In My Kitchen and Thoughts on Chocolate, April, 2024

What’s New?

Using my new dragon bowl for fruit, for candy, and for leeks vinaigrette.

Using a new set of little bowls for tomatoes, artichokes, mushrooms, and grated cheese— to go on pasta.
They were perfectly designed for this use: mis en place.

Cooking in April

Preparation for making stir-fried pork.

Salad and roasted peppers.

My kitchen this month has been busy, as we have had a few invited guests to share meals. I’ve just selected a few of the foods that Len and I cooked or prepared. I’ve posted already about our Passover food, our first outdoor cooking, and some of the things we ate elsewhere. I’m sharing these food images with a group of bloggers who post kitchen thought each month at Sherry’s blog in her link-up called “In My Kitchen.” Now for some thoughts about the possible fate of one of my favorite foods!

Climate Change Is Coming for the Chocolate Supply

Cocoa pods growing on the trunk of a cocoa tree. The beans in these pods must undergo considerable
processing — fermentation, drying, roasting, and conching — before they become cocoa or chocolate.
(Tree is in Matthaei Botanical Gardens, Ann Arbor.)

Climate change and its effect on farming is often in the news, but reading about it seems very distant and maybe not even urgent. If you love chocolate as much as I do, you’ll see one issue as more pressing; specifically, rising chocolate prices due to supply disruption. Ultimately, the problems with the global chocolate supply are caused by poor growing conditions in the tropical areas where cocoa is produced. Recently, these areas have had bad weather — temperatures are high or rainfall is too little or too much, leading to stressed or diseased trees, lower harvests, higher prices, and instability of processors.

Many factors prevent the logical response; that is, the expansion of cocoa farms. The main obstacle is that it takes years to grow new productive trees. Expansion is limited because chocolate can grow only in a narrow area within 20 degrees of the Equator.

According to the trade association World Wide Chocolate (article here), many people “have no idea how difficult cocoa ‘the commodity’ is to grow, procure, process and ultimately apply to different applications and create all of those wonderful chocolate products we’ve come to love.” This article uses two West African countries and their difficulties as examples — the challenges to poor third-world farmers are much more profound than one would guess, and rising prices don’t generally mean that the impoverished farm workers receive more for their labor. As an article in yesterday’s Guardian explains: “Nine in 10 west African growers are smallholders, while the confectionery market is dominated by huge players: Oxfam notes that Lindt, Mondelēz, and Nestlé raked in nearly $4bn in profits from chocolate sales last year, while Hershey’s confectionery profits totalled $2bn.” (link)

But the problems of growers and injustices to workers are just one area of many. More detail about the many difficulties of farmers and processors in Africa appeared in an article in Reuters in March titled “African cocoa plants run out of beans as global chocolate crisis deepens” (link). It’s complicated, involving pre-set prices from farmers who are experiencing very poor harvests. Opportunistic dealers step in and disrupt the expected supplies to the local processing plants:

“In normal times, the market is heavily regulated - traders and processors purchase beans from local dealers up to a year in advance at pre-agreed prices. Local regulators then set lower farmgate prices that farmers can charge for beans. However, in times of shortage like this year, the system breaks down - local dealers often pay farmers a premium to the farmgate price to secure beans. The dealers then sell the beans on the spot market at higher prices instead of delivering them at pre-agreed prices. As global traders rush to purchase those beans at any price to meet their obligations with the chocolate firms, local processors are often left short of beans.”

Chocolate candy production requires more than just cocoa. The Wells Fargo Investment service (article here) summarizes the situation:  “To some extent, chocolate’s escalating cost can be understood by looking at the overall rise in product manufacturing costs, with the Producer Price Index (PPI) for Food Manufacturing increasing 28% since January 2020. This rising inflationary environment has increased the cost of labor, processing, manufacturing, packaging, and transportation. Higher raw material costs for two of chocolate’s crucial ingredients - sugar and cocoa - are also included in this overall cost increase.”

