Honest Food: Bringing Out The Hunter-Gatherer Within You.
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Hank Shaw
He writes, goes fishing, digs earth, forages, raises plants, lives for food and hunting and anything that tastes good. He'll drink fancy Scotch, craft beer, Pabst Blue Ribbon, a fine Barolo or even kombucha, depending on the mood or who’s offering.
"I am the omnivore who has solved his dilemma. This is my story."
"Honest Food" is what he's after, it's what we're all after really. Nothing packaged, nothing in a box, nothing wrapped in plastic. Some of us eat meat, but loathe industrial farming. And that's perfectly okay! Hank Shaw himself says he's bought meat or fish a little more than a handful of times since 2005. But he's more than a hunter. He is a constant forager, angler, gardener and fan of farmer’s markets.
Eating Locally and Making Good Food from Scratch
"Seasonality rules my diet: If you catch me buying asparagus from Chile, you have my permission to slap me upside the head. I am especially interested in those meats and veggies that people don’t eat much any more, like pigeons or shad or cardoons. I have nothing against good grass-fed beef or a head of lettuce, it’s just that others are doing just fine writing about those foods. I’m trying to walk a less-traveled path."
And aren't we all? Maybe not to the extend of which Hank practices this hunter-gatherer philosophy, but as close as we feel comfortable. Game is delicious! If you haven't read Ben's recipe for Crispy Cajun Deep Fried Gator Nuggets or Wild Boar Ragu Sauce - I definitely recommend it! Fariya's article on the benefits of mushrooms will get you thinking about foraging and finding superfoods locally.
Hank Shaw is a former restaurant cook. After 18 years as a political reporter for newspapers ranging from New York to Virginia to Wisconsin, Minnesota and California, he now pay the bills writing about food, fishing, foraging and hunting.
Four Cookbooks, and More on the Way.
As a food writer, his work has been published in Food & Wine, Petersen’s Hunting, Garden & Gun, Organic Gardening, The Art of Eating, Field and Stream, Sactown and several other publications. He's even been on a few TV shows, too! Andrew Zimmern’s “Bizarre Foods America,” and Steve Rinella’s “Meateater, ” Mike Rowe’s “Somebody’s Gotta Do It” on CNN, and on Scott Leysath’s “The Sporting Chef.” And the the Joe Rogan Experience, one of my favorite podcasts.
If you want to see a short video on what Hank Shaw is all about, here it is.
Good Reads
His latest book, Pheasant, Quail (What wine goes well with quail?), Cottontail: Upland Birds and Small Game from Field to Feast, was released in March 2018. It covers all the upland birds, doves, pigeons and all the small mammals we normally hunt in North America. It will be available wherever books are sold in the US, Canada, UK, Australia and New Zealand.
Buck, Buck, Moose: Recipes and Techniques for Cooking Deer, Elk, Moose, Antelope and Other Antlered Things, published in September 2016. It is the most comprehensive, lushly photographed book on cooking all sorts of deer and deer-like things ever produced. I hope it opens up whole new worlds for those who hunt deer, elk, moose, antelope and caribou.
His second book, Duck, Duck, Goose: Recipes and Techniques for Ducks and Geese, both Wild and Domesticated, was released by Ten Speed Press in October 2013. He tried to include everything you’d want to know about cooking ducks and geese, and the recipes work just as well for store-bought birds as wild ones
His first book, Hunt, Gather, Cook: Finding the Forgotten Feast, which was released in 2011 by Rodale Books. This book aims to open the world of foraging, hunting and fishing to those interested in food, but who may have never hunted mushrooms or picked up a gun or cast a rod and reel before.
For other great material on traditional cooking, check out Read Food: What to Eat and Why and the film review for Gather: a native American documentary. You can learn about the devastating effects of overfishing and research which practices might be beneficial to you, in order to decrease your impact and support a more diversified diet.
https://honest-food.net/
