Autumnal Juice Fast Experiments
September 28, 2004
On top, a mixture of opal basil, spearmint, and apple juices. On the bottom, beet and red pepper juices. I'm getting ready for a culinary juice fast in three weeks time:
apple + mint = great
apple + opal basil = great
apple + beet = great
apple alone = great
apple + red pepper = yuck, (hollow, woody and burpy)
beet alone = too intense, too sweet, woody, badly needs something sour
beet + mint + apple = good
beet + opal basil = too dark, needs to be cut with sour
beet + red pepper = delicious, nectaresque, versatile (soup?)
red pepper + mint = wonderfully fresh, cheerful
red pepper + basil = yuck (woody and burpy)
red pepper alone = delicious
Please read more... "Autumnal Juice Fast Experiments"
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Let me bore you with: Culture Shock
September 25, 2004
Where was it that I read that 'inordinant attention to bodily functions and diet is one of the symptoms of culture shock'? Certainly this is not the only symptom, and certainly this inordinant attention isn't always a symptom of anything in particular BUT, since I started working on the Ladies Gourmet Cycling piece in 2003 I am obsessed with the glycemic index and glycemic load of foods. Here is the list that hangs from my refridgerator right under my kilometer buildup schedule. (I've stopped cycling and started running until Spring of 2005 in order to develop a different relationship to the Dutch weather. Funny how running in the rain is a pleasure and riding in the rain is a hell.)
This list has been hacked from somewhere on the web and suffices for now but it unfortunately does not contain entries for nuts and seeds or leafy greens. This could mean that either these items have both indexes and loads so low that they are deemed unsuitable for this list or because they aren't really considered 'common' foods. Hm...
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Glycemic Index, Glycemic Load
September 23, 2004
Okay Freaks, here is a great article about the definition of Glycemic Index and Glycemic load. Don't mind the fact that you have to go to a diabetes website to read about it. Diabetics, folks with hypoglycemia and athletes need to be experts on glycemic indexes and loads.
http://diabetes.about.com/library/mendosagi/ngilists.htm.
See also:
http://www.glycemicfoodlist.com/#G_Load
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Eat off the floor? Get the facts...
In Amsterdam if I drop food when I'm cooking I always just pick it up and pop it into my mouth. I eat off my floor - sometimes days after the 'fall'. And what you may ask are my criteria for scrapping or scarfing? With me it depends on whether the food was initially wet or dry. (See semi-unrelated picture above of some mould I grew in 3 weeks time on some wet food.) Foods that become wetter as they get older I tend to scrap. Yesterday I found some old almonds lying quite dryly on the floor of my bedroom. I picked 'em up and scarfed 'em right down in one clean hand motion.
Readymade Mag's Eat off the floor
In this old ReadyMade Mag issue there is a funny article about eating off the floor and whether it is unclean. If you have kids you probably have heard of the 5 second rule, 'don't anything that has been on the floor for more than 5 seconds.'
I always thought of this as the 15 second rule. Oops.
There was a Dutch telev�e ad in which one sees a woman bringing her clothes to the cleaners. With some difficulty she peels a piece of salt licorice (type muntje) out of a dirty jeans pocket and tosses it into her mouth. This much to the disgust of the guy behind the counter. It was a licorice ad. What would I have done? Oh, definitely scarf.
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Oh to be a gay man and not on speaking terms...
September 21, 2004
Pictured above is a series of cakes designed and produced by Kees Raat of Unlimited Delicious in Amsterdam. It doesn't really matter what sort of cakes, I bought 3 kinds and they were all intriguing to the eye and I can only imagine that the taste was insane. I didn't actually get offered a bite.
For the sake of this story let's just say that a friend of mine named Jim asked me to do him a favour. Jim (who for the sake of this story lives in Arnhem) wanted me to spoil his bed-ridden ex-boyfriend with sweets but didn't dare to come up and do this himself because the boys were in the throes of a kafuffle (as they say in Canada). The boyfriend (let's call him Hamid for the sake of the story), had just days ago become a short-term shut-in due to a knee operation and under the guise of 'checking to see if he's allright', Jim asked me to visit Hamid bearing gifts in his name. What follows is all very soapy but what I find so amazing is that this is a story about an EX boyfriend. 'Would you please be a dear and get him some cakes and a box of chocolates - I'll pay ya back.' Sometimes you just want to be a gay man!
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Tomato Brains
September 20, 2004
It usually takes me 2 weeks to get back into cooking once I have arrived home in Amsterdam from being away. Funny, because when I'm travelling I want to cook all the time. I think that it has to do with the scarcity of diverse ingredients and lifestyle here in Amsterdam and not the fact that it is home. Fruit doesn't fall from the trees, grand dinners are rare and mostly at my house and chez a precious handfull of friends.
But no need to despair, on the fun side of the agenda I'm preparing a workshop for the FunLab at the Design Academy in Eindhoven and designing some food for the Museum N8 with and for Mediamatic. This means that there are test dinners to come. The nonsensical financial model called 'give me a gig and I'll invite you over to dinner' is born.
Pictured above are of course tomato brains - everyone's favourite part of the tomato. I'm currently experimenting with the brains and meat separately.
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Dutch Word of the Day: Ontslakken???
September 13, 2004
Ontslakken means to remove the mucous, to dredge one's innermost guts and purge them from all toxic slime buildup and sediment.
On the night before John and Kristi returned to Occitania Aya, Marseille, JT, Kristi and I went out to eat at Cambodja City in the 'Pijp'. I absolutely endorse CC's spring rolls, fresh and crispy vegetable filled. Of course the meal was all very delicious and cosy as can be but when we left the building we were assaulted with the vision of this frightening advertising vehicle. 'Ontslakken???'
So many question marks!
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