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We’ll leave it to Andrew Zimmern to dig slimy creatures out of tree trunks and claim they are food. Here we are talking about food the average American might encounter in everyday life. I believe we should appreciate the abundance of good food that we have. That appreciation is only enhanced by recognizing the awful stuff that we are fortunate enough not to have to eat. Here is my list.
Baumkuchen means tree cake in German, and no, it doesn’t stand up like a pine tree or require power tools to cut. The cake is named for the cross-section resemblance to tree rings. The rings come from preparation on a rotating spindle. Layers of cake batter are added and baked one-at-a-time as the long cylindrical cake rotates in an oven. My six inch cake had fifteen layers, but they may have twenty-five. The task takes both skill and patience, hence it’s called the “King of Cakes.”
Bob's Red Mill 8 Grain Hot Cereal
I liked it. Boiled grain is never going to be dynamite, but morning meals needn’t be dynamite. The engine can be started without stomping on the accelerator. The flavor has a nutty character that reminds one of those fields of grain. As promised, it tastes unprocessed. It must be the hundred-year-old stone-buhr that does it.
Humble Fog Cheese at the Camelback Inn
The Camelback Inn is a Marriott luxury resort in the Scottsdale area, north of Phoenix. They started serving Sunday brunch again in September. They were closed for however long it takes to spend $50 million remodeling the building having the restaurants and the registration desk. Brunch at the Camelback Inn was long fabled as a place where important people enjoyed fine food. G. Gordon Liddy and Sandra Day O’Connor are said to have dined there, although not necessarily at the same table.
Grilled Beef Tongue in Matsushima
I’m used to tongue being boiled, then sliced up deli style and served with mustard. The Sendai regional dish is made by slicing the raw tongue in scant quarter-inch slabs and grilling it over charcoal. It tastes much like grilled beef steak, but with a different texture and with a beefier flavor from the fine marbling of fat. Try it, and soon you’ll be inviting friends over to throw some tongue on the barby.
