LectureBy Sami Zubaida, Emeritus Professor of Politics and Sociology, Birkbeck College, London11 December 20086:45-7:45 pmAsia House, 63 Cavendish Street, London W1G 7LP
Introduction : Iranian food and cookery are framed by the history and geography of the country, as well as its position in the culture and politics of the region. Food is part of the cultural synthesis formed over the centuries by the interaction of peoples in trade, war, empires and religions. It is also shaped by the natural environment, so diverse in Iranian lands: from mountains to deserts, from the arid to rain-fed green forests and pastures, from the warm Gulf in the south to the temperate Caspian in the north. This environment provides a rich variety of vegetation, fruit, nuts, fish, meat and dairy, ingredients in the evolution of distinctive food traditions. Historical continuities are combined with developing elements, such as the import of New World foods, like the tomato and the potato which revolutionised cooking in many regions including Iran. Considered in the regional context, Iran has many distinctive dishes and ingredients, some of which they have contributed to their neighbours, especially in the era of globalisation and rapid diffusion, such as Fesenjoon and Ghormeh. Others, such as Kebab, Dolma and Kofta, are shared with neighbouring lands, but with distinctive Iranian character. The Iranian kitchen boasts the most varied and refined rice cookery, with distinctive methods and variation of ingredients. These and many related themes will be pursued in the lecture. About the Speaker : Sami Zubaida is Emeritus Professor of Politics and Sociology at Birkbeck College, London and Research Associate of the London Middle East Institute, SOAS. He has held visiting positions at Cairo, Istanbul, Berkeley CA, Paris and New York University. Publications include: A Taste of Thyme: Culinary Cultures of the Middle East (co-edited with Richard Tapper), London 2000, Law and Power in the Islamic World, London 2003, and Islam, the People and the State, London 1993, to be re-issued with new Introduction in 2008. Many articles and research papers on Food and Culture.
Can Pot Extend Ted Kennedy's Life? Too Bad It's Illegal By Paul Armentano, NORML Posted on May 23, 2008, Printed on May 24, 2008 http://www.alternet.org/story/86256/
In the 14 years I've worked in marijuana law reform, few events have struck me as so needlessly tragic as the federal government's consistent and deliberate stifling of medical cannabis research. Nowhere is the Fed's refusal to allow this science more overt and inhumane than as it pertains to the investigation of cannabinoids as anti-cancer agents, particularly in the treatment of gliomas. As noted in today's wire stories regarding Sen. Edward Kennedy's diagnosis, glioma is an aggressive form of cancer that affects an estimated 10,000 Americans annually. Standard treatments for the cancer include radiation and chemotherapy, though neither procedure has proven particularly effective -- the disease kills approximately half its victims within one year and all within three years.But what if there was an alternative treatment for gliomas that could selectively target the cancer while leaving healthy cells intact? And what if federal bureaucrats were aware of this treatment, but deliberately withheld this information from the public?Sadly, the above questions are not hypothetical. As I originally wrote in a 2004 essay for Alternet.org, titled Pot Shows Promise as a Cancer Cure":
In fact, the first experiment documenting pot's anti-tumor effects took place in 1974 at the Medical College of Virginia at the behest of the U.S. government. The results of that study, reported in an Aug. 18, 1974, Washington Post newspaper feature, were that marijuana's psychoactive component, THC, "slowed the growth of lung cancers, breast cancers and a virus-induced leukemia in laboratory mice, and prolonged their lives by as much as 36 percent." Despite these favorable preliminary findings, U.S. government officials banished the study and refused to fund any follow-up research until conducting a similar -- though secret -- clinical trial in the mid-1990s. That study, conducted by the U.S. National Toxicology Program to the tune of $2 million, concluded that mice and rats administered high doses of THC over long periods had greater protection against malignant tumors than untreated controls. However, rather than publicize their findings, government researchers shelved the results, which only became public after a draft copy of its findings were leaked in 1997 to a medical journal which in turn forwarded the story to the national media.In the years since the completion of the National Toxicology trial, the U.S. government has yet to fund a single additional study examining the drug's potential anti-cancer properties. Is this a case of federal bureaucrats putting politics over the health and safety of patients? You be the judge.
