Change the World Wednesday – 1st Oct

A problem tree

Well, the tree problem is still around.

Thanks to a regular reader, who sought the help of her knowledgable father, it’s a Kassod tree. Not an acacia after all; although they are similar, the acacia is more spindly.

Kassods are from Asia, they are used in Thai and Burmese cuisine, and have a use in medicine, although overuse can cause liver failure.

Sad news. My attempt to grow a sprout of my beefsteak plant failed; I changed the water in the jar and two days later it withered. So did the celery base that had sprouted. I will have to try again.

My sushi was more successful. I had a trial run at home, then the next day, the real McCoy.

My sushi platter for lunch at the botequim. Looked more glamorous than I thought.

Now I have top find a regular source of the short grained rice.

I’ve been for my constitutional around the park today, and the kassod tree is in full flower; dark green studded with bright yellow. I came to get the camera for an update photo, but discovered the battery was flat.

Once again, Small is still on her brief hiatus, so we’ll continue. No link to click to today.

Small returns next week, if all goes as planned.

If this is your first visit to my blog, then I suggest you browse through the the weekly CTWW posts that I have written. Simply type CTWW in the grassy area of the top banner.

Those of you more familiar with my accepting each challenge that Small puts up, will know that I am striving little by little to become greener; not always with success, there have been some failures.

But even before CTWW, I was somewhat green.

It wasn’t intentional, it was the way I was brought up. Reusing stuff, not wasting stuff (particularly food), but even when making something I was taught to make the most of all material; that way, if I had extra, the extra piece was bigger and more use at a later date.

My mum was a great housekeeper, a fact she denied often. She always made jams, preserves and ketchup, every year. We never bought this stuff until later years when she had a small business and less time. She baked, she baked a lot, she cooked all our meals. We had TV dinners once, because they had become the tihing, advertised on the telly. Afterwards she declared that we would never have another load of crap (one of the few times I heard my mother use a ‘naughty’ word).

My father was also diligent. We always had a thriving vege garden. His carpentry skills rubbed off on me somewhat, as did his mechanical training.

So I was surrounded by ordinary examples that most people have discarded.

The last time I shot competion in Peru, 2001

Now, I make my own pickled onions and preserves, I cook at home, I love cooking, I am a chef. I hate dishes. I make things out of wood, because it’s cheaper than buying. I used to do all the mechanical work on my cars, even to reconditioning the motor. In my sport which was fullbore shooting, I reloaded hundreds of thousands of rounds (bullets) thereby saving the manufacture of new ones. Like my father, I always strived to have things growing.

Of course, I gave up shooting many years ago, similarly I haven’t had a car in twenty years. Besdies today with cars, you need a university degree just to open the hood. It’s all high tech, and computerisation, I would be lost.

So I am a product of the old school. They call today progress, I’m afraid I don’t.

I distrust anything that is packaged or pre-cooked in the supermarket. I have learned that corporations lie through their teeth to sell their products that are being made with ever cheaper ingredients that are health hazards simply to increase their profits.

Sadly, there are some many people in the world who swallow their bullshit hook, line and sinker. People today believe the bullshit assuming that companies don’t/can’t/won’t lie.

Look at the obesity epidemic. They blame the sugar, they blame the salt, they blame the cholesterol, they blame the butter… that list goes on ad infinitum. But they never blame their products, HFCS are to blame. HFCS appears in everything you buy in the supermarket. HFCS is one of the biggest threats to your body.

No, this is NOT progress.

I will not change my ways, I will remain a velho caduco (grumpy old man).

Change the World Wednesday – 24th Sep

This past week I have resolved to spend more time outdoors; just being with nature. Listening to the world around us was a recent CTWW challenge. Each day I have set aside 15 -30 minutes to walk around our praça (park) and then to just sit and observe.

For example a few days ago before we had a two-day cold snap, the air was full of dragon/damsel flies (I couldn’t tell which while they were on the wing) fascinating, I have never seen a swarm like it before.

We have a beautiful tree in the middle, it was in flower.

I have no idea what sort of tree it is. It’s just nice.

Following comments, I discovered it was probably an acacia tree.

So many people today are in such a rush, their lives are stressful, they don’t have a moment to stop and enjoy what is around them. I find it so peaceful to just sit and observe.

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There isn’t a CTWW challenge this week.

Small has done a bunk.

I suspect it is for good reason. So she has left us freelance and will be back on 8th Oct.

Until then, please continue with last week’s challenge, choose a challenge from THIS PAGE, create your own challenge, or … take a break!

There’s heaps of ideas in her list of past challenges, but this week, I am not going to rummage through it. I’ll prepare something for next week.

In the meantime I am going to claim that my resolution above is my answer and post for this week. Make it a daily ritual to take time out, get off my chuff and get outside. My life is mainly sedentary, due to my need to use a walking stick for security to walk longer distances; whereas around the praça I don’t need it. I work on the basis that if I fall over, the locals know where I live and will get me home.

Nigris and makimonos

Actually, there is an extension to the freelance nature of the challenge. This week I have decided to learn how to make sushi. I love sushi, I can’t always afford sushi, so I am going to make sushi at home.

I am a chef, but sushi has not previously been a part of my repetoire.

