Food Inc.

One of the most talked about films for foodies will be released in Columbus this month. On July 17th at the Drexel, Food Inc. addresses the benefits of local produce while jumping headfirst into the secretive world of factory food.

Food Inc. contains interviews with some of the great minds in food and other characters with insightful perspective on the issues at hand, including Gary Hirshberg, Joel Salatin, Michael Pollan and Eric Schlosser. The movie covers topics from the unhealthy nature of macroproduced food, the pollution and warming produced by these enterprises, how factory food actually creates an unsafe methodology for preventing disease and ways to free yourself from the shackles of factory food.

If you believe that ignorance is bliss, stay away from this movie. If, on the other hand, you sometimes have more questions than answers when reading the food labels at your corner store, this might be the flick for you.

The Columbus Vegetarian Meetup Group is organizing a get together at the showing. You can join the group and attend with likeminded individuals, or you can fly solo and take in the information all by your lonesome. Either way, it's an event that should not be missed.

Wellness Forum Foods

I saw a review of Wellness Forum Foods from ThisWeekNews last week, and I couldn't believe that there was a place that prepared vegan food in my backyard that I hadn't tried yet. Cross it off my list--and sign me up for the next round.

This place is tucked in an industrial park in the shadows and smog of the Budweiser facility. Del Sroufe and his staff prepare a tasty selection of vegan breads, soup, salad, pasta, sandwiches and other assorted items for delivery. There is also a lunch menu that is available for take-out or limited delivery area.

The creamy basil pasta salad (pictured above) is made with bow tie pasta, cherry tomatoes, artichokes and pine nuts in a basil dressing. I ordered the full lunch portion.

The white bean spinach wrap was also quite good. It was leafy greens, carrots and white bean hummus served in a pita with mustard.

I'll definitely have to check out some of the other items on the menu here. This looks like it could be a pretty tempting option for busy health nuts like myself.

Factory Farming: As bad for the environment as it is for you

Don't take it from me. Listen to the experts who say that non-sustainable farming practices hurt public health, drain small communities, abuse animals and pollute the environment according to 2 and 1/2 years worth of research performed by Pew and Johns Hopkins' Bloomberg School of Public Health.

This report doesn't point out the notion that everybody should be vegetarian overnight. I can wait at least a few years before you join me on the dark side. What it does highlight is that you should have a better understanding of how the food you eat impacts everybody's health. It can impact species by creating drug-resistant bacteria strains. It can pollute the planet. It also can damage the soil.

The phrase goes, "Think globally; act locally," and nowhere is this rationale more appropriate than on your dinner plate. Just say no to the slop from the McCorparations. The impact extends beyond the quality of food in your kitchen and impacts the quality of life across the planet, from water and air quality to considerations of your karma after you have decided to eat an egg salad sandwich sourced from the above pictured torture den.

The factory farms that thrive today can't sell a product that nobody is buying. Take care in the manner in which you eat, because the law of unintended consequences says these seemingly innocuous decisions can lead to a disastrous conclusion. The impact from deciding to eat local items farmed by capable artisans producing veggies and (gasp) meat can indeed influence the quality of life for future generations. Click the links in the article to see what a bunch of people with far more education than myself think about the issue.

Mad Mex

Vegetarian diners looking for an experience that resembles their last peyote trip should head over to the South Campus Gateway and check out Mad Mex. If they dig deep enough, they'll leave full of enough Nuevo Latino cuisine and strong drinks to make them think that they had come all the way through the looking glass (and I mean that in the best way possible. Please read on.).

The slogan on the back of the shirts is, "It isn't the size of the burrito; it's the strength of the margarita," and that statement is no lie. The Mexican libation comes in many shapes, sizes and flavors. It is available on the rocks or straight up with a selection of tequilas unparalleled in the Columbus area. The top of the line margarita is made with El Tesoro de Don Felipe, the crown jewel of aged tequila, and the VIP has an anejo Don Julio floated in a lime boat atop a Don Julio Silver margarita.

