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Dining 2

People lined up to watch the second First Nations [referrred to as Indian, back then] canoe races, at the New Westminster waterfront. The King Neptune Restaurant on Front Street is visible with its “Seafood” sign. Photo: Bob Dibble (1943 – 1979), 1967.

In my youth, I enjoyed eating food in restaurants, but it always involved a special occasion. Most times, we drove down to the King Neptune seafood restaurant, on the New Westminster waterfront. On 1978-01-13, Trish and I were married twice. The first ceremony was at the Provincial Government Buildings on Sixth Street and Fourth Avenue in New Westminster. We then had lunch at the King Neptune, with my family and Jane, a friend. Later we had a Baha’i ceremony at Patricia’s parents’ house in Vancouver, with both our families as well as Baha’i witnesses.

My most exotic restaurant experience was a Polynesian dinner at Trader Vic’s, located at the Bayshore Inn, in Vancouver. It opened in 1961 and closed in 1996. I think I ate there about 1963. I still intend to visit Trader Vic’s again, but the next (and last) time will be at their flagship restaurant in Emeryville in northwest Alameda County, California, between Berkeley and Oakland, on San Francisco Bay. It is an 19 km/ 14 minute drive from my daughter Shelagh’s house, that she shares with husband Derek and son Quinn. This is not the original Trader Vic’s location in Oakland, that opened in 1934 and closed after 38 years, in 1972. The replacement opened immediately after the original closed, and has been operating for almost 53 years.

Trader Vic’s in Emeryville, California.

Relative poverty in the early years after moving to Norway probably influenced my current preference of not eating in restaurants. With a limited range of culinary skills, I am happy that Trish enjoys cooking. I try to reciprocate in areas where I have some competence. In the kitchen, this includes washing and drying dishes. However, it should be noted that we have had Clea N, a dishwasher since 2023-01.

Breakfasts are the most standardized of meals. On Thursdays we eat waffles, three each, usually with cheese on them, possibly with something sweet on top of that, especially the last one, which usually involves a dark syrup. On Sundays we eat pancakes, which follows the same procedures. We also eat various types of hot porridge. Twice a week this is oatmeal, with an optional, usually more exotic ingredient, perhaps once a week. This leaves two or three breakfasts with granola.

Before there was a greater choice, with several cold cereals, but these are being eliminated. The general rule is that we only buy products that contain three or fewer ingredients, in an attempt to avoid ultra-processed foods. Take Kellogg’s Rice Krispies as an example. In addition to Snap, Crackle and Pop, they typically contain rice, sugar, salt and malt flavoring. They may also include added vitamins and minerals, but specific ingredient lists vary by area. This is at least one ingredient too many.

I try to follow a daily routine, at all times, especially with respect to liquids: a cup of green tea at breakfast = 09:00, followed by glasses of water interspersed with cups of black coffee. After dinner = 14:00, I only drink water and herbal teas. Otherwise, I may drink two, possibly three, bottles of non-alcoholic beer throughout the year. No other carbonated beverages. We also eat a third meal, an evening snack = 19:00. Note: different rules apply when travelling!

Yes, people should reduce the amount of processed and ultra-processed food they eat. I have not yet eliminated everything from my diet in those categories, but am making progress. With hard, outdoor chores we allow ourselves to indulge in two cookies each, or divide a small chocolate bar between us, or even eat a pair of crown ice-cream cones = krone-is. Trish eats chocolate flavour, while I eat strawberry. Strawberry is a recent indulgence, perhaps a decade old, when I allowed myself to admit that I sometimes preferred the taste of strawberry to chocolate, at least in ice cream. One Tuesday, Trish dug out some Ukrainian chocolate that Oksana had sent us.

Inderøy has its own chesse and ice-cream manufacturer, Gangstad gårdsysteri = Gangstad farm cheese factory, located in the north of the municipality, not far from the boundary with Steinkjer. It has an interesting internet address = ysteri.no = cheesefactory.no. Its products are expensive, and we don’t normally buy products made there.

In terms of the ice-cream hierarchy, the next most expensive ice-creams commonly available are produced by Hennig-Olsen, started by Sven Hennig-Olsen (1899–1945) in Kristiansand in 1924, after a trip to Chicago. It has an ice-cream market share in Norway of 46%. Hennig-Olsen Ice Cream set a world record in 2015 with the World’s Largest Crown Ice Cream. The crown ice cream was 3.08 m high and contained 1080 l of ice cream, 60 l of chocolate and 40 l of strawberry jam. It was consumed by an audience of approximately 9000 people who were present in Kristiansand during the awarding ceremony. The ice cream is featured in the Guinness World Records book for 2018.

This is followed by Diplom Is who produce a bog standard product. This brand is owned by Tine, the Norwegian dairy co-operative. The forrunner of Diplom, launched Krone-Is in 1953, but increased its size and price (to NOK 1 = one crown) in 1954. We buy the almost identical Coop brand, which is a lower priced variant.

Gangstad is not the only Inderøy company that has a generic internet address. Take Ystgård gartneri, where we buy most of our vegetables as well as eggs, when they are not available at our local farm. It has gartneri.no = horticulure.no (according to Google translate). I would have said something more like garden centre. Located in Straumen, they advertise that they are a local supplier of flowers, vegetables, farm food, eggs and funerals in Nord-Trøndelag.

Yes, I would like people to believe that I always avoid carbonated beverages! However, that is just the situation when I am at Cliff Cottage. When travelling I can indulge myself, especially with root beer when travelling in north America. In Europe, travel may involve cola. I remember that in 2023 I drank a bottle of cola with lime (or was it lemon?) taste. This was repeated in 2025.

Once I even misunderstood Alasdair, and avoided a taste treat that I had hoped to find = non-alcoholic Guinness, in Portsmouth, England in 2024. I have regretted mishearing him ever since. I think he understood that if he encountered it in the future, he is not to ask, but just buy to buy it. His expenses will be reimbursed. I did get a chance to taste this in 2025 and have decided I do not need to repeat the experiment again.

In Inderøy, we – on occasion – support local cafes and restaurants, this includes: Kjerringa med Straumen = The old woman with the flow, which is a double play on words rooted in Norwegian literary history: Kjerringa mot strømmen = The old woman against the flow (1871), a fairy tale collected by Peter Christen Asbjørnsen (1812 – 1885) og Jørgen Moe (1813 – 1882), inspired by the brothers Grimm. Straumen is the name of the municipal centre, but it refers to its tidal flow in and out of Børgin, the local fjord. Strøm, strømmen (with the definite article -en) is a more general name for a tidal/ river current. Also located in Straumen is the Internet Cafe, as well as a cafe run by the Sanitetsforeningen, a woman’s health group. In addition, there are eateries at Kjerknesvågen, Mosvik, Røra and Sandvollan.

Outside of Inderøy, we also stop at Biltema = Car Theme, a warehouse store that originally focused on automotive components, for various types of milkshakes, usually chocolate. This may happen once a month. We also eat pizza at specific restaurants in Steinkjer, Verdal, Stjørdal and some more distant places. In the Detroit area, Brad has encouraged us to be enthusiastic about Buddy’s pizza. I can understand his point. The frequency of these visits? Well, perhaps once or twice a year, in total.

In the distant past, and for possibly twenty years there was a Chinese restaurant in Steinkjer, and another in Verdal. We preferred to patronize the one in Steinkjer, located close to the library. However, it suddenly closed down. I suspect the owner had made his fortune, and retired to China. It was replaced by another, more upscale one, that we have avoided patronizing, except for a first visit.

At Norwegian hotels, breakfast is expected to be included, in the price of a room. It is a major performance, and includes quality ingredients. Take eggs as an example. They will be available in a minimum of hard boiled, soft boiled, scrambled and fried variants. There will always be a large quantity of different types of fruit and breads available. However, one should avoid the Scandic chain. It is now charging extra for breakfast. Outside of Norway, the quality of breakfasts quickly deteriorates.

At one time, we tried to support independent local restaurants, but this is now avoided, as there is too much variation in quality and too much salt. If we do have a meal at a fast-food chain in Norway, it is most often at a Burger King. It offers a standardized experience. However, I did appreciate eating a vegetarian burger at T.G.I. Friday’s in Bergen.

This post began when I wrote that visiting north America is usually an excuse for me to drink root beer. Theoretically, root beer is available in parts of Norway, near Stavanger. It is typically consumed by American oil engineers. Otherwise, it is not consumed, and is unavailable.

The World, including North America

Travel usually involves eating other meals in restaurants. For me, this is seldom enjoyable, because of excessive salt usage, and ultraprocessed foods. At one time, I tried to find places that looked like diners. This has become more difficult. On my travels to the Maritime provinces and Maine in 2025, I learned that I could order something to eat without fries.

A trip to British Columbia usually involves at least one dinner at a White Spot restaurant, founded in 1928, at Granville and 67th Avenue, in Vancouver. In addition, A & W = Allen & Wright Restaurants, is a preferred choice for fast food, distinguished by its draft root beer in frosted mugs. The Canadian A & W head office is located in North Vancouver. The first Canadian A&W restaurant opened in Winnipeg, Manitoba, in 1956. However, A & W’s origins date to 1919, in Lodi, California, south of Sacramento. It claims to be the oldest extant chain, after Fred Harvey’s Company, started in 1876 but now closed, with varying proposed dates. This is disputed by Nathan’s Famous, where Nathan Handwerker started a restaurant on Coney Island in 1916. It was only a single restaurant until 1959, when it became a chain. My dating proposal is to date chains from the time they acquired their second restaurant, so Nathan’s Famous, is far down on my list.

Two other fast-food chains I appreciate had locations in New Westminster, British Columbia, in my formative years: Dairy Queen, founded in 1940 in Joliet, Illinois; and, the International House of Pancakes (IHOP), founded in 1958 in Toluca Lakes, a neighbourhood in Los Angeles, California. Because of its proximity to my sister’s house, there is also Wendy’s, founded in 1969 in Columbus, Ohio. At the top of my list, but no longer in existence, was Beano’s, visited regularly because of its location on Sixth Street in New Westminster, with a second location on Kingsway near the Renfrew Loop = bus station, and good tasting chocolate sundaes, in the late 1970s. I prefer waffles made at the local Waffle House, in New Westminster, rather than pancakes at IHOP. Waffle House is not part of a chain.

I am not enthusiastic about all restaurant chains. I am hesitant to use: KFC, founded in 1952 in Salt Lake City, Utah; and, Macdonald’s, founded in 1955 in San Bernardino, California. 1969. I am neutral towards: Denny’s, founded in 1953 in Lakewood, California; Burger King, also founded in 1953 but in Miami, Florida; T.G.I. Fridays, founded in 1965 in Dallas, Texas, and Wendy’s founded in 1969 in Columbus, Ohio. I had a very positive experience of the Rainforest Cafe at Metrotown in Burnaby, British Columbia, and was enthusiastic to repeat the experience. However, when I did try it again, in London, England, all of its charm had worn away. It was started in 1994, by a Houston, Texas, company.

In California, in addition to Trader Vic’s in Emeryville, I hope to visit the original A & W in Lodi. It is 130 km away from Shelagh, Derek and Quinn’s house. There are also several branches of In-N-Out Berger, founded in 1948 in Baldwin Park, in Los Angeles county, California. There is also one in Oakland, about 10 km away from Shelagh and family. Also on my restaurant bucket list is a meal at Carl’s Jr, founded in 1941 in Los Angeles. It allegedly appeals to hungry, young males. Depending on the route taken, there is one only 5.5 km away from Shelagh.

