CYOA: Food Museums

Hello, everyone!

     With Shelby's post we sort of talked a little bit about food becoming a spectacle and in some restaurants it is not being associated with a form of entertainment.  I want to take it even farther and consider how food can become a part of a country’s history.  It was news to me that there are actually food museums commemorating different regional foods and also some food brands.  This is something happening here in the United States and around the world, from a brand new pizza museum in Philadelphia to one memorializing Ramen in Japan (not the 20 cent Ramen we eat here in the U.S.).  Some museums house memorabilia commemorating the foods, and others actually have dining areas so you can go, learn about the food and then eat it.

     While reading, I'd like you to think about the implications of food museums, how does this change food from being a necessity to a spectacle?  Would you ever go (or have you ever been) to a food museum or do you think its weird?  Do you think it’s important to have places like this so that we can keep in touch with the history of some of our most loved foods?  What does this say about the possible correlation between the view on food of the United States and the rest of the world?  Can’t wait to discuss.  Hope you enjoy!

Pizza Museum, Philadelphia
8 Bizarre Food Museums

America's Eating Disorder

            Reading the final section of Omnivore’s Dilemma brought a lot of clarity to the ideas and worries that have been spinning around in my head since I began.  The idea that American food culture is so much about fads and trends is scary to think about, but also totally accurate.  It is the biggest irony that we are so concerned about having “healthy” diets and yet have a large number of people with eating disorders and yet we also have such an issue with obesity. 

            The impressionability of the American people seems to be deeply rooted in our capitalist culture, as Michael Pollan briefly mentions.  We are constantly bombarded with the marketing strategies of hundreds of companies attempting to differentiate their product.  In turn this leads to a trust in the media that can end up being very dangerous when it comes to a constantly changing diet.  As a business major and, I thought, a supporter of capitalism, I have a hard time figuring out what to say about things like this.  While I do realize that this type of free market and unlimited media provides a lot of American jobs, maybe the implications aren’t as positive as I would like to think.  However, even though I am questioning, I’m glad I am finally thinking about these things.

            After reading this book I cannot help but notice that my habits are a little bit embarrassingly main stream, I buy into the fads a lot.  I am all about buying soy milk, organic cereals and even organic frozen dinners.  I really didn’t begin this until I was able to purchase my own food; this isn’t the kind of food that my parents buy.  I picked up this behavior from friends and also my best friend’s family which was very much my own.  Now, I continue to eat these foods mostly because I like them, but also because I think they are better for me, though after reading the second section I’m not so sure.  This is power of corporate and word of mouth marketing, making us see things from only one side, all pros.

I think there are positive ways to use the power of trends to make positive and healthy changes in our country and we should explore these.  This is the kind of thing that has fueled the “green” movement that, while it might not be fully understood by the people who participate, is a good way to follow a fad.  I can only hope that at some point, though I’m not sure how, we will be able to return to a food system that makes more economic and social sense than political.

Rustica Review final

          Rustica introduces itself as the home of “Rustic European Cuisine,” citing influences from France, Italy and Spain.  Open only for dinner and located in the Kalamazoo Mall, the small restaurant certainly displays a simple decor.  The dining area is set up to exude a sense of intimacy, with low lighting, beige walls, and candles on every table.  The walls are hung with several paintings of European country homes and dark metal light fixtures.  Quiet, instrumental music plays in the background, making it necessary to talk in hushed voices so as not to be over heard by the next couple sitting only about a foot away. 

The atmosphere is somewhat disrupted by the close quarters in which the tables are squeezed.  It could be due to the large kitchen that takes up about a third of the dining area.  It is quite entertaining to watch the food being prepared but slightly awkward to be so close to the high-paced action of the kitchen in an otherwise calm and intimate setting.  A small bar hidden away in the back corner of the restaurant also confuses the atmosphere to a certain degree.