Mad Mex also offers a seasonal selection of about 20 micro brews on draft alongside an array of international and domestic bottled selections. The Great Lakes Octoberfest and Stone Arrogant Bastard drafts were delicious.

The Pickadippa appetizer offers a choice of three dips with chips. The cheese dip is very good, with a lingering spice. The habanero salsa is sweet upfront, with a tropical pineapple note followed by a blazing finish. The fire roasted tomato chipotle is milder and faintly smoky. The guacamole is pleasant, with big chunks of avocado smoothed out by onions and radishes with a citrus tang that makes you smile. The pepita hummus, made from toasted pumpkin seeds, is very herbal and markedly different from the stuff you pick up at the corner Middle Eastern eatery. The pico de gallo was the worst of the bunch, featuring a soggy mass of tomatoes and a noticeable lack of onions and jalepeno.

The main courses offer a range of burritos, enchiladas, tacos and other options to keep all makes and models of vegetarians happy. They also offer carnivorous selections, but I'm not here to write about that. Instead, I sampled a 3 cheese 3 pepper enchilada made from jack, cream and goat cheese spiced up by jalepeno, Anaheim and red bell peppers. The creamy goat cheese tempers the spicy peppers, and the rice and beans on the side are better than the main courses you can get at the other cookie cutter Mexican eateries that dot the landscape of Columbus.

Mad Mex's menu includes the Angry Hippie Burrito and the Veggie Burrito alongside other international creations that are clearly marked vegetarian by the Mad Mex logo, and special requests are easily and successfully executed.

You can enjoy the Mad Mex experience inside, outside, or at the bar, and they serve food very late. The bar also shows sports most nights with a random selection of other programming. You can enjoy the pictures of the food, drinks and psychedelic artwork in the Picasa link below.

Mad Mex

The Wall St. Journal is Fair and Balanced

The announcement finally came in today, and Rupert Murdoch is the new captain of the Wall Street Journal. Many have predicted that he will turn a respected daily newspaper into the Fox News Journal. Others believe that he will try to steal advertising from his media rivals including the New York Times, trying to beat them the old-fashioned way--through sharp business decision making. Whatever happens, I can't wait to see the first Bill O'Reilly column on Lindsay Lohan's latest brush with disaster.

Coming on the heels of Iraq and its feel-good story with the soccer team is the latest report that U.S. troop fatalities in the embattled nation are actually declining. In other words, the glass is half full. Unfortunately, the glass is half full of piss and vinegar, making it very hard to swallow.

26,000 troops have finally been authorized by the U.N. to use force to protect civilians and aid workers in Sudan. Bush would pledge support, but he has to make up another member of the Axis of Evil and start a war with them before he can use the military for any truly useful purposes.

Mike McConnell, a chief intelligence official with the National Security Agency, discussed a series of unapproved moves made by the White House after they were granted approval of a warrantless wiretapping/e-mail program of domestic espionage. The program has always been controversial, and these revelations will win the plan no new fans. There is actually more support in America to sack football, basketball, hockey, auto racing, poker and baseball, thereby making soccer the nation's favorite competitive endeavor.

The White House isn't winning supporters on many fronts, with an editorial in the Los Angeles Times calling George Bush out on his intent to veto a bill that would give medical insurance to 8 million uninsured children. Is it even possible that somebody would disdain public opinion so much that they would submarine medical care for helpless youth? I guess I just answered my own question.

The British are leaving! The British are leaving! The longest standing deployment of troops in the nation's history is leaving Northern Ireland. Whenever they withdraw their troops from Iraq, they'll be finished with all of the military campaigns that are currently irritating British citizens.

The Tour de Drugs is over, and what would the race be without every rider being thrown off tour before the newly-crowned winner is accused of a horrendous doping scandal? Doping expert Werner Franke claims to have presented evidence to German authorities that the Tour winner Alberto Contador, umm, cheated. The Tour de France makes the Grateful Dead tour look like Sesame Street in terms of drug use.

