Comments for food for thought

Comment on SOS: is ethical dining the new black? by The Gobbler

The Gobbler — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 11:27:35 +0000

G’day Camilla just discovered you blog, love it so far.
On the SOS thingy. Once there was a restaurant in Melbournes Brunswick St called ‘the seagoing vegetable’which embraced this ‘vegequarian’ concept years ago. It preceded SOS by about 12 years.

Comment on A good egg? by jenny weight

jenny weight — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 05:29:03 +0000

thanks for the interesting information

Comment on Roof food is local food is good food by Joe

Joe — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 10:29:41 +0000

Wow! Thanks Girl on The Avenue – I love it!
Apart from being a nifty alliteration, the juxtaposition of guerrilla (with all its revolutionary fervour) with gardening (carefully mulching the tomatoes on a lazy Sunday morning) is just fantastic! Having just moved into a new place with a pathetically small courtyard (the sacrifices we make to join the North Fitzroyalty…), I think I’ve found an avenue to satisfy my green thumb.

Comment on the first thought… by Girl on The Avenue

Girl on The Avenue — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 02:57:22 +0000

Oh, it’s so heartening to read that so many people are reading The Omnivore’s Dilemma. What a tour de force.

Comment on Roof food is local food is good food by Girl on The Avenue

Girl on The Avenue — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 02:55:07 +0000

Joe: that’s a great meme: “dead” city spaces. Do you know about Japan’s geurilla gardening movement?

Comment on Factory farming and the RSPCA by Girl on The Avenue

Girl on The Avenue — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 02:53:18 +0000

This is a very tricky argument, and thanks so much for raising it.

With regard to Pace eggs, I think Jane’s justification of the RSPCA’s endorsement carries some weight. But of course, why endorse a company whose only commitment to anti-cruelty is for market reasons? And also, wasn’t Pace Farms famously dodgy when it comes to segregating free-range eggs from caged ones?

From a shopper’s perspective, if a supermarket only has Pace eggs and no other free-range egg, I’ll buy it not in the sure knowledge that I’m buying an ethical product, but in the knowledge that it sends a message that there’s a market for these.

Thanks so much for your excellent blog, btw.

Comment on SOS: is ethical dining the new black? by Camilla

Camilla — Sat, 02 Jun 2007 03:26:01 +0000

You may be a bit late… News hot off the press is that SOS has just officially closed its doors, less than a year after opening. The restaurant will be “renovated and relaunched”, whatever that means…

Comment on Roof food is local food is good food by Camilla

Camilla — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 07:56:37 +0000

Fantastic! I love that idea of ‘reclaiming’ urban spaces for new uses – it is nice to see car infrastructure in the inner city being appropriated for bike use too…

Comment on Roof food is local food is good food by Joe

Joe — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 01:43:40 +0000

Along similar lines to steph’s comment, I saw a great example of reclaiming dead city space to grow food the other day. A resident of a block of flats in Melbourne’s north had completely converted their car space to a food producing garden using about 15 large terracotta pots. It was fascinating to see a bountiful garden surrounded by concrete and parked cars.

Comment on Are cookbooks really the panacea for a food-illiterate society? by Jordan

Jordan — Thu, 31 May 2007 19:14:07 +0000

i think this is sort of typical of neoliberal rationalism — address a largescale social and economic problem through “consumer choice.” if consumers would just learn how to cook, they could make better choices in the grocery store! nevermind that most supermarkets only offer limited amounts of appealing, nutritious whole ingredients. i don’t know about in Australia, but in the US, the big supermarket chains sell wan, limp produce, very few whole grains, and prepared products inevitably injected with unnecessary amounts of corn syrup, hydrogenated oil, and sodium, to boost the flavor of otherwise tasteless processed foods.

in order to make healthier food choices, most Americans have to seek out specialty markets and health food stores, although chains like Whole Foods have begun making organic and whole foods more available — at an outrageous markup. so people who have money and time can find healthier, tastier ingredients for cooking at home, but even in metropolitan areas, it still requires a lot of individual effort.

still, i’ll admit that my trusty Moosewood Lowfat Favorites cookbook helped me learn about how to cook easy one-pot vegetarian dinners and how to prepare unusual grains and vegetables (quinoa, chard, bulgur, dried beans, etc.). but such literacy is only useful if you have those ingredients available to you in the first place.

p.s. — thanks for the link!