Rustica’s fourteen tables are normally packed, and as they do not take reservations it would be wise to participate in their call-ahead policy, or arrive promptly at 5 pm when they open.  The wait staff is helpful and knowledgeable, especially with regards to the wine list that covers the entire reverse of the menu.  The clientele consists primarily of middle-aged, upper-middle class regulars, who the owner sits with in turn, chatting about business and family.  It seems that these are guests of honor and everyone else is simply a guest.  The wait staff also seemed to follow this mantra, why waste time at a table when there will be better tips at another?

The menu at Rustica is quite limited, with a number of appetizers but only four pasta dishes and eight main courses.  Appetizers range from about $6 for a bowl of chicken soup to $13 for the Prince Edward Island Mussels.  The mussels are served in a large crockery dish and are quite numerous, plenty to share with the entire table.  Each mussel was soft and the sauce that came with it was not enough to overpower the unique taste of the product itself.  Several of them even smelled like the ocean, a sign of their freshness. 

Main courses at Rustica range from $17, for one of the four vegetarian pasta dishes, to $22 for the Seared Salmon and Diver Scallop.  The salmon dish came on a large bed of cannellini beans and a tomato-based sauce.  The salmon was well executed, with a bit of a crunch on the outside and softness on the inside, but the overall flavor was not satisfying.  The whole thing tasted of salt, with no punch of sweetness in the salmon to provide a counter balance.  The amount of beans made it seem more like a chili than a fish dish, and it became difficult to stomach all of the starch towards the end.  The scallop that the salmon was paired with had the texture of a big gummy candy and had very little taste, as though it was unseasoned.

One of their well-known dishes, the Grilled Duck Breast, was slightly better.  The duck itself was a bit stringy but full of flavorful fat and a pleasing dark color.  The duck was paired with a helping of barley with pomegranate seeds intermingled.  The pomegranates provided both a pleasing visual contrast and also a burst of freshness to the otherwise heavy meal. 

To finish off the meal, there is an array dessert for under $10 and several coffee drinks.  The red velvet cake was presented in a very charming manner, a round cake with little dots of chocolate and vanilla icing on top.  Unfortunately, the icing turned out to be very high in oil content and the cake very low in moisture.  The only saving grace of this dessert were the warm preserved plums that, when eaten with a bite of cake, added the moisture necessary to swallow it down.  A better choice would be the Tiramisu, which had several towering layers of espresso soaked ladyfingers and Kahlua mousse.  The alcohol flavor definitely made a strong appearance, but this could perhaps be positive for those diners under 21. 

The best dessert, and possibly the best dish on the entire menu, is the Callebaut Chocolate Brownie.  Served with a scoop of the “gelato of the day,” the brownie is served warm and presumably only half cooked.  It is more of a half-pudding, half-brownie, with a sweet chocolate ganache seeping into the fresh brownie.  This is a must have dish at Rustica and not one likely to be shared once it’s tasted. 

Overall, this is not a place college students will want to go to on a regular basis, a meal for two can easily run about $80, including tip.  The high quality fresh ingredients and unique meal options make this a location to visit.  With a college budget in mind, this could be a great place to schmooze your parents or take someone out on a nice date. 

Bringing Tomatoes to Subway

         The local food movement has been an important issue to me my whole life, but more so in recent years when I came to realize the meaning.  Living in a small town in the “middle of nowhere,” as some people say, there is large opportunity to participate in this type of food system.  My dad is all about sustainability and environmentalism; he keeps our house at about 60 degrees every night and currently installed twenty solar panels to our roof (the largest private array in the county).  His passion for the local food movement is no different, and I get constant grief about my Lean Cuisine habit.  Aside from the annoyance of his “processed food” grumblings, I know that my dad is right about the importance and benefits of eating the goods of and supporting local farmers.

            A lot of people own gardens within the city limits of Oberlin, and my family is no exception.  We grow beans, rhubarb, tomatoes, peppers, squash and sometimes pumpkins.  We also have apple and pear trees, strawberry plants and blackberry bushes.  One of my favorite embarrassing stories about my dad, of which there are many, is the time when he picked one of our homegrown tomatoes, sliced it, and took it to Subway with him.  There, he got a sandwich and then put the tomatoes on it.  As weird and hilarious as this story is, it also makes me think.  It isn’t hard to substitute just a little bit of locally grown food into your diet, but maybe not in such an awkward way.

