Eat This Podcast

2 May 2016

Authentic food news

1. The whole cultural appropriation story continues to weigh on me. I read Cynthia Bertelsen on “Peanuts and the cooking of West Africa” reflecting on my own pitiful atempts at a “Ghanaian stew” many years ago and wondering whether the twittersphere would descend on her. It didn’t, I don’t think, and the piece remains well-worth reading.
2. Cynthia suggests that there’s appropriation of a different kind at work, with the peanut (from South America) embraced by the people of West Africa after its introduction by the Portuguese and then again by those same people transported to North America as slaves, as a substitute for their remembered local Bambara groundnut. Cynthia has written in detail about Bambara groundnuts too, but not (I think) about which groundnut was named first in English, and which appropirated whose name. Very intriguing, and something I’d like to research more.
3. But how do I actually feel about cultural appropriation, given that I don’t really have a culinary culture? The closest I can come is my hatred for what the bagel has become, so often; a soft, unfulfllling bread roll with a hole. And being in New York, that’s doubly obnoxious. But who is baking the fabled New York bagels, which can still be found, today? Puerto Ricans until fairly recently, and probably all sorts of others, not necessariy even Jewish. More research needed on that front too.

And there I’ll leave it, for now.

25 April 2016

Authentic food news

Not much for you this week. I’m in New York, awaiting tomorrow night’s James Beard Awards dinner, and wondering what I’ll do if I win, and what I’ll do if I don’t win.

1. The whole cultural appropriation story continues to weigh on me. I read Cynthia Bertelsen on “Peanuts and the cooking of West Africa” reflecting on my own pitiful atempts at a “Ghanaian stew” many years ago and wondering whether the twittersphere would descend on her. It didn’t, I don’t think, and the piece remains well worth reading.
2. Cynthia suggests that there’s appropriation of a different kind at work, with the peanut (from South America) embraced by the people of West Africa after its introduction by the Portuguese and then again by those same people transported to North America as slaves, as a substitute for their remembered local Bambara groundnut. Cynthia has written in detail about Bambara groundnuts too, but not (I think) about which groundnut was named first in English, and which appropriated whose name. Very intriguing, and something I’d like to research more.
3. But how do I actually feel about cultural appropriation, given that I don’t really have a culinary culture? The closest I can come is my hatred for what the bagel has become, so often; a soft, unfulfllling bread roll with a hole. And being in New York, that’s doubly obnoxious. But who is baking the fabled New York bagels, which can still be found, today? Puerto Ricans until fairly recently, and probably all sorts of others, not necessariy even Jewish. More research needed on that front too.

And there I’ll leave it, for now.

Wish me luck.

12 April 2016

The internet ate my homework*

1. Eat more bread: Bloomberg News explains why agricultural prices have fallen for three years in a row: “We all bought into this thesis of having to feed nine billion mouths by 2050 … Unfortunately, at the moment global grain demand is not keeping up with the rise in production.”
2. Eat more kale: Why are some food prices seem never to come down: “as some become more aware of global inequality and … exploitation … they are … voting with their pocketbooks for alternatives they believe are more benign and deliver greater value to themselves, their families, and their communities.”
3. Eat more ice cream: is there anything left to say about gelato in Rome? “Her gelato base contains only milk, cream, sugar and flavors that come from whole ingredients such as saffron, hibiscus flower and lapsang souchong tea, to name a few.”
4. Eat more cultures: There’s a hooha brewing about food appropriation that I’m steering well clear of, but Rachel Laudan shares her experience: “I tell this story … so that I can use it to talk about how complicated the transfer of culinary knowledge actually is”.
5. Drink more coffee: I love my Aeropress, but I am such a nOOb: “Head [sic] water to 79 celsius; Add 60 grams of water; Turbulent wiggle for 15 seconds.”

* Honest; it was down here most of yesterday.