we do have a better press corps (Michael Spector edition)

If you haven't read it already, Michael Spector's article on the carbon footprint in the New Yorker is excellent. It details what we've learned since people have started attempting to measure exactly how much carbon is associated with each product.

I really hope that carbon labelling catches on. Though article makes clear its obstacles, labelling could really help us to understand what is and what isn't a major source of carbon emissions. Trying to do so without effective and clear measurement could be counter-productive.

The other thing that that I like about this article is it's sceptical take on the "Eat Local" movement. I've always thought there were two bad reasons and one good reason to eat local.

1. Local food has less "food miles" on it.
2. Eating local helps the money stay in our economy.
3. Local food is fresher, and has been bred for taste rather than durability of transportation.

I don't think food miles are a good way to measure carbon emissions, for the reasons Spector describes. "Our Economy" ought to include our whole country, at the very least. Foreigners and people from Missouri need and deserve our dollars as much as anybody else.

#3 is hard to dispute, as anyone who has experience the difference between farmer's market heirloom tomatoes and the indestructibly bland grocery store variety can attest. However it does pt us foodies into a bit of corner. It could well be that it's more carbon friendly to only eat mass-produced mass-shipped food. Then what would be do? Choose between my planet and my dinner? Makes me want to cry.

Moxie: get there early

On saturday, the girl and I finally got around to trying Moxie.

Moxie has a reputation, and a good one. Next to Biba's, it's probably the most well known temple of high-class foodstuffs.

And I like me some food. Fancy food, exotic food and plain food. I'm slightly more fussy than a garbage disposal, but I will pay for the good stuff. But we're not wealthy people, so we've had to wait quite a while to take a taste of Moxie.

So yeah, the food is good. Moxie does not dissappoint. I still prefer The Mustard Seed over in Davis. The Ahi was particularly delicious, and the mashed potatoes easily take the prize for the best mashed potatoes in Sacramento.

The service there goes by the philosophy that, the most important thing is that the experience be memorable. Our dinner started after 8, and our waiter seemed to be quite drunk. His exploits were impressive enough to warrant a bulleted list.

• He mixed up our order of ahi spring rolls with fried calamari.
• We ordered our entrees, but asked for a second to settle on our wine. After a moment, he came back with two glasses of someone else's wine, then asked what we would like to eat.
• He forgot we were there when it came to the bill, then asked me if had got it yet. When I said no, he asked if I would like another bill. Everyone was confused.

We were having a good time, and he was a friendly guy, so none of it was a big deal. Fact is, we were more entertained with every new blunder.

Plus, he gave us extra mashed potatoes.

leave burrito guy alone!

Sigh . . .

I live in the wrong country. Sacramento City Council, having triumphantly solved all of the other problems in our fair city, is now going to go after mobile street vendors.

While, of course, some of the food proffered at these "roach coaches" is downright awful. But some of the best food I've ever had was gotten from some guy cooking on the side of the road. The best burrito in Sacramento can be gotten from that one guy on I Street.

Street vendors are often inexpensive and delicious. Cutting them a break can offer residents plenty cheap tastiness. You can even encourage them, like Singapore does (yes, that's the only time I'll say those three words).

Hopefully the city council will spend their time on more obvious ways to improve the quality of life for its constituents.

awful things I have eaten

I am not actually a risk averse person. Granted, my idea of excitement is to read three books and watch one movie, but I take a certain point of pride in not backing down from awful. But a preference for, generally speaking, the quiet life belies the fact that I have a certain fondness for the horrible.

I do have character witnesses on this matter. I have watched Manos, the Hands of Fate without MST3K commentary. On my birthday, I subjected my friends to a movie selected by virtue of having a hologram on the cover. I watched Battlefield Earth and Dungeons & Dragons back to back. I am creepily fascinated by the music of William Shatner, the "Poetry" of Rod "Human Vogon" McCuen and the "photo-poetry" of Leonard Nimoy.

It's not that I prefer bad stuff to good, it's just that there's a certain point of pride in an ability to to endure crap. Along with not being fazed by bullshit, it is an essential skill in modern life.

Movies and music are relatively easy. Living up to this philosophy on matters gustatory, is another thing. It's good to keep an open mind about various forms of food, because lots of stuff that looks gross is actually rather tasty. However, tasting something horrible is completely different sort of ghastly than looking at something horrible. Try as I might I could not bring myself to eat fried scorpions.

Still, like I said, I try to keep a certain spirit of open-mindedness when it comes to food. This has lead to some discoveries (head-cheese actually is pretty tasty, 臭豆腐 lives up to its name but is quite palatable) and some disasters.

Here are the disasters:

8:Cabbage on Pizza: I imagine that Chinese immigrants to the United States often recoil in horror when they encounter the transformation that the dishes of their homeland have undergone on the journey across the Pacific. But, likewise, the Chinese continent has no idea what do with a pizza. Most of the creations, though edible, betray a basic misunderstanding of the dish: as using ketchup for sauce and fruit for topping. None of those eccentricities were nearly as untasty as the desecratorial act of putting pickled cabbage on pizza. Painfully sour; a good way to transform the edible to inedible.

7: Duck Brains: I was dared into eating these. I find liver to be almost palatable and with enough mustard downright edible. Brains are like liver but with and extra livery taste and even more of that livery texture. I don't know if there is enough mustard in one Nugget aisle to make brains eatable.

6. Ranch Chicken had from some diner in Chico: Fried chicken doused in ranch dressing. Didn't realize how literal the name of the item was when I ordered it. What little I finished didn't stay that way.

5. Pea Flavored Ice Cream: China and I couldn't ever really get along about dessert. The basic misunderstanding was about bean paste, and whether or not should be eaten much less used to flavor a cake or ice cream. However, most of these dessert related disagreements resulted in food that I simply didn't really want to eat, such as mooncakes, corn ice cream. This stuff was one of the few things that I actually had to spit out.

4. Popcorn Flavored Jelly-Bellies: revolting. Creepy. Unsettling. It's like a Van Zandt movie in your mouth.

3.Dirty Martini Made With Garlic Stuffed Olive Juice: I actually made this. I don't know why I thought it would be good. It wasn't. Furthermore, it had a sort of horrible mouth persistence that seemed to last for days afterward.

2. Sea Cucumber Soup: Revolting in appearance and texture, that's for sure. This stuff actually rejected my chopstick when I speared it. It didn't have much taste, but chewing it was tough going and swallowing it triggered an act of visceral remorse.

1. Sea Urchin: I did not eat this in an exotic location, unless you consider Nishiki in midtown Sacramento to be exotic. Still, this is by far the worst thing that I have ever put in my mouth. It tastes like you'd think dead monster would taste. It has an unpleasant, liquid meat mouth feel to it. I think I swallowed it in self defense.