Rants | The Frugal Gourmet

Yummy

By Colin, on May 14th, 2013%

One reason that I bother to make bread, make sausages and generally take an interest in what I eat is that I like to know whats in my food. The UK Guardian has an interesting feature on food additives that you would rather not know about. Here’s the list;

Arsenic – Rice, Juice and Beer
Human Hair – MacDonalds, Dunking Donuts and Burger King
Antifreeze – Soft Drinks
Beaver Anal Glands – Icecream, vanilla flavoured products
Fish Bladder – Beer (everyone knows this one)
Coal Tar – Cheese
Silicone Breast Implant Filler – Chicken McNuggets
Boiled Beetle Shells – Starbucks Frappuccino
Rodent Hair – Allowed in most items, just not to many, 5 to a large jar of peanut butter.
Borax – Noodle and Rice dishes

In the last year I think I’ve eaten 4 of the above, maybe you’ve done better? Let me know. If you want to read the full feature the link is here.

A bit of old nag in your food is the least of your worries.

I’m off to find some mouthwash.

Whats in a Name

By Colin, on December 15th, 2010%

It is very easy to take things for granted, particularly if you come from the English speaking world, and particularly if you are British with a violent history of Empire producing a set of cultural reference points that defines how the world should be. In terms of my themes of frugality and gourmet such sweeping statements would seem to have little space but it is of course not true, food politics, food heritage and the relationship to both defines our society and our politics at a fundamental level.

You will be relieved to know that I am not going to explore these deep themes in this post, though I should at some point. But the little things that catch my attention on things I take for granted.

France is of course a capitalist democracy separated from the UK by 10 miles, but it is enough to flag up differences in one’s daily life. A typical example is the norm of handshaking or bise in France, where all ages and sexes will formally say hello or goodbye with a handshake or kiss on the cheek.

The fact that when paying for goods in a shop, money is not directly handed to the shopkeeper but placed on a small tray on the counter kept for that purpose, and of course the naming of things.

It is of course pretty obvious that the French have different names for things than the English, though courtesy of William the Conqueror (or William the Bastard depending on which side of the channel you inhabit) about 60% of the English language is French. This throws up some odd things, the British Pound so precious to Tory politicians, the British National Party and fellow travellers is in origin French. The French for a pound is Livre, the UK pound sign is £ a stylised L from the French