in room 5 of the Villa of the Mysteries in Pompeii.

As a classics major, I took a course on Pompeii and Herculaneum. My professor went to the University of Michigan, not coincidentally. Our final paper was our own interpretation of this room, agreeing with or refuting three papers about what the frescoes meant (one of which was by my professor). So you can imagine that I was very excited to see the room in person. Doing so kind of disproved my interpretations a little (the pictures we were given were not as clear as they should have been) but it was still really fun.

The museum as a whole was really cool. It is bigger than I expected and has stuff from lots of different ancient cultures. There’s an especially cool glass exhibit. I would definitely recommend a visit.

That was about all we got to do in Ann Arbor. We stopped in the public library (where you can check out the art on the walls) and ate lunch at Jerusalem Garden, a falafel place.  They were setting up for the art fair, which is the biggest street art fair in the country. Sadly our schedule didn’t allow us to stay for that. It did allow us to have extreme difficulty leaving the city due to all the streets being closed for the art fair, however.

I liked Ann Arbor and would like to visit again.

The National Archives in DC has a new exhibit up until January 3, 2012 – What’s Cooking, Uncle Sam?. It is a historical look at the role of the government in what Americans eat. I was able to go on Friday and really enjoyed it.

Image courtesy of the National Archives

The exhibit is broken up into four sections: farm, factory, kitchen, and table. The farm section started off with food explorers sent by the government to find new things for the US to grow, and to find different strains of things we already grew so that we could improve our current crop. There were drawings of various types of fruit and vegetables that these food explorers found. The explorer they talked about the most was Frank Meyer, for whom the Meyer lemon was named. This section also included things like education initiatives and the Agricultural Adjustment Act. The most interesting thing I learned in this section is that before World War II, they made ‘refrigerator cars’ by putting huge blocks of ice in the ends and under the boards of train cars. There was also a section about the margarine laws and the controversy over margarine (led by the dairy lobby) in the early 1900s.

Image courtesy of the National Archives

The factory section talked about the discovery of dangerous additives in food leading to the Pure Food and Drug Act, and the impact of things like Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle on meat inspection. It also went over early labeling restrictions. They had the actual Pure Food and Drug Act on display. I found especially interesting the fact that there was something called the “Poison Squad” led by Harvey Wiley, who was the leader of the pure foods movement. The Poison Squad had healthy men volunteer to ingest food additives of the time to determine how they impacted human health. There was a page of a journal on display that talked about how someone would eat boric acid with their meal and then get sick, and things like that. The most interesting part of the section, I thought, was a letter by Upton Sinclair to President Roosevelt.

Image courtesy of the National Archives

Next was the kitchen section, which talked about government efforts to improve the nutrition of American diets, embodied in things like Vitamin Donuts and the food pyramid (and other previous food guides). It also went over rationing and wartime propaganda related to food. I enjoyed reading a letter by Margaret Mead, who during World War II was the executive secretary of the National Research Council’s Committee on Food Habits. The letter was about the culture of racial ‘castes’ in the American south and how that should affect the way the government proposes dietary changes in the south. Of course, I was an anthropology major so it was interesting to me. I also liked the vitamin wheel which showed what foods had what vitamins (as they knew it in the 1940s). This was also where the carp poster was.

Image courtesy of the National Archives

Finally, you had the table section. This talked about food given to soldiers (and how that has influenced what a meal is in the US – fascinating!), school lunches, and the way that what the president eats influences what we eat. Apparently LBJ more or less introduced chili and other Tex Mex food to America at large. Also, the Queen of England sent Eisenhower her scone recipe. The people who went with Nixon to China were all sent chopsticks beforehand so they’d know how to use them.

Image courtesy of the National Archives

The exhibit was great especially if you are interested in food history like me. There were lots of primary documents, which are great to see. My boyfriend Jeff and I read everything very carefully and it took about an hour and a half or so, but you could definitely do it more quickly than that. The Archives are open 10 AM – 7 PM daily until Labor Day, and then until 5:30 PM after that. The entrance is at 7th Street NW and Constitution Avenue. You should note that you will probably have to wait in line to get in; they periodically hold the line so that there will be less of a crowd inside.