In an article in this month’s Atlantic, titled “Chocolate Might Never Be the Same,” author Yasmin Tayag  wrote:

“By one estimate, retail prices for chocolate rose by 10 percent just last year. And now this is the third year in a row of poor cocoa harvests in West Africa, where most of the world’s cocoa is grown. Late last month, amid fears of a worsening shortage, cocoa prices soared past $10,000 per metric ton, up from about $4000 in January. To shoulder the costs, chocolate companies are gearing up to further hike the price of their treats in the coming months. Prices might not fall back down from there. Chocolate as we know it may never be the same.”

This week’s Guardian article cites even more increase in prices: “Soaring prices for cocoa beans recently hit a record $12,000 a tonne: roughly four times last year’s price. Many think they will go higher.” Issues of sustainability and fairness to workers are not easy to address. For an extremely detailed study of these issues related to global chocolate production and processing, see the recent report from Oxfam (link).

Chocolate candy seems to me to embody a whole range of cultural and economic concerns for our time. Exploitation of third-world agricultural and processing workers, including child labor abuses and even slave labor are of great concern. Chocolate plantations, which must be in the tropics, are especially affected by climate change. All chocolate is a highly processed food and an economic commodity handled by huge corporations. Consumers of luxury goods such as high-end chocolate candy provide a giant contrast with the extreme poverty of the producers. 

So many issues! As I thought about this, it occurred to me that the expression “first-world problems” is a good description for people who are inconvenienced by high candy prices — in contrast to impoverished and exploited third-world farmers and their children who are paid a pittance for the produce for which they labor.

I’ve written about this before, including a post earlier this week. For my post on chocolate cultivation issues see “Cocoa: Who cultivates it? Who processes it? Where does it come from?” and “Chocolate: Food of the Gods.” For more history see “Sacred Gifts, Profane Pleasures.” 

In 2021, this bag of Hershey Nuggets cost $8.98.
It now costs typically $12.58 (though a terrific sale price has been in effect).
I’ve been buying this and other chocolates quite often.

Blog post and photos © 2024 mae sander.

Shared with Sherry’s In My Kitchen.

Chocolate, Food of the Gods

Pre-Columbian drinking vessel with a monkey smoking a cigarette
and holding a cacao pod. (Boston Fine Arts)

When the early Spanish explorers in Mexico encountered chocolate in the 15th century they were impressed. As a beverage, chocolate soon became widely popular in Europe. Later, in the 18th century, it was given the name Theobroma: “Food of the gods.” In the 19th century, methods were developed for the manufacturing of chocolate candy and for its incorporation it in baked goods. Today, chocolate is widely popular in many parts of the world, but there’s a dark side: it grows in the tropics, where poverty, child labor, and even slavery are problems. 

Much has been written about the history of chocolate and about today’s humanitarian considerations of chocolate production. Later this week, I’ll be writing about the current problems with chocolate and agriculture. In that post, I’ll summarize how climate change is leading to smaller crops and thus to skyrocketing prices. Today, I want to look at the steps needed to start with raw cocoa beans and end up with a kiss (Hershey’s, of course).

Jean-Étienne Liotard, "The Chocolate Girl," 1745

A cup of cocoa at home.

Where does chocolate come from?

Cocoa pods growing on a farm in Costa Rica. (source)

Today, I want to take a look at how the cocoa beans — cultivated mainly by impoverished third-world farmers —are processed before the end products of this processing reach us, the first-world consumers. Cocoa grows only within 20 degrees of the equator: a region currently feeling a severe impact from climate change. Chocolate growers in Africa and Central America have been affected by both climate change and political events. Here’s more about how the cocoa beans from these pods are turned into the products we love. 

A farmer in the Democratic Republic of the Congo opens a cocoa pod. (source)

Once the cocoa beans have been harvested and the beans removed from the pods, they require many steps to become the delicious food that a large number of people love:

“The chocolate production process consists of fermentation, drying, roasting, grinding of cocoa beans, mixing of all ingredients (cocoa mass, sugar, cocoa butter, emulsifiers, aroma, and milk components if needed), conching, and tempering. Major chemical reactions occur during fermentation, drying, roasting of cocoa beans, and conching of chocolate mass. These reactions are the most important for flavor and aroma development.” (source)

Fermentation takes place soon after harvest:

• “There are multiple ways to ferment cocoa beans. Cocoa fermentation techniques include placing the extracted pulp on mats or in buckets to dry. Sometimes banana leaves or reeds lay on top of them to help protect them. By leaving them to ferment, the alcohol in the beans changes to acetic or lactic acid.” (Source: the Anarchy Chocolate Store)

Drying cocoa beans (source)

Drying: The fermented beans are spread on boards and dried in the sun for five to ten days. Like the fermentation, this generally takes place in a processing plant near the chocolate-growing plantations. After grinding, the beans are sorted by quality and size.

