University of Chicago Booth School of Business Professor Emeritus Samuel Peltzman will receive the Norman MacLean Faculty AWard for his contributions to teaching and student life at the University.
Details about the Norman MacLean Faculty Award follow:
Reposted by Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France and developer of the Novgorod and Bento War Games
This Food Diplomacy article in The Parliament online magazine is interesting. There are many online entries devoted to food diplomacy:
https://www.theparliamentmagazine.eu/news/article/food-diplomacy-gastrodiplomacy-europe
Some more information on culinary diplomacy in diplo online educational site:
https://www.diplomacy.edu/topics/culinary-diplomacy/
Saveurcmagazine still does the best food diplomacy. It is the fashion industry applied to food for me like Gourmet magazine as well:
Reposted by Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France and developer of the Novgorod and Bento War Games
Hydrangeas’ Economic and Ecological Value by Ruth Paget
On our weekend marketing day where my family usually goes to Costco, Trader Joe’s, and Nob Hill for American and French food items, I saw huge pom-pom flowers for sale at Costco.
I used Google lens to identify the blue and pink pom-pom plants and saw that these were hydrangeas. I have given these plants to people as gifts, but forgot the name of the plants.
Now that I had the plant name, I looked up the plant characteristics on several sites and read that hydrangea flowers turn blue in acidic soil and pink in alkaline soil.
Hydrangeas came become very tall (up 8 feet) and grow in moist, well-drained soil and partial shade according to Google AI and Master Gardener Catherine Boeckmann at Almanac.com, who has written extensively on their care and topics like coloring flowers and growing them from cuttings. Her excellent article follows:
Knowing how to grow hydrangeas from cuttings can be a part-time or gig business, if you have a space to grow the flowers and a customer base. Nurseries like Grigg’s, Bokay, or Earthbound, hardware stores like Lowe’s, Costco, CVS, or other places where you see flowers sold could probably tell you how to grow sellable plants and where to get them distributed.
Hydrangeas have an economic value beyond plant sales. The three varieties described in hydrangea.com below attract bees, butterflies, and other pollinators, which are important for honey production and agricultural plant fertilization for crops, orchards, and vineyards:
Hydrangeas provide food for bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds, which are all present in Monterey County California where I saw these beautiful pom-pom hydrangea plants. Hydrangeas help keep places like the Monarch Butterfly Sanctuary in Pacific Grove, California thriving (open October to March during butterfly migration to Latin America.)
Raising flowers like hydrangeas helps create a gardening community that supports nursery sales like potting soil, fertilizer, containers, and tools as well which is good for the economy, especially in California where we have year-round sunshine making it easy to grow plants. These items might be suitable for delivery work as well.
For young couples or young families, taking care of a beautiful hydrangea can be part of a daily connection to nature that supports bees, butterflies, hummingbirds and the local economy through eco-tourism, agriculture, and vineyards.
Hydrangeas have a tangible health benefit in proving antioxidants which remove free radicals from the body that may cause cancer. Honey is sweet, so you do have to limit intake to not gain weight.
The photo below from Getty Images shows a hydrangea in all its pom-pom glory:
https://www.gettyimages.com/photos/hydrangea
Happy Gardening!
By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France and developer of the Novgorod and Bento War Games
The following article by McKinsey about placing health checkpoints with nurses in grocery stores and pharmacies in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania is an interesting public health initiative that helps everyone get their blood pressure and blood sugar checked as part of preventative health where and when it is convenient:
Reposted by Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France and developer of the Novgorod and Bento War Gam s
Porchetta in the Park: A Florentine Food Truck Memory by Ruth Paget
After eating a memorable meal at the Fattoria di Maiano up in the hills around Florence (Italy) in Fiesole, my husband Laurent and I spent the next part of our vacation in touristy Florence looking for authentic food in a speedy not slow food location.
What is truly wonderful about Italy, especially Florence, is that we found the authentic people’s food of Tuscany at the Mercato di Cascine (Cascine Market) on Tuesday morning.
This market that stretches a mile along the Arno River has hundreds of food trucks selling cuts of spit-roasted pork and porchetta (pronounced por-ketta) sandwiches among other food items, clothes, shoes, and household items.
Several trucks specialized in just porchetta sandwiches, which I later found out was roasted, rolled pork belly seasoned with herbs like rosemary and fennel. Porchetta is basted every ½ hour with its fatty cooking juices, which makes it taste especially good.
Laurent and I bought porchetta sandwiches, because they were easy to order for tourists with limited Italian skills.
The street vendor we purchased our porchetta sandwiches from grilled two ciabatta bread halves and placed them two medium slices of warm porchetta on the bottom bun. Next, the vendor placed a mound of peppery arugula on top of the porchetta with a splash of red wine vinegar.
The warm top bun went on top of the arugula. The skin on the porchetta was crisp along with the ciabatta bun for good texture to this calorie drenched sandwiched. I liked the punchy vinegar on the arugula too.
We bought San Pellegrino Limonata, lemon sodas, to go with our delectable sandwiches.
We strolled up and down the market for exercise and being part of the local culture and economy I was so happy to have found an authentic agritourism spot in Italy that also supported what was to become the globally respected Slow Food Movement.
The recipe below from Serious Eats calls for 4-hour roast on its belly roll porchetta that can be used in sandwiches.
https://www.seriouseats.com/all-belly-porchetta-recipe-italian-roast-pork
A food truck specializing in porchetta sandwiches might be able to turn a profit quickly by setting up reservation orders at a Farmers’ Market or by setting up neighborhood delivery runs like ice cream trucks or Omaha Steaks.
