It’s Deja Woo All Over Again

Some time back, I signed up for Vani Hari aka The Food Babe’s email list just so I could get a laugh from her daily “thoughts.” At some point, she put out a call to members of the “Food Babe Army” who have blogs to request advance copies of her new book “The Food Babe Way (subtitled” Break Free from the Hidden Toxins in Your Food and Lose Weight, Look Years Younger, and Get Healthy in Just 21 Days!”).” Why? She wanted a bunch of positive reviews to ready to drop on launch day (today).

The part in quotes is an actual quote from the book. Thanks
to Cheri Kent for the meme.

So I requested one. I mean, I have a blog; it hasn’t been updated in two years plus, but, still, I have one. Amazingly and amusingly, though I sent the request with my real name (banned on Facebook from posting on her page and banned from the Food Babe Army group after making zero posts), the blog identifies me as a chemist (we have seen how she deals with science), and my last damned post was about chemophobia, weeks later I got a shipping notice from Hachette Book Group. Holy crap, I was going to be one of the first to get my hands on this steaming pile of woo!

So after just randomly flipping through to LOL at random quotes and such (see meme at right), I started to actually read some of it. The forward, by the quack Dr. Mark Hyman, was ridiculously glowing, comparing Hari to Rachel Carson and MLK(!). The first chapter is just Hari letting us know how awesome she is, how she used to be fat and sick, and how she accomplished soooo much vis a vis Subway, Chick Fil A, etc. She goes on to make some rather outlandish claims about bisphenol A, MSG, and other "chemicals" that may be found in food (the book does have a bibliography, chock full of dubious "articles" and discredited sources).

But as the book rolls on, I notice that everything is starting to sound, well, familiar. Most of the book is literally just better edited versions of her blog posts. Here's an excerpt from the book (in an inset titled "Food Babe Alert: What is Trader Joe's Hiding?"):

For the record, I love shopping at Trader Joe's. It's fun and the employees are super nice and helpful. However, Trader Joe's won't share any information with me, and they are cloaked in secrecy regarding their business practices. Take the company's position on GMOs, for example: "Our approach to Genetically Modified Organisms is simple: we do not allow GMO ingredients in our private label products (anything with Trader Joe's, Trader Jose's, Trader Ming's, etc. on the label)."

Given this policy we should trust them, right? Not necessarily. During my research....

And from a foodbabe.com post titled, familiarly, "What is Trader Joe's Hiding?":

Now, don’t get me wrong, I LOVE shopping at Trader Joe’s. It’s fun, the employees are super nice and helpful and it’s a pleasant experience. However, they won’t share any information with us and are completely cloaked in secrecy regarding their business practices, which makes my head want to explode. 

Trader Joe’s Official GMO Statement:
Our approach to Genetically Modified Organisms is simple: we do not allow GMO ingredients in our private label products (anything with Trader Joe’s, Trader Jose’s, Trader Ming’s, etc. on the label).

Given what Trader Joe’s tells us about their GMO policy, we should trust them, right? Or are we trusting them just like many consumers trusted Naked Juice, Tostitos, Kashi, Gold Fish, Barbara’s Bakery, etc. who are or have been faced with lawsuits finding suspected GMOs in their so-called “natural” products?

During my research...

So bottom line, not much original material to be had here. I'm sure the recipes are nothing new to army members who subscribe to her eighteen-dollar-a-month eating guide. I'd save the fifteen bucks it's currently going for on Amazon and just read the blog if you really need to induce a headache.

Bringing the Blog Back, Yo

So I promised a certain "babe" that I would blog about her book if she sent me a free copy. Guess who actually did so. More to come.

8-Methyl-N-vanillyl-trans-6-nonenamide: My Favorite Toxic Chemical

Note: This is my contribution to the "Our Favorite Toxic Chemicals" blog carnival organized over at Sciencegeist.

Amanita muscaria: Naturally
delicious deadly
photo: Pato Novoa

For some time, and not for the first time, there has been a war of words going on between chemists and environmentalists/organic food proponents/hippies/etc.  Both "sides" are right in a lot of ways, but--as is so much the case in public discourse, both are blinded by prejudice.  Chemists: you're not helping by implying that anyone who has concerns about something an idiot (often in so many words--see comments on any number of blog posts regarding Nick Kristoff's recent chemophobia).  Non-chemists: you're not helping either when you use "chemical" as a dirty word.