José Andrés, the Spanish chef who has multiple small plates restaurants in DC (like Jaleo, Oyamel, and Zaytinya), has teamed up with the Archives to open up a pop-up restaurant called America Eats Tavern in his former Cafe Atlantico space at 8th and D Street. America Eats has a menu of historical American dishes, and the menu talks about their historical context. It will be open for the same amount of time as the Archives exhibit, and all the proceeds will go to the Archives at the end. Jeff, our friend Alex, and I all went to America Eats last Monday.

It was quite good, though the service and wait times were a little bad, probably due to the fact that it had only been open for a week. We got bread with blackberry butter, hush puppies, “vermicelli prepared like pudding” (the ‘grandfather of macaroni and cheese’), gazpacho, and then I got a beet salad, while Alex got a cobb salad and Jeff got a lobster roll. For dessert, we had New York cheesecake, strawberry shortcake, and Vermont sugar and snow (hot maple syrup poured over ice). The food was tasty. There was a section of oysters, small plates, a salad and sandwich and soup section, and entrees. None of us got entrees, but there was plenty of food. The vermicelli had a morel mushroom on top, which was incredible. The highlight of the evening was that José Andrés himself was eating a few tables away.

I think that America Eats will be a great place to go in about a month or two, when the details are ironed out. It is a great companion to the exhibit, which I highly recommend.

My main purpose of driving up to New York two weeks ago was to attend Farm Sanctuary‘s intern retreat with my friend Amy. Sure, I’ve never been an intern at Farm Sanctuary (it was my first time there) but they allowed each intern to bring a guest for $40, which considering they provided four meals and lots of snacks, was not a bad price.

Farm Sanctuary is an organization whose mission is to protect farm animals from various kinds of cruelty. They rescue farm animals from factory farms and small operations alike and keep them at their two sanctuary locations, one in Orland, California, and the main, original one in Watkins Glen, New York. They use tours of those farms to educate the public about the plight of farm animals, especially in factory farming conditions. They are also involved in political advocacy; their main campaign at the moment is one to ban battery cages for chickens, gestation crates for pigs, and veal crates.

At the intern retreat I was able to hear a lot about Farm Sanctuary’s mission and campaigns. I was also able to learn about some of their more recent animal rescues. There was a ‘panel’ with former interns talking about their current jobs in the animal rights world, and a session on how to be an effective activist. Probably most of the people at the retreat were vegan, and it was interesting to hear people’s perspectives on that lifestyle and on animal rights. The founder of Farm Sanctuary, Gene Baur, was there and spoke. I also had lunch with him on the last day. I thought that his views were very realistic and I agreed with him a lot. I’m hesitant to get political here, but I will say that I do agree that conditions should be better for factory-farmed animals (if nothing else, as a human health issue).

The best part of the weekend, by far, was the two farm tours I got to take. On the first day we got to hang out with ducks and geese, pigs, roosters, turkeys, goats, and sheep.

On the second day, we saw the cows and again visited the goats and sheep. Amy and I left the tour at this point to use the restroom, and got to grab some leftovers for lunch (and eat with Gene Baur) as an added bonus.

Speaking of food, the food was pretty good. It was all vegan. For breakfast there were bagels (with PB, margarine, and vegan cream cheese), scones, fruit pastries, and fruit. Lunch was three different kinds of wraps (I had one that was pumpkin and sunflower seed pâté with avocado purée and salad – it was a bit too mushy for my tastes), cole slaw, potato salad, and salad with tarragon dressing (yum). Dinner was a cookout with three types of vegan hot dogs and sausages, watermelon, and some other stuff I forgot. They also set out snacks before dinner of pretzels and fruit and wafer cookies. I ate a lot.

I met a lot of interesting people at the retreat. Some were very radical and a bit angry in their support of animal rights. I felt pretty self-conscious about my leather purse. However, I still definitely had a good time.

