No i have not heard of Rachel Laudan, but she sounds interesting. I do know that there was a relatively large influx of lebanese immigrants into mexico many years ago and they are now well absorbed into mexican society. (the most famous mexican with lebanese ancestry these days is of course the lovely actress Salma Hayek).

One very popular dish that is directly derived from the lebanese-mexicans is tacos al pastor, which is basically highly seasoned thin-sliced pork slices roasted on a vertical spit, virtually identical to the arabic shawarma (except of course that they use pork and more mexican seasonings), and sliced off the spit then placed into soft corn tortillas w chopped onions, a hot salsa and fresh coriander leaves. Quite delicious, i love em, a great streetside snack. In fact when they use a more arabic pita-like bread they call it tacos arabes.

No i didn’t think you were against globalization, but the word itself is too general and too all-encompassing. There’s good bits about globalization and then there’s bad (which is why you see violent protests all over the world wherever they hold free trade summits).

BTW, i didn’t mean to imply that globalization is a bad thing either. i actually see it as part of the progression.

The slow food movement, the organic farmers, and the people who support them are all part of the backlash against the bad part of globalization. Those of us who believe in good food produced properly (organically) are the start of an informal movement that will hopefully stave off and even beat back the multinational food chain juggernaut. Yes it’s a David and Goliath thing, impossibly quixotic some of the more jaded amongst us may argue, but then again who won in the end of that bible story?

One thing we can do now in terms of thinking globally and acting locally is to teach our kids to eat well. And i mean to teach them how really good organic produce from a small farmer can be. Have them try veggies fresh picked straight from a garden that day, and so on. We need to wean them away from the clutches of the fastfood corporations. Difficult but not impossible.

And frayed, i do hope to check out hanoi and havana one of these days. Hanoi just as soon as they sort out the bird flu thing, and havana, well i’m interested in the food of a unique subculture in Cuba: the Chinese-cubans. Imagine chinese immigrants to cuba, what’s their third generation like, i wonder. In NYC there are a few restaurants (notably La Caridad) that offer a Chinese-Cuban menu. One dish of note is a grilled steak plate served w saffron rice and black beans, mmm.

Another interesting bit of trivia: the dish we pinoys know as arroz a la cubana does exist in Cuba, but there it is called picadillo. they eat picadillo with white rice, fried plantains and often w a fried egg. their picadillo has green olives, and cumin, aside from the raisins. Wonder how it got to us here…i suppose by the same Manila-Acapulco galleon trade…

Think of a world where it doesn’t matter where you go, whether Paris, Milan, Bangkok, Sydney or Capetown, and all you see are the golden arches. Or you go to a small town in say Andalucia expecting to find a quaint old-time tapas bar only to see a KFC that just jars your senses? It certainly takes away from the travel experience. And as i said, these global chains have started killing off the small, unique family eateries that make living and eating more pleasurable. By going into an area and bombarding it with million dollar marketing campaigns and also effectively raising the rent in the area, making it harder for the small cafes to survive, the big chains are slowly but surely “McDonaldizing” the world.

Yes Stef, Starbucks is the enemy. haha.

When i visit a foreign country i really enjoy sampling the street food–again, the food of the people. Museums are fine if you want to learn about a culture’s past, but to be honest, musty museums aren’t all that interesting to me. i’d rather learn about a people’s living culture today and then discover how that relates to the past.

From sampling street food around the world– or country/peasant food, which i invariably prefer over fancy restaurant cuisine– you also open a little window, so to speak, into a culture’s history (colonizers, invasions, immigration and trading patterns..)

It’s all very interesting. And fun, frankly.

https://s14.invisionfree.com/bookofrai

i also have some posts at beyondadobo.com that deal with this, although they’re mostly personal musings. marketman, hope you don’t mind, not trying to hijack your blog or anything, just that it’s rare that i find people willing or wanting to talk about these matters in depth.