The final countdown and three right turns

My thesis is due to be handed in on the 5th of November.  It still needs a bit of work but I hope to have a draft finished by the end of the month, which means I have lots of writing to do.  I've currently got about 25,000 words out of the 30,000 I'm supposed to have.  I still have to write about gender and blogging (back to the kitchen) which will be exciting because of all the great material I received from people commenting on my blog - and on their own blogs - about whether or not the kitchen and/or food blogging can be empowering.  If you have any other thoughts or insights to add about this, please do!

I have been thinking about the differences between the Weston A. Price Foundation self-affiliated blogs in the US and those in NZ.  I may have mentioned this before but many of the US blogs often have right-wing, old fashioned conservative (and religious) overtones; a distrust of big business and of government subsidies given to large scale farming, a strong emphasis on small farming and growing your own vegetables and often ideas promoting sustainability, self-sufficiency and caring for the planet.  Many of these principles are in line with the NZ WAPF sympathetic blogs which tend to be more left-wing.  It reminds me of a theory I heard which claimed that if someone's political perspective is extreme enough  in either direction - right or left - it ends up closely resembling the other side - three right turns make a left.  In searching for an image for this post I re-discovered Information is Beautiful, which linked me to a wikipedia entry on the political spectrum - apparently it's more of a diamond shape.

I have to say, and it's probably obvious anyway, that I have more left-wing leanings.  I value community and social services and all those crazy hippy things.  Libertarianism scares me, large corporations scare me, economics scares me, fundamentalist Christians scare me - or any fundamentalists, really.  It must sound like I spend a lot of time being terrified, but generally I try to focus on things that are worth my energy.  In January I came across a Nourishing Days blog post which scared me so much I immediately unsubsribed from this food blog.  I suppose this is a good example of patriarchy and I can probably use it when discussing gender.  I suppose the kind of empowerment that comes from food blogging may be an entirely different issue from the hegemonic forces governing the individual lives of the bloggers.  It is possible that these messages are being reinforced through blogging - along with information about nourishing food.  This particular blog contains a post I'm using in my analysis which carries the same kind of conservative, religious message, but also focusses on sustainability in a way which could be quite empowering - got gender-specifically, but in an anti-corporate fashion.

This is probably the sort of thing I ought to be writing about right now in my thesis, rather than blogging about...

Crazy crazy crazy and procrastination

I seem to be procrastinating on my thesis by submitting conference abstracts today.  I wrote one while my car was getting a warrant, it was due today, then I saw another conference that looked good so I submitted the 'back to the kitchen' abstract for that one too.  The first conference is the Sociology Association of Aotearoa New Zealand conference in Akaroa from the 3rd to the 5th of December, the second is on the same dates (that's where the crazy comes in) in Nelson.  It's the Women in Psychology conference.  I'm not really in psychology, although I did take an under grad paper called 'women in psychology' taught by my grandmother, so I will see if I get into that one.  Might be an interesting trip to Nelson and Christchurch/Akaroa in the same couple of days.  It's an interesting form of crazy I seem to have developed, maybe I will get it seen to by the psychologists at the conference.

Here is the abstract I wrote in a rush today:

The Nourishing Revolution:  Exploring a new social movement

Problems with modern industrialised food have recently gained public attention.  Concerns have been raised about ecological damage, animal cruelty as well as personal health issues such as the dangers of pesticides.  Modern processed foods have been linked to the rise on obesity and diabetes among other conditions.  As a response to some of these concerns, new social movements have immerged and grown.  The Weston A. Price Foundation represents one such movement, with the aim of promoting and educating people about their concept of traditional nourishing foods.  The foundation’s principles differ from conventional food discourse, particularly in their promotion of the consumption of natural saturated fats and raw dairy products.  This paper will explore the movement, in relation to my research, as a form of food praxis.  It will focus particularly on the use of the internet blogging to communicate and form communities supporting the philosophies of the Weston A. Price Foundation.

I might be able to change it if I need to, before it's officially part of the conference proceedings.  I'm not sure if my mind is working well or not so I don't feel like I'm in a good place to assess it right now - comments are welcome!  

I'm now procrastinating by finding funny images to pepper this post with.  It's silly really, because I'm quite enjoying the writing I'm doing at the moment about all these wonderful food blogs.  It's fun and light and doesn't involve much extra reading or theory (because apparently I'm supposed to have done all that by now!).  


