TFT HK's Healthy Summer Dining Experience is upon us!

Just a reminder that today marks the start of our Healthy Summer Dining Experience, so start eating, taking photos of the TFT meals/drinks, uploading them to our Facebook Page, and telling your friends to "like" them! The most "liked" photo from each restaurant wins an exciting prize at the end of August!

Happy eating, everyone! And remember: Order for one. Feed two. And help the world eat better.

Food Hero Tuesday: Sustainable Food Writing Roundup

Note from the Editor: Every Tuesday, TFT HK will bring you a post or article from/about one of our local or global food heroes. These are people who inspire us, and whose visions align with the values that TFT espouses and promotes. This week, we bring you a list of some of our favorite sustainable food writers (in no particular order) and a few of their most popular works. Happy reading!


Wendell Berry (American author/poet, farmer, cultural and economic critic, Berry has written prolifically about the importance of the smallholder farmer, and the vital roles that family, community, and a rooted existence play in humanity's collective well being)
Bringing it to the Table: On Farming and Food (2009)
The Art of the Commonplace: The Agrarian Essays of Wendell Berry (2003)
Another Turn of the Crank (2011)

Aldo Leopold (Leopold - an ecologist, forester, scientist, environmentalist, and author - was a pioneer of the environmental movement in the US, a champion of wildlife preservation, and advocate of a nature-centric value system (ecocentricism))
A Sand County Almanc: And Sketches Here and There (1949)

Michael Pollan (Pollan, an American author, journalist, activist, professor, has written several very influential works on food history, the industrialization of our food systems, and the ways that his readers can make a stand on food politics through individual choice)
The Omnivore's Dilemma (2006)
In Defense of Food (2008)
Food Rules: An Eater's Manifesto (2011)

Alice Waters (Chef, activist, writer and creator of the world-renowned Chez Panisse, Waters explores the beauty of both simple food and the involvement of the world's youth in local, sustainable food production)
The Art of Simple Food: Notes, Lessons, and Recipes from a Delicious Revolution (2007)
Edible Schoolyard: A Universal Idea (2008)

Dr. T. Colin Campbell (Campbell examines more than 350 variables of health and nutrition, and surveys from 6,500 adults in more than 2,500 counties across China and Taiwan, to determine the link between nutrition and preventable conditions such as heart disease and cancer)
The China Study (2006)

Andrew Rimes and Evan Fraser (Rimes and Fraser review 12,000 years of human history through the lens of food availability, production and politics)
Empires of  Food: Feast, Famine, and the Rise and Fall of Civilizations (2010)

TFT HK Monday Update: Healthy Summer Dining Experience Launch!

Lovely HK food bloggers (from left to right):
Janice Leung, Ale Wilkinson, Patricia Li, Angie Palmer

Joining TFT HK on the launch: 

Janice Leung of www.e-tingfood.com 

Ale Wilkinson of www.dimsumdiaries.com

Patricia Li of gastronomicvoyage.wordpress.com

Angie Palmer of angiepalmer.wordpress.com

We kicked off our TFT HK Healthy Summer Dining Experience (HSDE) this past weekend by piling into a van with four of Hong Kong's premiere food bloggers and dropping by some of our lovely partner restaurants.  Genie Concept, Grassroots Pantry, Light Radiant Food, Mana! Fast Slow Food, Teakha, and the Flying Winemaker - among the 9 wonderful businesses that round out our August partners - supplied us with tastes of the TFT branded drinks/dishes, and chatted to us about their offerings.  Our partner restaurants care about their food's source and nutritional content, as well as the waste they produce. We're grateful to them and excited that they'll be joining TFT to help Hong Kong people be healthier, and to ensure that students in our partner schools in Qinghai, Rwanda, Uganda, Ethiopia, and South Africa receive nourishing school lunches. 

TFT HK Healthy Summer Dining Map!

Welcome to the TFT HK Healthy Summer Dining Tour!

AUGUST 1st through 31st

Here's how to do it:

EAT! Order the TFT designated meal or drink, TAKE a creative photo and upload it to the TFT HK Facebook page: www.facebook.com/tablefor2hk.  

