Not just about chlorine chicken

This isn’t just about chlorine chicken

 by Brian Bamford

GEORGE ORWELL wrote an essay 'In Defence of English Cooking' that:
'It will be seen that we have no cause to be ashamed of our cookery, so far as originality goes or so far as the ingredients go.  And yet it must be admitted that there is a serious snag from the foreign visitor's point of view.  This is that you practically don't find good English cooking outside a private house....  It is a fact that restaurants which are distinctively English are hard to find.' [1945]

Over half a century later in the Caterer & Hotelkeeper Millennium Supplement, on the 23 December 1999 claimed:
'Rationing was reintroduced in 1940, a year after the outbreak of the Second World War.  It continued until 1954, casting a shadow over any real culinary progression. Post-war London's leading restaurants were almost entirely run by Continental Europeans.'

And yet it goes on to argue:

'Outside the capital, though, the general state of food being served in most restaurants was abysmal, apart from rare exceptions such as Sharrow Bay in Ullswater (which opened in 1949) and the Bell at Aston Clinton.'


Raymond Postgate who went on to jointly write The Common People with G.D.H.Cole, helped to found The Good Food Guide.  Postgate a socialist, who helped to found the Communist Party of Great Britain, laid down some rules for fighting a war for English food wrote:



'Navigating a British restaurant during the middle of the twentieth century was in its way not so different from scoring a drink in Sweden before the outbreak of hostilities.  Postgate likened it to war.  The “Rules for Eating Out” published in the first Guide , from 1951-52, refer to restaurant staff as “the Enemy” and recommend battle tactics.'  And he advises:

“Take a long time reading the bill of fare, and see that your wife decides what she wants first. If the Enemy hears one of you say: ‘I’ll have whatever you do, dear’, he immediately decides he has no serious foe to encounter. What you want to impress on the establishment is that it has to deal with a pair of people who know exactly what they want, and are implacable.” ( GFG 19)

Adding in his recommendations:  'While diners and waiters were engaged in conflict, rules of war did apply, and the encounter should be civil even if it was not yet civilized. “You wish to give the impression not that you are angry with this particular restaurant, but that you are suspicious, after a lifetime of suffering.” ( GFG 19)'

His basic justification for the founding of The Guide is clear:
 'The Guide had become necessary because the suffering had lasted longer even than the lifetime of many GFG users: “For fifty years now complaints have been made against British cooking, and no improvement has resulted.” ( GFG 7)'


Serious entertaining was more likely to be done in private houses, where most professional chefs were employed, or in gentlemen's clubs - there were 200 at the turn of the century, compared with about 40 today.  Restaurants were frequented mostly by aristocrats and the gentry.  Women, of whatever class, were rarely seen in such establishments.

Derek Pattison & the 'Veblen good'

In response to the recent news that members of the US Congress have written to the US negotiator, calling on him to get rid of the UK’s ban on chlorinated chicken ‘once and for all’ DEREK PATTISON writes:
'I think it is true to say that people are economic maximizers and though we can make choices, our choices are always constrained for a variety of reasons.  This could be economic and also due to our social/class position in society .'

So speaks Pattsion, the economist, on behalf of the most miserable of sciences; forever labouring the price of everything and the value of nothing.  What would Raymond Postgate, founder of the Good Food Guide have to say about that?

When I did my degree in sociology at Manchester Poly. it was structured around economics, because at that time it was considered  that of all of the social sciences it was the closest to a 'natural science' like physics etc.  Do we want to eat cheap chlorine chicken suitably swilled with the chemical from the USA?  Yet when we considered this science of economics our attention was drawn to 'inverted demand curves'  and the effect of what came to be called a Veblen good as a type of luxury good for which demand increases as the price increases, in apparent contradiction of the law of demand, resulting in an upward-sloping demand curve. A higher price may make a product desirable as a status symbol in the practices of conspicuous consumption and conspicuous leisure.  A product may be a Veblen good because it is a positional good, something few others can own. *

This is a sociological consequence which determines a price according to a snob value.   Here the effect on demand depends on the range of other goods available, their prices, and whether they serve as substitutes for the goods in question.  The effects are anomalies within demand theory, because the theory normally assumes that preferences are independent of price or the number of units being sold. They are therefore collectively referred to as interaction effects.

We can imagine that after Brexit cheap chlorine chicken will quickly become the food of the poor.

Another writer John Wilkins writes:  'And so we have the climb down.  The ban will be dropped and low animal welfare, chlorinated chicken will be UP on our supermarket shelves.'


The concession in this case has been that low welfare products will pay a higher tariff (the tax charged on imports) than high welfare products.  But even if the US agrees to this, there is no guarantee that the tariffs rate won’t be cut later on.

Mr. Wilkins adds:  'This is fundamentally about the right of our government or any government to set standards and regulations on things that people care about, whether on animal welfare, climate standards, workers rights, public health, environmental standards or anything else.'