I am quite familiar with the eating aspect of of sushi and therefore know many of the terms, but research googling over the last week has enhanced my knowledge.

Did you know that the term sushi doesn’t actually refer to the fish, it means the vinegared rice used in the art. Many people wrongly call nigris, sushi.

This morning I am going exploring. A student from last night’s group told me of a shop where the makings and accoutrement for sushi are cheaper than the locally recognised oriental supply store.

California roll

Now there are two reasons why I mention my sushi making endeavour here.

Firstly, I am looking at making more vegetarian type things, makimonos with fruit and vegetables, mostly called California rolls. California rolls generally have kani (a processed crab meat stick) in them. I don’t like that stuff, I am dubious about the contents; a bit like ‘pink slime’.

So I am going to steer away from the processed aspects of making sushi.

Secondly, I am going to look at making my sushi techniques as green as possible.

I doubt whether my first attempts will look as glamorous as these photos, but they say practice makes perfect.

So there you have it. I have two answers to the CTWW challenge this week.

See you all next week.

Satireday on Eco-Crap

The results of Japanese scientific sushi whale research…

Change the World Wednesday – 8th May

I have had a complaint…

I haven’t put up CTWW yet. I’m working on it, but I need more coffee and the floor is cold with no shoes on. See, I have read CTWW, just haven’t done it yet.

Update first: This is my third beefless week. Last two weeks were beef weeks because of a quirk in the calendar. Monday’s menu was  cold pork sandwiches, yesterday’s was sushi, today’s is a big fat pork chop, haven’t even thought about tomorrow’s yet could be four-cheese cannelloni, or lasagne, depends on what moves me.

Last week, apart from the BBQ was mainly leftovers and shark.

Not so sure that I achieved the $1.50 mark or not. *Fidgeting in chair having admitted failure*

At least I didn’t have anything as extravagant as Lobster Thermidor; that would have killed the budget totally.

My main meals were shark, although it was a beef-week.

During my peregrination in town I bought one of these at the fish market…

Dogfish

When I got home, I turned it into these…

Lixo was pleased, because he got the scraps of raw fish as I sliced the fillets into a friable size.

It became this…

Fish ‘n Chips

Doesn’t that look yummy?

The shark provided six meals, cat food and bar snacks… R$26.00 (+/- $13.00) plus the flour, milk and egg to make the batter.

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This week’s CTWW…

I think we deserve an easy challenge this week. Did you know that your shoes are responsible for bring pollutants into your home? Further, that those pollutants (E.g. pesticides and lead) can contaminate your indoor air? So let’s resolve that. Here you go …

This week, remove your shoes at the door. Simple!

Okay, I am bare foot. Challenge achieved!

The problem is Rio has just had its coldest night of the year; and as my floors are slate, they are equally cold. I put a mat under my PC to prevent frostbite. But it does make it difficult to get coffee…

You see, in Rio we wear chinelos (jandals, thongs, flip flops, etc) all year round. I have one pair. I use shoes only for work or more formal occasions. I don’t have slippers or indoor wear.

The corner of my coffee table

But I appreciate that the air in our homes is contaminated which is why I have five sanseviéria plants growing around the livingroom. They are reputed to purify the air.

“Sansevieria species are believed to act as good air purifiers by removing toxins (such as formaldehyde, xylene and toluene)” – Wikipedia

So it is with freezing feet and healthy plants that I claim to participate in this week’s CTWW.

Until next week…

Monday Moaning

This is Danio rerio a lovely peaceful tropical aquarium fish.

That is until the Japanese scientists got a hold of it.

The Zebra Danio (Danio rerio) or the Zebrafish

Now it is a frankenfish.

The ‘glofish’ is a genetically modified Zebra Danio, bred with a natural fluorescence gene to make it glow in the dark.

The cause was apparently noble, but mixing and messing with genes of any creature is not noble.

The ‘glofish’ have since become aquarium fish, sold in brightly coloured hues with exotic names; starfire red, electric green, sunburst orange, cosmic blue and galactic purple.

New Zealand has just had a battle after approval was mistakenly given to import ‘dyed’ fish and they turned out to be ‘glofish’. The original lot was 210 fish, but the Ministry of Ag and Fish have already destroyed 300; so they breed.

But having pretty little fish in your aquarium is not the end of the story.

Glow in the dark sushi made from genetically modified fish becomes the latest food craze to hit America

Sushi that glows in the dark has become the latest must try food craze across America.

Inspired by genetically modified fish first bred for scientific research, a video showing how to make the glowing sushi has become a huge hit online.

The recipes use glofish, a brand of genetically modified (GM) fluorescent zebrafish sold by Yorktown Technologies, which are available to buy in pet shops.

Source: MailOnLine Read more

Yes, you can get glow-in-the-dark sushi made from these genetically modified fish.

Now I love sushi, sashimi and makimonos, but there is no way I am going to knowingly put a GMO in my mouth, with or without wasabi.

The latest fad, ‘glofish’ has become the newest must-try.

I find the whole thing rather sad that we have to invent shit like this. It is another sign of the indulgent human race doing anything to have ‘fun’.

Will we never learn?

How long before these fish inter-breed with the original Danio rerio and dilute the species until there are no more original fish left. This is just another form of extinction.

Man in his endless search for diversion has no limits, no conscience, no brains!