foodmuseumblog

Squaring Up to Watermelons--Japan

It's that time again, and the melons are rolling out of the fields. The round ones, that is. The square ones need tiny implanted wheels...

See, back in the 1980's, the Japanese decided square was better. 

"According to a BBC news article published in June 2001, a Zentsuji farmer came up with the innovative idea for a space-saving square watermelon some twenty years earlier. Since then, the square fruit has been sold in various selected outlets across Japan, but they are prohibitively expensive to buy and their potential market is therefore quite limited. The BBC article noted:

Today the cuboid watermelons are hand-picked and shipped all over Japan.

But the fruit, on sale in a selection of department stores and upmarket supermarkets, appeals mainly to the wealthy and fashion-conscious of Tokyo and Osaka, Japan's two major cities.

Each melon sells for 10,000 yen, equivalent to about $83. It is almost double, or even triple, that of a normal watermelon.

"I can't buy it, it is too expensive," said a woman browsing at a department store in the southern city of Takamatsu. "

So today, we have no clue how much a square watermelon sells for in Japan. But, my spies tell me that squares are, or at least were introduced into these United States a couple years back, selling for about $75 per.

If that seems steep and you must have one, the clever persons at Instructables have info re growing your own.....next summer.......

 

Digging the Geoduck!

 

Geoduck!  Wild and crazy, tasty clam-ish creature we first encountered in Washington State. An intro to its story...

 

 

 

 

 

Greek police smash violent doughnut ring - Yahoo! News

THESSALONIKI, Greece (AP) — It took an undercover operation, but Greek police have blown a hole in a ring of alleged crooks who had cornered the doughnut market in a beach resort.

via news.yahoo.com

You can't make this stuff up....

Watering the Food Deserts of New Orleans

"Food deserts," heard of them? Places where the only groceries available are chips, soda and corn dogs from a convenience store. 

Earlier this summer Michelle Obama announced an initiative with major food chains to create more supermarkets for exceedingly under-served neighborhoods. The chains promised 500 such stores.

Now actor Wendell Pierce of the HBO show, Treme, has committed to opening four such stores in hard-hit neighborhoods of his native New Orleans. According to the WaPo, " Grocers have historically been reluctant to open locations in poor neighborhoods, citing problems with crime and transportation. "

 
The stores are set to open this spring under the name Sterling Farms. Apparently, “the New Orleans Sterling Farms will have a uniquely Big Easy feel— monthly crawfish boils for the neighbors.”

Man Grows Massive Chile, Seeks Record - Albuquerque News Story - KOAT Albuquerque

Man Grows Massive Chile, Seeks Record - Albuquerque News Story - KOAT Albuquerque

Donuts and Diabetes Among Native Nations

 

• 
• 
• 
• 

 

Currently on view at the Institute of American Indian Arts' Museum of Contemporary Native Arts in Santa Fe is this piece on how the white flour, fat, salt and sugar influence on Indian traditional diets has led to out-of-control diabetes issues.  Just outside, as noted in a prior post, visitors and vendors alike are eating fry breads, and other carby offerings.

Via IAIA---

Last Supper - C.Maxx Stevens’ exhibition is a conceptual installation. The new work by C. Maxx Stevens is based on her memories and experiences dealing with devastating effect of diabetes throughout native nations.  The exhibition creates a larger social awareness of the epidemic and its dilemma in all of the United States. The exhibition includes her family archives and testimony/narratives of the disease and its impact on traditional values and the drastic evolution of diet as well as economy.

About the artist: C. Maxx Stevens, Muscogee/ Seminole, received the prestigious Eiteljorg Fellowhip of Native American Fine Art in 2005 and was winner of the 2000 Visual Artist Award from the Andrea Frank Foundation in New York. She earned a Master of Fine Arts in sculpture from Indiana University in Bloomington and earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in sculpture and ceramics from Wichita State University in Kansas. Her installations are responses to site-specific environments where she explores the relationships among land, man, and the history of place. C. Maxx Stevens lives in Boulder, Colorado and is on the faculty of the Department of Art and Art History at the University of Colorado.

Noshing at Santa Fe Indian Market

Navajo Tacos, Frybread, Burritos---all the dough you can eat is on hand at Indian Market. Plus, roasted corn! So don't think about carbs, just take the plunge. It's only once a year, right?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Pop-Up" Restaurants? Helsinki Says They/It Started It

August 21 is the next Pop-Up Restaurant Day, apparently, and Finns are gearing up all over the country to outdo one another with offbeat food offerings in unusual settings. ( Apparently the phenomenon has spread beyond Finland, so be on the lookout. Didn't I read about this happening in Manhattan?) See Facebook for more details.

The idea is to imagine your fave food notion, and then get it going, maybe from your bedroom, or your Mother's aging Volvo.  The young woman pictured is evidently cooking in front of a railroad car/container,with a customer waiting for vittels in a comfy easy chair.

