Sunday, September 10, 2006

Interesting finds on the net about food

Did you know there is a place on the net with the history of food? Neither did I. The Food Timeline boasts to be the a food history reference and research center. It is a great resource for finding out random bits of history about your favorite food, or getting tidbits for party small talk.

I had never heard of a few items on their list so, of course, I clicked the link and learned somethings. Emmer. Never heard of it, but it seems it was one of the first foods discovered on the globe. This is what The Food Timeline has to say about Emmer:

The sites of origin of emmer are considered to be similar to einkorn, within the regions of the Near East (Nevo 1988). Wild emmer T. dicoccoides, like wild einkorn is distinguished by the brittleness of the rachis, which disarticulate when mature. The rachis of cultivated emmer T. dicoccum is less fragile and tends to remain intact until threshed. The genomic constituents of emmer are described in Table 1. The genomic constitution AA of emmer is thought to be derived from T. monococcum. Various sources of the BB genome have been suggested, T. speltoides, T. searsii, and T. tripsacoides (Morris and Sears 1967; Kimber and Sears 1987). Emmers are predominantly awned with spikelets consisting of two well developed kernels. Emmer glumes are long and narrow with sharp beaks.

Well that's not all, but all I wanted to read about Emmer. As time goes by, in history that is, the food becomes more and more interesting. So, The Food Timeline could be a valuable resource for trivia, if nothing else.

Next on the list was DMOZ. DMOZ is an open source document that lists topics by categories. The food section of DMOZ is pretty interesting. It has sub-headings and links. I clicked on the chef's link to see who is listed. There are all the usual suspects. I clicked on Gordon Ramsey's link because he is infamous. I wanted to see what else I could learn about him. Well his weebsite is very well put together. I did have to chuckle at the title of the page giving you a rundown of 'who he is'. It's titled "The Man". Not the Chef, Chef Ramsey, or Mr. Ramsey, just The Man. It made me think of when I was young and my brother and his friends would refer to themselves as the man whenever they thought they were way cool. So I guess, Chef Ramsey is way cool.

Dmoz has some very nice links, it worth a look around.

Next up: Wikipedia. Yes! Wikipedia on Food has a very nice page layout. It is clean, with great pictures. The outline is well made and the information is easily accessible. It is a superb resource for someone trying to decide which segment of the industry to study and possibly persue as a career. It also helps to define the different aspects of the food industry and where you can look ofr expertise.

This is thier definition of food: Food is any substance, usually comprised primarily of carbohydrates, fats, and/or proteins, that can be consumed by animals (including humans) for nutrition and/or pleasure. Almost all foods are of plant or animal origin. Many cultures have a recognizable cuisine, a specific set of cooking traditions, preferences, and practices. The study of food is called food science. In English, the term food is often used metaphorically or figuratively, as in food for thought.

Wikipedia is a great resource and you can edit the page if you feel you have something positive to add. Anyone can edit a wiki page. If you have something to add, and it meets the page criteria, add away!

Those are three of the millions of food related sites out there. I think each one does a good job and is worthy of your time.