food museum blog

Eat Crap, Win Voters' Hearts and Minds? Part Two: The Booze Factor

"Mocked for not finishing his waffles, he (  Obama) has made a joke about his newfound willingness to drink beer in blue-collar bars and sop up the gravy at working-class diners. After he lost the Pennsylvania primary to a beer-swilling, whisky-downing Hillary, Obama mordantly announced to his staff, "OK, now I'll eat anything."  This week's Newsweek cover story is about Senator Obama and his team.

So many silly issues, dumb attacks about nothing--I wonder how many of those who voted for G.W. Bush because they thought he was the kind of guy they'd like to have a beer with have actually had a beer with him during the past eight years. Please contact me, wherever you are.

Meanwhile, if you haven't had a politically incorrect laugh lately, take a gander through That Hillary Show, my new personal favorite web offering. The most recent video is up top, wherein Hillary urges Bill to keep drinking with the denizens of a bar in West Virginia. The creation of the clever and focused Rosemary Watson, it features a dogged, yet addled Hillary fighting on, and on, and on. The show has finally had some play at the NYTimes and The Atlantic--wish I had blogged the link earlier because I have been enjoying these for some time.
( This YouTube  pic of Rosemary at left is lousy, but all I could find at the mo'.)

Myanmar Disaster Also Affects World's Rice Eaters

The destructive tsunami that has killed more than 22,000 people in Myanmar quite obviously has a food repercussion. First of all, the hundreds of thousands of survivors  in the devastated area must be fed. And there is no telling whether or not the tightly-controlling regime in power will allow adequate aid and food aid workers into the country.

In addition, according to a report in The Economist:

"The disaster may have ill effects well beyond Myanmar’s borders. UN agencies such as the WFP are already suffering huge strains on their finances because of the soaring cost of rice and other food staples. Having another big emergency on their hands may force them to divert scarce resources from other needy parts. Worse, the cyclone, which hit Myanmar’s main rice-growing areas, may intensify the worldwide panic over scarce rice supplies that have led to food riots in dozens of countries."

Thailand, the world's largest exporter of rice, cannot grow much more than it does already. Still,  in April the FAO forecast that most Asian and Latin American rice producing areas would do better in 2008, while Australian rice production would fall due to water shortages and US production would be less as  more profitable crops replaced rice among farmers.  But the FAO did not forecast the typhoon/cyclone that just wiped out much of  Myanmar's rice paddies.   The brightest spot may well be Cambodia,  one Asian country with a decided surplus in rice--even there, officials may well restrict exports of rice, given the volatile nature of the market.

Update from the LA Times---"This is the rice bowl of Myanmar, so we have to assess the impact on food production in the longer term, " said ( Christine ) South, (with the International Red Cross.)

Myanmar had agreed to supply tens of thousands of tons of rice to Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, according to the World Food Program (WFP), but now those prospects are uncertain."

Pumped for the Primaries? Krispy Kreme 'Em!

" Anyone who finishes without vomiting is a winner," says the young dude on YouTube. You thought he was referring to Senators Obama and Clinton, right?
Wrong! In my ceaseless quest to find rich foodish material for this blog, and to honor America's democratic process and the IN and NC primaries tomorrow,  I explored YouTube's offerings re "eating in Indiana," and "eating in North Carolina."

The result?

Most of "Indiana eating" was at the State Fair, with the usual sausages and deep-fried testicles and what-not. And too many shots of depressingly fat Americans.
So-- I chose to share with you instead this vid view of the Krispy Kreme Challenge, a 4 mile race held at NC State in January, wherein the runners are urged to chomp down and swallow a dozen KK donuts at the 2 mile mark, then continue on to the finish line.  12 donuts, 2400 calories, some running, loads of retching,  and all to benefit  Children's Hospital.

What's not to like? Alas, the local and very earnest tv peeps reporting on this offbeat story have worked diligently to make it extraordinarily dull and lacking in humor.
Sorry.

Eat Crap, Win Voters' Hearts and Minds?

In between mel0dramatic reports on lame bowling skills and memories of shooting ducks as a wee lass and all the flotsam and jetsam of American political discourse, I have noted disparagement of Senator Obama's campaign eating style. Apparently he doesn't finish all his waffles!  He shies away from fat-laden nightmares like Philly cheesesteaks ( I may be making this one up) and so on. He's not into multiple brewskies, either.

So the guy is trim, healthy, and against all the odds during this marathon primary season, he wants to stay that way and hold off the carbs. What a nutcase!  What a crappy exemplar of all that is American!

Please, superdelegates, end the agony soon so that Barry O' can take a break to revisit farmers markets and Senator Clinton can hole up in her Georgetown home tossing back whatever she damn pleases.

This tidbit from the NYT a few days back may amuse....

ps  Not getting into the use of "waffle" as a verb...

(Thanks to http://www.easywafflerecipe.com/ for handsome, healthy-looking waffle photo.)

Price of Rice Hits Home While Gas Price Keep Diners Home?

"You can't charge enough to keep up with food prices."  So said Tavee Yaparwong, owner of my favorite Thai restaurant in Albuquerque, who just told her customers she would  be closing down the $7.43 lunch buffet in favor of $7.95 daily specials. "Rice alone, jasmine rice, has gone up 150% in the past month, " she added.  And apparently the buffet was starting to have excess food going to waste on a regular basis.  Fewer people driving the extra miles to eat out, due to gas prices? Fewer people eating out at all, due to the need to put extra cash towards gas?

