Novella Carpenter Book Reading

Tuesday, March 15th I bribed a friend and took them with me to Kalamazoo Central High School to see Novella Carpenter talk about her life as an urban farmer and the new book she wrote about it called Farm City. I was actually surprised by how packed the school's auditorium was with the people who had read her book.
She was introduced to the stage with the title of "hippie" and as soon as she walked on stage I could see that the title fit. Wearing relaxed clothing and odd shoes that I find it hard to describe, even her voice had a mellow sound to it. She made a lot of inside jokes that the audience seemed to find entertaining, but probably because they had actually read the book. I was not too lost, though, as she talked through her first experiences with raising animals and squatting on land in California for 8 years where she started her first garden. 
She had actually decided to raise her own animals spontaneously one day when she realized that she wanted fresh meat, rather than the store bought packaged meat. So she went online and ordered a starter kit of poultry.
When her mail came, a large box full of baby poultry (chickens, turkeys, etc.) was waiting for her. She said she had had just about as much experience raising animals as she had killing them. Which means zero.
Eventually she said she figured it all out and even decided to purchase two hogs at an auction one day to add to her farm of different kinds of poultry,  vegetables, fruit trees, and rabbits. Yes, she ate rabbits, and she admitted that many people think she is weird for doing so.
I found Novella very funny and greatly enjoyed listening to her smooth voice. There were a few (very few) younger kids in the audience, though, and at one point Novella said the "f" word. Immediately after that, she talked about finally butchering her hogs and how it had been "like the mafia" because she had had to cut off their heads, and then proceeded to show us a picture... I think the kids may have started crying.
The whole talk, which was actually surprisingly short, was full of Novella's experiences and advice for other farmers in the audience (yes there were some). For example, one of the ways that Novella saved money on food for her animals was by going to China town and dumpster diving. She would find thrown out food that she thought the animals would like and successfully saved a fortune on pig chow and other such foods. We have talked in class about how much food gets wasted every year, so I thought that relevant connection was pretty cool.

New Tastes

To the left is a picture of my plate filled with almost every piece of food that Saffron's lunch buffet had to offer.

It was a little bit of an adventure trying to actually get to Saffron's first, though. I went with Brooklynn and assumed that I knew more than her GPS (I swear it was trying to get us lost). Eventually we found it, though, and were pleasantly surprised by the atmosphere we found in the restaurant. The decorations and even the waiters' uniforms were appealing to look at, though Brooklynn and I both felt a little under dressed when we looked at some of the other customers.

I found the my first bites of each different piece of food to be equally as interesting as the last. My mouth was not used to the amount of spices that it picked up, but I enjoyed almost all of it. I noticed a large difference between eating some of the food without bread versus with (usually I enjoyed it more with bread - I ate a lot of naan bread).

At the buffet, there were large cauldron-looking pots that each food was in and above them were the names of the food and their ingredients. I am now going to name them off and tell you what I thought of each...

Saffron Rice: Not a big deal. It really just tasted like regular white rice and I enjoyed combining it with some of the other food.
 Began Bhartha: Sounds gross but really was not too bad. It had smoked eggplant in it which I did not really like the texture of, but I liked the rest of the tastes.
Pindi Channa: Other than the bread, this was actually my favorite choice. "Chickpeas simmered in a savory secret blend of fresh herbs and exotic spices". Maybe it's because I have actually had chickpeas before, but I actually really enjoyed the texture and the flavors. Still best with bread
Navrathan Korma: Brooklynn and I were not really sure how to feel about this one. We did not want to dislike it, but it definitely wasn't a favorite. "Mixed vegetables smothered in a yogurt coconut milk sauce with nuts & raisins". Maybe it was the yogurt coconut milk sauce that ruined it... That just sounds weird.
Raita: This was definitely not a favorite at all. Neither of us liked it or even took more than one taste of it. "Low fat home made yogurt with cucumber & fresh mint"
Badami Kheer: Another one that we didn't like. Well, we liked it at first but then we got a chunk of something with a terrible flavor and instantly pushed our bowls away. "Almond nut pudding with raisins & nuts"
Lamb Keema: If I had to describe how this one looked I would say "mush". It wasn't bad. Same spice filled flavor as the rest, but I think it was slightly more plain which, surprisingly, made me like it less. "Ground lamb simmered in spices & fresh herbs topped with fresh cilantro"
Tandoori Chicken: I know that this was Brooklynn's favorite, probably because it was the most recognizable food. The chicken was a shockingly bright red color, which was actually kind of pretty. "Chicken marinated in our special house marinade & yogurt, then baked to perfection in the clay oven". I wonder what their obsession with yogurt is all about...

