When it comes to fair food, there are a few things you can always bank on. Deep-fried everything, funnel cake, elephant ears, stuff on sticks, and giant portions of delicious-yet-artery-clogging snacks being chowed down on the go.
Over the past few years, Los Angeles has become a more exciting and important food city than ever before, from high quality local meats and produce to the multifaceted population of ethnic communities that make some of L.A.’s most delicious food. But, the latest trend is like nothing we’ve ever seen — and strangely reminiscent of our favorite fashion trend.
Let us explain. Besides a city-wide obsession with uni and a growing food court madness, there’s one trend that’s catching on with L.A.’s best spots: they’re coming in pairs. Some of our favorite restos are now opening up faster and more affordable counterparts to their acclaimed (and more expensive) spots, creating mini restaurant empires that provide every style of dining experience you could possibly want want.
Just like the high-low trend in fashion (a $500 Mansur Gavriel bag never looks better than when it’s paired with a $59 H&M dress), similar restaurant concepts have popped up all over our fair city. Chef Ludo Lefebvre has a casual French bistro named Petit Trois right next door to his ticketed Trois Mec. Connie and Ted’s casual seafood is the chill counterpart to Michael Cimarusti’s two Michelin starred Providence. And, most recently, Jon Shook and Vinny Dotolo’s newly opened Jon & Vinny’s casual red sauce Italian joint is in the same ‘hood as their more experimental and very elegant Animal.
PHOTO: COURTESY OF PETIT TROIS.
So, What’s The Deal?
“As a chef, you always want to come up with new and different concepts,” Lefebvre tells us, taking a break from his busy evening prep schedule.“Trois Mec is very unique and special. I wanted to provide a different kind of dining experience altogether to set them apart, not compete.” For him, opening up a French bistro was always a dream: “When the space right next to Trois Mec opened up, I knew it was meant to be.”
According to Lefebvre, accessibility wasn’t the only reason he had for opening up a faster, more affordable counterpart to Trois Mec. Instead, Petit Trois was a happy byproduct. Adding that while the close proximity (read: they share a wall) wasn’t his sole intention behind the restaurant, it is a defining concept of the bistro. “I have always dreamed of a little tiny French bistro in Los Angeles and, really, it was the space that dictated the concept,” he says.
Come One, Come All
“A great restaurant owner once told me, ‘Your restaurant is always a testament of where you’re at in your life.’ And, right now, we’re both in the stage of our lives where we’re parents who have young kids and wanted to create an environment for them to grow up in,” Jon Shook tells us of his newly opened, casual American-Italian spot with partner Vinny Dotolo, Jon & Vinny’s. “And, what better food than pizza and pasta, you know what I mean?”
Wanting to tap into something that’s comforting and reminiscent of the childhood experiences with food that first sparked their interest in cooking is definitely part of what’s driving this trend. Take Michael Cimarusti: With two Michelin stars under his belt for fine dining seafood restaurant Providence, he surprised everyone and opened Connie and Ted’s, the low-key New England style seafood restaurant modeled after east coast crab shacks. Naming the restaurant after his grandparents, who fostered a love and respect for fishing and family, Connie and Ted’s acts as a culinary homage to a much simpler time. Translation: It’s insanely delicious and the average diner is in jeans.
Foodie On A Budget
But, the most exciting part about this trend is that we now have the ability to experience the talent of these amazing chefs without breaking the bank.
Lefebvre describes the contrasting styles of spots as a complete version of his style of cooking:“The complementary aspect is like the ying to its yang — very different, but together make up the whole. At Trois Mec, you never know what you will find, our menu is constantly changing and I am always trying new things, learning new techniques, and finding new combinations,” he says. “At Petit Trois, the menu is much more simple and straightforward, like comfort food should be. Together, you get the full range of my cooking.”