SHARE with friends and ask them to "like" your photo.

We all WIN when we eat healthy and are conscious about the sources of our food, but a select few that have the most "liked" photos will win a prize from our partners! 

Check out the map (click to enlarge) and prizes below!

Map courtesy of talented student, Nina Rossiter

TFT Dish Descriptions and Prizes:

MANA! Fast Slow Food:

Dish/Drink: MANA! Organic Mezze Platter: a medly of tantalizing tastes of MANA! served in one box. Hummus, babaganoush, black & green olives, green salad & MANA!'s famous flatbread topped with zaatar, $97

Prize: Dinner for two at MANA!

Veggie SF:

Dish/Drink: Oakland Breeze (a Vietnamese-style mixed vermicelli with fired tofu & skewer), $98

Prize: One Veggie SF appetizer

FoFo by El Wily:

Dish/Drink: Prawns "Bomb" with organic mixed tomatoes, salad leaves and tomato sauce

Prize: One glass of sangria

The Flying Winemaker:

Dish/Drink: Eddie McDougall Cabernet Merlot 2010, King Valley, Australia, , $90 per glass,
$190 per bottle

Prize: 2 vouchers to WineSkool Tongue Explorer class (valued at $500)

Pure Bar + Restaurant:

Dish/Drink:

1) grilled king scallops with cucumber salsa & lemon mint vinaigrette, $128
2) seared salmon with spinach, quinoa & avocado, $138
3) organic whole wheat spaghetti with organic rocket, cherry tomatoes & shrimp, $128
4) grilled tuna steak with mango, chili salsa & grilled asparagus, $138
Prize: $500 dining voucher at Pure Bar + Restaurant

Teakha:

Dish/Drink: Lemon Cream Tart (Teakha's take on a traditional summer favourite! The lemon tart is velvety smooth, sweet and sour, and comes in a chewy gingersnap base), $38

Prize: Teakha tea set for two

The Genie Concept:

Dish/Drink: Fresh organic pineapple & kale juice. $50

Prize: 1-day Genie Concept Cleanse

Light Radiant Food:

Dish/Drink: Black Bean Veggie Burger with side salad. Burger served on handmade whole wheat bun and dressed with verde sauce & pickled chinese zucchini, $88 at lunch (includes salad), $110 at dinner (includes salad, coffee/tea)

Prize: Dinner for 2 at Light Radiant Food

Grassroots Pantry:

Dish/Drink: Quinoa salad with orange hazelnut dressing, $90

Prize: Voucher to attend a Grassroots Pantry workshop

THANK YOU to all of our fantastic partner restaurants, and to our media partner Localiiz!

歡迎來到TFT HK健康夏日飲食新體驗之旅！

8月1-30號

以下教你如何行動：

食！鎖定TFT指定膳食或飲品，與您的 TFT 餐拍一張有創意的照片，將其上傳到TFT HK Facebook主頁www.facebook.com/tablefor2hk.

與朋友分享並邀請他們“like”你的照片

當我們開始健康進食及有意關心食物來源時，我們便都是贏家，然而挑選出的幾張有最多 “like”數的照片將會贏得由我們合作夥伴頒發的美味獎品！

快來看看下面的美食地圖（點擊放大）及豐富獎品！

Healthy Map

地圖由才華橫溢的Nina Rossiter同學提供

TFT指定餐介紹及獎品：

MANA! Fast Slow Food:

餐/飲品：MANA! Organic Mezze Platter:來自MANA的誘人味道之組曲！一盒餐式。

Hummus, babaganoush, black & green olives, green salad & MANA!'s famous flatbread topped with zaatar, $97

獎品：在MANA享受雙人晚餐

Veggie SF:

餐/飲品：Oakland Breeze (a Vietnamese-style mixed vermicelli with fired tofu & skewer), $98

獎品：一份Veggie SF前菜

FoFo by El Wily:

餐/飲品：Prawns "Bomb" with organic mixed tomatoes, salad leaves and tomato sauce

獎品：sangria一杯

The Flying Winemaker:

餐/飲品：Eddie McDougall Cabernet Merlot 2010, King Valley, Australia, , $90 per glass,
$190 per bottle

