Sunday Roast 28th March #weeklyfoodnews

Yes, yes, yes...I'm sorry - once again I am posting the Sunday Roast on Monday but I am just so busy guysss. I even got a pleading message from my friend asking where his Roast is: a day later, he's probably still sat at his laptop waiting for some juicy morsels of food (news). So, here we go, I'm up at 6.30am on a Monday morning providing you with a five course six course (yes, I'm that nice) Sunday Roast. 

Recipe

Healthy 'carrot cake' porridge by Mind Body Green 

I talk often about my love for Marmite/Vegemite on toast, but this week I want to share another breakfast favourite: porridge. Whenever I eat porridge, it just reminds me of camping and early morning breakfasts - taking in mouthfuls of hot, sugary oats and seeing your breath mingle with the cold, frosty air.

Our nation's love affair with oats is not novel, but there is a growing popularity for eating porridge outside of the breakfast window. For example, the pop-up Porridge Cafe, London, served gourmet porridge for breakfast, lunch and dinner. No longer are the days where porridge comes with just salt or sugar; you now can have mango and coconut cream, banana and peanut butter, slow-cooked beef and feta. Crazy times, people.

I thought I would add a recipe to the oat bandwagon...Being a member of a boot camp, I'm in dire need of porridge and its complex carbs, high iron and phosphorus content. Not only are we called 'troops', but I had to carry a woman around a field yesterday (the instructor called them our 'victim') and then crawl 'bear style' with a water-filled car tyre attached to my waist by a horrifically abrasive rope. 

Despite the fact I accidentally dropped my victim, I absolutely love it. 

Getting 'tyred' out in South Parks, Oxford 

To treat both my muscles and my post-workout cake cravings, I made myself a healthy 'carrot cake' porridge. The recipe is adapted from Mind Body Green, and if you want to see a high quality photo of what it should look like, please check out their website. Mine tasted great, but my £40 Nokia is not particularly great at photogenic shots...

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup of organic porridge oats 
• 1 cup of water 
• 1 egg white (lightly whisked)
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract 
• Big squirt of honey or another sweetener (e.g. agave, rice malt syrup)
• 1 tbsp dried dates/raisins
• 1/2 cup grated organic carrot
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon 
• Pinch of salt 
• 1 tbsp chopped walnuts

Preparation

• Add oats to boiling water and simmer for several minutes on a medium heat until most of the water is absorbed.
• At this point, whisk in the egg white. If you're feeling extra adventurous, chuck in two... Go on, you only live once. 
• Once thick and creamy, add vanilla extract, honey, cinnamon, salt and then stir until combined
• Stir through the grated carrot and dried fruit, top with walnuts. 
• Eat and enjoy*

*I found that the carrot was slightly too crunchy. One idea would be to soak the oats with apple juice and grated carrot over night... 

Blog

Not Eating Out In New York by Cathy Erway

There are many reasons why I want to feature this blog, a main one being how timely it is in the debate on role of food services in influencing our health and environments. 

Our food service sector includes restaurants, quick service outlets (e.g. fast food joints, Starbucks and Pret...), public services (e.g. education, hospitals, prisons), pubs, catering and so on. Despite food services only comprising 19% of a £234 billion UK food sector, it has a significant impact on the way and what we eat. For example, a report recently exposed the top unhealthiest streets in Britain, with high concentrations of fast food joints alongside bookkeepers and tanning salons causing major implications on our mental and physical health. 

As consumers, we are not passive in our growing health and environment epidemics. In fact, we are pivotal in shaping the geography of this sector and determining whether it plays a destructive or supportive role in our food system. 

Positive changes so far include reacting to the latest consumer demands such as gluten-free or local foods, putting pressure on big food chains to improve animal welfare and food quality, and there has been a boom in independent pop-ups and street food joints as a response to our growing curiosity for authentic, exotic gastronomic experiences (over half of these are in London). 

We can also choose not to eat out. One consumer and blog writer, Cathy, decided to find out about the other routes to feeding ourselves:

"I tried to explore other avenues of “not eating out” — diving into dumpsters, foraging for edible weeds, cooking for communal dinners and supper clubs, and throwing or participating in amateur cook-offs and events"

Her conclusions are written in a creative list of reasons not to 'eat out', ranging from better experiencing the seasons to being safe in the knowledge that the hair in the food is yours. She also provides a selection of recipes to get you back into humble, communal home-cooking.

It is a down-to-earth blog, helping consumers access information on how they can play a role in obesity, sustainability and ethical challenges facing our Western food culture. It broadens the definition of 'treating yourself', showing that you can have a good time and good food even when not 'eating out'. 