Crazy stories today include security agents at airports being asked to look out for a new insidious terrorist threat--cheese. Certainly some cheese smells strong, but this seems like overkill on security and overprotection from dairy products.

You could also pair the cheese you are eating in the airport parking lot with a nice bottle of red wine, which is a leading source of the antioxidant resveratrol. While some research shows that the quantities of resveratrol in red wine are not large enough to confer real health benefits from regular consumption, others counter with the argument that resveratrol is but one of many healthy parts of the complex liquid that is wine. Science will have to sort out the details, but if somebody tells me that drinking Cote Rotie makes me healthier, I will believe them.

Finally, USA Today columnist Janet Kornblum put together an article about the cruel fallout of online haters. Shut the fuck up you dumb bitch before I put my size 10 shoe up your rumpus. Note: This is a complete satire, performed for a cheap laugh. Besides, I wear a size 10 1/2 shoe.

Ohio Brew Week -- Pt. 2

Part two of Ohio Brew Fest for me started at the Pub. The Athens institution features a full service menu with a limited vegetarian selection (warning: their beer cheese soup is NOT vegetarian) and drink specials that include enormous beers served in a glass referred to as an aquarium.

The Pub is hosting Rocky River Brewing Company from the Cleveland area. Rocky River marks their vegetarian selections on their menu. Their beers at the Pub include the Blueberry Trails Blueberry Ale and the Cabin Fever English style Sharp Ale. The Blueberry Ale had a rich, dark roasted flavor with hints of tart blueberries on the finish. The Sharp Ale is light and clean if uninspiring.

Sports bar Pigskin has huge televisions tuned to the game, and they often have a few good beer choices in bottle and draft alongside a voluminous menu of shots. The menu is pretty veggie unfriendly...pretty much limited to a grilled cheese sandwich. The main attraction to Pigskin is the sports and the drinks. At this point in the evening, I realized that most every bar in the brew week was offering sample glasses for about $1.

The $1 sample allows me to sample every beer from Willoughby Brewing, a brew pub and cigar bar in Willoughby, Ohio. The menu at Willoughby features a few vegetarian appetizers with entrees that include Asian portabello sandwiches and pizzas that are meatless. They feature eight beers in the brew pub, and four of those beers are available at Pigskin.

The Pride of Willoughby is a porter that shows loads of dark chocolate and grilled notes with a long, tapered finish. The Daisy Cutter IPA is made to accent high alpha hops content, with an IBU rating of 75 that bursts through the floral aromas and explodes out of the glass. The Northern Trail Nut Brown was clean but lacked the punch of the porter. The Rapier Wit (one of my favorite names) has the refreshing citrus zing of the traditional summer favorite.

The bar staff was exceptionally helpful, and the shot of pineapple upside down cake that somebody sent over was much appreciated.

Lucky's is also a sports bar participating in Ohio Brew Week. Lucky's is Athens' local Pittsburgh Steelers bar. Browns and Bengals fans can, however, enjoy beer there without the threat of being ridiculed too badly.

Contrary to the Web site, Lucky's features beer from Columbus' Elevator Brewing, a restaurant profiled in the last Ohio Brew Week post. The food at Elevator is absolutely outstanding, at least a step and a half above most of the rest of the brew pub grub crowd. The pub offers nine beers year round in addition to a cadre of seasonal offerings.

The beer I tried at Lucky's was the Vienna Lager Hubris. The beer was ruby hued with a medium body and a smooth finish. Lucky's also has the Belgian Wit and the Buckeye Red, also by Elevator Brewing.

I could continue watching the games at Red Brick Tavern, another stop on the Brew Week train. Red Brick has the classic, vegetarian-hating bar menu. Luckily for me, they also feature beer from Cincinnati's Barrel House Brewing. Barrel House lists five beers, and although they were included on the menu at Red Brick, some of the beers were not in yet. I don't know if they will have the full line of Barrel House products this week or not.

