Friday food news roundup

• Tickets are on sale for the ninth season of Taste of the World, the East Charlotte food tour of international restaurants in the area around Central Avenue. If you've never gone, the tour starts at the Van Landingham Estate on The Plaza, circles around to three restaurants and ends back at Van Landingham with a dessert reception. This year's event is on Oct. 6. Tickets are $30 at www.charlotteeast.com. Yes, it's early, but the event is popular and sells out.

• Another event is coming up closer: The next Chow Down Uptown food truck festival is next Thursday, Aug. 18, from 5-9 p.m., in the parking lot on 7th Street across from the former Reids (soon to be known as 7Venth Market). This time, the event will include A Taste of the Market, with samples from some of the vendors who will be at 7Venth Market when it opens, a promotion for "The Addams Family Musical" and a screening of the movie, and the debut of Hamilton, the inflatable mascot for BBQ And Blues. After my visit to last month's rally, I'd suggest a few things: Bring cash - tasting a bunch of stuff can run up a tab. Bring a shade umbrella. Bring hand wipes. And bring an appetite.

• Harvest Moon Grille at the Dunhill has two local-foods events next week: On Sunday from 2-4 p.m., you can take a class in Korean cooking, featuring bulgogi, pork belly and kimchi. Tickets are $20. On Monday, the restaurant hosts its second guest-chef night with Charles Taft, vice president of the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy. The dinner showcases rare and endangered livestock breeds and heirloom vegetables. (OK, he's not exactly the same as having Joe Kwon of the Avett Brothers, but ALBC does important stuff in keeping livestock diversified.) Dinner is $55 with a portion of proceeds going to ALBC. Reservations for dinner or the class: 704-332-4141.

(Speaking of food trucks, has anyone noticed that we've now had two food trucks stolen, the Harvest Moon Grill orange cart and the Lakeview Dairy mooing dairy truck?)

What's on your ideal food reading list?

While writing today's column about the new food-book reading club at Park Road Books, I was pondering the differences in food book styles.

There are cookbooks, and there are food books. Now, it is true that sometimes cookbooks can be food books. And sometimes food books have recipes. But there's an essential difference between the two. It seems to me that cookbooks are focused on how to make things. And food books are focused on . . . everything else.

Food memoirs. Food politics. Food novels. To me, Julia Child wrote cookbooks, and M.F.K. Fisher wrote food books.

I've offered plenty of cookbook lists through the years. Now I'm wondering: What five food books would be essential reading to you?

I'll start it off with two lists, mine and one sent to me by loyal and active food reader Ken Allen. My list:
A.J. Liebling, "Between Meals: An Appetite for Paris." One of the great -- and most humorous -- journalists writes about moving to Paris and learning to appreciate food in the 1920s. It's as much about learning how to eat as learning what to eat.
M.F.K. Fisher. Pretty much anything she wrote, although "The Art of Eating" is a good start.
John Thorne, "Simple Cooking." Erudite, curmudgeonly, comforting. Before any food blogger sets fingers on the keys, they ought to read the man who came before.
Laurie Colwin, "Home Cooking: A Writer in the Kitchen" (and I'll cheat and add "More Home Cooking: A Writer Returns to the Kitchen.") I wake up every morning knowing that the best food writing essays ever written have already been written. And yet I get up anyway.
Anthony Bourdain, "Kitchen Confidential." Before the show, before the wars on everyone from newspaper food editors to Esquire writer John Mariani and the James Beard Foundation, before the attitude became a schtick, Tony Bourdain was a writer. A good writer.

And from Ken Allen: I'm thinking of Cross Creek Cookery, Pat Conroy's cookbook, Dan Huntley's barbecue book, among others. If I'm making a recipe from one of those, I have to double the amount of time it takes to actually fix the food due to getting distracted by the stories.

Anyone else have picks they'd share?

Keeping your diet on track

Holy cow! If you go to a farmers market this weekend, keep in mind the scene from this market in Thailand.

My thanks to Dean Mullis of Laughing Owl and cozy market locations at the Charlotte Regional Market, the Matthews Community Market and the Atherton Market, who shared this in his farm newsletter. (Hey, Dean, do you reckon Donnie is skinny enough to fit next to the tracks?)

