A little bit about food again

Swords and GM soy aside, I just need to post my dinner. As a New Year's resolution I wanted to become more veganized and since I am all alone today AND still had leftovers from my hot-hot peppersauce I decided to make something good, filling, and vegan. So here it is, gnocchi in peppersauce with peas and on top some chive and cheezly, a vegan cheese.

In the background you can see my vegan cookbook I bought whilst in England: Rose Elliot, Vegan Feasts

(http://www.amazon.de/Vegan-Feasts-Essential-Vegetarian-Collection/dp/072254006X/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books-intl-de&qid=1231443697&sr=8-2)

Fake designer goods in Viking times

www.hurstwic.org

Oh, oh...they better trust their sword's not too much.

"It must have been an appalling moment when a Viking realised he had paid two cows for a fake designer sword; a clash of blade on blade in battle would have led to his sword, still sharp enough to slice through bone, shattering like glass."

Alan Williams from London Museum and Tony Fry from the National Physical Laboratory in Teddington tested Ulfberht's swords from various collections and found a lot of them being fakes, especially the ones in graves. http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2008/dec/27/archaeology-vikings-sword

Why am I telling you this? Well, you see, we visited the Viking Exhibition in Speyer after Christmas, and, when I was reading the news on these fake swords I remembered that I saw an Ulfbehrt at the exhibition. I wonder whether this one was a geniune one. The museum's catalogue just says it is from Lith in the Netherlands, but gives no information what so ever whether it was from a grave context or from a river. The one's in graves were mostly fake Ulfberht's. Well the dead one wouldn't have known the difference, would he?

The problem was indeed like mentioned in the citation above, that the fake ones scattered on impact, being made from Northern European Iron and welded in old-fashioned manner. A real Ulfberht was a gigantic innovation. It used carbon rich steel brought in from Afghanistan and the like via Byzanz along the Eastern route. Plus, a new form put the balance nearer to the hand which made the sword faster, in stroke and recovery. An Ulfberht was a quantum leap in technology. No wonder fakes are moving around like Chinese rolexes. But since the dead warrior wouldn't use his sword in a real fight anymore it is excusable and he probably would have understood very well that the extra money is better used in form of some decent mead.

www.wikinger.speyer.de

EU approves genetically modified soybean for import

This news on http://www.eviana.org/ slightly shocked me, I have to admit. I always thought, OK, Bush and his blind followers, mainly the red states, were stupid enough to watch Monsanto gain billions in exchange for their health risking, economically insane, morally not justifiable, genetically 'enhanced' crop seeds. But obviously we, here on the Old World are as studpid:

The European Union has authorized imports of a genetically modified (GM) soybean type for sale across its 27 national markets for the next 10 years, the European Commission said on Thursday(...) Developed and marketed by Monsanto, the soybean is destined to be imported for use in food and animal feed, not for growing...www.evana.org (Dec 4th 2008).

To think that my edamame is GM....yuck yuck yuck

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e7/Edamame_by_Zesmerelda_in_Chicago.jpg/800px-Edamame_by_Zesmerelda_in_Chicago.jpg

A report from the Ministry of Health in Austria clearly showed 'a diet-host interaction that should be further evaluated'. In it's conclusion this report clearly showed the underlying danger by genetically modified soy or corn fed to animals:

'Summarising the study, the maize with the stacked event NK603 x MON810 affected the reproduction of mice in the RACB trial. Whether similar findings could be expected for other animals, needs to be evaluated in studies including reproductive traits. Future studies are necessary to determine the impact of normal and transgenic dietary ingredients on the organism.' (The full report can be downloaded here: http://bmgfj.cms.apa.at/cms/site/attachments/3/2/9/CH0810/CMS1226492832306/forschungsbericht_3-2008_letztfassung.pdf).

But hey, why wait till we know more. Fertility of the mice used for this experiment was severely impacted on. Litter size went down 25 to 30 percent. Birth weight was on the drop. Men become infertile from hormones (mainly the 'pill' in drinking water), so let's do something against discrimination and let us make our females unproductive. This way we will soon face obliteration
and earth can breathe again.

