Collaborations

The talk in the academic world is on the importance to create collectives of people who are in different fields and disciplines and try to learn from each other. This may sound really obvious, but it has taken a very long time for scholars to get here. Academic endeavor is defined by the strict boundaries set up in the study of the physical and social sciences. The humanities are less strict about this, but they also have their fair share of border patrolling. The idea is to create expertise that can then be utilize to produce wealth, if interested you should read Max Weber.

It is with this in mind, that I have tried to expand my horizons and move away from the self-centered view that my work and my craft is most important and significant alone. I have tried to enter, establish and seek collaborations with people doing amazing food projects. Here I present to you four new collaborations. More information will be coming up, but this is a little taste of things to follow.

Educating Young Minds

Along with the HSMSE Gastronomy class run by a good friend of mine, we are taking 18 high school students to Flying Pigs Farm in upstate New York to participate in the Farm CampThis school group learns about food production through readings and films but also experiences like taste workshops, visits to farms, markets shops around NYC. Part gastronomy class – part cultural sensitization, the aim of the program is to introduce students to good food and “to expose the kids to new tastes and cultures encouraging an open-mindedness, which in theory would extend to all aspects of the students' lives.” experience.

We are going to Farm Camp to learn about the realities of food production and to gain an understanding of the importance of knowing the source of what we eat. We will be in the farm on 5/6 June and you will be able to follow us on twitter by tracking the #GastroCamp or the #FarmCamp tags.

Other twitter feeds to follow are: @FarmCampNY @FlyingPigsFarm I will have a small contribution on smell and the ideas of disgusting, nasty, tasty and gourmet. I have been working on this topic for a while now and I have a piece (in Spanish) on Letras Libres.

If you would like to learn more about the HSMSE Gastronomy class or on the teacher leading the initiative you can contact her check out their facebook page at: HSMSE Gastronomy Eats NYC or email her at jboylan @ hsmse.org She has prepared lesson plans and a syllabus, which she will be happy to share with other educators.

Mexican cheeses
I designed five different vegetarian sandwiches using Mexican cheeses for Aula Chocolate in Mexico City. These sandwiches are created around a traditional Mexican cheese and paired with local ingredients. Here are three that are already for sale:

Chiapas: Queso de Cuadro, berros, aceite de oliva, balsámico y miel.
Chihuahua: Queso Menonita, mostaza de grano y cebollas caramelizadas.
Michoacán: Queso Cotija, compota de sandía y menta fresca.

They are all made with bread baked on-site. The cheeses are produced by artisanal farmers and sourced by Lactography, and information on the makers is included with every sandwich. The purpose of this collaboration is to showcase traditional cheeses and ways to pair them with food and integrated them in a lacto-vegetarian diet. All profits from the sale of the cheese go directly to the makers and affineurs that produce them and age them.

For more information visit: Aula Chocolate or follow @aulachocolate

Cheesemonger certification

The American Cheese Society has been working for the past 10 years on creating a Certification Exam for Cheese Professionals and developing a Body of Knowledge document, which includes guidelines on all the cheese knowledge that someone to be certified should have. The purpose of such certification is to create professionals that are able to speak, promote and better cheese for everyone. I have been invited to be a Subject Matter Expert and hope to bring my expertise of Latin American cheese productions as well as experience as a Cheese Judge in North America to the effort. The first exam is scheduled to take place in early 2012 and you will be hearing more during the annual meeting of the ACS in August.

At this moment, I don’t envision traveling to Canada for the annual meeting, mostly because being a Mexican citizen I am requested by the Canadian government to obtain a visa to enter the country (this was not the case two years ago) and the price of application plus my situation as a full-time student makes the expense to apply for a visa, plus travel, plus enrolling in the conference prohibitive. If you would like to sponsor my participation or know someone that would, I will be forever grateful. I have budget the trip to cost US$1,000 dollars only on fees and travel expenses. I have friends in the Montreal to stay with.

