Weekly roundup of great reads on food and wine #69

We are often reminded of the impact that technology is having on our lives. In Sweden, the first unstaffed food shop has opened. This is the work of a 39-year old IT specialist who runs a 24-hour shop with no cashier. Customers simply use their cellphones to unlock the door with a swipe of the finger and scan their purchases. All they need to do is to register for the service and download an app. They get charged for their purchases in a monthly invoice.

In Australia, Noma Forages for Ingredients and Inspiration: On the menu that comes to the table at the end of the meal, it is described simply as “abalone schnitzel and bush condiments.” But those words don’t really do justice to the delicious eccentricity of the dish, part of a 10-week pop-up being staged there, through April 2, by the team from Noma, the Copenhagen restaurant famed for foraging indigenous ingredients and weaving them into a new kind of contemporary cuisine.

The New York Times has an article about making fresh pasta. You only need two ingredients to make a basic dough but the article explains how to improvise to make different types of pasta.

Italy is putting forward the art of Neopolitan pizza for inclusion in Unesco’s prestigious cultural heritage list later this year. The proposal was boosted by a petition that collected more than 850,000 signatures, from the streets of Naples all the way to Japan and Argentina.

Sea urchins is one of the things I crave most when I am away from my native country so this article really strikes a chord with me. It is about a sea urchin quest on the Costa Brava in Spain. I love a spaghetti with sea urchin but then again the best way to eat is to get a piece of bread and use it to scoop out the roe as described in this article.

Here is a thought-provoking article about the excesses of new Nordic style cuisine in the United States and how Alan Richman thinks this is more about the chef than the customers. We might not necessarily agree with all his points but it is worth pondering.

The Guardian reports on how the number of times families sit down to share the traditional midday meal is in steep decline. But there are reasons why it has been at the heart of domestic culture for centuries. Here is their take on the Sunday roast.

Spanish wine is the most popular in the world, according to the latest international export figures, but few of the country’s vineyard owners will raise a glass to that news, on average their vintages fetch less than a third of the price of those sold abroad by France.

Richard Hemming writes about the future of wine columns in newspapers.

Bordeaux wine professor Denis Dubourdieu has been named Decanter Man of the Year 2016. After being turned down for a job at Chateau Latour, Dubourdieu went on to become a consultant to some of the best Bordeaux wine estates including Chateau d’Yquem, Cheval Blanc and Margaux.