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This Issue BEATING BACK THE NUTRITIONAL TERRORISTS by John Mariani NEW YORK CORNER: Japonais by John Mariani QUICK BYTES ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ BEATING BACK THE NUTRITIONAL TERRORISTS by
John Mariani
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If,
as I do, you spend a lot of time in airports waiting for your plane to
be
canceled, you begin to sense the enormity of Americans’ obesity
problem. Arrayed in fidgety, lip-smacking
lines
leading to a Cinnabon store or Burger King, sweatpanted behemoths—men,
women,
teenagers, and children—wait to tank up on gargantuan pastries,
hamburgers, and
soft drinks in 32-ounce plastic cups—and this is at 9:30 in the
morning.
![]() The latest study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that from 1971 to 2000 American women increased their caloric intake by 22% and men by 7%--this despite all we have known about unhealthy eating for decades. Two-thirds of Americans are now considered overweight and an astounding one-third obese—a doubling of rates in 30 years. It doesn't surprise me in the least that, according to an AP report, nine out the 10 states with the highest obesity rates in a new study are in the South, led by It would seem rational, then, that our federal officials should attempt in some way to fight this epidemic rather than merely suggest why unhealthy eating patterns are dangerous. The first steps in the education process were to force processed food manufacturers to list their ingredients and RDA of vitamins and minerals on their labels (although the term “serving size” has no more legal meaning than does “dress size”). I’m not sure how helpful any of this information is except for those who might indeed wish to limit their intake of carbohydrates or find themselves amazed that the first ingredient listed--the largest by volume--is sugar or salt. Such labels may be more moralistic than efficacious. Now comes a new proposal from the World Health Organization (WHO) that seeks to tax “junk food” and impose advertising limits on items like Twinkies, a misguided and draconian proposal that, as an editorial in USA Today noted, is like “fining shoe manufacturers for bunions, mattress makers for backaches and perfumeries for allergic reactions.” Ironically, one of the senatorial backers of the WHO proposals is roly-poly Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts. ![]() The problem with blanket condemnations of any food is that it usually comes from organizations trying to promote themselves and sell their own products, like the DC-based Center for Science and the Public Interest, which deliberately uses sensational headlines to terrorize us into believing that eating buttered movie popcorn is going to kill you. After the CSPI condemned Mexican fast food for its unhealthfulness (citing lab tests showing that eating a chile relleno was like eating an entire stick of butter), the Mexican food industry said its sales fell 5 to 15 percent. One has only to look beneath the headlines of the CSPI’s rants to see the pseudo-science it is based upon. (The organization has no labs of its own.). In excoriating Italian food as being unhealthy, a CSPI’s “Nutrition Action Health Letter” called fettuccine Alfredo a “heart attack on a plate,” advising consumers to “see if your cardiologist is on call before you order.” Their reasons: fettuccine Alfredo contains cream, eggs, butter, and salt. Assuming one were to consume fettuccine Alfredo every day of your life, chances are you would have a short life—unless your parents gave you the kind of DNA that scoffs at fat. But no one does eat fettuccine Alfredo very often, and now many diet doctors would recommend slurping up all the cream, butter, and eggs you want, as long as you throw out the carbo-rich fettuccine. ![]() And therein lies the troubling duplicity of the nutritional terrorists: Like military intelligence, it is, by their own admission, an “inexact science,” which to me means no science at all. I can pretty much depend on light traveling at 186,000 miles per second and water boiling at 212◦ F (altitude considered), but nutritionists are still making proposals on the basis of data that are constantly changing. Fat is bad, fat is good; salt is bad, salt is good; alcohol is bad, alcohol is good; cholesterol is bad, but some of it is good; margarine is good, margarine is bad. And so on. Thanks to the late Dr. Atkins (below), the entire diet industry was turned upside down by his advocating the unbridled consumption of all the bacon and eggs you wish in order to lose weight. And, like all fad diets (one the doctor had re-issued about every ten years), it faded away. At one point or another in human history just about ever food has come under the gun. The 12th century monk St. Bernard of Clairvaux once moaned that, “Pulses are windy, cheese offends the stomach, milk hurts the head, water the lungs, whence it happens that in all the rivers, fields, gardens and markets, there is scarce to be anything fitting for man to eat.” ![]() So much of legislation is driven by guilt and moralism. As Lord Byron noted, “All human history attests/That happiness for man—the hungry sinner!