Yes, you hear it right. Harlem is thriving in the bustling streets of Belfast’s city centre.  Harlem Cafe is without a doubt, my favourite lunchtime hangout when I am in Belfast for meetings. They also happen to make a pretty mean cappuccino with the proper creamy froth consistency so important to me. I cannot stand dry froth or cappuccinos that are really lattes, but I digress…

It’s beautiful eclectic decor of antiques of different shapes and sizes provide an inviting and fresh atmosphere.  High ceilings and good lighting also help set the lovely dining experience. It is run by Faye Rogers whose educational background in window-dressing and fashion design makes all the antiques that her husband has collected over decades gel into a perfect collage.

And the food? oh well, they do a very good job on that front too. They provide a rich and diverse menu to please all palettes and make it a point of sourcing local produce as much as possible.  Last time I went, I had this delicious and authentic Irish stew with a slice of wheaten loaf and butter. Funnily enough, it was just what I needed on a cold July day in Ireland.

Kudos to Faye for really coming through on her vision for  ”the customer to experience — great coffee, delicious home-made food, a fantastic venue to dine and meet up with friends, and all wrapped up with excellent customer service.”

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Hill’s Kitchen’s Knife Skills classes will teach you how to correctly use a knife to slice, dice, julienne, and framboise your way to fine foods at home.  These classes not only save you loads of prep time in the kitchen but also you give you lots of bang for your buck.  The first floor kitchen furnishings store offers both basic cookware and fancy novelty items including cookie cutters shaped like all of the 50 states.

Patrons can shop the first level and register for fun and helpful classes taught in the upstairs kitchen classroom.  Basic Knife Skills is a prerequisite for the Poultry or Fish classes.  Middle Eastern Vegetarian will teach you how to make a fancy feast guaranteed to impress dinner party guests time and time again.  To learn how to cook from the best, try any or all of Marta Mirecki’s classes, a former chef at Montmartre.  Whether shopping for kitchen tools or learning your way around the kitchen, a visit to Hill’s Kitchen is both money and time well spent.

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On a return visit to the Netherlands late last month, I was feeling the need for something to tie me over before I reached my destination at 10pm so I opened up the EasyJet menu and figured that I had to try the other snack box available, the Yumble Bumble.  No idea why it is called that, and once again, I am surprised at how little information is available about the box online. I was able to find out that they are but together by an airline catering company called  Retail in Motion. Personally, I would like to know more about the origins of the name for the snack box and also what process they go through in selecting the items that go into them. Seeing as Easyjet flies to countless destinations throughout Europe, I gather that they need to include a range of items that would be palatable to most cultures.

Snack Box contents: a packet of mini grissini with hummus dip, a pack of artisan style chips/crisps, 2 cream crackers with a Bel Paese cream cheese, one Eat Natural yoghurt coated bar (love their snack bars!), and a Lindt milk chocolate ball.

So, what did I think? Well, I enjoyed my snack box, but it wasn’t as good as their other Feel Good Snack Box on the whole.  I loved the design of the box, very cheerful and fun. My favorite piece was the Eat Natural yoghurt covered bar which I had never tried before. It was delish and it will become a regular in my cupboard along with other Eat Natural products.

I should add that in the process of my research, I came across this neat site http://www.airlinemeals.net/ where you can upload images and descriptions/reviews of your airline culinary experiences around the world.

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LoMo Market travels in a truck pulling a refrigerated trailer, making established stops in various neighborhoods around the Research Triangle in North Carolina.

Open up the trailer and it’s a full on-store. It partners with local farmers and producers, helping to expand the reach of small family producers and make it more convenient for people to get fresh foods.

You won’t find your Ho-Hos here. Only fresh, organic foods. The trailer is lined with fresh produce, fruit, jams, packages of ground grits and pancake mix, hot sauce, preserves, eggs, fish, and even flowers.

Each item is marked with the farm from which it originated, so you know exactly where it is from.

A wonderful bonus for me (not only is it in my neighborhood – check out their site to see if they are coming to you and if not, make a request!) is that they also carry Spread Cheeze. As some of you know, I have limited my intake of dairy, become a full convert to almond milk, and now found this wonderful cheese made of almonds and cashews. I have tried ones in stores and never liked them. They tasted…like cardboard. Spread, locally-owned, was started by a woman who just wanted a good-tasting non-dairy cheese. Warning: it’s addictive.

Welcome to the neighborhood, LoMo! Hope this takes off across the country.

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I have to admit that I failed at a few of these! Check out their whole site as it is packed with useful information.

Try it yourself.