With the exception, apparently, of some Dow-manufactured products, everything is a chemical, from the water you drink to the air you breathe.  "Organic" (itself another bone of contention between chemists and non-chemists) or natural also doesn't mean better.  Certainly no one would argue that ricin, one of the most toxic compounds known to man, is "better" than aspartame simply because it's a natural product.

Get it? Close to my heart.  Ha!

As a chemist, food geek, and gardener, I had to choose a food toxin for my favorite.  I settled on something near and dear to my heart: capsaicin.  Capsaicin is the most abundant active alkaloid found in chili peppers--it's the stuff that gives them the "heat."  I love the stuff so much I had it inked on my ribs (chemists--I kept the "C"s and "H"s because I thought it looked better, stylistically).

Chemical toxicity is generally expressed as LD50; simply, the dose of a substance required to kill 50% of a test population.  In rats, the LD50 for water is around 90 milliliters per kilogram of body weight; capsaicin's LD50 is 47.2 milligrams per kilogram.  To make that a little more clear, the average American male weight approximately 87 kilograms, and naga jolokia chili contains at most about 62000 mg/kg capsaicin.  This means one would need to eat about 70 grams of naga to die, or about 60 dried pods (very approximate numbers used here).  That is, if you could keep them down; as far as I can tell, there has never been a documented death from capsaicin overdose, from chilis or otherwise.  Note: The two gallons of water you might be tempted to drink after attempting such a feat would likely kill you if the peppers didn't.

So why do I love capsaicin so?  For one, capsaicin stimulates the release of adrenaline.  For starters, unlike many folks, I love the intense feeling of heat, racing heart, and mild dizziness--eating entire chilis is like taking a drug (not that I would know anything about that).  So very many of my favorite foods would be bland, boring dishes without this wonderful molecule.  Imagine Mexican or Thai food without the heat.  Boring.

In ur garden, synthesizin' ur cancer medz
photo by woodleywonderworks

Capsaicin and chili peppers are extremely useful outside of the kitchen, as well.  I've personally used a topical application for nerve pain, and it is often used for all sorts of back, muscle, joint and arthritis pain.  Ointments are also used as a treatment for psoriasis; it reduces itching and inflammation.  Recently, capsaicin is under investigation as a diabetes treatment and a cancer treatment--it induces apoptosis, a form of programmed cell death, in several cancer types.

There are myriad other uses; in the garden spray hot pepper wax to keep away pesky rodentsand deer (it won't keep birds away, they don't respond to it, and are the primary way pepper seeds are dispersed).  Police and military forces us capsaicin--from chili peppers--for less-lethal force applications (India announced they would be using naga jolokia for this purpose).

An old saw is that the dose makes the poison, and it is certainly the case with capsaicin and many other compounds.  The mainstream press would do well to keep this in mind--maybe hire some editors with a science background to at least check facts before rushing to press with another article screaming chemophobia.  The science press (and twittersphere, blogosphere, etc.) would do well to keep in mind that not everyone has as deep an understanding of chemistry as they do, and attempt to educate without mocking.  Remember: natural is not always good, and synthetic is not always better.

WBC Winners: San Diego Kicks Ass Again!

The 2012 World Beer Cup award winners were recently announced (full winner list here), and California, specifically San Diego, raked in some serious honors.  Local winners include Pizza Port with a gold in (surprise!) the Imperial IPA category (Green Flash took the bronze), and a new favorite of mine, Manzanita Brewing winning the gold in the "experimental" category.  In Northern California, a great new seasonal from Sierra Nevada, Ruthless Rye, took top honors for rye beer.

San Diego-based companies took home a total of six gold medals, five silvers, and eight bronzes--Pizza Port grabbed eight total medals!  Stay hoppy, San Diego.

Corzine's "Push" for a Senate Seat

Credit: www.callcentrehelper.com

In 2000, I was a college student in Melbourne, FL, working part time at a not-so-reputable market research company doing telephone surveys.  Truly thankless work.  That year, John Corzine would win a very close race against Bob Franks, spending $62 million of his own money in what would be the most expensive Senate campaign in history.

