Month: October 2012

I have seen some impressive pantry’s over the years, but I’ve also seen some pathetic ones. There are a few staples that are handy in the kitchen and help keep your food tasting great… and tasting different.

The rules for pantry items are:

Refrigeration is not necessary
Baking goods don’t count
Dried herbs and spices aren’t counted because there’s just too many, other then #1.

1. Salt and Pepper

Not counted as “spices” because they go in EVERYTHING! I don’t mean table salt and pre ground pepper. You need Kosher or sea salt and whole peppercorns that you grind from a pepper grinder. I like kosher salt as my every day salt because of it’s clean taste, uniformity in size and inexpensive price tag. For pepper, if you have a Trader Joes around you, buy the plastic pepper grinder that already has pepper in it. It costs $2 and grinds beautifully.

Why is this kind of dish so unctuously good?

Grilled Skirt Steak with
Shitake Fries and Worcestershire Aioli

1 skirt steak
kosher salt
fresh pepper

Heat a grill on high heat until hot. Season steak liberally and grill on high until browned and caramelized on both sides, about 7 minutes…don’t worry about cooking it all the way through, skirt stays moist.

Fries:
fresh shitake mushrooms, sliced or shaved
1c rice flour, cold
1c or more club soda or beer, ice cold
fry oil

Heat fry oil to 360 degrees ( when you start to fry it will drop to 350 which is the real temp to maintain.Whisk together the rice flour and soda water until a batter is formed…like a crepe batter. Season the batter with salt and pepper, dip in the mushroom slices and pop into the hot fryer. Fry for a minute or two, it won’t need to get browned, just crispy. Remove from the fryer to a cooling rack and season with a little more salt.

Aioli:
1 egg yolk
2Tworcestershire
1T malt or red wine vinegar
1T Dijon Mustard
1/2 clove garlic
1/2T minced shallot (optional)
1/8tsp dried thymes or 1/2tsp chopped fresh (optional)
1c grapeseed or canola oil, or peanut
salt and pepper to taste

Using a food processor, blend the first 7 ingredients. Then, with the machine running, slowly drizzle in the oil until combined and thick. Season to taste with a pinch of salt and pepper.

Wrapping our tongue up with earthy savory flavors like, mushrooms, beef and Worcestershire are primal tastes that to most people are undeniably good. But why are they undeniably good?
I am not a scientist, nor a scholar; just curious about the relationship between the foods we eat and their affects on our mind and body. Here are a few facts…a few fun facts, and a bunch of laymen theorizing that will hopefully run out of gas at it’s proper destination.

Glutamic acid or L-Glutamine…heard of ’em? Probably somewhere; it’s widely used in the medical, dietary and scientific industries; it also happens to be amino acid numero uno making up 60% of our skeletal muscle structure and plays a primary role in balancing our brain chemistry.
L-Glutamine is the absorbable form of glutamic acid; an amino acid, that in congruence with GABA (gamma-aminobutyric acid), balances our brain function. These two aminos are neurotransmitters; they act like yin and yang in our brains with glutamic acid being the stimulator and GABA being the suppressor. These are the most vital/abundant NT’s in your brain. They control basic motor function, cognition, keeping your heart pumping, and lungs inflating, etc.
Both are important and both are necessary, however; I’ll be focusing more on the stimulating effects of glutamine, what it’s in, and how it’s a part of our lives…in ways you might not have realized.

Mono-Sodium Glutamate, or, MSG or hydrolyzed vegetable protein; is a refined version of Kombu seaweed salt. It tastes absolutely magical, but unfortunately, throws your insulin levels through the roof, along with your blood pressure and, is an excitotoxin (cell killer).  Did I mention it’s crack like addictive quality (scratch, scratch scratch).

Kombu has been around and used, for centuries. However, it wasn’t until the early 1900’s that a Japanese professor, refined it and processed it to sell to the public as a miracle food additive…which it is (scratch, scratch, scratch).

The only thing L-glutamine and MSG seem to have in common is they are both forms of glutamate. Which means they both trigger glutamate receptors on our tongue telling us that something in our mouth is savory and delicious…enter Umami. The name given to the 5th known taste sensor on our tongue, and the only taste sense to have it’s own brain receptor. Having it’s own brain receptor means we are absolutely hard wired to crave and enjoy this protein. It is also one of the only amino acids capable of crossing the blood-brain barrier. These two bits of info are huge as there are very few things on the planet that our brain is hard wired for and can pass through the blood-brain barrier.

Trained since birth to crave glutamate, it’ the most abundant amino acid in breast milk at 0.02%; which means a baby could easily be getting .15g a day. That might not seem like alot, but adults (on avg), eat around .5g -1 g of glutamate per day; which means newborns eat like they’re already 25lb. Please don’t question the math, the bullet point of this presentation is that breast milk has high levels of glutamine. Those glutamine levels will also be key in a babies ability to efficiently hydrate…which I’ll discuss in part 2.  Still with me?

