Food & Cooking
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Bangladesh launches food subsidies after Ukraine war price spike

Roger T. Brown



Bangladesh's subsidy programme will provide cheap food to 10 million people until the end of Ramadan


© Munir uz ZAMAN
Bangladesh’s subsidy programme will provide cheap food to 10 million people until the end of Ramadan

Bangladesh launched a nationwide food subsidy programme on Sunday after prices for cooking oil, lentils and other staples shot up in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

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Rising produce costs, which officials blame on wild price fluctuations in the global oil market since the conflict began, have sparked murmurings of discontent around the South Asian nation of 170 million people in recent weeks.

Opposition activists have accused traders of profiteering and staged several protest rallies, with a nationwide strike against soaring prices planned for the end of the month. 

Commerce ministry chief Tapan Kanti Ghosh said the programme would provide cheap food to 10 million people and run until the end of Ramadan — the traditional month of fasting in the Islamic faith — in six weeks. 

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Food & Cooking
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U.S. food and farming costs could be pushed higher by war in Ukraine

Roger T. Brown

Even though only a fraction of the food eaten in the United States is imported, with much of that coming from Mexico and Canada, the ripple effects of the conflict in Ukraine will conspire to further drive up food prices and keep them high into next year, analysts say. And because Russia is a main producer of fertilizer and other agricultural chemicals, the conflict is likely to have an impact what is grown this year on American soil.

Guebert has seen the effects firsthand. His fertilizer cost was $510 a ton last year, he said. This year, it’s $1,508. He has no choice but to pay it to meet his target crop yields, he said, and while the price he is paid for his grain will rise, too, “prices will reach a point where no one can afford to purchase them.”

Even before the conflict, input

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Food & Cooking
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Food blogger who cooked all 1,272 Ina Garten recipes congratulated by the culinary queen herself

Roger T. Brown

Just over six years ago, a bright-eyed Barefoot Contessa fan took a stab at cooking for the first time and used Ina Garten as the ultimate culinary inspiration and teacher.

On Sunday, when Trent Pheifer, a self-proclaimed “store-bought version of Ina Garten,” whipped up her Boston Cream Pie with the iconic Food Network star herself over Zoom, the pair celebrated his biggest feat in the kitchen yet — having completed all 1,272 of her published recipes.

Much like the popular food blog turned star-studded film “Julie & Julia,” inspired by the late, great Julia Child, Pheifer set out to learn by immersion and cook through Garten’s collection of dishes from tried-and-true to sweet and savory. He borrowed one

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Food & Cooking
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Creative beer recipes hit the road in Halls home brewer’s food truck

Roger T. Brown

“I have always had an obsession with good food, exploring new flavors and trying new places,” said Jesse Thompson, owner of Food, Fire & Ferment food truck. “I cooked at home, but never thought of making it a career.”

Six or seven years ago, Thompson said, his wife bought him a homebrewing kit, and he started brewing his own beer.

“I totally nerded out on it. I started kegging it, buying more kegerators and having parties,” he said. “I had nine beers on tap at home. The byproducts were being wasted, that was how cooking with beer started. I beer brined a turkey and smoked it for Christmas and was hooked.”

Thompson took an experimental approach to brewing. “I was making fruit beers with fresh blackberries, a chipotle quarter beer that people still talk about,” he said. “I added food ingredients to beer and then went full circle baking with

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