Grapeleaves

Chocolate covered strawberries and cherries

February 19, 2012

For Saint Valentine…

Tomato Mushroom Sausage pizza with Whiskey Ginger Ale

January 17, 2012

A few weeks ago in a 10pm bout of extreme sushi craving, I bought a pre-packed California roll from my neighborhood Safeway. [This might already sound like a reprehensible decision, but my last Safeway had a sushi chef who prepared things fresh and on site, the quality, appearance and prices of which rivaled any $$ grade sushi joint. I thought this particular Safeway would have the same, but it apparently purchases its sushi pre-packaged] When I flipped over the package at home, the ingredient list caught my eye.

Counting rather generously (accounting for a case in which several ingredients are sold as a mix and were therefore purchased with a lump-sum), there seemed to be about 40 different ingredients that the manufacturer must have acquired to make this packaged food, so it is interesting to me that in terms of opportunity cost, it was still favorable for the manufacturer to buy ~40 separate ingredients than to use the ~10 it actually takes to make a California Roll at home or in a restaurant, plus a couple of preservatives, and maybe a couple of more things to account for the junk that’s in imitation crab meat, because hardly anybody at this price range uses quality crab in a California roll (and who can blame them — there are better things to do with quality crab).

I looked into a few of the ingredients and was able to crudely estimate their market value based on wholesale prices and apply that to the per package cost of this product. Rice came at about 24 cents per pound, vinegar was about 80 cents per gallon, sugar about 30-40 cents per pound, salt at 2 cents/g, fish protein (apparently it is sold by itself) at 11cents/oz, wheat starch at $3-4/oz, tapioca starch $2/lb, snow crab meat $15/lb. The per package cost of these ingredients would range from a fraction of a cent to $1-2.

Also interesting were the various applications of soy. Few people know this, because I think we associate soy with edamame, tofu, and hippies, none of which Americans like very much, but America is the world’s top producer of soy beans. Looking at the ingredient list of some of our packaged foods perhaps shows us how that is possible. Four different soy-based products alone were present in this package of sushi: Soy flavor, soybean oil, soy protein, and soy lecithin.

Many other things are, from a manufacturing and nutritional standpoint, notable on this list. Look at all the uses of vinegar, and notice in how many different nooks sugar is lurking.

Below is a diagrammed breakdown of the ingredient list. Click on the image to get a slightly larger version.

Sushi ingredient list

The last of the cold days

April 8, 2011

Stuffed Cabbage and Barley Soup

Feeder Mice

March 16, 2011

I’m so sensitive toward the life of animals ever since the death of my last rabbit.

I went into a fit a few days ago trying to convince Blake to sign under a statement that said “It is wrong to feed live mammals/birds/(big) fish to other animals.”* I had to amend that sentence about four times before he agreed to sign it.

I saw a video of a group of boys tossing a live chipmunk into a lake for a large bass to hunt, and I was so sick to my stomach from their hollering and laughter that I pulled an ALF and started screaming obscenities about the human scourge and crying. Crying! I may or may not have posted a couple of crazy YouTube comments…

You might think it’s bogus that I insinuate that it’s OK for me to eat animals but it’s not OK for a bass to eat a chipmunk. I think it’s bogus, too, sometimes, but I like chipmunks better than bass that’s my emotional response. But this isn’t about a bass eating a chipmunk. This is about a human feeding a chipmunk to a bass, or a (live) mouse to a snake, etc. I derive pleasure from eating a cow, and I hope (rationally or irrationally) from the depths of my heart that the cow had a comfortable life and a quick, fearless death. I expect that from my meat providers, but whether this expectation is actually fulfilled is another issue. What pleasure is there to derive from feeding one animal to another?

People don’t feed their pet snakes for their own pleasure? Fine, I know. But why throw a chipmunk to a bass? Why forward videos of a centipede killing a mouse? Why all the animal fight videos? Scorpion killing spider, spider eating bird, octopus killing shark. Frequently I hear from ~~people~~ boys around me about how cool it would be to have an eel or have a centipede or scorpion, and feed it fish, mice, crickets, whatever. It’s a morbid curiosity, I know, but when it happens to animals we forget that we aren’t invincible, and from the safety of our vantage point we observe Nature, pointing, gasping, laughing.

I understand that some people like snakes and snakes have to eat, too. I also understand that dog food isn’t made of veggies and rainbows — there are animal parts in there — and I know sometimes frozen feeders just don’t cut it, but what does that say about the type of pet you choose and the lengths you’re willing to go to keep it? I don’t judge or dislike you for this, but my heart doesn’t understand.

I don’t buy this circle of life stuff. I know it’s perfectly normal for animals to eat each other, but there is enough death and fear and pain out there in the world without us having to contribute to it. The way I see it, you, as a human being, have the power to manipulate and domesticate nature. You have the power to create comfort, to extend livelihood, and to ease suffering. Instead you choose to replicate a brutal reality within the borders of your control, in the name of Nature. A mouse in the wild has a chance. In fact most of the time an animal hunts, it is unsuccessful. When you put a mouse in a terrarium with a hungry snake, what chance does it have? The odds are 100% against it. Its hunting is just a matter of time, not a matter of circumstance or ability. You’ve completely unleveled the playing field, and you pretend it’s natural, whatever that means.

Mice will always be hunted by snakes. But I, Manipulator, can create a different circumstance, especially when it comes to just having pets, and I choose a less brutal situation. I’m not drawing a moral line here — just soothing a bruised heart.

Less feeder mice, more Biker Mice.

From Mars.