B12 Solipsism

“Texas Monthly” (Emmis Publishing)

Calvin Trillin ruminates about Texas barbecue, and a recent Texas Monthly article purporting to list the top 50 joints. I’ve never been a huge fan of BBQ, Texas, or any style, but I’ve eaten it enough times, and have stopped into many a shack on the highway between Austin and East Texas.

In discussions of Texas barbecue, the equivalent of Matt Damon and George Clooney and Brad Pitt would be establishments like Kreuz Market and Smitty’s Market, in Lockhart; City Market, in Luling; and Louie Mueller Barbecue, in Taylor—places that reflect the barbecue tradition that developed during the nineteenth century out of German and Czech meat markets in the Hill Country of central Texas. (In fact, the title of Texas Monthly’s first article on barbecue—it was published in 1973, shortly after the magazine’s founding—was “The World’s Best Barbecue Is in Taylor, Texas. Or Is It Lockhart?”) Those restaurants, all of which had been in the top tier in 2003, were indeed there again in this summer’s survey. For the first time, though, a No. 1 had been named, and it was not one of the old familiars. “The best barbecue in Texas,” the article said, “is currently being served at Snow’s BBQ, in Lexington.”

I had never heard of Snow’s. That surprised me. Although I grew up in Kansas City, which has a completely different style of barbecue, I have always kept more or less au courant of Texas barbecue, like a sports fan who is almost monomaniacally obsessed with basketball but glances over at the N.H.L. standings now and then just to see how things are going. Reading that the best barbecue in Texas was at Snow’s, in Lexington, I felt like a People subscriber who had picked up the “Sexiest Man Alive” issue and discovered that the sexiest man alive was Sheldon Ludnick, an insurance adjuster from Terre Haute, Indiana, with Clooney as the runner-up.

An accompanying story on how a Numero Uno had emerged, from three hundred and forty-one spots visited by the staff, revealed that before work began on the 2008 survey nobody at Texas Monthly had heard of Snow’s, either. Lexington, a trading town of twelve hundred people in Lee County, is only about fifty miles from Austin, where Texas Monthly is published, and Texans think nothing of driving that far for lunch—particularly if the lunch consists of brisket that has been subjected to slow heat since the early hours of the morning. Texas Monthly has had a strong posse of barbecue enthusiasts since its early days. Griffin Smith, who wrote the 1973 barbecue article and is now the executive editor of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, in Little Rock, was known for keeping a map of the state on his wall with pushpins marking barbecue joints he had been to, the way General Patton might have kept a map marked with spots where night patrols had probed the German line. I could imagine the staffers not knowing about a superior barbecue restaurant in East Texas; the Southern style of barbecue served there, often on a bun, has never held much interest for Austin connoisseurs. But their being unaware of a top-tier establishment less than an hour’s drive away astonished me.

[From Letter from Central Texas: By Meat Alone: Reporting & Essays: The New Yorker]

Trillin asked Evan Smith how come Snow’s came to be chosen number one.

He did acknowledge that his decision to name a No. 1—rather than just a top tier, as in the previous barbecue surveys—came about partly because everyone was so enthusiastic about Snow’s product but partly because its story was so compelling. Smith himself was not in a position to confirm the quality of the product. Being from Queens is not the only handicap he has had to surmount in his rise through the ranks of Texas journalism: he has been a vegetarian for nearly twenty-five years. (The fact that he is able to resist the temptation presented by the aroma of Texas pit barbecue, he has said, is a strong indication that he will never “return to the dark side.”) As a longtime editor, though, he knew a Cinderella story when he saw one. It wasn’t just that Snow’s had been unknown to a Texas barbecue fancy that is notably mobile. Snow’s proprietor, Kerry Bexley, was a former rodeo clown who worked as a blending-facility operator at a coal mine. Snow’s pit master, Tootsie Tomanetz, was a woman in her early seventies who worked as the custodian of the middle school in Giddings, Texas—the Lee County seat, eighteen miles to the south. After five years of operating Snow’s, both of them still had their day jobs. Also, Snow’s was open only on Saturday mornings, from eight until the meat ran out.

Continue reading

[also the Texas Monthly piece on Snow's is worth a glance for the photos, provenance and bona fides…]

If the FDA and its client, Monsanto, had their way, consumers would never realize if the food sold at grocery stores and restaurants was some sort of franken-food created in a laboratory, with long-term health effects unknown. Furthermore, Monsanto and a few other similar corporations would own the patents to the majority of the world’s food supply, with seeds that only lasted one year. Their nefarious plan is well on the way to being permanently in place.

