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Monkey Monday: readings in review. 28 September 2009 11:56 pm

Posted by Tracy in : anthropology,eating,geekery,nutrition,random,reading,school , add a comment

Okay, party people, I was going to write a top ten list awesome food-related things I’ve read in the past week, but I am coming up against my self-imposed midnight deadline and I’m suddenly stupid tired, so here’s the bits of the list I managed to write up before my brain shut down:

From the readings for my food sociology class last Monday:

Not all harmful conditions are considered social problems. Consider nutrition. Medical authorities argue that the typical American diet contains undesirable levels of fats and cholesterol…. This diet endangers the well-being of individuals, who face greater risks of heart disease; and it also threatens societal well-being by forcing Americans to devote a growing share of their national income to health care. Yet the nutritional inadequacies of the American diet rarely appear on lists of social problems even though the condition fits most objectivist definitions.

—Joel Best, “Introduction: Typification and social problems construction,” Images of Issues: Typifying Contemporary Social Problems. New York: Aldine de Gruyter, 1989

Look at the date on that! Twenty years ago, in my lifetime, at a time in my life I can clearly remember, food clearly defined as not a social problem. Fascinating! (more…)

Friday funnies: Stuff White People Like 29 February 2008 3:10 pm

Posted by Tracy in : anthropology,breakfast,consumerism,identity,kitchen gear,Morning Glory,restaurants,vegan,vegetarian,vegetarianism , 2 comments

Happy Leap Day! Laughter is good Tracy food, and the blog Stuff White People Like makes me laugh. Have you seen it? It’s completely brilliant, as long as you don’t read the comments (don’t say I didn’t warn you). Here are a few samples I picked for their relevance to TracyFood:

#32 Vegan/Vegetarianism

#36 Breakfast Places (I swear I’m printing this one out for Morning Glory).

#54 Kitchen Gadgets

That last one, of course, hits especially close to home. (more…)

Odds and ends: rice, snobbery, and procrastination. 6 February 2008 11:57 am

Posted by Tracy in : anthropology,cooking,food snobbery,friends,pictures,politics,recipes,school,soup , add a comment

Intrigued by a comment from Liz on my curried pea soup recipe, I made a version with 2 cups of brown rice instead of potatoes last Saturday. Results: as Liz also mentioned in her comment, I had to cook it for a lot longer to get the rice done (for once the peas weren’t the slow part of the cooking process) and then it turned my blending equipment was no match for the task of getting the soup all nice and smooth. Dangit! The soup is still tasty, don’t get me wrong, but as far as I’m concerned the texture leaves something to be desired. Something smooth and creamy, like blended potatoes. Gah. I’m such a snob sometimes.

But speaking of rice, if you haven’t seen Free Rice already, it’s a fun game for a good cause, and an excellent procrastination tool (sort of like updating a food blog when I’m supposed to be finishing today’s assigned readings for my anthropology class, but I digress.) (more…)

Random brain snacks, from my browser tabs to yours. 15 January 2008 9:40 am

Posted by Tracy in : anthropology,cheese,cooking,geekery,pictures,reviews,school,work , 3 comments

Let’s see if I can prevent yet another Firefox crash! Here’s a little smorgasbord of delicious internet randomness, ranging from book reviews to music videos, all food-related (no, really).

First, here’s a review of Kitchen Literacy by Ann Vilesis, which I returned, unfinished, to the library this week because somebody else had it on hold. I never really got into this book, but I am way into EL‘s use of the term “retrovore”, oh yes.

Next, an old Slate piece about chefs in film, complete with little clips of movies I’ve either seen or feel vaguely obligated to see now, if only to take notes on depictions of gender in films about food and cooking. (Um, can you tell I’m supposed to be writing a project proposal for my anthropology class? Eeek.)

Here’s a good rant about what it means to be a professional cook — both good and the bad bits. (more…)

Monkey Monday: yes I said yes I will Yes. 7 January 2008 12:48 pm

Posted by Tracy in : America's Test Kitchen,anthropology,fangirl,garden,geekery,school,seasonality , 2 comments

Happy 2008, everybody! I hope you are all enjoying the International Year of the Potato so far — I know I am, and not just because I finally finished Larry Zuckerman’s The Potato: How the humble spud saved the Western world. Oh no, I have many reasons. For instance, check out what the Gmail just dragged in!

from:	The Editors of Cook's Illustrated
to:	Tracy van Cort
date:	Jan 7, 2008 11:33 AM
subject: Become a Shopper for America's Test Kitchen

(more…)