The Boss Cox Double Dark IPA is well hopped and slightly sweet, with a full-bodied malt character. The Duveneck's Dortmunder Style Lager was a medium bodied golden beer that makes for a pleasant quaff. I was a little disappointed that the RedLegg Ale was not on hand, because I'm guessing that this year's batch of RedLegg Ale is probably much better than this year's batch of the Cincinnati Redlegs.

There are a few other spots that are worth checking out. Great Lakes Brewing Company, probably Ohio's greatest brewer, is featured in many locations around Athens. Luckily, my favorite vegetarian Tex Mex spot Casa Nueva (formerly reviewed in this very blog) features Great Lakes beers along with a few others. The Dortmunder Gold is the classic beer from Great Lakes, and the Edmund Fitzgerald Porter is another winner. They also feature products from Marietta Brewing, Jackie O's and the Shade Winery.

Further down the street is Broney's, a bar with tons of drink specials and a pretty decent collection of high-end liquors. They also feature two breweries on tap for the brew week.

They have many of the same Great Lakes beers, as well as the seasonal Prohibition Pilsner, which is a beer with real character made in the style of the European macro-brews. It is very good, and it is served alongside Burning River Pale Ale, Commodore Perry IPA, Elliot Ness Amber Lager and Holy Moses White Ale.

Mt. Carmel Brewing from Cincinnati is also featured at Broney's. The Nut Brown is round, sweet and fairly one-dimensional. The Blonde is light and balanced. The Copper is probably the most distinctive of the three beers.

My final goal is to make it by the Oak Room Sunday because they have a pretty wide selection of beers that should provide a great night cap for the Ohio Brew Week festivities. Enjoy the photographs available below.

Ohio Brew Week 2

12,540

12,540

Total number of calories in hot dogs and buns eaten by Nathan's Famous Hot Dog eating contest champion Joey Chestnut in 12 minutes according to ESPN. See the following post on the movie Sicko to see why this might be a bad idea.

Barry, Bush and Mr. Condom walk into a bar...

There he is, your starting National League left fielder Barry Bonds (although he will wear a Giants hat to the game rather than a Paula Abdul wig). There are a host of complaints about the game as there are every year. The MLB All Star Game is like the abusive boyfriend to the fans' desperate girlfriend...he treats her badly and lets her down, but for some unknown reason she keeps going back for more.

The U.S. military is taking a better late than never approach to an issue that hopefully isn't a day late and a dollar short. The Pentagon authorized 17,700 new highly armored vehicles that will be used to protect soldiers from the expanding use of improvised explosive devices and explosively formed penetrators in Iraq. The only thing our soldiers will be missing after the new vehicles are dispatched is a clearly defined mission and a competent leader.

Bush's video game long-range missile shield plan hit an unexpected roadblock with skepticism growing not only in Russia with Putin but also in countries like Poland and the Czech Republic, two longtime Washington allies. At this point, I'm not convinced Bush could sell the reanimated remains of Cy Young, Christy Mathewson, Satchel Paige and Ty Cobb to the Yankees for some nosebleed season tickets.

If nothing else, our great President has begun to consult academics on international and historic information gathering sessions. He must be catching up from the absence of learning he achieved in his hard-partying pre-White House days (daze).

Britain is seeking to establish an Al Qaeda link to the SUV-on-fire assassins that succeeded in doing very little but stressing out the bomb squad and screwing up air traffic. The attack was led by a Kurd from in Iran, proving that Western efforts in the Middle East have now effectively pissed everybody off.

Finally, the day has arrived: Barack Obama has pulled ahead of Hillary Ro-dogg Clinton in campaign funding. I have never rooted more for the letters BO than I am right now. BO smells like it has a much better chance of winning than HRC.

The International Herald Tribune (a.k.a. the New York Times' early early morning addition) ran an interesting report on people who make it their life's work to screw over the scumbags who run e-mail scams looking to defraud people. That is great part is that the Web creates the means for international criminals to scam people while also creating an interactive marketplace where the public can scam them right back. Bravo!

