food museum blog

Pondering the Clever Critters Who Tidy Our Edible Crud

I read with interest an excerpt from Lyanda Lynn Haupt's book, Crow Planet, in Utne Reader recently, and then swiftly, as so often occurs to me these days, saw the book in the library. Now that I've meandered through it, I can say I was delighted with the crow bits, less enchanted by the philosophical riffs on the urban wilderness, the author's angsty moments, etc., etc. I really had hoped the book would be all about crows. ( Maybe I am bring picky here--the author writes well and there is much corvus-ian info.)

Crows, like the pigs in many parts of Asia, among their many activities, eat roadkill/foodwastes, spilled big Macs, and  Cousin Leta's tossed-out 2008 fruitcake,  that would otherwise leave urban and suburban areas icky.  Crows and pigs both have been deemed off the charts re their smarts, too.

( It was humans, you recall, who misguidedly killed off the pigs of Cairo recently, and thus became  awash in garbagey-areas now presumably patrolled by staggeringly fat crows.)

So crows, though lovers of corn, are omnivores, not reliant on any particular food source. Writes the author,  "A crow does not know what the day's food will be. A meal must be sought out, wrung from its place, and perhaps defended."

Am I more like a crow than I thought? As I peer into pantry and fridge at the start of the day, or stroll the market,  I am certain I will eat, but usually not until actual feeding time do I decide what I will toss together and how.

G-18 Spouses Dine Down on the Farm

Michelle Obama just hosted the 18 wives of the economic summit G20 leaders meeting in Pittsburgh----the 2 male spouses were not on hand-- at the working farm of Teresa Heinz, head of the Heinz Endowments, and the wife of Senator John Kerry. The visitors have apparently enjoyed a meal the details of which have been kept under wraps, or perhaps, en papillotte.

Here's the food story according to Sandra McElwaine in The Daily Beast: "The meal, catered by super chef Bob Sendall of All in Good Taste, who is known for foolproof soufflés and jumbo lump crab cakes, is top secret. No one will spill the beans—literally—except some of Heinz’s fresh organic veggies or free-range chicken might make it to the table. Or maybe Michelle will opt for Sendall’s most sought-after item: Toffee Taboo—thin sheets of Belgian dark chocolate with toffee cashews and almonds, a salty sweet dessert he has been concocting for years. (Before the summit even started, one unidentified dignitary requested pancakes from Pamela’s Diner. During a campaign stop in 2008, the president made a pit stop at Pamela’s and called the pancakes “outstanding.” Because of the massive security, the restaurant hasn’t a clue about how it will manage to get the pancakes to the customer, but they’ll be ready for delivery, as requested, on Friday morning.)"

Oldest Pubs in (Northern) Ireland?

Sean's in Athlone apparently has daub walls that go back to 900 AD, while Grace Niell's in Donaghadee, Northern Ireland, got its first license back in 1611. 

I can imagine that there were folks quaffing hootch in 900 AD, but I doubt there was any licensing involved whatsoever. Still, both are handsome spots, and one imagines a Guinness would go down well in either.

Martha's Vineyard, Cape Cod--Food Heritage

Named by British voyager Bartholomew Gosnold after his mother, Martha, in 1602 the island of Martha's Vineyard apparently was rich in luxuriant grapevines. As rich in grape, as the Cape nearby was rich in cod. Gosnold named Cape Cod, as well. Such an observer of food,  our little-remembered Gosnold, and food available in such abundance in the not-yet-even colony of Massachusetts.

Gosnold, an attorney with a bent for sea exploration, returned to England intent on recruiting stout souls to help found the Virginia Colony. Five years after his New England sojourn he died in or near Jamestown in 1607, a swampy site he thought rightly to be unsuitable for habitation. Most of the original Jamestown settlers died of famine, and its accompanying scurvy and dysentery.

The tale of why settlers in a land filled with vegetation, game and fish died of hunger even in the summertime is fodder for many books, including Jamestown, the Buried Truth, in which we learn that dogs and cats were eaten by the afflicted Jamestonians.

The Obamas ( and Bo) need not fear hunger during their stay on the Vineyard, however. 35 year-old West Tisbury Farmers Market is right down the lane from their lodgings.

Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump--Food Heritage

A far-flung food history finder friend has alerted me to this ancient food heritage site, already recognized by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site. It's in Alberta, Canada, in the foothills of the Rockies, and is apparently the largest, oldest--dating back 5500 years--and best preserved of the buffalo killing sites in North America.  Its name derives from a hapless young brave who hung out under the cliff to watch the carnage and got caught in a pile of diving buffalo.

Our reporter writes:

They were hunter/gatherers, living on inhospitable land, frozen much of the year, unreceptive to growing edible crops.  The only domesticated animal they had was the dog, and they did not know about the wheel.  But they somehow managed to psyche out the buffalo, analyze the terrain, and spend weeks gently coaxing the herd towards its ultimate doom.  