Report: Farmers markets boost economies

Here's an interesting report on the economic impact of farmers markets (and by extension, the local food movement) just released by the Union of Concerned Scientists:

WASHINGTON (August 4, 2011) – Over the last several decades, thousands of farmers markets have been popping up in cities and towns across the country, benefiting local farmers, consumers and economies, but they could be doing a lot better, according to a report released today by the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS). What’s holding farmers markets back? Federal policies that favor industrial agriculture at their expense.

“On the whole, farmers markets have seen exceptional growth, providing local communities with fresh food direct from the farm,” said Jeffrey O’Hara, the author of the report and an economist with UCS’s Food and Environment Program. “But our federal food policies are working against them. If the U.S. government diverted just a small amount of the massive subsidies it lavishes on industrial agriculture to support these markets and small local farmers, it would not only improve American diets, it would generate tens of thousands of new jobs.”

UCS released the report just a few days before the 12th annual U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) National Farmers Market Week, which starts on Sunday, August 7. According to the report, “Market Forces: Creating Jobs through Public Investment in Local and Regional Food Systems,” the number of farmers markets nationwide more than doubled between 2000 and 2010 jumping from 2,863 to 6,132, and now more than 100,000 farms sell food directly to local consumers.

All that growth happened with relatively little help. Last year, for example, the USDA spent $13.725 billion in commodity, crop insurance, and supplemental disaster assistance payments mostly to support large industrial farms, according to the Congressional Budget Office. The amount the agency spent that year to support local and regional food system farmers? Less than $100 million, according to USDA data.

In 2007, the most recent USDA figure, direct agricultural product sales amounted to a $1.2 billion-a-year business, and most of that money recirculates locally. “The fact that farmers are selling directly to the people who live nearby means that sales revenue stays local,” O’Hara said. “That helps stabilize local economies.”

Keeping revenues local also can mean more job opportunities. Last summer, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack asked Congress to set a goal in the 2012 Farm Bill of helping at least 100,000 Americans to become farmers by, among other things, providing entrepreneurial training and support for farmers markets. O’Hara’s report takes up Vilsack’s challenge and argues that supporting local and regional food system expansion is central to meeting that goal.

In the report, O’Hara identified a number of initiatives the federal government could take to encourage new farmers and the growth of farmers markets in the upcoming Farm Bill. For example, the report called on Congress to:

• support the development of local food markets, including farmers markets and farm-to-school programs, which can stabilize community-supported markets and create permanent jobs. For example, the report found that the Farmers Market Promotion Program could create as many as 13,500 jobs nationally over a five-year period, if reauthorized, by providing modest funding for 100 to 500 farmers markets per year.

• level the playing field for farmers in rural regions by investing in infrastructure, such as meat-processing or dairy-bottling facilities, which would help meat, dairy and other farmers produce and market their products to consumers more efficiently. These investments could foster competition in food markets, increase product choice for consumers, and generate jobs in the community.

• allow low-income residents to redeem food nutrition subsidies at local food markets to help them afford fresh fruits and vegetables. Currently, not all markets are able to accept Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits.

“Farmers at local markets are a new variety of innovative entrepreneurs, and we need to nurture them,” said O’Hara. “Supporting these farmers should be a Farm Bill priority.”

"Foodie" needs your help

Three guys from Durham (sounds like a great name for a coffee shop) are trying to finish their film "Foodie" by raising money at www.kickerstarter.com. Take a look and see what you think. FYI: It gets better after the first scene, actually. At the least, I'm hoping they span a new catchphrase: "Oh! Bread pudding!"

Keep your cool, cooks

My colleague Andrea Weigl had more tips and recipes than she could share in her story on cool summer suppers on today's Food front. Here are more:

Nanette Truelove of Fuquay-Varina compiled a cookbook of vegetable recipes to help her daughter's customers who shop at her daughter's Apex farmstand. Truelove's Sicilian background, of course, produced this quick-and-easy recipe:

Sicilian Raw Sauce

Nanette Truelove notes: Use only deep red vine ripened tomatoes to make the sweetest sauce. A quick and easy way to remove the skin is to place the tomatoes in a dishpan and pour boiling water on top of them. Let them stand 3 minutes, pour off the hot water and replace with cold water. Cut off the end of the tomato and slip the skins off.