Here's mine. My Mother's (Fabled) Deviled Eggs on Demand, While They Last---Buy them from my storage unit.  Sit crosslegged on the melting tarmack in the hot, desert sun. One day only!

Put A Gator in Your Tank?

Alligator fat may be the new, new thing in green alternative fuels, according to Rakesh Bajpai, of the American Chemcial Society. 

"Dr Bajpai said: 'The search for non-food ( he should have said non-plant) sources of biodiesel already has identified a number of unlikely candidates, including spent oil from deep fryers in fast-food restaurants and sewage.

'Alligator fat could join that list. Each year, the alligator meat industry disposes of about 15million pounds of alligator fat in landfills.'

Via the journal,  Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research, as reported in the Daily Mail.

Giant lobster avoids becoming lunch and finds home on Coney Island | The New York City Local - Yahoo! News

AdChoices

via news.yahoo.com

Fearless City Gardener Plants Veggies Where Petunias (?) Once Flourished

Right out in the open--no guerilla-gardener he, Bill Koen, City Horticulturalist of Lakeland, Florida, is planting edibles on city land. Bravo, Bill!

Via The Ledger.com

"A petite crop of vegetables, fruits and grain is thriving at Heritage Park at Kentucky Avenue and Orange Street. Indian corn, okra, peppers, kumquats and eggplant provide an unexpected agricultural filigree to the slice of city property.

Towering corn stalks also ring the perimeter of a circular planter in the parking lot at Lakeland's main library, and an assortment of ornamental peppers can be seen near the entrance to the Lakeland Electric building on Lemon Street.

City horticulturist Bill Koen said he started installing food-bearing plants at Hollis Garden more than a decade ago, and in recent years he has expanded the approach into other city properties...

Koen, a city employee for 41 years, said he planted the crops at Heritage Park in the tradition of the "victory gardens" Americans tended in their yards and in public spaces during World War I and World War II."

( Thanks for okra photo to Bijlmakers.com)

School Districts Rediscover Value of From-Scratch Meals - NYTimes.com

This midsize city in northern Colorado, where 60 percent of the 19,500 students qualify for free or reduced-price meals, is trying to break the mold. When classes start on Thursday, the district will make a great leap forward — and at the same time back to the way it was done a generation ago — in cooking meals from scratch.

via www.nytimes.com

Yes!

Fair Iowa Fair Fare, and Those Who Eat It

via The Telegraph--

"Funnel cake. Deep fried twinkies. Even fried butter on a stick. Republican politicians mingling with farm animals and standing on hay bales to denounce President Barack Obama - and paint all their rivals as Obama clones, in contrast to themselves.

Welcome to the Iowa State Fair and the starting point for the 2012 Republican White House race, where would-be presidential candidates and ordinary voters are served up small government rhetoric and big portions of the unhealthiest food this side of the Atlantic."

Via Eugene Robinson, WaPo--

"...People were happy to line up for the Famous Dave’s barbecue that (Tim) Pawlenty was serving, but they didn’t stay long — and when they walked away, they weren’t wearing the green Pawlenty T-shirts that signaled support. By mid-afternoon, volunteers were glum.

There were plenty of orange (Michelle) Bachmann T-shirts, though, and an even longer line at her tent, despite the fact that she was serving inferior food: giant corn dogs andtrompe l’oeil “beef sundaes” that consisted of a scoop of mashed potatoes topped with chunks of beef, a ladle of gravy and a cherry tomato."

Now we can show you photos via the Iowa State Fair, but, alas, cannot show the Reuters pic of Mrs. Bachman with a long, erect, corn dog just inserted in her mouth, we just cannot. ( Shows B's naivete as a candidate, even considering trying such a thang...)

 

 

Restaurants, farmers struggle to localize Tampa menus | TBO.com

It's Monday, the only day chef Ferrell Alvarez takes off each week from working at his Harbor Island restaurant Café Dufrain.

via www2.tbo.com

Apparently Florida is one of the last highly populated places in the US where a relationship between small growers and restaurants has not yet been forged.

Is it lack of consumer understanding?

Gwynne Dyer: Food crisis looms as a result of cutbacks in irrigation | Vancouver, Canada | Straight.com

There are all kinds of bubbles. We had the financial bubble that burst in 2008, causing economic devastation that we are still paying for. There is the Chinese real-estate bubble, the biggest in history, which may take the whole world economy down with it when it bursts. But nothing compares with the food bubble.

via www.straight.com

Water is/will be the new oil, as many have predicted.

Let 'Em Eat Cotton, Not Chiles, On Their Burritos in America....

New Mexico farmers in Hatch, the center of the state's once robust chile production, are pulling back from their iconic crop.

According to a report via KOAT-TV, 

"It’s been a tough year for farmers and ranchers all over the state, and the small river valley community around Hatch is no exception. First, the record cold caused problems.