NYC is trans-fat free...almost. There is a limit of trans-fats in food that cannot be exceeded, and baked goods and other items will have a one year grace period. That should extend Artie Lange's lifespan by 18 to 22 hours at the minimum to say the least.

In an effort to increase condom use nationwide, India is trying something started recently in Thailand aimed at spreading the message--naming a national Mr. Condom. I don't follow Bollywood cinema, but with a six pack like that I'm guessing actor/model Dino Morea probably has plowed through his fair share of condoms. I nominate Dino for the post.

Mistretta's Italian Market

I was cruising out to Mistretta's on North Shafer St. to buy some cheese, because lord knows if I could only take one food with me to a desert island, it would be cheese. Of course I'm not sure how to keep cheese fresh on a desert island. I might need a cheese cave and an assortment of soft-ripened selections or other ageworthy delights. That would make for a fairly surreal island stay. All I have to find out is pick an album if I also get to take one of those with me, and figure out what that would be (probably "A Love Supreme" by John Coltrane).

But back to Mistretta's...they feature some lovely sides alongside pasta dishes and sandwiches that are clearly labeled vegetarian. I sampled the Tuscan Grilled Cheese, which was made on panini bread with smoked mozzerella, tomatoes and basil. You can make up your own meal choices with the store's high end gourmet convenience items, or order a number of salads, soups or other sides. The mac and cheese looked delicious.

It's a really nice deli. I'll certainly be back when I need a dairy reload, and I'll be sure to sample something else.

Some Cheese Smells Like Sweat

Rasheed Wallace is to technical fouls what Ron Jeremy is to cheap, meaningless sex. The major differentiating factor is that Jeremy gets paid for the sex while Rasheed typically pays for the fouls. This time Wallace paid with a loss, and some poor sap got rewarded with a sweaty jersey to the face. Check the video to see if Wallace is technically foul.

As of this morning, the 219 troops killed this month surpassed the highest total of deaths for two months of combat in Iraq. With Thursday still falling in May, all of the opponents of the war in Iraq may have to eat their hats when they see how the mission has succeeded in exceeding one minimum measurement of success. Unfortunately, the milestone is total troops killed, and nobody is going to wear that medal around town.

Zheng Xiaoyu, former chief of China's food and drug safety organization, was sentenced to death for his role in the contaminated pet food public relations disaster that damaged the reputations of China's food and drug industries. Perhaps if President Bush had sent Paul Wolfowitz out the same way, the world would have more faith in new World Bank Presidential nominee Robert Zoellick.

Turkey, a nation with a clearly defined separation of religion and state, has entered unknown waters. The nation, which is 95 percent Muslim, has elected a Muslim President and Prime Minister. Educated elites and the military are adamantly opposed to the move, and new elections have been called for the Presidency. As a free piece of advice, the United States elected a deeply religious man who shared a common belief with much of the population. Take a look at how well that worked out for us.

Slate works on profiling the Republican's next generation flip-flopper Mitt Romney. If the fact that he's a Mormon isn't enough to get you to vote for somebody else, you can at least compare his wavering opinion of a multitude of issues to Giuliani's sordid pro-life/pro-choice stance. This creates my entry into the 2008 Republican Election Slogan contest (if there is in fact a contest and I didn't fabricate it out of thin air) :

The Republican Party 2008: We can't get any more crazy--can we?

Speaking of crazy, the Joseph McCarthy of international athletics Dick Pound advances his case for drug testing in the sport that needs it most--golf. It isn't certain what the chairman of the World Anti-Doping Agency expects to find, but if Vegas is taking bets, I'll put money on John Daly being the first to test positive based on his past life as the human beer keg.

