7 Color Lagoon

I am a little late on this but some folks may not yet be aware of the civilized side of China — its’ food (the jury is out on other facets of modern China).  Last week the Chinese government made Kung Pao chicken the official food of the summer 2008 olympics.

Kung Pao chicken was one of my early favorites in New York’s Chinatown.  I seem to recall a good version at a  restaurant on Doyer or Pell, in the tourist center of things. It was perhaps the early ’70s when we gallery-hopped SOHO, headed for Chinatown for dinner, partied heavily and finished off the night at Ferrara’s or the Cafe Roma and trundled sleepily back up the Hudson Valley in the wee hours.  That was youth.

Kung Pao is a diced, fried chicken with peanuts and chiles.  It is foreigner-friendly (albeit not familiar to all sports fans) and has a comforting name.  It will make a lot of visitors happy with its comfort-food tastes.  One story of its traditional name is that it was named after an imperial official on an inspection tour.  Reuters also pointed out the “linquistic makeover” of a number of dishes.  One is a favorite of mine for many years now that my wife and I tried all over America — from NY Chinatown to LA, Houston, Miami and even a fine, Chinese restaurant we found by accident next to a Food Lion in Abington, VA.  Ma Po Tofu is the stuff of dreams (if you have ever dreame of tofu and not called it a nightmare).

The Chinese are instructing restaurants to call it Ma Po rather than the more literal translation: ” bean curd made by a pock-marked woman”.  They have put much time and many meetings into these friendly translations and, in this case, I think the comfortable version is a great improvement.

About.com has a recipe for Kung Pao on their site as well as a recipe for a “lite” version.  I noticed a Chinese site touting tours of China labeled the dish “Chicken fried with chiles and peanuts” which really doesn’t have the equivalent romance.

New Post on my little blog, Lizard Stew, about disinfecting foods — especially those eaten raw.  Tomatoes are in the news for that reason.  Last year it was “pre-washed” spinach.  It is a simple process that is not only for the developing nations.  Moctezuma can visit the US, too, for his revenge.

The other alternative is to eat cooked foods.  These tomatoes are safely cooked in a sauce with onions, capers, olives, and (for me) chiles.

Whole fish in a Veracruz style sauce at the Restaurant Cenote Azul.  Photo © Howard Dratch.

Photo © Howard Dratch.

It has been nearly a month since I have posted.  My other blogs are languishing while I try to survive in my own changed environment, changed circumstances and interests.  However, I miss writing even if only a little.

The plan is to continue this blog, 7 Color Lagoon, with changes.  It is less about travel and living as an expatriate as it will be about global economics, photography, economic news and whatever happens to catch my eye and interest.  Links will slowly be checked and redone and the ads and Amazon store re-arranged to reflect the new subject matter.  Please support the advertisers as it helps continue the blog.

Here is a current (5/16) report from Canal Once, the Mexican news and TV network from the Polytechnic Institute in the capital city.  The 5th annual meeting of leaders of the Latin American states is being held in Lima, Peru under guard by 9000 police.  A major issue being discussed is global food supplies in light of diversions to biofuels, poverty and climatic changes.

This is an excerpt from Canal Once in Spanish,

Sumida en la pobreza sobrevive una tercera parte de la población de América Latina, son 220 millones de personas que carecen de lo indispensable. A este sector se dirigieron los trabajos de la Quinta Cumbre de Jefes de Estado de Latinoamérica, el Caribe y la Unión Europea en Lima, Perú, a la que acudieron 45 gobernantes.

Desarrollo sustentable, cambio climático y energía fueron otros de los temas principales. Se llegó a un acuerdo para analizar un posible gravamen al consumo de petróleo y gas licuado a fin de conseguir fondos que serían destinados a mejorar el medio ambiente.

The Lima meeting is concentrating on the poverty that continues to affect one-third or the Latin American population — 220 million people.  President Garcia opened remarks with the declaration that hundreds of millions of people are threatened with hunger in the midst of abundance.  The European Union is the primary donor in  humanitarian aid.

Garcia warned of the consequences of eyes closed against the food crisis and proposed increasing by 2% world agricultural production.  The Spanish president, Josè Luis Rodriquez Zapatero, lamented the impact of biofuel production on  rising food prices.  Besides Hugo Chavez, Venezuelan president, trying to turn the meeting to the political crises between his country and Columbia; the major themes were sustainable development, climate change, energy needs and funds to improve the environment.

The food crisis is not just a Market manipulation.  It may well be partly a result of what Robert Heilbroner called a “revolution of rising expectations”.  Like global warming that revolution gathered momentum slowly and is now breaking out in a rapidly ascending line.  People want things they didn’t have before nor even thought to have.  More meat in their diet (healthy or not), regular meals, cell phones, national infrastructure, TV, education, credit and consumer goods, etc.  The revolution has been won in that the world is more and more demanding that its expectations be met.  Providing those expectations may strain resources on an over-crowded planet and change the political face of many parts of the world.

