A theory about smoke and flyes and preserving food Comments Off

Before refrigeration was invented, to preserve food you had to do one of the following:

• dry and smoke the fruit, vegetable or piece of meat;
• salt and smoke it;
• pickle it, somehow;

Although smoking is not always used, it surely is used in many cases. The question is why? Drying and salting is clear. It takes the water out of the food you want to preserve and prevents bacteria from destroying it. But smoke? Besides the taste and smell?

I have a theory about why smoke is and was used, especially when doing the drying in open space, and not in a house or controlled environment: it keeps insects away! Put a piece of meat in the sun to dry and leave it there and you will soon have a ton of flies on it. Eat that, if you dare!

Now, there is one more part to this puzzle. Why is smoke such an effective insect repellant? It’s not deadly, or anything. My theory is this: It’s a defence mechanism. No creature wants to get into a forest fire and burn and die. And where there is fire, there is smoke, so if there is smoke, better turn around and get out of there.

So this is my theory about smoke: it triggers a defence mechanism and because of this effect on insects, it works magic for food preserving

Deciding to be different Comments Off

Some of the most amazing people I’ve met or heard about made just one decision that took them there: they decided to be themselves, and, by doing that, to be different. Below there are 4 great stories about people who decided to do the things they like and do it the way they wanted it. We can all learn from them.

Story 1: The pizza maker who never grew beyond having just one pizza-cook – himself

Story 2: The kid who liked soda-pop so much that he grew up to build a playground for himself

Story 3: The photographer who swims the roughest waves

Story 4: Two brothers and a lot of chocolate

Those crazy Dutch… and their strange food Comments Off

I couldn’t write about the Dutch, my dear reader, and not write about their food. Mainly because food is such an important part of our lives and partly because I like to eat and am not indifferent to what I eat and also because the crazy Dutch have a crazy relation with their food.

First let’s start this culinary introspection by going to the very stereotypes I ranted about in my first post. Stay with me, this has a purpose. What food comes to mind when you think about Italy? For me it’s pasta, fish and wine. France? All kind of fancy and useless dishes. America? A big, greasy, unhealthy burger. Holland??? Four months ago – nothing, maybe the cheese, but that’s not a real dish. Today the first thing that comes to mind – fries with mayonnaise :). Yup, that’s the strongest association. The crazy Dutch love their friets mayo.

Above – a place where you can buy all things fried, right in the center of the town at the market.

But wait, there’s more, there seems to be a real love for deep fried things. from all kind of fish nuggets to the very typical croquette, bitterbal and of course frikandel. All deep fried and server with either bread or the all present fries. Unhealthy as it is these are, the crazy Dutch know how to make these heart-stoppers very well. I mean, a croquette might be like a heart attack in a bun but it still tastes good…

Supposedly, there is such a thing as traditional Dutch food like stampott or hutspot, which is a sort of a mash potato, onions and carrots combination, but I yet have to see it eaten on a large scale.

Therefore, with all regret, I must say that Holland doesn’t have the greatest culinary tradition. And there is more! There is something I can’t put my finger on, dear reader, about how the crazy Dutch consume their food. There are many nice restaurants, many fancy places with very good food but, in the same time, people don’t seem to care that much about food, on a daily basis. Eating some “bread” (which is a way of saying a sandwich with some cheese and maybe some other stuff on it) is the most common thing I’ve seen. And people seem to think that what I cook is strange, Which either means that I’m a really bad cook or that when it comes to food most of the crazy Dutch are not so eager to try new things. And there seems to be something about noodle soup… Don’t know what but the crazy Dutch seem to love that stuff… Wonder if there is some secret organization which identifies itself by eating noodle soup… must investigate.

OK, back to the subject. So, what you, my dear reader, learned so far. The crazy Dutch love all things fried, especially fries and especially with mayo. There are some traditional dishes but you have to look for them. They eat a lot of sandwiches and most of them don’t really like new food. And there is something about noodle soup…

But what about the famous cheese? It’s good, that’s what’s about it. And there is a lot of it and as far as I can tell you can divide it into 2 categories – new and old cheese. And I’ve also see green cheese, which is not only edible but also good. But there is a catch. You see, in Romania you have the 2 basic types of dairy products – cheese (brânz?) and… cheese (ca?caval). Brânz? differs from ca?caval in the way it’s made. Anyway, long story short, brânz? is usually white and can be very fresh (a few weeks) and you can’t find it in Holland. The closest thing I’ve found is the feta cheese but that’s not quite it.

Anyway, in Holland you have the second type of cheese, and a lot of it, and did I mentioned that it was good? These crazy Dutch really know how to make their cheese, that’s for sure.

Above – The last moments of a piece of herring, if eaten traditionally. the white stuff is pieces of onions.

Last but not least there is one more thing… the herring. That’s basically, a raw piece of slime fish you eat with chopped onion, and, if you can, by holding it by its tail, throwing your head back and biting that thing with fury. Well, I don’t do it that way. Because the fish is good but incredibly slimy and fatty. What I do is I take it, put it on a plate, slice it up in bite-sized pieces, put a ton of onions on it, some lemon and than enjoy. And that fish is probably the only healthy thing from the crazy Dutch diet and it only seems fittingly that it’s a slimy fish :).

Oh boy, these crazy Dutch and their food. For me a vey Important part of what has defined my experience in Holland.

So, my dear reader, the crazy Dutch stories are almost over, a week has come and gone, there is only one more day. Read on! And be amazed!

Lazy Food 4 comments

Here’s one for you: we eat Fast Food (definition: food that can be prepared and served very quickly). It’s associated with the 40+ cow burger and Super Size Me. Some have heard about Slow Food (definition: movement founded by Carlo Petrini in Italy to combat fast food). It claims to preserve the cultural cuisine and the associated food plants and seeds, domestic animals, and farming within an ecoregion. But these are two opposite concepts.

So the big question is: why isn’t there a “movement” or concept in between? I want Lazy Food! Something that’s healthy  and it takes exactly 2 minutes to make! Like a salad, for example. This is not original, and very few things are, but google it and you won’t find the Lazy Food website. Some guy writes about how he likes to eat, another dude gal says the lazy food is that pre-packaged crap and some other guys almost match this idea but the content fails short of rubbish.

As there are many lazy people out there, this should be a good niche! What do you think?