--/Since Eve ate apples, much depends on dinner.” To deflect this unfortunate sense of sin, America’s greediest lawyers are now attempting to find ways to capitalize on our love-hate relationship with fast food by bringing suits against its purveyors for causing obesity in their clients—cases rightly thrown out of court (at least so far) as not just frivolous but downright insulting to everyone’s intelligence. ![]() Comparing the food industry to the cigarette industry is an absurd one: Cigarette manufacturers have been proven to manipulate both their products and the public in order to addict them to something that, when used as directed (light cigarette, stick in mouth, inhale smoke into lungs), almost always leads to horrible health problems. But for a person to declare an “addiction” to “junk food” caused by the industry is simply to shift blame from one’s own responsibility to eat reasonable. Nothing one could possibly eat at McDonald’s or KFC or Pizza Hut is in the least bit deleterious to anyone’s health unless an individual gorges on such foods daily—along with just about any and every other food in the supermarket, from potatoes and pasta to seafood and meat. Which is why the Lay’s Potato Chips advertising slogan “Betcha can’t eat just one” is so brilliant: It appeals to desire and appetite as well as to a sense of challenge. I am not, of course, naïve enough to think the fast food industry is guiltless in trying to attract Americans to eat at their restaurants as often as possible, which is why movie tie-ins, toys, and children’s playgrounds have become requisite at such places. When something that was once considered a “treat” becomes an “attraction,” then some blame must go to the marketing minds of the fast food industry for giving their restaurants all the irresistible allure on Pleasure Island in “Pinocchio.” But the dirty little secret every sensible person knows is that calories do count, and eating too many of them in any form—from caviar to Slurpies—is bound to put on weight. It is indeed a sad thing to see obese teenagers weeping over their addiction to fast food and junk food—and such people need professional help--but it is sadder thing that so many Americans do not wish to take responsibility for their actions. ![]() As many overweight people as I see at the airport, I do not see anywhere like the same number in restaurants like The Four Seasons or Spago, where the options and temptations to gorge on foie gras, Dover sole cooked in butter, and crème brûlée are just as “unhealthful” as a Whopper, milkshake, fried pie, and 32-ounce Pepsi at Burger King or Wendy’s. But few people gorge on gourmet foods the way 19th century trenchermen did, as when Diamond Jim Brady (left) would show up at Rector’s restaurant in NYC and put away three dozen oysters, a dozen crabs, six lobsters, terrapin soup, a steak, coffee, and a tray of pastries—and this would have been his third meal of the day, to be followed by after-theater supper. Diamond Jim died at the age of 56 with a stomach six times larger than the ordinary man’s. The problem with fast food is not just in its tasty appeal but as an icon of America as powerful as any of our pop symbols—which is why Pepsi, Coca-Cola and 7-UP hire awesome sex symbols like Britney Spears, Cindy Crawford, and Paris Hilton (right) to sell their products. When one watches any of those celebrities suck down a Pepsi or munch a Carl's Jr. hamburger while dressed in outfits designed to pander to 15-year-old boys’ masturbatory fantasies, it’s obvious that the taste of the soda is secondary to the association with sex. ![]() ![]() Despite the best efforts of organizations like the international Slow Foods Movement and WHO, Europeans and Asians are still gobbling up American fast food with the giddy joy of people who are partaking of American culture. No one, it seems, complains about the actual taste or quality of the food served in such places. It is an American reverie, an indulgence with free toys attached. It’s food full of yummy things like fat, salt, and sugar. And therein lies the rub. Fat carries flavor. Salt intensifies flavor. Sugar provides a rush of energy to the body and spirit. And once the basic needs of nutrition are met—and it doesn’t take very much above the starvation level to achieve a relatively healthful diet—the pleasure principle kicks into the human psyche; food--glorious food!