Dining and Opining

This week, the Global Food for Thought Meal was a Hunger Banquet .  Now, if you've never experienced one of these before, the basic idea is that you provide this exercise to spur reflection among the participants about privilege and the poverty around the world. The participants draw a random slip of paper from a bowl as they enter the room: red, green, blue, yellow. Then, they find out that each of these colors corresponds to some socioeconomic class and that they will be eating a meal representative of that class. 25% of participants were assigned to the "abject poverty" group. Their table looked like this: Yes, that's a tablecloth on the floor.  It was supplemented by one dish of plain rice and three spoons. Another 25% of participants were assigned to the "moderate poverty" group. Their table looked like this: Plain tables, no chairs, one dish of plain rice, and one dish of cabbage salad. Water. 35% of participants sat here, in the m...

Before winter escapes us and we welcome the greens and freshness of spring, I thought I'd write a little bit about how the seasons have re-shaped our ways of eating over the past couple of years. A typical winter meal has begun to look nothing like a meal during other seasons of the year.  Partly with the help of our CSA farmshare from Harmony Valley Farm , we've learned how to eat winter vegetables and how to find a place for them in our diets, without relying on the ubiquitous tomatoes and peppers and zucchini and other summer vegetables that still show up in our grocery stores, but are a sure sign of non-local and non-sustainable (and often non-yummy) foods. So, from a meal we cooked a couple weeks back, an illustration of winter-ness captured on a plate. Much of it begins with hearty root vegetables from the winter farmer's market, sliced up and ready to roast. This time around, we relied on beets and sweet potatoes and cabbage. I peeled and sliced up the beets an...

Sundays are an exciting day around the Zeide-Horn-Vedder household, because our cat, Eddie Vedder , gets to feast like a king (or at least like one of those fuzzy white cats on a Fancy Feast commercial ). Sundays are the days when Eddie gets to eat what we call his "meat food."  That is to say, he gets dry cat food out of a bag six days a week, but on one glorious day, he gets wet food out of a can, which he just goes nuts for. A long time ago, we noticed that Eddie had learned the phrase "meat food" and that just the very words got him excited. So then, Justin started this little game with Eddie where, around 5 PM on Sundays, he would say other unrelated words (usually the names of famous philosophers) to see if Eddie reacted to them differently than he did to the words "meat food." At first, of course, he paid the philosophers no attention and then leaped up with excitement when the exalted "MF" finally came. But then, smart cat that Eddie is...

A quick post on this cold Tuesday morning. Some of you may never forgive me for sharing this recipe with you, but it's too good not to share. Who has ever had a craving for a brownie, but not had a fresh-baked one on hand? Raise your hands.  Ok, who has ever had a craving for a brownie, then baked a batch of brownies, only to eat more that you really wanted? Now, I have the perfect solution: Brownie Mug.  Yep, that's a single-serving brownie made right in the microwave in a coffee mug--chocolaty, gooey goodness on demand.  Yum. Brownie Mug   1Tablespoons Water   1Tablespoons Vegetable Oil 1/8 teaspoon vanilla (optional) Dash of salt 1 Tablespoons Cocoa powder 2 Tablespoons Sugar   2Tablespoons Flour small handful of chocolate chips  (optional) Add the water, oil, vanilla, and salt to the mug and mix. Then add cocoa powder, whisk well. Add sugar, whisk well. Add flour, whisk well, until no clumps remain. Microwave on high...

Last week, I got to experience my first dinner as part the Global Food for Thought Meal Series that I'm helping to coordinate for the GreenHouse, and it was an awesome event, all around. The meal was organized by Francesco Mangano , chef and proprietor of Osteria Papavero , an Italian restaurant in Madison that excels at flavorful, high-quality food. And in an impressive synthesis of fine dining and institutional cooking, the whole meal was prepared by University Housing Dining Services, under Francesco's guidance. The Menu: Assorted Crostini: Bruschetta and Salsa Verde Arrosto di Manzocon Funghi Sotte 'Olio Italian-style roast beef, served with shaved parmigiano cheese, baby arugula salad, and oil-cured wild mushrooms Polipo in Umido Braised octopus with sweet peas and chili Baccola in Umido Salt cod, braised with tomato and garlic, served with yellow corn polenta Peperiota Stew of sweet bell peppers Testaroli al Pesto Tuscan-style spe...

The list below is re-posted from the awesome site www.defendwisconsin.org , run by the TAA .  Because there has been such an outpouring of support for the protests and rallies by local businesses, it's important for us to thank them with our patronage. The following Madison businesses, among others, have provided food or other supplies for the sit-in and sleep-in at the capitol: Art Gecko (608) 280-0853 Capital Centre Market (608) 255-2616 Cargo Coffee (608) 268-0597 Chautara (608) 251-3626 Community Pharmacy (608) 251-3242 The Cooper’s Tavern (608) 256-1600 El Pastor (608) 280-8898 EVP (608) 294-6868 Falbo’s (608) 255-9090 Fromagination (608) 255-2430 Himal Chuli (608) 251-9225 Ian’s Pizza (608) 257-9248 Indie Coffee (608) 259-9621 James J. Chocolates (877) 526-3752 Just Coffee (608) 204-9011 Ma Cha (608) 442-0500 Marigold Kitchen (608) 661-5559 Mermaid Cafe (608) 249-9719 Nature’s Bakery (608) 257-3649 Regent Street Market Co-op (608) 233-4...

Day 4 of my "Solidarity through Food" series: In addition to the protest-fueling food that's been coming from us , Ian's Pizza , and my department , some of it has also been coming from the unions themselves.  The Northeast Wisconsin Building and Construction Trades Council put on a free cookout for anyone who happened to be walking by the capitol at the end of last week.  You could just stop on by and pick up a hot dog, fresh off the grill. A union worker would even squeeze the mustard and ketchup on for you! And, perhaps the cutest part of all, there were bags of homemade Chex mix out as well! Now, I usually am not one to encourage people to eat processed foods that were (probably) made from factory-farmed animals, but the joy of this show of solidarity was enough to win over even the "food snob"* in me.  Although I did think about how funny (read: awful) it would be to go up and ask if they had a vegetarian option, by chance. Or maybe some orga...