Having a porchetta truck run on a non-market day like Monday in Salinas, California could bring food into local neighborhoods and distribute it quickly.
Also, Salinas has easy access to all the Porchetta sandwich ingredients - organic pork from San Benito county, organic arugula from Monterey County, and lots of homemade wine vinegar options in California. The ciabatta bread can easily be made locally too, if we have a constant supply of sugar.
Food thoughts for the day!
By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France and developer of the Novgorod and Bento War Games
Classic Greek salad, what we called Village Greek Salad in Detroit’s (Michigan) Greek Town, uses no lettuce, but is loaded with chopped vegetables and feta cheese with lemon juice and oil dressing with oregano.
The vegetables used in this salad include:
-cucumbers
-red onions
-cherry tomatoes
-Black Kalamata olives
Delish provides a great spring and summer recipe below:
Nob Hill Supermarket in Salinas, California sells feta cheeee in several sizes and formats.
Bon Appetit!
Reposted by Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France and developer of the Novgorod and Bento War Games
The Big Sur Marathon will take place on April 26, 2026 from Big Sur to Monterey, California.
The Marathon’s route is certainly one of the most cliff-hanging events in the world.
Details about the Big Sur Marathon follow:
https://www.bigsurmarathon.org/
Reposted by Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France and developer of the Novgorod and Bento War Games
The 2026 Asian Cultural Fair will be held on April 25, 2026 from 11 am to 4 pm in Salinas, California’s Chinatown Neighborhood.
Good food community event to be sure!
Details about the event follow:
https://www.salinasace.org/acf
Reposted by Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France and developer of the Novgorod and Bento War Games
Steak Tourism at Pub’s (Growers’ Pub) in Salinas, California by Ruth Paget
I try to make every steak meal at Pub’s (Growers’ Pub) in Salinas, California a surf and turf meal when I do what I consider “steak tourism” in a region with 40 pioneering ranch families, whose brands are emblazoned on two walls of the back dining room.
For starters, I ordered Monterey Bay Fried Calamari that have a delicate flour and corn meal crust. I love dunking these warm morsels in chipotle cream cocktail dipping sauce. This part of my surf and turf meal at Pub’s brings back many happy memories to me of my honeymoon in Barcelona, Spain, using up the last few days of a Eurail Pass vacation of Italy, Spain, and France.
I prefer seafood to steak, but when I eat steak I like to go to Pub’s for delicious meat at varying sizes and price levels so my husband Laurent can eat items like rack of lamb while I can happily eat the flat iron steak meal.
The Angus steaks at Pub’s seem to come from two local sources in Monterey County – Corral de Tierra off Highway 68 just outside Salinas and Parkfield located off Highway 101 inland from San Miguel Arcangel. (Parkfield is famous for its spa with horseback riding and café.)
I like my steak medium rare, which was perfectly cooked with sea salt added as the only needed extra flavoring. For the potato option in this meal, I ordered scalloped potatoes made with delicious aged cheddar cheese. (Scalloped potatoes are a favorite hot dish in Wisconsin where I lived for several years and took family vacations as a child.)
This steak meal came with a green leaf salad as an appetizer, which I ate with the house-made Thousand Island dressing. The buttered and seasonal vegetables with the steak – steamed broccoli, zucchini, and carrots – were excellent as you would expect from a growers’ pub.
We brought our own bottle of wine to dinner (purchased at COSTCO) and the reasonable corkage fee of $20 for our Château Carbonnieux Bordeaux.
This winery was established in the 13th century and has changed hands between a local Benedictine Monastery and bourgeois families of Bordeaux since that time. The Perrin family currently owns it and has instituted sustainable wine making practices, which you can read about on their website.
Château Carbonnieux is also the proud owner of a pecan tree planted by Thomas Jefferson on a 1786 visit to the Châteaux.
This Bordeaux wine comes from the Graves sub-region of Bordeaux and lies along the Garonne River that flows into the Gironde Estuary that opens out into the Atlantic Ocean.
I felt like I was drinking history in a glass as I sipped this wine with my steak meal.
Other diners who want to combine an excellent wine with their steak tourism meal at Pub’s can check out the following stores in town in case you want to bring a wine bottle to go with dinner:
-COSTCO
-Star Market
-BevMo
For relaxed and delicious steak tourism in Salinas (California), Pub’s (Growers’ Pub) should be a destination on your visit to Salinas and Monterey County.
By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France and developer of the Novgorod and Bento War Games
The BEA (Bureau of Economic Analysis) announced that the US GDP for 2025 was 2.1% in the following press release. Scroll down for the cumulative 2025 figures:
https://www.bea.gov/news/2026/gdp-second-estimate-4th-quarter-and-year-2025
The following chart summarizes world economies by GDP in 2025 and gives a historic listing for 1980:
https://www.visualcapitalist.com/ranked-the-worlds-top-economies-in-1980-vs-2025/
The chart below of the world’s largest economies was produced by the International Monetary Fund:
https://www.worldometers.info/gdp/gdp-by-country/
Reposted by Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and developer of the Novgorod and Bento War Game
The Circus Osorio is coming to Salinas, California from April 17 to 27, 2026 at the Salinas Rodeo.
