Foodly illogical

Words are rather elusive objects. People tend to apply them in contexts so far from their origin that any connection becomes obscure. As an example, the word mouse most commonly refers today to a computer accessory that spends most of its time in the office or salon, not the kitchen or shed. Aside from computers, no area of activity has perverted meanings of words more than food. Those who either do not cook or watch cooking shows can find themselves clueless to what certain terms mean.

There is nothing sadder than the look of confusion of the first-time buyer of wine. While the taste of sweet wines is clear, that of dry wines is perplexing. It is clear that there is a liquid in the bottle, which mean that it is wet, not dry. Alas, the fact that all of the sugar has turned into alcohol is not evident at all.  Likewise, as everybody starts off unexperienced, virgin olive oil sort of makes sense. However, extra virgin olive is rather obscure, even considering extreme religious purity movements. For those not in the know, it means that the oil has gone through cold processing only, without any heating to remove impurities. Locally, in Israel, the major term for better and more expensive produce is the Arabic baladi. It is interpreted to mean homegrown or even sort-of organic and serves as a justification for higher prices and/or less attractive produce. What most Hebrew speakers do not know is that it merely means excellent in Arabic. For the cook or the store, it is not clear.

Cooking processes also have their tricky terms. Baking and cooking programs refer to clarified butter, which may imply that everybody understands that the product is butter. Alas, the clarification refers to the color produced by separating the butter into its components and using only the butterfat, not the solids or liquids. I hope the term is clarified now. As for poaching, it may seem strange that poaching animals is illegal and even is even causing extinctions, but many a brunch offered by respectable restaurants openly offer poached eggs and poached salmon. In this case, the products were not stolen but cooked in water although I imagine that in a few cases both meanings could apply. In regards to crime, many would say that the devil is quite busy sowing evil in this world, but it is hard to understand his obsession with eggs. Why he would think stuffing hard boiled eggs with mayonnaise and other ingredients, deviled eggs, could lead to sin is beyond my understanding.

Products can also be a bit bewildering. I watched Gumby as a kid and know that clay characters have a life of their own. So, when I first heard of kissing dough, I felt a bit animated. Then I realized that the kiss here refers to connecting of two items of baked goods. This is not so romantic, as Roseanne Roseannadanna  would say. Now, the title Baron brings up the image of middle-aged men with gout or even the World War I flying nemesis of Snoopy. However, in the (culinary) meat market, it is a large piece of meat consisting of two sirloins attached at a joint. Finally, if your egg or baked dished is van dyked, it does not mean that it has a bad fake accent (as in Bert in Mary Poppins) or even a mustache. This artistic term only implies that it has been cut in zig zags.

As they say in the translation business, there is nothing more dangerous than a little bit of knowledge. We may think we know what a word means but are completely unaware that it took a long detour into the world of food and came out something entirely, even unrecognizable, a bit like the ingredients in a fancy French dish. As Spock said, “Once you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.”

Waste not, want not

Every process has waste. This by-product may be toxic, as from certain industrial plants, due to heavy metal or chemical concentrations but generally most are useable, at least in theory and often in practice. 

Many of the remains of processed foods are used to create other foods. For example, after the juice of grapes are extracted to produce regular wine, their pulp and skins are fermented to produce a brandy called grappa. Likewise, coffee can be made from date pits. By adding sugar to orange peels, a wonderful sweet is produced. Potato skins are fried to create a light crispy snack. In Israel in falafel stands, the corners of pita cut off in order to stuff them are fried and offered to customers as a treat. In a similar fashion, the holes of donuts and broken  bits of pretzels are available for sale.

Other food bits are additions to other dishes.  Bread crumps are sometimes literally bread crumb and used in cheese cake and crumbles, to name a few items. Gelatin is a key ingredient in puddings and is produced from animal parts. Water in which corn cobs have been soaked serves as a thickener in soups. Celery greens are a source of salt. The best fish stock is made from the shells of lobsters, crayfish or shrimp. Whey, a by-product of the process of making yoghurt, is put into food dishes by Icelanders instead of wine.