Alexis Madrigal writes:

Wired Science - Wired Blogs:
The other part of the explanation is that US consumer attitudes don’t actually matter very much to the current GM food business. All Monsanto needs is for you to love Twinkies and Coca-Cola, the food machinery of this country does the rest. Monsanto’s model is business-to-business (B2B), like server sales or logistics. Monsanto is more like Oracle than Apple. To the average consumer, GM crops are invisible, especially because you don’t have to label them in the US.

The attitudes towards GMO that matter to Monsanto are those held by big agribusiness seed buyers and corporate farmers, not Joe Six Pack. And the IT managers of the farming world love Monsanto. The chart is of US GE crop adoption of their big three products, corn, soybeans, and cotton, which just happen to compose 75 percent of the revenue generated from non-fruit and vegetable cash crops.

If you’re an opponent of GM foods, here comes the scary punchline. A big chunk of all that genetically modified corn and soy go right into our processed foods and into feed for the animals we eat. So chances are, unless you are a raw or organic foodista, you ate a GM food derivative this very day.

Even organic food is probably tainted in some degree by GM food.

“The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals” (Michael Pollan)

Michael Pollan¹ wrote a fascinating open letter to the upcoming new administration.

After cars, the food system uses more fossil fuel than any other sector of the economy — 19 percent. And while the experts disagree about the exact amount, the way we feed ourselves contributes more greenhouse gases to the atmosphere than anything else we do — as much as 37 percent, according to one study. Whenever farmers clear land for crops and till the soil, large quantities of carbon are released into the air. But the 20th-century industrialization of agriculture has increased the amount of greenhouse gases emitted by the food system by an order of magnitude; chemical fertilizers (made from natural gas), pesticides (made from petroleum), farm machinery, modern food processing and packaging and transportation have together transformed a system that in 1940 produced 2.3 calories of food energy for every calorie of fossil-fuel energy it used into one that now takes 10 calories of fossil-fuel energy to produce a single calorie of modern supermarket food. Put another way, when we eat from the industrial-food system, we are eating oil and spewing greenhouse gases. This state of affairs appears all the more absurd when you recall that every calorie we eat is ultimately the product of photosynthesis — a process based on making food energy from sunshine. There is hope and possibility in that simple fact.

[From The Food Issue - An Open Letter to the Next Farmer in Chief - Michael Pollan - NYTimes.com]

Reading around the blogosphere², there are already calls for Obama to hire Pollan as Secretary of Agriculture, or similar.

oops, never posted this article³, and now Obama claims to have already read the open letter:

was just reading an article in the New York Times by Michael Pollen about food and the fact that our entire agricultural system is built on cheap oil. As a consequence, our agriculture sector actually is contributing more greenhouse gases than our transportation sector. And in the mean time, it’s creating monocultures that are vulnerable to national security threats, are now vulnerable to sky-high food prices or crashes in food prices, huge swings in commodity prices, and are partly responsible for the explosion in our healthcare costs because they’re contributing to type 2 diabetes, stroke and heart disease, obesity, all the things that are driving our huge explosion in healthcare costs. That’s just one sector of the economy. You think about the same thing is true on transportation. The same thing is true on how we construct our buildings. The same is true across the board.

[From Swampland - TIME.com » Blog Archive The Full Obama Interview «]

So there you have it…

Pippen reading Omnivore’s Dilemma

1. who we’ve mentioned a few times before [↩]
2. yes! phrase coined by skippy [↩]
3. probably because it’s pretty half-baked, and never going to be fully baked. Regardless, read the piece [↩]

I received solicitation from the WSJ Wine club in the mail, but wonder whether the wine is $4 a bottle swill or better. Hard to tell, really.

Some question the wine selection:

The Wall Street Journal announced today that it has created an online wine store, along with a wine club. Sadly, it looks dishonest from day one.

The Journal is not the first publication to try to leverage its supposed integrity into wine sales. The Times of London has had a successful wine club for years. The San Francisco Chronicle — the only newspaper in the US with a dedicated wine section — has been running one for the last couple of years.

Readers of the publications can wonder about how much impact the club has on editorial decisions. Will a wine get John and Dottie’s approval now because the Journal managed to acquire 5000 cases at a discount?

[From Wine Rocks: Wall Street Journal wine club: Looks like lies to me]

The initial offer includes one of those fancy corkscrews, and twelve bottles for $69. I am considering trying to see what’s included. My price point is usually around $10 a bottle, so perhaps I am a good target.

