+++SCOFF! - The free email newsletter on good food and drink. - ISSUE SIXTEEN, SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2006. For a printable colour version of this newsletter, see: http://www.gastronomail.com/archive.htm . Please forward to all your friends and colleagues so they can register to receive their own copy by visiting: http://www.gastronomail.com . ++Issue Sixteen Contents: 01: An A-Z of Scoff: the alphabet of food wisdom - ‘P’ is for ‘Packaging’: A waste of space? 02: Reader offer - Oregon wines: Enter our prize draw for Pinot Noir perfection. 03: Special News Report: Is supermarket localism for real? With the major chains trumpeting their new local lines and local suppliers, how strong is their commitment to reducing food miles and supporting the smaller local producer? Dan Jellinek reports. 04: Recipe: Cheddar crisps - by Audrey Simpson. 05: The drink spot: It’s a wide, wide world of wine - Have you heard the one about the establishment that didn’t stock any French wine? These days the joke is on everyone else, says John Jenkinson, pioneering proprietor of the award-winning Evesham Hotel. 06: Titbits and Crumbs: Wild Mushroom Pickers’ Code - Seasonal guidance; Whisky-pages - reviews and tasting notes; Gourmet Britain – online encyclopedia. 07: The food spot: Market days of blood, guts and fire - Food markets in Mexico are a riot of colour, odour and taste, says Bibi van der Zee. They do things differently in grey-skied Britain, thought the experience is often just as pleasing. 08: How to: Choose cheese - by restaurateur Régis Crépy. [Contents ends]. +01: An A-Z of Scoff: the alphabet of food wisdom - ‘P’ is for ‘Packaging’. Food packaging is an environmental horror story. According to figures published on Thesite.org, an information site run by youth charity YouthNet UK, some 3.2 million tonnes of the 26 million tonnes of household waste produced annually in the UK comes from packaging. Plastic bottles alone make up more than 4% of all household waste, and less than 3% are recycled. So why does modern food come wrapped in so much gumph? Manufacturers often say it is needed to protect the food, or divide it into handy portions while keeping the other portions fresh. But this is disingenuous: according to a recent Which? report, one major supermarket admitted that packaging also helps promote and sell the product. “The scramble to produce eye-catching designs that make an impact on the shelf means unnecessary layers of cardboard, paper and plastic,” the report found. Which? also found that oversized packaging is sometimes used to dupe the consumer into thinking they are buying more than they actually are. The report also found that although there are laws to stop over-packaging, trading standards officers find it hard to prosecute as companies often have plausible-sounding reasons for the extra layers. For example, the practice of putting fruit and veg on plastic trays and then inside shrink- wrap is ostensibly to protect ripe food from damage. But some stores don’t seem to need it, and in any case why package robust baking potatoes in this way? One obvious way to cut down on waste is to reuse packaging – fill water bottles back up from the tap, for example. However, the Food Standards Agency advises always using like for like: juice or alcohol may erode water bottles, and it is unwise to put hot food into containers intended for cold. +02: Reader Offer: Oregon wines. In this month’s issue, John Jenkinson explains why he doesn't stock French wines at his celebrated Evesham Hotel. With this in mind, we are giving one lucky reader the chance to win six bottles of Pinot Noir, not from Burgundy, but from one of its most successful New World habitats – Oregon. Our case includes one bottle each of the following Pinot Noirs: 2002 Firesteed, 2004 Willamette Valley Vineyards, 2004 Torii Mor Reserve, 2002 Benton Lane First Class, 2004 Bethel Heights and 2004 Cristom Jefferson Cuvee. Simply email your name and address to oregon@gastronomail.com and the first entry out of the hat on 20th October is the winner. And for more information on the wines of Oregon visit: www.oregonwines.com/ . - Last month’s winners, of a crate each of fabulous New Zealand wine, were Donna Lewis of London and Dave Ray of Devon. Our congratulations to them both. +03: Special News Report - Is supermarket localism for real? - by Dan Jellinek. Tesco this month became the latest UK