Stomachs on legs are proud to present

I know it is searing hot, and the transports systems aren't working, there are rolling black outs and bush fires are raging as if you had entered the firey bowels of hell itself

But look on the bright side, 45 degrees is the perfect temperature for salmon mi-cuit, so Hock informs me. Simply vacuum pack a salmon fillet with some flavourings and place it on your hot tin roof.

Within 14 minutes or so, it should be delicately cooked just so, almost like sashimi but with more flavour and tenderness

Here is a recipe

When life hands you 45 degree Celsius weather, make salmon mi-cuit.

Things have been rather quiet on the old blog lately so here are some gratuitous photos of our dinner we had last October at WD-50

View and appreciate. Think of it like art, if it has to be explained you just don't get it.

Again, we've reached what I consider critical mass for a link post

Doh! Doner kebabs contain 'shocking' levels of fat, salt and even pork

From pork barrels to pig farming, Cambodia's emerging pig baron

Like I've said all along I'm not pregnant, just fat

300 beers before you die, you just wish you wrote the book

Just to confirm, the oceans are screwed

Vegan debates cont...Indigenous foods website, documenting ethno-ecological approaches to eating

I spent Australia Day today at the National Portrait Gallery in celebration of a good friend Ma Khin Mar Mar Kyi who was nominated as an Unsung Hero of Australia for all her tireless work in human rights, humanitarian relief, women and child trafficking issues and Burmese freedom. Ma is a force of nature no doubt, she is the only Burmese PhD student in Australia, she is warm, friendly, sweet and smart despite some unspeakable trauma's she has experienced in her life. It was wonderful to see Ma and pass on the pickled tea leaves from Mae Hong Son to her on her special day, thanks Austin

The special screening of Ma's video portrait was accompained by another Unsung Hero and force of nature the Soup Lady of Canberra, Stasia Dabrowski

Stasia Dabrowski was born in the southern mountains of Poland in 1926. During the occupation of Poland in WWII her family's lives were devastated — she lost everything and was driven into forced labour. After WWII she worked as a nurse and matron before moving to Australia with her husband and young family.

As her qualifications were not recognised in Australia she did voluntary house cleaning and emergency services for the Red Cross, looking after the bedridden and needy. She started cooking and providing essentials for the needy in the late 1970s, the start of the Soup Kitchen.

You can watch her video portrait here.

It's so adorable and wonderful I was almost convinced by the end that soup can save the world. Almost

See, they try to look nice for you once a year! Happy Chinese New Year!

Bras bristled at being pressed into the locavore mold. “Look,” he said, “if we ate only what comes from the Aubrac, we’d have nothing but potatoes, pork and cabbage.” He called his famed devotion to local herbs “caricature. It’s only part of what we do.

Thank you to Michael who pointed this out .

I know this may be old hat to some of our Jewish big game hunting audience, but both giraffe meat and giraffe milk were declared kosher in 2008. From the aptly named Tim Butcher in the Telegraph:

"Indeed, the giraffe is kosher for eating," Rabbi Shlomo Mahfoud, who accompanied the researchers in their work, said.

"The giraffe has all the signs of a ritually pure animal, and the milk that forms curds strengthened that."

Now all I need is a tall dairy.

Fire is all around you in a kicthen and after a few years of cooking you start to feel comfortable with being constantly burnt in your work space.

When something catches on fire in a kitchen most of the time you are pretty nonchalant about it.

Today we had a refresher course on fire safety at the work place. "Thai style" of course, which usually means a ton of fun.




I think from the photos below it is easy to work out who are the cooks. Who seem to have a "thing" for fire and have seen many a young apprentice chef throw water into a wok filled with burning oil.

And those who are office workers who wish that they really didn't have to work around people who like to set things on fire.




























Thanks to the Bangkok Fire Department for an entertaing few hours.

They seemed to enjoy themselves too. Once the realized that they had met a group of people who love fire nearly as much as they do.

I can't say I learnt much other than you can actually light a gas tank directly, which seems like fun.

I was reading the guardian food blog again today, my new favourite food blog (can you tell I am in Canberra alone trying to finish my thesis?) and I was reminded by this article on the Heimlich Manoeuvre about Eddie Izzard's comedic sketch on it. It's an oldie but a goodie



I tried to find some stats on the number of people who die each year from choking on food but all I discovered is that in Britain

"People who live in Morpeth and St Albans East are more likely to die of food choking than in other parts of the country"

and that in Salt Lake Valley 2800 people, mostly children, die from choking per year.