Once they had their crop of buffalo, they would use every bit of the beasts—eating the fresh meat and drying the rest in strips for future consumption.  The pelts they used for clothes, the skins for tents, the sinews for thread, etc. Without  this meat, these people would have not survived.

Panda Cake as Inspiration

 The National Zoo's 4 year-old panda, Tai Shan, whose babyhood antics I followed delightedly via the pandacam, celebrated his birthday today with a cake made of  "water, bamboo, shredded beets and beet juice," according to today's Washington Post.

That sounds refreshingly veggie-appropriate so I am pondering adding shredded beet to some kind of cake. Red devil? Or maybe a striped effect, in an angel food cake topped with strawberries.

And soon, shredded zucchini?

These "healthy" additives do not take away from the decadent cake-taste pleasure we all love, but somehow, the carrots of carrot-cake fame, do, do they not? ( I may be alone on this.)

I draw the line at garlic, onion or carrot in my cakes. Just sayin'.

(Tai Shan's 1st birthday cake--person-type--found here:http://www.flickr.com/photos/19764857@N00/192819747)

Bombs, Food, and All That

Afloat on my raft (bed), (thank you, Colette,) due to a recurrent back pain thing, ( grrr...), I have been laptopping this morning, and was just guided by the Internets to two stories with a perverse food linkage.

First, a car bomb exploded in an Iraq market among early morning shoppers, doing the usual horrendous damage.  According to the WaPost, "Body parts mingled with vegetables lying in pools of blood. Fires burned afterward."

Tuesday an explosion at a ConAgra plant in North Carolina that turns out Slim Jims killed at least two people.

I have written more than once here about the obvious contrast between people out and about buying food in order to nourish their families and bombers out and about in order to maim and destroy their fellows. Alas, here we go again. My sect/tribe/family/political party/region/religious belief is superior, so therefore you, whoever you are there randomly fingering the cucumbers, must die!

Anyway--the thought of people dying in pursuit of the creation of Slim Jims revealed that 
this ubiquitous American jerky product is made from, among other unknown ingredients, "mechanically separated meat ( MSM,)" in this case, surprise, chicken! According to Wiki,  in MSM bones that might have a bit of meat still attached are forced through a sieve-like machine that separates the meat from the bone and extrudes a paste-like substance.

Mind you, when Mad Cow or Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy started to appear in humans, this MSM process involving beef was banned in both the US and the UK. Apparently bits of bovine spinal cord were turning up in hot dogs and such, so...

Sound yummy? Jerky is an ancient form of food preservation, traditionally involving strips of meat, often seasoned,  dried using low heat, or sun, or air.  Simple, basic.

BTW  Eating chicken spinal cord bits is evidently ok. As far as we know. Have a Slim Jim.

Pig Factories and the Pig Flu

Much to do about hand-washing these days, while many wash their hands of any connection between factory farming of animals and possible unpleasant and unhealthy repercussions.

Flies figure heavily in this story. Flies, unsanitary conditions, polluted water.
Read this for some views not yet heard much on the nightly news.

Let 'Em Eat Dirt--Those Not Invited to the Mugabe Party, That Is

In case you're into having a good time with a relentless dictator, here's Robert Mugabe's gustatory wish list for his February 21 birthday feast: (Apparently people/corporations are being asked to supply either the raw materials or large outlays of cash.)

2,000 bottles of champagne — Moët & Chandon and ’61 Bollinger
500 bottles of whisky — Johnny Walker Blue Label, 22-year-old Chivas
8,000 lobsters
100kg king prawns
3,000 ducks
4,000 portions of caviar
8,000 boxes of Ferrero Rocher
16,000 eggs
3,000 cakes — chocolate and vanilla
4,000 packs of pork sausages
500kg cheese
4,000 packets of crackers

All this while his country Zimbabwe is ravaged by assorted horrors. As reported by the Times OnLine--"...seven million citizens survive on international food aid, 94 per cent are jobless and cholera rampages through a population debilitated by hunger."

The Times notes a Mugabe caveat re local eats: “No mealie meal” — the ground corn staple on which the vast majority of Zimbabweans survived until the country’s collapse rendered even that a luxury."

President Mugabe will be 85. We have no idea who he is expecting to join him for dinner.

In These Troubled Times, Birds Dig Seed from Wal ($#@!*&) Mart, Too

Wild bird boutique shoppes have their place, for those with abundant disposable income--a few years ago I enjoyed checking out the merchandise at my local Wild Birds Unlimited but I rarely bought anything from them until the big twice a year sales. Now they are gone, not done in by finances, but moved out of town, and I relish cobbling together bird fodder from my local supermarket, the horse supply place in rustic Corrales, NM, and, the big W.

Yes---20 pounds of black oil sunflower seed is about $15, when purchased from the right place at the right time. Then I toss in the more pricey proso millet and sometimes cracked corn, to make my own "gourmet" mix.

( Full disclosure--Bird pictured was photographed in Belgium by old friend R.G., who had been out to buy birdseed, emailed me, and prompted this Post. )