Gourmet Scientist - Alternatives/Health Foods

Honey

nospam@example.com (Crystal Cheng) — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 18:46:00 -0400

In less than a year, after being stung by a rather lovely flying bumble bee, I've consumed so much honey that I'm most likely now a target of both mosquitoes and bees (I can be a natural mosquito repellent for others--a human mosquito pin-cushion with at least 20 bites per leg). I never knew honey could be eaten straight. I rarely consumed it, and it was always just another ingredient in food, sweets, or beverage. Now, after tasting the real thing, I'm hard-pressed to go back to the synthetic taste of mass-produced honey!

As with tea, coffee, chocolate, and wine, honey can be as varied in flavour and texture. So far, I've noticed 2 major flavour types--floral and woodsy--and texture can range from runny, to gloopy-thick, to a mix of runny and set, to completely set. Amazingly, I've had (full containers of) English lime-flavoured clover, acacia (English), Australian eucalyptus, Mexican wildflower, pine (French), buckwheat (!), African Miombo forest, clover (American), Menalou vanilla fur (x2), and Tasmanian leatherwood. I've also tried mountain (French) and chestnut (English).

The most bizzare was the buckwheat not only for the unfamiliar concept of honey coming from a wheat plant but also for the rather odd smell; but the taste is completely different. Even simply having the honey alone or mixing it with water can draw out further contrasts.

I seem to prefer honey with a woodsy flavour. The pine one is marvelous, and it's the one that really triggered my honey exploration. The vanilla fur is very gentle and reminds me a lot of candy. As for the Tasmanian leatherwood, it's very sweet!

I do have to say, scenes from the "Bee Movie" often come to mind. I don't want to be another heartless consumer, but at least it does make you appreciate honey all the more. The next question is: should I thank the bee or not for its sali[a]nt sting??

Oatly Milk

nospam@example.com (Crystal Cheng) — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 23:47:00 -0500

Some time ago, I ran across a random blog entry that mentioned "Oatly milk," a beverage made from oats and water as another alternative to dairy milk. As I'd been having normal soya and black soya milk for quite some time, I was keen on trying something new. As expected, it tastes of oats, but the flavour is much lighter than the soybean taste in soya milk, so it's a much better dairy replacement in beverages. I find it quite soothing to have before bed. It's just as nice with cereal. And it's quite addicting with just a little added sugar (as it comes without sugar) and even hot cocoa.

Nutrition: 100ml Serving Size

	Calories (kcal)	Total fat (g)	Sat fat (g)	Total Carbs (g)	Sugars (g)	Protein (g)	Fibre (g)
Oatly Milk	35	0.7	0.1	6.5	4	1	4
Soybean (Asian)	59	1.3-1.7	0-0.5	8.3-10	8.8-9.4	2.1-2.7	0.3
Semi-skimmed Milk (2%)	51	2.0	1.3	5.2	5.2	3.4	0

Alternative Grains

nospam@example.com (Crystal Cheng) — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 10:30:00 -0500

Clockwise (L-R): Korean mixed grains, pearl barley, bulgur

With the recent push for increasing intake of dietary fiber, I've read about the various whole grains available--couscous, quinoa, bulgur, etc--and have been quite keen on trying them. This article gave the final stimulus. I'm not sure why, but bulgur seemed to be calling out the loudest; so I went for that first. Unfortunately, the taste and texture reminds me too much of Southern American grits, which I really really do not fancy. The texture is a bit too fine, and I was hoping for something a bit more substantial as I was looking to use these grains as a type of rice/bread/carbohydrate alternative.

So next, I went for pearl barley, mainly because I found that it's beneficial for my spleen deficiency. I've had it before as it's commonly used in Asian soups and desserts, but I was planning to use it somewhat differently. It definitely takes a lot longer to cook, but thanks to my "special" rice cooker ("special" because it cooks until all the water has disappeared rather than stopping after a certain time, albeit a bit too far--i.e. burnt dry), I just pour about 4-5 times the amount of water, cook it further with additional water if needed, and leave it to soak with a little bit more water. The final product is a soft, almost rice-like texture but with a little more chew and nutty flavour. I quite like it!

And now, I've just mixed the barley with the Korean wild grains mixture (barley, millet, sweet brown rice, brown rice, job's tear, red bean, black bean, peeled mung bean, black sweet rice, corn, green pea) that I brought back from the States and have been enjoying the even chewier texture and nuttier flavour. Yum!

Nutrition: 100g serving size

	Calories (kcal)	Fat (g)	Carbs (g)	Protein (g)	Fiber (g)
Barley	123	0.4	28.2	2.3	3.8
Bulgur	83	0.2	18.6	3.1	4.5
Brown rice	112	0.8	23.5	2.3	1.8
White rice	130	0.3	28.5	2.7	0.4
Mixed Grains	269	2.5	53.75	7.5	7.5

Soy(a) Yog(h)urt

nospam@example.com (Crystal Cheng) — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 22:15:00 -0500

Several years ago when soy yogurt had just come out, I had a fairly negative impression of how it tasted. I've always loved the Asian soy bean drink, so the soy flavour is quite familiar. But there was something strange. I can't quite recall. It might have been the unfamiliarity of soy + sourness + grainy texture. But about a month ago, I decided to give it another attempt seeing as it's been so long and the health food trend has improved significantly. Surprisingly, I found it quite tasty, especially the Provamel brand. Besides the slightly "lumpy" texture, the soy flavour is barely perceptible. It's also quite fruity. The other brand that was available--Sojade--wasn't quite as good. It was less fruity and sweet, but it still seemed to taste better than what I had remembered. Of course, my taste buds might have changed, but it's pretty incredible to know how fast alternative health foods are improving.

Gluten-free Bread

nospam@example.com (Crystal Cheng) — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 21:21:00 -0500

God is simply amazing! I was just thinking about having to buy bread when I found a package from Glutafin waiting by my front door. Several days ago, I had signed up for a free sample of their gluten-free wheat bread; and voila, here it was!

Me being me, I couldn't resist digging in immediately. The loaf definitely felt a bit softer, although still dense, than the brick-like ones I encountered back at Whole Foods. The texture resembled the slight chewiness of a untoasted crumpet but with a subtle nutty flavor. It was a bit dry, but it was not at all too far off from a normal wheat bread.

I am genuinely surprised. We'll see what happens after freezing and toasting. Now I wonder how the other gluten free bread taste...