Author: Nicola
The Definitive Victory of the Russian Porridge
IMAGE: The first poster in the Russian World War I propaganda series, “European Cuisine.” C. 1914-1918, Kuharet’s Russian Posters, Harry Ransom Center, The University of Texas at Austin. http://blogs.utexas.edu/culturalcompass/2014/03/04/posters-portray-food-as-evil/ http://hrc.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/search/collection/p15878coll26/searchterm/russia/field/all/mode/all/conn/and/order/title/ad/asc#nav_top http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=63518&start=15 http://guity-novin.blogspot.com/2010/05/chapter-29-propaganda-posters.html#Nine http://www.ww1propaganda.com/ww1-poster/save-loaf-week-help-win-war-0 Women and Children: The Secret Weapons of World War I Propaganda Posters http://longstreet.typepad.com/thesciencebookstore/2010/10/food-and-not-having-it-visual-displays-of-data-britain-and-germany-1918.html sets the scene for the start of war…
The Million-Dollar Bull
IMAGE: Jabriel, a “luxury bull,” whose semen is the most valuable in the billion-dollar Brazilian cattle genetics industry. Photo from the “Holy Cow” series by photo-journalist Carolina Arantes. Jabriel is what can be described as a “luxury bull”–his genes so perfect that he lives protected in the farm of a lab in the south-eastern state…
Until Proven Safe
[et_pb_section admin_label=”section”] [et_pb_row admin_label=”row”] [et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text”] Behold! Edible Geography rises, vampire*-like, from the dead, for today marks the publication of my very first book! Until Proven Safe: The History and Future of Quarantine is co-authored with Geoff Manaugh, whom long-time readers of this blog will recognize as my husband and frequent collaborator, as well…
The Great Tariff Boat Race
IMAGE: Peak Pegasus. Photo by Jackie Pritchard, Marine Traffic. Peak Pegasus is a bulk cargo ship, built in 2013, and, like so many commercial vessels, flagged in Liberia. At 229 metres long and 32.26 metres broad, she is Panamax-sized (the maximum width that can squeak through the canal is 32.31 metres), and she can carry…
Swedish Candy Culture
The year I moved to New York, Sockerbit, a Scandinavian pick-and-mix sweet shop, opened in the West Village. I went once, and never again in the six years I lived in the city. The problem was not that I did not enjoy the fragrant, soft pink Smultronmatta (rippled squares of wild strawberry licorice) or the…
Monsieur, with all these hazelnuts, you are really spoiling us!
IMAGE: The classic Ferrero Rocher “Ambassador’s Party” ad. “To put a hazelnut into every bonbon, Ferrero buys about a third of the world’s hazelnut supply.” A third! That’s just one of the fascinating details in this Forbes profile of the Ferrero family, which also includes the business’s origins in ersatz wartime “chocolate.”* Founder Pietro’s first…
Lunar Hay Fever
As allergy season gears up in the northern hemisphere, yesterday brought news that even leaving the planet will bring no relief. A press release announcing the publication of a new paper in the journal GeoHealth warned that future astronauts may well suffer from “lunar hay fever,” complete with the characteristic sneezing, watery eyes, and sore…
The Rise of Wackaging
IMAGE: Innocent wackaging via. If you’ve bought juice, crisps, cereal bars, soups, “breakfast pots” (porridge, as was), or any number of other ready-to-eat packaged foods in the U.K. this millennium, you may have noticed that your snack fancies a chat. “British food packaging now has a matey, at worst babyish, tone that simply didn’t used…
Egg on Your Face
An egg, it turns out, is not just the best thing to put on top of almost any dish. For starters, artists have been using eggs as a canvas for centuries; the International Egg Art Guild showcases some fine examples of “eggery,” from delicate laser-cut eggshells to traditional Ukranian wax-resist methods. The photo galleries from…
The Great British Mistake
IMAGE: Websters is one of only six dairies that is allowed to make Stilton cheese. Photograph by Martin Parr/Magnum, via The New Republic. I am both stunned and heartbroken by the UK’s Brexit vote, as well as selfishly angry that my future as a European seems to have been taken away* by a disastrous combination…