Criminally good taste was displayed by a band of armed robbers in South Africa who were robbing grocery stores of all their money...and imported cheeses. The robbers would run through the store and grab expensive food, bathroom supplies and vitamins while robbing the registers at gun point. It is offensive that Rosie O'Donnell has to send out a death squad to do her grocery shopping while she recovers from the Elisabeth Hasselbeck hangover. Shame on her!

Purple Chopstix

If it is fine vegetarian dining you're looking for, and if it comes from the planet Earth, they probably have it at Purple Chopstix. That might be a bit of an overstatement, but the range of cuisines at the restaurant makes it difficult to pigeonhole the place as anything but good.

There is Thai, Indian, Japanese, Greek, Italian, French and Bolivian cuisine on the menu. The place is BYOB and features something to keep diverse tables happy. The vegan nori sushi rolls are divine. The nachos are made with fresh cut avocados, whole beans, salsa, onions and cheese. The plate is so big the nachos are almost an entree by themselves.

The main courses come with choice of soup or salad with raspberry vinagrette or sesame soy dressing. My favorite options are the curries, which come in a yellow, red and green variety that are all available vegetarian (vegan, I believe) with tofu. The green curry is rich, earthy and spicy, with side dishes of Mexican beans and watermelon. The fruit is a great contrast with the spicy green curry.

My advice is grab a bottle of fine wine (they provide the glassware) and try the veggie myriad of cuisines available at Purple Chopstix. Check their hours...the place is closed certain days and has limited hours. Check the photographs which show off the food and the psychedelic interior below.

Purple Chopstix

The Burgundy Room (and other things)

Pre-Easter dinner with the parents (I had school work to do on Sunday) took place at one of Dublin, Ohio's top end wine bars. Believe it or not, the small town has a plethora of restaurants that includes two wine bars because of the Memorial Golf Tournament that takes place their every year. The town has both the Wine Shoppe Bistro (which I did not visit this time, although their olive, cheese and wine selections are always divine) and the Burgundy Room (which I did visit).

The Burgundy Room has a location in Columbus' Short North, which is a trendy area with no shortage of yuppies and a rather vibrant late-night, weekend bar crowd, as well as a location in Dublin. The menu and wine list at both locations are similar if not identical.

The restaurant features American and Mediterranean-style tapas that can be matched with wines. The waiter James (or Jimmy, depending on whom you asked) was rather knowledgeable about the food and beverage, receptive to vegetarian inquiries and engaging to speak with during the course of the meal.

My vegetarian appetizer was vegetable spring rolls with a sweet and sour/ soy dipping sauce and soba noodles. The entree was portobella ravioli in alfredo sauce.

The cocktails and matched wines were tremendous. The most pleasurable wine was the Orin Swift the Prisoner, a California blend of zinfandel, cabernet sauvignon, syrah, petit sirah and charbono. It featured ripe berry fruit with striking undercurrents of tobacco, pepper and plum, providing a perfect match to the earthy richness of the ravioli.

The pictures are below in the Picasa link.

Burgundy Room, Mischa and 40 West

There are also random assorted pictures of sweet little Mischa dog posing for the camera and a few shots of some mayhem at 40 West Lincoln, resident Otterbein party house. If you're in town, stop by and tell them I sent you.

Star of India

If you need vegetarian, few cuisines can compete with the Indian subcontinent. Star of India, which won the best ethnic food in Athens News' Best of...issue, has spicy vegetarian options to spare.

Afternoons feature a buffet with multiple vegetarian menu options. The chutneys are all flavorful. Nan, a soft puffy bread baked on the inside wall of a clay Tandoori oven, is available in many flavors. The vegetarian samosas are enormous and delicious. The paneer pakora and the vegetable pakora are both also great starters. The vegetable pakora and samosas are available as a combination appetizer platter.

My entree for the evening was a spicy chickpea curry with basmati rice. It was sneaky spicy and very good. There are eight or nine vegetarian and vegan options on the entree menu. The rice pudding was thin and more sweet than spicy. Star of India is BYOB.

Check out the pictures in the Picasa link below.

Star of India