Of course, opening up restaurants in high and low pairs isn’t exactly revolutionary. Shook reflects, “More chefs are doing casual projects…but it wasn’t necessarily public knowledge. I remember when I was in culinary school, back in Florida, there were guys that were great chefs doing taco places and hamburger joints.” So, if it’s not exactly new, why is this model trending and proving so successful for L.A.’s restaurant scene?
A lot of it comes down to cost, care, and mindset. “I think a lot of the reason why chefs are into opening up places that are a bit more casual is because of cost operations,” Shook says, pointing out that much of the cost of a fine dining restaurant goes towards things like service, glassware, tables, design, and other non-food related things. Essentially, a more casual place frees up money for high quality ingredients.“In fine dining, you’re essentially paying for the service and not necessarily the ingredients,” says Shook, “But, in all of our restaurants we buy the nicest stuff you can buy, bar none. Even the canned tomatoes that we’re using for the pizza, we’re buying the highest quality tomatoes you can buy. Picked in California, canned in California. As good, as if not better, than some of the ones fine dining restaurants are using.”
The Next Wave
Ready your appetite, because thankfully, this trend isn’t going anywhere. “I think the trend will continue for a long time,” Lefebvre says, “Chefs want to reach a broad spectrum of guests. And, they want different dining opportunities, whether it be from a food style standpoint or a different price point. I believe chefs will continue to push the restaurant styles and concepts they create. It’s exciting.”
It is exciting, and with Cimarusti’s forthcoming Cape Seafood and Provisions slated to open this summer, Mark Peel’s new Bombo stall (brand spanking new fish market stand) at Grand Central Market, Helen’s wine shop attached to Jon & Vinny’s, and Belcampo’s new restaurant to match their burgeoning Santa Monica butcher shop, it’s safe to say the trend is on the up and up.
When it comes to food and wine pairings, there’s no shortage of classic combos that always work: oysters and Champagne, Cabernet and steak, Zinfandel and BBQ. But, what about the nights when you’re craving a glass of vino with something that you can pick up and devour at home? Perhaps even something you can score from, dare we say, a drive-thru?!
As you’ve probably already guessed, we’re talking about the ultimate in high/low food pairings: the perfect glass of wine to punctuate your favorite takeout. (Admit it: Doesn’t an In-N-Out burger and a glass of light red sound simply divine for dinner tonight?)
Of course, Southern California’s original fast food haunts all seem to be lacking a skilled sommelier for a reco, so we called upon Matthew Kaner for help. Kaner is the wine director and co-owner of some of L.A.’s coolest wine bars, like Bar Covell and the just-opened Augustine Wine Bar — i.e. the perfect person to help us pair some delicious eats with a perfectly-selected libation.
From SoCal favorites like Winchell’s Donuts and In-N-Out Burger to Taco Bell and Panda Express, we’ve got all the best new wine pairings that you could possibly need. Cheers!
L.A. is a city of transplants. Of course, there are a few fabled born-and-bred Angelenos out there, but most of us come from somewhere else — be it another state or even another country. Whether you’ve lived here for a decade (and consider yourself an honorary L.A. native), or you’re just settling in to your first month in the city, there’s always a little part of you that will belong to your hometown.
We know it firsthand: that nostalgic pang that affects even the most well-adjusted of L.A. transplants when we catch a scent of our native grub. Fortunately, since many of the city’s culinary purveyors hail from all over, we don’t have to leave town to get a taste of home. We’ve put together a list of the best dining spots that will immediately transport you to a different state (and state of mind) — all within city limits.
From authentic Tex-Mex and Chicago-style deep-dish pizza, to New England-style seafood and authentic Hawaiian bites, these restaurants will take you back to your roots — or somewhere new altogether. So, say hello to your new home away from home! (And, for all you international transplants, stay tuned: We’re cooking up a list for you, too!)
Even as size-acceptance movements continue to grow in the Western world, people still fear fat. They worry about becoming fat themselves or criticize it in others, often under the troll-like guise of caring for a stranger’s health. But that is not the case when it comes to feederism: a multifaceted community of people with a fetish for eating and weight gain.