For more information on the annual meeting and other events about the ACS you can follow them at @CheeseSociety

The other event that is taking place that may impact the certification process and which I have been doing some PR is the 2^nd Annual Cheesemonger Invitational, it will be hosted by Adam Moskowitz of Larkin on Friday, 8 July 2011, from 7 to 10 PM in Long Island City, New York. For more info visit Cheese Monger Invitational or follow him at @CMI_2011

Tea and Cheese

Harney and Sons will be hosting a small tasting in its newish SoHo store in New York City, we will be offering their tea-infused cheeses and other American cheeses paired with teas. I will be around to explain cheese tasting and pairings, while Emeric Harney will be explaining teaching people about tea. Cheese is a great gateway for this and should be a fun experience to have the cheesemaker there to explain us on the making of flavored cheeses.

Our tentative date is Thursday, 21 July 2011, from 5 to 8 PM, details to come. You can also find more information following @HarneySoHo and buy tea here.

Other (older) ongoing food collaborations:

Camel milk and cheese project – I am part of the Advisory Board of the What Took You So Long Foundation film project “Respect the Camel” for more info on the film being produced and many camel cheese related events follow them at @wtysl or at WTYSL Foundation.

Judging guidelines – We are looking to develop guidelines for cheese judges. This project is in conjunction with the Guild of Fine Food organizers of the World Cheese Awards and it will involve all the current Supreme International Judges. Follow them at @guildoffinefood and visit them at Fine Food World and for info on the 2011 Awards.

Denomination of Origin – I am continuously helping the Rancho San Josemaria, producers of one of the finest sheep’s milk cheeses in Queretaro, Mexico, to apply for a certificate of trademark in a first step on the long process to have this cheese awarded a DO. Follow them at @QuesosOvejaSJM or visit their site.

Finally, I call them collaborations because I have not been economically remunerated for any work under this scheme. I write this not to brag about my philanthropic spirit, but to differentiate these collectives from the work that I do commercially which includes classes, tastings, trainings, and consultancies. If you have an idea in mind that could impact the way we think about the food that we eat or how we consume it, email it to me and we can set up a collaborative. If you are interested in any of these projects and have an idea also email me or any of the people involved. All inquiries welcome to cheeseconsulting @ gmail.com

Global food

Two of the most common questions I have been getting over the last four years since I started coming to China regularly, are: Can you get used to eating this? And How come you know how to use chopsticks? Both questions always come with just the right amount of naiveté, pride, and disbelief. In a country where many people are still yet to "see a foreigner," it is warranted that some Chinese people still remain in the dark about the cultures and ways of the rest of the world. For a country, that heralds its raising profile to become the next super power, its people sure are still bugged down with antiquated stereotypes about different cultures. I write this not to complain or with anti-Chinese sentiment, but rather from the perspective of a person less mesmerized by economic indicators.

How I normally respond to those questions is: this food is not that different from stuff we get in Mexico or the US, and we sometimes also use chopsticks to eat. Every time, I answered annoyed and not thinking much about the implications of the questions. However, a couple of days ago that all changed and I finally understood why these foods taste familiar and some of the assumptions of people about the "west."

Just after a month of eating only Chinese food, we went to a German inspired Brazilian-rodizio style microbrewery and buffet to have Mexican meat. In the US and Mexico, I try to maintain vegetarian mostly for ecological reasons. China is different, because there is no real concept of vegetarianism amongst the non-religious population and therefore everything is made with some type of meat or its stock. Buddhist Chinese who keep vegetarian eat at home or at special restaurants near temples. Xi'an is unique, in the sense that it has a large Muslim population and therefore Hallal restaurants abound but they also serve meat, mostly lamb. The idea of going to a grill sounded horrible at first, but I could not decline, as it was an invitation by a friend. She had made a point of finding a restaurant that would serve something Mexican, so I would not miss home. She imagined that a month without my own food would have me ready to leave China; she had experienced a similar frustration over a four-month visit to Baltimore eating only "American" food.