I had a very rushed trip to Wellington in the weekend, which I'm still recovering from.  I really enjoyed meeting Johanna from Star-cooked and talking food and blogging and sustainability.  That is one of the great things about blogs, they draw interests together and are a great medium for allowing like-minded people to communicate!  I really like the way that blogs often have overlapping interests and also the way that they usually incorporate aspects of people's lives, their views, their stories... it makes them so much more interesting than dry academic stuff!  I wish I could meet more of you wonderful food bloggers!

Soup for brains

My head is currently swamped with too much everything - I've barely even cooked a meal in the last week which is quite unusual and also troubling.  The first part of B Semester is over and there's a two week break with no tutorials, so I get a break from that but not from my thesis and the due date (November 5th) is looming.  I broke out of my cooking strike today and made my favourite Thai soup: Tom kha gai, loosely adapted from this recipe.  I used free-range chicken and added in lots more veges - something my diet has been lacking lately.  I also made a start on pumpkin soup that I make with lots of fish sauce, coriander and coconut cream, but my wrist is sore from attacking the giant pumpkin, probably something I could have done better had I been very angry or frustrated at the time.

I'm currently trying to find blog posts to analyse for my thesis, but there are so many good ones it's really hard to choose.  I want to get a good selection so that I can look at a wide range of themes; personal and political, scientific and lay discourses etc...  Aside from the blogs I'm trying to get my thesis into better shape - re-organising it so that it makes more sense.  I still have a few sections that need to be written, although Sandra and Johanna have been helping me with their fantastically usable comments about women in the kitchen and food blogging and empowerment and so on.  I'm probably at a stage where I need to have a big break and let my mind compost all the information that seems to be coming at me from everywhere, but I'm starting to get anxious about deadlines so I'm going to try to get at least a passable amount of writing done.  I find that when I sit down and work I make heaps of progress...

Sinful indulgence: Puritan residue in food discourse

sinful cake

It seems I've had a bit of a break from blogging but I'm still going strong on the thesis.  This post may come out a bit academic because it's based on what I'm writing at the moment.  Basically, I've been thinking about the way people often talk and think about food as 'good' or 'bad' - as though there's an implicit moral value judgement.  I think this is left over from the religious roots of Western culture, there's something absurdly puritanical about the idea that what is good is hard work and not particularly enjoyable (healthy food), whereas anything pleasurable, a sweet, fatty indulgence for example, must somehow be sinful.  Perhaps this partially explains the promotion of bland foods like grains and the public execution of saturated fat.

puritanical pyramid

This is what I wrote a few days ago as part of my thesis:

According to Warde (1997) health was rarely a concern in recipes in 1967-8, only four percent of recipes recommended food because it was healthy.  This was before concerns over nutrition escalated; in the 1991-2 sample sixteen percent of recipes made reference to the healthy nature of foods.  There was a common assumption that healthy food equated to light food which would (hopefully) equate to a lighter physical form.  Health (nutritionism) information was increasingly supplied, alongside recipes, about factors such as fat, fibre and calories following the trend of increasing obsession with health and healthy eating, particularly prevalent in the middle class and often more of a concern for women.  Warde asserts that this reflects government propaganda campaigns encouraging healthy eating (bio power!!!). 

This kind of compromise is discussed by Warde in his book Consumption, Food and Taste (1997).  “Comfort food” is a common term used to describe the consumption of (usually unhealthy) food for emotional pleasure rather than bio-physical health.  This may be a way that lay discourse patches the divide between good and sinful foods – allowing for some emotional pampering on the part of the unhealthy food, but just occasionally.  Warde calls this:

“one of the most important mixed messages regarding contemporary food. We should eat healthily; but not if it makes us sad.  Implicitly hedonistic consumption is justified in terms of what the mind and the body need.  This juxtaposition of indulgence and bodily self-discipline identifies a profound contradiction.  Its only resolution is by eating something different tomorrow.  Bangers and mash is for a special occasion, when feeling blue; and that is a most important condition in the world of self.  You deserve to be happy, and to be comforted when not.  The indulgence may be craved for a transgression of the rules.  Ultimately, this is a tale about good and evil, and what is being encouraged is evil.  But you can be forgiven because you feel miserable; if you aren’t happy, try sin!” (1997, p.79)

bangers and mash

Obviously, this is still in a very rough state, but it highlights the point I want to make about the oddly religious overtones in contemporary food discourse.  I wonder if people prefer to think in terms of simplistic binaries like "good" and "evil" even though the complexities around food are always contradiction these kinds of value judgments.  

