Empires, Cannibals, and Magic Fish Bones
Join us as we celebrate food, the dinner table, and quite likely empires, cannibals and magic fish bones!
Back in June 2011, Gabriela, Demian and I voyaged across the Atlantic to Dublin, Ireland with about 30 other students and faculty from The Honors College at the University of Houston. All organized by this fine man, Robert Cremins–wonderful Irishman, novelist and pint-sharing companion. We roomed at Trinity College and explored this amazing city famous … Continue reading Guinness, Oysters and the Inner Organs of Beasts
Ah, REO Speedwagon back in the early eighties. I had traded in my Britannia Bell Bottoms, silk shirts and platform shoes for thin black ties, Guess jeans, and high tops. The air bristled with “Roll with the Changes” and “Time for Me to Fly,” (the latter became the song for my 1981 graduating class) well … Continue reading You Can’t Tuna Fish, But You Can Smoke It!
Grant Wood’s 1930 painting of a pitchfork-wielding farm couple heralds our return to Wendell Berry’s The Unsettling of America: Culture and Agriculture. How to interpret this portrait? How to interpret American Gothic, which to my mind means the short stories of Edgar Allan Poe. Through the lens of The Unsettling of America, an interpretation becomes … Continue reading Unsettling America
Tell me what you eat, and I will tell you who you are, Jean-Anthelme Brillat-Savarin writes, and there can be no question the answer philosophically challenges us. This blog seeks to engage with the aesthetics, ethics, metaphysics, and philosophy of food. I begin with the proposition that eating is an agricultural act, writes Wendell Berry … Continue reading Know Thy Eating.
My visit to San Diego immersed me in a family deeply rooted in the Iberian peninsula with Portuguese and Catalan roots, so why not, as an ambitious Scots-German, cook two of the quintessential dishes of Portugal and Spain: Caldo Verde and Paella? If something’s not right, they’ll tell me. My perfect setting for serving paella … Continue reading When Surrounded By Iberians, Cook Like An Iberian!
This is a truly amazing! I suggest pouring yourself a cool drink, brewing coffee, putting Bach’s Goldberg Variations for String Ensemble on the turntable, boiling an egg and serving with sardines and anchovies, whatever makes for a pleasant afternoon and enjoy the giddy-edificaiton of this site. Here’s the link. http://www.vox.com/a/explain-food-america Continue reading 40 Maps That Explain Food in America
We arrive at Mission Beach and immediately dig into the earth. Some of us further than others. Clad in a Detroit Tiger’s cap and determination, Demian takes over a hole dug by other beach-workers and continues the business of excavating. Eventually he sheds cap and shirt and runs into the Pacific where he jumps waves, … Continue reading Mission Beach, Feijoada and Thoughts About Brueghel
The feijoada rests. I added linguisa and wild boar sausage; and, unfortunately, there’s been a little burn on the bottom, so I’ve been carefully stirring. When I warmed the beans and meat up this morning, I checked news on my phone, and I looked back again to find vigorous bubbling. Ha! Fire does not allow … Continue reading Feijoada Day Two And Cook It Raw
We have a new picture headlining our blog this week, a chalk drawing by Demian Maya created at the San Diego Natural History Museum. They currently have an exhibit entitled Skulls containing nearly two hundred skulls from around the world. Demian’s there right now with Gabriela, Helena, Yuri and Thais, sending photos of the various … Continue reading You Say Bones, I Say Feijoada!
Who takes your order? Who serves your food? The answer is an agricultural and political act. Continue reading Fast food workers: not who you think they are
