All posts by Keith

I’m a controversialist and catalyst, quietly enabling others to develop by providing different ideas and views of the world. Born in London in the early 1950s and initially trained as a research chemist I retired as a senior project manager after 35 years in the IT industry. Retirement is about community give-back and finding some equilibrium. Founder and Honorary Secretary of the Anthony Powell Society. Chairman of my GP's patient group.
amusements, food+drink

Oddity of the Week: State Tomatoes

[American] State legislatures have muddied the fruit/vegetable waters … The custom of creating state symbols dates to the [1893 Chicago World’s Fair] where … exhibits [included] the world’s largest conveyor belt, a US map made of pickles, Bach’s clavichord, a herd of ostriches, and a 22,000-pound Canadian cheese. Also featured at the Fair was the National Garland of Flowers, for which each state was asked to select a representative flower.
State flowers were soon followed by a host of other official state symbols, among them birds, trees, animals, insects, reptiles, fossils, minerals, gemstones, songs, and folk dances. Utah and Delaware now have official state stars. Maine, Massachusetts, and North Carolina have official state boats. Texas has designated the cowboy boot its Official State Footwear. In the food category, we have official state fruits, vegetables, nuts, grains, herbs, beverages, muffins, cookies, and pies.


Some state fruit and vegetable decisions have been straightforward. Six states, for example, chose the apple as their symbolic fruit, and three opted for the strawberry. Two — Georgia and South Carolina — chose the peach; Alabama — unable to make up its mind — picked the blackberry as state fruit and the peach as the state tree fruit.
Tennessee and Ohio went with botany and chose the tomato as their state fruit; Arkansas, hedging its bets, decreed the tomato to be both the state’s official fruit and official vegetable. Louisiana, on the other hand, appointed the sweet potato state vegetable, but named the tomato the state’s official “vegetable plant” … Louisiana’s state fruit is the strawberry; they’ve also got a state doughnut, a state jelly, and a state meat pie.
From: Is a Tomato a Fruit? It Depends on How You Slice It

links

Your Interesting Links

Further instalment of links to articles you really shouldn’t have missed!
As usual we’ll start with the techie stuff, after which it is all down hill into the circles of … oh, probably somewhere.
Wired reckons there are five things everyone should know about light. Does everyone really need all five of these!
I suggest you don’t read this while eating lunch … Public transport, and especially subway trains, always seems fairly grimy. And now scientists have mapped the microbes on the New York subway. And there’s nothing to make us think the London Underground is any better!
Miracle foods or marketing scam? The Guardian lifts the lid.


Something fishy on a little dishy? The fish you eat may not be what it seems. Caveat emptor.
So we’d all better go back to eating those formerly fashionable elegantly dressed salads.
After which, of course, we’ll need a nap. But do you know how much sleep you should be getting? New recommendations have been released, and it is probably more than you thought.
On to less savoury habits … Why do we pick our noses?
Now this one is definitely NSFW. Doctors in Florida have performed the world’s first penis reduction operation. Yes, you did read that right!
As we’ve said many times before, there are benefits in social nudity and you’re likely missing out on them. The thing is you don’t know you’re missing the benefits until you’ve tried social nudity.
Descending further into interpersonal relationships [can there actually be an intrapersonal relationship?] why do we use terms of endearment and pet names in relationships?
And so to London … First of all the London Borough of Camden have ideas of redesigning the whole of Tottenham Court Road and making it essentially pedestrians and buses only — no cars, not even taxis. London Reconnections have the low down.
Meanwhile our friend Diamond Geezer lays down a challenge … The All Lines Challenge: travel on each of the London Underground’s eleven lines in the shortest time. The current record stands at just over 33 minutes.
And now descending right to the depths for our last couple of items …

Parrots are well know for talking, and there is a long history of them having particularly shocking vocabularies.
Finally, Abracadabra!

In the midst of the word he was trying to say,
In the midst of his laughter and glee,
He had softly and suddenly vanished away —
For the Snark was a Boojum, you see.

photography

Weekly Photograph

This week, time for more pussy porn. Here’s Harry the Cat sleeping the sleep of the just a few days ago! And what a super place to sleep too: a faux sheepskin, at windowsill height on some crates, by the window, in the warmest room of the house and over a radiator. Well wouldn’t you?!

