Tiger in Motion

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Suburbs Get New Congressional Districts - And One Familiar Candidate

It looks like the the Congressional districts in the Chicagoland area are going to make slightly more sense than they used to, presuming the current proposal passes as presently defined. Previously the districts were very bizarre, with strange tangential isthmuses springing out from central districts. Now they roughly divide the suburbs into large contiguous blocks. There are a few notable exceptions, particularly regarding districts 14 and 11. First, why split Oswego down the middle? The Boulder Hill subdivision is in district 11 and the downtown is in district 14. Further, the far south and northern areas of district 14 could have been excised to districts 11 and 10 respectively. As it stands under the current bill, Antioch and Sandwich are in the same district. Sandwich and Yorkville have much more in common with Oswego and Shorewood than with Antioch and Gurnee. Nonetheless, it seems like a step in the right direction.

I'm happy to see that Bill Foster is tossing his hat in the ring for district 11. We need more scientists in Congress.

Here's the article from Patch.com:

Suburbs Get New Congressional Districts - And One Familiar Candidate: "

Gov. Pat Quinn is expected to sign off on new congressional district maps that will dramatically reshape the western suburbs. And one of the new districts already has its first candidate, one whose name is familiar to local voters.

Democrat Bill Foster, former U.S. Congressman in the 14th District, announced Tuesday that he will run in the newly-configured 11th District, which includes much of Montgomery, Aurora, Naperville, Woodridge, Bolingbrook and Joliet.

Foster, 55, lives in Batavia, which would remain in the 14th District under the new maps. But Congressional candidates don’t need to live in the district they would represent. Foster served two terms as congressman for the 14th, winning both a special and general election in 2008 to succeed Dennis Hastert.

Foster was the first Democrat to represent the 14th since Watergate.

But last year, he lost a close election to Randy Hultgren, the Winfield Republican who currently represents the 14th. In a phone conversation on Tuesday, Foster attributed the election results to “frustration with the slow recovery of the economy,” but said he now sees “buyer’s remorse” among voters.

And the newly-drawn maps may give him an opportunity to jump back in the game.

The Congressional district maps, approved by the Illinois House on Monday and the Illinois Senate on Tuesday, recast the 14th District as a massive swath of land that includes Geneva, Batavia, St. Charles, Oswego and Plainfield, among others, and stretches to the northern border of the state. Hultgren now shares residency in this district with fellow Republican Congressman Joe Walsh, who represents the 8th District.

The new 11th District, on the other hand, has no incumbent currently living within its bounds—it is represented by Adam Kinzinger—and includes many of the areas previously grouped into the 14th, including Aurora, where Foster enjoyed strong support.

Foster said he is happy with the way the lines were drawn, mentioning that the 11th also includes the twin technology jewels of the suburbs: the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Batavia, where Foster worked for more than 20 years, and Argonne National Laboratory in Darien.

Republicans, however, have blasted the new maps, which were drawn by Democrats without GOP involvement. Redistricting occurs every 10 years, coinciding with the U.S. Census, and the idea is to even out representation among cities, villages and ethnic groups.

But with Democrats in charge of the state House and Senate, Republicans were not needed to pass the new boundaries.

Republicans have accused Democrats of drawing the maps to benefit their own party, and to erase the results of the 2010 election. The Congressional map passed both houses of the legislature essentially along party lines: 63-54 in the House, and 34-25 in the Senate.

The National Republican Congressional Committee also took aim at Foster in a written statement released Tuesday morning.

“Illinois working families fired Bill Foster last fall because of his unwavering support for reckless spending, higher taxes and bigger government,” wrote NRCC Spokesman Andrea Bozek. “Illinois voters understand that Bill Foster’s tax and spend record was part of the problem and are unwilling to foot the bill again for his big spending agenda.”

Foster is the first candidate to announce in the new 11th District. In fact, he didn’t even wait until the new district maps were approved to throw his hat into the ring.

“I think it’s good to start the campaign as fast as possible,” he said. “I look forward to introducing myself (to voters), and meeting with old friends in Aurora, Oswego and Montgomery areas.”

