In this wonderful nation, at this magnificent time in human history I have many, many reasons to give thanks. Why am I particularly grateful? After centuries of hard work we became the kind of country you people would have utterly despised.
It's strange how we teach our kids this fairy tale of your courageous search for what we somehow find the audacity to call "religious freedom." We act like you actually wanted to see a place where the First Amendment became law. That our struggle is a continuation of your own. And then the real story becomes something of an asterisk to the preschool fantasy we've created, complete with its construction paper hats and handprint turkey art.
I want to take a moment to remember that it is precisely this real story that should make us proud and amazed and happy. Out of the darkness of human history one of the nastier, more narrow-minded collections of primates emerged on a small, rickety ship trying to find an out of the way spot on the planet where they could set up an ugly little cult compound and practice their backward traditions without interference. They survived, prospered... They executed witches and outlawed the really fun sexual practices. They suppressed women and punished nonbelievers. They banned Christmas, for Chrissake. And yet... the colony they created grew into the kind of country that would snuff out their whole stupid culture . . . . . ."
"The shelves at the Wonder Hostess Bakery Thrift Shop in Glendale on Friday were nearly bare as customers made runs on Twinkies, Ho Hos and Ding Dongs after the iconic snack food company asked a judge for permission to go out of business and lay off 18,500 workers nationwide.
At the Glendale plant on San Fernando Road, 138 bakery workers will lose their jobs, but others, including delivery drivers, will also be affected, although the total number has yet to be determined, said Hostess Brands spokeswoman Tammy Taylor.
"Everybody will eventually lose their jobs, some sooner than others," Taylor said, noting that a small group of employees are being kept on board to clean up and close the plant.
By 11 a.m. Friday, many of Hostess' most popular treats, including Twinkies and cupcakes, had been scooped off the shelves. Signs apologizing for the lack of supplies were inside the store. ....."
A confession. During my nearly 4 decades of living in the U.S. I never once ate a Twinkie.
"In the celestial pot au feu, time, culture and serendipity have combined to produce a scrumptious dish of Julia Child on what would have been her 100th birthday.
You can just imagine Child’s delight watching herself portrayed by Meryl Streep in the film Julie and Julia. Streep does Child with the earthy sophistication that Child did brussels sprouts. She rhapsodizes over butter, merrily whisks cream into cumulus clouds and gives raspberries to the snooty Cordon Bleu bitch who says she - who would become one of the world’s most renowned chefs - has no talent.
Without intending to do much more than share her joy of French food, Child changed our world and, in her 91 years, lived to witness her own influence. She wasn’t the first to star in a television cooking show, but she was the only one who came to her double ovens with a clandestine back story, having worked for the OSS and developed anti-shark recipes to protect underwater ordnance. To watch her make an omelette was a revelation: not only that a few elemental ingredients - eggs, butter, salt, pepper and heat - could result in something so sublime, but that the woman herself was a work of wondrous simplicity and taste. ....."
A step back in time to the 1970's as Julia Child prepares 'boeuf bourguignon'.
"This documentary tells the story of how the evil and greedy American corporation Mansanto has developed food staples (soy, corn) that have been genetically modified (GM) and carry potentially lethal (carcenigenous) strains and how it has conspired, with the help of corrupt officials everywhere, to have those GM seeds gradually replace the existing ones worldwide, all in the name of profit, thereby levying royalties on anyone who uses their products.
These GM organisms are also based on a lie. They were created to eliminate the need for insecticides, yet require just as much insecticides and fertilizers as non-genetically modified organisms.
This unrelenting policy has made possible the silencing of dissenting scientists, the firing or corruption of government employees and officials in the United States and abroad and the displacement, elimination, impoverishment and, frequently, death or suicide of thousands upon thousands of small farmers in the world's poorer countries (Brazil, Mexico,Argentina, India, and so on). Monsanto's deadly poisonous seeds are also destroying by contamination the genetic stock of most foods on this planet so that the time will soon come when the Earth's population will never be sure of what it is ingesting and of its effect on their health.
It sounds like a sci-fi or at least nightmarish scenario. Unfortunately, it's all true. This film could only be made in France as the European Union requires the labeling of all GM products while the US do not." [Amazon comment]
"There's nothing they are leaving untouched: the mustard, the okra, the bringe oil, the rice, the cauliflower. Once they have established the norm: that seed can be owned as their property, royalties can be collected. We will depend on them for every seed we grow of every crop we grow. If they control seed, they control food, they know it -- it's strategic. It's more powerful than bombs. It's more powerful than guns. This is the best way to control the populations of the world.
The story starts in the White House, where Monsanto often got its way by exerting disproportionate influence over policymakers via the "revolving door". One example is Michael Taylor, who worked for Monsanto as an attorney before being appointed as deputy commissioner of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 1991. While at the FDA, the authority that deals with all US food approvals, Taylor made crucial decisions that led to the approval of GE foods and crops. Then he returned to Monsanto, becoming the company's vice president for public policy.
Thanks to these intimate links between Monsanto and government agencies, the US adopted GE foods and crops without proper testing, without consumer labeling and in spite of serious questions hanging over their safety. Not coincidentally, Monsanto supplies 90 percent of the GE seeds used by the US market. Monsanto's long arm stretched so far that, in the early nineties, the US Food and Drugs Agency even ignored warnings of their own scientists, who were cautioning that GE crops could cause negative health effects. Other tactics the company uses to stifle concerns about their products include misleading advertising, bribery and concealing scientific evidence." [YouTube leader]
Continuing with some of the outstanding food available here in the north of the country. Khao soi [ ข้าวซอย ] is a Burmese-influenced dish served widely in northern Thailand. One of my favorites for its smooth, yet robust flavor.