Note: Bog standard is a Norwegian expression, originally Danish, where bog (Danish) = bok (Norwegian) = book (English). So it refers to something done following the book = the rules.

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Dining 1

A meal, served on a plate, with a sauce. Caroline Green, Unsplash 2021-09-11

My contribution to fine dining is preparing dinner about once a week. There are two limitations at play here. First, that is about my productivity limit. Second, that is about as much suffering other diners are willing to subject themselves to. Some of these other diners may think the adjective fine is inappropriate. I have come to an age where I accept my delusions as reality.

Some notable people have a better understanding of food. I rarely come across them because the last thing I want to do is read or talk about food. For 25 years (1999 – 2024) Jay Rayner was the restaurant/ food journalist at the Guardian. Fifteen years of that was at the Observer Food Monthly (OFM), one of the Guardian’s other publications. Rayner decided that he wanted to bail out when that publication was sold. So in 2025 he become the food critic at the Financial Times. While at the Guardian, he had produced 180 OFM columns, of which the last one was published 2025-02-20. I am reading his column for the first time!

I will now attempt to interpret Rayner’s advice for people who eat to live.

  1. A table should be big enough to hold all of the dishes that are going to arrive.
  2. Food should be served on plates or bowls.
  3. Rayner encourages restaurants to provide small sharing plates.
  4. Wine? Here I will insert my own advice. It is unnecessary. Drink water!
  5. Servers should always write down orders.
  6. Eating alone is dining with someone you love.
  7. Food stains are a badge of honour
  8. Great food can be found in the most atrocious of locations.
  1. Individual foods are not pharmaceuticals
  2. Eat a balanced diet = proteins, carbohydrates, fats.
  3. No foods provide detoxification. Use your liver and kidneys.
  4. No foods are dirty, that is moralizing. Some may be unhealthy, that is different.
  1. Fat is the seat of flavour.
  2. Salt should be avoided even if Rayner wants to indulge in it.
  3. Rayner believes brown and messy foods are the best foods.
  4. Picnics are a nightmare.
  5. Buffets are where good taste goes to die.
  6. Add bacon for taste.
  7. Hyper-expensive foods are about status.
  1. Good food takes skill to prepare and time to cook
  2. Avoid cookbooks that use words like simple.
  3. Eating a slaughtered animal comes with the responsibility to eat as much of it as one can.
  4. Don’t share home produce with neighbours, without asking.
  1. Tipping should be abolished.
  2. All restaurants should use someone over 50 to test:
    • print size on menus
    • if lighting is bright enough
    • if seats are comfortable enough for a lengthy meal
  3. A server should not have to explain a concept.

As you may have observed, I have left the headings of each sequence to be added by the reader.

Furniture making is an area where I do have some, admittedly limited, expertise. For example, I am sufficient adept to know that I should never attempt to make anything resembling a chair. I have made benches. Tables are another matter. A firmly held belief is that people should only sit along two sides of a table, not at the head or the foot. The most appropriate personal area at a table is about 60 cm in width by 45 cm in depth. For me, a table has width, depth and height, but not length. This means that most tables should be 2 x 45 = 90 cm in depth. The width should be 60, 120, 180 or 240 cm depending on whether it accommodates two, four, six or eight people. Special purpose larger widths can be made, if necessary. In the past years I have built two tables, one for eight people following this advice, and one for two people that does not. This other table is 45 cm by 120 cm. It is for two people sitting beside each other, looking out the window at the lawn, flowers, trees, fjord and hopefully various birds, possibly even butterflies, a deer or two on occasion. In addition, it can be used by the primary cook when she needs more preparation space than is provided by the countertops. This table can be folded down when not needed.

These tables are made of oak, even if ash is my favourite wood for furniture making. I am also fond of beech. While Trish uses assorted Tripp-Trapp chairs and has no desire to change, I decided that I could buy my own, personal dining chair. It is an Ikea Lisabo designed by siblings Knut Hagberg and Marianne Hagberg. They worked at Ikea from 1979 to 2020, designing 2100 products = over 51 products a year. I have not been able to find the year this chair started in production, but some other products in the series date from 2016.

An Ikea Lisabo chair in ash. Photo: Ikea

Béchamel sauce is a creamy French white sauce that’s used in many dishes. For some, it is easy to make.

Note 1: Wikipedia tells me that a roux is a mixture of flour and fat cooked together and used to thicken sauces. Roux is typically made from equal parts of flour and fat by weight. The flour is added to the melted fat or oil on the stove top, blended until smooth, and cooked to the desired level of brownness.

Note 2: There are two numerical values that follow a description of a temperature. The first indicates stovetops with values from 0 to 10. Our induction stovetop allows heat from 0 to 14. These values have been used with descriptors.

Ingredients

  • butter 90 ml.
  • flour 60 ml.
  • milk 1 l.
  • salt none to minimal
  • grated nutmeg 1 ml.

Directions

  • Gather all ingredients.
  • Melt butter in a large saucepan over medium heat (5 or 7).
  • Add flour and whisk into the melted butter until smooth.
  • Cook and stir until flour turns a light, golden color. Uses about 7 minutes.
  • Increase heat to medium-high (7 or 10) and slowly whisk in milk until thickened by the roux.
  • Bring to a gentle simmer, then reduce heat to medium-low (3 or 4) and continue simmering until the flour has softened and no longer tastes gritty, 10 to 20 minutes.
  • Season to taste with nutmeg.
  • Serve hot.

Final advice: Kitchen knives at holiday rentals should be avoided. Take your own.

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Anton Janša

The Beekeepers, a copper engraving (ca. 1568) by Pieter Bruegel the elder (ca. 1525/ 1530 – 1569). This shows the art of beekeeping before Anton Janša.

