Friday Faves No. 179

our favorite finds from the front lines of food

Appetite For Change is a North Minneapolis nonprofit organization that uses food as a tool to build health, wealth and social change. "Grow Food" is the culminating project of Appetite For Change's Summer 2016 Youth Employment & Training Program.

I guess that the tag line of "favorite finds from the front lines of food" could be a bit misleading. Sometimes there are important finds that are not really "favorite" finds. This is one of those cases - it's time we discuss the state of kids here in the USA going hungry. 

This past week the Washington Post ran an article discussing the record breaking numbers of kids benefiting from the school breakfast program that is ultimately in the crosshairs of some conservatives in Congress. (Washington Post) 

Since this is such an important topic, I want to expand on it a bit more. The blog named The Lunch Tray has done a great job outlining the issues surrounding kids who rely on school nutrition programs. and what may happen to those programs under the new administration. Its a good read that anyone in the food business int he US should take a look at. (The Lunch Tray)

And for those out there who want to do something about this, the website We Are Teachers have outlines how to leverage social media to fight against childhood hunger.  remember all of us who work in food know that kids learn better, behave better and are healthier when they have a good breakfast. This is not rocket science, nor is it new information. (We Are Teachers) And major shout out and thanks to Sodexo Stop Hunger Foundation & No Kid Hungry / Share our Strength

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In other news...

More unintended consequences from recent voting....Looks like the UK fishermen won't be getting their waters back anytime soon. (Guardian)

Friday Faves No. 137

our favorite finds from the front lines of food

Woman walks Paris marathon with a bucket on her head to talk about water. Gambian woman Siabatou Sanneh (above) displays a sandwich board which translates as "In Africa women walk this distance each day for drinking water" as she carries a jerrycan of water on her head while walking the route of the 39th Paris Marathon in Paris, on April 12, 2015, to raise awareness for the cause of charity "Water for Africa." (CBS News)

The Guardian explores the brave new world of food packaging language. From ‘family owned’ and ‘created with love’, to ‘hand crafted’ and ‘authentic’, food-packet rhetoric is now mainly in the business of selling nice feelings...A brand of snack bars is made “in small batches at our own makery”. Makery? I am guessing that “makery” is a portmanteau for “made-up bakery.” (Guardian)

The language fight is getting ugly: MillerCoors Sued For Selling Blue Moon As A Craft Beer (Consumerist)

Human mind wired for marketing through storytelling, says Forrester analyst “Decision making is not rational and it is not rational in business-to-business either,” said Laura Ramos, vice president and principal analyst at Forrester Research, San Francisco. “You wouldn’t know that from looking at content because in B2B, you think if you put all the facts out there of course consumers will make the right choice.” (Luxury Daily)

Who needs New Nordic? Giving Northern (North American) Cuisine Its Due "Both at sea and far inland, chefs from some of the chillier regions of North America are making an effort to dive deeper into their habitat. From New England up through the Maritime Provinces of Canada and west to Montreal and Toronto, they are doing culinary work that poses questions without simple answers: What exactly is Northern cooking? And how do you make that identity clear and compelling to diners?" (New York Times)

Michelin Star Chef Turns Spring Fashion into Culinary Masterpieces (PSFK)

Better to eat vegetarian that a lot of industrial meat. The Nation’s First Vegetarian Public School Is Thriving "We had no focus on vegetarianism specifically," says Groff, the school’s principal. "If we were presented with a free-range, organic chicken, that’s something we would talk about." (Fast Company)

Sing Along Snacks: Hot Lunch

It's never too early or too late for a snack, so crank up that volume on your computer.

This week is more of a dance-along snack with the lunch room scene from the 1980 classic, Fame. Irene Cara as Coco sings:

"HOT LUNCH, YEEAAHHH.

Macaroni and baloni, tuna fish, our favorite dish. Hot lunch, hey
If it's yellow, then it's jello.If it's blue,it could be stew, oo, oo."

