Fritz Maytag and Anchor Distilling

Fritz Maytag is a craftsman after my heart. In 1965 he revived San Fransisco’s Anchor Brewing by saving them from bankruptcy. He knew very little about brewing, but in the course of ten years expanded the classic “steam beer” out to a lineup of five, now classic, beers.

A few months ago I had a chance to taste Maytag’s “Genevieve” – an old recipe gin, or genever, brewed according to pre-war Dutch recipes. The craftsmanship, experimentation, simplicity of scale and historical accuracy of Anchor Distilling are totally inspirational to me.

Check out this video of a very professorial Fritz explaining the process and history behind their rye whiskey.

Also check out this years 2009 Christmas beer. Another beautiful label by Jim Stitt and another unique recipe.

“It’s a handmade beer, so the label should be hand-drawn.”

Latke v. Hamantash

Tonight is burrito night the annual Latke vs. Hamantash Debate at the University of Chicago.

It’s free. At 7:30 p.m. in Mandel Hall, 1137 E. 57th St.

It’s a tradition where the hyper-educated make fun of Jews and Jewish food — but it’s ok cause some of them are Jews too. The set up is: which is better, the placki kartoflane latke, or the kolache hamantash? Professors then commence using their expertise to win the point and some laughs. It’s been going on for a long time and is enormously popular, if anticlimactic — the potato pancake-like latke always wins.

But it’s humorous, in an extremely high brow way.

Psychologists tell us that our states of soul make the world, not the world our states of soul; that, in Plato’s formula, latkes and hamantashen are good because we are Jewish, not that we are Jewish because they are good. You see the relativistic consequences of all that. If you think that economists attribute nasty motives to human beings, wait ’til you find out what psychologists believe.

In truth they all follow their false messiah, Freud, who was secretly in the pay of, yes, the Manischewitz people, who out of economic motives wanted to spread the appeal of their products beyond the Jews and turned to the psychologist for help. So Freud, for popularity’s sake, interpreted the latke, the male, Maccabean food, as in its circular forms symbolic of the male goal—I need not elaborate on this lascivious suggestion; and the hamantash—the joyous token of Esther’s success, the female triumph—he explained by means of its angularity, its pointiness.

Propriety forbids my going further.

— Professor in Social Thought Allan D. Bloom, “Restoring the Jewish Canon” (1981).

The most successful are the profs who jab at academia with the vigor of someone who carries serious doubts about the usefulness of pure scholarship. Austan Goolsbee, the now staff director and chief economist of the President’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board, was hilarious two years ago.

Recipes excerpted from “The Great Latke-Hamantash Debate” follow.

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Salsafication

I miss the glory days of chain restaurants when you could get hepatitis from a restaurant that’s name translated to Titties.

In 2004, Chi-Chi’s “salsafied” about 660 of its customers with hepatitis A and shortly thereafter shut down for good. And though Outback Steakhouse bought up a bunch of its buildings, it didn’t buy the recipes. So the recipe for the Chilotta — or in Italian, those who struggle, the downtrodden — is lost forever.

And if the rumors were true and Mexican pasta with blue-corn fettucine, Mexican pizza, or Mexican stir fry had made it out of development and onto the menu, who knows, maybe salsafication would have taken hold.

At Chi-Chi’s, Salsafication is more than a word. It’s an attitude. It’s a spirit. It’s a way of life. Salsafication to us is ensuring that our guests are greeted with a smile and that they leave with one. During the Salsafication experience, our guests will enjoy fast friendly service and delicious food and drink served in a fun, festive atmosphere. It’s what we’re all about.

In the end, the salsafication killed four in Pennsylvania from complications from hepatitis A and the federal government closed the doors on anyone else getting salsafied. It took five years, but the U.S. Trademark Office never agreed that the term was sufficiently “fanciful.”

I’m left with image of Volkswagen Beetles in giant sombreros spreading the word about the Declaration of Salsafication.

The Declaration of Salsification

When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary to solemnly declare the right to be free and salsified: absolved from all connection to the shackles of the bored, the ordinary and bland.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all Chi-Chi’s are created to salsify our lives through good food, festive drink and the pursuit of some serious fun.

Further, it is the right of the people to abolish routine. As a free and salsified people, you have the full power to come together, to eat, to drink, to laugh, to be loud, to relax, to goof off, to pause.

On support of this declaration we pledge to you these articles of salsification for as long as the sun does rise. For … “Life always needs a little salsa.”

Apartment Status

We’ve been making sweet potato gnochi. Almost every day this week.

