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This week, making a meal of it. A food site on the internet is like a cooking show on television. Neither makes any sense from a sensory perspective, but the medium is swamped with them anyway. Still, get over the faint absurdity of the situation and there’s a world of culinary delights to point your computer in the direction of. Epicurious is what the Americans would call the “daddy” of recipe sites, although it’s much more than just that. This month there are magazine-style features on street food of the world, including the Eight-treasure Mirror Cakes of Xian which sound more like conundrums than food. While on the subject of the more intriguing end of the dining table, Japanese Food will teach you all about the legendarily deadly Fugu, the Japanese blowfish which contains poisons so venomous that chefs need a special licence to practise their art. The old Japanese phrase, “I want to eat Fugu, but I don’t want to die”, sums up the dichotomy nicely. But what is food without table manners you ask? The Social Issues Research Centre poses the same question with its anthropological study of the correct ways of behaving around dinner. This sort of etiquette is big business in big business, where companies will teach you the rules of food engagement in order for you to impress your new boss. The rest of us, however, might rather visit Blinman, where fast-food etiquette, aka McManners, are taught. “You may steal napkins and ketchup but you can afford to buy your own salt,” decrees rule number nine. Just below fast food on the culinary evolutionary scale are some of Globe Guardian’s meal suggestions, where eager beavers can learn from a selection of recipes based around what can only be described as roadkill. In the wide-open spaces of America it’s not so much horses for courses as horses as courses.
Richard Hector-Jones
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related info
 useful linksjapanese food: fugu sirc: food and eating blinman: mcmanners globe guardian: roadkill
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see also
 webslinky #034online nostalgia  webslinky #033outsider art  webslinky #032online hitchhiking  webslinky #031internet tv  webslinky #030faqs
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