Cure for Cancer : Food Patterns of our Body Featuring Enya Metamorphosis
Cancer Cure - Cannabis & Cannabinoids,by Robert Melamede,PhD
At 2004 Cannabis Therapeutics Conference, Dr. Melamede, University of Colorado, explains how the Endocannabinoid System functions as a "Glob...all » At 2004 Cannabis Therapeutics Conference, Dr. Melamede, University of Colorado, explains how the Endocannabinoid System functions as a "Global Homeostatic Regulator", balancing several organ systems. He hypothesises that, "Free Radicals are the Friction of Life. Endocannabinoids are the Oil of Life." Conference hosted by Patients Out of Time. DVDs are available
Holistic Biochemistry of Cannabinoids, by Robert Melamede, PhD (Complete) - 40 min - Patients Out of Time - www.medicalcannabis.com
The Floating World: Altered States Of Consciousness - watch all three videos -
NewsTarget. com /Truth Publishing LLC, June 7, 2006 - Straight to the Source - Dear Consumer,Do you know which seven dangerous food ingredients to watch out for in your groceries? These are the "deadly seven," as I call them, and they can directly promote heart disease, migraines, obesity, outrageous food cravings, osteoporosis, diabetes and even birth defects..The top three most dangerous ingredients I've found in my research are:1) Sodium nitrite -- causes cancer, found in processed meats like hot dogs, bacon, sausage. Used to make meats appear red (a color fixer chemical)..2) Hydrogenated oils -- causes heart disease, nutritional deficiencies, general deterioration of cellular health, and much more. Found in cookies, crackers, margarine and many "manufactured" foods. Used to make oils stay in the food, extending shelf life. Sometimes also called "plastic fat..3) Excitotoxins -- aspartame, monosodium glutamate and others (see below). These neurotoxic chemical additives directly harm nerve cells, over-exciting them to the point of cell death, according to Dr. Russell Blaylock. They're found in diet soda, canned soup, salad dressing, breakfast sausage and even many manufactured vegetarian foods. They're used to add flavor to over-processed, boring foods that have had the life cooked out of them..Want to know more about the genuine dangers posed by toxic food ingredients and additives? I'll share more with you in this email, but first let me invite you to check out the tell-all book I've written on the subject: "Grocery Warning..Grocery Warning exposes the truth that food companies will never admit to and the mainstream media will never print (because they receive advertising funds from food companies, of coursereveals, in shocking detail, exactly which ingredients compromise your health (and how they do it). Based on thousands of hours of research, and quotations from the top doctors, authors and nutritionists, Grocery Warning tells you the truth about foods and groceries that will empower you with life-changing information..Did you know, for example, that:* Feeding children hot dogs increases their risk of brain cancer by 300%? * Strawberry yogurt, fruit punch and other red-looking grocery products are often colored with dead, ground-up cochineal beetles? The ingredient is called "carmine," and it's made from insects. It's listed right on the label of many of your favorite foods..* Food companies now "hide" MSG in safe-sounding ingredients like yeast extract or torula yeast?* Many Florida oranges are actually dipped in an artificial orange dye in order to make them more visually appealing? It's the same dye that's been banned for use in foods because of cancer risk..* Girl Scout cookies are still made with hydrogenated oils that contain trans fatty acids?* Many so-called "healthy" or vegetarian foods also contain the very same offending ingredients as conventional groceries?* Eating just one serving of processed meats each day increases your risk of pancreatic cancer by 67%* One artificial color additive causes behavioral disorders in children? And that 80% of children diagnosed with ADHD can be outright cured of the condition in two weeks by avoiding certain ingredients?