Grinding results in production of chocolate liquor, containing the cocoa butter and cocoa from the bean.

A conching machine: one of several designs for this procedure.
The earliest conching machines, invented in 1879, were shaped like a conch shell. (source)

Mixing, conching, and tempering. These steps are usually done by a chocolate company such as Hershey or smaller outfits, in facilities near the final production factory. Each processor has their own methods, which produce distinctive flavors and quality of the final product. Without conching and tempering, chocolate bars would be crumbly and show white streaks; these steps are essential for modern candy-making.

• Conching: “The chocolate liquor is placed in a conching machine, a large mixer with heavy, grinding stones. As the machine works, it kneads, heats, and aerates the chocolate. This process helps to develop the flavour of the chocolate, reduce acidity, and evaporate unwanted flavors. The process can last from a few hours to several days depending on the desired quality and characteristics of the chocolate.” 

• Tempering: “After conching, the chocolate is tempered. During tempering, the chocolate is carefully heated, then cooled, then slightly reheated. This manipulation of temperature helps to align the fat crystals in the chocolate, ensuring a smooth texture, glossy appearance, and a nice ‘snap’ when broken. Untempered chocolate can have a grainy texture and a dull appearance.” (Source: Whitaker’s Chocolate)

Technically: “In the tempering process, melted chocolate is first cooled, causing the fatty acid crystals to form nuclei around which the other fatty acids will crystallize. Once the crystals connect, the temperature is then raised to keep them from solidifying.” (source)

The final steps go from the tempered chocolate to manufacturing end-products.

Kisses on the production line at the Hershey Chocolate Factory. (source)

The global politics of chocolate production, trade, and price setting, which affects every step from growers to consumers, is very complex. A long Oxfam report was published this week titled “The Living Income Differential for cocoa: futures markets and price setting in an unequal value chain.” From the report:

“The current cocoa trading system works well if you are a chocolate company that doesn’t want to take responsibility for the lives and livelihoods of the people producing the raw materials. It also works well for you if you’re a trader with massive capital assets – which allows you to hedge your cocoa and speculate on the futures market. It’s also a great system when you’re a speculator with good intel. It’s not a great system when you’re a cocoa producer. We should therefore not be surprised that an increasing number of farmers in Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana are selling their lands, often for goldmining and thereby continuing the vicious cycle of exploitation and natural degradation.” (link)

More on the global situation with chocolate and chocolate prices will be in my end-of-month post later this week.

Blog post © 2024 mae sander. Photos as credited.

Ann Arbor Street Art

 

At Argo Pond.

This Week In Ann Arbor

Spring Progresses

Our grass was mowed for the first time this week. It reminds me of the quote from Dostoyevsky: 

“Though I may not believe in the order of the universe, yet I love the sticky little leaves as they open in spring. I love the blue sky, I love some people, whom one loves you know sometimes without knowing why. I love some great deeds done by men, though I’ve long ceased perhaps to have faith in them, yet from old habit one’s heart prizes them.…I love the sticky leaves in spring, the blue sky — that’s all it is. It’s not a matter of intellect or logic, it’s loving with one’s inside, with one’s stomach.” (From The Brothers Karamazof) 

 

 

Two Good Books, One Bad Book

Good book: reviewed earlier this week (link).

Annoying and not funny, DNF.
Why I bought it: it only cost $1.99

Latest in a long series first by Tony Hillerman, continued  by his daughter Anne.
I’ve read them all, and they are all good.

We Worked a Jigsaw Puzzle

Birds for Eileen’s Critters!

Blog post and photos © 2024 mae sander

Shared with Eileen’s Critters and Deb’s Sunday Salon

How Do You Live?

“You take many things from the world, but I wonder what you will give back in return?”