Photo © Howard Dratch, 2008.  Pasta & tofu.

The world may not be waiting for this heart-healthy dish of tofu, nopal cactus, chaya leaf and zucchini but it is tired of waiting for 2 or 3 meals a day.  Now that everyone - almost - watches TV they are aware that the world has plenty of food and toys and they want a piece of the action, a slice of the pie.

Photo © Howard Dratch, 2007.

Fears of Food Shortages Rise

Rice stirs fears as the prices mounted ever higher and poorer populations rioted in anxiety over the coming famine. In the US some hysteria seems to have hit as people began hoarding rice from major groceries. The Bush people said “We have plenty of food in the U.S.” (U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Paulson reported to Reuters). He predicted food prices to rise but that the rise will be less “significant” that the rise in gas prices.

Rice has jumped to $1000 a ton which is said to be 3 times what it cost at the beginning of ‘08. Thoughts of social unrest in Asia are mounting with the cost of their staple. Africa and Haiti have seen riots as well. Here in Mexico where rice is a home-grown commodity (not that I wouldn’t like some Jasmine or Basmati before the cost the same as gas) there appears no shortage and prices remain relatively even.

“In Bangkok, some traders said Thai 100-percent B grade white rice, the world’s benchmark, could hit $1,300 a ton on demand from the number-one importer, Philippines.”

Read the CNBC report from Reuters HERE.

The NY Times reported today in their World Business section about the future for commodities — the things we must consume. Wheat, corn, soy beans, mustard seeds with the other staples of life are rising in price, in demand and in scarcity.

There have been droughts and failed harvests here and there but the major culprit is demand. Global demand. Rising demand. Desperate demand. It is Dr. Heilbroner’s famous “revolution of rising expectations”. The world is growing richer and growing more aware from the dissemination of technology. The Times reports on a Nigerian man’s hunger for bread and tea for his breakfast, Italians want pasta as do the people of other cultures. The Chinese want rice and noodles and the port to flavor it. Americans want everything that can fit in a super-sized market the size of a city block. And they want ethanol for their cars along with corn on the cob for dinner, corn to feed the cattle and whatever proportion of real food is put into fast food.

Where once the then primitive populations who are now referred to as “emerging” wanted enough of their historic staples to survive; they want enough food to enjoy their lives, different foods and even America’s deadly exports of fast food. Here in Chetumal, Mexico on the edge of the jungle in a region just recently emerging from jungle poverty, we now have a McDonalds, Burger King, a few Dominoes and a Sam’s Club. Money is being made and people want that which was denied and that which, a few years ago, was not available here. Ten years ago when I came here it was hard to find olive oil let alone extra-virgen. There was aceite comestible (edible oil) or manteca de cerdo (pig fat) for cooking. Now the supermarket stocks 6-12 brands of olive oil and even oregano oil, pasta from Mexico, Italy, Spain and France, soy sauce from China and Asian noodles.

For farmers it is obviously a gusher or profits as they try to decide how to allocate their seemingly scarce acres to the most profitable crops. Investors vie to move money from stock equities into commodities and commodity-driven stocks.

There is more to the story than just the growing affluence and power of farmers and agri-businesses. There is more than the soaring profits of farm machinery and of agricultural chemicals.

Perhaps most important to the world (rather than just the investment community) is that revolution which is gaining momentum. Watch all the cooking channels and vlogs on cooking. China’s billion people continue to want rice and noodles, pigs and chickens, chiles and spices. They want more of the same and maybe a hamburger now and again. I would not be surprised that many pine for pine nuts to put in the pesto, black olives from Greece and truffles from France.

The most cogent comment in the excellent Times article is “Everyone wants to eat like an American on this globe,” said Daniel W. Basse of the AgResource Company, a Chicago consultancy. “But if they do, we’re going to need another two or three globes to grow it all.”

The next factor has been the demand for foodstuffs to be used for non-feeding of the world’s population — obese or hungry. Ethanol is a case in point. All that corn being used to power vehicles is hard to believe while living in a society that calls itself “the people of the corn”. When the Maya had nearly vanquished the Mexican/Spanish population from Yucatan during the Caste Wars in 1848-49 (which continued into the early 20th c.); the corn god announced the time for planting and the uprising failed when they all went back to their milpas to plant corn, beans and chiles.

Eating seems to be a basic desire that transcends even trade. It is doubtful that it will lose its importance in the near term. The revolution of rising expectations has raised the minimum in most places from bare survival to a full plate and the hope of another meal in the near future. The desire will not diminish but the supply could fall under the onslaught of demand.