獎品： 2張WineSkool Tongue Explorer class餐券

Pure Bar + Restaurant:

餐/飲品：

1) grilled king scallops with cucumber salsa & lemon mint vinaigrette, $128
2) seared salmon with spinach, quinoa & avocado, $138
3) organic whole wheat spaghetti with organic rocket, cherry tomatoes & shrimp, $128
4) grilled tuna steak with mango, chili salsa & grilled asparagus, $138

獎品：PURE Bar & Restaurant的晚餐劵 (價值港幣500元)

Teakha:

餐/飲品： Lemon Cream Tart (Teakha's take on a traditional summer favourite! The lemon tart is velvety smooth, sweet and sour, and comes in a chewy gingersnap base), $38

Prize: Teakha 兩人下午茶餐

The Genie Concept:

餐/飲品： Fresh organic pineapple & kale juice. $50

獎品：The Genie Concept 的一天療程排毒果汁

Light Radiant Food:

餐/飲品：Black Bean Veggie Burger with side salad. Burger served on handmade whole wheat bun and dressed with verde sauce & pickled Chinese zucchini, $88 at lunch (includes salad), $110 at dinner (includes salad, coffee/tea)

獎品： 一份Light Radiant Food免費晚餐

豆苗居(Grassroots Pantry):

餐/飲品： Quinoa salad with orange hazelnut dressing, $90

獎品： Grassroots Pantry 學劵一張

感謝 我們所有的合作夥伴餐廳及媒體夥伴 Localiiz!

Announcement: TFT HK's Healthy Summer Dining Experience begins August 1st!

TFT HK is proud to announce its upcoming August campaign: the TFT HK Healthy Summer Dining Experience (HSDE)! In the month of August, we have 9 very special partner restaurants that will be selling 9 very special TFT HK dishes. When you stop in at these partner restaurants - Mana! Fast Slow Food, Veggie SF, FoFo by El Wily, Pure Bar + Restaurant, the Flying Winemaker, Genie, Teakha, Light Radiant Food, and Grassroots Pantry - and purchase the TFT HK dish, part of the proceeds will help us to provide school lunches for the deserving kids at our partner schools in Qinghai, China; Rwanda; Uganda; Ethiopia; and South Africa.

That's not the complete HSDE, though! After you buy (and before you eat) your delicious, healthy TFT HK dish, take a picture of it and upload it to our Facebook page! Then, share it with you friends: for each restaurant, the person whose photo gets the most "likes" by the end of August will win a fabulous prize! All you have to do it eat, take, share, and win! On Monday, we'll have photos from our HDSE launch, and on August 1st, you can get started on your own healthy dining experience!!  Our next blog post will feature the HDSE map, our partner restaurants' TFT dishes, and the exciting prizes up for grabs! THANK YOU to all of our partner restaurants, and to our media partner, Localiiz! 

Enjoy HDSE and remember: Order for one. Feed two. And help the world eat better.

Local Buzz: Dr. James Costello, of Stephen James Luxury Organics talks Quantum calories on HuffPost (PART TWO)!

Note from the Editor: Doctor James Costello, of Stephen James Luxury Organics (and a dear friend of TFT HK!), has written a fascinating pair of articles for HuffPost, detailing the reasons that the calorie is an inadequate measure of a food's energetic worth. He proposes the idea of a "quantum calorie," a measurement of food's energy built upon the Quantum model, in which "consciousness informs everything first, and the Universe springs to life out of delight in itself." This post, titled "The Quantum Calorie" is the companion piece to last week's "Burn the Calorie". Thank you to you to James for allowing us to reprint the article! Drs. James and Stephen Costello are the creators of  Stephen James Luxury Organics, a company "based on the philosophy of creating abundant personal energy through the consumption of highly mineralized and nutritious whole foods created with maximum life energetics." Their products (we at TFT HK are fans of  everything they make, but our favorites are Beauty Bar, Volcanic Pili nuts, saffron-pink Himalayan salt, and Carazuc!) are raw, organic, and delicious.  You can support their great work and advocacy of  healthy people and planet by checking out their website and Facebook page:

"If you want to find the secret of the Universe, think in terms of energy, frequency, and vibration." -- Nikola Tesla (1856-1943) Inventor of the Radio and Alternating Current

Our Quantum Calorie must measure intelligence. We are aware today that living entities vibrate with discreet frequencies of organized energy. This includes real food, which is originally organized by plants as they harness the energy of the sun in the miraculous process of photosynthesis. The energy of living plants and animals is transferred to us when we consume them. 

