Nibbles: Aquaculture, Geographical indications, Arable, Beetlejuice

  • First Nation takes Canada to court over its salmon stocks. Lawyers exult.
  • “Radicchio di Verona”, “Zafferano di Sardegna,” “Aceite de La Alcarria” and “Huîtres Marennes Oléron” protected. Lawyers exult.
  • Germans to set aside 100 fields to conserve Caucalido-Adonidetum flammeae and the like. That’s arable weeds to me and you. Nobody exults. Oh come on, some of them might be crop wild relatives!
  • Beetle threatens Florida avocado orchards with deadly fungus. Mexico exults?

Indigenous pasta sauces

I don’t think we nibbled it here, but I did post on Facebook a news story about how Italy is thinking of banning ethnic restaurants. This elicited more comments than I usually get. One friend said he’d send me a kebab in the mail. I politely declined, citing health concerns. Another suggested such a ban would be a good idea, as most ethnic restaurants in Italy are terrible, even when — or is it because — they absorb local ingredients and ways of doing things. ((As dissected so admirably for Chinese restaurants by the writer Jennifer 8. Lee (李競) in a recent, wonderful, TED talk.)) My wife wondered whether the move might set off tit-for-tat bans on Italian restaurants — including pizzerias ((Talking about absorbing local ingredients, is there a more spongiferous food than the pizza?)) — around the world. And another commenter wondered what Italian cuisine would be like if pasta sauces featured only indigenous agrobiodiversity. That means no tomatoes. One sauce that I could think of that is composed solely of ingredients that could be said to be native to Italy — whatever that might mean — is pesto. Anyway, one thing is for certain, such a cuisine would probably drive me to kebabs.