For investors it could mean commodities and commodity-based equities will be a place to hide from the avalanche of bad news. It is probably a trend that will continue. But farmers learned long ago that the gods of agriculture are strong and fickle. For now the producers of foods (ADM, CAG, SJM and others), the purveyors of fast foods, convenience foods and the new staples (KO, YUM, KFT, HRL,DM, PAS, MCD) and the agri-chemical and agri-businesses are swinging the weight of rising food prices around.

When you go home the market realm will give way to the new prices for bread, pasta, milk, eggs. Buen provecho!

Photo ©Howard Dratch, 2008. Lunch buffet in a country club in the land of plenty.

Photo ©Howard Dratch. Market vendor in the state of San Luis Potosì.

Hot stuff, commodities. Gold and silver still drive the sane mad with greed. Food is getting popular in the financial world.

Oddly, food has been popular for a long time. Many people eat it, only some invest in it. Too large a proportion don’t have enough of it while some advanced countries grow their population super-sized.

Here in Mexico signs are needed as visuals for those who can’t read, as decoration where color is almost as necessary as food. This fellow is on the wall of a small shop that sells farm feeds, insecticides, some chile plants, seeds and such.

©Howard Dratch, 2007.

Much has recently been written and hoped for the “disconnection” of the U.S. credit and mortgage crises separating themselves from the European, Asian and emerging markets.  There was no disconnect.  The world has become tied together in all its dealings — economic, political, social, technological and violent.  It’s a small world, brother.

It is more than six months since my last sojourn into America and it is always fun to write about traveling and to review or report on places, spaces, tastes and the gritty stuff of travel. My first stop is Miami because there are doctors waiting and my four day was planned for initial appointments for all the medical tests, tune-ups and surgical games I can fit into a month or so of time.

So far I have spent 3 hours with a fine ophthalmologist in Coral Gables (Dr. Mario Sabates, 1385 Coral Way) who is planning to cut up my other eye in two weeks. Since I have been having trouble finding a general surgeon for another reasonably small problem with the time to talk to me within a month, he called his cousin (It is the Tulane Medical School family into which I have happily fallen) , Braulio Sabates who will see me this week before I leave for New York. Tomorrow it will be the excellent electro-physiologist (cardiologist), Efrain Gonzalez who will tune-up the pacing device in my chest with his dedicated computer which will pull out a history and moving, computer-enhanced picture of the beating heart. It is better than a soap opera.

What to review first? The hotel. Because I had tens of thousands of “points” from Marriott and past visits to Miami during medical procedures and time spent with an incredibly incompetent prosthetic group in Hialeah (therein lies a warning to amputees hoping for help who find only incompetence and negligence), I decided I could and should use them for this stay and chose the Courtyard by Marriott near the Dodge Island cruise ship terminal. It is on 2d Avenue downtown in the center of this vibrant, Miami financial district, growing arts area and tourist magnet. It is also a short taxi ride from the ships, in the middle of Miami’s public transport system of people-movers and metro-rail and close to the Bayfront Park and Bayside - Biscayne Blvd. at NE 4th Street, a mall with “food court”, restaurants, bars (and “Hooters” which I have heard is a strip joint with food), live music and waterside restaurants.

Marriott’s Courtyard brand is being touted as a business-oriented hotel at a moderate price. The Marriott Rewards program had annoyed me greatly when it seemed designed to keep customers from using their tiny kick-back because of its muddy and hard-to-navigate web site. Some of that is true but much was my attempt to make arrangements on the ‘Net from the cruise ship at $20 per hour using most of the hour to deal with them. However, I finally sent in an email requesting them to put in my credit card number and finish the process because, after the hurricane and a week without electric service and fresh food, I was too tired and hassled. Amazingly, they did it for me. When I arrived at the hotel at 10 AM the bill had been paid with my “points” (actually $60 for the first 3 days), my room was ready and waiting and the staff were as pleasant as a TV commercial. Service and courtesy should not surprise but the world has become a tense place and I was surprised — pleasantly.

One of the next reviews will be that of my first digital camera, a Nikon D40x which is pleasing me. I may understand cameras but do not yet understand the digital versions so it is still on automatic point-and-shoot.

The first night I looked forward to Miami’s fine Chinese restaurants. None are around here and I haven’t had the energy to journey far for my feedings. The concierge suggested Bayside saying there was a food court. I planned to avoid such a thing thinking it would be fast food, junk food, grease on a stick. But the walk was fun and they have a carousel. That night I ate Cuban food at the Latin American Cafe overlooking the water. The Filetillos de Pollo Salteado (sauteed chicken strips with onion and peppers) that I had with side orders of black beans and rice cost $10.25 and were tasty, fresh, pleasantly served and filling. I wandered home to my hotel satisfied.

Tonight the proximity and fact that I finally had the energy to carry a camera and had figured out how to make the camera basically work. This time I wandered a bit more, found that there was a real mall there — the typical upscale American line-up of Gap Kids, Gap, Gap Pets, Sharper Image plus kiosks for massage, tattoos, toys and people making music and the carousel. I love carousel horses.

