I’ve just stumbled upon this post on Zen Habits about the Zen of Real Food, which I thought is worth sharing and spreading. The article is quite long, so here are some highlights:

I really don’t think it’s all that difficult to figure out what to eat, however. It’s as simple as “Eat Real Food”. So what do I mean by Real Food? Simple…I mean foods that are in, or very near to, their natural state. Here’s a short list of guidelines to lead us to real foods:

• Food grows and dies. It isn’t created.
• Food rots, wilts, and becomes generally unappetizing, typically rather quickly.
• Food doesn’t need an ingredient label (and probably isn’t in a package either).
• Food doesn’t have celebrity endorsements.
• Food doesn’t make health claims.

If you apply this list to your food shopping, you’ll probably realize that much of what passes your lips doesn’t pass muster.

That part is my favorite:

I don’t know how it is outside of the United States, but here, we’re in love with our microwaves and convenience foods. The quicker dinner can be served, the quicker we can get back to more important things, like American Idol and work.

*lol* – that is so true. Even though it is an extreme in America, I’ve to admit that in Europe (and I can probably extend that claim to the whole planet) more and more people see their “purpose of life” in work (career), getting married, making babies, owning a big house with a nice car sitting in front of the garage and finally to die with a lot of “work and TV experience” and money left, which neither of those gets transfered with them to heaven or hell – or wherever you expect to end up. Ironically some people tend to call this the “American Dream”.

Cooking at Home

Camarones

Food manufacturers have conditioned our taste buds to seek overly salty and sweet foods. It took me a long time to be able to enjoy the natural sweetness of a carrot. My eating pleasure really took a flying leap though when I figured out how to add flavor without sugar or salt. In a nutshell, love your herbs and spices. Find five or seven or ten go-to spices, keep them on hand, and try combining them in novel ways. Branch out and try others.

Here are a few of my favorites: garlic, basil, cumin, ginger, black pepper. And I’m currently eating lots of sage and rosemary that I’ve been picking up at the farmer’s market. The fun of learning to eat right is getting in the kitchen and seeing what new flavor combos you can create. I like cumin, soy sauce, and garlic together. What you come up with might be weird, but it’s all yours. Oh sure, you’re going to mess something up or create a meal that just ain’t quite right, but Rome wasn’t built in a day…or something like that.

Read the rest of this entry »

And another post about food.

A happy cow does taste yummy!

I just found a really good 20 minute TED talk from Mark Bittman about “What’s wrong with what we eat”. It was pretty boring the first couple of minutes and I almost switched away, but then it turned into a really impressive presentation about food and how we eat. It also covers the meaning of organic food, and that by our current definition it isn’t really that much organic. Worth watching.

Another interesting talk is this 5 minute presentation from Dean Ornish about “Genes are not our fate”. He’s talking about how healthy food has an impact on body and mind, even on a genetic level.

As I mentioned before, you go better with buying your food at the farmers market or at smaller independent stores, from which you know they get their supplies from the local area, rather than shopping in big super market chains, even if they pretend to be “natural” or “organic”.

Tortellini and vegetables in peanut butter

Living in America was a great experience. I learned lots of new stuff, not only about technology, but also about people, “culture” and life in general. But the most important thing I learned, was, to appreciate the gifts we have in Europe. They’re both great places to life, but one thing I love about Europe (and really missed in America) is good food. There are good food places in America (especially in cities like SF or NYC) as well, no doubt. But in Europe they’re just everywhere. While in San Francisco I maybe found 2 independent bakeries, the tiny village in Germany where I grew up already had 4 or 5 bakeries. And now here in Edinburgh there are tons of bakeries, butchers, cheese dairies and gourmet stores just on the one street I’m living.

Yummy fish!

Veggie sausages with spinach and a salad

Although all these little stores are still available right now, I think there’s a shift towards buying precooked and packed food in big supermarket chains happening here in Europe as well, which unfortunately makes the smaller independent stores slowly disappear.

This is why I recently decided to buy the least amount necessary in supermarkets, but support the smaller individual stores as much as possible. I know it is sometimes a bit more expensive, but you get fresh and high qualitative food and not only that, but additionally the money goes directly to the people who deserve it.

OpenSourceFood.com

Just stumbled across this website: OpenSourceFood.com

What sounds like a crazy idea is actually pretty cool. Share your recipes online with others food lovers and let them cook it and eventually modify or improve your recipes. If it works for software, why should it not work for food as well?

The idea is by web designer from Tokyo, who has also built the platform. All recipes are licensed under the popular Creative Commons license. Give it a try. I already love it.

Went for brunch to the harbor area and spent the afternoon at the SF carnival.

Unbelievable April! 30°C the last 3 days. After more than 6 hours of exhausting beach volleyball on Saturday I decided to have a good breakfast on Sunday. This time we went to Lime [yelp][map] in the Castro. It was okay, but not as good as Chow’s [yelp][map], where I’ve been two months ago for breakfast. In the early afternoon I chilled in Dolores Park [map] and later in the afternoon I went to 3rd Avenue for some kiteboarding. Yes, a very active weekend again. Fortunately I have a workday tomorrow and some time to recover from the weekend.

More pictures are here.

I spent the last 3 days with Tanya in Manhattan, which could have been my new favorite city now, if it wouldn’t be so freezing cold. But life there is just amazing. We always came back late in the night (or early in the morning) and there were still so many people out on the streets having a great time.

Besides the usual sight seeing and lots of good food, we went to New York for Pavi’s bachelorette party and also to Sophie’s farewell. This crazy, little French girl is going to climb Mount Everest within the next two months.

Gallery: New York City (79 pictures)

Good food, kite mud boarding and more good food.

The tide in the bay was so low today, that we had to walk through knee-deep mud to get to the water. Unfortunately we needed to go the same way back.