You know you want to achieve that amount of satisfaction...
Source: livinggreenmag.com

News

Costa Rica is now running completely on renewable energy by Adam Epstein at Quartz

Last week I devoted the Sunday Roast to water, and this week is another occasion for celebration of this finite resource. Costa Rica has been running on hydropower for the past 75 days, with any dips in energy levels coming from geothermal, solar and wind power. 

Source: colinasdelsolcr.com

How have they achieved this? 

First, they had a tonne of rainfall (obviously) and are located in a tectonically active area. Second, they are a very small nation with only 4.8 people. Consumption per capita is relatively low as the economy relies mainly on tourism and small-scale agriculture as livelihoods. Oh, and they haven't had a military since 1948, so funds are not diverted away from the lives and environments that matter most. 

While Costa Rica has exceptional factors contributing to this inspiring feat, this is not a reason to dismiss this reality as something larger nations cannot achieve or at the very least act towards. 

Take Bhutan's Gross National Happiness (GNH) rather than GDP as a development index as another example. The pillars of Bhutan's GNH are good governance, sustainable socio-economic development, cultural preservation and environmental conservation. It is these values that lay the foundations for the success Bhutan has shown in longevity, education, thriving ecosystems and non-intensive sustainable development. They are also values that the UN encouraged policy makers and governments to adopt in climate talks in Doha, 2012, and that the annual International Day of Happiness encourages each year. 

I just hope that we draw similar inspiration from Costa Rican values. While many renewable energy projects are funded by external donors and investors, it is Costa Rica's prerequisite values and prioritisation of ecosystems and long-term development over economic booms (or, as Amartya Sen terms 'unaimed opulence') that lays foundations for this inspiring 75 days. 

We can all learn from that.

Research

Cultivating Equality In Our Food System by Danielle Nierenberg. 

This week I am providing a TEDx talk rather than an academic journal. It's Sunday, and our tired eyes and minds may not cope with a lengthy piece of prose. TEDx runs on the same premise as TED talks - 'ideas worth spreading' - but is a platform for independently organised, community-based talks.

Danielle Nierenberg, one of the founders of Food Tank, illustrates the case for supporting the 'hidden women' behind our food system in this fantastic TEDx talk. 

Making up 43% of global agricultural labour force, women play a crucial yet often invisible role in the knowledge, practices and networks underpinning our food and ecological systems and rural economies.

Invisibility is not synonymous with victimhood. Women in the food system have a voice, it just needs to be highlighted and made visible both to men in their communities and to global policy-makers and business. Danielle does just this, giving examples from her own research and travels along with providing other inspirational case studies from around the world. 

With only 14 minutes, she can only touch upon the major issues surrounding equality, gender and our food system, but lists various organisations and research projects for people to continue learning from and help catalyse positive progress. As she passionately remarks:

"I promise you we will see progress in the fight for sustainability in the food system and women's equality...as, as does the fate of women, so does the fate of the world". (Danielle Nierenberg, TEDx).  

Watch it, be part of this (educational) fight.

Inspiration

It seems videos and live talks are my go-to this week. For inspiration, there are two upcoming Guardian live chats - one on Tuesday 31st March and the next on Wednesday 1st April - that will hopefully evoke inspiring thoughts and debate. 

Will the smart machine help or hinder sustainability?

Source: zdnet.com

As Ester Boserup famously said: 'Necessity is the mother of all invention'. We are in urgent need of sustainable, ethical alternatives to managing our natural resources - in particular, food, water, energy and waste. These are all interrelated. As I indicated last week, our food choices influence our water usage, and the above example of Costa Rica indicates how water can provide a foundation for renewable energy. 

If all are part of a nexus, then it should be relatively easy to start a 'domino effect' of positive change, right? We need to remember that humans - particularly our mindsets - also play a role in this. We have particular everyday habits and lifestyles that we are accustomed to, and they are hard to budge. The question is, as we all become more dependent on technology in our everyday lives, can we use technology and 'smart machines' to re-programme sustainability into our society? 

The promises and risks, types of innovation and investment surrounding smart machines in a sustainable world will be discussed. The above question, plus plenty more (including your own - you can live Tweet or ask a question via the Guardian website), will be the subject of Tuesday's debate. I just hope that there will be a focus on technological innovation that we need rather than simply what we want. 

Tuesday 31st March, 2015. 

Time: 1 - 2pm BST (12 - 1pm GMT) 

Zero waste: is it desirable or achievable? Live chat

Source: thersa.org via ecofoodrecycling.co.uk

Feeding nicely into this, there is a second live chat on zero waste and whether it is desirable or achievable. 

