CT Green Scene

Cheap-skate (part II of II)

by James Simpkins

I did it. I shopped at the Discount Food Outlet in Canton, CT and it was everything I thought it would be…actually, if I’m honest, it was a tiny bit better.  I actually came away with a new appreciation for what the DFO concept is, and what it is not.

What it’s not.

DFO is not a grocery store in the traditional sense of the word. That is, their business model is not structured on having everything you need when you want it, or even if you want it at all. Availability of merchandise that DFO can buy is primarily dictated by the “true grocery store” supply and demand. If wholesale demand is low, the supply is sold off to DFO rather than be a loss of the suppliers. If the demand is high, DFO can’t buy at a price that works for their retail model. What this translates to for you and me is that just because you want unsalted butter for less than $5/lb. doesn’t mean they will have it. Call first if you’re on a mission for something specific. Oh, before I forget, DFO’s phone number is the same as the Canton IGA’s was: (860) 693-2000.

What it is.

Sometimes, it’s a bargain. Mostly, it’s just cheap.

I find myself wanting to say something about this place—this Discount Food Outlet; something about how it has a place in the food world. But, after looking at this screen for an hour, I realized that I’m kidding myself. I'm not on board...the Discount Food Outlet suffers from too many examples of negligence of the concerns of contemporary American food culture.

Pop Goes The Green Bubbly

by Eileen Weber

‘Tis the season to be jolly with a glass of bubbly to celebrate the holidays. So why not make that a glass of organic bubbly?

Not surprisingly, there are a number of European wineries that farm sustainably and only grow organic grapes. You can get some fine selections of Prosecco and Asti Spumante from Italy and champagne from France and parts of Spain as well as some sections of England. But let’s just stick to our home turf, shall we?

California has produced some outstanding wines, sparkling wines among them. And for some vineyards, a sparkling wine made from organic grapes is that much better.

Two California vineyards stand out: Domaine Carneros and Korbel. In September, Korbel announced the launch of its latest Brut Champagne made with organic grapes.

“As more consumers are looking for foods and beverages produced organically, we felt there was an opportunity for Korbel to offer a unique product where there currently isn’t something widely available,” said Gary Heck, owner and president of Korbel Champagne Cellars, in a company press release dated September 15th. “We found that organic practices yield fruit with new and exciting flavors for us to work with. It has been an exciting new development for Korbel.”

Discount Food Outlet: For the cheap-skate in all of us (part I of II)

by James Simpkins

I have lived in Canton now for about three years and in general, this town has a lot to offer the thirty-something new-comer: Proximity to a quasi-international airport, great natural beauty (unless you’re on route 44), and the ability to be in New York or Boston in about two hours. Yes, two of the three things I like most about living here have to do with leaving. But that doesn’t mean it’s a bad place.

However, it has always felt as if Canton had something missing; like life will turn hip one day and it will all be better. I have finally located the problem as I see problem has two parts: 1) There is a lack of gourmet anything. 2) The most central retail location for the town is the biggest eyesore in it.

More important than either one of these two problems on their own is the convergence of the two into one black hole of boring; a perfect storm of the pedestrian that sucks everything edible, 50-70% off, and near expiration into one central location: Discount Food Outlet, in Canton. Yes, in the plaza where the McDonald’s is. (sigh)

Organic Wines Revisited

by James Simpkins and Eileen Weber

Earlier this year, this site posted two articles about organic wine. Let’s just say the review was less than thrilling. We tried a variety of wines, more than a few from Bonterra Vineyards. This time, we decided to compare what the U.S. had to offer with what was available from across the Pond.

The authors got together with their respective spouses along with a few of Eileen’s neighbors who had provided their fabulous input on the last go around. (Some of you may recall neighbor Sue Potter proclaiming one to be a “coalminer’s idea of a white wine.” That’s classic stuff, right there.)

Three American and three European wines, two whites and four reds, graced the table. All of them hovered in the $20 range. The American wines were Californian, the European wines from France. À la Bottle Shock, this was certainly not the first time the French had to stand up to California.

If They're Always Sad, Who Cares When Authors Speak of Food?

by James Simpkins

I realize that the very title of my article this week may be an open invitation for the snarky reader who may want to take the cheap shot for the clear path to the ironic it leaves open. You know what? Go ahead. After the past couple days, I think food writers may deserve it every now and then…especially novelists. 

This past Monday at the Instituto de Cervantes in New York City Four European writers: Christoph Peters (Germany), Agnès Desarthe (France), Jesús Ruiz Mantilla (Spain) and Clara Sereni (Italy) came together for an evening of readings and discussion called "Eat Your Words: When Authors Speak of Food", moderated by highly acclaimed American writer Mark Kurlansky, a guy who has written a lot of books I won’t bother to name aside from Salt. Being someone who writes about food (and who lives a scant two hours from NYC) I thought I would go. Besides the lovely wine and passed hors d’oeuvres that were served in the garden and the Spanish government’s gorgeous real estate on 49^th and 3^rd, the event did next to nothing to inspire me, let alone inspire me to buy anyone’s book. It turns out these ‘paperback writers’ are based more on Proust than Lear, and that, in the opinion of this writer, is not a good thing.

Starbucks Wins! (Crap.)

by James Simpkins

I moved to Connecticut’s Farmington River Valley about two and a half years ago and am still looking for a good cup of coffee. Check that—an amazing cup of coffee. Spare me the Dunkin’ Donuts angle; I’m tired, and their coffee couldn’t hold a candle to what I’m talking about. Here, go to this website so you’ll have a frame of reference. Honestly, Equator Coffee is the best cup o’ joe I’ve ever had, which is backed up by them winning Roaster of the Year for 2009 in Roast Magazine to add to their growing list of accolades. To top it off, they all drive hybrids or bio-diesel, recycle everything, compost their waste, just purchased their own farm in Panama where they are sustainably growing coffee with Panamanians at the helm, AND they are owned by women.