Worryingly, the government is trying to present this as a win for the environment minister, because even though the promise that a ban would be maintained has been broken, it turns out that what the trade minister, Liz Truss, actually wanted to do was not only overturn the ban but also reduce all tariffs on chicken to zero! 

The Decline of English Food 

When George Orwell was writing in the post-war years there was rationing, and as he says 'Pubs, as a rule, sell no food at all, other than potato crisps and tasteless sandwiches.'  Meanwhile, at that time, the 'expensive restaurants  and hotels almost all imitate French cookery ... while if you want a good cheap meal you gravitate naturally towards a Greek, Italian or Chinese restaurant.'

Raymond Postgate believed that the decline in English cuisine went back to the Industrial Revolution, when he claimed that the young migrant women from the rural areas who moved into the cities had lost contact with their grandmothers thus distancing them from their traditional recipes and ingredients. 

The concession is that low welfare products will pay a higher tariff (the tax charged on imports) than high welfare products.

But we know agribusiness has been lobbying hard on this, and 47 members of the US Congress have written to the US negotiator, calling on him to get rid of the UK’s ban on chlorinated chicken ‘once and for all’.  Former trade minister, Liam Fox, said last month that “the US would walk” if it had to comply with the UK’s animal welfare standards.[5]

And so now John Wilkins says 'we have the climb down and the ban will be dropped and low animal welfare, chlorinated chicken will be UP on our supermarket shelves.  The concession is that low welfare products will pay a higher tariff (the tax charged on imports) than high welfare products.  But even if the US agrees to this, there is no guarantee that the tariffs rate won’t be cut later on.

'Worryingly, the present government is trying to represent this as a win for the environment minister, because even though the promise that a ban would be maintained has been broken, it turns out that what the trade minister, Liz Truss, actually wanted to do was not only overturn the ban but also reduce all tariffs on chicken to zero!' 


It is hard to believe that the quality of English cuisine will improve as a result of these recent developments in UK-US trade relations and animal welfare.

************************* 

*   Veblen goods are named after American economist Thorstein Veblen, who first identified conspicuous consumption as a mode of status-seeking in The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899).^[1] A corollary of the Veblen effect is that lowering the price decreases the quantity demanded.^[2]

A Veblen good is a type of luxury good for which demand increases as the price increases, in apparent contradiction of the law of demand, resulting in an upward-sloping demand curve. A higher price may make a product desirable as a status symbol in the practices of conspicuous consumption and conspicuous leisure. A product may be a Veblen good because it is a positional good, something few others can own.

Veblen goods are named after American economist Thorstein Veblen, who first identified conspicuous consumption as a mode of status-seeking in The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899).^[1] A corollary of the Veblen effect is that lowering the price decreases the quantity demanded.

Veblen goods are named after American economist Thorstein Veblen, who first identified conspicuous consumption as a mode of status-seeking in The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899).^[1] A corollary of the Veblen effect is that lowering the price decreases the quantity demanded.^[2]

How Green Was My Vegan?

With apologies to Richard Llewellyn

by Les May

THE last seventeen years of my working life included taking part in week long biology field courses for young adults.  We had to teach them, make sure they did not come to any harm and feed them.  One told us she only ate meat, another had strict religious dietary requirements, vegetarians were abundant, but we always managed.  The one problem we had was a young man who said he was a vegan.  We explained that as the field course was on an island off the Scottish mainland and an islander would be catering for us, we were not able to guarantee that the food would meet his requirement.  Eventually he agreed to cater for himself.

Now my attitude to people who say they are vegans is ‘whatever floats your boat’. But when I saw the food he brought I could not help noticing that it all seemed highly processed.  Now I’m fairly catholic in my diet.  Apart from ritually slaughtered meat I will eat most savoury things.  But I would have drawn the line about eating what our vegan student was happy to eat.

I had forgotten about this incident until I read an article in last Thursday’s Guardian by the food writer Joanna Blythman in which she wrote:

‘Supermarkets, global food manufacturers and biotech and chemical companies have enthusiastically embraced Veganuary.  Fast-food enterprises, formerly seen as the nemesis of public health and the environment, have recast themselves as their saviours.  McDonald’s was feted when it launched its first vegan Veggie Dippers meal: nuggets that contain around 40 ingredients, many of which can’t be found in any domestic larder, served with chips and a soft drink…..Just when ultra-processed food manufacturers were being skewered for the health damage their products cause, the plant-based push has given them a get-out-of-jail-free card.’

