Slice ‘em and Weep

Five or six years back, I was discussing cooking with Naval Ravikant, who observed that a surprising majority of the entrepreneurs he knew seemed to love to cook. I’d noticed the same thing, though it made a lot of sense to me: both are about creating something from scratch, then sharing it with others. But while a startup requires years of slow slogging, a meal is something you can put together, enjoy with others, and receive course-correcting feedback on within the span of a single evening. Cooking fills your evening with a sense of success, of completion, that’s far more elusive in a company-building day job.

In the years since, I’ve watched the habits of chef-ing entrepreneurs, and it’s clear most of them bring the same science-loving nerdiness, and the same analytical approach, to both pursuits. Which is why so many of them also seem to be fans of Serious Eats, where Cook’s Illustrated alum J. Kenji López-Alt perfects recipes with a modern foodie spin on America’s Test Kitchen rigor.

Jess bought me a copy of López-Alt’s excellent The Food Lab earlier this year, and (though it’s a bit of a doorstop at 900+ pages) I’ve since read it cover to cover. Among the many takeaways was a small and surprising point I thought about this morning, as I was making salads to pack for lunch: how you slice an onion has a significant impact on how those slices taste.

You can read a full discussion of the difference here, but in summary:

Most people slice onions by cutting them in half, turning the stem to the right or left side, then slicing into half moons, like so:

The problem is, that ruptures a lot of cells in the onion, releasing lachrymators, the chemical compounds that make your eyes water and that sometimes give raw onions an off-puttingly overpowering taste.

To minimize that, simply rotate the onion ninety degrees, and instead slice it pole-to-pole, like this:

You can test this side-by-side, cutting the two halves of an onion different ways. Even better, store the two batches in separate containers for ten minutes, then open and sniff them. As López-Alt puts it, “there's no doubt that the orbitally sliced onion is stronger, giving off a powerful stench of White Castle dumpsters and bad dates.” I’ve tried it myself, and he’s most certainly right.

So, if nothing else, start slicing your onion the better way. But also consider buying and reading The Food Lab, so you can put similar insights to work across the board. If you’re a results-minded home (or even pro) chef, it’s definitely worth the time.

April 19, 2017

Vegetable-Friendly Athletics

While I’m a big fan of meat, Composite has increasingly picked up vegetarian and vegan clients, most of whom steer clear of meat (and, in the case of vegans, eggs and dairy) for moral reasons.

I won’t argue the moral grounds here (as others have already done so). But because people evolved to eat meat, it is important crucial for vegetarians and vegans to supplement their diets wisely, as it’s easy to run short on important nutrients and micro-nutrients found primarily or solely in meat and animal products.

Here’s a quick rundown of the most important ones, including why they matter, and how much to take:

Creatine 

What is it?

Creatine is an organic acid that your cells use to make energy. It is perhaps the best-studied and most effective health supplement available. It improves everything from strength and power output, recovery from endurance exercise, muscle growth and bone healing to memory formation, attention span and problem-solving skills. Because we get creatine in our diets from meat, vegetarians and vegans tend to have lower levels than omnivores, and benefit even more from supplementation.

How to Take it

Take 5 grams with a meal, once a day. The best form is micronized creatine monohydrate, which is very safe and gentle on the stomach, and dissolves flavorously in liquid.

L-Carnitine 

What is it?

L-Carnitine is an amino acid that’s found only in meat products. Your body needs it for cognition, fat metabolism and sports performance. Supplementing l-carnitine has also been shown to reduce both muscular and mental fatigue in vegetarians and vegans.

How to Take it

Take 500mg with carbohydrates, once a day. Acetyl-L-carnitine is very safe, and can pass through the blood-brain barrier, so it’s the form that provides the greatest cognitive benefits.             

Vitamin B12 

What is it?

