What do oysters, chocolate, caviar, figs and champagne have in common? They are among the most famous food aphrodisiacs. From a Western (historical) perspective though. There are completely other aphrodisiacs. Be careful with bean sprouts for example. While sharing food and stories in the Food Culture class, we learnt it can bring you sons… Continue reading
Foodlinks News
Here you can find the first edition of Foodlinks News! In this newsletter we would like to update you on the activities of the Foodlinks project and its communities.
A key characteristic of the Foodlinks project is that it brings together different types of knowledge and experience, not only from research but also more practical and tacit knowledge from policy and civil society representatives. Foodlinks organises a collective process of sharing and integrating this knowledge around particular problems of food systems. You can read more about Foodlinks on our website and if you would like to receive the next edition of Foodlinks News you can subscribe here.
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Kapsalon-City?
Last week, colleagues Erik Bakker and Anima Ruissen from the LEI in the Hague gave a guest lecture in the Food Culture Course on ethnic entrepreneurship. Food culture is often a resource at the disposal of immigrants on which they can build food entrepreneurship. There are often low barriers of entrance towards starting an ethnic restaurant where ‘authentic’ foreign dishes can be sold.
Cola-chicken and slaughtherhouse meat
In this 6th period of the academic year, I run a second course on Food Culture with similar topics as the course in February but with other teaching methods. The group is smaller, the period is longer and we can thus engage with the literature in a different way. One of the assignments in the course is the Food Assignment, where we have twice a lunch together based on brought food by half of the student group. A few weeks ago we had the first lunch and I was surprised how interesting it turned out in terms of food culture in practice.
source:travelpod blog
One of the Chinese students came with a dish he claimed as common and even widespread made in China, which has also very strong regional cuisines. He presented chicken cooked in cola. Lots of us present were first unclear if he really meant, cola, the soft drink. Indeed, this is what he meant and we could clearly taste the cola in the chicken meat. When searching the internet I found numerous examples of chicken-cola recipes, such as this one.
Our ignorance and thus astonishment about this dish, just turned into the next astonishment when the type of meat was discussed. This student used chicken drumsticks whereas he actually needed chicken wings. But he hadn’t been able to find these in the supermarket. The Vietnamese student replied that she always bought meat at the nearby slaughterhouse. Again, eyes widened, especially among the Dutch students. Was she referring to the butcher or indeed meaning the slaughterhouse? After asserting there was no Babylonian confusion of tongues, we were curious as to where then, this slaughterhouse is located. It turned out to be a small slaughterhouse in Opheusden within 15 kilometers from Wageningen, where it was possible to buy specific qualities and cuts of meat if sufficient quantity was bought. Hence, the Vietnamese students organise a collective order every now and then. I had no idea.
Learning about the role of agriculture and natural resources in sustainable rural development – student’s reflection (4)
Together with four students of Wageningen University, I spend two weeks in Kaunas, Lithuania to represent Wageningen University, and the Rural Sociology Group, at this years’ ‘Intensive Programme’ on rural development. This post is the last one in a series of posts in which the participating students reflect on the programme and share their experiences.
By Camilo Carrillo Wilisch (Erasmus student Master Environmental Sciences, Wageningen University):
From the 15th to the 28th of April I participated in the IP “Role of agriculture and natural resources in sustainable rural development” in Kaunas, Lithuania. The preparation for this IP started some weeks on forehand. Together with the other students, we discussed about the expectations and motivation for participating in the course. In my case, I visited Lithuania few years ago and I liked the country and it’s people a lot, the IP represented a wonderful opportunity to visit and learn more about Lithuania. In addition I’m a Erasmus-Student from Berlin and I study environmental technology. In Wageningen I followed courses of the BSc Minor Sustainable agriculture and consumption. My appetite for new experiences and knowledge and my interests on the links between rural and urban areas, multifunctional agriculture and sustainable food production and consumption were the main reasons why I wanted to participate in the IP. I did expect to get an overview about the agribusiness sector, it’s relation with rural development, and the natural resource management in Lithuania. With my expectations and my small luggage I traveled to Lithuania in company of the other students.
Rural Sociology Wageningen University 