food museum blog

Glossy (National) Geographic Edibles

 This handsome mega-book weighs far more than most of us will eat today, and, alas, it fell open to an entry titled "French Fries in Ghent."  ( No!) Those of you who know me and this blog well understand that we speak of Belgian Fries, particularly if zeroing in on a Belgian city.

Anyway--It's Food Journeys of a Lifetime--500 Extraordinary Places to Eat Around the World, created by National Geographic. Over 300 pages, it's filled with the rich photography the National Geographic is known for. It's also one giant cliche---paella in Spain, baguettes in France, feijoada in Rio. Anyone who has traveled has eaten these things.  Sake in Japan, wine in Sonoma.........you get the picture.

Even though it lists websites,  recipes, and suggests places and concepts of interest to the alert traveler, it is decidedly a book for those who have not yet begun to travel, or those who want to contemplate travels completed. But, to give it credit, it has taken on the entire world of eating, an absurdly gargantuan task.

The most interesting sections are the book's top 10's--and in one of them, our own country's top edible, apparently, is the hamburger.

(Crayfish are big in Finland, as this photo attests. )

Art, Fast Food, Dying Warhorses

You may have seen the headline--McD's is thinking of putting one of their joints in the "food court" that serves the Louvre in Paris.  I can barely believe I am juxtaposing the words "food court" and Louvre. I haven't been there in a while but hitting a little bistro around the corner would have been my choice, after a morning spent tromping through the galleries.  But I need to enter the 21st c., don't I?  Apparently the Champs Elysees McD's is the most successful in the entire McD universe.

Gourmet Magazine, on the other hand, must not be shining brightly enough for Conde-Nast. It is ceasing publication of the ancient ( est. 1941) food journal by the end of this week, astonishingly. The company's Bon Appetit--less grand, less precious, more accessible? will carry on, for the moment.

My mother subscribed to Gourmet for several years in the 1970's, but the real Conde Nast star in our house was always The New Yorker. I've been reading it since I could read, and love it still.

Ancient Relation Wooed by Food!

15 years after her discovery in Ethiopia, and scads of research and papers later,
"Ardi," of the Ardipithecus ramidus gang,  is making her debut. She's one million years older than the fabled Lucy, and may represent a major step in the evolution of mating---dominant males with a chance of hooking up with Ardi apparently were those who dropped tasty tubers, ripe fruit, and seasoned ( entrails, bugs, caviar and champagne) at her feet. Or out on her limb. Apparently Ardi still spent most of her time in trees.

I , for one, am grateful that we bipedalists moved on from large canine-flaunting males as sexual partners to males knowing their way around seared Ahi tuna sandwiches with wasabi mayo.

Great piece on Ardi via the Natl Geographic here.    And here at the WaPo.  The journal, Science, in which the work is officially announced is here. ( Or should be, but Typepad is experiencing a glitch.)

( Thanks to ABC News et al,  "Artist's conception of what Ardipithecus ramidus would have looked like 4.4 million years ago."  J.H. Matternes/Science/ABC News Photo Illustration)

Bowl Cover Thief on the Loose

Listen, people, en garde. Should you encounter a tall, mischievous-looking woman of Teutonic appearance in a hotel corridor, lurking near the maid's cart, just walk right on by. She's lifting plastic shower caps to use as bowl covers and means no real harm.

When she visits the U.S., bowl covers are high on her shopping list and she ferrets them out, somehow, somewhere. I remember bowl covers--they were big throughout my childhood, and maybe yours. Elasticized things in several sizes, that one's mother used to seal leftover mashies from drying out in the fridge.  Everyone had them, and no one thought bowl covers would ever become as scarce as hen's teeth, to quote an elderly friend of mine, but they did. Instead, we progressed on to embrace plastic wrap, until learning it was killing us with chemicals.

A few years ago I was stunned to see bowl covers hanging on an odd dispenser in the soup section of a major supermarket chain and I pounced on them, buying up several sets, and passing them on to friends. Today, looking into my wax paper and tin foil drawer, no bowl covers, not a one.

I remembered that in the early 1980's my sainted mother bought a few archaic things at the Vermont Country Store, like wood handled butter spreaders, and, YES, bowl covers.

They still have them, described as "Reusable 1950's Vinyl Bowl Covers." Did the copywriter intend to suggest that cartons of  actual 1950's bowl covers survived in an underground bomb shelter somewhere only to be discovered and handed off to the VCS for sale? Or not?

Of course, duh,  Google knows its bowl  covers--the copy with this polka dotted offering from Kitchenworks in fact, says, "They look just like shower caps!" 

So there.

Another Day, Another ( Same Old) Diet ?

 Eat more veggies, ginger, turmeric, blueberries, whole grains and fish, cut way back on red meat, dairy, and trans fats, and, presto, you will be entering the anti-inflammation zone. It's all in a book aptly called The Anti-Inflammation Zone, by Barry Sears.  Now this diet is not aimed at "weight loss," apparently, but people do lose weight on it.  And, by yes, reducing inflammatory-ness, one takes a firm step towards preventing all manner of disease, including heart ailments, cancer, even Alzheimer's.

The LA Times did a piece on the anti-inflammatory trend and the author noted that the Mediterranean diet really does closely resemble the a-i edibles approach, except possibly for the heavy use of ginger and turmeric.

 Is this yet another recycling/repackaging of common-sensical eating? And what about the Inuit?

Curiously, what was common and sensible eating for the northern-dwelling Inuit many years ago-- their traditional diet---hints at the positive role of fatty fish as described here in Discover magazine, in 2004.