* The #1 ingredient in Slim Fast meal replacement shake (powder form) is sugar* Some guacamole dips don't even contain avocado? Instead, they're made with hydrogenated soybean oil and artificial colors. Everything I'm sharing here is absolutely true. It's all quite shocking, yes, but this is information you need to know if you want to feed yourself -- and your family -- foods that actually promote health instead of disease..Check out the Grocery Warning System, complete with my book, audio bonus CD, reference charts, research compendium and more:The truth about metabolic disruptorsNearly all modern diseases are caused by what I call "metabolic disruptors." These are common ingredients, such as white flour and sugar, that prevent your body from healing. Unfortunately, metabolic disruptors are used in almost all commercially prepared foods, which means most products on your grocer's shelves contribute to poor health. But if you know what to look for, you can fill your cart with foods that will help you live a longer more vibrant life..That's why I created the Grocery Warning System. This system will give you the information you need to make the healthiest shopping choices at the grocery store. You'll learn which ingredients have been linked to disease, as well as important nutrients that have been shown to prevent and reverse cancer, heart disease, diabetes, obesity, and other degenerative diseases..Here's what else you'll find in Grocery Warning:* Which common ingredient has been shown to ravage the cardiovascular system and promote heart disease while destroying brain cells..* Why some popular beverages have been linked to blindness and seizures, dementia, Alzheimer's and behavioral disorders..* How a single food ingredient is killing more than 30,000 Americans each year and yet remains perfectly legal due to food industry politics and influence on federal regulators..* How food manufacturers alter natural fats and convert them into disease-promoting ingredients that ravage your health and make it virtually impossible to lose weight, no matter what you eat! * The one natural, alternative sweetener that has no calories, no blood sugar effects, no chemical toxicity, and tastes great! * What "homogenized" means on milk products and the shocking truth of how this artificial alteration of dairy fats poses a very real threat to your health..* How to reverse osteoporosis and other bone disorders through dietary and lifestyle changes that create high-density bones throughout your body..* The truth behind the margarine scam and how the food industry convinced an entire nation to eat disease-promoting margarine for decades, based on shoddy scientific evidence and political influence..* The one natural oil that's lacking from the diets of virtually all Americans, but can significantly improve brain function..* Why at least one prominent doctor is accusing the FDA of committing crimes against humanity for not protecting the public from the immediate health dangers posed by three different ingredients found in virtually every grocery store..To find out more about the Grocery Warning System, visit: http://www.msplinks.com/MDFodHRwOi8vd3d3LnRydXRocHVibGlzaGluZy5jb20vR3JvY2VyeVdhcm5pbmcuaHRtbA==Back to the "hidden" ingredients..So how do food companies manage to hide excitotoxins and taste additives to their foods? It's easy: They just keep changing the words to confuse consumers. Once customers learned to avoid MSG / monosodium glutamate, the food companies started using yeast extract..And now, two years after I started sounding the alarm on yeast extract, many companies have switched to "torula yeast," which accomplishes the same thing..Other hidden sources of MSG include:Autolyzed vegetable protein..Hydrolyzed vegetable proteinThe ingredients "stacking" trickFood companies also use the ingredients stacking trick to intentionally leave you with the wrong impression about what's really in their food products..For example, one company makes a nutrition bar that's absolutely loaded with sugar, but they way they've arranged the ingredients prevents sugar from appearing as the #1 ingredient. Instead, the first ingredient is rice..But looking down the label, you'll find all the following forms of sugar, all in the same nutrition bar:Sugar.. Sucrose.. High-fructose corn syrup.. Corn syrup solids..Dextrose..Add all these up, and the #1 component in the bar is, indeed, sugar (or sugary substances). But the manufacturer has used ingredients stacking to make you think the top ingredient is actually rice..It's a clever, dishonest technique used by food companies to lie with food labels..Remember, the longer the ingredients label, the less healthy the food..Read those ingredients lists before buying foods, and if you discover chemical names that you can't pronounce, don't buy the food!Learn more with Grocery Warning:
Natalie counts down the 10 worst drinks. Chances are if you eat an average American diet, you drank at least three of these today.In a fast food nation, eating healthy food becomes difficult to do. Yet a poor diet contributes to low energy, obesity, stress, health problems and high medical bills.If you eat better, you will feel better and this video discusses some of the foods you should avoid. Please visit Natalies website at : http://www.nutritionbynatalie.com/
GOOD DAY SUNSHINE ....