This post is being published on World Bee Day, 2023-05-20, held on the anniversary of the baptism date, and potential birth-date, of Anton Janša (1734-05-20 – 1773-09-13). Later this year, one will be able to commemorate the 250th anniversary of his death, and in eleven years, the 300th anniversary of his birth.

On 2017-12-20, after three years of efforts, the United Nations member states unanimously approved a Slovenian proposal, and proclaimed 05-20 as World Bee Day, starting in 2018. Today is its fifth anniversary.

I have mentioned bees and beekeeping in other posts, notably: Constructive Environmentalism, in 2019, and Hipster, in 2020.

Carniolan/ Slovenian beekeeper Anton Janša, became the first beekeeping teacher at the Viennese imperial court of Habsburg Empress Maria Theresa (1717 – 1780). He completely revised beekeeping methods based on (scientific) observations, and laid the foundations of modern beekeeping. By introducing Carniolan beekeeping methods, he caused a real beekeeping revolution.

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The Cow and the Coke Bottle

A Coke bottle washed up on Scotland’s isle of Mull. Break Free From Plastic’s audit found Coca-Cola to be the world’s top plastic polluter for the past four years. Photograph: Will Rose/Greenpeace

This weblog post is about food, in an increasingly environmentally stressed world. To begin, there are comments about the food systems pavilion at Cop27, the annual United Nations climate change conference, held at Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, between 2022-11-06 and -20. Most of today’s weblog post looks at both the past and the future of food. The past is symbolized by the cow, and the coke bottle; the future by fermentation vats, and the rewilding of agricultural land.

Food Systems Pavilion

The Food Systems Pavilion offered Cop27 participants 11 days of programming about transforming food systems, as part of climate mitigation, adaptation and resilience. Below is a list of themes. A program booklet is available about the program.

2022-11-06 Enhance resilience to climate and shocks.

2022-11-08 Enable a culture of sustainable, healthy and nutritious diets.

2022-11-09 Increase sustainable investments and financing to build food systems.

2022-11-10 Accelerate innovation and digitalization.

2022-11-11 Boost nature positive production and soil health.

2022-11-12 Scale climate resilient agriculture

2022-11-14 Embrace sustainable water and aquatic blue food diversity for climate smart food systems.

2022-11-15 Champion youth action in food systems.

2022-11-16 Protect and restore nature.

2022-11-17 Transform value chains and develop inclusive markets.

2022-11-18 Closing

The current food system is broken and unequal: Three billion people can’t afford a healthy diet; over two billion people suffer from micro-nutrient deficiencies; two billion people are overweight; almost five hundred million people are underweight; one third of greenhouse gasses are produced by the current food systems.

Nordic/ Scandinavian approaches were presented on 2022-11-12.

The Cow

Much of the content in this section, is from George Monbiot (1963 – ), author of Regenesis: Feeding the World without Devouring the Planet (2022) and the Reboot website, where he is quoted as saying: The elephant in the room at Cop27 is the cow. But thankfully this time, there really is a recipe for success. By rebooting our food systems with precision fermentation we can phase out animal agriculture while greatly increasing the amount of protein available for human consumption..

In my daily life, I do not practice the principles found in the reboot manifesto. Currently, it is just not available. However, as a chemical engineering student, I worked with bacteria in fermentation vats. My graduating essay relates to its use, along with genetic engineering, including gene splicing, in the production of antibiotics rather than food. In both cases, the principles are the same. Thus, I have a belief that these can be the foods of the future. Unlike today’s processed foods, that typically remove nutrition, but leave tasty yet empty calories, I have a firm belief that foods based on the use of fermentation vats, can be engineered into nutritious, healthy, tasty foods.

Confession 1: We currently buy milk and eggs directly from local farmers. In addition, we eat cheese, and I drink a type of buttermilk the local dairy – so far – has been unable to produce. However, I have assisted them in a trial production of a substitute. Other animal based products we eat include honey and meat. Of the twenty-one meals we eat weekly, about four of them contain meat: one with fowl (turkey sometimes, but mainly chicken), two with fish (white fish once, salmon once) and one with red meat.

The Reboot Manifesto

[People] are standing on the cusp of a revolution, a food revolution, one unprecedented since the dawn of farming 10,000 years ago. Agriculture today is the largest single cause of biodiversity loss and emits more greenhouse gases than all our cars, planes and ships put together. Most of the damage is caused by livestock farming, which on its own covers 28% of the Earth’s surface, more than all the world’s forests combined. The non-human living world is squeezed to the margins, and wild species have been decimated. By weight, just 4% of the world’s mammals are wild, 36% are humans and 60% are our livestock.

But it no longer has to be this way. Game-changing innovations in precision fermentation and biotech now make a different future possible, one where we no longer have to cruelly exploit animals for food, and where the majority of the land currently used for livestock can be returned to nature, even as the world’s population climbs towards 10 billion and the Global South emerges from poverty.

It’s time to Reboot Food.

The four principles of rebooting food are:
1. Make it plant-based.

2. Brew don’t slaughter. Healthy, whole and varied plant-based foods should be at the centre of everything. Animal farming should be phased out and replaced by identical precision fermentation products wherever possible.

3. Use as little land and ocean as possible, rewild everything else.

4. Open source everything to guarantee a just transition.

High yield, low impact farming must be prioritized to make as much space for nature as possible. Farmers should be paid to rewild the spared land. [I am not convinced that this is the best idea in many jurisdictions, because it would allow the private ownership of what are essentially nature reserves, are prevent access to the land. For the mental health of the population, it is important that there be provisions for a general right of access.] The benefits of the food revolution should be shared with all, with new technologies made open source and corporate concentration actively mitigated.

