Category: Food & Drink

Aaaargh

Economics, Farming, Food & Drink

So much for my BBQ:

America’s ranchers are facing their smallest cattle herd in 75 years, a shortage now rippling from pastures to some of the nation’s largest meatpackers.

USDA data shows the U.S. entered 2026 with about 86.2 million cattle and calves, the smallest herd since the early 1950s. That’s down from roughly 94.7 million cattle and calves in 2019, a decline of more than 8 million animals.

And therefore:

Tyson Foods announced last week that it will close beef facilities in Illinois and Utah and pursue the sale of another in Washington as it reshapes its beef business amid what the company called one of the most historic cattle shortages the country has ever experienced. Tyson said recent USDA data suggest supply constraints are likely to persist.

And the reason:

“The biggest thing has been drought,” Eric Belasco, head of the agricultural economics department at Montana State University, previously told Fox News Digital.

He said years of dry weather have depleted grasslands across the West and Plains, leaving ranchers without enough feed or water to sustain their herds. Many have been forced to sell cattle early, including cows needed to produce the next generation of calves, making the road to recovery even longer.

The effects are reaching beyond ranches and into grocery stores, where consumers are paying more for beef.

Tell me about it.  Beef has long been a staple chez Du Toit, but I think our current consumption of steak, burgers and such has been more than halved over the past year or two.  As for going out for a steak dinner?  Not since B.C. (before Covid).

I can’t even afford to make my own biltong anymore.  No wonder New Wife has been cranky recently.

Worse is that I don’t much care for chicken, unless in toasties… but I guess that will have to change.

As much as I’m reluctant to let Gummint be involved in anything, I do think that cattle farmers could do with some help from that quarter.  (I don’t know where because I’m not a cattle farmer.  But no, it can’t come from tax relief because that just benefits Big Beef Inc., who controls most of our beef production.)

I have to tell y’all, though:  I’m getting kinda cranky myself every time I go into the store and see those beef prices.  Beef shouldn’t be a luxury foodstuff;  but it’s become one, and I don’t like it.

Thank you, Mother Nature, you dried-out old bitch.

Slacking

Food & Drink

Sorry about the paucity of posts today.  It being Doc Russia’s birthday, we (Doc, Combat Controller and I) went out for a spot of carousing last night, and the old gulliver’s feeling the effects thereof.

Normal service should resume tomorrow.

Not Raw

Food & Drink

This pic reminded me of something:

It reminded me that I don’t like eating raw vegetables.  In fact, if I think of it, the only ones I don’t mind eating raw are tomatoes and cabbage (i.e. as cole slaw, with Marzetti’s dressing).  All other vegetables are only palatable if cooked.  (Cabbage gets a special mention, here.  I only eat it raw because cooked cabbage makes my stomach turn, violently — by both smell and taste, thank you boarding school.)

Even pickled vegetables get the stinkeye from me, except jalapeño peppers.  And don’t even think of sauerkraut, ugh.  (No wonder the Germans were once so aggressive, if that was a feature of their daily diet.  Ditto the Irish and boiled cabbage.)

Needless to say, this attitude does not endear me to the salad-eaters, who can’t stop rabbitting on about the joys of said foul stuff.  Nope.  Lettuce has no taste, and is really just a water-delivery vehicle, as is cucumber;  cauliflower is tasteless (cooked or raw), and as any baby will tell you, carrots are foul in any manifestation:  cooked, raw or pureed.

And raw broccoli has a special place in hell because not only is it bland-tasting, it leaves those little buds lodged in between the teeth for future discomfort and smile-disfigurement.  I can just barely tolerate it cooked.

Yeah, I’m mostly a meat-and-potatoes/rice man.  Surprise, surprise.

Okay, plus eggs:

And if we’re going to go all exotic on the meat thing:

And if I’m forced (at gunpoint) to become a vegetarian:

I think I need to pay a visit to my kitchen now.  And my apologies if this post has created a similar urge among y’all.

Comparative Dressing

Food & Drink

This little thing made the meme-rounds over the weekend:

My first reaction was:  Huh? because I don’t much care for ranch dressing myself, so at first I couldn’t understand the excitement among the Euros and Brits over the stuff.  Then I remembered what these guys generally put on their salad:

…which is easily the most vile cream-like substance anyone has ever put in their mouth.  (And that includes the output [sic]  of the porno movies made in the 1970s.)

So when we Murkins wonder why all the excitement about ranch dressing, you need to consider the (coff, coff)  competition.

Quite understandable, really.

