Pyttipanna (Links for the Week of September 1, 2019)

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The coming banana apocalypse, exploitative food delivery apps, and cheese made from celeb bacteria -- all in this week's linkpile.
Image: Library of Congress Pyttipanna: Swedish for "small pieces in a pan." Pushback by restaurateurs in India against food delivery apps A coming exhibition at London's Victoria and Albert Museum to feature cheese made with bacteria swabbed from celebrities (Yes, you read that right) Toilers in the gig economy working where they dine out in ever increasing numbers A blighting fungus newly arrived to South America threatens wholesale wipeout of the banana market Sheer heart attack! British man frys up pork chop bearing likeness of long-departed Queen frontman, Freddie Mercury Recent Australian study finds that long-term observance of the "paleo" diet may change your gut flora ... and not for the better Various ways of reducing food waste considered Meet the latest superfood: mesquite For the record, a Dairy Queen in South Carolina does not use burger patties made of… Read More...

Pyttipanna (Links for the Week of August 25, 2019)

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Radioactive sushi, the precarity of American food service workers, and an update on the vertical farming scene — all in this week’s linkpile.
Image: UNLV Library Pyttipanna: Swedish for "small pieces in a pan." Fear among South Koreans over radioactive sushi and other food to be served at 2020 Olympic games hosted by Japan Skipping a meal daily boosts your chances of avoiding cancer and chronic diseases, one researcher suggests The Trump administration's war on national dietary guidelines And proposed changes to SNAP meet pushback from 70 mayors of American cities Behind the scenes of the airline industry's quest for tastier in-flight meals Germany may cease its food exports to Britain following any no-deal Brexit, citing possible tariff and customs woes Brooklyn and the Bowery are home to a burgeoning vertical farming scene Ways to solve the food waste problem that is helping to kill the environment Researchers in the Netherlands worm their way closer to solutions to the threat of coming global… Read More...

Pyttipanna (Links for the Week of August 18, 2019)

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Bronze-Age parasite infestations, fast-food coronary clusters, and starving to make the rent — all in this week’s linkpile.
Image: Boston Public Library Pyttipanna: Swedish for "small pieces in a pan." Areas with lots of nearby fast-food restaurants are coronary clusters, a recent study has found Containers at your favorite eco-conscious eateries may be loading your body with "forever chemicals" One tech start-up's quest for the "ideal protein" Edulous Tyrannos: Toxic masculinity and class resentment at one high school cafeteria in the heart of hedge fund country Inhabitants of a Bronze Age English settlement had a bad case of worms, archaelogists have discovered A NZ scientist boils down findings of the IPCC's recent report on coming global food insecurity in 29 haiku Forced labor at Malaysian palm oil producer brings negative scrutiny to major brand junk food maker clients Finnish company set to market NASA-inspired wheat-like protein made from water, carbon dioxide, and electricity Over a third of Americans… Read More...

Pytipanna (Links for the Week of August 11, 2019)

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Lunchroom memes, the science behind gluten intolerance, and dismal airport food — all in this week’s linkpile.
Image: Library of Congress Pyttipanna: Swedish for "small pieces in a pan." Recently released report by the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warns that food insecurity is about to become a whole-world problem An effort is underway to persuade farmers to upgrade their crop storage containers in order to reduce food lost to bruising, vermin, and spoilage Start-up seeks to disrupt the disrupters who brought you food-delivery apps, and the delivery couriers they employ stand to benefit A primer on the "Where y'all sitting" lunchroom meme trending of late A prison yard stare keeps beach eats safe from seagulls, experts claim Married woman pens agony aunt letter in which she describes the many brushes with death by mushroom allergy she has had on visits to her inlaws Phone listing f*ckery by Yelp squeezes restaurant owners for some extra… Read More...

Pyttipanna (Links for the Week of August 4, 2019)

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Image: Boston Public Library Pyttipanna: Swedish for “small pieces in a pan.” Welcome to food desert America, where some 70 percent of food is “ultra-processed“ In…
Image: Boston Public Library Pyttipanna: Swedish for "small pieces in a pan." Welcome to food desert America, where some 70 percent of food is "ultra-processed" In related news: The Center for Science in the Public Interest lists its picks for 2019's worst fast food for you No matter how good or bad for you the food, fewer Americans are eating restaurant food in restaurants, thanks to the rise of the "munch-n'-crunch" economy of delivery and carry-out Of course, the folks who deliver your order may also be eating it Trump-o-nomics means no free lunches, even if you're a kid Joining U.S. school kids in hunger will be Brits should a no-deal Brexit happen, a leaked U.K. government doc claims The mission to create more flexitarians, one bloodily realistic veggie burger at a time From "phone farm" to table: Everyday Americans game… Read More...