So how did he spend all of that money?  I certainly can't account for all of it, but I know that he sent a good chunk of it to Florida, funding political "poll" calls, most of which were anything but.  These "push polls" go something like this:  a few legitimate questions to make it feel like a true poll, followed by questions that are intended to push an idea about a candidate.  One of the most well-known examples of this occurred during the 2000 Republican Presidential primary, when Karl Rove used a push poll with the question "Would you be more likely or less likely to vote for John McCain for president if you knew he had fathered an illegitimate black child?"

"Good evening, I hope I
interrupted your dinner!"

Push polls are dirty politics, to be sure, but with the exception of New Hampshire, they're legal.  But Corzine didn't stop there.  In the few days before the election, we were given a new script.  No more poll questions, just a simple message reminding folks to get out and vote.  What could possibly be wrong with that?  Well, as it turns out, quite a bit.  What we did was target some very close districts with repeated calls.  The kicker?  We said that we were calling on behalf of Corzine's opponent, Franks.  After ten or fifteen of these calls in one evening, it was understandable that many voters were irate, and informed us they'd be voting for Corzine before slamming down the phone.  Only when we got someone to that point did take them off of our call list.


So did all of this chicanery work?  Well, Corzine won the race by just four percentage points (less than 5,000 votes), so you'd have to think so.  Am I proud to have been involved?  No, but I think we all know what it's like to be young and broke. Is anything about Corzine a reason to vote Republican? Not for anyone in the current field.

Kissing Goats and Finding God in Arizona

Yes, she gave me the tongue.

Spring is the perfect time to visit Arizona.  All of the desert flora is in full bloom, and the blistering heat of summer is still months ahead.  With this in mind, Mrs. Pegleg and I took a Friday off and headed to Tucson to visit a college roommate of mine who recently started a PhD program at U of A.  After a very windy Thursday night trip through the Coyote Mountains, we stopped off in Yuma, where we grabbed an excellent (and cheap!) diner breakfast at Brownie's before setting off on our second leg.

Just before Tucson, it's hard to miss an interesting-sounding roadside attraction: Rooster Cogburn's Ostrich Ranch.  We had seen it on some TV program or another, and planned to stop.  Decked out in our favorite tourist t-shirts, we were ready to, well, do some silly tourist stuff.  We ended up having a blast--who knew that feeding goats out of your mouth and getting pecked by gigantic African birds was so much fun?

On to Tucson, we met my friend at a campus pizza spot called Zachary's for some very tasty deep dish pizza.  The place is a dive, but the pizza is as good as the beer selection.  After a quick visit to my friend's lab, we headed to his place to blow off some exam steam with several games of Beirut (not Beer Pong).

Saturday started with a burger from Lindy's on 4th, which had been featured on Man v. Food.  Unfortunately, they were rather underwhelming.  The burger itself was not seasoned at all, and the toppings didn't make up for it.  After a couple more drinks downtown, we headed to Nimbus Brewing Company to taste some Arizona beer.  Nimbus did not disappoint, the Old Monkeyshine is a very nice, malty quaff.

This God is an awesome God

A bit more eating and drinking later, we found God.  Not the deity, the crazy owner of a an even crazier bar, The Meet Rack.  God--his legal name--sits at the bar under a huge amount of bras suspended from the ceiling, regaling all comers with dirty jokes.  Ask for the tour, and you will get to see the bondage room, hear tales of God's unsuccessful mayoral campaigns, and see the greatest thing of all.  The women's restroom has a condom machine.  Buy one, and an alarm rings in the bar, and all patrons will greet you with cries of, "Slut!"  It was truly a bizarre spot; on the patio a woman was in a conversation with two men about her husband's orgasms, the bartender was shirtless on the bar giving body shots.  Have enough to drink, and you might take God up on this offer: get a brand of his face and receive fifty cents off of all drinks for life.

Three-day weekends are all too fast, and Sunday meant the road back to San Diego.  Before hitting the road, we had to try the famous Sonoran hot dog.  How can you possibly go wrong with a bacon-wrapped hot dog?  You can't, and these were every bit as good as you can imaging.  Perfect fuel for a six plus hour drive.

We made great time back to California, so we managed two more brewery stops.  Alpine Beer Company is a tiny place in a tiny town, but they make excellent beer.  Their amazing Exponential Hoppiness has been selling on Ebay at a huge markup, prompting the owner to stop selling growlers and bottles.  I had the duet and enjoyed it immensely, crisp and not overly hopped, it would be a good summer brew.  Final stop was the city-subsidized El Cajon Brewing Company.  The beer was good, not great, but the facility is amazing.  Amazing what you can do with a boatload of redevelopment money.

