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, Nestlé, 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.
