Picky Eaters vs. Food Allergies

By Iron Chef Leftovers

There is an interesting article in the Chicago Tribune about picky eaters/food allergies and restaurants. It is worth the read just for the chef comments on the situation, but there are a couple of interesting points in the article beyond that:

According to Bethany Thayer, a registered dietitian and director of the Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention at Henry Ford Health System in Detroit, frequent exposure to unfamiliar foods by parents often determines if a child stays finicky into adulthood.

Thayer says the more a child watches people they love and trust eat new and different foods, the more likely they are to have an adventurous palate as an adult.

More and more, she says, she sees parents inadvertently supporting a child’s pickiness by serving the same foods over and over again.

I was lucky – dinner in my house growing up rarely came from a box, bag or can and was almost always cooked by my parents. We ate a ton of different things (including fruits and vegetables) and their attitude was, “if you don’t want to eat it, fine, but you are not getting anything else.” I see my brother doing the opposite and letting his kids be picky and not telling them what they are eating. BFD – they are eating rabbit or deer; it is no different than chicken or cow. We ate this growing up and knew what it was. Hell, I usually went to the butcher with my dad to pick out the carcass we were going to buy. Heart, tail, cheek and neck are all just muscles, no different than the steak you are eating, so why the hell do people have a hang-up about them but no problem ordering a rib eye?

Fortunately Thayer offers a solution:

For those adult picky eaters, Thayer suggests changing the texture of the offending food through various cooking or preparation methods, adding a sauce or combining it with a favorite food. She also says, “Don’t give up trying.”

Trust me – if you don’t try something, you really can’t say you don’t like it. You need to go into it with an open mind though. I have seen what happens when people have a pre-conceived notion that the unfamiliar means they won’t like it. Ask them why they don’t like it and they struggle for an answer. If you don’t like something, you should be able to articulate that right away, like I did with durian. If you are not familiar with durian, here is some info.

The first time I tried it, it smelled like the feet of a rotting cadaver. Fine, I have smelled worse (I did grow up in New Jersey after all), but that wasn’t going to stop me. I have had things that smelled awful but were delicious (there are several cheeses that come to mind), so I tasted it. I took one small bite and I had a look of horror on my face. My friend asked me what was wrong. I responded that durian tasted like “a cross between an unwashed foot and rotting corpse (not that I would know what either of those tasted like) if you left it out in the sun; other than that it was fine.” It took me 2 seconds to give an accurate description of why I didn’t like it. I didn’t have to think about it. I’ve got lots of stories like those, but I won’t bore you. I will leave you with this – try something new once a month and do it with an open mind. If you don’t like it, come up with real reasons why you don’t like it. If you aren’t sure if you like it, try it again. Either way, you will be a better person for it.

EarthBox Update — May 12, 2013

by A.J. Coltrane

Previous post here.

Cucumbers and zucchini, May 5.

May 12.

May 5 — Left box: Parsley, scallions, and romaine. (and bolting spinach). Right box: Brussels sprouts, bok choi, and lemon cucumbers.

And May 12. The spinach was already bolting (above), but I didn’t realize it. In the photo below it’s gone. It’s time for a bok choi stir-fry.

The romaine pictured below is now two entree salads for tomorrow’s lunch. It all came from the romaine lettuce in the back corner of the photo above.

Don’t worry, there’s a spreadsheet keeping track of the total harvest.

Recommended Game — Citadels

by A.J. Coltrane

Title: Citadels (now sold with the Dark City expansion)

Game Type: Card – hand management/ Bluffing/ City Building Game

Number of Players: 2 – 7 (8 with Dark City)

Complexity of Rules: Low – Medium

Time to Play: 20-60 minutes.

The Concept: From Boardgamegeek:

“In Citadels, players take on new roles each round to represent characters they hire in order to help them acquire gold and erect buildings. The game ends at the close of a round in which a player erects her eighth building. Players then tally their points, and the player with the highest score wins…

At the start of each round, the player who was king the previous round discards one of the eight character cards at random, chooses one, then passes the cards to the next player, etc. until each player has secretly chosen a character…

The characters then carry out their actions in numerical order: the assassin eliminating another character for the round, the thief stealing all gold from another character, the wizard swapping building cards with another player, the warlord optionally destroys a building in play, and so on.”