See the new Congressional district maps here.
"

New Whole Foods GF Sandwich Bread

Whole Foods Gluten Free Bakehouse has developed a new white sandwich bread. The new bread is intended to improve upon the previous version of their gluten free sandwich bread. If you recall, the previous sandwich bread was rather dense and heavy. It was not flexible or soft at all. It tasted fine but was difficult to use for a sandwich. It worked well as toast or as a grilled sandwich, but not so much as the bread in a PB&J or cold cut sandwich. Well, the new bread is definitely a step in the right direction. The bread is lighter, less dense. If I'm not mistaken, the slices are slightly thinner than the previous version, which provides the bread with a sense of softness and flexibility. The taste is great. The bread is still sold out of the freezer case, and I am keeping it frozen at home. So, this still requires toasting before using. I have been able to find the perfect toaster setting for this bread (just short of 2 on my toaster) to result in a piece of bread that is thawed but not toasted and crispy. When thawed to the right degree the bread is very good. It holds together in the hand. There's nothing more frustrating in a sandwich than having the bread fall to bits in your hand. So far the new bread from Whole Foods overcomes this frustration.

So, how does it compare to my other two favorite sandwich breads? Compared to Udi's sandwich bread, the Whole Foods load is larger and less airy. Every now and again I will see a loaf of Udi's that is almost too airy, with a few hug bubbles being present in the middle of the loaf. So far I have not seen that in the Whole Foods loaf and I do not expect to see it because the loaf is still slightly on the dense side of the dense-light spectrum. In terms of softness, the Udi's bread tends to be softer. They're about equal on taste, to me anyway.

The Whole Foods loaf is similar in size to the  Rudi's gluten free loaf. However, when I eat Rudi's bread, I tend to eat their multigrain loaf because I love bread with seeds and grains in it. So, this is something of a case of comparing apples to oranges. The Whole Foods white sandwich bread is your basic straight forward white sandwich bread.

In the end, the new Whole Foods white sandwich bread is a big improvement over the previous version and it will probably make it into my lunch rotation. It is so great to have high quality choices in the gluten free bread category. Gone are the days of rock hard crumbly breads that taste nothing like bread!

Gluten Free Hamburger Bun

This weekend I ate my first hamburger bun in nearly three years. Thank you Udi's! I found them in Whole Foods  (Naperville, IL) just as they were putting them out for sale for the first time. Lucky timing! I chose the whole grain hamburger bun. It tasted great. There was little to no crumbling, a negative quality that can be associated with gluten free bread. The bun was slightly on the firm side, but not overly firm. I will definitely be buying these in the future. Bring on summer. Bring on the burgers!

Kettle Cuisine Thai Curry Chicken Soup

One of the new offerings from Kettle Cuisine is a Thai Curry Chicken Soup. This brings their gluten free soups to ten in all. The soup is packaged and prepared exactly like all the other soups: a 10 oz. serving, frozen, and microwavable. The Thai Curry Chicken Soup is gluten free and dairy free.

As my wife would ask, "What does it promise me?" The front of the package lists the following information:
* No artificial ingredients
* All natural
* Minimally processed
* Made with chicken raised without antibiotics on a vegetarian diet
* GF/DF
Most of these promises are printed in incredibly small font, which flies in the face of typical product packaging strategies. I was surprised to find the nearly microscopic statement regarding the quality of the chicken.

What is notable on the Nutrition Facts panel?
Calories: 330 for the entire bowl
Saturated Fat: ***** 8g ***** a whopping 40% of your daily value!
Sodium 560mg, rather high but typical for many prepared soups

The Ingredients are all words one can easily recognize and pronounce.

So, what about the taste? In a word, excellent. Right out of the bowl the soup smelled like authentic Thai cuisine. (We're big fans of Thai food.) The aroma of the spices reassures that the soup is going to taste great. Visually, I was pleasantly surprised to find large mushrooms and bamboo shoots. Sometimes a prepared soup relies too much on a flavor profile and not enough on actual ingredients like meat and vegetables. About the meat. Chicken in prepared soup is typically some of the most off-putting food known to man. This chicken is an exception to that rule. Every piece was quality. The overall flavor of the creamy broth was excellent--spicy but not aggressively so. It will satisfy the Thai food veteran and the occasional diner alike.

