Senator Inhofe,

This may come as a surprise to you but over here in Europe we are worried sick about climate change. It doesn't seem to concern you as your position does not seem to have budged from your speech given on the Senate floor on July 28, 2003:

"much of the debate over global warming is predicated on fear, rather than science." I called the threat of catastrophic global warming the "greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people"

to this from your latest rant, on July 22 last month:

More and more prominent scientists continue to speak out and dissent from man made global warming. In June, the Nobel Prize Winner for Physics, Ivar Giaever, declared himself a "skeptic" and said "global warming has become a new religion."

This is part of an ongoing series on how to cope with high food prices and lack of time to prepare and cook a healthy meal which fits nicely on WfD?. The last two editions are here and here.  

Note that these diaries are only meant to suggest, they are in no way didactic and serve merely as pointers for those who are interested in this subject matter. I posted a piece on kitchen implements a couple of weeks ago and some clever wags mistook the list as gospel. Well, nothing is written in stone, take these diaries with a pinch of salt, so to speak.

In this one I'll concentrate on listing grain ingredients, condiments, spices and bottled sauces. The next one will deal with easy and quick to prepare & cook stir-fries, as they can be tasty, inexpensive and full of goodness, suitable for for carnivores, omnivores and strict vegans. Make sure you bookmark this series. Onwards!

I will not eat oysters. I want my food dead. Not sick, not wounded... dead - Woody Allen

Cross-posted at our other site.

I love food and I love films. When that smart Kossack, plf515, suggested a diary on food films last week I just had to take this gallantly offered opportunity and run with it.

As a former chef any film that deals with eating or drinking (both is good) is obligatory viewing for me. And if it's funny then it's the icing on the cake. Without further ado let me say that I'm a great fan of that incredibly disturbing, satiric film, "La Grande Bouffe". If you haven't seen it, then make it your duty to hunt for a copy, rent it and get really grossed out! In short, four men in serious mid-life crisis get together over a weekend for one last orgy of sex, lotsa gourmet eating, and decadent behavior before dying of overeating. Fans of Marcello Mastroianni will not be disappointed. I posted a small YouTube apercu below to whet your, ahem, appetite.

To view a classic film eating scene look no further than Albert Finney in Tom Jones. The scene below remains original if not a little kinky. Judge for yourself.

You'd be surprised. We are told that drinking copious amounts of water may improve our health, but if we continually drink water containing contaminants we could become susceptible to many illnesses, from asthma to Parkinson's disease. We have become, more or less, human filters for toxic water. Tap water today is unfit for human consumption and filled with many toxins. If you aren't treating the water you drink to remove them, you are the filter for all of these toxins. But...but, you say, governments are supposed to ensure that tap water is safe to drink. Well, this common belief is bolstered by reassuring, yearly reports from local water departments showing low levels of contaminants in their water. Think again: metals that contaminate many water systems across the country include lead, cadmium, mercury and arsenic. The list goes on. Lookee here.

It is a simple fact that drinking tap water is simply not an option if you want to stay healthy. I don't have to remind you of how the Roman empire fell.

What's not to like about garlic? It is tasty in any combination you care to imagine (including ice-cream), it cures infections and sometimes colds, it does reduce blood pressure, it lowers cholesterol, and I'm told, it repels mosquitoes and the odd vampire. To me it's a case of Clove at first sight...or smell! Being a son of Provence, garlic has infused itself naturally in my psyche and I could not live without it. To this day I maintain that the perfect herb to combine with garlic is fresh thyme, to me it's an unbeatable duo, one that packs a scented punch to accommodate any type of dish.

My great-grandmother used to chew raw cloves regularly. She always carried a lemon peel in her purse and would bite on it after eating one. No garlic breath on her!

I kid you not. Well, ok, a little. Having read most Op-Eds and political columns in European newspapers on Obama's highly successful overseas tour, I can report of a new "I'm Spartacus, no I'm Spartacus!" phenomenon: European Parliaments are furiously scouring their own ranks and files for an Obama-like candidate to bolster up their tired old flanks. First up prostrating themselves before the chosen savior are the English. Take this Gordon Brown guy, not much of an inspiration, has managed to bungle just about every single issue in the last 12 long months and now the knives are out among the backbenchers for, you have guessed right, a quick backstabbing. No one should trust a man who has to gasp for air mid-sentence and ends up waffling platitudes anyway! Whispers in Whitehall went unanswered: "Where's our Obama? Why can't we have someone with charisma and intelligence?"

