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Tiny Review… and the Closing of a Coffee Shop

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

While I visiting Raleigh, NC for a job interview, I came across a unique coffee shop. The coffee was good but the food was poor. Now, economists (those mainstream market fundamentalists) might want to argue that Adam Smith’s invisible hand would guide me away from the Morning Times on Hargett Street, but I will go back – notwithstanding the poor bagel. It is a small independent coffee shop and not a chain and, well, it ought to be supported, lest it be forced out of business by one of those big chains which does hip and cool, through slick advertising campaigns and projects frequented by people who want to be cool, or are told they are hip or trendy or cool by advertising slogans and stuff they buy at exorbitant prices, all of which are emblazoned with slogans and cheesy bumper sticker philosophies. A good review of Starbucks’s highly effective and strategic marketing can be found, by following this link.

The Morning Times, at 8 E Hargett St, Raleigh has a pleasant atmosphere; the decor is hip and cool, the service is friendly and open – the staff were pleasant and obliging. The bagel was, however, disappointing. Morning Times has a an upstairs reading room and they provide wireless internet. I know that gaining access to the wireless requires a code, but assume that that is provided – hopefully without cost. As it goes, downtown Raleigh has free wireless internet access.

Outside seating at Morning Times Coffee shop on Hargett St in Raleigh, NC.

Outside seating at Morning Times

The upstairs room of Morning Times coffee shop

The upstairs reading room at Morning Times

The one disappointment about the place was that a staff members described one of their drinks in relation to Starbucks; “it’s like Starbucks’…” That is uncool. Tell visitors about your coffee – on it’s own merits and not with reference to a chain like Starbucks; it would not be too far a stretch to imagine that Starbucks most recently forced my favourite coffee shop, Adriana’s in Columbia, South Carolina out of business. Adriana’s could not keep up with the Starbucks – located about 100 metres away. It’s a sorry state of affairs. The differences between the two places were telling – not just because Adriana’s offered free wireless internet access. C’est la vie.  This following is an picture of Adriana’s I found online.

Adrianas Coffee Shop in the Five Points Area of Columbia, SC was home for many a soul. Now some of us might have to trade our souls and frequent Starbucks

Adriana's in Five Points - Students who refused to frequent Starbucks found a home at Adriana's

The local news channel report on Adriana’s closure can be found at this link… For those people really interested in the political economy of coffee, the Devil’s Cup: A History of the World According to Coffee, by Stewart Lee Allen is a good start.

The Devils Cup by Stewart Lee Allen

The Devil's Cup by Stewart Lee Allen

For a flavour of the international political economy of coffee, especially of Starbucks, read this brief post Starbucks, Monoculture and American Imperialism… Warning, if you’re liberal or conservative don’t bother reading it; the post is critical of the status quo – as well it should be.

:)

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My Minestrone

Saturday, November 28, 2009
My Minestrone...

My Minestrone... Picture ilagardien©l'engagé

There is probably no easier soup to make than a basic minestrone. Unless, of course, you make a single-ingredient dish like pea soup and all you do is soak, rinse and cook split green peas. Even them, I usually first fry some onion, celery, carrots and garlic before I add the peas, and later some parsley.

When I cook a basic minestrone I use the same (basic) ingredients and follow a similarly basic recipe. I fry onions, celery, carrots and a zucchini (all chopped up, of course), then add some chopped garlic, fry for a couple of minutes – low heat – before adding water and a can of tomatoes. I turn the heat up and cook for10-15 minutes and then let it cook slowly for as long as I like. Sometimes I add a couple of potatoes – chopped into small cubes. Sometimes a couple of bay leaves. Sometimes even a small handful of barley. I may use dried oregano, or basil. However, before the soup is ready to be served, I usually add a handful of fresh chopped parsley. I may add some left-over cooked pasta – usually penne (rigatte), rotini, fusilli or farfalle – a few minutes before serving. The hot soup is then “dressed” with Parmigiano Reggiano.

I love toasting pieces of sourdough baguette, rubbing them with garlic and… ehm, eating!

:)

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Time… Where is the Time?

Thursday, November 26, 2009

I am in-between jobs … that’s not exactly true, I am searching for a job. Believe it or not, this does not mean I can blog all the time and any time… Stop by again. Or, subscribe to my feed :)

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Notes on a Social History of the Restaurant: NOTE 1

Saturday, October 3, 2009


“Rome in the fifteenth century: civilisation never was more brilliant than there and then, I imagine… An invitation to dine at the Palazzo Borghese was accounted the highest social honour.” Max Beerbohm, in Hosts and Guests, published in 1918

I went through a phase, several years ago, when I refused to eat in restaurants; this was when I had an expense account, mind you. While I never did abuse the expense account – much to the chagrin of my colleagues who accused me of “spoiling the bosses” – during the phase of boycotting restaurants, I seriously consider writing a book about the social history of the restaurant. At the time I was frustrated by what felt like constant invigilation by society over where people ate, what they wore and with whom they dined.