Altogether a great trip.  Good weather, good friends, and good beer.  What more can you ask for?

Farmers' Market Goodness

Awesomely fractal romanesco

I always tell people to hit the farmers' market in the last half hour; they always look at me like I'm crazy.  "Won't all of the good stuff be gone?"  Well, I suppose it's possible you'll miss a gem or two, something someone just managed to harvest a few of.  But you get some great deals when you show up at the end--some of these folks won't have another market this week, and they'd rather give their produce to you than throw it out.

My finds this week included a free pile of amazing, juicy, tangelos, a basket of enormous, juicy strawberries, some slender, beautiful sweet carrots, and some heavily discounted romanesco, which the geek in me just loves. Sunday night, I put the carrots and tangelos together to come up with a very nice braised carrot recipe.

Tangelo-braised sweet carrots
1 bunch of fresh sweet carrots, washed and trimmed, but with some greens left
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
~1 tbsp fresh chopped oregano or rosemary
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp butter
1 cup beef broth
juice of one tangelo

Melt butter in oil over medium heat, toss in garlic and sautee with frequent stirring until just brown.  Add carrots and cook, stirring occasionally, until carrots begin to soften, about seven to ten minutes.  Add herbs, cook a minute or two longer, then add broth and juice.  Season with salt and pepper, and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat and simmer until nearly all of the water has evaporated, about ten more minutes.

Southern BBQ in North County

Update 3/20/12:  As of a few weeks ago, ApeHangers is no more.  Unfortunately, the city wouldn't permit their smoker.

After spending college in the South, I love me some Southern BBQ.  Slow smoked, tender, juicy, meaty goodness.  But where to find non-barbacoa BBQ in San Diego?  Some will no doubt say Phil's, but once you've had real Southern barbecue, Phil's not-so-tender pulled pork and ketchupy sauce does not cut it.  Well last year Randy and Charli Brown filled the void, opening ApeHangers Grill in Oceanside.  Randy mans the smoker and Charli--a South Carolina transplant-- serves up some wonderful Southern-style sides and desserts, from fried okra to banana puddin'.

From the smoker, they serve up Carolina pulled pork, Texas-style brisket, Memphis ribs, and (of course) California tri-tip, all finished with a sweet and spicy KC BBQ sauce, which comes in three varieties: sweet, regular, and spicy.  The spicy sauce is perfect--enough kick to make you gasp, but sweet enough to go down smooth.  From the fryer, delicious fired okra and zucchini, awesome hot wings (including the deadly 100 mph wings), and my favorite dish, the fried catfish po' boy with aioili and slaw, which I've had on about 90% of my visits.  Wash it down with a great selection of mostly local craft beer and wine-based cocktails.

The name and decor might lead you to think that ApeHangers is a biker bar.  Though plenty of motorcycles may be parked out front, it is not.  The staff and regulars are a friendly as can be, even a Raiders-Chargers game is a good time.  So next time you're looking for BBQ in North County, do yourself a favor.  Skip the looooong lines at Phil's and give ApeHangers a shot.

Friday Link Roundup

It's been an extremely busy couple of weeks, and I hope to get some posts done this weekend about Vincent's in Escondido, Ape Hanger Grill, and Sunshine Mountain Winery.  Until then, here's a few good links for a Friday:

• @Chemjobber has an amusing list of questions you don't want to hear on a job interview
• Via @LouDPhillips the Prosthetic Medic just had an above knee amputation
• The #SheriSangji case is getting more interesting every day, Jyllian Kemsley covers new developments at The Safety Zone
• Very cool chemistry/mixology spot in NYC
• Scientists telling their career stories on Twitter #IAmScience
• John Boehner totally looks like the Smoking Man (vote for my LOL!)
• And for San Diego-area folks, I'll be up all night making chili for a cookoff at Biggs Harley-Davidson in San Marcos tomorrow.  The event is free, fifteen chilis to try!

Hope everyone has a good Friday and weekend!

Vegas, Baby!

To celebrate Mrs. Pegleg's after-Christmas birthday a tad late, we flew to Vegas last weekend.  Up at three thirty, in Vegas before eight.  Since hotel check-in isn't until noon, what's there to do?  That's right--breakfast, bloody Mary, and mimosa!  We headed to one of the three (!) Vegas locations of Hash House a go go, having loved the original back in SD.  The SD location is tiny; this one was huge, so no thirty minute wait for breakfast.

