food museum blog

"The Amazing Mrs.Pritchard"

Masterpiece Theatre once again has doled out a (tiny)  food dollop in its new presentation starring Joan Horrocks, about the manager of a supermarket in Leeds who decides to run for Parliament.  She runs as an independent, rallies the nation, and, faster than a runaway shopping trolley, becomes Prime Minister,  all the while being shown peeling carrots, and ( we think) doing something with spuds. And, of course, the first episode opens with her zipping around her store, Greengages Supermarket,  efficient, friendly and ever on the alert.

( Don't turn this on for the food, however, but for the tight writing and fine acting. Dilys Laye has a brief, gemlike scene as QE II--brilliant, worth the price of Public Broadcasting membership.  )

Pixar's Take On Animated Food--"Ratatouille"

So There's This Evil Eggplant, See...

Scanning the offerings at Netflix the other day, I fell victim to this title: Oranges: Revenge of the Eggplant. Huh?

Well. I began watching, and knew I had stumbled into a bizarre  world of doodled on fruits, playhouse sets,  and awkward voice overs. Plus, violence prevailed. Toy tanks!  Death squads! ( This orange, like, exploded?)  Bananas in burka-like coverings...

I hopped forward through the entire affair, with Dr. Sunkist and the Evil Eggplant et al. I suppose this animated flick has a cult following---it's not the only one with the Oranges. The first, apparently, was created for a high school art class.

Rent it, readers. See for yourselves. ( Perfect date flick.) Orange yuh gonna?

"West Bank Story" Redux

Finally saw the Academy Award winner in the Short Live Action Film category, West Bank Story--I blogged about this battle of the falafel joints on February 27--and it's a gem.   Full of wit, lively music, un PC jokes, and sight gags, as well as bits stolen from West Side Story, the flick portrays the ( absurd) battle between the Kosher King Jewish deli and its rival Hummus Hut, both on the West Bank. ( Duh.) And the expected love affair between Fatima, the Palestinian cashier, and David, the Israeli soldier.

Watch the trailer here.

Food-Themed Flick Wins Oscar

Dueling falafel joints on the West Bank, a concept that seized me by the tastebuds.  A short documentary by Ari Sandel titled West Bank  Story , (cute,) won an Oscar Sunday night in the Best Short Documentary category. Of course I'm dying to see it--falafel is a stellar vegetarian food, right, and, extra points, this film is a musical.

Here's what oscar.com says: "A musical comedy set in the fast-paced, fast-food world of competing falafel stands on the West Bank."

Now I did see The Queen and don't recall QEII eating anything....maybe the corgis chowed down. And The Departed did feature a scene in a greasy spoon but the characters were so riven with violence I don't recall much eating. Loved Little Miss Sunshine a film wherein the Mom plops pizza and a bag of salad on the table, right?

But for real food, I think WBS is the foodie winner! Now how in hell can I get to see it????

"Eating" ---The Movie

All in the line of duty, I finally watched an overly long flick called Eating. It was made in the early 1990's by Henry Jaglom, an English-born indy director much lauded by some as idiosyncratic. ( Evidently he achieved early fame with a faux food film called Can She Bake A Cherry Pie?)

Eating centers on a Southern California birthday party honoring three women of different ages. Untold numbers of mostly thin, svelte women show up for the event, including a young French filmmaker who is doing a documentary on the California American scene or some such.

The women drift hither and thither, admiring others' bodies, loathing their own, and eventually they go before the French gal's camera and whine about food, sex, men, love, mostly the lack thereof, and so on.  The sole voice of sanity is expressed by Frances Bergen,  astonishingly lovely at 70-something.  ( She's  Candice Bergen's mom.)  She plays the lead character's mother and is repeatedly flabbergasted by the absurd notions these pampered neurotic gals have about good old food.

At one point the guests do dive into a big spread on a buffet table, a scene that inexplicably appears after they have all recoiled in horrific clucks from the obligatory birthday cakes. ( One character, God bless her, chows down throughout the film. )

I started doing whatever you call "fast forwarding" in DVD parlance right away--fortunately, I caught this one line:

" I'm still looking for a man who will excite me as much as a baked potato."

