SignWithAnE - Part 2

Foodwang

By E | Posted on: May 16, 2010

In the immodest tradition of first camera, then fork, scenes from lunch at the splendid Waterkloof:

Cape Town does like to think of itself as part of the big cosmopolitan world, so it’s no surprise that in recent years, there have cropped up a bunch of self-styled “foodie” blogs in the Mother City. Yes, this *could* be considered one too, but the bunch I’m thinking of are the ones who set themselves up as bona fide restaurant reviewers, with no apparent expertise apart from a) liking to eat, b) having enough disposable income to do so on a(n alarmingly) regular basis, and sometimes c) having eaten at restaurants in the actual Cosmopolitan world, which apparently gives them the authority of comparison.

Now, I like to read about other people’s experiences with food – who doesn’t? … read more

Posted in Food Media, Rants | Tagged food blogs, food media, restaurants | 4 Comments

Wobble wobble toil and trouble

By E | Posted on: May 2, 2010

It’s been a wobbly week. … read more

Posted in Posts | 1 Comment

That’s Reality…wang.

By E | Posted on: April 13, 2010

Talking about the surprising popular success in 1988 of a near-700 page book called The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers: Economic Change and Military Conflict from 1500-2000, Francis Wheen cites the New Republic‘s comment that ‘When a serious work of history with more than a 1000 footnotes starts selling in Stephen King-like quantities, you can be sure it has touched something in the public mood’ (you’ll find this in Wheen’s very amusing – and sometimes scary – How Mumbo Jumbo Conquered The World, p.66).

Let’s edit that a bit and apply it to Jamie Oliver’s American “Food Revolution” for a near-perfect description of what’s going on – ‘When a smutty work of Reality TV about a very serious issue gets the world talking ad nauseum, you can be sure it has touched something in the public mood’.

Is “junk” food addictive?

By E | Posted on: April 2, 2010

In the same week that (just in time for Easter!) we are (again) told that chocolate is “good for you”, come these depressing headlines:

Depressing not because of the news itself, but because of how that news inevitably is – has been, will be – abused by lazy reporting and lazy reading. True to the “addicts” that some of us apparently are, we look to the instant gratification of headlines and will happily regurgitate them at dinner tables, if not (even more depressingly) use them to explain away the need to take responsibility for what we put in our mouths. Francis Lam at Salon put it poignantly when he wrote that ‘seeing food in the dark light of addiction … filled me with a confused sadness‘, but I’d venture that many more people will be delighted at the news. Finally, we can point the finger at evil food (Good news, Mr. Creosote. It’s been the food’s fault all along!). … read more

Posted in Food Media, Rants | Tagged addiction, addictive junk food, bad science, health, hot cross buns | Leave a comment

Gotcha!

By E | Posted on: April 1, 2010

I was so annoyed when I blogged about Killer At Large last night that I forgot to mention one of my main irritations during the film. That was probably as it should be, because I needed to do a little research to confirm my suspicions, and now I have. … read more

Posted in Food Media, Jamie Oliver, Posts, Rants | Tagged celebrity chefs, Jamie Oliver, Killer At Large, Killer At Large review, Obesity, TED | Leave a comment

The killers at large

By E | Posted on: April 1, 2010

So I’m watching this documentary, Killer At Large. It’s about obesity, in case you missed the pun. And after one talking head in the form of a rabbi, I start noticing how more and more talking heads are actually talking churches. There’s the imam, there’s the reverend, there’s the monseigneur. This must be truly “objective”, in other words, since all the world’s religions are safely represented. And no sooner had I made this observation than the next talking head was Michael Pollan.

Need I say more?

Of course there are lots of medical doctors saying things too. ‘We live in an “obesogenic environment” ‘.’ True hunter-gatherers that we are, we’re all genetically programmed to not stop eating until all the food is gone’. Which begs the question: why, then, aren’t we ALL obese, and in the tragic situation of “having to” undergo liposuction at the age of twelve? … read more

Posted in Food Media, Posts, Rants | Tagged Killer At Large, Killer At Large review, Obesity | 1 Comment

All grown up

By E | Posted on: March 28, 2010

I guess it had to happen. Kind of like getting one’s wisdom teeth taken out, just so much better.

You see, I’ve never had a new car before. Growing up with a father with big hands that seemed to work best smothered in car grease from fixing his latest jalopy somehow consigned us all to a life of jalopies. His intentions were perfect, of course, and he did amazing things with metal and very little money. Great to have a mechanic in the family. Very shitty when the jalopy breaks down somewhere far away from that mechanic. Ah, like the time our Golf (fondly known as “Joke”) broke down SEVEN times during what should have been a three and a half hour drive from Swaziland to Jo’burg.

There were some memorable ones:

On the left, “Muesli”, apparently Swiss-German for little mouse (watch out for rodents in your granola). Trucks used to overtake her on the highway. And there’s me, wearing a coat fashioned out of a blanket (I thought I was very cool). Then came “Mr. Benz” in all his diesel glory on the right, with me and his surrogate daddy, Charlie the trusty mechanic in Mowbray. We (Charlie, Mr. Benz and I) saw quite a lot of each other (I had a running tab).

After that – and growing up a little every time – came the white Nissan “Pornmobile”. I thought I was pretty cool in that, except no sound system meant I couldn’t be thumping Snoop Doggy Woof at the traffic light. Neither did I have a furry die hanging from the mirror. So I guess it was just a cool-looking hunk of metal.
“Hannibal” the red Sting was my latest, and by far the most well behaved and trustworthy of the lot.

Until…

Now I know I’m cool – and that cars turn out to be remarkable vehicles for telling a life’s story.

Only one thing remains: what should I call her?

Posted in Posts | 3 Comments

Stuff that works

By E | Posted on: March 18, 2010

I like recipes that work. But there are so many – too many – out there, and it can be hard work picking the right one. In a world of mucho information and, as they say, too little time (and a strong predilection for endless comparison, and for distraction along other avenues, like discovering a new brownie recipe when you’re really after the right vitello tonnato), the internet as a recipe resource can be truly nasty.

But this afternoon I managed to (mostly) block out all the noise and just let Nigel Slater do the talking. He coached me through a batch of lemon curd, and then a batch of meringues. I’ve tried my hand at both before, but never with great results.

I like Nigel Slater. He’s very calm. And his recipes make me feel like I can cook:

The Philosophe says he can “apparently cook too, but this is a hypothesis that I’d rather not subject to much testing, in that I fear the loss of a potentially undeserved reputation.” Yeah. Clever logic for staying out of the kitchen. Sometimes it works, but sometimes his hand is forced to the pan. Apparently that works too.

What a good idea I had, three years ago today, when I asked him to be my husband.

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It’s Numberwang!

By E | Posted on: March 6, 2010

It’s Saturday, and because I’ve been buying apples and not eating them (it seems that I too, ‘emotionally … don’t always feel like an apple‘), I decided to bake an apple cake.

When I told the Philosophe he laughed and said I couldn’t, because there’s no such thing as an apple cake.

I don’t know what planet he grew up on, but where I come from, that’s Numberwang!

If you don’t know numberwang what it is, you can catch up here:

And if you still don’t know, maybe the German version will help:

Now excuse me while I go pull my wangernumb out the oven. It’s looking (and smelling) fine, and in an hour or so, with a nice glass of crisp cold white wine, I may even be persuaded to forgive the blazing heat as I tuck into a slice of emotionally satisfying apple (and cardamom) goodness.