Information about Circus Osorio and tickets follow:
https://www.americancrowncircus.com/
Reposted by Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France and developer of the Novgorod and Bento War Games
The University of Chicago is offering 50% off select Earth Day books until April 24, 2026 - a one-week only sale.
Book topics include:
-frogs
-mushrooms
-birds
-trees
-snakes
-shells
-flowers
Details about the books on sale and purchase information ($9) follow:
https://mail.google.com/mail/mu/mp/465/#cv/priority/%5Esmartlabel_promo/19d9b6d7e11fc7cf
Reposted by Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France and developer of the Novgorod and Bento War Games
Sea Otter Classic has exploded in 2026 at Laguna Seca midway between Salinas and Monterey (California).
There are 1,000 brand at this year’s event according to the Monterey County Weekly and events for people of all ages.
Hotels are super full for this 4-day biking event, but may have wait lists.
This is a great venue for tracking walking time, especially if you have wearable tech med to track your miles and/or steps.
Details about this event follow:
https://www.seaotterclassic.com/
Reposted by Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France
While driving through downtown Salinas (California), I saw a banner for First Friday Salinas and did some further research on it.
This monthly event features art and music produced by Salinas area artists as part of the Salinas Valley Arts Incubator Ecosystem matching up artists with the community and potential buyers. First Friday keeps the community “strong, creative, and connected” for all ages.
First Friday also showcases regional cuisine from organic producers.
First Friday helps make the arts part of engaged community life in Salinas. All of downtown becomes an art fair with live music, artwork, outstanding food for purchase, late hour store shopping, and a relaxed atmosphere for learning about the art produced in Salinas Valley.
Strolling during this event also provides some light, pleasurable exercise that you can measure with wearable techmed.
Information about First Friday participants follows:
https://salinascitycenter.com/whats-going-on/first-friday/
Note: There is garage parking available downtown by the Steinbeck Center.
Reposted by Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France and developer of the Novgorod and Bento War Games
Land of Plenty Cookbook Review by Ruth Paget
Fuchsia Dunlop’s cookbook Land of Plenty about the food of Sichuan, a southern interior province of China, introduced this region’s spicy and healthy food to diners more familiar with the food of Hong Kong and its surrounding Guangdong province in the early 2000s.
Notably, Dunlop introduces readers to the dry-roasting cooking technique of using very little oil in a wok to almost sear foods and concentrate their flavor that is used in Sichuan, especially to cook green beans and pork.
Dunlop also introduces readers to the seasonings often used in Sichuanese dishes – garlic, ginger, scallions, red Sichuan peppercorns, and sometimes sesame oil to finish a dish. Dunlop describes Sichuan red peppercorns as numbing, but notes the chile peppers are judiciously used for an overall pleasing effect by Sichuanese cooks. I certainly like these flavors and will sometimes use all of them when I stir-fry cabbage.
What I really like in Dunlop’s cookbook are the easy-to-follow, step-by-step recipes. If you cook enough of these recipes, you will eventually learn to set up a Chinese mise en place, so you can finish cooking most dishes in 15 minutes or less.
The energy savings from using a wok in cooking times should encourage many American cooks to adopt a Wok Wednesday Chinese dish to try cooking at home.
Home cooks might adopt a weekly dinner schedule like the following to include a wok dish:
Monday – pasta dinner
Tuesday – tacos
Wednesday – wok dinner
Thursday – pizza or delivery
Friday – fish
Young couples or young families might want to try the following two recipes for health, flavor, and money savings (use sweet red bell peppers if you think the Sichuan peppers might be too hot):
*Chicken with Chiles
The chicken in this dish is marinated in rice wine, light and dark soy sauce, and salt. The marinated chicken is then stir-fried and set aside. Next, dried red chile peppers are stir-fried with garlic and Sichuan peppers.
The chicken goes back in the pot with chopped scallions. The dish is finished with sesame oil and served.
*Dry-fried Green Beans
The cooking technique here uses very little oil so the green beans’ flavor concentrates and the skin almost blisters. The green beans are cooked and set aside.
Then, oil is added to the wok along with ginger, garlic, and scallions. The green beans are added back in and stirred till coasted with the seasonings and blazing hot.
If you add rice, these two dishes make a nice meal that is a fun multicultural activity for the family.
Wok Wednesday can feature dishes from many countries around Asia, but Fuchsia Dunlop’s Food of Plenty seems to have the easiest directions to follow so you can make a delicious dish on your first try.
Happy Cooking!
By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France and developer of the Novgorod and Bento War Games
4 University of Chicago Professors Win Guggenheim Fellowships reposted by Ruth Paget
Subjects supported by these fellowships include:
-urban sociology - analyzing how needs like energy, food, and waste management in cities are impacting the environment
-art of Mesoamerica (Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, and Honduras)
-19th and 20th century politics and culture in Russia and Europe
-deep sea oceanography and the removal of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere
Details about the awards follow:
Reposted by Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France and developer of the Novgorod and Bento War Games
Travel with well-read professors and classmates always sounds interesting to me.
Places UChicago can travel to with a university professor guide include:
-Antarctica
-Central Europe
-The Camino de Santiago in Northern Spain
-Southwest National Parks
-Tunisia
-Christkindlmarkts in Germany and Austria along the Danube River
-Mexico City and Oaxaca
University alumni clubs could help their tourism industry alumni with travel packages like the following ones:
https://mail.google.com/mail/mu/mp/465/#cv/priority/%5Esmartlabel_personal/19d97ace5ec8a7e6
Reposted by Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France and developer of the Novgorod and Bento War Games
Sam’s Wallet on YouTube delivers another tasty, fast, and delicious meal for under $2 made with ingredients from Trader Joe’s - North African Shakshuka.