But until then Monsanto will feel really good.In the last 5 years, Monsanto’s stock price is up over 700 percent, and the company’s directors are getting their shares, and oh they are doing good too:

And how good (in deceiving) these influential companies are can be seen by the fact that their own studies show their products causing severe harm and they can still succesfully sell their products and now to the EU market

"A Monsanto study on a new type of GM Bt maize shows significant harm caused to
rats fed on the variety, called MON 863. The study shows kidney abnormalities and unusually high levels of white blood cells. It raises serious concerns about the impacts of GM foods on human health." (http://www.organicconsumers.org/corn/index.cfm).

And that transgenetic genes flow even into my organically grown veggies are certain:

"In Mexico researchers have detected widespread contamination of traditional

varieties of corn, caused by surreptitious imports of genetically engineered
corn into Mexico ".

I have read German studies which confirm this but was too lazy to look them up.

So what are we? A generation of nutcases? Or silent tax givers for funding companies that would rather kill off people than reduce their profit. Oh well they would only kill the most dim-witted animal on earth which wouldn't be so bad at all.

Sorry for blabbering, but I needed to vent my anger. I will close with the words from Ben Cohen (a co-founder of Ben&Jerry's ice-cream):

"Outrageous! That’s what you’ll say over and over again when you read how the biotechnology companies have manipulated the government, our food, and the media, and put an entire generation at risk."

Again a year hurried away from us. 2009 already, a bit terrifying I have to admit. Therefore I will resort to the old year, for a bit, just to finish our lovely Christmas dinner presentation and so on.

Unfortunately I can't show you a photo of our red beet risotto. A long time ago when people actually used coated films to shoot photos, it could very well happen that you forgot to put in the film and only much later noticed that all your doing was in vain. I never thought this could happen in our digital age. But be warned, there are still memory cards you need to insert before shooting. To make it short, we didn't and so the pic of the risotto is in some other space-time-dimension. However, we managed to take a photo of the Christmas pudding. Not everyone's favourite, but hey, it's a tradtion that must be upheld. I bought it (oh, come on, you didn't expected me to do it from scratch, did you?) in my favourite organic food shop in London, Whole Foods Market, http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/stores/kensington/. Europe's largest organic supermarket by the way. I think it was Tiptree's, but I'am not quite sure, I bought it some time ago. As you are probably well aware, Christmas puddings have to mature over weeks or even months.


Instead of brandy butter or mint butter, we decided to have custard with it and we were in no way dissapointed. Just awsome (if you like puddings, of course).



We spent New Year's Eve and New Year's Day in Austria with my friend and her husband in Nenzing. This is pretty much how it actually looks, with all the mountains around it.

de.wikipedia.org

Now we are back in Germany with my library account frozen, my oven exploded, our entrance door shattered and I'm waiting what good 2009 can still bring me.

Luckily the ceramic hob is still working and what better to cook in a pan (or in this case a wok) than Chinese fried noodles:

Cook some Chinese noodles, set aside. Meanwhile heat sesame oil in a wok, add carrots, brussel sprouts, red bell pepper, leek, garlic. Season with a Chinese mixed seasoning and a bit of tamari sauce, add the noodles, toss well and garnish with lemongrass. So yummie!

Our Christmas Dinner - more than a menue

Of course I didn't do all the 6 courses of my menue, we left the redbeet risotto for tormorrow. I tend to cook large portions and it probably was quite tasty since we had two servicings from every course. But after the third course or so we started to get really full.

Here are some pics, so you can see that it also looks quite nice most of the time.

First was the cream of potatoe soup with some coriander green on top to make it more exotic or just because I didn't get any chervil in winter, who knows. this recipe is my mother's hence I can't post a recipe.


Then we had the 'Christmas Salad' from petecarpenter.com (http://www.petecarpenter.com/2006/12/14/its-beginning-to-look-a-lot-like-chrismukkah/) which was as good as it looked in it's Christmas colours:

I served it with soybean-baps a la bruschetta and it came out really nice:


We restricted the main course to the nut roast and it was a wise decision. I put Wendy's nutroast (http://teach77.wordpress.com/2008/04/17/cumin-carrot-and-cashew-nut-roast-and-a-tag/) in a star-form dish to give it a bit more festive character.

This is a really light and wonderfully cashew nut-roast, which would be lovely in summer, too. Mini-gnocchi, roasted carrots and asparagus with a creamy crème fraîche lemon basil sauce rounded off our main.

For desert we had the lemon-tofu cake, a recipe from the Eight Day Café in Manchester. Instead of the digestive cookies I used spekulatius Christmas cookies (a kind of gingery biscuits) and I decorated it with a drizzle of rosehip jam, again to give it a festive look, but also because I put too much lemon juice in it and it was quite sour *lol* any way, it was tasty and not bad for my first vegan cheesecake, altought still worthy of improvement.