Long intro, I know :-|Because we’re wired for glutamate it makes sense that finding ways to use it in our food is a good way to naturally bump up flavor and add richness that wasn’t there before.  Familiar foods naturally rich in glutamate include,  soy sauce and other soy products, black and white truffles, parmesan cheese, tomatoes, mushrooms, yeast, legumes, hemp seeds, chia seeds, raw cabbage, beets, and most animal based proteins.  I bump up flavor in lots of dishes with Worcestershire sauce, Braggg’s Liquid Aminos, Thai fish sauce and truffle oil. A bone in pot roast or braised short ribs is another great example. The flavor the bones give to the sauce is all glutamate richness…and fat—gigitty. Dried mushrooms are another great, natural, easily found umami punch.
Now that we have a small overview of what glutamate does, you might have realized that I haven’t made any profound points…turn tape over to side B, or read Part Deux.

One day, while contemplating glutamate rich foods, I realized that Jack ‘n The Box Tacos were ridiculously glutamate rich. Mostly bad/unhealthy free-glutamate; but since it’s pretty much a “glutamate taco” anyways, (beef, soy, tomato and MSG). I realized that what I had been preaching for several years might have some scientific validity. That is, that Jack ‘N The Box Tacos are the greatest hangover remedy food in existence. Existence meaning that it is easily available down the street and inexpensive…and crunchy…and greasy, ahhhhhh drool, nom nom nom.

Every time I had a bad hangover, these little 50 cent bastards would bring me back from the dead…every…wait for it…time.  I always assumed it was just my greasy post drinking food of choice, but as it turns out, the glutamate dense snack food acts like a pit crew in an auto race.

Stay with me here: Your body is the car and alcohol is the track. You’ll have fun racing, but you’re gonna get beat up, get a flat, spill some oil and run out of gas. To get back in the race you’ll need some gas (water) and new tires (stable head and stomach)Glutamate (the pit crew) assists your body in getting what it needs by facilitating hydration, balancing your brain chemistry and removing withdrawal symptoms. You can do all these things without added glutamate; but do you ever see a race car driver get out of his car to change the tires or fill up the tank? No, a pit crew is safer and more efficient.

What is your hangover remedy? Is it glutamate rich? All signs lead to yes…especially if your answer involves fast food.

Most of us know that the main reason for hangovers is dehydration. The higher concentration of blood alcohol you have, the less water there is in your blood, duh.
Another reason for hangovers is the effect alcohol has on your brain. Alcohol increases GABA activity and lowers glutamate activity. That means it increases a suppressing neurotransmitter, and decreases an excitatory; resulting in a double dose of depressant effects. Your central nervous system, heart/circulatory system, respiratory system, motor function, cognitive ability, learning, memory, is ALL suppressed; it’s a double-whammy.

While balancing out your suppressed brain function, glutamate also acts as a cellular hydration mechanism, whereby it can “trick” the brain into pulling in more water. This use is highly common among athletes and body builders for its hydrating effects on muscles—which then helps recovery time and growth.
This amazing hydrating aspect is what turned the light bulb over my head into this diatribe before you.

Disclaimer for lack of bibliography :-|
I got nothin’.  When it comes to concrete, documented evidence supporting my case, there isn’t much out there. But there are some companies selling GA based hangover cures, and I did do some pretty good field testing of my own. I had varied results because my controls were not strict enough; but one time (out of about three)…it worked like magic.
I already had the L-glutamine in pill form, as I’d been experimenting with myself and friends on random party nights. Results were always inconclusive, but never bad, and everyone seemed relatively good the next day; however, it was never clear that the glutamine was the reason.
So, like so many before me, I decided to put the burden and responsibility for accurateness solely upon my shoulders.
The mission ahead was detailed as such:
Glutamine pills…check.
Cheap liquor that assured a plate tectonic shifting headache… check.
I did drink a responsible amount of water, but nothing outside of what I normally would when partying.
While hanging out with family over a 3-4 hour period, I preceded to destroy around 3/4 of a 750ml bottle of Jim Beam, mostly mixing with a little Coke. I took glutamine before I started drinking, before bed and when I woke up in the morning. I think it was about 1g per dose (100mg). .
The next morning I felt absolutely fine.

Overall, L-glutamine is an awesome supplement capable of doing ridiculous amounts of good for our bodies. I wouldn’t recommend it everyday (since water is the only thing we should have EVERY day); but I’d definitely use it when I’m feeling less then 100%.
Sidenote* for those who use alot of ibuprofen. Glutamine has been found to reverse some of the intestinal damage caused by non-steroidal anti-inflammatories,..just sayin’.

ALOT of scientific explanation was left out here; but I assure you, I researched a shit ton…ask my wife :-| She’s glad it’s all over.

I obtained my information through random research, self testing, talking with people smarter then me (they weren’t hard to find) and a ton of scientific journals on the web. Obviously I have no bibliography for this article, sorry about that. I gathered information over a long period of time and lost track of where it all came from, so take it as you will, I’m gonna go grind a taco now…gigitty.