Writing menu course descriptions has become an elaborate act of marketing. Regular South Bay diners will be accustomed to menu main course descriptions mentioning "Niman Ranch grass fed" beef or steaks, but few of us may know much about the ranch or why a particular restaurant might favor it.
It's worth investigating - just as Jeffrey Steingarten's Vogue Magazine article on the preparation of pork in France opened my eyes bug-wide (you can read it, reprinted, in his masterful 2002 book "It Must Have Been Something I Ate") - it's important for all of us to know where our foods come from, especially proteins because of the high costs involved in producing them.
While I normally view Time Magazine as disposable "news lite," its August 31 cover story "The Real Cost of Cheap Food" (posted online on August 21) provides an engaging description of the Nimans and how they raise beef in a manner that's wholly natural yet different from 99% of producers in America. Their cattle graze free on expansive land, fed only grass and hay--what they are supposed to eat. Quite recently, I owned land in San Luis Obispo County and had neighbors and friends that ran cattle in the same way; I can't imagine buying beef sourced from a Central Valley feedlot. If you've traveled central California at all, you know the sights and the smells--compare and contrast driving through Buttonwillow or Kettleman City on I-5, where the smell of manure is so powerful it permeates any passing car, even those topping 80 MPH, with the bucolic sight of scattered Black Angus wandering the golden hills around San Luis, resting under shaded oak trees, raised with the practices originated by the vaqueros more than a century ago. Beef sourced this way is healthier, tastier--and certainly more costly. You have to balance your sense of health risk with the demands of your budget.
You can read more at the Niman Ranch website, and order its terrific products online through the MySteak store run by Buckhead Beef. Labor Day grilling is right around the corner--so today's a great time to place an order and experience what steak is supposed to taste like.
And for an in-depth view of why and how cheap food makes you fat and likely causes innumerable health problems, I recommend Michael Pollan's "In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto" - an engaging book that may well change everything about what you eat, cook, or grow.
It's worth investigating - just as Jeffrey Steingarten's Vogue Magazine article on the preparation of pork in France opened my eyes bug-wide (you can read it, reprinted, in his masterful 2002 book "It Must Have Been Something I Ate") - it's important for all of us to know where our foods come from, especially proteins because of the high costs involved in producing them.
While I normally view Time Magazine as disposable "news lite," its August 31 cover story "The Real Cost of Cheap Food" (posted online on August 21) provides an engaging description of the Nimans and how they raise beef in a manner that's wholly natural yet different from 99% of producers in America. Their cattle graze free on expansive land, fed only grass and hay--what they are supposed to eat. Quite recently, I owned land in San Luis Obispo County and had neighbors and friends that ran cattle in the same way; I can't imagine buying beef sourced from a Central Valley feedlot. If you've traveled central California at all, you know the sights and the smells--compare and contrast driving through Buttonwillow or Kettleman City on I-5, where the smell of manure is so powerful it permeates any passing car, even those topping 80 MPH, with the bucolic sight of scattered Black Angus wandering the golden hills around San Luis, resting under shaded oak trees, raised with the practices originated by the vaqueros more than a century ago. Beef sourced this way is healthier, tastier--and certainly more costly. You have to balance your sense of health risk with the demands of your budget.
You can read more at the Niman Ranch website, and order its terrific products online through the MySteak store run by Buckhead Beef. Labor Day grilling is right around the corner--so today's a great time to place an order and experience what steak is supposed to taste like.
And for an in-depth view of why and how cheap food makes you fat and likely causes innumerable health problems, I recommend Michael Pollan's "In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto" - an engaging book that may well change everything about what you eat, cook, or grow.
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