Stomachs on legs are proud to present

The 1969-70 "Menu" B-52 bombings of Cambodia's border areas, which American commanders labelled Breakfast, Lunch, Supper, Dinner, Desert and Snack, aimed to destroy the mobile headquarters of the South Vietnamese "Vietcong" and the North Vietnamese Army (VC/NVA) in the Cambodian jungle. However, these and later bombardments forced the Vietnamese communists further west and deeper into Cambodia, and ultimately radicalized Cambodian local people against Lon Nol's regime.

Ben Kiernan and Taylor Owen on the similarities between the current war with Afghanistan and the past bombing of Cambodia

The New York Daily News reported on an interesting case of nuns versus their fish-smoking neighbors...

The "foul" and "noxious" odors coming from Michael and Gloria Lim's E. 19th St. apartment once got so overpowering that building workers feared there was a dead body inside, according to the suit filed by the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart.

Called in to see what caused the stench, firefighters pounded on the door for several minutes before forcing their way into the 16th-floor apartment, only to discover Gloria Lim smoking and drying fish.

The nuns are so upset about it that they are filing a lawsuit for $75,000 in damages. Luckily, another neighbor is a bit more level-headed about it...

"It's not a dead body, it's just smelly fish frying in oil on a stove top," the neighbor said.

Still, he said, it's a smell he could do without.

"I don't like the smell and I wish it weren't there," the neighbor said. "But I do think you're allowed to cook smelly fish, right?"

Image from Seema K K's Flickr stream, of smoked fish on display in Meghalaya, India.

PORTLAND, Ore. — A New York man who pleaded guilty to murder in Oregon in exchange for buckets of fried chicken will get calzones and pizza to go with his life sentence.

Tremayne Durham, 33, of New York City, admitted last month that he fatally shot Adam Calbreath, 39, of Gresham, in June 2006. Durham wanted to sell ice cream and ordered an $18,000 truck from an Oregon company. He later changed his mind, but the company wouldn't provide a refund.

The would-be ice cream man came to Oregon and killed Calbreath, a former employee of the company, while looking for its owner, authorities said.

Durham agreed to plead guilty to murder _ but only if he could get a break from jail food. The judge agreed and granted Durham a feast of KFC chicken, Popeye's chicken, mashed potatoes, coleslaw, carrot cake and ice cream.

After Wednesday's sentencing, Durham was to get the rest of the deal _ calzones, lasagna, pizza and ice cream, his defense attorney confirmed. They will pay the tab.

Durham also got married Wednesday in a civil ceremony at the Portland courthouse. The wedding to Vanessa Davis, 48, also of New York City, was not part of the plea deal that will give Durham a chance for parole after 30 years.

Deputy District Attorney Josh Lamborn said Multnomah County Judge Eric Bergstrom made the right call in allowing the unusual plea agreement because it saved the expense of a trial and possible appeals.

link

New Mandala details allegations of slavery in Thailand's shrimp industry.

Workers said that if they made a mistake on the shrimp peeling line, asked for sick leave, or tried to escape, they could expect to be beaten, sexually molested, or publicly tortured. After interviewing more than 280 workers, police took 63 women and three men to a shelter, suspecting that they had been trafficked and/or forced to work against their will. Another 22 were deported; nearly 80 returned to work at the factory, which remains in operation. Despite widespread worker rights abuses, including child labor and human trafficking, the owner was charged only with employing children under 15 and failing to provide holidays and time off. Though these charges are serious, they were treated as first-time labor code violations. The owner initially only paid a fine of about $2,100 and has returned to work.

It was a damn shame to see that orange roughy was still being sold in New Zealand, almost everywhere we went.

There should be a moratorium on fishing this species. I mean we carry on and on about Japanese whaling yet continue to accept species like orange roughy on our seafood menus....shame on you New Zealand