Blythman’s piece is perceptive, but where I don’t think it goes far enough is that she fails to point out that many of the foodstuffs which can best supply the protein in a meat free diet, lentils, soy beans, chickpeas etc, carry the burden of lots of ‘food miles’ because they are themselves imported. We could grow substitutes in our climate. Field beans, sold as Horse Beans or Tic Beans for animal food, grow well in this country and it is the introduction of these into the west European diet in the early mediaeval period which is credited with allowing the population to grow. In their present form they are an unattractive dark brown in colour. The garden form is the Broad Bean which is larger and more attractive. It was derived from the Field bean by selective breeding. Further selective breeding could be used to produce a bean with fewer ‘food miles’ which could replace our dependence on imported pulses.

If you want to tell the world that vegan food is more healthy and switching to it will ‘save the planet’, it might be useful to do a bit of homework. Blythman’s article is a good place to start. You can find it at the link below.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jan/22/veganuary-animal-foods-plant-vegan

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2018/feb/12/quorn-revolution-rise-ultra-processed-fake-meat

Jamie Oliver Accused of 'Cultural Appropriation'

by Brian Bamford

JAMIE Oliver has been today accused of cultural appropriation for describing a new product as  'punchy jerk rice'..

A decision to label the microwavable rice 'jerk' has been criticised, because the product doesn't contain many of the ingredients traditionally used in a Jamaican jerk marinade.

'I'm just wondering do you know what Jamaican jerk actually is?', Labour MP Dawn Butler asked the celebrity chef.

Jamie claimed he used the name 'punchy jerk rice'..to show where he drew his culinary inspiration from. 

Jerk seasoning is usually used on chicken or fish.  The dish is often barbecued, and Jerk Rice is not an item for barbecuing.  The spice mix contains allspice and Scotch bonnet peppers - neither of which are on the ingredients list for Jamie's jerk rice product.

In October 2016, Jamie Oliver offended some Spaniards when he posted a link to a unorthodox paella recipe on his Twitter account which included chorizo: 

'Good Spanish food doesn’t get much better than paella,' the innocuous-seeming tweet read. 'My version combines chicken thighs & chorizo.' 

Furious replies came thick and fast:  'Come to Valencia to try the real paella and stop making ‘rice with whatever’, wrote Spanish journalist Vicent Marco.  'Your dish is everything but paella.'.  Other critics were less restrained.  'Your paella is an abomination,' wrote one.   'An insult not only to our gastronomy but to our culture,' said another.

When I lived in the fishing village of Denia, Alicante, in the days of General Franco, we used to go to Senora Lola's villa on the coast and after Salvador had dived to catch some sea urchins we would build a fire for the paella pan, which we would then eat a portion direct from the pan; as it was divided up equally.  When in 1919, Gerald Brenan, fresh from England where he was a member of the Bloomsbury Group,shared a meal of this kind with some local peasants he says he was immediately won over to the Spanish way of life.  Besides the sea urchin mussels and chicken, which was then cheaper than rabbit, we would include some of the chicken.giblets such as the heart.

Anna MacMiadhachain in her book 'Spanish Regional Cookery' wrote:
'The ingredients for a paella are fairly elastic and may include all kinds of seafood, including squid, prawns, lobster, mussels, clams, snail and pieces of white fish.  Chicken, rabbit and pork are the meats used,,, The methods of preparation differ too...'

Meanwhile, Francis Bissell in 'The REAL MEAT Cookbook' writes that 'According to Tinuca Lasala, a Spanish cookery teacher .... an authentic paella is not a multi-coloured mixture of fish, shellfish, chicken and sausage, decorated with stripes of pimento to look like the Spanish flag.  It is a rather plain dish, with a main ingredient of rabbit or chicken, to which in season might be added a handful of snails.'

Both the Spaniards in 2016, and the Jamaicans now, seem to be questioning the claims to authenticity of the brands now being promoted by Jamie Oliver.  Scotch bonnet chillies, de-seeded and finely chopped and 2 tsp ground allspice, seem to be the vital ingredients Jerk to go with chicken or fish.

In response to Jamie's concoction David Llewellyn wrote online: "On what planet can "garlic, ginger and jalapenos" be described as "Jerk"?

Although I must confess to using chorizo and tinned artichokes in my paella I haven't witnessed it used in dishes in Spain.  As for Jerk, my Jamaican relatives have made it for me, but I don't care for fierce Scotch bonnet chillies, and generally prefer jalapeño.

Cultural appropriation is defined as 'the unacknowledged or inappropriate adoption of the customs, practices, ideas, of one people or society by members of a typically more dominant people or society'.

Probably the most important ingredient in paella, I don't know about Jerk, but I suspect it is the variety of rice used that is vital.   Francis Bissell suggests Valencia or Arborio rice to get an authenticity paella, but I often use Carnaroli.  Alas, Carnaroli is a medium-grained rice grown in the Pavia, Novara and Vercelli provinces of northern Italy.

I don't know what the Senora Lola would have said.

