THE OMNIVORE'S DIALOG

Participate in This

It’s been my experience that democracy is best when participatory and films are best when driven by the force of a fine director. But- maybe I’m just showing my age. New technology has give us lots of user generated content, but, if given the choice I’d still prefer to spend my viewing time watching a film crafted by a talented storyteller.

My fuddy – duddy attitudes will be soon put to the test when democracy and filmmaking are merged to produce FILMOCRACY - check it out.

PBS Independent Lens is inviting you to use footage from King Corn for an new-fashioned mashedup combined with images from Getty Images and some online mixing tools.

So, sign on to express your vision/view/attitudes about that subsidized crop that fuels our fast food nation.

Warped Speed

Convenience – I’m all for it. It is not inherently evil. It is not “ a bad thing.” It’s a part of the sustainable toolkit since characteristics of convenience support an efficient use of energy and time. For example, having farmer’s markets in the parking lots of supermarkets has proven to be a boon for everyone. Shoppers can do all their shopping at once – convenience reigns. Merchants have not experienced an erosion of their bottom line, customers get the quality produce they prefer, and the farmers win as well.

HOWEVER – no doubt, no argument, convenience has led us down some lunatic and wrong-minded paths. When seduced by convenience we can too easily become lazy and loose all sense of sensibility.

Convenience is one of society’s hottest battlegrounds with consumers on one side and advertisers and merchandisers on the other.

Here’s a new product sold as “quick, easy and fun.”
Someone on a design team is feeling very proud.
What do you think?

The Devil Cooks McCormick

My favorite scene in the film The Devil Wears Prada is when the character played by Meryl Streep does her first “dressing down” of her newly hired assistant. I don’t recall the words verbatim, though I wish I did, but in short she demonstrates to the young woman that her disinterest in fashion is both ignorant and arrogant. Honing in on the girl’s turquoise sweater, Streep unravels how the chain of opinion, money, advertising (and more money) – attitude, angst, industry forces and the GNP are all apart of what this young woman chooses to exchange her well-earned hard currency for to clothe herself. The fashion industry is predator, we are its prey, our tastes are manipulated so we dance to the Industry’s whimsical, finely orchestrated tunes.

Sound familiar?

That old “manipulation of taste”- thing.

One of the largest spice purveyors is on the move, cooking up new spice pairings. Some of the pairings seem to resonate with an authentic sense of culture and gastronomic history, and some don’t.  The fashion of foods makes me nervous. Not sure why. But, I recall a few years ago when suddenly everything seemed to have lavender; cheese and chocolate and somewhere crackers and cakes. To me it was creepy, but, then again, I’ve got a real stubborn streak.

Jeez Whiz

In earlier eras, serving exotic and foreign foods granted one status and distinction. To serve foods, fruits and flavors that traveled great distances to one’s table demonstrated that you had money and/or connection to provide courses of pride and unusual pleasure.

Today, new fashions are afoot. Serving foods with proven “patrimony” representing a deep, authentic experience of place, preferably local, grants the host crunchy hugs, cerebral salutes and soulful gratitude.

Battles are being waged to ensure the integrity of authentic foods especially when the food at issue carries the name of the place from whence it comes. To name it is to claim it, and cheesemakers are at the forefront of protecting their techniques and ingredients to ensure that what you buy IS, in fact, what it has long been.

Recently the cheese producers of traditional Camembert in Normandy France have formed the Committee for the Defense of Authentic Camembert to “preserve the mandatory use of raw milk in the production of AOC (Appellation d’Origiine Controllee) Camembert.”

Cheeses produced with pasteurized milk will not be able to sport the coveted AOC label.   Here’s the story: 

Of course, you’ll get kudos if you serve the AOC Camembert, but the hug you’ll get won’t be as crunchy as the ones you’ll receive if you were to serve a  farmstead chevre from within your area code.

Does Only the Nose Know?

Aside from the inevitability of death and taxes, there is much to speculate about our fate, both individual and collective. Over the past few decades to satisfy that speculation, funds have been devoted to brain science to see how we are “hardwired,” and for what purposes. Books have been written to answer if we are hardwired for success or failure; for compassion or hate; for war or peace or belief in God; – and one of my favorites - Are we hardwired for geometry?!

Our “wired-ness” regarding taste has long been speculated, and studied. Many findings, including the blending of our primitive lobes for smell with the mysterious power of memory have been applied to industries to create some of our most dear, and dreaded, habits, trends and fashions.

But all of that may be on the verge of becoming simplified, and objectified. See today’s article in the Washington Post.

An Uneven Treatment of an Ancient Practice

There is a renewed interest in kosher and hallal slaughter of animals in the United States. It's assumed that the slaughter practices are humane, taking into consideration the transmigration of the animal's soul. In conversations with a number of non-religous observers who purchase kosher and hallal meats, I've learned it is also assumed that the religiously slaughtered meat must be "cleaner" (though I never got a fully satisfying response as to what that actually means).

So, for a confluence of reasons, the demand for kosher and hallal cuts is on the rise in the USA.

But it appears that kosher slaughter is not done in a consistent manner, worldwide. A recent article in the Jerusalem Post calls to question how kosher slaughter is practiced in South America, which provides most of the beef consumed in Israel, both kosher and non-kosher.

The Sound of One Crumb Falling

I rarely eat alone. Though I greatly enjoy having time alone....I love the quiet, having time to think and reflect.... if I eat when I'm by myself I realize I tend to rush and get a stomach ache - no attention to table manners whatsoever. If I'm eating alone, I'll put the radio on and now, and at times I'll even bring the laptop computer to the table. This adds a whole other dimension, since between bites I can search the world wide web and, for some odd reason, feel jutsified to just browse around, in a less directed way than I normall do. This afternoon I sat down to lunch, alone, and found this "test" on laughing.

From the Trenches

Brain numbing and riddled with lingo, the Farm Bill can too easily seem theoretical and remote.  But this recent OpEd piece from the New York Times states clearly how the bill impacts the choices we have in our local supermarkets.

A Tale in Every Bite

OK; here we go: What do Jerry Garcia, lead guitarist of the Grateful Dead and Vittore Carpaccio, the 16th century Venetian painter have in common? Does it help to know that Carpaccio is best known for his painting cycle, The Legend of Saint Ursula? Didn’t think so. Well; here’s another hint: What does Marie Ana Smith, the 1868 Australian gardener share with Rudolph Hass, a 1920’s California Postal worker? Still stumped? Think Sylvester Graham, the entrepreneurial 19-century Presbyterian minister and….. here’s the big clue: Dame Nellie Melba, the famous soprano singer.

YES ! All have foods that bare their name.

Horticulturists and artists, heads of state and entrepreneurs, restaurateurs and chefs have long embraced the old maxim: You Name It, You Claim It. To name a soup or a sauce, a beverage or a candy, a fruit or a dessert in someone’s name, or claim it in your own, has been an honor when bestowed upon others, and at times, just plain good marketing!

Lend an Ear

Sex is good, but not as good as fresh, sweet corn.
Garrison Keillor

Corn.
(seen here - beautiful, organic... delicious...) There’s a great deal being reported about the problems that have resulted from a reckless, thoughtless and greedy proliferation of corn production. The subsidies and the dumping; the misguided use of this grass as food for cow and car; and the ubiquitous presence of high fructose corn syrup – has put is at odds with  this grass which, in other eras, inspired poetry and was emblematic of high aspirations of culture and society.

Lend an ear to some critical thinking - searching for solutions: