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Dropping the F-bomb: why "foodie" needs to go away {Gadling}
Oct 13th 2011 11:00PM While I really enjoyed and agreed with much of this article (wary of the 'foodie' tag myself), I think this statement -- "foodies (as opposed to, say, people with actual journalism and culinary credentials)" -- sets up a false dichotomy as well as flagging the same sort of "me-expert-too" mentality.
I say this as a journalist myself, and I write about food too, in a personal as well as professional capacity: I think all three sets of people in your statement actually serve different, and not necessarily better/lesser functions. The 'foodie' or 'amateur blogger/writer', at his/her best, provides a more mainstream or naive perspective, which can be critical for professionals to understand and appreciate in the interest of their own success! The journalist investigates, collects, and to some extent applies judgement and direction --- it is a bridging and validating function. Professionals, also a 'net' term, vary --- some provide expert insights into the growing/raising or preparation of food; others on the way the socioeconomics of food work; some are simply artisans (may or may not knowledgeable of in areas not of the hands-on variety). I don't think journalists can be allied with food professionals as 'experts'. Nor are all food professionals 'experts' on food in a general way. And having a day job or a degree in food does not necessarily mean you are more knowledgeable or a better job than the autodidactic amateur!
A Subjective Guide to the Budget Hotels of the Orient {Gadling}
Sep 19th 2011 1:17PM What an (ahem) enlightening and interesting article! Tells you so much you didn't need to know about the author, and so very little about what you might want to hear of the hotels!
What do your food labels really mean? 'Free-range,' 'natural,' 'non-toxic,' and other myths {WalletPop}
Feb 5th 2010 1:18AM Just because something has an use other than consumption does not make it inedible.
The flaxseed oil that is so rich in omega-3 fats and so good for people is called linseed oil traditionally and was used to polish furniture and season cricket bats etc in India for ages. The furniture polishing technique is centuries old and almost lost, some are trying to revive it. Most of the locally grown linseed was used for this purpose and the gunk left behind from pressing was cattlefeed. None of this takes away from the fact that we now find it is nutritious for humans too.
Yes, rapeseed was used for machinery in Canada until it became Canola, but that also does not change the fact that we grew it and used it as a cheap (once free due to government subsidy of rations) cooking medium. Yes, it needs to be well heated, but certainly does not cause disease en masse (For proof, may I point you to India's population figures? You would think that given this was free ration for decades, and everybody pretty much got it, the number of people alive and healthy enough to reproduce or just add to the census would go down if this oil, used in every dish that needed oil by many millions, were that toxic...)
Stains don't come out is no proof of toxicity! Turmeric stains (in curry, for one) are unaffected by the most advanced stainbusters in test after test; sunlight is the only thing that helps, and only lightens it, cannot take it away. Turmeric is, however, proven by research and tradition to be incredibly health-giving...
What do your food labels really mean? 'Free-range,' 'natural,' 'non-toxic,' and other myths {WalletPop}
Feb 2nd 2010 8:13AM It is true that Canola is a made-up word, but rapeseed oil has been consumed for centuries in India without mass dizziness and suchlike, and well before car engines came into being in the West (I am Indian and live in India, and am old enough to remember the days before the Canola patent, when rapeseed oil was part of the free rations from our government, which obviously it can no longer do, thus depriving the poor --- more regrettably than the middle and upper income groups --- of a free monounsaturated fat)
