Weather | Sports | Forums | Comics | Classifieds | Calendar | Movies
© St. Petersburg Times, published July 31, 2002
A weekly serving of food news and views
food and drink for the long, hot summer
Crunchy iceberg lettuce gets a bad rap these days. Trendy greens such as tatsoi, mizuna, frisee and lolla rosa slipped into our salads, leaving iceberg for people who don't know any better. Even romaine and red leaf lettuces are more desirable.
But those pedigreed greens -- even the tender baby leaves -- are no consolation when you're in need of a nosh with the power to cool. Even the name iceberg is refreshing; picture a large chunk of ice floating in a frigid sea.
Cut a big wedge of compact iceberg and drape it with cold Thousand Island dressing or chunky blue cheese. Ahhh.
Iceberg lettuce is a variety of crisphead lettuce, which is characterized by tight, firm heads of light-green leaves. Other varieties are imperial and Great Lakes. According to the Web site www.foodreference.com, iceberg got its name from California growers who shipped the heads covered with crushed ice in the 1920s. Before that, it was called crisphead.
Iceberg is largely water and doesn't have a lot of nutritional value compared with darker greens. However, it has a good amount of folate, the B vitamin that may help prevent birth defects, stroke and disease.
Plus, it's more than 90 percent water, just what we need when it's hot.
www.ketchupworld.com
Ketchup -- red, purple or green -- just might be the final frontier. These are the voyages of www.ketchupworld.com. Its mission: to explore strange new worlds in ketchup and to boldly go where no Web site has gone before. The site explores everything from Boar's Breath Jalapeno Pepper Ketchup to organic ketchup. This site challenges all those who claim salsa has made ketchup a dying condiment.
"About all I can make is a bag of chips open." -- rapper Grandmaster Flash
When an entire pie, crisp or cobbler is too much, scale down the recipe and bake individual portions in custard cups or ramekins. You will need to cut the baking time by at least 10 minutes.
Ethnic foods may taste good, but they may not always agree with a healthful diet. The American Heart Association offers tips on making global fare a little better for you. In Chinese restaurants, choose entrees with lots of vegetables. Steamed dumplings are a better idea than egg rolls and wontons. When eating Mexican food, ask the waiter for soft corn tortillas instead of chips to dip in the salsa. Corn tortillas are made with almost no fat. Sour cream and guacamole can be left off your dishes, and diners can use salsa instead to flavor food.
Tired of fumbling for change -- or loose bills -- to pay for that Starbucks decaf latte? Buy yourself, or dole out hints before birthdays, anniversaries and holidays, a Starbucks gift card and never be without coffee money again. The cards were introduced late last year, and 4-million have been activated. When the card gets down to its last buck, add $20 to keep the buzz going. Buy them at Starbucks stores or www.starbucks.com.
The candymakers at Sweet Blessings know that many of us think eating chocolate is a heavenly experience. They share a more traditional faith by including a Bible verse with each chocolate bar. Noah's Buddies gummy animals also are available. For product list and ordering online, go to www.sweet-blessings.com. Call toll-free 1-866-212-5377 for more information and local availability. Twelve 2-ounce candy bars are $14; shipping extra.
We get a lot of strange products in the mail but none as puzzling as J.M. Smucker's Uncrustables: premade peanut butter and jelly sandwiches in cellophane bags. The hook is they have no crust, crust being a turnoff for many kids. Uncrustables are meant to be stored in the freezer and put frozen into your child's lunch box. By mealtime, they are thawed. Come on. How hard is it to make a PB&J sandwich and then cut off the crust? As far as taste goes, the peanut butter and jelly is fine, but the bread is rubbery in spots. A box of four 2-ounce sandwiches, enough for maybe two lunches for a first-grader, is about $2.50.
- Compiled by Janet K. Keeler, from staff and wire reports