Friday Faves No. 166

our favorite finds from the front lines of food

image via the Guardian

Eyes are on Rio and all thing Olympics this week, including food coverage. 

Food trucks rescue shortfall of Olympic vendors, a sign of Rio scene on the rise "This embarrassment for the organizers has been welcomed as an opportunity by food truck owners, who have been conscripted to provide emergency reinforcement for the fixed kiosks at the Olympic Park." (Guardian)

You can cook your own Brazilian snacks, no waiting in line. Become an Expert on Brazilian Cuisine Right Now (Eater) and Seven Brazilian Foods to Know if You're Going to the Olympics (National Geographic, The Plate)

Chefs Serve Olympic Village's Surplus Food to Rio's Hungry Population "RefettoRio Gastromotiva, the project co-founded by Italian chef Massimo Bottura and Brazilian chef David Hertz, aims to 'offer food and dignity to people in situations of social vulnerability,' according to a statement released by the City of Rio, which is supporting the initiative by providing a building for the group to use in the city center." (ABC News)

Newsflash of 2016 — women can be real athletes, and farmers. The Female Farmer Project puts a bright face (and some great interviews) on the new demographics of farming. Women have always been there doing the hard work of raising our food, but now they're out front and getting credit too.

A great long read on the struggles of surviving in limbo. Inside the women-owned restaurants of Yida, South Sudan’s largest — and most tenuous — refugee settlement. (Eater)

Is That Real Tuna in Your Sushi? Now, a Way to Track That Fish Traceability software has been on the edges of the seafood industry for a while, so it's great to see it get more coverage. (New York Times)

Another app for seafood is restaurant driven. Pearl shows users detailed info on seafood being served in nearby restaurants. "Do you know what you're getting when you order, say, clams casino? Pearl demystifies the process, providing information and education on the taste, texture, nutrition facts, and sustainability of your seafood." (Crave)

Food tech might not be as hot as you thought. The meal delivery and grocery space is crowded, and investment is looking further back in the chain. "Soil and crop technology turned out to be the dark horse in the sector, nabbing $161 million in investment this year compared to just $41 million last year." (SF Biz Journal)

Friday Faves No. 162

our favorite finds from the front lines of food

Watch as 10 Swedish children ages 3-9 taste test oysters to find out what they really think.

Swedish kids are no strangers to seafood. They even have fish paste in tubes! But how do you get kids to embrace the oyster? Brasserie Lipp thinks they have it figured out; you give it to them for free! (Seafood Source)

OK....now what? What will the Brexit mean for UK food? (Eater)

Questions over the sustainability of wild harvested seaweeds lead to cancellation of the Maine Seaweed Festival. Some of the organizers say a 'Gold Rush mentality' as the product gains popularity threatens the industry's future, but harvesters disagree. Thoughts? (Portland Press Herald)

Chewing Over Our New Idea Of 'Better' Food At The Fancy Food Show This past week we were at the Fancy Food Show in NYC and so was the iconic Clark Wolf. Here is a small taste of his take on the state of specialty foods: "It's a history lesson, a geopolitical reflection and a mouthwatering decent into a foo coma of bounty."  (Forbes) 

Normally eggshells can be disposed of in the garden, crushed up and scattered on flower beds or just thrown into the compost bin, but what do you do when you are a Scotch egg manufacturer facing the problem of how to get rid of 1.5m eggshells a week? You partner with your local university to create a sustainable and cost-effective way to use the shells. (Guardian)

At the first Refugee Food Festival in Paris, chefs in exile show off their skills: From Refugee Chefs, a Taste of Home “Immigrants here are seen in a negative light, as pulling the country down, as having nothing to offer, but in fact they offer a chance to exchange cultures, to bring something positive: The cuisine of a place gives pleasure.” (New York Times)

From noodles to poodles The tastes of China’s consumers are rapidly changing "Brands that promise healthy lifestyles are also thriving. In a recent survey, the top complaint by Chinese consumers was poor food safety and the next biggest grouse was shoddy health care. These attitudes have helped restaurants and supermarkets with names like 'Element Fresh' and 'Pure and Whole' spread like organic mushrooms across the land." (Economist)

As Chinese, Iranian and Indonesian As Apple Pie A great look at the diverse origins of our favorite foods, but this quote is too fun to not call out: "By the turn of the 20th century, pie had become 'the American synonym for prosperity,' as The New York Times proclaimed in a 1902 editorial. 'Pie is the food of the heroic. No pie-eating people can ever be permanently vanquished.'" (NPR, The Salt)

Even Vogue is talking about shrimp: Should We Really Be Eating Shrimp? A simple dinner-party question—should one eat shrimp?—sets off on an ethical and gastronomic journey. (Vogue)

Kellogg’s Is Opening Its First-Ever Permanent Café Dedicated Entirely to Cereal in Times Square Get in line for "cereal innovation and delicious experimentation," otherwise known as cereal from the box with fancified toppings like thyme, white chocolate and matcha (not all in the same bowl). (Laughing Squid)

Friday Faves No. 161

our favorite finds from the front lines of food

Would make a great fitness class: High Speed Mochi (link to video) (Laughing Sqiud)

Buy some vegetables already. For some growers, farmers markets just aren’t what they used to be. "The decline in sales is, arguably, one result of the contemporary farmers market, which has evolved to meet the needs of a new generation of shoppers who view these outdoor markets as more a lifestyle choice than an opportunity to support local agriculture." More sophisticating marketing can help: "But market managers say farmers must also help themselves if they want to survive and thrive in this new era. It’s not enough to simply show up at a market and expect consumers to buy all your gorgeous, freshly harvested stone fruits and greens. Farmers must be attuned to consumer demand and be better marketers and shopkeepers, even at their makeshift outdoor stands." (Washington Post)

