Are You A FOODIE?

The New FOOD Attitude by Karl Merten

The other day my editor handed me a list of the top ten Food Trends for 2011 (published by the Food channel). This is something that I can really sink my teeth into. Heck it’s right up my alley. The premise is that our values change every so often as a result of the multitude of external influences we are bombarded with everyday. From our local economies and those across the United States plus the ever changing world market with our green emphasis in everything we grow, produce and discard. But affecting us most is our attempt to buy local. We have a multitude of fresh local foods available to us in any given season. The challenges that we face today are reflective of our social consciousness.
The Top Ten list reads like this:
1. The canning comeback – taking control over what we put on the table
2. Men in aprons – Our economy is displacing more men then women and there is a role reversal occurring.
3. Local somewhere – Buying from local farmers and producers
4. Don’t Ask, Don’t tell – people don’t want big brother telling them what they can and can not eat.
5. Appetite for Food Apps – looking for great dining values and locations at your fingertips
6. Small is the New Big Business – getting closer to the customer
7. Fresh Every Day – visiting your local butcher, grocer, baker for the daily supplies for meals
8. Chefs in Schools – getting back to good wholesome food for our children
9. Discomfort Foods – challenging our eating habits, taking a leap of faith in world cuisine.
10. Eating for Sex and Other Things – finding food to keep you fit and feeling great as we get older

My observations and reaction to this top ten list can be found on my Website Café 225.com .The question is, what are you doing differently in 2011 that you didn’t do in 2010? Please send your comments to me. Attention Karl

My recipe for the month is so relevant to our topics I can barely contain myself.

Oysters on the half shell

Upon celebrating the New Year I had an opportunity to visit family up in the San Francisco Bay area. My three brothers all live up there and are sourcing places to visit when the opportunity arises. We were out on Monday for happy hour at a place called Sea Salt. There feature every Monday was $1.00 oysters. After leaving, I felt sure that this was something that Café 225 could provide. And so you have it- Oysters Tuesdays. In talking to my seafood purveyor, Tuesday was an ideal day to get really fresh seafood from the San Francisco Bay area. I also wanted to buy local, and we decided on Tomalas Bay Oysters. Located in Marin County, near Point Reyes National Park. They grow the pacific oyster also referred to as the Japanese oyster or Miyagi oyster (Crassostrea Gigas) The pacific oyster represents about 98% of the world’s oyster production. You’ll know why once you try them. The taste is sweet and refreshing with a nice briny finish.

My preference in serving an oyster is with sauce mignonette. Or favorite hot sauce and lime. Below I am including two recipes for sauce mignonette.

Sauce Mignonette
¼ cup red wine vinegar or chardonnay vinegar
1 tsp fresh thyme leaves
2tsp finely chopped shallots or red onion
Pinch of fresh ground black pepper
Combine, refrigerate to allow flavors to marry for up to two days. Ready to serve with your freshly shucked oysters.
Tequila Lime Mignonette
¼ cup white wine vinegar
      (chardonnay or champagne)
1 T minced shallots
1/2 tsp sugar
1 shot good quality tequila
1Tbl fresh lime juice
2 tsp each finely diced red and yellow bell pepper
a pinch of freshly ground black pepper
1 Tbs chopped cilantro leaves
Sea salt to taste
In a small saucepan combine vinegar, shallots and sugar and reduce by half. Remove from heat and add remaining ingredients, adjust seasoning and refrigerate until ready to use.