It will be interesting to see how waste interplays with different sectors - food and agriculture, water, industry and energy, transport, retail and so on - and where most of the investment and action tackling waste lies. 

On the topic of food, I am sure there will be talk of how technology interplays with this - e.g. smart fridges or labels telling you when your food is off - but also how we as humans are playing a role. When it comes to food waste, the aforementioned barrier of human habit/mindset seems to be breaking down - particularly in civil society. We have no-waste restaurants being set up, a 'war on waste', and movements promoting ugly fruits and veg, feeding food waste to pigs and using 'wasted' supermarket food in healthy, accessible meals.

Let's just hope that these civil society movements are highlighted in the discussion, especially as the expert panel is composed mainly of the 'big boys' in retail and policy such as Unilever and the Sustainable Restaurant Association. 

Wednesday 1st April 2015

Time: 1 - 2pm BST (12 - 1pm GMT) 

No Sunday Roast this week - all you're getting is water. #weeklyfoodnews

I am sat in an independent Oxford cafe wanting to thump my head on their ethically sourced, fashionably tea-stained wooden tables. Sunday Roast was just about to go on the proverbial table, then my Google Blogger deleted it. SO, I have gone down a different route. In light of World Water Day 2015, here is your 'watered down' version of Sunday Roast.

Recipe

Fruity black rice salad with coriander, avocado, mango and a chilli-citrus dressing, adapted from Serious Eats 

Rather than watching three back-to-back an episode of House of Cards once I got back from work yesterday, I made time to relish in the company of good friends and cook an easy, healthy and filling Sunday night meal.

Taking only 15 minutes to prep (if the rice is pre-cooked), it's quick and simple. It's also incredibly colourful; good for abolishing any stressful moods but also a clear indication of diverse nutrients and vitamins on your plate.

[Serves 4]

For the dressing, you need:

• Juice from one orange
• 1.5 tbsp red or white wine vinegar (we actually used Balsamic and that was fine)
• 2 medium cloves of garlic (minced)
• 2 tbsp olive oil 
• 1/4 tsp chilli powder 
• 1/4 tsp ground cumin
• salt and pepper to taste

Mix all these ingredients together in a bowl, set aside and get started on the salad: 

• 128g black rice (pre-cooked, take it off the heat just as it loses its crunch)
• 1 mango (diced)
• 1 avocado (diced)
• 1 orange (segmented)
• 1 red onion (finely chopped)
• handful of roasted pumpkin seeds*

Mix ingredients in a large bowl (pumpkin seeds can be sprinkled on top as a garnish instead), add dressing to taste. Serve and enjoy. 

If there is any leftover, add some black beans to the mix and eat it in fajita wraps the next day. Or, we added some prawns to the salad - it would also work well with white meat, strips of beef or seafood (e.g. white crab, lobster). 

*To make your own roasted pumpkin seeds just scoop any leftover seeds out of your pumpkin, remove any pith, scatter on a baking tray and drizzle olive oil (or melted butter and salt) over them. Roast in the oven at 200 degrees C for 30 or so minutes, or until golden brown. 

Journal

Water For A Sustainable World, by United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Division

You'll notice that there is no blog this week. Why? As this week's 'Journal' entry is essentially long enough to be a blog post in itself...

You often hear the remark that water is the source of life. It is not only the source of life, but underpins pillars of sustainable development including poverty, rights, food, governance and ecosystems. From the everyday production and consumption of foods and products to the longer term resilience of our communities and environments to climate and land use change, our reliance on safe, clean and accessible water sources is at the core.

Water is a basic human right.
Source: dutchwatersector.com

Despite this:

• We have already overexploited 20% of our groundwater reserves worldwide
• 1 in 10 people still live without access to safe, clean and running water. The majority of these individuals live in Latin America, the Caribbean and Africa - comprising nearly 700 million.
• 2.5 billion people still live without sufficient sanitation
• 1 billion still practice open defecation due to lack of functional sewerage systems. To really hit home: more people have access to a mobile phone than those with access to a toilet. 

Our insatiable thirst will simply catalyse any vulnerability already seen: If we continue 'business as usual', we risk reducing safe, clean water to 40% in the next 15 years.

That is a lot to swallow, and the UNESCO report does justice to the enormity of our water resource challenge.

In the final chapters, the report proposes a need for a post-2015 'goal for water', including universal access to safe water and hygiene services, sustainable use of water, improved infrastructure and reduced risk of water-related disease and disasters. To achieve this, they urge a reorientation of policy frameworks, equitable growth, minimisation of risk through better service provision.

