#cake so huge it can cure worlds hunger

[asraindarkness]

[batomarbo]

Why We Hunger for Novels About Food

While putting imaginary meals on the page, I have thought a great deal about the central role that food plays in our lives. Food is love. Food is conviviality. Food is politics. Food is religion. Food is history. Food is consolation. Food is fuel. Food identifies us and who we are. It can even help us make sense of our world. We live in a culture where food porn is one of the hottest hashtags and seeking out the best new ramen or avocado toast trend is a more popular hobby than collecting stamps. And the “culinary enthusiasts” among us can’t get our fill of books about food.

But what about authors of food fiction? What compels them to write about what—and how—we eat?

Louise Miller, author of The Late Bloomer’s Club “Food is the great equalizer—everyone eats—and what we eat and how we eat it can be so emotional and can carry deep meaning. Food can also be so revealing. I remember an old New Yorker cartoon that pictured a mother and her young daughter sitting in a restaurant looking at a menu. The mother responds to her daughter’s question: ‘Chocolate pudding? I think you would like it. It’s a lot like chocolate mousse.’ That one line tells us so much!”

Phillip Kazan, author of Appetite “Food for me is very tied up with memories of my Greek grandmother, whose tiny kitchen in London was a treasure-house of tastes and smells in the grey, flavorless world of ‘60s and ‘70s England, where olive oil was something you had to buy from a pharmacist as a cure for earache. Presumably the pharmacist in our village thought our family had appalling ear problems, because my mother bought hundreds of his tiny bottles of oil for her cooking. I remember cookbooks as this wonderful escape route to exotic, warm, generous places: Greece, from where relatives would visit with huge tins of olives and bags of sugared almonds; or India, where my father was born. Writing, in a way, is an extension of my cooking, and vice versa. Cooking taught me how to create, that I needed to create.”

Randy Susan Myer, author of Waisted “I grew up in a family where food was the comforting evil (or the evil comfort). My mother—for whom dress size was the holy grail—watched every bite I took. When in a restaurant, first she’d not order what she wanted and then she’d steal bites from my plate. If I protested, she’d say, ‘If you love me, you’ll share your food.’ Often, we barely had food in the house and meals were haphazard at best. My sister snacked on raw Kraft Macaroni & Cheese. I ate uncooked matzo meal. We lived on cold cereal—which to this day is my top comfort food. My mother hid cookies and cake inside our giant pressure cooker and then put the pot on the very top of our already high cabinets. My sister and I were under ten, but a pressure cooker was no match for us. I’m surprised we didn’t become mountain climbers for how often we scampered up the peaks leading to buried sweets.”

Ramin Ganeshram, author of The General’s Cook “I’m from an immigrant family. My parents were from two countries that, at the time, had little representation here in the U.S.—even in New York City where I was born and raised. My dad was from Trinidad and Tobago and my mother was from Iran. I was also brought up in a time where people still really tried to assimilate so they downplayed their native culture with their kids. The one thing that remained a solid connection was the food we ate. I realized from a young age that I could get my parents to talk about their homes when we were eating the foods they had prepared from their respective cultures. My father, particularly, was a born storyteller and if you could talk with him while he was cooking you would get the best stories.”

Whitney Scharer, author of The Age of Light “The main character in my novel is based on Lee Miller, a woman who reinvented herself multiple times in her life—first as a model, then a photographer, and finally as a gourmet chef who wrote for Vogue and other women’s magazines of the day. In all my research about her, there was never any mention of her love of food prior to her becoming a chef. This makes no sense to me. Of course, she must have loved food—and she moved to Paris in 1929, where she would have enjoyed meals quite different—and presumably more delicious—than what she ate growing up in Poughkeepsie. I wanted her love of food to be palpable throughout the novel, both to foreshadow her shift to cooking later in life, but also because I think enjoying food—enjoying the pleasures of the body—is integral to who she is as a character. I see Lee Miller as a woman of voracious appetites: she was hugely ambitious and adventurous, and very sexual. Food seemed like another way to understand her overall hungers.”

Charlie Holmberg, author of Magic Bitter, Magic Sweet “In writing, I think food is an excellent method of transportation. If I were to detail a table setting with food you’ve never heard of, but I describe a flaky crust, the way a gelatin gives underneath a knife, and the smell of burnt sugar, you are there. You smell and taste and see that meal. It gives a story, ancient magical tales included, a sense of realness.”

David Baker, author of Vintage “A dish is a story . . . it’s the story of the culture that created it, the person who made it, the story of the ingredients and where they’re from, the tale of the meal’s creation—successful or otherwise—and then of sharing it. The whole process is a form of narrative. The same goes for wine . . . it’s the story of millions of years of geology that created the region where the fines grow. It’s the story of the culture of the region and then a time capsule of what happened weather-wise the year in which the grapes ripened, and finally what the winemaker did during that year. There are so many layers of narrative in food and wine that it’s a rich field for exploration in writing.”

Amy Reichert, author of The Coincidence of Coconut Cake “I didn’t realize I was a food writer until after people responded to my novels, and I’ve embraced it. One of my favorite parts of writing has become sharing my regional cuisine with them—writing about Wisconsin culinary delights like a Door County fish boil or our classic brandy old-fashioneds. It’s one of the ways I share my love of Wisconsin.”

Marjan Kamali, author of The Stationery Shop “It happened quite organically—pardon the pun. But it’s impossible for me to write about Iran and Iranians without including a lot of food because the preparation of huge meals is an integral part of the culture, and sharing those meals at feast-like parties is common across the classes. Food takes on added significance for my characters because they are displaced from their original home. They are Iranians living in America. There is a longing for the familiar foods they know and a constant search for ingredients they love. Cooking Persian meals links my characters to their past and heritage. Sharing Persian food with Americans is a way for them to create and deepen new relationships.”

Jenna Blum, author of The Lost Family “While I was writing The Lost Family, I cooked a lot—to meditate on the day’s writing as well as to kitchen-test all the recipes I then featured on the book’s menu. Some of my favorite lines for the book would bubble up that way, as if from a Magic 8-Ball, and one of them was ‘vegetables have no language.’ I revised this slightly for the novel, but it means that food is universal. The produce and spices will vary from country to country and cuisine to cuisine, but if you love food, you have a vast family out there. We can all communicate about how our beloved dishes are different—and how they are the same.”

*

I myself have been smitten with books about food since a friend of mine recommended that I read M.F.K. Fisher decades ago. I devoured The Art of Eating and everything else she had written. In her books I found both the exotic and the comfortable. I had never been to France or eaten escargot, but I reveled in her descriptions of food, in her use of simple phrases to evoke such specific sensations: “The air tastes like mead in our throats,” she writes in The Art of Eating. I hope to stir the same feelings and create the same sensory pleasures in others with my novels about famous culinary figures in Italian history.

Now this is a book I can really sink my teeth into, I thought as I once read the opening paragraph of The Flounder by Nobel prizewinner Gunter Grass.

Ilsebill put on more salt. Before the impregnation there was shoulder of mutton with string beans and pears, the season being early October. Still at table, still with her mouth full, she asked, “Should we go to bed right away, or do you first want to tell me how when where our story began?”

The rest of the novel, which tells the story of an immortal fish who meets an immortal man who falls in love with cooks over and over through the centuries, is just as delicious and delightful in its descriptions of food. To this day, it’s one of my favorite novels.

In reading The Flounder and other sumptuous works of culinary fiction, I’m reminded of something dramatist George Bernard Shaw once said: “There is no love sincerer than the love of food.” It’s a statement to which I think we could all gladly raise a glass.

