| HOMEFRONT: Pasta come in all shapes and sizes
Pasta is simply a dried dough product that is reconstituted and cooked by boiling or soaking in water. The Chinese, Arabs and Italians all lay claim to having been the first to create this stringlike food but if you depend on written records and archeology, it looks like the Chinese get credit for being the first. Noodles made from foxtail millet and broomcorn millet were discovered in 4000-year-old digs along the Yellow River in China. Legend has it that Marco Polo brought noodles back to Italy from China, but there is no way to verify that. The dough is made of water, possibly eggs, and a flour & wheat or rice is most common here, but other flours are also used in some cultures. Pastas can be made from potato flour (gnocchi), rice (soba and other Japanese noodles), bean starch (Cellophane noodles), arrowroot (very thin Chinese Vermicelli) and others.
Where it all began
When the culinary history of Arkansas City is written, it should include the name of Lucy Mora under the heading of "Mexican Food."
It was Mora, now a resident at Presbyterian Manor in Arkansas City, whose recipes for tacos, enchiladas, tostadas, refried bean, rice and salsa provided the staples for what probably was the first generation of the city's Mexican food aficionados in the 1960s before franchise restaurants.
At 86, the slightly built woman is battling Parkinson's but has eyes that twinkle when you mention the Green Door. It was a bar, owned by Wes Robinson, who offered her the setting for what rapidly became a one-room food delight. She started simply with a few dozen tacos sold over the bar initially.
"I didn't know how many to make, because I didn't know how popular they'd be," she said.
Grocers pull recalled peanut butter
Several area grocery stores pulled recalled jars of peanut butter off their shelves Thursday, taking no chances after the brands were linked to a salmonella outbreak. Food Lion in Stanleytown, Kroger and Wal-Mart all removed the recalled peanut from their shelves on Thursday. Wal-Mart carried both the Great Value and Peter Pan brands, while Food Lion had the Peter Pan brand. ConAgra Foods Inc. told consumers to discard certain jars of Peter Pan and Great Value peanut butter after the spread was linked to a salmonella outbreak that has sickened almost 300 people nationwide, The Associated Press reported. Lids of jars with a product code beginning “2111" can be returned to ConAgra for a refund, the company said. Affected jars were produced by ConAgra at a plant in Sylvester, Ga.
Let the Flirting Begin
If you care at all about food, your library should include a copy of Counter Intelligence, a collection of restaurant reviews by LA Weekly dining critic Jonathan Gold. The man is Bach on a keyboard, producing astounding, evocative tales of culinary adventures that consistently win the top food-writing awards (indeed, I gave up applying for those damn prizes years ago). I recently thought about my food god after trying the prosciutto offered at Ristorante Max in Newport Beach.One of my favorite Gold pieces involved him eating a live prawn at a Korean restaurant. “I bit into the animal," he wrote, “devouring all of its sweetness in one mouthful, and I felt the rush of life pass from its body into mine, the sudden relaxation of its feelers, the blankness I swear I could see overtaking its eyes.
Bravo Welcomes Top Chef Season 3
This month the casting call for Top Chef will commence in view of the fact that Bravo network has already ordered a third season of the reality cooking series. The casting call is open to self-taught professional chefs as well as non-professional cooks. The try-outs will be held in Dallas, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Miami and New York. Top Chef, a reality series, showcases 15 aspiring chefs as they compete against each other in weekly challenges. Judged before a panel of professional chefs and other food and wine connoisseurs, the promising chefs flaunts their cooking expertise in the hopes of becoming the ultimate "top chef" who will earn $100,000 to start his or her own culinary business. In addition, the winner of the competition will be featured in Food & Wine magazine, and will appear at the Food & Wine Classic in Aspen, Colorado, although prizes may vary in the upcoming season.
Health Nutz Wellness Center holds grand opening ribbon cutting
The new Health Nutz Wellness Center in Beaumont recently held a grand opening celebration and ribbon cutting.The store specializes in organic foods and produce. It also carries organic beauty products, vitamins and herbs. In the near future a deli and juice bar will be in full operation. Get Healthy classes will be starting up in March. $1 a minute chair massages are available on Fridays and Saturdays.The health store tagline is, “It's not just our name - it's who we are!"Owners Suzanne and Michael Hathaway started to explore a healthier lifestyle when Suzanne was diagnosed with leukemia. Michael was looking for any way possible to help his wife recover from bone marrow cancer.The couple studied different avenues of lifestyle changes and came upon the vegan approach. Michael had aches and pains that didn't fit his age.
Obesity epidemic too big to fight alone
Obesity once was a word that conjured up images of fat Americans gorging on burgers in tacky fast-food chains or standing out as tourists because of their massive girths. How the tables have turned. Roly-poly New Zealanders have had the smirks wiped off their chubby faces by fat figures the World Health Organisation issued this week. For a country that prided itself on fitness and an outdoorsy lifestyle, we are looking more than a little porky. New Zealanders have been ranked a troubling 17th as the world's most obese people. We are fatter than Australians, the British, Canadians and Fijians and we are gaining on Americans. Overall, 68 per cent of us are classed as obese by the WHO. Our prevalence of obesity has risen dramatically as New Zealand grows more like the United States each day, with food in Texas-sized portions and car seats attached to our expanding bottoms.
Canada's new food guide a step in a new direction
Health Canada recently released the latest version of "Eating Well With Canada's Food Guide" in an effort to help guide Canadians to eating and feeling healthier.
Health Canada is aiming to promote better overall healthy living for Canadians including a healthy diet, exercise and disease prevention. Access to the guide has been made much more efficient by having an online component enabling the user to personalize their food guide.
Health Minister Tony Clement launched the new guide at the Real Canadian Superstore in Orleans, Ontario and was happy with the adjustments that were made.
"One important new feature of this Food Guide is that it now offers Canadians information on the amount and types of food recommended for their age and gender."
Chief Public Health Officer Dr.
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