Food Hero Tuesday: Ale Wilkinson of The Dim Sum Diaries

Say hello to Ale!

Note from the Editor: Every Tuesday, TFT HK will bring you a post or article from/about one of our local or global food heroes. These are people who inspire us, and whose visions align with the values that TFT espouses and promotes. This week's post is an interview with Ale Wilkinson, the creator of the popular food blog The Dim Sum Diaries. A passionate foodie and avid blogger, Ale is also a PR and marketing executive. Ale, we at TFT HK salute you!



Hi Ale! Thanks so much for being with us today. Tell us a little about yourself! 

I’ve always been interested in writing. When I was young I used to write ridiculous fantasy stories and plays just for fun, and used to always say that when I was older I wanted to be a writer. However, when it came to choosing a degree, I opted for modern languages rather than journalism, and it took falling into a sales job here in Hong Kong (nothing to do with writing or languages!) to make me realise that I needed to follow my dream after all. With no real experience or qualifications, I decided the best way to go about it would be to start a blog, and of course I had to combine this with my other real passion: food. I’ve been writing The Dim Sum Diaries since March last year and absolutely love it. It has become a part of my life that I can also share with my friends and family. Although it does consume A LOT of my free time, at least I’m doing something I enjoy.

TFT (Japan) Monday Update!

Good Monday!

Today's post is from the TFT Japan Food Team: 

TFT founder, Masa, and dietician, Namiko, at the TFT event at Takashimaya Department store

“No leftovers allowed” Buffet for TABLE FOR TWO held in Tokyo
Author & Editor: Shoko Iijima, TFT Food Team
Reference (in Japanese: http://www.kodamajozo.co.jp/webkura/essei/essay_44.html  

Some of you may already have heard of food critic Masuhiro Yamamoto; he’s become one of the most famous dining and wining tastemakers in Japan. One of our key staff members, Tomoko Kobayashi, recently brought his very interesting blog post to our attention. In his post, Yamamoto reveals that he rarely joins buffet style partes. The reason is simple. Every time he participates in such events, his conscience aches over the vast amount of leftover food and drinks. These edibles are prepared with care and made to look beautiful and delicious, but go to waste when the party is over. 

In the same blog post, Yamamoto reveals that he himself hosted a very special kind of buffet party, titled “No leftovers allowed.” Of course, the title wasn't meant to imply that he forced his guests overeat to clean up the excess on the table. Instead, at his party (filled with like-minded peers), Yamamoto presented reasonable, modest amounts of seasonal delicacies. He also used his shindig as a platform, through which to introduce TABLE FOR TWO to his celebrity guests and highlight the world’s food imbalance problem and obesity in Japan. 

Keen gourmets, restaurant producers, and food writers in Tokyo have started to think more  carefully about healthy eating behaviors. And this awareness and desire to end the global food imbalance has, very luckily, trickled down into public consciousness. In June, Takashimaya Department Store in Nihonbashi (Takashimaya’s flagship store) held TABLE FOR TWO events in their in-store food court restaurants and food boutique shops. On one Sunday, they held an event for children, during which Masa spoke to Tokyo children about the kids TFT supports in Africa, and how they could help them through TABLE FOR TWO. Also at this event, our volunteer Certified Dietitian, Namiko, taught the kids to eat a balanced diet. We are happy to see that public awareness of these issues is on the rise, and we will continue to host events to spread this very important knowledge. We want to say thank you to those people and companies, like Masuhiro Yamamoto and Takashimaya Department store, who put their popularity and influence to good use, and help educate the public about world issues like the global food imbalance.

Chef Teresa Cutter's Gluten Free Banana Bread

Thank you to TFT HK friend Fiona, for trying out this recipe and supplying the photo!

