Tag: food

spread it.

In Margaret Visser’s excellent Much Depends on Dinner, the history of margarine is related.

A cheap butter substitute terrified the dairy industry. As margarine became widely available commercially, the butter people did everything they could to stop it. They bought laws that taxed the stuff and enforced prominent labeling. In at least once place they required that margarine be placed apart from other groceries in a special closed off “Margarine Zone” of the market so that people would be humiliated to go in, revealing that they were cutting costs. And most of all, the color of margarine was regulated. It couldn’t look like butter, so the yellow coloring was either totally absent or in a tiny dot in one corner of the bag of goo so that consumers had to knead the package for some time to get it all yellow before putting it in the fridge. To this day, margarine cannot be butter-colored in some places.

What was the result? Today margarine is everywhere that butter is sold. There is still very good money to be made from butter. There is also good money to be made selling margarine and similar substitutes. Everyone knows the difference. The butter industry was not destroyed; they just lost some market share. Had they invested in the margarine business at the beginning most of their loss would have been stopped.

The Internet is margarine to a long list of industries. The music industry stands to lose retail distribution, which is not only a great place to add marginal costs but the place where their unpleasant friends in organized crime collect their money. The movie industry likewise loses its chain to theatres and all the incidental revenue there. Anyone with a job that ends in “Agent” who doesn’t work for the government is threatened.

The car dealers might be threatened too, but they’ve already got laws in every state in the U.S. restricting auto manufacturers to selling only through dealers; they’re in a stronger position than the dairy farmers.

Wine distributors are trying to “margarine” wineries with specious laws as well, because they find themselves disintermediated.

It might be good for business people who feel threatened by these changes to spend an hour with Visser’s book and take a lesson from margarine.

Kimchi… in… SPAAAAAAACE

While the Malaysians struggle with the issues of Islamic prayer in orbit, the Koreans have a more serious issue: how do we take our national comfort food with us?

Kimchi – the Final Frontier

April 2008 will see the first kimchi in space when Korea’s first astronaut journeys to the final frontier. With the help of cutting-edge technology, the national delicacy acclaimed for its taste as much as its healthful properties will become “space food.”

Space kimchi is being developed jointly by a team in the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute led by Dr. Byun Myung-woo and domestic food maker CJ. It looks much the same as the kimchi Koreans eat every day. Those who have tried it say it has zest and makes them feel much the same as the terrestrial variety, while the color is also similar. But a look through the microscope reveals the difference in the micro-organisms that help ferment the vegetables. The U.S. and Russia put top priority on safety when they approve space food, all of which is thoroughly sterilized. If living micro-organisms were to mutate into killer germs in space, the reasoning goes, there would be no way to prevent them from wreaking havoc among the astronauts.

Heating food kills the micro-organisms, but in the case of kimchi, that would produce kimchi stew. To address the problem, KAERI used cobalt-60 gamma rays, which attack and disconnect DNA or enzymes of bacteria and thus prevent them from multiplying. Radiation has been used for various space foods since it was first used to sterilize the ham that went up in Apollo 17 in 1972.

In zero gravity, the air does not move and astronauts cannot smell, so their sense of taste, too, is dramatically reduced. Space kimchi is expected to be of great help in stimulating astronauts’ appetite with its zest and spices. In addition, it is effective in promoting the intestinal functions, which tend to be somewhat sluggish in space, with abundant fiber.

After being irradiated, the kimchi is deprived of all the gas, but the possibility remains that the juice will squirt out when it is opened just as soda does in a low-pressure environment. There would be kimchi juice all over the ship. For that reason, CJ has developed special packaging for space kimchi.

KAERI concluded an agreement with the NASA Food Technology Commercial Space Center to develop space food last year. The institute is to sign another agreement with the Institute of Biomedical Problems (IBMP) of Russia this August to conduct safety tests for space kimchi. If kimchi successfully goes into space in 2008, there is a good chance it will remain on the outer-space menu for U.S. and Russian astronauts, and before you know it, Korea’s national dish will have conquered a new dimension.

(englishnews@chosun.com)

url: http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200605/200605120007.html

Bacon Swiss Breasts (natural)

.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }.flickr-yourcomment { }.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; }


Bacon Swiss Breasts (natural), originally uploaded by conradh.

I’m glad that at least one fast food chicken sandwich has not given in to the fad and had its breasts augmented.

I think I speak for all of us when I say: cosmetic surgery on bacon swiss crispy chicken must stop.

AWESOME MEALS

.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }.flickr-yourcomment { }.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; }


AWESOME MEALS, originally uploaded by conradh.

Many awesome meals may be constructed from this assortment of pork and pork-derived products in your supermarket’s refrigerator case.

IT’S LIKE A SUNDAE BUT IT’S MADE OF MEAT

sundaeThe sundae is compiled of cubes of grilled steak, layered with cheesy mashed potatoes and warm barbecue sauce. And just for giggles, a surprise sprinkling of Pop Rocks will be sure to please. Need more convincing? Let Dawn Thurmau convince you via mp3 below:

“Then on the top you put your chunks of steak with another little dollop of mashed potatoes and then a cherry tomato on the very top with some green onions. So it looks just like a chocolate sundae, but tastes like an open-face roast beef sandwich,”

“It adds the color and then, of course, the sensation on your tongue. And the fun thing about pop rocks is they don’t have such a strong flavor so you really don’t notice that there’s candy in it,” Thurnau said.

Thanks, Missouri Beef Industry Council! I’m gonna stuff my face with beef, mashed potatoes, and Pop Rocks right now!