👻 Kitchen Ghosts in Appalachia (and other cool things)

August 9, 2024

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Happy Friday!

Here are some things I found interesting, inspiring, and just plain cool this week…

⛰️ A really interesting conversation about food, family, and family traditions in NPR’s “A Taste of Black Appalachia” with former Kentucky Poet Laureate Crystal Wilkinson.” 🫐

“I don't try - I don't go for perfection. I think it's a way of building an altar, really. Making cornbread, making a skillet, a pound of cornbread in the ways of your most recent ancestors and your long-gone ancestors is a way of pouring libations and honoring those kitchen ghosts.” — Crystal Wilkinson

Listen to the Podcast

I remember seeing 🤖 food delivery robots start to come out a university campuses a few years ago…

This video made me think about how could the robots change 🍕 food service and what the impact might be for workers in the food industry.

While it might reduce the number of food delivery jobs, it might also make it easier and more accessible for small businesses to offer delivery services without going through 💸 third-party vendors like GrubHub and DoorDash.

🏙️ What really got me inspired though was thinking about how a shift to robot food delivery could be way that we start to redesign our cities for the future.

Maybe even a food delivery robot lane next to the bike lane!!! 🚦

🍞 If there’s one thing the Waugh household always has, it’s bread!

Today I got to thinking about the invention of the beautiful and wonderful bread machine.

(There’s also nothing quite like waking up with the house smelling of freshly baked bread!  😋)

Turns out the inventor, Joseph Lee, has a pretty cool story. Learn all about this amazing black entrepreneur at the turn of the century.

Inventor Joseph Lee

🚂 My Dad is a big train fan, so when I was researching 🍱 Bento Boxes in Japan for this month’s Cooking through Cultural Heritage school newsletter and I learned about Ekiben, I KNEW I had to share about this cool food sold at train stations.

Ekiben are bentos sold at train stations and they showcase local agriculture, specialty foods, and even popular tourist destinations.

BUT THAT’S NOT ALL!

Some are sold in collectible packaging and…

Some have a SELF-HEATING ELEMENT!

Can you imagine?!? How freakin’ cool and futuristic is that!?!

🍱

“Interestingly, as ekiben became the food of the people, it also increased in quality and complexity with a myriad of new, locally-sourced ingredients from each region and more elaborate ‘lunch box’ containers introduced, from shinkansen bullet trains to Hello Kitty!. Ekiben has become a huge part of Japanese culture since then and is so adored and appreciated that there are ekiben enthusiasts and collectors, much in the same way you have trainspotters in western countries.”

🍔 Why "pop-up" restaurants are everywhere (in our post-COVID world…)

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