[maisjetaime]

Sorry if this is too much but what steps did you take to cure your ed? apart from therapy...unless you didn't see anyone. I'm unsure :/

Hey, i’m sorry for not replying to this one sooner…to be quite honest, my eating disorder is a subject that made me feel very uneasy for quite a while; but I thankfully turned a huge corner in the past few months and I feel more comfortable talking about my recovery process now. x

I became sick really young and I didn’t really have any support from my family or friends as I had pushed  everyone away in fear that they’d get sick too or that they’d try to stop me from “reaching my goal”…so we all kind of lived in denial until I decided, by myself, that I wanted to start recovering. I didn’t reach out to a therapist, or any other specialist, because the cost of them are not covered by my country’s public, or private insurance; therefore, I truly couldn’t afford one. Plus, I don’t think I was mentally ready to explore the root of my ED just yet as it would’ve been too much. 

My recovering process began with me acknowledging the fact that I was indeed anorexic and that my relationship with food was not normal. My first step was to make a list of all the foods that I was afraid of, and then making it my mission to eat them; even if it was just a few bites. I won’t lie, that whole process was incredibly difficult, but I felt stronger as time went by.

I think the most important thing is to surround yourself with positive, and encouraging people: both in real life, and online. Unfollow the pro-ana blogs, unfollow the fitness gurus (even if they’re not promoting unhealthy eating habits per se…your priority needs to be recovery, and although being fit is a nice goal, your ED will grasp onto it and mask itself under it…so unfollowing them is quite important) unfollow any blog, person, and influencer who self-depicts or spreads any type of negativity. You cannot allow yourself to be surrounded by that kind of energy, especially when you’re recovering. Only accept to be surrounded by people who encourage self-acceptance, self-love, and healthy lifestyles (both for the mind and the body). I know this is difficult because we cannot choose everyone in our life (i’m thinking of our family for example) but we can choose to block their access to us…or at least make it less frequent/easy. Also, the fact that we cannot choose our family is the reason why I think it’s absolutely crucial that we make sure to be surrounded by inspiring, soulful, and overall positive people online and in our friendships. 

The next step is to change the way you see food and realize that it is, first and foremost, fuel: for your body, your mind, and your soul. Let go of all the numbers, the calories, the grams, etc. those things truly don’t matter…even if they feel like the whole world revolves around them. Start seeing food as fuel, and shared memories with those you love. No matter how corny it sounds…it truly helps to start seeing it that way. My best friend and I (who I met at the beginning of my recovery) started cooking, and baking together. We would prepare meals for our friends and we’d bake cakes at 1AM only to eat it in my room. We would never talk about the sugar, the fat or the calories of it all…we would just enjoy it and whenever ED would creep in, i’d remind myself that I was living a moment, that would quickly become a memory, and that I was going to cherish it forever. It didn’t stop the ED from controlling me a bit, but it did help.  

It’s quite difficult for your body and your mind to reconnect after an ED as your body feels “betrayed” that you starved it. The hunger cues are out of whack and it’s easy to start binging, and essentially fall into another eating disorder. To be fully honest, that’s exactly what happened to me. I think that, looking back, I would’ve approached it differently and I would’ve had more of a ‘baby step’ approach rather than jumping into it and eating everything that I possibly could and falling into this pattern of excessively exercising to compensate for the huge amount of food that I was eating. So my advice would be to take it easy and to not punish yourself if you eat too much…it’s okay and it’s normal as your body is in full survival mode. 

As you start to gain weight, the ED thoughts are going to creep in a lot; but try your best to not listen to them. Donate your old clothes that no longer fit, and go thrift shopping for more. I actually saw this as an opportunity to re-invent my style and it really helped me get through it all. Don’t weight yourself, and don’t measure yourself…you don’t need to know those numbers. Actually, for a very long time, I told my doctor, and other medical professionals who needed to weigh me, that I didn’t want to know the numbers; and so i’d step on the scale with my back to it. It felt a little extra, but I knew that it’s what I needed to do to protect myself; and I’m glad I did it. I still don’t weigh myself to this day, and I don’t see myself doing it anytime soon.

This brings me to my last point: understand that recovery is not a linear process and that there will be bad days, and there will be good days. Don’t let the step backs discourage you from waking up the next morning and choosing recovery again. It’s a hard battle but it’s so worth it. I started recovering 6 years ago and I still have bad days once in a while..but it’s not nearly as bad as it used to be; and it keeps getting better as time advances and as I keep choosing recovery every morning. 

I’m sending so much love your way (assuming that you have an ED) and I truly hope that you get better as soon as possible 💘💘💘

[superwolfiestar]

Satisfied (one shot)

"Okay okay! Everyone! Attention please!" Drake Marshall chirped, raising his champagne glass in the air. The loud clunk when the spoon hit the transparent glass echoed. Wide smile; everyone smiled back to him, listening with anticipation.

With a mic he was handed from the DJ he said out loud, atmosphere light with a hint of excitement, "Please welcome! The groomsmen! Panchito Pistoles and Jose Carioca!"

Everyone clapped and whistled when the Panchito and Jose walk to the empty dance floor. With both soft smiles Panchito accepted the mic from Drake with a glass of wine in their hands.

Panchito inhaled deeply, the sweet scent of cookies and delicious cake hit his beak, “A toast to the groom," Panchito said, raising the empty transparent glass that glistened. Donald gave him the iconic bunny smile; cheek reddened, he shyly nodded when all the guests looked to him.

Looking handsome with the black tux and a beautiful flower attached to his left pocket. Panchito never sees a man as handsome as he is tonight.

Jose let out a deep breath, he forced out a smile; he thanked himself for being a good actor at the time like this from College. His jaw flexed but changed before anyone can notice his uncomfortable expression.

"To the bride," Jose smile at Daisy as she given him a boxy grin, laughing happily and bowed politely to the guest of her wedding. She didn't mind the way Jose addressed him, the groom and the bride turned into tomatoes for a moment.

"From your best friends," ah, Panchito's fond gaze. Donald was his best friends, no one can replace him in their life. Both Jose and Panchito felt sick, they hate themself.

"Who is always by your side," Panchito kept looking at him like he was a god. The friend that always protect them that always provide them with a shelter. A perfect figure, just if Panchito know what's going inside his head. The rotten soul of his, the trust that will remain untold forever no matter what.

"To your union and the hope that you provide," Jose sang, his chest hurt like crazy. He was going insane, the pain was stabbing his heart. A pang inside his heart, he felt cold in the warm day. Even the sweetest wine will never cure the sourness inside him.

"May you always," They held their breath, they was going to say it, "Be satisfied."

The image suddenly flashed before their eyes, the image they wanted to erase from their memories. The scene they adores and despised so much. It rewinding by itself, out of two Caballeros control.

They remembered that night, they just might.

They remembered that night, the night they will regret for the rest of their days. The black spot that tainted their souls and creating a huge hole they can't cover up.

The night when those ladies came and tripping to get praises from them.

The dreamlike candle lights, the chandeliers, and a dream you can't quite place. The dazzling pictures of perfection, a night they will never forget.

They will never forget they both have a crush on Donald.

They has never been the same.

Intelligent eyes face full of hunger for something new.

Pure curiosity with a target to be the number one.

Passion clearly portrayed, eyes you wouldn't find in your everyday life.

When Donald said "Hi" they forgot their freakin' names.

The boy with an adorable duck smile, he set his fellow friend Caballeros heart aflame, he lights every corner of their heart. The fire that will never die, no amount of water can help their burning heart.

This wasn't a game. The two Caballeros knew they were head over the heels for the duck.

'Strike us, as a man who will never be satisfied' they said, Donald frowned. How arrogant the boy to talked impolitely to him; Donald wasn’t just a normal person in a huge luxury party.

He gave a murderous glare to them, hands clenched his wine glass, 'I'm sure you don't know what you mean, you forget yourself,' he blurted out coldly, smile so bitter like a glass of vodka.

The two Caballeros shook his head, chuckling softly, 'you're like us, Donald. we’ve never been satisfied,' for a moment, two Caballeros left Donald speechless. Nobody ever knows what's happening inside their mind. How the people around him always disappointing him, how he always yearning for something new and extraordinary. He alway have his bad luck in his way. He was greedy and he wanted more.

Satisfaction was something Donald never know, something unimaginable.

