Dancing Spoon

Tap-Water Pure

Green Be

by J. Michael Wheeler

One of the refrains while traveling to Mexico used to be “Don’t drink the water, and don’t breathe the air.” Now The Wall Street Journal (What’s Coming Out of Your Tap?, August 19, 2008) reports that there may be more in our own tap water than we were previously aware.

The Journal reports that while consumers have been turning away from bottled water because of environmental and cost concerns and returning to “tap water to quench their thirst,” evidence is mounting that our water supply contains many more contaminants than were previously detected.

Cheese, Simplified

Simplified Culinary

by J. Michael Wheeler

Cheese: “…milk’s leap toward immortality.” Clifton Fadiman.

There’re a lot of different kinds of cheese. There is Asiago, Appenzeller, Blue, Boursin, Bucheron, Camembert, Chèvre, Devonshire, Dunlop, Emmental, and Gloucester. There is Gouda, Havarti, Hoppenkäse, Lancashire, Montrechet and Meunster. There is Port-Salut, Pyramide, Raclette, Reblochon, Roquefort, Saint André, Stilton, Swiss, Tillamook, and Vacherin.

There are fresh cheeses and there are aged cheeses. There are hard cheeses, semi-firm, semi-soft, surface-ripened, and blue-veined cheeses. In fact, there are as many as 1500 types of named cheeses produced in the world. And this doesn’t even count the nameless cheeses made by small farmers and herdsman.

Bread, Simplified

Simplified Culinary

by J. Michael Wheeler

Bread: “…the culinary domestication of…hard, bland seeds.” Harold McGee.

There’re a lot of different kinds of bread. There are ashcakes, baguettes, biscuits, bloomers, Boston brown breads, ciabattas, cobs, cottage loaves, crispbreads, granary loaves, harvest loaves, milk breads, potato breads, Vienna bread, white, marble rye, and whole-wheat breads.

There are breads made with wheat, rye, corn, barley, chocolate, fruits and veggies. There are flatbreads, braided breads, round loaves, square loaves, and sticks. There are even breads made just to hold a hot dog. Walk into a boulangerie in France and witness an entire world of breads.

That Staff of Life
But what really is bread? It’s just flour (usually wheat), water, and yeast. You mix, you knead, you let it rise. Shape it. Bake it. You got bread. Simple.