As you can see, the bloody Mary was huge, and garnished with an assortment of pickled veggies, just the way I like them.  I had mine with gin, and the waitress thought I was off my rocker.  What can I say?  I like gin.  Not having quite the appetite for one of their enormous benedicts, I had a scramble that was very good.  Mrs. Pegleg had the french toast, which she thought was a bit disappointing.  The bread is about a foot thick, and it was like pulling teeth to get some syrup.

We still had a couple of hours to kill, so we headed over to the Flamingo, where we remembered there was a Sin City Brewery taproom.  They had a very-good-for-Vegas early day/late night deal--two 48oz pitchers for $15.  The seasonal brew on tap was a nice IPA, less hoppy than most SoCal brews these days, but quite nice.

After a nice long nap, we were ready to hit the town again.  Dinner reservations were at Table 10, one of Emeril's Vegas spots.  Since I rarely cook seafood (Mrs. Pegleg hates it), I nearly always eat fish when out.  The salt and pepper crusted farm-raised striped bass did not disappoint, and the few bites I stole from the wife's suckling pig porchetta were absolutely phenomenal.  A bit more bar-hopping--we do more people watching than gambling--and I was beat.

Up the next morning, headed straight to Kerry's Gourmet Burgers (KGB), Kerry Simon's burger and vodka bar in Harrah's.  The USSR-themed decor was great, and the waitresses were dressed like someone's fantasy of a Russian femme fatale.  The menu is small, but the food quite good.  I especially liked the build your own burger option.  The waffle fry nachos were very good; reminded me a bit of the carne asada fries that are popular in SD, but the pulled pork made them even better.  We headed over to Toby Kieth's I Love This Bar & Grill for some gigantic southern-inspired drinks--served in mason jars, naturally--and to watch some football.  The guitar-shaped bar was pretty cool, and the decor was fun.

Off to the airport, where we discover our flight is delayed an hour...two...almost three hours.  We sit around a bit, then check the board to see that our gate has been reassigned, in another terminal.  Arriving there, I ask the gate agent why there was no change announcement.  She told me that there was, and she had just personally walked over after making it at the original gate.  Also, she promised a fifty dollar voucher for all passengers.  I head out for a smoke.  I return to find that our gate has been changed again, back to the original terminal.  I've heard every other airline making gate change announcements, but not one from Spirit.  Now I'm mad, and spend twenty minutes waiting for someone to come to the desk. 

The gate agent comes up, I ask for her supervisor.  She is the supervisor, and cannot reach anyone over her.  Finally puts me on the phone with another supervisor, and within two minutes I'm talking to the boss that's unreachable.  I get on the plane just in time.  And that fifty dollar voucher?  Never appeared.  When I asked a flight attendant about it, she looked at me like I was crazy and snottily asked, "Why would you get a voucher?"

In the future, I'll spend the extra few bucks to fly Southwest.

Prosthetic "Parity" in California Has a Long Way to Go

In the fall of 2010, I was starting to have a lot of problems with my stump, skin irritation leading to scarring and an eventual minor surgery to remove scar tissue.  During this time, my employer changed insurance providers, and I was introduced to the OG of managed health care:  Kaiser Permanente.  My new docs referred me to the Kaiser prosthetic clinic, and I thought all was well.

Then, I got a phone call.  The amputee clinic scheduler couldn't schedule me.  Why?  I didn't have coverage for prosthetics.  "Now," I thought, "that can't be right.  I've been assured that California had prosthetic parity laws."  Well.... kinda.  California's Health and Safety Code Section 1367.18 reads, in part:

(a) Every health care service plan, except a specialized
health care service plan, that covers hospital, medical, or surgical
expenses on a group basis shall offer coverage for orthotic and
prosthetic devices and services under the terms and conditions that
may be agreed upon between the group subscriber and the plan. Every
plan shall communicate the availability of that coverage to all group
contractholders and to all prospective group contractholders with
whom they are negotiating. Any coverage for prosthetic devices shall
include original and replacement devices, as prescribed by a
physician and surgeon or doctor of podiatric medicine acting within
the scope of his or her license.

