Category: Food

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Chicory coffee with chocolate muffins. Click here for high-resolution version.

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Back in the 1970s and 1980s, before I moved to San Francisco, coffee in the South was pretty terrible. New Orleans, I suppose, was the exception. In those days, my house coffee for many years was Luzianne, which is part chicory (that is, roasted chicory root). Luzianne’s headquarters are in New Orleans. As for San Francisco, it was a wonderful coffee city before Starbucks came along and ruined the world. In the early 1990s, there were many neighborhood coffee shops, with superb Italian-style coffee served in white porcelain.

It was because I was thinking about microbiome health, and therefore inulin, that I ordered some chicory coffee from Amazon. Chicory coffee is shockingly good. I certainly still have my two cups of strong Italian roast coffee in the morning. But, especially in winter, chicory coffee is a fine thing for later in the day. I find it even more comforting than hot chocolate, and it’s easier to make. There is no caffeine.

Chicory root is a rich source of inulin. I’m not sure how much of it survives roasting, and how much of it is infused into the coffee. But some of it is. And, like coffee, chicory is a good source of antioxidant phytochemicals.

As for porcelain cups, the idea of drinking coffee out of a paper cup is horrifying. Also horrifying is the idea of stopping somewhere for coffee in the morning. Furthermore horrifying is what people pay for terrible coffee in paper cups, when homemade coffee is much better and and much cheaper.

I bet chicory coffee would make a fine espresso or cappucino. One of these days I’ll probably break down and buy an espresso machine.

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Note: The microbiological information in this post comes from ChatGPT 5.2. Because AIs can be wrong (though they’re very good at science), I’ve asked another AI — Claude — to fact-check ChatGPT’s facts. As always, I don’t allow ChatGPT to write for me. I use it only for research.

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For a long time, I’ve been working on improving my microbiome. Only in the past decade or two have we really learned how important this is for health. But articles in the media rarely provide information or advice other than to eat a varied, balanced diet with fiber and to eat fermented foods such as yogurt, kefir, and sauerkraut. But I wanted to get technical and go beyond that.

What one learns, I think, is that we all eat for two — ourselves, and our microbiome. The typical American diet is aimed at feeding oneself (though poorly) while the microbiome is left to starve. The trick is to feed both ourselves and our microbiome with the same foods.

Here is a list of the nutrients that our microbiome needs:

1. Resistant starch. Sources: Some legumes (especially lentils), not-quite-ripe bananas, cooked and subsequently chilled starches such as potatoes and pasta.

2. β-glucans (a viscous fermentable fiber). Sources: Barley and oats.

3. Inulin and fructo-oligosaccharides. Sources: Leeks, onions, garlic, chicory root.

4. Pectins. Sources: Apples, pears, plums, carrots.

5. Hemicelluloses (partially fermentable structural fibers). Sources: Whole grains, beans, lentils, cabbage, root vegetables.

6. Legume carbohydrates (galacto-oligosaccharides + resistant starch). Sources: All beans, lentils, chickpeas.

7. Polyphenols. Sources: Berries, cocoa, coffee, tea, olive oil, red cabbage.

Note what is missing from the list above: Meat. Meat, we now know, has very little or no food value for the microbiome. In fact, meat-eating shifts the microbiome toward inferior types of microorganisms.

Also note that the foods listed above are the foods that are almost certainly missing in a diet of fast foods and processed foods.

It’s quite a wonderful thing, really, that all of these foods are abundant and cheap. Historically, the people with the best diets would have been people living in the country with farms and gardens. In times of plenty, at least, country people would have had an excellent diet.

Many of the most common health problems closely correlate with diets that leave the microbiome underfed. These health problems become chronic, and they cause us to age more quickly.

As I’ve said here many times before, I’m a barley evangelist. Bread is one of my favorite foods, but white wheat bread has very little to offer the microbiome. In fact most of it is absorbed upstream (as empty calories) and never reaches the microbiome.

It may take some determination to wean oneself off of wheat and switch to barley, because wheat and everything made from it are such appealing foods. But barley is more versatile than we might think. Pearl barley is much better than no barley, but the best barley is hulled barley, which is a whole grain. It’s possible to buy barley flour, but I greatly prefer to buy organic hulled barley and grind it myself. Below is a photo of my vintage Champion juicer with the mill attachment. I use it every day.

We all would benefit from detailed discussion with an AI about our diets, our health issues if any, and how we might better feed not only ourselves, but also our microbiome. It’s entirely possible that both of ourselves will want the same supper.

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Why is it that grains that are so difficult to make into bread — barley and buckwheat, for example — make such perfect pancakes?

And why is that so much barley is grown — especially in Europe — but that so little of it is eaten? Most of the barley goes into beers and ales and whiskeys, while trendy but inferior grains such as quinoa get all the attention.

I’m a barley evangelist, as regular readers know. I can’t imagine not keeping organic hulled barley in stock, with an electric mill to grind it into flour.

The pancakes in the photo are made from fresh-ground barley flour, a little olive oil, a little baking powder, and nonfat milk.

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There’s no other taste in the world like oysters. I remember having oyster stew fairly often as a boy, and though I was a picky eater I loved it. Here in North Carolina — and probably all along the Eastern Seaboard, oysters are a rural as well as a coastal tradition. On the unpaved private road I live on, 200 miles from the Atlantic, this rural tradition has survived. I or a neighbor will buy a 40-pound box of oysters and share them around.

My share this weekend was a dozen oysters. I turned the whole dozen of them into one serving of a very oystery stew. As I recall, when I was a child, oysters, butter, and milk were pretty much the only ingredients. These days I like to add a little diced celery and diced onion — and heavy cream. Crackers are de rigeur.

I assume these oysters came from the Chesapeake Bay. From Googling I find that the oyster harvest there is still improving as work continues on reviving the Chesapeake Bay oyster industry, which was in steep decline twenty years ago. Fresh oysters are cheap again — $30 for a 40-pound box. They come packed in ice. I still have the shucking tool I bought years ago for shucking oysters from Tomales Bay in California. The Tomales Bay oysters are superb. But the Chesapeake Bay oysters are just as good.

Some years ago, in a vacation cabin on Tomales Bay, my mother, sister, and I made Southern-style deep-fried oysters. What a lot of work, and what a mess! Whereas making oyster stew is easy once the shucking is done. I’ve also had oysters at an oyster bar in Edinburgh. That was interesting. But homemade oyster stew is still my favorite.

By the way, that vacation cabin was a part of Manka’s Inverness Lodge, which I understand is now permanently closed. The cabin was right beside Tomales Bay with a path leading to the water. The main lodge was on a ridge, in the woods, on the other side of the road. Manka’s demise was tragic. The New York Times wrote about it here: Margaret Grade, Whose California Inn Was Beloved by Stars, Dies at 72. Stars indeed. I’ve been there many times, and even if you are a nobody like me, you felt like a star as soon as you walked in the door.