Barring a few eye-opening pieces from members of the feederism community themselves, the portrait most people get of feederism is one of extremes—stories of the world’s fattest men and women or think pieces that question whether the feeder-feedee relationship is abusive.
In order to get a more complete understanding of what it actually means to be part of the feederism community, I headed to Fantasy Feeder, an online hub where those who “want to be fat or to fatten” come together to chat about everything from recipes and lifestyle tips to weight gain and BDSM.
For many of those who are into feederism, an interest in weight and fatness came at a young age. “I was always attracted to fat people,” explains Patch Lumpkin, a longstanding feedee and gainer within the community. “I loved the way their body looked and I loved seeing them eat. When I was a kid, I would stuff my clothes with pillows and pretend to be super-fat. I also loved playing in the mud and being messy with food. It gave me a thrill even before I knew it was sexual.”
Mutual gainer Martin Silva reflects: “It started pretty young—I’d say, like, age 14. I liked the idea of girls getting fatter. I would think about what they would look like with 20 extra pounds, then 40, etc., and found that very erotic,” he tells me. “At the same time, I found gaining weight myself to be a turn-on—being fed by a female feeder. So I finally settled on mutual gaining, as both arouse me.”
Gaining is something that many feedees do on their own in the beginning, perhaps with some encouragement from people in the online feeder community. But more often than not, the feeder-feedee relationship isn’t there from the beginning in any direct way.
“[My gaining] is mostly personal, but I do get encouragement from feeders on Kik,” says feedee Kyle Chessner. A direct or indirect feeder partner isn’t always necessary for feedees to enjoy the pleasure that comes from a love of fatness and feeling themselves get bigger, or the playful and sometimes not-so-playful humiliation at their gains.
For some, the act of feeding can be as simple as eating throughout the day. “I eat carbs, and a lot of them,” says Chessner. “I eat almost constantly and am rarely seen without food. I love waking up in the morning and examining my body in the mirror and trying to visually track my gain.”
For others, feeding can range from a weekly indulgence to planning something that’s more of a production: “Basically, food with foreplay,” Silva says.
“Sometimes the hottest [feeding sessions] are in public, where you have to try to not look so turned on,” says Lumpkin. “In private, you can get wild and mix sex directly with feeding. I enjoy being encouraged to eat with sexual pleasure. Like, if I’m eating, I get a reward with stimulation, or spanked/pegged if I don’t eat like a good piggy. I love being teased about how fat I am and how fat I will become—being measured, weighed, made to wear clothes that are too tight, so as I eat the buttons pop.”
While stuffing can be incredibly erotic for some feedees, huge amounts of weight gain are rarely the goal. “Only a small number ever take it to those levels of extreme obesity,” Silva notes. “I find a female going from 120 [pounds] to maybe 165 ideal. Others might say 165 is just a starting point, and say 200, etc.”
Lumpkin agrees. “Each body is different. If you are experiencing health issues due to weight, most feedees will drop pounds until they get to a safe weight. Like BDSM—safe, sane, consensual,” he adds. “Some of us may fantasize about being immobile [due to weight] but in reality we still want active lives.”
The feeder-feedee relationship is most often one of a dominant and a submissive, sharing certain characteristics with BDSM culture. But as with any BDSM relationship, the erotic transaction must be mutual—both parties have to enjoy the weight gain. And as with BDSM, responsible feeders and feedees take their roles very seriously, and are careful to practice in safe ways that respect their partners’ boundaries.
But that isn’t always the case. On the extreme end of the feedee spectrum are people like Donna Simpson, the New Jersey woman and feedee cam-girl who once famously strove to reach 1,000 pounds with the encouragement of her then-fiancé, Philippe Gouamba. Simpson has since turned away from the life of eating in front of a webcam, moved back to Ohio, and dropped from 600 pounds to 470 in order to take better care of her two children.