********************

'Free Lunches' to School Meals in Tameside

 IN last Wednesday's Guardian, the writer, Tamasin Cave in an article titled 'Find out if your councillor is being wined and dined' wrote:  'The timeless practice of "gastronomic pimping", as Nye Bevan puts it, is a tool long used by commercial lobbyists to curry favour.'   

'These "meetings" are,' she says 'deliberately designed to create bonds, establish shared values and ultimately influence [local] council decisions.'

One must wonder if the recently deceased Councillor Kieran Quinn, who as boss of Tameside Council and chair of Greater Manchester Pension Fund [GMPF], was aware of this when he cosied-up so close to to the outsourcing company Carillion over the last decade?

Afterall, Councillor Quinn, who died suddenly last Christmas, told Construction News only last September:
'One of my pleasures of acting as GMPF chairman is using workers’ money to invest in the city they work in, and [he promised] there will be plenty more investment to come'

Today, after the collapse of Carillion, that now sounds like throwing good money after bad.

Tameside Councillor Quinn last September boasted to the Construction News' journalist Charlie Schouten, that he was actively encouraging closer associations between 'London-based businesses..... [because] they like talking to people like us; they see an opportunity here,' and forming partnerships with people like him.

This was an eloquent appeal by Councillor Quinn for greater public embroilment with big business, yet remember dear reader, it was delivered just after Carillion had issued a profit warning in July 2017.  Was Councillor Quinn trying to bailed-out the troubled company Carillion with public funds so as to cover up his own misplaced historic investment strategy?   Was he calling on the Town Council cavalry in Greater Manchester to rescue a company he realised was already on death row?

After all, he did say that 'If they [companies like Carillion] can come into partnership with us, it de-risks it for them.'

What did Tameside's Councillor Quinn mean by 'it de-risks it for them'?

In her article in last Wednesday's Guardian, Tamasin Cave, tellingly writes:
'One of the surest ways to access and influence the officials you seek to influence is to employ people who know local government inside out.  Councillors up and down the country are employed in the property lobbying business.  They are elected to represent the public interest and at the same time employed by developers seeking to influence the public sphere.'

In the case of Councillor Kieran Quinn and Tameside Council, it seems that Carillion didn't have have to do much lobbying with free lunches to gain influence.  Indeed, when it came to Councillor Quinn and his Council cronies, it seems they were not simply playing footsie under the table but were positively spreading their legs before the construction giant.

As I write this, there are I understand there have two Freedom of Information requests asking about a Tameside Council officer, who may or may not, have been made a director to Carillion. 

'What do developers want from their relationships [with Councillors]?', asks Ms. Cave.

Well in the case of the Carillion / Quinn liaison it amounted to contracts, partnerships and networking facilities.  But it could also in some cases, as Ms. Cave says, amount to help with 'straightforward planning permission; or relief from paying tax used to fund local amenities; or an agreement with the council on the amount of affordable homes the developer has, or doesn't have, to provide.  All of which can be negotiated by the councils upon which such lavish hospitality is poured.'

The one-time chairman of Westminster Council's planning committee Robert Davis was, according to Ms. Cave, 'entertained 150 times by property industry figures in three years'..

Meanwhile, it seems a firm called OCS https://www.ocs.com/uk/services/catering/hospital-and-healthcare-catering/  that was brought to deliver a school meals' contract at Tameside MBC after the departure of Carillion, has now pulled out.    

 There'll be no 'gastronomic pimping' in the school canteens in Tameside.

Egyptian Trade Unionists Jailed

The toppling of the Mubarak regime in Egypt led to workers winning for the first time the right to free and independent trade unions. That right is now under threat as the current regime seeks to imprison trade union members at the IFFCO edible oils factory in Suez.

Those workers have faced severe repression but finally had a glimmer of hope when on 29 January the jailed workers were all acquitted of the "crime" of inciting a strike.

But the story doesn't end there.  The prosecution has appealed the decision and the workers will be tried again.  Fifteen IFFCO workers including the union President and General Secretary are barred from returning to work and union members are under pressure to "resign".

The International Union of Foodworkers (IUF) has launched a major online campaign to demand that the charges be dropped -- and an end to anti-union repression.

Please take a moment to send your message of protest -- it WILL make a difference:

Click here to send your message

Please share this message with your friends, family and fellow trade union members.

Thank you very much!

Eric Lee

Torment and Corruption in British Jails



Specialist "Tornado" teams were sent into HMP Swaleside, on the Isle of Sheppey, Kent, after a disturbance at about 19:00 GMT on Thursday.

Meanwhile a prison spokeswoman said:

'The challenges in our prisons are longstanding and won’t be solved overnight but the justice secretary is committed to making sure our prisons are stable while we deliver wholesale reforms to the prison estate to help offenders turn their lives around and reduce reoffending.'
Meanwhile, a week ago rioting prisoners took over four wings of HMP Birmingham, setting fire to stairwells, destroying paper records and causing £2m in damage. It was the latest high-profile disturbance to break out in a jail, prompting Justice Secretary Liz Truss to warn that "long-standing" problems in the nation's prisons could take months to solve.