In the end, I was extremely satisfied with this soup, despite the high level of saturated fat. I will definitely buy it again and would highly recommend it to anyone. There are no hints that this soup would be aimed at a specialty diet market. In fact, one would be hard pressed to find a soup that would surpass this one as a prepared Thai soup.

Kettle Cuisine can be found at http://www.kettlecuisine.com/
On Twitter @KettleCuisine
On Facebook

Forbes' intention is not to inform the public on Celiac disease

A recent article in Forbes has drawn the attention and ire of some prominent gluten-free advocates. Unfortunately, I first saw a number of the angry responses before reading the article, and so I was predisposed to a negative opinion of the article. Upon first reading, the article seems to take a critical view of a gluten-free diet. Out of fairness, I waited a day and re-read the article before documenting my response.

So, what does the author say? What is her goal?

Granting the author all possible benefit of the doubt, the goal of the article is to observe that some people with eating disorders such as anorexia may be hiding their disorder from their friends and family by claiming that they are on a restrictive diet, such as a gluten-free diet. Let me be clear, anorexia is a serious eating disorder and families and friends of people with this disorder should help them find help and get healthy. I am no expert in behavioral psychology, so I guess I can only take the author's word that some people with anorexia are lying to their friends and families and saying that they have a specific food intolerance.

However, the article also makes the bold claim that a gluten-free diet can LEAD to an eating disorder. This incredibly bold claim goes completely unjustified and nearly undefended in the article. Specifically, the author offers that "[t]he gluten-free lifestyle, while life-saving for the minority of Americans who suffer real consequences from grains, can be a slippery slope—or simply a means of denial—for some." Two (interviewed?) sources are offered as expert opinions in support of this conclusion. No contrary opinions are offered and one must assume that none were sought.

It seems clear that the author has a negative view of the currently trending gluten-free diet. Take the following quote, which I read as highly condescending, "[t]he gluten-free diet has become a sign of enlightened eating, an intellectual diet supported by a slew of studies and a passionate cadre of celebrity supporters." Why opine that the diet is "enlightened" and observe that it is supported by "a passionate cadre of celebrity supporters"? To my mind, these are not the types of statements one makes if one supports a gluten-free diet. Further, what would it even mean that a diet is intellectual? The avoidance of gluten has nothing to do with intellect. I can only conclude that the author is attempting to achieve a light prose, but instead in her failing has committed a serious offense: superiority and judgment. One might expect a journalist to take a non-judgmental approach to their topic. But, then again this is not reportage. The discussion of celebrities is the first part of an argument that culminates in the author's assumption/conclusion that the increasingly high profile of the gluten-free diet led two cheerleaders to use it as a cover for anorexia.

In response to some of the negative comments, the author has claimed that the "intention is not to inform (or misinform) the public on celiac disease but to raise a question". If the goal was not to inform the public on Celiac disease, then goal achieved. However, I would argue that the article actively misinforms, contrary to the author's claim. The most glaring example is the unsupported claim that a gluten-free diet can lead to anorexia. Read the DSM-IV. A restrictive diet is not a root cause of anorexia. Shockingly, the author does not explain the details of anorexia: its etiology, symptoms, treatment, and prognosis. But this is not an article meant to inform the public about the very serious problem of anorexia.

GF Pasta at Luigi's House in Aurora

Big thanks to Luigi's House restaurant in Aurora for carrying gluten free pasta!

It used to be really difficult to eat gluten free at Luigi's. I remember a waiter telling me (years ago) that I came to the wrong restaurant to eat gluten free. He went on to be very helpful in guiding me toward a salmon dish. But still, that was a pretty telling description of the restaurant.

So, we hadn't gone back in quite some time. Now, to my surprise, when there last night I discovered that they offer a quinoa and corn based angel hair pasta. The server was very helpful in describing which pasta dishes would be gluten free based on all the remaining ingredients. I had the peasant pasta, with some modifications. It was excellent. Can't wait to eat the left-overs tonight.

As best I can tell, Luigi's House and their parent company Portillo's is not on Twitter. Here they are on Facebook.