So they have to cover prostheses... if you opt for the coverage.  So obviously my first thought was that my boss opted to not buy the coverage, and I was quite upset.  Of course, this was not the case; the broker who sold the plan never offered it, in direct violation of the law.  Should be an easy fix, right?  Appeal the denial, point out the error, and they'll fix it.  Well, not quite.

After the denial, I sent a letter to KP's Member Case Resolution Center, quoted the relevant section, and demanded coverage.  After a second denial, I filed a complaint with the Department of Managed Health Care, which regulates HMOs in California.  It seems I was the first person to make a complaint with regard to this law, so what was supposed to be a two-week review process stretched to nearly three exhausting, infuriating months.

In the end, the DMHC saw things my way.  Kaiser upgraded me to a plan that included coverage for prothetics.  Of course, it took them another three or four months to approve the new socket I needed, but at least I finally won.

The lesson, of course, is that prosthetic parity laws are often not all  they're cracked up to be.  Limbs are not a luxury item, and we all--amputees and not--need to keep working to improve them.  And be prepared to fight for what you need from any insurer.  They're all evil.

Felony Charges in UCLA Lab Accident

The chemistry blogs today are abuzz with the news that University of California regents and a professor at UCLA are facing felony charges after the death of a lab assistant in a lab fire back in 2008.  The UC system and Professor Patrick Harran face three counts each of willfully violating occupational health and safety standards.

In the years I've spent in labs, both as an undergraduate and as a professional, safety has been treated in a fairly cavalier manner.   Sure, each lab course would give you a safety lecture, maybe show a video, give a little quiz.  But my biggest quibble is with the lack of training for and communication of specific hazards.  The lab assistant in this case, Sheri Sangji, had an undergraduate degree in chemistry; but was she ever trained in proper handling technique for pyrophoric materials?  Well...the prof says yes, but he never documented any such training (as required by Cal/OSHA and UCLA), so we may never know.  In addition, it is likely the lack of a lab coat that killed her.  Two months before the fire, a UCLA safety audit noted that safety glasses, lab coats, and gloves were not being worn in Harran's lab.  They were given a December 5th deadline to take corrective action.  Sherri Sangji's accident occurred December 29th.

So are the professor or the UC at fault?  This is a dicey question.  Glancing through the chemistry blogs and comments today, no one seems to think that professor Harran should serve time.  But most seem to feel that this may be the kick in the butt that academia needs to improve its laboratory safety culture.  But what about industry?  Most of what I've read on the tubes today seems to imply that industrial safety practices are far superior to those in academia, and that professionals are responsible for their own safety.

This is all fine and good when your lab is made up of PhD- and MS-level chemists.  The industry I work in, environmental analysis, is a different horse altogether.  The vast majority of analysts I've worked with had an undergraduate degree--in science.  For example, my BS is in Molecular Biology.  Yes, this is a great foundation for any laboratory work, but the amount of chemistry I didn't take means that I was not as well prepared as a chem grad might be.  In addition, a lot of work in our labs is performed by technicians, most of whom have never taken a chemistry course, and some of whom can barely speak or read English.  How can we just give these guys a stack of MSDS sheets and hope all goes well?

Some things I've seen that scared me:

- Analysts working with concentrated mercury salt solutions without gloves
- Folks walking around the lab with gloved hands, touching doorknobs, telephones, keyboards, etc.
- Technicians synthesizing diazomethane
- Organic extractions and metals digestions performed in the same hood; the supervisor didn't even know the dangers of nitroacetone

That's just a few I could remember off the top of my head.  So if these charges are going to clean up academic lab safety, what will it take to clean up industry?

Temecula Saturday

To mark our three-month anniversary, Mrs. Pegleg and I went out to Temecula, a local wine region, and one of the first places we went when dating.  We made a lunch reservation at Pinnacle Restaurant at Falkner Winery, and headed out to check out Chapin Family Winery beforehand.

We drove past the place at first, then realized it was the neighbor of another small winery we'd visited.  It's a tiny spot, what was originally the house for the plot is in the middle of being converted into a large tasting room.  In the meantime, we were hosted in the barn by a very knowledgeable employee named Gabriel, and met the owner, Steve Chapin.

The wines were excellent, and all bottle aged before release.  The estate vines are just coming to fruition, so expect more Italian varietals soon.  We went beyond our usual wine budget and grabbed a bottle each of the '07 Syrah and '07 Cab at $30-ish each.  They had an older Cab that was fantastic, but expensive.