Many vegetarians and vegans already supplement B12, and for good reason. B12 is an essential vitamin, and deficiency causes nervous system damage, anemia, heart disease and pregnancy complications. While some vegan foods have been claimed previously as good sources of B12 (spirulina, dried nori, barley grass, other seaweeds, raw foods), research has shown them to be ineffective. All dietary sources of B12 are animal-based, so while vegetarians can sometimes get sufficient B12 from eggs and dairy, it is crucial for vegans to supplement B12.

How to Take it

Take at least 100mcg daily, and as much as 10,000 mcg. (High doses are not toxic, because the body will not absorb more than it needs.) Methylcobalamin is the best absorbed form, though people with kidney problems should speak with their doctor before supplementing B12.

Protein

What is it?

Dietary protein is an important macronutrient, a crucial building-block used throughout your body. Eating too little protein leads to muscle wasting, reduced immune function, increased irritability, and eventually shock and death. Most non-animal protein sources have low bioavailability, which means that your body actually absorbs and uses a much lower percentage of the protein that you ingest. Protein supplements can help vegetarians and vegans get sufficient amounts of protein, from the most bioavailable sources.

How to Take it

Aim to eat at least 0.8g of protein per pound of bodyweight, supplementing to cover the gap from what your diet provides. Vegetarians would do best with with whey protein isolate, which is made from milk. Vegans should consider combining pea protein and rice protein instead, which together provides a complete protein. Steer clear of soy proteins, which contain isoflavones, compounds that bind to your steroid receptors and have unwanted hormonal effects on your body.

Iodine

What is it?

Iodine is an essential mineral, important for a properly functioning thyroid. Additionally, for women who are or who plan on becoming pregnant, iodine is crucial for fetal and early childhood brain development. Most people get sufficient iodine from their diet. However, vegans who don’t regularly eat sea vegetables, and who use natural salts (like sea salt) or salt substitutes like miso, are often deficient.

How to Take it

Taking 325 of kelp is a good insurance policy for vegans who don’t otherwise consume it daily. People on blood pressure medications should consult a doctor before supplementing.

Omega-3

What is it?

Being healthy depends on a balance between two kinds of essential fatty acids, Omega-3 and Omega-6. A 1:1 ratio between them is associated with healthier blood vessels, a lower lipid count, reduced risk for plaque buildup, and decreased risk of diabetes, depression, rheumatoid arthritis and several forms of cancer, including breast cancer. Omega-3 fats are found primarily in fatty fish, and in small amounts in eggs, while Omega-6 fats are found in very high levels in most vegetable cooking oils. As a result, research has shown that most vegans and vegetarians (like much of the omnivore population), have wildly unbalanced Omega-3 to Omega-6 ratios.

How to Take it

Taking 200-300mg of DHA from algae, while favoring oils lower in Omega-6 (like olive oil, avocado oil or coconut oil), is usually sufficient to bring the balance of fats back in line.

March 29, 2016

How You Like Them Apples

I am, by nature, a very skeptical person. Which comes in handy in the fitness and nutrition worlds, where ardently-claimed but scientifically-bankrupt stupidity abounds.

That’s why, though I grew up in the Bay Area, even at one point attended a summer camp where we had to ‘thank the spirit of the water’ each time we flushed the toilet, I’ve long been skeptical of the whole ‘farm to table’ movement.

I’d written off a lot of the appeal as hipster nonsense – the twee fetishizing of the ’craftsmen’ ethos. Sure, buying at a farmer’s market allows you to vicariously live a small slice of the farmers’ neo-luddite life. But farmers’ market food is, well, still just food.

Turns out, I was totally wrong.

Over the last few months, I’ve been spending more time learning about the mechanics of the global food production system, and its impact on the nutrition of what we eat.

Consider an apple. You see them, year-round, in large piles at every grocery store. Appealingly glossy, perfectly ripe, available organically-raised in an endless array of varieties.

But here’s something you probably don’t think about when you see them: those apples are old. Really, really old.

In fact, on average, the apples in your grocery store, whether organic or not, were picked ten months ago. Then they were stored in extreme cold for months and months. Cold generated using a mix of gasses that are so toxic that produce workers intermittently die just from going in to the apple storage freezers with a leak in their protective gear.

