Following up on Gobbler’s popular post, Skinny Bitch and the Organic Shopping List, I thought now would be a good time to revisit the topic amidst changes in our habits and disposable income.  Last we checked, Gobbler was livid that his wife’s fav new book, Skinny Bitch, made their grocery costs shoot through the roof.  While this isn’t news, the fact remains food is more expensive now, and we have to second guess that trip to Whole Foods or Foods of All Nations.  Or do we?

The NY Times wrote an interesting piece on Monday on the rising cost of food and our return the dark side…junk food.

“You have to know how to cook beans and rice, how to make tortillas, how to soak lentils,” said Adam Drewnowski, director of the Center for Public Health Nutrition at the University of Washington. “Many people don’t have the knowledge or the time if they’re working two jobs.”

Last year, Dr. Drewnowski led a study, published in The Journal of the American Dietetic Association, comparing the prices of 370 foods sold at supermarkets in the Seattle area. The study showed that “energy dense” junk foods, which pack the most calories and fewest nutrients per gram, were far less expensive than nutrient-rich, lower-calorie foods like fruits and vegetables. The prices of the most healthful foods surged 19.5 percent over the two-year study period, while the junk food prices dropped 1.8 percent.

Obesity researchers worry that these trends will push consumers toward less healthful foods. “The message for this year and next year is going to be affordable nutrition,” Dr. Drewnowski said. “It’s not the food pyramid, it’s the budget pyramid.”

The City/Farmer’s Market is closed for the season, and we are left with few easy options at the moment (we do have plenty of farms locally, but its not as convenient as hopping over to South St on a Saturday).

What have you done differently since our last chat and where can we procure inexpensive healthiness?  Are you cooking more?  Are you sick and tired of rice and beans, or do you have a ridiculous recipe?  Or are we going completely seasonal where October consisted of pumpkin granola, pumpkin pancakes, pumpkin bread, roast pumpkin, pumpkin soup, etc…

[pic from Andrew* on flickr]

I think cville becomes even better when it can introduce me to something I have never even heard of…this week it is Spicy Senegalese Peanut Tofu soup at Revolutionary Soup.  Thor touched briefly on how this is one of his favorite soup’s in his Week o’ Charlottesville Lunches series, and after trying it, I think it deserves its own soup bowl sized spotlight.  It sounded very appetizing from the menu on the wall, but I was worried it would be some knock-off of a Thai-style peanut dipping sauce (satay sauce) turned into a soup.  What I received was as non-Thai as it gets, and a my belly loved every bite of the small size cup I got (mistake #23093 in my book, order at LEAST the medium).

A couple interesting things about this soup:

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There has been a lot of talk on cVillain related to the local/slow/organic food movement. Gobbler wrote a post on the economics behind sustaining a 100% organic diet, thanks to his wife’s new infatuation with the hit-book “Skinny Bitch”. Vanillavy submitted himself to days upon days of a 100% vegetarian diet and prepared a local vegetarian food guide.

So the Charlottesville City Farmers Market is one way to participate in this scene, but there are many other places to embrace this spirit all over town. Courtesy of the Piedmont Environmental Council’s Buy Fresh Buy Local guide, here is the directory to end all directories for the local food scene:

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So, I returned from a long weekend away from my wife to find out that she’s been reading Skinny Bitch by Kim Barnouin and Rory Freedman and has decided that she would like to start living the organic lifestyle. She will only eat organic food, cutting out dairy all-together, and is considering becoming a vegetarian.

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I had an amazing morning this past Saturday at the Charlottesville City Market. There was something for everyone:

• Vegetarians: from fresh young bamboo shoots to local strawberries and purple spring onions, the potential for a ridiculous vegetarian meal was easily within one’s reach
• Jewelry: from conservative to on-the-edge, designed young and old were out strutting their stuff
• Meats: there was some serious sausage grilling giving the market a nice smoky aroma
• Politics: Obama 08′, Amnesty International, and a group petitioning against the proposed dam made sure you knew what their deal was
• Eggs: probably every farm except Polyface (why?) sold farm fresh eggs

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So I am officially ending my vacation, breaking the chains of my previous imprisonment, and embracing the food scene in full force. I am skinny, weak and oh so hungry. I was told by my superiors that Cville wasn’t ready for a trigger happy food critic…some of you think otherwise.

Let’s clear up some air over here. First a little background on myself so you don’t think I am completely full of the shizzle. I was born in this country to a family of European parents who absolutely love food. If there was one time in the day where we can break the Guinness Book of World Records record for loudest conversation, it was definitely at the dinner table. Eating is not just a necessity for me, it’s life. It is the conductor to my life’s symphony. My parents have spent the last 30 years in the food business with me at their side, so inevitably, I have a particularly strong connection with food.

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It seems not all farms are treated fairly, and our local sweetheart, Polyface Farm, seems be getting the cold shoulder from the USDA. Joel Salatin mentions he would like to sell custom slaughtered meat, but can’t. The irony here is that the government is OK with us eating his meat in any way shape or form, as long as we don’t give him money for it. It must be processed at a USDA approved facility bla bla bla. Have any of you seen Fast Food Nation? Would you prefer one of our local boys cutting the meat or the heathens in the meat factories? I know regulations are there for a reason, but they don’t always bring out the best.

Exactly. So cVillains, who’s for Joel selling us his meat?

So I embarked on an odyssey last week (does that sound too serious?), to find out about cville’s vegetarian offerings. Given some of the comments on the posts related to this, let me clarify what that means. I was not looking for vegetarian ONLY restaurants, just places that, lets says you took a date to that happened to be vegetarian, he/she would be quite happy. So all of you hippies take a hike, this is not the post for you.

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Dependable Zo.Ca.Lo…what do you have to offer to those meat weary folks? Apparently just one dish, an amazing dish I have never had before in my life. The lone vegetarian warrior on the entrees menu is the “Black Bean and Corn Relleno”. I really didn’t know what to expect, I just read the description: smoked tomato grits, smoked pico, cilantro buttermilk honey”, figured it was cool to eat and ordered. I should warn you, this isn’t some “I am on a diet so I am trying out vegetarian food” type of dish. This thing definitely has healthy quantities of butter and cream…perhaps French cuisine had an affair with a Mexican damsel from the south and many years later Mr. Frenchie comes back to town to find out he has a lost daughter…this is his little chalupita.

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If you are looking for the vegetarian deal of the century, then Eppie’s on the downtown mall is the place to be. Their menu offering is pretty meat heavy except for the side’s section, which allows you the choice of a veggie only platter in 3 or 4 choice combos with a generous piece of corn bread.

I opted for mac n’ cheese, collard greens and coleslaw. For around 6 bucks I received an impressive amount of food that I couldn’t even finish. Everything on the plate was good quality. Not to say there isn’t any room for improvement like making the collard greens in a more modern manner or using a different cheese on the mac n’cheese, but the value per vegetable was really good. They had a wide variety of sides on the menu which I will definitely go back for. For a southern food lunch, it was light and left me happy…happy to know even with western fare this vegetarian craze can be satiated!

I also noted one of the kitchen staff came outside to offer a bowl of water for one of the customers that had their dog with them. I found that to be a terrific gesture. Talk about southern hospitality!

Images most graciously linked from Flikr