For this dish you sauté onions with spices. Then, you add in marinara sauce and eggs. Toast points go around the pan for serving at the table.
What makes Sam’s Wallet great is that he calculates the price of ingredients that go into this dish that costs less than $2 per serving.
The YouTube video follows:
https://m.youtube.com/shorts/hbk3aZMIZro
Reposted by Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France and developer of the Novgorod and Bento War Games
This Vinted app for selling clothes looks interesting.
I have not used it, but if you are tech proficient, this might be a way to make money.
The app website follows:
Reposted by Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France and developer of the Novgorod and Bento War Games
Sam’s Wallet YouTube Narrator made homemade chicken noodle soup that gave him 10 meals for about $2 a day or a grand total of about $20 for an entire pot of soup.
What is nice about this video is that he gives the price for each ingredient and says that he bought most ingredients at Trader Joe’s.
This recipe is a healthy money-saver.
I am looking forward to viewing more of his work on YouTube.
The Sam’s Wallet video for homemade chicken noodle soup follows:
https://m.youtube.com/shorts/neWTKH3031I
Happy Cooking!
Reposted by Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France and developer of the Novgorod and Bento War Games
Chinese Stir-Fries for Health and Money Saving by Ruth Paget
Fuchsia Dunlop’s cookbook Every Grain of Rice: Simple Chinese Home Cooking promotes the use of healthy ingredients by usually stir-frying or dry-roasting ingredients in a wok.
Stir-frying is mostly used in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong and Hong Kong. This method features the use of 2 to 4 tablespoons of oil heated to a high temperature with ingredients cooked quickly in about 15 minutes or less.
Dry roasting uses less oil than stir-frying. In dry-roasting 1 to 2 tablespoons of oil are heated to a high temperature and ingredients are almost seared in this method that also takes about 15 minutes or less to complete. Dry-roasting is a method used in the southern interior province of Sichuan.
Dunlop’s book features recipes from Guangdong, Sichuan as well as a few from the Jiangnan region surrounding and including Shanghai.
Dunlop provides several sample menus in Every Grain of Rice that adults who want to try tasting Chinese food would enjoy.
For people with children or who are just starting out in cooking with a wok, I would suggest trying the following recipes from Fuchsia Dunlop’s Every Grain of Rice:
*Spiced Cucumber
For this recipe, you slice a cucumber in half, scoop out seeds, salt it, drain it, and then stir-fry it.
Then, you add in Sichuan chile peppercorns and finish it with sesame oil.
*Stir-fried Greens with Dried Shrimp
This recipe could not be more Chinese with the use of dried shrimp. If you go to Chinatown in San Francisco on market day, the air is redolent with the briny scent of dried shrimp.
Dried shrimp are a salty acquired taste, but they are a way of storing protein over long periods of time as well as valuable salt in a country with very little air-conditioning.
For this recipe, you can stir any kind of greens or cabbage along with the dried shrimp and just finish the dish with soy sauce.
Stir-fried greens with dried shrimp is an especially great dish to eat in Salinas and Monterey County California, because we have so much lettuce and varieties of cabbage grown in this region. Transportation costs are lower that those for the rest of the country for these regional products, which keeps the ingredient price low.
Unsold shrimp on market day could be turned into dried shrimp, if food waste reduction management practices are put in place.
Fuchsia Dunlop’s cookbook Every Grain of Rice is an important cookbook for showing how to reduce the amount of energy spent to cook a meal.
The traditional Chinese dining pattern of about ½ of plate of rice to ¼ plate of vegetables and ¼ plate of protein stretches food dollars while providing essential nutrients as well. Meat has always been expensive in China, which may account for how this ratio system came into being.
For a great introduction to Chinese food and energy-saving cooking techniques, families might enjoy reading and trying the recipes in Fuchsia Dunlop’s Every Grain of Rice.
By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France and developer of the Novgorod and Bento War Games
This recipe for Veracruz-style red snapper calls for onions, garlic, tomatoes, olives, jalapeño peppers, and oregano. It is easy to do once you watch this video.
This is a perfect recipe for Tuesday, market day, in East Alisal Salinas, California.
Everything in this recipe can be obtained in Salinas and Monterey County, if you switch a local white fish for the red snapper.
The YouTube video recipe for this adaptable and seasonal fish recipe follows:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=NCHC4MMs9Oc&pp=ygUSQmFrZWQgc3BhbmlzaCBmaXNo
Reposted by Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France and developer of of the Novgorod and Bento War Games
Anthropologist and University of Chicago Professor Sarah Newman analyzes how what is considered trash has varied through history and across different cultures in Unmasking Trash: New Histories of Old Things.
Details about the book, purchase information, and and its recent award of excellence by the University of Chicago follow:
Reposted by Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France and developer of the Novgorod and Bento War Games
Pico de Gallo Salsa is healthy, delicious, and inexpensive to make at home says Laura Vitale who has made thousands of YouTube cooking videos and written a cookbook.
Everything in her recipe can easily be found in Salinas and Monterey County California.
Laura Vitsle’s YouTube video recipe for pico de gallo salsa follows:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=avKa6k2Lkzs&pp=ygUTUGljbyBkZSBnYWxsbyBzYWxzcw%3D%3D
This is a great recipe for market day on Tuesday in East Salinas California.