On a lighter note, I want to share something hilarious that I found in a book by Jeremy MacClancy called Consuming Culture:

            Marinating Mussolini

            (The Flavour of Fascism)

To Filippo Marinetti, Futurist poet and leader of the Italian avant-garde, the future lay with the future and not with some glorified version of the Italian past.  So down with out-of-date ways! And up with electricity, aeroplanes, machines, velocity!

The new age promised by Il Duce demanded a new cuisine.  Out with staid recipes and tired culinary formulae! In with new harmonies, unexpected flavours, and gastronomic surprises! Down with Bollito, Ragu Bolognese, and Fettucine ala Marinara! Long live ‘Drum Role of Colonial Fish’, ‘The Ox in the Cockpit’, and ‘Raw Meat torn by Trumpet Blasts’!

If, Marinetti argued, ‘our virile proud dynamic and dramatic peninsula was to advance, then habits had to change. ‘Since everything in the modern civilisation tends towards the elimination of weight and increased speed, the cooking of the future must conform to the ends of evolution.’ In other words, pasta – that staple of the nation’s diet – had to go.  A barbaric and piggish food, it weighed down the body and benumbed the spirit, establishing a dictatorship of the stomach and bringing on a seductive sense of indolence that neither plebeians nor intellectuals could resist. It was a waste of time to struggle for the health, agility and freshness of Italian intellectuals if this gut-rot blocker was allowed to bar the way: ‘Today we need to remake the Italian man, for what point is there in having him raise his arm in the Roman (Fascist) salute if he can rest it without effort on his bulging stomach? Modern man must have a flat stomach, under the sun, to think clearly.’

            Not everyone was convinced.  In Naples they protested in the streets. In Aquila the women signed a petition in support of their beloved food.  In Turin a conference of chefs tried to debate the issue: it ended in violence.

            Enraged magazine editors attempted to discredit Marinetti by fabricating photos of him eating spaghetti.  The Duke of Bovino, Mayor of Naples, declared pasta a celestial food: ‘The angels of paradise eat nothing but vermicelli in tomato sauce.’ This merely confirmed Marinetti’s suspicions about the monotony of life on a cloud.  Better to be a Futurist with your feet on the ground and your fork stuck into ‘Steel Chicken’ or ‘Roars of Ascent’.  Patriotism required nothing less.

Fabricated: Marinetti eating pasta

Back to the kitchen

I submitted an abstract for the Women's Studies Association (NZ) conference in November which has just been accepted:

Back to the Kitchen: Middle class women’s role in a new social movement
Despite the second wave of feminism’s emphasis on freeing women from the confines of domesticity, a new generation of middle class women are now reclaiming the kitchen in an effort to take control of their lives and their health as well as the health of their families. Modern industrially processed food has reached the point where it has become a political issue in terms of its indigestibility, negative health affects and unethical production - unjustly harming communities, the land and animals. Not only are these middle class women empowering and educating themselves and changing their own lifestyles and diets, armed with PCs and the internet, they are sharing what they know through weblogs, producing information and networking to form online communities. This presentation will look at the transformation of the kitchen as a place of confinement to a place of empowerment, explore the role of middle class women in this new social movement and draw parallels to other historical social movements that middle class women have been influential in such as the anti-apartheid movement and the US civil rights movement.

While I was intending to be a bit controversial with the title, the person in charge of submissions had a few concerns:

While your abstract is accepted, I do feel I should warn you that you are likely to receive some interrogation of your argument.  A return to the kitchen on the bases you outline, while perhaps experienced by women as freely chosen and even 'empowering', could also be a response to new pressures on middle class women to be 'good' mothers who actively protect their families from external 'dangers' posed by processed food and other environmental contaminants - and thus is not dissimilar to 1950s moral panics about physical (and social) hygiene - 'dirt danger'. So middle class women are called upon to be more concerned than ever about their family's and children's health, diet, and wellbeing, as well as the planet's wellbeing, with a new set of expectations and disciplinary practices emerging to replace the old.  At the same time, such a choice fits with contemporary neo-liberal requirements in terms of taking full responsibility for the care of the self as a condition of citizenship.  So in these two senses, the return to the kitchen might not necessarily be progressive or emancipating, or at least has a dual aspect to it which may simultaneously entail hegemonic recuperation. You might also want to see this link:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/7206627/French-f
eminist-warns-green-movement-forcing-women-to-stay-at-home.html

This raises some interesting points about feminism and choice.  While many food bloggers probably wouldn't identify as feminists, from what I have read there is a sense of agency in their chosen lifestyles and the blogging process.  There is also recurring conflict that occurs between the second wave feminist emphasis on leaving behind traditionally female roles and, particularly on participating in skilled, full-time, paid employment.  This was a particularly moving blog post on this topic from the perspective of a food blogger:
 http://www.nourishingdays.com/?p=2537
(Note the religious overtone which is common in US based nourishing blogs)

I would agree that taking full responsibility is a typically neoliberal thing, which is probably why this movement is common in largely neoliberal countries - it is also an example of rebellion against the corporate domination of neoliberal countries. 

