Category Archives: History

Food, History, Security

Kras 1911 Marcipan Dessert

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I usually find Marzipan more like building material than a dessert, but the Kras 1911 Marcipan is highly recommended. I can not remember the last time I had such a fine dark chocolate with subtle almond flavor. The consistency is perfect. However, I’m a little suspicious of ingredients E322, E420, E1102, E475, E202, E330, and artificial vanillan flavor. Something tells me those are not from the same process originally used in 1911 by the “first chocolate manufacturer in southeastern Europe”. On the other hand, this is a chocolate made compliant with IS0 9001, according to the Kras site. Mmmm, you can taste the compliance.

Kras was among the first to agreed to requests of the new international ISO 9001:2000 Standard, the implementation of which provides quality of work and of overall business operations of the Company.

Apart from quality, Kras pays special attention to the control of food safety of its products.

Owing to the controlled selection of raw materials, and in line with the applied integral HACCP concept of providing food safety, all of the Kras products are GMO free.

Maybe they should relabel this treat as the Kras ISO9001:2000 Marcipan? Their quality policy can be found here (PDF).

Delicious. But may I suggest real vanilla? Not sure what number that would be in the E series…

E322 Lecithins, (emulsifier) (from soy bean, egg yolk) (# overdose intestinal problems, sweating) (used in combined oils margarine, chocolate)
E420 Sorbitol, Sorbitol syrup (from glucose in berries or synthesized (artificial sweetener, bulking agent, humectant )
E1102 Glucose oxidase (enzyme, acidity regulator)
E475 Polyglycerol esters of fatty acids (emulsifier)
E202 Potassium sorbate (preservative)
E330 Citric acid (from citrus fruit) (food acid, acidity regulator, flavouring) (used in infant formula, processed cheese, soft drinks)

One thing I like about about these reference numbers is that it suggests a very simple way for a consumer to scan an ingredients list and immediately identify dangerous or undesired substances. Would be interesting to have a scanner in a shopping basket that could trigger an alarm when you put an item in, or maybe just give a risk rating summary based on total contents. Or perhaps waiting until it is in the basket is too late (marketing got ya?) and the scanner should help you select appropriate items from the shelves…no more label turning and squinting. Could the numbers be extended as well to add more specificity of origin, suggesting region, or organic/quality levels?

History

Happy Thanksgiving!

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Every year I write something about the actual history of this American holiday, versus the modern interpretation. I used to just send it to friends and family, and then last year I posted it on my blog. This year, I noticed some interesting stories in the news like this one about school teachers emphasizing the “Indians’ side”.

Teacher Bill Morgan walks into his third-grade class wearing a black Pilgrim hat made of construction paper and begins snatching up pencils, backpacks and glue sticks from his pupils. He tells them the items now belong to him because he “discovered” them. The reaction is exactly what Morgan expects: The kids get angry and want their things back.

Morgan is among elementary school teachers who have ditched the traditional Thanksgiving lesson, in which children dress up like Indians and Pilgrims and act out a romanticized version of their first meetings.

I do not discount the importance of this subject, or the lesson taught by Morgan. However, I find it strange that instead of just unravelling the yarns by exposing the true history of the holiday, the teachers actually perpetuate the modern interpretation before attempting to revise it again. Who knows, at this rate of distance from its origins, maybe in a hundred years there will be a fat man in a red suit called Old Saint Lincoln who brings turkeys to children who have been nice to their neighbors…

Personally, I always think of the holiday in terms of a President who wanted a united nation to rise above its years of discontent and discord in order to notice the bounty of good deeds done even under the duress of civil war — to recognize and therefore seek a common humanitarian purpose.

History, Poetry, Security

Pre-Islamic poetry, identity, and conflict

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This paper published in the Arab Journal for the Arts looks interesting:

“Tribal belonging in Pre-Islamic poetry (Between kinship and the awareness of kinship)” by Ali Asha, Department of Arabic, Faculty of Science and Arts, Al Hashimia University, Zarqa, Jordan.

The study looks at tribal belonging in Pre-Islamic poetry through studying some selected models of this poetry. In addition, considering poetry as the prominent factor for the cultural identity for Pre-Islamic community, the study investigates the social structure of the Arabic Pre-Islamic community and its integration in Pre-Islamic poem.

[…]

This kinship awareness made the poetic self try to create balance between power and truth, seeking “compliment� and “praise� and at the same time to resist the crumbling situation of the community that was exhausted by tribal conflict and dispute.

Food, History, Poetry

For Nives

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Slaboca (Frailty)

by Tin Ujević (1891 – 1955)

Po ovoj magli, ovoj kii –
o pjano srce, ne uzdii.

Ti ljubilo si uzaludu,
a sada ite rodnu grudu,

i tvoja enja, vapaj roba,
trai odnekud pokoj groba.

– Tu u skoro da izdahnem,
tu u skoro da usahnem,

na naem plavom, plavom valu,
na naem bijelom, bijelom alu;

i sve u nai to sam trebo
pod tvojim svodom, Sveto Nebo,

plaveti sunca i vedrine
nad zemljom stare domovine.

I found a translation here, along with several of the Kolajna poems.

In this mist, in this rain –
Oh drunken heart, don’t drown in pain…

Books of Croatian poetry that have been translated into English are listed here (see section G).

I like the title of a book by Slavko Mihalić: Orchard of Black Apples, but I have not had much luck finding a copy. I also wonder if it could also be interpreted as Bad Apples? Then again, it seems there is a Black Twig Apple in the US that offers a very tart flavor and “gets better the longer you keep it”.

Hmmm, a very poetic-sounding apple indeed, not to mention it was widely known in the Eastern US during the early 19th Century and has even been called President Andrew Jackson’s favorite variety.

A list of other “black” varieties are listed here, including the “Black Spy”.

I know I’m taking this all to literally, but can you imagine an Orchard of Black Spies?