We’ve discussed stupid Illinois wine shipping laws previously, but the problem is occurring in more states as well.

A handful of states in recent years have enacted laws that, while permitting direct shipments, include requirements that bar or discourage many out-of-state wineries from participating.

Besides Massachusetts, Arizona, Kentucky and Ohio have all passed laws that ban direct shipments from larger wineries, which disadvantages many vintners in big wine-producing states, such as California. Kansas and Indiana require residents ordering out-of-state wine to first visit that vineyard and show identification proving they’re of legal drinking age; Kansas requires consumers to make the journey each time they order from the same vintner.

Critics say these laws fly in the face of a landmark 2005 Supreme Court ruling that struck down as discriminatory state laws that permit in-state wineries to ship to local consumers while denying the same right to out-of-state wineries. At the time, 26 states allowed some form of direct shipping from outside their borders. These were exceptions to the nation’s so-called three-tier system, a patchwork of state laws that usually require alcohol producers to funnel their wares through distributors to reach a store or bar. Legislators created the system in the wake of Prohibition, partly to discourage overconsumption.

[From Business - WSJ.com] [Digg-enabled access to full article here]

And the reason for the ban:

Advocacy groups for wineries say local wine and liquor distributors have pressured state lawmakers into drafting laws that protect distributors, who fear a loss of revenue from direct shipping. “What the wholesalers really want is to preserve as much as they can their monopoly pricing power, which is considerable,” says Bill Nelson, president of WineAmerica, a trade group for wineries.

I would be very interested in sampling the fruits of original gin, genever.

COMPARED with vodka, gin is a relative newcomer. But despite what the Russians might say, the history of gin — like its flavor — is far more complex.

Gin was born as genever in Holland in the 17th century. It was renamed gin when it got to England about 100 years later. Eventually, the English style, which is stronger and lacks the touch of sweetness that is typical of genever, came to dominate the market. But genever is making a comeback.

Next week Lucas Bols, a Dutch company that was founded in 1575, will start to sell its genever in the United States again. It was last imported in quantity about 50 years ago, but small amounts have seeped into the United States since then. Grain shortages in Holland during the world wars and Prohibition in the United States combined to do in the export of genever.

The Lucas Bols genever joins a few other brands of genever already on the market. Zuidam and Boomsma are imported from Holland. And earlier this year, Anchor Brewing and Distilling, the San Francisco company that makes Junipero, a dry gin, started selling Genevieve, a genever that it had developed about 10 years ago.

[From Malty and Complex, the Original Gin Is Making a Comeback - NYTimes.com]

A side benefit to being a citizen of the 21st century is that our recent history is available for close examination. The quest for the authentic, platonic ideal is simplified, in other words. Classic, formerly obscure films are a mouse click away, popular music from around the globe is being re-released at an amazing rate, absinthe is being served at your neighborhood saloon, and now one can drink gin as Hogarth imagined it.

Of course, nobody understands satire anymore (just ask Roger Ebert) but that’s a minor price to pay for our land of cultural splendors…

Cool, I like grabbing a quick nosh at Sultan’s Market.

[Sultan's Market, Wicker Park]

The folks behind Sultan’s Market are making the jump from quick-serve Middle Eastern to a full-service spot featuring live music, belly dancers and Middle Eastern-style tapas in Logan Square¹. Look for a multi-level 4,000-square-foot space with both restaurant and lounge seating – you’ll be able to see the stage from all floors — plus they’re planning a posh outdoor patio fitted with lush landscaping and more. The kitchen will kick out freshly made pitas from a brick oven, plus there will be offerings like sumac-crusted rotisserie chicken and lamb ravioli in yogurt sauce. The restaurant takes its name from chef/co-owner Masada “May” Ramli, the matriarch of the clan behind the eatery (and it’s also an ancient Israeli city).

[From Masada - Logan Square - Chicago, IL 60647 | Metromix Chicago]

Via GapersBlock

Seems as if Alhambra sparked a restaurant war…

“Masada” (Alpha Blondy)

bonus, Masada is a pretty good album by Alpha Blondy, the Ivory Coast reggae star.

1. 2206 N.California Ave, Chicago [↩]

I’m on the hunt for the smallest pump-driven (or semi-pump driven) espresso machine. I don’t really have an obsession with crema, but am nearly ready to splurge on a proper coffee making device.

