Foodies In The News

[karadekoolaid Profile]

This article, from "Bon Appetit" magazine in the USA, is very interesting.
https://www.bonappetit.com/story/2020-year-that-changed-restaurants
It´s not just something that applies to the USA; it applies all across the world.
It made me wonder how the hospitality industry, which employs hundreds and thousands of people, is going to survive in the future.

[Stokey Sue Profile]

To be fair Pace never claimed to be Mexican. but Southwestern USA - I just checked

And obviously not the same as fresh - but as relishes from a jar go, pretty good

Actually I was wrong - it's Old El Paso that's thick and chunky, Pace was (it seems to no longer be available) hot and chunky, I think what I liked was that it tasted of actual jalapenos

[Pepper Pig Profile]

There are some very unusual recipes in today's online Guardian but this one leapt out at me. I love celeriac.

https://www.theguardian.com/food/2021/j ... k-dressing

[Pepper Pig Profile]

The second book in Jay Rayner’s new series is Claudia Roden’s Book of Jewish food.

https://www.theguardian.com/food/2021/j ... ewish-food

[Earthmaiden Profile]

Would love to read that. It's on Kindle

[Pepper Pig Profile]

I have it. It's a good read although I've never cooked from it.

As an aside the Rayners lived in Harrow. The next door neighbour before last, Sharon, was Jewish and used to do booster 11+ lessons as an extra money earner. Jason Rayner was one of her students!

[karadekoolaid Profile]

This landed in my inbox this morning. Oodles of noodles from all over the world.

https://link.bonappetit.com/view/5c92ac862ddf9c5f6fe1df65dkfwb.txj/c9eb99b7

[Pepper Pig Profile]

Mealworms anyone?

https://www.theguardian.com/food/2021/f ... y-for-them

[Badger's Mate Profile]

There's not a lot of flavour in them.

[karadekoolaid Profile]

Over-rated. If you eat them fresh, they´re disgusting. Fry them and they taste like crisps, or crackling - just like fried grasshoppers (chapulines) in Mexico.

[Pepper Pig Profile]

Warm khachapuri flatbreads.

https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2021 ... the-recipe

[Earthmaiden Profile]

Damn you PP. I 'm supposed to be on a diet

Re mealworms, I have always thought they would lend themselves to being deep fried and might be a bit like the 'scraps' one used to get from chip shops. I feel that insect rearing and eating as is done in many Asian countries might make a contribution to carbon reduction if it helped reduce the rearing of larger animals but fear they would be just used as snacks in the western world. Whilst flour is a good idea and would nourish the hungry, I doubt it would be of much nutritional use to hardened meat eaters and would be unacceptable vegetarians/vegans. To nourish the hungry is no bad thing but the processing would come at a price.

[Badger's Mate Profile]

I've only had them as snacks. They'll taste mostly of the fat they're cooked in or any flavouring applied. Culturally they would offend most people in this country, veggies and vegans wouldn't touch them of course. They might be a niche 'dare' product, like offal has become.

[scullion Profile]

no, as a vegetarian i wouldn't eat them but it has always amused me that the people who eat crabs, lobster and shrimps won't eat woodlice - same family - and that western meat eaters decry the eating of dog or cat.

[Earthmaiden Profile]

I don't agree. The right marketing sells anything. Who'd have thought that curry or even veganism would have taken off in earlier times. If you get the young on board the rest follows. Sadly, it would probably take one of the big processed food companies to market something so successfully, which IMO defeats the object!

Of course, a situation where enough people were genuinely hungry would change things too.

[scullion Profile]

Of course, a situation where enough people were genuinely hungry would change things too.

resorting to canibalism comes to mind...

[karadekoolaid Profile]

I don't agree. The right marketing sells anything

You´re absolutely right. Look at Sushi - who´d have thought, 40 years ago, that people in the UK would eat raw fish??
I believe there are also other factors - cultural complacence, resistance to change and the "foodie" revolution. My little sis travelled extensively to Spain, Croatia, Greece, Thailand and India, but always returned a bit miffed because " they don´t know how to make a proper roast, and the chips are always greasy. My brother, who was a professional chef, and I used to tell her, hey, if you don´t try it, you´ll never know how good it is!! When in Rome...
The best way to understand another culture is to start with food. It doesn´t matter if you don´t like it, but at least you can say " I tried it". I´ve eaten chapulines and other insects in Mexico, giant lemon ants in Venezuela,sea snails in Spain; not because they were something I would actively seek out, but because they were there.
Over the past 30 years, the world has produced lots of foodies; something which was probably a bit wierd in the 70s and 80s. We are constantly exposed to new, exciting, radically different cuisines on TV, YouTube, instagram and other social media, and while they may seem totally alien to traditional British tastes, that´s what globalisation is all about. Open-mindedness. Western cultures may cringe at things like raw fish , horsemeat, dog meat, insects and very sweet sweets, but the Chinese, for example, cannot get their heads around raw salads, and I´m sure a lot of Latin Americans would cringe at the thought of haggis and bread sauce.

[Badger's Mate Profile]

Wahaca has tried putting insect-based dishes on their menu but they seem to have reined back on it. Presumably they misjudged the mood or were ahead of their time, depending upon your point of view.

[jeral Profile]

Maybe Wahaca could re-market insects flashed as "C-based food!" (C=Carbon), as people could well assume C=clean, or somehow good for the planet which I suppose it is, without ever needing to know what they are actually eating. Well heck, whoever dreamed up plant-based as an all-encompassing term is definitely onto a winner.

Soylent Green was made in 1973 and the starving populace were told only that it was food. Are we any more informed even though labelling tells us exactly what the ingredients are? How many of e.g. 26 ingredients are recognisable, but hey, if it's C-based, it must be good, right?

[Badger's Mate Profile]

I've no doubt that people would eat insect-based proteins in prepared foods and protein shakes if they didn't know what they were. The future however is labelling. I suppose takeaway outlets can sell sausages and burgers without anyone knowing what's in them.

Otherwise it would still be a niche food. There are plenty of other low carbon animal protein sources, molluscs for example or agricultural pests. I once had a conversation with a Frenchman about why they ate snails but not slugs. He assumed I was taking the pee out of him. Very few people eat snails, let alone slugs. I imagine sales of winkles, whelks and cockles have declined in my lifetime, but I don't know. Venison, rabbit and pigeon are niche markets; there are plenty more of those animals that could be eaten. The only raw fish eaten in any volume in the UK is smoked salmon.