Other than these foods there was a fruit and vegetable salad. I didn't really try it but Brooklynn did and she didn't spit it back out so I guess it must have been ok.
Overall I really enjoyed Saffron's. I love being risky with my food and am open to trying almost anything, so I had fun with this experience. In the future, I will probably try to drag people along to restaurants with different cultural food more often.

Global Warming & Food

I am sure that everyone has heard of the issue that is global warming at least once or twice before the lecture we heard in class. When I was younger I often heard it debated whether global warming was even a real thing or not. Today, though, there is enough evidence for people to say that the Earth is in fact warming, so now the debate has become: What is causing this warming?

The guest who came in to talk about global warming (I apologize for forgetting his name) stated that some people think the warming is due to natural variation. Our guest was quick to point out, though, that this couldn't be the cause of the current warming. Just because warming happened previously does not mean that this current warming is caused by the same thing.

He said that there are two ways that this current trend of warming is different than any we have had in the past 800,000 years:
1. It's happening 10-20 times faster
2. It's happening while solar input is decreasing - which means that we have actually been receiving less energy/heat from the sun

So, natural variation and increased solar input are both excuses that we can just cross out now. It is far more likely, and I am far more willing to accept, actually, that global warming is caused by us. The humans. The ones who like to use fossil fuels and pollute and waste energy.

We need to wake up and start taking action soon. Some of the charts of the future of our planet that the guest speaker showed us were disturbing. These changes are apparently already starting to affect our crops, with a decrease in global yields of wheat and corn that has been occurring since 1960.

As individuals we can start making a difference by conserving energy through purchasing more fuel efficient cars and investing in triple pane windows to better seal the heat in our homes in the winter. These are only actions that delay the future outcome of our world, though. In order to make a real change we need to start looking more into things like solar and wind energy, but we also need to start voting people into office that support these ideas. We can be the change if we care enough.

                                     

Casey & Joe Made me watch a Commercial

Unfortunately, I missed class the day that Casey and Joe gave their presentation/information about video games in regards to the role food plays in them. I heard that they did a fantastic job and that it was very interesting though. 

I looked at Casey's blog and found links to two GTA (Grand Theft Auto) commercials. I am not a big gamer so, while I was somewhat aware that GTA tries to seem "realistic," I did not realize that it was to the point where they made commercials for the food in the game.

The first of these commercials was called GTA IV Burger Shot Commercial. "Die with a smile on your face" is a direct quote from this video and pretty much sums up the message of this commercial. Americans seem to thrive on fast food, not necessarily because that would be the first choice most of us would make, but because we are such a fast paced society. A lot of the time people do not have the time, or money, to buy a bunch of ingredients and make a home cooked (healthier) meal.
These "faster" meals, though, have less than appealing ingredients (once you find out what they are) that just happen to taste good to a lot of people. So "die with a smile on your face" really speaks to how these "tasty" ingredients can have a really negative affect on people's healths.

The second commercial was GTA SA: Cluckin' Bell Commercial. This commercial is a little more disturbing and reminds me of a scene from Food Inc. when the chicken farmer was describing how they would crack the chickens' breast bones in order to allow the chicken's breast to grow larger. It always comes back to meat companies wanting to make a larger profit. In this case, I think I remember learning that the companies did this in order to feed our growing population (aka make more for more people to buy). "If you enjoy it, the chicken didn't die in vain." 

It's interesting that they're publicizing some of the problems with our food industry in a way like this. A lot of the population enjoys playing video games, so I think this is a very clever way to make people more aware.