And even if that gas doesn’t permeate the apple itself, the effects of time certainly do.

By the time you pick that apple off your grocery store shelf, it has less than 10% of the micro-nutrient content than it did a week after it was plucked. In other words, we spend huge amounts of money converting a vitamin-packed healthy snack into a empty-calorie sugar bomb.

So, what can you do? That’s where farmer’s markets come in. The food you’re buying there this week was, on average, picked within the last two weeks. Which, when it comes to nutritional content, is a world of difference. Plus it tastes better, too. And, in most cases, it even costs less than the stuff you can find in-store.

So, it appears, I’ve circled back to my hippy roots after all. I’ve resolved to shop for more produce (and meat and cheese and more) at my local farmer’s market this year. You can find ones near you with this handy USDA tool, and I’d encourage you to do the same.

March 14, 2016

Feeling Bulletproof

I’m a big believer in intermittent fasting, and usually don’t eat my first meal of the day until 1:00 or 2:00pm.

I do, however, drink coffee most mornings. And recently, especially if I’m feeling hungry, I’ve been test-driving ’Bulletproof Coffee.’ Dreamed up by body-hacker Dave Asprey, it’s a recipe that’s since become a ’thing’ in both the Silicon Valley and sports performance worlds. In theory, at least, it’s meant to boost metabolism and mental performance, and to make people feel full without spiking insulin.

Here’s what goes into it:

  1. 1cup Coffee. Freshly-roasted, freshly-ground coffee has higher anti-oxidant content, so buy beans regularly, and grind them yourself. (Asprey himself sells a coffee bean that supposedly has lower mold content, though the science backing the danger of mold in coffee seems weak at best.) If you’re like me, and way too lazy for that, buy a Nespresso machine instead. It makes great coffee (they’re in use by 30% of the Michelin-starred restaurants in the world!), and uses vacuum-packed capsules that keep the coffee grinds exceedingly fresh (enough so to even counter the mold/mycotoxin concern, if it turns out to hold water). I use two Fortissio Lungo capsules, each brewed as 110ml lungo pulls, which yields a delicious 8oz cup.
  2. 1tbs Butter. As Michael Pollan noted, you aren’t just what you eat; you’re also what you eat eats. Grass-fed butter turns out to be waaaay healthier than grain-fed butter, and you can buy Kerrygold all over the country (in places like Costco, Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods). While grass-fed butter is loaded with nutrients, it’s the butyrate in particular, a fuel that’s particularly good at powering your brain, that gives you a mental boost.
  3. 1tbs Coconut Oil. For bonus points, you can swap the coconut oil for medium-chain triglyceride oil, which contains the portion of the coconut oil that has the most beneficial effects. I like this brand, which is extremely high-quality yet reasonably priced, and comes in a container large enough to last several months.

Here’s how you make it:

  1. Put all three into a blender. As I’m way too cheap for a Vitamix, (especially as I mostly just blend protein shakes or bulletproof coffee), I’ve used an earlier version of this sucker for several years with excellent results.
  2. Blend! Should only take a couple seconds. You’re set when there’s a thick froth on top, like the foam on top of a latte.
  3. (Add Cinnamon?) This one’s an optional bonus step, which I only started recently based on some of cinnamon’s clear health benefits. Also, it tastes awesome.
  4. Drink. Then feel excellent – both physically and mentally – for hours to come.

At least, that’s the theory. Thus far, I seem to be liking it. But I’ll be tracking performance and biomarkers going forward to see the impact longer-term.

And, either way, a very important warning: WHEN YOU FIRST START DRINKING BULLETPROOF COFFEE, START WITH ONLY A TEASPOON EACH OF BUTTER AND OIL, AND BUILD UP SLOWLY. It can be a bit of a shock to you digestive tract, and you want to give your body a week or so to get used to things as you build up to full strength.

