Recently in Food Category

ARTE hat kürzlich eine Dokumentation von Marie Monique Robin gesendet, in der diese Nahrungsmittelzusätzen und den entsprechenden Genehmigungsverfahren auf die Spur geht. Parkinson, Alzheimer, Immunschwächekrankheiten sowie Diabetes und Fortpflanzungsstörungen nehmen seit 30 Jahren in unserem Teil der Welt stetig zu, während Länder ohne industrielle Nahrungsmittelerzeugung davon quasi verschont sind. Die erlaubten Tagesdosen von Pestiziden und Farbstoffen sind quasi willkürlich festgelegt, die Studien, die deren Harmlosigkeit beweisen, fast durchgehend von den Chemiekonzernen finanziert, die diese Produkte herstellen. Der Süßstoff Aspartam ist aufgrund der selben Studie heute zugelassen, aufgrund der er bis 1987 verboten war.

Das Video kann derzeit hier in voller Länge angesehen werden (gilt voraussichtlich 7 Tage):

(Direktlink)

The Parisian passages, or galleries, are in many ways the precursors of today's shopping malls. Housing numerous shops inside a roof-covered lane or passageway, they rightly prompted the German philosopher Walter Benjamin to write a body of essays about them, in which he cited tham as the prime example for the transformation of the world's cities into urban spaces in the 19th century.

Of the numerous Parisian passages that have survived to the present day (many of them restored to their former glory), perhaps the quirkiest is the Passage Brady in the 10th arrondissement (district) of Paris, linking the rue du Faubourg Saint-Denis with the boulevard de Strasbourg. Opened in 1828 and originally the home of numerous tailor shops, it underwent several changes in this slightly less than affluent area of Paris, never being truly "chic". The one that probably had the greatest impact occurred from 1973 onwards, when numerous immigrants from India and Pakistan opened shops here.

For the past decades, the passage has been host to countless Indian restaurants, food shops and barbers. It is a veritable enclave of the Indian subcontinent close to the heart of Paris, and a fairly inexpensive area to get a good Indian meal.

Indeed, restaurants as the Pooja and the Jardin des Indes are rightly recommended as being among the better Indian restaurants in Paris.

Further reading: Jean-Claude Delorme, Passages couverts parisiens. Paris: Parigramme, 2002. Available from Amazon.fr.

The Market, a prizewinning film by the Croatian filmmaker Ana Hušman, shows one day at the Dolac market of Zagreb, Croatia, with commentary by greengrocers and customers.

The film is currently shown as part of the exhibition "Aspects of Collecting" at Sammlung Essl.

Ever since I upgraded my cable account from 35 to 94 channels in order to bring down my monthly TV/Internet/telephone bill to half of what I used to pay (don't ask -- the telecom industry is perverse like that), I've been watching slightly more TV than I used to. I'm sure it's temporary though, mostly because the ubiquitous commercials are driving me insane.

Most of them are simply stupid, many are insulting my intelligence (such as the countless attempts to convince parents that sugar bombs are healthy for their children), but a couple are annoying to the point of causing physical pain.

The most painful ones, at the moment, are for probiotic yoghurt. They are ubiquitous, they are broadcast at painfully brief intervals, and some of them are strangely bizarre.

Like the one that starts with the voice-over announcing "mothers talk to their daughters about digestive problems", or the other one in which several women talk about how bloated they are all the time. I may not be able to fully understand this as I am a member of the male species, but it seems to be a somewhat unusual behaviour, and seeing women talking about digestive problems and being bloated in quick succession at 5-minute intervals minutes may fundamentally change my entire perception of women.

Ich habe das schon mal vor drei Jahren gebloggt, bin aber noch immer nicht so recht auf einen grünen Zweig gestoßen, daher versuche ich es nochmals: ich suche immer noch Bilder vom Automatenrestaurant Qusisana, das sich bis ungefähr 1972 in der Mariahilfer Straße 34 im 7. Wiener Bezirk befunden hat. Am meisten interessieren mich Aufnahmen von der Inneneinrichtung, da es aber fast gar nichts über dieses Restaurant zu finden ist, wäre ich eigentlich über alles dankbar, auch verbale Beschreibungen, falls jemand damals dort war und sich noch erinnern kann.

(Ja, den Artikel von Reinhard Pohanka im Buch Die Sinalco-Epoche kenne ich. Aus dem Buch ist das Foto oben. Quasi alles andere wird dankbar entgegengenommen.)

The first two Chupetinhos have turned red. More and more Numex Twilight are turning yellow and orange. And I've harvested another 43 green Jalapeños.

Responding to criticism that its food is unhealthy, McDonald's has recently published a series of brochures in which it wants to show that it is a responsible company.

One of these brochures, entitled "Für eine ausgewogene Ernährung Ihres Kindes" ("A well-balanced diet for your child") contains a couple of interesting details.

I was quite impressed by the food guide pyramid on page 7, and especially the positions that various McDonald's products have been allocated in it. French fries, for example, appear in the "bread, flour, grains, potatoes and pasta" category (of which a lot should be eaten) rather than in the "butter and oil" category (of which very little should be eaten); this despite the fact that a medium portion of fries contains almost twice as much fat (17g) as a hamburger (9g). I'm actually fairly sure that the food guide pyramid designers did not have fries in mind when they added those potatoes.