Now, after understanding a couple of things that was one of the most interesting cultural experiences I have had in China. But before I start Orientalizing my hosts, let me paint a scene for you of this "western" style restaurant for you. A disclaimer, the term "western" refers to food from Europe and the US. Basically anything not considered Asia. Chinese describe everything this way and pose their own culture vis-a-vis assumptions about what the "west" is like. My question is always if Mexico is considered part of the west, and while sometimes it is also described as such, most times it is not. Mexico is mostly known for its immigration problem and spicy food, both cultural references popularized in US media.

The place is called Golden Hans Restaurant and the logo of this chain steak grill is a caricature of a Bavarian German dressed in traditional attire. The restaurant is in a two story-high building on the east of city inside of the Xi'an Wall. The place houses two brewing thanks and they serve a lager and a dark beer on tap. The service is a buffet of mainly Chinese dishes like noodles, rice, cooked vegetables, fish skins, soups, and a very large dessert table full of little cakes and muffins. The meat is all done with spades, like giant skewers, that are grilled and you can get 32 different types of meats, including chicken hearts, beef tongue, Canadian bacon, and small sausages. The Mexican meat was a pork sausage that was partially smoked before it was grilled.

We arrived around 7pm and got pints of dark beer. The first thing I notice was that the table setting had a fork and a knife instead of chopsticks and no cups for tea. The place was filled with families and groups of young guys out for the night. My friend's husband and I could not communicate with each other as he only speaks Chinese and I still don't speak the language, so we decided to let the others talk without constantly translating and head over to the buffet table. There, I picked everything that looked "western" and my friend everything that looked Chinese. I went for kidney beans, fried rice, spaghetti, and slices of watermelon. He went for fish skins, lotus roots, aspic, and noodles. Once back at the table, my plate was full of small pieces of meat that the guys with the spades had been cutting and serving. The entire feeling of the place was like a Brazilian rodizio, but we had no signs to stop service of the meat. Since, my friends didn't like the dark beer, we ordered a large pitcher of lager and starting eating. As the conversation started being all in Chinese, I had time to get distracted and look around at the other tables. The table next to us had two young couples and they also had gotten the dark beer, but the pints remained untouched after the first sip. Also they were not using their fork and knife to eat, they had asked the server for chopsticks. I quickly turner around and looked at my friends and asked my husband to translate: How come you know how to use a fork and knife? After the normal delay for the translation, they all laughed as they realized how the opposite question sounds to me.

This turned the conversation into the differences between Chinese and western restaurants. They wanted to know if this place was like restaurants in the US or in Mexico. We explained that this was a mix of many styles of restaurants and describe the parts that felt specific to each place. The Brazilian rodizio, the American buffet, the Canadian microbrewery, the German attires, the French desserts and how it all together felt like an amusement park. On the way back home, I kept thinking about the foods that I miss. Hummus, frijoles refritos, salsa verde, grits, samosa chat and obviously cheese are on the top of my list. When I'm in the US or in Mexico, I always miss proper dumplings, hand made noodles, and buns. They too have become part of the foods that I normally eat and now consider my cuisine. For as much as I like to eat only local and seasonal, there is something about global flavors that is very attractive. I guess this exposes how bougie I am and won't try to apologize for it. I just know that when the food revolution comes, I will still try to replicate the flavors of my adoptive countries.

The picture on top is of an Ice Peak orange soda. It is made in Xi'an and it is everywhere, you can read more about it here.

There is a wonderful academic essay on the use of chopsticks and enjoyment of food. Here is the reference: Roland Barthes, “Chopsticks,” from Empire of Signs. (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1982).

Also, as promised, here are some pics of various foods: Xi'an restaurants. Since there is no access in China to twitter from my mobile device, I have been using foursquare to tag the restaurants we normally eat at and I recommend. You can check those updates by following me on twitter @CarlosYescas

On other news. I am happy to inform that I have been approached by the Cheese Slices program to film an episode about Mexican traditional cheese-making. I will keep you posted on that, but until then, please let us know what cheeses from Mexico you would like to see featured. Here are some of the ones that I have reviewed: Quesillo o Queso de Hebra,
 Queso de Bola de Ocosingo,
 Queso de Cuadro Doble Crema, and
 Queso tipo Manchego.