We set up this blog awhile ago, but we haven't posted anything yet. Well, that's about to change! Originally Mark's brainchild, this blog is supposed to document our adventures in cooking food from around the world. While living in Japan, we've been exposed to all kinds of new and interesting food, both Japanese and non. We've acquired several cookbooks full of global recipes, so we hope to share those and how they've worked out.
Also, I've started looking into the idea of seasonal eating, an issue that was first brought to my attention by (my favorite) Christian author, Lauren Winner. Lauren sets up a theological foundation for eating seasonally in her book Mudhouse Sabbath, but I've been hearing more about the political and economic dimensions of this issue and the issue of eating locally lately; that's mostly because of all of the energy that goes into producing, packaging and shipping the food we consume, especially produce that's out-of season.
Now, this doesn't mean we're ready to give up eating tomatoes in the winter, and I still want to enjoy imported Italian gnocchi and Brasilian soda and American pretzels (all of which are readily available at my favorite liquor/imports store Yamaya). But I do think we have a duty to be informed about our everyday choices, and it's becoming harder to believe that my small actions don't affect the rest of the global community.
If anyone else is interested in this topic, here are some good sites I've come across. If you know about my admiration of the Mennonites, you won't be surprised to find a few Mennonite resources here (they were saying this stuff in the 60's and 70's, way before it became trendy). If anyone who happens upon this post has some insight to share, I'd love to hear it!
http://www.100milediet.org/
http://simplyinseason.blogspot.com/
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0324-21.htm