Uber Launches Grocery Delivery Service
Uber Technologies Inc launched its grocery delivery service in several Latin American and Canadian cities last week. The service will reach the United States later this month. Uber’s latest move was made possible through a partnership with Cornershop, a Chilean online grocer in which Uber has had a majority stake since October. The Uber Eats app now allows consumers to order groceries from local stores and chains in Montreal, Toronto, eleven Brazilian cities such as Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, four Chilean cities, as well as Bogota and Lima in Colombia and Peru. According to Uber, the U.S. rollout will begin later in July with service from regional merchants in Miami and Dallas. Uber claims to have about 9,500 active merchants, and its grocery-convenience orders have increased by more than 176% since February.
Goya Foods Faces Backlash From Core Hispanic Market
Last Friday, Robert Unanue, the CEO of Goya Foods, attended the announcement of the White House Hispanic Prosperity Initiative, newly created to advance education and career opportunities for Hispanic Americans. During a speech at the White House Rose Garden in support of the initiative, Unanue said, “We are all truly blessed at the same time to have a leader like President Trump who is a builder.” Unanue’s praise came at a time in the President’s re-election campaign when a national poll by Reuters shows that only about 25% of registered Hispanic voters would vote to re-elect him. Despite the White House initiative, Hispanic community leaders were quick to denounce Unanue’s comments, calling for a boycott of Goya Foods. The boycott gained steam on social media with support from prominent Hispanic voices, including Julian Castro and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, two prominent politicians in the Democratic party. A few days later, a “buy-cott” movement gained steam in support of Goya, and a GoFundMe campaign created by Casey Harper, a producer for conservative political commentator Eric Bolling, raised more than $100,000 to donate Goya products to food pantries in the Washington D.C. area. Goya claims to be the largest Hispanic-owned food company in the United States, offering more than 2,500 products, and often fills entire aisles of grocery store shelves across the U.S. .
Bakers Tout The Spicy Flavor Of Mesquite Flour
Mesquite trees have long had a reputation as a pesky weed, but the wood has been put to good use as fuel for barbecue. Bakers also swear by the flavor in mesquite beans. The beans are encased in pods that resemble long string beans. When the beans are milled into flour and baked, their hazelnut, cinnamon, cream, and molasses aromas come alive. Mesquite flour is gluten-free, so it’s frequently mixed with wheat flour to help breads and baked goods hold their shape and rise. Wheat’s mild flavor also moderates mesquite’s more intense taste. Think of it as a Southern heirloom ingredient, one that many bakers are now celebrating for its unique flavors. Austin-based baker Sandeep Gyawali has even started the Texas Mesquite Movement to encourage the culinary use of native mesquite pods.
White Director Of Southern Foodways Alliance Urged To Resign
John T. Edge, co-founder of the influential Southern Foodways Alliance, has been asked to step down by several colleagues and food media professionals. The most recent request was in a public webinar hosted by the James Beard Foundation, in which Nigerian chef Tunde Wey asked Edge to step down and give his position to an African-American woman. “I’ve been in the position 20 years,” Edge responded, “It’s time for me to get out of the way. I recognize and embrace that.” Edge went on to explain that he has been preparing for his successor for several years. According to the organization’s publicist Melany Robinson, Edge has raised more than $13 million, including an endowment to pay his successor’s salary. In response, Wey said that it is taking longer than anticipated to find a replacement.
The Southern Foodways Alliance was formed to preserve and document the food of the Southern United States, and by many accounts, Edge’s work has been carefully addressing issues of food and race for years. “What we have is a middle-aged man who like so many progressive Southerners has wrestled with the demons of his white Southern past and used that to help build a better South,” said Marcie Cohen Ferris, a former board president and professor emeritus at the University of North Carolina.
One of the ongoing issues is that Edge has risen to prominence with several of his own published books, magazine articles, and media appearances that have changed the historical narrative about African-American, immigrant and Indigenous cooks who pioneered what came to be known as Southern food. But he did that while the descendants of those same people struggled to get published themselves. Ferris hasn’t flat-out called for Edge’s resignation but endorses an exhaustive reorganization of the alliance and the hiring of people of color in management positions. .
Kimchi Isn’t Just Pickled Cabbage
Though cabbage is the most widely known base for kimchi, this staple of the Korean table is more of a preservation method than a single food. “I think of kimchi as a verb,” says food writer Eric Kim. “You can kimchi just about anything.” The dish can be made with fennel, tomatoes, radishes, scallions, cucumbers and other vegetables. If you’re in a hurry, Kim suggests a quicker alternative. “I like to combine vegetables with vinegar to achieve kimchi-like results, which I think of as ‘quick kimchi.'” The key is to pre-salt the vegetables for at least 30 minutes to draw out some of their moisture. “In Korea, these technically would be considered muchims,” says Kim, “which can refer to any number of ‘seasoned’ or ‘dressed’ salads or other preparations.”
Cheese Prices Swing From Near 20-Year Low To Record Highs
When restaurants and schools went under lockdown, demand for cheese plummeted and the market price of block cheddar dropped to near 20-year lows. Shortly afterward, consumer demand for cheese skyrocketed, and market prices followed suit. By June 8, cheese prices reached a record high when a 40-pound block of cheddar went for $2.585 a pound on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, a 160% turnaround from mid-April when the same block of cheese sold for just $1 a pound. Block cheddar prices influence the entire wholesale and retail market for all types of cheese, and according to Phil Plourd, president of Wisconsin dairy consulting firm Blimling and Associates, “It’s the most volatility that we’ve seen in the cheese market ever.”