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Taken from the Thermomix UK Website

When I say magical machine, I mean magical.  This is no fancy blender with a high ticket price, this machine weighs, cooks, chops, crushes, emulsifies, whips, mixes, steams, blends, kneads, grinds simmers, grates, mills, and the list goes on.  My friends in Madrid have four kids and quite a small kitchen so the Thermomix is literally a lifesaver for them.  It is compact and covers the need for a blender, a juicer, a food-processor, a slow-cooker, a bread-maker, a coffee grinder, a grater, and an electric whisk! (phew, try saying all that in one breath)  My friend was able to throw in all the ingredients for a lunch-time soup, set the timer, head off to grab a shower and get ready, and the machine took care of preparing and heating the soup.  All she had to do was serve it onto the soup bowls piping hot!

The downside of this machine seems to be the cost which is around the £800/$1,300 mark (give or take as that info is also really hard to find), but when you consider the benefits, I would say it is ideal, especially for apartment life where space is limited.  It also definitely seems to be the ideal companion for young families where time and hungry voices are always a challenge.

Here in the U.K, their main site is http://www.ukthermomix.com/, and here is their main official international website where you can inquire about availability in other countries http://www.vorwerk.com/thermomix/html/.  I know that it is now available in the U.S. and Canada.

If any of you have any direct experience in using this machine, I would be very interested in learning more about your experiments cooking with it.

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Their first documentary, Wok Next Door, is about the magic that happens when the smells of good food and a simple knock on the door leads to a deep friendship and realization of the smallness of the world. Check out IndyWeek’s great write-up.

Wok Next Door from Independent Weekly on Vimeo.

Currently in production is a piece about coffee and the weekly tastings of Counter Culture (remember, my camp coffee adventure?)

Vittles’ fiscal sponsor, the Southern Documentary Fund, promotes documentary projects within and about the American South that have national or international significance. How cool is it to tell such beautiful food stories?

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Growing consumer interest in local farm products can be seen at various farmers markets across the Triangle (Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill). Market patrons are provided the unique opportunity to meet the farmers that grow their food and ask questions about their farming practice. However, they are seldom given the chance to go behind the scenes and truly understand what motivates these farmers to be stewards of our lands and our food supply. A Farming Way of Life raises awareness about the connection between local foods and the families that grow them while providing inspirational stories for future farmers who may want to own and run a farm of their own.

With the help of the United Arts Council and the Regional Artists Project Grant Program I (the mastermind behind this series, Mr. Brad Herring) was able to show how dedicated our local farmers are in providing for their families and our community and remind viewers that farming is more than just a historical practice; it’s alive and vibrant.

A Farming Way of Life – Whitted Bowers Biodynamic Fruit from Brad Herring on Vimeo.

Feature photograph credited to Whitted Bowers Farm: http://www.whittedbowersfarm.com/Site/Photos.html#3

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Full Disclosure: Jonathan Bloom was my first follower on Twitter.  He’s also given me plenty of suggestions for visits on my Food Fighters tour.  But, that’s not why I like him (although, I’m not going to say it hurts his status).  No, I’m impressed by Bloom because he’s passionate about his topic.  He’s studied it inside and out, spending more than a year of his life working in the “field” for research.  Considering his passion, that’s not always easy.  Because his passion is… garbage.

Ok, it’s not just any garbage.  It’s food waste, in particular.  Bloom is an expert on it.  In his 2010 book, American Wasteland (coincidentally to be published in paperback this week), he fills over 300 pages talking about the edible goods we Americans pitch.   That discarded food waste would be about one quarter to one half of all food produced or approximately 197 pounds of food per year-or if you want it in dollar amounts (and be honest, you totally do) about $160 billion dollars lost in tossed food, according to Bloom.

American Wasteland covers many aspects of waste from farms in fields due to lack of harvesting to misuse and misunderstanding of food in school cafeterias, homes, grocery stores and restaurants.  The book also gives you good reason to care about all this waste.  Besides the obvious connection of wasted food and hunger in America, it details the dangers of landfills (the 2nd leading source of methane emissions) and gives strong environmental, moral and economical reasons why food waste is wrong.

Best of all, Bloom proposes solutions.  These ideas span from ways to cut waste at home to ideas for the commercial and governmental sectors of America. He evens lays out a model for reducing food trash based on the example of our Motherland, Great Britain. In the final pages, he details links to various resources to help the reader follow up.

Not since reading Michael Pollan’s Omnivore’s Dilemma have I been struck by my lack of knowledge about something which should be glaringly obvious.  That leftover pasta or bruised tomato that isn’t as enticing to eat as its untouched, unblemished brethren has to go somewhere.  And thanks to American Wasteland, I’m certainly thinking a lot more carefully about where it will end up.

For more on food and waste, check out Leva’s article.

American Wasteland is available in hardback and paperback at Amazon.com and other national retailers.  You can also read more about Jonathan’s efforts at www.wastedfood.com .

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