Indeed, one sad development of my working as a journalist was that towards the latter part of that journey, especially following the regular appearances on SABC television, was the fact that people on the street (and in restaurants) were intrusive and often terribly annoying. Once, after a particularly bad night on Rockey Street, which was preceded by feasting at a trattoria in Rosebank, Johannesburg (I think it was called Tivoli), I was accosted by a shopper in Killarney Mall (also in Johannesburg) who virtually interrogated me about the negotiations process that culminated in the end of white rule in South Africa. Sweating tannins which had been converted by some mystical alchemical process into lead, I was forced to be polite at 10:00 am on a Saturday morning. Hell, then, really was other people.

While I was physically and emotionally exhausted by the seemingly endless nights in restaurants (Such was the ritual of my restaurant life that I had boxes of red wine, bought from estates in Stellenbosch stored at three different restaurants in Cape Town), I felt somewhat guilty…. I was like one of the little ponies on a carousel – the ponies were fashionable people, swirling like dervishes, flowing and apparently fixated, but without the asceticism and dedication of the Sufi. I felt no different from them; we were the centres of our own attention. I could not ignore how I, as spectator to the spectacle was part of the ensemble before me. I needed to get off the carousel and away. By away, I meant to leave the carousel for it would continue to turn as time can not be stopped, and in a very weak paen to Kierkegaardian thought I wanted to understand how we got here and to do so I had to look backwards while continuing forward, and away from the carousel of capitalism consumerism…

How did it happen? When, exactly, did eating communally, or commensally (when several people eat from the same vessel as a norm) for that matter, become such a spectacle? When did the meaning of eating communally become theatrical? I had a vague sense, at the time of the important role communal eating played in the social relations of families and communities. Very shallow and unstructured reading confirmed the sense I had. I found that communal eating and related customs historically served at least two important functions:

  1. To establish and maintain the cohesion of a particular society and of smaller groups within that society, and
  2. To determine the relation of the individual to said society and to its sub-groups.

Psychologists have theorised that underlying the first function is the idea that society maintained its existence by a system of sentiments which are given collective expression on ritual occasions. To be sure, across cultures and continents, members of society have come together for a feast to welcome a new member, to mourn the loss of an old one, to mark a change in the social status of the individual through circumcision, menstruation, or marriage, to note the return to the society of a member after a temporary withdrawal through illness, and before a communal enterprise such as war. Quarrels have been quashed over food. Indeed, while the rites may vary from place to place food is the common denominator in most cases.

The question ex ante, why people eat together, may seem superfluous on the basis that families have since the earliest of times had their meals together. However, my interest was/is in the voluntary coming together of strangers to break bread, which I assumed was initially a communal gathering, and how it later became a profit-making enterprise. That was about as much thought I gave the issue.

More recently (like last week, actually!) I re-conjured the idea, as it were; now I want to write that book again. I want to understand and place intact on paper, the origins and history of the restaurant and how it has become less of a familial or communal event and more as an impersonal (to some extent) capitalist enterprise, and how this idea of sitting down communally has been replaced by take-away/take-out meals and the ubiquitous food courts that are often found in large shopping centres around the world.

There are, of course, other mutations, such as the combination of restaurant and cinema such as Foreign Cinema, in San Francisco, where films are screened in the courtyard and guests can dine, wine and watch classic cinema all at the same time”. Parenthetically, I recall this combination appearing briefly in Johannesburg (hate to bring it up, but the bio-cafés were only for whites, so I can’t provide an informed assessment – besides I was way too young when I first noticed them).

It might be useful, nonetheless, to investigate the origins and history of the restaurant. As I write this, I have to remind myself that there may well be literature on the subject; a history of the restaurant may already be done. Alas, that’s what google is for….

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Milk… and everything that comes with it

Friday, October 2, 2009

The cow is the foster Mother of the human race. From the day of the ancient Hindoo to this time have the thoughts of men turned to this kindly and beneficent creature as one of the chief forces of human life. – William Dempster Hoard, 1885

For some reason I can’t explain, I don’t drink milk very often. Sometimes I buy milk and it sits (or does it stand?) in the refrigerator until it has to be thrown away. I feel terribly guilty whenever I have to do that…. Of course, when I need to make béchamel (or besciamella, as the Italians would say), my choices are no milk or a bulbous, bloated plastic bottle which grins at me with the expression: “Argggg, puncture me and I will cover you in smelly white gooooooo, and stink up the place.”