By Andreas Moritz : Author of Timeless Secrets of Health & Rejuvenation
The time when one’s immediate natural impulse on the first sunny spring day was to get outside and enjoy it is long gone. Only the very courageous or “careless” who defy the grim warnings from medical mandarins and cancer specialists, wholeheartedly endorsed by the sunscreen industry, dare to venture forth into the “dangerous” sun. Unless they are covered head to toe with sun protection factor (SPF) 60, they gamble with their lives, or so they are made to believe, by those who serve their own vested interests. Fortunately, this view is beginning to crumble in the blatant absence of scientific proof that sunlight causes disease. What is being discovered instead is that lack of sun exposure is one of the greatest risk factors for disease.
Very few people know that not getting enough sun kills 50,000 people from cancer deaths every year in the US alone. As shown later, these are deaths that are easily preventable through the Vitamin D produced by the body in response to regular sun exposure.Unfortunately, it is the ultraviolet portion of sunlight that is the most easily eliminated by windows, houses, spectacles, sunglasses, sun lotions, and clothing. Before antibiotic drugs were discovered in the 1930s – penicillin having been the first one – the healing power of sunlight was favored by the medical community, at least in Europe. Sunlight therapy, called heliotherapy, was indeed considered to be the most successful treatment for infectious diseases from the late 19th to the mid-20th century. Studies revealed that exposing patients to controlled amounts of sunlight dramatically lowered elevated blood pressure (up to 40 mm Hg drop), decreased cholesterol in the bloodstream, lowered abnormally high blood sugar in diabetics, and increased the number of white blood cells, which people need to help resist disease. Patients suffering from gout, rheumatoid arthritis, colitis, arteriosclerosis, anemia, cystitis, eczema, acne, psoriasis, herpes, lupus, sciatica, kidney problems, asthma, and even burns, have all received great benefits from the healing rays of the sun.The medical doctor and author, Dr. Auguste Rollier, was the most famous heliotherapist of his day. At his peak, he operated 36 clinics with over 1,000 beds in Leysin, Switzerland. His clinics were situated 5,000 feet above sea level, the high altitude allowing his patients to catch a lot more UV light than was possible at the lower levels of the atmosphere. Dr. Rollier used the UV rays of sunlight to treat diseases such as tuberculosis (TB), rickets, smallpox, lupus vulgaris (skin tuberculosis), and wounds. He followed in the footsteps of Danish physician Dr. Niels Finsen, who won a Nobel Prize in 1903 for his treatment of TB using ultraviolet light. Rollier found that sunbathing early in the morning, in conjunction with a nutritious diet, produced the best effects.
The miraculous complete cures of tuberculosis and other diseases facilitated by these doctors made headlines at the time. What surprised the medical community most was the fact that the sun’s healing rays remained ineffective if the patients wore sunglasses. [Sunglasses block out important rays of the light spectrum which the body requires for essential biological functions.] Note: your eyes receive these rays even if you are in the shade.By the year 1933, there were over 165 different diseases for which sunlight proved to be a beneficial treatment. However, with the death of Rollier in 1954 and the growing power of the pharmaceutical industry, heliotherapy fell into disuse. By the 1960s, man-made “miracle drugs” had replaced medicine’s fascination with the sun’s healing powers, and by the 1980s the public was increasingly being bombarded with warnings about sunbathing and the risks of skin cancer.Today, the sun is considered the main culprit for causing skin cancer, certain cataracts leading to blindness, and aging of the skin. Only those who take the “risk” of exposing themselves to sunlight find that the sun makes them feel better, provided they don’t use sunscreens or burn their skin. The UV-rays in sunlight actually stimulate the thyroid gland to increase hormone production, which in turn increases the body’s basal metabolic rate. This assists both in weight loss and improved muscle development. Farm animals fatten much faster when kept indoors, and so do people who stay out of the sun. Therefore, if you want to lose weight or increase your muscle tone, expose your body to the sun on a regular basis. The use of antibiotics, which has practically replaced heliotherapy, has in recent years led to the development of drug-resistant strains of bacteria, which defy any treatment