Author: Eric

Fear my righteous wrath.

Marc sent me and Brian an article that was published Sunday, January 28, 2007 in the SF Chronicle) titled: “Will the term organic still mean anything when it’s adopted whole hog by behemoths such as Wal-Mart?” by Jake Whitney. I don’t know who Mr. Whitney is, but I’m sick of being lectured about the sanctity of organic food by people who exhibit little understanding about what organic means, or who don’t care about what organic means because it gets in the way of taking a jab at “The Man.” Writers like Mr. Whitney do more to confuse and upset organic consumers than Wal-Mart, in my humble opinion.

Yes, I’m a big fan of Michael Pollan, and I think that he has done a lot to call attention to how ALL of our food (not just organic) is made and why we should pay attention to this. Unfortunately not everyone is as smart as Mr. Pollan (although I have a few quibbles with his latest book, The Omnivore’s Dilemma), and most writers don’t do the amount of research Pollan does. In an attempt to make similar points that Pollan makes, other writers mostly skip that bothersome research phase and jump right up on the soap box to shout out their points: The Man is BAD! Corporations are EVIL! Save poor little Organic from being kidnapped in the middle of the night and tortured! They are helped up onto that soap box by organizations (who are always ready to supply a supporting quote) who happen to raise money (ahem! solicit donations) from people who are scared by this kind of talk.
Continue reading “Eric Organic” →

I serve on the board of an organic farming organization, and there are members of the board who are incredulous that we charge $150 a ticket to our annual five or six course fundraising dinner which is held at one of Maine’s four-star restaurants. I always argue that many people will spend $150 a person on a dinner that is NOT expected to raise money for a non-profit organization. The same board members are also incredulous that anyone would spend more than $50 a person for a dinner…actually, we also hold an informal buffet lunch fundraiser charging $50 a person and some board members complain that THIS is too expensive.

It’s ironic, because many of these board members are also farmers who charge premium prices for their produce and don’t see anything wrong with that because they know that the price reflects the value and the work the goes into the product.

During my recent vacation in SF visiting the folks, I had a 24 hour peak food experience that illustrated how good food can cost $5 per person (Shanghai Dumpling King) and cost $25 per person (Yuet Lee) and cost $110 per person (La Folie), all of which can be justified and equally satisfying.
Continue reading “HiLo Cuisine Continued” →

Within a 24 hour period, the last day before we left SF, we grazed some of the great HIlo dining that San Francisco has to offer: late night, just before the 11pm rush, at Yuet Lee on Broadway in Chinatown; soup dumplings WAY out in the Richmond at Shanghai Dumpling shop; then around the corner from the Rector apartment to four star French dining at La Folie. All of it was great, in its own way, although we fed twelve people dumplings for less than the cost of one person at La Folie, but there’s more to be said about that…
Continue reading “HiLo Cuisine” →