June | 2012 | skinny girls & mayonnaise

The Ethics of Eating Meat

29 Jun 2012 16 Comments

by scolgin in Observations Tags: burgers, contest, cooking, ethics, food, Los Angeles Times, meat, New York Times, Pork

Periodically I enter contests. I don’t know why, because I rarely win. (You may still remember my entry to the Los Angeles Times “Best Burger” contest, which I was certain I would win until I discovered it was actually a “Burger with the Most Facebook Likes” popularity contest.) But hope springs eternal.

A couple months ago, my pal and sometime-Skinny-Girls-sidekick Nat sent me a link to a contest in the New York Times. “You should enter this,” he said. It was an essay contest on the ethics of eating meat.

More than an actual desire to win (the prize in this case being not a car or a trip to Hawaii but simply that your essay got published online), I enjoy entering these sorts of contests because it is a good impetus to think and write about things I might not otherwise think and write about. And though I often think and write about an ethical approach to eating meat, I had never gotten down to the actual marrow-bones ethics of it. (Nice recipe for marrow bones here, by the way…) More

Venice Envy

26 Jun 2012 6 Comments

by scolgin in Observations, On the Road Tags: carpaccio, Doves Today, food, Italy, lobster, risotto, sardines, scampi, Venetian cooking, Venice

People may complain that it stinks, others that it is sinking, and still more that it is too expensive. Those who are there in the winter lament the floods that render every street and alleyway a canal. But nothing anyone will ever say can sour my love for the most romantic city of them all — Venice.

Your host on Piazza San Marco with Venetian carnival mask, a foggy morning in March, circa 199?

So it was with some degree of green that I accepted the news that our neighbors and friends, Chris and Glennis, had rented an apartment in Venice this summer. Chris added insult to injury by sending me the website for the place they were staying, complete with perfectly framed view onto the Grand Canal. In response, I did what any affronted friend would — I invited them over for a “bon voyage” Venetian dinner. More

Around the World in About an Hour

22 Jun 2012 11 Comments

by scolgin in Observations, Starlets, Yoga Students & Quinoa (stories) Tags: ancestry, cooking, Dublin, food, Irish food, plantains, potluck, pub food, summer

It was the last day of school — a foggy gray June morning, the day before the solstice, the kids already adapting to their summer schedule and rising late, slogging off to class with sleep still heavy in their eyes.

The Ancestor Feast, Ms. Denmark’s 2nd grade class, Topanga, CA

My son, Flynn, had recently been studying ancestry in his second-grade class, interviewing grandparents and making family trees. For the last day of school, they would be having an “Ancestor’s Feast,” in which they — or their parents, who were invited too — would bring in a dish honoring the country, or “a” country, of their ancestry. More

Sopa of My Dreams

19 Jun 2012 14 Comments

by scolgin in Recipes Tags: food, Mexican cooking, Mexico, recipes, sopa, sopa de flor de calabaza, soup, squash blossoms, summer

I like to think of myself as an honorary Mexican. After all, where I was born was once part of Mexico, and we in California now have a population that is more Mexican than non-Mexican.

An edible summer bouquet

My two oldest brothers — twins, 20 years my elders — both married Mexican women. My earliest childhood memories are filled with large, spirited fiestas. Our live-in housekeeper, Angelita, and the brick mason Sisco who worked at our house were both like family. By the time I was six, I could eat the hottest salsa you could throw at me. More

Things the Wife Does Not Steal

15 Jun 2012 7 Comments

by scolgin in Observations, Starlets, Yoga Students & Quinoa (stories) Tags: bone marrow, carnitas, food, lardo, octopus, oysters, sea urchin, squid, wild mushrooms

My friend-I’ve-never-met, Ben, was commenting on my recent post about tiny tasty fishes that he had a favorite bar where he ate fried smelt like french fries. And best of all, his wife didn’t steal them. Now there was an idea for a blog post, I thought self-servingly.

Silky lardo from Boccalone in San Francisco

In a follow up comment, Ben also confided that his wife will not share foie gras, roasted bone marrow, very runny cheeses, cheesecake and sushi maki-rolls made out of mackerel or salmon skin. Lucky Ben. This got me thinking about some of the things my own wife will not eat — especially those that I order with that knowledge in mind (i.e. I will get to eat all of it and not have to share.) More

skinny girls & mayonnaise

The Ethics of Eating Meat

Venice Envy

Around the World in About an Hour

Sopa of My Dreams

Things the Wife Does Not Steal

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