I really think food and design are highly correlated interests. Just like travel and languages. Or videogames and sports.
Matt lent me an issue of Eat, the ultimate in funky food magazines, which, to my dismay, printed its final issue in 2004 (I learned this after extensive Googling...which eventually brought me to fellow blogger Santos's The Scent of Green Bananas...thanks Santos!). Matt picked up Eat in San Francisco back in April 2002. The fact that he's held onto it since says something. This magazine is cool.
While the magazine was published in Tokyo, contributors hailed from both Japan and beyond (primarily the UK). The result was a globally-oriented publication with a bipolar sense of humor (a mix of dry British wit and Japanese irony, which, as a reader, you keep wondering if you should attribute to something having gotten lost in translation).
This particular issue, themed "Adventure", covers all topics between the evolution of the plastic fork (with a good amount of discussion dedicated to the origins of the spork) and the opening of Ichiran ramen restaurant in Tokyo, where customers can savor a full bowl without ever speaking to another soul (they order electronically and eat in individual cubicles, or taste concentration booths). Eat also recommends a good Malaysian chicken curry in Washington, D.C. and features interviews with Jane Goodall ("Pursuit: Monkeys") and Akira the Hustler ("Pursuit: Sex Work") about the foods they eat.
The back-end of the magazine features two fine-looking multicultural urbanites modeling Prada and LV while eating rice balls and strawberry pie. This is followed by a detailed page of weight and volume conversions, listed by type of food, including fresh breadcrumbs vs. dried breadcrumbs and grated parmesan vs. grated cheddar.
Random, yes, but Eat captures just about everything I like through some fantastic writing - travel... fashion... design... people... cooking... and of course, food. I'm thinking I might just have to eBay those back issues.
PLASTIC FORKS FROM AROUND THE WORLD
RICE BALL ROMANCE
4 comments:
Looks like a good mags..wonder where i can get a copy
food literature is rather underrated. to my delight, i've come across some more "Grass roots" food mags that aren't high on glitz, but on concept. Chow has been fun. But I'll be honest and say I do rely on a blogs a certain extent to get a fresher POV on food.
Dear Genevieve...What a great post. We love your site. We've been trying to contact you before to thank you so much for your generous comments about our blog www.papayapate.blogspot.com. We both have been out of town (in Venezuela) and now we're catching up with mail. This has been a labor of love for us...I'm sure you can relate.It means a lot for us comments like yours. It's encouraging. Please keep in touch...we'll be posting new recipes and articles. We'll love to hear from and other readers again! All the best for you my dear!
Yasmin and John
thanks for stopping by. Because of your blog i'm going to have a new list added to my blogroll Mainly Dessert (because i din't know if you were a vegetarian or not)
Very nice blog, fantastic recipes!
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