Pollan's "Eater's Manifesto" - free food for thought

If you've been listening from the first episode, you'll know we at Eating Ithaca are fans of writer Michael Pollan. His bestseller The Omnivore's Dilemma is a fantastic introduction to the realities of our modern food chain that we cannot recommend enough, though it may leave you wondering what you can do to about how you or your family eat in your own day to day life.

That's one of the questions we're trying to answer over time in our own way with Eating Ithaca, but Pollan himself is exploring the issue in his latest book In Defense of Food, and we discovered a beautiful PDF excerpt of this book that anyone can download for free here at the ChangeThis website.

Check out this great writing, share it with your fellow eaters, and read the whole book if you can. We're just finishing it here and we'll definitely be talking about Pollan's ideas in future episodes.

Thanks to all of you who've been listening and subscribing to our podcast. We'll be back in a week with a new show featuring more restaurant reviews and new features. Keep listening!

Official Winners of the Ithaca Downtown Chili Cook-Off Announced!

You asked for it and we found it! Here is the official press release with results from the Ithaca Downtown Partnership:

DOWNTOWN ITHACA CROWNS WINNERS AT 10TH ANNUAL GREAT DOWNTOWN ITHACA CHILI COOK-OFF AND WINTERFEST

(Ithaca, NY) A crowd estimated at over 15,000 gathered on the Ithaca
Commons this past Saturday for the 10th Annual Great Downtown Ithaca
Chili Cook-Off and Winterfest, sponsored by August Moon Spa at La
Tourelle Resort.

More than 30 local restaurants, eateries and institutional food
service vendors participated in this year's cook-off, braving 20
degree temperatures to prepare about 1,000 gallons of chili (over 50
types) and thousands of chicken wings.

Here's a breakdown of the winners of the different competitions:

PEOPLES CHOICE (Chosen by popular vote of event attendees)

CHILI:
Best: Longview
Runner Up: Just A Taste

WINGS:
Best: Castaways
Runner Up: Wings Over Ithaca

OFFICIAL JUDGING

MEAT CHILI
Best: Lincoln Street Diner
Runner Up: Longview

VEGETARIAN CHILI
Best: Juna's
Runner Up: Longview

WINGS
Best: Blue Stone
Runner up: Castaways

BEST BOOTH PRESENTATION:
Best: Brötchen
Honorable Mention: Cayuga Nature Center

The Ithaca Downtown Partnership congratulates all the winners and
runners up and thanks them for their participation in the chili
cook-off.

Chef Seth Gregory, the executive chef and part-owner of Fine Line
Bistro was named winner of the 1st annual Iron Chef Competition. Local
renowned chef Rupert Robins and Eileen Hughes, executive chef at
Cornell University's Becker House were the other two participants in
that competition. Gregory will receive a $100.00 prize as a result of
being named winner of the competition by judges Scott Wiggins, Etienne
Merle and Kristoff Osteland.

Vincent Pachasa of Ithaca was crowned the champion of this year's
mechanical bull-riding competition.

Episode 3 - Live at the 2008 Chili Cook-Off!

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*NOTE: We've reposted the MP3 file for this show with improved audio that reduces some of the background noise found in the first mix. It's also now available through iTunes. Enjoy!

For the first time, Eating Ithaca is on location, recording live on a cold but beautiful, sunny winter afternoon as we enjoyed the Great Downtown Ithaca Chili Cook-Off and Winter Festival!

In this episode, we'll sample some of the great chili being served up and talk to the chefs who made it. Plus our special guest Mark Anbinder from 14850 Dining joins us with his expert commentary on the event (and check out Mark's photos from the event on his Flickr page). We'll also interview some of the people behind the scenes, judging the event, making it run, and talk to a few of the thousands of people who came out to enjoy the food and fun.



Unfortunately, Eating Ithaca had to leave the scene before the winners were announced, but everyone who came outside on a cold February weekend to cook in below-freezing temperatures is already a winner in our book! You can find out the official results and all the details of the event, plus learn more about what events are coming up next, at the Downtown Ithaca website.

UPDATE: We've got the official results right here!

Coming up next... Chili!

Attention all Ithaca foodies - this is your last reminder that Ithaca’s Great Downtown Chili Cook-off and Winterfest is happening this Saturday, February 16th! We'll be joining in the action by recording the Eating Ithaca Podcast live from the event, in what we hope will be the first of many special remote, on-location episodes to come.

We’ll be talking to the chefs, their fans, and some special guests, and of course we'll be sampling a ton of Ithaca’s best homemade chili along the way. If you want to join us, be sure to get there early to buy your tasting tickets, good for beer, wine and chili tasting: five bucks gets you five tickets and a bottle of water, or get 11 tickets and water for ten bucks, and they go on sale starting at 11:30am.

Check out all the details at DowntownIthaca.com, and come share in the fun with us. This is probably the one day a year when you can spend a cold Saturday afternoon enjoying some of the best spicy, nourishing grub our community has to offer and ride a mechanical bull, though you may want to carefully consider which of those things you do first.

See you on Saturday!

Episode 2 - Chocolate in the Kitchen

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Today we're talking chocolate, just in time for Valentine's Day. We cook some chocolate in the kitchen and review Aladdin's Natural Eatery in Collegetown. Will Ari's pudding turn out okay? What is Dave's secret for the best chocolate mousse ever? Listen to find out what happens...

RECIPES:
Simple Chocolate Mousse
Rich Chocolate & Coffee Pudding

Visit our photo gallery to see how our recipes turned out.

Send us your comments below or via email, and we might share your thoughts in our next episode. We'd love to know what you think about our show, hear your favorite chocolate recipes, or whatever you want to share with local foodies. Happy Eating!



Links for this episode:

• Chowcast
• 14850 Dining
• Phatduck Blog
• Aladdin's Natural Eatery

Our theme music is provided by David Yantorno, a fantastic local musician. Check out more of his songs at www.mymetalknee.com