To end the year on some good -
nay - great news - the Australian National Dictionary Centre's word(s) of the
year is democracy sausage - yep, the one you have on election day at the
polling station.
And in dumb arse news, Geoff Roberts, the economic commissioner of the Greater Sydney
Commission and others of his ilk have drawn a 'latte line' across Sydney...the
class war lives, comrades.
Traditions revived as kids take to the bay
Yuin Nation fishermen (sic) have
resumed teaching their community's kids in Yarra Bay traditional fishing
techniques, reports the SMH 17 December 2016. There has reportedly been a
hiatus of 3o odd years in the practice, and it's now become possible as
Indigenous fishermen (sic) were given back the right to resume fishing for
mullet and other special occasions (sic) in March this year.
SA foundation gets $1.25m grant to
expand native foods industry
"Adelaide chef and restaurateur
Jock Zonfrillo's Orana Foundation will receive $1.25 million from the State
Government to foster the research, cultivation and production of native
foods."
Congrats to Jock and all at the
Orana Foundation
Hipsters’ insatiable appetite for
superfoods is starving India’s ancient indigenous people
“The downside of turning quinoa,
teff, and acai berries, all from the Amazon forest, or even moringa (drumstick),
into new superfoods is that urban consumers start to compete with indigenous
peoples for food resources. Through our demand for superfoods, we are pushing
indigenous populations into switching to cheaper, less nutritious, and less
flavourful imported staple, such as maize, rice and wheat....
Indigenous peoples have
collectively managed forests for years but without legal recognition of their
rights to the land and its produce, they increasingly face restrictions when it
comes to foraging for food. This has put them at high risk for malnutrition and
hunger, diminishing their food security and nutrition heritage.”
The article doesn’t discuss
solutions but it did ask for comment so I took the opportunity to send them the
link to the article above on the Orana Foundation project. It seems to me that
building partnerships that can support continuing access by Indigenous
populations to historically (I don’t want to use ‘traditionally’) foraged significant
sources of food that can also engage Indigenous peoples in production for market and so provide a
hopefully longer term sustainable income are a great way forward for food
justice in these situations.
http://bit.ly/2hWHAkG
Space salad days
New Scientist 10 December,
2016 reports: " NASA astronauts on the International Space Station have
reaped their first harvest: red romaine lettuces. They first ate space
lettuce in August 2015, but that was just a taste. On 2 december, they cut
enough for a whole salad. The plants grow in a microgravity farm system called
Veggie, installed in 2014.'
But nothing said about what it
tasted like, disappointingly.
Meat and potato pie 'sent into space'
from Wigan
And in other space news
-
"The pioneering
delicacy was launched from Roby Mill, Wigan, at about 11:30 GMT ahead of the
World Pie Eating Championship next week.
The aim is to see if its journey up
to 100,000ft (30km) changes the molecular structure of the pie making it
quicker to eat.
It is believed this is the first pie
to be launched into the stratosphere."
But again I ask - what will it taste
like :(
The futuristic utensils designed to help you eat bugs
'By now, you’ve
probably heard that eating bugs is in your future. Insects are protein-rich and
efficient to farm, and the UN has predicted we’ll largely be surviving off of
beetle bites and caterpillar consommé by 2050. Chefs are already whipping up recipes for curried grasshoppers, buffalo worm nuggets, and
chocolate mealworm spread—although, of course, the easiest way of tucking in to
these delicacies is just eating the insects whole. So what’s stopping
you?
Maybe your tongue has a few
questions. But if it’s merely the lack of an appropriate utensil that is
holding you back, designer Wataru Kobayashi has
you covered. In his new project, BUGBUG, Kobayashi introduces a set of cutlery
that’ll have you gleefully crunching exoskeletons, scooping scorpions, and
sinking your teeth into a different style of wing.'
Unfortunately they can't be bought
yet so I will still have to use my fingers on my upcoming entomophagic trip to
Cambodia in Feb 2016
How to make spaghetti bolognese on Future Tense
I really like this approach to discussing the impact of climate change on
foodways.
The
surprising botany of ice cream
'As food historian Mary Işin mentions
in her book on Turkish sweets, the history of salep in ice cream making was
never documented, so we have only speculation and legend to turn to.
Regrettably, the future of salep-yielding orchids is both less uncertain and
more disturbing: increasing demand and unsustainable harvesting practices have
endangered wild orchid populations. Over 40 million orchids are estimated to be
annually harvested and ground to salep only in Turkey. The
numbers are far from palatable."
No wonder my home efforts are less
than fabulousness incarnate - carob flour, eh.
Thanks to Barbara Sweeney for putting
me onto Georgina Reid and The Planthunter from which this article comes via
this year's Food and Words event.
Paleo diet was a veggie feast with a side of meat
"Today's Paleo diet cookbooks
might be missing a few pages. It seems out early ancestors were more
adventurous with their plant foods than we might expect, with roasted acorns,
sedges and water lily seeds on the menu, along with fish and meat."
Yes, in another blow to Pete
Evans and his ilk Homo erectus guys and gals living at Gesher Benot Ya'aqov
back in 780,000 ate no less than 55 kinds of plant, even if some of their
choices may no longer be on the middle astern menu according to this
article in New Scientist 10 Dec 2016.
I have the article scanned for
those who may be interested.
The Business of Eating: Entrepreneurship and Cultural Politics - Call for Papers
"The
sale of food is simultaneously the world’s biggest business and a site of
innumerable micro-level transactions in which itinerant street vendors compete,
albeit on an unequal basis, with transnational giants like McDonald’s and
Walmart. This special issue will further our understanding of these complex
markets by encouraging conversations across disciplinary and national
boundaries between scholars of management, social sciences and humanities in
the global North and South. We seek a robust understanding of the possibilities
and restraints on culinary entrepreneurship. We build on the concept of
“culinary infrastructure” to highlight linkages between the material nature of
food systems and production, on the one hand, and the symbolic and social realm
of culinary cultures. We encourage theoretical and empirical studies that
illuminate the myriad networks connecting high and low cuisine."
And to end on a festive note http://bit.ly/2hbixck
