Foodvice is a state of mind, it has to do with a constant curiosity about good food and a deep respect for the people who produce it and transform it

This is a book project about places and foods that FIT with the environment and do not waste resources. Some of them have to survive heat, others take advantage of the cold. All of them take into consideration specific environmental conditions to maximize quality and duration without the use of complex and expensive technologies.

There is something troubling about the sight of such a crowd of women, all making hot fermented cabbage in the autumn. Still, this is my favorite survival food, one in which I have generously indulged for last 12 months, exploring several combinations of vegetables and aromatic herbs.

Korea is the biggest producer and consumer of lacto-fermented vegetables (kimchi). Ceramic crocks are traditionally kept on the house roof or in the garden. It is a food that is meant to last. Alone. Without any need for refrigeration. Fermentation enriches the vegetables with vitamin C and other precious enzymes. 

KOREAN KIMCHI NEWS

Pyongyang, November 13 (KCNA) — All the families of Korea are busy with making traditional kimchi for winter these days.

Kimchi, a national food, is encouraged as an indispensable side-dish in the dietary life of the Korean people.

They have long cultivated vegetables to widely use them in their dietary life.

In this course, kimchi has become the main national food.

While using salted vegetables in their food life, the Korean people found fermentation of vegetables and developed the fermentation of salted vegetables by lactic acid bacilli, that is, the method of making kimchi.

There are various kinds of kimchi according to seasons — white radish kimchi seasoned with pepper, garlic, onion and ginger, hot pickles of chopped radishes, hot pickles of cucumbers, stuffed-cucumber pickles, kimchi made of whole aubergine, parsley kimchi, young radish kimchi and so on.

Kimchi made in late autumn takes a lion’s share in the dietary life of the Korean people as a subsidiary food for winter.

They say that kimchi for winter is the food for half a year as it preserves vegetables for nearly half a year.

 

THE KRAUTCHI SCHOOL

   Sandor Ellix Katz, about his book “Wild Fermentation”:

“this book is my song of praise and devotion to fermentation. For me, fermentation is a health regimen, a gourmet art, a multicultural adventure, a form of activism, and a spiritual path, all rolled into one”.

Krautchi is only one of the fermented foods described in the book. A crossover between Teutonic monogamic cabbage flavor and multi-spiced Korean galore, krautchi is a perfect example of how complex flavors can develop out of vegetable preparations.

To my delight, Sandor was at Terra Madre in Torino and that’s where we met, back in October. I do not know anybody who can describe how to awaken koji ferment in warm rice as if it was an ancient poem (and actually, the way koji works is a piece of poetry). I was there with 47kg of fermented vegetables ranging from daikon with lavender leaves to celery roots and chili. We ended up distributing them together and meeting people from the four corners of the world, who knew some kind of fermented vegetable.

Here’s Sandor’s report of the trip:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sandor-ellix-katz/sandorkraut-reports-from_b_140596.html

 

TERRA MADRE HIGHLIGHTS

For those who do not know it, TERRA MADRE is an event organized by Slowfood every two years and gathering thousands of farmers and breeders from all over the world. The idea is that people who live in distant and mostly rural areas can come and share their knowledge. A bit like Sofia and I with the fermentation process. Most of them bring along some of their foods and that is when things get serious.

1. The Iranian chair: this was the most mysterious and amazing cluster of foods I encountered in a long time. It consisted of a red plastic chair with four open jars on top and a sign saying “we are 500 herders living in the mountains of Iran”. In the three days I was there, I never so anybody taking care of the chair. After day 1, I drew closer and started tasting everything. Jar 1 contained a small, white, fossil-like stone. It had the imprint of fingers as if a hand had clutched the white stuff before it had hardened. It tasted like a salty and acidic goat cheese reduced to stone. Jar 2 contained a white paste that tasted like fat. Jar 3 contained some hard brown pieces that made me think of solid caramel. Jar 4 contained a brown softer cheese-stone. On the last day I say somebody getting close the chair and picking a piece of cheese with extreme nonchalance. I looked as if he knew what he was doing and so I guessed he must be from Iran.

I jumped on him before he could get away. But he spoke no English and did not want to give his mail address. I still have a specimen of fossil with me. I carry it around, in the hope that one day I will meet someone who will explain to me everything about it.

2. Fermented grain cheese (Lebanon)

3.

 

LARANJA SOCIAL – FOR A NEW WAY OF LIVING PUBLIC SPACE

An important chapter of SFFEW (Survival Foods For Eco Warriors) deals with our environment – urban, natural or both – and with our experience and interaction with it. Many interesting changes begin when perspectives and behaviors are re-interpreted and re-invented. 

This a story about fruit trees growing in cities or in public parks. Fifteen years ago, I visited a “public orchard” of apples and pear on a hill in Freiburg (DE). It had been set up in the 19th Century to feed the poor.

Industrialization sent people away from the countryside to the cities, where they often had no room for a garden where they could go a few edible goods. Public orchards in English cities were set up near workers’ home to make do with the problem. But this is another story.

I am thinking of fruit trees like mulberries, growing from Palermo to Milan. And orange trees that line the streets of Rome, Fez and so many Portuguese cities. I remember picking up an orange in Rome and finding that it was full of green powdery mold, like a bomb ready to explode. Rumor had it that the orange trees planted along the streets are not edible, but I have good reason to suspect that something else may be going on.

The best word I can find to point to the issue at hand is DISCOMFORT. In general, I observe our clumsy approach to the natural foods around us, whenever those foods are there and available. Without the intervention of a monetary transaction, without the mediation of a shop, a plastic bag, price trag, many people appear lost. As if food is something you buy and not something that has to do with our environment out there.

The simple connection to food is very clear to any nomad and has to do with picking what grows spontaneously. Of course, you need to know plants and fruits and roots before you can pick them. But let’s take it in steps:

a) fruits in cities;

b) wild plants near cities;

c) wild picnics;

d) miel beton

a) Fruits in cities

I suspect that most of the oranges mentioned above are perfectly edible. But the idea that they are not helps keeping them ornamental and prevents behaviors (picking) that may be difficult to regulate. But there is another important social aspect coming into play: gratuity has disappeared from our daily life. The very idea that local authorities may regulate free distribution of such fruits or set rules for it would disturb the monopoly of economic consumption.

Still, it is worth trying to recuperate gratuity within urban life. This winter I experimented with an orange tree that grown at my friend Isabel’s garden in Lisbon. The bright orange globes glow in the evening light and I cant resist trying one of them. Though not too perfumed or sweet, they are perfectly fine. The very fact of being able of picking them and eating them straightaway is a luxury. I eat them with the skin and all. I remember the bitter tiny wild oranges Amirali had brought from his garden in Teheran. Having citrus in one’s garden is a gift. 

Many Portuguese cities have orange trees lining main roads. Many people have such trees in their garden but do not necessarily consume those oranges. Maybe because there are so many, often because they are not sweet enough.

That is when the idea of Laranja Social comes into the picture. The idea is to gather people or volunteers from different ages to pick oranges. The oranges and washed and cut. Jam is made with them, using sugar and pectin. People give glass jars they want to be filled and can come to pick them up when they are full. The idea is to make jam with the town’s oranges (public and private) and to hand them out for free for anybody who would like them.