December 2007

Do you think about the carbon footprint of your holiday feasts?

As I've mentioned her before several times, I'm not a diehard locavore. But I do try to keep an eye on how far my food has travelled to get to me. Admittedly, many of my seasonings and such have travelled a long way, because I need my Japanese food and I'm here in the middle of Europe. For fresh produce and meats and things like that I do try to buy things that haven't travelled too far as much as I can. I think I've fairly typical in that respect these days.

Filed under:  ethics philosophy holidays
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The pickled leeks of human kindness

I've been following a certain story in the UK with interest. A rich old lady died recently there, and in her will, she left her £10 million estate to the owners of her favorite Chinese restaurant. The family (actually her nieces and nephews) contested the will, as you might expect. On Friday, the High Court upheld the will.

Filed under:  offbeat philosophy
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Menu for Hope IV: Think Chocolate

Just Hungry is happy to announce that once again, we're donating a prize for Menu For Hope, now in its 4th year. Menu for Hope is an annual charity event contributed to by food bloggers around the world. It was instigated by Pim of Chez Pim, and this year's regional European host is Fanny of foodbeam.

Menu For Hope IV will benefit the United National World Food Programme; this year's donations have been earmarked for the school lunch programme in Lesotho, Africa.

And what is Just Hungry donating? Just Think Chocolate...

Filed under:  food events menuforhope
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Answering some rice cooker questions

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A few readers have emailed me recently about rice cookers by coincidence. So I thought I would put my answers here for everyone's benefit.

Filed under:  equipment japanese rice shopping
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Swiss food shopping news: The Cheese Club has British cheese

wensleydale-sm.jpegHere's another bit of food related shopping news for my fellow Swiss residents, expat or not. I recently got an email about a new site called The Cheese Club. They are still in pre-launch mode - the official launch is scheduled for February. One thing that makes they quite interesting is that they are run by an English and Swiss couple and will be selling British cheeses, as well as Swiss and Spanish cheeses. As far as I know, British cheeses aren't that widely available here in Switzerland (Jelmoli has a limited selection, at least in Zürich) so this could be good news for a lot of people. (There really is no substitute for a good Stilton, for example.)

Although they haven't officially opened yet, they are already selling a cheese tasting pack, which includes wedges of blue Stilton and Wensleydale, for 69 CHF. They guarantee delivery by December 21st. Could be a great gift for your favorite homesick Brit!

Filed under:  cheese swiss shopping
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Christmas in Japan, Switzerland, elsewhere

Confiserie Sprüngli Zürich Christmas Chocolates

A reader emailed me asking, how people celebrate Christmas in Japan.

My answer to that is ... "Not very well." But I get to pick and choose.

Filed under:  japanese swiss christmas
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Hayashi raisu (rice): Japanese beef stew

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Hayashi raisu or hayashi rice is a Japanese version of a rich beef stew. It's a classic _yohshoku_ (Japanese-adapted Western food) dish.

Filed under:  japanese winter yohshoku beef slowcook meat
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Thank you for sharing your wonderful food memories!

First of all, thank you so much to all of you who shared your food memories for our 4th Anniversary event. You made us laugh out loud, you made us chuckle, and you brought tears to our eyes. If we could we would have given the prize to everyone! But we only have one book in our budget...so, after a weekend of arguing back and forth, we finally selected one jewel out of a whole boxful of treasures: Mitch's entry, I Ate Love.

Filed under:  essays philosophy
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Do you have cook's hands?

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At the moment I am reading a book called The Kitchen. It's been reissued with another book by the same author, Nicolas Freeling, as The Kitchen and The Cook, both of which were written in the post-World War II period. I'm reading it as slowly as I can, because it is a book to savor.

One of the early passages in The Kitchen caught my eye, where the author describes the hands of a cook.

Filed under:  books and media philosophy
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