Precision fermentation allows us to move from farming macro-organisms (cows, sheep, pigs) to farming micro-organisms (yeasts and bacteria). Using genetics, these microorganisms can be programmed to produce exactly the same proteins and fats we currently obtain from animals, powered by clean energy from solar, wind and nuclear [I object to treating nuclear power as a sustainable source of energy, in part because current technology requires the storage of waste products for thousands of years]. This [food production] technology is commercially proven and globally scalable, already producing 99% of insulin and 80% of rennet worldwide.

Protein from precision fermentation is up to 40,900 times [Why not say 40 000? A single digit 4, followed by 4 zeros might even be something people could remember] more land efficient than beef, making it technically feasible to produce the entire world’s protein on an area of land smaller than Greater London [Wikipedia says it occupies 1 569 km2. If one allows it to be 1 600 km2, it could form a square 40 km x 40 km which is about 25 miles x 25 miles = 625 square miles]. Precision fermentation products can supplement a shift to plant-based diets, with everything from non-animal milk, cheese and ice cream to non-fish omega-3s. Many of these products have already reached the market in the United States, and could come to Europe soon. In essence, we are talking about a transition to farm-free foods for everything which is currently only available from livestock. But this revolution won’t happen by accident, and isn’t inevitable. Although billions in venture capital funding is pouring into these new innovations, the scale and speed of the transition needs to be [accelerated] with public money and government support. This manifesto calls for a dramatic shift in government support for food and agriculture, away from subsidising legacy animal industries and towards encouraging delicious and low-cost animal-free foods, while supporting a just transition for farmers and fisherfolk currently in these sectors.

To Reboot Food, governments must:
1. Invest 2.5% of GDP over 10 years into rebooting our food systems.
2. Stop subsidies for animal agriculture, pay farmers a land-based subsidy to rewild and sequester carbon instead.
3. Bring agriculture into the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) so emissions are capped and costed.
4. Subsidize plant-based food at the point of sale to encourage a mass market.
5. Implement a just transition for farming and fishing communities.
6. Set land use reduction and rewilding targets, suspend organic targets until yields match those of conventional agriculture.
7. Limit patents on food innovation to 10 years and discourage corporate control.
8. Legalise gene editing, genetic modification and other new breeding techniques.
9. Make sustainability labelling mandatory.
10. Ban advertising of land- and carbon-intensive animal-based foods.

[Reboot Food] believe[s] that these measures, when combined, will make the food revolution unstoppable and make nutritious and affordable diets accessible to all the world’s people, while at the same time allowing an unprecedented regeneration of natural ecosystems on spared land. It is the single biggest thing we can do to stop and reverse the sixth mass extinction of biodiversity. And it is essential if we are to respect the Paris targets for tackling the climate emergency. The situation is urgent and the time is now. It’s time to Reboot Food.

Propaganda/ information from www.rebootfood.org // www.replanet.ngo .

Comments: While I am not anti-urbanist, I prefer to live in a rural environment, where I can have lots of trees as neighbours. A diverse community of trees improves the neighbourhood, making it a healthier place for people.

The Coke Bottle

Emma Priestland, a coordinator for Break Free From Plastic, a global alliance of organisations and individuals, said: Coca-Cola sponsoring the Cop27 is pure ‘greenwash’. Coca-Cola is one of the world’s biggest users of plastic. Over four years, we’ve found Cola-Cola to be the world’s top plastic polluter in our annual brand audits. It’s astounding that a company so tied to the fossil fuel industry is allowed to sponsor such a vital climate meeting.

Environmental campaigners described the partnership as baffling. At Cop26 in Glasgow in 2021, a petition called for an end to corporate sponsorship of Cop events, starting with the removal of Cola-Cola. Coca-Cola is the world’s biggest plastic polluter. It produces 120 billion throwaway plastic bottles a year. 99% of its plastics are made from fossil fuels. So far, Coca-Cola doesn’t acknowledge that this is a problem. They fail to explain their climate goals, or how they will end their plastic addiction.

Confession 2: I have drunk cola. Since returning to Norway on 2020-03-20, at the start of the pandemic, I have drunk 2 liters of Pepsi, when I was recovering from Covid-19, starting about 2022-09-13. The first sip tasted so terrible, that I vowed I would not repeat the experience, for the remainder of my lifetime. The orange and ginger beer drinks tasted much better.

Today’s assignment: Ahmed Rady, Coca-Cola’s vice-president of operations for north Africa, said: Coca-Cola’s firm belief that working together through meaningful partnerships will create shared opportunities for communities and people around the world and in Egypt. Comment on the greenwashing in the above sentence, especially related to: 1. meaningful partnerships, and 2. shared opportunities.

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Cooktimes

In discussing this post with Trish, she decided that the cookbook she owned that best suited my personality, was Michele Evans, Fearless Cooking Against the Clock: Great Gourmet Menus in Minutes (1982). The advantage of this cookbook is that it works at the menu (in contrast to dish) level. The recipes in the book are divided into 15 minute, 30 minute and 60 minute “quick and easy” preparation times. Each recipe has been timed, so that the cook can plan accordingly.

Chapter 1, The Larder, begins with: “A well-stocked larder is essential for convenient and efficient quick cooking.” After a short introduction, it is divided into eight sections, named below, along with the number of ingredients in each section in parentheses: Herb and spice shelf (34), Canned products (11), Miscellaneous baking, bottled and packaged ingredients (43 – sometimes with many separate items listed under each ingredient), Dairy products (7), Fresh foods (6), Frozen foods (7 – but with 5 separate types listed under vegetables), Wines, spirits and liqueurs [solely for cooking] (13), and Kitchen supplies (7).

Chapter 2, Cooking Equipment, is similar in arrangement. There is an introduction, followed by five sections, named below, along with the number of items found in each section: Implements and equipment (53), Pots and pans (31), Miscellaneous (5), Knives (9), and Serving essentials (20).