Now that I have your attention, I'd like to present you with the first diary of a series discussed here yesterday. Today's edition deals exclusively with the necessary kitchen appliances needed in these recessionary times like a bread-maker, a sturdy mandolin etc...

The object of this short series is to demystify some aspects of cooking as we're told - surveys after surveys - that we're eating far too much garbage and not enough time is spent in the kitchen preparing wholesome foods. Whilst some folks have little time on their hands others have limited transportation then there's the problem of sourcing affordable edibles from farmer's markets, co-ops and reasonably priced discount chains such as Aldi's (Lidl is poised to enter the US market by 2012) Trader Joe's and others. We all have our cross to bear.

In the next installment I will concentrate on quick recipes and fast cooking techniques particularly aimed at those who have too little precious time to prepare healthy meals.

"If you are what you eat, and especially if you eat industrial food, as 99 percent of Americans do, what you are is corn." Michael Pollan

I posted a quick diary on our site earlier today, with regards to a new study which researched the origins of childhood obesity, and I'd like to expand on it:

The majority of food items aimed specifically at children have poor nutritional content and yet many of these products continue to make positive healthy claims on the label.

Are you surprised? I'm not. Childhood obesity is on the rise worldwide for a number of reasons: physical activity levels continually decrease while processed foods increase; most folks work too hard because it takes two incomes instead of one to make ends meet, which in turn makes less time to prepare and cook healthily; and let's not forget this vastly overlooked fact: not all of us are born with an efficient metabolism system.

Living in Ireland one is constantly reminded of its recent history particularly of the horrifying years between 1845 and 1850, and for good reasons: it must never happen again. Though the Irish Famine is well over, famine continues to stalk the world.

To this day one of the greatest gift one can receive in my neck of the woods is a bag of freshly dug up spuds, lying in sweet smelling, soft dirt. I know, I got such a gift this morning and I can't help feeling overwhelmed at this unannounced kindness, knowing that only a few decades ago this would have represented food for an entire week for an average family.

I have been collecting information on how the humble potato is faring worldwide and there's some good news and some not so great but overall, it's mostly good as the acreage has increased in the largest potato growing countries. I hope my good friend from back West will read this.

It's been a while since I've had an evening fraught with alcoholic concoctions as sole dinner fare. Well, blame it on the 14th of July. A massive hangover ensued but fun was had, a small price to pay when one attempts to mix exotic liquors with gay abandon. The last nail into the cerebral coffin was a succession of perfectly calibrated raspberry Mojitos (recipe below). So adhering to my strong belief that there's a silver lining behind every single cloud, I present you with a diary about liquids instead of solids. I'm sure that there are some of you returning from an exhausting bout of live-blogging in hotel lobbies & rubbernecking with the powerful in Austin, and surely, you must be looking at the prospect of putting your feet up, holding a frosty highball filled with a pacifying mélange of mind altering fluids.

Ice cream as a dairy delight was probably "discovered" in the 1600’s, according to several books but none of them actually agree as to where. We do know that Charles I of England, or rather, his chef (either French or Italian), made ice cream a staple of the royal table. Depending on which version you read, either the chef had a secret recipe for ice cream (probably stolen) and the king paid him a yearly stipend to keep it a secret, or the chef was threatened with beheading if he divulged the recipe. Some attribute ice-cream making to King Tang (A.D. 618-97) of Shang, China, who had a method of creating ice and milk concoctions.

It's more likely that when Italian duchess Catherine de' Medici married the duc d’Orléans in 1533, she is said to have brought with her Italian chefs who had recipes for flavored ices or sorbets and introduced them in France (she is also known to have introduced the fork to the French court.

No-frills Air Farce Keating Five gets set for a bumpy ride:

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen...and friends. This is your captain speaking. My name is John McCain and my co-pilot is...never mind, he's not that important, he's all hair. Tighten your belts and keep them fastened until I turn off the warning signs, eh eh, which is unlikely to happen in the foreseeable future. Do not expect a soft landing, those good old days have gone out of the window...but seriously, my friends, you are in good hands, I know how to fly this baby, I've done this before, it's a no-brainer. In a moment, senior members of my cabin crew will pass along copies of my newly improved and redesigned set of policies, sans flips-flops, my very own commandments, which will, with your help my friends, secure me a recliner in the West Wing.

