Category: food

food in Korea

On By Rick McIn food, travel1 Comment

I wrote this before that nation went on highest alert, the brink of war.

Let’s hope cooler heads prevail over there.

_______ original post:

On my recent junket to Jeju Island, Korea, I enjoyed a lot of good food.

Sadly I don’t know what most of it was. Multiple, multiple courses, most with fish or seafood.

Route 3 - Jeju Olle, Korea

I was told that these soups often included “whatever was leftover in the kitchen”.

food in Korea

I was hiking during harvest season for what we call “Mandarin oranges”.

Route 4-5 - Jeju Olle, Korea

Other big crops here include carrots and turnips.

Route 1 - Jeju Olle, Korea

Route 2 - Jeju Olle, Korea

Many of the other foreign guests left Korea saying the food was the highlight. If only I was more of a foodie.
😦

more photos

in praise of GLUTTONY

On By Rick McIn food, humourLeave a comment

I must be joking.

No, it’s Barbecue guru Rockin’ Ronnie that must be joking. He is REALLY paddling against the stream of obese humanity, defending the gorge.

His most recent article in Calgary’s City Palate magazine:

“The road to excess leads to the palace of wisdom…for we never know what is enough until we know what is more than enough.” William Blake

I once ate a 48-ounce steak in one sitting, and I have the T-shirt to prove it.

I am a notorious glutton who, at a business dinner, threatened to bite a waiter’s hand off for attempting to clear my plate before it was empty. Over the years I’ve gotten used to being viewed as a culinary carnival freak. Lately, however, I’ve noticed that gluttony seems to be in style.

The current trend is exemplified by the popular food blog, This is Why You’re Fat, which features glutton-friendly dishes like Meat Mountain and Deep Fried Cheesecake Bites. …

read more on City Palate

I understand Rockin’s drafting a new controversial article – Stalin wasn’t such a bad guy, the Ukrainian perspective
 🙂

(via Rockin’s blog – In Praise of Gluttony)

Paradiso – Positano, Italia

On By Rick McIn food, travel4 Comments

In the frozen wasteland that is my homeland, most people envision HEAVEN as looking like this, Positano:

Perfect climate: never too hot, never too cold. Fantastic local wine, food, fruit, bread and vegetables. You can’t get fat because it’s a 1500cal expenditure just to walk up from the beach to the hostel.

Here’s the view from Brikette.

La vita è bella.

… another rosso vino, Cosmo …

Naples – first impressions

On By Rick McIn food, travelLeave a comment

I’m reminded of all the reasons why I can’t live in Europe.

Yet I’ve always had a soft spot for Italy.

The loud, enthusiastic, gesticulating people. The gorgeous landscapes. The food, vino and gelato.

… I could almost live in Italy.

The only other time I’ve been close to Naples, I was 18yrs-old. We drove past en route to the Isle of Capri. It took hours as traffic was terrible … in 1976.

Traffic is worse now.

Naples is one of the oldest cities in the world, and looks it.

It’s one of the richest cities in the world (richer than Zurich, for example) yet you could film a movie set in a 3rd world hellhole, if you wished, here.

Graffiti? … Must be an Italian word. … Invented in Pompeii. That’s my guess.

Jetlagged, I checked in at the friendly Hostel of the Sun. My host, Luca, insisted I visit the hot spot in old town, for my first meal.

pizza - Sorbillo’s, Naples
Sorbillo’s, Naples

Gorgonzola, ham, mushroom. Fantastic. And inexpensive.

That’s a tasty first impression.

HELP – I’m a coffee ADDICT

On By Rick McIn food, product endorsements1 Comment

An undisguised cry for help.

Daily Honesty Box:

… I love Starbucks. I know it’s probably a terrible waste of money, but I love their coffee. But it’s more than their coffee. It’s the whole “Starbucks Experience” that I love – the atmosphere, the comfortable chairs, the lighting, the music they play, and the smiling, friendly people who greet you and make you feel like you matter by catering to your personal tastes. …

Taking Comfort in Rituals

Actually, I’m not all that much in love with Starbucks burnt coffee.

But as a provider of free wireless internet, Starbucks is beloved to me.

If they sold cocaine instead of caffeine, I’d still likely be taking comfort there.

Snake Oil in the Supermarket

On By Rick McIn economics, food, health & fitness, product complaints1 Comment

Scientific American on Greenwashing:

Food-makers should have to prove the validity of their health claims …

In March the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued warning letters to 17 food and beverage manufacturers concerning false or misleading health and nutrition claims on their products. It was an unusually expansive crackdown for the agency, whose regulatory power over food companies has declined over the past decades, thanks to Congress and the courts, which have tended to come down on the side of the food companies. …

In 2006 Europe began holding food makers to rigorous scientific standards. Since then, the European Food Safety Authority has rejected, on the basis of insufficient evidence, a whopping 80 percent of the more than 900 claims they have assessed thus far. …

Differences between the lenient U.S. system and the more restrictive European system are easily apparent. For instance, visitors to the Web site for Activia (www.activia.com)—a yogurt product from Dannon—will have a very different experience depending on which country they indicate they are from. The U.S. version prominently displays the product’s putative health benefits, asserting that it can “help regulate your digestive system by helping reduce long intestinal transit time.” …

Snake Oil in the Supermarket

I assume over 80% of green packaging and health claims are tainted.

USA – How Far Can You Get From McDonald’s?

On By Rick McIn foodLeave a comment

Formerly:

… Between the tiny Dakotan hamlets of Meadow and Glad Valley lies the McFarthest Spot: 107 miles distant from the nearest McDonald’s, as the crow flies, and 145 miles by car! …

Currently:

Thanks to one Rotten Ronnie’s going belly-up in California …

… in the high desert of northwestern Nevada, you’ll find antelope, wild horses, and the Lower-48′s new-and-improved McFarthest Spot …

backlash – I won’t buy a $4 peach

On By Rick McIn food, product complaints1 Comment

At the grocery yesterday I could buy grapes for $99/lb … or $2.99/lb.

They look and taste identical to me.

Is it true that the cheaper grapes are plucked by slaves. … And that they cause Global Warming?

… I’m a skeptic.

Recall the TerraChoice study in 2007 that found that all but one of 1,018 products that made environmental claims, were misleading. Call it Greenwashing.

For a movement that’s always been touchy about being labeled elitist, the food movement has been surprisingly outspoken lately about the virtues of expensive food. In a recent Wall Street Journal article, Michael Pollan sang the praises of sustainable eggs that cost eight dollars a dozen and delectable peaches that go for $3.90 each.

Such prices would seem less shocking, he assured readers, if conscientious consumers were willing to “pay more, eat less.” Likewise, when asked to explain how average (i.e., not famous and rich) consumers could actually be expected to spend more on food in the midst of a recession, Alice Waters was as clear as she was unabashed: “Make a sacrifice on the cell phone or the third pair of Nike shoes.” So there.

Needless to say, the backlash—as Pollan and Waters must have known it would be—was swift. Anthony Bourdain, who dedicates a full chapter of his latest book, Medium Raw, to attacking Waters’s airy idealism, scoffs at the idea that people should be willing to spend more on food: …

Atlantic – Should We Really Pay $4 for a Peach?

… This sinister looking guy says you should.

Michael Pollan

Thanks Kate.