Docsconz- The Blog

Blog Find: Leslie Parke's leslieparke.com

Leslie Parke is an artist's artist with an eye for interesting art that she likes to share along with an educated assessment. Though I usually promote food and food blogs, Leslie's outstanding art blog, accessible through her website, leslieparke.com is a welcome and worthy exception. Her website features her own fabulous work, while her blog covers everything else that interests her (and yes, there is food, too!).

Blog Finds: Czech Us Out & Spring in Prague

I have been following Czech Us Out and Spring in Prague since their inceptions earlier this spring. Both blogs are team written. Each one has two young female Dartmouth College students as their principle authors and photographers and each is chronicling the same basic experience - a Dartmouth College Geography Foreign Study Program based at Charles University in Prague in the Czech Republic. Each reflects very well the viewpoints of its authors and each is worth reading. Though my initial reason for following these blogs was very personal  as my son, L.J., is partaking of the very same program (In fact, he has just posted a guest piece on the Czech Us Out blog chronicling the last day of a short side trip to Istanbul - expect more here from L.J. when he gets the chance to detail some of his culinary experiences in Istanbul, especially a visit to the acclaimed restaurant Mikla), I have come to really enjoy each as they are both well written with good photography and provide an interesting and entertaining view of a part of the world previously relatively unfamiliar to me. The program ends at the end of this month, but I hope they all continue to blog! Should you read the blogs, I think you will hope so too!

Please Explore!

This is a bad time for me to be extra busy and not have time to create new posts for a little bit. With my traffic surging thanks mostly to this Profile by Steve Barnes in the Albany Times Union, I would like to take this opportunity to ask visitors to explore some of the content already in the blog. From Restaurant experiences to videos to Starchefs to Madrid Fusion  to local farms and farmers markets to cooking and more, please wander through the blog. I would love to read your comments. Enjoy!

TGRWT#20 Pumpkin & Cooked Chicken Round-Up

“Pues me dio calabazas” is an idiomatic expression that I learned in high school Spanish. It literally translates into “she gave me pumpkins,” which really means that she blew me off. Despite that rather negative association, I have always been fond of pumpkins either as ornaments or as food. Since I was very young, pumpkin pie has always been a favorite. It has only been relatively recently, however, that my interest in and experience with pumpkin as a savory component has blossomed. It is because of that interest and the association of pumpkin with autumn and holidays such as Halloween and Thanksgiving, that I thought it would make an interesting essential ingredient for TGRWT#20, the latest cooking challenge in the series originated and administered by Martin Lersch of blog.Khymos. I added cooked chicken as it's partner to push the use of pumpkin in savory ways or to make particularly interesting pumpkin and chicken desserts.

Perhaps it is the business of the season or perhaps the ingredients were not inspirational enough, but the submissions were fewer than for some other couplings. I have, however, always been one to take quality over quantity. I appreciate the quality of the submissions that came in.

Blog Find: Tito McGovern

I know Tito McGovern through Slow Food Saratoga Region. She, yes, "Tito" is a she, has been a huge help with any number of things with that organization. She also maintains a fascinating blog. The blog is extremely personal, very well-written and exceedingly engaging. While it is not a food blog per se, it does discuss culinary subjects to a significant degree. Check it out. I don't think you will be disappointed.

Slow Food Saratoga Region

Some may be aware that I am the current President and a Co-founder along with my son, L.J. who is currently attending Dartmouth College, of the now one year old Saratoga (N.Y.) Region convivium of Slow Food USA. We are committed to supporting food that is "good, clean and fair," whether local (preferably) or from elsewhere. We have the good fortune of living in an area of high quality food with many wonderful artisanal farms and producers. To keep it that way and to make it even better, they need our support, especially in these extremely trying economic times. I am happy to say that the convivium, thanks to member Beth Dellarocco, now has its own website and blog, from which to keep track of and participate in our activities. In addition to the links within this post, I have added a link to the blog in my sidebar.

If you reside in the Saratoga Region of N.Y. or are visiting, please join us as we partake of and support the agricultural and culinary firmament of this wonderful area. Details of upcoming events will be available on that blog.

The Dairy Show #2

Michael Crupain and crew have done it again. Their second episode of The Dairy Show focusing on small production organic cow's milk from Milk Thistle Farm in Ghent, N.Y. is another video masterpiece. The video also incorporates an informative interview with food writer and milk historian, Anne Mendelson as well as a little bit of science. The icing on the cake, however, is a segment with cocktail geek Audrey Saunders of The Pegu Club where they demonstrated how to make a "Tom & Jerry." Check it out!

Chris Halloran Photographer

I just came across a Photography blog belonging to a college classmate of mine, Chris Halloran, a professional photographer based in Arizona. His photos of people, landscapes, close-ups, sports and other subjects are outstanding. Ironically, given that my blog is primarily about food, the one area I didn't see any of his photos cover is just that - food! In addition to the blog, Halloran has other sites including a site for his photography business, a site to purchase photos and another blog of musings and inspired quotes. Check 'em out.

"Green" Buildings

I came across a very interesting post on the blog Urban Graffiti called "The Walls are Alive," which offers an intriguing view on the future of urban high rise vertical farming.

From the blog:

"Why is sky farming or urban farming such a hot topic?
Because according to predictions, the world population will grow by 3 billion to 9.2 billion people by 2050, requiring 50% more of the current food supplies. With current farming practices, however, we would require additional land for farming, even bigger than the size of Brazil, as currently almost all food-producing land is already being farmed. Therefore, skywards seems to be the solution."

Of personal interest to me is that according to this blog, one of the major visionaries of this field is Dr. Dickson Despommier, a microbiologist at Columbia University's College of Physicians and Surgeons, my medical school alma mater. Not only did I have Dr. Despommier as a professor in a course on Parasitology (his book Parasitic Disease, now in its 5th Edition, is one of the few books I still have from medical school - it was a second printing of the first edition), he was also my faculty advisor and a man I respected very much then and still do. The course was one of the most interesting of the entire curriculum.

I suspect that we will be doing more than reading about this in the not too distant future. It would give new meaning to the term "locavore," allowing many urbanites to finally be able to use the term in its truest sense.

Cool Hunting's Top Five Buildings of 2008

One of their top buildings is located in nearby Troy, N.Y.