More Than Gay Guys with Coffee--"Brokeback"

Recently we inherited a Charles Marion Russell  repro bronze of two cow guys hunkered down by a campfire having coffee, with a horse hanging around above them. We had always enjoyed the piece at our friend's house-- coffee pot front and center, probably one of those deep blue speckled enamel jobs, two hardworking guys facing each other, talking, taking a break. The horse is still saddled up, blandly looking into the middle distance, maybe wondering when the oat bag will be strapped on.  ( Russell first worked as a cowhand at age 18 in Montana in 1882.)

After the film "Brokeback Mountain" came out we began flippantly referring to the statue as "The Gay Guys Having Coffee."  Having seen the remarkably fine flick,  we can report that the guys were heavily yet reluctantly into beans, as well as coffee, and improved their larder immensely when they dried meat from an elk(?) one of them shot.

In truth BBM is not a foodie movie, and we are now respectfully calling the statue: "A Coffeepot, Two Guys and a Horse."

Meatrix II--They're BAAACK!

So many people have emailed Foodie the latest re Meatrix that she succumbed and clicked on Play Movie 2, hoping her antique Windows 98 system would bring it forth. ( Movie 1, keyed off the film The Matrix, was perfectly timed.)

It worked---Meatrix II ( still keyed to the now passe Matrix films,) is a short punchy on-line animation about the horrors of factory farming, in particular, dairy farming.

"The Meatrix is a product of the first-ever Free Range Flash Activism Grant. In February 2003, Free Range Graphics, a cutting-edge design company, invited hundreds of non-profit organizations to apply for a grant that included production of a free Flash movie. After carefully reviewing more than 50 applications, the grant was awarded to GRACE’s Sustainable Table program. "

And the Meatrix project is derived from : "Sustainable Table ,  a consumer campaign developed by the Global Resource Action Center for the Environment (GRACE). It was launched to help fill in the gaps in the sustainable food movement, and to help direct consumers to the leading organizations who are working on the issue. Instead of becoming overwhelmed by all the problems surrounding our food supply, Sustainable Table celebrates the joy of food and eating."

One of the best aspects of Sustainable Table's on-line presence is its Eat Well Guide to places in the US and Canada where you can buy  and eat sustainably raised food. The Guide was first developed by the Minneapolis-based Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy as a search engine for consumers looking for meat raised without antibiotics. The IATP supports "resilient family farms."

And Sustainable Table is an offshoot of:  "GRACE,  a nonprofit organization that works with research, policy and grassroots communities to raise public awareness and promote solutions to preserve the planet for future generations."

All intertwined, these organizations are chipping away at the mountain that is public and private apathy about food sources, eating, environmental issues, child obesity et al.

Fat Suits Featured/Lay off the Diet Sodas

Foodie is a bit late in viewing Dodgeball, an amusing if predictable flick about a rivalry between neighborhood workout joints that comes to a head in a major dodgeball tournament. Yes, the game we all played with pink rubber balls on rainy days in what used to be called "gym," is elevated to almost pro status in this movie.  Anyway, at the end, the repugnant narcissistic fitness freak character played by Ben Stiller in his usual crazed style has retrogressed from lean machine to fat guy, stuffing himself with snack foods. Stiller in a fat suit is memorable indeed, wallowing, nay billowing in his fatitude.  ( Earlier in the flick we see Stiller teasing/testing himself with pizza and other dietary no-no's.) 
Foodie confesses she  is hot to try on a fat suit but isn't sure she could bear the accompanying fat face....oi vey.
And , in case you missed it, a new study indicates that diet sodas make you fatter. Seems that by not receiving the satisfaction of real sugar in the drink, the dieter eats/drinks more to achieve satiety.

Movie Makes Merlot Plummet, Pinot Noir Rise?

"Sideways," the buddy flick for oenophiles,  seems to have singlehandedly boosted the sales of Pinot Noir in the U.S.  Sales jumped 16 percent from Oct 2004 to January 15, 2005, and 135 percent in  California's Central Coast  supermarkets  in a one year period ending Jan. 15.
The movie's lead character, an English teacher with a passion for Pinot Noir, detests Merlot and is adamant he will not even sit down to dinner if his companions order the stuff.

( Be sure to see this film,  if only for the lovely explanation Miles ( Paul Giamatti ) gives as to why he pursues Pinot Noir.)

So has Merlot sunk? Not according to Progressive Grocer.  Merlot still leads Cabernet Sauvignon as the country's "largest" red varietal.