[This is a fine machine, capable of making a good, strong coffee, but it ain't espresso. The coffee Geek writes:

There is a fifth type of machine often (mistakenly) called an espresso machine; these are the steam driven machines marketed by companies like Krups and Braun, usually found for under $100. Rather than producing authentic espresso, these machines produce a strong coffee, more akin to what a moka pot or Bialetti stovetop device brews. There's nothing wrong with these types of machines; it's just that, for the scope of this guide, we're going to be pretty much ignoring them.]

Anyway, back to the hunt. Alex Abramovich of Slate was on a similar hunt a few years ago:

I should upgrade to a pump-driven espresso maker, which heats water in a sealed reservoir, then forces it through pre-ground espresso beans at a requisite 15 atmospheres of pressure. (Click here for a more detailed description of how these high-tech machines work.) These espresso makers are bigger, heavier, and more difficult to use than their steam-driven cousins. They’re also messier and a lot more expensive. But they’ll produce a dark, rich, foamy espresso, with the flavorful oils of a good coffee all on the surface. Once you’ve made a few shots, it’s hard to go back to anything else

[From Which espresso machine is best? - By Alex Abramovich - Slate Magazine]

“Bodum Chambord 12-Ounce Coffee Press” (Bodum)

I’m still on the look-out for my next machine. I don’t really want to spend over $300 dollars, and I have a fairly limited counter space to keep the thing, so I may settle for an also-ran machine that fulfills these parameters. Does seem to be more available than last time I researched the subject. Hmmm.

Any suggestions?

"Gaggia 14101 Classic Espresso Machine, Brushed Stainless Steel" (Gaggia)

Matthew Sharlot and Karen Sharlot have finally opened their own restaurant. The menu looks delicious.

In an intimate dining room where all guests enjoy the spectacular view of the Piscataqua River, The Wellington Room is sure to be a memorable dining experience. Our chef hand selects local products of the best quality and freshness, and prepares all dishes himself… including the pastries. We offer a broad variety of cuisine and all dishes are made fresh to order (even the coffee), so special requests are welcome.

[From The Wellington Room Home]

Too bad I live too far away to drive over for lunch.

Rachel Forrest liked it too:

I watch the door when people come into a restaurant and I’m always surprised at how anxious people look when they step up to a host/ess podium for the first time. I can see them wonder if their name is on the reservation list, if this restaurant will make them feel welcome, if they’ll feel good at the end. They really don’t know what to expect. I get that.

There are restaurants I go into where I know the owner, host or bartender pretty well and I go to these places in part because I do know them and feel welcomed and comfortable, but it can take a few visits to become a “regular,” to feel like I belong. Not so at The Wellington Room, where Karen Sharlot, who owns the romantic restaurant with husband and executive chef, Matthew Sharlot, can make you feel like a regular from the moment you step through the door.

[From Seacoastonline.com: Dining Out: The Wellington Room, Portsmouth]

First, sad news that Ms. Child died¹. Even though she was 91, and obviously not at full strength, she was always so full of life. We really love watching her cooking show when they run marathon episodes on PBS.

Second, she was a spy for the OSS? Wacky. Though, there were a lot of famous persons who worked for the OSS during WWII.

Before Julia Child became known to the world as a leading chef, she admitted at least one failing when applying for a job as a spy: impulsiveness.

Details about Child’s background as a government agent come into the public spotlight Thursday with the National Archives’ release of more than 35,000 top-secret personnel files of World War II-era spies. The CIA held this information for decades.

The 750,000 documents identify the vast spy network managed by the Office of Strategic Services, which later became the CIA. President Franklin Roosevelt created the OSS, the country’s first centralized intelligence operation.

Child’s file shows that in her OSS application, she included a note expressing regret she left an earlier department store job hastily because she did not get along with her boss, said William Cunliffe, an archivist who has worked extensively with the OSS records at the National Archives.

The OSS files offer details about other agents, including Supreme Court Justice Arthur Goldberg, baseball player Moe Berg, historian Arthur Schlesinger Jr. and film actor Sterling Hayden.

Other notables identified in the files include John Hemingway, son of author Ernest Hemingway; Kermit Roosevelt, son of President Theodore Roosevelt; and Miles Copeland, father of Stewart Copeland, drummer for the band The Police.

[From JULIA CHILD, SPY: Julia Child a World War II-era spy -- chicagotribune.com]

We’ll miss you, Ms. Child.

1. according to the so-far brief obituary, Ms. Child died in her sleep August 12, 2008, at her home in Santa Barbara [↩]

My cousin’s website has finally launched¹, a boon to travelers and campers who are looking for quality food to take on trips.