Northern Thai khao soi is closer to the present day Burmese 'on ne khauk swe', being a soup-like dish made with deep-fried crispy egg noodles, chicken in a curry-like sauce containing coconut milk and served with pickled cabbage, shallots, bean sprouts, cilantro, lime, and ground chillies. The curry is somewhat similar to that of yellow or massaman curry but of a thinner consistency. It is popular as a dish eaten by nearly everyone around Chiang Mai and in northern Thailand, allthough relatively unknown outside of this area.
March is just around the corner, and as the temperatures continue to climb, a refreshing way to beat the heat is with Som Tam.
Som Tam, is a famous dish from Isaan, popular all over Thailand and also known as 'Green Papaya Salad'.
I have encountered, and enjoyed, Som Tam in very posh restaurants and as a staple fare of street food. It is always exciting, refreshing, and absolutely delicious, with as many minor variations as there are Thai cooks. Of course I personally enjoy eating spicy dishes. One minor complaint is when the flavor from the amount of chiles used so dominates this classic dish that the other ingredients cannot be discerned.
Basic ingredients: chillies garlic small dried shrimp unripe papaya long beans tamarind concentrate lime juice fish sauce palm sugar, cherry tomatoes, unsalted roasted peanuts cucumber garnish
Most Mormons and Seventh-day Adventists won't touch it, yet many coffee aficionados can't go a day without it. I belong to the latter group. When I lived in a high mountain valley in Mexico I used to buy my coffee beans from a local grower, always on the day that they were roasted. They were still warm and aromatic when they arrived in my kitchen. Now that I live in Thailand, a friend sends me monthly parcels of a delicious coffee grown and harvested in Vietnam, and which satisfies my taste buds more than the locally grown Thai coffee.
And in case you were wondering, September 29th is recognized as National Coffee Day in the U.S.
"Sultan Murad IV, a ruler of the Ottoman Empire [12th century], would not have been a fan of Starbucks. Under his rule, the consumption of coffee was a capital offense.
Though Murad IV banned tobacco, alcohol and coffee, some say he consumed all three and his death was the result of alcohol poisoning. The sultan was so intent on eradicating coffee that he would disguise himself as a commoner and stalk the streets of Istanbul with a hundred-pound broadsword. Unfortunate coffee drinkers were decapitated as they sipped.
Murad IV's successor was more lenient. The punishment for a first offense was a light cudgeling. Caught with coffee a second time, the perpetrator was sewn into a leather bag and tossed in the river. ...."
"I believe humans get a lot done, not because we're smart, but because we have thumbs so we can make coffee." ~Flash Rosenberg
Will readily admit that I have been a coffee addict for 60 of my 77 years. Absolutely cannot imagine passing a day without my caffeine fix.
One of the greatest joys during my 11 years of living im Mexico was that I lived next to, and traveled through, a small coffee plantation while walking to my universty classes every day. The fragrance of the white coffee blossoms was divine, and light aroma of the coffee berries [cherries] as they ripened remains one of life's finest moments.
"Coffee is the best thing to douse the sunrise with." .
While visiting The Gutenberg Project a few days ago, I encountered the works of a favorite Greek/Roman historian, Cassius Dio. Since the price was right, of couse I downloaded all six volumes. Encountered a charming gastronomic tale regarding the Emperor Claudius and his not so charming wife Agripinna.
"Claudius was preparing to put an end to his wife Agrippina’s power, to cause his son Britannicus to assume iuvenes, and to declare him heir to the throne. Agrippina, learning of this, became alarmed and made haste to forestall anything of the sort by poisoning Claudius. But since, owing to the great quantity of wine he was forever drinking and his general habits of life—such as all emperors as a rule adopt for their protection—he could not easily be harmed, she sent for a famous dealer in poisons, a woman named Lucusta who had recently been convicted on this very charge; and preparing with her aid a poison whose effect was sure, she put it in one of the vegetables called mushrooms. Then she herself ate of the others, but made her husband eat of the one which contained the poison, for it was the largest and finest of them. And so the victim of the plot was carried from the banquet apparently quite overcome by strong drink, a thing that had happened many times before, but during the night the poison took effect and he passed away, without having been able to say or hear a word. It was the thirteenth of October, and he had lived sixty-three years, two months, and thirteen days, having been emperor thirteen years, eight months, and twenty days.
The emperor received the state burial and all the other honors that had been accorded to Augustus. Agrippina and her son Nero pretended to grieve for the man whom they had killed and elevated to heaven him whom they had carried out on a litter from the banquet.
Nero has left us a remark not unworthy of record. He declared mushrooms to be the food of the gods, since Claudius by means of the mushroom had become a god."
The author, Lucius Cassius Dio Cocceianus, from his Roman History.
Taste Test by Lisa Katayama - a very special site with unusual taste treats. And I certainly agree with her evaluation of Passion Fruit, and awaiting her evaluation of 'Durian', the most exotic of all fruits....
"Passion fruit has quickly made its way up to the top of my favorite-fruits-to-eat-raw list. Inside the semi-hard yellow shell is a swarm of gooey seeds reminiscent of tadpole eggs; the best way to eat it is to cut it in half and spoon out the insides. When ripe, it's incredibly sweet and tropical and refreshing. I wish somebody would hand me a giant jar of it so I could devour it like apple sauce."
