shopping

 An old lady about half my size almost pushed me into a bucket of fish today. I had just wanted in to Isaacson and Stein and I was kind of disoriented. I felt like I hadn't walked into a fish shop, but a school of fish already organized in a way I could hardly comprehend. Immigrants from around the world, Chicago old-timers with heavy accents, cooks from restaurants, and a few random confused white people circling bins of every possible fish I could imagine. Mainly whole fish, of course. I didn't ask questions, I just tried to figure out what to do and how I could obtain some fish without getting fish goo all over my clothes and shoes. One thing I've learned from traveling is just try your best to do what everyone else is doing. I saw a woman reach for a bin labeled "gloves" and grabbing plastic bags. I did the same. 

I escaped with a bad of whole head-on smelt for less than $2.00. The French Market nearby had smelt too, in a less chaotic environment, but missing the heads and for twice the price. Sorry, but as I've written before, I think the head is an essential part of the experience. You should look your tiny tiny fish in the eye before devouring it. 

But it's a typical case of culinary creep for me. Because you can't have smelt without homemade aioli. And I can't seem to make that without destroying my tiny kitchen with some mixture of oil and duck fat. I'm almost tempted to go to DMK burger bar and try to buy their aioli because the chef says it's made with only olive oil, a rarity in the world of Hellman's. 

I'll definitely be back at Issacson and Stein because I just got a new cookbook I'm kind of excited about. I've already written about Ferran Adria's influence on fine dining, but The Family Meal focuses on the kind of relatively-simple meals shared by the staff "family" at elBulli. Not "fancy" like the food served to the restauarant's visitors, but still elegant and tasty.

Being Spanish, there are lots of great fish recipes here that I'm looking forward to try. Most of them feature the whole fish, though he also has a good recipe for fish stocks and several recipes that feature it. Interestingly enough, a lot of the recipes are already gluten-free, even the baked goods. Spain already had a history of using ground almonds in cakes. But a lot of the desserts of just simple fruits and custards.

The only depressing thing about buying fish in Chicago is that so few options are local. Which is stupid since Chicago happens to be right on Lake Michigan. My father gets some amazing fish from the lake, including salmon, but I'm more concerned about the pollution than I am from ocean fish. The last advisory I read said to remove as much fat and organs as possible, AKA all the good stuff, from fish caught from the lake. Mercury and PCB pollution sucks. Imagine- I would be able to walk just a few blocks and get fish for almost nothing if we hadn't messed the ecosystem up so much. 

I think The Family Meal is exactly what American fine-dining chef Thomas Keller's Ad Hoc at Home should have been. Family Meal has better pictures, showing each recipe step-by-step, which is important for those of us who don't have much experience with things like cooking with whole fish (though this is quite funny since so many of my family is fisherman, but I was too picky when I lived around them). Also, Keller's cookbook contained lots of canola oil, which I'm not a fan of and is also somewhat mystifying considering that olive oil is now produced in Keller's home state of California. In Spain, almost everything is cooked with olive oil (and I was surprised to see that studies there show you can fry in it without damaging it, which is probably a testament to the protective effect of antioxidants) as a "neutral" oil, but in the United States, the flavor of olive oil is not considered neutral.

Anyway, after I bought the smelts, I headed to Publican Quality Meats, where the owner, Paul Kahan, was holding court. He looked the part of a butcher, because he is one, but he's also a chef and owner of several of Chicago's best restaurants. It's awesome to walk into a shop where everyone who works there seems to like the same things you do. Like offal. And authentic fish sauce. It's worth the price. After chatting with one of the butchers about blood, I walked out with my Red Boat fish sauce, heart, blood sausage, and Pok Pok drinking vinegar. 

I've also been shopping at The Butcher and The Larder. Their liver pate is truly excellent and they will cut some great marrow bones for you to go. So far there isn't much in NYC that I miss, except the Asian food in Queens and the raw offal/meat at Takashi.

And my meatshare buying club. I've not started it up because I haven't had the time, my own family's farm isn't producing that much, and I was super lucky to have Spring Lake Farm to work with there. Seems like the market for lamb and goat, my typical starting point for shares, is much tighter here. So far all the farm's I've contacted have been sold out, but I guess I need to be more systematic and do a day of calling. 

I will say that if you are in Chicago and you want to try lamb, it's easy enough to find Mint Creek Farm's stuff at farmer's markets and specialty shops. A lot of people tell me that they don't like lamb. And I understand, because a lot of it does have that acquired "gamey" taste going on that Americans don't really like. The New Zealand lamb at Whole Foods is a perfect example of that gamieness. But Mint Creek farm doesn't have any gamey taste and it's delicious, if a bit expensive. I recommend the Italian Sausages.