We arrived for lunch a touch early, thought about doing a tasting first, but balked at the crowd.  Headed in to the restaurant, which wasn't crowded, and got seated immediately.  The decor was very nice, and the view of the valley from the hillside perch was awesome through floor-to-ceiling windows.

They must be getting a deal on ducks, because for the month of December they're doing weekend chef's duck specials.  Mrs. Pegleg had a blackened duck breast with gorgonzola mashed potatoes--she loved it, and I stole some bites and ate most of the blackened fat.  Mmmm....duck fat.  I had a very nice swordfish fillet with an artichocke risotto; swordfish is the other other white meat.

Since we visited Chapin, we've been to every winery currently open in the Temecula valley.  More wine reviews to come.

Fermented Foods

This piece about fermented foods and their recently renewed popularity appeared in my RSS feed last week.  As a disclaimer, it’s not much of a column, really more of an ad for some dude named Andy’s slaw.  Also, it’s written by a chiropractor; you know, the semi-crazy sort who gives nutritional advice.  In this case, though, she’s probably right; I believe that cutting down on probiotics, as well as our new obsession with sterilizing our houses like operating rooms, is doing a great deal of harm to our immune systems.  Heck, it might be behind the recent surge in extreme food allergies.

At any rate, I was immediately reminded of a recent experience with fermented octopus:

Yeah, not so good.  However, my good friend Robert recently hooked me up with a great recipe for fermented peppers that promises to be quite tasty:

What you need
Fresh chilis, as much as you want.
Unprocessed sea salt
An airlock (Google has results for DIY and commercial mason-jar airlocks)


Grind up the chilis, add 8-15% salt by weight.  Put under airlock (Robert recommends using glass marbles to keep chilis below the liquid), and age three months.  Note that you can make a sweeter version of this by adding sugar, but it requires a starter.

Does this beer make my ass look fat?

Interesting chart I found at realbeer.com.

Damn, it seems I intake a hell of a lot of calories via beer.  My favorite seasonal, Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale comes in at 214.  I guess thank FSM for my metabolism!

San Diego Bay Wine and Food Festival

So last Saturday, November 19th, Mrs. Pegleg and I woke up quite early and headed to SD for our volunteer shift at the San Diego Bay Wine and Food Festival Grand Tasting at Embarcadero Park. We talked the in-laws into dropping us off, decided to take the train home so we could both enjoy all of the fine wine and spirits available. Arriving at six-thirty in the AM, we were there to work exhibitor support in the US Foodservice tent (they supplied all of the cups, forks, plates, napkins, ice, etc. for exhibitors). Work a six-hour shift, get a free $180 ticket to the event, great deal.

The event opened to VIP ticketholders at eleven o'clock, so of course the (286!) exhibitors didn't start arriving en masse until about 10:15. Since our shift ended at twelve thirty, we had pretty light duty; I'm sure emergency supply runs were getting crazy after the event opened to all at noon. Twelve thirty came, time to take off the volunteer shirts and get to drinking! And eating, of course.

Being San Diego, seafood was at the forefront, to my joy and the missus' chagrin. The most interesting dish had to have been the Black Cod Foie Gras from Sea Rocket Bistro, who had a crew of young, gangsta-looking chefs. My personal favorites were the Beet-Cured Salmon (served with watercress and a lemonade foam) from the Red Marlin and fresh crab claws from Truluck's. Mrs. Pegleg's favorite was Fleming's Prime, who had some delicious steak skewers, along with an even more delicious chipotle mac 'n' cheese. We both loved the pizza from Spinelli Mobile Wood-Fire Oven Catering--the mobile oven is a uniquely awesome setup. The new Aaron Sanchez-created menu at House of Blues was repped by a white chocolate banana bread pudding that was very tasty.

Other standouts included Donovan's Steakhouse, with some great steak sandwiches and filet burritos; the line there was never shorter than 30+ people. Fiscalini Cheese Co. had some fantastic cheeses out, I wanted to carry around a block while wine-tasting. Nobu brought a kimchi stew of sorts that I didn't particularly care for; kimchi is very hit-or-miss for my palate. Dick's Last Resort made a surprisingly good showing for a chain, their pulled pork was succulent, the sauce quite good. Whisknladle suckling pig cured meat (prosciutto?) was melt-in-your-mouth amazing.  Jake's Del Mar, a spot with a very good local rep, failed to impress with soft, fishy scallops.

