More Time magazine linkage for you today. Remember that inspiring story about a woman named Alissa Ruxin who opened a restaurant in Kigali, Rwanda, with a menu featuring African, Mexican, Indian, and Mediterranean dishes? And more important, one that employs waiters and cooks who were orphaned by genocide? Time magazine agrees that such international progress tastes good....
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Alissa Ruxin, an American with a masters in public health, was looking for a job in Africa—because Africa has overwhelming public health needs, she thought—but she found a kitchen opportunity instead. With no background in the hospitality industry, she and her husband Josh started Heaven Bar and Restaurant near the commercial center of Kigali, Rwanda, in the Kiyovu neighborhood. Here, food is just one of many priorities: boost the economy, support tourism, and create jobs with livable wages and healthcare for orphans and vulnerable youth. Not only does the concept and setting sound beautiful—a large terrace overlooking hilly Kigali, decorated with hand-made furniture from Rwandan artisans—but the menu looks tasty too. Pumpkin squash soup, charcoal slow-roasted aubergine with yogurt...
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telegraph.co.uk At desert's edge in southern Namibia, Allan Walkden-Davis produces "rustic" wines: He works on the edge of the Namib Desert where it only rains between February and April, and the average fall can be less than an inch. Yet he produces annually 3,000 to 3,500 bottles of shiraz, as well as a shiraz-merlot blend.... Walkden-Davis seems to have a sense of humor about the affair: "One fellow could not understand why I couldn't go bankrupt farming sheep or cattle the same as everyone else."...
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(Photograph courtesy of Rebecca Kolsky) Out of the blue, my buddy Paul Lukas, the genius behind ESPN.com's Uniwatch column, food writer for the New York Sun, and the publisher of my all-time favorite 'zine, Beer Frame: The Journal of Inconspicuous Consumption, shared this photo with me: "If you're receiving this, it's because I know you're fond of meat and/or interesting signage. So you'll understand why I had to show you this photo." It was taken by Rebecca Kolsky in Zambia....
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Katy Murtaugh, a Peace Corps volunteer stationed in Guinea, describes the process of mixing, kneading, and baking 90 baguettes in just seven hours—all without tools or measuring cups. The baker she follows works on an enormous scale, given that he's doing everything manually: He starts with about 55 pounds of flour before adding a "deluge of water" and continuing. [via Tim Murtaugh]...
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Food safety concerns may stall farm bill: "Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., said she will block the Senate bill if it includes a House-passed provision that would allow some smaller meat processing plants to opt out of federal meat inspections in favor of state inspections. The bill hasn't even emerged from committee yet." [Associated Press] Food crises in Zimbabwe deepens: Bakeries are closing for lack of flour in the country once known as the "breadbasket of Africa." [Voice of America] Italians plan "vote" against genetically modified food: As opposition wanes in North and South American, Italy is hoping to renew Europe's stand against "Frankenfoods." [Reuters] U.K. egg supply threatened: If prices aren't raised, farmers say they won't have incentive to...
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