Image by Scorpions and Centaurs
(http://www.angies.us/) seasoned beef, shredded chicken or shredded beef and beans, rolled in a flour tortilla and smothered with green chili & melted cheddar cheese. Served with lettuce, tomato & sour cream
Telus Tower
Image by GS+
New Westminster, BC
Previously 179-telus
Old brand new
Image by mr. Wood
Russia – Tver @ Yashica Electro 35 GS
Image by adriansalamandre
Everybody hates Monsanto and GM foods in general, but governments always have the last word.
But maybe mother nature already is on the counter-attack, please read on…
Amaranth vs. monsanto
United States, five thousand hectares of transgenic soybean crop had to be abandoned by farmers and fifty thousand more are seriously threatened. This is due to a so-called "weed" that has decided to oppose the giant Monsanto, known for being the largest predator on Earth. However, this mutant plant proliferates and defies Roundup, the glyphosate-based herbicide, which "no weed can resist".
When nature takes over.
In 2004, a farmer from Macon, Ga., a town about 130 miles from Atlanta, noticed that some shoots of pigweed (amaranth) resistant to Roundup where he watered his crops of soybeans.
The fields which fell "victim" to this invasion were planted with Roundup Ready seeds, which contains a gene for resistance to Roundup which "no weed can resist".
Since then, the situation has worsened and the phenomenon has spread to other states, South Carolina, and northern Arkansas, Tennessee and Missouri. According to a group of scientists from the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, a UK organization located at Winfrith in Dorset, there was a transfer of genes between the GM plant and some weeds such as pigweed. This finding contradicts the pre-emptive and over-optimistic assertions of GM defence advocates who claimed that hybridization between a genetically modified plant and an unmodified plant is simply "impossible".
For the British geneticist Brian Johnson, specializing in issues related to agriculture: "It only takes one successful crossing over millions of possibilities. Once it is created, the new plant has a huge selection advantage, and it multiplies quickly. The powerful herbicide used here, based on glyphosate and ammonium, has exerted enormous pressure on the plants, which further increased the speed of adaptation. Thus, a gene resistant to herbicides, it seems, gave birth to a hybrid plant after a jump between the seed that it is supposed to protect and amaranth, which has become impossible to remove.
The only solution is to pull weeds by hand, as we once did, but it is not always possible given the range of cultures. In addition, these herbs are very deeply rooted and difficult to pull 5,000 hectares have been simply abandoned.
Many farmers plan to abandon the GM plants and return to traditional agriculture, especially as the GM plants are more and more expensive and profitability is paramount for this kind of agriculture. Alan Rowland, producer and marketer of soybean seeds in Dudley, Mo., says no one asks him for seeds of Monsanto Roundup Ready anymore. This used to represent 80% of his business. Today, GM seeds have disappeared from its catalogue and the application of traditional seeds is increasing.
Already, 25 July 2005, The Guardian published an article by Paul Brown, who showed that modified genes of cereals had transited to wild plants, creating a "superseed" resistant to herbicides, a crossing "inconceivable" by scientists from the Ministry of Environment. Since 2008, U.S. agricultural media are reporting more and more cases of resistance and the Government of the United States has made significant budget cuts, which have forced the Ministry of Agriculture to reduce and stop some of its activities.
Diabolical or sacred plant?
It is ironic that this plant, seen as "diabolical" in the eyes of agriculture geneticists, is a plant sacred to the Incas. It is one of the oldest foods in the world. Each plant produced an average of 12,000 seeds per year, and the leaves are richer in protein than soy, contain vitamins A and C and minerals.
So this boomerang, thrown by nature back at Monsanto, not only neutralizes the predator, but installs a plant in places that can feed the world in times of famine. It supports most climates, from dryland areas to monsoon affected regions and tropical highlands, and has neither problems with insects nor diseases, so never needs chemicals.
Thus AMARANTH takes on the powerful Monsanto, as David opposed Goliath. Everybody knows how the fight ended, however unequal though! If these phenomena are reproduced in sufficient quantity, which seems programmed, Monsanto will soon have to put the key under the door. Aside from its employees, who will complain that this multi-national really dies?
Sylvie SIMON (Your Health) Translation: Adrian Kenyon
Sunday Dinner
Image by djwtwo
For some reason, I don’t often end up posting pictures of savory items (probably because when I’m cooking savory stuff, it tends to be for meals, and I’m more focused on getting things to the table hot than I am in taking pictures). But, tonight’s dinner was presentable enough that I took the time to shoot (my own) plate, after serving Kris & the girls.
The meal itself was pretty straightforward: slices of brined, smoked-paprika-rubbed, grilled chicken paillard served with asparagus on a bed of quinoa with dried cherries and pecans, sauced with a reduction of chicken stock and hard cider, with a little fresh thyme. I took the small amount of extra time to plate it nicely, and took it outside under the food-friendly diffuse light of a cloudy afternoon to take a few pictures.
I’m pretty happy with the presentation here, and it was certainly tasty (for the “world’s safest protein”, anyway), but I can’t help feeling that this shot is missing something.
