Dining and Opining

Last spring, I wrote several times about the Global Food for Thought Meal Series that I organized for the GreenHouse environmental learning community. Check out the following posts from the archives to catch up: Overview and 1st Meal: GreenHouse Global Food for Thought Meals   2nd Meal: Taste of Tuscany 3rd Meal: Hunger Banquet 4th Meal: On Top of the World, Nepal 5th Meal: Global Vegetarian   6th Meal: Kallari Chocolate Cooperative and Ecuador I'm continuing with the Series this year, and we have a great line-up: Hmong, Afro-Caribbean, a new and improved Global Vegetarian, West African, and more!  The first meal featured a focus on Hmong cuisine and food culture, with a fascinating presentation by a Hmong student from the UW, who introduced the student audience members to a range of stories and facts about Hmong people. Most of the knowledge I have about Hmong culture comes from a book and a film that I highly recommend: The Spirit Catches You...

In case you've haven't seen it, my first Grist post went up today! You can read it here: It all began with spam And I've updated the schedule of the remaining posts, which you can read more about here : Post 1: Thursday, September 29  Post 2: Thursday, October 13 Post 3: Friday, October 28 Post 4: Monday, November 14 Post 5: Thursday, December 1 Post 6:  Friday, December 16 Thanks for reading along!

I spend a lot of time thinking about canned food in the historical sense, so when I see it in present-day news, I find it pretty darn exciting. The latest issue that has brought canned food into the spotlight--and one that I will likely discuss in the final chapter/epilogue of my dissertation--is Bisphenol-A, or BPA, an endocrine disruptor present in many plastics that has negative impacts on human health. Almost all cans are lined with plastic, to create a better seal and to keep the metal taste from leaching into foods. Unfortunately, what's leaking into the foods instead is BPA from the plastic lining. When I was at the doctor's office recently, I noticed a poster prominently hanging in the middle of the exam room, which alerted patients to the types of plastics to avoid (those with numbers 3, 6, and 7) because of BPA. It was mostly directed at women who were pregnant, breastfeeding, or feeding small children; and it explicitly suggested that they avoid canned foods. ...

Today is the grand opening of the Slow Food Cafe on the University of Wisconsin campus! You can find it from 12-2 PM in the basement of the crossing, at 1127 University Avenue. Today's menu choices: Savory crepes with braised poultry, wild grape redux, and greens.  Sweet and spicy tahini with sliced apple and greens on house-made pitas.  Beefy dumpling soup with aromatic vegetables.  Chilled watermelon gazpacho, with a kick!!  Ice Cream sandwich with shortbread cookies, Sassy Cow ice cream and apricot jam.  Coffee, tea, and seaberry lemonade I knew this little cafe (or at least the idea of it) when it was but a twinkle in its mother's eye. In fact, our wedding rehearsal dinner was a sort of fundraiser for this very cafe, and we donated the plates from that event to the cause. So, if you show up for lunch today, you can eat off our rehearsal dinner plates--a little piece of history! Last week, the cafe had a sort of soft opening, and I was able to ...

In last Monday’s post about the Men’s Health review of “healthy” restaurants, I referred to my concern that not everyone realizes “the problems with reductive nutritionism.”  But appropriately, in a comment, JH prompted me to say more about what this means, and to suggest some alternate criteria on which to base measurements of health, if not the calorie count offered by the cited report. On the one hand, the number of calories you ingest is indeed an important indicator of obesity and its accompanying health problems. On the other hand, counting calories leaves no room for more nuanced understandings of what makes up those calories. For example, though the McDouble may have only 390 calories, about the same number of calories as an 8 ounce avocado, the ingredients of just the bun part of the burger are: Enriched flour (bleached wheat flour, malted barley flour, niacin, reduced iron, thiamin mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid, enzymes), water, high fructose corn syrup, sugar...

After spending the last few years getting to know the impressive programs at the University of Wisconsin that are promoting knowledge about local food and environmental sustainability among undergraduate students-- GreenHouse , F. H. King Student Farm , and Slow Food UW , for example--it is really interesting to see what's going on at other universities. I had a chance to wander through the campus of my own undergraduate institution, Washington University in St. Louis , to see the progress it had made in those same areas of local food and environmental sustainability. A little overview: The main eatery on campus, the DUC , was advertising their featured local suppliers, and there were posters for an on-campus eat local challenge:  Wash U now has its own student farm! This wasn't around when I was there, so it was exciting to get to see and tour The Burning Kumquat Farm , and talk to a few of the students who were working there when we passed through. They told us that t...

If you haven't yet read the thoughtful comments posted in response to my Healthy = Low-Calorie? post , you should do so now! I have some responses (at least half-formed ones) in the works, but I won't have time to properly write them up until next week. So, until then, go read those comments, mull them over, and share your own thoughts, if you have further ones! I'll be back next week with more opining, and stories of dining.