 (How do You Live? p. 127)

How Do You Live? by Genzaburō Yoshino (1899-1981), written in 1937, has been an influential book for generations of Japanese adolescents. The first translation into English was published very recently. Many readers — myself included — wanted to read it because of its influence on filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki. His recent production The Boy and the Heron (which won an Oscar and is widely praised) refers significantly to the book, which is read by the film’s central character. I have loved Miyazaki’s films for a long time, and I’m eager to see this new one. Frustratingly, it has not yet been released on DVD or streaming, and no clear date has been announced. Note that the Japanese title is “How Do You Live?” clearly referring to the classic book.

The Novel

Copper, a fifteen-year-old middle-school student, is the central figure in How Do You Live? His home is in Tokyo and he attends a traditional Japanese boys’ school, where he deals with the typical problems of boys his age: notably with bullying of himself and his best friends. The chapters about Copper’s somewhat rough schooldays contrast vividly with chapters of calm, rather didactic advice and observations written or spoken by Copper’s uncle, his mother’s younger brother. 

The details of school and daily life, including the descriptions of the city, the boys’ clothing and school uniforms, and their homes is an interesting portrayal of a former time — though the most emphasis is on life in the school. Occasionally the author even offers a hint of the domestic life of Copper and his mother, for example, for a holiday called Higan:

“In the kitchen, as was her custom during Higan, his mother was hard at work with the maid, making ohagi, rice cakes covered with sweet red-bean paste, sesame, and other treats.” (p. 257)

A photo of Tokyo in 1936, from a collection in the Guardian.
If you read the book, I definitely recommend looking at these images. (source)

Before the War

Here’s what I can’t stop thinking about while reading: in the 1930s when the story takes place, Japan was experiencing the rise of a militaristic government. Their leaders would soon attempt to conquer the Asian world, having begun with the colonization of Korea (1910) and China (an active war by 1937) — and just a few years later continuing with the attack on the US base at Pearl Harbor and invasions throughout the Pacific. Surprisingly, I found no direct mention of this political and military situation in the book, perhaps because the author, a socialist, had already spent time in jail for his political views, and because a secret thought-police monitored all publications. 

The bullying incident central to the novel thus may have dual meaning in this situation. Here is one quote from the older students who threaten Copper and his friends:

“Make no mistake,” they insisted, “once they enter society, students with no love of school will surely become citizens with no love of country. People who don’t love their country are traitors. Therefore, we can say that students who don’t love their school are traitors in training. We must discipline any such fledgling traitors.” (p. 149)

With over 80 years of hindsight, a reader can’t help wondering how these fictional boys, including both bullies and victims, would have fared a few years later. Did they inevitably become soldiers? Were they heroic? How did they live? Or did they die? And have generations of future readers in Japan also wondered about their wartime fate? 

Of course this type of speculation is not a good way to read fiction that was written in the past, but it’s compelling to think about, in my opinion.

Rich Boys and Poor Boys

Copper and his mother live in a relatively modest home; they lost their more luxurious home when his father died a few years earlier. One of his friends is very wealthy, and one is very poor — a situation that leads to quite a few observations by Copper’s uncle about material goods and human well-being, for example:

“If nobody made anything, there would be no tastes, no pleasures—consumption would be impossible. The work of making things itself makes it possible for people to be truly human. This is not just a matter of food and clothing. In the academic world, in the art world, the producers are needed far more than the consumers.” (p. 140)

The educated and refined thoughts and observations of Copper’s uncle reveal a wide variety of historical and philosophical approaches to how the uncle hopes Copper will lead his life. He tells Copper about many great men, mostly westerners, including Copernicus after whom he chooses the nickname “Copper.” 