Friday Faves — notes from the new gastroconomy, No. 81

weekly round-up of our favorite finds from the front lines of food

• Eat Drink Vote: an illustrated guide to food politics compiles 250 cartoons that strike at the heart of what's wrong with our food system (like the ones at right). Says the author, nutrition activist Marion Nestle: "I want these cartoons to inspire readers to become active in food politics and work toward a food system that is healthier for people and the planet. Join groups that are working on these issues. Vote with your fork! But food choices are also about politics. Exercise your democratic right as a citizen. Vote with your vote." (Civil Eats)

And Marion Nestle, the noted NYU nutrition professor, public health advocate, and tireless food politics blogger/tweeter, has compiled the cream of this non-genetically modified crop in her just-published book from Rodale, Eat Drink Vote: An Illustrated Guide to Food Politics. - See more at: http://civileats.com/2013/09/04/food-politics-illustrated/#sthash.SxarlPJ6.dpuf

Marion Nestle, the noted NYU nutrition professor, public health advocate, and tireless food politics blogger/tweeter, has compiled the cream of this non-genetically modified crop in her just-published book from Rodale, Eat Drink Vote: An Illustrated Guide to Food Politics - See more at: http://civileats.com/2013/09/04/food-politics-illustrated/#sthash.SxarlPJ6.dpuf

• Has the world reached peak chicken? Domestic chicken populations are up 262% since 1970. When we will figure out something useful to do with all the spent laying hens? (Mother Jones)

• IRS Rule Leads Restaurants to Rethink Automatic Tips now that gratuities added for large groups will be taxed as service charges (WSJ)

• Last week we took a retro look at the kitchen of the future, but the design brainstorming continues. What Your Kitchen Will Look Like In 2025: smart refrigerators, faucets that detect chemicals and bacteria on produce, and 3-D printed dishes are just some of GE's predictions. (Fast Company)

• And if that's not enough, how about chef robots that stamp out cookies, hologram cooking lessons, and little vacuum-bots that pick up the food you drop while cooking (although having a dog is a good low-tech solution to that problem). (CNN)

• Boston city schools democratize free lunch by offering it to all students, removing some of the stigma of accepting help and opening up access for kids with parents who can't/won't fill our the paperwork that was previously necessary. The move is part of a new federal program. (Boston Globe)

• The debate over the safety of GM food wages on. French researcher who claimed GM food caused cancers in rats says UK should review food safety and assess long-term toxicity. (Guardian)

• New Nordic is everywhere in restaurant news but still has to make its way into American home kitchens. "We now know about strange spices from other countries, and kimchi from Korea," [Marcus] Samuelsson says. "Why wouldn't we want to learn about lingonberries and reindeer?" Hopefully, Scandinavian producers are working on their marketing plans. (Metro NY)

• August was National Bourbon Heritage month. We hate to be late to the party, but it's always the right time to catch up on cocktails, recipes and profiles like a real Southern aficionado with this tour. (Garden & Gun)

Friday Faves — notes from the new gastroconomy, No. 80

weekly round-up of our favorite finds from the front lines of food

• London-based photographer Carl Warner uses bits of food to construct intricate landscapes like the one above, and many more. (Design Boom)

• Seattle is setting the example for community gardens: "Parks and rec departments are starting to realize that community gardens can be a vital part of a program, just like a skate park or a dog park. A community garden is a new asset the residents are asking for, nationally." (NPR, KPLU Seattle)

• Japan may be the spiritual homeland of the vending machine, but Belgium is winning points for the sheer awesomeness that is the Frites Machine, which fries up a cone for you in just 95 seconds. Sigh. (Laughing Squid)

• A special whisky for the customers who will pay the earth, Johnnie Walker debuts new “super-premium” whiskies costing more than £100 a bottle in response to demand from China and other emerging markets. (Scotsman)

• The latest lifestyle marketing lesson comes from real estate, where mini-movies, complete with actors and staged parties, are increasingly the way to sell high-end properties. They "add a little emotion" and give people a view into the life they aspire to. (Wall Street Journal)

• The trend of merging retail and restaurant marches on in New York as popular seafood market Lobster Place expands into the Cull & Pistol. "They way people shop for food — particularly at the high-end — is changing. The idea that is should be sort of a visceral experience has really caught on. People very much look at it as a lifestyle hobby." (Seafood Business)
  
