Caterers find eco-standards tough to chew
Fried shrimp on a bed of jasmine rice and a side of mango salad, all served on a styrofoam plate. Bottled water to wash it all down.
These trendy catering treats are unlikely to appear on the menu at parties sponsored by the Denver 2008 Host Committee during the Democratic National Convention this summer.
Fried foods are forbidden at the committee's 22 or so events, as is liquid served in individual plastic containers. Plates must be reusable, like china, recyclable or compostable. The food should be local, organic or both.
And caterers must provide foods in "at least three of the following five colors: red, green, yellow, blue/purple, and white," garnishes not included, according to a Request for Proposals, or RFP, distributed last week.
The shrimp-and-mango ensemble? All it's got is white, brown and orange, so it may not have the nutritional balance that generally comes from a multihued menu.
"Blue could be a challenge," joked Ed Janos, owner of Cook's Fresh Market in Denver. "All I can think of are blueberries."
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...Nick Agro, the owner of Whirled Peas Catering in Commerce City. "We all want to source locally, but we're in Colorado. The growing season is short. It's dry here. And I question the feasibility of that."
Agro's biggest worry is price. Using organic and local products hikes the costs.
"There is going to be sticker shock when those bids start coming in," he says. "I'll cook anything, but I've had clients who have approached me about all-organic menus, and then they see the organic stuff pretty much doubles your price."
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So there you go, that's the brave new world that Obama and the Warmists in the D Party have in mind for America. Denver gets to be their little experiment in command and control food rules.
Tomorrow night we are going to an academic awards ceremony. That's going to cut into our dinner preparation/ consumption time so we'll probably just pick up some food from our buddy Ron. Now Ron (pictured above) cooks from the crack of dawn every single day, but rather than serve his great food in a fixed structure he loads it into beautiful big trailers (also pictured above) and heads out into the county. Ron's specialty is Carolina pulled pork BBQ and Thursday afternoon is when he parks his rollin' restaurant about a quarter mile from Monkeydarts Plantation. Oooweee, don't the people come a runnin'! We don't lack for BBQ joints in the Carolinas, so Ron's got him some stiff competition. Hardly a month goes by that we don't get us a big ol' mess of Ron's food-- it's that good.
I reckon we better hurry up and enjoy the food now before the Democrat Food Police are in control. After all, BBQ, sauce, beans, hushpuppies, rolls and sweet tea are pretty monochromatic. Hell, it's all pretty much brown! That will
NOT BE ALLOWED, comrade. But, maybe we can switch to Ron's
Low Country/ frogmore stew, and his South Carolina mustard based sauce on our Q with lemonade to drink. Nah, still not enough colors.
Please President Obama, have pity on the Carolina BBQ fan!
It's no use... cookin' a pig over hickory smoke for 12 hours, like Ron does, probably breaks a lot of the upcoming Democrat environmental laws too.
UPDATE: Ron reports that he does NOT get up at the crack of dawn to cook. He is up hours before dawn every day to cook pig.