Click the image for a larger view
h3
The Sleep of the Just
February 2015; Greenford

books, food+drink

Book Review: Eat Tweet

Maureen Evans
Eat Tweet: A Twitter Cookbook
Artisan; 2010
Eat-Tweet-CoverAccording to the blurb on the over of this book Maureen Evans was the first person to tweet recipes — not surprising as her partner is Blaine Cook the original programmer on Twitter.
Using her Twitter account @cookbook, since 2006 Evans has condensed many recipes into the 140-character Twitter format, and along the way gathered 223,000 followers! Yes, with a little ingenuity recipes can be condensed into this tiny format, as this “pocket book” of 1020 recipes proves. And it’s fun too, in a geekish sort of way.

The book is divided into the usual sections: Vegetables, Soups, Main Courses, Cakes, Bread, Drinks etc.; there are also sections on how to read the recipes, tools, conversion charts — the latter necessary as being Canadian Maureen Evans measures everything in cups (also more concise for the Twitter format) and °F. The recipes are generally designed to serve 3-4 normal adults. Apart from the introductory material there is little text other than hints and tips interspersed with the recipes, of which there are 4 to 6 to a page. And nothing in the way of illustration. But in this context somehow it doesn’t matter.
Having said that, this could be the only cook book you’ll ever need, because Evans covers nigh on everything — certainly more than enough to always eat well. And it really is everything … from the basics of stuffing and roasting your turkey, which is actually two recipes:

Stuffed Turkey: Rmv giblets(use in Turkey Stock),rinse,pat dry(+inside). Lightly stuff main/neck cavities. Skewer-shut neck; cross,tie legs.
Roast Turkey: Put StuffedTurkey on roastrack; baste every 30m@325°F 3-3½h for 5-8lb; 3½-4h for 9-12lb; 4-6h for 13-16lb until thigh>165°F.

all the way to some lovely puddings:

Rødgrød med Fløde: Boil3c h2o/c berries &freshcurrant&cherry/c sug. Sieve; +mixd ½c strch&h2o. Stir@med until thick. Top w whipdcrm.

and cake:

Chocolate Decadence Cake: Mlt2c choc/⅔c buttr; beat+⅔c coffee&flr&cocoa. Cream c sug/3egg. Fold all; fill sqpan. 40m@350°F in bainmarie.

Have I tried any of the recipes? No. Do I need to try any of the recipes to know they work? Also no. They are so simple it’s obvious they will work well. OK so perhaps Evans has picked relatively simple recipes, but she is a cooking geek and you can be sure she, and all her Twitter followers, will have tested the recipes to destruction before they hit the book!
Are there omissions? Yes of course; there are omissions in every cook book. For instance there is no mention of Jerusalem artichokes; pheasant; quail; or gammon; nor does my favourite Garlic Roast Potatoes get in. Oh OK, so here is my Garlic Roast Potatoes, in the style …

Garlic Roast Potatoes: Chop 12-16 sm taters 1″ pces. Toss w 2T chopd garlic/T chopd rosemry/2T oil/s+p. Foil parcel. ~40m@200°C

So you may not find your very favourite recipe, but you’ll find something equally as good! And you’ll have a fun time as well!
Overall Rating: ★★★★★

amusements, food+drink

Oddity of the Week: Garlic Coke

Garlic-Flavored Cola Is Actually a Thing in Japan
… believe it or not, the drink actually exists in Japan!
Locally known as ‘Jats Takkola’, the unusual drink was released last month. It is produced in the city of Aomori … well-known for the huge amount of garlic that is harvested every year in July. Local companies have produced several bizarre garlic-flavored products … such as garlic beer and garlic ice cream, but latest offering, garlic cola, apparently took a fair bit of trial and error before they could make it palatable.