Beer and bread are becoming rewarding endeavors.

Glögg

Come up with a drink recipe yet? Here’s one really complicated recipe for Glögg to get the ball rolling.

Holiday Dränk Contest

Do you like drinking? How about WINNING???

If you answered yes to both of those questions, we have THE contest for you. The first annual Foodcrypt holiday drink contest, to be exact!

The holiday season is nigh. Please share your glög, toddy, ‘nog and other “seasonal” drinks with us. Send them to submissions [at] foodcrypt.com by December 1.

Pending you don’t spec a 1926 Macallan in your hot toddy, we’ll do our best to try each drink and duly document the ‘contest’.

We have not thought of an award, but you’re welcome to come drink with us when we do this thing.

GOOD LUCK.

Eat in Rockford, Illinois

Selections from Rockford, Ill., Yelp reviews.

The Illinois Machine Shed

Good breakfast. Portions very good sized.
REVISED:  portions still big, but quality inconsistent.  First time was great, second not so much.  Had my second time been my first, there wouldn’t have been a second.

Uncle Nick’s

the best gyros i have ever had in my life.  i once saw a prostitute out in a police car here.  it’s the best.

Smoke House

The owners are a family of very cool black people who make me picture giant family bbq reunions like on American Gangster when Denzel Washington went to go visit his family. They were super-friendly and told us their life story about how there were about 10 siblings and a bunch of their kids worked in the restaurant too.
Now I’m getting hungry. Game over.

Continue reading…

For Your Health

Probably my favorite food blog, Hot Knives, recently posted this excellent alternative to drowning in the syrup next time you get sick. Looks tasty, too.

KniQuil from Hot Knivez on Vimeo.

Always With Honor Shop Update

Our dear friends at Always With Honor have made these really cool food pins. There’s an AM set and a PM set.
Also check out the bear t-shirt; portion of sales will be donated to Idaho Black Bear Rehab which takes in, rehabilitates and re-releases orphaned cubs into the wild.

John Cage: Some of His Recipes

Some recipes by John Cage.

WALNUT CHICKEN

Marinate chicken breasts cut into 1-inch cubes in 2 T tamari, 1 T sherry, 1/2 t ground ginger or 1/2-inch piece of ginger overnight. Heat 2 T sesame oil (total = 1/4 C) over high flame and stir fry 2 sliced scallions, garlic clove cut into two pieces and 1 C of coarsely chopped walnuts. After three or four minutes remove garlic and transfer scallions and walnuts into a bowl. Add remaining oil and chicken pieces and marinade. Stir fry about five minutes, until chicken is tender and coated with soy mixture. Combine with walnuts and onions. Serve with rice.

GRUEL BREAD

(These ideas come from the Tassajara Book)
Go through refrigerator, collecting food you no longer wish to eat: rice, beans, cooked vegetables or raw (parsley that’s turned yellow, etc.). Include any liquids you may have saved (such as water from parboiling string beans). Put through Cuisinart and measure. Add more than an equal amount of whole wheat flour. Do not work with more than 5-7 cups of gruel at the same time. Mix and then knead (adding dry dill weed if wished) for about 45 minutes or an hour until it is consistent (“all of a piece”). Then put in oiled bread pans. I use corn oil. After putting it in, take it out and put it back upside down. (This oils the entire loaf.) Take a wild knife and make a deep indentation down the middle of the loaf. Cover with damp cloth and leave in warm place overnight. In the morning back at 375 degrees for one hour and 15-20 minutes.

BEANS

Soak beans overnight after having washed them. In the morning change the water and add Kombu (seaweed). Also, if you wish, rosemary or cumin. Watch them so that they don’t cook too long, just until tender. Then pour off most of the liquid, saving it, and replace it with tamari (or Braggs). But taste first: you may prefer it without tamari or with very little. Taste to see if it’s too salty. If it is, add more bean liquid. Then, if you have the juice from a roasted chicken, put several teaspoons of this with the beans. Black turtle beans or small white beans can be cooked without soaking overnight. But large kidney beans or pinto beans, etc., are best soaked. (So are the others.)
Another way to cook beans, which has become my favorite way, is with bay leaves, thyme, garlic, salt, and pepper. You can cook it with some kombu from the beginning. I know use the “shocking method.” See Aveline Kushi’s book.

And now I’ve changed again. A Guatemalan idea: Bury an entire plant of garlic in the beans without bothering to take the paper off. Cook for at least 3 hours.

What is Tamari?