supermarket chain to increase its commitment to stocking some locally-sourced foods in selected stores to tackle concerns about ever-rising food miles. The company claimed a UK first in opening six regional buying offices, claiming this will result in hundreds of new local lines being stocked. Meanwhile Asda has announced it is to bring 60 new locally produced products from 13 local producers into five of its Sussex stores, representing the chain’s tenth ‘local sourcing hub’. A spokesperson acknowledged this does not represent a large percentage of products sold in the store, but said: “Local is the fastest growing area of our business, [and] in some cases our local products out-sell the big brands.” An example was local ice-cream outselling Haagen-Dasz, she said. Morrisons says all its stores have a selection of regionally sourced products that are unique to that area such as Bara Brith Bread, Brecon Still water and Cadog Welsh butter in Wales. Somerfield says it too is committed to increasing the range and variety of local and regionally produced foods in its stores. The chain says it stocks more than 1,000 local and regional lines and is currently launching new ranges of Scottish cakes and Welsh cheeses. The list includes nationally-distributed products like Melton Mowbray pies but also examples of local produce such as potatoes and meat from local suppliers, particularly in rural areas such as the Scottish isles. Finally, Waitrose stocks more than 500 local products from 170 suppliers. The supermarket is the only one to use the strict definition of a local product set by the Campaign to Protect Rural England, namely that of goods produced within a 30-mile radius of a shop. Overall however, locally sourced produce continues to represent a fraction of goods sold at the major food chains, and is often confined to remoter rural areas where local distribution makes more commercial sense in any case. It remains to be seen how committed the giants really are to the cause of localism. - For a fuller report on this issue see the News section of our site: www.gastronomail.com +04: Recipe: Cheddar crisps by Audrey Simpson. This is a recipe that is so simple yet receives much acclaim. Particularly yummy with drinks or served with a creamy soup. Makes 24 crisps. - 120g finely grated farmhouse Cheddar - 4 rounded tsp plain flour - flaked almonds, pistachio nuts or paprika. Heat oven to 230C/445F/gas mark 8. Place a sheet of greaseproof paper on a baking sheet. Combine the grated cheese with the flour, and spoon circles of the mixture on to the paper – each one about 5cm wide and just 2mm deep. You should be able to fit 12 on an average baking sheet. Bake for five minutes, or until the crisps are golden at the edges. Lift them off the paper carefully with a palette knife. For variation add a pinch of flaked almonds, chopped pistachios or paprika to the surface before cooking. +05: The Drink Spot: It’s a wide, wide world of wine - by John Jenkinson. In the 1970s, most wine lists were almost exclusively Franco-German, and when we bought the Evesham Hotel in late 1975, we inherited such a list. The guests weren't unhappy with it, because they hadn’t been exposed to the alternatives. But I had, having travelled extensively, enjoying Chilean, Argentinian and American wines and living in Sydney for three years. So returning to the UK after more than a few bottles of Coonawarra, it seemed strange to me that the UK should focus only on 20 per cent of the world’s wine production. My original idea was not to ban French and German wines, just to open up the options for our guests. Accessing ‘unusual’ wines was not easy back in 1976. Chilean wine was not marketed but the embassy put me in touch with their stockholder, the Nitrate Corporation of Chile. So three or four times a year I would motor to Ropemaker Street in the City and fill up my creaky Vauxhall with cases of Cousiño Macul, Undurraga and Gato Negro, becoming the first customer of Chilean wine in the UK. I'd combine that with a trip to Frith Street, Soho, home of the Aussie Wine Centre (with a sprinkling of Kiwi wines as well). The St. James’s shop of Edward Cavendish supplied chiefly K.W.V. and Nederburg. Christian Bros provided a limited range of delivered Californian wines, and our Argentinian came from Percy Fox. So for 18 months or so we offered two lists – ‘Usual’ and ‘Unusual’ wines. I wanted customers to realise that Chilean wine