Broken Bread | Recycled Plastic Schoolhouses | Recipe: Cornflake-Crusted Avocados 🥑
Broken Bread | Recycled Plastic Schoolhouses | Recipe: Cornflake-Crusted Avocados 🥑
Issue No. 3
During my freshman year in college, I was frying some bacon in our shared dorm kitchen when my classmate Doug followed the smell and seized an opportunity to educate me on the horror show that is industrial meat production. He made sound arguments (something along these lines), and was exceptionally handsome, so I quickly declared myself a vegetarian. It also seemed like the sort of thing that would really annoy my family, a major goal of mine at the time.
As suspected, I received a fair bit of pushback and many dinner table eye rolls from the fam. Whether I meant it or not (I did...I was 18), my theatrical adaptation of a new diet contained an explicit value judgment of their meat-heavy meals. As it turns out, they — along with most humans — were not going to be convinced to quit their burger habit by a self-satisfied teen (unless said teen is as effortlessly handsome and charismatic as Doug).
Nowadays I dabble in meat consumption, but my cooking is very vegetable-centric. The lack of meat on the table was an emotionally charged topic of debate at work recently (I cook for a private arts residency program). Since I personally think that meat should be a sometimes food, lentils, chickpeas, and other beans are on heavy rotation. Those beans and other plant-based protein sources were simply not scratching the itch of folks that hear protein and picture a chicken breast or burger. Was this culinary assault of legumes a condemnation of how they typically ate? It wasn’t. But I understand the reaction. Anyone who eats meat on a daily basis will probably find it challenging to stop cold turkey, especially when that decision is made for them by some kooky cook.
My family’s early response to my vegetarianism and my recent professional struggles trying to cook one way for people that are used to eating another way demonstrate the complicated and personal nature of our eating habits. Somebody else’s superficial judgment of what is on our plates is unlikely to change what years of individual habits and cultural norms have ingrained in us (There’s a new book out about this).
I love the creativity and connection that come with making food my life’s work, but I’m also in it for the activism. As the population grows and the planet warms, a lot needs to change about how we grow, consume, and ultimately waste our food. But I don’t think sensational Facebook posts or smug bumper stickers will ignite the revolution. Change is slow, and it mostly happens on an individual level. I hope that in a small way, I can inspire and educate through my cooking (and through this newsletter, so tell ya friends!). Shaming won’t change hearts and minds, but sharing delicious food just might.
love,
Jackie
Call for Mailbag
We are three weeks into this project, and totally jazzed that people are actually reading what we’re putting out into the world. As we’re about creating connection and building community through food, we want to hear from you lovely Sunshine & Microbes readers.
Reply to this email with any questions or comments you have, and Jackie will respond to them privately or in a future issue. Do you have any reservations about a cooking technique? Is there a fermentation query you need answered? Or just want to share your no. 1 kitchen commandment? Share your thoughts and drop us a line at sunshineandmicrobes@gmail.com.
Food Tube
We live in the golden age of television people. Skip the Food Network and try one of our recommendations.
Watch This: Broken Bread (PBS)
“Broken Bread” is food TV with substance. In the series, chef Roy Choi travels around LA digging deep into themes of environment, economy, and community. It's funny and thought-provoking, and he features some visionary movers and shakers like Ron Finlay (artist and gardening activist) and Father Greg Boyle (aka Jackie’s favorite Catholic). Stream the first episode and the rest of the season here.
Coming Soon: Gods of Food (Dropout.TV)
The pompous world of celebrity chefdom finally will get the mockumentary it ripely deserves with “Gods of Food.” The show debuts on August 8 via CollegeHumor’s new Dropout.TV, whatever that is supposed to be. Nevertheless, it’s important to remember that being a great chef “isn’t really about the food, or the wine, or the ambiance, or again, the food.” It’s about how good a freshly cooked dish looks on Instagram.
Warning: This trailer is PG-13 rated.
Fresh Links
Our favorite food reads from around the internet. A heads-up to readers: The newsletter platform we use, Substack, has made a *unique* formatting choice, where links appear in black (not blue) underlined text. Click on any underlined text in this email to follow a link.
🍓If I’m cutting fresh fruit for dessert, I probably love you | Bon Appetit
♻️Less Trash, More Schools — One Plastic Brick at a Time | New York Times
A women’s group in the Ivory Coast is reusing and recycling plastic to potentially transform lives. How cool is this?
