Archives » December, 2007

Ruminations on Kitchens

Kitchens seem to be quite the story this year. Well, it has to be said that the modern Western kitchen is a rather odd phenomenon embodying all kinds of contradictory hopes and desires.  These two pieces explore some of them.
Here’s Downstairs Upstairs from the Economist. And a review by Dominque Browning, former [...]

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How Can We Trace the Global Migration of Recipes and Dishes II?

Back to the issue of food on the move. Here are some general observations about the origin and diffusion of dishes.
Independent invention versus diffusion
The case of North African harisa and Mexican adobo illustrates this nicely. Here you have two very similar techniques (soaking chiles, grinding with herbs and spices, adding oil). Were [...]

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Slaughtering Pigs in Romania (and Mexico)

By now it’s past but Romania and the European Union were at loggerheads over the Christmas pig. EU rules call for any pig slaughtered on the farm to be stunned before its throat is cut. All well and good.
Then Romania joined the EU and with it a population of 1.5 million pigs to [...]

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