Last Friday, Food, Inc. was released to an additional 90 theaters across America including Landmark’s local Plaza Frontenac location.  As my saying the movie is a must-see is as biased an opinion as they come, how about a snip of what Roger Ebert had to say about his viewing of the film?

This review doesn’t read one thing like a movie review. But most of the stuff I discuss in it, I learned from the new documentary “Food, Inc.,” directed by Robert Kenner and based on the recent book An Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan. I figured it wasn’t important for me to go into detail about the photography and the editing. I just wanted to scare the bejesus out of you, which is what “Food, Inc.” did to me.

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Roger Ebert on Food, Inc.

Mark your calendars, this year’s SLOWednesday events start just two weeks from tomorrow, and the first is sure to be a hit…

May 13, 2009: Terra Madre Update

Intended to foster discussion and introduce innovative concepts in the field of food, gastronomy, globalization, and economics, Terra Madre is a bi-annual conference hosted by Slow Food international in Torino, Italy.

The last event was held in October of 2008, and Slow Food St. Louis sent three major delegates to represent them: Gerard Craft of Niche Restaurant, Dave Hillebrand of Prairie Grass Farms, and Brett Palmier of Biver farms. Enjoy this opportunity to offer them a belated welcome home and an ear to listen to their stories.

• SLOWednesday events take place at the Bottleworks in the Crown Room after the Farmers’ Market, at 7:00 p.m. Talks begin at 7:30 p.m., and Schlafly asks that everyone interested in ordering food and drink place their orders and be settled in before that time. Events are free and open to the public.

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Event: SLOWednesday with Gerard Craft, Dave Hillebrand and Brett Palmier

I think this is a little earlier than in the past because it actually caught me off guard. But it’s totally sweet news, right?

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Market Watch: Maplewood Farmers’ Market Starts Today

I am so down with the food revolution you have no idea. It’s just that I think it’s high time we realize and acknowledge that good intentions and responsible stewardship, and even passion, are not by themselves enough when it comes to making great artisanal food.

You need three things:

Experience: Which means time allowing for lots of trial and error and sufficient apprentice time
Time: To understand how to make it good
Knowledge: That is, you have to know how to do something, and when it’s delicious

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Good, clean and fair does not always equal quality

If food is a right–and I believe it is–how can we can we, as Slow Food co-leaders, defend our stance, when even our most outspoken leaders are accentuating these points of elitism? The average American does not make a quick breakfast of a fireplace baked egg and heirloom tomato salad, and the image or thought that they would is completely absurd.

Using the same ingredients, we would have been better served having her cook a breakfast of scrambled eggs with tomatoes and chives. Now that’s a meal most any American can cook, and the bonus: it doesn’t require a lavishly expensive home with a kitchen fireplace. It just requires a stove.

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It’s not Nikes vs heirloom grapes, it’s food vs hunger.

Centennial Farms Apples

However this year things are going different, and it’s not just the quality or quantity of the apples that’ll get your attention, but instead the number of varieties—21 in all. No matter what your apple tastes are they’ve almost certainly got something you’ll be interested in buying.

In order of ripening…Gala, Honeycrisp, Ruby Jon, Ozark Gold, Jonathan, Jonagold, Cortland, Red Delicious, Golden Delicious, Empire, Sun Crisp, Braeburn, Blushing Golden, Mutsu, Fuji, Staymared, Winesap, Gold Rush, York, Arkansas Black, Granny Smith.

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How d’ya like these apples?

1. I spotted hardback copies of one of my favorite foodie books, The Apprentice by Jacques Pepin, on the discount racks of the Creve Coeur Borders.  I can’t possibly recommend it enough.  It’s incredibly interesting as a whole but, with Pepin’s insane skill, the really interesting bits are his years at Howard Johnson’s.

It’s hard to imagine a time when people were attempting to make chain food that actually stood up to some level of high standards.

2. Guanciale.  Salume Beddu was slinging some made with Fararr Out Farm Berkshire jaws at Tower Grove recently and it is delicious.

Toast some good bread, render some up like lardons, and top it with arugula and a fried egg cooked in the rendered fat for the ultimate (and fast) after-work snack.