All this sounds great as a rhetoric, but what I really want to focus on is how we can get involved as individuals. This moves me on to my final two instalments: News and Inspiration... 

News

World Water Day 2015: Photos to make you think twice about wasting this precious resource by David Sim, International Business Times

Villagers carrying water containers, Gujarat, India
Source: Amit Dave/Reuters in ibitimes.co.uk

There is a reason why I want, or perhaps need, to supply both the above UNESCO report and photos. As Susan Sontag states:

“All photographs are memento mori. To take a photograph is to participate in another person’s (or thing’s) mortality, vulnerability, mutability. Precisely by slicing out this moment and freezing it, all photographs testify to time’s relentless melt.” 

These, often harrowing, photos immerse us in the everyday actions and emotions of people suffering from lack of access to fresh, clean water. They help us to feel something, which could compel us to act.

We all need to reflect on how we play a role in this inequitable geography of water resource access around the world. Water is part of our food choices, land uses, industries, retail products... whether direct or indirect, it is not simply through a photo that we participate in an individual, communities or environments vulnerability and instability. 

I want you all to look at the photos, then continue reading this blog. The Inspiration section will provide one food-related way in which you can start to reshape and reinvent the water wheel.

A man washing in polluted rivers, New Delhi
Source: Danish Siddiqui/Reuters in ibitimes.co.uk

Inspiration

Angela Morelli's 'Water' website

"What if I told you...you eat 3496 gallons of water..."  

I found this website a few years ago and continue to be in awe of the graphics and content. It truly makes you realise just how much hidden water there is in our everyday consumption patterns; a form of water aptly named 'virtual water'.

This includes domestic consumption, our clothing choices, food choices... In fact, 92% of the 'hidden' water we consume is in our food. 

Water used to produce our staple foods.
Source: bungartbessler.com, adapted from Angela Morelli Water

As Angela states: "an understanding of our water consumption can help us provide a solution to one of our most pressing problems". We are literally addicted to water and we don't even realise it.

Reflecting back on my recipe for this week, I calculated how much water we consumed using information from the fantastic website Water Footprint. Here's what I found...

• 180 litres for one mango 
• 80 litres for one orange
• 300 litres for black rice
• 110 litres for an avocado 

That's excluding the seafood, onion, oil, coriander and pumpkin seeds, and it comes to a whopping 670 litres of water for three of us to eat one meal. 

I urge you to calculate your own footprint - even if it is just for one meal, it is a stark indication of how much we depend on water resources and how water resource sustainability depends on you just as much as it does on higher level policy progress.

Until next week... x             

(Sup)Herb Poster plus Complementary Foods #foodles

This poster includes information from a variety of sources, including cookbooks, my own knowledge, and BBC Good Food's section on herb recipes. 

For a more detailed list, check out this fantastic article from The Kitchn. My own poster sticks with the most common herbs, all of which are ones you can grow in anything from empty soup cans to pots from garden centres. 

Seasonal Foods Poster #foodles

I've decided to combine my love for doodling and food and create some 'foodles' for you all to enjoy and learn from. 

This poster was actually made around a year ago and had pride place on my fridge for a while (until it got splattered with sauce and now it's next to my mirror...). Hopefully you can read what it says! 

Feel free to use it, share it - but please link back to this page :) 

Sunday Roast 15th March #weeklyfoodnews

If you hadn't already heard (I've told pretty much everyone I know, and now have moved onto moaning to strangers), I have a cold. It's a bad one, people. Real bad. My nose squeaks when I breathe and I've started ordering mugs of hot water from coffee shops so I can subtly get my fix of Lemsip. Not ashamed.

This didn't stop me from enjoying my birthday - which I share with my Dad - on Friday, nor will it stop me from writing Sunday Roast. So, with a cough and a splutter...

Birthday lift in the sustainable Pedal and Post bike delivery service

Recipe

Totoro Jalapeno Grilled Cheese Sandwiches by I Am A Food Blog 

Okay so I promised that I would start making some of Steph's recipes, and what better way to start than with a hot grilled cheese & jalapeño sandwich. This may sound simple, but what makes it spectacular is that it is a Totoro grilled cheese sandwich.

So, my family has this thing for Totoro. It's not a thing for anime in general, just Totoro. We just feel that he encompasses everything good about the world: he's relaxed, sleeps all the time, encourages nature to bloom and has a theme tune. We will gloss over the freaky cat bus.

Source: queeniechan.com

My Dad is so enamoured that his Google account photo is Totoro: funny to us, but disconcerting to those who flick through the list of Professors at Oxford University to find a large, fluffy hybrid between a reindeer and manatee staring at them through a sea of suits and ties... 

