I have to admit not being good with this column. I blame my thesis for taking all my writing and reading energy these days, but I only have two months left of this excuse. Anyway, I hope you had a good week and got to enjoy the few rays of sunshine we were lucky enough to experience earlier this week. So here are a few things that I found interesting or, in some cases, topics that made my blood boil this week...
Misleading food labelling (Ireland)
Katy McGuinness, food writer at the Irish Independent wrote an excellent piece about Irish food provenance and misleading food labelling in Ireland. Very often if you shop in supermarkets you see the Irish flag or the term 'produced in Ireland' on products when in fact your chicken/pork/salmon/honey or whatever else comes from far away countries because it's so much cheaper. I urge you to read it if you are not already aware that most chicken fillet rolls are made with meat from Thailand or that cheap honey with an Irish sounding name is actually a blend of EU and on-EU honey.Read the full article.
Food Scenes in Best Picture Winning Movies
I love food movies the most, but when you really pay attention you notice that most movies have food scenes in them, of people eating or cooking. Just before the Academy Awards took place last week I stumbled upon this great article on the 15 Best Food Scenes in Best Picture Winning Movies. From a cooking scene in 'The Apartment' to 'Moonlight', the article is a nice compilation of the best food scenes in chronological order and even includes matching recipes.Read the full article
Calorie count on restaurant menus (Ireland)
One piece of news that caused a stir on social media among restaurateurs this week is the announcement of new legislation that would require restaurants in Ireland to display calorie counts on their menus. Simon Harris, Minister for Health, is planning to have this legislation published by the end of this year as part of a plan to tackle obesity. If you ask me it's an unnecessary requirement that misses the point, working on food education or improving the food in hospitals would be far more helpful!Read the article on the Irish Times.
Famous Foods (Worldwide)
In the latest episode of one of my favourite podcasts (The Food Chain), Emily Thomas investigates the world of famous foods such as the avocado and kale. Why has the avocado reached the status of superstar food? What are the consequences of its popularity? What made kale so popular? If you're like me, you'll probably overthink your next brunch after listening to this.Listen to the episode here
That's all for now.
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