            I have also grown accustomed to local food through my neighbor, whose father owns a beef farm just a mile outside of town.  When I read in Omnivore’s Dilemma that there were only a little over 3,000 farmer’s markets in America, I was shocked.  My neighbor’s dad sells his beef at the town’s farmer’s market that crops up every Saturday morning next to city hall.  Also sold at the farmer’s market are a variety of vegetables that are organically grown at a small, privately owned farm that my best friend’s mom works for.  A few summers ago, my parents entered into one of the CSA (community supported agriculture) partnerships and we received a basket of fresh vegetables and a dozen eggs from the farm every week.  It was a delicious decision.

            A few miles outside of town, a larger family owned farm produces excellent sweet corn, tomatoes, apples (so Ohio), pumpkins, and other produce.  There are dozens more like it surrounding Oberlin and the other small towns around it. 

Looking from this point of view I guess I see what people mean when they say that Oberlin College is in the middle of a giant cornfield, but I’m happy it is.  It is so much easier to be a part of the local food movement when you have an emotional and social connection with the farmers.  I guess for me, it is hard to see why someone wouldn’t participate in the local, sustainable food market, especially after reading how happy Joel’s animals are.  However, I now see that I am biased.  I was lucky enough to be raised in a town where these movements are accepted and encouraged, a place where it’s okay to bring your own tomato to Subway.

My Own Dilemma

            Reading the first section of Omnivore’s Dilemma has made me utterly miserable.  All of my food tastes like corn, and my mind is spinning with questions about my personal food morals.  I annoyed my roommate by continuously beginning worried conversations about whether or not capitalism was good or evil all weekend.  I still haven’t figured out a satisfactory answer, but it means that the author is doing his job.

            At first, I thought Michael Pollan was crazy.  Who goes hunting in a forest for their food, and writes 120 pages about corn?  However, as I went on reading I have come to respect his ability as a writer and a researcher.  It would be easy just to present facts about the corn industry and let them sink in, trying to convince the reader just how sad the truth really is.  However, Pollan combines these figures into a story that makes them both more believable and entertaining.  I love that he has this sarcastic sense of humor that is very much in tune with my own.  The way in which he unashamedly calls America the “Republic of Fat” is absolutely wonderful.  It is about time that someone was completely honest with us about the weight problems that face our country, because apparently the statistics are not enough.

            One of the things that most troubled me was that, although I knew America was fat, I hadn’t considered that three in five people are overweight and one in five is obese.  Yet, we are one of the most weight-concerned countries in the world.  Our bookstores are filled with diet plans and self-help books on losing weight.  Is there really that much lack of self-control? 

Before I became a hypocrite, I decided to measure my own BMI and discovered that I would need to gain another 40 lbs. in order to be considered overweight. My family has always followed the “everything in moderation” mantra and all of us are within healthy weights.  We eat cake, cookies, and ice cream, but not entire pails or plates.  I guess the point is that it is possible to survive on the corn diet if you supplement it with a mixture of “real” food as well. 

The second thing that troubled me was the recurring theme of capitalism promoting the unhealthy corn market.  Corn defies the basic laws of macro and microeconomics, which is disconcerting to me as a business major. Wouldn’t it be better for us to allow the free market to find its way back equilibrium?  Is there any way that we can escape from our enslavement to corn?  If we allow the same values to guide us I don’t know if we ever will.  However, it seems like we are trying to drive on a flat tire and eventually the whole mechanism is going to crash.

I’m not sure whether I will soon be able to reconcile my feelings about capitalism and food policy, but I’m glad that this book has made me think.  Of course, everything now tastes a little less flavorful and real, good thing I really like corn.   

Rustica pictures (as promised!)

The intense wine list!

Grilled Duck Breast

Bouillabaisse

Seared Salmon and Diver Scallop

Red Velvet Cake

Callebaut Chocolate Brownie (yum!)