“All [Philippe] could see was my belly, my figure—not that I had a brain or that I should be going to school,” Simpson tells me. “I guess you could say the same about the other side as well—when women look exactly like [they do] in Vogue magazine and men only see you for your body like that.”
While Simpson may have given up her extreme goals, she’s still not entirely turned off by the idea of a feeder-feedee relationship. “If I was with a guy who thinks it’s kind of cute to feed and likes if you gain a little bit of weight, then I wouldn’t mind that,” she says. “Like, ‘I think it’s kind of cool if you eat another slice of pizza’ or ‘I’ll bring you home a box of seven donuts.’ But the whole extreme thing is too much.”
Indeed, her relationship unraveled because the realities of such weight gain often clashed with her partner’s fantasy. “Philippe always wanted me to eat and gain and eat and gain, but then would get angry with me because I wasn’t able to vacuum the floor,” Simpson says. “You can’t want someone to be immobile but then get mad when they can’t go walk in the park with you. It becomes a form of abuse when it’s to that extreme. You have to be really selfish, to be an intensely hardcore feeder, to not want your partner to be able to walk around and enjoy life.”
As Simpson’s experience demonstrates, feeding is not inherently abusive, but it can be exploited by abusive people.
“Philippe was a bona fide sociopath. He once told me there was this woman who had no arms and no legs, and her husband carries her around like that in a box,” Simpson tells me. “And he thought that sounded like the perfect woman.”
Lumpkin concedes that while most people in feeder-feedee relationships are perfectly well adjusted, the accepting nature of the community can be enticing to those who are not. “There is an attraction to this lifestyle by the enabler and victim,” he says. “It’s a safe place to hide in an all-accepting community and family that will unconditionally love you. People like that need help and to be in their right mind before they make modification to their body with full understanding, full control.”
It’s the sensationalized cases of extreme gaining and abuse that gives feederism a bad name, keeping many (but not all) feeders and feedees from being fully open about their lifestyle. As Lumpkin puts it, “There are challenges to living this lifestyle, no doubt. We wear our fetish.”
One of the perks of living in L.A. is that you’re always within a five-block radius of a taco. Of course, everyone has their favorite spot — the place they always hit up when in need of a serious taco fix. But, where do the true taco fans go? Now, that’s the real question.
Don’t fret: We’ve got your back. We’ve narrowed it down to the absolute best bites that the city has to offer. From unassuming food carts that gather lines of hungry taco fanatics to small storefronts to long-established classics, we’ve rounded up the spots that every aficionado knows and loves. Taco crawl, anyone?
Aging is one of the most important of the many complicated steps in winemaking. It imparts flavor and influencing tannins to make each wine the unique glass of deliciousness that it is, and that’s classically been a function of the wooden barrels wine is aged in. Simply put, it makes that shit taste incredible.
Barrel making, or coopering, is also one of the oldest and most unchanged aspects of winemaking. While written references to coopering date back thousands of years, the hands-on nature of coopering, the traditional tools, and process of forming a barrel by hand, has changed comparatively little since then, surviving through the a master cooper who hands down the skills and knowledge to an apprentice.
In order to fully understand the ancient art, and the relatively silent heroes of the winemaking world who practice it, I caught up with Douglas Rennie, Master Cooper at Napa Valley’s Seguin Moreau cooperage, to see what he had to say about spending his days making barrels.
MUNCHIES: How did you first get into coopering?
Douglas Rennie: My father is a fourth-generation master cooper, so when I was 16 I went to apprentice at a school for coopers, the same place as my dad and grandfather. I learned how to work in the coopering industry, with all the traditional tools and no machinery, just like they’ve done for hundreds of years now.
What did you do after you finished your apprenticeship?
