Our slogan here at Hella Delicious is Local Food // Global Flavor. Food for Roots, Health, Peace and Community. For millennia greedy, unscrupulous people have adulterated food in order to make a bigger profit. This happens all over the world, in Myanmar, for example, since people there know that about 99% of all information in their newspapers is lies, the rumor-mill is the best way to get your information and it is surprisingly accurate. When China started selling fake eggs and plastic rice, the word went out as to how to recognize Real Food immediately. People, especially mothers everywhere in the world know how important good, real, natural food is for their children and babies. Fake, adulterated food that is Generally Recognized as Safe doesn’t fool us.

Diversity is the key to life, diverse cultures, ways of cooking, things to eat and — very importantly — diverse micro-flora in your gut. One of the things I love about food and cooking is that there is always another way to cook something, always a new dish or combination of food flavors possible. As a chef, I spent a lot of time freelance catering and had to learn quickly how to work for all kinds of different chefs, each one had their own particular way to cook a noodle, sear a steak, whisk a hollandaise, blanch a vegetable and they all wanted it done their way. Most of them were convinced their way was the only best way to do each thing. I feel fortunate to have learned so many different techniques, from so many brilliant minds, to get to the same result. People working with or for me often find my inability to tell them THE one best way to do something very frustrating.

The thing is, I often find by giving someone the space to do whatever it is in their own way, I actually learn something from them. In fact, they may come up with a way to do something that saves me a lot of time and effort. I have noticed folks who spend too much time watching cooking shows and not enough time with their hands in the food are the folks who get the most stuck in the anal mentality of “only one way is right — everything else is wrong”.

Global cuisine is a great place to get a good look at this diversity, to experiment and find your own way, to reach into your heart and soul and intuition and bring together cooking techniques and flavors that are unique to you and your own experience. Don’t let anyone tell you different, shut you down and try to make you feel inferior. Food is a lot like religion in my book. There are many, many paths to God or the great spirit or whatever you prefer to call it. It is as important to appreciate the diversity of cooking techniques as it is to value the various methods of communing with the divine.

I believe love for good, wholesome food is what will, inevitably, bring all of us with our different ideas about what is real, nourishing food together. It seems all foodlovers agree that factory farmed food from greedy corporations–who do not have our health and the health of our children, earth, animals and plants at heart–have no place in our world anymore. Around the world mothers are going to great lengths to feed their babies right, no matter the religion, dietary views, or culture. I am very excited with what is happening globally as we come together with our common purpose.

I just finished reading this article: Foodies Can Eclipse (and Save) the Green Movement. I know I am a bit of a nut job in many ways, but it made me cry. It made my heart swell with joy, determination, connectedness and inspiration. The raw milk movement, for example, is bringing together people from the far left and far right. I think this is part of why this revolution is so scary (for the corporations) and why we are currently seeing so much propaganda against it. We are witnessing the death throws of the corporate, factory farm food system, and deep down, they know it.

Even as traditional environmentalism struggles, another movement is rising in its place, aligning consumers, producers, the media and even politicians. It’s the food movement, and if it continues to grow it may be able to create just the sort of political and social transformation that environmentalists have failed to achieve in recent years. That would mean not only changing the way Americans eat and the way they farm — away from industrialized, cheap calories and toward more organic, small-scale production, with plenty of fruits and vegetables — but also altering the way we work and relate to one another. To its most ardent adherents, the food movement isn’t just about reform — it’s about revolution. Read More

I have been dreaming of this day for so long, it is hard to believe it is really happening and in full swing. You still hear people fearmongering — saying it is impossible to produce enough food for our rapidly growing population using only small farms, organic techniques and community gardens. A quick read of Masanobu Fukuoka’s book One Straw Revolution will quickly convince you otherwise, or just think about the fact that the US has 35 billion acres of lawn, which are slowly but surely being turned into gardens. We have all kinds of methods of growing good food, and the fact is a huge percentage of food is wasted daily, while people starve.

Mankind should realise by now, after all of the crazy and amazing things we have accomplished, that all we have to do is set our minds to something and stick with it until we get the result we want, no matter what. All we need to do is to decide what is unacceptable and what is desirable and then work towards that goal, through thick or thin until we accomplish it. The power of the belief, determination and hard work are all that we need to create whatever world we desire.

OK. So onto the true purpose of this post: Hella Delicious is hosting another linky, please link up your international dishes. We want to see food from every corner of the world together, side by side being delicious all in one common community. We want to revel in our diversity, to respect everyone’s techniques, ways of eating and rituals around cooking and eating. Our other linky Grain-Free Tuesdays is quite restrictive, so this one is very open. We still prefer traditional recipes with little to no processed foods, but we want everyone to feel welcome here.

Please follow the common bloghop courtesy of linking back to this post in your recipe, leaving a comment after linking up, and tweeting, posting to facebook, digging, stumbling or otherwise helping to promote this bloghop. If anyone would like to join us in hosting it just drop us a line. In the meantime enjoy the wonderful foods of the world–perhaps we will all learn to be more tolerant of each other’s differences and in doing so we will create a world of peace, harmony and delightful meals.

This post is part of Fight Back Fridays, Fun With Food Fridays