Relatedly, a brief cautionary tale:

About a year ago, I was at a fitness event. A booth there was selling Bulletproof Coffee, and they were bringing freshly-blended cups for free to the VIP area, where I happened to be with a friend.

When we first arrived, we both grabbed a cup to try. Then we headed our separate ways. A few hours later, I ran into him again, and the cup was still in his hand.

“You’re still nursing that Bulletproof Coffee?” I asked him.

“Oh no,” he replied. “This one’s my fifth!”

We headed into some meetings together. And then, after about thirty minutes, he excused himself to use the bathroom. I didn’t see him again for the balance of the afternoon.

So, enjoy the Bulletproof. But ease your way in. With great power comes great responsibility.

March 11, 2016

Tender

Over the years, I’ve discovered that most industries have basic pieces of general knowledge, best-practices that are broadly followed, but somehow never make it out to the rest of the world. That’s particularly true on the culinary front, where the way restaurant chefs cook is, in a slew of ways, completely different from what most of us do at home.

So perhaps I shouldn’t have been surprised to discover the Jaccard a few years back, a handheld device that completely revolutionizes cooking steak. In short, the Jaccard is a stamp-punch of dozens of long thin blades, which you push down repeatedly along the top of an uncooked steak. The small blades break up fibers in the meat, which both leave it far more tender, and prevent those fibers from wringing juice out of the steak as they contract during cooking.

The Jaccard is used nearly universally by steakhouses, but by almost no home cooks. Skip a couple steak dinners out, and cook them at home instead (for those who don’t know how, here’s a short tutorial on pan-roasting from Lobel’s, and a longer, illustrated one on pan-searing from Serious Eats), and your Jaccard will quickly more than pay for itself.

February 18, 2016

I Was Told There Would Be Pie

This past weekend, Jess and I walked down to the 79th St farmer’s market, to stock up on summer fruits and vegetables. Apparently, strawberry season is upon us, as there were tables and tables of strawberries of all sizes. And, at one stand, there were some truly gigantic rhubarb stalks. So, I bought a bunch of strawberries, and a couple rhubarbs, with the intention of making a strawberry rhubarb pie.

Previously, I’d never made a strawberry rhubarb pie. Or, so far as I can recall, any kind of pie at all. (Except for chicken pot pie, which I don’t think quite counts.) A bit of Googling yielded this recipe for “Grandma’s strawberry rhubarb pie,” which had a slew of positive reviews. So I stocked up on the few ingredients not in my kitchen already, and went to work.

While I love to cook, I’ve never been a fan of baking, the precise measuring and hands-off watching through the oven door far less suited to my personality than savory cooking’s improvisations and fixes on the fly.

Still, you can’t argue the results:

IMG_0322

The pie was delicious. Look out Martha Stewart, as I’ll definitely be trying my hand at pie-making again soon.

June 18, 2015

Recommended: Mr. Lid

Normally, I’m a savvy consumer. Rarely susceptible to impulse buys, skeptical of unreasonable claims, thorough in my research and careful in my buying approach.

Unless I’m watching an infomercial, in which case all that goes out the window.

That’s the only reason why, a year or so back, I ended up buying a set of [Mr. Lid containers](https://www.mrlid.com):

3145

By rights, these should have been terrible. But, in fact, they’re so good that I bought more, and chunked all of our other Tupperware-esque refrigerator storage. And then my sister-in-law saw them, got jealous, and did the same thing.

The sanity saved by never having to search for a lid – along with the space saved by easily stacking containers without worrying about those lids – has been more than worth the price.

June 27, 2014

Yolked

When I was a kid, my mother was obsessed with food safety. Handle raw chicken, and you were in need of full-body disinfecting. Cook burgers, and you’d best crisp them to a germ-free, well-done briquet. And when sushi first hit the San Francisco scene? Forget about it. I mean, raw fish!

From that childhood, I’d been inculcated with a fear of runny egg yolks, presumably a salmonella-laden path to near-instant death. At the same time, I also hated the texture of hard-boiled egg yolks. So, between the two, I was sure I hated runny eggs.