This year, the world and, in particular, developing countries, the poor and the vulnerable have been hit by both food and energy crises. Consequently the costs for many staple foods have risen to over 100% in some States. Casting a weary eye on the causes of the food crisis, a growing population, changes in trade patterns, urbanization, dietary changes in emerging economies, rising transportation costs, increased bio-fuel production, climate change and regional droughts are all responsible. To my astonishment, only a few people specifically mention the declining availability of water that is needed to grow irrigated and rain-fed crops. Seeking a quick resolution, policy makers & food multinationals are pressing the argument that the solution to the food crisis lies in plant breeding (GM) that produces the ultimate high yielding, low water-consuming crops, with little attention paid to strict scientific scrutiny of the use of this technology.

Current estimates indicate that we will not have enough water to feed ourselves in 25 years time, by which time the current food crisis will turn into a perpetual crisis. Politicians have once again fallen asleep at the wheel.

Cross-posted at La Vida Locavore

Our intrepid G8 politicians have gathered on the beautifully serene lake Toya, in Japan's northern island of Hokkaido for a round of cosy talks on such pesky subject matters like food shortages, climate change and various modern ills.

The global food shortage was not evident as the G8 leaders tucked in a "working lunch" of white asparagus and truffle soup followed by kegani crab salad, a supreme of chicken and cheese and coffee with exotic petit fours. Alongside bottled mineral waters, crates of Chateau Grillet 2005 was on offer for those who felt like a tipple as African leaders urged the G8 to tackle spiking oil and food prices, warning the crisis threatens to aggravate an already desperate plight in the continent.

Personally, I have known for some time that these "power summits" - concocted some thirty years ago in a fireside chat at Rambouillet - achieve little, if anything it provides some mental masturbatory moments for weary leaders and a promise of top notch repasts. If some of you have better information on past G8 feats not feasts, do tell.

Cross-posted at La Vida Locavore.

It's official! The Mediterranean diet can reduce the risk of cancer by almost a quarter, according to a major study of people's eating habits. We Mediterranean folks have known this for some time.

So my question is: do you believe, like George Santayana, that those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it? Or would you believe, as did George Bernard Shaw, that all we learn from history is that we learn nothing from history?

The good news over the orange bar!

I can't think of a Mediterranean country, apart from Spain's renown tapas, that can send out a vertiginous array of fabulous dishes to your table in a matter of minutes.

My love affair with Lebanese food started, well, in Beirut in the late sixties, I was 17 and on my way to Istanbul when my uncle suggested a brief stopover as he had some business to do there. That night we were ensconced in a rather low-lit, seedy restaurant whose main dining room was covered in Persian carpets, walls, ceiling, the lot. A large tray of about 30 dishes suddenly materialized, accompanied by several baskets of hot, thyme-scented flat breads. Well, I proceeded to devour most of what was on offer. I was in heaven. A belly dancer later sashayed to our table and I couldn't have cared less: the food was the attraction, as far as I was concerned.

Cross-posted at La Vida Locavore.

Being a Futurama fan, I've always wanted to say this but could not find the propitious moment. Writing about water scarcity & food shortages is taxing and angers me at times particularly when I come across disheartening news caused by blatant greed and callous disregard for our planet.

However, a huge dose of human ingenuity, human creativity and human toil will right the wrongs. I have great faith in humanity and this diary is dedicated to the good folks out there bursting their synapses coming up with novel ways of making the world less dependent on fossil fuels, working out solutions to feed the planet and generally trying to make this earth a better place (if you look at the human brain from say, 150,000 years ago, you will not see much difference when compared with today's brains. Yet the drive to learn, as well as our ability to communicate and work collectively, has lifted our human potential to unimaginable levels.)

While the neo-cons have rapture, the rest of us have rupture, partly due to GWB at the behest of his wingnut cohorts and "special interests". Congratulations George, you have achieved a specious phenomenon: the world is a much poorer place, the arctic ice won't be with us much longer, Iraq and Afghanistan are in a deeper quagmire than your lackeys have imagined, the grand illusion about an Iraqi windfall is just that, an illusion, and the world is largely united against you.

Rupture: noun 1: breach of peace or concord; specifically : open hostility or war between nations; 2: the tearing apart of a tissue <rupture of the heart muscle>; 3: a breaking apart or the state of being broken apart.
Verb 1 a: to part by violence : break, burst b: to create or induce a breach of.

Back in 2003, the Washington Post told us that U.S. embassies around the globe were inundating Washington with cables saying that the world both hates and mistrusts this "dry drunk",

megalomaniac who would be laughable except for the fact that he represents a power structure as demented as he is.

They weren't wrong.