But seriously, whenever I am at the milk fridges in stores, I find myself muttering inanities about the watery gray stuff that passes for milk. (My cousin, Wayde, recently told me that ever since we were children I have had the habit of talking to myself). With milk it is apparent that the lower the percentage of fat, the blander and more watery the stuff gets; it also starts looking gray. So, I often mutter rhetorical questions to myself: What, exactly is left in this stuff? Is it really necessary to consume milk?

In fact, there are suggestions that the milk we buy from stores, especially the pasturised and low-fat stuff, is well, “junk” and its production is bad for the environment. Trawling through research online and in my university library for a few hours revealed some starting facts….

What’s in the gray, watery substance called low-fat milk?

Conventional wisdom suggests that “removing” something from a natural product may require that it be replaced with something else. The difference between organic milk and the diluted stuff is startling. With organic milk you consume, milk, nothing else! With low-fat milk you might be consuming stuff like Palmitate and powdered milk as an additive. (I should look at how milk is powdered and what is put into it…) Palmitate, or Palmitic Acid may be available in organic products, but the World Health Organisiation found “convincing” evidence that there is an increased risk in Cardiovascular Disease when this substance is consumed.[1]

The arises from two particular trends 1) the capitalist need for profit (an issue to which we will return at another time) and 2) the obsession with eating non-fattening foods in the United States. Such is the extent of the no-fat trend that fat and other, otherwise natural, substances are removed from the products we buy and replaced with chemicals or artificial substances. The best example of this is, of course, diet soda where sugar (a natural product) is removed and substances like cyclamates, aspartame or acesulfame potassium – some of which have at some point been linked with cancer and other times not. [2]

All of this notwithstanding, the imputed benefits of drinking milk everyday are well known; in many cases a priori…. There are also good reasons why we should not drink milk – this will be explained below. Nonetheless, according to a study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, drinking as little as one glass of low-fat or fat free milk could help protect the heart. Researchers found that adults who had at least one serving of low-fat milk or milk products each day had 37% lower odds of poor kidney function linked to heart disease compared to those who drank little or no low-fat milk.

Is it really that important to consume milk?

The question is can not be answered simply – we have to look at raw milk and processed milk. In terms of the former, the “history” of milk consumption is rich and milk has historically (well, long ago) generally been “good”. Domesticated animals were first used for milk between 8,000 and 10,000 years ago, “as a genetic change effecting mostly people in Europe, the Middle East, and parts of Africa enabled them to digest milk as adults. Milk from domesticated animals then began to become important as a human food. With domestication and settlement, fewer wild animals were available; as groups of people roamed less, they hunted less, eating more grains and vegetables.”

In some cultures, milk replaced animal bones as the chief source of calcium and some other minerals. In indigenous cultures where adults used milk, it was often used as cultured or clabbered milk. This is similar to homemade raw yogurt, and it is partially pre-digested — much of the lactose (milk sugar) has been broken down by bacterial action. When one drinks fresh milk, this process must be accomplished over a period of several hours in the stomach; yogurt or clabbered milk is much more easily digested. Adaptations in evolution are always the effects of particular causes. Humans developing the ability to digest milk into adulthood possessed a survival advantage; such change is the basis of evolution. Put simply, many human beings evolved the ability to easily digest raw milk because raw milk from healthy, grass-fed animals gave them an adaptive advantage; it made them stronger and more able to reproduce. Such milk remains a wonderful food that provides us with fat-soluble nutrients, calcium and other minerals that are in short supply in the modern diet.[3]

On the down side, there are fewer health benefits to be had from low-fat, or pasturised milk. The needs of capitalists, to produce more and more milk, seem to have destroyed all the benefits that once were associated with fresh milk. In his book, The Untold Story of Milk (see footnote 3), Ron Schmid explained:

“I have become more convinced than ever of the value and importance of raw milk in the dietary of people of all ages. For many of the people who eat in the manner I recommend, raw milk is their chief source of enzymes. I believe enzymes are a critical component in recovering from disease and establishing and maintaining health. Hundreds of people I’ve seen have used raw milk as an essential part of their naturopathic treatment.

