(mailing, James Berry)
[[invoke. page:newsletter1 # These are some of the fields that may be used # ============================= # leadimageid: # leadtext: # story1id: # story1text: # story2id: # story2text: # recipe1id: # recipe1text: # recipe2id: # recipe2text: # vad: (html for vertical ad) # hitBucket: (name used to track delivery) # ============================= leadimageid: 337325 leadtext: !fmt/block | h1. Dear readers, Many of us are trying to cut our own meat consumption, but a few business people are serious about finding large-scale alternatives to meat. You may have heard the news that in Britain this week, food critics tasted the world's first lab-grown hamburger. My impression is that they weren't bowled over by the $330,000 creation — funded by Google co-founder Sergey Brin — although they admitted it wasn't bad: "It's close to meat, but it's not that juicy," said one. "The general bite feels like a hamburger," said the other. Often I look to Tom Philpott for analysis of big food-related news items, and about this one he is lukewarm. For one thing, such a product takes huge amounts of energy to produce: "I just hope the effort doesn't distract from the necessary, difficult task of convincing people to eat much less meat — and when we do eat meat, to relying on meat from animals that feed on stuff we can't eat directly, like cows that live and munch on well-managed grasslands." Recently, I learned about a new California-based company called Beyond Meat. Unlike the bionic burger, its vegan product, billed as a meat substitute, is relatively affordable — $5.29 for 12 ounces — and is widely available (at most Whole Foods markets). The item I tasted, Grilled Chicken-Free Strips, looks and tastes like, yep, chicken, but not the plump hen you buy at a good butcher; more like the grilled chicken strips from a fast food restaurant. It's made of soy protein, pea protein, amaranth, and a lot of other ingredients, including "chicken flavor"; six strips contain 350 mg of sodium, a-not-insignificant amount. Many people, a lot of them children, will be thrilled to eat this item, although I'm not sure I'm one of them. But maybe I'll get used to the idea. It's a Brave New World out there for those of us changing how much meat we eat. How quickly we adapt and adjust is still in the cards. Kim Carlson Editorial Director # The lead text story1id: 448525 story1text: "How did the Bay Area hatch its progressive food culture? Alice McLean reviews a new book." story2id: 478471 story2text: "How two sisters from Bohemia forged a new life in Florida, based on what they'd learned in the kitchen." recipe1id: 478300 recipe1text: "This breezy summer dish comes from the resourceful cooks behind the Canal House series." recipe2id: 477913 recipe2text: "Throw a steak on the barbie, and then embellish it with chimichurri for Churrasco Nicaraguense." # The ad vad: | <a target='blank' href="http://howtocookapp.com/"> <img src="http://ads.culinate.com/htce/HTCE-iPad-Skyscraper.png" " width="120" height="600" alt="" border="0"/></a> ]]