Reposted by Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France and developer of the of the Novgorod and Bento War Games
The hardest thing to make in this Sicilian potato salad by Giovanni Siracusa are the boiled potato cubes.
Everything is easily obtainable in Salinas and Monterey County. White wine vinegar can be tricky to find, but you can order it online.
This recipe that can be easily adapted to the seasons follow on the YouTube video:
https://m.youtube.com/shorts/GrHVmVarzgE
Reposted by Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France and developer of the Novgorod and Bento War Games
The 13th Biennial Marina Garden Show will be held on May 3, 2026 in Marina,California from 10 am to 3 pm at various locations.
This is a sweet outing for young families.
Details about this event follow:
Happy Garden Strolling!
Reposted by Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France and developer of the Novgorod and Bento War Games
Bottlebrush Flowering Plants Blowing in the Breeze at Pebble Beach, California by Ruth Paget
On a recent run to the Market at Pebble Beach, California for an organic Peerless latte coffee, I saw an aptly named bottlebrush red flowering plant by the side of the store.
I did not know the flower’s name at first, so I downloaded the Google app that has a camera feature that allows you to photograph and identify an object as well as tap into a small encyclopedia’s worth of description.
I saw from the Google camera app that the red flower I was admiring was a bottlebrush flowering plant with origins in Australia. The Google app further explained that bottlebrush flowers attract bees, butterflies, and humming birds – all three of these species have an oversize ecological and economic value relative to their diminutive size.
Changes to the ecosystem in California have endangered those three species, but plantings like the bottlebrush plant at Pebble Beach is one way in which a community of gardeners can attract the bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds for generations to come.
The economic value of bees, monarch butterflies, and hummingbirds is extremely important in a region like Monterey County that has important investments in agriculture. Bees, monarch butterflies, and hummingbirds all pollinate field crops.
Hummingbirds also pollinate flowers, both wild flowers and ornamental flowers, that can be used in floral sales in addition to making the region look beautiful for locals and tourists alike.
Bees make honey, which can be great for generating sales. Honey is an antioxidant with darker honeys having more antioxidants. Antioxidants remove free radicals from the body, which may cause cancer. Bees can contribute to health through honey and wealth as long as you do not get stung around them or eat too much honey.
Finally, monarch butterflies contribute to the tourism industry on the Monterey Peninsula as they migrate through this region from October to March on their way to Latin America.
There is a Monarch Butterfly Sanctuary in Pacific Grove that has docent tour guides who explain the differences between male and female monarch butterflies and the butterfly life cycle for example. There are so many monarch butterflies in Pacific Grove that it has been called Butterfly Town.
The bottlebrush flowering plant at the Pebble Beach Market contributes to the ecosystem attracting bees, monarch butterflies, and hummingbirds to the Monterey and Salinas region. It is a plant that could be part of butterfly gardens around the region.
A photo of a bottlebrush flowering plant in an online ad follows:
Note: I have posted a link to the Google app with photo id for information below.
Happy Garden Strolling!
By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France and developer of the Novgorod and Bento War Games
Too Good To Go Food Waste Reduction App Information reposted by Ruth Paget
I read about the Food Waste Reduction app called Too Good to Go in this week’s Monterey County Weekly.
Too Good to Go is set up like delivery apps with food providers listing information on daily specials about food that they will get rid of in a few days, if it is not purchased on Too good to Go.
The app lists available food for sale at different vendors and even has a push feature available to alert you when your favorite places have food on sale.
More information about Too Good to Go is available at their website below:
The link to the Monterey County Weekly article about food waste reduction and the role apps are playing as part of this new industry follows:
Reposted by Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France and developer of the Novgorod and Bento War Games
The Fish and Rice Food of Shanghai, China by Ruth Paget
Fuchsia Dunlop is known more as the popularize of the fiery hot food of Sichuan, China, which she wrote about in her cookbooks Land of Plenty and the Food of Sichuan.
She has written an equally great cookbook entitled Land of Fish and Rice about the mild food of Shanghai and “Jiangnan” region south of the Yangtze River in China.
I have visited two cities in this region when I went to China on a study tour in 1979 – Nanjing and Beijing. I discovered a Chinese dish on a commune outside Shanghai that I really liked, ma’po dofu, made with braised pork and firm bean curd sprinkled with chopped green onions. I thoughe the bean curd, tofu, would never catch on in the US despite my liking this dish.
That is a very positive memory I have of China. I looked through Land of Fish and Rice for recipes that could create a positive experience about Chinese food for a young family and put together a two-course meal that uses ingredients that are easily obtainable in the US.
The recipes I like for a Shanghai lunch or dinner follow:
*Stir-fried Cockles with Chinese Chives
Cockles are small clams. Chives are mild flavored, think onions that can chop with scissors.
In this dish, you stir-fry the chives first in oil until their fragrance rises. Then, you add in shelled and cooked cockle meat till steam rises. When everything is piping hot, add 2 tablespoons stock and bring to a boil before seasoning with salt.
*Shanghai Fried Rice with Salt Pork and Green Bok Choy
You can eat this side dish alone because it has so many good ingredients in it. To make this dish, you stir-fry rehydrated mushrooms, salt pork or pancetta, bok choy (Chinese cabbage), with onions and ginger.