Pyttipanna (Links for the Week of July 28, 2019)

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Image: A Neapolitan Watermelon Shop from the Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum Pyttipanna: Swedish for “small pieces in a pan.” If you’re worried about controlling your…
Image: A Neapolitan Watermelon Shop from the Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum Pyttipanna: Swedish for "small pieces in a pan." If you're worried about controlling your blood pressure or avoiding diabetes, you may want to head to your neighborhood farmers market When it comes to the current administration's dealing with the poor, it's now all stick and no carrot But the current administration has nothing on Venezuela, whose own administration is starving its people by way of a corrupt state-run food program The recent trend of comfort food at fine dining establishments explained Native Americans flourish nutritionally when they find their way back to their traditional foodways, but the challenge is finding their way back to their traditional lands Social media backlash drives body-shaming dinner plates from Macy's shelves A short history of astronaut food past ...And a rundown of astronaut… Read More...

Dinner with Lydia Maria Child

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  I began the Dinner series in 2016 with “Dinner with Caligula.” Much to my shock and sorrow, Caligula did show up to dinner. But history…
  I began the Dinner series in 2016 with "Dinner with Caligula." Much to my shock and sorrow, Caligula did show up to dinner. But history did not end with Caligula, so neither will this series. On weekend nights I’ll sometimes stream Check, Please! a show—really a show template—in which local PBS affiliates invite viewers to discuss their favorite area restaurants. Each participant in turn dines at the restaurants recommended by her fellows and then offers her impressions of her dining experience. More than simply a sampling of local dining possibilities, Check, Please! offers a glimpse of quaint regional differences that corporate-media monoculture hasn’t quite managed to erase. Watch enough episodes and you’ll learn that people in Kansas City rate value, which usually means piles of meat at a nice price, as highly as they do flavors and ambiance. Folks in… Read More...

Pyttipanna (Links for the Week of July 21, 2019)

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Image: Boston Public Library Pyttipanna: Swedish for “small pieces in a pan.” Black-owned restaurants are gaining in numbers and popularity One meatless slideróor even a…
Image: Boston Public Library Pyttipanna: Swedish for "small pieces in a pan." Black-owned restaurants are gaining in numbers and popularity One meatless slideróor even a whole sack of themódoes not a vegan make The real scoop on the wisdom of eating ice cream for breakfast Despite some positive developments, the world has slipped from its pace toward better nutrition, food security, and sanitation The humble egg and its fortunes over the years exemplify everything that's wrong with nutrition science Seafood has become one big plastic hassle How French food became too, er, French Sh*tty fast-food jobs are now even sh*ttier, thanks to productivity-monitoring tech Trump administration nixes proposed food and basic needs allowance for junior enlisted men and women Hot dog! You can now Airbnb a camper-conversion vintage Oscar Mayer weinermobile I'm always taking suggestions for food-related articles, projects, thought… Read More...

Pyttipanna (Links for the Week of July 14)

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Image from Geo H. Gennawey, Rocky Point, R.I., “Shore Dinner, Rocky Point, R.I.” (1935). Rhode Island Postcards. 273.   Pyttipanna: Swedish for “small pieces in a pan.”…
Image from Geo H. Gennawey, Rocky Point, R.I., "Shore Dinner, Rocky Point, R.I." (1935). Rhode Island Postcards. 273.   Pyttipanna: Swedish for "small pieces in a pan." Global temperatures are up, and global crop yields are down Yet where the danger lies may lie also the means of our deliverance, or so advocates of "smart farming" believe Here's the takeaway: dining out is growing ever pricier compared to eating in Manufacturers of super-sweet foods are answering the demand of practically no one, it turns out That store-bought curry or masala sauce may have been sampled by seagulls before it had gotten to you All-beef burger but hold the cow? You got it, if you happen to live in Japan or otherwise have access to lab-grown "Shojinmeat" Food pairings for crime novels 10 ingredient knock-offs that an eatery has likely fobbed off on… Read More...

Pyttipanna (Links for the Week of July 7)

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Image from the Ice Cream Trade Journal (1922)   Pyttipanna: Swedish for “small pieces in a pan.” Greening “food desert” communities, one school at a time…
Image from the Ice Cream Trade Journal (1922)   Pyttipanna: Swedish for "small pieces in a pan." Greening "food desert" communities, one school at a time Mississippi outlaws calling "veggie burgers" by that name, and a legal wrangle ensues But whatever you call that burger-like veggie patty, it may give you cancer Legendary food writer M.F.K. Fisher -- Epicure ... and radical? Increasing costs of living and doing business are killing restaurant criticism in San Francisco An 1851 manual on making ice cream For folks who are fussy about their food's ingredients and origins, the future is in crypto Pick your protein -- right out of thin air! One Israeli company seeks to take kitchen scraps beyond composting and into energy production Oz man contracts fatal salmonella from eating a gecko on a dare I’m always taking suggestions for food-related articles, projects,… Read More...

