The Cultured Girl

I love the recipes on Epicurious.com, which posts the archives from Bon Appetit and Gourmet, but the web site is anything but hip. With blogs like the Kitchen devoted to burgeoning cooks, there is still room for a great web destination for hip young foodies. That’s why I was delighted to read in the New York Times that the fledging indie print magazine Chow is making a comeback, transforming into an online property owned by CNET, which also acquired Chowhound, a user-generated restaurant review site that has always been full of great content but hard to navigate.

I like the double-play, as it sets up the Chow network as a place for people who are passionate about both dining out and eating in, but who may not have the money or expertise typically associated with fine diners. According to the NYT, you’ll be able to sample Chow.com’s content starting next week, while Chowhound is already up and running.

Glamour magazine this month has a sort of interesting, sort of obvious feature story about why Americans eat too much. (The basic message: Portions are huge, nutrition information is misleading, and we are surrounded by food ads.) To me, what hit home the most was the sidebar about how you can change your personal eating habits so you’ll no longer crave those huge portions. It doesn’t seem to be online, but here are some excerpts from the basic tips:

• “Try the 20 percent trick. Whatever you plan on eating, with the exception of fruits and vegetables, put 20 percent less on your plate—odds are you’ll feel just as satisfied.”
• “Make your meals appear bigger. … Pad your hamburger or sandwich with lettuce and tomato so it looks thicker … or serve your meal on a smaller plate or in a smaller bowl.”
• “Eat more slowly. Simple biological fact: It takes time for your stomach to signal to your brain that it’s full. What’s more, when you eat quickly, you spend much less time tasting your food—which make leave you feeling unsatisfied … “

Lately, I’ve really been focusing on point No. 3, watching the clock to make sure I don’t scarf down my food and instead savor it over half an hour or so. Other good strategies including drinking a glass of milk before a meal and trying to leave a few bites of food on the plate. Like the 20 percent trick, you’ll probably be just as satiated without eating the last few bites.

I had these glasses growing up, and so—it seemed—did every single one of my friends. That’s why I appreciate Apartment Therapy’s ode to the classic and ubiquitous Duralex Picardie glass. My family had tons of these glass tumblers in various sizes, and they remain some of the most durable glasses I have ever come across. More than once, I have dropped one on the floor and watched it practically bounce and come up unscathed. A bit of history from AT:

“First made by Duralex almost 80 years ago, Picardie glasses are classic French bistro glasses. They were also used in the dining halls of British schools for many years. They’re simple, durable, versatile. They’re stackable, comfortable to hold, and the perfect weight. And, amazingly, they’re inexpensive.”

You can buy them at Crate & Barrel for $2 to $3 each, depending on the size.

Protein bars are an ideal pre-workout breakfast, because they provide you enough energy without making you feel full. The challenge is finding a bar that packs enough protein but doesn’t have so many calories that it cancels out your exercise.

Clif Bars, for instance, contain a whopping 10 grams of protein (about 20 percent of your daily allowance), but depending on the flavor, you’re also getting 200-250 calories and troubling amounts of fat. For that reason, I was recently drawn to the new 100 Calorie bars from Balance Bar, until I realized they are sorely lacking in protein and therefore not likely to keep me going until lunch.
So I’ve decided to stick with Clif’s Luna Bar, which has long been my protein bar of choice (particularly the lower-fat varieties like Toasted Nuts ‘n’ Cranberry). Luna Bars have the same amount of protein as Clif bars but 180 calories max. I was also delighted to read on Hungry Girl yesterday that Luna just rolled out a new line of breakfast bars called Sunrise, which have 8 grams of protein but more fiber than regular Luna bars. Plus, the flavors, including blueberry yogurt and vanilla almond, are more conducive to morning munchies than, say, S’mores.

I recently had dinner at a vegan restaurant in San Francisco called Cafe Gratitude, which focuses almost exclusively on live and raw foods. While I don’t plan to convert to the raw regimen anytime soon, I was pleasantly surprised at how tasty the food was. (I had an avocado stuffed with sunflower-seed pate and topped with cashew sour cream.) Basically, everything at the place was made out of nuts, because apparently even vegan staples like beans and soy require more cooking than the raw foods philosophy allows.