AN editorial in the Financial Times last Wednesday commenting on the state of British prison's being 'a national disgrace', quoted Fyodor Dostoyevsky as saying that 'the degree of civilisation in a society can be judged by entering its prisons'.

In 1971 or thereabouts, a prison officer in Brixton jail suggested to Stuart Christie then remanded in there of charges relating to the Angry Brigade, that he should write a comparative book about his experiences in Spanish and English prisons.  He was found not guilty when the case came to trial.  Later in his autobiography 'Granny made me an anarchist' Stuart Christie wrote:

'I discussed this with Miguel Garcia, my friend and former fellow prisoner, he agreed that it was the soullesness of British prisons that made them outstanding in the history of penology.  National characteristics come into it as well.  Cold cabbage, muddy fishcakes, soggy sponge lumpy custard and gnats' piss for tea would be considered a provocation diet in Spain.  The authorities offering it would be expecting a riot.  British prisoners have probably been conditioned by years of factory canteens, greasy spoon cafes and now Macdonalds. 

'But there was another striking difference between the two countries: British jails were run on a system of state socialism, where you get what your given ('Incentives' and 'earned privileges' are now the system).  Spanish jails in Franco'ws time were run along on much more humane lines inasmuch as there was some degree of choice involved.  You could work and earn more, or – and this is a punishment – not work and scrape by if you were prepared to do without things like fags and Serrano ham sandwiches.  You could have money sent in from outside and spend it in a fanteen or the prison restaurant.  Thus responsibility for the individual's quality of life in prison became his own, that of his family and his comrades.

'Like money everywhere, its circulation in jail leads to corruption, but it is also the one thing that eases tyranny.  Corruption certainly exists in English jails – albeit fitfully.  In Spain it was built into the system.  But for those who have illusions as to what can be achieved by the parliamentary system, a comparison of Spanish and English prisons would be interesting.'

As the prison spokeswoman said 'the challenges to our prisons are longstanding...'

  

Siente Espana - Feel Spain!

INSTITUTO CERVANTES MÁNCHESTER PRÓXIMAS ACTIVIDADES | UPCOMING ACTIVITIES

Siente España/ Feel Spain Thursday, 9th June (6.30pm)   El reputado fotoperiodista español Marcos Moreno visitará el Instituto Cervantes de Mánchester el próximo 9 de junio con motivo de la inauguración de su exposición fotográfica 'Siente España'. Nos complace invitarle a esta velada  especial para celebrar la pasión y el color de las tradiciones españolas. (+)  The renowned Spanish photojournalist Marcos Moreno will visit us at Manchester's Instituto Cervantes on the 9th June, so as to open his photographic exhibition 'Feel Spain'. We are so glad to invite you to join us in this special evening and celebrate the passion and colour of the Spanish tradition. (+)  Inauguración de 'Siente España' /'Feel Spain' Opening 09/06/2016 (6.30pm)   Charla con/Talk with Marcos Moreno Recepción de vino y aperitivos/Wine & food reception Entrada libre/ Free entry (RSVP)

Mrs.Danczuk Dragged into Debtor's Court

Mr. & Mrs. Danczuk in happier times opening Danczuk's Deli in December 2013

MRS. Karen Danczuk, the former Rochdale Councillor, and wife of the famous MP for Rochdale, Simon Danczuk, was dragged into the debtor's court for failing to pay rent owed to the landlord of her former business, Danczuk's Delicatessen on The Walk in Rochdale town centre. 

Mr. Steven Butterworth, the owner of 4-6, The Walk, took out the case which resulted in a County Court Judgement (CCJ) for £2045.32 plus £217 costs against Mrs. Danczuk.

No rent on the property has been paid in 2015, and arrears are now building-up at a rate of £2,000 every 3-months.  Mrs. Danczuk had originally signed a lease for five years in October 2013.

In January this year, she abandoned the premises know locally as 'Danczuk's Deli', and told the landlord that she had transferred the business. 

Mr. Butterfield's solicitors, Ramsdens of Huddersfield, replied pointing out that there would have to be a formal deed of assignment between Karen Danczuk and the new tenant.  It was also stated that this could only happen with the permission of the landlord.  But even if the landlord agreed to such a transfer, Mrs. Danczuk's liability for the rent would not end, and that if the new tenant failed to cough-up the rent Karen herself would still have to find the money.

Yet if the recent article in the Sunday Times is anything to go by she could always sell some more scented selfies of her private parts, or alternatively sell the 4X4 White Range Rover on the drive standing outside her Rochdale bungalow. 
Mr. and Mrs. Danczuk (above) opened the delicatessen on The Walk in Rochdale town centre in December 2013.  At the time it was claiming to sell 'traditional Lancashire and continental delicacies', as well as wines, beers, cheese and cooked meats.


