The Adnostic

The Daily Mail in the UK has made what I have known and what many women have known for years - men who know how to cook are hot. There is even a white paper from the Future Foundation that says so.

Men have gone from seeing their household role evolve from being merely providers to becoming full fledged partners in running the household, just as women's roles have expanded to include provider as well. The most interesting part is that men do not see cooking as a chore, but as a hobby to be enjoyed. Gordon Ramsay and Jamie Oliver are two prime hunky examples of this phenomenon. (I don't know who that guy in the middle is)

Summer is usually the season for the expression of manly food prowess. Men are usually bestowed with the responsibility of overseeing the grill and a lack of skill in cooking meat over flame can immediately result in a demotion from alpha to beta male. I will quote from my friend, Brian Yaeger, as he describes such an event in verse (from him to his female friend regarding the date she brought to the barbecue):

You occupy a plot in a space that's mine

Portrait of Venus with sunflowers on granite walls

A warm glow predating fire

From divergent lands, we converged in this cave

Hungry, thirsty, primitive

Time to feast

I am captain caveman

Grilling flesh on open flame

I know how to handle my meat

Unlike some date you brought

Asking how to grill

A grown lad, never ever grilled

Carnivorous I, Venus flytrap

Delicate him, pansy

Who's the delicate flower in your flower bed?

If he can't cook flesh on the porch

What animal instincts is he lacking in the parlor?

But his hair sure did look good

Nothing like a burn in iambic pentameter. But, men showing off their cooking prowess is no longer reserved for the grill alone. Now men who can tell the difference between parsley and cilantro by sight alone, can cook a slammin' dinner without calling mom, and scoff at anything labeled "Heinz" are on the rise. We can credit this to an increase in single person households and if you're living on your own cooking can be the most creative and enjoyable domestic outlet.

This movement also harkens back to Chris Riley's talk where he mentioned Alice Waters and how a macrotrend will be people wanting to be more connected to the food they eat. We can see evidence of this in not only the rise of the celebrity chef, but also the rise of the celebrity farmer. When both sides of the gender equation take care and pride in what they eat the more we will see real demand fresh food products of quality.

Where is the role of CPGs in this macrotrend? The good news is that macrotrends are slow to spread and fully evolve, so the market will be fairly stable in the near future. In the long view, people will still be multitasked and time starved, so anything that helps our domestic chefs and gastrosexuals prepare delicious wholesome meals in a timely manner will be appreciated. More frozen meal starters, where consumers can do some of the work themselves and be in control of at least some of the ingredients, instead of frozen dinners will be evidence of this.

Traif - Hebrew/Yiddish for "not kosher." Includes cheeseburgers, pork, shellfish, and lesbianism.

In this entry I am referring to an Italian seafood stew that I made the other night. Sorry boys. No euphemisms here.

Anyways, I took some minced garlic and parsley, and a chopped bulb of fennel and a chopped onion and softened it all in a large pot. I then took three cans of diced tomatoes, 1/3 cup of tomato paste, two cups of white wine, two cracked and cleaned crabs, and twelve clams and mixed it all together in the same pot. I brought the mixture to a boil and them let it simmer for 15 minutes. Then I added a pound of shrimp, some red pepper flakes, oregano, and basil. Then I boiled and simmered the mix again for 10 minutes.

It turned out great. Very hearty and tasty, but expensive as hell. A nice filet mignon would have been far cheaper, but it did make a lot of food and I felt like celebrating after an enjoyable week at my new job. So it all evened out in the end.

It was also messy. Shelling and eating crab by hand is usually a very sloppy endeavor to begin with, but my experience was compounded by the fact that I had to improvise a shell cracker with a garlic press. Not ideal, but it worked.

Final impression - I probably won't make it again. It was just too expensive. I may break it out if there's ever a boy with a weakness for shellfish who I feel the need to impress, but I would never make it again for just myself.

When my grandfather died, his collection of fine wines from the cellar (he had an actual cellar, a rarity in LA) was divided among the family. One of my Dad's cousins decided to share this rare vintage with the family on Thanksgiving.

A 1923 Bordeaux! Are you serious? How often does a girl get the opportunity to taste an eighty-year-old wine? Hardly ever and in many cases, never. This was very exciting for me and had anticipated the bottle’s opening the entire day.

Then we actually opened it.

The cork had rotted inside the bottle. Not a good sign. Dad managed to salvage most of the cork and strained the rest of the wine into a decanter, but during the pouring I noticed something disturbing: instead of a deep, rich purplish red the color had a putrid brown tint. Not unlike dried blood. Another bad sign.

My uncle tried the wine first and deemed it "drinkable." I tried a little and found it wretchedly bitter. Other members of the family continued to drink it. I'm not entirely sure why, but I'm sure they had their reasons. They just kept insisting that it wasn’t terrible.

It just goes too show you - some wines are like refined ladies and just get better with age; others are like old hookers. Just because they are experienced doesn't make them good.

I know I have neglected the Foodie Fodder section of this website. This is mostly due to the fact that I get most of my recipes from the small collection of books I own and have no desire to be sued for copy right infringement by the estate of Julia Childs, but occasionally I find something worthwhile on the net.

Such was the case for the steak and marinade I brought for Murray's grilling pleasure at Ms. Jen's going away barbeque. I found the recipe for the marinade on WholeFoods.com and thought it sounded perfect, spicy and interesting without being overwhelming. The best part is that you don't have to buy a more expensive loin cut and can still end up with a tender steak because yogurt is a natural tenderizer.

I know grilling season is over, but without further ado I give you Tandori Beef/Lamb.

BTW - It turned out delicious and was devoured without restraint.

Now it's time for my next culinary project - Italian Chili with hot Italian sausage and chicken from the New Basics Cookbook.