“There isn’t a day that goes by that I’m not thankful that I live in a state where bureaucrats and medical monopolists have not stripped us of what should be an inalienable constitutional right – I mean the right to purchase raw milk and other healthy, locally produced foods directly from the people who produce them. I long to see the day when all Americans have the right to purchase locally produced raw milk, meat, fowl and other farm products direct from the farmers who produce them, the day when the current yoke of prohibitions and bureaucratic red tape has been thrown off, and we once again are free to produce and consume truly healthy foods. The men and women who founded this country did not intend for commercial interests to control the food supply and thus our health. These are rights of the people, and they are rights that have been stripped away. We need to work together to regain them.”

But is it really that important that we drink milk. I will leave this question to be answered by the people at Alternet, one of the best sources for news that never will make it to the headlines of mainstream media in the USA. One answer has to do with human health complications, the other with the environmental impact of milk production. In an article, “Milk May Endanger Your Health, and the Dairy Industry Knows It”, Ari LeVaux wrote that:

“A mutant protein has invaded the world’s dairy supply, including, most likely, the milk in your fridge. The protein, called A1 beta-casein, is well known in the scientific community. While most dairy companies, trade groups and government agencies consider it harmless, a growing body of research implicates A1 beta-casein in diabetes, heart disease, autism and schizophrenia.” (read further)

The capitalist trend, with specific reference to milk production (the broader issue of capitalism will be dealt with on some of the other pages of this blog/site) in a sense, necessitates the chemical or genetically modified process to maximise profit. In strict capitalist terms, or in terms of economistic logic, that is.

Research findings published in, What’s In Your Milk?: An Exposé of Industry and Government Cover-Up on the Dangers of the Genetically Engineered (rBGH) Milk You’re Drinking by Samuel S. Epstein, was summarised in the following manner:

A powerful exposé of the dangers of Monsanto’s genetically engineered (rBGH) milk, and its no-holds-barred conspiracy to suppress this information. rBGH (recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone) is a genetically engineered, potent variant of the natural growth hormone produced by cows. Manufactured by Monsanto, it is sold to dairy farmers under the trade name POSILAC. Injection of this hormone forces cows to increase their milk production by about 10%.

The environmental impact of milk production (and by extension of consumption) was detailed by Mickey Z in the following manner:

1. Dairy cows produce waste.
Lots of waste. In fact, your average dairy cow produces 120 pounds of waste every day — equal to that of more than two dozen people, but without toilets, sewers, or treatment plants.

2. Let me repeat: Dairy cows produce lots and lots of waste (and greenhouse gases).
California produces one-fifth of the country’s total milk supply. According toMilkSucks.com, “in the Central Valley of California, the cows produce as much excrement as a city of 21 million people, and even a smallish farm of 200 cows will produce as much nitrogen as in the sewage from a community of 5,000 to 10,000 people, according to a U.S. Senate report on animal waste.”

3. Milk production ultimately leads to climate change.
The dairy industry is an extension of the beef industry (used-up dairy cows are sent to the slaughterhouse after an average of four years, one-fifth their normal life expectancy) which means it plays a major role in creating climate change. Here’s the equation: The dairy industry uses cows before passing them on to be slaughtered by the beef industry which is now recognized as an environmental nightmare. “According to a UN report,” writes Brian Merchant, “cows are leading contributors to climate change … Accounting for putting out 18% of the world’s carbon dioxide, cows emit more greenhouse gases than cars, planes, and all other forms of transportation combined.” That means the industry of exploiting all cows — including dairy cows — involves destructive practices like deforestation and polluting offshoots like runoff.

4. Milk often contains unwanted ingredients.
Under current industrial methods, cow’s milk is often a toxic bovine brew of man-made ingredients like bio-engineered hormones, antibiotics (55% of U.S. antibiotics are fed to livestock), and pesticides — all of which are bad for usand the environment. For example, unintentional pesticide poisonings kill an estimated 355,000 people globally each year. In addition the drugs pumped into livestock often re-visit us in our water supply.

Which brings us to…

Health Reasons to Avoid Milk

5. Cow’s milk is for cows.
The biochemical make-up of cow’s milk is perfectly suited to turn a 65-pound newborn calf into a 400-pound cow in one year. It contains, for example, three times more protein and seven times more mineral content while human milk has 10 times as much essential fatty acids, three times as much selenium, and half the calcium. Some may like cow’s milk but drinking it is both unnecessary and potentially harmful.

6. Milk is actually a poor source for dietary calcium.
Humans, like cows, get all the calcium they need from a plant-based diet.

