My kitchen garden at midwinter
December 21, 2005
Granted, mine is the ugliest of all the kitchen gardens here, which is why it’s unbelieveable that upon my return to Occitania, I was able to pluck leafy greens at midwinter! I fully expected to find nothing, bugs and more nothing, but to my great surprise there are sun dried tomatoes, sorrel, sweet raddichio, leaf cabbage, red cabbage, beets, beet greens, sage, rosemary, mint, broccoli, and soon… bruxelles sprouts. Gleaning is yielding enough food for a birthday party luncheon on the 24th!
debra at 12:54 | Comments (5) | post to del.icio.us
Healing Foods Pyramid is sickmaking
December 17, 2005
Never say never, but I never get sick. And according to the University of Michigan’s Healing Foods Pyramid, the reason I never get sick is that it seems I primarily eat ‘healing foods’. That, in and of itself is sickmaking.
The smart folks at the Uni emphasize:
* Healing Foods
– Only foods known to have healing benefits or essential nutrients are included
* Plant-based choices
– Plant foods create the base and may be accented by animal foods
* Variety & balance
– Balance and variety of color, nutrients, and portion size celebrate abundance
* Support of a healthful environment
– Our food, and we in turn, reflect the health of our earth
* Mindful eating
– Truly savor, enjoy and focus on what you are eating
(spotted on: Slashfood)
technorati tags: health, nutrition, food, food pyramids,
debra at 15:34 | Comments (2) | post to del.icio.us
Chaat Pack for street nibbles
December 16, 2005
Here is a chaat array being sold on the streets of Delhi. Check out the packaging stuffed in between the sacks of chaat.
You buy some chaat, the vendor mixes it up with some piquante sauce, and you’re good to go.
This is an example of how a food manufacturer together with a forward-thinking food designer used street food to inspire a new product for its street food-appreciative market in India. The chips are flavoured and (loosely) styled to reference ‘chaat’, a term describing all manner of street food snacks. If you look closely on the packaging, you’ll see an image of the traditional street chaat packaging on the left side. Within 10 metres of the stand where I photographed this package, there were five different traditional chaat vendors selling proper chaat.
Packaging for chaat is usually a bag made from old newspaper, a neatly cut piece of recycled paper, or a leaf plate. This bag was made from some terribly interesting literature about bonds, you can see the imprint of the peas (and the grease in which they were deep-fried) absorbed through the paper. Grease shadows, or oily pea portraits, if you will.
In this image you see a stack of paper left on the street as an offering to the gods of the recycled chaat-bag-makers.
debra at 9:16 | Comments (4) | post to del.icio.us
