Jonathan Safran Foer: The question is, if we don’t say no to this, what do we say no to? If we don’t say no to something that systematically abuses 50 billion animals, if we don’t say no to the number-one cause of global causing, and not by a little bit, but by a lot, if we don’t say no to what the UN has said is one of the top two or three causes of every significant environmental problem in the world, locally and globally, if we don’t say no to something that is clearly – not clear to me, but clear to the World Health Organization – a prime factor in the generation of Avian and Swine flus, if we don’t say no to something that’s making our antibiotics less effective and ineffective, if we don’t say no to something that causes 76 million of food-borne illness every year, just what do we say no to? This is not a case where we need to go to war with another country or spend a trillion dollars or elect a new government. We just need to say no to it.

Meanwhile, don’t buy Budweiser if it isn’t the kind you get in the Czech Republic! As if you did anyway.

I spent about 2 hours shining that puppy from a hideous brown-black to a passable brass luster. I also had to take it apart to get at the grinding mechanism. I think the dents on the housing give it character. Who knows? Maybe this little guy saw some action back in ’56!

In go the beans . . . (no, we don’t have Trader Joe’s here – thanks Mom!)

And after about 15 minutes of easy grinding, out comes freshly ground coffee – the only way to drink it! (Seriously. I talked to this intense barista guy who’s coffeeshop won “Best in Hungary” and he told me that the real taste of coffee is gone about a week after grinding.)

As part of my job, I do regular restaurant “reviews”, and I take pictures of the food and restaurants for the spread. Over the course of the last six or seven months, the results have been piling up, and I’ve realized that without noticing it or setting my mind to it, this has been one of the only consistent photo projects I’ve done in a while. Whereas in Japan I focused on aesthetics, daily life and portraits, here I have still to find my muse, which is not to say I haven’t been shooting at all. But you take what you can get, and I have certainly learned a lot from trying to both make poorly composed food look better, as well as maintain the beauty of artfully-composed food. Sometimes it just can’t happen – soup for example doesn’t have a lot of contours.

The results so far are HERE. Expect more to be added soon.

We’ve got:
1 round chive-cream cheese wedges
1 round spicy pepper cream cheese wedges
1 package sliced smoked cheese (for veggie burgers)
1 package rolled Slovakian cheese
1 package herbed and braided Slovakian string cheese
1 block olive-muenster (sp?)
1 small block smoked white cheese
1 large block normal trappista
1 tub cottage cheese spread

And now I’m thinking that we might also have a package of mozzarella in there too. Check back for an update later tonight.