On the beverage front, the folks we helped supply at the San Diego Symphony booth had some great symphony-branded wines from Fallbrook Winery, and were a great group of people. We found a local winery, Carruth Cellars, that we have yet to visit, and their wine was quite good. Our friends at Sunshine Mountain in San Marcos were out showcasing some of their fine wines as well. Other good wines were from Cliff Family and Gruet Winery, as well as import L'Aventure Languedoc. Indulge Wines is selling box wines minus the box, marketed as eco-friendly packaging. In my day, we called those space bags. Most Beavis-and-Butthead-funny name goes to Ca' Momi Wines.

Ty Ku, who we had seen earlier this year at the San Diego Spirits Festival, had some very good cold sake and soju, though it was somewhat jarring to drink among wines. Pucker was one of the larger companies out, it was, well, what Pucker is. Stella Artois had the best booth and best swag, giving out three different glasses with three different beers (Stella, Leffe, and Hoegaarden), as well as some Crown Royal-style velvet bags. The only drink I can remember really not liking was Magner's Irish Cider.

All in all a great day. Beautiful November weather on the San Diego Bay, tons of people, food and drink. We're told that this is now the second largest wine festival in the US, and I can definitely see why.

Master Chef Casting Call 2011

After a couple of weeks of recipe development, Saturday the 29th of October was go time. Headed to Hollywood for the Master Chef casting call at Le Cordon Bleu on Sunset. I'd auditioned last year and done well, getting a call back for an on-camera interview. A couple of days before the call, I got an email that I was a VIP--scheduled time to show up, no waiting in line. Sweet! Last year, I had to arrive hours ahead of time, and saw the VIPs walking right in. Well, this year it didn't work that way.

For some reason, the casting company decided to do a blog and radio giveaway for what appeared to be a ridiculous amount of VIP passes. Consequently, there was more VIPs than not. Add the fact that the entire casting crew took lunch while I was waiting in the hall, and I was there for like five hours, longer than last year! Finally into the food room, we had two minutes to plate our dish, ready for inspection by two "food experts" and our examination by casting personnel. My annoyance at the wait might have been apparent; although I got very good comments on my food I wasn't selected for a callback that day.

Here's the recipe for what I served the judges, Natchitoches Meat Pies with Cajun Mustard Aioil.

The filling:
1/2 pound ground chuck
1/2 pound ground pork or mild sausage
1/4 pound chicken livers, cleaned and chopped finely
3 large shallots, finely chopped
1 tbsp freshly ground allspice berries
1 tbsp freshly ground black pepper
1/2 to 1 tsp cayenne pepper
kosher salt, to taste
1/3 stick unsalted butter
1 bunch spinach or collard greens, cut and blanched
Melt butter in large skillet over medium-high heat, add shallots and sweat, then add meat. Cook until well-browned, stirring frequently and breaking up the meat. Drain and season.

The crust:
1 can evaporated milk (13 oz)
1 egg, beaten
1 tbsp salt
1 tbsp sugar
1 cup shortening
5 cups all-purpose flour
Mix the dry ingredients in a medium bowl, then whisk milk into egg until well, blended, set to side. Using a pastry blender or two knives, cut shortening into the dry ingredients. Add the egg-milk mixture slowly until moist. Do not overwork, or dough may be tough. Form a ball, flatten into a disc, wrap in plastic and chill for at least 1 hour (can hold up to three days), until dough is firm. Roll out to ~1/4 inch thickness, and use a bowl to cut 6-8 inch circles. Fill half with filling, add a few pieces of blanched greens, fold over, and crimp edges with a fork. Deep fry in oil quickly until crust is golden-brown and flaky.
　
The aioli:
2 cloves garlic, chopped
2 pinches coarse kosher salt
2 large egg yolks
1 tsp lemon juice
2 tbsp spicy brown mustard
1 tsp cayenne pepper
1 cup olive oil
Make a paste with the garlic oil and salt in a mortar and pestle or with the flat of your knife on a cutting board. In a bowl, whisk together garlic paste, cayenne, mustard, egg yolks and lemon juice. Whisking constantly, begin very slowly adding oil, starting drop-by-drop for the first 1/4 cup or so. If you overdo it and the emulsion separates, stop adding oil and whisk until it comes back together. Chill and serve.