Time to start that food blog

I've been kicking around the idea of starting a participatory food blog. Part of it is that I want to get my hands on a Drupal project, but part of it is that it becomes more clear every day that the meat-centered way I've been cooking most of my life just isn't viable anymore. This sucks royally, because I do like meat and I seem to have the sort of metabolism that remains satisfied longer from a meal with meat than without one.

So if I ever have a chance to breathe without water in the basement or bathroom floors that need replacing because when they took the old vanity out they found that there was no flooring underneath it, I'll be moving towards that as a side project.

But meanwhile, the melamine problem gets worse.

David Goldstein reports that melamine has now been found in farmed fish. Of course the FDA won't tell us which kinds of fish are affected (though it's a pretty safe bet that it's salmon). He also reports that the so-called "wheat gluten" that was tainted with melamine is actually just plain old wheat flour:

I just have to say that this is STUNNING. Two months after first determining a problem with “wheat gluten flour” they only now determine it was really plain old wheat FLOUR? Anybody who has ever baked bread would have been able to tell the difference… the two products have different color and texture. Mix in a little water and rub it between your fingers, and you can tell the difference with your eyes closed.

He's absolutely right. I have a box of vital wheat gluten that I often use when I make bread in the bread machine. And yes, you most certainly can tell the difference. But it's clear now that the so-called "wheat gluten" imported from China had such high levels of melamine because they were trying to pass off flour as gluten by artificially pumping up the protein readings using an industrial chemical used to make plastic.

Yesterday on the ghastly WWRL morning radio show, the idiotic Sam Greenfield posited the possibility that this was some sort of exercise in terrorism on the part of the Chinese. I think he's completely off-base here. I don't think it's terrorism, it's just plain old good old-fashioned corporate greed -- greed on the part of the Chinese companies that sold adulterated products as something else, greed on the part of ChemNutra, which sought to save a few bucks by buying cheaper Chinese product, and greed on the part of Menu Foods, which sought to save a few bucks by buying ChemNutra's cheaper products.