 Maybe this doesn't work for everyone's vices, but if you are like me and your vices are $5 chocolate bars, then it works great. Every month I've been looking at my budget on mint.com. I used to just have a lump sum for "Groceries" but I've found it's better for my budget and my health to break that down. My categories are

- Cowpooling/meatshare

- Other good things like condiments, vegetables, and fruits

- Treats

Once you start doing that, you realize that every time you buy a chocolate bar it takes away from better things you could be buying and eating. It's also been helpful to microbudget for Meatshare because while the sum for purchase often is huge, if I use Mint to spread it out it doesn't look so bad. I guess this is less applicable if you actually make a decent amount of money, but just seeing how much money goes to junk can be enlightening. For example, in October I spent $60 on chocolate! That was the first month I tracked it and since then I have curbed my spending on that. Of course this also doesn't account for chocolate received as gifts :) 

Overall, my food expenses are quite high as percentage of spending. But since the rest of my health budget is so low, I don't mind. I also had cut other budgets like for clothing because food is so much more important. 

How do you budget for food? Do you find it a useful tool for eating healthy?

Frugal it's not, but for busy New York City professionals time is money and Freshdirect does save time. Luckily, their product line has also improved recently and there are several wild local seafood options and even a limited selection of grass-fed local meat. I usually only use Freshdirect if I'm working on an important project with a tight deadline. Despite being kind of expensive, it's a lot cheaper and healthier than the alternative when I'm busy...which is eating takeout.

So what's good at Freshdirect?

100% grassfed local ground beef is an obvious choice. It can be quickly made into patties and seared. If you eat dairy there are several good grassfed cheeses available, as well as grassfed milk and cream. Unfortunately, the local chicken and eggs are fed a "vegetarian diet" which is a euphemism for grains.

But the seafood options are great. My favorite is the local sea bass, flounder, and cod filets. You can also order wild salmon and crabs. I hate to say it, but when you are busy and don't have access to real cooking equipment, a fish cooked in a microwave can be a good option. When a microwave was my only option, I would put the seasoned fish in a microwave-safe glass dish with some chopped vegetable and microwave until cooked.

The Thai coconuts I've ordered from there have been the best quality that I've found in the city. I often get purple spoiled ones at the coop, but the Fresh Direct coconuts are well...fresh. They also sell coconut oil now.

They have local vegetables and fruits too, which are usually pretty good. If you are truly pressed for time, they also sell vegetables that are pre-prepped.

Overall the OMGIDONTHAVETIMEFORANYTHING Fresh Direct diet is: grassfed beef patties and local fish cooked in coconut oil with some easy-cook vegetables like asparagus. Now if they only sold lard...

While I think it's too bad that John Mackey is rather foolish about food, I think the Weston A. Price foundation is overreacting a little bit here. I got an email from them, in all caps, that said WHOLE FOOD PROMOTES MILITANT VEGETARIAN AGENDA. I think it's a shame, but the diet he is promoting is almost certainly better than the diet our own government is promoting. And as an aggie, I appreciate how Whole Foods has invested in improving slaughter infrastructure, which the US is really lacking. 

Overall, the diet Whole Foods is promoting doesn't make people completely obese like the USDA recommended diet. Some people are quite happy on this diet. Adult humans are robust enough that they can survive, like this guy who eats only candy or several long-term fruitarians I know. I don't think John Mackey looks so great, but there are plenty of people on vegan/low-fat/otherwise evolutionary inappropriate who are good looking. This vegan body builder is a good example, though I would note that like many vital looking vegans he is a high-fat gluten-free vegan. And while a diet can change how fat or thin you are, you are still stuck with your basic facial and bone structure. 

Paleo is about more that just being not obese and feeling OK though....it's a whole other level of nutrition and many people like me who try vegan often move towards paleo once they notice they aren't at the level of vitality they want to be. The real danger is when people continue to adhere to a diet that causes problems because the community says they are "detox symptoms" or they are rigid because the reason they are vegan is ethical.

I'd also worry about the Whole Foods diet for children, childbearing, or elderly stages of life when fat-soluble vitamins are critical. The real test of a diet is probably how adherents age and how healthy their children are. 

But I digress. It's too bad Whole Foods has staked their flag in the low-fat vegan camp, but hopefully it will get people thinking about why they shop there. Whole Foods is convenient for many living in NYC, but the price of their meat is a little frightening. I personally shop at the Park Slope Co-op and I'm a member of a CSA. I'm also in the process of organizing a meat share for the Eating Paleo in NYC meetup. This one is sold out, but hopefully there will be more in the future. It's a great way to both save money and put your dollars directly in the pockets of farmers rather than stores promoting veganism.