didn’t come in a llama's bladder, so all wines were photographed, with honest, handwritten descriptions. The objective, was to demystify wines (‘a good barbecue wine, good for putting the fire out’, described one Canadian labrusca – a slow seller!). The approach obviously worked because our sales of ‘Usual’ wines fell to the point that sometime in 1977, I decided we might as well forego French and German wines altogether. Reaction from consumers was positive, with rare exceptions. A local doctor and Burgundy freak was horrified the first time he came in, but the second time he cheerfully reordered the Zinfandel, showing off his new knowledge to his friends. Fellow hoteliers and restaurateurs were amazed, though over the years it’s been amusing to read of their proud forays into Californian and Australian wines! The result of offering ‘weird’ wines has been that ‘Cousiño Macul Antiguas Reservas’ has been my best selling red wine since 1976, that our house medium in the ‘80s was Texan, that we've sold Dutch wine for 20 some years, and have adequate sales of Indian, Chinese, Mexican, Brazilian, wines. What’s our most unusual wine? I suppose that Danish is, though Swedish (made from imported grapes) is also rare. And then of course there is Hawaiian pineapple wine, Egyptian Rosé and Guernsey Tomato wine! Over the years what have been the real memory wines? Sparkling Canadian ice wine has to be one, and Tasmanian Pirie fizzy puts all but the best Champers to shame, and 1963 vintage Massandra collection (Crimea) was a revelation. But I'll never forget Irish Red wine . . . and nor will the sink! Recently I have been exploring another angle too – different grapes. We now sell a total of 124 different varietals – ‘Code di Volpe’? ‘Ruché’? ‘Alicante Bouschet’? So now our customers have the full range of the world’s wines, apart from a couple of gaps – France and Germany! - John Jenkinson owns and runs the Evesham Hotel, cited by the Guardian and the Independent among the top 50 British and family-friendly hotels. It has also been voted Best Loo in Britain! www.eveshamhotel.com . +06: Titbits and Crumbs. Wild Mushroom Pickers’ Code Self-explanatory from the British Mycological Society, and useful for those foraging around at this time of year: http://www.bms.ac.uk/Code.html . Whisky-pages Everything whisky from expert writers Gavin Smith and Tom Cannavan, including book reviews and constantly updated tasting notes on a huge range of labels. Well, someone’s got to do it: www.whisky-pages.com . Gourmet Britain Don’t know your lobscouse from your giancale? This excellent guide features a 7,000 term encyclopedia of ingredients. There’s also a handy guide to good food shops in your area, searchable by town or postcode: www.gourmetbritain.com . +07: The food spot: Market days of blood, guts and fire - by Bibi van der Zee. For a few months in 1997 I lived in a turquoise and rose coloured house on the outskirts of San Cristobal de las Casas, a town high in the mountains in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas. Every day I would walk into town through the marketplace, an ascending scale of aromas and visions. The charcoal-burning Indians were on the outskirts, their children covered in soot, bright brown eyes peering out at you with occasionally a glint of white tooth. Further up the hill towards town, just by the tortilleria where my friend Juan would always buy a stack of maize tortillas, wrapped in paper and still hot, was the dried fish stall. Grey, white and ivory salted fish hung across the passageway: the smell was pungent and near nauseating. Two steps further on, a cluster of families ran several stalls selling gigantic flowers: the colours of the giant chrysanthemum heads – neon oranges and fluorescent pinks – somewhere in the LSD rainbow. The market broadened out here into stalls where you could buy soups with chicken claws bobbing in them or point to fruits and cereals and have them blended up into an enormous breakfast drink for a couple of pesos. Just behind this was the meat hall: a bloody mess of intestines and eyeballs and red-handed butchers. And then in the last few lines of the marketplace came the fruit and vegetable stalls, each carrying the wares of an Indian family who had walked in that day. Ripe red plum tomatoes, or pyramids of perfect avocadoes; a basket of limes or a perfect stack of maize. Then this summer, an editor sent me round Britain to have