Eat This Newsletter 136: Copious
Hello
A bumper haul this time around, with a lot of long, informative reads. To be absolutely honest, I don’t have much to say to put any of them in context, so I think I might just try something a little different.
I hope you find this selection as interesting as I did.
There’s No Such Thing as Ethical Grocery Shopping
A story pegged to the publication of a new book, The Secret Life of Groceries, by Benjamin Lorr, published last month.
This is because the entire supply chain putting food in our [US, but elsewhere too, I’m sure] supermarkets has been whittled down to the sharpest edge of profitability by suit-wearing Midwesterners who pride themselves on exemplifying the American capitalist spirit.
Chilean raspberry scam
Not so much unethical as amoral.
[A]t least $12 million worth of mislabeled raspberries were sent to Canada between 2014 and 2016.
Much of that product … came from Harbin Gaotai Food Co Ltd, a Chinese supplier. Canadian health authorities later linked berries from Harbin Gaotai to a 2017 norovirus outbreak in Quebec that sickened hundreds of people. Canadian authorities issued a recall on Harbin Gaotai berries coming directly to Canada from China dating back to July 2016.
What they didn’t realize is that Harbin Gaotai raspberries had also entered Canada through a backdoor during that period in the form of falsely labeled fruit shipped from Chile by Frutti di Bosco.
Grapefruit Is One of the Weirdest Fruits on the Planet
Come for the history, stay for the life-threatening furanocoumarins, and marvel at the difference between Canada and the US.
“Currently, there is not enough clinical evidence to require Zoloft, Viagra, or Adderall to have a grapefruit juice interaction listed on the drug label,” wrote an FDA representative in an email.
This is not a universally accepted conclusion. In Canada, where [David] Bailey [a clinical pharmacologist, who discovered grapefruit’s deadly secret] lives and works, warnings are universal. “Oh yeah, it’s right on the prescription bottles, in patient information,” he says. “Or they have a yellow sticker that says, ‘Avoid consumption of grapefruit when taking this drug.’”
Sanbokan: Japan’s rare, sour citrus fruit
More citrus mysteries, but no word on its drug interactions.
With its thick peel and unmistakably pronounced nipple, the sanbokan is instantly recognisable. It has a taste that is somewhere between a blood orange and a bitter grapefruit. Scientists have no idea how this unique citrus formed. Most say it’s a variety of orange. Others that it’s related to Japan’s ethereally fragrant yuzu. Some even say it’s a type of lemon.
How Rabbits Became Our Pets
Maybe you’ve heard the foul canard that around 600 CE, Pope Gregory I triggered rabbit raising after deciding that rabbit foetuses were not meat but fish, and so OK to eat during Lent; not so.
Two authors in particular, H. Nachtsteim and F.E. Zeuner, bungled their citations regarding a Latin manuscript written by St. Gregory of Tours, a 6th century historian who had nothing to do with Pope Gregory. “They weren’t even closely related,” says [Gregor] Larson. … From that one reference, says Larson, the story snowballed until it became accepted as scientific gospel.
Blood & Beehives: Culinary Ingenuity of the Marginalised
Absolutely fascinating look at the inventive and diverse ways in which the Dalit people of India somehow managed to feed themselves. (Thanks to Eating in Translation for the link.)
Indian culinary history has been dismissive of Dalit food practices. There is little tactile material available documenting their food history and tradition. “When I was young, I noticed that newspapers and cooking shows featured a variety of foods and recipes. But we were invisible in these stories. Dalit food was never talked about,” [Shahu] Patole says. In 2015, he released Anna He Apoorna Brahma (which loosely translates to ‘our plate has always been incomplete’), a book that chronicles the culinary tastes of two Dalit communities in Maharashtra between 1950 to 1972.
What Happened to Quaker Rice Cakes, America’s Favorite Health Snack?
Confession time: I quite like the modern versions, made with buckwheat or maize. They’re still expanded polystyrene, but better-tasting expanded polystyrene.
[T]hat pleasant, satisfying crunch, like taking a chunk out of a perfectly crisp apple, and that miniscule [sic] bit of toasted, sometimes sweet, sometimes salty, flavor mixed in with a slurry of desiccated rice matter. It was interesting enough to take down the whole cake, and maybe even dip into the tube bag for another, and another.
Syria introduces limits on subsidised bread as economic crisis bites
I’m guessing the army still has plenty to eat.
“Our solution so far is to eat fewer meals and try to use rice or bulgar wheat if we can find it. I can only afford to buy black market bread once a week.”
Take care, and stay safe.
Jeremy