--becomes as desirable as sex and sleep for everyone on the planet save a few wizened ascetics. The joy one takes in a good meal, even a scoop of ice cream, is not only wonderful but beneficial to one’s élan vital. Two scoops becomes a guilty pleasure; three decadence; and a whole pint of Häagen-Daz Dulce de Leche edges into gluttony. ![]() More important, it is the attendance at a great meal, with one too many courses and two too many glasses of wine, that makes civilization spin, romance bloom, and friendship consecrated. Family feasts, wherein everyone eats too much turkey and gravy and apple pie, is really a homage to one’s good fortune, a thanksgiving to God (especially among those who say “Grace”), and a continuance of important traditions. In their book Healthy Pleasures, Robert Ornstein and David Sobel insist that indulging in a great steak dinner and bottle of good wine improves one’s health by improving one’s spirit, and that denying oneself pleasure may lead to depression and physical illness. “The quickening pace of life may have made us more productive, efficient, and organized,” they write, “but less spontaneous, less joyful, and less connected to others.” ![]() It is disturbing, then, to find that political and religious terrorists always wish to stamp out life’s pleasures, in much the same way nutritional terrorists wish do. Clearly nutrition is based on faulty science and studies underwritten by the food industry seeking a healthy rationale for a new breakfast cereal. I recall that during the brief heyday of the oat bran craze that one TV commercial had a woman in a cozy sweater curled up with a box of cereal telling us that some studies suggest that some people might prevent some cancer by eating oat bran, ![]() There’s no arguing with a fanatic, and the nutritional Nazis are the worst of them all, for they will find fault simply to find fault. That is their nature. As George Bernard Shaw (above) once observed, “Everything I eat has been proved by some doctor or other to be a deadly poison, and everything I don’t eat has been proved to be indispensable for life. But I go marching on.” Shaw, a vegetarian, lived to be 94. But then Winston Churchill, who once said, “I have taken more good from alcohol than alcohol has taken from me,” ate whatever he wished and drank whenever he wanted, died at 91. Nothing in the proselytizing, Orwellian world of nutrition could have predicted either man’s demise. NEW YORK CORNER by John Mariani JAPONAIS ![]() 111 East 18th Street 212-260-2020 It really is nothing short of amazing how many gargantuan Asian restaurants can open in New York and, by and large, be packed most nights of the week--Spice Market, Ono, Nobu 57, Buddakan, Morimoto, Chinatown Brasserie, and two Megus. By their very size do they astonish--250, 300, 400 seats, with vast lounges and long sushi bars. And they ain't cheap, either, especially if you go with Kobe-style steaks that can cost above $100. Throw in some expensive neon-colored cocktails, and you have quite an evening to pay off. Downstairs lounge Not all of them have impressed me (and some have de-pressed me), but Japonais, whose original is in Chicago (with another due to open in Vegas), has a style and panache I find most of the others lack, and it is encouraging to me how well the designer, Jeffrey Beers, has managed to tamp down a sound level that might otherwise be as deafening as in the rest of the genre. Beers has done plenty of big, brash, loud concepts, including Ono in NYC, Rumjungle in Vegas, and Silk Road in Tokyo, along with some beautifully refined rooms like Fiamma in NYC and Bistro Moderne in Houston. But as any designer will tell you, soundproofing is not an art, it is simply an option. Sitting at a booth under an overhang, I was able to carry out civilized conversation without ever raising my voice even though the room was pretty full after 8 PM. I like the look of the place a lot, multi-leveled, with a large sushi bar, shadowy main dining room, and upstairs lounge (there it gets loud!). Striated, rippling wood slats in the ceiling, rich dark colors of brown vie with deep