  “The way people shop for food — particularly at the high end — is changing. The idea that it should be sort of a visceral experience has really caught on. People very much look at it as a lifestyle hobby,” MacGregor says. - See more at: http://seafoodbusiness.com/articledetail.aspx?id=21605#sthash.5xVLjBBg.dpuf
  “The way people shop for food — particularly at the high end — is changing. The idea that it should be sort of a visceral experience has really caught on. People very much look at it as a lifestyle hobby,” - See more at: http://seafoodbusiness.com/articledetail.aspx?id=21605#sthash.5xVLjBBg.dpuf
  “The way people shop for food — particularly at the high end — is changing. The idea that it should be sort of a visceral experience has really caught on. People very much look at it as a lifestyle hobby,” - See more at: http://seafoodbusiness.com/articledetail.aspx?id=21605#sthash.5xVLjBBg.dpuf(Seafood Business)

• It's back to school time. In promoting healthy choices, especially for kids, Revolution Foods is taking on Lunchables (a little box of poor quality, industrial food) in the pre-made lunch market. “There’s good potential for new brands to come in and establish themselves in this category...Portable foods are still very relevant to dual-income households with kids on the go, and products like these suit their needs.” (New York Times)

• NPR went dumpling-wild this week with stories on the origins of dumplings (there's archaeological evidence of dumplings in China more than a thousand years ago) and an essay on the emotions and remembrances that get stuffed inside — wontons, tortellini, pierogi or whatever you want to cal them — for many of us. (NPR)

• Take a peak into the "miracle" kitchen of the future, tomorrowland-style, with a 1957 promotional video from Whirlpool, complete with a Star Trek-worthy control panel that does everything from calling the butcher to setting the mood lighting. They only thing they didn't invision was changing gender roles.

Friday Faves — notes from the new gastroconomy, No. 63

weekly round-up of our favorite finds from the front lines of food

• Chickens are keeping their mess to themselves, fashionably, with chicken diapers (right). "'Chickens are a symbol of urban nirvana,' The New York Times wrote last year, 'their coops backyard shrines to a locavore movement that has city dwellers moving ever closer to their food.'" We expect the ironic, 80's-inspired, hipster chicken diaper line any day now.

• A sensible and delicious solution to low meal-cost school lunches: ditch the industrial meat. A New York City school goes meatless. “This is so good,” said 9-year-old Marian Satti of a black bean and cheddar cheese quesadilla served at Tuesday’s lunch, the Daily News said. 'I’m enjoying that it didn’t have a lot of salt in it.'”  

• Culinary students at CIA protested what they feel are weakened standards. “There are students here who understand the work and the discipline...but there are also some who just want to coast and get on reality shows, and we see them getting away with it.”

• A small town in Scotland has launched its own signature menu as a way to support regional cuisine and identity. Huntly, a town of only 4,000 people, has stepped out with this vision. How about "Huntly tattie soup (made with locally-grown veg and short rib or plate beef); Deveron cure trout and mayonnaise made with rapeseed oil; Highland kedgeree (using Moray-smoked haddock, free-range eggs and Fairtrade rice); and Gordon barley risotto with Moray langoustine, mushrooms or rabbit, dotted with Douglas Fir pine oil."

• A nice refresher for your eyes and inspiration for your cocktail menu, a visual sake round-up.

Friday Faves — notes from the new gastroconomy, No. 50

 weekly round-up of our favorite finds from the front lines of food

• We found ourselves on a bit of a theme this week with stories from Scotland, and this little gem of a video sealed the deal. Above is a fine example of what the internet was really meant for — a goofy song featured animated Scotch Eggs.

• We love activist kids, and nine-year-old Scottish food blogger Martha Payne has jumped to the top of our list. Her blog NeverSeconds, which she started last May, has engaged kids (and grown-ups) around the world on school lunches. Her school district tried to shut down her reporting (which got covered in Wired and earned her props from Jamie Oliver) but she's still on task. And not stopping there, Martha is using her blog to raise money for UK charity Mary's Meals. She's already raised enough to feed 10,000 school children in Malawi for a year. (For more on the work of Mary's Meals, check out the trailer for the new documentary film Child 31.)

