This week's compost: A collection of bits and pieces of reading

1. The good earth – King Island cheese and Currie Yellow Kurosol

“This Yellow Kurosol has allowed pastoralists to develop dairy farms and take advantage of the year-round rainfall and cool conditions to make premium cheeses. There are of course losers in all this. Forest was cleared to make way for cows, and the loss of habitat has been profound, particularly of large, old, hollowed trees. With increased pasture, the population of Bennett’s Wallaby on King Island has boomed – in 2008, over 500,000 animals foraged on just 66,413 hectares of pasture. Farmers want that pasture for their cows, so the wallabies have been “controlled”. Alas, even the tender craft of making cheese is poisoned with brutality.” 

I am totally enraptured by this series of articles in The Conversation on Australian soils. I don’t understand half the science, of course but I love how the articles link the soil type to a particular food...and I’m dying to get the opportunity to talk terroir and drop these wonderful soil names as I pass the cheese or the lentils and such at future meals.

http://bit.ly/14H73hP

2. The smell of vegemite explained

“By far the strangest chemical that showed up was cis-9-hexadecenoic acid, which has in the description "old-person smell".

Can’t wait to snarl at my aged care nurse – “That’s not me. It’s the vegemite!”

 

http://bit.ly/12CLmfH

3. Eat me, drink me. Fuelling riders in the Tour de France

“Although sports drinks are one practical way of delivering fluid, electrolytes and carbohydrates (simple sugars such as glucose and fructose, and complex carbohydrates such as maltodextrin), a rider could do similar with water, jam sandwiches and a banana”

Parents of Australia please note and pack those Saturday sports half time hampers sensibly.

http://bit.ly/13mlHQ2

4. Museum of Food and Drink

Forwarded to me by Jean Duruz. Still in its very very early stages but one to keep an eye on. The hyperlink is in the text tho it’s not showing J

“The Museum of Food and Drink, a first-of-its-kind project based in NYC, is proud to present our first exhibit: BOOM! The Puffing Gun and the Rise of Breakfast Cereal. 

Our vision is to create a brick-and-mortar museum that will revolutionize the way people think about--and experience--food.  But until MOFAD has a permanent home, the museum will consist of a series of mobile pop-up exhibits.  The first, rolling out this August, centers on the puffing gun, a 3,200 pound machine that puffs wheat and rice with an explosive boom.  Our exhibition will scan the history of breakfast cereal in America, track the evolution of food advertising, and dig into some nerdy food science facts about popping.

5. Coffee, good today, bad tomorrow?

"For example, the number of Nobel laureates in a country is correlated with chocolate consumption in that country, but that could simply be due to richer countries being able to support education and consumption of luxury items. The fact that there is a stronger association between the number of Nobel laureates and the number of IKEA stores in a country suggests the wealth explanation is more likely than some brain enhancing property of chocolate."

A fascinating little detail from a lovely article that looks at the difficulty for you average punter of understanding the science in journalistic reporting well enough to know how to decide between competing reportage of pro and con when trying to make lifestyle changes.

http://bit.ly/12JQLBA

6. Food trucks: Why aren’t cities taking it to the streets?

“The customary argument advanced by existing businesses is that street vendors and food trucks offer “unfair competition”. It’s variously alleged they ignore safe food regulations, underpay their staff, and don’t pay rates. That’s typical “rent seeker” propaganda. “

I think bundling the whole question posed by the headline into just a matter of other retailers using rent seeker propaganda is pretty thin.  If you attended Barbara Sweeney’s Food and Words forum last year you will have heard the very interesting talk on Sydney’s food barrows by Laila Elmoos, historian with the City of Sydney which detailed the quite complex range of reasons for the disappearance of said barrows from Sydney, including uptight Victorian and Edwardian rules about eating publicly, and the barrows as notable hangouts for crims. However, any discussion about expanding the range of street food in our cities is welcome I reckon.

http://bit.ly/13oDZQE

And links to two other stories mentioned in this article:

http://www.wikidfranchise.org/20100909-free-the

http://www.theage.com.au/comment/melburnians-are-streets-behind-on-pavement-food-20130629-2p42y.html