For another example, Cooper and his uncle have a long discussion of Napoleon’s rise and fall, with consideration of his military skill and leadership. Thus the author shows a variety of ways that both Copper and his uncle view a great man. His uncle sums up this discussion of Napoleon’s heroic life:

“Because no matter who the so-called hero is—whether it’s Napoleon or Goethe or even Toyotomi Hideyoshi, who ruled all of Japan in the sixteenth century, or General Nogi, who commanded the Japanese army during the war against Russia—all of them were born during this long, long march of human history and will die within it as well.” (p. 169)

 

Buddhism and Representations of the Buddha

While reading How Do You Live? I was constantly surprised at how thoroughly the cultural and historic facts considered central by Copper’s uncle were rooted in European culture rather than Japanese culture. One chapter in particular was striking, because it concerned the artistic roots of traditional sculpture representing the Buddha. Specifically, these roots began with Greek sculptors who lived in a particular area of Afghanistan after the conquest of Alexander the Great. At that time Buddhism was beginning to take hold as a major religion in Asia. During the initial centuries of Buddhism, Copper’s uncle pointed out, there were no sculptures depicting the Buddha with a human face. Then Greek traditional artists modeled the Buddha to look like the traditional figure of Apollo. 

Buddha from the 4th-5th Century BCE, in the Greek tradition. (source)

Here is part of the conversation between Copper and his uncle about the Greek artistic tradition and its effect on Buddhist sculpture throughout two thousand years:

“From his uncle’s explanation, Copper understood that Greeks were the first to produce Buddha statues. Despite that, to think that these Buddhist sculptures, which were so iconic of the East, were actually children of both Eastern and Western civilizations, naturally couldn’t help but give him a strange feeling. 

“‘So, Uncle, the Big Buddha at Nara is also like that?’ 

 

“‘That’s correct. That huge statue was made by Japanese people, but the skills to do so came from China. And China learned them from India. If you follow them back to the source, you end up at the Gandhara Buddhas again, and from there you are connected all the way to Greek sculpture.’” …

“‘When you think of how Greek civilization flowed right over all these natural barriers well over a thousand years ago, crossing the Chinese mainland and carrying as far as distant Japan—Copper, one can’t help but be truly surprised, don’t you think?’” (pp. 267-269)

 

The Great Buddha of Nara, 8th century. (Source)

The Central Thought of How Do You Live?

In the final chapter of the novel, the author makes his point about human responsibility to all fellow humans loud and clear. In Japan in 1937, this might have been a defiant and dangerous approach, and it might seem radical even now, if taken as a deep and thoughtful value. Specifically, Cooper says:

“I think there has to come a time when everyone in the world treats each other as if they were good friends. Since humanity has come so far, I think now we will definitely be able to make it to such a place. So I think I want to become a person who can help that happen.” (p. 275)

At the end, the author asks the reader: “How will you live?”

Blog post © 2024 mae sander, photos as credited.

 

Passover

Elijah the Prophet, from a 16th century Haggadah. The traditional belief is that Elijah will herald the coming of the Messiah.
To welcome Elijah a cup of wine is left on the Seder table -- "Elijah's cup" -- and near the end of the
ritual, someone opens the door, inviting him in, all hoping that his arrival will bring peace to mankind.

 

From the Haggadah: “This is the promise — not only once did they arise to destroy us, rather in every generation they rise to destroy us. But the Holy One Blessed Be He will save us from their hands.”

This evening, April 22, is the first Seder, the traditional meal that celebrates the beginning of Passover. The Passover holiday is celebrated mainly in people’s homes, though there are sometimes communal meals as well, especially for those who are separated from their families such as students who live away from home. The “Haggadah” is the book of rituals, readings, and prayers that is used for the service that accompanies the meal. I suspect that the above quotation is on a lot of people’s minds this year, along with the irony of a wish for a peaceful world.

Although not religiously observant, we usually celebrate Passover in our home or with family or friends. I’ve written about it many times. Because we had a family visit last week, we ate Passover food early, so here are some pictures illustrating traditional foods that we enjoyed ahead of time.

“Conundrum” is a great name for a wine at Passover.

Wine is one of the traditional items on the Passover table. During the ceremony, all participants drink four glasses of wine at specific times as the Haggadah requires. The start of the ritual is the reading of The Four Questions, asking “Why is this night different from all other nights,” and beginning the explanation of the celebration of the Exodus from Egypt as presented in the Biblical book of Exodus. Since a conundrum is a puzzling question I thought the wine was very aptly named. (Note: for those who observe the kosher dietary laws, this is not kosher wine.)

Two foods that are part of the ritual: Matzo, the unleavened bread eaten as the Israelites fled Egypt,
and Charoset, a combination of grated apples and nuts, representing the mortar that the enslaved Israelites used to build the Pyramids.