A few years ago, however, I fell in love with the spaghetti carbonara at Otto. And in trying to replicate the dish at home, I discovered that the secret to their version is egg yolks; lots and lots of egg yolks. (Like five yolks and one whole egg.)

Which, in turn, made me think that perhaps I didn’t dislike runny yolks after all. And, in fact, it turns out I don’t. At age 34, I tried eggs Benadict for the first time, and suddenly understood why the dish is so perennially popular. At Landmarc, one of my go-to breakfast meeting spots, I’ve switched to ordering my eggs poached, which smush together particularly well with their diner-style hash browns. (Side note: why does NYC serve breakfast potatoes everywhere instead of real hash browns? Terrible.)

I know I’ve previously observed that simply doing things the way you always do things isn’t a particularly good life strategy, that it makes sense to question our assumptions and look for better ways. But, as with most pieces of life wisdom, it’s easier said than lived.

So perhaps it’s a good reminder of that to discover that I’ve cheated myself out of decades of enjoying a now favorite food. As they say, looks like the yolks on me.

June 9, 2014

Complements to the Chef

[Ed. note: yes, friends and family who wrote in to correct, I know that the phrase is ‘compliments to the chef’ with an ‘i’. This was an attempt at cleverness – entrepreneurship being a complement to cheffing – that apparently wasn’t so clever after all. Tough crowd.]

Recently, I’ve started to notice how many entrepreneurs are interested in both cooking and photography. Which makes a lot of sense.

Entrepreneurship is basically the art of slogging daily through nebulous victories and vague defeats, for years and years at a time. Successful startups are those where the victories at least slightly outpace the defeats, consistently enough for the edge to compound gradually. Even in today’s world of lean startups, of building minimal viable products and iterating fast and always shipping, the process of slogging and compounding moves excruciatingly slowly. It takes a long time to see anything happen, and an even longer time to see anything incontrovertibly significant – anything big enough to impress your mom or your non-entrepreneur friends.

Like entrepreneurship, cooking and photography are about making something from scratch, and about sharing it with others. Unlike entrepreneurship, they also let you do so exceedingly quickly. Over the course of an afternoon, you can create something that never existed before, yet that’s still good enough to be appreciated by family, friends or the broader world. And it’s not just the immediate validation – that appreciation (or lack thereof) also provides fast and clear feedback to quickly guide iterative improvement.

After a long day of slow slog, it’s hard to explain how very gratifying that can be.

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April 8, 2013

Gone to the Dogs

Though I’ve subscribed to the Paleo Diet in theory for nearly a decade, in practice, my adherence during that time has been 80/20 at best. At the end of the day, while I’m sure that pasta is slowly killing me, I’m even more sure it’s absolutely delicious.

Gemelli, however, is a Paleo zealot. We’ve tried to give him dog biscuits, gourmet canine cookies, and any of the other treats he’s supposed to like, all of which he barely chews before spitting out. Instead, his favorite snack at the moment is freeze-dried beef liver, followed closely by salmon jerky. Last week, as I was making stuffing for Thanksgiving, he snuck off with several just-washed carrots and celery stalks, which he gleefully devoured while hiding under a side table, as if both were so delicious they had to be forbidden.

Similarly, Gem won’t eat any grain-based kibble, so we’ve instead been feeding him Orijen and Stella & Chewy, two essentially Paleo dog foods. Reading through the ingredient lists on both, I realized he eats better than we do: Orijen, for example, is comprised of wild salmon and trout, free-range poulty and eggs, grass-fed beef, bison and lamb, and organic vegetables.

And despite that, his food costs us mere dollars a day. I considered switching Jess and me to the stuff, until I realized that his calorie consumption was probably a bit less than ours, given his six pound bodyweight. Working backwards from our relative sizes, the cost savings stopped looking so good.

Which is probably just as well. I tried one of those Orijen kibbles, and was reminded by its taste that the only thing Mel loves better than Paleo foods is the smell of other dogs’ butts.

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November 27, 2012