Food

The Variety of Hospital Food in the Netherlands

This is breakfast at HMC Westeinde hospital in The Hague, the Netherlands. Every morning, the ‘breakfast cart’ comes along to each patient’s bedside, where the patient is offered a choice of white, wholegrain or raisin bread with butter, margarine, cheese or jam. Alternatively, patients can opt for a cereal (only one choice, an off-brand cornflake) with milk. Alongside this, you can choose to drink tea, coffee (both with or without milk, sugar and sweeteners) or apple or orange juice. You are also offered one hard-boiled egg.

Farmers in Nepal

Image: Woman with Cane Basket, Crates filled with oranges from orange orchards in Panauti Nepal. These orchards are sold by the farmers’ families while the profit goes to the landowners and they only earn a part of the profit made on the crop since they do not own the lands anymore due to brain-drain, high taxes and the push for privatization by the government.

Threats to Fish Market, Goa, India

Nestled in the Western Ghats on the coastline of the Indian peninsula, is Goa- a small state that was colonized by the Portuguese around 500 years ago and became a part of the larger Indian State in the 1960s. The confluence of this Indo-Western heritage amalgamates into a fascinating melting pot of culture. Goa, which is now a renowned tourist destination, has always been for me, home.

Frybread, colonialism and resistance

Native American populations in the US have long been subject to stereotyping and destruction of their respective cultures. Throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, Native Americans often found themselves at war with the colonial settlers; however, war did not just manifest physically. American colonists waged war against Native culture itself, attempting to assert the cultural superiority of the white man largely through Christian missions and the capture and destruction of Native lands and landmarks. Another facet of the cultural war was through food.

Torvehallerne, Quality and Dialogue

Torvehallerne are food halls which are positioned in the center of Copenhagen which sell a large variety of food. This includes fresh vegetables, cheese, fish, and freshly baked bread. The prices are high and the focus is on quality and ecology, rather than price and quantity. The shops are specialized in offering a selection of products from their respective shops. In conversation with cashiers, they explained to me that the dialogue is what sets apart Torvehallerne from regular supermarkets. This is the conversation around the products being sold.

Storing fermented tea leaf

In the past, fermented tea leaf used to be packed tightly in bamboo containers. It was put in the containers layer by layer. It was kept for at least six months. Nowadays, fermented tea leaf is packed in Penang sacks one layer after another. Then they are well pressed by big pieces of stone. They are left like this for a long time. Then they are ready to be sold. While they are kept in sacks and pressed, the superfluous juices drain outside. It can make the place dirty. However, it cannot affect the quality of the fermented tea leaf.

Tea is a popular nature beverage

Dried tea leaf is mostly manufactured in March and April when enough sunshine is available. At that time, the leaves are saturated with oil. It is the best time to make dried tea leaf. It is known as Moe-ma-hmi, Shwe-Phi dried tea leaf. During the months of March and April, dried tea leaves become dry in a day. Then they are sorted out to be marketable. There are two kinds of dried tea leaf namely, hard dried tea leaf and soft dried tea leaf. The soft dried tea leaf is not curled up fully and leaf is thick. The hard dried tea leaf is fully curled up and the leaf is thin.

The future development of locals

Tea blossoms that emerge from the tea tree are left intact during the harvest. These blossoms are pollinated and produce fruits that ripen around Thadingyut and Tazaungmone (around October and November). The most mature fruits fall to the ground and the fruits that remain are picked for the seeds. The capsule-like seeds are egg-shaped and turn slightly brown when ripe. Inside the capsule is 2 or 3 seed pods which contain 2 or 3 seeds.

The Introduction of African Rice in Suriname

Genetic research into rice from the inlands of Suriname draws attention to the history of West Africans who were deported as slaves to this former Dutch colony. While there are many grains of Asian rice, Surinamese black rice, ‘Blaka aleisi’, turned out to be almost identical to rice farmed by Mande-speaking farmers in West Ivory Coast according to research by Tinde van Andel. This rice was rarely eaten but instead was sacrificed to ancestors and used in spiritual herbal baths.

Edible Earth from a Mountain

I arrived at place that has a mountain with the edible earth. I found that the wonderful mountain earth is eaten by PaOh ethnic elders especially for women and pregnant women. They often eat the edible earth in two ways; first is fresh earth and second is baking the earth. Usually they put the edible earth in the traditional oven to have a good smell and better taste. They believe that it is good for their health and it helps for pregnant women to get their energy. Nowadays most of young generations don't know about the edible earth.

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