7. Contrary to popular belief, milk may increase the likelihood of osteoporosis.
It is still widely accepted that the calcium in dairy products will strengthen our bones and help prevent osteoporosis, but studies show that foods originating from animal sources (like milk) make the blood acidic. When this occurs, the blood leeches calcium from the bones to increase alkalinity. While this works wonders for the pH balance of your blood, it sets your calcium-dpleted bones up for osteoporosis. As explained by John Robbins, “The only research that even begins to suggest that the consumption of dairy products might be helpful [in preventing osteoporosis] has been paid for by the National Dairy Council itself.”

8. Milk makes you fat.
In 2005, the Harvard School of Public Health had this to say on the consumption of dairy products: “Three glasses of low-fat milk add more than 300 calories a day. This is a real issue for the millions of Americans who are trying to control their weight. What’s more, millions of Americans are lactose intolerant, and even small amounts of milk or dairy products give them stomach aches, gas, or other problems.”

I honestly did not know all of this before I started writing this post….

[1] WHO (2003) Diet, Nutrition and the Prevention of Chronic Diseases. WHO Technical Report Series 916. Report of a Joint WHO/FAO Expert Consultation, (p 88).

[2] See these two papers. Soffritti M, Belpoggi F, Esposti DD, Lambertini L (2005). “Aspartame induces lymphomas and leukaemias in rats”. European Journal of Oncology , 10(2):107–116. Lim U, Subar AF, Mouw T, et al. (2006). “Consumption of aspartame-containing beverages and incidence of hematopoietic and brain malignancies”. Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention, 15(9):1654–1659.

[3] This passage was taken from an interview with Ron Schmid, the author of The Untold Story of Milk: Green Pastures, Contented Cows and Raw Dairy Products. (2003) New Trends Publishing. Winona Lake, Indiana. Full interview, published as “The Secret Histry of Milk: The Truth About Nature’s Miracle Food.” can be found at http://www.acresusa.com/toolbox/reprints/April04_Schmid.pdf Accessed on 2 October 2009.

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Chemicals in Food: It’s Not Just Bread…

Thursday, October 1, 2009

In the spirit of this blog, which I can not quite explain, I decided last Sunday night to take a very casual look at some of the things that I eat or put into my system unwittingly. I’m doing this for several reasons… but mainly because I remembered a dear friend, “B”, with whom I sat through statistics and other terrifying classes during our doctoral studies, telling me that I should consider eating breads that did not contain as many chemicals because this may help worsen my problematic digestive system. Anyway, the system has been acting up, so I decided to look at the stuff that goes into the stuff that I stuff into my mouth every day.

Over the course of the past week, (it’s only Thursday) I ripped the labels off the packaging of the bread that I ate every day, and recorded the chemical substances that I unwittingly consumed. The following is a selection of these chemicals with a brief description of their benefits and side effects. I have also provided links to provide extra information and there is a basic recipe for bread at the end of this post.

Packaging Labels on Bread

Packaging Labels on Bread

Enlarged Label

Enlarged Label

This a truncated list of chemicals and other substances that were in the bread that I consumed this week

  • Niacin
  • Ferrous Sulfate
  • Thiamine Mononitrate
  • Ribovflavin
  • Folic Acid
  • Silicon Dioxide
  • Diacetyl Tartaric Acid Esters of Mono-diglycerides (DATEM)

NIACIN

WebMD, the only source of medical advice I can afford, being that I live in the United States where private corporations effectively control who gets medical help and or advice, explains that

“All people who are taking nicotinic acid should be closely monitored for signs of liver problems by measuring the level of liver enzymes with blood tests.”

What, then, is Niacin. It is a B vitamin, that occurs naturally in plants and animals, and is also added to many processed foods as a vitamin supplement, and can be found, therefore, in several vitamin and nutritional supplements. Niacin is usually used to treat and prevent a lack of natural niacin in the body, and to lower cholesterol and triglycerides in the blood. The substance is also used to lower the risk of heart attack in people with high cholesterol who have already had a heart attack, and is sometimes used to treat atherosclerosis, coronary artery disease.

Niacin can cause certain side effects, such as flushing (warmth, itching, redness, or tingly feeling under your skin). These effects can be made worse if you drink alcohol or hot beverages shortly after you take niacin.

People who are allergic to nicotinic acid (sometimes considered to be the same as niacin) or have liver disease, stomach ulcers should not consume Niacin Acid. What is Nicotinic Acid? Let me say, immediately, that the amount of this stuff that one takes in bread may be miniscule, however, it is interesting to read through the side effects. This post is not about the dangers or side effects, it is about the chemicals I consumed unwittingly.