other than the balanced use of sun, water, air, and food. Cutting out or substantially reducing any of these four essential constituents of life, results in disease.Any person who misses out on sunlight becomes weak and suffers mental and physical problems as a result. His vital energy diminishes in due time, which is reflected in his quality of life. The populations in Northern European countries like Norway and Finland, which experience months of darkness every year, have a higher incidence of irritability, fatigue, illness, insomnia, depression, alcoholism, and suicide than those living in the sunny parts of the world. Their skin cancer rates are higher, too. For example, the incidence of melanoma (skin cancer) on the Orkney and Shetland Isles, north of Scotland, is 10 times that of Mediterranean islands.UV light is known to activate an important skin hormone called solitrol. Solitrol influences our immune system and many of our body’s regulatory centers, and, in conjunction with the pineal hormone melatonin, causes changes in mood and daily biological rhythms. The hemoglobin in our red blood cells requires ultraviolet (UV) light to bind to the oxygen needed for all cellular functions. Lack of sunlight can, therefore, be held co-responsible for almost any kind of illness, including skin cancer and other forms of cancer. As you are about to find out, it may be highly detrimental to your health to miss out on sunlight.
Can UV-Radiation Prevent and Cure Skin Cancer?
A major concern of our scientists today is the dramatic increase of skin cancers around the world. There are three main types of skin cancer, two of which, basal cell and squamous cell carcinoma (non-melanomas), are increasingly prevalent, whereas the third, malignant melanoma, is much rarer but far more lethal. The most pressing question is why would the sun suddenly become so vicious and try to kill scores of people after thousands of years of harmlessness?The medical community claims that ultraviolet light (UV) is the major cause of skin cancers. This theory is based on the assumption that our thinning ozone layer permits too much of the germicidal UV to penetrate to the surface of the earth and causes destruction of all kinds, including damage to our skin and eye cells. Yet the theory has major flaws and no scientific backing. Contrary to general belief, there is no evidence that reduction in the ozone layer, observed at the poles, has caused any increase in melanomas.The germicidal frequency of UV is destroyed or is filtered out by the ozone layer in the Earth’s stratosphere, and only small amounts—necessary to purify the air we breathe and the water we drink— actually reach the surface of the earth. To that effect, a study of Punta Arenas, the largest South American city close to the Antarctic ozone hole, showed no increase in health problems related to depleted ozone. In fact, UV measures were too small to have any noticeable effect. Actual measurements taken in the United States since 1974 show that the amount of UV radiation reaching the surface of the earth is decreasing and continues to decrease slightly each year. This research was conducted to detect the frequency of UV radiation that causes sunburn. UV radiation had dropped an average of 0.7 percent per year over the period from 1974 to 1985 and continued to do so afterwards.The fact that the number of skin cancers in the United States had doubled within this period of 11 years contradicts the theory that UV light is the reason behind the skin cancer epidemic. The number of malignant skin cancers (melanomas) discovered in 1980 in the United States was 8,000, and eight years later it had increased by 350 percent to 28,000. In 1930, the expectancy of developing melanoma was as low as 1 in 1,300 people. Since 2003, 45,000 to 50,000 new cases are diagnosed every year in the United States. Melanomas, which account for 75 percent of all skin cancer deaths, make up only 5 percent of all reported skin cancers. The most striking fact about this lethal form of cancer is that it can occur in parts of the body that are not necessarily exposed to the sun such as the eye, the rectum, vulva, vagina, mouth, respiratory tract, GI tract and urinary bladder.Overall, since the beginning of the new millennium, each year one million Americans are being diagnosed with some form of skin cancer. There are millions of sufferers now, all of whom have been made to believe that the sun is the culprit for their skin diseases. But since UV radiation is decreasing every year and skin cancers were extremely rare 100 years ago when UV intensity was much higher and people spent much more time outdoors, what other factor could be held responsible for causing skin cancer?