When everything is piping hot, you add sesame oil as a seasoning just before serving. As you can see from these dishes, you do not use garlic. Fuchsia Dunlop notes that garlic is too strongly flavored for most of the dishes in Shanghai and its surrounding area. The cooks of Shanghai prefer ginger and green onions as their seasoning base Dunlop writes.
Fuchsia Dunlop’s cookbook Land of Fish and Rice contains much cultural information that young families can use to make a multicultural meal experience that could include:
-shopping for ingredients at the supermarket and/or the Marina Farmer’s Market (Sundays 10 am to 2 pm), which has some Asian ingredients on sale
-Preparing ingredients ahead of time to cook -practicing using chopsticks
–look up youtube videos for instructions -maybe do a video of dinner dishes and chopstick use for a tiktok or youtube video
Happy Cooking!
By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France and developer of the Novgorod and Bento War Games
The University of Chicago’s Court Theatre is hosting a lecture on university and theatre collaborations grounded in academic research and development of talent featuring Peter Sellars from the Opera & Theatre Department of the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) and the University of Chicago’s Court Theatre’s Artistic Director Marilyn F. Vitale on Thursday, April 16, 2026 in Chicago, Illinois.
Details about registering for this free lecture for in-person attendance in Chicago or via zoom follow:
https://mail.google.com/mail/mu/mp/465/#cv/priority/%5Esmartlabel_personal/19d78b61d01db793
Note: There is a direct United flight now between Monterey, California and Chicago, Illinois.
Reposted by Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopstivks and Marrying France
The Czech We’re Still at War graphic novel published by the University of Chicago Press and Post Bellum was created for generations that did not grow up under the rise of totalitarian regimes in Europe.
Information and purchasing details about the book follow:
https://mail.google.com/mail/mu/mp/465/#cv/priority/%5Esmartlabel_promo/19d7762507931bb0
Reposted by Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France and developer of the Novgorod and Bento War Games
Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky recounts the daily terror of living in small town France when Adolf Hitler was expanding his control of Europe.
The book costs $8.99 on Kindle today.
Posted by Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France and developer of the Novgorod and Bento War Games
A great love story read about love during wartime in World War I France is Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks.
It is $4.99 on Kindle today..
Details about the book and purchasing information follow:
By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France and developer of the Novgorod and Bento War Games
The University of Chicago Press is selling Earth Day topic books as $2.99 e-books during April 2026.
Subjects include:
-Mushrooms
-Trees
-Flowers
-Frogs
-Shells
-Snakes
These books and others and others are on sale at varying prices till June 15, 2026 as part of the UChicago Spring Book Sale.
Details and download information follow:
https://mail.google.com/mail/mu/mp/465/#cv/priority/%5Esmartlabel_promo/19d723a6cb1bbd37
Reposted by Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France and developer of the Novgorod and Bento War Games
The University of Chicago is hosting an in-person economics lecture with Nobel Prize Winners in Economics from 2024 (James Paterson), 2025 (Joel Mokyr), and Stone Center Director Professor Steven Durlauf on April 14, 2026 about History’s Lessons for Economic Growth.
Getting out of stagnation appears to be a recurring problem.
Details about this event and registration information follow:
https://web.cvent.com/event/1408183d-838d-4e4b-bd66-e2de0438c284/summary
Note: There is a direct United flight now between Monterey, California and Chicago, Illinois.
Reposted by Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France and developer of the Novgorod and Bento War Games
China’s Hunanese Food – Surprisingly Simple and Delicious by Ruth Paget
The Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook: Recipes from Hunan Province by Fuchsia Dunlop contains recipes from the homeland of China’s Chairman Mao Zedong. Dunlop’s cookbook preserves Hunan’s flavorful and healthy dish that young families can try to learn about one of China’s most important culinary areas.
Dishes from Hunan province appear on menus throughout China due to its ties with leaders of the Communist Party, notably Mao Zedong.
People interested in diplomatic careers or international business careers can find something from every food group in Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook that they can try in the US or China to help prepare them for meals they might eat in the course of their career.
The following recipes use items that have become easily obtainable in most local supermarket’s Asian food sections for families who would like to try a multicultural meal like the following one at home using recipes in Dunlop’s Hunan cookbook:
*Farmhouse Stir-Fried Pork with Green Peppers
Dunlop writes that pork is the main meat staple in Hunan. She notes that this dish is found on almost all restaurant menus in Hunan, including those in Changsha, the capital city of Hunan province.
You can use green bell peppers or hotter ones in this recipe. The green peppers are sliced and marinated along with sliced pork belly in shaoxing wine and soy sauce.
The peppers are cooked first in a wok and set aside. They are then taken out and the pork bellies are cooked next.
Garlic and fermented, black soybeans go in next followed by lean pork. When the pork has changed color to indicate being cooked, the green peppers are added back into the work and stir fried till steaming.
The green peppers in this dish contain Vitamin C, which is also an antioxidant that helps remove free radicals, which may cause cancer from the body. The black, fermented soybeans in this dish give it extra protein, probiotics to promote gut health, iron, and more antioxidants.
I like the flavor combination in this mild, salty dish, which is cheaper than beef. You could probably substitute chicken in this dish or firm tofu.
*For vegetables, I like Hunanese stir-fried mixed mushrooms.
This dish starts out with stir-frying steamed smoked bacon and adding garlic, ginger, and pepper flakes. Then, chopped mushrooms go in the wok.