The duck swallowed, throat dry, he licked his plump lips before he said, 'Is that right?' his voice wavered, laced with excitement he never know existed. Thinking that his friends were just drunk or whatever. His lips trembled, he smiled too wide to the boy who grinned back to him.

Walking closer, two Caballeros was slightly taller than Donald. Even when they were taller, the Duck didn't flinch back; he was totally okay with Panchito and Jose intimidating aura. The duck gazed back at them with a firm face and shining eyes. Confident and full of determination.

'We have never been satisfied.'

Stepped back from them, his twin sister suddenly drag him with her, 'just you wait, just you wait!' They said as Donald was out of their sight.

Heart skipped a beat, their eyes sparkled. They covered their mouth to hold back a happy shout. This was what it felt to match wits.

The feeling of freedom, when someone is at your level! When someone understands what you want the most; when someone knows what you desire.

The urgency, the boat sailed together.

The urge to tell him more, to share what inside your soul and mind.

The conversation last three or maybe four minutes, Panchito and Jose wanted more of Donald Duck. They already missed the boy’s presence.

The way Donald averted his eyes and bit his own bottom lips, they found it to be adorable.

Panchito wanted to take that handsome boy to somewhere far away from this place. With no one but them, they was ready to do it actually. The pictures where them and Donald talk for hours, sharing their thoughts. Drinking while joking, performing the unbreakable relationship.

He was so ready until Jose suddenly grab him by the arm, Panchito look at him. Jose look seem to be heartbroken as he pointed his finger at something. Panchito look confused as he turned around and saw their Donald and he is-

Helpless.

And they knew he was-

Helpless.

And, his eyes were just-

Helpless.

Suddenly they realized that Donald was in love with a female duck, three fundamental truths at the exact same time. His eyes went blank, face stoic like a statue, everything turned grey. The world lost its color and Donald chuckled dryly.

Number one, He was a Duck in a world which his only job was to marry love, to bring happiness to him.

To build and keep his goal as strong as possible.

Keeping his dream at the bay, holding them together in this messy universe.

He was the youngest twin brother of Della Duck, the one who has a huge responsibility to take care of his sister. To keep her safe, to provide her with a comfortable shelter in McDuck Manor. A safe place from the cruel world, a replacement of their deceased parents.

He was the social Duck, the one that can steal people heart with just a simple smile. He was the one that can pull up his family and climb the dangerous cliff of social status.

Donald was penniless, he can't runaway from his responsibility and ditch everything so he can waste his precious time with them.

But that didn't mean they wants Donald any less.

Number two, the young girl was after him because he was a nephew of Scrooge McDuck. She needed Donald to get a high social status, she will use him to survive in the middle of the chaotic world. Donald’s name will boost up his status, the girl was too naive to put that aside. How stupid to be blinded by a simple smile.

Maybe that was why these two decided to introduce Daisy Duck to their dear friend, Donald.

Maybe that was why they walked calmly, searched for the face of Donald first love; the love of his life. Grabbed Daisy's hand easily, leading her across the room to Donald's place.

'Where are you taking me?'

'We’re about to change your life.'

'Then by all means, lead the way boys.'

They were smiling like a good friends. Didn't forget to give a teasing wink to them when they left both of them, they smiled proudly even when their heart shattered into pieces. Jose gave Donald a wave to assured the young man that he was doing great. Donald introduced himself, playing with his sailor hat while Daisy smile at him; they locked their gaze. Donald lost himself.

Now their precious crush is sitting beside his beloved wife.

Nice going, Panchito and Jose.

He was right.

Jose was right.

Donald will never be satisfied.

Number three, they knew their best friend like they knows their own mind. He knew everything about Donald like the back of his palm, he took care of the lovely duck throughout their adventure. He knew how Donald always play with his sailor hat if he is nervous or when he stutters in front of strangers.

He knew when a duck laughs; the young man's eyes always turn into a beautiful moon. You will never find anyone as trusting or as kind like Donald. Donald is the rare person, the type of person that will jump and risk his own life for his family and friend, and a total stranger. The person who always find good inside every mammals being.

If they tells Daisy that they loved Donald, she was sure that she will silently resign. She will leave Panchito and Jose with Donald and the image where three of them kissing will come true but that's also mean the future where Daisy cries alone heartbroken will also come true. They will never forgive themselves if that happens.

Daisy is a nice woman but she will suffer and they don’t like seeing people suffer.

Daisy will say ' I'm fine ' with her kind smile, but Jose will notice the way Daisy hand clenched into a fist; how her eyes twitch because she is holding back the tears; She'd be lying.

When they fantasize at night, it's always Donald's eyes. The playful glint, full of passion and kindness at the same time. They drowned with the bitter-sweet memories while their beloved crush and Daisy cuddled on the couch or living room. Jose cried while the couple had a nice candlelight dinner. Panchito bit his lips until it bleed when they exchanged sweet kisses.

As they romanticized what would happen if they hadn't sized Donald up so quickly. They were glad they took Daisy to Donald because they never sees Donald so happy like that.

At least his dear Donald is his first love's husband.

At least they keep their eyes in their life.

Once again, Panchito and Jose were back to the reality. All guests were waiting for them to finish their short speech.

Huey raised his eyebrow, Dewey and Louie on the corner while Scrooge put down his wine glass.

Ah, they can hear their own heart breaking into pieces again even when it's already so broken to the point he believes it will stop working soon. He cleared his throat, looked down to his expensive shoes for a second and suddenly raised his face with a really wide grin on his face.

"A toast to the groom!" Jose shouted, gripping the mic as tightly as possible. All guests raised their glass together with them.

"To the bride!" Panchito announced, all of the wedding guest followed them and cheered for Donald and Daisy.

They left the empty dance floor, given the mic back to the DJ and let the waiter took his champagne glass. They took several long strides to the couple’s table.

With warm tears on the corner of their eyes, Donald cupped Panchito wet cheek.

"From your best friends,” Panchito said, eyes brimmed with tears; nobody knows the true meaning from those tears, thinking it was just a tears of joys. Even Donald himself wasn't sure.

"Who is always by your side," the way they voice cracked, his crooked fingers wiped Jose's sweet tears. He kissed the Donald forehead softly, he let out a shaky breath. Why all of this tasted so fucking bitter, his aching heart wanted to scream and shout out his pain.

"To your union and the hope that you provide," he opened his arms, welcoming Donald’s figure that trembled with happiness and Daisy for having a great friend and her utopia as his wife. Panchito can feel Jose’s hugged his waist, he hugged back as tightly.

"May you always," he whispered to the duck ear.

"To be satisfied."

They left the reception as Jose suddenly embraced Panchito, when his beloved friend cried against his broad shoulder; when he hiccuped and Panchito closed his eyes softly; drowning with his Jose sobs and the clapping sound was heard.

[“And I know.”]

[“He will be happy as her groom.”]

[“And we know he will never be satisfied.”]

It was their eyes that they saw the newlywed couple smiling to each other and kissing to each other.

["We will never be satisfied."]

[ebenvt]

Introduction to Bacon & the Art of Living

The quest to understand how great bacon is made takes me around the world and through epic adventures. I tell the story by changing the setting from the 2000s to the late 1800s when much of the technology behind bacon curing was unraveled. I weave into the mix beautiful stories of Cape Town and use mostly my family as the other characters besides me and Oscar and Uncle Jeppe from Denmark, a good friend and someone to whom I owe much gratitude! A man who knows bacon! Most other characters have a real basis in history and I describe actual events and personal experiences set in a different historical context.

The cast I use to mould the story into is letters I wrote home during my travels.

Ice Cold Revolution

April 1892

Dear Children and Minette,

It is the third day in a row that I am writing to you about ice.  I can not get it out of my mind.  For refrigeration to work, we need electricity.  In Cape Town, David de Villiers Graaff has a vision for Cape Town to turn it into a world-class city and I heard that he is planning to bring electricity to our city.  The plan is to construct the first power station at the Molteno dam.  The dam is named after the country’s first Prime Minister John Molteno.  (1)

The Graaff Electrical lighting works at the Molteno Dam.

