Last year, Gastronomica, the journal of food and culture, ran a special edition on the politics of food.
The magazine carried a review of the latest book by Nina Planck, the Queen of farmers' markets and quoted her 'real food' alternative to a key ingredient of life:
The best substitute for breast milk is made from grass-fed, raw whole milk supplemented with live yoghurt and gelatin (for digestion), coconut oil (for immunity), and cod-liver oil (omega-3 fats for eyes and brain).
The latest edition of Observer Food Monthly in the U.K. is devoted to eco-food heroes.
Their clarion call is local, traceable, guilt-free foods, underscored by an article of faith of the Prince of Wales:
I am enormously encouraged by the increasing interest in quality food, where it comes from and how it is produced.
In Vietnam, people eat dog.
Dogmeat is locally reared, eaten only at the close of the lunar month and is a modern-day expression of an historic rural and ethnic tradition of hunting for and eating wild dogs.
In other words, however ethically hard to stomach, dog is a local, seasonal and authentic ingredient.
Where does our heroic, liberal attachment to traceability, honesty and native tradition end and the morality of what we eat kick in?
In Vietnamese cooking, there are seven ways to cook a dog.
In a culture of grass-fed milk and hardcore food provenance, could one of these recipes ever make an eco-hero's menu? Or is this a dog's breakfast of food ethics?
- Thit Cho Luoc - Steamed dog
- Cha Cho - Grilled dog
- Rua Man - Steamed dog in shrimp sauce, rice flour and lemon grass
- Doi Cho - Dog sausage with dog blood, peanuts, vegetables and neck bone
- Gieng Me Mam Tom - Steamed dog in shrimp sauce, ginger, spices and rice vinegar
- Canh Xao Mang Cho - Bamboo shoot and dog bone marrow
- Cho Xao Sa Ot - Fried dog in lemon grass and chilli
