Trashy's World

Since I quit smoking 6 years ago, my taste buds have regenerated to a certain degree. I have a better appreciation of the subtleties of many foods and drink. Red wine is more fruity. Sour foods are more tangy and spicy foods are more likely to burn my

But that doesn’t explain some of my choices of foods I could not live without.

They are not in any particular order and some may change from day to day or week to week.

• Planter’s dry roasted peanuts with a glass of Clamato juice. There is something about this combo that is salty, juicy and rich all at once…. A great night-time snack in front of the tube.

• Triscuits – the original ones and not one of those low-salt or rosemary flavoured imitations. Great memories of my undergrad years when, after a night at the pub and without enough $$’s to order a pizza, I would put cheese on top of the Triscuit and try to melt it with my Bic lighter… yummmmm… butane, Triscuit and cheese…mmmm…

• Pizza. Real pizza. Preferably with a thick crust, tons of cheese and covered with salami, mushrooms, green olives and just a few anchovies… a nice, fatty round hard attack waiting to happen

• Speaking of heart attacks – poutine has top be one of the most decadent foods out there! But is has to be real poutine with real cheese curds! Not the stuff you get at a fast food restaurant or in my building’s cafeteria! Once, during a biz trip to Victoria, B.C., a colleague and I made the mistake of ordering poutine with BLUE cheese instead of real cheese curds. We both almost threw up.

• Beef. Any cut. But especially a nice thick tenderloin. Rare. And with a baked potato and sour cream on the side.

• Breaded chicken. Especially Shake and Bake. Quick and easy to make and leftovers are a great lunch the next day.

• Deep fried pork rinds. Yes, pork rinds. I can’t explain it. I just love ‘em.

• A fresh tomato sandwich. On white bread with mayo and lots of freshly ground pepper. What a summer treat! I remember my Mom making these when I was a kid and I still love ‘em.

• Dan dan noodles. Had these for the first time when I was in China. The restaurant at the hotel where we held our meetings had especially yummy ones… made fresh in front of you with your choice of broth and some ground pork on top!

• Butter chicken – my fave Indian dish. Gimme a fresh naan, a plate full of the butteries, and I’m happy for the day!

• Speaking of chicken – hot wings in front of a football game, accompanied by a good ale, is Nirvana!

• Hooka – this is a baked sausage that I used to help my Hungarian-born grandma make. You start with a pig’s head chopped in two. Boil that for a few hour till everything falls off, add some liver, then some rice… then feed it all into sheep intestines until you have this really thick sausage that you put into the oven. It’s hard to find, but the sausage place in the Market has it from time to time.

• OK –OK – OK… I’d better throw in a vegetable beside potatoes… hmmm… that would be onions! Especially pickled ones! They go especially well with my famous pickled eggs!

So, what from above appeals to you or disgusts you? Are you gonna call my doctor and tell him that he had better talk some sense into me?

There, a whole post and not one mention of ol’ dead eyes… I’m proud.

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My love of all things political has been a part of me as long as I remember. It matured while a Grade 13 student under the tutelage of an awesome Canadian history teacher – and further developed through involvement in university political groups, municipal level committees and finally as a municipal councillor and as a federal candidate.

One of the things I liked most about my political life was that I was able to meet and speak with a wide variety of people with a wide variety of views on things… many of which I did not share but nonetheless respected.  The best singular time in my life in this respect was while I was the proud owner and operator of a french fry truck.

Yes, I was the “Fry Guy”!

It was the perfect occupation for a guy like me. I cooked a food that I love for a living (well, it was a meagre living and only lasted a year… but hey, I like to remember the good times) and, due to the nature of the biz, I yacked and yacked and yacked with my customers about everything from weaknesses in the theory that human beings behave rationally from an economic perspective to what was the perfect window cleaner (vinegar). Loved that short period in my life. And I still make a damn mean fry!

So, when I see articles about french fries, I have a professional interest. While trolling Fox News in search of some comic relief, I came across this article on the seacrh for the perfect french fry potato. “Perfect” meaning “willingness to be used by Scrawny Ronnie’s.

Here are some facts that I found of interest:

• In 2007 total world production of potatoes was more than 320 million tonnes, and about 2/3 were consumed by people as food. The other 1/3 is used as animal feed, and as potato starch in pharmaceuticals, textiles, adhesives, and in the wood & paper industries, etc.
• MacDonald’s buys more than 3.4 billion pounds of U.S. potatoes annually
• The company still relies on the Russet Burbank for many of its fries, even though this 130-year-old variety takes an eternity to mature, gulps water and falls victim to rots and other diseases, meaning farmers must douse it in chemicals.
• Coming up with a reliable new variety takes years. The Premier Russet emerged from the breeder’s greenhouse in the early 1990s, but wasn’t released for commercial growers until 2006. Along the way, it underwent storage trials at facilities near the tiny farming town of Kimberly.
• At the McDonald’s campus in Oak Brook, Illinois, perfume-wearing intruders are shooed from tasting rooms, to prevent contamination of french fries samples randomly pulled from restaurants around America for monthly scrutiny by representatives of the company’s three main suppliers: J.R. Simplot Co. of Boise, Canada’s McCain Foods Ltd., and Omaha-based Con-Agra Foods Inc.

As well, one of the earliest references we have to British ‘chips’ (French Fries in the U.S.) is in Charles Dicken’s ‘Tale of Two Cities’ (1859): “husky chips of potatoes, fried with some reluctant drops of oil.”

Reluctant?

My idea of the perfect fry? Par-fired twice at a temperature no lower than 475 F – in good quality canola oil. Finish with 4-5 minutes more in the frier. Top with salt and malt.

Yummy!

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