soupnancy

At the Noma Science Bunker, things are fermenting.. http://eater.com/archives/2014/08/28/noma-copenhagen-science-bunker-photo-tour.php

How meat gets to your plate (or doesn’t) in Quebec  Good article about meat processing and the slaughterhouse situation in Quebec today. Important stuff. Seeing the number of local slaughterhouses diminish due to the Govt cracking down and pressure from the big guys has made me sick over the years. Even harder for small producers of venison, lamb or say lama, with even fewer authorized and one day a week 4hrs away say; Deer, not used to being confined, more skittish and aggressive. Detrimental. I saw it again and again. And for some small farmers, the extra cost was the difference between surviving and closing. No one thinks about how AFU our system is and this article says it well. I’m actually encouraged if some of the ‘B’s can viably become medium sized and better service our local farmers and eaters..http://boucherielawrence.com/blog/les-producteurs/

Rethinking Eating - Great piece!  Not farm to table stuff; but here, scientists and vegans weighing in.on the best way to ingest protein and nutrients. I can’t help but think I could have ended up this way if my appetite hadn’t been greater than my science/analytical bone. Unlike Mr.Soylent, a major highlight of my day has always been feeding myself (and others) real food, no powders or shakes. All due respect, I don’t want the guy who makes blood vessels making my burger either. And I Love this exchange:

‘Instead of centrifuging out plant proteins, “Why not just eat the vegetables?” asked Marion Nestle, author of “Food Politics” and professor of nutrition, food studies and public health at New York University.

High-tech food entrepreneurs, mostly white, well-educated young men who have spent much of their lives fueling up on fast food, say they want to provide more convenience and better taste.

“Being forced to take time from my day and having my train of thought interrupted by hunger was really bothersome to me,” said Rob Rhinehart of San Francisco, the inventor of Soylent, a liquid meal replacement now being delivered to some 60,000 customers who preordered it during a yearlong crowdfunding campaign that ended in May and raised $3 million. “Trying to eat a balanced diet looked like I was leaping into a sea of complexity, of biochemistry and cooking, sourcing and cleaning.”

To which Dr. Nestle said, “Sex is messy and a lot of trouble, too.”’ http://mobile.nytimes.com/2014/08/24/sunday-review/rethinking-eating.html?

Gael Greene tells her story, rants and raves  I just love it. Old school food writing, so rare nowadays.. http://www.insatiable-critic.com/Article.aspx?ID=1385&keyword=Out

Why Bitter makes food taste better  http://online.wsj.com/articles/why-bitter-makes-food-better-1408732030?tesla=y I like bitter, but am sensitive to it too making me a tough lover in the wild food world, I have analyzed this quite abit myself. Like with everything, it’s a question of dosage (the difference between pleasant bitter, off-putting and poisonous), and what you’re used to or trained to like on the low end, like with chili heat or anything. The fact is we don’t want to do without it, for taste or health..

Breakfast might not be all that it’s cranked up to be – whatever works for you.. My thoughts exactly. Beyond fruit and cheese, I know that a big breakfast is not a good idea for me, making me sluggish and unproductive which might be ok on a holiday but even then.. I never bought into the idea, like with raw food or not eating late-night – common sense and life experience. http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/08/breakfast-isnt-important/378917/

Feeding the world – no easy answers But let’s just say that big ag is not at the top of the list http://grist.org/food/is-producing-more-food-to-feed-the-world-beside-the-point/

On Raw Food, Paleo, Microbes and our food: No one says it like Michael Pollan - science and common sense with a love for food! I love my salad but I have always thought the raw food diet a croc because cooking allows you to extract more nutrition. Fire and cooking allowed us to evolve beyond chewing for half the day, allowing our jaw to diminish and our brain to grow? And the Paleo diet might be good inspiration, it means nothing if your meat isn’t grass-fed, why rule out good grains/good bread etc. Good read. http://m.motherjones.com/environment/2014/01/michael-pollan-paleo-diet-inquiring-minds

MEP, a kitchen tool for EVERYBODY, A way of life Yup, tis true. I keep trying to explain this to my non-kitchen friends who claim to be too busy to cook.. It's all about MEP! And yes, the same approach makes you better in life in general.. http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2014/08/11/338850091/for-a-more-ordered-life-organize-like-a-chef

The disconnect between Foodies/Chefs and Farmers  What I've been saying for years as I see small producers struggle & disappear while everyone seems to think the local food movement is in full gear and hunky dory.‎ Whatever trend to quality local fresh and artisanal is paralleled increasingly by that of cheap food everywhere thanks to Big AG, free trade & cheap imports and a govt./ system and culture that favours such, and loves BS. There is more bullshit marketing smoke n' mirrors than ever be it at the supermarket, in restaurants - Teroir/Local/Organic/Naturel/Sauvage etc. making it even harder for the real thing to shine. Whatever they say, most chefs still buy the bulk of their food in the big ag industrial system. Consumers flock to Walmart and Costco. Leaving a sliver of a market, choking out the authentic cream of the crop who aren't lucky enough to be subsidized or independently rich hobbyists. No, Urban foodies and hipsters don’t seem to really care about farmers and producers at the bottom of the chain, as long as the menu evokes the idea of them, the décor is hip and their cocktail name sounds cool. http://mobile.nytimes.com/2014/08/10/opinion/sunday/dont-let-your-children-grow-up-to-be-farmers.html?_r=2&referrer=

Maillard - Worthy of a celebration http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2012/10/10/162636059/100-years-ago-maillard-taught-us-why-our-food-tastes-better-cooked

