sundance

Miller Lite meets tapioca, and creates opportunity for African farmers

Ever finished a bowl of tapioca and thought “Boy, if they ever brewed that into a beer, I’d buy a six pack!” Monster brewer SABMiller (which makes Miller Lite, other Miller products, and a ton of other beers) now has you covered: their new Impala lager is made with 70% cassava, tapioca’s main ingredient. But, no, it’s not a gimmick to rope in pudding lovers; rather, Impala represents an effort by the conglomerate “to create a portfolio of high-quality, affordable beers made using locally-sourced raw materials for lower income consumers in Africa.”

Confessions of a serial restaurant dater

“Do you need help?” My date asked.

I shook my head. “No, I’m good – I do it all the time,” I answered brightly. I leaned in closer, examining my target carefully as I adjusted the white balance on my camera. Holding my cell phone light in one hand and my camera in the other, I zoomed in on the shrimp-topped squid ink pasta noodles and carefully snapped my first shot. And then a second. And then another from a different angle. Finally, after several more shots, I set my camera down next to my wine glass and looked up with a smile.

The 30 Project: Three decades to a more sustainable food system

Remember 1980? The Miracle on Ice? Voodoo economics? “Funkytown” at the top of the charts? Seems like eons ago, doesn’t it? You may not remember (or even realize) that 1980 was also a seminal year (or, the round-about time for big changes) in our food system. Consolidation of agriculture? That’s when we started to see it. High-fructose corn syrup? It started showing up in, well, everything right about then. A decrease in US agricultural aid to other countries? That, too.

So, is any of this important to us now, or just a little food history trivia?

A Farr-out Thanksgiving

I wasn’t sure I was going to do it until that moment. I’d been thinking about it all day, the idea simmering in the back of my head, braising like a chicken thigh. I stared down the sweet potato puree drenched with brown sugar and pecans, eyed the corn casserole composed of 21 crushed saltine crackers and creamed canned corn, and took in the big ceramic bowl of mashed potatoes waiting to be microwaved. My throat constricted as I imagined loading my plate with these various forms of vegetable mush. I imagined the weight of that plate as I carried it to the table and, soon after, the weight of the sludge languishing on my tongue. I shuddered, nearly gagging at the mental picture I’d drawn.

It was too much. All of it…

Breakfast for dinner: Fucking Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Pancakes

Watch “Love Lust: Breakfast,” Monday, November 14th at 8pm.

Breakfast for dinner is the greatest invention ever (not sliced bread – that horrible idiom only cheapens the magnificence of breakfast for dinner). Some of you, growing fatter by the minute in your sagging, decrepit office chairs as you search online for ways to lose weight and not exercise, may be saying, “Zach, surely you can’t suggest that breakfast for dinner is a greater invention than, say, penicillin?” But I’m saying that. Penicillin smells bad, and if you snort it you just get a headache.

Breakfast for dinner is not only a classy alternative to dinner for dinner, it’s also a wonderful allegory for America. Breakfast for dinner tells the story of choice, freedom, independence, and excessive caloric intake. I’ve never been to a Tea Party event, but after booing gay soldiers, not having any plan for the economy beyond…

Love Lust & Holiday Feasts: Something to be truly thankful for

Love Lust & Holiday Feasts airs Monday, November 21 at 8pm, only on Sundance Channel.

If you don’t have Thanksgiving on the brain (or the stomach) then stop reading this and get yourself to a hospital, because you might not have a pulse. For everyone else, here’s something to be truly thankful for: These last few days before we all sit down to dinner at 2pm on Thursday are the only thing separating us from the onslaught of Christmas ads, movies and music we’re going to be bombarded with nonstop from early Friday morning until the end of December. In fact, the Christmas pushers have probably already started encroaching on your last few days of pre-holiday madness. Last night I heard the first irritating strains of “Jingle Bells” as I shopped for groceries. So I guess it really is that time of year again. Sigh. It’s beginning – true – but it hasn’t completely yet begun. And until it does, until the countdown that begins December first is on, I’m going to relish all the good things about the holidays, namely the food.

The more I ask people what they’re making for Thanksgiving, the more I’m hearing about interesting renditions on classic recipes. A ham with a curry and brown sugar glaze for an Indian twist, or brussels sprouts tossed with roasted sesame oil and a splash of soy for some Asian flair…