Chapter 3, Strategies for Quick Cooking, will have all ten of its rules quoted here. 1. Select a menu. 2. Make a shopping list of those ingredients not in supply. Keep an ongoing shopping list in the kitchen. 3. Shop for first-quality ingredients at a convenient time. 4. Set table in advance, if possible, and have serving dishes, coffee cups and saucers, etcetera ready for immediate serving. 5. Read each recipe thoroughly before starting to cook. 6. Set out all ingredients needed for each dish on the menu, unless they require refrigeration or freezing. 7. Set out all pots, pans, cooking equipment and utensils needed for preparing meal. 8. Work at a steady pace; don’t poke or race. If there are others present who can help by washing and drying lettuce or chopping vegetables, welcome their assistance. 9. Keep waste basket near the work area and clean up as you work, when possible. 10. When it is convenient, serve main courses and vegetables in same serving dish or platter.

The chapters after this are: 4) 15-minute meals, occupying 64 pages. 5) 30-minute meals, using 76 pages. 6) 1-hour meals, over 98 pages. All three of these chapters are subdivided by main ingredient, typically a meat category, such as seafood, poultry or beef. 7) Holiday meals, has 56 pages, after an initial dinner party planning section, holidays appear chronologically through the year. 8) Cocktail parties has only 16 pages. After describing the bar, it looks at the topic by season. The last chapter, 9) Children’s parties, is only eight pages long. The book ends with an index, with 31 pages of entries.

While most menus and recipes are for four people, exceptions are made for celebrations where holidays typically involve 6, 8 or 12 people. Valentine’s day provides a menu for two. Cocktail parties are huge affairs, involving 12, 25 or 50 people. Birthday parties are for 12.

Evens has also written:

  • The Salad Book (1975)
  • The Slow Crock Cookbook (1975)
  • Fearless Cooking for Men (1977)
  • Fearless Cooking for One (1980)
  • Fearless Cooking for Company (1984)
  • Fearless Cooking for Crowds (1986) [8 to 50 people]

This is the third of an unspecified number of posts about cooking instructions for people who eat to live. All of these posts (will) begin with cook, which can be used as a search term to find previously published posts.

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Cooksteps

A double page from Rosemary Wadey’s Mexican Cooking Step-by-Step (1994).

My son, Alasdair, commented that he liked the style of Rosemary Wadey, in her Mexican Cooking Step-by-Step (1994). While this offers something similar to the numbering of steps in a cookstrip, the colour photographs show what is to be done, and what the final dish should look like when served.

The recipe starts with a general description, putting the recipe in context. It also explains what the dish is expected to be served with. The preparation of these items is not described in the recipe.

After this is a statement about the number of servings the recipe will produce, typically this is 4. This allows people to adapt the recipe to accommodate the number of people expected, or to give an indication of the quantity of left-overs that will be produced.

Next comes a list of ingredients, with conventional names. While I am content with metric units, this cookbook also provides quantities in American/ British units. The condition of the ingredients as they are to be used is also provided here.

This is followed by procedural steps and timings. All of these should be read in advance. In the bean soup recipe depicted, croutons, for example, can be prepared two days (48-hours) in advance. This also comes with advice as to how to store the prepared food until it is needed.

The author also acknowledges that specific products can be difficult to purchase in certain markets. A variation box provides the name of other products that can substitute for the original.

Some of the other books written by Rosemary Wadey in the same style are:

  • Continental Cuisine Step by Step Cookbook (1987)
  • Step by Step Cooking for One and Two (1996)
  • Step by Step Wok Cooking (1996)
  • Step by Step Vegetarian (2001)
  • Step by Step Italian (2001)

This is the second of an unspecified number of posts (currently seven) about cooking instructions, all beginning with Cook… Yes, you can use that as a search term to find previously published posts. If you have a favourite way of interacting with cooking information, and would like to have that presented in a weblog post that, in a good week, reaches ten or more people, send your proposal in an email to: brock@mclellan.no

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Cookstrips

Len & Alex Deighton’s first (relaunched) cookstrip that appeared in the Observer/ Guardian, 2017-04-23.

I imagine that if someone asked my wife, Trish, the name of the cookbook I appreciate best, she would look at that person with amazement. There is none. My name is totally dissociated with the act of cooking.

Part of the reason for this, is my childhood culinary education. It was limited to learning how to prepare a pot of tea, and serving it with milk and sugar. Through observation, I also learned to fry an egg. I would however, like to thank my maternal Grandmother, Jane Andison (nee Briggs, 1880 – 1972) for teaching me how to bake bread. Another part of this challenge is an inability to understand the details of a meal preparation timeline. I have a theoretical appreciation of it as a process with several finishing lines, commonly involving the serving of courses, as in appetizers, main course and desert with coffee or tea. A main course may involve up to several distinct dishes, using an assortment of animal, vegetable and fungal (mushroom) ingredients. Each dish has its own duration, in terms of preparation time and cooking time.

Over the past forty years, I have learned some basic skills. Main courses with three dishes, are no longer an insurmountably problem. Typically, at least for someone with my qualifications, there will be, at most, one desert. No appetizer will be offered.

This complexity means that for a given meal there will be numerous start times for the various dishes, and a limited number of locations (6 in total: 4 on the stove top, one in the oven, and one in the microwave oven) to cook them. Everything has to be planned. Some of the equipment may have to be washed up to several times, which adds yet another level/ dimension to the confusion.

Len Deighton (1929 – ) originally drew cookstrips as instructions to himself to prevent his expensive cookbooks from becoming dirty. Ray Hawkey, a graphics designer for The Observer, noticed some of these cookstrips in Deighton’s kitchen. The first cookstrip, Cooking Beef: Part 1, appeared in The Observer on 1962-03-18. They became part of its magazine-like look. An initial commitment for six strips was soon extended to 50. The last cookstrip in this series appeared on 1966-08-07.