Be careful out there folks

Eat this....?



Introducing the edible doormouse

It may be the cutest thing you've ever seen but I reckon you would if you were starving...

But I could never fathom why Paul Prudhome bothered

Guardian reviews budget food lines and feels sorry for poor people

Fat for fuel, liposuction for climate change?

Is vegetarianism the answer to global warming, one journalist thinks yes, I want more than op-eds

Shopping and why you end up buying crap you don't want or need.

Camel milk ice cream and my current favourite photo


The methamphetamine cookie trade between China and NZ

Source IFPRI

Do you love rice?

As the mouse loves rice?

Yes well so apparently do most people.

But do you really really love it? Do you love it so much that you want to write, speak and debate all aspects of it and submit your writing about rice to a journalism contest that celebrates rice?

If you answered yes then keep reading, if you answered no then hush up and eat a hamburger.

The “Save Our Rice Campaign” is founded on these Five Pillars of Rice Wisdom:– Rice Culture, Community Wisdom, Biodiversity Based Ecological Agriculture, Safe Food and Food Sovereignty.


The Five Pillars of Rice Wisdom


Rice Culture
Rice is life to the people of Asia. It is central to the Asian way of life; its culture, spirituality, traditions and norms, especially for the grassroots. To protect rice means to preserve the rich cultural and spiritual heritage that is rice.


Community Wisdom
Community Wisdom is the wealth of farmer-based knowledge of biodiversity-based ecological rice cultivation and seed conservation which has accumulated through generations of farming. This pillar recognizes farmers as scientists, conservationists, breeders and innovators in their own right.


Biodiversity
Biodiversity-Based Ecological Agriculture is agriculture in harmony with the environment and the community. It involves the protection of traditional rice varieties and ecosystems where biodiversity is protected and agricultural methods are ecologically sound and safe.


"Safe Rice"
Safe Food means rice as food safe to produce, handle and consume. This necessitates the rejection of the use of hazardous substances such as pesticides and risky technologies such as genetic engineering.


Food Sovereignty
Food Sovereignty ensures the rights of people and communities to decide on food and agricultural policies; to adequate, culturally appropriate and safe food; to land and productive resources; to sustainable production and livelihoods; and to gender justice. This pillar therefore challenges policies, processes and structures that threaten these rights.


The Asia Pacific Rice Journalist Award will be presented to writers in the Asia Pacific region who effectively educate the public on the role of rice in cultures, economies and communities/societies in the region. The articles should use the Five Pillars of Rice Wisdom as the guiding principles. They should reflect any or all of the following aims: instilling an appreciation of the rice heritage of Asia; raising public awareness of the issues on and threats to rice; highlighting the role of small farmers and women in rice; strengthening the people's resolve and action to save rice; and encouraging a stronger role for youth in rice.

"Youth in rice"....i bet you'd never really thought about that now had you.

anyways more details here

Do you love Thai food?

Yes well so apparently do most people.

But do you really really love it? Do you love it so much that you want to write, speak and debate all aspects of it at a university conference?

If you answered yes then keep reading, if you answered no then hush up and go order some more pad thai

Institute of Thai Studies, Chulalongkorn University

and

The Empowering Network for International Thai Studies Project (ENITS)

with support from the Thailand Research Fund (TRF)

are pleased to invite abstract for consideration for presenting in the international conference on Thai Studies:

“Thai Food Heritage: Local to Global” 4-6 August 2009, The Tawana Bangkok Hotel (tentative), Bangkok, Thailand

Panel Discussions on:
Food and Discourse
Food and Folk
Food and Medicine
Food and Tourism

Submission of abstract:
Please send an abstract of not more than 250 words in .doc format to Dr. Suppakorn Disatapundhu at “enits_info@yahoo.com”.
Deadline for submission is 31 March 2009.
Authors will be notified of the committee’s decision by April 15th.
*Paper presented at the conference will be disseminated on the ENITS website.

Online Registration:
May 2009
The registration fees of 3,000 THB (1,500 THB for students) are required to all presenters and participants.

For more information:
enits_info@yahoo.com

I know the human being and fish can coexist peacefully

President George Bush, Saginaw, Michigan, 29 September, 2000

Source

I know how hard it is for you to put food on your family

Greater Nashua, N.H., Jan. 27, 2000

Source

Bye bye Bush