I worked at the cooperage for Black and White whiskey in Scotland. I was there for 12 years and then I left and found my way to Napa. Seguin Moreau was looking for a master cooper to set up a cooperage in Napa, so they sent me to Cognac, France for a year to work with the head master coopers there, and they showed me all the different techniques in the wine industry. It’s very different—the whiskey industry to the wine industry, the barrel types. It’s night and day difference. There’s so much more to making wine barrels than whiskey. It was a real education I got in Cognac, it was great. The people that taught me were at the top of the game, some of the best coopers in France. Then I came back to Napa to open the cooperage here and now it’s 24 years later.
How are whiskey barrels different?
Wood selection and attention to detail. Whiskey barrels go away for four to seven years and are used essentially as a holding vessel. Wine barrels, depending on what style of wine, are away for what could be nine months to two years and are on show in tasting rooms, so they really have to be made like furniture, perfectly detailed and of highest quality. Wine makers really demand high quality, so you can’t get away with taking short cuts. Every barrel must be perfect.
So what is the typical process of making these barrels?
Wine barrels can’t have any knots or anything in the wood. It has to be straight-grain wood where we bend it so it doesn’t break. It has to be cut perfectly for it. Then we do something called maturation, where we season the wood, and that can take as long as two years. How you season the wood is really important—you don’t just leave it out in the yard for two years. You have to monitor the wood and the weather conditions. They add water to the wood if it needs it, or change all the wood around in winter if it’s too cold. It’s really a detailed process to get the perfect wood for working with the barrel. This is really important because seasoning the barrel leeches all of the harsh tannins out of the wood that would otherwise overpower the wine.
From then, the wood is all jointed and it’s made concave and convex. It’s rounded on the outside and shaved on the inside, which helps the wood bend. Then we assemble every individual barrel, and once they’re assembled we drive the hoops on and start the bending process. We then heat the wood over an oak fire.
Why oak?
We can only use oak because if we use gas or pine wood it will impart a different flavor on the inside of the barrel. We put a cable around the bottom of the barrel and it pulls the barrel together at the bottom, forming the shape. Next we lay the barrel on its belly and we put one hoop on the end. Then we release the cable that’s holding the barrel together and from there once it’s bent we toast it. It’s just like how you would toast bread: light, medium, or really dark toast. We use fires to toast the inside, not touching but just heating it, and the natural sugars that are left in the wood when we mature it caramelize, so that the longer the barrel is left on the fire the darker the sugars will become and darken the inside of the barrel. We have to do this slowly because we need the heat to penetrate the wood. The actual toast level should act as a barrier between the wine and raw wood.
Is there any particular trend you are seeing right now in what wine makers are asking for in terms of their barrels?
I think American oak has become a lot more popular now than it was years ago. I think it’s because American oak has evolved so far, also the way we toast the barrels and we season the wood. But every winemaker is so different in what they want.
How much is done by hand on the typical barrel?
We are set up a bit like an assembly line, so we have one guy who will assemble, two guys that bend, and two people that toast, so every four minutes a barrel should move on to the next stage. There’s machinery that will cut the grooves and sand the barrels. With modern machinery we can keep barrels moving through faster. We can make about one barrel in four hours as opposed to the traditional entirely by hand way, where you would make about one barrel per day.
Does that mean old-fashioned coopering is on its way out?
I’ve been hearing that it was a dying trade since I started in coopering, but it’s still here and I think the wine industry is really keeping it alive. The more people become educated about wine and the more they want to drink good wine the more there is a need for good barrels, so that does help keep an old trade like coopering alive. But for sure it’s a dying trade.
Got it. Keep the flame alive, Douglas.
Want to celebrate the Fourth of July every day? We’ve rounded up nine dishes from LA’s luxest restaurants that one-up the standard Fourth fare and can be enjoyed well after America’s birthday is over.