The More UV, the Less Cancer
Even if UV penetration to the surface of the Earth did actually increase by, for example, one percent each year (which is not the case), such slight increases would still be hundreds, if not thousands, of times less than the normal variations which people experience because of differences in geography. Let’s assume that you move from an area near either one of the Polar Regions, e.g. Iceland or Finland, toward the equator, e.g. Kenya or Uganda in East Africa. By the time you reach the equator, you will have increased your body’s exposure to UV light by a whooping 5,000 percent! If you live in England and decide to move to Northern Australia you will increase your exposure by 600 percent! Calculations show that for every six miles you move closer to the equator, you increase your exposure to UV light by one percent.Today, millions of people around the world travel from low exposure places to areas of high exposure near the equator. Many thousands of tourists travel to areas that are located at much higher altitudes than where they normally live. For every 100 feet of elevation there is a significant increase in UV radiation. But this does not prevent people from climbing mountains or living in countries like Switzerland or at the high altitudes of the Himalayan Mountains. According to the UV/cancer theory, most Kenyan, Tibetan, or Swiss residents should be afflicted with skin cancer today. Yet this is not the case at all. The fact is that those who reside at high altitudes or near the equator where UV radiation is the most concentrated are virtually free of all cancers, not just skin cancers! This shows that UV radiation does not cause cancer; in fact, it can even prevent it.The human body has a unique ability to become accustomed to all kinds of variations in the environment. It is equipped with perfect self-regulating mechanisms that protect it against damage from the natural elements. Overexposure to swimming in the sea or in a lake can lead to extensive skin swelling, shivering, and circulatory problems. Our body will let us know when it is time to get out of the water. Getting too close to a fire will heat us up and encourage us to move away from it. Rainwater is natural, but standing in the rain for too long can drain our immune system and make us susceptible to catching a cold. Eating sustains our lives, but overeating can lead to obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and cancer. Sleeping recharges our “batteries” and revitalizes the body and mind, yet too much of it makes us sluggish, depressed, and ill. Likewise, sunlight has healing properties unless we use it to burn holes into our skin. Why should any of these natural elements or processes cause us harm unless we abuse or overuse them?Wouldn’t it make more sense to say that a preference for unnatural things like junk food, stimulants, alcohol, drugs, medical intervention (unless it is for an emergency), as well as pollution, irregular sleeping and eating habits, stress, excessive greed for money and power, and the lack of contact with nature, are more likely to cause such diseases as skin cancer and cataracts than natural phenomena that have ensured continued growth and evolution on the planet throughout the ages?It is very encouraging to see that new treatments using light are increasingly being recognized as breakthrough methods for cancer and many other diseases. The US Food and Drug Administration recently approved “light therapy” to fight advanced esophageal cancer and early lung cancer—with fewer risks than are found with the use of surgery and chemotherapy. Although it has been known for over 100 years that light can kill diseased cells, it is only since a number of convincing research studies have been conducted that there has been a sudden resurgence of interest in light therapy. There is promising success with bladder cancer, infertility-causing endometriosis, advanced lung and esophageal cancers, skin cancer, and diseases leading to blindness, psoriasis, and autoimmune disorders. In one study, light therapy eliminated 79 percent of early lung cancers. Regular exposure to sunlight still seems to be one of the best measures one can take to prevent cancer, including cancers of the skin.
Now Even Doctors And Scientists Say, “It’s Not True!”