The drink consists of cola mixed with finely ground garlic. Those brave enough to try it are advised to turn the bottle slowly before consumption, in order to mix the settled pieces of garlic. The makers say that the drink is as tasty as regular cola, with a supposedly pleasant aftertaste of garlic.
From: www.odditycentral.com/foods/garlic-flavored-cola-is-actually-a-thing-in-japan.html
See also: http://en.rocketnews24.com/2015/01/31/new-garlic-cola-from-japans-garlic-capital-is-as-surprising-as-its-name-proclaims/

personal

Ten Things #14

This month in “Ten Things” I thought we should have a look at my weekend. I won’t claim this is typical although many of the activities are far from unusual.
10 Things I did Last Weekend

  1. Hosted Anthony Powell Society Quarterly London Pub Meet
  2. Read and wrote an enormous number of emails
  3. Checked out Noreen’s laptop which was threatening to die
  4. Did the household paperwork and ensured the bills had been paid
  5. Wrote my monthly “Chairman’s Bulletin” for my GP’s patients’ group members
  6. Processed a pile of bookings for the Anthony Powell Lecture in April
  7. Wrote the minutes of the last meeting of GP’s patients’ group
  8. Read (most of) this week’s New Scientist
  9. Slept, including a long lie in on Sunday
  10. Drank too much beer; not enough to be drunk or have a hangover but more than I should given my diabetes.

So how was your weekend? Did you do anything other than nothing?

books, food+drink

Book Review: Cooking for Geeks

Jeff Potter
Cooking for Geeks: Real Science, Great Hacks and Good Food
O’Reilly; 2010
This book was another of my Christmas presents (Thanks, Katy!) which I’ve been reading in bits and pieces over the last few weeks.
The first thing we need to get straight is that, although it contains recipes, this is essentially not a recipe book. Nor is it a book specifically about ingredients.
The author is a scientist and he takes an experimental approach to working out how things work in cooking — the effects of temperature on proteins; what various chemicals do; how bread works; how taste and smell work. And perhaps most interestingly how chefs use unexpected techniques to produce such different food to what we make at home.
Yes, I learnt a few things. Specifically I was interested in the temperatures at which different proteins denature (ie. essentially the temperature at which they cook) and how too high a temperature will denature the wrong proteins and make meat tough. But this has to be done while keeping in mind that a minimum temperature (or combination of temperature and time) is required to ensure any pathogens (bacteria; fungi; even parasites) present are killed.
And there are simple tips. For instance when cracking an egg do it on the worktop not the edge of the bowl: the former will give larger pieces of broken shell; the latter will give smaller pieces of shell that are much more likely to end up in the bowl with the egg and have to be fished out.
Oh and there is a whole chapter on hacking together hardware etc. for special cooking techniques like sous vide, filtration, using the cleaning cycle on your oven and using liquid nitrogen. Things I am never likely to do.
As I say, yes there are recipes, but they are largely there to demonstrate the effects being described: different types of dough, and oven temperature, for pizza; how whisking egg whites varies depending on the bowl you use; how different gelling agents work. Some of these things I knew, and some I have even done. I’ve not actually tried any of the recipes because although it is interesting to see these effects most of the recipes are not for things which fire me with enthusiasm or which are too much faffing around — I believe in simple, tasty and wholesome food, not a load of faffing about. (Which is why I can’t be bothered with things like cake, ice cream and soufflés.)
So in summary … This was an interesting book and it may turn out to be useful for some things — like more precise temperature control. It is a great book if you’re a geek and/or you want to do a wide range of experimental cooking — but sadly that doesn’t fire me with enthusiasm other than as an armchair scientist.
Finally though, here’s one other good tip from the book … Do check out Maureen Evans’ Twitter recipes feed, @cookbook. She has devised a method of reducing recipes to the 140 character constraint of a single tweet. As an example here’s her recipe for chocolate cake (which isn’t in the book):

Chocolate Cake: Beat¼c sug/2egg. Sift⅓c flr&cocoa/½t bkgpdr&soda/⅛t cardamom&cinn&salt. Mlt6oz choc/¼c cocontoil&coffee. Fold all. 40m@350F.

There you are: I even bring you cake!
Overall Rating: ★★★☆☆

natural history, photography

Weekly Photograph

This week, another photograph I took some years ago. This Red Shoveller Duck, a native of South America, was part of the collection at Kew Gardens. I love those spotted feathers!

Click the image for larger views on Flickr
Red Shoveller Duck
Red Shoveller Duck
Kew Gardens; June 2008