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Regrettable food & bluefin tuna
I spent a gentle morning, not so long ago, reading through the comments to an article Meli sent me about the worst recipe ever written (though I agree with the reader who guessed a typo had turned “peas” into “pears” in the recipe cited — on the other hand, canned peas are a horrifying enough substance).
While some of the comments link to truly awful things, many others I would say cheat by being deliberately horrible constructions never intended to be eaten (e.g. the Twinkie Souffle), while others fall into the “edible” but not entirely serious (the spectacular Meat Ship, arrrr, the perfect meal with which to celebrate International Talk Like a Pirate Day). The Gallery of Regrettable Food is excellent though, since the recipes are honest examples of foods once recommended, even if by the demons of a food company’s marketing department. (How can I ever forget those Kraft Foods commercials that brightened my childhood Disney Show evenings?)
On a more serious note, it is good to see the UK taking action on the plight of bluefin tuna. The attitude taken by Nobu (the swish sushi joint co-owned by Robert De Niro) as reported in the Times article is a prime excellent example of how our market economy treats the world like its personal shopping basket, and damn the consequences.
Pablo Neruda once wrote an Ode to a Large Tuna in the Market. Thanks to overfishing, he’d have quite a bit more trouble finding a large one to address nowadays.
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Corn smut
I’d heard of corn smut, but never experienced it. Just knew it was bad. Now I find out it is good! In Mexico, it is a revered delicacy called huitlacoche, cuitlacoche, maize mushroom or Ustilago maydis. You can make it into many dishes including soups, sauces and even ice cream.
Speaking of corn, and Mexican-ish food, Gabe passed along this delightful clip from the The Onion…
http://www.theonion.com/content/themes/common/assets/onn_embed/embedded_player.swf?image=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.theonion.com%2Fcontent%2Ffiles%2Fimages%2FGREEN_MENU_article.jpg&videoid=96591&title=Taco%20Bell’s%20New%20Green%20Menu%20Takes%20No%20Ingredients%20From%20Nature
Taco Bell’s New Green Menu Takes No Ingredients From Nature -
Lots of music in the hot hot sun
Spent the weekend testing the limits of heat endurance and my sunscreen at the Vancouver Island Music Festival in Courtenay.
Steven Page was solo-ing after leaving Barenaked Ladies.
Arlo Guthrie played for us on his birthday and was repaid with cake and our wonderful singing.
Saturday was so hot the most popular venue was the Woodland Stage as it had the only shady seats. But Eric Bibb was hot enough to draw a crowd no matter the temperature.
Del McCoury and his almost all-family band were top notch Saturday nighters.
and Martyn Joseph
at one of the song circles.
The Comox Valley Farmers’ Market is excellent, enviable and right next door to the festival site: an extra treat for Saturday morning. The sour cherries looked good enough to take home,
but somehow the wrong thing to be hauling around all the hot, hot, hot day long.
Sunday morning kicked off – almost as hot as Saturday – with the likes of Jim Byrnes and The Sojourners
and the star of the show, IMHO, the wondrous Eric Bibb
Had we been tall enough, we would truly have hung from the rafters to enjoy this blistering blues workshop, featuring both Bibbs (Eric and his dad Leon), Michael Jerome Browne Band, Jim Byrnes, Luke Guthrie, Sam Hurrie…
Mark Stuart and Stacey Earle gave a farewell (as a duo) performance – both are heading into solo projects.
Yves Lambert et le Bebert Orchestra started the Sunday night set off with some fun.
Some lovely things at the festival: the water wagon was a definite treat, bringing chilled water to the masses in this festival that dared to ban plastic water bottles.
There was also a liquid godsend in the form of the jet tent, where you could get a cooling blast of mist…
And there were artists at work here and there.
The food was pretty good. The Nomad’s Kitchen was as folky as they come
serving platters like this one with grilled salmon
But Woodstock’s smokies were up to their usual magnificent standard; the top seller again was the Gardener’s Revenge (venison) – and very good it was too.
A fabulous treat which sadly sold out before Sunday elevenses: the outstanding caramel nut bar, lovingly crafted by Corfield Coffee Bar in Duncan.
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In her latest collection, Rhona McAdam navigates the dark places of human movement through the earth and the exquisite intricacies lingering in backyard gardens and farmlands populated by insects and pollinators, all the while returning to the body, to the tune of staccato beats and the newly discovered symmetries within the human heart.
“…A beautiful, filling collection, Larder is a set of poems to read at the change of the seasons, to appreciate alongside a good meal, and to remind yourself of the beauty in everything, even the things you may not appreciate before opening McAdam’s collection….”
Rhona McAdam is a writer, poet, editor, and Registered Holistic Nutritionist with a Master’s in Food Culture from Italy and a deep-rooted passion for ecology and urban agriculture. Her work spans corporate and technical writing to poetry and creative nonfiction, often exploring the vital links between what we eat and how we live. Based in Victoria, BC, and available via Zoom, Rhona is always open to new writing commissions, readings, or workshops on nutrition and the culinary arts.