Smoky Fried Chicken at Plan Check Kitchen + Bar
Known for reimagining American comfort food, Plan Check Kitchen+ Bar puts a fancy twist on Southern favorites with Jidori chicken, smoked milk gravy, yam preserves, and spicy pickled okra. 1800 Sawtelle Blvd., Los Angeles, 310-288-6500
The Lobster Roll at Hinoki & The Bird
Not your typical lobster roll, this upscale-Asian version comes with a Vietnamese green curry aioli and fresh Thai basil, served in a bun dusted with Japanese charcoal powder. 10 Century Dr., Los Angeles, 310-552-1200
USDA Prime Beef Burger at Wolfgang Puck at Hotel Bel-Air
A true step up from your average burger, this USDA prime beef offering from Wolfgang Puck is topped with Vermont cheddar, garlic aioli, and shallot-jalapeño marmalade.
Spot Prawn Corn Dogs at Malibu Pier Restaurant and Bar
Chef Jason Fullilove uses locally sourced Santa Barbra spot prawns in his interpretation the American-classic corn dog. They’re served perfectly golden and accompanied by a drizzle of tangy violet mustard. 23000 Pacific Coast Hwy., Malibu, 310-456-8820
Bucket of Bones at Barton G.
This meat-lovers feast comes loaded with barbecued Korean-style short ribs, 12-hour baby back ribs, grilled lamb lollipops, and chicken drumettes—all paired with a honey-gorgonzola dipping sauce, house-made pickles, and barbecue kettle chips. 861 N. La Cienega Blvd., Los Angeles, 310-388-1888
Oak Grilled Filet Mignon at Nick and Stef’s Steakhouse
This classic filet from Nick and Stef’s Steakhouse gleans its signature taste from an oak-fired grill and sumptuous red wine sauce. 330 S. Hope St., Los Angeles, 213-680-0330
Root Beer Float at Firefly
Firefly’s Paul Shoemaker combines sarsaparilla reduction, fresh vanilla ice cream, and root beer foam to create this elegant take on the classic root beer float. 11720 Ventura Blvd., Studio City, 818-762-1833
Hot Fudge Sundae at The Eveleigh
This delicious new addition to The Eveleigh’s dessert menu combines sweet cream ice cream, piping hot fudge, and maraschino cherries. Bonus: every component is made in-house. 8752 Sunset Blvd, Los Angeles, 424-239-1630
Fleur de Sel Chocolate Chip Cookie Ice Cream Sandwich at Stella Barra
Stella Barra’s decadent version of the ice cream sandwich boasts housemade ice cream (try the mint chip, salted caramel, or vanilla peppermint), sandwiched between two fresh chocolate chip cookies. 2000 Main St., Santa Monica, 310-396-9250
PHOTOGRAPHY VIA PLAN CHECK KITCHEN; HINOKI & THE BIRD; BARTON G; CUT; NICKANDSTEFS.FACEBOOK.COM; JESSICA SAMPLE; WOLFGANG PUCK; DALE DUDECK; THE EVELEIGH; STELLA BARRA
Modern children are an entirely different breed of human. They use iPhones better than most adults before their fifth birthday, don’t remember the archaic time when one could openly smoke in restaurants, and will listen to songs like “Wiggle” twenty years from now and become filled with nostalgia for childhood. Hipster baby names have gotten out of control, but now there’s a revolution of young children who are full-on, hardcore vegans and vegetarians. My six-year-old brother, William, is one of them.
Vegetarian since birth (due to my parent’s vegetarianism) William’s diet is something that I have silently, and sometimes not so silently, had problems with my whole life. He’s six and, even though I have spent zero time studying nutrition, I’ve always thought he couldn’t possibly be getting the nutrients he needs to grow properly—like many of us carnivores do—without meat. But William is a happy, healthy little kid who’s indecipherable from the rest his age, minus his affinity for tofu hot dogs and his ability to draw out the I’m trying not to look shocked face from waiters when we’re out for dinner and he says “I’m vegetarian” to the suggestion of pepperoni pizza.
One of the best parts about a vegetarian child is their reason for going meatless, which tends to either be adorably decided or a strange regurgitation of their parent’s rationale. “I just don’t like it, I don’t want to kill the creatures,” says William, sounding like my step-dad, “It’s weird because they kill animals just to eat the meat, not to use the bones or anything. If you’re going to hurt the animal you shouldn’t waste the bones.” Apparently “bone wasting” is a big concern for vegetarian children.