scarlet and shiny surfaces give the rooms a (more or less) Asian style. Tables have mats, candles, and good glassware. There's nothing cheesy about the decor or the textures and fabrics. ![]() Carpaccio of lamb tataki Nevertheless, the sushi and sashimi was very good overall. We scarfed up shrimp mousse-crusted, fried spicy King crab called kani nigiri as if they were chicken fingers, and shrimp ceviche (not my favorite thing) was tasty too. ![]() The hits just kept on coming, but, as with my meal at the Chicago Japonais, I found the entrees lacked luster by comparison with the excitement of the sushi and appetizers. Roast rack of lamb with Japanese vegetables and a spiced pear-sour plum sauce had an unpleasant sour taste to the meat, and a peach sansho glaze was too sweet for broiled miso zuke barramundi. Desserts have little to do with either the Japanese or French themes here, and kobocha cheesecake is not likely to put S&S Cheesecake or Junior's out of business. And at $16 "Chocolate Indulgence" was too much literally and by price. So if you're out for a singles' night experience, head for Buddakan or Ono or Spice Market; but if you're hungrier for good sushi and sashimi in a dazzling, sophisticated setting, Japonais is a much better choice. Sushi and sashmi range from $3-$38, appetizers $4-$22, and main courses $26-$58. Japonais is open nightly, with lunch service to begin this month. ![]() In Bodega Chocolates found a 2-inch column of chocolate drippings the employees insisted looked a lot like the Virgin Mary, and they have placed candles and flowers around the figure. The chocolate is now in a plastic case and only brought out to show visitors who ask to see it. TALK DIRTY TO ME ![]() "Dim sum speaks to the cad in each of us. It frees us from culinary monogamy, permitting us to wander from a crescent of pork to a bauble of shrimp, to have a spongy affair and then a crunchy dalliance. We get to slurp around. . . What's better than biting into something doughy to discover something meaty, or crashing through a bouncy casing and reaching a soft--and maybe juicy--core?"--Frank Bruni, "A Stylish Uniform for General Tso," QUICK BYTES * From Sept. 24-30 in NYC, Telepan Restaurant will offer a special $30.00 4-course Greenmarket tasting lunch featuring ingredients sourced exclusively from the farmer's market during this week, with 50% of the proceeds to support the activities of the Greenmarket. Call 212-580-4300. For info on the Greenmarket Association visit www.cenyc.org./site/ * The Bourbon House in New Orleans begins its American Whiskey Festival on Sept. 27 with lunch with Harlen Wheatley, Master Distiller of Buffalo Trace ($25) and a Jack Daniel's Master Distiller Dinner with Jimmy Bedford ($75); on Sept. 28 the Festival will feature 4 Master Distillers: Chris Morris of Woodford Reserve, Harlen Wheatley, Jimmy Bedford, and Jimmy Russell of Wild Turkey. Hors d’oeuvres and appetizers will be served ($30). Proceeds from the purchase of bottles signed by the master distillers and commemorative T-Shirts at the American Whiskey Fest will support the Crescent City Farmers Market Crop Circles and Share our Strength. Call 504-522-2467. * In * On Oct. 8 La Cachette in * One&Only Le Touessrok is launching culinary master classes hosted by the chef Vineet Bhatia, owner of London’s Rasoi Vineet Bhatia, the first Oct. 9-15, with demos, a cocktail master class, with sommelier Thomas Heimann, * On Oct. 12 The Beard Foundation will showcase the 10 Spanish chefs as part of a three-day celebration at NYC's Guastavino’s, with dinner and Spanish wines, auction, and A celebration of contemporary Spanish culture. VIP Tables will be hosted by Michelin three-star chefs Ferran Adrià (El Bulli), Juan Mari Arzak(Arzak), and Martín Berasategui (Martín Berasategui). A menu will be prepared by Alberto Chicote (NODO), Quique Dacosta(El Poblet), Daniel García (El Calima), Enrique Martínez (Restaurant Maher),Joan Roca (El Celler de Can Roca), Paco Roncero (La Terraza), and PacoTorreblanca (Pasteleria Totel). Beard Foundation members $750, general public $1,000. VIPTables $35,000-$50,000. Call 212-627-1111. * On Oct. 12, Spenger's Fresh Fish Grotto in * From Oct. 12-15 in *
On Oct. 23 & 24, MARIANI'S VIRTUAL GOURMET NEWSLETTER is published weekly. Editor/Publisher:
John Mariani. Contributing Writers: Robert Mariani, Naomi
Kooker, Kirsten Skogerson, Edward Brivio, Mort
Hochstein, Suzanne Wright. Contributing
Photographers: Galina Stepanoff-Dargery, Bobby Pirillo. Technical
Advisor: Gerry McLoughlin.
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