Empires, Cannibals, and Magic Fish Bones
Join us as we celebrate food, the dinner table, and quite likely empires, cannibals and magic fish bones!
This featured image features one of may favorite places in the world, Revival Market, and where I graze on wonderful headcheese and whiskey pâté. Let’s begin today’s menu with a perfect fall, comfort food recipe–Pumpkin Kale Mac and Cheese from cookingwithawallflower. I know, I know–another article about eating insects, but when the little critters are … Continue reading All The World Is Cured Meat . . . And Insects.
Above, the Fury of Achilles as painted by Coypel Charles-Antoine in 1737 captures the divine-infused killing spree the Greek hero embarks upon after his friend Patroclus is killed by Apollo, Euphorbus, and Hector. Quite appropriate for this post as Gabriela and I spent the week helping to create a midterm for three-hundred and fifteen Honors … Continue reading A Midterm, Two Ribeyes and Skeletor
He’s one of the foremost chefs in the world. His restaurant Noma is regularly voted the best in the world. He’s the father of foraging. And I don’t have near his knowledge, skill or kitchen. I don’t have hare bones, reindeer lichen or a wild grey duck. I can’t vacuum-pack, dehydrate, sculpt fake mussel shells. … Continue reading René Redzepi Roasts A Chicken At Home Or What Happens When I Don’t Turn Celsius Into Fahrenheit.
Sunday Morning by Wallace Stevens. Complacencies of the peignoir, and late Coffee and oranges in a sunny chair, And the green freedom of a cockatoo Upon a rug mingle to dissipate The holy hush of ancient sacrifice. Such a gorgeous, lush opening. A perfect pairing with a very serious Bloody Mary from Downhouse in the … Continue reading Your Food Is Brought To You By . . . .
Our third president farmed, and failed in quite a spectacular and yet illuminating way, as Modern Farmer’s Thomas Jefferson”s Farming Failures reveals–“When it comes to agriculture, few have persevered more in their failures than Thomas Jefferson.” His was a philosopher’s wonder as he walked the fields and forests of Monticello. In a letter to Lafayette on April … Continue reading Thomas Jefferson And La Fruta Del Diablo: The Promise And Problems Of Harvesting Food
Most of the artwork through this post is by Joe Jones (1909-1963) who painted midwestern wheat fields, segregation in the south, and the effects of The Great Depression on American farmers. The above painting The American Farm (1936) captures the stark ruin of soil and crops and the precarious struggle for life in rural America. … Continue reading Body and Soul: “our demands upon the earth are determined by our ways of living with one another.”
“Energy,” said William Blake, “is Eternal Delight.” And the scientific prognosticators of our time have begun to speak of the eventual opening, for human use, of “infinite” sources of energy. In speaking of the use of energy, then, we are speaking of an issue of religion, whether we like it or not. For Wendell Berry, … Continue reading The Eternal Delight Of Decay
“Ah wanna tell ya ’bout a girl,” Nick Cave sings. “Ah wanna tell ya ’bout a sausage,” I sing. Cotechino. It’s 1511 and you’re living in Mirandola, a city in northern Italy in the province of Modena. The famous Pico della Mirandola’s family runs the city, but that’s little help to you now as Pope … Continue reading The Past And Future Of Food: Nick Cave, Cotechino Sausage, The Holy League, The Beatles, Soylent, And Nick Cave Again.
Much has been said and written about children fleeing Honduras for the United States, and yesterday the New York Times reported that our government seeks a remedy to the crisis by interviewing young adults and minors in Honduras to see if they may apply for refugee status on emergency humanitarian grounds. Now might be a … Continue reading The Violence Swirling Around Palm Oil: Roads and Kingdoms Travels To Honduras.
In Tracie McMillan’s National Geographic article, “The New Face of Hunger,” the nature of agribusiness, food production and government subsidies becomes a part of the puzzle of hunger in America. It’s a cruel irony that people in rural Iowa can be malnourished amid forests of cornstalks running to the horizon. Iowa dirt is some of … Continue reading We Don’t Like To Take Advice About Food–And That’s Part Of The Problem.