¼ cup of olive oil
1 teaspoon of salt
1 hand full of fresh basil leaves
1 garlic clove, crushed and peeled
Enough peeled ripe Roma tomatoes to fill a quart blender
1 pound of angel hair pasta
Romano cheese, optional
Crushed red pepper, optional

PLACE olive oil, salt, pepper, basil , garlic and tomatoes in a quart-size blender. Mash tomatoes down to eliminate air. Blend to liquefy. Let stand for at least 30 minutes before using the sauce.

COOK pasta as directed on package. Strain the pasta and place it in a serving bowl and stir in all of the sauce. Cover the serving bowl with a lid and let the pasta sit no longer than three minutes before serving. The sauce is a bit watery but the pasta will quickly take the extra liquid. Serve the pasta in soup dishes. Garnish this dish with Romano cheese and crushed red pepper.

Yield: 6 servings

Susan Reda does cooking demonstrations at a Chapel Hill area farmers market. Below is her recipe for Cool as a Cucumber Salad, but here are links to other recipes from Reda that require little or no cooking on hot summer days:

http://www.chapelboro.com/Simple-Spring-Sides/9715427?pid=48755

http://www.chapelboro.com/Create-Your-Own-Herb-Vinegars/9715427?pid=47970

Cool as a Cucumber Salad

Susan Reda suggests serving this salad with grilled meats. You also could add a spoonful of yogurt to the dressing.

4 (5 ½-inch to 6 ½-inch) cucumbers, thinly sliced on the diagonal
¼ to ½ onion, thinly sliced
¼ cup rough chopped dill, loosely packed
1 teaspoon sea or kosher salt
½ teaspoon freshly ground pepper
2 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
1 tablespoon olive oil

COMBINE cucumbers, onion, dill, salt, pepper, vinegar and olive oil in a glass or non-reactive bowl. Refrigerate for at least an hour to let flavors marry. Serve.

Yield: About 3 cups.

Mary Jo Lassiter of North Raleigh offered this basic outline of a recipe for a Summer Squash Casserole made in the microwave: Cook squash and onions in the microwave, then mash or chop both squash and onions. (Chopping is easier than mashing.) Add a tablespoon each of sour cream and undiluted cream of chicken soup and the 1/4 to 1/2 cup grated cheddar cheese. (You can add more to match the amount of vegetables.) Cook on power level 5 or 6 until is is hot. When it is getting about done, sprinkle bread crumbs or ritz cracker crumbs on top and finish cooking.

Fill up your food calendar

Need something to do? Take your pick:

• Set aside a weekend Sept. 17-18 to stomp around in the dirt. The third annual Charlotte Area Farm Tour, hosted by the group Know Your Farms, will highlight 30 local farms, everything from the state's first certified-organic dairy to an ostrich farm. The tour is self-guided, with farms located in clusters around the Charlotte region. For $25, you get a map and a vehicle pass (or cycle group, for pedal pushers). Details and tickets are available online at knowyourfarms.com/tour, or you can buy them at The Milky Way, the Common Market or the Bradford Store.

BTW, Know Your Farms was founded by local-food advocate Christy Shi. Now that she has a new job, as manager of the planned 7Venth Market at 7th Street Station, KYF is headed by her brother, Wes Shi.

• Celebrate your family recipes and share a meal with an older family member as part of the Homemade Memories Recipe Contest, sponsored by Mecklenburg's office of the nonprofit Home Instead Senior Care office. The Craving Companionship program encourages families to make a meal and share it with older family members who live alone. For the contest, you can enter a favorite family recipe and share a story about it. Grand prize is a $500 Visa gift card, and recipes may be used for a "Homemade Memories" cookbook being printed by Home Instead. The deadline is Sept. 15. Get details and post entries at www.mealsandcompanionship.com.

• Help out some older vets Aug. 20 in Mint Hill: The Masonic Lodge of Mint Hill, 10224 Lawers Road, will hold a "rockin' oldies dinner show" to raise money for the N.C. State Korean War Veterans Memorial. Dinner is chicken and dumplings from 5-6 p.m., followed by music from the 1950s to the 1970s (hey, wait - when did the '70s get to be oldies? That's MY generation). Tickets are $20, RSVPs are preferred. Call 704-545-6618 and leave a message with your name and how many tickets you're buying.