There is always room for compassion, and another bakery: Syria’s Beloved Sweet Shops Follow Its Refugees Into Exile "Civil war has scattered Syria’s bakers, pastry chefs, and restaurateurs. For the foodies—and children—in their new communities, it’s a tasty turn of events." (National Geographic)

We're not generally fond of "food as medicine" headlines, but we do love our seaweed. Seaweed Could Help Fight Food Allergies (Food & Wine)

The New York Times is barely dipping its toe in here, but the further we get from the "farmed = bad, wild = good" trap the better. Farming for Fish As leading chefs are turning away from the sea and toward sustainable hatcheries, it seems we’ve just begun to skim the surface of aquaculture (New York Times)

A great new food site for the breakfast obsessed — Extra Crispy with some really fine personal essays like: Soup is the Breakfast of Kings 

The future is in the works, with both rising interest in sustainable food and domestic production in China: International hotel chain starts serving 'low carbon' Chinese salmon (Seafood Source)

Friday Faves No. 159

our favorite finds from the front lines of food

In the Polished Brands test kitchen and photo studio, we mess with everyone's traditions — like cooking sockeye salmon in a Korean ginger marmalade. And it was good too.

An excellent read to talk about trend, class and race issues in the food scene: Putting identity politics on the table "So who’s allowed to cook what? Who defines authenticity? What does it mean when ancient dishes are exploited as trendy, cooked badly, and fashioned by hipsters instead of grandmas? Geopolitical sensitivities flare." And some fine, fighting points: “'I’m a bit annoyed by the ‘at my grandmother’s knee’ stories. I get the significance of lineage, but nobody asks a lawyer if she was at her father’s knee practicing law,' says Tiffani Faison, whose Tiger Mama serves riffs on Southeast Asian food." (Boston Globe)

Denmark Considers Taxing Meat, Calling It An Ethical Responsibility: How can we stop eating our way to a warming planet? "Their initial recommendation is to tax beef. Globally, food productions accounts for up to 29% of emissions. Cattle are responsible for a huge 10%. Taxing beef, they say, could reduce greenhouse gas emissions from food by 20% to 35%." (Fast Company)

Not all food and politics mash-ups are designed to encourage virtue. Largest US food producers ask Congress to shield lobbying activities: United Egg Producers, National Cattlemen’s Beef Association and National Pork Producers Council are proposing a change to the Freedom of Information Act. (Guardian)

We don't include items about individual restaurants much, but seriously, it's Alinea, and too cool to resists: A New Alinea Plans to Serve Emotions as Well as Entrees "How do we season with sound? With light? With elements of emotions? For us, that makes the experience more complex and nuanced.” (New York Times)

Food and emotion are no strangers of course. Love might tear us apart, but chickpeas can bring us together: How Hummus Brought a Palestinian and an Israeli Together to Help Refugees in Berlin "I wanted to be a bridge between different cultures. Every time in nature when you combine two things together, you make a new thing that is stronger. The dish you just ate, “hamshuka,” is a mix of the traditional hummus that Jalil’s family has been making for more than 400 years and the shakshuka of my grandmother, with the egg and everything. It’s the bestseller here. Everybody loves it." (Munchies)

And for when you don't want to talk to anyone at all, not even to place an order, Amazon is getting into the restaurant delivery business, at least as a pilot project in some zip codes of San Francisco. 

Friday Faves No. 154

our favorite finds from the front lines of food

The art of the perfect bit goes super-artsy with teeny, tiny food installations, like the one above. (Eater)

Refugees solve farm worker shortage: From Bhutan to New York’s Dairy Heartland "The men were once farmers, and then spent 20 years in refugee camps in Nepal, unable to hold legal jobs. Now they worked wordlessly alongside two other milkers, both Mexican immigrants, in practiced repetition. The raw product would soon supply a cross-cultural dairy case: Siggi’s, an Icelandic-style yogurt; Norman’s kosher Greek yogurt; and eggnog for Pittsford Farms Dairy." (New York Times)

Activists Demand a Bill of Rights for California Farmworkers "Many of the bill’s items – which are grouped into wage theft, safety and health, and overwork – simply demand that existing laws be enforced, like respecting required rest breaks and penalizing employers who steal wages. It also calls for educating farmworkers on their rights and establishing a complaint hotline." (KQED)

A New York food institution that was accessible to all of us fades into the history of a quirkier, more fabulous, and less chain-store dominated Manhattan as Broadway Panhandler prepares to close. “'My first question is, ‘What do you like to cook?’...We can help tailor a purchase to suit a customer’s needs instead of just selling sets. We’re more traditional, with just one store. As independent stores disappear, people are going to remember them fondly.'” (New York Times)

The surprising truth about the ‘food movement’ (which probably isn't that surprising): people like to give the right answers more than they like to do the right thing. (Washington Post)

Shrimp oasis: Sahara desert opens biofloc shrimp farm  "The shrimp farm uses underground salty water beneath the oases of the world’s largest desert. Algeria's portion of the Sahara Desert has an extensive underground water source beneath its sand layers, with a salt concentration of 4~5 percent, suitable for the shrimp farm, ministry officials said." (Yon Hap News via Undercurrent)