For my Dad's 50th, I decided to make him these scrumptious Totoro grilled cheese sandwiches... Here is the process, with the instructions from I Am A Food Blog: 

1. Place buttered bread butter-side-down in a pan and toast on a medium heat

2. Sprinkle some grated mature cheddar cheese and jalapenos onto the toast

3. Butter another slice of bread and place butter-side-up on top of the other slice

4. Flip and toast (this side will cook faster as pan is hotter) until golden brown

5. Construct Totoro. I used brie for the eyes and chest (just a thin slab) and then mature cheddar sprinkles for the whiskers. Steph uses seaweed for the pupils, nose and chest markings...I used Vegemite...

6. Try not to cry as you have to knife Totoro and cut him into quarters to consume. 

You know those hilarious memes that show what a recipe is meant to look like versus the mess you create when you make it? That's what I thought would happen here...and to be honest, I'm proud of myself. Yes, Totoro looks slightly like an otter, but win some lose some. 

Blog 

FEAST: An Edible Road Trip 

As some of you may know, I planned to be on a culinary/agricultural tour of Asia and Europe but due to various circumstances had to return back to Oxford. This dream is still there and I'm sure one day will be followed through (perhaps with company this time), but in the mean time I thought I should share the blog of two girls with a very similar idea: FEAST, an Edible Road Trip.

The blog documents the experiences and recipes of two girls on a coast-to-coast culinary roadtrip across Canada. They describe it as:

"From north to south, rural to metropolitan, we’ll show off Canadian food, this country’s diverse culture, and its ever-changing landscape"

I love blogs that tell the story behind food: knowledge of provenance is essential when it comes to understanding, enjoying and appreciating good food. I encourage you all to read their stories, flick through their photos and perhaps get inspired to start your own culinary journey (even if it's just in your local town!).

Source: edibleroadtrip.com

Journal

Will food sovereignty starve the poor and punish the planet? By Giles Billen, Luis Lassaletta, Josette Garnier

There is the big question of how to feed the world by 2050. We will have 9 billion people on the planet and many fear that a combination of population growth, increased resource use and land use change will push our societal and environmental boundaries over the edge. As John Beddington famously stated: it is a 'perfect storm'. 

The 'perfect storm'?
Source: climatica.org.uk

To tackle this, routes such as 'climate smart agriculture' and 'sustainable intensification' have been thrown into the mix alongside more radical views such as 'food sovereignty'. This article looks particularly at the latter: a movement that advocates a return to equitable local, organic smallholder food production rather than rely on global trade, intensive agriculture and unaccountable business'. 

The question is - can this actually feed the world and benefit the environment? This is exactly what the authors asked, using UN FAO data to model various future diet and environment scenarios.

The results show that we can feed the world through a 'food sovereignty' route. The protein source may be different though, with this outcome only occurring if we shift from a meat and dairy rich diet to that similar to a Mediterranean one; pulses, legumes, vegetables and so on. Not only is this good news for us, but also for the environment: by adopting organic, local agriculture, we also reduce levels of nitrogen contamination and improve water quality. 

Sharing research like this is of paramount importance: it just shows that every local initiative really does help make a global change towards a better, democratic and sustainable food system. 

News

Indoor Gardening Guide: Growing fruit, vegetables and herbs at home by The Guardian

On the topic of local initiatives... This news article focuses on how you can grow your own herbs, vegetables and fruits in a simple, affordable way - all from your windowsill at home. It even gives information on growing your own cocktail ingredients (minus the alcohol - maybe I should do a blog on fermentation...).

I've had my own herb garden before and it was a fantastic investment. Not only was it cheaper than buying pre-cut and packaged herbs from the supermarket, but you get a sense of achievement every time you use the herbs in cooking or see a new shoot appear. We got a bit attached to our herbs; they were named Justin the thyme, Manuel the basil plant...the opportunities for creative puns are endless.

To just spread a bit more enthusiasm for growing your own herbs, fruit and vegetables at home, check out Vertical Veg and my poster on herbs & complementary foods (for a larger version, click here)

Copyright Rebecca Roberts

Inspiration

The 'Wanted 18', Human Rights Watch film

Whether you like it or not, social media is one of the major  platforms for education in the 21st century. From live photos and news on Twitter to creating independent films and blogs, media allows for our voices to be heard, shared and inspire. 

There is one film I want to focus on this week: The 'Wanted 18'. 

The film documents the story of 18 cows and their role in an underground dairy network in Palestine. Informal markets - or 'black markets' - are common in many countries, particularly in times of conflict or scarcity. Local networks are essential in getting resources such as water, seeds and - in this case - dairy products to community members who cannot access full entitlements from formal, state networks. 