From my perspective, feminism  - or any human rights based movement is about freedom and choice.  It is possible that these women are still shackled by patriarchy or pressured by moral panic, perhaps some are more than others, and that is something worthy of investigation, but social pressure applied from the other side has the potential to be just as disempowering.  From my interpretations of the perspectives of these women, there is a sense of empowerment in knowing what is in their food, where it came from and that the processes involved in preparing it to make it more nourishing.   There is a creative outlet in cooking and a sense of sharing and community in blogging as well as the satisfaction of contributing to the growing body of alternative nutritional information available on the internet.  There is the sense of security in feeding their families and themselves safe, healthy food.

Chocolate Kumara (Yam) Pudding

There's nothing better than chocolate pudding on a cold winter night.  I have made similar puddings before, but this one was particularly yummy.  I consider it to quite healthy because of the relatively low sugar levels - because most of the bulk and sweetness come from the kumara (this is another case where we have different names for the same thing, but I'm pretty sure these particular kumara are called yams in the US).  The texture varies depending on how much you mash/puree the kumara, I quite like it with a bit of variation rather than completely pureed.  The kumara needs to be pre-cooked.  I often put them in the oven when I'm using it for other things so I have them ready to be mashed - remember to poke a few holes in it before you bake it.

Ingredients:

One large orange pre-baked kumara (yam)  - you could also use other varieties but these ones have a nice texture.
50 grams butter or coconut oil
2 free-range eggs
Half a cup of cream or coconut cream
1/4 cup of brown sugar, honey or preferred sweetener
30 - 50 grams very dark chocolate, I used Schoc 100%
2 Tbsp cocoa powder
1/2 cup hot water

Recipe:

1. Melt the butter in a medium sized pot, when it has melted remove from heat and add in the chocolate in pieces
2. Mash/puree the kumara and add to the pot along with the eggs, sugar and cocoa.  Mix thoroughly.
3. Add the hot water and heat gently until the mixture is heated to your satisfaction.

My two year old loves this - she ate her whole cup full and then asked "More chocolate?"

She is now on her third little cup "Yum!"

I also had the idea that I might use up some of the extra pudding by freezing it in ice block moulds.


The Chocolate Non-Controversy
One thing I have come across in my research of the Weston A. Price Foundation is that Nourishing traditions is very anti-caffeine despite having a recipe for kombucha which used caffeinated tea.  Many of the nourishing blogs I have come across include chocolate (and sometimes coffee) containing recipes - something that I am in immense support of being a huge chocolate fan.  Although this could be seen as a contradiction I prefer to see it as an example of the dynamic nature of a grass-roots movement - whereas in a hierarchical top-down movement the chocolate rebels would have been thrown out long ago.  I'm not sure if there has been any discussion about this within the movement.

This was posted as part of The Nourishing Gourmet's Pennywise Platter

Why We Ferment

Thanks for all the feedback on my fermented feijoa drink - I'm planning on trying it with quince next.  I wanted to explain my reasons for fermenting food - other than the obvious taste benefits.  Above is a picture of some lacto-fermented pickles I made recently. I used a few handfuls of olives from my tree, some dandelions, some of the last courgettes and tomatoes, small onions and herbs - put them in brine for a few days at room temp and then into the fridge.  The olives are still bitter so they might take a while in the fridge before they reach perfection.

In our modern germ-phobic society micro-organisms often have a bad name (germs are just a naughty word for micro-organisms).  I'm not a big fan of sterilizing everything in sight - those hand sanitizers give me the creeps and I'm convinced that the recent increases in auto-immune diseases are related to our war on the germ.  We seem to forget that micro-organisms basically run our bodies and that most of them are harmless or very useful - particularly in the digestive system - helping to break down soluble fibre and make nutrients more absorbable etc.  Apart from cheese and the good old lactobacillus acidophalus yogurt our supermarkets seem to be freakishly microbe free - food keeps longer that way.  But traditional cuisines are full of lacto-fermented pickles, drinks and all kinds of other cultured foods.  Fermented food is easy to make and not particularly time consuming.  Here are some fascinating blog posts on fermenting food:

Fermented foods
Fermented food: benefits of lactic acid fermentation
Fermented food for beginners