Electricity from Platteklip Stream

There is a river from Platteklip Gorge on Table Mountain, that used to flow above ground, all the way to the sea.  Jan van Riebeek built the VOC Castle right next to the mountain river due to the strategic importance of the water.  The reason for the creation of the VOC post at the Cape of Good Hope was to sell water and food to passing ships.

I remember that construction started on the dam in 1877 since the city fathers saw the water running into the sea from the mountain as a waste.   Construction was completed in 1881.  Ten years ago.  (1)  Both Minette and I have always disagreed with our city fathers on how they altered the landscape.  We would prefer for things to have staid natural and wild.  Recently they forced the glorious river underground.  It would have been a much better plan to keep the river intact and undisturbed.  I fear we have lost an important feature of the land forever.  Then again, how is that different from loosing countless wild animals to mindless hunting.  I long to see the unspoiled parts of Africa which were my home for all the years when I rode transport between Cape Town and Johannesburg.

I will bring up the matter of conserving our land for future generations with David when we meet again.  I sent a letter to Oscar yesterday asking him to go out of his way to meet with David to discuss refrigeration for our bacon plant in Cape Town.

Waterfall that became the mountain stream that ran from Platteklip Gorge to the sea. Now, into the Malteno Dam.

I am glad that they will be discussing refrigeration since this single invention has the most profound impact on curing bacon as it has on all meat production, processing and trade.

The fact that meat can be frozen or chilled is of huge importance to the curing of bacon. The fact that we presently do not have electricity in Cape Town and therefore do not have refrigeration plants explains to me, on the one hand, the heavy salting that David has practiced at Combrink & Co and gives a time frame for the start of our own curing plant.  We can not do it before David has constructed the electricity plant at the Molteno dam. That is, of course, if we can use some of its electricity.  I have read that there is the possibility that he intends using it exclusively to power streetlights for Cape Town.

Refrigeration, as Oscar and I discovered,  will allow us to cure bacon in warm climates such as we have at home of the same quality as it is done here in England, Denmark, in Germany, and Holland.  The colder the meat and the brine, the better we will be able to control the growth of bacteria and the meat will not spoil before it has cured through.

Recent Scientific Discoveries

Scientists are identifying the effect on bacteria of not just temperature, but also of light rays from the violet range of the spectrum, food, oxygen, dilution, and antiseptic substances.  These discoveries will impact on how meat is packaged and sold in the future.

It has been known since time immemorial that meat in a frozen state lasts a long time. At low temperatures, there is little bacterial growth.  Scientists have identified three distinct phases in bacterial growth generally speaking. Slow acceleration, maximum acceleration, and reduced acceleration.  (Winslow, CEA and Walker, HH. 1939) (2)

The fact that there is a lag time in bacterial action (slow acceleration) has by itself an important lesson for bacon processing apart from the consideration of temperature on bacterial activity. It means that meat must be progressed through the various stages of production at a well-controlled and pre-defined rate which will ensure that no stage takes any longer than it should in order to prevent bacteria from “settling in.”  Any step must utilize the “lag time” fully and be progressed before maximum acceleration takes place.

From The Times (London), Thursday, 20 May 1920

The Harris family’s bacon empire from Great Britain saw the benefits of refrigeration even before refrigeration plants existed.  They applied the principles and benefits of cold to bacon production since the time when ice houses existed.

From Cook County Herald, Friday, 29 Nov 1907.

The development of refrigeration and the subsequent revolution it brought about in the meat industry was in the air well before the end of the 1880s.  In fact, so many experiments were being done in the 1870s and early ‘80s (Critchell, JT, 1912: 4) that it will take a long and cumbersome book to try and chronicle any more than what I have given you in my previous letter.

How to Transport Meat from the New World to the Old

What is of interest is that the supply of meat in England and on the continent has been overtaking supply during the mid-1800s that made the development of refrigeration a national priority for the English and for European countries. Not even refrigeration in particular, but the need for preservation that would allow meat to be transported over long distances. (Critchell, JT, 1912: 4) Among the many suggested ways to achieve this, refrigeration was only one of many options.  Another option was, of course, curing and changing the meat into bacon, but this did not allow meat in its unprocessed form to be moved in large volumes between countries.

If a way could not be found, through whatever means, to economically supply England and Europe with meat from the new world of the Southern Hemisphere, the people of England and Europe either had to learn to be content with less meat or pay much higher prices for it. (Critchell, JT, 1912: 4) Losing frequent meals that included meat was not just the loss of desirable food, but would seriously hamper the efforts to combat starvation and hunger. Refrigeration was by no means the obvious solution.

In around 1860, the Privy Council, also known as His (or Her) Majesty’s Most Honourable Privy Council, a body of advisers to the sovereign of the Kingdom of England, started to discuss the matter of food supply to England. (3)  Many societies and institutions followed their lead. (Critchell, JT, 1912: 4)  This was undoubtedly the most important matter!

In 1863 the Privy Council laid down a rule “that, to avoid starvation diseases, the weekly food of an average adult must contain 28,600 grains of carbon and 1,300 grains of nitrogen.” Dr. Brown, in ” The Food of the People,” published in 1865, wrote that “the plague-spot, the skeleton in the closet of England, is that her people are underfed.”” (Critchell, JT, 1912: 4)  A committee of the Society of Arts was established which first met on 21 December 1866 to give direction to the charge to find a way to increase the food supply to England. (3) (Critchell, JT, 1912: 4)

Hunger and starvation were a major threat to the population and nutritional values were tested to find food that will best prevent starvation. (Critchell, JT, 1912: 4) In 1876, Edward Smith writes about the value of bacon to the poor: “Dried bacon divides itself during the process of cooking into two parts, of which the labourer and his wife may have the solid and the children the liquid part, and thus both be in a degree pleased, if not satisfied.” (Smith, E, 1873: 65)

Smith continued that “so far, it may be said, that bacon is the poor man’s food, having a value to the masses which is appreciated in proportion to their poverty, and it is a duty to offer every facility for its production in the homes of the poor.” (Smith, E, 1873: 65) Many patents and methods were proposed to the committee of the Society of Arts. Each thoroughly investigated. Canned meat was just invented and on trial. Pemmican (4), and a certain Mr. Alexander’s powdered beef. (Critchell, JT, 1912: 4, 5)

Interestingly enough, the committee found that “weight for weight, the dried beef was four times more nutritious than ordinary beef”. (Critchell, JT, 1912: 4, 5)

In total, 200 patients were registered for the preservation of meat. (Critchell, JT, 1912: 5)  I list some of the important ones here.

“Medlock and Bailey claimed that by dipping meat in their bisulphide of lime solution “anything of animal origin, from a beefsteak to a bullock, from a whitebait to a whale, can be preserved sweet for months. C. Nielson proposed to fix blood in the form of sausages, puddings, cakes, and so on. The Rev. M. J. Berkeley delivered a stirring address on fungi, but somehow the mushroom palliative failed to impress the committee as a substitute for the roast beef of Old England.” (5) “De la Peyrouse’s idea was to pack meat in barrels, and to pour in fat at a temperature of 300 F. all round the stored viands.” (Critchell, JT, 1912: 5)

“Professor Gamgee loomed large, and his method, though revealing a touch of Max Adeler, certainly possessed genius. He suggested that cattle should be happily dispatched by being made to inhale carbonic oxide gas, at a cost of 2s. to 3s. per animal. The flesh of oxen so slain was declared to retain its fresh and bright appearance, and the committee reluctantly and warily tasted chops from a sheep killed in this way, reporting, doubtless to the chagrin of the Professor, that the meat was ” slightly flat.” (Critchell, JT, 1912: 5) (6)

“A tin of meat forty-one years old, from the stores of H.M.S. Blonde, was tested and found sound. Professor Redwood advocated raw meat preserved in paraffin.” (Critchell, JT, 1912: 5)