The food court turned out to not be made of McPoison, Kentucky Fried Chicken Fat and the other junk food dealers. Instead I nearly stopped for swordfish steaks or Salmon fillets, checked out the sushi, and finally settled down in front of Parillada Argentina with a lot of really tempting beef and spare-rib dishes on the grill. I took the chicken breast quarter with two side dishes — tomato & cucumber and yellow rice (which tasted just like the Cuban Yellow Rice on which I grew but, hey, it is Miami). The bill with a large Coke was $7.21. Except for having to eat with plastic utensils and foam plate, paper cup, it was delicious, well-seasoned and filled with the taste of the grill.

And here was the fun part with the Nikon’s little strobe built-in and just a little iPhoto manipulation:

Bacalar and its resources have been ignored here for some time. Culinary delights are limited. They have increased slightly over the years but the gourmet will be happier elsewhere or renting a place with kitchen facilities. Chetumal offers more restaurants but is also limited in scope and quality — but that is a subject for another time.

1. In the village of Bacalar I can recommend the Restaurant Orizaba at Avenida 7 (the main street in front of the church) between 24th and 26th, phone 983.834.2069. This is a palapa — thatch-roofed, simple building — restaurant owned by Señora Escobar and run as if part of her kitchen. It is inexpensive (3 course lunch is about 40 pesos with a soft drink or fruit drink — $US3.75), sufficiently clean and very popular with both foreign residents and the local middle-class. The menu is limited to very pleasant breakfasts, Mexican staples like tortas and tacos plus cochinita pibil (a Mayan, long-cooked pork dish), chicken breasts (make sure to order a la plancha or ajillo which are simply grilled or grilled with a red sauce or you will get empanizada — breaded and fried), and a few beef dishes. Ask what is preparado/prepared. These specials are often the best. The photo is of a recent meal with a piece of chicken in a red (chipotle) sauce, a small plate of rice, tortillas and a chicken broth with pasta shells.

2. La Cosa Nostra is a new restaurant on the side of the park (the town square in front of the fort) owned by an American and his Mexican wife.  They are always pleasant. The food can be described as Mexican/Italian/Tex-Mex. It is very clean, friendly and welcoming. There is an inner room protected against the insect hordes by glass.  It is air conditioned. There are tables on the street but safety against dirt and crime suggests against eating on the street.  I have only eaten there once since I very rarely eat out in Bacalar but it was very pleasant, tasty and moderately-priced.

3. The Cenote Azul is south about 2 miles from the village. I have not eaten there in years. The chef, Carlos, is excellent but the previous owner died and I do not know his children who are now running it. It has become a popular tourist stop and is often crowded. The water is deep and beautiful.  The cenote is a delicate and closed eco-system visited by growing numbers of people and large tours.  I do not therefore know its present state of cleanliness especially during the vacation-time crowds.

This article in the New York Times last week caught not my heart but the strings of my stomach. Here in the hot and steamy tropics in summer the kitchen becomes its own oven. The choice is often between what I would like to eat and how much heat I can stand in the house. The air conditioner helps but electricity is very expensive in a country that maintains its state monopolies and the house very large.

The Times to the rescue with an article by Mark Bittman on 18 July titled, “Summer Express: 101 Simple Meals Ready in 10 Minutes or Less.”
Some sound as if they would be excellent, light, cool and quick. Many are not appropriate for those who, like me, suffer intense cardiac problems. Some can be easily modified to meet my strict health requirements. From those 101 the seeds of tasty thoughts come. Rather than following them they will be added to the memory cells to be called up on hot nights when the hunger has me.

As Mr. Bittman points out, “The trouble is that when it’s too hot, even the most resourceful cook
has a hard time remembering all the options. So here are 101
substantial main courses, all of which get you in and out of the
kitchen in 10 minutes or less.”

Surf on over to the Times and check some of these out before you put them into your recipe software or the natural software in your brain just behind the taste buds.

22 Make wraps of tuna, warm white beans, a drizzle of olive oil and lettuce and tomato.43 Migas, with egg: Sauté chopped stale bread with olive oil, mushrooms, onions and spinach. Stir in a couple of eggs.

45 Sauté shredded zucchini in olive oil, adding garlic and chopped herbs. Serve over pasta. (This one could happen tonight since I have a zucchini, always have garlic and a few dried and fresh herbs. It is Mexico so some onion and dried chile de arbol — cayenne — will make it mine.)

There are some that cannot be made on the edge of the jungle in a Mexican village. This one is pure New York and not possible here: “69 Buy good blintzes. Brown them on both sides in butter. Serve with sour cream, apple sauce or both.” “Buy some what? And serve with cream that has gone bad!” There is also one for bagels and salmon.

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