I think that Farm Sanctuary is worth a visit if you’re in the area. They give tours for $5 and you will probably learn something as well as get to cuddle with some adorable and sweet animals.

For anyone reading this interested in learning more about various issues surrounding animal production, I would strongly recommend Jonathan Safran Foer’s book Eating Animals.

I may be vegetarian now, but that doesn’t mean I can’t reminisce about meat (I love burgers). While I studied abroad in New Zealand, I discovered a trend that I really liked – gourmet burger restaurants. Some were chains, but that usually meant they had multiple locations in one city, and most of them were New Zealand only (except Burger Fuel, which is also in Australia, Saudi Arabia, and Dubai).

The typical menu for a gourmet burger restaurant had burgers made of beef, chicken, and some vegetarian options. Most also had venison burgers. Burgers usually come with garlic aioli, relish, onion, cucumber, tomato, and lettuce (most menus say ‘salad’, aioli, and relish). It is common to have beetroot on your burger as well. ‘Kiwi style’ would mean beetroot and fried egg in addition to the above. Burger places wouldn’t be complete without fries; your choice was between potato and kumara (New Zealand sweet potato) and it usually came with garlic aioli to dip. All prices are in New Zealand Dollars.

My first experience with one of these restaurants was Rapscallions Burgers in Rotorua, on my second night in New Zealand. Unfortunately, they don’t have a website (the link is to a listing for the place) and I don’t remember their menu that well. I only know I got a cheeseburger and liked it and that cheeseburgers were on special for $4.90.

Once I settled into Dunedin, it wasn’t long until I found Velvet Burger. There are two locations in Dunedin: right at the Octagon and on George Street. Apparently since I’ve left NZ, they’ve opened a location in Auckland so they’re no longer Dunedin-only. My favorite burger here was the Velvet Burger itself ($10.90), a venison burger (I love venison and loved that it was so readily available in New Zealand, due to the fact that they farm deer) with grilled pineapple, chilli mayonnaise, relish, and salad. It was super delicious, and I loved the addition of pineapple (I discovered that I like pineapple on lots of things during my semester abroad).

The regular burger vegetarian option is called the Animal Rights Burger ($12.50). This gives you a choice between tofu, falafel, or portobello with salad, beetroot, basil pesto, aioli, and relish. There’s also a mini burger called the Wee Vegan ($6.90) which has the same choices, with grilled veggies, hummus, and relish.

I went to Velvet Burger as often as I could justify to myself, which often meant a lot of late night chips (that’s fries back home). They’ve got fatties and skinnies (both $3.90 for a half scoop with sauce) and kumara chips – $5.50 (and now, apparently, wedges with sour cream and sweet chilli sauce, which is an amazing combination, for $6.90). Anyway, I always got the skinnies which were shoestring fries with aioli to dip – and it was basically the most delicious thing possible. For a couple of years I searched in vain for aioli to match the thickness and garlicky flavor of Velvet Burger’s. Just this year I discovered the secret – it takes exactly like simply blending the minced garlic you can get in a jar at the store with regular mayonnaise. And my life is more complete now.

In early August I went on a trip to Queenstown with my fellow members of the Arcadia program, and here I was able to try Fergburger. I also returned to Queenstown in October and came back for more. I believe that both times I simply got the Fergburger with cheese ($10 or $10.50 depending on the cheese) which is a beef burger with lettuce, tomato, onion, aioli, and relish. I also, of course, got fries – they are actually called fries on the menu – with aioli which for both is $5. I thought that the aioli was not as good as Velvet Burger and the fries were not to my liking either. However, the burger was quite good.

Later in August I found myself in Christchurch and ate at Burger Wisconsin, which has locations throughout the North Island as well. I have scrutinized the menu and cannot remember what I ordered, but my best guess is the Pestarella ($10.9 for a ‘petite’), a beef burger with pesto and mozzarella. I was deep in my pesto addiction then so it seems rather likely. I don’t remember if it was good or if I had fries. What a shame.

