The Varshney twins – Dr. Kush Varshney (currently at IBM) and Professor Lav Varshney (previously at IBM) – have authored a series of papers on the theme of computational gastronomy, two of which — on Food Steganography, and on Active Odor Cancellation — we looked at recently. Example 3 : ‘Flavor Pairing in Medieval European Cuisine: A Study in Cooking with […]
Tag: Food
Computational gastronomy – part 2 – ‘Active Odor Cancellation’
The Varshney twins – Dr. Kush Varshney (currently at IBM) and Professor Lav Varshney (previously at IBM) – have authored a series of papers on the theme of computational gastronomy, one of which, on Food Steganography, we looked at recently. Example 2. Active Odor Cancellation. (IEEE International Workshop on Statistical Signal Processing, Gold Coast, Australia, June-July 2014.) […]
Computational gastronomy – part 1 – ‘Food Steganography’
The Varshney twins – Dr. Kush Varshney (currently at IBM) and Professor Lav Varshney (previously at IBM) – have authored a series of papers on the theme of computational gastronomy. Example 1 : Food Steganography with Olfactory White. (IEEE International Workshop on Statistical Signal Processing, Gold Coast, Australia, June-July 2014) “Can one hide an averse […]
Augmented satiety: Making junk food look bigger
“Recent psychological studies have revealed that the amount of food consumed is influenced by both its actual volume and external factors during eating.” Therefore, reasoned a research team from the University of Tokyo, if a portion of food seems bigger, maybe diners would eat less of it? Their experimental real-time computer graphic kit creates the […]
Eats words and leaves
‘Graphophagia’ is a new word (or neologism if you prefer) coined by Janet Beizer who is Professor of Romance Languages and Literatures at Harvard University. It’s derived from Greek, [literally ‘writing-eating’] and refers to a type of ‘Pica‘ – specifically a subset of ‘Xylophagia’ (i.e. eating wood or paper) but whereby practitioners not only eat […]
Nauseated restaurant criticism
Restaurant reviews, some of them — especially the reviews written by non-professionals — have taken on new importance. They can be a means of identifying illnesses that otherwise go unreported to health officials. Mary McKenna (who is sometimes known professionally as “Scary Disease Girl”), writing on The Plate blog, explains: Yelp Helps NYC Health Department Track Foodborne […]
Eating plants – is it wrong?
Vegetarians sometimes get challenged with questions along the lines of “If you think it’s unethical to eat animals, how about plants, maybe they have feelings too?” What are the ethical implications of/for a pea in a bowl of pea soup for example? Just such a question has been considered by Michael Marder, who is Ikerbasque […]
Nutritional value of eating stinkbugs
If you have a hangover, and are tempted to eat a few stinkbugs (Encosternum delegorguei) as a cure, you might be concerned about their nutritional properties. Fortunately, there are a handful of scholarly papers available on the subject. May we recommend : • Nutritional and Medicinal value of the edible stinkbug, Encosternum delegorguei Spinola consumed […]
Chemical Effect of Beer Marinades on Charcoal-Grilled Pork
Some chemists, or perhaps many chemists, or perhaps no chemists, may feel obligated to revise their views on certain effects of certain marinades on certain substances, if they read this study: “Effect of Beer Marinades on Formation of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons in Charcoal-Grilled Pork,” Iria Yebra-Pimentel [pictured here], Elena Martínez-Carballo, Jesus Simal-Gandara, and Isabel M. […]
Holes in doughnuts – the philosophical implications (part 1)
Achille C. Varzi, who is Professor of Philosophy at Columbia University, New York, is interested in the philosophical implications of holes and voids, prompting a unique investigation into a special subset of hole-bearing entities – namely doughnuts (that’s ‘donuts’ US). “A doughnut always comes with a hole. If you think you can come up with […]