Our table setting for our pre-Seder meal.

Symbolic foods: egg, parsley, horseradish, wine.

Another food that’s not required but is traditional: matzo ball soup.

Gefilte fish is not part of the Haggadah ritual, but it’s a key dish in many people’s Passover meal.

Recipes using dried fruit such as prunes are a Passover tradition.

Blog post and photos © 2024 mae sander

Reading and Enjoying Spring Weather

 Julia Alvarez: The Cemetery of Untold Stories

Julia Alvarez is a wonderful story teller! In this novel, a successful New York writer decides to return to her childhood land: the Caribbean country of Dominica — which is also the birthplace of Alvarez. The character brings with her many boxes of notes and materials from novels that she hasn’t written, and creates a “cemetery” for these unrealized projects and the characters they were going to develop. She commissions a talented sculptor make a monument to each persona whose story she didn’t finish. 

The characters who now inhabit these monuments come to life and tell their stories to a local woman who has never read fiction (in fact, she can’t read at all). I loved reading these intertwined tales, along with the story of the illiterate woman herself, and of her family, which also has some members who have become successful American immigrants.

There’s so much in this novel — themes of identity; themes of chances and of opportunities both taken and missed; themes of good and bad family relationships; and themes of the history of the island, which is divided into two countries: Dominica and Haiti. Really good reading!

Claude Izner: Murder on the Eiffel Tower

This is a historical novel that takes place in Paris in 1889 during the great exposition for which the Eiffel Tower had just been built. The painstaking historical detail in the novel is fascinating — I assume it’s accurate, but I didn’t check. For example: 

“I was lucky enough to see the exhibition of Japanese prints organised by the Van Gogh brothers. The Great Wave by Hokusai made a real impression on me.” (p. 17)

“The Colonial Exhibition was made up of numerous buildings, either standing alone or grouped into indigenous villages. Victor did not wait to look at the seven pediments of the temple of Angkor but hurried towards the red structure of the Colonial Palace, an architectural mish-mash of Norwegian, Chinese and French Renaissance styles topped by green roofing.” (p. 60)

The food details are especially fun:

“Fried-fish vendors and left-over food sellers were setting up their stalls in the wind. Dishes of beetroot sat alongside rounds of cold black pudding.” (p 161) 

 

“In the kitchen, Germaine, with tousled hair and apron askew, was stirring the contents of a saucepan with a wooden spoon. Victor sniffed, recognising the aroma of partridge and cabbage in a cognac sauce.” (p. 207) 

Unfortunately, as a detective story this novel is too complicated. One murder after another piles up, and one man becomes obsessed with the murders and tries to figure out how they are linked and who is the perpetrator. At a frantic pace, he follows one suspect after another, becoming exhausted and confused. He also falls in love with a woman who is also enmeshed in the goings-on. He keeps having migraine headaches, or being hit over the head, or being baffled and overtired, or pursuing the love interest instead of the mystery. He’s always trying to think of some elusive insight that he can’t quite bring to the surface. There’s too much of this type of description:

“An idea was taking hold, but just out of his reach. He put on his frock coat as his mind worked on. … His memory was still teasing him: it was something to do with a name he had glimpsed recently, a name … But what name?” (p. 203)

I found the author’s mystery skills somewhat clumsy, and the piling-on of details and events somewhat unbelievable. Compared to Agatha Christie or other classic writers of the twentieth century, Izner just isn’t quite as good at creating a plot, embedding clues, or building suspense. I’m thinking of the well-formed detectives, victims, by-standers and witnesses in the novels of Martin Walker or Elly Griffiths or Donna Leon, and I just don’t find Izner’s focus and clarity to measure up.

Spring Pictures from This Week

Sunrise outside my bedroom window.

Just before the rain.

The beaver lodge at Matthaei Botanical Gardens.
Last year, the beaver built a dam across the stream, but a winter storm washed it away.

Michigan students painting “The Rock” — maybe in anticipation of finals during the next two weeks.

The magic spoon turns purple when the frozen ice cream touches it.
After a spring walk in the woods, we stopped for ice cream.

I enjoyed a scoop of each of these flavors.

Blog post and all photos © 2024 mae sander

Shared with Sunday Salon at Readerbuzz.