☀️Dispatch:🖨️Print Print Print , 🍊 Orange + Beetroot, 🤝On Gatherings & dhoop meet Recap and some 👍Recommendations
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(#1) Print Print Print
The constant movement of printers rolling one sheet after another in unison, bringing alive the imagined stuff from the screen onto the paper. It's almost a childlike wonder — to hold your/a creation churned out so beautifully from this perfect machine. The process of printing and the process of cooking, I believe, have a lot in common. Often you work backwards from the imagined outcome, do the mise en place, assemble and brew - trusting the medium (the stove, the oven, the software, the pages) to carry you to the finish line.
Through empirical evidence, I can say that people who love to cook, love to collect. This is of course a sweeping generalisation. Collecting/hoarding is a function afforded through capitalism with its constant need for upgradation. However, collecting recipes, knowledge, thoughts, and conversation is also a way of consuming - so maybe my hypothesis is correct. People who love to cook, love to collect. Welcome stacks of food filled collectibles - pots, pans, plates, more plates, magazines, cookbooks and condiments…
But, what is the future of these glossy collectibles? Recently, Saveur magazine announced bringing back the print version of the magazine first time since it came to a halt during the pandemic. Kat Craddock, the Editor-in-Chief and the CEO, wrote in the editor’s letter, “Yes, print is coming back.” She also mentioned the challenges to continue doing business as usual in an economy which is no longer old-school, traditional or as high-volume as it used to be. So, instead of quarterly magazines, it will publish two issues a year.
To think that Saveur printed 108 magazines in 27 years, is unreal.
But the fact is that for the foreseeable future, print medium’s role as a “vehicle for information” will diminish but not die. The question still remains - is this dwindling of print as a medium here to stay?
Peter Meehan on folding Lucky Peach in 2017, said “The lesson here isn’t that print is doomed,” highlighting lack of synergy between the restaurant and the media company as the reason for the demise of LP.
Another publication under the umbrella of Whetstone Media, Rasa came in and left fairly quickly. It was touted to be WM’s “South Asia vertical,” with Vidya Balachander as the editor-in-chief — almost disappearing in a year. WM now is also venturing into diversifying as a talent agency called HONE for professionals trying to make it big in the food industry. Rasa is nowhere to be seen.
A month before the new year, Antonio Diaz, Founder and editor of Life & Thyme shared a roadmap to 2024—“Life & Thyme Post, our printed newspaper, is coming to an end,” he wrote. The reasons, mentioned in full transparency, gave us a reality check.Print is expensive, the cost of shipping is unsustainable, and the pace of creating a physical copy of a magazine/newspaper cannot ever be super fast. But Antonia’s words left us with so much hope and an undying relentlessness that comes with it.
Life & Thyme will always remain an “idea”, never a destination or a finished product. It is an idea that represents creative freedom. It is an idea that adapts to the world we find ourselves in. It is an idea that represents food, art, culture, and community—pillars in life that are never stagnant. The day that L&T feels stagnant is the day I close its doors. And that day is not today because we are headed into a new chapter and a reimagined Life & Thyme from the ground up.
Here, in India, the print medium in food media has been gaining traction too. In the last two years, a lot of food-related magazines/zines like Memories on a plate, Locavore’s Wild Food zine and a few other online platforms have found their respective audiences. It’s only just begun - and in due time, we will see how it pans out for all of us.
(#2) Beetroot + Oranges
Maybe you already know how well beetroot and orange taste if eaten together, but it was a revelation for me. Whenever I go out for a meal, I usually play it safe; I don’t want to be disappointed with the food that I am paying for. So, all flavour surprises are somewhat calculated (I love one ingredient more that the other), measured (always get someone to share it with you) and starved (famished - everything tastes delicious when you are hungry). And that’s exactly what happened when a friend and I decided to go to Miss Ada in Brooklyn. I don’t clearly remember what else we ordered - but we ordered the beet hummus. Beet hummus topped with beets, goat cheese and ORANGES!
Under Orange & Beet, in The Flavor Thesaurus: A Compendium of Pairings, Recipes and Ideas for the Creative Cook, Niki Segnit writes:
At The Fat Duck, Heston Blumenthal teases diners with an orange-colored jelly candy that has the flavor of beet and a crimson jelly candy with the flavor of orange. The beet candy is made with golden-colored beets and the orange one with dark red blood oranges. The waiters playfully suggest you start with the orange one.
If anyone asked me, I’d say the beet hummus with orange wedges IS the best version of this combination.
(#3) On Gatherings & dhoop meet Recap
What happens when we gather in a room? I think about what Gloria Steinem said about talking circles;
If I had to name the most important discovery of my life, it would be the portable community of talking circles; groups that gather with all five senses, and allow conciousness to change.
-Gloria Steinem, My Life on the Road
The dhoop meet was planned to be a casual, fun and laid back session with snacks. It turned out to be that and so much MORE. We got to meet people who owned the magazine and people who were a part of Champaca’s community but never heard of the magazine.
As part of the event, we constructed a “dhoop wall,” welcomed people with a fun ice-breaker question and packed some snacks inspired by the second issue of the magazine for everyone to enjoy — it was wonderful.
(#4) Some recommendations
Go check out Apoorva Sripathi’s newsletter Shelf Offering for the most wonderful writing around food, culture and so much more. Her recent newsletter Seeing Red traverses the recent discourse around pomegranate and the gaps in the conversation of western food media.
I tried a variation of beetroot + orange segments on a bed of Greek yogurt ( with roasted garlic and some everything bagel seasoning), and it was delicious. Use beetroot and orange, together!
Vinay Kumar’s piece Hungry for Education on The Swaddle is the most important food writing I have read in a long time.
‘Us' is used to refer to dhoop/team. In certain instances, I have utilized first-person pronouns to reflect my personal experiences
And that’s everything for this week.
dhoop is an independently published magazine, so producing and selling the print versions of the magazine is the only way to share our work. However, through this series of ‘Some dhoop for you!’ newsletters, we want to come to your inbox and share some insightful, fun, and meandering thoughts on the discourse around the different elements that make dhoop. If you learned anything new, the best way to support us and this newsletter is to share it far and wide.
Oh, if you haven’t bought the Issue #2 of the magazine — get it now!