"[I was told]...These cows are dangerous for the security for the state of Israel...I can't understand how can 18 cows be dangerous for the security of the state of Israel?" 

We often see food as simply a commodity, but it is very much intertwined with politics, power and control. This documentary not only shows this, but uses food - a common value - as a platform to educate about wider Israeli-Palestinian relations and ongoing crisis. 

To say I'm looking forward to watching it is a bit jovial...I am intrigued. If anyone wants to join me, the screenings are from March 23rd - 26th in London. 

p.s. For more inspirational films, check out Films For Action hosting over 4900 independent documentaries and short films on topics ranging from philosophy and politics to peak oil and climate change. 

Until next week... x

Adding mindfulness to our food system

I have a confession: I was going to write a Sunday Roast weekly news piece over the weekend but for the first time in many many months, I actually had a ridiculously busy social life.

One highlight of the weekend was attending a Mindfulness talk by Professor Mark Williams at the Oxford Union. Paraphrasing the Mindfulness website: Mindfulness is a simple form of meditation focusing on the breath and the notion that you are not your thoughts. Thoughts - whether positive or negative - come and go and you can choose whether to act on them or not. In other words, rather than automatically reacting to our thoughts, it encourages reflection and attention.

While a practice predominantly used for those suffering from depression or anxiety - or simply those who want peace of mind - mindfulness is also important when it comes to our relationship with food. When it comes to our food system, the dominant way people source and consume food is geared around a fast, convenient and automatic way of life.

Caught up in the fast food whirlwind

Take supermarkets as an example: you have strategically laid out aisles and colourful labels conveniently directing you towards certain food products; you have quantifiable indicators (e.g. calorie labels and nutrition colour wheels) deciding for you which foods are good and bad; you have slogans such as 'Eat Beautiful' and 'Lighter than Light'  which suggest your consumption of that product will automatically transform you into a beautiful, lighter individual. Guthman and DuPuis (2006) touch on this, calling it the 'politics of fat'. They state: 

'Those who can achieve thinness amidst this plenty [i.e. abundant food availability, overeating] are imbued with the rationality and self-discipline of perfect subjects'. 

While labels and nutritional indicators are useful in many ways, our reliance on them encourages us to buy an array of foods without having to independently reflect on what is in them, how they were produced and where they are from: it is an automatic commodity purchase.

Over time, this external information is internalised: thoughts of 'good' and 'bad', 'healthy' and 'unhealthy', 'fast' and 'cheap' are plugged into our mindsets and arguably determine how we eat and how we feel. 

Source: someecards.com

For example, commenting on a Western 'age of nutritionism': Michael Pollan writes of how consumers increasingly rely on health food labels as a means to achieve wellbeing and nutrition rather than draw on experience and knowledge from our home kitchens, cooking pots and family recipe books. 

Furthermore, by internalising an automatic binary between what we should and should not eat, we will have an automatic emotive reaction to that food group too. Examples of this are 'lipophobia' and 'carbophobia': in other words, the fear of fat and carbohydrates. Often, 'bad' foods are synonymous with comfort, but also feelings of guilt, anxiety, sadness. As Kate Moss famously said: 'Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels'. 

It isn't just about what we eat but also how we eat. One in five Americans now eat their meals in the car rather than at the dinner table, really driving home that the way we eat is increasingly for fast food and fast thoughts rather than mindful, reflective eating. These thoughts have pushed aside the intimate conversations you could have with local producers about their food, the laughter you share with friends as you cook, and the aromas and texture you experience when eating.

So, how can we be more mindful about our food and take back control of our gut feelings? 

Questioning 'truths' in the food system

Increasingly so, we are starting to question whether these labels truly reflect good, whole food. 

One key example is health food products, obviously residing on the 'good' side of the 'good' 'bad' dichotomy. Food investigative journalist Joanna Blythman wrote an excellent article on the hidden costs of our demand for health food products, ranging from 'natural' cheese to fruit salads, To give the example of 'washed and ready to eat salads':

"'Cleaned' by sloshing around in tap water dosed with chlorine, often with powdered or liquid fruit acids to inhibit bacterial growth. The same tank of treated water is often used for 8 hours at a time". 

'That Sugar Film' is another great case in point: it's a documentary following a guy who, after three years of not eating sugar, took it up again and documented the impact on his body and mental state. He found out that people inadvertently eat 40 teaspoons of sugar a day, with much of it being hidden sugars in 'healthy' low fat foods. Compare this to the World Health Organisation guidelines of restricting intake to 6 teaspoons or less a day to help reduce the growing obesity and diabetes epidemic...