a look at our markets. I had no idea what to expect: the street market that I’ve known for longest in the UK – Inverness market in Camden – has slowly withered away as Sainsbury, Safeway, Marks & Spencer opened up within a few metres of it on all sides. And the same turned out to be true in much of Britain. Places like Hexham are still billing themselves as market towns even as the market has faded away to three or four stalls. But actually most places were in better shape then I’d expected. I came to realise that my criteria – all related to San Cristobal – were completely unrealistic. We just don’t do blood and guts in the same way: we prefer John Lewis. But British markets had their own charms. The wet fish stalls in places like Birmingham and Leciester are fresh and cool and alive. There are some wonderful bakeries around, and the hot Welsh cakes sprinkled with sugar that I ate in Swansea market will stay with me forever. But best of all – after all, markets aren’t really about food, but about people – were the stall holders. The indigenas of Chiapas preferred not to even meet your eye, which couldn’t be more different from the traders here, a larky, flirtatious bunch. I certainly never got that in San Cristobal. - Bibi van der Zee is a freelance journalist who writes regularly for the Guardian about food and the environment. +08: How to: Choose cheese - by Régis Crépy. Cheese is a complex natural ingredient that represents the area it comes from: its geography, region, climate, altitude, grass and so on. The same cheese may have a different taste at different times of year. Indeed, milk in the morning can be different to milk in the evening, due to the conditions of the grass on which the animal is feeding; morning grass is much richer because of the dew. There are no strict rules on choosing cheese – it depends on the taste of the buyer. But here are a few tips: 1: The sell by date is important if buying a maturing cheese like brie. If you want to eat it straight away you’ll want about a week left on the sell by date, whereas three weeks or so means it is not yet ripe. 2: The look – a hard cheese must not be dry or crumbly. The cheese should also be a good colour and not have a funny smell – even those that are supposed to be smelly! 3: The finger test – if you can press gently into a soft cheese it should come back to its original shape. 4: Cheese needs careful handling to mature perfectly: it is a natural product that needs to breathe. Many cheeses are best served at room temperature like the bries and camemberts – take them out of the fridge two or three hours before eating and they will continue to mature. As a blue cheese is usually served in small amounts it only needs to be taken out when ready to eat. A hard cheese like gruyere should be served cold so that the rind will not sweat and become shiny. 5: If you are unsure about buying cheese it is most advisable to go to an independent delicatessen that will give you all the information about the cheese and its provenance. Ask them questions and tell them the occasion when you want to eat the cheese. A supermarket may be cheaper but you do not receive the same knowledge. - Régis Crépy owns three restaurants in Suffolk including The Great House. To make a reservation telephone 01787 247431 or visit: www.greathouse.co.uk ++End Notes: +HOW TO RECEIVE YOUR REGULAR ‘SCOFF!’ To subscribe to this free monthly bulletin, Send a blank email to scoff-subscribe@gastronomail.com Please encourage your friends and colleagues to subscribe! To unsubscribe at any time, email: scoff-unsubscribe@gastronomail.com For further information on subscription see: http://www.gastronomail.com . +ACCESSIBILITY NOTE: This newsletter conforms to the accessible Text Email Newsletter (TEN) Standard, which makes email publications easier to access for people with impaired vision using text-to-speech devices. For details see: http://www.headstar.com/ten . +COPYRIGHT 2006 Gastronomail Ltd. If you would like to reproduce stories from this newsletter, we generally allow this as long as a full credit is included, with our web address and a description of our newsletter. For permission please email jo@gastronomail.com . +PERSONNEL: Food Editor - Dan Jellinek dan@gastronomail.com Drinks editor – Johnny Ray johnny@gastronomail.com Consultant Editor – Hattie Ellis hattie@gastronomail.com Marketing Director – Jo Weatherall jo@gastronomail.com [Issue ends.]