The heat is on…
September 8, 2011
Taylor Classic 1-Inch Instant Read Thermometer
Many years ago, I spent countless hours in restaurants, not in front of computers. I honed the skill to determine if a protein was rare, medium-rare or well-done just by giving it a slight push and feeling the give of the flesh. These days, I can type perfectly while blindfolded, but I need to fall back on a trusty thermometer to discern the difference between a rare and medium pot roast. Even when working on the line, I always carried Taylor’s simple thermometer as a back-up. A gadget in the most basic of definitions, Taylor’s thermometer should be a quick go-to for any home chef or grill master for its control and reliability. The stainless steel five-inch stem is durable so you can pop it into a chicken thigh on the grill for a quick check or leave it lodged in a pot roast in the oven for a constant gauge. Unlike digital thermometers where you need to trust the readout, the simple manual calibration takes the guesswork out of a Sunday barbecue. Proving that sometimes the best gadgets aren’t $600 touch screens of proprietary limitations, Taylor’s thermometer functions on ancient, universal principles and retails for less than $4.
Target Digital Fork Thermometer
Arguably the best retail store in the universe, Target offers a digital thermometer. It contains enough bells and whistles to separate itself from a one-button medical thermometer, but not so many as to become a confusing universal remote. Largely plastic, the seven-inch thermometer comes with interchangeable one- and two-prong attachments. The idea is that you can measure and flip your meat at the same time, but skewering anything heavier than a hot dog makes for a precarious venture. The redeeming quality of this thermometer, read-outs that convert the temperature into doneness based on the meat you’ve selected by cycling through eight options, may also be its downside. It’s helpful for people who haven’t memorized the Fahrenheit difference between medium and well for a pork chop, but the temperature consistently recorded five to seven degrees higher than the calibrated Taylor thermometer. If I were a conspiracy theorist, I would say that the manufacturers intended this, picturing a future lawsuit from someone getting sick after eating chicken that this thermometer reported was fully cooked. Still, if you’re not fussy about a little wiggle room in your reading, this makes a great last minute $20 gift.
Kintrex Digital Infrared Thermometer with Laser
Designed for in and out of the kitchen, Kintrex’s infrared thermometer enters the ring at a slight disadvantage. But, come on, it has a frickin’ laser beam! The joy of pointing a laser-sighted gun and pulling the trigger to take something’s temperature is unmatched. With a quick draw from the included belt holster, I eagerly took the temperature of everything I could lay my sights on—if you’re curious, my cat’s head is 1.7°F hotter than her butt. Capable of registering temperatures between -76°F and 932°F, this is the only thermometer of the three that can double as a candy thermometer handling the high temperatures necessary to make candies or work with a deep fat fryer. When you’re working with a fryer whose optimum temperature begins at 350°F, the ability to measure from a distance counts adds a measure of safety. Unfortunately, without a probe, the thermometer really just reports surface temperature, so if you want to find out if the center of your steak is still red, good luck. At $45, it’s almost five times the price of a candy thermometer, but the safety and cool factor could justify the purchase if you pull taffy more often than you grill tuna. Plus, frickin’ laser beams.
Brew Ha-Ha…
February 9, 2011
With the holiday season behind us, and St. Patrick’s Day still weeks away, you may find that the prevalence of socially acceptable excuses to enjoy large quantities of beer fall flat this time of year. Never fear, for San Francisco Beer Week lets your cup runneth over with more than 300 Northern California events from Feb. 11–20. Locally, food and beer pairings, beer tastings, educational classes and opportunities to talk with brewers ensure it won’t be hard to find a great stout shindig, ale adventure or porter party.
“Being a part of the Bay Area craft-brew scene, we want to bring as much awareness as we can to local crafted beer and how many great styles, brews and events there are in the Bay Area,” says Emily Thomas, one of the owners and brewers of Santa Cruz Mountain Brewing. The popular venue plans to host four events during the third annual S.F. Beer Week, beginning with a Valentine’s Day Ice Cream Social, a joint effort with Penny Ice Creamery that features coffee porter beer floats and an ice cream made with the brewery’s chocolate chipotle stout. In addition, they pair their pours with sausages from El Salchichero, the farmers’ market charcuterie that opens their retail location on Feb. 11, for Der Weenie Wednesday (Feb. 16), and with a special India Joze menu (Feb. 20), which incorporates beers from around the world into their dishes. Thomas hopes that these events will bring beer off a barstool and into a more versatile light. However, she feels one obstacle in this endeavor is that beer can be intimidating to some women.
“It’s sort of a male-dominated culture,” she explains, “so we have this day where women can come and ask questions.”
The company’s two female brewers, Thomas and Nicole Beattie, lead Strong Women Brew Day on Feb. 19. “Nicole answers questions about home brewing and we have a beer tasting to encourage women to try different flavors and styles,” she adds.
