Like every other kind of commerce, when we buy food we are accepting the seller’s statement of what it is, and like every other kind of commerce, there are thieves who will take advantage of how hard it can be to verify.
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This one I’d call stupidity more than plain thievery, I don’t understand why they thought they’d get away with it. NYC Burger King has been passing off beef as Impossible Whoppers
Eater reports the Burger King at 736 Broadway in Brooklyn has for weeks been filling Seamless delivery orders for Impossible Whoppers with regular Whoppers, asking the Seamless driver to inform the customer of the switch. But according to customers who spoke to Eater, drivers had not informed them of the substitution, and their receipts read “Impossible Whopper.” The Impossible Whopper is only available in select cities, and NYC is not yet one of them, despite what the Seamless version of BK’s menu advertised.
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Counterfeiting truffles probably doesn’t count as plain thievery either, I’d call that some pretty fancy thievery: Inside the Exceptionally Shady World of Truffle Fraud. Foodstuffs that sell for over $1000 a pound are pretty obvious targets for fakery, and there's a lot of money made bringing low-value truffle-like things into Italy from eastern Europe or north Africa and exporting them as the real stuff. The Italian national police have a large division of food cops but the crime isn’t always easy to detect, and truffles have less legal protection than other luxury foods.
Unlike famous cheeses, hams, butters, vinegars, wines, and other Italian food products closely associated with specific regional histories and terroir, the truffle is not subject to protected designation of origin controls. Despite its cultural value, the truffle has never been an official good, with an official history and market, and its production isn’t protected by the consortia, rules, and laws that govern products like Brunello wines or Parma ham. The geographic origin and scientific species of a truffle are the origin and species a seller can convince the buyer of. Unless the buyer happens to have a sommelier’s nose, fraud can only be detected with review underneath a microscope or by genetic analysis.
The Camorra could easily move in, but there haven’t been any clear indications of their presence yet. Interpol suspects that organized crime groups are becoming increasingly interested in luxury food fraud because of the ease and low criminal risk of misrepresenting something only a real connoisseur would know was fake. In 2012, along with 30 tons of fake tomato sauce, around 77,000 kilograms of counterfeit cheese, nearly 30,000 counterfeit candy bars, and various other goods, Interpol and Europol’s Operation Opson (“food” in ancient Greek) received reports from various law enforcement agencies about two tons of fake caviar and truffles.
The picture at top is a white truffle, Tuber Magnatum Pico.
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Note the reference above to “fake tomato sauce”.
Also from Italy, perhaps the world’s most famous tomatoes are the “San Marzano” type grown in a specific area of the Campagna region near Naples. Many people think the quantity of tomatoes sold in cans labeled San Marzano far exceeds the quantity grown in that rather small terroir. An article from 2018 mentioned the Cento brand as a trustworthy one, but that’s also being disputed: a recent lawsuit accuses Cento of also substituting other kinds of tomatoes. Tomato fraud may not be at the truffle level of profitability, but the San Marzano product sells for around twice the price of ordinary tomatoes.
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Before there were blogs, we talked about food on usenet newsgroups, and one of the recurring topics on ba.food was the questionable labeling of fish, especially “red snapper”. Per wiki:
Because filleted fish are often visually indistinguishable, having lost their skin, fins, and other identifying marks, molecular methods provide the only means of exact identification of fish.[18] Furthermore, visual taxonomic identification of specific animal species by those who are not expert taxonomists, even if they are identifying whole animals, is inaccurate and difficult.[19]…
In certain species, mislabeling can be quite substantial, such as in a 2007 study of red snapper in sushi restaurants in Chicago, where none of the 14 samples of "red snapper" tested were, in fact, red snapper.[33] In 2008, two high school girls did a study and found that one-fourth of the fish samples with identifiable DNA were mislabeled.[34] In a 2011 two-part study, the Boston Globe tested 183 samples from retailers across the Boston area and found 87 were sold with the wrong species name (48 percent), including 24 of the 26 red snapper samples, mentioning many retailers by name.[35][36]
20 years ago every seafood restaurant and market around here offered “red snapper” at the low end of their price range, now I don't see it anywhere. Those species of fish are mostly sold as “rockfish” now I think.
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I don’t think this sauce cares much what species of fish you put it on, and I’ll make it next time I see “rockfish” at my favorite fishmonger. You want something snapper-like, mild and medium-firm, I wouldn’t do it with expensive halibut or swordfish.
Huachinango a la Veracruzana
from Adventures in Mexican Cuisine — for 6
- 1 large onion, chopped
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- ¼ cup olive oil
- 8 tomatoes, peeled, seeded, and chopped
- 3 canned jalapeno chiles, drained, seeded, and cut into narrow strips
- 1 small jar pitted green olives, with or without pimiento stuffing, drained
- ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
- ½ teaspoon sugar
- juice of ½ lemon
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon capers (optional)
- 3 pounds fish fillets
- flour seasoned with salt and pepper
- 1 tablespoon fresh chopped cilantro or parsley
Saute onions and garlic in a little olive oil, but do not brown. Add tomatoes, chiles, olives, cinnamon, cloves, sugar, lemon juice, and salt. Simmer on low heat about 5 minutes. Add capers if desired. Cover and set aside until the fish is cooked.
Dust the fish fillets with seasoned flour and saute in olive oil until golden brown on both sides and easily flaked with a fork.
Arrange the fish on a heated platter. Spoon sauce over the fish, and garnish with chopped cilantro or parsley.
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I’m going out to a show tonight and I'll grab something quick on the way, probably a banh mi.
What’s for dinner at your place? Take a picture and tell us about it sometime, please! Message ninkasi23 about that.