Paulchens FoodBlog?!

Zorra is hosting World Bread Day for the 6th time this year and I bet it will take us days to browse through all the yummy breads she will have in her round up this year – just like the years before…

Some years ago the International Union of Bakers and Bakers-Confectioners (IUB) declared October 16 as World Bread Day. Back in 2006 Zorra adopted it as a (food)blogger event with an amazing start up! This event has nothing to do with IUB, who actually seems not to care about the event anymore. But we do! Every year more bloggers participate in WBD – let’s see how many there will be this year!

I – myself – join this event since 2008 with Soft White Bread in 2008, Twisted Bread in 2009, Rye Bread with nuts & pears in 2010.

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Focaccia con formaggio

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Focaccia con formaggio

ingredients
250 gr Italian flour tipo 00
100 ml warm water
3 tablespoons olive oil
5 pieces mozarella (halved)
6 tablespoons breadcrumbs
sea salt
4 tablespoons fresh basil

Method

1. Combine flour, water and olive oil in a bowl and knead until you have a smooth and silky doughball.
2. Let rest for 1 hour. Preheat oven to 220°C.
3. Divide dough into 2 parts. Rollout the dough into two rounds as thin as possible. One disk should be slightly larger than the other.
4. Cut all mozarella balls in half and dip in breadcrumbs then place on larger disk, sprinkle with basil and place other disk on top.
5. Seal at the edges. Press down dough around the mozarella balls firmly.
6. Brush surface with olive oil and sprinkle with sea salt.
7. Place focaccia on your preheated pizza stone and bake for 10-15 minutes.
8. Immediately cut into pieces and serve.

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Focaccia con formaggio

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But it is not only a day to celebrate bread today like we food bloggers do over 6 years now but also the World Food Day and Blog Action Day whose theme is: FOOD (#BAD11).

World Food Day

was proclaimed in 1979 by the Conference of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). It marks the date of the founding of FAO in 1945. The aim of the Day is to heighten public awareness of the world food problem and strengthen solidarity in the struggle against hunger, malnutrition and poverty. In 1980, the General Assembly endorsed observance of the Day in consideration of the fact that “food is a requisite for human survival and well-being and a fundamental human necessity” (resolution 35/70 of 5 December 1980). quoted from: UN

Blog Action Day

Since 2007, Blog Action Day has focused bloggers around the world to blog about one important global topic on the same day. Past topics have included water, climate change and poverty. This year, Blog Action Day will be held on October 16, which coincides with World Food Day, so naturally our 2011 theme is FOOD. quoted from: BAD website

Thinking about Food

When you live in a country where access to good quality food (or even food at all) is available all the time it is hard to imagine that hunger is still something that effects millions of people every day.
It is a fact that we are still fighting hunger and that many, in this throwaway society we live in, seldom even “waste” one thought about people who have not enough to eat and who are going to sleep with their tummy still hungry and grumbling.

I have never experienced hunger myself and cannot imagine how someone must feel who does not know how to feed themselves or even worse: their own children. I believe that I live a privileged life by simple luck because I could have been easily born to one of those families who fight for the tiniest morsel to eat every day instead of my parents.

I was first confronted with hunger when I saw Karl-Heinz Böhm’s “Menschen für Menschen” in television when I was about 7. My parents were always there to explain to us that food is not to be taken for granted and that we are not supposed to waste our food because there were lots of people around he world who’d have nothing to eat while we are throwing things away and waste them.

At such a young age I did not fully understand what they were trying to teach me but I always grew up with the awareness that we need to keep those in mind who are not as lucky as we are. I do not feel guilty for the life I live but I feel responsible for those who can’t help themselves!

Why should we care? Is it our problem?

I know, I know! We have problems of our own. In our own countries. In our own neighborhoods, maybe even in our own families. And then there is always questions like: How to help? Whom to trust? How do I know that my help will even improve the life of one person?

If it is not us – who will it be?

There are already so many debts we are handing over to our children. The generation that will come after us will have to take the burden… Why?
Why not here and now? Why not take action yet? Why not us?

When I met sweet Ishay at the Plate2Page workshop earlier this year she also introduced us to a program called “WeFeedback” and I sincerely think that it is a good way to make a start! No contribution is too small. It’s all about igniting the dialogue for change.

What is WeFeedback?
www.wefeedback.org is the incredible, interactive site developed by the World Food Programme (WFP) who manage to feed 100 million people each year in the most trying of circumstances: floods, famine, war, the works. Wefeedback feeds the children that are hardest hit. This one cup of food costs you and I a mere 25 US $ c and is the reason they are in schools. You can not teach a hungry child, after all.

Act local – too!

Oh yes I know there is hunger and poverty in my hometown too and I hear your voice that we should care about the people around us first before reaching out for the world. But I say: both aims and thoughts are important and with a little effort from the more privileged among us we can do both! hat’s why I support “Die Wiener Tafel” a local program to fight food waste and poverty in Vienna.