I was looking through some old notes I’d scribbled down several months ago, and almost laughed out loud when I read this:
“Today’s gripe is about how some take-out places add filler to your dishes in the form of peeled, chopped broccoli stems. Now I love including broccoli stems in dishes with broccoli crowns already in them; and it’s a good thing these restaurants all know that stems are only really edible once you strip off the tougher layer of skin on their outsides. What’s left inside is a firm, mild palette to soak up the flavor of the dish. But should it be served in my cashew chicken? No. Should it be served instead of actual broccoli crowns? No.”
First of all, it struck me as pathetically sad how someone could care and think so much about food to write this on a crumpled piece of paper. Then, that there were a lot more serious offenses restaurants can take on beside their stealthy use of leftover broccoli stems in dishes they don’t belong. Waste being one of them.
There’s not many things that gross me out more than the sight of food being wasted. I once saw a show on the Food Network that was looking at interesting things people do with food around the country beside eating it, and saw a bunch of people “bowling” with turkey: squatting bowlegged and thrusting a 10+ lb wrapped, raw turkey several feet along the grass toward a formation of pins. That seriously scares me. I’m not saying that restaurants in NYC sponsor turkey bowling. But as we know, this city produces fantastic amounts of waste, and it also produces much more food than all of us can possibly eat. How much more, I don’t have a study to say right now, but hopefully one day I will.
I’ve heard of freeganism and have recently become more interested in it, maybe not as a practice at this point, but as inspiration. It takes a little while for the initial idea of foraging garbage to settle in, and it would definitely mean a lifestyle change. Check out their whole deal at http://freegan.info/. There’s a pretty good NYC-based perspective on it in the October issue of Jane, though it doesn’t look available online.
One nice thing I read about recently was a restaurant in Boulder, CO called The Kitchen, which really tries, and tries hard, to be very green. And also serve simple, yet haute, cuisine. (An article in Food & Wine explores the restaurant here.) Of course this is a very utopian dream (one of the owners made millions during the dot-com boom and settled into early retirement), and it’s hard to say whether their practices are possible or practical for other restaurants to follow in their footsteps. But again, it’s good to know they do what they do.
What are some other things that we do? I’m suddenly feeling at a loss for ideas, inactive, and very compliant with the societal structures that be. Can anyone help me out?
8 Responses
Yvo
I completely misunderstood the concept of freeganism when my coworkers talked about it a few months ago. I envisioned eating any old food out of the dumpster, not looking for food (tomatoes, melons, etc.) pre-someone eating/cutting it. I guess I knew it existed, that some people? or stores? maybe even restaurants? must throw away massive stuff that they haven’t used, but I wonder why, since most chefs I know are like me: hate to waste. There is always a use for any part of any edible food product, even if you don’t use it for the dish you’re creating currently.
becca
The documentary “The Gleaners and I” shows a very interesting view on the subject of food waste in modern society.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0247380/
Mary
Well…
I just went dumpster diving earlier tonight, and found this blog through the Xinjiang site. I’m out in Connecticut, not NYC, though.
Bounty include produce mostly, veggies (peppers, tomatoes, eggplant, butter lettuce), oranges, butternut squash that is peeled, cut, washed and packaged, eggs, boxes of cereal, bag of organic cane sugar (small puncture), black berries, chedder, whole grain and sprouted grain bread, applie pies, apple tartin, and more
All of these items are on “off the shelf” condition. This does not include items left behind or those taken by my friend (like sushi and sandwiches). Most of it is organic as well.
It’s good to be back in the land of bounty… sorta, there is a definate discomfort I have with very tangibly seeing the wastes of a store that is known for efficiency, like Trader Joes.
jana
Actually, it is the “doggie-bags” that are killing us. Because taking the rest of your meal home is put into styrofoam containers, tons and tons of this non-biodegradable garbage is choking the landfills. A simple solution: take your tupperware container with you to the restaurant and ask them to put leftovers in it rather than styrofoam. It saves the restaurant money, as well as the earth! Many of my friends do this and so do I, and the response I get from the restaurants is very favorable.
So go ahead, eat out.
Jadalina
A friend of mine contacted the local grocery store to ask about picking up “waste” produce. They said sure, take it all. He brings it home by the truck load every single day. He’s brought me bags of apples, boxes of bell peppers of all colors, sacks of potatos, tons of stuff that I honestly can see not one single thing wrong with. I’ve taken to canning and freezing it all, and it’s cut my food bill down dramatically.
Kristen
An unfortunate aspect of society is the amount of waste. As Jadalina said, some stores will donate unused “waste” produce. I have been volunteering at a wildlife sanctuary for almost three years now. One summer, almost an entire tractor trailer full of bananas were donated. The bananas got too cold and wouldn’t ripen in the time frame that the stores wanted so the stores refused to receive the shipment. We are talking about CRATES and CRATES of bananas. Though I was very grateful for the size of the donation, it still makes me sad that so much would have gone to waste if we had not taken them.
Wills Surrey
And the sandwich manufacturers and retailers over here seek to ‘buy indulgences’ by donating left over food to the homeless. ahhh.
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