Welcome to FERN’s Friday Feed (#FFF), where we share the stories from this week that made us stop and think.
Eat like The Simpsons
The New Yorker
“[S]omething in me lit up when I encountered ‘The Unofficial Simpsons Cookbook,’ writes Naomi Fry. “Any connoisseur of cartoon food knows that it doesn’t get much better than the food depicted in ‘The Simpsons.’ When I was a kid, I’d often felt enticed by the clean lines and vivid colors used to illustrate the various dishes and snacks enjoyed by the characters. Watching Chief Wiggum and his crew of Springfield policemen scarf down doughnuts—their fuchsia icing dappled with a smattering of colorful sprinkles—I found myself thinking, Now that’s what doughnuts should look like!”
Why I needed to eat whale
Harper’s
“I was interested in some of the conventional questions—Why do we kill animals and why do we eat them? Is it right or wrong? What constitutes ethical behavior in a godless world?—but I wasn’t deluded enough to believe that I would find their answers,” writes Wyatt Williams. “I thought I could settle for how instead of why: How do we kill animals? How do we eat them? Those were questions with answers. I thought the facts could be enough. There is an alternate definition for meat, one that simply means the thing inside of the thing—i.e., the meat of a coconut or the meat of a problem. My inquiry aimed to understand the living, the dead, and the part in the middle as well, the thing inside of the thing. I’m trying to tell you why I had finally resolved to taste whale.”
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The chef who ditched fine dining to cook for cancer patients
New York Magazine
In March 2020, as the pandemic descended on New York City, Courtney Kennedy lost her job at Flora Bar, an high-end restaurant on the Upper East Side. “[T]hough Kennedy has spent the better part of the last decade working in some of New York City’s most acclaimed professional kitchens,” writes Chris Crowley, she decided not to look for another restaurant job. Instead, “at the height of the pandemic in the city, a time when many New Yorkers had either fled the city or were quarantined inside their apartments — Kennedy started cooking for patients at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center on York Avenue.”
The West’s megadrought spurs states to airlift water to wildlife
Vox
When “the US government declared a water shortage on the Colorado River for the first time in history” last week, it triggered “mandatory water consumption cuts … that take effect early next year. Some 40 million people rely on the river for water … to say nothing of the nearly 5.5 million acres of farmland that it irrigates,” writes Benji Jones. “What those figures miss are the countless plants and animals that also depend on water to survive … The megadrought is threatening wildlife, and state agencies are pouring in resources to keep important species alive — in some cases, by flying water in helicopters to remote, artificial watering holes where bears, sheep, and other thirsty animals seek relief.”
The filé forager
The Bitter Southerner
“For hundreds of years, Louisiana Creoles have perpetuated Choctaw tradition by adding filé to their gumbos — a hefty pinch tossed in after the dish has cooked produces a thick broth and an aromatic finish,” writes Jonathan Olivier. “It’s still readily found in Louisiana gumbos, but hardly anyone harvests sassafras and makes their own filé. This cultural loss is what beckons [Dusty] Fuqua to Kisatchie each spring: to advance an Indigenous ritual, once venerated and now teetering, found at the very origins of the dish we know today as gumbo.”
An Italian supertaster helps others regain their sense of smell after Covid
The New York Times
“Michele Crippa’s palate was renowned in Italy’s gastronomic circles, capable of appreciating the most subtle of flavors,” writes Emma Bubola. Then, “[l]ike so many people who have contracted the coronavirus, Mr. Crippa lost the ability to smell — so intrinsic to tasting food — and when it returned, it came back warped.” After months of retraining, “with the help of sensorial analysis experts … he has emerged in Italy as a symbol of gastronomic resilience — and of hope that the lingering effects of Covid-19 can be surmounted.”