Health food products don't seem so 'good' now do they?

The above examples help provide food for thought, but how can we as individual eaters act more mindfully about food? 

We must reinstate a healthy relationship with both ourselves - body and mind - and our food. Am I Hungry is a website devoted to mindful eating, which they describe as 'eating with intention and attention'. The importance of mindful eating is summed up in this fantastic quote: 

"Eating is a natural, healthy and pleasurable activity for satisfying hunger. However, in our food-abundant, diet-obsessed culture, eating is often mindless, consuming and guilt-inducing instead. Mindful eating is an ancient mindful practice with profound modern implications and applications for resolving this troubled love-hate relationship with food". (Source: amihungry.com)

Here are a few techniques you could adopt: 

Start with the 'raisin experiment'

My food blogger psychology friend Annie recently wrote about the links between mindful eating and your metabolic rate, encouraging the 'raisin experiment' as a key mindful activity. I suggest you all watch the following video and also read her blog.

Slow down and use your senses

No food is 'bad' or 'good': it is not just what we eat but how we eat that causes it to be either nourishing or destructive on our bodies, mindsets and wider environments. Literally gulfing down a plate of food on your lunch break without giving it a second thought (other than perhaps glancing at the calorie count) is neither caring for your body or for your food. We need to adopt slow eating, giving us a chance to appreciate our surroundings, the food on our plates and give our digestive system the treatment it deserves. 

Morwenna Ferrier, a Guardian journalist, did just this:

"It’s Wednesday evening and for the last four minutes, I’ve been holding an avocado. In fact, less holding, more caressing. I run my finger over its leathery skin, concentrate on where it’s from (Costa Rica), how it got to me (Lidl, possibly via boat) and what I’ll do with it (inhale it if I have to stare at it much longer, I’m famished). For the last week, this routine has been the preamble to each meal" (Guardian, 2014)

That's four minutes. You can spare that amount of time to truly reflect and pay attention to your food. Hey, you'd probably be spending four minutes calorie counting after your meal anyway... 

Other techniques for slower, mindful eating include: 

• Chewing at least 25 times
• Using your non-dominant hand. 
• Putting your fork down after each bite 
• Take the time to identify every single item of your meal
• Eat at a dinner table
• Eat in silence (you can talk afterwards!)

Look how happy I am after putting my knife and fork down!

Get back in your kitchens 

“The power of food has a primal place in our homes that binds us to the best bits of life”.  (Jamie Oliver, TED talk)

I cannot emphasise this point enough. When I am anxious or stressed, I stop cooking: the implications this has on my psychological and physiological relationship to food is phenomenal. Not only do I miss out on social cooking but, by not having any role in the food's creation, I simply see it as fuel for my negative mental state. The fact that we have platforms - namely supermarkets and takeaway stores- that sustain this detachment from cooking and home is frankly fuelling a national eating disorder. 

My friend (wielding a carrot) and I (plus bowl) cooking at home

Dr Allison Field, an Associate Professor at Harvard Medical School, proposed that home-cooked meals are a vital way to return people to eating simpler, wholesome foods and connect them to the food they eat. If you do not have space or utilities to cook at home, why not go on a cookery course, visit a friend's house or simply share a family meal every evening. 

This is particularly important for young people, especially when 95% of individuals with eating disorders fall in this demographic group. Within Western food culture, we are caught within an 'obesity-eating disorder' paradox, and home cooked meals are part of the solution for both sides of this coin: 

“Dr. Field proposed the idea of promoting home-cooked meals as a means of returning people to eating simpler foods and enhancing their feeling of connection with what they consume. Other positive approaches include education in schools, training kids to listen to their bodies’ internal cues, encouraging people to eat more slowly, refraining from classification of foods as good or bad, and promoting a general mindfulness about the kinds of foods people are eating.” (Source: Harvardpolitics.com)

So, there you have it: I have not proposed a short-term diet fad fix, nor is mindfulness a universal panacea to fixing the challenges in our Western food culture. I have simply told you to sit down, reflect and pay attention to your food, body and mind. It will do a world of good. 

Edible Insects: Hornets taste like sausage

"Hey, this looks like a good spot to rustle up some grubs!" 

"Eww whats that?!"

"A grub, what does it look like?"

"Eww gross"  

"Tastes like chicken..." "Slimey yet satisfying"

"These are rare delicacies; piquant with a very nice crunch" 

"Ah well...Hakuna Matata.... *gulps bug down*... slimey, yet satisfying"  

Yes, I am quoting the Lion King - I have no shame. Not only is it one of the most tear-jerking Disney films, but it has educational value when it comes to entomophagy. Timone and Pumba's diet relies on the consumption of 'slimey get satisfying' grubs. Simba is disgusted by this, but after the exceptional marketing of insects as piquant - appealingly provocative - he gulps one down whole. After that taste sensation, he not only shifts his mindset towards one that embraces insect eating but he also morphs into a full-grown lion in a matter of seconds. They're not called high protein for nothing...