If you ask my parents why they chose to raise my brother vegetarian, their answers are a bit more in depth, “to be vegetarian is to be compassionate and have a respect for and love for all life, and then there are the obvious health benefits as well. Beans and rice provide amino acids, and dairy and plant proteins can substitute meat proteins and plant based iron coupled with citrus high in vitamin C allows for better absorption providing adequate iron levels,” says my mother. And even though those are things I’ve been hearing my whole life and rolled my eyes to often, I can’t deny that what they are saying is well informed considering my step dad’s degree in nutritional science and lifelong work in the health food industry. That coupled with my mother’s obsession with researching ways to stay healthy while being vegetarian is part of the reason why I can respect my parents’ decision to raise William to be vegetarian, even if it’s something that I wouldn’t do myself. “If he really wanted to eat meat, of course we would let him, he just doesn’t want to,” my mother insists. Sure, I think to myself, not yet, he doesn’t.
But it’s not just me. While there are an estimated 1.4 million vegetarian kids in the US and the culture of vegetarianism is more common than it was 50 years ago, the idea of a child or infant being vegetarian or vegan is still one that concerns many people when it comes to growth and health. Consider the tragic story of Sarah Anne Markam, the vegan mother who was arrested this week for not taking her infant to the hospital after being advised by a pediatrician that the infant’s vegan diet was putting the child’s like at risk.
As terribly sad as that is, what people might not realize is that for every vegan and vegetarian child who has suffered injury or death due to the diet their parents have chosen for them, there is another child who has suffered the same or equally terrible fate who wasn’t vegetarian or vegan. Children who are fed dairy and meat also die or suffer from diet induced medical disorders every year, from obesity to developing diabetes to suffering from vitamin deficiencies that effect their growth and internal organs. Some people are just fucking idiots or evil bastards that should not have children.
“A vegetarian child’s diet can be absolutely healthy, but you have to know what you’re doing,” says dietician Nina Hirvi about vegetarian children. “Of course there are risks if you are limiting certain foods, but the ones you want to watch out for are calcium, iron, and protein.” The average toddler only needs about 16 grams of protein a day—much of which can come from dairy, beans, and legumes. Many fruits and vegetables are iron-rich, and calcium can be obtained from milk. The only children that are at any real risk are picky eaters who also happen to be vegetarian.
“If you’re a picky kid who doesn’t like beans or tofu or nuts, you’re probably going to end up eating too many carbohydrates. We know that a vegetarian diet is healthier. But if you end up eating too much white refined carbohydrates and starch to substitute for lean chicken breast and beans, it’s not a healthy diet and can lead to the child becoming overweight,” explains Hirvi. If you’re going to have a vegetarian child, you may have to become more vigilant at cracking the whip, “If you’re vegan, you’re going to need to take a supplement of B12, because it is only found in animal foods and is also a good source of iron,” suggests Hirvi.
When the vast majority of problems that come about from a kid being vegetarian or vegan are results of not properly educating yourself on what exactly your vegetarian kid needs in order to survive, making them eat things they don’t want to, or not giving them a B12 vitamin, I think it’s time to stop blaming the diet itself and point the finger at inadequate parents. If you are making the decision to feed your child a vegetarian or vegan diet you damn well better at least read a book about it, or talk to a nutritionist, but get your shit together and make sure that kid is getting all of the nutrients that they need in order to be healthy.
Ask the average Westerner if they want lab-coated scientists fucking with the genes of their salad greens, and most will probably tell you no. But, in the United States alone, over 69 million hectares of land are used for genetically modified crops. That means that many if not most of America’s agricultural staples—corn, soy, canola, and up to 70 percent of the processed foods they end up in—are now genetically modified. Genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are deeply rooted in the average American diet, no matter what side of the line you stand on.
