#73 — Grainy Exports, Tesla and Fake Meat, Keema Spaghetti, and More
Hello,
It’s been a while! There’s been a lot happening since our last newsletter to you, but that hasn’t stopped us from being immersed in all things food.
Lots of exciting things happening — more than ever before and here are some upcoming spaces for food conversations that we are excited about:
🌦️Climate Proofing South Asia / 16 & 17 September 2022
forums, workshops, and panel discussions around the current mega-topics of climate mitigation, adaptation, and socially relevant and contextual sustainable practices.
Background Note here | Register interest here
👩🏽🍳Khasi Dinner Party with The Goya Journal / 6 & 7 August
A family-style Khasi meal cooked by sisters Daphimanroi and Dakiwanri, celebrating the fresh and unique flavors of Shillong
More here
🌳The Conservatory by the Courtyard Community in Bangalore is a beautiful new space for things culinary.
🐝The Locavore is doing some really good stuff through food, with monthly engagements with new producer partners and delicious food stories.
🖼️Bagh e Hind: An online sensorial exhibition of Mughal Paintings is a non-edible delight.
Visit the exhibition here. | Bagh e Hind is also offline at The Institute for Art and Olfaction in Los Angeles, California. Visit Here.
🍽️ Come Eat With Me: Sri Vamsi Matta’s performance piece that explores the relationship between caste and food while sharing a meal together is personal, wonderfully put together, and thought-provoking.
We’re following the project closely via Instagram
With offline spaces opening up we’re looking forward to having more in-person conversations and resuming our meet-ups soon!
Please do keep us posted if you are doing something in food!
Stay Curious,
Anusha & Elizabeth
Art by Lesley Friedmann
India’s Wheat Export Ban
The Indian government banned wheat exports in an abrupt move. The implications on Indian agriculture, farmers, and ensuing inflation is something to be understood.
🌾Why rice and wheat bans aren’t the answer to inflation
🌾Global Food Problems “Piling Up,” India Wheat Export Ban Adds to “Global Strains”
🌾Why is the Indian farmer being held responsible for controlling inflation?
Indigenous India
Plantina Mujai runs six Mei-Ramew (or “Mother Earth” in the local Khasi language) cafés. These cafés connect the food stall owners like Kong Plantina, small-scale farmers, foragers, café customers, and the larger community with the rich native agro-biodiversity. Read more.
To most of the food world including chefs, food bloggers, diners, Assamese cuisine means three things — pork, bamboo shoots and bhut jolokia — Atul wants to change that. Read more.
Through the Global Lens
A crop that changed the world
About peanuts, and the people who grew it at the margins of an empire in 19th century West Africa — once the most abundant source of the world’s most important oilseed.
Western Food Imperialism is Starving the Rest of the World
Over the past few decades, food prices in the west have been kept deceptively low through supermarket monopolies and a broken agricultural subsidy system, which has traditionally rewarded farmers for over-production and poor environmental practices.
‘Lab Meat’ Industry is Big Ag in Disguise
“Plant-based meats are not true alternatives if they prop up the existing system that fuels climate change and ecological degradation.”
Apply to MAD Academy’s programs.
MAD Academy offers courses designed for hospitality professionals — both employees and owners — with a focus on environmentally sustainable practices or approaches to effective leadership and management. Enrolment is now open for the Academy’s Leadership & Business program.
Taking place in November in Copenhagen, Denmark, the intensive five-day program offers lectures, workshops, and field trips led by experts within and outside hospitality. Participants will spend a week learning from the best and have the ability to network with a global peer group of driven change-makers. MAD’s programs offer a truly unique opportunity for development and training for both individuals looking to develop their knowledge or evolve as a leader, and for forward-thinking business owners who want to ensure their staff has what they need to navigate as operators and managers.
Regular tuition places are available along with scholarships which cover tuition fees, course materials, and meals during school hours. Applications are open now via: https://madacademy.dk/apply/
More information about MAD can be found here: madfeed.co // @themadfeed
🌿Plant-Powered🔋
It’s Time to Put Actual Veggies Back Into Veggie Burgers
Sure, fake-meat companies can make a vegetarian burger that bleeds. But veggie burgers should be — and historically have been — so much more.
The tangled past of vegetarianism in India and Europe
British and Indian vegetarians were critical of colonial rule, advocated sexual restraint and abstention from alcohol.
Non-vegetarians Not Allowed!
Mumbai residents militantly police the consumption of meat in their housing societies. And the hate is fast spreading across Maharashtra.
Tesla Is the Fake Meat of Cars
They both promised us that better consumer choices
would spark change. They haven’t.
Mother Jones
Our friends at The Goya Journal are launching this cookbook/journal in collaboration with Nivaala. With heirloom recipes from Goya’s community that were collected over a period of 6 years of collecting from communities around the country, the book looks stunning. They’re currently crowdfunding to bring this project to life.
Go support them ❤️
As independent creators, a lot of our time, love, and effort goes into making Edible Issues come to life. If you like our work, support us by buying us a coffee! Or a bisi bisi dose 🤤 Just click on the image to find more!
Food, Culture, and History
Food companies trying to turn tomato ketchup into an Indian condiment attempted every trick in their book. This is the story of how they succeeded.
Relish
FiftyTwo
Keema spaghetti, or keema macaroni is to the subcontinent what spaghetti and meatballs is to the United States.
Keema Spaghetti Is 4,500 Miles Away From Bolognese
Taste
The consensus is that we can never have a national dish because it is very hard to represent Singapore. But why seek singularity when you are so diverse?
An excerpt from ‘The Sweet Kitchen: Tales and Recipes of India’s Favourite Desserts’ by Rajyasree Sen.
How the sweet dish halwa came to India and grew regional variations
Scroll
The Story of the Nation in Five Biscuits.
Indian Biscuits: 1947–2022
Vittles
Inspired by the prasadam in the Srivilliputtur temple made of milk, sugar, and varied nuts, he started tinkering to make palkova.
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