I've had a little problem here, mostly the result of biting off more than I can chew, technology-wise. I've sorted it out now, I'm pleased to say, more or less all by myself. "More or less" because the very act of asking others for help seems to be necessary to get me to think logically about things and try to solve them in a systematic manner.

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My latest piece for NPR's The Salt went up yesterday: Your Quinoa Habit Really Did Help Peru's Poor. But There's Trouble Ahead. The nice part about it, quite apart from the work I reported and the researchers who gave freely of their time and expertise, is in that one word: but.

The quinoa story is complicated, with lots of twists and turns, and I am really grateful to have been given enough space to explore some of the complications in some depth.

I've been absent from here for over a month, but with very good reason. Work took me to Indonesia, for the first time, and a wonderfully interesting trip it was too. I can't say more than that, or post any photos, at least for now, but it did result in a rambling soliloquy about Indonesian food over at Eat This Podcast and a slightly more detailed post about one of the multitude of crackers in which Indonesia seems to specialise.

And speaking of Eat This Podcast, I was absolutely thrilled and delighted to be nominated again for a James Beard Foundation Award. Maybe this time ...

That will do for now.

It took me four days to make a Swedish rye sourdough loaf, and half a day to write it up, but it was well worth it. My conclusion:

This is a seriously good loaf. I sliced it upside down, as the top crust was a little brittle and I feared it would break up if I attempted to slice it normally. The...

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As the talking point of the show, the sculpture became the receptacle of all kinds of theories, fears and longings. This being the age of Freud, a gastro-sexual interpretation was inescapable: the spoon was phallic, the cup vaginal, the hair pubic. For some, the tongue-shaped spoon brought to mind unpleasant sensations of a furry tongue.

Fascinating story.