Important information about food.

1. A good article on chai, from the Chronicle:
"The basic definition of chai is spiced black tea mixed with hot milk, usually sweetened. The spice mix, called chai masala, is generally made up of ginger, cardamom, cinnamon, black pepper and cloves. Bechar describes how in India, where he travels frequently, chai wallahs, or tea vendors, brew chai outdoors in large pots, then pour the frothy tea and milk into rough-hewn clay cups. As trains pull into stations, they rush the cups to passengers, who drink the tea, then throw the cups to the ground.

Chai's popularity is raging in Northern California, yet the drink has drifted far from its origins. . .

The problem with these products, including the commercial concentrate used at most cafes, is they tend to result in chais that are too watery, too sweet or dominated by cinnamon or -- god forbid -- vanilla. "

Ok, they said it themselves. God forbid--vanilla!

But people are stupid:

"Although customers can request soy milk, iced or decaf versions of espresso drinks, Bechar insists that each chai be made the same way.
"They'll ask for vanilla syrup, whipped cream," says Bechar. "I say, 'No, no!' " "

This man is fighting the good fight, and I wish him much luck. Although I wonder if he would make it with skim milk and sweetener? His version is all whole-milk and a lot of sugar.

2. Chinese take-out food isn't really Chinese, and there's a museum exhibit about it.

" Lee speculates that East European Jews, themselves marginalized, flocked to Chinese restaurants as a way of forging a new, modern, identity—as a way of becoming American. Not that things "Chinese" were generally recognized as American; it took outsiders to see the obvious. Visiting Chinese anthropologist Fei Xiaotong, for example, was amused and amazed by a restaurant he visited in the early 1940s. "It was called a Chinese restaurant," he wrote, "but ... nothing made me feel the slightest at home."

After the Second World War, mainstream Americans, too, began to see the Americanness—eureka!—of some "Chinese." And Chinese Americans celebrated this: On a menu from the 1950s, a man smilingly paints characters on his "Chinese Easter Eggs." By this point, though, Chinese restaurants were about more than East Meets West. They were sites where not only Chineseness but ethnicity in general was made and made fun of. "

Food anthropology you can sink your teeth into.

A non-food thought

Well, lately I've been listening to a lot of NPR while I do my filing and data entry and I'm just getting the feeling that I'm missing something. For one thing, although NPR is better than many other news sources in this, I still feel like I'm not getting enough depth and background information. (OTOH, it's great that they often have supplemental info on their website: I know they had a lot of web stuff on Syria/Lebanon in the last few weeks. That's one of those situations I felt like I didn't know enough about.)The other thing is that maybe I just don't know enough going in. I think it's problematic if I have a collge degree and a lot of the news still doesn't quite make sense to me. I have catching up to do.

And then sometimes I feel like the news story doesn't answer a very basic question that I have and I don't know where to find the answer. I'll have to find some examples.

So of course this weeks with the new guidelines there's been a blitzkrieg of talk about stem cell research and ethics, but I still feel like I'm missing basic background. I'd like to know more about the technologies and processes that are involved so I can make my own decisions about what I think is ethical, but I don't know where to find it. If I could find it, I feel confident I could understand it (I know what a blastocyst is, and pluripotency, and so on and so forth). I mean, how feasible are nuclear transplants? And what other applications are there? Is there a 10-page Scientific American article with diagrams that I can read? If you know of something, please send me a link or how to find it in the library. I don't want an ethical debate, I just want information so I can form an opinion.

In still other news, I have some sort of thought simmering (about stem cells and Terry Schiavo and the new pope and teaching evolution in Kansas and humanism and separation of church and state and ridiculous discrimination against gay people), but I don't know what it is yet. More information and more simmering needed.
- posted by k @ 1:03 PM