Excellent online reference for local (USA) "sustainable" restaurants, food stores, farms and the like. Just type in your zip code and get rolling...

If you're like me, you care about where you food comes from, the quality of the ingredients, how they're prepared, and if those preparing it are working with a conscience for health, the environment, animals, and their customers.

Enter EatWellGuide.org. It's not fully comprehensive, but it's about the best you can get when it comes to trying to find restaurants and health food stores in your immediate area. Just type in your zip code and go. If you're really serious about knowing your food source, they also profile local farms, what they produce, and their farming practices.

All this is part of a larger project by the good folks at The Sustainable Table. Their mission:

Sustainable Table celebrates the sustainable food movement, educates consumers on food-related issues and works to build community through food.

Sustainable Table was created in 2003 by the nonprofit organization the GrassRoots Action Center for the Environment (GRACE) to help consumers understand the problems with our food supply and offer viable solutions and alternatives. Rather than be overwhelmed by the problems created by our industrial agricultural system, Sustainable Table celebrates the joy of food and eating.

In short, they rock. And their website is chock full of information if you'd like to learn more. Recently, their online animated shorts about the meat industry have been winning interactive awards - I too am a [Adobe] Flash designer - their work is good.

Try it out, send your comments, add listings - vote with your fork!

Posted by themindfuleater at 10:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

I've recently discovered a tasty, caffeine-free, anti-oxidant rich tea: Rooibos.

Last spring, upon entering my local health food store, I was offered a sample of a "new" tea they were stocking - Rooibos. Its soft, sweet, slightly nutty roasted flavor conjured that of green tea, but that wasn't all: it's completely caffeine free, and it's medicinal profile was enviable. I was intrigued enough to buy it. And now it's my favorite.

Since then, I've noticed this tea everywhere. I'm not certain if this is one of those universal "you learn about it and then suddenly it's everywhere" phenomenons, or if it truly hit the US market around this time. Nevertheless, I ventured to learn a bit more:
- Rooibos is from South Africa, where it literally means "red bush" in Afrikaans - yet the bush naturally grows green - the red color occurs during fermentation.
- Naturally caffeine, additive, preservative, and colorant free
- As a healing, soothing and digestive aid Rooibos tea releases natural anti-oxidants that actively combat and help neutralize harmful free-radicals affecting your body.
- Rooibos helps to give you strong bones and teeth because of its calcium, manganese and fluoride content.
- Rooibos helps pacify infants with colic, stomach cramps and sleeping problems.
- Rooibos contains alpha hydroxy acid and zinc for healthy, smooth skin. This wonder tea is especially useful when applied to skin irritations like itchy skin, eczema, sunburns, diaper rash and acne.
- Put used rooibos tea bags in the refrigerator or freezer. After a hard day's work, put on tired or red eyes to soothe and relax.
- Rooibos contains magnesium which is necessary for a healthy nervous system.
- Rooibos increases the absorption of iron in the body.
- Rooibos contains potassium and copper minerals that are necessary for several metabolic functions.
- Rooibos has been prescribed for nervous tension and mild depression as it makes a relaxing sedative.

Here's a bit more helpful information I found in an online article by Jan Zeiger: The Health Benefits of Rooibos Tea

I encourage you to give it a shot. You should be able to find it at any Whole Foods, health food store, or specialty tea lounge. Enjoy and share your experience....

Posted by themindfuleater at 09:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Fennel is not only beautiful to look at, but relatively fun to cook with - providing a unique texture, flavor, and shape on your plate.

Fennel is crunchy and slightly sweet, adding a refreshing contribution to the ever popular Mediterranean cuisine. Most often associated with Italian cooking, fennel accompanies fish very well, as well as meats like lamb, beef and pork. It can be eaten raw in salads, added to soups (in fact, used much like celery), and braised or roasted. It has a slight anise flavor which is softened when cooked.

In New York, there's not a whole lot growing in winter. However, fennel is an autumn food that is still widely available this time of year. In places like northern California, fennel is just starting its season in January. You'll find fennel in the market from Autumn through Spring.

Nutrition
From Rebecca Wood's The New Whole Foods Encyclopedia:
Fennel is a warming herb. Although the whole plant is used medicinally, the seeds are the highest in the volatile oil anethole, which treats indigestion, gas, and spasms of the digestive tract and increases peristalsis. It helps expel phlegm from the lungs. Fennel is weakly estrogenic and helps stimulate lactation and menstrual periods and facilitate birth. It also contains the antioxidant flavonoid quercetin and is therefore anticarcinogenic and of special use for cancer patients following radiation or chemotherapy. Finally, fennel is high in vitamin C.

Selection
Good quality fennel will have bulbs that are clean, firm and solid, without signs of splitting, bruising or spotting. The bulbs should be whitish or pale green in color. The stalks should be relatively straight and closely superimposed around the bulb and should not splay out to the sides too much. Both the stalks and the leaves should be green in color. There should be no signs of flowering buds as this indicates that the vegetable is past maturity. Fresh fennel should have a fragrant aroma, smelling subtly of licorice or anise.

To Use
Remove the stalks, saving the fonds for garnish if it suits you. The bulb is what you'll focus on - cut the root end off, then prepare as directed. If the outer layer is looking less than fresh, remove it before slicing.

Roasted Fennel with Garlic + Parmesan
Serves four.
3 tablespoons olive oil
3 fennel bulbs, cut into very thin slices, fronds reserved
4 garlic cloves, peeled and sliced thin
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup grated Parmesan

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
2. Toss the fennel and garlic and arrange in a glass or ceramic baking dish, sprinkle with salt and pepper, then with the Parmesan, then drizzle with the oil. Toss lightly again.
3. Bake until the fennel is fork-tender and the top is turning golden brown, about 35-45 minutes, tossing once halfway through.
4. Chop enough fennel fronds to equal 2 teaspoons, then sprinkle over the roasted fennel and serve.

Posted by themindfuleater at 09:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

For those of you who are wondering why your seaweed salad doesn't look like the one you get at the japanese restaurant... here's why.

Just as there are plethora types of land vegetables, there are many, MANY types of SEA vegetables - aka, seaweed. After many tries making delicious seaweed salads, I wondered why I wasn't getting the bright green type I was longing for - you know, that delicious, vinegar-y, sweet stringy salad you can typically order at a Japanese restaurant. Granted, there are many variations. But for that bright green type, you need a special seaweed: green "tosaka ao". In New York City, this can be found at Katagiri - which also has a very basic, if somewhat amusing, online ordering capability. Thanks to this helpful recipe on The Splendid Table by David Rosengarten, the mystery has been solved...

Seaweed is one of the most nutritious foods on the planet: it contains more vitamins and bio-available minerals than any other class of food. It is an extraordinary source of chelated, colloidal minerals and trace elements. The large brown seaweeds known as "kelp" are also rich sources of alginic acids (sodium alginates), which remove heavy metals and radioactive isotopes from the body and the bones. Seaweed is also a good source of protein and enzymes for people on vegan, vegetarian, macrobiotic, and raw food diets.

Yum! so ... make it an adventure, check out your local japanese market, and get cooking...

For more seaweed sources and recipes, check out Maine Coast Sea Vegetables, whose products are often found at local health food stores in the US.

Posted by themindfuleater at 09:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)