Are You a “Locavore?”
Austin is a city with a predisposition toward passionate endorsements of trendy, especially Green issues. So not surprisingly, I am getting feedback from a number of restaurant owners that we indeed could be at the cutting edge of the national “locavore” movement.
A locavore, by common definition, is someone who is totally and some times irrationally committed to the preparation and consumption of foods that are grown within a 50-mile radio of a particular urban area. The locavore will pat himself on the back if he can eat green beans grown in his area, but disdain green beans that are grown, say, in Louisiana (even if they are inherently tastier).
And the locavore trend is growing in Austin. People are demanding that restaurants and stores sell dishes and goods that are ONLY locally produced. And while I celebrate the idea of being local whenever possible, the frank truth is that many times, it’s simply not possible. And those who demand local fruits, meats, fish and vegetables at the expense of anything else are often short-changing themselves. What is you desire a peach and peach season in Fredricksburg has already expired? The locavore would say that it would be heresy to eat the replacement peach from California or New Zealand. And I say that’s just nuts.
Anthony Dias Blue, the editor of The Tasting Panel magazine, recently journeyed to Japan and observed how the Japanese deal with this trend. In Tokyo, the number 1 dining city in the world with over 30,000 restaurants, Japanese restaurateurs routinely import their scallops from Hokkaido which is 600 miles away from Tokyo. Why? Because while Tokyo scallops are good, the Hokkaido scallops are the best! And these restaurateurs can only stay in business by making their restaurants ultimately competitive. They could care less about locavores.
The same is true in Austin. We can serve many things from around this area and we have a number of great chefs who build wonderful dishes around locally sourced products. But there are a lot of things we can’t get here. So give your local chefs and break and just sit back and enjoy the dining experience without asking for the local pedigree of every item used in every dish. You’re just going to get yourself unnecessarily worked up and spoil a great dinner.
Ah but then again, this is Austin, and there are those of us who apparently enjoy getting unnecessarily worked up. Perhaps it’s just in our collective DNA.
