In the Loop: July
Spoiler alert: We like food.
For many years, we used to work in the same building. Sure, we were on different floors and sometimes worked different hours, but we were often lucky enough to eat lunch together. We were also the founding members of Coffee Club (translation: stop what you’re doing at 2 p.m. exactly and make Dark Matter coffee in the break room and repeat every single day).
Now we live in different cities, in different countries. We’ve lived in many different states and found ourselves in many different time zones over the last ten years. When we manage to get together for a face-to-face encounter (something that is increasingly rare these days), the first and frequent question is always the same: What are we going to eat?
What. Are. We. Going. To. EAT? It’s not a simple question. Where we eat and what we eat and how we eat (together) is often the defining factor about our time together. One of us is vegan. One of us is picky. One of us is adventurous. One of us is always hungry. One of us is a very talented baker (full truth, this one is Carrie).
When we can’t be together (our latest birthdays, recent bad days)? We send each other food. When we can be together (Yankee Thankee*, baby shower)? We share food. I cannot tell you who played in Super Bowl XLVII (the one with the blackout), but I can tell you that Carrie made really yummy food and I probably ate more than I should have.
*Yankee Thankee is a totally made up term to describe when vegan Americans spend the American Thanksgiving holiday in Canada, six weeks after the Canadian Thanksgiving holiday. I’m hoping it will catch on.
Editing Q&A: How to Cite a Blog
MLA Style
Dalkin, Gaby. “Slutty Brownies.” What's Gaby Cooking, 1 June 2022, https://whatsgabycooking.com/slutty-brownies/. Accessed July 18, 2022.
Chicago Style
Stockwell, Anna. “8 Rules for Throwing a Dinner Party.” Cup of Jo (blog), June 8, 2022. https://cupofjo.com/2022/06/08/dinner-party-rules-anna-stockwell/.
1. Anna Stockwell, “8 Rules for Throwing a Dinner Party,” Cup of Jo (blog), June 8, 2022, https://cupofjo.com/2022/06/08/dinner-party-rules-anna-stockwell/.
Smith, Sarah Rae. 2019. “Hipster Food: Vegan Fare Never Looked So Good.” The Kitchn (blog), May 2, 2019. https://www.thekitchn.com/hipster-food-vegan-food-never-153280.
(Smith 2019)
APA Style
Farris, V. (2021, August 20). Water pie was a depression-era treat—why are people into it now? Food52. https://food52.com/blog/26500-what-is-depression-era-water-pie
(Farris, 2021)
It's the greatest thing since sliced bread.
What's the Diff?
There are a lot of sneaky words out there—those that sound awfully similar to others, but with a different meaning. Here’s the dish on some of those commonly swapped-by-accident words.
Burned (v.); Burned is the past tense of the verb burn and means damaged, injured, or destroyed by heat or fire or acid, scorched (e.g., burned to a crisp, burned in a blaze); you can burn fuel to produce heat, or light, or energy (burned calories, burned rubber). It has other meanings, too, like recorded digital data (burned a CD) or delivered a cutting insult (burned an enemy).
Burnt (adj.); Burnt is an adjective and means consumed or damaged by fire or heat (e.g., burnt popcorn). It can also mean having a dull appearance as though scorched (e.g., burnt umber).
These are really only different in an American English context. Other flavors and varieties of English use both burned and burnt as a past tense of burn and nobody seems overly bothered.
Cool Guides
How do you like them apples?
Stuff We Like
Do you know what recommended portions really look like? Check out this fun visual guide of food portions next to everyday objects like tennis balls, and learn more about how the portions we eat have changed significantly over the years.
The Paris Review has a lovely series that discusses literary classics by exploring, and eating, the dishes that appear in them. Here, Valerie Stivers looks at some of the dishes that Dante Alighieri said could send you to purgatory.
Anthropologist Jason Vasser-Elong reflects on the importance of foodways that brought Indigenous peoples and enslaved peoples together in new bonds of kinship and exchange. Read and listen to Maize and Okra here.
Rebecca Solnit explores the revolutionary potential of urban agricultural plots and the ways that gardens can help bring communities together and give us a renewed sense of hope and belonging.
Why do we throw away so much food and how can we knock it off?
Michael Pollan explores his own “intoxicating garden” and the various ways that he, and other species, are drawn to “plant drugs” like cannabis, wormwood, opium poppies, and tea plants like Camellia sinensis. Hint: the bees love the shot of caffeine in the nectar!
Watching shows about food is a guilty pleasure for many of us, but there are sometimes deep social issues lying behind the scenes. Read Jezebel’s account of the culture of racism at Bon Appétit.
“The servers will not explain to you what the hell is going on.” It’s a hilarious and scathing review of the worst of the Michelin-starred restaurants.
If you don’t already follow vegan food concoctor and forager Alexis Nikole on Instagram, you should ask yourself what you’re waiting for.
Beat the heat with a summertime treat. But not with these, because these pollution popsicles are made from sewage.
Are they bakers? Or fakers? Find out as Vanity Fair reviews bakers in television and film.
Heather Brooks makes beautiful collages from foraged mushrooms.
“There is so much more to eating than just eating.” Ruby Tandoh (of Great British Bake Off fame) explains how meals become memories.
What will we be eating next? Food trendsetters (which is a real job that real people have) already know.
I got distracted before I finished watching Bad Vegan on Netflix. Should I go back and finish it?
Vintage baker extraordinaire B. Dylan Hollis explores classic recipes with hilarious, horrific, and delicious results.
Pay It Forward
Meet our friends Bumbu Roux!
Bumbu Roux is a family business that specializes in cooking and sharing traditional Indonesian and Creole cuisine as it was passed down to chef Chris Reed through his Indonesian mother, Jane, and his Louisianan father, Don. As they prepared for their 11th year of serving food at Pitchfork Music Festival, Jane shared her memories of their first year and reflects on how far they've come:
"We were at the very first year of Pitchfork and we've been there every year since. The first year, we hadn't been in business for very long and we also didn't know how big it would be. We were cooking noodles in these huge woks and I would stand with the boys we hired and show them how to do it. Now, there's a whole team of people, sandwich stations, it's amazing how far we've come."
Click over to the blog where Chris's wife, Olivia, shares some of her insights—thoughts on wayfinding, authenticity, love, loving, and food—gleaned from working the food truck window.
And be sure to check out Bumbu Roux at their website and follow them on social media.