Wondering what to make for breakfast this weekend? Trying to cut out gluten? Check out Chef Teresa Cutter's ("the healthy chef") gluten free banana bread! Below is the recipe, adapted from her website. It contains bananas, which are a good source of potassium (consumption of potassium-rich foods can help lower blood pressure); almonds, which contain high levels of vitamin E and magnesium; and flaxseed (a good source of omega-3 fatty acids):

Gluten Free Banana Bread

Makes 1 loaf300g mashed ripe banana3 eggs60g honey or maple syrup1 teaspoon vanilla60g  macadamia nut oil (olive oil can also be used)half teaspoon ground cinnamon + extra to sprinkle on batter with walnuts (to taste)1/2  tsp baking soda + 1 tbsp lemon juice200 g ( 2 cups ) almond meal25 g (1/4 cup)  ground flaxseed Preheat your oven to 160 C (this is fan forced) 

 Combine mashed banana, honey, oil, cinnamon, vanilla, eggs, baking soda and lemon (the lemon activates the baking soda) 

Add the almond meal and flaxseed and mix well. 

Lightly oil one loaf tin and then coat liberally with extra almond meal to prevent the cake from sticking. 

Spoon batter into the tin and bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour (a skewer inserted into the center should come out dry). Sprinkle with chopped walnuts and cinnamon.

Cover the top with foil if over-browning. 

Remove from the oven and allow to cool before turning out the loaf. 

Makes 1 loaf serves 12. 

Serve warm or at room temperature by itself or with a little ricotta and honey. 

Keeps in the fridge, covered for up to 1 week. 

Nutritional information per serving (12 in loaf)

Protein: 6.1 g
Carbs: 10g
Total Fat: 15 g
Saturated: 1.7 g
Kilojoules: 828
Calories: 193

Local Buzz: Dr. James Costello, of Stephen James Luxury Organics talks Quantum calories on HuffPost!

Note from the Editor: Doctor James Costello, of Stephen James Luxury Organics (and a dear friend of TFT HK!), has written a fascinating article for HuffPost, on why the calorie is an inadequate measure of a food's energetic worth. He proposes the idea of a "quantum calorie," a measurement of food's energy built upon the Quantum model, in which "consciousness informs everything first, and the Universe springs to life out of delight in itself." Thank you to you to James for allowing us to reprint the article! Drs. James and Stephen Costello are the creators of  Stephen James Luxury Organics, a company "based on the philosophy of creating abundant personal energy through the consumption of highly mineralized and nutritious whole foods created with maximum life energetics." Their products (we at TFT HK are fans of  everything they make, but our favorites are Beauty Bar, Volcanic Pili nuts, saffron-pink Himalayan salt, and Carazuc!) are raw, organic, and delicious.  You can support their great work and advocacy of  healthy people and planet by checking out their website and Facebook page. We will reprint the next installment of "Burn the Calorie" when it comes out:

"If you eat something but no one else sees you eat it, it has no calories" ~ Lewis Grizzard, American Humorist

When we chat with friends about food and drink, the word "calorie" inevitably works its way into the conversation. The calorie these days seems more concrete and real than ever before, commanding respect and fear. We talk about it as if it were some kind of a discreet entity, a thing. But what is a calorie anyway?

The term was first coined by 18th century French chemist Antoine-Laurent de Lavoisier to describe the mechanics of a temperature equation. He used calorie as a measure of the heat required to raise 1cc of water 1 degree centigrade. Shortly afterwards the concept was adapted as a model for human metabolism, which we're still using today. The problem is that the model has not much to do with what actually happens as food is metabolized in our bodies.

The 17th and 18th Centuries are noted for establishing science's "Mechanistic-Materialistic Model" of the way science then saw things work. Though we may accept that Lavoisier's concept was a pretty good realization for the late 18th century, we might suspect that enough has occurred in the ensuing 230 years that we may be able to formulate a more sophisticated model today.