Image by Mélisande*
A transposition to pentagons in a circle of the square dish by Loes Schakel (diagram in N°94 of OUSA magazine) and Endo Kazukuni (diagram by Tomoko Fuse in her book about boxes ISBN 4-416-30302-5).
Both share same CP, only the tucking of flaps is different.
Image by Sifu Renka
As pedestrian as this toasted slivered almond covered mocha cake might be, it did get my attention, minus the chocolate drizzle. I like the contrast of crisp bits found in dense or creamy sweets (I’m very much a textural eater) and it made me sad that I couldn’t try this version. I would have imagined the spongy cake and the whipped airy buttercream being satisfying, the nuts working well to round out the flavours. Again, I appear to be waxing poetic for something I’ve not even tried.
I have an active imagination (for food). This also means that in imagining how dishes should taste, it’s possible to disappoint because they might fall below my standards. It also means that when a course blows my senses away, it’s super amazing.
Every time I come back to Penang, there are a few hawker food (street food) that I never miss out eating. As I was born and raised in Penang, I seek out to those foods and places that carry sentimental values to me—my favorite dishes and treats I grew up eating, neighborhood restaurants, hawker centers or coffee shops (kopitiam) that my family frequents, or particular hawkers that have known me since I was little. These places are mostly unknown to the tourists as they are not covered by guide books, but to me, they are some of the best foods found in Penang…they are the tastes of my childhood.
One of the treats that I absolutely love is Penang ApongBalik, or ApomBalik, solid by this 70-year old hawker Chooi, along Burmah Road (before Union Primary School). Penang Apong Balik is a Nyonya sweet treat with sliced bananas, some corns, all folded up in a sweet, eggy, aromatic, soft and fluffy pancake, speckled with shredded coconut. The taste, texture and recipe are completely different from the original Indian apom (which is another favorite of mine).
Each piece of this heavenly apong balik is merely RM0.40 (or US$ 0.15) but trust me on this, it’s probably one of the best pancakes ever created. Each apong balik is made by hand by Uncle Chooi, and sold/served immediately to the customers. I can easily gobble up ten (10) of these hot-off-the-pan apong balik as my afternoon snackâ€they are absolutely delightful and tasty!
With many hawkers in Penang nearing or exceeding retirement age, I am sometimes saddened by the fact that I probably will not have my favorite apong balik in the years ahead. As I mentioned, Chooi is 70 years old and his three children are professionals and will not inherit his humble business. A truly legendary concoction and Recipe might be lost forever in the near future. But for now, I will savor every piece of these heavenly apong balik whenever I drive by Chooi’s stall.
Apom Chooi 老字号
Burmah Road, Penang
Hours: 1.30pm to 8pm (Closed on Sundays)
Note:
To local Penangites, this stall is the less-popular stall next to the famous Apong Guan, but the truth is Chooi is the older brother of Apong Guan, so both have the same family recipe and their apong pretty much taste the same. Chooi has also operated the business longer.
Image by judge_mental
Today’s modern food scientists all agree that chips can’t be to blame for obesity.
As a way of adding a whopping great fat profit margin to spuds, second only to the markup on crisps, they’re part of a great British tradition of charging our poorest people the most money, for the least amount of nutritional value.
However the price of these freedoms is eternal vigilance.
Thankfully there are industry lobbying campaigns to abolish doubleplusbadthink, such as this one by the British Potato Council…targeting the market-unfriendly term "couch potato".
Let’s hope the BPC get their Orwellian way and this disgusting slur on our national vegetable from Peru is erased from the dictionary.
Perhaps it would help if we could blame something else?
Leaving the potato farmers’ symbiotic relationship with the fertiliser industry aside for a moment, could it be instead that fluoridated water causes fat kids?
An outrageous suggestion. There’s nothing wrong with my kids, I’ve drunk it all my life and it’s never done me any harm etc. etc. Here’s how:
And then there was Dr Mullenix. She also had a hard time after showing that rats from mothers dosed with fluoride prenatally developed signs of hyperactivity, whereas rats administered fluoride postnatally developed a "couch potato" syndrome – "a malaise or absence of initiative and activity".
Soon the potato farmers of Lincolnshire and elsewhere will complete their quest to eradicate bad language.
When our liberty to know nothing of the "couch potato" is restored, Dr Mullenix’s research will be invalidated.
Thus freed, it will be once again safe for an absence of initiative or activity to take place in our neurological laboratories when it comes to discovering any evidence that the Lincoln Chip Women might have used, to demonstrate that their mothers’ drinking "couch potato water" when pregnant made them grow up fat.
This will in turn ensure they in no way employ any hyperactive lawyers to sue the 20 Lincoln Councillors who voted to feed it to them.
Image by jpellgen
Another Giada de Laurentiis recipe from her show Everyday Italian on Food Network… Chicken drumsticks baked on high heat and glazed with a balsamic honey sauce. Topped with sesame seeds and freshly chopped parsley.
The sakura bowl is from a place in Shibuya which I believe is called Afternoon Tea.
