Access Atlanta > The Newcomer > Archives > 2008 > April
April 2008
Grits vs. Malt-O-Meal vs. Cream of Wheat
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
It was an honest, legitimate question, a response to my first post, from reader calling himself Mr. Grits.
“I’m being serious: what’s Malt-O-Meal?”
And here was the honest, legitimate answer from a reader named Constance:
“Malt-o-meal is a very mean thing they do to yankees who don’t have grits. Best not to think about it. ;)”
Aww! Come on! I’m not a huge defender, but Malt-O-Meal is hardly cruelest thing in the Midwestern kitchens. Someday, maybe, we can talk about pasties and my unfortunately irrepressible childhood gag reflex.
For now, let’s focus: we’re talking about grain cereals here.
Malt-O-Meal was a standard. I remember the omnipresent yellow box in the pantry and my dad’s 100-percent failure rate at making it taste like anything but wet sand. (It ranks right up there with charred taco shells and attempting to pass off duck as beef. Man makes mean loaf of bread, though.)
I’d never met a grit until I moved to Kentucky. My grit education expanded greatly since coming here. After picking them out of my eyebrows and jean pockets, I’d say I know them quite well.
Here’s a break down: grits vs. Malt-O-Meal vs. another warm grain cereal familiar to some, Cream of Wheat.
If you’ve got a favorite, I want to know what, why and how you prepare it. To be honest, I’m more of an applesauce-and-oatmeal kinda girl. Help me out here.
Grits
Base: corn
What is it? Corn is coarsely ground; the finer part would be corn meal, the coarser your breakfast.
Who makes it? Anybody that mills corn, but Quaker makes several varieties.
Where can I find them? Please. We’re in Georgia. They rain from the skies.
Recipes: Grits are everywhere in recipes, but here are Quaker’s recommendations.
Notable: Grits are the official prepared food of Georgia. You can hit up National Grits Festival every year in Warwick, Georgia or the World Grits Festival in St. George, South Carolina.
Malt-O-Meal
Base: Wheat
What is it? It’s a malted wheat breakfast cereal served hot. It’s made from farina, which is leftover when the wheat bran and germ are removed. The black flecks are malted barley.
Who makes it? Malt-O-Meal is a Minneapolis-based company.
Where can you find it? Kroger and some Target stores carry it here.
Recipes: The Malt-O-Meal folks list main courses, soups, desserts and State Fair recipes using their banner product.
Notable: Earlier this month, Malt-O-Meal recalled Puffed Rice and unsweetened Puffed Wheat cereals produced with “Best if Used By” codes between April 8, 2008 and March 18, 2009 because of possible Salmonella contamination. I know you’re quaking in your boots right now, but don’t you worry - the original hot cereal is just fine.
Cream of Wheat
Base: Wheat
What is it? It’s the wheat kernel, or farina, sans Malt-O-Meal’s black flecks.
Who makes it? New Jersey-based B&G foods, also makers of Emeril’s, Brer Rabbit, Ortega and Polaner brands, among others.
Where can you find it? They’ll help you find it.
Recipes: From all-in-one pancakes to zesty steak wraps, there’s Cream of Wheat.
Notable: According to a June, 2007 story in the Lansing State Journal - the first professional newspaper I interned at, oddly - a granite marker was placed on the Leslie, Mich., grave of Frank White. He is thought to be the chef who posed for Cream of Wheat’s box.
Permalink | Comments (47) | Post your comment | Categories: Uniquely Georgia, Yum!
How do you recycle?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Ahh, curbside recycling, a luxury I miss…
Unless you’re moving to, say, a convent, or prison, moving is waste. There’s just so much STUFF.
For that, I offer my sincere apology to my movers, who packed and hauled many, many, many boxes of books and CDs, only so I could go through a massive purge when I got here last month.
The cardboard alone was overwhelming. I spent an entire day breaking down boxes and rolling up packing paper into tidy bundles tied with yarn. And then there was the other waste, the cotton balls, cereal boxes, banana peels and packaging from carbon monoxide detectors, compact fluorescent light bulbs and shower curtains.
Having moved from one of those pampered places where there’s a giant, blue recycling bin the same size as your trash can waiting when you move in, I arrived here and dutifully sorted and carried my recyclables downstairs in a paper bag. All good.
Except there was no bin. And it would require a dizzying array of phone calls, policy shifts, eye of newt, toe of frog, wool of bat, and tongue of dog to convince someone to allow me a bin at my current address.
The trouble is that my building has eight units.
::smack:: No recycling! Bad multi-family unit dweller! Bad!
According to Marketek Inc./Databank, there are 186,167 multi-family units in Fulton County and 111,198 in DeKalb. That might mean a lot of people without easy access to recycling.
Admittedly, it’s a huge job to organize multi-family recycling. The AJC reported in late 2007 that Atlanta Recycling, provided by the contractor Dreamsan, was having trouble keeping up with requests from single-family homes. The backlog was eliminated by Feb. 1, reports said.
So how do you recycle here? Where do you take it? What do you take?
Before I managed to find another recycling option — albeit, the less curb-licious kind — boxes left on the curb swiftly disappeared, maybe to other overwhelmed movers. As for the rest, when it became a gymnastic feat to cross the kitchen without causing a category five domestic disaster, I guiltily shucked it into a trash bin like I was dumping evidence of a crime instead of yogurt containers.
The good news: it doesn’t have to be so hard. Click below for curbside recycling info for the area, plus a few options if you live in a multi-family dwelling, or if you’re trying to unload items that aren’t usually accepted, like, say major appliances, juice boxes, computer parts and gym shoes.
The most helpful resource on recycling and reusing I found for metro Atlanta was an April, 2008 Lake Claire Clarion article by Stephen Wing. You can download the newsletter as a PDF, and see the list of resources starting on Page 6.