One of the brews they’ll sample is a Belgian-style beer with St. Johnswort, lemon balm, coriander, oranges and hops. “Around the brewery, we call it the Feel Good Wit, because it’s a mood lifter with all that stuff in it,” she says. “Last year we called it Witches’ Wit, but we got in trouble with the Santa Cruz Mountain witches; we got a few troubling messages from them, so we’re looking for a new name.”
While S.F. Beer Week celebrates local breweries, it also places an importance on what the local community is doing with suds from Northern California and beyond. Every month, Ashley Lee and Juliette Pelligrini of burger, the Westside restaurant that boasts dozens of rotating taps, invite a brewery to show off their wares. During S.F. Beer Week, they’re highlighting two breweries, North Coast Brewing Company on Feb. 14 and Deschutes Brewery on Feb. 16. Under the title My Bloody Burger Valentine, sliders with Stilton, blue cheese and Brie meet North Coast Brewing Company’s Brother Thelonius and 12-year-old Old Rasputin, a Belgian-style dark ale and an imperial stout respectively. Oregon’s Deschutes Brewery bring their Mirror Pond pale ale and two selections from their Reserve Series—The Dissident, a sour brown ale, and a 12-year-old Black Butte Porter. Thin crust, wood-fired pizzas, such as the Penny-farthing (anchovy, caper and chili) and Bianchi (roasted asparagus, bell peppers and onions) accompany Deschutes’ offerings.
For those inspired by this bevy of new beverages to try their hand at home brewing, Seven Bridges Cooperative should be the first stop. The brew shop sells only organic ingredients and teaches home-brewing techniques, with two free classes covering brewing basics and bottling on Feb. 12; advanced registration required. For assistant manager Jason Hansen, participating in S.F. Beer Week is as natural as the products he sells. “It coincides with what we’re doing, and it’s a good time to get people interested in home brewing and local craft beer.”
To Emily Thomas, it’s even simpler than that.
“We love beer, and not just our own.”
For anyone who shares Thomas’ outlook, S.F. Beer Week is not only a stepping stone for teetering between New Year’s Eve and a mug of green beer; it’s a holiday in and of itself. So, raise a glass and Hoppy Holidays to us all.
For more information on S.F. Beer Week call (415) 847-3241 or visit sfbeerweek.org. Experience more at Santa Cruz Mountain Brewing, 402 Ingalls St. # 27, Santa Cruz, 425-4900, santacruzmountainbrewing.com; Burger, 1520 Mission St., Santa Cruz, 425-5300, burgersantacruz.com; Seven Bridges Cooperative, 325 A River St., Santa Cruz, 454-9665, breworganic.com.
Killin’ our buzz…
November 25, 2010
Whispered in college halls across the nation, the legend of Four Loko spreads. A caffeinated and flavored malt liquor, Four Loko comes in 24-ounce cans and has an alcohol-by-volume level of 12.5 percent. Produced by Phusion Projects, a Chicago-based company formed by three friends from Ohio State University, the drink preferred by bros and people up 24/7 wearing hoodies is now under attack by people who feel it’s too extreme. Eighty years after Prohibition, the government is once again trying to control how America gets its drink on.
For almost a decade, caffeinated alcoholic beverages such as Four Loko, Joose and Sparks have been on the market, but in past months the drinks have received media attention after one student committed suicide and others were hospitalized after consuming multiple cans of Four Loko. In 2009, the FDA began an investigation into these products, and on Nov. 17 sent warnings to manufacturers stating, “… there are insufficient publicly available data and information relating to the safety of alcoholic beverages with added caffeine to form the basis of a consensus among qualified experts that the beverages at issue … are safe.”
What they’re really worried about is the buzz from the energy-drink side (provided by caffeine, the amino acid supplement taurine and the guarana plant) that might make you think you’re less drunk than you are, allowing you to drink more. If you can manage to finish one, Four Loko will get you drunk, but the buzz is minimal if you’re at all friendly with energy drinks.
Aside from the energy boost, the high-alcohol content is a concern. The media can’t stop reporting about the “blackout in a can” that contains “four times the amount of alcohol as one beer,” which is misleading at best. The alcohol by volume is just more than twice as strong and then there’s twice the amount of liquid. By this logic, we should ban six-packs (six times the alcohol of a single beer) and Everclear (more than 40 times as much) as both are more intoxicating than one brew.