Once the mushrooms are cooked, you add stock, salt, pepper, and chopped scallions before serving.
The secret to preparing Chinese food is to cut and slice up everything up in advance and line up your measuring spoons and cups and spices before cooking. Stir-frying is easy if you do this.
The Salinas, California angle to this story is that most of our local supermarkets have an Asian food aisle for the pantry items needed to prepare the dishes Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook.
For Asian produce, the Marina Certified Farmer’s Market on Sundays from 10 am to 2 pm often sells Asian produce like bitter melons and strongly flavored green onions. This market also has food trucks and stall vendors. Lee’s Garden is located in the shopping mall where the market is held, if you want to do a market day lunch. (Ho-Wah Restaurant is right around the corner on Del Monte too).
For items you cannot find at the market, there is an Asian supermarket on Reservation across from QQ Noodle to make market day a real excursion.
The Hunanese dishes described in Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook by Fuchsia Dunlop can be the foundation of a fun multicultural Chinese food activity for young families in Salinas and the Monterey County region. There are more resources in town to do this locally. This is just example of how to organize Chinese Food Day.
Happy Cooking!
Note: Marina Certified Farmer’s Market
Sundays - 10 am to 2 pm
Note: For a little heat, sprinkle on Sichuan red peppercorns or Italian Calabrian red peppercorns
By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France and developer of the Novgorod and Bento War Games
Flow by psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihaly is described as a happiness book that I find useful as a creativity tool for using all of life’s experiences as writing material is on sale today on Kindle for $1.99.
Details and sales information on the book follow:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000W94FE6?_bbid=331880167&tag=bookbubemail1-20
Note: Csikszentmihaly was a professor at the University of Chicago and received his BA and PhD from the University of Chicago as well.
By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France and Novgorod and Bento War Games
The following article entitled The Birth of Modern Accounting and Finance in the Chicago Booth Review is a mini history of how double-entry accounting developed in Europe with the best documentation in Northern Italy.
The article describes single-entry accounting in medieval manors with serfs and how the rise of towns and trade promoted double-entry bookkeeping.
https://www.chicagobooth.edu/review/birth-modern-accounting-finance?source=ic-em-20260407
Great reading for armchair economists!
Reposted by Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France and developer of the Novgorod and Bento War Games
The following article entitled New Residents Adopt Old Cultures about people moving to new culture regions and adopting different thought processes in China touches upon the differences between wheat growing cultures and rice growing cultures in China.
The article in Chicago Booth Review is short and raises issues Californians who eat bread and tortillas in a rice growing state might want to ponder:
https://www.chicagobooth.edu/review/new-residents-adopt-old-cultures?source=ic-em-20260407
Happy Reading!
By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France and developer of the Novgorod and Bento War Games
Fish Food Truck Market or Fish Market on Fridays Idea posted by Ruth Paget
Fish tacos and poke bowls are the inspiration for this food truck idea but fish and chips and grilled fish stuffed with lemon, rosemary, and garlic might work for a Friday fish market food truck meal as well.
People wishing to buy fresh fish and shellfish might enjoy going to a local fish market instead of going to Casttoville or Moss Landing.
Castroville and Moss Landing have Sea Harvest Market and Phil’s Fish Market, but maybe a cioppino or Caldo 7 Mares Soup night in a public park or large mall parking lot in Salinas might increase fish sales and provide an added fish option for local diners.
Just a thought on how to develop fish tourism,
Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France and developer of the Novgorod and Bento War Games
Seafood Tourism at the Gallery Café in Pebble Beach, California by Ruth Paget
For a sunny spring brunch in April, my husband Laurent, daughter Florence Paget, and I went to the Gallery Café in Pebble Beach, California that overlooks the Lodge Hotel’s putting green with glimpses of Stillwater Bay in the distance.
We sat at a balcony table outside with comfortable wicker chairs with armrests and cushions. An umbrella shaded our back and breezes rippled through the manicured glossy green leaves of the California magnolia trees below. I ordered a seafood tourism meal for our relaxed brunch by the ocean.
I began with an order of Monterey’s signature dish – deep-fried calamari rings, cones, and legs with a flour and corn meal crust. The calamari came with a perky, cocktail sauce flavored with freshly grated horseradish sauce. Before eating the calamari, Florence sprinkled them with freshly squeezed lemon juice.
The scent of the lemon juice on the calamari reminded me of calamari I ate in Barcelona, Spain on my honeymoon after an afternoon of visiting the Picasso Museum and Cathedral. I still love the salty and lemony flavor of calamari on hot days.
For my main dish, I ordered the three fish tacos plate made with Pacific tilapia, a white fish similar to sole. I like both spicy and mild tacos. The tacos at the Gallery Café are mild, which allows the buttery flavor of the large tilapia filets to shine.
The oversize tacos are stuffed with grated pepper Jack cheese, chipotle aioli mayonnaise, cabbage slaw, cheddar cheese, and toned down jalapeño peppers.
The tacos come with three sauces on the side:
-guacamole – mashed avocados with onion, tomato, and Mexican citon mixed together
-pico de gallo salsa – a chunky and mild mixture at the Gallery made with red bell peppers, tomatoes, onions, and cilantro
-sour cream that may have been a creamy Oaxaca cheese that is also made in California
All these flavors combined to give a refreshing vegetable flavor to the delicious tilapia. The cheeses provided calcium to this protein-rich meal encased in lightly fried white corn tortillas.