Tiramisu

Rustica review

            Rustica introduces itself as home to “Rustic European Cuisine,” citing influences from France, Italy and Spain.  Open only for dinner and located in the Kalamazoo Mall, the small restaurant certainly displays décor relevant to these areas.  The dining area is set up to exude a sense of intimacy, with low lighting, beige walls, and candles on every table.  Quiet, instrumental music plays in the background, making it necessary to talk in hushed voices so as not to be over heard by the next couple sitting only about a foot away. 

The atmosphere is somewhat disrupted by the close quarters in which the tables are squeezed.  It could be due to the large kitchen area that takes up about half of the square-feet.  While it is enticing to be able to watch your food being prepared, it is slightly awkward to be stared at while you eat by the chefs who don’t have anything better to do.  A random bar in the back further confuses the intimate setting.

Generally, Rustica’s fourteen tables are packed, and as they do not take reservations it would be wise to participate in their call-ahead policy, or arrive promptly at 5 pm when they open.  The wait staff is helpful and knowledgeable, especially with regards to the wine list that covers the entire reverse the menu.  The clientele consists primarily of middle-aged, upper-middle class regulars, who the owner sat with in turn, chatting about business and family.  It seemed that these were guests of honor and everyone else were simply guests.  The wait staff also seemed to follow this mantra, why waste time at a table when you know you will get better tips at another?

The menu at Rustica is quite limited, with a number of appetizers but only four pasta dishes and eight main courses.  Appetizers range from about $6, for a bowl of chicken soup, to $13 for the Prince Edward Island Mussels.  The mussels were served in a large crockery dish and are numerous enough to make the price tag seem reasonable.  Each mussel was soft and the sauce that came with it was not enough to overpower the unique taste of the product itself.  Several of them even smelled like the ocean, a sign of their freshness. 

Main courses at Rustica range from $17, for one of the four vegetarian pasta dishes, to $22 for the Seared Salmon and Diver Scallop.  The salmon dish came on a large bed of cannellini beans and a tomato-based sauce.  The salmon was well executed, with a bit of a crunch on the outside and softness on the inside, but the overall flavor was not satisfying.  The whole thing tasted like salt, with no punch of sweetness in the salmon to counter balance.  The amount of beans provided made it seem more like a chili than a fish dish, and it became difficult to stomach all of the starch towards the end.  The scallop that the salmon was paired with had the texture of a big gummy candy and had very little taste, as though it was unseasoned.

One of their well-known dishes, the Grilled Duck Breast, was slightly better.  The duck itself was a bit stringy but full of flavorful fat.  The duck was paired with a helping of barley with pomegranate seeds intermingled.  The pomegranates provided both a pleasing visual contrast and also a burst of freshness to the otherwise heavy meal. 

In terms of price, the desserts are a little more manageable, the majority of them running about $6.  The red velvet cake was presented in a very charming manner, round with little dots of chocolate and vanilla icing on top.  Unfortunately, the icing turned out to be very high in oil content and the cake very low in moisture.  The only saving grace of this dessert were the warm preserved plums that, when eaten with a bite of cake, added the moisture necessary to swallow it down.  A better choice would be the Tiramisu, which had several towering layers of espresso soaked ladyfingers and Kahlua mousse.  The alcohol flavor definitely made a strong appearance, but this could perhaps be positive for those diners under 21. 

The best dessert, and possibly the best dish on the whole menu, is the Callebaut Chocolate Brownie.  Served with a scoop of the “gelato of the day,” the brownie is served warm and presumably only half cooked.  It is more of a half-pudding, half-brownie, with a sweet chocolate ganache seeping into the fresh brownie.  This is a must have dish at Rustica and not one likely to be shared once it’s tasted. 

Overall, this is not a place for college students who are looking for a good deal.  A meal for two can easily run about $80, including tip, and the quality is not enough to justify the expense.  Perhaps paired with one of Rustica’s 180 wine choices, the entrees would take on a new meaning and the experience would have greater depth, but that time is not now.  Kalamazoo College students would be better off going to Olive Garden, filling up on breadsticks and salad and talking loudly for under $20.

*There are pictures to come, I promise!*