Like myself, there have always been some health practitioners who didn’t buy into the theory that the sun causes deadly diseases. It warms my heart to hear that now even some of the top authorities in the field are standing up for the truth, despite intense criticism from their colleagues. In an article written in the New York Times in August 2004, a high-profile dermatologist, Dr. Bernard Ackerman (a recent winner of the American Academy of Dermatology's prestigious, once-yearly Master Award), publicly questioned the commonly accepted assumption about the sunlight/melanoma link. According to Dr. Ackerman, who in 1999 founded the world's largest center for dermatopathology training, there is no proof whatsoever that sun exposure causes melanoma. To substantiate his arguments, he cites a recently published article in the Archives of Dermatology concluding that no evidence exists supporting the notion that sunscreen prevents melanoma, a claim the mega-million dollar sunscreen industry and those in the medical mainstream have falsely made for decades.Dr. Ackerman didn’t stop at exposing this decades-long deception of the masses; he also cast doubt on the increase in the incidence of melanoma cases medical mainstream doctors insist is happening. He found that an expansion of the diagnostic definition of “melanoma” has allowed a much broader array of symptoms to be classified as the deadly disease compared to just 30 years ago. Melanoma has to a large extent “grown” to epidemic proportions because of statistical manipulations. In other words, if the same diagnostic definition applied 30 years ago were applied today, melanomas would have increased only insignificantly.Furthermore, this respected physician challenged the medical mainstream to explain why nearly all cases of melanoma among certain races (black African, Asian and South American) occur in areas of the body that are almost never exposed to sunlight—places like the palms, soles of the feet, and mucous membranes. Should it not raise doubts among physicians and patients alike when even among pale-faces, the most common sites for melanoma (legs in women, torso in men) get significantly less sunlight exposure than other parts of the body? To make a point, based on this and other evidence, your best chance of avoiding melanoma is to move to areas of higher UV-concentration, such as mountainous regions or the equatorial tropics and become a nudist! Since sunlight boosts the immune system, you may find that such a move would also help with many other health issues from which you may be suffering. Naturally, all this data raises the question, what actually causes skin cancer? The answer may surprise you greatly.
Andreas Moritz is a medical intuitive; a practitioner of Ayurveda, iridology, shiatsu, and vibrational medicine; a writer; and an artist. He is the author of The Amazing Liver and Gallbladder Flush, Timeless Secrets of Health and Rejuvenation, Lifting the Veil of Duality, Cancer Is Not a Disease, It's Time to Come Alive, Heart Disease No More, Diabetes No More, Simple Steps to Total Health, Diabetes -- No More, Ending the AIDS Myth and Heal Yourself with Sunlight.
THE POMEGRANATE Restaurant : 420 College St., 416-921-7557
Goodbye fusion, molecular cooking, fashionista chefs, French souffles. Tonight I'm going to dine on the ancient food of Persia, the great sprawling empire of the Middle East a couple of millennia ago -- and the first global food power, a non-pareil hub of good eating. I'm going to the source of so much of our food: What don't we owe to Persia and the fertile triangle of the Middle East, starting with our motherfood-- wheat-- and barley, pistachios, dates, figs, pomegranates, dates and leavened bread, and don't forget spinach and the saffron that tints the region gold or the apricots that Marco Polo so enjoyed? He was one of the travellers along the Silk Road from Europe to China, which ran through Persia, a conduit for worldwide trade that enhanced the local cooking with eggplant, lemons, oranges, rice ? My friend the foodie filmmaker tells me that the underground hit at the film festival was The Pomegranate, which depicted authentic Persian home cooking to die for. As we bowl west along College Street, I imagine we're traversing the local version of the Silk Road, as storefronts with foods from all over the world flash by. The real Silk Road travellers stumbled on food discoveries when they weren't ducking bandits. The Pomegranate is an enchantingly pretty fusion of old and new, with raw brick and turquoise walls displaying textiles and artifacts. Considering how crowded it is, The Pomegranate is also amazingly calm. This is due to the unwavering charm of Danielle Shrage, the maitre d', who not only seats you but turns out to be an encyclopedia of Persian cooking and culture. And I have so much to