• It's a little geeky but a cool development for fisheries: the James Dyson Award goes to a new kind of net called a SafetyNet (link to a video that explains it all to you). "The goal of the SafetyNet system is to make commercial fishing more sustainable by significantly decreasing the numbers of non-target and juvenile fish caught during the trawling process."

• It's not just happy hour, it's biological diversity hour: Efforts to conserve Scotland's oldest cultivated barley have been boosted by its use in making beer and whisky.

• And now to mix it up, an only-in-New York story of the The Lox Sherpa of Russ & Daughters, famous smoked fish emporium of the Lower East Side. "After growing up on a diet of flour paste, cheese soup and butter tea, Mr. Sherpa now subsists on caviar and pickled herring and wild Baltic salmon. Instead of trekking in flip-flops, he hops the F train to work (when it’s running), and he prefers coffee to butter tea. “Forget about it,” he said. “You have to start your day with coffee in this city.”'

Friday Faves — notes from the new gastroconomy, No. 47

 weekly round-up of our favorite finds from the front lines of food

• A piece of movie magic that you can eat, melting Wicked Witch of the West Cookies by Death by Cupcakes.

• On Point talks with New Yorker writer Adam Gopnik (radio link) on not just what we eat, but how we eat. The meaning of food and sharing is discussed in his book The Table Comes First: Family, France, and the Meaning of Food which argues that "the real meaning of food lies in continuity" and that "we need to think more about what goes on around the table."

• A strange twist on equality: Real Life Swedish Chef Told to Scale Back on School Lunch Deliciousness

• Wine in a box, wine in fake designer handbags, now wine in a can. Hmmm.

• If the idea of wine in a can makes you want to reach for a beer, a Scottish company has unveiled a 65% proof beer called Brewmeister Armageddon, the world's strongest.

• Campus Farms are springing up all over and now will have help from a new resource called Campus Farmers. '“There’s a great new trend of students growing their own food on college campuses. They’re very excited, but they often have no idea where to begin,” Nicole Tocco, East Coast fellow for the Bon Appétit Management Company Foundation, tells TakePart. “This will be a place where they can post questions, blog posts, status updates and more. There will be a resource section to show them how to get started.”'

Friday Faves — notes from the new gastroconomy, No. 15

 a weekly round-up of our favorite finds from the front lines of food

• "Survival in the epicurean jungle was a matter of brawn and culinary skill, in which mastery of the Switchblade Spork was king. Gangs of sous-chefs and line cooks ruled the streets and no food was safe from the steely glint of their sporks."

• In tsunami-hit Japan, microfinancing is helping food business get up and running even when banks don't want to lend. "So I wondered if maybe what we do really is important. Many people are waiting for the very original products that we select and sell. They are small goods, but they fill voids in our hearts.”

• UN asserts that famine is predictable: "drought and famine are not extreme events but “merely the sharp end of a global food system that is built on inequality, imbalances and – ultimately – fragility.”'

• Want kids to eat more veggies? Research written up in The Journal of the American Medicine Association (JAMA) says that putting pictures on cafeteria trays helps. Score one for the power of suggestion.

• States, like Massachusetts, are increasingly looking to create brands of provenence to market fisheries. “If we took a look at fish being landed in Massachusetts and put a mark on them ... it allows a story and to tie in what’s happening in New Bedford or Gloucester. It means something to [diners]."

• A new photo and text project assembles a Lexicon of Sustainability, from Backyard Pollinator to Kitchen Incubator.

• Pesticides are bad to eat, but they're even worse to live around. Grist looks at the environmental and social costs of conventional agriculture, from chemicals that dust fruit like snow to contaminated drinking water.

• Ancient ice, hopefully not headed for a cocktail near you. In Chile, police are holding a man found trying to smuggle five tons of a Patagonian glacier for upscale bar drinks.