Side Effects of Nicotinic Acid

The immediate-release form is safe for long-term use. But nicotinic acid has frequent side effects, including:

  • Sudden blushing or redness of the face (flushing), which is more common with the immediate-release forms of nicotinic acid.
  • Itching.
  • Liver problems (hepatotoxicity), especially with the sustained-release form.
  • High blood sugar (hyperglycemia).
  • Too much uric acid in the blood (hyperuricemia). Excess uric acid in the blood can lead to gout.
  • Gastrointestinal problems such as upset stomach, gas, nausea, vomiting, and diarrhoea.
  • Dizziness, light-headedness, or a fast or slow heartbeat.

These side effects are more severe when higher doses are used.

FERROUS SULFATE

This is a type of iron that one normally gets from the foods we eat. Once in the body, iron becomes a part of your haemoglobin (which carries oxygen through the blood to tissues and organs) and myoglobin (which helps muscle cells store oxygen). Ferrous Sulfate is often used to treat a lack of red blood cells that is caused by low levels of iron in the body.

THIAMINE MONONITRATE

I am gobsmacked! Anyway, one Medical Dictionary explains that Thiamin is “a water-soluble component of the B vitamin complex, found particularly in pork, organ meats, legumes, nuts, and whole grain or enriched breads and cereals. The active form is thiamine pyrophosphate (TPP), which serves as a coenzyme in various reactions. Deficiency can result in beriberi and is a factor in alcoholic neuritis and Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome.” SERIOUSLY!?

The dictionary continues: it is “…essential for normal metabolism and health of the cardiovascular and nervous systems. Thiamine plays a key role in the metabolic breakdown of glucose to yield energy in body tissues. Rich sources are pork; organ meats; green leafy vegetables; legumes; sweet corn; egg yolk; cornmeal; brown rice; yeast; and the germ and husks of grains, berries, and nuts. It is not stored in the body and must be supplied daily. A deficiency of thiamine affects chiefly the nervous system, the circulation, and the GI tract. Symptoms include irritability, emotional disturbances, loss of appetite, multiple neuritis, increased pulse rate, dyspnea, reduced intestinal motility, and heart irregularities. Severe deficiency causes beriberi.” (As some people in Spain might say: This is all beri beri confusing)

(The same dictionary had no entry for mononitrate, which makes me think there’s some conspiracy underway)

RIBOFLAVIN

Riboflavin is a type of B vitamin. It is water soluble, which means it is not stored in the body. You must replenish the vitamin every day. Riboflavin works with the other B vitamins. It is considered to be important for body growth and red blood cell production and helps in releasing energy from carbohydrates. It is usually found in some lean meat, eggs, nuts and legumes, green leafy vegetables, dairy products, and milk. It is considered “normal” for breads and cereals to be “fortified with riboflavin”

Here’s an interesting bit, Riboflavin is destroyed by exposure to light, and therefore foods with riboflavin should not be stored in glass containers that are exposed to light. Bloody ‘ell. Plus, because riboflavin is water-soluble leftover amounts leave the body through the urine. There is no known poisoning from riboflavin – so you can drink your pee.

In terms of side effects, riboflavin deficiency is not common in the US because it is plentiful in the food supply. Symptoms of significant deficiency syndromes include sore throat, swelling of mucous membranes, mouth or lip sores, anemia, and skin disorders.

FOLIC ACID

Folic acid is a B vitamin. It helps the body make healthy new cells. Everyone needs folic acid. For women who may get pregnant, it is really important. When a woman has enough folic acid in her body before and during pregnancy, it can prevent major birth defects of her baby’s brain or spine. YAY!

SILICON DIOXIDE

This stuff is serious! In food it is used as a flow agent. Silicon Dioxide is a chemical compound also known as silica is an oxide of silicon and known for its toughness. Silica is the most abundant mineral in the Earth’s crust, and most commonly found in sand, quartz, and in the cell walls of diatoms. It is the main ingredient in most types of glass and concrete. The picture below, courtesy of the University of Miami, is of a diatom.

These are Diatoms. I placed this picture online because they're so colourful and pretty. Courtesy of the University of Miami.

This is a Diatom. I placed this picture online because these thingys are so colourful and pretty. Courtesy of the University of Miami.

Jessis, read this, the people at Georgia Tech College of Engineering explained that: “Under exposure to oxygen, a silicon surface oxidizes to form silicon dioxide (SiO2). Native silicon dioxide is a high-quality electrical insulator and can be used as a barrier material during impurity implants or diffusion, for electrical isolation of semiconductor devices, as a component in MOS transistors, or as an interlayer dielectric in multilevel metallization structures such as multichip modules. The ability to form a native oxide was one of the primary processing considerations which led to silicon becoming the dominant semiconductor material used in integrated circuits today.”