ask. We Europeans evolved so differently in the matter of food. Our diet was always being changed by circumstance -- the sailors' need to eat fresh vegetables to stave off scurvy is an example; the development of dried pasta was the perfect industrial food that could be stored for long trips; the rise of a competitive society where food became fashion and, eventually, cooks became rock stars. Instead, Persia (which is used interchangeably with Iran, the old-new name) seems to have hewed to profound traditions and consistently delicious food. The words "unknown craftsmen" come to mind: Cooking is necessary for survival, and food doesn't show off but makes a subtle and significant enhancement to a way of life. I don't know how modern Iran eats, but I bet teenagers in a traditional home don't dictate the menu. It's set. So is the protocol of cooking. For example, it is custom that men cook, so Shrage's husband, Alireza Fakhrashrafi, is in the kitchen. At home, Iranians eat sitting on the floor. What about people of a certain age who might be able to sit down but would have trouble getting up? Shrage points out that a daily regime of sitting down and getting up keeps you limber. LOL, there goes the gym. The menu is a fraction of what must be a huge repertoire of Persian recipes. I look for the inevitable shish kebab, meat on sticks. Shrage says Iranian guests often ask that right away, too. But, she says, "Kebabs are for eating out. We don't eat them at home." The food on the menu seems simple, familiar Middle Eastern scoff, variations of which you may find all over the region. The dip is the common denominator. Everyone eats dips: hummus, baba ghanouj, tzatziki?. But not dips like these. The first mouthful of kashk-bademjaan -- charred eggplant, Persian whey, garlic and walnuts topped with crispy onion -- is an entirely new taste sensation to me, sourly irresistibly smokey. A bracing antidote to our own diet, which grows more sugary every day. The charred eggplant is matched -- no, surpassed -- by zeitoon parvardeh, or vegetarian caviar. The tapenade of green olives marinated in a pomegranate-walnut sauce with fresh garlic has the consistency of tiny crunchy eggs and, once again, the piquancy of the bitter pomegranates give the dip a tart nuttiness. How easily I could make a meal from these dips scooped with wedges of flatbread. We've picked the maast-o khiar as a contrast: This mix of English cucumber, walnuts, raisins and rose petals in creamy herbed yogourt is balmy, like a bland interlude. I never thought Persian food would be sweet. But some of the stews that constitute the second course are very sweet, like the aloo gheysi, which combines bokhara plums and dried apricots in a saffron sauce with boneless pieces of chicken and yogourt. We ask Shrage to guide us to the sour side of the menu. Geymeh is sensational. It's a tomato-based stew (tomatoes arrived in Persia with European travellers) of yellow split peas, lamb chunks and another palate stunner -- an astringent dried lime that puckers the mouth and is topped with cinnamon. Fesenjaan is a stew of tender chicken with ground walnut and pomegranate syrup that has a dark rich savoury flavour. The stews come with heavenly basmati rice and fresh salad. Now a single criticism. Persian tables are laid out as a buffet and the family first picks rice and then adds other foods from bowls, a bird-feeding aesthetic. But this aesthetic is lost in the restaurant's presentation. The bowl of stew comes on a big plate piled high with far, far too much rice and salad and the stew is overwhelmed. If I were in modern Iran, I wouldn't be able to have a glass of wine. But once Persia made its own wines, and the taste lingers. The Pomegranate has a modest wine list, or you can have a fizzy yogourt. Food for two with tax: $47.80. To comment on this review and read others, visit ginamallet.com.
Dorood beh yadeh_e_shirin_e_Shahanshah Aryameher
Light of the Aryans, the greatest lover of all
things Iranian/Persian and the Pahlavi Dynesty.
Dorood beh Queen Farah Pahlavi & Prince Reza Pahlavi.
Payandeh Iran - Sarfraz baad Iran e Novien
Death to the Islamic Republic of Idiots- the butchering fascist mafia's of Qom and Tehran
FARAVAHAR
AHURAMAZDA
Happy Nu Rooz
NU ROOZ E TON PEEROZE BAD
I A M A R A I N D R O P.
FARSI _ BEH _ ENGLISEE
Hi everybody,
This is an INCREDIBLE Software.
When you write your words in Farsi
with the English alphabet, It will
convert it to Parsi writing..
Try it and see it for yourself.
www.behnevis.com
God bless whomever wrote this
fascinating program !!
http://www.behnevis.com/
Download any YOUTUBE video using this tool.
Paste a YouTube or Google video link and click the Get video button. Tick the DirectDownload box to start download immediately.
DirectDownload
Posts
اخبار مربوط به زندانیان سیاسی و نقض حقوق بشر
Tulips in Holland
