Let’s Talk Food!

Well, it is gobbling and guzzling week… Sorry, Thanksgiving week! The whole nation takes a couple days to snap on a napkin (an apron would be best for some!) and stuff and stuff and stuff till it’s difficult to get out of the chair and load the dishwasher!

Unfortunately, of course, many in this nation seem to do Thanksgiving every week! Haha!

And it’s no use the rest of the Western world mocking: we kick into gear 4 weeks later and do exactly the same thing: Christmas!

Anyway, because it is TG week, I’ve decided to send out my newsletter early (Wednesday), before you all get “kaylied”—a British word meaning “drunk” (probably from the Gaelic ceilidh, meaning “party, social gathering”).

School Meals Were Never Like This!

First, please do something for me, if you can. My son the chef, Magnus, is up for an award. You can help him along by voting for him.

Magnus a brilliant chef, having worked in several Michelin star restaurants. But right now, he’s in Dubai and has started his own school meals catering company. He has put his flair to use and invented the most specular meals for kids: tasty and healthy. What could be better?

Of course kids won’t eat doctrinaire foods nonsense (some are vegetarians for cultural reasons); but they will all gobble it down if it looks good, tastes great and is much healthier than junk.

It’s been a roaring success and did well over $1 million in the first year. In fact the “success” was quite amusing: mums would drop off kids at the school front door, then sneak round the back to the canteen and buy armfuls of Magnus’ delicious pre-packed lunches and take them home for secret nibbling!

People noticed and soon more and more schools were clamoring for his food!

It was an explosive start and he’s never looked back. Soon his company was supplying the children of sheiks, princes, captains of industry and celebrities at Dubai’s top schools. What’s more he survived COVID, when all the schools were closed down FOR TWO YEARS! He’s a regular little business genius and I’m very proud of him.

Things are now back to normal and, it happens, his company FOOD NATION CATERING is now nominated for the Arabiana Best of Best Awards.

You can go straight to the vote and give your approval vote here, but do come back and look at the images!

https://arabianawards.com/vote cid=bVl3VlZDV0FRbzVGeDJLQ1hjOFY1Zz09

Click on the radio buttons: BEST CATERING SERVICE SCHOOLS and MOST VALUABLE GENERAL MANAGER the captcha “I’m not a robot” then hit SUBMIT.

Take a look at these food designs: I’m using that expression because “dishes” or “recipes” doesn’t seem to do it justice:

Bourgignon

Slow Burner Salad (Yes, you can get kids to eat greens!)

Skinny Shawarma (very Middle Eastern but much healthier)

Even this vegan dish looks appealing

And what about this? Bacon, onion jam and cheese melt! What kid can resist?

So, you see what I mean about health-IER, without being dictatorial. This stuff just FLIES off the counter.

Anyway, if you like and approve, please signal the l-u-r-v by voting for Magnus and FOOD NATION CATERING here.

https://arabianawards.com/vote?cid=bVl3VlZDV0FRbzVGeDJLQ1hjOFY1Zz09

Click on the radio buttons: BEST CATERING SERVICE SCHOOLS and MOST VALUABLE GENERAL MANAGER, the captcha “I’m not a robot” and then hit SUBMIT.

Waste

In complete contrast to the glory of school meals so grand, I’m switching to talking about WASTE. Waste food. There’s tons of it around here!

Viv and I were shocked a couple days ago, when we were sitting in one of our favorite coffee bars for our start-the-day hit. A young couple were eating a substantial breakfast and talking on the next table… and suddenly they were gone. We looked and each had left 2/3rds of their food. We were shocked! They could have ordered one plate, shared it, and still had some leftovers.

I wanted to take a photograph but I guess the manager would not have liked people to see an image of their food being left. Here’s a generic one instead.

Viv and I watched for a further half hour and realized MORE THAN HALF the food coming out was being left uneaten! There were very few clean plates. Yet I was brought up close to the bread line, and I still consider it a sin to waste food. You can do your own soapbox thing and rant about all the starving millions around the world, while we waste this precious resource. You don’t need me to do that.

IT IS ESPECIALLY ANNOYING TO ME because the main justification of Big Ag is that we need pesticides, fertilizers and GMO crop manipulations, in order to be able to feed the world.

WE DO NOT! It’s a convenient lie. There is more than enough food—right now—in the world to feed everybody on this planet. The myth that we can’t survive without industrialized food is just a convenient fiction.

What we need is for governments to step in and outlaw these toxic and destructive practices. As for using the food we have more efficiently, it needs enhanced distribution methods, that’s all. I’m not suggesting we donate waste food to the Third World nations. I mean GIVE THEM THE FOOD WHILE IT’S FRESH.

But then it gets bent out of shape pretty quickly, because Big Food just bribes the politicians with backhanders, to alter the rules away from fair and even harvesting to pure profiteering and the expense of everyone’s health.

Couple that with hordes of ethnic warlords, who control and restrict the distribution of everything, including food supplies, in their territories and there is a major evil stalking the word.

What we do NOT need is more food, more crops, more pesticides and more excuses for greed. Growing “more food” just means bigger piles of waste, not fewer hungry people!

We need to deal with the real problem, at its heart. Otherwise this is the result…