“Scores of different processes for tinning meat were tested. Dr. Hassalts ” Flour of Meat,” Australian “mutton hams,” meat dried by sulphurous acid, and many other inventions, were put before this committee, evidence which contained the germs of many of the modern methods of preserving and handling animal substances for food. The work of the committee came to a sudden stop in 1881. After 15 years of focused and hard work, it has failed to produce a way to export meat successfully.” (Critchell, JT, 1912: 5, 6)

“In 1881 the committee delivered a gloomy report, and found itself unable to award the 100 prize which Sir Walter Trevelyan had presented for the best means of preserving fresh meat. This 100 was disposed of by being divided into five sums of 20 and granted to food and cooking exhibits at the 1884 Health Exhibition.” (Critchell, JT, 1912: 6)

“Without doubt, the introduction of frozen meat in 1880 settled the whole difficulty which the Society of Arts’ committee had spent so many years in trying to solve” (Critchell, JT, 1912: 6)

It was the United States of America who first exported meat in artificially cooled storage units when in 1874, beef was first exported to Great Britain. “Undoubtedly, the real genesis of the meat export trade under conditions of refrigeration is to be found in the shipments of chilled beef from the United States of America in the seventies. By the end of 1880, when only 400 carcasses of mutton had reached home from Australia, Great Britain had imported from North America 120,000 tons of fresh beef.” (Critchell, JT, 1912: 19)

Solving the refrigeration riddle

The photo on the right by Colin Beazley  Hy wife works in the building previously occupied by Goldsborough, Mort & Co. on the Ultimo side of Darling Harbour.

Thomas Sutcliffe Mort from Australia is probably the most important name in the story of the frozen meat trade. (Critchell, JT, 1912: 19)  Mr. Mort was born at Bolton, Lancashire, on December 23, 1816, and emigrating to Australia in 1838.�� He founded the great financial and wool-broking firm of Mort and Co..

His company amalgamated with that of R. Goldsbrough and Co., Ltd., under the name of Goldsbrough, Mort and Co., Ltd. In 1843 he turned his attention to meat matters and was introduced by Mr. Augustus Morris to the French engineer Nicolle. Together they took up the subject of freezing meat for export and started experimenting with it.  Mort supplying the capital and Nicolle the engineering skill.

Partial freezing or “chilling,” which was Telh’er’s plan, was tried and rejected, as they realized that thorough congealing was required for the preservation of meat. Mr. Mort in 1861 established at Darling Harbour, Sydney, the first freezing works in the world. Thirteen years later Mr. Mort’s company became the New South Wales Fresh Food and Ice Co.. The original freezing process at these works was applied in two large apartments, each about 75 feet square and 9 feet 9 inches high, and enclosed by brick walls 4 feet 6 inches thick. The freezing room below was used for the treatment of meat for export. In 1875 the collateral enterprise, the slaughtering works at Lithgow Valley, Blue Mountains, was completed.  The two establishments were intended to supply the Sydney market. Ammonia compression refrigerating machinery was used at these works.

At an inaugural lunch on September 2, 1875, at which 300 persons attended, Mr. Mort made his famous speech, the concluding part of which remains a jewel in the annals of the Australian meat trade.  It portrays him as a man of imagination, noble aims, and high character. Mr. Mort in this speech said that Mr. Morris first suggested the “diabolical idea” of freezing meat to send to England. “I can tell you that not once but a thousand times have I wished that Mr. Morris, Mr. Nicolle, and myself had never been born.” Mr. Mort mentioned that the Sydney Chamber of Commerce about 1867 had put up a sum of money for him to provide meat for distribution in England, and to overcome the English prejudice against “frozen” meat. This is an interesting comment since, in 1867, not a single morsel of (mechanically) frozen meat had reached England! The that Mr. Mort served for his 300 guests was, of course, all frozen.  He claimed that some of it had been kept since June 1874. In his speech, he said that Australia was to become “the great feeder of Europe.” (Critchell, JT, 1912: 19) With great pride, I give you the concluding remarks of Mr. Mort.

“I feel, as I have always felt, that there is no work on the world’s carpet greater than this in which I have been engaged. Yes, gentlemen, I now say that the time has arrived at all events, is not far distant when the various portions of the earth will each give forth their products for the use of each and of all; that the over-abundance of one country will make up for the deficiency of another; the superabundance of the year of plenty serving for the scant harvest of its successor; for cold arrests all change. Science has drawn aside the veil, and the plan stands revealed. Faraday’s magic hand gave the keynote, and invention has done the rest. Climate, seasons, plenty, scarcity, distance, will all shake hands, and out of the commingling will come enough for all, for ‘ the earth is the Lord’s and the fulness thereof,’ and it certainly lies within the compass of man to ensure that all His  people shall be partakers of that fulness. God provides enough and to spare for every creature He sends into the world, but the conditions are often not in accord. Where the food is, the people are not; and where the people are, the food is not. It is, however, as I have just stated, within the power of man to adjust these things, and I hope you will all join with me in believing that the first grand step towards the accomplishment of this great deed is in that of which you yourselves have this day been partakers and witnesses.” (Critchell, JT, 1912: 20)

These monumental developments would mark, not only the start of the frozen meat trade, but it would continue to impact the way bacon is being made and priced.  Frozen meat will at some  point be used as raw material.  Freezing will alter the characteristics of bacon and add to the complexity of how bacon is created.

Freezing solved the matter of the long term preservation of meat but proved another point.  In our effort to preserve meat we have developed products of such supreme quality and taste that it will be part of human culture for as long as humanity will prevail.  Bacon, with its reddish/ pinkish fresh meat colour and distinct taste; its subtle saltiness in the case of mild cured and sweet cured bacon and smokiness in the case of smoked bacon; its inherent ability to withstand bacterial spoilage.  Its meatiness.  All work together as characteristics of one of the greatest products on earth.

There is one statement that I am not sure if I am in full agreement with Mr. Mort. It relates to his comment that “cold arrests all change.”  This is a matter that “feels right”, but animal and human remains that have been discovered in places of extreme cold have been preserved remarkably well and seems to support his point, but in no way can it be said that the flesh is completely without any change.  What exactly the changes are and how it will impact on bacon taste is something that must be investigated very carefully.

I keep his speech in front of the notebook I currently use and I refer to it often. It is almost Biblical in its tone.   In the midst of all these matters that continue to flood my mind, I think of you, my dear children and Minette.  How is the rugby going Mr. Tristan? I hear from Minette that you intend going to Rondebosch boys high for high school.  It is an excellent suggestion even though I would have chosen Wynberg Boys High. The decision is, however, yours my son!  I miss you, Lauren!  You’re infectious laugh!  Please remember that someone who laughs as effortlessly as you also feel sorrow in equal strong and unexpected measures!  I miss you so much that it physically hurts and it helps to keep my mind occupied with quotes from old Australians.

I continue to miss all of you dearly!

Your Dad.

Further Reading

C & T Harris and their Wiltshire bacon cure – the blending of a legend

The Freezing and Storage of Meat

Freezing for Slicing Bacon

(c) eben van tonder

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Notes

(1)  The Graaff Electrical Lighting Works, constructed at the Molteno Dam was commissioned in 1895.  It was Cape Town Municipality’s first power station. It was able to run on steam (the chimney stack has since been removed) as well as water. It was the first hydro electric station in South Africa.

Graaff electrical station. Photo taken in 2014 by Eben

Graaff electrical station. Photo taken in 2014 by Eben

Graaff electrical station. Photo taken in 2014 by Eben

Graaff electrical station. Photo taken in 2014 by Eben

Graaff electrical station. Photo taken in 2014 by Eben

The Molteno Dam. Photo taken in 2014 by Eben

(2) Ward wrote a ground-breaking paper in 1895, Bacillus Ramosus on the topic. (WINSLOW, CEA and WALKER, HH. 1939)

(3) Its members were often senior members of the House of Lords and the House of Commons, together with leading churchmen, judges, diplomats and military leaders (Wikipedia. Privy Council of England)

(4) “Pemmican is a concentrated mixture of fat and protein used as a nutritious food.” (Wikipedia. Pemmican)

(5) This method of creating “meat replacements” has gained wide popularity in the early 2000’s. So much so that the Woodys Team has put it on their list of long term trends to watch.