Bone in the Throat

At this point in Bone in the Throat, every character's life is more complicated than ever. 
Tommy is being considered an actual suspect in Freddy's murder and the FBI have sent their agent, Al, out to start questioning all his friends and other mob members.
Tommy has been so stressed out by this, along with the fact that he knows he is being watched, that he gets really drunk one night and cheats on Cheryl (his new girlfriend) while she's gone for a week.  He ends up telling her and, rightly, gets punched in the eye and has a lot of apologizing and explaining to do.
Along with Cheryl, Tommy has also confided in the Chef. 
We find out that the Chef has finally started his treatment program and has been making a lot of progress. When leaving the building one day, though, he finds Al sitting on a bench waiting for him. Al puts pressure on him to convince Tommy to come in and tell his side of the story of what happened to Freddy. 
The Chef ends up talking to Tommy, which is why he confides in him. Coincidentally, though, right before they had this conversation of going and talking to the FBI, Tommy had just gotten picked up by two of the mob members. Danny (mob member) and Skinny took Tommy out by the river. The whole conversation was basically Danny making sure that Tommy did not have any grudges against the mob or his uncle, and that he did not plan on talking to the authorities. He even gave Tommy the name of a lawyer to call in case the authorities forced Tommy to come in. 
Now Tommy is stuck with a difficult decision: either tell the FBI what happened and get his uncle (his "mom's brother") in trouble, or stay silent and risk getting himself and the Chef sent to jail. Keeping silent is a family tradition, but will Tommy break tradition?

105 Pages of Bone in the Throat

The first 50 pages that I read ended with us knowing that Sally Wig (Tommy's mob connected uncle) has asked Tommy to do him a favor. Tommy is really resistant to help his uncle because he wants nothing to do with the mobs dirty business. We catch a glimpse of why this might be in the first chapter of the next 50 pages that I read, with Tommy describing his time with Diane.

Diane was Tommys girlfriend in high school. She mocked the mob openly to Tommy and thought of them as not scary, but irrelevant. This got to the point where Tommy was embarrassed to even be related to anyone connected to the mob. Her thoughts rubbed off on him and stuck, even after she moved to Boston for college.

Tommy thinks that he owes his uncle, for helping out his mom and him so much after his dad died, and decides to help him by letting Sally and a few of his friends into the restaurant. Terrible idea.
Sally, and his friend Skinny, end up gruesomely killing and chopping up a man they brought with them who had "made some people mad."

(If you think that this is the mysterious man who I mentioned in my first blog about this book, notice that I said he was chopped up. The actual mysterious man was found floating... whole.)

After that we kind of get turned in a different direction for the moment. An entire chapter was spent talking about how the head chef has a heroin addiction. In the first 50 pages (I think I forgot to mention this) Michael (that's his name) was stopped during a drug deal by undercover agents who thought he was Tommy. They took him into the station and, after figuring out who he really was, asked him to get close to Tommy and keep them informed. The chef also seems to be realizing that he has a drug addiction, since an entire chapter, like I said before, was spent talking about him going and trying to join a treatment program.

Lots of things can happen in just 50 pages. There were plenty of other smaller things that happened, other than what I have discussed, but I think I will wait to mention them until they play a bigger role in the story.

50 Pages of Bone in the Throat

The book I chose to read is called Bone in the Throat and it is written by Anthony Bourdain.

From the prologue to 53 pages later (because I just had to read a little more), Bourdain had me hooked. The prologue begins with a disturbing description of a mysterious body being pulled out of the river. I already have my prediction as to who this John Doe is.

Let's see if you can figure it out too.

So, after the John Doe is pulled out of the river, the person whose job it is to inspect the body (who is the narrator in the prologue) notices that this is not just a regular "floater." FBI agents and guys from the U.S Attorney's office were flocking around the scene, all looking very serious. Some of them even got into a fight. The narrator described their expressions as looking "...well, guilty."

I bet you think you know who the killers are now, but hang on...
Sally Wig, Tommy, and Harvey are all introduced. Tommy is just a young sous chef trying to move on past his father's mob history, but his uncle is not letting that happen. Tommy works at Harvey's restaurant. We get our first glimpse of what kind of trouble Harvey has gotten himself into when Tommy's sweat suit wearing uncle, Sally Wig, comes to ask for the "weekly payment." Harvey has apparently skipped payment the past 3 weeks on account of the fact that he is putting all "his money" into his restaurant (the questionable quotes around him actually being the owner of the money will be explained momentarily). Sally Wig lets it slide this time but makes sure to bruise Harvey up a little bit before he leaves.

Harvey leans on a man named Al to help him figure out what to do. Al is actually an FBI agent, and Harvey is actually a snitch. The money that Harvey has been incorrectly spending on his restaurant is money that the feds gave him to give to the mob. This is their attempt at getting dirt on them.

Are the pieces starting to fall together for you too yet? If not, then I guess you will just have to wait in anticipation for my next blog.