From the ever reliable wiki

The orange roughy, red roughy, or deep sea perch, Hoplostethus atlanticus, is a relatively large deep-sea fish belonging to the slimehead family (Trachichthyidae). This fish is categorized as vulnerable to exploitation by the Marine Conservation Society. It is found in cold (3 to 9 °C), deep (bathypelagic, 180 to 1,800 m) waters of the western Pacific Ocean, eastern Atlantic (from Iceland to Morocco; and from Walvis Bay, Namibia, to off Durban, South Africa), Indo-Pacific (off New Zealand and Australia), and in the Eastern Pacific off Chile. The orange roughy is notable for its great age — a recorded (disputed by commercial fishers but supported by scientists) maximum of 149 years — and importance to commercial deep trawl fishery. Actually a bright brick red in life, the orange roughy fades to a yellowish orange after death.
Like other slimeheads, the orange roughy is slow-growing and late to mature, resulting in a very low resilience. They are extremely susceptible to overfishing because of this, and many stocks (especially those off New Zealand and Australia, which were first exploited in the late 1970s) have already crashed; recently discovered substitute stocks are rapidly dwindling...In recent years, the consumption of orange roughy has risen drastically due to increased supply through previously impossible deep-sea trawling techniques. Its recovery rate from fishing is slow because of its life cycle and sporadic reproduction making the fish incredibly prone to overfishing. It is the first commercially sought fish to be added to Australia's list of endangered species because of overfishing. According to Seafood Watch, orange roughy is currently on the list of fish that American consumers, who are health and sustainability minded, should avoid. In addition to the dangers for the species, the method of bottom trawling has been heavily criticized by environmentalists for its destructive nature. The destructive nature of bottom trawling combined with the heavy commercial demand has garnered focused criticism from both environmentalists and media.

I know that when I go to chow down on a $75 USD teaspoon of Iranian caviar I always reach for a lime or sometimes a strawberry margarita







Recommendations for serving caviar.

MC Hammer the food blogger....

Masta Killa the vegan...

now Coolio the celeb chef

Rap stars take on the food industry, will Jay-Z now become a grain merchant mogul or buy out Woolworths?

In a follow up to the KFC in Cambodia story reported on in August, it now appears that PETA is petitioning the government to ban KFC from entering the country

the confusion continues buffet style

As some of you know, my supermarket has a problem with suffocating mushrooms in styrofoam and clingwrap.... Now it seems that not only are they content to mistreat mushrooms they are also anti-semitic

Today I found this clearly racist mushroom labelling...."jew's ear" ???? WTF



It's a black cloud mushroom in my books.....

As the similarly named Jew fish has been plagued in controversy in the States ( wiki reports that in 2001 the American Fisheries Society renamed the jewfish (Epinephelus itajara) the goliath grouper out of concern for the potential offensiveness of the name). I feel that something should be done about this mushroom too....if I was Jewish I would definitely say something, I would go up to the manager dangle the mushroom by my ear and angrily demand to know if the mushroom in any way resembled my ear....

We almost decided to quit Thailand and move back to Australia last month, but then Hock found out what a Head Chef can expect to get paid in Australia. It hasn't changed much since we left and with the cost of living high and housing affordability at an all time low, we decided to stay in Asia and keep on saving our pennies.

Although to some degree salary levels for chefs in Australia are low because profits are spread more equally in the kitchen between all workers, unlike in Thailand where bigger pay disparities exist, that doesn't mean that Australian workers are necessarily any better off than their Thai counterparts, relatively speaking. The cost of living in Thailand is comparatively low compared with Australia. However on a relative standard all workers in hospitality generally get paid shit. This is because people don't want to spend a lot of money on food.

So far the issue of ethical consumerism has so far only arisen in the retail supermarket arena where big supermarkets operate on economies of scale, selling large volumes at an average of 1% profit margin and thereby squeezing all those further down the supply chain to deliver you everyday savings....the magnanimous concerns of ethical consumerism are only now turning thier attention to those poor bastards (like secret here) who spend night after night serving rude diners and "dying a little inside".


So this month Time asks Are Restaurants the New Sweatshops?"

"Eating out has become as American as apple pie, but for those manning the kitchen, restaurant work is anything but an American dream. Dishwashers, waiters and delivery people are increasingly served up unfair pay, discrimination and dangerous working conditions."

Man I always bum out that I'm the one who brings the teenage mutant ninja turtle element into this food-radical community and lower the tone. But daaamn. Today I lost all control and ate THREE donuts from my 'scum-bag on the corner open til 3am cos its thats how we roll' fish n chip shop. I felt so ghetto but have you ever appraised these guys? Or any fish n chip provided 'dessert' menu? My donuts were fried almost dark brown, slathered in cinnamon sugar and had me hooked for two reasons. Crunchy as a mf on the outside. Soft on the inside. Bonus ghetto points if you can see half the fluffy inside is secretly infiltrated by the grease. I hate Dunkin Donuts cos it has too many Homer Simpson theatrics - I love these guys. This is dedicated to my 'pineapple fritter' skulling homies everywhere.