(6) “CO2 stunning will reduce bloodsplash,” thus improving quality of meat. The disadvantage is that it is considerably more expensive and difficult to maintain. (Temple Grandin, 2000) Pigs killed with CO2 show a reduced occurrence of PSE meat, less petechiae (red or purple spot on the skin, caused by a minor hemorrhage ) and ecchymoses (larger than 1 centimeter or a hematoma). It appears however that animals who carry the halothane gene are more sensitive to CO2 gas so that the meat quality advantages may be dependant to some extent on the genotype of the pigs. (Warriss, PD. 2010: 54, 55)

References:

Critchell, JT and Raymond, J. 1912. A history of the frozen meat trade. An account of the development and present day methods of preparation, transport, and marketing of frozen and chilled meats. Constable & Company LTD

Hui, YH, et al.  2004.  Handbook of Frozen Foods. Marcel Dekker Inc.

Smith, Edward. 1873. Foods. Henry S King and Co.

Temple Grandin. 2000. Methods to reduce PSE and bloodsplash. Veterinary Outreach Programs, UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA

*Warriss, PD. 2010. Meat Science: An Introductory Text

Winslow, CEA and Walker, HH. 1939. The earlier phases of the bacterial culture cycle

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Privy_Council_of_England

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pemmican

http://mfo.me.uk/histories/harris.php

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molteno_Dam

Pictures

Figure 1:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molteno_Dam

Figure 2:  Waterfall on Platteklip Gorge by Eben van Tonder in 2014.

Figure 3:  The Times (London), Thursday, 20 May 1920

Figure 4:  Cook County Herald, Friday, 29 Nov 1907.

Figure 5 – 9:  Graaff electrical station. Photo taken in 2014 by Eben

Figure 10:   The Molteno dam. Photo taken in 2014 by Eben

//

Chapter 09.05: Ice Cold Revolution Introduction to Bacon & the Art of Living The quest to understand how great bacon is made takes me around the world and through epic adventures.

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Atletico won the summer transfer window but will they pip Barcelona and Real Madrid to La Liga?

The 2019-20 La Liga season kicks off this weekend and much of the attention will be on the top three teams fighting it out for the title. Graham Hunter gets you ready for the new campaign with a look at how their offseasons unfolded.

Jump to: Will Felix be La Liga’s star? | Can Atletico’s new arrivals shine? | Did Real do bad business? | Neymar a distraction for Barcelona?

Atletico Madrid have won the summer, hands down.

Diego Simeone’s team having sold over €300 million of talent and brought in over €240m of young, hungry replacements (to date) means that even if either of their La Liga arms race rivals managed to land Neymar before the window closes on Sept. 2, Barcelona sheepishly pick up the silver medal, with Real Madrid not only third (where they finished the last two La Liga campaigns) but frantically trying to convince everyone that bronze looks awfully similar to gold.

If only there were a trophy to show for it. The transfer-related tag of “Summer Champions” signifies about as much as the increasingly heard but slightly risible tag of “Winter Champions” for those who sit top of the table when the Christmas break arrives.

Nevertheless: a job well begun is a job half done, right? So let’s give more than just kudos and a patronising pat on the back to Atleti. They faced what looked like a horrendous challenge, haemorrhaging a mix of experience, winning mentality, club legends and two superb young bucks in Rodri and Lucas Hernandez. Yet their judgement, efficacy of market management, speed of work, ability to spot the revelation of this transfer window (or indeed many previous), Joao Felix, and their net spend of around €8m — if you factor in the €60m arrival of Rodrigo from Valencia — suggests that Atleti have spat in the eye of adversity.

Whether it wins them La Liga remains to be seen, but a summer that could have left them fighting an uphill battle now sees them muscular, nimble and potentially able to punch above their weight. This season in Spain is going to be exciting, a real smackdown between the three giants of La Liga — Barca, Real and Atletico — so here are some talking points.

Will Joao Felix be La Liga’s star?

Felix is only 19, still rather slender and will find it testing to work with Atletico manager Diego Simeone and coaches Mono Burgos and Oscar Ortega. Felix is a La Liga debutant with initiation songs to sing, pranks to put up with and image-management by the club imposed on him so that expectations are dampened after his €126m arrival.

Instead, this is a kid blessed with such extraordinary talent, such chutzpah, acceleration, positional wit and an exceptional eye for goal that his Atleti teammates are already instinctively looking for him whenever they have the ball. Every single player in that squad has taken one look and said: “We have signed a diamond — let’s get him on the ball.”

– When does the 2019-20 La Liga season start? – ESPN La Liga fantasy: Sign up now!

If the composer George Frideric Handel were still alive, Atleti would be commissioning him to compose a second Hallelujah chorus. They have found their Messiah.

No matter his talent, a player of Felix’s age, carrying such a weight of expectation and responsibility, will encounter bumps along the road in his first complete season in La Liga. That said, the move remains extraordinary for a number of reasons. With Madrid and Barcelona involved in what is both an unseemly and, arguably, unnecessary squabble for Neymar’s grossly expensive services, don’t they both look stupid for missing the chance to purchase Felix? The answer is a resounding “YES!”

Moreover, Atleti somehow managed to agree with Benfica, the player and his agent, Jorge Mendes, a payment plan where they only have to splash out in the region of €40m (down payment, agent payment, sell-on payment to Porto where he originated) before the rest is paid over the course of his contract. If Felix performs well enough to help Atleti reach at least the Champions League semifinals, the forward could earn the his new club the entire remainder of the fee within nine months. That. Is. Utterly. Astonishing. Business.

Can Atletico’s other new arrivals replace those who left?

Losing Rodri (€70m to Manchester City) and Lucas (€80m to Bayern Munich) are blows Atletico would have wanted to avoid, but the club have long known they would need replacing at some point.

At the back, even though Diego Godin — who left for Inter this summer — was bedevilled by errors last season, it’s worth waiting to evaluate the loss of his personality and “win at any cost” attitude. But for Atleti to add the tall, tough Felipe from Porto, as well as the talented Mario Hermoso, for €30m less than Bayern were forced to pay for Lucas, is spectacular.

Kieran Trippier’s move from Tottenham came out of the blue but while he might not be as attentive to details and defensive concentration as Simeone likes, his attitude and crossing ability should give A+ service to what should be a thrilling Atleti front line.

None of Renan Lodi, Hector Herrera or Ivan Saponjic make you fret for Atleti’s investments, while Marcos Llorente, signed from hated rivals Real Madrid, is a fine facsimile of Rodri. They aren’t identically talented but Llorente was under-priced at €30m, brims with energy, industry and athleticism, is a superb professional and looks ready to make Atleti’s central midfield punishingly hard-working.

Then there’s the “other Rodri,” Rodrigo Moreno. If Atleti wrap up a €60m move for this athletic, relentlessly team-minded striker, who has been playing winning international football with Koke and Alvaro Morata since they were all kids, it’s the icing on the cake.

Atletico have had one hell of a summer. But it’s not over yet. Spain’s transfer market closes on Sept. 2 and there’s still time for huge change, though they are already looking in better shape than their rivals.

The fact that several key veterans chose to leave at the end of their contracts had threatened disaster, but it can now be construed as advantageous. Madrid and Barca are replete with players on high wages they’d like to ship out but who are refusing to budge. Not Atleti.

Has Real Madrid’s spending addressed their needs?

Atleti’s rapier-like approach to business contrasts starkly with Real Madrid’s blunderbuss style. Yes, they’ve splashed out (at the time of writing) €305.5m (gross, not net) and there’s quite a lot of “rock ‘n roll” glitz to boast about with the likes of Eden Hazard. But have they specifically reinforced the things which went awry last season? Have they done what coach Zinedine Zidane wanted this summer?

In short, no. And an utterly horrific 7-3 thrashing imposed on Zidane’s team by Atletico at the ICC tournament in July, suggests that Real might not even be favourites in their own city, let alone for the La Liga title.