Fat David, Plus, Foodie is Baaaack; Also, Usage!!

Back, at last, after a long time away, and a road trip across these USSSS of A from St Petersburg to Albuquerque, a journey not noted for its fine cuisine, alas. So while I organize my foodie thoughts, experiences and pix, and prepare to resume, I thought you might enjoy this lovely image at left, forwarded to me, origin unknown. Clearly Dave has returned to his pillar in Florence after a few weeks holiday in the U.S.

Oh--also---consumed with following the Dem primary on line, I am once again urging all bloggers and posters to understand that "loose" means untied or unconfined,  while "lose" means go down to defeat. Also--"led" is the past tense of "lead", as in "she led in the PA polls by 20 points a few weeks ago."  And "lead," the noun, is the stuff appearing in all those Chinese-made toys. Thank you.

Of Islands, Hunger, and Yes, We Have No Eggs

Haitians are apparently not satisfied eating mudcakes for survival---in Port Au Prince they are rioting, and looting, and demanding the resignation of president Rene Preval in part because global food prices  have risen 40% in the past year, a fact particularly affecting islanders who import most of what they eat. Their staple, rice, is expensively imported more than it should be, thus diminishing local production. Taxes on food, too, appear to be an issue. Food that is on shelves in cities is too costly for the poor to buy. According to today's AP story, about 80% of the people struggle to survive on about $2 per day.

Many of those who marched on the capital chanted "we are hungry!," according to a report from The Canadian Press. Haitian riots followed protests in Egypt and elsewhere, prompting a UN official to state that "food insecurity" is a major threat to world stability.

Meanwhile, speaking of islands, when we recently visited family in the Abacos, Bahamas, we stayed in Hope Town, a place filled with well-off vacationers. Food, and most other domestic goods available at local groceries, was outlandishly expensive when compared to prices for the same items on the Florida coast. Even eggs were not raised locally for sale---people are dependent on small ferry boats for everything, and during a three day period of stormy seas, the hunt for eggs became paramount. Not, mind you, for human survival.  It was Easter weekend, you see.

Early one morning, still in my robe, I walked from our seaside abode onto a small road heading into the lush undergrowth, following the sound of a rooster crowing, hoping  to locate at least one local source of something to eat. After a bit I turned back on reflecting that my inappropriate garb might have caused the rooster's owner to have me arrested by the constabulary ( one guy) for some form of peeping or stalking or other addlepated old dame behavior.

Even the mere threat of " food insecurity" has me pondering( not for the first time,)  where to live,  what to grow, how to harvest enough water for growing, and how to get "off the grid" in time to do all the above.  Perhaps my Jack Russell might be cajoled into trotting along on some kind of power-generating treadmill so that I could maintain my link to the Internets, too.

Steak vs Hamburger

With all the hooha these past few days about the appetite of a certain New York governor for youthful yet costly flesh apparently not available locally, I couldn't help but recall the jaunty response of Paul Newman years back when asked if he had ever been unfaithful to wife Joanne Woodward.

"Why go out for hamburger when you have steak at home?"  Such a romantic, that Paul!

Now-- we gals do not overtly welcome comparison to cuts of beef, but still, for a food blog, useful.

Real Issues, Please, Not Faux

While the candidates fool around with non issues such as answering old-fashioned 1950's red phones,  who has experience and what kind, and my commander-in-chief mojo is fiercer than yours,-- ( I even heard 46 year-old Barack Obama described as a "callow youth." Please!)--- violence continues and even escalates in many parts of the world, oil prices reach appalling heights, oh--and the world is slowly getting hungry as wheat and other staple grains become  scarce commodities. Amazing.

According to this report from Scotland's Sunday Herald, "More than 73 million people in 78 countries that depend on food handouts from the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) are facing reduced rations this year. The increasing scarcity of food is the biggest crisis looming for the world'', according to WFP officials.

At the same time, the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation has warned that rising prices have triggered a food crisis in 36 countries, all of which will need extra help. The threat of malnutrition is the world's forgotten problem'', says the World Bank as it demands urgent action."

Price rises are due to a surge in demand, worsening droughts, and increasingly, the growing of foods for bio-fuels, instead of for feeding people and animals. The report continues:

"High (wheat) prices have already prompted a string of food protests around the world, with tortilla riots in Mexico, disputes over food rationing in West Bengal and protests over grain prices in Senegal, Mauritania and other parts of Africa. In Yemen, children have marched to highlight their hunger, while in London last week hundreds of pig farmers protested outside Downing Street."

"The US currently grows one-sixth of its grain harvest for cars, which is madness," ( Robin Maynard of the UK Soil Association,) told the Sunday Herald."

Obama Leads in Ohio Department of Food Provision

Referring back to the motto of The FOOD Museum, "First, we eat. Then we do everything else," stated by writer M.F.K. Fisher, I would say that the Senator Obama volunteers in Columbus clearly have their priorities straight. Along with building a strong grassroots, interconnected presence in Ohio, they have made feeding their hard-working vols a priority.

Check out this report comparing Obama's campaign with that of Senator Clinton:

"At the end of a regular e-mail to Democratic Party activists, the Clinton campaign attached a plea last week begging volunteers to bring food to staff members working at the campaign headquarters. When ( Obama head volunteer Valli) Frausto read the message, she chuckled. Obama's campaign already had a volunteer whose only job is to coordinate the dozens of people who pledged to cook lunch and dinner for Obama's 60 staff members in Columbus every day through March 4. "  Emphasis mine.

Now that's planning you can digest, darlings!