In mid-September I took a weekend trip to Wanaka and ate dinner at Red Star Luxury Burgers - this one’s not a chain. I am fairly certain I got a Mac burger ($12), which comes with salad, relish, aioli, Edam, and gherkins. I’m fairly sure it was good (none of these places were bad, to my memory). I feel I should note that this place has three vegetarian options – a lentil pattie with goat cheese, tofu with satay sauce, and the usual falafel.

Finally, in October (and later again in November, just before leaving for the US) I ate at Burger Fuel in Auckland, which has locations all over the North Island. I got the C N Cheese ($9.6), a 1/3 pound beef burger with cheddar, parmesan, lettuce, relish, and aioli. Burger Fuel does not have any venison options, which is a little unusual. They also have three veggie burgers (sunflower seed and chickpea, mushroom kumara chickpea, and pumpkin ginger patties), one of which is vegan. I also got the spud fries with aioli ($4.1) which were pretty good.

I was totally addicted to going to different gourmet burger shops in New Zealand. I loved having the novelty of cucumber and relish on a burger (and I liked the taste). I was enamored with garlic aioli. Overall, I never found fries better than the ones at Velvet Burger. The best quality burgers, however, were at Fergburger and Burger Fuel. Burger Fuel was also consistently the cheapest (Rapscallions was cheaper but that may just have been a one-time deal). If you’re in New Zealand, give some of these places a go. And I’ll just reminisce until I can return again…

You can check out my New Zealand study abroad blog from 2008 here.

Last weekend I drove up to Watkins Glen, NY with my friend Amy for a Farm Sanctuary retreat (more on that later). I was fortunate enough to have some extra time available to check out some of the nearby parks. The weather was not particularly great – raining off and on the whole time, but that didn’t stop me from enjoying some waterfalls.

The Finger Lakes are a series of long, thin, North-South-running lakes in west-central New York. They were named as such since they reminded mapmakers of fingers (and it makes sense). Watkins Glen is at the southern tip of Seneca Lake, the largest of the Finger Lakes. In addition to the lakes (pretty in their own right), there are a number of gorges in the area. Some of these are rather dramatic and have resulted in waterfalls, which I’m pretty sure everyone loves (or can at least appreciate).

I only got to go to two of the areas’ waterfalls due to time constraints, but they were totally magical so that’s okay.

First we went to Watkins Glen State Park. One of the entrances is right on the main street of Watkins Glen, and you can see the gorge from the parking lot.

It was getting dark when we made it to the park, so my pictures are not as good as I’d like. We also couldn’t venture too far along the trail, but we were able to get to the coolest part of the trail, which is where it goes behind a waterfall.

This is not really something I’ve come across before, and is definitely the main factor behind me calling this place ‘magical’. If you’re nearby, at least stop through and go behind the waterfall. You won’t regret it.

NOTE: The park charges an $8 parking fee. You can easily avoid that by parking in town (lots of free parking) and walking over to the park.

On the next day, we headed up to Ithaca (approximately a 40 minute drive from Watkins Glen). Along the way we stopped at Robert H. Treman State Park. We didn’t know much about it, just that it had a gorge with waterfalls.

The trail follows Enfield Creek as it goes through the gorge it has created, with some spectacular results.

The biggest waterfall is called Lucifer Falls, and it is incredible. It’s around 115 feet (35 m) high and it is simply magnificent. Some people offered to take our picture and revealed that they’d just gotten engaged; it would be a lovely place for it. We didn’t go far past Lucifer Falls; the hike is 4.5 miles (7.2 km) round trip and is fairly steep, and we weren’t up to quite that much that day.

Again, there was a parking fee ($7) but there is no easy way to get around it here – Robert H. Treman State Park is 5 miles (8 km) south of Ithaca and is really not near anywhere else to park. However, I would still highly encourage a visit. You are definitely getting at least $7 worth of beauty.

That’s all I got to see, but there are just a ton of other waterfalls nearby. There are a couple more in and near Watkins Glen, a bunch in nearby Montour Falls, and a large amount in and around Ithaca. I found a great “waterfalls of New York” map here, and I would encourage you to use that site to plan your waterfall spotting trip – loads of great information including opening times, parking fees, and hiking information.