After cheese prices reached their low point in April, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced its plan to spend $3 billion to purchase food from farmers, including $100 million a month on various dairy products. Analysts say the decision put a floor under prices, preventing them from dropping precipitously low. Meanwhile, consumer demand has remained relatively high with consumers buying 20 to 30% more cheese at stores compared to last year, according to market research firm IRI. Restaurants reopening around the country has further increased demand, and cheese prices have now begun to climb again, remaining just 3% under the record high levels of early June.
Banned Since 2005, Beluga Caviar Available Again In America
The roe from beluga sturgeon is the world’s most expensive caviar. Prior to 2005, the U.S. imported 80% of the world’s beluga caviar supply. When the U.S.S.R. eased its strict fishing regulations, beluga sturgeon became overfished quickly and put the endangered species list. A vigorous black market for beluga caviar exacerbated the problem, causing beluga sturgeon to become so endangered that the U.S. banned imports entirely. Prior to the prohibition, Mark Zaslavsky, founder and owner of Marky’s Caviar, harvested some beluga sturgeon from the Caspian Sea and brought them to the U.S. for sustainable reproduction. This species of sturgeon is the biggest freshwater fish in the world, requiring a narrow range of temperature of other environmental conditions and taking 10 to 15 years to produce eggs. Zaslavsky has spent the last 17 years watching over his fish at Sturgeon Aquafarm in Florida. He has now successfully produced homegrown beluga caviar that is available in America for $420 per half ounce. Zaslavsky’s farm has also donated over 160,000 fertilized eggs for sturgeon repopulation efforts.
More Than 115,000 Sign Petition To Rename Columbus Ohio “Flavortown”
Two weeks ago, the mayor of Columbus, Ohio, Andrew J. Ginther, announced that the city would remove the statue dedicated to Christopher Columbus outside of city hall. Soon afterward, a petition on Change.org sought to change the official name of Columbus, Ohio to “Flavortown.” So far, more than 115,000 people have signed on, easily reaching the minimum 50,000 signatures required for the petition to be accepted for consideration at city hall. Why Flavortown? Celebrity chef Guy Fieri is a Columbus native, and his fans call him the “Mayor of Flavortown.” Plus, the city is a well known test market for new food products. “Why not rename the city Flavortown?” said Tyler Woodbridge, the petition organizer. “The new name is twofold. For one, it honors Central Ohio’s proud heritage as a culinary crossroads and one of the nation’s largest test markets for the food industry. Secondly, cheflebrity Guy Fieri was born in Columbus, so naming the city in honor of him (he’s such a good dude, really) would be superior to its current nomenclature.” Fieri himself has yet to publicly comment on the petition.
Pitmaster Daniel Castillo Brings Central Texas BBQ To L.A. Communities In Need
While Daniel Castillo was working as a corporate chef for Whole Foods in California, he held weekend barbecue popups in Orange County. Soon, his Heritage Barbecue venture became so popular that Castillo quit his dayjob to pursue his barbecue dreams. The coronavirus threw a wrench in the works, but Castillo still plans to open this July and in the meantime, he developed O.C. Smoke Kitchen to serve hospitality workers who are out of work due to COVID-19. At one event, Castillo and his team prepared 800 smoked pulled pork tortas, smoking 360 pounds of pork butt to get the job done. When Castillo received a full packer’s cut brisket, his team turned it into a brisket roulade stuffed with a mixture of mushrooms, caramelized onions, rosemary, garlic, thyme, parsley, and bourbon. Castillo says, “Being one of the few craft barbecue destinations in southern California, I want to push the boundaries of what American barbecue can be.” Castillo even bakes cheesecake in his smoker, a dish unique to Heritage Barbecue. Bourbon smoked ham is another specialty, featuring ham cured for 14 days in a bourbon barrel from Texas, then smoked and glazed with Texas bourbon.
Families Of Former Aunt Jemima Models Oppose Rebranding
Two families of women who have portrayed Aunt Jemima for the Quaker Oat’s syrup and pancake brand say they disapprove of the company’s plan to retire the racist brand. The original logo depicted Aunt Jemima with a wide smile and a bandana, an image based on Kentucky native and Civil War-era slave Nancy Green. Later, in 1925, Lillian Richard of Hawkins, Texas, became the face of the brand, and Richard’s family recently spoke out against the rebranding decision. “I wish we would take a breath and not just get rid of everything,” said Vera Harris, the Richard family historian, “because good or bad, it is our history. Removing that wipes away a part of me. A part of each of us. We are proud of our cousin.”
In 1989, the Aunt Jemima brand image was redesigned again with a new model wearing pearl earrings and sporting straightened curly hair. Anna Short Harrington is believed to be the model in the 1989 logo, and her family has also spoken out against the rebranding. “This is an injustice for me and my family. This is part of my history,” said Larnell Evans Sr., Harrington’s great-grandson. “The racism they talk about, using images from slavery, that comes from the other side – white people. This company profits off images of our slavery. And their answer is to erase my great-grandmother’s history.”