These cookstrips were then recycled into Len Deighton’s French Cooking for Men: 50 Classic Cookstrips for Today’s Action Men. The first edition appeared in 1965, timed to coincide with the release of The Ipcress File film. In the film, a cookstrip appears on the wall behind the protagonist, Harry Palmer, played by Michael Cain, who appears to crack eggs with one hand. In reality the hands cracking the eggs belonged to Deighton.

A new, redesigned and updated edition of this book was republished 2020-02-01 in paperback. The publisher, HarperCollins, claimed that it, “will solve the mysteries of French cuisine and unlock the key to 500 memorable dishes.” This version is currently out of print.

Illustrated cookstrips from Deighton and his son Alex, have re-emerged in the Observer more than 50 years after the original series. They were relaunched 2017-04-23: New cookstrips appear at about monthly intervals.

Unfortunately, even if I had purchased Deighton’s cookbook in my youth, 1965 – 1970, I doubt if it would have transformed me. Today, I am even less fond of excessive eating, and the consumption of alcohol, which seems to be an integral part of French cooking. However, the making of cookstrips with a focus on Scandinavian cuisine does hold appeal.

Sources

There will be a post about cooking once a month in 2022.

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Silicone: Introduction

Silicone kitchenware, hygienic and available in bright colours.

Silicon is a chemical element (Si), a hard dark-grey semiconducting metalloid which, as a crystal, is used to make electronic chips and solar cells. In contrast, silicones are polymers (large molecules with repeating sub-units). Here the repeats involve siloxane, which is a chain of alternating silicon and oxygen atoms, sometimes combined with carbon, hydrogen, and other elements.

Silicones exhibit many useful characteristics, including:

  • Low thermal conductivity. It insulates, rather than conducts heat.
  • Thermal stability. Heat does not break it down into new products, in a temperature range of −100 to 250 °C. It melts around 500 °C.
  • Low chemical reactivity. It doesn’t form new chemical compounds easily.
  • Low toxicity. It is not poisonous.
  • It repels water, useful for making watertight seals.
  • Does not stick to many substrates, but adheres very well to others, e.g. glass.
  • Does not support microbiological growth.
  • Resistance to oxygen, ozone, and ultraviolet (UV) light, resulting in its widespread use in the construction and automotive industries.
  • Can be formulated to be electrically insulative or conductive, it has a wide range of electrical applications.
  • High gas permeability, making silicone useful for medical applications in which increased aeration is desired. Conversely, silicone rubbers cannot be used where gas-tight seals are necessary.

Silicone can be a substitute for many plastics that have adverse health effects. If it is labelled FDA compliant, it means that the United States Food and Drug Administration has approved it as a food grade product, suitable for use in close proximity to food, beverages and pharmaceuticals, including their manufacturing, packaging and/ or storage. Other countries have their own way of expressing this. In Norwegian it is, næringsmiddelgodkjent.

Because FDA compliant silicone is non-toxic, it is a preferred material for making different forms of cookware, including bakeware and kitchen utensils. As will be shown in an upcoming weblog post, this makes the material suitable for many different DIY (do it yourself) projects.

Some silicone products are so inexpensive and widely available, that it is better to buy them than to make them. These include silicone spatulas and other utensils. These function better than their rubber equivalents. They do not melt and there will be no need to trim worn edges. They function at normal cooking and baking temperatures.

Other products are inexpensive, but could be fun to make. These include pot-holders, trivets and kitchen mats, that are made of silicone because of its heat-resistant characteristics. Silicone is, however, more heat-conductive than similar, but less dense fiber-based products. Since silicone is water repellent, as well as heat resistant to temperatures up to 260 °C , oven mitts can be made that allow one to reach into boiling water.

Some products can be made to incorporate important personal preferences. Bread (loaf), cake, muffin and pie forms/ molds/ pans/ pots as well as baking sheets can be made in a wide variety of shapes and sizes.

In general the advantages of silicone bakeware include: grease free preparation; Pans heat quickly and bake evenly; baked goods are easily removed, if they are twisted slightly their sides pull away, allowing whatever is inside to emerge. While pans are hot to touch while in the oven, they cool down quickly.

Silicone containers are freezer, refrigerator, microwave, oven and dishwasher safe. One can bake, store, freeze, and reheat in the same pan. There is no need to adjust recipes with respect to batter or temperature.

Silicone products are lightweight, easy to clean, and retain their shape. No special considerations need to be taken with respect to their storage.

Some negative considerations. Some molds and pans may need a cookie sheet underneath to provide stability. Knives and other sharp objects can damage silicone cookware. Silicone products are not suitable for open flames or stovetop burners.

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Oatly & Einride: A tidbit

Oatly has devised a process to provide a vegan alternative to milk. Now it is concentrating on making that process more sustainable, but reducing CO2 emissions. Artwork: Oatly.

My personal transition from omnivore to vegan/ vegetarian is proceeding almost as slowly as my transition away from driving a diesel to an electric vehicle. One positive change, is that we purchase our eggs and milk (and some honey as well as produce) from neighbouring farms, rather than grocery stores.

I asked my personal shopper to add some Oatly products onto her shopping list. Instead, she invited me to help her shop at the local Co-operative in Straumen. Thus, I was able to purchase one litre (about a quart) of havredrikk kalsium (oatmilk calcium). Unfortunately, I was unable to find the other products I wanted to try: havregurt vanilje (oatgurt vanilla); havregurt turkisk (oatgurt Turkish) and iMat fraiche (Oat creme fraiche).

Oatly is a Swedish vegan food brand, producing dairy alternatives from oats. Based on research at Lund University. The company’s enzyme technology turns oats into a nutritional liquid food suitable for the human digestive system. The company operates in southern Sweden with its headquarters in Malmö, with a production & development centre in Landskrona. The brand is available in more than 20 Asian and European countries, Australia, Canada and USA.