Good News

Food & Drink, Health

Here’s one side benefit from the emergence of Ozempic et al.:

For a very long time, bariatric surgery, in which doctors removed a portion of the stomach, was the standard procedure for helping patients lose weight and manage obesity, alongside metabolic disorders such as diabetes, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol. However, ever since GLP-1 medications like Ozempic became available on the market, there has been a shift in how people seek to lose weight.

I just wish this stuff had been around all those years ago, before I had my bariatric (gastric band) surgery.  I don’t often regret my important decisions, mostly because I’ve given them a considerable amount of thought before making them;  but having a plastic sphincter installed at the top of my stomach — thus reducing the amount of food one can swallow — was easily the stupidest thing I’ve ever done.

Executive summary:  it took away one of my few pleasures in life.  And yes, I could probably have had the thing removed (probably not now, it’s been too long), but at the time I had no health insurance (and the removal probably wouldn’t have been covered anyway) so here I am, some eighteen years later, still stuck with the damn thing.

And still unable to swallow a decent mouthful of delicious food.

And yes, I’m back on Ozempic, because (as I discovered) it did change my attitude towards food and the quantities thereof while I was taking it.  I thought this attitude would persist after I stopped taking it, but it didn’t:  in the year after losing some fifty pounds, I put about ten pounds back on.  And so here I am, back to the weekly prick in the stomach, at about $50 a pop for the 0.25mg privilege.

Fach.

Just don’t expect me to feel any sympathy for the bariatric surgeons as they see their income shrink.

Food Palaces

Food & Drink, Travels

Finally, a list in the Daily Mail that I can more or less agree with, because food.  The markets (ranked by the DM;  * means I’ve been there):

1. Reading Terminal Market, Philadelphia, USA*
No argument.  Best frigging food choices on the planet.  I’d like to mention my favorites, but we’d be here all day.  It’s actually worth going to Philly just to visit the place;  then get the hell out.  One of my buddies used to fly to Europe via PHL and used to break his trip there, just to get road food from Reading.  I might do the same, if ever…

2. Borough Market, London, UK
Missed this one, somehow (makes note).

3. Adelaide Central Market, Adelaide, Australia
Strylia, ergo no chance.

4. (tie) Mercado Central, Valencia, Spain / South Melbourne Market, Melbourne, Australia
See above;  but I wouldn’t mind going to Valencia.

6. Torvehallerne, Copenhagen, Denmark
I’m not a huge fan of Scandi food, generally speaking, but if I ever get there, sure (because Copenhagen).

7. Marché Bastille, Paris, France*
Been there and it’s lovely (because Paris);  but I’ve been to two or three others in the city that are just as good.

8. Granville Island Public Market, Vancouver, Canada*(?)
I’ve been to a foodmarket in Vancouver, but it’s been so long that it might have been another one.  Still, if this is the same one, it’s excellent.

9. Chelsea Market, New York City, USA*
Went there at least a dozen times when I lived in Joyzee.  Great but overpriced (#NYfC).

10. Ferry Building Marketplace, San Francisco, USA*
Excellent with amazing choices of seafood, but parking (back when I went) was nosebleed, even for SF.  Easier to take a cab.

11. Milwaukee Public Market, Milwaukee, USA*
Best foodmarket in the Central Midwest, by a country mile.  Nothing Chicago does can compare.

12. La Boqueria, Barcelona, Spain
Never been to Barcelona, but if I do, I’ll definitely give this one a shot.

13. Marché Atwater, Montreal, Canada*
Disagree.  Jean Talon is far better than Atwater, although it’s a fur piece outside downtown (but reachable by the metro).  I want to get back there SO badly, because saucisson.

14. Pike Place Market, Seattle, USA*
Nice, but I was unimpressed with the bread offerings (not everyone likes sourdough).

15. Viktualienmarkt, Munich, Germany*
Should be much higher on the list.  Best Bavarian foods ever.  Just the sausage selections alone are worth the trip.  I and the kids must have tried four or five different kinds of wurst, and all were wonderful.  And we won’t talk about the pastries and cheeses… oh and the upstairs doughnut shop sells the best berliners in the world.

16. (tie) Or Tor Kor Market, Bangkok, Thailand / Mathallen Oslo, Oslo, Norway
Never been, unlikely to go to either.

18. Municipal Market of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
See above.  Brazil has never been high on my list.

19. St. Lawrence Market, Toronto, Canada
Anything Toronto has, Montreal usually has better, and cheaper.

20. Foodhallen, Amsterdam, The Netherlands*
Another one that should be higher up the list.  From breads to pannekoek to fries to (duh) cheeses, it’s tops.  If I lived nearby, I’d weigh 600lbs.

That’s my 2 cents.  And now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to the kitchen.