In some cases, the food by-product is used for cosmetics. Walnut shells are grounded into a powder that serves as a base of makeup. The waste products of the olive oil production process, called Orujo, are also used in beauty products. People apply beet skins to their face to improve skin quality.

Finally, some industrial waste products have further uses. Sawdust creating during wood cutting is an essential ingredient of particle board. Precious diamond dust produced during the cutting and polishing process is used to coat drills. Likewise, bits of animal furs cut during the preparation of  coats are seamlessly patched together. Even today, waste fabric is the base material for the most expensive paper. One source of ethanol for vehicles is the cooking oil in which french fries and other fried items are cooked.

Whether because resources are limited or profits are needed, people are incredibly ingenious in finding uses for the most useless by-products. They take the waste out of waste products.

I am a flashlight (with apologies to Christopher Isherwood)

Computers and Internet have changed education. While schoolrooms still use books, paper pen and pencil, the tools of learning are increasingly computers, laptops, pads, cell phones and Google, not to mention Facebook and Instagram. Wikipedia has replaced Encyclopedia Britannica. I, as a teacher of English to engineering students at a college in Israel for over 25 years, have experienced this transition first hand, admittedly with mixed feelings and some resistance.

This revolution brings into question what exactly the role of a modern teacher is. Specifically, children have direct, unlimited and easy access to far better sources of information than any single teacher can produce. Students can find countless problems and solutions, including explanations, for any technical exercise in any field online, including English grammar, mathematical problems and chemical reactions. These online services are available around the clock, whenever students have the time and inclination to learn, as compared to the artificial hours of 8:00 am to 3:00 pm.  Moreover, the students can make errors, work at their own pace and express confusion without fear of ridicule from others, unless they choose otherwise. In other words, they can choose their ideal conditions.

Notwithstanding all these advantages, while today’s students may know more facts, they are far from better achievers from their antiquated parents or even grandparents. A look at achievement test scores, matriculation tests and even Facebook conversations worldwide paints a sad picture of current thinking and understanding skills. It is as if the plethora of information is at the expense of the ability to understand it. As a way of analogy, ancient Greek and Roman doctors, lacking imaging equipment and often the right to even do an autopsy, extrapolated incredible amounts of information from their limited data.

Several years ago, my department head, for some reason, asked the staff what we thought our main role was. My answer did not mention grammar, reading comprehension or vocabulary. I wrote at the time that it was to open the world to our students. What I meant and still mean is that my role as a teacher is show how information is related, the connection between past, present and future and the manner in which this world was and is being created.  I am not there mainly to provide facts or techniques but to shine a light on the whole picture, much of which students are completely ignorant and unaware, and give them tools to understand and interpret it.

As an example from my youth, in High School, we were studying the American Civil War (1860-1865), specifically its background. The teacher has us recreate the Dred Scott Supreme Court case (1857) in which it was ruled that a black man that escaped from the South was still considered property even though he lived in the North, where slavery was illegal. We spent at least two weeks researching and playing our roles.  During these two weeks, that teacher could have covered much more material, i.e., information.  However, we students gained an understanding of the social, legal and political situation in the United States before the Civil War, which could be extrapolated to after the war and even today and how to understand decisions from other cultures and eras that don’t make sense today. Thus, the teacher did not feed us facts but instead illuminated a historical and learning process.

As I am fortunate to teach a subject that is a tool, not a body of knowledge, I have the privilege of discussing, exposing and educating. Teachers can and must communicate the how and why, not only that the what. Learning should not only create pride over good grades but also a feeling of “wow” as a result of a moment of illumination as suddenly, for a moment, the world becomes clearer and more connected, even four dimensional. Teachers are, at their best, the flashlights of understanding, then and now.