“Scare” bacteria away by keeping all perishable foods chilled until serving time.”
—from the FDA’s Halloween food safety tips (via foodsafety.org). I know we got the recession on, but the government needs to hire some new writers.
October 2009
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“…Allen began growing vegetables in thousands of pots, making efficient use of limited greenhouse space. In cities such as Milwaukee and Chicago, where he has farms, vacant lots and flat garage rooftops can be ideal locations for gardens that produce fresh vegetables year-round, he said. He also created a self-sustaining system of fish farming, in which lake perch and tilapia are raised in water that also circulates to feed growing plants.”
—NY Times. I’m digging on what Will Allen is doing.
“All of the things you do right in this business, you don’t do right because you’re a wonderful person. You do right because you have no fucking choice.”
—Kenny Shopsin.
Some Thoughts on Eating Together
wbsc:
Last night we welcomed a small group of new and old friends to West Bank Social Center for dinner. The menu was simple: we ate soup that had been made the day before by five of our friends, and leftover focaccia that Miranda had brought from work. The soup-makers had designed an activity to place us at the table next to people we didn’t know, and as you might expect, the conversations meandered.
I was seated across from a woman named Amanda who works for KFAI and produces a podcast about local food issues. By the end of our conversation we were swapping thoughts about the future of agriculture, and the world-changing possibilities of cookbooks. Next to me were two professors from the University who teach a course about art spaces and community engagement. We talked about food and politics, food and art, about the simple pleasures of cooking together, and strange fruits from faraway places.
At one point, I was asked why we decided to do this project, to have this soup dinner in this space we’d created?
I didn’t have a definitive answer, in part because I have had no time to think of one. I realized as I meandered my way through the idea that we’d never really thought about soup as a project so much as an anti-project, that one day each month when we would simply share the company of interesting people.
“Because we’re hungry.” I told her. “And because we like to spend time with other people.”
In some ways, West Bank Social Center is the same story. We never really talk about it as a project so much as a space for things to happen. Since we began last summer it’s been a laboratory and a retreat, a noisy mess and a conversation. We struggle to pay the rent, we swap a lot of big and small ideas, but at the end of the day, it’s really about being hungry and being together.
- Shanai
WBSC is taking November off to reflect, rest, and re-energize.* I can’t think of a better way to kick that off then Shanai’s thoughts on dinner last night. Also, a big thank you to Sara, Chris, Paul, Stephanie, and Nate for making soup. It warmed me up and made me feel good.
So many exciting things are happening.
* We still have a few events on the books, most notably Mr. Sturdevant’s 30th Birthday Party on the 7th!
“Chicago rats fed a diet of sausage, pound cake, bacon, cheesecake, and Ho Hos began to behave like rats addicted to heroin, consuming increasing amounts of food to feel satisfied and continuing to eat even when to do so meant that electric shocks were delivered to their tiny paws. When switched to healthful food (“the salad option”) the rats, which had become obese, their brains numbed by junk, simply refused to eat.”
—Harper’s Weekly Review.
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REYKJAVIK, Iceland (AP) — The Big Mac, long a symbol of globalization, has become the latest victim of this tiny island nation’s overexposure to the world financial crisis.
Iceland’s three McDonald’s restaurants - all in the capital Reykjavik - will close next weekend, as the franchise owner gives in to falling profits caused by the collapse in the Icelandic krona.
” —Associated Press. So there’s no McDonald’s in Iceland? Sounds like paradise.
“I don’t know about you, but I can’t wait to get my hands on some fucking gourds and arrange them in a horn-shaped basket on my dining room table. That shit is going to look so seasonal. I’m about to head up to the attic right now to find that wicker fucker, dust it off, and jam it with an insanely ornate assortment of shellacked vegetables. When my guests come over it’s gonna be like, BLAMMO! Check out my shellacked decorative vegetables, assholes. Guess what season it is—fucking fall. There’s a nip in the air and my house is full of mutant fucking squash.”
—
Colin Nissan on decorative gourd season.
Fuck yeah motherfuckin’ gourds.
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“A man was ordering food when he was approached by another man who called him a zombie, then hit him in the eye. When the victim tried to call police on his cell phone, the man punched him again, breaking his nose.”
—La Crosse Tribune. Eating in Iowa City just got a little more dangerous.
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