What the world (and I) eats
This was my idea. Well, almost similar.
All Things Considered interviews photographer Peter Menzel and writer Faith D'Aluisio about their new book, Hungry Planet: What the World Eats
Imagine inviting yourself to dinner with 30 different families... in 24 countries. Imagine shopping, farming, cooking and eating with those families... taking note of every vegetable peeled, every beverage poured, every package opened.
...
Each chapter of their book features a portrait of a family, photographed alongside a week's worth of groceries. There's also a detailed list of all the food and the total cost.
(also check out Peter's Environmental photo gallery: . special note:Mom, look at this one... )
To prove that this "taking pictures of what you eat" thing was originally my idea, you can look in my archives to see the results of some past shopping trips: 2004/04/16, 2003/02/08
And, because it's interesting for me to look back and see how my chopping habits evolve, I have uploaded my most recent grocery list with photos.
The pictures here are not necessarily a week's worth of groceries for us. Some will last longer (like the two big cans of sesame oil), some will be gone sooner (like the beer). There are also some things which we have an existing stock of, like rice, beans, and tamago pan. This is just what was in the weekly Wednesday delivery from the Tokyo coop.
The items listed below are in the same order as the items in the photos above, from left to right, top to bottom.
| Item | Price Yen (US$) |
Notes |
| kouji (a kind of yeast): | 350 ($2.96) | Used to make some special fermented delicacies. (also can be used to make sake. This is the first time to buy this. It's just something I wanted to try out. |
| Sesame seeds: 200g | 126 ($1.06) | |
| Baby Cheese: 360g | 470 ($3.98) | |
| Raisin Cookies: 2pkg | 294 ($2.49) | |
| dashi (dried fish flakes for soup stock): 250g | 417 ($3.53) | |
| Regular flour: 900g | 155 ($1.31) | We make a lot of bread. |
| Apple Juice (2 liters) | 198/liter ($1.67) | 100% Japan grown apples. The imported juice from the corner store is only about 50 yen cheaper. Should have bought more because I can go through a liter per day, but to make it last longer I dilute it with water and heat it up so I have to sip instead of gulp. No, I have no self-control. |
| tororo soba (noodles): 300g | 207 ($1.75) | |
| Mochi rice (special rice for making sticky rice cakes): 1kg | 698 ($5.91) | |
| Strong Flour | 285 ($2.41) | |
| Takana | 158 ($1.33) | Pickled leafy thing. Tastes great in a stir-fry or just on top of plain rice. |
| Shirataki (noodles made from konnyaku): 300g | 100 ($.84) | |
| Vegetable Juice (12 bottles) | 1680 ($14.24) | This should last more than one week I hope. |
| Eggs: 10 | 433 ($3.67) | free-range, no growth hormone. This is obviously very expensive. We contemplated getting the cheaper ones where the chickens are raised in little pens, but considering that we buy eggs so rarely, we figured we can pay more when we do. (Also, Awii and Klee voted for the bird-friendly eggs) |
| Sesame oil: 2liters | 3000 ($25.42) | This will obviously last longer than a week, but we tend to use sesame oil for all our oil needs. The reason we got so much is that it is either buy the big bulk cans, or a lot of tiny little bottles. Bulk is better. |
| Vinegar: 500ml | 144 ($1.22) | |
| Natto (fermented soy-beans): 150gX2 | 141/pkg ($1.19) | |
| happoshyu (cheap beer substitute): 6x500ml | 1,200 ($10.17) | This will probably be supplemented with some Yebisu beer from the local booze store. |
| Oatmeal: 500g | 504 ($4.27) | |
| bread: 1/2 loaf | 207 ($1.75) | Usually I make our bread, but every once in a while I like to get this bread. It is most delicious. (somehow it missed the photo) |
| enoki (long thin white mushrooms): 200g | 144 ($1.22) | |
| Coop Support Veggie | 210 ($1.77) | The coop throws in whatever the farmer has a surplus of. This time it was XXXX |
| komatsuna (leafy veggie): 200g | 198 ($1.67) | |
| Cabbage: 1 head | 144 ($1.22) | |
| Onions: 1.5kg | 298 ($2.52) | |
| Slimy mushrooms: 150g | 148 ($1.25) | |
| Broccoli: 1 head | 105 ($0.89) | |
| Mikan (organic oranges): 1kg | 458 ($3.88) | A little more expensive than the non-organic ones. Aside from being better for the overall environment, we can also give the peels to the birds to chew on without worrying about what is on it. |
| Sweet Potatoes: 800g | 312 ($2.64) | non-organic are slightly cheaper, but not much. |
| Nira (leek; scallion): 200g | 186 ($1.57) | |
| naganegi (long onions) | 0 ($0) | The farmer at the organic farm I helped out at Thursday gave these to me along with some Sweet potatoes and carrots. |
Comments
on the flickr tip:
this would be a great opportunity to utilize one of flickr's good features: notes. you can annotate your pictures with descriptions of what each item is. let me know how the koji experiments go. i heard that home brewing is illegal in japan? maji de?
Posted by: john | November 13, 2005 10:33 AM