We were told:  'Foodies can dine in or out on soups, salads and sandwiches'. 
And Simon Danczuk MP spoke out saying:  'I’m putting my money where my mouth is and setting up a shop in the heart of Rochdale town centre.  I’ve always enjoyed business and I hope Rochdale folk enjoy what our deli has to offer'                                                                                               
Whereupon, Karen piped-up gushingly:
'We’ve been talking about setting up a business for some time and this has come from our shared passion for good food.  We both enjoy cooking and believe that a more diverse food offer in the town centre can only help.  We want our deli to become a real hub for the community where people can meet and enjoy some of the best food Rochdale has to offer on their local high street.' 



Only last weekend, Simon Danczuk was telling us in the Sunday Times that 'People should listen to businessmen "because they're successful".'    So successful it seems that they end up in the debtor's court!    For a Karen doppelganger go to https://twitter.com/KarenRucksack 

Instituto Cervantes & Manchester Literature Festival

Ada Parellada - Vanilla Salt Wednesday 15th October, 6.30pm Instituto Cervantes This intimate event at Instituto Cervantes offers audiences a rare chance to hear Catalan chef and restaurateur Ada Parellada wax lyrical about her debut novel Vanilla Salt. A richly sensual exploration of the kitchen and the human heart, it’s a Catalan love story in which an eccentric chef and a beautiful Canadian woman discover that, despite their different backgrounds, they share a painful past. Parellada made a name for herself with the innovative restaurant Semproniana in Barcelona, and now also owns Coses de Menjar and Acontecimiento in Lisbon. An ideal evening for lovers of Catalan culture, food and romance more info...Free event: Bookings on: secman@cervantes.es and 0161 6614201

Scotland's Referendum: 'Put to Bed'

How we got to here?  

OVER wild Scottish venison and fine French red Burgundy on one day in February 2012, David Cameron set out his strategy for defeating a Scottish independence referendum.  In May 2011, the Scottish Nationalists had won a massive victory on a promise of a secessionist vote, and its party leader, Alex Salmond, was keen to carry this through.   

Mr Cameron was in a dilemma: if he chose to dismiss the demand he would be accused of ignoring the popular will of the Scottish people, alternatively he could take a chance and let the referendum happen.   

In the end he backed the latter choice, and huddled in the Peat Inn near the University town of St. Andrews in Scotland Cameron told his advisers that Mr. Salmond would have his referendum.  Crucially though, he would refuse to allow the other Salmond demand for the softer option of more autonomy (later labelled devo-max) to appear on the ballot paper.  He was going to call Mr. Salmond's bluff, and there was going to be the single question:  Should Scotland stay inside the United Kingdom, or leave it forever?  

According to what one person at that Michelin-starred diner said afterwards, the Prime Minister claimed 'it would put the issue to bed.'   

It was a gamble, but it was a gamble that has now had unforeseen consequences.   

Because on the eve of the referendum last week  it looked like Scotland could vote for independence the three Westminster main-stream part leaders made promises they will now be expected to keep.  Thus the goalposts were moved at the last moment!   

Meaning:  If the Scots voted for independence, it would end a 300-year-old union and possible, David Cameron would lose his job, but if they voted against, he would none-the-less have to give them more autonomy, with the peril of what the International New York Times calls 'potentially cascading implications, for the rest of Britain.'   

This unforeseen consequence, which could have serious implications for the Labour Party as well as the Tories, makes Alex  Salmond now look like a Scottish giant among Westminster's political pygmies. 

Rochdale Touchstones Cafe to Re-open

Cafe Life 

Café Life at Touchstones Rochdale is a great place to relax in a friendly atmosphere.

The Café will be re-opening on Wednesday 29 January with food served from 11am. Link4Life is working in partnership with Pure Innovations who will operate the Café on our behalf.
Whether you are visiting our exhibitions, just passing by or meeting up with friends - why not come along and have a relaxing cup of coffee and sample our wholesome menu at Café Life.

Opening times:

Cafe: Tuesday-Saturday 10am-4pm
Touchstones Rochdale: Tuesday-Saturday 10am-5pm
Did you know that Touchstones Rochdale have rooms to hire?

Modern Indian at Marks & Spencer!

IF you want to eat a 'Modern Indian' meal in the First Floor Cafe of Marks & Spencers on the corner of Market Street and Cross Street in Manchester today, don't bother! The Modern Indian based on a Goan cuisine sold out hours ago after noon. But you may be mislead into joining the queue because the floor manager, Steve, insists on keeping the board advertising this dish on display come what may. No matter that folk have to wait in the queue for half an hour to be disappointed; that doesn't bother Stevie, who told one woman that M&S can't employ people to inform the customers that they are wasting their time needlessly. Indeed not, he even offered a woman a baked potatoe instead. The idea at M&S, according to Steve, is that by the time they come to be served they are so hungry that they'll eat owt!

