On My Mind: Islamic Cuisine, Razor Clams, Carbs and More

Just a few items in food history and politics that have caught my attention this week.

• Anissa Helou‘s magnificent, far-reaching Feast: Food of the Islamic World is out. It’s taut and elegant, headnotes brief and to the point, recipes precise. Most come from the areas of the Abassid, Ottoman, and Mughal empires but Anissa has traveled way beyond that and you will also find Nigerian akara balls, Zanzibari sesame bread, Uighur scallion pancakes, and satays from Indonesia. You won’t cook the camel’s hump but most of the rest is accessible. Glorious photos, many by Anissa.

 

• Running across blogs that open your eyes is such a delight. The agricultural economist Wandile Sihlobo, writes about agriculture from a South African perspective. The latest offering is “A Brief History of South African Chicory Production.”  That so appeals to my history pack rat character.

 

• And while we’re talking about agriculture, the Wall Street Journal had published statistics from the US Census Bureau Trade Data on the percentage of total commodity exported in 2017 (I’ve round off): Corn 28% to Mexico; Soybeans 58% to China; Pork 36% to Mexico; Milk powder 46% to Mexico.  I always feel there’s a disconnect between public sentiment about small farms and US agriculture as an export industry.

 

• Bread, always one of my favorite topics. “I was always told that one could live on bread and water alone, but of course with a pinch of salt.”  Three short stories about bread, three quite unforgettable short stories, by the Iranian artist, Afsoon, popped up in my mailbox recently.  I promised I wouldn’t spill the beans but look out for her work.

 

• Carbs.  They’re having a rough time. Last week, a BBC program, The Truth About Carbs, which I want to see, had the (unintended?) consequence of making them seem even scarier to many viewers. One of many enthusiastic viewers tweeted.

• 14 days without bread, rice, pasta, potatoes
  10 pounds lighter!
  But so many reasons to give them up for good https://t.co/GPYTxN8t3H

  — Liz Kershaw (@LizKershawDJ) June 8, 2018

  James Wong (@Botanygeek) did his usual great job responding.

“Responses like this to science TV shows are why us lot need to work bloody hard to communicate the evidence clearly.

Show may not have actually said this, but given how people would obviously understand it this way, maybe a bit more balance & clarity?”

 

• Razor Clams: Buried Treasure of the Pacific North by David Berger is a book I’ve been wanting to mention for a long time. I had no idea that that clams were not just clams, no idea that razor clamming was a thing in Washington and Oregon. Berger, an ardent clammer, digs up lots of old cartoons, stays in a motel with special facilities for cleaning clams, and, perhaps most interesting if not most amusing, lays out the tangled history of the Quinault Indian Nation’s treaties and current access to clamming. I’m getting more and more interested in property rights and property rights to foraged food raises all kinds of questions. I’ll be coming back to this.

 

• Saddened to hear of the death of Barbara Kafka whose Microwave Gourmet was my entry card to a lasting love affair with this wonderful addition to the kitchen. I still have the first 1987 edition with annotations that braised leeks cook faster in my oven. It’s hard to remember now just how lost everyone was with their first purchase.  Even heating a cup of water required turning the pages of the handbook. Understanding its strengths and weaknesses took years to figure out.  What fun she must have had shocking her friends by proclaiming that she was working on the impossible idea of a microwave gourmet. Even now traces of microwave snobbery linger.

• No one in the United States food world could miss the news of Anthony Bourdain’s death at age 61.  Much sympathy to his daughter, girlfriends, and many friends.  Although I have a copy of his Kitchen Confidential on my shelves, I never finished it because it reinforced my restaurant wariness, nor did I watch his television series, so the vast admiration many people I respect had for him came as a welcome surprise. So did the outpouring of stories of his kindness and generosity. And, less welcome, the numbers of people reporting on their depression.  Of the many eulogies and commentaries, I would pick out those of @savortooth who begins his Twitter thread  “lt’s interesting to see people eulogizing him and celebrating his strengths – which were indeed extraordinary. But for me it’s his weaknesses – and the way he dealt with them – that knock the air out of my lungs” and @Raykris1 who rails against the idea of life at any cost.

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