DIACETYL TARTARIC ACID ESTERS OF MONO-DIGLYCERIDES (DATEM)

DATEM is an emulsifier in which diacetyl tartaric acid is bound with monoglyceride. A an hydrophilic emulsifier and acid resistant, it is used for emulsification and foaming of margarine, mayonnaise and dressing. It can act on starch and protein, it is used as a dough modifier.

Oy, now we have to explain what a monoglyceride is …

A monoglyceride is  a glyceride  consisting of a fatty acid chain covalently bonded to a glycerol molecule through an ester linkage. Okay, this is getting out of hand, I really can not be arsed to keep digging. The point is that clever people make it difficult for us simple people to get to the core of these things…

… and there I was thinking that bread is baked with yeast, honey, water, bread flour and salt.

This is Jamie Oliver’s recipe for basic bread.

  • 3/4 oz. active dried yeast
  • 2 TBSP honey
  • just over 1 pint tepid water
  • just over 2lb strong bread flour
  • 1 TBSP salt
  • some extra flour for dusting

1 Dissolve the yeast and honey or sugar in half the tepid water.

2 On a clean surface or in a large bowl, make a pile of flour and salt. Make a well in the centre, and pour in the dissolved yeast mixture. With four fingers of one hand, make circular movements from the centre moving outwards, slowly bringing in more and more of the flour, until all the yeast mix is soaked up. Pour the other half of the tepid water into the centre, and gradually incorporate all the flour to make a moist dough. (Certain flours may need a little more water, so adjust the quantitites.)

3 Roll, push and fold the dough over and over for five minutes, to develop the gluten and structure of the dough. If any of the dough sticks to your hands, just rub them together with a little flour.

4 Flour both your hands well, and lightly flour the top of the dough. Make it into a roundish shape, and place on a baking tray. Deeply score the dough with a knife, allowing it to relax and prove with ease. Leave it to prove until it’s doubled in size. Ideally you want a warm, moist, draught-free place for the quickest prove, for example near a warm cooker, in the airing cupboard or just in a warmish room, and you can even cover it with clingfilm, if you want to speed things up. This proving process improves the flavour and texture of the dough, and should take around 40 minutes, depending on the conditions.

5 When the dough has doubled in size, you need to knock the air out of it by bashing it around for a minute. Shape it into whatever shape you want – round, flat, filled, trayed up or tinned up – and leave it to prove for a second time until it doubles in size again. Don’t feel a need to rush through this, because the second proving time will give it a lovely, delicate soft texture.

6 Now you want to keep all the air inside the loaf, so don’t knock it. Gently place it in the preheated oven and don’t slam the door. Bake according to the time and temperature given in the recipe variations. You can tell if your bread is cooked by tapping its bottom (take it out of the tin first!) If it sounds hollow, it’s cooked. If not, put it back in the oven for a little longer. Place on a rack to cool.

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My Eggplant Thing and…

Monday, September 21, 2009
Stacked: Eggplant, Onions, Tomatoes, Cloves of Garlic....

Stacked: Eggplant, Onions, Tomatoes, Cloves of Garlic....

I’m not going to pretend that I know enough about cooking or even about food to write authoritatively on either. I enjoy food and I cook in part because I like eating and in part because I enjoy the process of cooking. The latter probably grew out of necessity; I left my family home at a fairly young age and had to learn to fend for myself.

I should say, nonetheless, that my mother gave me the first cooking lesson. She was in bed desperately ill with arthritis and some other affliction; from her bed she walked me through cooking a pot of dhal (Follow this link for one of my favourite food websites where you can find recipes for dhal), between doing the laundry and after building a coal fire in the old cast iron stove we had. The picture is an approximation of the stove we had; no I did not grow up in the 1800s, I grew up in South Africa – it was the late 20th century.

The type of stove on which I learnt to cook.

The type of stove on which I learnt to cook.

It was a frigid winter and the kitchen coal stove was used to heat water for ablutions as well as for space heating. It was a small brick house with no insulation in the walls or the asbestos ceiling. The picture below is exactly the type of house we lived in (courtesy of a political party’s website)- this one has seen better days. It was the only one I could find online. I should find one that is in better shape.

The type of house in which I grew lived for most of my life

The type of house in which I grew up. Our was almost the same colour scheme; gray with orange at the bottom and an asbestos roof.

To find our old house go to Google Earth and enter 26°17′57.44″S (latitude) and 27°53′43.29″E (longtitude). The next image is a satellite picture of our home in Eldorado Park, courtesy of Google Earth.