Who would refuse that creamy, plump grub?
Source: lionking.org

The scenes in Hakuna Matata resonate strongly with the initial reaction to eating insects in the West: Revulsion, disgust, the 'ick factor'.  However, as I suggested in my previous blog, there is a growing shift of consciousness - bugs are well and truly on the menu. Like Simba, I wanted to explore this culinary trend myself: I went to an insect dinner party.

Okay, so actually I went and ate the leftovers of an insect dinner party. And it wasn't really a 'party' as there were only two of us. BUT, it was bloody good fun all the same.

My dinner party partner was Charlotte; a good friend who is specialised in entomophagy and biological anthropology. Currently researching entomophagy in Japan, Charlotte was back in Oxford for the Christmas break and had brought back a multitude of wonderful insects and fermented foods to enjoy.

The foods were as follows:

Salty and sweet wasps

Wasp nibbles

Charlotte brought these wasps back from a Japanese wasp festival in Kushihara. The festival celebrates the wasp harvest, collecting the nests from the wasp hives and cooking with the larvae and wasps. 

Both are seasonal delicacies in Japan, and while I only tried the latter, I can tell why. The wasps were small, soft and black: perfect for taking pinches of three or four in your hands and washing them down with some homemade wine. Some were savoury, others were sweet - it was almost like salty-sweet popcorn. The reason for this difference is that many will have contained nectar to feed to the wasp larvae. Rather than this liquid being fed back to the wasps, Charlotte and I were the lucky recipients. 

Homemade wines 

Plum wine, garlic and wasps

The first wine Charlotte brought out was a fermented plum wine made from plums, wild strawberries, honey and Shochu wine. Shochu is distilled wine made from rice, barley or sweet potato. The addition of fruits and honey made it a deliciously earthy-sweet and very drinkable concoction. Charlotte forgot to mention that it is much stronger than normal wine, on a par with vodka and other distilled spirits... it just made my salty-sweet wasp culinary adventure that much more enjoyable. 

'Fermented' garlic

In December I had the pleasure of meeting Shoji, another local foodie to Oxford. One of the delicacies he had brought to the dinner party the night before was 'fermented' garlic from Taiwan. In fact it's not actually fermented - a process involving microbial digestion and release of gases - but slowly heated over weeks until it turns black and is caramelised. Because of its colour, high levels of antioxidants and rich flavour, fermented garlic is also known as 'black gold' in Asian cuisine. 

Thankfully, there was some of this 'black gold' left over for me to try. 

The black garlic: licorice heaven

Oh. My. God. Black garlic is like a chewy, slightly balsamicy licorice sweet. You don't need more than one; the flavours are very robust and linger in your mouth for a while. In the same way people smell coffee beans in between bouts of spraying and sniffing different perfumes, fermented garlic is a perfect interlude between bouts of eating different insects. 

Hornets, larvae and juices 

Hornets and plum wine

Perhaps the highlight of the evening was trying hornet in various different forms. Not only had Charlotte fermented her very own black hornet wine (sadly I didn't get to try it), but she had whole hornets, larvae and secreted hornet juice on offer. 

You know when you scramble an egg and it goes from a glutinous liquid to a solid? That's exactly what happens when you heat liquids secreted from hornet larvae. A Guardian article described insects as 'subtle and yeasty', like Marmite, but I can only describe hornets as meaty. They taste so much like sausage it's unreal. And, as someone who rarely eats pork or any other meat, this is a dream come true. Finally, I can get my sausage fix in the form of sustainable, edible insects. 

I was so blown away by how good hornets tasted (particularly the plump, white larvae) that I took some along to give to my friends at a local Oxford-based ethical organisation. The reactions varied between absolute disgust and refusal to relatively positive or intrigued reactions. What I learned from this is that even people with ethical/environmental values will still have an inherent 'ick' response to eating insects, suggesting that marketing insects must really focus on this social taboo and consumer attitude shift before people start seeing chunky hornets as a sustainable, seasonal delicacy. 

As part of this shift, I will continue to post any news on entomophagy either as a blog or in my 'Inspiration' section... Please feel free to comment on your own culinary experiences, comments and ideas on eating insects. Together, we can be the Timone and Pumba's of the Western shift towards entomophagy. Hakuna Matata.