—
This is the “cheat sheet” that we use when we play — it contains a brief description of each role’s unique abilities. Using a 10-point font it just fits inside the box.

#1 Assassin: Announce a character that you wish to murder. The murdered character misses his entire turn. The murdered player must remain silent and not reveal his character card when called.

#2 Thief: Announce a character from whom you wish to steal. When that card is revealed, take his gold. You may not target the Assassin or the character that the assassin murdered.

#3 Magician: Either exchange your cards with another player or discard any number of cards and draw an equal number of cards.

#4 King: Receive one gold for each of your Noble (Yellow) districts. When the King is called you immediately receive the crown. Exception: If the King is murdered you receive the crown at the end of the round as his “heir”.

#5 Bishop: Receive one gold for each of your Religious (Blue) districts. Your districts may not be destroyed by the Warlord.

#6 Merchant: Receive one gold for each of your Trade (Green) districts. After your action, you receive one extra gold.

#7 Architect: After your action, draw two district cards and keep both. You may build up to three districts during your turn.

#8 Warlord: Receive one gold for each of your Military (Red) districts. At the end of your turn, you may pay to destroy one district that is not your own. The cost to do so is one gold less than the cost of building the district. The Warlord may not destroy the 8^th (“winning”) district in a city.

Why I Like It: It’s an easy game to teach and learn, but it has enough strategy (and bluffing) to keep it interesting — the Architect and Merchant are often “best plays” every turn, but that also makes them obvious targets to be assassinated and lose their turn. The game can be shortened by playing to fewer than eight districts. There isn’t much downtime, which I value in any game I play of anything.

To (maybe) quote Sid Meyer: “A game is a series of interesting decisions.” Citadels qualifies on that front. We’ve had a lot of fun with it.

—

Link to a Sid Meyer speech at the Game Developers Conference. There’s some fascinating stuff.

The Mariners and the Merry Month of May

By Blaidd Drwg

This may be the worst scheduling job in the history of sports. Take a look at the Mariners schedule for the past few weeks:

April 29th – May 1st – at home
….fine so far

May 2nd – off day
May 3rd – May 5th – at Toronto
…ok an East Coast swing

May 6th – off day
May 7th – May 8th – at Pittsburgh
…the off day after a 3 game set is odd, and I hate the 2 game series, but what can you do.

May 9th – off day
…oh look, another off day. 3 off days in one week. Remember this for later.

May 10th – May 12th – at home
…really, a 5 game East Coast road trip? WTF.

May 13th – off day
…another $#@#^@ off day!!!????

May 14th – May 16th – at New York
…another $%&#^@$*(&@#@ East Coast trip?????? How drunk were the schedule makers when they did this.

May 17th – May 20th – at Cleveland
…yeay, a 4 game set against the Indians, with 3 day games.

May 21st – May 22nd – at Los Angeles
…really? No off day, fly to LA and play 2 games.

May 23rd – off day
…you put the $@%&&@$ off day in the wrong spot you $@&$@#^ idiots.

May 24th – May 28th – back home.

The M’s enter a stretch where they play on 20 consecutive days starting on May 24th. Granted 15 of those are home games, but still, it feels like the schedule makers were on something when they came up with this. I give up. I know that there are a lot of moving parts in schedule making, but that is just crazy.

Beer of the Week: Epic Brewing Galloway Porter

By Iron Chef Leftovers

Did you know that they brew beer in Salt Lake City? The better question is did you know they brew really good beer in Salt Lake City? Epic Brewing is the one responsible for that. Not only do they brew some pretty good conventional style beers, they brew some pretty good experimental ones also. In a recent beer tasting, I sampled the Galloway Porter from Epic. The beer was poured from a 22oz. bottle, but I am not sure what the price was.

From the Epic website:

A dark, full-bodied and drinkable beer, Galloway Porter highlights rich roasted chocolate and coffee-like malt flavors and aromas. It has a very mild hop addition so that the chocolate malt flavor can shine through, 5.4% alcohol by volume.

The beer is almost jet black with a slight sliver of brown near the top. Lots of toffee and chocolate on the nose; it reminds me more of a stout than a porter. The beer has tons of chocolate and roast malt hitting the palate and remaining for a significant amount of time, with a lingering roasted, almost slightly burnt finale. Toffee also joins the roast in the finish as the beer warms, giving it an almost confection like ending. Dark and heavy, with all of the complexity of a good stout, this beer is not for the faint of heart.