A Satellite Picture of Our Home in Eldorado Park

A Satellite Picture of Our Home in Eldorado Park. Courtesy of Google Earth

I provide all this information because my beliefs and values about food, beyond cooking and enjoying eating, were shaped bywhere and when I grew up.

My Eggplant Thing

So… The dish I prepared this evening is, actually, something I first had as part of a Greek mezé at a restaurant on Stefanos Beach in Corfu (I have also had мезе in Belgrade), where Paul and I read books for two weeks, sat in smoky bars with heavy-set men with bushy moustaches, a couple of whom took me out on a fishing trip. All told, I spent several hours with the fishermen; I did not speak any Greek and they did not speak any speak English or Afrikaans – the two languages in which I was most proficient.  Over the two weeks we spent in Corfu  we drank copious amounts of red wine, and made our way somewhat gingerly (and sparingly, actually) through a bottle of ракија that I had bought in Sarajevo – quite possibly the most beautiful city I have ever visited. Yugoslavia was a great place.

Stuff

  • One medium sized eggplant
  • Two or three tomatoes
  • One or two onions (optional)
  • I bulb of garlic
  • Dried parsley flakes
  • Olive Oil
  • Salt and black pepper

How

Slice the eggplant – thick slices – sprinkle some salt on the slices, lay them out and let them breathe. I think it gets rid of a bitter flavour. Not sure.

Slice tomatoes and onions into thick slices. Stack everything in a large oven-proof dish and bake… you can place it under the grill (broiler) for 10-15 minutes after it has been baked, or you can slowly broil the whole thing slowly – but make sure the eggplant is done.

This dish can be had warm or cold. I use it in wraps, on bread or as a side dish…

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Why This Site…

Monday, September 21, 2009
The Produce Market Where I Buy Fresh Fruit and Vegetables on Weekends

The Produce Market Where I Buy Fruit and Vegetables on Weekends

I got into the habit of making pictures of the food I cook and sharing it with friends around the world on Facebook. It was fun to read the comments, but I was aware that my meaningless picture posts may be “cluttering” the “walls” of “friends” on Facebook. So, I moved the idea to a blog on the webpages that I created in June and July 2009. Having done this, I will now expand the scope to include some of the politics, culture and history of food, especially because I DO NOT want to write a trendy foodie blog – lest I seem supercilious! Food, especially the lack of it, is too important in lives of many people for me to write something trendy. I will endeavour, thus, to infuse these posts with context; with the history and politics of food as well as some of my personal thoughts and the banter I share with friends.

As with everything else, I have deeply rooted beliefs and values about food. Food has become one of the most political of human endeavours in the late capitalist era! While millions of people starve, others live in gluttony. Nowhere is this perversity more pronounced than in the United States, the wealthiest country in the world.

The economist, John Kenneth Galbraith, once wrote that: “More die in the United States of too much food than of too little.” The comedian, Chris Rock perhaps summed it up best when he said (I paraphrase): “America is the only country in the world where people hunt on a full stomach.”

The production and distribution of food has become intensely corporatised, and with it has come modifications to our food and to our eating habits and patterns…

The artist, John Cage once remarked:

“Food, one assumes, provides nourishment; but Americans eat it fully aware that small amounts of poison have been added to improve its appearance and delay its putrefaction.”

It’s hard to avoid this slow poison to which Cage referred, mainly because very few people in the US, to a much lesser extent in Europe, actually grow their own food. In fact, since the earliest spread of capitalism – on the back of European Empires – societies in Africa and Asia that have lived communally, and grew and shared their food among one another, have been torn asunder, as it were, and forced to work in exploitative industries. What this meant was that customs of communal farming and eating were destroyed.

In his early work on African societies, the sociologist and historical social scientist, Immanuel Wallerstein explained that before Europeans arrived in Africa the majority of people on the continent were engaged in subsistence economies, where villages remained the centre of community life.

“The frame of custom was strong. Money was relatively unimportant (sometimes non-existant), as the internal economy of the village was communal. In the natural course of events, the villager would not leave his (sic) village… One way induce men to leave villages [to work in expoitative and extractive colonial industries] was to force them to do so…”

So… this site is about food and, I should add, it is about the exchanges that I have started with friends around the world about the food that I cook and the produce markets where I shop. Let me be clear; this is not a site about gourmet food, fancy food or even about “culinary” beatings and bleatings. It is just breaking bread among friends and talking about politics (and food); exchanging ideas about food and, well, because I make pictures I will also post photographs of my creations – just for fun!

Feel free to comment.

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