Friday, November 20, 2015

Compost






Radish pods, yes, unlovely and something you won't see in Woolies or Coles but you will see when Hapi from Farm to Feast brings them to the Addison Road Markets - great to knock back as they are or strew them through a salad, stir fry or pasta.



Follow This Simple Guide on How to be Gluten Intolerant
With apologies to all of you who are actually gluten intolerant.


Recipes for Racism?: Kitchen Cabinet and the politics of food
‘“Food is something we all have in common,” Crabb said at the opening of her episode with Wong in 2012, but what it means to cook, share and consume food differs radically depending on who and where you are. Whatever Crabb and her white dinner date choose to put on the menu – steaks on the barbie for Joe Hockey and Tony Abbott, samosas for Scott Morrison or Chinese for Anthony Albanese and Chris Pyne – their performative consumption of those foods will affirm their identities as Australians, patriots of the rugged land of plenty and aficionados of all cultures, so long as those cultures are contained within consumable dishes.’‘
Crabbe’s show has come in for a round of criticism of late for its subjects. I’m not a fan of the show but also think some of the criticism is drawing a long bow. This piece interested me because of its food-as-cultural appropriation and, in this case, allegedly racism-washing angles. Again I think it draws a long bow but it does raise questions of at what point does eating ethnic become racism-washing?

When I posted it on Facebook, Juan Carlo’s comment was: ‘Brings to mind Pauline Hanson's great quote that she wasn't racist because she ate sweet and sour pork!’


Will political change endanger Myanmar’s rich cuisine?
‘At least all these places are bringing something new to Myanmar, broadening culinary horizons. In a “coals to Newcastle” scenario, Rangoon Tea House provides a “sexier take” on Burmese cuisine, serving deconstructed mohinga, our national dish, for 10 times the price of elsewhere (to a soundtrack of jazz). Its owner has said that “Burmese restaurants in Myanmar lack refinement and restraint” and has even accused local cooks of putting “plastic in their fried food to make it crispier”.’

Can an SBS foodie program be far behind. L


Quiet Revolutions
‘It turns our farming was invented many times in many places and was rarely an instant success. In short, there was not agricultural revolution.’

An excellent article in New Scientist that broadens the definition of farming to include a wide range of practices by bands of hunter-gatherers who ‘tweaked’ their landscapes through burning,  small scale cropping of wild cereals and yams etc., as we know was part of indigenous practice in Aus.

I have scanned the article for anyone interested.

A Seismic Shift in How People Eat
‘For legacy food companies to have any hope of survival, they will have to make bold changes in their core product offerings. Companies will have to drastically cut sugar; process less; go local and organic; use more fruits, vegetables and other whole foods; and develop fresh offerings. General Mills needs to do more than just drop the artificial ingredients from Trix. It needs to drop after bad for its the sugar substantially, move to 100 percent whole grains, and increase ingredient diversity by expanding to other grains besides corn. Instead of throwing good money lagging frozen products, NestlĂ©, which is investing in a new $50 million frozen research and development facility, should introduce a range of healthy, fresh prepared meals for deli counters across the country.’
Sure, they will just find new ways to screw the consumer as they always have, shifting with demand while continuing to find ways to maximise profit – that’s what they are good at which is why the are ‘legacy’ food companies. Thanks to Sarah Benjamin for the link to this article.

Move over meat: how the UK can diversify its protein consumption
‘One of the main challenges to diversifying diets in the UK is a lack of knowledge of how to prepare meals without meat, according to the report.’

Gosh, that’s a surprising statement J


The Battle of Olives
‘The legendary olive trees of Puglia produce some of the finest oil in the world...That’s why the spontaneous death of these trees, presumably by a foreign bacterium called Xylella fastidiosa feels like a black plague.’

A terrifc article by Barbi Latza Nadeau in Scientific American Nov 2015 which focuses on the clash between sceintific effort to identify causes and effective measures and growers mistrust in the face of radical proposed measures and their commercial and identity livelihood.

I have a scanned article for anyone interested.


No comments:

Post a Comment