TracyFood

In which I get all wonky about meat. 19 February 2008 10:48 am

Posted by Tracy in : politics, meat, food safety, Morning Glory, health, Marion Nestle, agriculture, news, eating , add a comment

So yesterday I was too busy writing about or experiencing technical difficulties to comment on the really big food news of the day, namely largest ground beef recall in U.S. history by Hallmark/Westland, the meatpacking company whose horrific animal handling practices were exposed in a video by an undercover Humane Society activist on January 30. (Full confession: I’m not linking to the now-infamous video because I haven’t watched it yet, because I’m sort of a coward like that. On the other hand, I have seen Chris Cosentino’s photo essay about humane cow slaughter and still managed to eat beef afterwards, albeit not from a scary Cowschwitz like Hallmark/Westland).

So. Here’s the Tracy-take on the biggest ground beef recall in U.S. history: it’s a symbolic gesture, and not even a particularly good one. (more…)

Nepal picture mania, part 2 4 December 2007 6:40 am

Posted by Tracy in : nepal, Kathmandu, travel, pictures, agriculture, eating , 1 comment so far

So last time I got a little distracted by the deliciousness of momos thanks to a random fast food place in Kathmandu, but today’s pictures are pretty straight-up travelogue. First, a few notes about flying in Nepal: it’s all about patience. A few days of uncooperative weather can wreak serious havoc, and we were pretty lucky in that regard — only a few hours worth of flights had been cancelled and rescheduled to October 14. Still, this was enough to overload pretty much the entire domestic terminal at Kathmandu airport: ticket counters, security, and above all the seating area where we waited our turn to check in. Behold the awesomeness of Kathmandu airport security theater:

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Notable and/or quotable: stuff I read today. 19 September 2007 9:13 pm

Posted by Tracy in : garden, health, news, agriculture, cooking , add a comment

I haven’t been writing well today (in part because I’m still a little sick but I shouldn’t brag or make excuses). Fortunately, I’ve been reading lots of good stuff, so I’ll refer you thataway for now:

“Out-of-house eating refers to restaurants, cantines, (office, school, hospital), snack bars, all-manner of takeaway including everything from gas station sandwich bars to supermarket catering.”

— Debra Solomon in Whose bread I eat, his song I sing on her fantastic Culiblog, most recently updated with the aforementioned very thoughtful essay about a food industry conference in Rotterdam. (more…)

Monkey Monday: distracted by visiting parents edition 20 August 2007 8:19 am

Posted by Tracy in : news, advice, garden, local food, vegan, agriculture, friends, eating, vegetarian, restaurants , add a comment

I’m going to do my best to keep the posts coming this week, but my parents are visiting from New Jersey and among other things we’re going to be painting the house (and celebrating my birthday and a badass lunar eclipse, eating a family-style dinner at Iraila and seeing Ratatouille again, but definitely not in that order) and in general that means I’m going to be a bit distracted, to put it mildly. But Monkey Mondays are fun and easy, right? I can just blather one off in no time at all? (She said, writing from New Jersey on Friday afternoon, not knowing when she’d get the chance again what with most of the weekend jet-setting across the country for a very dear friend’s 70th birthday party, and back again with parents in tow… yay for scheduled posts, I tell you what!) Here goes…. (more…)