 “The onion crop didn’t go well this year,” Scott Adams, with Adams Produce Inc., said. “The yields were down early. We had a real hard freeze in February, and it killed a lot of the stems on the onions.”

 Drought conditions held spring irrigation released out of Elephant Butte to only 8 percent of normal. So farmers left land open and only grew on what they could pump well water onto.

 A lot of the fields in Hatch are growing cotton because it’s cheaper to grow. Cotton costs about $1,000 per acre to grow, while chile costs four to five times that amount.

High cotton prices and the ability to cheaply harvest it have led to a smaller chile harvest."

"Cheap harvesting," usually means fewer human laborers involved, of course.

Guess who is the largest foreign consumer of US cotton by far? China, no surprise. They grow more of almost every edible than any other country, selling much to the US, and they import raw materials at a faster clip than almost anyone.

Farm subsidies for chiles? 

 

 

To the Grape!

Wine makes daily living easier, less hurried, with fewer tensions and more tolerance.
Benjamin Franklin

-----thanks to The Old Foodie for this

Et voila! French baguettes from a vending machine - Yahoo! News

(AP) — France is the home of the...

via news.yahoo.com

We were just reminiscing about Horn & Hardart.....

"Hecht came up with the idea a decade ago. He — like many French bakers — lived upstairs from his bakery in Hombourg-Haut and customers would often come knocking at his home after closing to scrounge for a baguette to hold them until morning.

"My wife said: 'We'll never get any peace!' so I said, 'We'll put out a bread distributor and we'll be left alone,'" Hecht recalled.

Now, he thinks the automated bread dispenser could revolutionize the lifestyles of bakers, many of whom get up before dawn to go to work. With the machine, they could sleep in a bit, he says."

The Beauty of Breakfast in Bali

In the tranquility of Ubud's Hotel Tjampuhan open air dining area, we ate perfect omelets, croissants, the local ( lousy) powdered Balinese coffee, fruit, and, for "dessert," Bubuh Injin or black rice pudding, a not-too-sweet treat that goes well with the excellent tea we chose, after enduring the poor coffee.

 ( With Sumatra and Java right next door, how is it that Bali coffee, Kopi Bali, reigns supreme?  One can get fine Italian-style coffees, yes, at cafes, but not at the hotel, and non touristic restaurants.)

 

 

 

Bubuh Injin---Black Rice Pudding via Bali The Online Travel Guide

Ingredients... 1/2 cup of black glutinous rice (see below). 1/3 cup of white glutinous rice (Asian variety). 1 or 2 pandan leaves (may be omitted). 3 cups of water. 1/4 cup of palm sugar (white sugar is OK). 1/4 cup of water. 1 cup of thick coconut cream (canned is OK).

Method... Mix the black and white glutinous rice, and rinse under running water to remove starch.   Place the rice, the pandan leaves and 3 cups of water into a heavy pan and simmer, stirring occasionally. The mixture will turn a deep purple color while cooking!   Meanwhile, chop the 1/4 cup of palm sugar, and add it to the 1/4 cup of water. Bring the ingredients to a boil, and simmer for about 5 minutes to make a syrup.   When the rice has simmered for about 30 minutes, add the palm sugar syrup to the cooked rice, and continue to simmer gently until most of the liquid has evaporated. Be careful that the mixture does not boil dry. The rice and syrup will now be a dark purple color.   Allow rice to cool before serving.   Serve portions of the cooled black rice pudding drizzled with coconut cream. Garnish with slices of banana.   Enjoy!   Note: The ingredients for this recipe may be purchased from Asian foodstores or from the Asian section of most larger supermarkets. Black rice is not the same as "wild rice", which may not be substituted. Black rice sold in western supermarkets is often from Thailand - this is OK. Pandan leaves may be the most difficult ingredient to source, but they may be omitted. Palm sugar may be purchased in blocks or jars (often from Thailand).

 

Fast Food Kids' Menus ( Healthiest and Unhealthiest...)

This popped up via HuffPost, sourced from The Daily Meal, a busy food website that appears well-infused with capital, and while I scanned it, I just kept thinking that the healthiest way to raise kids is NEVER to take them to a fast food joint. Never get them hooked on sugary drinks. Never let them imagine that fries are a daily veg. Never have them confuse sales promotion with value. And so on.

Is this impossible in the 21st century? Anyone?

And the winner is? Subway, which does, I see, have a 9 grain bread offering. Not that I have ever run into anyone eating the 9 grain bread version of anything Subway. I don't go there, but my dry cleaners and my former video store were next door to Subway--the odd combo odors of vinegar and poorish quality salami permeated them both. People emerged from the place chomping down on a load of carb.

And processed meats, sooooo good for you, all that sodium nitrite.

(Tks to Toms River Mom for pic.)