Homecooking is the new Gourmet! Both at home and on the trail, we are committed to eating well; avoiding “fast-food” and artificial ingredients wherever possible. In bringing our own standard to the Packit Gourmet line of meals and grocery items, we personally select and carefully taste-test each and every item offered to make sure that the flavor, texture, appearance and nutrition are something that we would want to eat at home or on the trail. Having trekked a few miles ourselves, we know that size, weight, water and time conservation are also important so we hand pack and package with that in mind. If we wouldn’t use it or eat it – you won’t see it sold in our store.

You’ll find many homemade flavors featured in the meals we offer – and natural and organic ingredients included whenever possible. Both meal components and bulk products are handpicked to ensure that you are getting what we think is the best product possible; and your meal packs are hand-packaged in a commercially certified kitchen.

We love to travel almost as much as we love to eat! You’ll see a reflection of this in the flavor selections found in our meal packs. Heavy influences of the Deep South, Texas and Mexico are featured throughout our offerings; but you’ll also find traces of Canada, Europe, Southeast Asia, India and South America. All places where we have enjoyed great experiences and fabulous food.

[From Packit Gourmet]

Check it out before your next excursion.

1. full disclosure, I’ve had a small role as an unpaid consultant [↩]

I’ve never had the urge to sample dog meat, probably for the same reason that I am mostly a vegetarian. I’ve lived on a farm, so I have an inkling of an idea where meat comes from: pig meat, cow meat, even chicken flesh all originates from the body of a friendly critter. In the US anyway, most of our meat comes from factory farms.

THOSE who hope to taste dog meat when they visit Beijing for this summer’s Olympics may be disappointed. The Beijing Catering Trade Association has ordered all 112 designated Olympic restaurants to take dog off the menu, and has strongly advised other establishments to stop serving it until September. Waiters have been urged to “patiently” suggest alternative dishes to customers who ask for dog. It’s all part of a wider campaign to avoid offending foreigners during the Games. (Beijingers have also been told to line up nicely, to stop spitting and even to avoid asking tourists questions about their ages, salaries and love lives.)

The order is not likely to bother many residents. Though dogs have been raised for food in China for thousands of years, you have to hunt around to find the meat on modern menus. Certain regions, like Hunan and Guizhou Provinces, are known for their canine predilections — but even in these places, dog is a relative rarity. And in Beijing itself, you hardly find it except in a few Korean and regional Chinese restaurants.

Dog eating, in any case, tends to be a seasonal pursuit. According to Chinese folk dietetics, which classify every food according to its heating and cooling properties, dog is one of the “hottest” meats around, best eaten in midwinter, when you need warmth and vital energy, not in sultry August.

That eating dog is seen as an issue says more about Western preoccupations than Chinese habits. Since time immemorial, Westerners have had a morbid fascination with the weird fringes of the Chinese diet. Marco Polo noted with distaste that the Chinese liked eating snake and dog; modern Western journalists just love to get their teeth into a juicy story about some revolting delicacy like the assorted animal penises served at the Guolizhuang restaurant in Beijing. And for gung-ho foreign tourists, a skewerful of deep-fried scorpions in the night market in central Beijing has become a rite of passage.

[From In Beijing, It’s Too Hot for Dog on the Menu - Fuchsia Dunlop - NYTimes.com]

Speaking on that topic, there’s a show dedicated to such conspicuous consumption of oddities called Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmer (blog here). We watched several one day, an oddly fascinating travel show.

Paul Kahan and Donnie Madia’s new beer and pork place is finally given a name: the Publican. Not sure of the location exactly, but it looks like it is on West Randolph Street somewhere.

After years of speculation and anticipation, it looks as though the beer-, pork- and fish-focused restaurant by chef Paul Kahan finally has a name: The Publican.

[snip]

The Publican (the name takes a little getting used to) will serve up beer-friendly foods (see the braised pork potee in the photo above), along with more than 100 brews from England, the U.S., Belgium and Brazil and more far-flung locales. The chef de cuisine is Brian Huston (pronounced like the Texas town), who worked at Blackbird years ago, went off to cook in Colorado and returned to town about a year ago to work on this project. While developing The Publican’s menu, Huston has been working at Avec and can be seen there almost nightly.

[From The Stew - A taste of Chicago's food, wine and dining scene | Chicago Tribune | Blog]

I know D won’t want to ever set foot in the place, pork and beer are not favorites. Maybe if my brother comes in town…

update: location is 845 Fulton for this nitrate central.

