James and the Giant-Priced Peach

James McWilliams discusses the notion of expensive farmers' market, organic food and whether junk food is actually cheaper than non-junk food - in a sense, "fair-price" (for the growers, anyway) in the food section today's Atlantic Magazine website. Michael Pollan and Alice Waters have spoken passionately about expensive food that you just don't buy as much of, like a $3.90 peach or an $8 dozen of eggs. Famous and not-so-famous food writers (Can I still call them foodies? Ooooh please let me call them foodies!) have taken them to the woodshed. I mean, really called for their heads. From McWilliams' article:

Anthony Bourdain, who dedicates a full chapter of his latest book, Medium Raw, to attacking Waters's airy idealism, scoffs at the idea that people should be willing to spend more on food: "She annoys the living shit out of me. We're all in the middle of a recession, like we're all going to start buying expensive organic food and running to the green market." Jason Sheehan, author of Cooking Dirty, is even less restrained in his assessment of Pollan. Admitting that Pollan is "damnably right about a lot of things," he can't quite stomach that pricy peach. "When you've been too broke to buy soup," he writes, "some iconoclastic dickhead trying to tell you that paying $4 for a peach is a good idea because it is a really good peach can be the kind of thing that makes you want to buy a rifle and a map to the homes of famous food writers." (Dude, it's just a peach ...)

So, yeah, folks are angry.

That rifle thing is just disturbing.

Granted, a Bourdain rant is a lot more common than that $4 peach, just as juicy, and a bit more tiring. But McWilliams actually speaks up for Pollan and Waters. Mind you, he disagrees with much of what they say. But here he suggests they have a point: namely that cheap crap food is lamentable and yet seen all too often. But McWilliams points out something even more surprising: it isn't just crap food that has gotten cheaper over the past 30 years - it's also the healthy stuff. But people are still choosing the Tastykakes over the apples. Hmmm...

Check out the comments. Those are particularly interesting.

Golden West Café

On Danielle's excellent advice (read her comments to the linked post), I made a beeline for the Golden West Café the other day. I had Rachael Ray's recommended green chile sauce on my mind, but I wasn't sure exactly what I'd be finding. Again, as luck would have it, I found a parking spot just in front - a good omen.

The place was pretty busy. I was told that there was a 25-minute wait for a table, or I could saddle up to the bar (not their exact words). So I went to the bar. The tables back there were also full, but there were seats at the bar. And my God, the decor was so cool, kitschy, kind of like a Hampden a la New Mexico. Even the seating was cool. There were couches and a coffee table towards the back where a party of five, including a small toddler, chose to sit. I almost sat there. Maybe I will next time.

The guy at the bar took a while to get to me. I started to get irritated when I remembered two things: 1) they're busy, so just chill, and 2) it's a slow food establishment. I'm not sure what that does to the service, so I just hunkered down and tried to rein in my impatient stomach. I'm not a patient man.

Well, the barkeep did get to me with an album cover featuring a 70's era woman in an odd calico pattern dress hanging out by a tree under the words "I've Got to Talk to Someone, God." Oh my, they keep their menus in album covers. That's kind of fun, actually. I then and there vowed to find this odd album - apparently by one Marjorie Holmes Mighell, perhaps the same woman on the cover - on the internet. So far I have had absolutely no success.

Again on Danielle's recommendation, I went with sweet potato fries on my mind (yes, as well as green chile sauce). Little problem there: they are a separate item only and they do no substitutions. I didn't read the first page of the menu (who does, really?), but it says right there, somewhere near the thing about not using cell phones. I also find it irritating, but some guy used his anyway.

I still wanted the fries, so I ordered a separate order - it just meant no cake for dessert. With the fries I ordered the apple brie burger (decadent, no?) with garlic fries. So lots and lots of fries were to come my way! Those and a pint of Sierra Nevada Pale Ale.

After about twenty minutes (maybe longer, I lost track), my food came out. And I was impressed with the food. The burger, though a little sloppy (only in that some brie and apple kept falling out), was tasty. And the fries, oh wow! The garlic fries had real garlic! I bit into half of a clove. And whoever decided to French-fry sweet potatoes had a good idea. Covering these fries was rosemary salt. It added somethin' good.

The grand total was about $20, so left a $3 tip. A fun place to eat, but definitely not a fast one. Maybe it's due to the packed-ness of the place, or the whole "slow food" thing. But it's very well worth it!

UPDATE: I have looked on some rare LP sites, and found the Holmes LP. But I'm not sure I feel like bothering! Even with track names like "I Was So Cross to the Children." Is this a book-on-vinyl? Or the musical version of the book? Either way, it must be, um, a fascinating LP.

UPDATE 2: Perhaps I was a little too easy on GWC. After reading others' comments, it really does seem kind of unreasonable to sit and wait as long as I did. Oh well, the food was still good and the decor was still fun.

So, we're a center of the Slow Food Movement?

I found out this tidbit from the über-bubbly Rachael Ray. I am right now writing this and watching Rachael Ray's Tasty Travels: Baltimore. They're making crab cakes at Faidley's as I write - no, now John Shields' to-die-for soft-shells at Gertrude's (girl is about to explode with delight eatin' them softs, hon). Apparently, as La Rachael notes, B-more is a center of the "Slow Food Movement." Did anybody know this? Maybe it is, and probably I am learning something new. But I had heard nothing. Hell, I didn't even know there was a Slow Food Movement, so I probably am not an expert on whether or not we are a center for it.

She did give me ideas for places to try out the Slow Food of Bawlmer. She notes three places: Bicycle Bistro, which serves (expensive) organic food, the Golden West Café, with its famous green chile sauce (and lower prices), and Abacrombie, which is, well, expensive (and also on Baltimore Mag's Best Of issue). I'll probably stick with the cheapest, the Golden West Café. That buttery green chile sauce looks divine.