I wanted to start with some snappy statement like “it
happens every time”, but this “every time” doesn’t happen very often. However, it just occurred again. Every time some creature crawls out of the
dirt like our recent brood “N” (or whatever), invariably there appears some
article talking about eating the critters.
And we’re talking hominoids here, not your pet dog or chicken. Sure enough, in Wednesday’s edition of our
local newspaper there was a story called “Bug Bites”, complete with a
disgusting (large) picture of skewered Cicadas, two dripping with chocolate coated , and
one “plain one”. It’s kind of like the
proverbial train wreck thing about you don’t want to look but you can’t help
it. I had to choke back the bile. Not
satisfied with just a visual, the story goes on to talk about “dry roasted
Cicada chocolate chip cookies” and offers recipes for both preparations. There were no descriptors of “tastes like
Chicken”, but did compare their flavor to a baked potato, well, a greenish
baked potato. Gaaacccckkkk.
I have one very pointed question: WHY?
I know Anthony Bourdain (who I am not) trots around the
world eating grubs, large spiders, eyeballs of various creatures and so forth,
but he gets paid handsomely for that. Plus he has that maverick oddball character image to maintain. Besides his staged antics I saw a statistic in some article that X% of the world’s population includes insects in their
diet. And it wasn’t a small number
either. I would submit that in those
cultures, the individuals grow up with that diet and so consuming such things seems
as natural to them as eating a cheeseburger does to us. Well, but Mr. Feeder, aren’t you supposed to
be on the culinary cutting edge? Maybe
for quality and service, but not necessarily food. I don’t mind trying different preparations of
various organs, I love Foie Gras, sweetbreads, and even liver and onions. But eating a bug? Nope.
Just showing off for shock value is silly.
Anyway, I’ll pass on the Entomology course.
Notes from the News
I kind of hate to regurgitate (a fitting word here) stuff
you can read in the newspaper for yourself, but I found a couple of articles in
Sunday’s Post kind of interesting. The first
was about a bakery in Arizona which gained “fame” as the only restaurant that
Gordon Ramsay of: “Kitchen Nightmares” reality show has given up on.. The reason was that the owners were
intransigent about changing anything, wouldn’t take his advice and so
forth. The main point of the story
was to talk about the importance of social media to restaurants these
days. In response to numerous customers’
complaints and bad reviews, the owners posted on their Facebook page: “I am not stupid all of you are! You just do not know good food”. Nice! Ramsay was quoted as saying “The store-bought
ravioli smelled “weird”, a salmon burger was overcooked, and a fig pizza was
too sweet and arrived on raw dough”.
The article points out that using sites such as Twitter, Foursquare,
Yelp, Facebook, and Instagram customers can put out immediate comments that are often more vitriolic than a legitimate critic. And usually they are not how good things are.. “In the past, people just sent bad soup back. Well, now they are getting on social media
and telling their friends and friends of friends how bad the soup was and why
they should find other places to get soup in the future…” They close by quoting the results of a 2011
Harvard study that said Yelp’s 40 million reviews disproportionately affect
small businesses. A one star increase in
their rating system can result in a revenue jump of nearly 10 percent, but
chains with huge marketing budgets were unaffected. Bottom line was that whether they like or
not, restaurateurs have to pay attention to customers, swallow hard and say
“thank you for your feedback” instead of yelling at them. Interesting article.
Obits..
A picture caught my eye in the obituary section (as you age,
you seem to watch the weather channel more and read the obituary pages). It showed a lady with wheels of cheese behind
her. The story followed Dr. Patricia
Elliott’s career as a country doctor, and then as a cheese maker. She lived on a farm near Rapidan,
Virginia. In her late 60’s (!) the doctor
acquired a Border collie and to give the bundle of energy something to do, she
got ten sheep, who of course started producing milk. She got interested in cheese making,
travelled all over the world to learn the art, and of course Wisconsin (duhh). Eventually Everona Dairy gained top honors at
many cheese contests such as 10th at the 2010 World Cheese
Championships, (we could have a little
sidebar about how you could have a cheese “championship”, but so be it) and their cheeses have been served at the White House. Anyway
it was a pleasure to read about a productive life (she passed at 84). What was also interesting was that she was
born in Lansing Michigan (1929), got zoology degrees at Michigan State, and her
medical degree at University of Michigan.
Readers may remember that the Bottom Feeder was also born in Lansing
Michigan, and attended MSU. So she pre
dated me by only a few years. Nice to
read this stuff.. Have to keep my eye out for the cheese...
Yet Another “Coming Soon”
Recently there has been much activity in the old CiCi’s
Pizza place next to the gym in San Souci. Yesterday I noticed a trailer outside
with the famous “Now Hiring” sign draped on it.
Except I couldn’t see anything announcing what they were hiring
for. MFO just called on her way to
Leonardtown saying there is now a banner proclaiming Mission BBQ. At least it’s not Mexican Food! It does not appear to be a chain, but there
are a couple of them in Glen Burnie and Nottingham. Look to be kind of “Texas” based.. another product you apparently cannot have
enough of..
To Do
Nothing really overwhelming this weekend for the Flutters,
we are staying in for the most part. I
tend to cocoon when the temperatures get over ninety. If you wish you could go to the Beer Bands
and Barbeque thing at Summerseat. From
what I hear, the emphasis will be on the latter two. And speaking of beer, three weeks from
tomorrow there will be our Historic St. Mary’s City third annual BeerFest. There you will be able to taste more than 25
craft beers brewed locally and in Maryland..Ruddy Duck, DuClaw, and others.. more to come.
oh yeah
DFD
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