Stay tuned for the rest of our Christmas dinner which we will have tomorrow.

Merry Christmas

Joyeux Noël, Merry Christmas, Buon Natale, Feliz Navidad, Frohe Weihnachten, メリークリスマス

Hope you all have a wonderful Christmas time. Our tree is in purple and silver decorated, though I really do not have the space for a large standing tree. It is therefore a bit cramped in the corner but still nice to look upon and the smell is worth it anyway.

It's a veggie Christmas this year!!

Since M is not here this Christmas, we can have a completely vegetarian Christmas dinner, no cooking twice, no carcasses in the workspace, no killing involveld. I wanted a nut roast all along, since this is the English traditional way (for vegetarians of course, carnivores must eat filet wellington and goose and such poor animals). Doesn't this look good?



A peaceful Christmas to all my friends and readers, have a wonderful time!

Manchester

I left Bradford as soon as possible and stayed the rest of my trip in Manchester. First because it is an endlessly better option for shopping, second because my flight went from Manchester anyway, and last not least, it is a way more interesting town.... city..... whatever.

This is Manchester Cathedral, or rather one of it. I learnt that there are two cathedrals in Manchester, why, I don't know.

This is one of its modern, yet wonderful, stained-glass windows:


The townhall of Manchester with the European Christmas market (one of the seven markets in Manchester):

The old city centre with a ferris wheel. But this time a bit more discreet, being in front of the modern departmentstores instead of the old timber-framed buildings:

and a nice pub (this photo is especially for P and C, stay sharp!)


This is the International Christmas Market:

And of course the German one with -what is so typical for Germany- Bratwurst!

Christmas Carols in the shopping centre:
And funny buses:



I also had the chance to test one of Manchester's vegetarian restaurants, the Eight Day Café (http://www.eighth-day.co.uk/index.htm). I had a marvellous vegan cottage pie. And don't forget to check out their webpage because they post a lot of their fav recipes.

Bradford cathedral and the 'grotto' archaeology conference

Yestereday evening I had a look at Bradford's cathedral:

The Polish community sang Polish carols, offered Polish (alas, very meaty) food and -of course, since we are in England- wine. There was also an exhibition of Polish cribs, with a single specimen from the Polish community of Huddersfield. It looked more like an oriental castle than the birthscene of Jesus, but well....

The cathedral has the wooden ceiling beautifully rebuilt:

And so I had a pretty nice evening.

Today was the Pre- & 'Grotto-History: Some Recent Research into the Prehistoric use of Caves day conference of the Prehistoric Society. There were some interesting talks concerning the Neolithic use of caves, for example Tom Lord's presentation of an early Neolithic non-monumental burial type, involving -not cannibalism- but complicated burial rites with decomposing in the open and then bringing back the still articulated body to prep it up with stones to imitate a living body. He called the stonepacked corpses 'skeletal mommies'.

Two speakers tried to develop a system how to predict where archaeological caves would be in order to find them before metal detectors and looters. Both had to admit that it is not really working.

Rick Schulting then presented his work, comparing isotope values from skeletons of Gop Cave in North Wales with skeletons from the very near chambered tomb Parc le Breos. He could demonstrate, that the people of the chamber tomb had a higher portion of meat/dairy in their diet than the people buried in the cave (lower end of social hierarchy?). this is the cave site (Cathole Cave, Gower peninsula):

 

 

And this is Parc le Breos, the nearby chambered tomb:

 

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Park_Cwm

A PhD student of Paul Petit presented a paper in his absence about Mousterien use of caves, like fire places and stone tools.

Andrew Chamberlain did his statistics about cave burials, like 'a third of people buried in the Neolithic were sub-adults'. He was one of the two who presented the prediction model. The only thing he found was htat larger and higher caves attracted more burials.

L'art pariétal at Sculptor's Cave:

www.megaltihic.co.uk

Neolithic pottery from Elbolten cave:

www.outofoblivion.org.uk

Bradford

Bradford is just as I have remembered it, one of the sadest and most pitiful towns in England. I was looking for a knitting wool shop (which of course didn't exist anymore) and came across the TJ Hughes department store. Here you can experience on of the worst department stores you will ever come across in your life. It has the charm of pound land and the prices of Primark, but at least primark keeps it's dignity, so if you want to buy cheap, for heaven's sake go to Primark and not to TJ Hughes. I have never seen so much acrylic things on one spot. But that is the essence of Bradford, not value for money (which would at least make sense) but cheap, really cheap.