This is definitely a beer that you don’t want to give to someone who does not like dark beers, but for those who do, the complexity and balance make it worth running out to try.

Epic’s Galloway Porter saunters in at 4 bovines out of 5.

EarthBox Update — May 6, 2013

by A.J. Coltrane

Link to previous post.

The spinach responded to the wonderful 80+ degree early-May weather by bolting immediately. Four plants. Zero harvest. The lettuces, cilantro, parsley, and dill are now cowering under the deck, away from the heat of the mid-day sun.

It’s now time to prioritize harvesting whatever hasn’t already mutinied.

The first salad. Only the romaine was home-grown, but it’s still good to have something to show for the work.

After the break, blossoms from around the back yard, most of which came with the house.

Continue reading “EarthBox Update — May 6, 2013” →

Keats He is Not…

By Iron Chef Leftovers

…but he speaks the truth…

EarthBox Update – May 5, 2013

by A.J. Coltrane

Link to previous Update, April 30.

The Seattle Tilth May Edible Plant Sale was yesterday (and today). That brought a lot of new inhabitants for the earthboxes.

To step back for a moment, I laid out potential locations for the EarthBoxes on Friday. The two boxes in the foreground have casters, the left box has leftover stuff from two years ago and needs to be emptied and restocked. It’s 18 spots, of which 12 would get used:

And the 12 winners. On the far right are the basil, tomotoes, tomatillos, lemongrass, epazote and probably something else I’m not thinking of right now. They still need to come inside at night. The empty hole on the left is the future home of the basil:

Closeup 1. The boxes with casters. These include most of the lettuces, the flat leaf parsley, dill ,and “calypso” cilantro — all the stuff that will bolt when it gets too hot. Eventually these will be moved somewhere a little shadier:

Closeup 2. On the left are the Marketmore 76 cucumbers. On the right are a cocozelle zucchini and a golden bush scallop (patty-pan) zucchini:

Closeup 3. Left box is parsley, scallions (or chives, going to have to check the label), spinach, and romaine. Most of this box will get replanted when it gets hot. The right box is brussels sprouts, bok choi, and an “extra” lemon cucumber from the plant sale:

Or was the Rabbit Correct?

By Iron Chef Leftovers

I am referring to this post.

I don’t normally order a pilsner, let alone when it is cold and raining in April. A recent trip to Elysian Fields caused me to make an exception to this rule when I saw that they had a new beer on tap – Discount Double Czech Imperial Pilsner. I will be honest, I ordered the beer solely because I loved the name – it does happen.

I tried to take a picture of the description from the beer menu, but I did not get a great exposure, so I know this beer has Czech Saaz and Mosaic hops and Pilsner, Munich and one other malt, clocking in at a whopping 7% ABV and 42 IBU. This is not your father’s pilsner. The beer is only available on tap.

The beer is golden straw in color with a creamy white head. It has a very subtle nose – light grain and malt with hints of hops interspersed. You are deceived into thinking that this big beer is anything but by the way it smells and its subtle nature. The first sip is lightly bitter with notes of yeast and malt giving way to a surprising grapefruit finish – very long and slightly sweet but not overpowering, with hints of orange peel. As the beer warms, the citrus flavors become more subtle and the beer becomes slightly more balanced between the malt and hops. This beer definitely has more hops than you would normally expect from a pilsner, but it felt just slightly out of balance between the hops and the grain if you are looking for a more traditional pilsner. If you like hops however, this beer is definitely right up your alley. There is enough balance to hide the 7% ABV on this beer and it has a hybrid pilsner/pale flavor profile – there is enough pilsner character in the beer to recognize the pilsner hops and malt, but enough hop complexity to know that this is something more than a pilsner.

I liked this beer – it was a nice change of pace from what I have recently been drinking and probably would order one without hesitation on a nice warm sunny day. The rabbit is incorrect, I would be happy if you ordered me this pilsner.

Discount Double Czech strolls in like a good neighbor with a respectable 3 Aaron Rodgers out of 5.

In case you don’t remember “Discount Double Check” because you were not paying attention/don’t care/hiding under a rock/abducted by aliens, here you go: