My 25th Birthday and a Return to the Blogosphere

Late night greetings, my foodie friends among you! I cannot believe it has been over a month since my last blog post, though I am most definitely going to pull out my I'm-in-grad-school card. (We will see just how many times it takes before that excuse gets worn out.) In any case, the next few days are quickly going to be particularly foodie-filled. This has prompted me to consider an attempt to catch you up on the past month. I do wish I had more time to give all my food experiences their due justice, but c'est la vie. This being said, I would like to kick things off with this first return post (of perhaps four or five): a Slow Food Columbus "Off the Menu" dinner at The Worthington Inn (which coincidentally timed perfectly with my 25th birthday... wow, time is flying by!).

Pork or Pork?: Serving up Red Wattle Hogs at the Downtown Luau

Hosted by The Hills Market Downtown and neighbouring Grass Skirt Tiki Bar, the Downtown Luau was one of quite a few events (at least 68) scheduled for this weekend.

On Friday evening, Slow Food Columbus's Chairman of the Board Bear Braumoeller joined butcher Tim Struble from Columbus's North Market and pitmaster Jim Budros (co-founder of Columbus's City Barbeque) in preparing and cooking two hogs for Columbus's Downtown Luau. But these weren't just any hogs, they were Red Wattle hogs, an Ark of Taste food in danger of extinction. Red Wattles are currently listed as "critically endangered," with less than 200 annual registrations and less than 2000 in existence around the world. With the biodiversity of our food system continuing to dwindle, it's becoming more and more important to reverse the trend by creating a demand for them; without it, there's no reason for a shop to source them and by extension for farmers to raise them. Yesterday's luau provided a wonderful opportunity to not only showcase the hogs, but to also foster a communal, Columbus celebration of food, drink and the upcoming start of summer.

5+ Hours of Talking about Food (and Eating in the Process)?: I Plan on Getting Used to This

Lamb burger and local chèvre from TILL Dynamic Fare

With the first half of this spring semester nearly upon us, it's been a bit of a hectic ride (I think that's an understatement). Amidst all of that, I did want to take a brief moment and note for the first time on this blog that I officially accepted at the tail end of the week a Graduate Enrichment Fellowship and will be attending The Ohio State University (MA/PhD program in Anthropology) beginning this upcoming August. I have truly enjoyed working at Denison for as long as I have (and certainly look forward to my remaining time here), but am equally looking forward to transitioning into full time graduate work. With this in mind, I had the fortunate opportunity to get a bit of a break today from campus and head into both Newark and Columbus where I continued to gain more local knowledge and develop even more connections through stories and, of course, food.

In Celebration of Terra Madre Day 2012

Happy Terra Madre Day! Unbeknownst to many, I'm sure, the Terra Madre project (yes, linked to the Terra Madre conference I've mentioned a few times before throughout the blog) was launched by Slow Food International in 2004. In 2009 Terra Madre Day was lifted up as an international day of celebrating local food, the celebration of which emphasizes Slow Food's philosophy of good, clean and fair: "good for our palate, clean for humans, animals and the environment, and fair for producers and consumers." In honor of Terra Madre Day, our local Slow Food chapter held a Terra Madre Day potluck last night at the home of Board Chair Bear Braumoeller whom I've been fortunate enough to meet at other Slow Food Columbus events throughout the past semester (1, 2 and 3; and he even presented at our Food and Culture Colloquium). Alongside the great local, organic and/or sustainable food that made their way onto the potluck tables, I truly appreciated the opportunity to explore another sliver of Columbus life and meet even more wonderful people (read: foodies) who, as I've claimed time and time again throughout this blog, represent diverse experiences that find common ground around something as "simple" as food.

The Columbus Convivium: Slow Food Columbus Dinner at Flying J Farm

In practice, I've been familiar for quite some time with farmers markets and home cooked meals, recipes from scratch and communal dining. But it was only through my grad school searches that I first learned about the concept of "slow food" and the accompanying international movement, a response to the fast food trend of the late 80s/early 90s by Carlo Petrini in Bra, Italy, site of the University of Gastronomic Sciences which opened in 2004. Now with over 1,300 convivia (local chapters) throughout the world, the Slow Food Movement continues to grow and remain committed to its founding principles: to counter the rise of fast food and fast life, the disappearance of local food traditions and people’s dwindling interest in the food they eat, where it comes from, how it tastes and how our food choices affect the rest of the world. Recently, I found that Columbus has its own convivium (as do many major cities; in the U.S. alone, there are 225) and have been meaning to get more involved with the group. And so, when I received a particular call on Friday afternoon, I was wicked excited for what was to come the following day. The call came from one of my Food and Culture Colloquium participants, Susan Kaiser, founder and owner of Faire La Cuisine, based here in Granville, and who was first introduced to me by Denison colleague and colloquium participant, Maureen; essentially, Susan asked if I might be available and interested to help her out at Slow Food Columbus's much-anticipated annual dinner, "Shake the Hand that Feeds You". I had first heard about the dinner via the group's e-mail list serv which noted that last year's dinner sold out in 16 minutes. I'm not sure how else to emphasize this meal's popularity other than to share that from what I've heard, the tickets this year sold out in a record eight minutes! As the aforementioned web link shares, in addition to the great atmosphere and community, the proceeds of the dinner's ticket sales help fund central Ohio's nine delegates to go to Slow Food International's biennial Terra Madre conference in Torino, Italy. (The first conference, held in 2004, welcomed 5,000 delegates from 130 countries.) These nine competitively selected (by Slow Food USA's, from over 600 applicants) delegates will join others from the U.S. and those from around the world in late October. Indeed, this was an opportunity that I absolutely couldn't pass up!