(Roughly) Daily

You eat what you are…


“Taste of Migration,” by Eleonora Ivanova



This surreal dish, “Spiced Foreigners Between Pasta,” was on the menu of the recent Open Data Cooking Workshop in Helsinki. Its creator, Symeon Delikaris-Manias, isn’t your usual chef: He’s a researcher at Aalto University who studies esoteric topics like beamforming and parametric audio coding. The pasta-man was joined by other researchers and data geeks who wanted to see Finland’s wealth of statistics translated into something they could chew on…

Participants focused mainly on Finland, but a couple branched out; for instance…

“Age and Language in Lentils,” by Matt Zumwalt

One can tantalize one’s taste buds further at Atlantic Cities‘ “Finland’s Demographics, Translated Into High Cuisine.”


As we re-understand “ethnic cuisine,” we might send communal congratulations to Gerrard Winstanley; while his birthdate is unknown, we know that he was baptized on this date in 1609.  A protestant religious reformer and political activist, Winstanley was leader and theoretician of the group that called itself the “True Levellers,” but is better known by the name their contemporaries gave them:  “The Diggers.”  An Anabaptist anti-authoritarian, Winstanley was committed to securing land for the poor, and led his group in cultivating the commons in Surrey– until they were forcibly dispersed by the “Commonwealth” forces of Oliver Cromwell, who sneered, “What is the purport of the levelling principle but to make the tenant as liberal a fortune as the landlord. I was by birth a gentleman. You must cut these people in pieces or they will cut you in pieces.”

Soon thereafter, Winstanley got involved in the then-nascent Quaker movement; he continued to advocate for the redistribution of land until his death in 1676.

Let reason rule the man and he dares not trespass against his fellow creatures, but will do as he would be done unto, For Reason tells him is thy neighbour hungry and naked today, do thou feed and clothe him, it may be thy case tomorrow and then he will be ready to help thee.

– Gerrard Winstanley



Written by LW

October 10, 2012 at 1:01 am


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