Posted by Ed Levine, March 13, 2008 at 9:45 AM
If Lisbon was the culinary equivalent of permanent press chinos, Seville is more like a pair of Zegna slacks, comfortable, exciting, and a little bit mysterious.
I loved everything about Seville: the people, the incredible Moorish architecture, the sense of slightly decaying history lying around every corner, the narrow six-foot-wide streets that one particularly friendly local told us were nature's form of air-conditioning in Seville, the nonstop energy, and, of course, the food.
The only thing I didn't like was the cab driver who ripped off me and my son, Will, because he didn't have to give us the proper change from the €50 bill I gave him (admittedly it was a short ride and subsequently a low fare). The cabbie and I had a bit of a shouting match in the middle of a crowded street, but I have to tell you it's hard to have a shouting match with someone who doesn't understand a word you're saying (and vice versa, I might add). Hand gestures will only get you so far.
Continue reading »
Posted by Lia Bulaong, March 14, 2007 at 4:46 PM
Slate's Daniel Engber wonders why we praise El Bulli's Ferran Adrià for using xanthan gum but recoil at the use of FD&C Red No. 40 in red velvet cake, and says our aversion to artificial coloring makes no sense:
If the artificial colors are as safe as natural ingredients and they don't taste bad, then why should we avoid them? The gastronome might argue that the chemical dyes impart a color that's unappetizing on its own terms. The garish brilliance of red velvet cake has no referent in nature; it's disgusting because it's fake. Natural dyes, on the other hand, can make food look wholesome and real, by restoring our ingredients to their natural state. If a stalk of rhubarb loses its rosy hue in the saucepan, we add it back by boiling the skins. But to take this distinction seriously, you have to accept the outdated idea that a food has a "natural color" to begin with.
For instance, the fruits we call "oranges" are often green when they're fully ripe. (They turn orange on the tree only when they're exposed to cold weather or bathed in ethylene gas.) The oranges you buy at the supermarket may look natural, but there's a good chance they've been coated with Citrus Red No. 2. Likewise, we're all familiar with the faint, yellowish color of pure butter. (Margarine manufacturers were once penalized for conniving to make their pale-white substitute look more like the real thing.) But thanks to a loophole in the FDA's labeling rules, that wholesome shade is often the result of added dyes.