This is the new "Broadway Centre with over 100 shops and offices" according to the leaflet from the tourist information " for opening late 2007". And what have we now? Ah yes, late 2008. And still not a single wall standing of this ambitious project. But how could Bradford afford building such a project when they can't even afford to put some gritt on the iced pedestrian walks.

This here is the townhall of Bradford, which was built in the second half of the 19th century and extended in the early 20th century. It actually is a nice building but at the moment it is defaced by the Bradford Christmas spirit. A ferries wheel is obviously the highlight of Christmas, and the illumination doesn't help either. So sad.

The best thing Bradford has to offer is certainly it's university. One of the finest universities (archaeology-wise) in the country with a beautiful campus. And let's not forget Waterstones, not because of it's divers selections but because there is a Star Bucks on the second level.

But of course not all is bad in Bradford. The Love Apple restaurant and bar has wonderful veggie dishes and the new Tulsi being an all vegetarian Indian buffet restaurant. Hm...yummie.

Dolmen Hunting Tour

Ever since I read that there are dolmen in southern Germany and Switzerland I was obsessed with the idea of finding them. I just couldn't believe to find them so far in the south. But here I am on my dolmen hunt. My first stop was the museum of Freiburg. And I wasn't dissapointed. It is a small but very fine museum. Here some objects from the museum:

Something Neolithic:

Something from the Bronze Age, a Feuerbock, the English name is totally elusive to me, sorry.

And something from the Alamannen special exhibition:

I then went farther south to the French speaking Switzerland. My first stop was Courgenay, where a dolmen portal plate with a so-called spirit hole was supposed to have survived. Since it is getting dark very early, I stayed at a very charming and rustic hotel in Courgenay. This is the bathroom.

And after I had a pizza which tasted more like a tarte flambée in the restaurant 'La pierrre percèe' I had my first glimpse of a Jura dolmen:

Kauai (the end) and Oahu

Well, I think you still hadn't enough of Hawaii's beauty, therefore some more pictures. Apart from flowers and beautiful landscapes you will be lucky and can embrace fantastic archaeology (no just kidding, it won't be that bad).

A hiking tour brought us through forests and rivers:

Heliconia rostrata or hanging lobster claw heliconia

Schefflera actinophylla or Octopus tree, the one with the red flowers

On our last evening in Kauai we went to see the Mokihana Hula competition at the Kaua'i War Memorial Convention Hall in Lihu'e. Solo and group hula of all age classes did the hula at their best:

We left the Garden Island with a lot of things unfinished, unvisited, not yet done. But this is one reason to go back, right? And it is not as if we went to a barren and inhospitable place. No, we had the pleasure to go to O'ahu, the main island.

At the entrance to the Kea'iwa Heiau State Park (Aiea Heights Dr., Aiea) is an ancient healing centre from the 15th century, the Kea'iwa heiau. The 4-foot high stacked rock wall encloses the sacred area that measures 30 by 50 meters (100 by 160 feet). Within the enclosure was a halau (large thatched structure) built for the master kahuna (priest) to store the medicinal implements and train the students. Other features might include hale (small thatched structure) and a puholoholo (steam bath).Here the Kahuna (priest) grew plants, prayed, diagnosed and healed injuries and diseases.

At the entrance to the Wahiawa Botanica Garden is situated a heavily reconstructed heiau, the Hale o Lono heiau, the "House of Lono". It was build around 1400 and was dedicated to the God Lono, one of the four Principal gods of ancient Hawaii. He ruled agriculture and harvests, weather, sports, and medicine.

The garden itself should not be missed, apart from all the beautiful plants of Hawaii it harbours the Waimea Falls (depending on the rain, they were dry this year) and some archaeological sites, including, reconstructed on the spot, Taro towers:

they were freshly planted, hence you can only see some small taro leaves looking out of the tower.

But there are all kinds of flowering plants, ferns, trees:

Heliconia stricta belongs to the order Zingiberales like ginger

Alpinia purpurata or Hawaiian Red Ginger

Platycerium or elkhorn fern (Geweihfarn) growing on a tree

In short a well kept up and informative botanical garden, well worth a visit.