However, there’s one important fact that news reports and the FDA findings don’t discuss: Four Loko tastes like crap. It’s a fruit-flavored energy drink mixed with malt liquor. If nothing in that sentence causes your stomach to churn, imagine drinking a combination of stale beer, off-brand Robotussin, and off-off-brand Red Bull. In the eight varieties, flavors include Blue Raspberry, Watermelon and Uva, which is essentially grape. Each flavor uses food coloring to match the color of the sickly sweet liquid to the can’s camouflage design. Blue Raspberry tastes like the Energizer Bunny vomited up a Steel Reserve Slurpee, and though Uva is slightly better, it still tastes like vinegar mixed with those two-gallon jugs of grape drink that you can only get at the Dollar Tree. If the FDA wants to regulate food based on taste, push this swill to the front of the gallows. But banning alcohol because it gets you drunk? Consumers need to take responsibility for their decisions, and if they decide to drink runoff from the Capri Sun factory, then they can deal with the consequences. Throw a warning label on the neon camo cans; hell, that’s all cigarettes warrant. Address the concerns, but no mo’ Fo’?
Phusion Projects has already stumbled under the pressure (or maybe they’re on their third can?) and have announced that it will remove the uppers from Four Loko, demoting it to nothing more than a sickly sweet cousin of King Cobra and Old English.
Moreover, there are certainly much better ways to booze it up. But if college students are so determined to get drunk that they’ll drink Four Loko, it’s not a stretch to imagine they’ll find some other way to get tore up if The Man takes away their Fo’. Perhaps they’ll go back to sniffing Elmer’s or drinking Drano.
Stay Loko forever?…
November 25, 2010
Last week, on November 17, the Food and Drug Administration issued warning letters that gave 15 days for companies to stop producing and selling caffeinated alcoholic beverages. This notice was directly targeted at Four Loko, a drink produced by Phusion Projects, a Chicago-based company founded by three friends from Ohio State University. Four Loko varies in size and alcohol content in different states, but in California, the drink comes in 24-ounce cans and has an alcohol-by-volume level of 12.5 percent. The legend of Four Loko has spread through college dorms across the nation. There’s even a Four Loko rap on YouTube. News reports and FDA findings lambast the hugely popular drink, but they never discuss one important fact:
Four Loko tastes like crap.
The drink is a fruit-flavored energy beverage mixed with malt liquor. If this doesn’t cause your stomach to churn, imagine drinking a combination of stale beer, off-brand Robitussin, and off-off-brand Red Bull. Offered in eight varieties, Four Loko flavors include Blue Raspberry, Watermelon and Uva, which is basically grape. Each uses food coloring to match the shade of the sickly sweet liquid to its can’s camouflage design.
Blue Raspberry tastes like the Energizer Bunny vomited up a Steel Reserve Slurpee. And while Uva is slightly better, it still tastes like vinegar mixed with those two-gallon jugs of grape drink that you can only get at the Dollar Tree.
But it’s an acquired taste—and one with benefits if you want to get wasted: Four Loko contains four times the amount of alcohol as one beer, plus lots of caffeine, which fools consumers into believing they’re not as drunk as they really are.
But the claim that Four Loko has more alcohol-plus-caffeine content than other drinks, however, is misleading. A 24-ounce can of Four Loko at 12 percent ABV contains the same amount of alcohol as four 12-ounce beers. A bottle of vodka contains the alcoholic equivalent of 17 beer cans. Plus, rum and Coke, Kahlua and coffee, and vodka and Red Bull are common drink orders at every bar in America, and have been for quite some time.
Still, let’s not trivialize the illness and even deaths that have resulted of Four Loko. Binge drinking is an epidemic in America. But when the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism estimates that every year, more than 1.3 million students are killed or injured in alcohol-related accidents and disputes, can the government squarely place the blame on one beverage?
Sure, on taste alone, no one should drink this stuff. But if cigarettes have but a warning label, then a ban on Four Loko is extreme. Plus, if a college student is so determined to get drunk that they’ll drink Four Loko, it’s not a stretch to imagine they’ll find some other way to get tore up if The Man takes away their “Fo.”
Perhaps they’ll go back to sniffing Elmer’s or huffing Drano.
Best Fusion Food Cart…
July 15, 2010
Seoul on Wheels
East Bay streets are home to a wide range of taco carts, but not many stray from the usual menu. When the lengua and tortas no longer do it for you, check out this Korean BBQ truck that offers familiar fare with an Asian twist. The stars of the show are Korean tacos — meat or tofu, crunchy lettuce, Korean chili sauce, and crema. The sweet and spicy mix wonderfully so your tongue dances back and forth between the flavors, guided by charbroiled bits of crispy meat that melt with natural fats and not added oils. Korritos (Korean burritos) mix gooey cheese, meat, rice, and kimchi for a new take on portable meals, but it’s the Daniel Burger that takes the prize for the biggest indulgence. With two thick patties that have the crunch and give only obtainable on a grill, cheese, spicy pork, kimchi, lettuce, chili sauce, and mayonnaise (not to mention the pile of salty fries), it’s fusion fun on a bun big enough to split with two or three people. Follow the proprietor, Julia Yoon, on Twitter for updates on where she’ll be satiating the masses every day.
415-336-0387,
SeoulOnWheels.com,
Twitter.com/SeoulOnWheels