More than anything, the meal made me wonder about the whole raw and live foods. Basically, the dietary philosophy prohibits eating foods that are “cooked” in the classic sense—that is, using temperatures higher than 116 degrees. (That even includes coffee, which for raw foodies is cold-pressed for hours instead of being brewed.) Not only are raw foods higher in nutrients, but they are also rich in enzymes, which are used in food digestion. Those enzymes break down at 116 degrees, changing the molecular structure of the food, so your body basically has to do more work to digest the cooked stuff. If that all sounds a bit kooky, well, it is. According to a user poll on rawfoods.com, even the devotees aren’t that devoted: Only 10 percent of poll respondents stick to a 100 percent all-raw diet.

KitchenAid mixers are so passe. (And at $300 a pop, a pretty expensive counter accessory for those of us who don’t bake very often.)  At Cultured Girl, we’ve been won over by the Russell Hobbes Immersion Blender, sold at Williams-Sonoma for just $100. The handheld appliance doesn’t take up much room in your cabinets, and with its interchangeable attachments, it’s highly versatile, doing triple duty as a blender, a food processor, and a mixer. Better yet, it’s a hell of a lot easier to clean than the alternatives, and the blend setting is quieter and far more powerful than most countertop blenders we’ve tried, so you can make a morning smoothie without waking the whole house.

Following Portugal’s World Cup loss to France, The San Francisco Chronicle offers a lesson on one of Portugal’s strengths: its wines, specifically the variety known as the tawny aged Port. These are a good alternative to fine vintage Ports, which are probably out of most cultured girls’ price ranges; tawny ports are also less intimidating than vintages, which have to be opened at precisely the right moment.

Aged tawny Ports, however, are an affordable but still impressive option. Best paired with desserts, fruits, and cheeses, these wines are aged in casks for 10 to 20 years, so they are ready to drink when you purchase them. Better yet, you can find bottles, such as the Taylor Fladgate 10-Year-Old Tawny, for as low as $30, making the wine a great, unexpected gift. For more everyday Port drinking, try a “common” tawny port, such as Penfolds NV Club Port from Australia, which is mass-produced and cheap (about $9) but also quite tasty.

Something about the taste and texture of homemade ice cream conjures up summertime perfectly. Making your own is actually quite easy, and a great way to keep the bored kids (or intoxicated adults) occupied at at your Fourth of July barbecue. I’ve heard great things about this Play and Freeze Ice Cream Maker, a soccer ball-like device that sells for around $40. You just put ice and rock salt in the outer shell, then fill the middle with ice cream ingredients, including heavy cream and whatever flavors you desire. (Recipes abound on the Web.) Then you just roll the ball back and forth until the dessert is ready (about 20 minutes).

For a DIY project, you can achieve the same effect using coffee cans. Just fill a smaller coffee can with ingredients, place it inside a larger can, fill the space in between with ice and rock salt, and roll away. I’ve tried this, and it actually works very well.

As an antidote to my Bushwacker recommendation (it may be a tasty drink, but it’s not exactly low-cal), check out Hungry Girl’s recipe for the guilt-free Piña Colada. After all, with all that sugar and creme de coconut, the typical Piña Colada can deliver as many as 500 calories and lord only knows how much fat; I’d imagine the Bushwacker is even worse. HG suggests using Bacardi Island Breeze Coconut rum instead of the creme de coconut, and I bet the same strategy would work for the Bushwacker. Here’s the recipe:

Hungry Girl’s 100-Calorie Pina Colada Freeze
1 1/2 oz. Bacardi Island Breeze Coconut
1 1/2 oz. Sugar Free Coconut Torani Syrup
1/4 cup Breyer’s Cal Smart Vanilla Ice Cream
1 Tbsp. crushed pineapple in its own juice
3/4 cup crushed ice
1 packet Splenda
Put all ingredients in a blender.  Blend on high speed for 30 seconds.

In summertime, a party just isn’t a party without a very loud blender making very tasty, cool drinks. Here’s one to try this weekend, if you want to get beyond the usual margaritas and Piña Coladas: the Bushwacker. I have a particular affection for this drink, sometimes called the “Pensacola Bushwacker,” since it is the trademark adult beverage of my hometown. Often described as an “adult milkshake,” the delicious, creamy concoction tastes something like a mocha-coconut Frappuccino spiked with rum, and it goes down dangerously smoothly. Here’s a recipe from the Pensacola, FL, restaurant Jubilee.

The Pensacola Bushwacker
2 ounces Kahlua
1 ounce Bacardi Rum (for serious intoxication, use 151)
1 ounce Hiram Walker dark creme de cacao
4 ounces Coco Lopez cream of coconut
4 ounces half and half or milk
2 cups of ice
Blend to preferred consistency. Serves 2.