Food Fraud From Saffron to Champagne

ON a beach Goa, in the 1990s, I was sold some fake Saffron by a native claiming to have brought it from Kashmir; I was of course aware that the best Saffron comes from Kashmir.  I had smelled the sample before buying another in a sealed container, when I got back to the hotel I realised I'd been had and the spice smelt of nowt.  Fortunately I met the native again at a market in the Hindu part of northern Goa, and gave him a good bollocking in front of his mates.  Of course, people have to make a living somehow and one always takes a chance in countries like India.  What may be of concern is the industrial nature of food fraud now taking place in western countries. 

In today's New York Times there is a report of a vodka distillery being raided in the lush countryside at a farm called Little Moscow in Great Dalby.  There tens of thousands of litres of counterfeit spirit were distilled into genuine vodka bottles with almost perfect labels to be sold a corner shops around the England.  The fake Glen's vodka look real enough but analysis showed that it was spiked with bleach to lighten its colour, and it contained high levels of methanol, that can cause blindness.

Regulators say that the horse meat scandal in the UK earlier this year was only the tip of the iceberg and that legitimate companies can get taken in in the murky world of food fraud.    Mitchell Weinberg, president and chief executive of Inscatech, a company that advises on food security says:  'Around the world, food fraud is an epidemic - in every single country where food is produced or grown food fraud is occurring.'  He added: 'Just about every ingredient that has even a moderate economic value is potentially vulnerable to fraud.'    Saffron would be particularly vulnerable because it is more valuable than gold of the same weight. 

Illegally fished and contaminated shellfish often finds its way to fish markets, and when I was in Croatia during the Balkan war in former Yugoslavia there was a thriving black market in fish.  Only recently the owner of a fish and chip shop in Plymouth, Devopn, was fined for selling a cheaper Asian river fish called panga as cod.

Shaun Kennedy, a professor at the University of Minnesota, reckons 10% of food that people buy in the developed world is adulterated.  Mr. Kennedy says:  'Mostly the perpetrators are not intending to cause anyone harm - that would be bad for repeat business - but often they don't understand the potential impact.'  In some cases cheap products are added to genuine products to increase profit margins.  Vegetable oil goes inot chocolate bars, or pomegranate juice, wine, coffee, honey or olive oil is adulterated with water, sweeteners or cheap substitutes.  Food experts say that engine oil is among the substances found in olive oil. 

In a weeklong food fraud crackdown last year, the French authorities seized 100 tons of fish, seafood and frogs legs whose origin was wrongly labelled; 1.2 tons of fake truffle shavings; 500 kilograms of inedible pastries; false Parmesan cheese from the US and Egypt.  Other fake items found by Wandsworth Council were two boxes of fake Durex condoms, in convincing packages, and a bottle of counterfeit Bollinger Champagne.

With a fake food it seems the more you look the more you find.

Sign of the times: Another Food Bank in Salford

BARBARA Keeley, MP for Worsley and Eccles South, opened a new food bank yesterday at Cleggs Lane Methodist Church, in Little Hulton, Salford, the service is designed to help people struggling to put food in their stomachs during the recession.  While Worsley is a relatively posh area of Salford, Little Hulton is much more down-beat with a large area of social housing.

The new service was launched from 11am yesterday at the church in Cleggs Lane.  Among those in attendance were pupils from Harrop Fold School and Dukesgate Academy, who performed songs and poems, and, of course,  Barbara Keeley, MP for Worsley and Eccles South, addressed the gathering. 

It had been uncertain if Ms. Keeley would attend owing to other duties and it had been hard to get anyone else to cut the ribbon at the opening of the food bank, but as soon as it was announced that she would be there, other local politicians flew in to get a perch at the event like a flock of incontinent parrots.

The outlet will be run by the same people behind the Farnworth and Kearsley Foodbank, in conjunction with national charity Trussel Trust. It will support people living in Little Hulton, including those living on four neighbouring housing estates, and will also serve Walkden.

The Rev Philip Brooks, a minister at the church, said: 'We feel that the new food bank at Cleggs Lane will be a vital addition to local provision, as all the indications are that food poverty in Little Hulton will worsen.'

Visitors will be able to find out about the food bank and the work already being done by Farnworth and Kearsley Foodbank and Trussel Trust.

Black Puddings & the Food Program

YESTERDAY Radio Four's Food Program broadcast Charles Campion's report from Normandy in France on the World Black Pudding Championships, which featured not only the classic Lancashire black pudding and the french bodin noir, but also entries from Japan, Austria and Ireland.  This year close on six hundred butchers from all over the world competed and celebrated this ancient dish which most of the great food cultures have created over the centuries in some form of blood sausage.