3. Grits.  I’d been unimpressed by Revival’s in the past, but this week, cheesy grits baked in a dish and topped with a slice of ham and a sunny-side up egg were absolutely perfect.  It doesn’t get much better than egg yolk running over anything.

4. Getting much better…the Fat of stlbites.com has made an appearance at Niche.  Lamb belly is now the final savory course of the tasting menu and it’s ridiculously good–everything a solitary slice of tender lamb gut was meant to be.

Lamb – mushroom, cauliflower, tapenade (& Brussels Sprouts when I had it)

5. A guilty pleasure: Chicken Modega and a side of white cavatelli at the Town & Country Rich & Charlie’s.  Bonus: it was $28 for two of us to eat.  Bonus 2: That Rich & Charlie’s is BYOB. Bonus 3: It was enough for lunch the next day too.

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Notes

Sometimes the most important thing is to keep exciting news to yourself. For example: Saturday Salume Beddu began sign-ups for their Cure Club at Tower Grove Farmers’ Market. I held back because I needed to get my own order in and, with Mark Sanfilippo and his wife Jamie taking just 25 quarterly subscriptions, they’re sure to go fast. Each delivery will include 2-3 whole salumi and upfront cost to you is $20.

I’ve no idea the cost at pickup but, honestly, I didn’t ask because let’s face it, it’s pork and it will be awesome.

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Would You Like to Join a Meat Club?

Sorry for the late and brief run down this week but I didn’t spend as much time at the markets last week as I usually do.

Maybe it’s a tough call, but I personally think the highlight was fennel. Probably a lot more people will pick the increase in fruit with all the berries and sweet cherries arriving, but I’m more of a vegetable man and fennel is right up there with the Brussels Sprouts and cauliflower.

At Maplewood the fennel came by way of Claverach. It was as pristine as everything else they do. A lot of the local fennel I’ve bought has been incredibly tiny and somewhat stringy and this was by far the best I’ve had in the last two years. Claverach also continued the upswing of new potatoes having bintjes. Farrar Out Farm also had kennebec and Norland Red.

Centennial Farms picked the first of their black raspberries and blueberries and it sounds like there should be a lot more this week.

At Clayton the fennel came from Silent Oaks Farm and Biver. I spotted the first sun gold tomatoes of the season at the Silent Oaks stand as well, but with incredibly long lines throughout the market, the pints went quick and we missed them by one customer.

Other things I spotted were the bigger onions (above) that are starting to arrive, along with some green beans at the Biver stand. Several farms also had a few varieties of heirloom tomatoes and I imagine we should start seeing some good ones soon.

At Tower Grove Farmers’ Market the fennel once again came from Biver. Other than that, I finally scored some salcissa from Salume Beddu. They were also selling a cannellini bean puree and mostarda. I’ll try to find time to comment on those as all three were excellent but I’ll quickly say I put the salcissa on some pizza and it had a really surprising depth of flavor along with a definite chili kick.

The sweet cherries from Eilerman Brothers also arrived but they’re not quite as sweet as they’ll be getting soon. Their sign said peaches, blackberries, raspberries, tomatoes, and sweet corn are on the way as well though I imagine it will be a while before we see the corn.

Also at Tower Grove there was a new stand for Le Monde selling Falafel and Taboulah and Kimker Hill Farms ran away with the most interesting thing I saw all week: guinea eggs.

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Last Week at the Market – Fennel

Clayton Farmer’s Market on Saturday, June 28th at Straub’s will be the scene of a star-studded Iron Chef competition. Celebrity judges are: Gerard Craft Chef/Owner of Niche (featured in this month’s Food &Wine), Cary McDowell Chef/Owner of Revival (who hails from Daniel Boulud and Wolfgang Puck), and Josh Galliano Chef of An American Place. Using items provided by local food producers, outdoor competition begins at 8:30 am with Chef-instructors Pat Jones v. Tony Hedger from L’ecole Culinaire.

Not sure how I missed the mentioning for the first battle.

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Battle Royale at Clayton Farmers’ Market