MTL Blog scandal: Wow, I'm obviously not in the loop! Although I knew it existed, hardly on my radar.. Then again, I’m not in their demographic either, of the kind that prefers newspapers and in depth articles, you know the boring stuff.. http://canadalandshow.com/article/inside-mtlblo 

Fall issue of online magazine The Cook’s Cook http://www.thecookscook.com/emagazine/2014-08/issue4/

Fascinating story of our native Apple in NA http://www.bbg.org/gardening/article/the_apple_in_north_america

Crazy how the world works.. I remember being shocked by this when reading ‘Bitter Chocolate’ many years ago, still no change.  Cacao workers tasting chocolate for the first time: http://firstwefeast.com/video/cocoa-farmers-savor-their-first-taste-of-chocolate/

Hurray for quality over quantity! Good article. There is always less mark-up on the good stuff, for some of the reasons described here - so many people don't realize.. http://m.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/food/rethinking-dining-value-eating-at-restaurants-shouldnt-be-only-about-volume/2014/07/28/84dc6c34-11d4-11e4-8936-26932bcfd6ed_story.html?wprss=rss_lifestyle

15 Hottest Mtl restaurants now according to EATER http://montreal.eater.com/archives/2014/07/03/the-15-hottest-restaurants-in-montreal-right-now.php

The importance of eating together http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/07/the-importance-of-eating-together/374256/

Caribou - New Quebec Food Magazine (In French) https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/470712816/magazine-caribou

Beginner Pickling Tips  http://food52.com/blog/10826-5-links-to-read-before-pickling

Real changes in restaurants and clientele, a documented glimpse of the new reality  http://news.distractify.com/culture/craigslist-surveillance-restaurant/?v=1

Bits & Bites May 2014

Comparing Alice Waters with Rene Redzepi and Patterson – Different/Evolving expressions of Haute Cuisine while focused on fresh, quality ingredients that are local & sustainable. http://thebreakthrough.org/index.php/journal/issue-4/beyond-food-and-evil

Canada’s top 50 Restaurants according to Vacay.ca  http://vacay.ca/2014/05/2014-top-50-restaurants-in-canada-raymonds-in-newfoundland-is-no-1/ 

Ruth Reichl at Benu in San Francisco  I’m not so into endless tasting menus anymore and rarely read about them, but this is an interesting sounding meal. It reminds me that I do long for a theatrical meal once and a while that surprises, that makes you travel while being extraordinarily delicious above all.. That’s the crapshoot. http://www.ruthreichl.com/2014/05/a-truly-great-meal.html

A reverence for eating meat – historically, something special: A Michael Pollan video for BBQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TfmCT-Qsegg&feature=youtu.be

Neonics, those pesticides everywhere (Bayer), are bad for bees, compounding evidence..  http://www.motherjones.com/tom-philpott/2014/05/smoking-gun-bee-collapse

Brilliant essay by Dan Barber about how ‘Farm to Table’ went wrong’. It comes down to everyone being disconnected from the land, well intentioned or not, misguided and meanwhile industrial food takes hold even more. People are surprised to hear me say how tough things are for small producers, that I have seen many disappear around me while Walmarts open. There is a movement towards artisanal and local, and those precious few are focused on tomatoes and wild mushrooms, not barley, but the fact is, worse than that, most people still shop at superstores without a thought in the world beyond cost.. mobile.nytimes.com/2014/05/18/opinion/sunday/what-farm-to-table-got-wrong.html?

Amusing ‘apres terroir-talk’ with David Chang and Joe Beef  http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/food-and-wine/food-trends/dim-sum-oysters-and-wings-eating-toronto-with-momofukus-david-chang-and-his-a-list-friends/article18691227/?cmpid=rss1&click=sf_globe

Real food and Cooking, Rich or Poor Can’t be said enough http://hereandnow.wbur.org/2014/05/15/pollan-healthy-food

Hard to find good cooks these days  I agree with this, ditto and then some because I go back further than T.Keller’s cookbook. Ok maybe not impossible but it’s a different world and not necessarily for the better despite all interest between the tv shows, kids enrolling and foodies. Maybe there are even more good young cooks than before but they are all in a rush, wanting to stage and skip steps up the ladder, entitled to chef title/salary, tv show or their own restaurant in a year. I would love to meet a few more with the devotion and spirit we had; willing to work our asses off, so proud to be a part of something cool without delusions of grandeur. We spent money we didn’t have on dining out, on cookbooks and magazines, because there were no free ideas or instructions on the internet; every victory was hard earned and people were less full of shit.   http://munchies.vice.com/articles/its-impossible-to-find-good-cooks-nowadays/

See the last line of this interview with Ferran Adria http://www.thedailymeal.com/ferran-adria-restaurants/5914

A good article about TASTE – supertasters, non-tasters and how your palette develops I’ve always been fascinated by taste and have observed many palettes over the years, have written about it before.. It is true that it’s all about tasting,

and like any other sense or muscle, can be honed with practice. You have your genetic god-given tastebuds, your upbringing and all your baggage and then it’s what you do with it! Malleable and ever-changing, all to make the most of for a more interesting life! No doubt my old and abused anglo palette serves me well..  http://www.montrealgazette.com/life/food-wine/lesley+chesterman+critic+notebook+search+great+taste/9819569/story.html

Forget about ‘Organic’ and ‘GMO’ until you are buying real food and cooking, avoiding industrial crap; then it’s time for nuance http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/07/opinion/bittman-leave-organic-out-of-it.html?_r=1

A pretty funny (sometimes hard hitting) take on foodie issues – 20 things everyone thinks about the food world but nobody will say http://firstwefeast.com/eat/20-things-everyone-thinks-about-the-food-world-but-nobody-will-say/