Liquid chauvinism,
drinking with Muslims
January 22, 2007
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Buzzkill’s throwin’ a wrench in my terroir-ism.
From time to time a girlfriend coming over to dinner will burst in the door, plop down her big ‘ol handbag and announce with a performative voice loud enough for all to hear, ‘Oh, and I’ve stopped drinking!’
Pretty much always this means that Girlfriend has stopped drinking for the month of January, or that she’s trying to shed a kilo or two. I have never noticed that these temporary abstentions embrace extreme behaviours like refusing glasses of champagne. ‘Oh, and I only drink champagne!’ And cava and prosecco and cremant.
When this happens I don’t skip a beat. Ceremoniously and performatively I present non-drinking girlfriend with a wine glass full of water or try to make the tea feel fancier than it is. I then proceed to pour myself a wine glass full of wine and forget the matter entirely. Shortly thereafter dinner happens.
But what about the Boyfreund? This jewel of a gentleman dines (yet does not drink) here on an increasingly regular basis! Though his approach to his faith is chaotic and humanistic, (thank Gawd for that) it seems unlikely that he will start drinking beer any time soon like all the other Muslims I know.
He is emphatic about not ‘minding’ if I drink a glass with dinner, but when it’s just the two of us, it feels assymetrical for him to drink water while I enjoy my wine. No amount of hype can make a glass of Amsterdam tap water (deliciously filtered through the sand dunes though it is) seem auspicious and brimming with terroir as my perfect glass of red wine. If I were him, I’d totally lord my moral superiority over everyone at every possible moment. He’s obviously a better man than I could ever be and the opportunity to expand my repetoire of non-alcoholic adult drinks seems to present itself.
‘Oh, and I’m embracing the eradication of liquid chauvinism!’
- Sandor Ellix Katz writes about kefir and other fermented dairy drinks in his book Wild Fermentation.
- Wikipedia on kefir
debra at 14:26 | Comments (2) | post to del.icio.us
Industrial yet green
January 17, 2007
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Sunflower roots make a stab at world take-over
There’s something about the Montessori School poster-child in me that loves a good self-diagnosed field trip. I can never be too busy or have too many double-booked days to find time for some on-topic hookie, leaving the warm and productive nest that is culiblog HQ to head out into the freezing rain and darkness of winter. Yesterday I paid a visit to my sprout sponsor at their massive indoor farming complex in Broek op Langedijk.
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As it is outside so is it inside, only a bit warmer and a smidge darker, a watering installation at van der Plas
At the start of my tour of the sprout works, Rob van der Plas and I were greeted by an employee on a bike. The indoor farm is definitely large enough to need one and for a company that started off sprouting from a single bucket, the scale of their operations is impressive. Although I’m imagining that this is standard for all sprouting installations, I can’t recall having ever been in a cleaner environment. And I have a Jewish mother and have worked with the European Space Agency, so I know what clean is. This place was crazy clean. Confronting, yet clarifying, I was by far the dirtiest thing on-site.
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The sprouting process begins with a good soak
Van der Plas Sprouts is the Netherlands biggest sprout producer and is in the process of becoming mostly organic. Sprouting seeds, grains and beans on this scale is water-intensive and I asked the brothers van der Plas about their water use. Had they investigated the possibility of implementing grey-water systems? They informed me that they had done some research into the matter only to discover that their grey-water wasn’t really grey enough! Story to be continued, but the northwest of the NL is indeed a water-rich area, so to say that water is dirt cheap would be completely bass-ackwards. In this part of the Polar Circle, water is considerably cheaper than dirt.
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Peas, shoots and leaves
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Sunflower seed sprouting on the left, peas on the right
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Walking up towards the indoor farm, I actually thought that these were decorative planters and only realised much later that this was the ‘waste product’ at the end of the day.
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The amazing
Sprout (loves) Ikebana
contest
January 10, 2007
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Choreographer Martin Butler’s winning entry for the category, ‘Fleugalité (bamboo leaf, sango sprouts, rock chives, pea shoots)
The amazing Sprout (loves) Ikebana contest was carried out in honour of chef de cuisine Tal Amitai, who was not able to be with us this last week due to the loss of his beloved grandmother. Our thoughts are with you, Tal.
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Mediamatic’s amazing Marco Wessel created this vernacular-style photoshoot installation
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The winner in the category Solomon’s Oordeel (Solomon’s Judgement) uses embroidery and the world’s first new media technology, the lens. Bravo!
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Paparazzi, who is NOT in this picture?
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Mrs. Cameron (the artist formerly known as Karin Ras) wins the category, ‘Simplicité (fork, sango, pea shoot, pea asparagus, rock chives and anise sprouts)
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Writer and jury member Aya van Caspel photographs Mrs. Cameron’s entry for the category, ‘Simplicité
- Debra Solomon’s Amazing Sprout Ikebana Contest (Grow Yer Own Dang Food micro-green cuisine restaurant at the Mediamatic Night Garden Nov 4, 2006 – Jan 7, 2007
- Martin Butler’s Multi-player game, the Girlfriend Experience
from January 26 – March 9, 2007 at Mediamatic, Amsterdam
debra at 13:02 | Comments (1) | post to del.icio.us