"Today, when diet books top the best-seller list and nobody seems sure of what to eat to stay healthy, it’s surprising to learn how well the Eskimo did on a high-protein, high-fat diet. Shaped by glacial temperatures, stark landscapes, and protracted winters, the traditional Eskimo diet had little in the way of plant food, no agricultural or dairy products, and was unusually low in carbohydrates. Mostly people subsisted on what they hunted and fished. "

Here's the fishy kicker. "... like a “natural aspirin,” adds (Professor Eric) Dewailly, omega-3 polyunsaturated fats ( from fish and sea mammals) help put a damper on runaway inflammatory processes, which play a part in atherosclerosis, arthritis, diabetes, and other so-called diseases of civilization."

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.

Guerrilla Gardeners Unleashed

Years ago, as visitors to China, we noticed that food plants were growing everywhere--tucked into walls, jammed amidst jumbled blocks of broken up cement, as well as in fields, plots,  pots and tin cans.

In recent years here, there and everywhere, guerrilla gardeners have been striking, planting hollyhock and sunflower seeds in iffy/ugly ground and waiting until the end of summer wild bloom to delight and amaze passersby. But these days the flowers increasingly have been augmented by or even supplanted by veggies.

This WaPo report from Britain focuses on the town of Todmorden, where edibles have been planted all over town, even in its cemetery. Resident Mary Clear started the effort which has now achieved legitimacy, and some funding, and operates under the name Incredible Edible Todmorden. (Obviously, this started as a determined lark, perpetuated by people with a sense of joy and abundant humor.)

The GG's have struck in Los Angeles, and Harrisonburg, VA, and countless other locales.

According to Web Ecoist, "In Cuba, guerrilla gardening has grown into a countrywide tradition. After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989, the country experienced an economic crisis that led to food shortages. As a result, Cubans began growing food wherever they could, and what developed was a culture of organic urban agriculture. Today, up to 70% of Cuba’s fresh produce is grown in these urban gardens." 

BTW, FYI and NB  From the WaPo piece above:  " In June, Queen Elizabeth II ordered that part of her garden at Buckingham Palace be dug up for vegetables. (Royal officials emphasized at the time that the queen's patch was planned before first lady Michelle Obama launched one in the White House back yard.)"  Now, now...

( Pic tks to http://www.novinow.net/2009/05/18/into-the-fray-guerilleros/)

Kale Soup, and Ponderings

 Foodie Spouse made a delicious Portuguese kale and potato soup for supper recently.
Kidney beans and soy "chorizo" sausage were involved as well.   And as I of late have become enamored of Brazil's lime-centered caipirinha drink,  I wandered into a traditional American supermarket, Smith's, to quickly grab some citrus, and was soon pondering Portugal's imperial role.  (Thank you, Prince Henry the Navigator, for getting things started. )

In 1500 this small European country claimed control over the largest cohesive land mass in the "new" world, and stamped Brazil with its quirkily-different-sounding-from-Spanish-yet-similar language, a massive slave trade, and eventually, a mix of people indicative of much mingling among natives, slaves, and Europeans. As well as black beans to die for, selenium-packed B. nuts, and cachaca.

Anyway--There I was, the eve of the Glorious Fourth in a supermarket in America, clutching limes headed for inclusion in a Brazilian drink. No bunting, no flags, maybe 3 flag balloons for sale.  Normally, as we all know, a "holiday" makes a store erupt in decorative items in tune with the theme. I do not even want to think ahead to checkers decked out as witches, fold-up Christmas trees, icky yellow candy chicks, and all that. But it struck me as odd that on our nation's holiest of holy days, there was virtually nothing.

But then--what products can one sell that speak INDEPENDENCE? Baby back ribs? Weiners? Flabby white no-food-value hotdog rolls?

Meanwhile, we still have plenty of the soup, inspired by a Cape Cod recipe based on what early visiting Portuguese fishermen from Cape Verde and the Azores were eating.  ( Note: this recipe does not contain fish so the fishermen evidently were storing sausage on board, and there were no potatoes growing readily, so...) The ingredients vary---but a spicy sausage is key. As is kale.

So this year at our house, to honor America, we are celebrating the major affront to George III by going Portuguese. Bom dia!

( Tks to this site for kale soup pic--http://www.capecodtoday.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=080)

Today I Will Eat Persian Food

Today I will go to Pars Restaurant in Albuquerque where I will eat stewed eggplant with cinammony overtones, along with aromatic rice. I will have yogurt with chopped veggies on the side. I will have tea in glass cups without handles, but before that I will sip the yogurt , mint and fizzy water drink known as "dugh."

If I decide to indulge in what we once ate regularly in Iran, as Peace Corps vols, I will try chicken kabobs, the chicken marinated overnight in a tasty yogurt concoction. ( We became veggie-fishitarians in 1975...) The rice will be served with grilled tomatoes, a tiny dish of sumac, and a raw egg. I will mix the egg into the rice and sprinkle some sumac on top.

I will likely finish up with two tiny pieces of baklava, seasoned with rose water.

I will wear green.

Nothing to Eat? Food Fuels Civilization? Huh?

Last night I was flipping about in tv land when I landed on what looked like a documentary on ABC.
Experts were proclaiming that the Roman Empire failed in large part because it was unable to grow enough and transport enough grain to its people. It could not feed its Empire. This was not news to us, yet we were grateful to hear it humming forth from network tv.  (The population of the city of Rome itself dropped from 1 million to about 30,000 at the beginning of the so-called Dark Ages.)

People into the story of food know that food issues underlie all of history. And yet food is still seen as a wacky topic for a museum...from some.

??

The show was Earth 2100.