Left-back Ferland Mendy was indeed a Zizou choice, and has sparked Marcelo‘s competitive instincts, but at €48m it’s not good that Mendy already out with a thigh injury. Centre-back Eder Militao may turn out to be an ideal buy, but Zidane has been flitting uncertainly between four at the back and a 5-3-2/3-5-2 system, so we’ll see how quickly the €50m 21-year-old (a €40m+ profit for Porto just 12 months after buying him) can bring security at the back.

Rodrygo and Kubo (an 18-year-old Japanese starlet who was initially part of FC Barcelona’s academy until their FIFA ban was imposed) ooze promise, thrills and a sprinkling of the magic dust of international marketing allure, yet will struggle to make a real impact until they gain a bit more experience.

– When does the transfer window close? – Transfer grades: Tracking every big club’s deals – All major completed transfer deals

Hazard adds the pedigree — unquestionably a talent of gargantuan proportions — but why on earth did the €100m winger turn up for work at his new club, one which is in turmoil, in the kind of preseason shape which would have been acceptable in, say, 1978? It’s not Madrid’s fault but it’s certainly emblematic of dipping standards.

And finally, €60m striker Luka Jovic will score goals but looks well short of having the build up play and savvy which Madrid will need against the elite group of Liga and European clubs they measure themselves against. He’s that mythical breed of striker who “only” scores goals. An odd, expensive signing.

The players who have arrived all add their own parts of youth, athleticism, hunger and energy — valuable commodities in what was a moribund Madrid squad last season — but there are still more weaknesses in the business which club president Florentino Perez and his right hand man, Jose Angel Sanchez, have managed to conduct since May.

Gareth Bale, with the Premier League and Chinese transfer markets now closed, has stayed put — despite Zidane admitting in public that “it would be best” if the Welshman left — and is likely to stay unless PSG accept him in part exchange for Neymar or he’s sent out on loan.

Thus far, there has been no move for Man United midfielder Paul Pogba either. Whether the controversial World Cup winner is or isn’t the cure for Los Blancos’ midfield ills, Zidane is wedded to the idea of buying him and has been infuriated by Perez’s failure to secure that deal.

If Neymar arrives, it will be like salt in the wound. Thus far, Real’s best midfield options look like being composed of Luka Modric, Toni Kroos and Casemiro, which although still full of class, is bemusing. Slow, sometimes disinterested, porous, unable to control possession, lacking athleticism and physicality all last season it’s remarkable that (attempts to sign Pogba aside) no corrective action has been taken to strengthen the midfield.

Will Barcelona be distracted by Neymar pursuit?

Judging them by their own, well-publicised objectives for the close-season, Barca could award themselves a complacent pat on the back, a glass of cava, exchange mutually appreciative smiles amongst their football-executives — and then their rivals could laugh up their sleeves at the Camp Nou finances.

Barcelona’s self-set tasksheet was: add competition at left-back, augment possession-control and passing in midfield and then, a year late, add French flair up front. Junior Firpo, Frenkie de Jong and Antoine Griezmann (was there really any doubt where he was going?) tick those boxes.

Throw in some measurable progress from their young talents (Jean-Clair Todibo, Carles Alena, Ricki Puig and Carles Perez) and the outward signs are decent. However, even with the departures of Malcom, Andre Gomes, Marc Cucurella and Denis Suarez, Barcelona need to sell … and profitably.

Rafinha, Philippe Coutinho and Juan Miranda must be calculating how long it’ll take them to unpack their training ground lockers, while if the right price were offered for Arturo Vidal then the Camp Nou bean-counters would produce their abacuses in Olympic time.

The club has vastly strained its financial muscle for three reasons. 1) expensive contract extensions; 2) investment in the Camp Nou renovation project; 3) President Josep Maria Bartomeu’s public promise that his parting gift (before summer 2021, which is the latest there can be elections to determine his successor) will be another lengthening of Lionel Messi‘s contract.

Messi craves Champions League victories, not because Cristiano Ronaldo has more of them but because he’s a natural-born competitor, who has also suffered a series of brutal European disappointments in recent years at the hands of Atletico, Juventus, Roma and Liverpool.

If Bartomeu wants “Team Messi” to look indulgently on the opening of contract negotiations, he’ll do well to re-patriate Neymar. Messi, whether you concur or not, believes that his Brazilian pal will add incisor teeth to Barca’s European bite (Luis Suarez hasn’t scored a Champions League goal away from home for nearly four years and only hit the net five times in the last 29 UCL matches).

However as long as PSG keep insisting on cash only for Neymar, whether that sum is €120m or €220m, Barcelona can’t afford to buy him back. I believe it’s that simple. Nor, it seems increasingly clear, can they persuade Ivan Rakitic or his Sevilla-born wife, that the footballing life (and climate) is anything but worse any further north than Barcelona. PSG want the Croatian, but like Bale at Madrid, he’s not keen to depart.

All of which leaves both Barcelona and Madrid desperately thrashing around for a means to secure a Brazilian they can’t afford, didn’t budget for and who’ll also cost them dearly in terms of existing playing staff (Vinicius Jr., Isco, Karim Benzema and Rodrygo at Real; Ousmane Dembele and Coutinho at Barca) who’d be required to drop to the bench or leave altogether.

Meanwhile, over at Atletico, Felix may still only hint at the potential to reproduce what Neymar has achieved in his career, but the Portuguese is impressing with a new cadre of athletic and hungry teammates around him.

Atleti win the summer. Now, can they add the La Liga title?

Hold tight, this battle has the potential to be immensely entertaining, explosive, and potentially embarrassing for some.

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Day 1

Before going to Iceland Reykjavik there are some research had been done, when I was looking for the weather in those 5 days of the trip, on the AccuWeather (2018) was show that in this 5 days trip, it will be snowing and raining all day, which mean that there is not any sunny day and waterproof clothing and shoes need to be wear all day. However, when we are land on the Reykjavik international airport, it was a sunny day with a conformable weather, so my first impress of Reykjavik is that it is a beautiful country with unpolluted remarkably clear of air and water.

  After a long flight (around 3 hours flight) the first place that we are going is Blue Lagoon. Where blue lagoon is the famous attraction in Reykjavik. The Blue Lagoon is a geothermal spa in Iceland, the water is rich in minerals like silica and sulfur, as a result, the water in this geothermal spa can cure the skin disease. The staff that working in the blue lagoon are very nice and friendly to us, even there is a long queue in front of the front desk, the staff are still patient with introducing the facilities and giving a warm instruction on using the blue lagoon, they are helpful and respect to the tourist visitor, for example a staff, named Paul, help us taking photos, no matter how long is the queue, he still helping us to take a great and beautiful tourist photos when we are enjoying the geothermal power.

 After finished a bath in the Blue Lagoon, we drove back to back to the hotel. Around 4 o’clock we arrive to the Brim Hotel. Although the hotel is small but the facilities in the hotel are great, bread and tea and snack are supply all the time, there is also a small kitchen for people to cook, ideally, it is necessary for us, because the food in Iceland to quite expensive compared to the United Kingdom, for example, a bottle of coke can cost around £6 to £7 and a chocolate snack bar can cost to £2 to £3, which only cost 60p is the United Kingdom, hence the kitchen have becom one of the famous place within our student group.

 When we have put down our baggage, we went out to find the bank to get some Icelandic krona. I found that the Iceland people are very welcome to the tourist, does not mean that when we asking question the nice and polite to reply us, in fact even we are just taking a tourist photos, a man suddenly come forward to us and start talking with us, telling the history of the Man Einar Benediktsson, the food that we must try, the good local restaurant, and even consider we are student and introducing the local restaurant will a low price and delicious food to us. Therefore, I think the local community in Iceland are very welcome the tourist come to their country, as they even take action to do this warm welcome to us on the first day.