It provided the easiest solution for me right now: dropping my recyclables in the community bin behind the Midtown Whole Foods, 650 Ponce de Leon Ave. NE. There’s no need to sort and they seem to accept just about everything.
If you’re lucky enough to be eligible for curbside recycling, here’s some info collected for an AJC story by John Becker in late 2007. If you’ve got updates, leave them in the comments section and I’ll add it to the list.
METRO AREA RESIDENTIAL RECYCLING PROGRAMS
Check your local government’s Web site for more information. All programs are voluntary.
ATLANTA Program type: Curbside collection for most recyclables (no sorting required); drop-off locations for corrugated cartons, electronics, other items. Accepted items: HDPE#2 (i.e., milk jugs) and PET#1 (i.e., soda/water bottles) plastic containers; aluminum/steel food containers; glass bottles/jars; newspapers; mixed paper (junk mail, phone books, magazines, catalogues, etc.). Cost: $30 per single family home per year. Contact: Dreamsan, 404-792-1212 or the Atlanta Solid Waste Disposal call center, 404-330-6333.
DECATUR Program type: Curbside collection for most recyclables (no sorting required); drop-off locations for batteries, toner cartridges, clothes, furniture, other items; electronics recycling events held twice yearly. Accepted items: Aluminum/metal food/beverage cans; glass bottles and jars; HDPE#2 and PET#1 plastic containers; newspapers, telephone books, and mixed paper; corrugated and non-corrugated cardboard. Cost: No direct cost for recycling; residents pay $235 annual sanitation fee and pay for bags for solid waste disposal. Contact: Decatur’s Sanitation Department, 404-377-5571 or service provider Dreamsan, 800-835-0212.
DEKALB COUNTY Program type: Curbside collection for most recyclables (paper items go in blue bin, co-mingled containers in blue bags); mixed paper items can also be put in designated containers at all county fire stations and public buildings. Accepted items: Newspapers; mixed paper; cardboard boxes; all plastic food, beverage and household cleaner containers designated PET, HDPE, PVC, LDPE, PP, PS or Other. Cost: $15 one-time fee for blue bin; $15 fee for box of 100 bags. Contact: DeKalb County Call Center, 404-294-2900.
EAST POINT Program type: Limited curbside collection. Accepted items: Newspaper, glass (all colors), and aluminum cans. Cost: Free. Contact: East Point Sanitation Department, 404-270-7140.
HAPEVILLE Program type: Central site drop-off only; no curbside collection of recyclables. Accepted items: Mixed paper, glass, cardboard, plastics, metal food containers and aluminum. Cost: Free. Contact: Hapeville Community Services, 404-669-2120.
COLLEGE PARK Program type: Customers can take approved recyclables to any of three drop-off locations; no curbside collection of recyclables. Accepted items: Aluminum, cardboard, newspapers, magazines, glass. Cost: Free. Contact: College Park Sanitation Director, 404-669-3778, ext. 103.
Permalink | Comments (7) | Post your comment | Categories: Getting Started, Moving
Diving in, literally
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
First day at a new job.
Second day in Georgia.
This was my editor’s request: How would you feel about diving into a vat of grits on video?
Fine. Just fine. Because I firmly believe that when you move somewhere, you should live there. Not live in the sense of grocery shopping and paying rent. I mean live, as in drive two-and-a-half hours south to jump into a kiddie pool of Quaker Instant Grits because this is Georgia and we don’t do Malt-O-Meal here.
But I am a newcomer. When “we” slips out of my lips, I’m referring to Michigan State University grads, Lexington Herald-Leader employees and alums or cat owners. “We” is earned. “We” is real when you can offer up directions without asking the Internet and dine on the finest whole-wheat thin crust pizza and cheapest beer that 1 a.m. has to offer. “We” means waving to your neighbors and correctly sorting your recycling and library cards, voter registration and favorites of everything. “We” means knowledge.
Do ya know how many people are living in this area? 4.4 million. You know how many were living here 30 years ago? Half that.
That’s a lot of newbies (and relative newbies) for a place with so much history.I’m sure people have friends and coworkers and family and “Oh, I lived here for a year in the 1990s,” to help them out, but, well, I’ll just say it: we can do better.
This blog is for all of us, newcomer, old guard, part-timer. I hope those of you with some experience in the city (ITP…OTP…whatever…do people really say that?) will pitch in with ideas. And those of you new to the area can come here with your questions and solutions, whether it’s about choosing a gas company, a doctor, a bar or a bookstore. I’m looking for those answers, too. (No, the three months I spent working for the AJC and squatting in my aunt and uncle’s basement in 2003 isn’t helping all that much.)
Share you questions and ideas in the comments. I’ll try to find answers, plus stories and information that seem, let’s say, uniquely Georgia. I grew up outside Detroit, lived most recently in Kentucky and just kept heading down I-75. Sometimes, I just need someone to explain what’s going on around here.
I hope you’ll help out, in the spirit of neighborliness or diving right in.
If not, necessarily, like this.
Permalink | Comments (48) | Post your comment | Categories: Uniquely Georgia
Meet Jamie Gumbrecht
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jamie Gumbrecht grew up in Michigan, lived briefly in Texas, moved to Kentucky and landed in Georgia in March, 2008 to work as an AJC lifestyle reporter. She lived OTP for three months in 2003 as an AJC intern, but the city has changed a bit since then. Like any newcomer, she spends her time getting lost, wrangling utilities and shifting unpacked boxes from one room to another. She prefers to spend her time learning the quirks of Atlanta’s neighborhoods by foot, by bike, by train and if she must, by car. Somewhere in there, she writes.