The program reported that though this dish has been made in this country since the arrival of the Romans, in many areas of Britian it has fallen out of favour.  In Bury, and Lancashire it still holds its own however, and every week Bury market is flooded with folk from other parts in search of the famous traditional Bury Black Pudding. 

It seems that the French version Boudin Noir is softer with a thinner skin and more like a Pâté in texture, while the typical Lancashire black pudding has lumps of fat in it and a thicker skin.  The advice given was that many English people tend to cook the pudding to death, and that it should take long to cook.  Up here in Lancashire it is recommended that we boil them for a brief period. On the program it was suggested that it could be combined with tomato ketchup or even piccalilli.

My view is that the best way I have found is the one suggested by Elizabeth David in her book French Provincial Cooking for grilled black pudding with apples:
'Boudin, black pudding, or blood pudding which, in France, is nearly always heavily flavoured with onion and much less insipid than the kind found in Engalnd, is cut into lengths of about 5 inches, painted with olive oil or pork fat and grilled about 5 minutes on each side.  Serve it on a bed of peeled, cored and sliced sweet apples, six to a pound of sausage, gentlly fried in pork fat.'

Faddy Folk & English Food

LAST Saturday in the Financial Times the food writer, Rowley Leigh, wrote:  'Although there may be concomitant healthy questions, the presence of horse meat is almost reassuring compared with some of the horror stories that circulate around meat production.'  The truth is we Brits, as Mr. Leigh writes:  'lurch from scandal to scandal, whether it be mad cow disease (bovine spongiform encephalopathy), avian flu blamed on Hungarian turkey meat or, now, Romanian horse meat.' 

The problem, according to Rowley Leigh, is that the British, despite all their fascination with celebrity chiefs on TV, tend to value food less than our neighbours in Europe, and are not prepared to spend as much for it.  It seems that the British spend 11.3% of their income on food, while the Spaniards and Germans are spending more than 20%.  It seems only the US and Canada spend less among the developed nations. 

When Chris Draper wrote a feature in Northern Voices No.11 about 'Six O' the Best Tea Time Treats', a member of the Northern Voices' editorial panel complained to me that there was too much coverage of food in the journal.  And in what I took to be a facetious comment, under a recipe for soup on the 5th, December, Galloping Gourmet said... 'This purely gastronomic blog is the best thing ... Stick to the recipes...'   Another regular writer in the printed version of Northern Voices said that 'I can't get worked up about the fact that eccles cakes are no longer produced in Eccles'.  It is like when George Orwell wrote about flowers in Tribune in the late 1940s, and one lady wrote in complaining to say that 'flowers are bourgeois'.  Flowers are bourgeois and food is merely fuel to many in the English working class.

But even among the English middle-classes ready made meals are fashionable, and even in the better class grocery stores the easy cook warm-up meals dominate.  I was in the Manchester branch of Marks & Spencer only last week for the special offer of a Valentine Dinner for £20 as the English lower middle-classes swarmed round the stall to buy their Beef Wellington.  I did mention about the risk of it including horse meat and the assistants laughed, but then he admitted that stranger things have happened.

As I write this the campaigner, Debbie Firth, is pondering what to say in an article on town centres for the next issue of Northern Voices, and only this morning a commentator on Today on Radio Four said that we have too many 'Centres', both Town Centres and shopping centres like the Trafford Centre, and some of these will have to go.  Some say 'Buy local!' from a trusted source - a local butcher, perhaps; but as Rowley Leigh writes:  'In reality, the friendly local butcher is already becoming somewhat folkloric.'  The butcher's decline just illustrates the daily death of all the high-street retail outlets.  And yet, the Continental Market in York's Town Centre was full of folk last Saturday, queueing up to buy the stuff, but when I asked the bloke on the Italian pasticciere stall when he would be back, he told me that he wouldn't be back until June because the Council charge them a lot to rent the stall; £1,200 for 5-days on the market. 

The problem is, and I think I see it in the comments of people who claim that Northern Voices has 'too much on food' in it, that English people are largely puritans who don't take food seriously or perhaps they take it so seriously that they are not relaxed at the table.  They enjoy viewing cooking as entertainment with celebrities on the telly, but they are either pompose about food and wine, or neurotic, or just plain uncomfortable and self-conscious.  Rowley Leigh claims 'many of us are unable even to cook a pancake, a Yorkshire pudding or a potatoe.'  There is too much attention to table manners in England, and they all tend to despise noisey eaters or people like the Italians who clearly enjoy their food. 
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The printed version of NORTHERN VOICES No.11 refered to above is still available on request, but NORTHERN VOICES No.14, will be available shortly and may be obtained as follows:
Postal subscription: £5 for the next two issues (post included). Cheques payable to 'Northern Voices' at c/o 52, Todmorden Road, Burnley, Lancashire BB10 4AH.
Tel.: 0161 793 5122.
email: northernvoices@hotmail.com