Day 2

on day 2 we started our journey to the golden circle. The golden circle is located in the southwest part of Iceland, the itinerary of this day is going to the Pingvellir National Park, the Geysir Geothermal Area and finally the Gullfoss waterfall. The Pingvellir National park is the UNESCO world heritage site, so this park is the main attraction in this golden circle. The Pingvellir National park is located in two continental plate, the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates, and the road is slip, uneven and oblique, and so the government have build up a pedestrian footway for people to walk on it rather than walking on a wet and slip floor, moreover, nearly in every attraction site there is a café shop and rest room for the tourist to have a rest, because of the fact that in Iceland there has no railways and so going to most of the attraction are by car or coach, particularly in the interior only four wheel four vehicles can access to there. Hence, I think this accessibility have affect the tourist flow, as because of this reason may stop the tourist, for example the elderly can afford a long way of sitting in the coach to some of the attraction due to transport network only the car drive.

Day 3

Another 10 hours of travel attraction site, on day 3 we are going to the South Iceland. The most beautiful natural attraction in Iceland, the south Iceland is famous for the skogafoss waterfall, seljalandsfoss waterfall and the black sand beach. The Skogafoss waterfall is huge near 60-metre-high of the waterfall, as a result, we saw many rainbows on that date. On the right-hand side of the waterfall, there is stair for people to walk up to the head of waterfall, the stair is so long and tall with descend angle, so it take me a long time to walk up to the top. Seljalandsfoss waterfall one of the famous waterfall in Iceland. Because of the formation of the waterfall, there is a walking pathway for people to walk behind the curtain of water, however, on that day because Iceland is in a winter, the walking pathway is covered by the ice and snow, so we can not access to the behind of the waterfall. Black sand beach of Iceland is well-known in the world, this beach is on the list of top ten of the most beautiful non-tropical beaches in the world. The sand in this beach is different from the beach sand that we usually see, this is because of the formation of this beach is different to the normal beach, the sand at this beach being black is because they are forming from the volcanic rocks and lava which is turn into black colour after cooling down, therefore the black sand beach have become one of the remarkable attraction in Iceland, as it is different to find another black beach in the world.

 There are some restaurant on the other side of the black sand beach, besides restaurant, there is a big supermarket in there, the tour guide said that this supermarket not only provide for the tourist visitor but also for the local resident, although there are only less 200 family less in there and most of them are the elderly, according to my observation. I think this may because of the accessibility of transportation in there, it is not convenient for the office worker to travel between the home to office, so they may only stay at there during the weekend, therefore, the age proportion in this area is most of them are elderly.

At night, we went for the northern light hunting. The weather is not too good to see the northern light, it is quite different to see the northern light with eye because the cloud is too thick, so we can only see a little bit of the northern light. However, no matter what, watching northern light is a bucket list of my life, it is worth to see the northern light no matter how cold is the outside weather.

Day 4

Visiting cruise ship on this day. This cruise ship was operated by the Cruise & Maritime, this company has won a lot of travel industry awards, such as 2016,2017 Best Mainstream Cruise Company Globe Travel Awards, 2015,2016,2017 Best Value For Money Cruise Line Cruise International Magazine Awards and 2011, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2017 Favorite Ocean Cruise Company (Worldwide Winter Cruises 2018/19, 2018).

The first impression of the cruise ship is that the security are so strict before we get on the cruise ship, the security staff have mark down the information on our passport, although it is strict on the security, but it make everyone feel safe to travel with the cruise ship. After that, the tour guide introduced the company to us, for example, the feature of other cruise ship, travelling plan that the company have been done before, then the tour guide take us to walk around the cruise ship, introducing the facilities, the room and room price is different according to the facilities and the options with balcony. After finished the cruise ship visiting, the following free time for us to explore Reykjavik.

During the last free time in Iceland, we decided to explore the Reykjavik main visitor street, the Laugavegur Street. We ate lunch in this Icelandic street food restaurant, the price of food in the restaurant is relevant lower than other restaurant in that street, their soup, the roasted leg of lamb soup and the shellfish soup is famous because is cheap and delicious, which only cost 1,990 Icelandic Krona. There is a strange rule in this restaurant, the boss of that restaurant said that soup can be refilled until we are full and satisfy, while no extra fee being charged. We were surprised when we heard that, and we think we are misunderstanding of what he said, however, when we ask it again, the boss said this is the traditional rule of their restaurant, he also said that his grandma does not allow their customer leaving their restaurant with hunger, and so beside the soup, there are some chocolate brownie and cakes and chocolate are free for customer to get eat. When we are leaving the restaurant, all of us are captured by this restaurant, not only because of the delicious food but also the rule and hospitable service of this restaurant. This restaurant made my trip much more rememberable because I can feel their warm welcoming and the original intention of doing a restaurant, a deep intention from the heart, an intention that every restaurant owner should have it.

Day 5

We are leaving from the early morning, outside was snowing, finally, in the last day of the trip. Thanks god for giving us a good weather to explore the beauty of Reykjavik, thanks god for me to meet those welcoming and friendly people, and thanks UCLan for holding this incredible journey for student to broaden the horizon.

Things that I have found in this journey about Iceland:

The customer service and the warm welcome from the local resident in Reykjavik is really inspire me on things that we should do in this industry. It makes me feel that the importance of communication between people are more important than money, honourable moral is not depending on money, but it is start from the heart.

 The key strategy for developing Reykjavik is holding the ecotourism in this country. The unspoiled natural scenery and special natural feature is the chance on doing the tourism development. According to the world travel and tourism council (2017), the contribution on travel and tourism in Iceland had raise the GDP by 8% in 2017, and they have estimated from the 2017 to 2027 the GDP can rise to USD 2.2bn, therefore this has show that the travel a tourism is an important economic activity in Iceland.

 This important economic activity in Iceland have the direct and indirect contribution to the tourism industry. The direct contribution is reflected on the tourist infrastructure in Iceland, for example the accommodation services, food and beverage service, transportation and retail trade (Wttc.org, 2018). While the indirect contribution if reflected on the travel and tourism investment spending, for example the investment activity and construction of new hotels, the government collective spending, for instance the tourism marketing promation and hotel sanitation, and the domestic purchases of goods and services by the tourism sectors, such as fuel and catering services of the airline and the security and cleaning service of the hotels (Wttc.org, 2018).

The impact of overtourism to the environment

Although Iceland having fantastic international reputation on the beautiful natural. However, the location of Iceland is the most dangerous place in the world, as the more than 200 volcanoes surround by Iceland, the major volcano eruption and earthquake happen every five years. Moreover, Iceland is located close to Arctic Ocean, which mean than Iceland is more vulnerable to climate change than other country. However, the tourism industry effects the rate of environmental recovery, for example the tourist leave their footprint embedded into the moss, which this kind of damage can affect the rate of repair itself. Additionally, there are more than 30% of Iceland energy comes from petroleum and fossil fuels. The rapid economy development leading more shipping lanes have opened within Icelandic coastal area, the oil spill problem are now currently occur in the Icelandic coastal area  (Guide to Iceland, 2018).

References List

AccuWeather. (2018). Reykjavik Weather - AccuWeather Forecast for Greater Reykjavik Iceland. [online] Available at: https://www.accuweather.com/en/is/reykjavik/190390/weather-forecast/190390 [Accessed 6 Apr. 2018].

Guide to Iceland. (2018). Iceland's Troubled Environment | Guide to Iceland. [online] Available at: https://guidetoiceland.is/nature-info/a-darker-shade-of-green-icelands-troubled-environment#Modern [Accessed 12 Apr. 2018].

Guide to Iceland. (2018). The Ultimate Guide to the Blue Lagoon | Guide to Iceland. [online] Available at: https://guidetoiceland.is/best-of-iceland/blue-lagoon-the-ultimate-guide [Accessed 6 Apr. 2018].

The CMV experience. (2018). Worldwide Winter Cruises, p.6.

Wttc.org. (2018). [online] Available at: https://www.wttc.org/-/media/files/reports/economic-impact-research/countries-2017/iceland2017.pdf [Accessed 13 Apr. 2018].

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