Here’s an update on the food situation in Egypt, paraphrased from Reuters. Egypt’s food inflation will continue to rise in 2011 reaching about 20 percent year-on-year. It will be difficult for Egypt to curb prices because prices are likely to remain globally high this year. The situation won’t be helped by a drop in the Egyptian pound that makes imported goods, half of Egypt’s domestic consumption, even more expensive, adding further strain to the government’s import subsidy bill. Thomas Kostigen has an interesting theory that US farm policy is to blame for the political crisis.
A Serious Eats correspondent, S. Farhan Mustafa, tells us more about koshary, the national dish of Egypt. He didn’t supply a recipe in the post but there are links to two recipes in the comments, one at Saveur.
It was probably M.F.K. Fisher, more than anyone else, who taught me how to eat. After reading her books, my solo European travels changed. It became all about the table. I channeled her many a time, particularly one night in Bruges where a chef made me a meal of several courses that lasted hours, each dish accompanied by a delicious beer. I learned today there’s a new biography out, An Extravagant Hunger: The Passionate Years of M.F.K. Fisher. Ooh la la!
The New York Times did a review of beer applications for mobile phones. He missed a popular social application I’ve seen many Triangle tweeps using – Untappd.
This is not my Old Spice commercial. The Paso Robles Zinfandel Festival made the best wine festival promotional video that I’ve ever seen. This is one of the things I miss about living in California – small wineries in non-Napa counties and fun wine festivals, all within an hour’s drive, often less.
Grab your bottle of Zinfandel and head out for a stroll. Stop by Starbucks first for the ultimate go-cup. You can put a whole bottle of wine in the new Starbucks trenta cup, but your red wine teeth will give you away.
koshary from Tahrir Square ~ flickr photo by Andrew
Grabbing the Gusto 