Pyttipanna (Links for the Week of June 30)

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Image via archive.org   Pyttipanna: Swedish for “small pieces in a pan.” A recent expose of ongoing institutional discrimination at the USDA. Did SCOTUS just clear…
Image via archive.org   Pyttipanna: Swedish for “small pieces in a pan.” A recent expose of ongoing institutional discrimination at the USDA. Did SCOTUS just clear the way for an “Amazon of liquor?” Spanish court delivers victory to food-delivery side-hustlers. “Food for my famished heart”: grocery shopping with Sappho (parody). Cornell’s pioneering program in educating families who receive food assistance celebrates 50 years. This species of prehistoric crocodile will just have a salad, thank you. Insect-based “alternative proteins” to be big biz through the 2020s. A journo relates her experience “eating food cooked by robots in America’s tech capital." The 17 cleanest supermarket chains, ranked by Consumer Reports. I’m always taking suggestions for food-related articles, projects, thought experiments to feature. Send them to @AusterityKitchn, and let me know how you would like to be credited. Read More...

Pyttipanna (Links for the Week of June 23)

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Image from Elizabeth Robins Pennell’s My Cookery Books (1903)   Pyttipanna: Swedish for “small pieces in a pan.” Nevada passes $10 million food bill—but it doesn’t have…
Image from Elizabeth Robins Pennell’s My Cookery Books (1903)   Pyttipanna: Swedish for "small pieces in a pan." Nevada passes $10 million food bill—but it doesn't have the $10 million Bread and ballots: New Zealanders will get to vote in supermarkets Will fast food’s love affair with fake meat last? An oral history of grunge food The New York Times asks Democrats, “What’s your favorite comfort food on the campaign trail?” Food stamps helped lift the US economy out of the Great Recession I'm always taking suggestions for food-related articles, projects, thought experiments to feature. Send them to @AusterityKitchn, and let me know how you would like to be credited. Read More...

Coweye Burgers and Plastic Malts

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Do hemorrhoids dream of deceptive meat?
"So to sum up, there is a small bit of the macrocosm inside us, inside the microcosm; and this small bit equals the whole universal mind. The microcosm contains the macrocosm, another concept not thinkable in formal logic. God within me sees God outside; the two commune with each other. The two link up through the mediating flesh or body. So he or it, whatever, is made visible here on this world, at this time. Meanwhile, Satan is up at the McDonald's stand, ordering coweye burgers and plastic malts, thinking to keep his power. A few more years of coweye burgers and plastic malts, and he'll have had it." --Philip K. Dick, Exegesis (2011) Read More...

Dinner with Caligula

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The mind-boggling extravagance of feasts hosted by Roman emperors depended on an equally mind-boggling maldistribution of wealth
The mind-boggling extravagance of feasts hosted by Roman emperors depended on an equally mind-boggling maldistribution of wealth In the year 39 CE, Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus Germanicus, then just two years into his reign, built a bridge across the Bay of Baiae near Naples. (more…) Read More...

A Contrary Image of Steaming Excrement

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Let it move you
"The ladies in hats glanced, ate, and spoke simultaneously. An unappetizing, much caricatured, yet innocent picture. In view of so much simultaneous and continuous gluttony, an outside observer, Scherbaum for instance with his preconceived opinion, was bound to infer a corresponding process: simultaneous and continuous bowel movements; for this obsessive abundance of apple strudel, almond crescents, cream kisses, and cheesecake could only be counterbalanced by contrary image, by steaming excrement. I rose to new heights. 'You're right, Phillip. Colossal priggishness ... Monumentally repulsive ... And yet, we mustn't forget, it's only a partial aspect.' "Scherbaum said: 'There they sit.' "I said: 'It's worry that makes them stuff.' "Scherbaum: 'I know. They paste cake over everything.' "I: 'As long as they eat cake, they're happy.' "We stared for awhile at the mechanism of the loading and unloading cake forks and registered… Read More...

Hunger as an Instrument of Social Control

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Under conditions of capitalism, it may be that you are what you don't eat
Under conditions of capitalism, it may be that you are what you don't eat This month will see more than half a million adults lose their Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits. Lower jobless numbers have prompted the federal government to discontinue waivers that states need in order to extend this aid to long-term unemployed. In Pennsylvania and Arizona, for example, childless, able-bodied people aged 18 to 49 will now get a mere three months’ assistance. In Alabama and elsewhere in the South, hard-luck cases may expect three weeks’ help every three years. After that, nothing. The idea is, apparently, that if you can't lock down one of the part-time, low-wage jobs the current economic "recovery" has created, you'd do well simply to starve. (more…) Read More...