Oatly claims to be a sustainable food manufacturer. Artwork: Oatly

Oatly also tries to be sustainable, by reducing its contributions to global warming. They also produce a sustainability report. It shows that almost half of Oatly’s contribution to greenhouse gasses comes from the cultivation of ingredients, a quarter from transport, 15% from packaging and 6% from production (p. 26).

Oatly is not perfect. For example, there has been some controversy about it selling oat residue to a pig farm. On the other hand, it has benefited from two publicity attacks. First, Arla, the Swedish dairy company, attempted to discourage people from buying vegan alternatives to cow’s milk (mjölk in Swedish) using a fake brand Pjölk. Oatly responded by trademarking several fictitious brands Pjölk, Brölk, Sölk and Trölk and began using them on their packaging. Second, the Swedish dairy lobby LRF Mjölk, won a lawsuit against Oatly for using the phrase “Milk, but made for humans” for £ (sic) 100 000. When Oatly published the lawsuit text, it lead to a 45% increase in Oatly’s Swedish sales. Once again, this seems to suggest that there is no such thing as bad publicity.

On 2020-05-14, Oatly and Einride announced that Oatly will use four 42-tonne vehicles starting 2020-10 to transport goods from production sites in southern Sweden, using Einride’s Freight Mobility Platform. This is estimated to lower its climate footprint (on the affected routes) by 87% compared to diesel trucks: 107.5 tonnes of carbon dioxide per year per truck, about 430 tonnes per year in total, or 2 100 tonnes throughout the five year duration of the contract.

Part of the solution involves optimizing electric trucks operations using computer-controlled logistics with Einride’s Freight Mobility Platform software. Accurate transport planning allows 24 tonnes of goods to be transported an average of 120 kilometers without charging. It involves optimizing and coordinating drivers, vehicles, routes as well as charging. On a typical shift, three drivers will drive four different trucks. This means that one truck is always charging, which places less strain on batteries, and making the operation more durable and economical.

Oakly’s 42-tonne Einride trucks will feature a DAF glider, with Emoss driveline and Einride software. Photo: Einride

This initial iteration involves a DAF glider (a vehicle without a driveline/ prime mover/ power source, fitted with a Emoss motor. Future iterations may involve a Einride Pod, previously referred to as a T-pod.

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The Charm of Sandwiches

Dagwood Bumstead eating an impossibly high Dagwood sandwiches. Image: Chic Young.

In a weblog post about sandwiches, no American or Canadian can fail to mention Dagwood Bumstead and his impossibly high Dagwood sandwiches. Chic Young (1901-1973) created the comic strip Blondie 1930-09-08. It relates the adventures of flapper Blondie Boopadoop both before, but especially after, her marriage to Dagwood, and their life together with children Alexander and Cookie and dog Daisy, in Joplin, Missouri. In my childhood, this comic strip was required reading.

Here, the topic is the vegan recreation of iconic meat based sandwiches including tuna, clubhouse and BLT – bacon, lettuce, tomato. It is inspired by an article in the Guardian, about upcoming vegetarian makeover at Pret a Manger:

Some common ingredients: Cheese, at Cliff Cottage, refers specifically to just one variant – Cheddar, which was the only type of cheese its residents actually grew up with; Roasted shiitake mushrooms are used to imitate rashers of bacon; mayonnaise can be regular or vegan, depending on whether or not the consumption of eggs is a dietary consideration.

Cheese Fantasy (a Cheese Dream, but without the bacon)

Open-faced grilled cheese sandwich with roasted shiitake mushrooms.

FLT (Fungus, lettuce, tomato)

Pret a Manger refers to their equivalent as VLT, as if mushrooms were vegetables. Roasted shiitake mushrooms, with sliced tomatoes, green salad and mayonnaise. The mayonnaise can be filled with finely chopped tofu.

Funa (fake tuna)

Kabuli chickpeas aka garbanzo beans, can successfully mimic tuna. They are crushed then flavoured with chopped pickled onions, capers and seaweed mixed with vegan or regular mayonnaise, depending on whether or not the consumption of eggs is a problem. The precise formulations are left as an experimental exercise.

Gladys sandwich

This sandwich is named after Gladys Love Presley (née Smith; 1912 – 1958) who made these sandwiches for her son, Elvis (1935 – 1977). It consists of toasted bread slices with peanut butter, sliced or mashed banana. Originally it sometimes contained bacon. Where this taste is wanted, roasted shiitake mushrooms can be substituted. Honey is sometimes used as a condiment.

Hangout (is the new clubhouse)

Wikipedia tells us that vegetarian club sandwiches often include hummus, avocado or spinach, as well as substitute the real bacon with a vegetarian alternative. Mustard and sometimes honey mustard are common condiments. The sandwich is commonly served with an accompaniment of either coleslaw, or potato salad, and often garnished with a pickle. Due to high fat and carb content from the bread, bacon and dressing, club sandwiches have sometimes been criticized as unhealthy.

Waterloo Sandwich

Food writers James Beard (1903 – 1985) and Evan Jones (1915 – 1996) believed that the Denver sandwich was created by Chinese chefs who cooked for logging camps and railroad gangs in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and was probably derived from egg foo young. The first written reference to a Denver sandwich appears 1903-04-07 in the, Semi Weekly Iowa State Reporter (Waterloo, Iowa), pg.  6, col. 1. In honour of this, the hamless equivalent of a Denver sandwich, has been renamed the Waterloo sandwich. It features shiitake mushrooms, onions and green peppers in a cheese omelette.

Conclusion

Reducing red meat consumption in sandwiches doesn’t seem to be a major problem, as long as one appreciates roasted shiitake mushrooms!