nosh nook #81 - monday, july 6, 2009

the obamas' first harvest (link)
07.06.09 - salon.com - by mike madden

these days, they don't let just anybody be first lady. nope. it's not only important that our country's first lady is married to the president, but she also has to have some sort of pet project, some issue that she can really run with & make her own. nancy reagan had her drugs. hillary had her health care reform. laura bush totally championed children's literacy & women's rights. our current first lady, michelle obama, is devoting much of her precious first lady time to improving our food system, as symbolized by the white house garden she's planted with the aid of plucky child labor.

the garden's designed to get people thinking about where our food comes from & as a result, get them to eat healthier. as salon's mike madden reports, it's harvest time for that garden, so michelle & her child labor went a-harvestin'. the garden's bounty--"73 pounds of lettuce, 12 pounds of peas & one cucumber (which had originally been white but was yellow by the time the kids got to it)." that cucumber sounds shitty, but i'd eat the rest of it. overall, the garden's "yielded more than 225 pounds of food--right now, beans, tomatoes, eggplant and cucumbers are in season."

on the campaign trail, president obama appeared to support the independent farmer, but he's yet to do much to improve our nation's food system, leaving michelle obama's white house garden as the administration's crowning achievement in that arena. salon notes that later this summer, congress will deal with school lunch program legislation, but they made "a half-hearted attempt to cut federal payments to big corporate farms (that) fizzled earlier this year" & the farm bill isn't going to be reopened for five years. until then, we can all rest easy knowing that there's a garden at the white house and, as folks learned at the lunch coinciding with the garden harvest, chicken at the white house is baked, not fried.  take that, unhealthy racist stereotype.

nosh nook #71 - monday, june 22, 2009

obamas stop for custard, bringing custard shop to a stop (link)
06.20.09 - the ny times - by jeff zeleny

holy crap! president obama is out & about in d.c. eating again! stop the presses! since barack obama was sworn in as president back in january, he's been making the rounds, grabbing a bite at all the hip d.c. eateries--five guys, ben's chili bowl, ray's hell burgers...each time, the press has been in tow to document the sheer excitement of an actual president ordering an actual cheeseburger. after all, he's a celebrity & we americans love to know what our celebrities are eating.

this saturday, obama decided to take another break from saving the country, so he headed out to grab dessert with his daughters. as the times reports, obama & the first daughters took a drive to alexandria, va, where they made an unannounced father's day weekend visit to the dairy godmother, a shop that serves up "frozen custard & nostalgic treats." when they arrived, obama basically turned to his daughters & was all "check this shit out, girls...i'm the friggin' president"...& then they sauntered in & strolled right up to the front of the line. booyah.

for the past few months, i've been wondering "what sort of custard & toppings does our president prefer?" never in a million years did i dream that one day, i'd actually find out...small vanilla custard with hot fudge & almonds! i should have known that our first black president would have no problem ordering a vanilla custard. by the time that times reporter jeff zeleny finally made it to the dairy godmother, the president & his daughters had already finished their custards & were long gone. since he hadn't been able to witness the president eating custard firsthand, he did what any good reporter looking to get closer to his story would do. he stepped right up to the counter...& ordered a butter pecan custard.