To put a human face on genetic modification, we tracked down a biotechnologist (whom we shall call Jay) currently working for an undisclosed biotech firm. We chatted about his experience with genetically modifying crops—from mastering tissue cultures to altering plant genes with bacteria—and the potential upside of GM food.
MUNCHIES: How did you end up in plant science and biotechnology?
Jay: When I was at North Carolina State, I met a Chinese guy who taught a class on medicinal plants that I ended up taking. We got to be friends and I volunteered to work in his labs and he taught me tissue culture, when you use sterile media with nutrients and plant hormones to grow plants in vitro in a growth chamber in clear, solid media. I thought it was awesome. Then I worked for him culturing tobacco for a while, before going to work for a contract period in a transformation lab for three months under an acquaintance of his who was using tissue culture.
At the time, I was 21 and starting to get into the lab, and the last thing I was thinking about was what some people were thinking about GM technology and these kind of things. I didn’t think anything about it.
So, what does “transformation” or “genetic modification” mean?
In the United States, it normally refers to a gene from a foreign source—a gene from another plant—that through traditional pollination and nature taking its course would never cross with each other. We’re taking, for instance, genes that are found in other species of plants, and we are taking them out and cloning them into vectors that can be delivered through different means. And then we get into all the types of ways that we can deliver foreign DNA to a plant or an animal or a fungus. There are lots of ways to go about it. Some of them are considered GM here and some of them are not considered GM.
What do you typically modify?
I work primarily on corn. Industry standard crops range from sorghum, rice, canola, sugarcane, sugar beet, cotton, and soy beans. Some of this is also going into feed for animals.
I utilize a naturally occurring, slow-born bacteria that, in the history of evolution, gained the ability to transfer genes into plants. If you’ve ever seen a tree that has a big nodule on it, that’s something called crown gall. The bacteria that we use to transfer genes into plants is the same bacteria that infects that tree. Essentially, there are are tumor-inducing genes. That nodule is actually a foreign DNA being transferred into that tree.
This ability for the plant to receive the type of technology that we give it is not something we created. We just discovered the science. It wasn’t created by us; it’s just utilized by us.
I don’t think people understand that some of the compounds we use on a daily basis, either in the form of popping a pill or looking at some of the enzymes we use to treat our waste water system, are cultured and engineered to do certain tasks, just as a genetically modified crop is.
What do you typically modify for or against?
Well, if you’ve heard of Roundup, it’s a glyphosate compound made by Monsanto. They’re kind of the big engine behind a lot of this—the GM stuff, a lot of the corporate biotech research. So, they made a dream product. They engineered genes that can break down herbicides, and thus the plant has tolerance to that herbicide. You’ll find that a lot of these companies are also chemical companies. They’ll develop the plant and then the herbicide that can kill everything but the package of crop that comes with it.
Besides herbicides, we modify to make disease resistance, insect resistance, drought tolerance, enhancement of different things, and nutritional composition. And, in the history of agriculture, through traditional breeding and things like that, people have always been doing that, trying to grow crops that are better and more resistant. It’s nothing new. It’s just that we do it faster now.
In order to have an informed opinion on GMOs, what do you think people need to consider?
People have to understand the idea that humans have always had to overcome either inconveniences or inefficiencies, and the fact that we can’t support what we are growing because of the population. So, it all comes down to people understanding all of those things—and the science, economics, agendas of people, as well as businesses and research organizations, and scientists who have their own egos. There’s so much to consider, and it’s so not black and white.
How necessary is genetic modification?
Well, think about what happens when the price of food starts going up, and the price of water, because we have to water the food and the animals that eat the food. Shit’s going to get really crazy. It hasn’t happened yet here, but if you look at countries in Africa, you can’t tell me that they aren’t needing food and water. We don’t have to worry about that so much, so of course we are going to say that this technology’s not needed. We don’t feel anything or reap any rewards—just lower food prices.
Got it. Thanks for talking to me.
