By Helen Labun Jordan

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Category Archives: Recommended Reading

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Recommended Reading: Suggestions to Sportsmen

November 16, 2014 by helenlabunjordan

The rifle season for deer opened this weekend in Vermont. I’m not a hunter, I’m not even terribly good at preparing venison, but the start of hunting season seems to be a bridge for the food-minded to bring us over from the end of the harvest to the start of Thanksgiving. Last year I wrote a piece for DigInVT.com that provided links to information on hunting in Vermont and, more particularly, Vermont cuisine. This year, I’m reading a book excerpt […]

Categories: Recommended Reading

Recommended Reading: On Big Flavors

September 21, 2014 by helenlabunjordan

From the Rant For Your Life blog at Food and Wine magazine’s website “Are Big Flavors Destroying the American Palate?” by Kate Krader. This is from back in April, but because I get my reading recommendations from podcast archives I listen to while running, I think the fact that it was from the last six months is pretty impressive . . . besides, the fact that there’s a Rant for Your Life blog is a wonderful tidbit that never grows old. Now […]

Categories: Recommended Reading

Enjoying Food – VPR Commentary

August 19, 2014 by helenlabunjordan

My latest Vermont Public Radio commentary on enjoying food. Yes, it is about eating bugs and the picture above is of Japanese beetles being boiled in salted water for 2 full minutes before being tossed with a little oil and salt and baked on a cookie sheet for 50 minutes in a 250-degree oven. The result is an airy snack with a crunch that is reminiscent of thin Lays potato chips. Unlike what you might expect, the final texture is, […]

Categories: Radio Commentaries, Recommended Reading

Recommended Reading: Junk Food Part II

July 24, 2014 by helenlabunjordan

The New Yorker recently opened up its digital archive for three months of free browsing. Bon Appetit nicely went through and pulled links to their favorite food-related articles. Which brings us to Malcolm Gladwell’s 2001 article “The Trouble with Fries.” The argument here is essentially: if Americans are going to eat a lot of fast food, tweaking the fast food nutritional profile while keeping the taste the same (and not telling people it’s healthy – honestly, why do we keep […]

Categories: Recommended Reading

Recommended Reading: The Big Dish

July 8, 2014 by helenlabunjordan

I remember being fascinated with The Cake Bible as a kid, Rose Levy Berenbaum’s . . . well, cake bible. The title sort of says it all. Anyhow, I “read” the pictures of the beautiful cakes again and again – I read the recipes, too, but I was only eight so I couldn’t really translate from a recipe on the page into what it might taste like. I did reprise her idea for a spun sugar cage, from what turned […]

Categories: Recommended Reading

Good Reading: Invasivores

April 4, 2014 by helenlabunjordan

During my Wednesday night cooking projects (prep for a Big Apple Dinner Menu – which will be another post), I listened to Vermont Edition’s story about eating invasive species. I’m not much of a forager – I’m actually not a forager at all. Still there’s something inherently appealing to me in the idea that we’re not only surrounded by potential food sources, but that there are also adventurous, creative cooks trying to make tasty and appealing dishes out of them. […]

Categories: Recommended Reading

Lost Apples

October 14, 2013 by helenlabunjordan

Photo from Shacksbury Cider Company, http://www.shacksbury.com The apple is slipping away. We see apples everywhere, but they are shadows of their former selves. Hundreds of varieties of eating apples* have been usurped by a few mild, sturdy, unassuming additions to the fruit bowl. The complex flavors of cider have regressed to a bland apple juice equivalent, made of selected varieties and thoroughly pasteurized. We have hard ciders that taste like soda pop. And we have the Appeltini, which is just […]

Categories: Recommended Reading

Designing a Story

August 27, 2013 by helenlabunjordan

Okay, this news isn’t (in the strictest sense) related to the whole discovering flavor thing. . . but it is a project I’m involved in and excited about. We’re in the last week of registration for StoryHackVT – a contest where 20 teams have 24 hours to design an original story across at least 3 different digital media. StoryHack is taking place on October 19th & 20th in Burlington, VT, and is a great way to support innovative, creative storytelling […]

Categories: Recommended Reading

Creeemeee . . . eeeee. . .

July 12, 2013 by helenlabunjordan

Upon the Food Network’s naming of the Morse Farm Maple Creamie as the best ice cream treat in Vermont (see the story here on WCAX) it seems only right to re-read Philip Baruth’s classic essay on the Cult of the Creemee. The Morse Farm Maple Creemie really is superior. Plus I love their kettle corn. And their cross country skiing in winter.

Categories: Recommended Reading

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