When Quantum physics was born and developed as a vastly more encompassing science in the 20th Century, all of this should have fallen into place. But though Quantum Theory rocked, and then overturned, our scientific understanding of the universe, applying it to the way stuff works has been slow to manifest. And that's understandable as our still mostly mechanistically-based scientific and medical communities have had a hard time trying to come to terms with it.

Global Food News: Widespread drought in the US

From the NOAA

The United States is now experiencing its most widespread drought since 1956, according to reports from Monday. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) stated, "Based on the Palmer Drought Index, severe to extreme drought affected about 33 percent of the contiguous United States as of the end of June 2012, an increase of about 10 percent from last month," and went on to say that, "about 55 percent of the contiguous U.S. fell in the moderate to extreme drought categories (based on the Palmer Drought Index) at the end of June."

The Midwest, the region producing the highest percentage of the country's staple crops (corn, soybeans, wheat) has been especially hard hit, and this week the USDA reported that 38 percent of the US corn crop was in poor or very poor condition (this figure was reported at 30 percent during the previous week).   The soybean crop rating was cut to 34 percent good-to-excellent, down from 42 percent the previous week (the soybean crop goes through through flowering and pod-setting in August, and could recover if there is enough rainfall in the coming weeks). Corn production figures have been cut, prices are up, and there are fears of global food shortages on the horizon. From the USDA report:

Persistent and extreme June dryness across the central and eastern Corn Belt and extreme late June and early July heat from the central Plains to the Ohio River Valley have substantially lowered yield prospects across most of the major growing regions. Harvested area is also reduced slightly based on the June 29 Acreage report. 

Reduced supplies and higher prices are expected to sharply lower 2012/13 corn usage with the biggest reduction for feed and residual disappearance, projected down 650 million bushels. Food, seed, and industrial use is also projected lower, down 105 million bushels, mostly reflecting a 100-million-bushel reduction in corn used to produce ethanol. Exports are projected 300 million bushels lower as tight supplies, higher prices, and strong competition from South American exporters limit U.S. shipments. 

A 52-million-bushel increase in beginning stocks and a 15- million-bushel increase in imports offset only a small portion of the expected reduction in this year’s crop. Ending stocks for 2012/13 are projected at 1.2 billion bushels, down 698 million from last month’s projection. The season average 2012/13 farm price for corn is projected at $5.40 to $6.40 per bushel, up sharply from $4.20 to $5.00 per bushel in June.

Food Hero Tuesday: Melanie White of Genie!

Note from the Editor: Every Tuesday, TFT HK will bring you a post or article from/about one of our local or global food heroes. These are people who inspire us, and whose visions align with the values that TFT espouses and promotes. This week's post is from Melanie White, co-creator (with Cara Grogan) of Genie Concepts, the new and already extremely popular juice cleanse supplier that also has a lovely cafe in Sheung Wan (G/F, 5-13 New Street). Before creating Genie, Melanie worked in fashion and owned her own line of shoes and handbags. Now, her focus is helping Genie's clients be their best, healthiest selves. Melanie, we at TFT HK salute you!

Hey Melanie! Thanks so much for being a TFT HK food hero. Tell us a bit about yourself!

Well, I moved to HK 5 years ago. I work in fashion, and had my own brand of shoes and handbags that I produced in China, so naturally, I decided to base myself here for business. I also had good friends living in the city (i.e. my business partner Cara!) so it was a really easy move. I wanted to get more experience in the international market, so from there I started working for a swimwear brand which is sold across the globe in over 17 countries.

TFT HK Monday Update!

Two weeks ago, some members of the TFT HK team visited the Changing Young Lives Foundation Sze Pang Nien Baojia Primary School 成長希望基金會施彭年鮑家小學 in Qinghai. Here are a few photos from the site visit! We'll have video clips and a report back from TFT HK founders Katy and Steph soon:

Mountains of Qinghai

Some of the TFT HK team (Steph Tan, Katy Yung, and Yu Cao) with some of the staff and students of Changing Young Lives Foundation Sze Pang Nien Baojia Primary School 成長希望基金會施彭年鮑家小學

Kids of Changing Young Lives Foundation Sze Pang Nien Baojia Primary School 成長希望基金會施彭年鮑家小學  line up for lunch!