How’s that Dunkin’ Donuts tastin’ about now?

This upper echelon of coffee is what's missing in my locale. And while it may sound over the top for some of you, once you try it, you will at least appreciate the gross difference between what Equator and DD are selling--it's like finding out your butter is margarine.

No, You Do Not Like Pumpkin

by James Simpkins

Autumn is always a bit of a bugger for me. On one hand, the trees change color and “sweater weather” arrives—two of my favorite things in the world. On the other hand, everything pumpkin returns to the forefront of the gastronomic world and I have to put up with the ubiquity of “delicious pumpkin ravioli with sage brown butter” in every restaurant that I go to. People also remind me how insane they are by lining up for Pumpkin Spice lattés at Starbucks as if they are tickets to the Promised Land. The colossal success for Starbucks, whose debut in 2004 actually improved their bottom line towards the end of the fiscal year, is now annually anticipated event for their faithful and an annual cash cow for the company.

Not to be outdone (though they already had been), in 2007 Dunkin Donuts unveiled four new menu items to ring in the fall with, and three of them had pumpkin in the title: The Pumpkin Muffin, Pumpkin Donut, Pumpkin Spice Latte and Vanilla Spice Coffee. Their executive chef said this about it:

"Americans feel such a strong emotional and sensory connection to the foods of fall, and our new fall-flavored menu items will help customers celebrate the season and the warm feelings it evokes." -Dunkin' Brands' Executive Chef Stan Frankenthaler

Honestly, I was nauseous after reading it. When chefs talk like that about haute cuisine that has taken many hours to prepare, I can tolerate it. I still don’t love it, but I get it—the artist is talking about their art. When a “chef” is talking about MAKING DONUTS AND MUFFINS that is where I draw the line. I digress…

The point is I don’t think most people like pumpkin at all.

Vegetarian What? (part II of at last II)

by James Simpkins

Last week I’m sure that there were more than a couple raised eyebrows or sighs of exasperation at my writing on the fake meat thing—and that’s fine. I actually didn’t realize I was so fired up about it until I read it again later. It’s funny how that works.

My personal truth about the whole fake meat topic is really “live and let live.” I don’t actually keep myself up at night worrying whether or not people should eat tofu shaped like a turkey. Honestly, though, I think it’s a little strange. Then again, if you saw the wildly un-hip sweatpants that I like to wear around the house, I should think to be understood at least as bizarre.

One of the comments on my previous article was by Julie Braun, of particular note as she mentioned something I don’t hear very often by folks trying to justify their weirdness. She pointed out the taste that she liked. Now here is the pickle that most of us are in: What costs the most in trying to eat (pick one) “green”, “organic”, “healthy”, “natural”, etc.—aside from perhaps succumbing to whim while shopping at Whole Foods Market—is loss of flavor. And meat tastes better than almost anything. Properly cooked meat is, gastronomically speaking, a much more pleasurable experience than most tofu, seitan (pronounced ‘say-tahn’) or tempeh I’ve ever had and you’ll waste your time trying to convince me otherwise. But, I regularly eat all of the meat substitutes listed above. I’ll get to why, later.

Vegetarian What? (Part I of at least II)

by James Simpkins

I had a bowl of “vegetarian chili” this past week and thought twice about the nomenclature—something about it wasn’t right. When I looked in the dictionary for the word “chili” I discovered why dictionaries are sometimes not the best place to go for a definition—it said “a sauce made of meat and beans”. As definitions go, this one borders on the ridiculous.

First of all, chili is NOT a sauce except maybe for coney dogs; and it is NOT a soup. It is chili—a dish in and of itself, not just to be lumped in with vichyssoise or queso dip. Some folks from certain parts of the country will tell you that real chili doesn’t even have beans in it. Take that, Merriam-Webster!

What really stokes my ire, though, is when dishes that traditionally have meat are made vegetarian but look and taste like meat. Isn’t this some sort of ethics violation? Or could we make it one? And carnivores, you (for once) are off the hook. Why, oh why, if you don’t eat meat do you want the flavor of meat? Over the next two weeks I’m going to be writing about it even more—today’s article is just an introduction to the topic. First, I have a confession to make.

Peanut Butter: The Best Food In The Whole World

by James Simpkins

Growing up, peanut butter was my favorite food right out of the jar. It still is. Honestly, there has never been another food that ever came close. Usually when I share this bit of information someone will inevitably ask me the two-for-one question: “What brand?...Crunchy or creamy”? The first part is not that simple. The latter I will answer later on.   First-off, I am about peanut butter as I am in many other pursuits - moody. Naturally, then, I have more than one brand of peanut butter that I eat according to whim, but I have a clear favorite—Smucker’s Natural (it's made in Ohio a couple hours from where I grew up). Here I almost always get one of two responses that sound something like: 1) “Great!, I love natural peanut butter, too!”, or, 2) “Oh…really? I can’t stand stirring it--and there is SO much oil in it.” Rarely is there a fair-weather friend to stirring; and to be fair, it is kind of a pain. But, it’s clearly worth it to some of us. You don’t stir, you buy something else. However, like most things, there are exceptions to the rule of my favorite peanut butter. **By the way, don’t try and stir natural peanut butter in the jar. This never works and it may be the biggest foible to the path of the natural peanut butter neophyte. I can’t say I don’t understand: If I had tried 100 times to stir natural peanut butter in the jar, I wouldn’t eat it anymore either. What a mess. So what do you do? You need to know The PB Secret. That’s coming up.