Next week: why I love 2 for Tuesday Taco's. $5 dude!

Whoever said that Fusion cooking was dead obviously forgot to tell the chefs of Bangkok




hmmm chicken larb pizza and sauteed fried rice with strawberries....

Tell me what is your worst fusion horror story?

Chicken and cranberry and camembert pizza always takes the prize for me...

or You Can't Have Your Authenticity and Eat It Too


Of course in Singapore we did manage to sniff out a couple of bad meals in the way that only a western tourist couple can, in a city 99% full of yummy food, I believe that most western tourists have a special propensity to encounter the 1% that's bad and it doesn't take much to lure us in. All you need is a few promises of authenticity and a bit of swanky branding, try a logo like the one below



WikiTravel says.....

"Gluttons Bay, Esplanade Mall #01-15, ☎ +65-63367025. Daily 6 PM-3 AM. Run by famous foodies Makansutra, this outdoor eatery puts together 12 of Singapore's most famous hawkers. Breezy location by the river, great views of the city and good location make this a winner. $5-10."

So we got all excited and headed down there, only to be served rotting prawns, yes rotting...being kiwis we discussed for at least 5 minutes about whether to return them, we did. We were served the dish again this time with fresh prawns. But by then we were far beyond any interest in completing our meal that was over priced (5 - 10 my ass) and not at all fresh.....

And here in lies the lesson. You cannot take the best hawkers in Singapore, give them a charming river side location, gentrified stall carts and logos and expect the food to stay the same, and to expect the hawkers to remain the best in Singapore. What makes hawkers stands excellent and unique is their connection to locals and place. It is the locals that make it good and keep it good, they are the ones that keep coming back, that keep the ingredients fresh, keep the hawker motivated and they are the ones that can elevate some hawkers to fame status. If you remove the hawker from their place and their customers all you get is a bunch of old rotting prawns.

What makes good food is not just the cook or the chef. It is the location, and the community. Good food is as much a product of place as it is the skills of a careful and conscientious chef. That's why airline and mall food will always suck....they are non-place spaces a bit like Glutton's Bay.

"Ever squirm at those reality shows featuring innocent souls forced to snack down on plates of crunchy bugs? The sweet kids' favourite used to be tinted pink with the innocuous "beet red" colouring, but the recipe has been changed to contain "colour (120)". That 120 is cochineal, also known as carmine, and is derived from the dried bodies of pregnant scale insects (the yummy sounding Dactylopius coccus costa). What's even more misleading is that 120 is usually referred to as a "natural colour" - the logic being that insects are "natural". And, apparently, snack-a-licious".


Melbourne Age sums up how to avoid meat in the age of industrial food

More on the scale insect...hmmmmm, scale insect

This one is for the tiny man.

I have been on the look out for yummy goodies to fill the chiller at home with, as we have the infamous T man (if you are not familiar with his work check out his latest installation here) coming to our city soon and there is much planning to be done.

Although the way the general dietary practices of most Bangkok Thais are going I think this might be considered an all ages snack by most living here.

Crab cakes.













Hamburgers (thank you Maytel).













Fried cheese (yummy 2 am snack).







Fried chicken with mayo.











What the fuck!

The food sucked this weekend in Bangkok (well all the places we went to anyway, mostly because everyone was on holiday). The only good thing to come out of our dining experiences was some cute hand drawn images that appeared on one the menus at one of the three restaurants that we wasted our money at. So I am back to stealing food related crap off the internet.


The B stands for Baht not BILLIONS of dollars

I have eaten donkey sausage but not horse sashimi like some. Again, sorry Packet Foodie.



Anyway that brings me to why we don't drink pigs milk (or make cheese from pigs milk etc.)

I am not sure if I mentioned here at GF before that I don't have a TV and that during quieter moments I find myself in obscure parts of the internet usually somehow food related.

Anyway the following is a writing from a website where the author Guy loves to write to companies asking bullshit questions (interestingly mostly written in the early 90's before the web went mainstream).