To go with this pretty spectacular brunch, I ordered a pink lemonade cocktail made with lemonade, Ketel One vodka from the Netherlands, and Chambord. Chambord is a black raspberry liqueur from France. That was a lovely cocktail for a sunny day.
I finished my meal with a layered carrot cake with cream cheese dressing and a latte. Nearby Salinas probably provided the carrots for this dessert as well as the vegetables in the sauces and the slaw in the tacos.
Eating brunch at the Gallery Café in Pebble Beach, California is a resort experience that is a welcome quiet, ocean side retreat from busy city life for locals and tourists alike.
By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France and developer of the Novgorod and Bento War Games
Sunrise Brunch at the Gallery Café in Pebble Beach, California by Ruth Paget
I was all set to eat a tomato-basil soup with cracked black pepper mixed in it along with extra virgin olive oil when my daughter Florence Paget invited me out for brunch. Brunch out is always a fun option and especially when you set out for Pebble Beach on a sunny day to eat at the Gallery Café overlooking Stillwater Cove and the Lodge Hotel’s putting green.
Florence and I started our meal with a large serving of fried calamari. I love cocktail sauce with fresh horseradish grated in it, which is how they make it at the Gallery. Tartar sauce is available if you ask for it. The calamari comes with lemon wedges for sprinkling on the squid. The lemon makes me think I am in Amalfi, Italy.
For my main dish, I ordered the Breakfast Sunrise Skillet which cam with minced ham, spicy chorizo sausage, caramelized onions, green and red bell peppers, spicy green peppers (probably local Serrano peppers from Prunedale) and hash browns. On top of the sizzling basic ingredients were two over easy eggs with melted cheddar cheese on top.
The spicy green peppers and spicy chorizo sausage gave the dish some heat but not too much. I really liked the combination of spicy and refreshing flavors with the salty ham in this dish. It is a perky breakfast dish perfect for the West Coast of the US.
I skipped dessert and drank a hot latte instead. I enjoyed looking at the spring foliage. The landscapers at Pebble Beach nicely shape trees and bushes. There seems to be an omnipresent scent of freshly cut grass and branches in the air that I like. There were even some humming birds flitting about as we walked around the Lodge Hotel area.
This nice brunch was unexpected and very welcome. I am a local who enjoys visiting Pebble Beach as much as tourists. I like the restaurants at Pebble Beach and the oceanfront scenery.
In addition to the golf courses at Pebble Beach, there are several other things to do that might interest tourists like the health club, spa, golf lessons, equestrian center, bagpipe music at Spanish Bay, and hiking trails as well as several restaurants.
Soon there will be another hotel by the Spyglass Golf Course with two new restaurants.
For a break from city bustle, Pebble Beach is a quiet retreat surrounded by nature.
By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France and developer of the Novgorod and Bento War Games
The free University of Chicago e-book for April is Old Beach; How Toxic Infrastructure Threatens Life in the Ports of Los Angeles and Beyond by Christina Dunbar Hester.
This book may interest sustainable tourism students for its discussion of the fragile balance between needs of petroleum shipping and a rich marine life site. Similar conditions might exist in other ports in California.
Details about downloading the book follow:
https://mail.google.com/mail/mu/mp/465/#cv/priority/%5Esmartlabel_promo/19d537a1f0f3411d
Reposted by Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France and developer. Of the Novgorod and Bento War Games
Jalapeño-Cheese Bagel and an Iced Thai Milk Tea Smoothie from Blazin’ Bagels at Northridge Mall in Salinas, California by Ruth Paget
I ate a California fusion breakfast today that featured items that have been on the menu in Monterey County for at least 30 years.
These items are now California specialties - the jalapeño-cheese bagel and a frozen Thai Milk Tea Smoothie flavored with star anise and cloves. At least one generation of children has grown up with these now traditional American items.
Personally, I love toasted jalapeño-cheddar cheese bagels with cream cheese and a latte. I tried a sweet Thai Milk Tea today and thought it was perfect for warm weather. It is still a bit of a treat; I like iced lattes for everyday in summer.
Blazin’ Bagelz has an extensive menu with something for everyone before a morning of shopping at Northridge ZMsll. Teens visiting the anime store at the mall might enjoy trying the iced smoothies after shopping in the afternoon.
Blazin’ Bagelz are good throughout the day, but I think that are a great morning treat.
By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France and developer of the Novgorod and Bento War Games
The University of Chicago has received $50 million dollars to fund 20 faculty positions devoted to Artificial Intelligence Research and Teaching.
Rika and Joe Mansueto have donated $50 million dollars to the University of Chicago as part of a $200 million dollar initiative to fund Artificial Intelligence Reeearch at the University of Chicago.
Details about this gift and philanthropic initiative follow:
Reposted by Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France and developer of the Novgorod and Bento War Games
The University of Chicago raised $12 million and then some on its giving day.
Details on the amount raised follow:
https://mail.google.com/mail/mu/mp/465/#cv/priority/%5Esmartlabel_personal/19d4b7f0a2939a2e
Reposted by Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France and developer of the Novgorod and Bento War Games
The University of Chicago Press is selling its last editions of a facsimile book of Japanese fans with poems conserved in Prague’s National Gallery. There are 120 poems in all in this 180 page book in the waka form.
Details about the book and purchase price follow:
Reposted by Ruth Paget, author Eating DSoup with Chopsticks and Marrying France and developer of the Novgorod and Bento War Games