Mariam Coulibaly is part of a legion of women in Abidjan who make their living picking up plastic waste on the city streets and selling it for recycling. Now they are lead players in a project that turns trash into plastic bricks to build schools across the country.
They are working with a Colombian company to convert plastic waste — a scourge of modern life — into an asset that will help women earn a decent living while cleaning up the environment and improving education.
🍮Inside the KFC in Florida that has secretly sold flan for 45 years | Miami Herald
When Hialeah first began growing, a Cuban immigrant chef experimented with a 16-quart pressure cooker at KFC to make an indulgent, one-of-a-kind flan. The recipe was a hit with the community, and has been passed down from cook to cook at the fast food eatery for decades. No other KFC in the country has their own house-made flan (which means this is the only KFC ever worth visiting 🙃).
🌮Why is everyone so obsessed with tacos on dating apps? | Vox
Writing a bio on Tinder is hard. Talking about tacos is easy. Rebecca Jennings explores the trendiest opening line in online dating, which usually goes something like “tacos or quesadillas?” or “I’ll take you to the best taco spot in town.” This new cliche can be a great way to start a conversation, but the prompt also might feel like a substitute for an actual personality.
RECIPE: Cornflake-Crusted Avocados
Note: These recipes tend to focus on crops that are currently available in South Florida, which has a flipped growing season from the rest of the country. If you don’t have avocados growing in your backyard, no biggie. Work with what ya got!
The dawn of Florida avocado season is upon us 😋🥑
I get that some people consider Florida avocados to be the ugly stepsister to Hass avocados (which are grown in California and Latin America, but sadly don’t do well in Florida), but I do my best to avoid avocados from outside the state for a few reasons: 1) I try to limit consumption of fresh foods that need to be shipped thousands of miles because the gas it takes to fuel those journeys contributes to climate change in a major way. 2) The avocado industry in Mexico produces most of the world’s crop and their “blood avocados” cause massive deforestation and line the pockets of drug cartels. 3) Florida avocados, while less dense and creamy, are still super delicious (especially when you can find exceptional varieties like Black Prince or Choquette).
I do want to be upfront that I still get guac at Chipotle, lest I sound like I am making a value judgment against those who eat avocados willy nilly. I am far from a perfect eater and it’s difficult to forego the things you love. But still, it’s good to have the intel.
Guacamole is a treasure. Avocado toast, while overplayed, is undeniably satisfying. But what you should really be doing is battering and frying that big, green mama!
Ingredients:
Avocado
Flour
Eggs
Corn flakes (or bread crumbs if you don’t have breakfast cereal lying around. Or potato chips if you’re feeling decadent.)
Frying oil (choose something with a high smoking point. If you’re looking for a regionally appropriate option, go for Oliver Farm’s sunflower oil)
Step-by-step
Prep batter ingredients: Throw some cornflakes in the blender and pulse until they look like bread crumbs. Pour on a plate. Put some flour on another plate. In a shallow bowl, lightly beat an egg or two with a fork. Quantities depend on how many avocados you’re frying up.
Slice avocado into fat wedges and scoop them out of the skin using a spoon.
Batter like so: Coat each wedge with flour, then egg, then cornflakes. Make sure every square inch of the avocado is covered before moving on to the next coating.
Heat oil over high heat. This is a shallow fry, so fill up the pan with about a half inch of oil. To test if the oil is hot enough, drop a piece of the batter that got stuck on your fingers into the oil. If it immediately starts to sizzle, it’s ready. Try not to let the oil heat up long enough to start smoking, which will make it taste yucky and maybe set off the fire alarm.
Fry until they are a color brown that looks good to you, turning and moving each wedge as needed, so that every part gets its moment in the oil.
Remove from oil, sprinkle crunchy salt on top, and consume!
Cover with Sriracha, ranch, or stick it in a taco. The world is your corn tortilla!
Just Desserts
Don’t forget to eat your vegetables. Go-chan is watching you.
(hat tip to Erinn for bringing Go-chan to our attention)
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Sunshine + Microbes team
Jackie Vitale is the current Chef-in-Residence at the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation. and co-founder of the Florida Ferment Fest. Her newsletter explores the intersection of food, culture, environment and community.
Matt Levin is a freelance reporter based in Colombia. He edits Sunshine + Microbes and contributes others scraps to each issue.