Blackbird Project Named and Dated
The Blackbird/Avec team has finally announced that their third sib, a culinary homage to beer, pork and fish in the West Loop, will be named the Publican (British term for pub owner). The tentative opening date has been set for Monday, August 18th. Exec chef Paul Kahan and chef de cuisine Brian Huston have developed a network of purveyors to supply the restaurant with hand-selected, sustainably harvested seafood and sustainably raised heirloom pork to anchor a rustic menu of simple, eclectic fare. And beer enthusiasts are thirsty for the more than 100 ales, lagers, stouts and ciders to be served by the bottle, with another dozen available on tap (845 W. Fulton Market).

[From Blackbird Project Named and Dated - Best of Buzz - Zagat Survey ]

Topolobampo is excellent, I’ve eaten there a couple of times. Sepia? Not much of a fan, but then we weren’t exactly treated like royalty, or potential presidential candiates, when we dined there.

The Obamas’ favorite spot for a night out in Chicago is the alta cocina Mexican restaurant Topolobampo, according to Michelle Obama spokeswoman Katie McCormick Lelyveld. For a simpler bite, the Obamas turn to RJ Grunts, a cartoony Lincoln Park emporium of burgers, ribs and Tex-Mex standards, the spokeswoman says. On her own, Mrs. Obama has favored the more cutting-edge food at Sepia in the trendy West Loop neighborhood near the atelier of her suddenly famous dressmaker, Maria Pinto.

[From The Candidates Dine Out - WSJ.com
[Non-WSJ subscribers use this link]]

[snip] The WSJ’s Raymond Sokolov is a fan of Chicago dining:

Altogether more interesting on the Obamas’ dining list is Topolobampo, Rick Bayless’s superb little shrine to the full panoply of Mexico’s cuisine. We have eaten there happily for years, enjoying its authentic, even scholarly versions of classic dishes such as chilaquiles and Yucatecan roast pork. Topolobampo (named after a Mexican port) is one of the reasons we think Chicago is arguably America’s top eating city, with fewer high-end addresses than New York but a more stellar, dramatic pantheon.

From its diverse and creative menu, Topolobampo says, Sen. Obama often orders sopa azteca, a dark broth flavored with pasilla chilies, grilled chicken, avocado, Meadow Valley Farm handmade Jack cheese, thick cream and crisp tortilla strips.

Sepia, the potential first lady’s glam West Loop haunt (she ate there last Saturday), was new territory for us. We started out with one of the restaurant’s signature flatbreads, this one topped with applewood-smoked bacon, chunks of pear and crumbled blue cheese. We also sampled the ethereally smooth and densely flavored chilled carrot puree with chive cream swirled on its mirrory surface.

As a nostalgic Great Lakes native, we were thrilled to find Sepia offered walleyed pike, moist and fresh as the northern waters from which it came, dressed up with wild mushrooms and a cashew vinaigrette. Other fresh and naturally produced items on the menu included elite Berkshire pork and artisanal domestic cheeses. If Mrs. Obama has the chance to encourage this kind of food in the White House and can get Mr. Bayless to bring a Mexican touch to state dinners, the Obama administration would be a golden era for American gastronomy.

We’ve been intrigued by Dr. Dickson Despommier’s hydroponic urban utopia ever since he made an appearance on the Stephen Colbert show a few weeks ago. Such a richly imaginative and evocative idea: much better than another parking garage or condo building.

Dr. Dickson Despommier, a professor of public health at Columbia University, hopes to make these zucchini-in-the-sky visions a reality. Despommier’s pet project is the “vertical farm,” a concept he created in 1999 with graduate students in his class on medical ecology, the study of how the environment and human health interact.

The idea, which has captured the imagination of several architects in the United States and Europe in the past several years, just caught the eye of another big city dreamer: Scott Stringer, the Manhattan borough president in New York.

When Stringer heard about the concept in June, he said he immediately pictured a “food farm” addition to the New York City skyline. “Obviously we don’t have vast amounts of vacant land,” he said in a phone interview. “But the sky is the limit in Manhattan.” Stringer’s office is “sketching out what it would take to pilot a vertical farm,” and plans to pitch a feasibility study to the mayor’s office within the next couple of months, he said.

“I think we can really do this,” he added. “We could get the funding.”

[From Country, the city version: Farms in the sky gain new interest - International Herald Tribune]

There is a slide show of some possible designs for the building here, a permalink to the New York Times article here, and Dr. Despommier’s Vertical Farm website is found here.