Features

African Women Want Drunks and Hoes Banned

Found by on Tuesday, 31st May 2011
Duncan Green
» Duncan Green

When Oxfam say the number of people going hungry is increasing, it's interesting to look at who the victims say are responsible

The new campaign that Oxfam is launching next week will have a big focus on gender – almost every issue in development looks very different depending on whether you are a man or a women. I saw that in graphic form last week in Tanzania, during a training session for 40 ‘farmer animators’ – local activists who are helping to galvanize their communities in Shinyanga, one of Tanzania’s poorest regions. Men and women split into two separate groups to discuss the causes of hunger, its impacts, and how people respond. Here’s what they came up with. First the men:

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Cheap and Nasty

Found by on Wednesday, 25th May 2011
The World Tastes Good
» The World Tastes Good

Westerner’s outrage at not being treated like a local, exacerbated by favourite noodle dish suddenly costing more than a pound.

This will probably be my final post on local eats in Hanoi. Not so much because I’m leaving Hanoi in less than five weeks, but because I have a hard time recommending places that don’t overcharge me for being a Westerner. Many places don’t, but just as many, I find, do. It’s one reason I haven’t updated my blog more recently than this.

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Tasty Dates Are Hard to Find

Found by on Tuesday, 24th May 2011
xoJane
» xoJane

Why men who cook are sexy, but those who talk about food are killing their chances.

Once, I was blown off by a guy who makes pickles for a living. We were both alone at a bar in Park Slope one afternoon and he asked me what I was reading. He was an art director or something before but now he spent his days knee-deep in brine. "I love it," he said, doing something weird with his eyes to let me know how sincere he was being. He talked about his pickles for about 45 minutes, during which I was able to conclude not only that they are much more flavorful as a garnish than a subject but that it is possible to have an extremely large ego even while you discuss the merits of canning.

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Chinese Frown at Cheese

Found by on Monday, 23rd May 2011
Slate
» Slate

I’m now desperate to sneak a pouch of Brie into my husband’s carry-on when he heads to Beijing this week.

It was lunchtime, in a private room at the Xianheng Tavern, the most famous restaurant in the ancient Chinese city of Shaoxing. I opened the plastic boxes that I'd carried, sealed, all the way from London, and the stench of farmhouse cheeses began to waft across the room. The Chinese chefs and waiting staff seated around the table eyed them warily. Only two of the younger chefs had any cheese-related experience. None of the others, including the manager and executive chef of the Xianheng, Mao Tianyao, had tasted it in any form.

cheese, china

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Ottoman Rules

Posted by on Monday, 23rd May 2011
Image credit: Silvena Rowe by Jan Baldwin
» Cheque Please!

From page to plate, Rowe turns her cookbook into a restaurant.

Empire-building is in Silvena Rowe’s blood. The platinum blond Bulgarian, who’s father was Turkish, feels deeply Ottoman. “It will be a work of art,” she says, as we swoop around her not-quite-finished Eastern Mediterranean-inspired restaurant Quince, due to soft launch on Tuesday, May 24. At present, marble worktops are covered by dust sheets, coloured glass windows look dull without back lighting and the glorious red velvet furniture has been covered to prevent paint splatters. But in Rowe’s eyes, it’s ready. Continue reading »

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Eats Humans and Leaves

Found by on Saturday, 21st May 2011
Gigabiting
» Gigabiting

Mike Tyson strikes a blow for vegans

Mike Tyson snacked on Evander Holyfield’s ear. He threatened to make a meal of Lennox Lewis’ children. He is perhaps the planet’s most notorious flesh-eater. But these days there’s nothing meatier than a seitan cutlet in his George Foreman Grill. Mike Tyson: holier than thou?

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A Brief History of Cheese

Found by on Friday, 20th May 2011
Brain Pickings
» Brain Pickings

I've wracked my brain to think of a better title than "A Brief History of Cheese". I don't think there is one.

The average American eats some 33 pounds of cheese per year, up from under 22 pounds in 1954. Cheese comes in some 2,000 varieties and has been around for some 4,000 years. The Science and Art of Cheese, a new microdocumentary from KQED, explores the rich and nuanced spectrum of this cultural fixation, from unraveling the secrets of cheese artisans, who hone the aesthetic and sensory attributes of fermented blocks of milk, to scientists who stick feta in the MRI in order to reduce its salt content without changing its texture.

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Eat, Pray, Shop

Posted by on Thursday, 19th May 2011
Image credit: London Chow
» Cheque Please!

Barbecoa goers may eat in the shadow of St Paul’s, but they worship a different God.

Parked up outside One New Change shopping centre, my taxi driver shakes his head: “It’s not on the map.” Clearly, Barbecoa doesn’t exist. In fact, Adam Perry Lang’s new restaurant is on the first floor, out of the reach of street maps and sat navs. In a sci-fi style search, I head up the escalator and down echoing corridors. Eating in malls might be the norm throughout the Americanized world, but I still largely dine out in discrete ground-floor rooms — so this is weird. Continue reading »

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Not So Happy Meals

Posted by on Tuesday, 17th May 2011
Image credit:
» psfk.com

If they replace McDonalds servers with machines, where will get our humanities-graduate jokes from?

7,000 European McDonald’s locations will install the technology in an effort to make the customer’s experience more convenient. Steve Easterbrook, president of European operations, says that the company is looking to update the ordering system, which has not really changed much over the past “30-40 years.”

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El Bulli For Him

Found by on Monday, 16th May 2011
Image credit:
» Eater

The original manuscript for Ferran Adrià's Secrets of elBulli — as in, the handwritten one — sold at auction in Spain for ?55,000 (US$77,000). The book, which was written in 1996 and 1997, contains information not included in the printed version, but that's still a massive amount of money to pay for a cookbook. As journalist Lisa Abend said, file under "Things You Never Thought Would Apply to Chefs."

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