Guy writes:

Illinois Pork Producers' Association
6411 South 6th Street Rd
Springfield, IL 62707-8630

Gentlemen:
Each day as I sit in the diner opposite my house, eating my bacon and drinking my milk, I wonder: why don't we drink pig milk?Pork is such a natural and essential part of life. It gives us ham and bacon, spam and red-hots, pork chops and lard. But whereas cows give us so many delicious meat products, they also provide us with dairy. Pigs are mammals too. They lactate, don't they? Why don't we harvest it? Does their milk taste bad? It is toxic? Is it simply unattractive, perhaps an opalescent brown-green that blinds all to its delicious flavor? Is it hard to milk a pig? Do they produce enough milk to make it worthwhile? Is it too viscous or thin to be of any industrial or domestic use? Can you make cheese from pork milk? Or yogurt? Or butter? Can you cook with it? Make pasta sauce, or use the cream in fancy coffee drinks?

As you can see, I have lot of questions about pork dairy potential. It's a topic I don't know much about. But I want to, because I'm sure that there's a good reason for the way things are, and I'm curious about it.

Please write me back and let me know why such a potentially lucrative and delicious resource has not yet been tapped.

Thank you very much.

Guy Petzall.



Guy Petzall
1949 Henderson
Chicago, IL 60657

Dear Guy:
I was excited to hear that each day you sit down to a meal of bacon, because today's pork products are 31% leaner than they were ten years ago. Pork is delicious and very healthy as many physicians recognize it as a very important source of protein. But the opportunity they present to the dairy industry is very limited.

Porcine do lactate and their milk I will assume would taste great, because it is made of 8.5% fat in relation to the fat that makes up 3.5% of the components in cows milk. The other components such as lactose and water are found at nearly the same percentages in pig's milk. However, pigs will on average produce 13 lbs of milk in a day as compared to cows that produce 65 lbs of milk on average per day. Pigs unlike cows cannot become pregnant while lactating and therefore possess a severe economic problem to producers. whfle pigs consume less feed per day, economics does not allow pigs to be a viable source of dairy products.

The biggest challenge facing the porcine dairy industry is collecting the product. Pigs on average have fourteen teats as opposed to cows that have four teats. Pigs also differ from cows in their milk ejection time, a cows milk ejection is stimulated by the hoimone oxytocin and can last ten minutes, where as a pig's milk ejection time only last fifleen seconds as the suckling pigs stimulate the release of oxytoc in. The technology of a 14 cupped mechanized milking machine that can milk a pig in 15 seconds is not available to pork producers.

I hope I have answered your questions and I encourage you to think about developing a pig milking machine as you eat your bacon in the fixture.

Good Luck

Bradley Wolter

Pork Quality Assurance Intern

The police in Cambodia have a new weapon in their battle against the outspoken and unruly - fish sauce. Although supression of the media in Cambodia reached all time highs last year with the imprisonment of local radio jounalists criticising the government's border agreements with Vietnam, I'm not sure whether this should be listed along with other grievances such as wrongful imprisonment and attempted asssasinations.


"Phnom Penh - A Cambodian journalist appealed to human rights campaigners for help Wednesday in accusing a senior police officer of assaulting him with a dish of fish sauce in a restaurant. San Bun Thoeun, a reporter with mass-circulation gossip magazine Angkor Thom, claimed deputy chief of Phnom Penh judicial police Moung Kim launched his attack with a dish of the pungent sauce after seeing a recent article concerning his wife, glamorous singing star Meng Keo Pich Chenda.

The journalist called the assault an infringement of his rights and demanded an apology, adding he was taking the matter to prominent local human rights group Licadho and considering court action if he did not receive an apology.

"I am very upset. This is not about money, this is about my honour. There were a lot of people in the restaurant who saw and heard this insult against me," Thoeun said by telephone.

A representative for the Cambodian Club of Journalists said the group was still awaiting a request to intervene in the escalating furore, which has received widespread coverage in local media.

Kim was unavailable for comment.

Last year Paris-based journalism watchdog Reporters Sans Frontiers reported a number of attacks on Cambodian journalists, but this was believed to be the first involving a condiment.

Local newspaper Cambodia Daily quoted Information Minister Khieu Kanharith as saying that if the fish sauce allegation was true and Kim had a legitimate complaint about a story, he should use more conventional avenues to display his displeasure, such as requesting a correction."

The face that launched a fish sauce attack