Don't rain on my parade

Now I don’t reckon my thinking is flawed here but the whole purpose of bubbles as far as I am concerned is that sooner or later they get burst. At first they just float around in a sort of airy fairy way and everyone indulges them, smiling benignly until some kid realises that these irritating globes of nothingness deserve to be squashed. Writing in the New York Times, Stephen Budiansky, in the role of the petulant child has taken a few swipes at the locavore movement and burst their bubble. The locavores believe that you should eat local produce to promote environmental sustainability. All warm and fuzzy just like organic food but "Words like 'sustainability' and 'food-miles' are thrown around without any clear understanding of the larger picture of energy and land use," Budiansky wrote. It’s all very well supporting small local ventures but on a commercial scale, large farms are far more energy-efficient than small ones and that transportation energy costs are often overstated by local food advocates. "It takes about a tablespoon of diesel fuel to move one pound of freight 3,000 miles by rail," says Budiansky, who calls the transportation fuel costs "a negligible amount in the overall picture." "The real energy hog, it turns out, is not industrial agriculture at all, but you and me. Home preparation and storage account for 32 percent of all energy use in our food system, the largest component by far," . Budiansky added that "eating food from a long way off is often the single best thing you can do for the environment, as counterintuitive as that sounds." By Jove I think he’s got a point!

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Fine young cannibals

Recently a high gloss,well designed website appeared on the net advertising a new restaurant in Berlin promising diners "authentic Wari cuisine" in the tradition of a once cannibalistic Amazonian tribe and offered "members" a chance to donate body parts, which the restaurant's purveyors would harvest at their own cost -- once they located "an open-minded surgeon."
Not surprisingly it turned out to be a hoax perpetrated by a German vegetarian organization, but it still left a disturbing taste in many mouths. In fact, it was all a stunt meant to promote eating cauliflower, not human calves, members of the German Vegetarian Association (VEBU) revealed during a press conference in Berlin. Roughly 20 news organizations showed up to a press conference which had been advertised as serving samples of human flesh, but reporters had to be content to nibble on vegan crepes instead. The stunt generated plenty of attention, but not everyone was amused especially given Berliners' experience with a real-life cannibalistic murder in 2001, when computer technician Armin Meiwes killed and ate a willing man. The PR agency behind the hoax placed fake ads in German newspapers calling for donations of human limbs; set up a website with a PDF form donors could fill out with questions; including blood type and body mass index; and even set up a bid on eBay for human liver pate. But the intended message seemed to be competing with some darker ones. On eBay, the bid for the human liver pate offer reached $1,000 before it was yanked.

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Sunday afternoon at the bioscope

This week's clip gives us Eddie Izzard's very funny take on Darth Vadar and the Death Star canteen. FeedBlitz subscribers should visit the site to view.

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Dilly Diner of the week

Read the sign in the window of this weeks Dilly Diner and then enter at your own risk. Takayuki Masumoto runs a restaurant in Mukilteo, Seattle called The Grouchy Chef and he certainly lives up to his reputation. Forewarned is forearmed so get over the fact that you might encounter a grump and enjoy the inventive and inexpensive food. Anyway when did you ever meet a chef who wasn't a grump ? Don't let the roly poly exterior fool you - inside they're really twisted people so it's quite refreshing to come across one who actually admits to being a grouch.
A meal at Grouchy's will cost, on average, less than 10 dollars a head. And that's why you should be willing to put up with his mood: He's a terrific, creative cook, and he's giving the goods away.
Masumoto serves a very brief bistro-styled menu starring beef, chicken, salmon and daily specials (don't miss those): a real surprise in this no-frills setting that looks, on first inspection, exactly like a teriyaki joint. Not that you'd ever want to suggest that to him. Do so, and he might fix you with a gaze described by one regular customer as "so acidic, he could bring a Broadway musical finale to a halt with a single glare." No lie

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That Was The Week That Was

This week saw the annual Testicle Festival in Serbia – it couldn’t happen in a better place as far as I’m concerned the food, politely called “white kidneys” in Serbian, is believed to be rich in testosterone. In the Balkans, it is considered to help men’s libido. In South Africa it’s considered to be awful offal. “The bulls’ testicles are the best, goulash style,” said last year’s winner Zoltan Levai but other dishes include testicle pizza and testicles a la king. A load of balls as far as I’m concerned.



Speaking of a load of balls food scientists told him it couldn't be done, common sense said it shouldn’t be done but after much experimenting Texas chef Mark Zable went ahead anyway and this week unveiled his frankenfood - deep-fried beer at the Texas State Fair. His ravioli-like creation contains beer inside a pocket of pretzel dough. The beer remains alcoholic after the frying, and authorities have ruled people need to be 21 to try it. "Nobody has been able to fry a liquid before," says Zable, who has filed a patent application for the cooking process. "It tastes like you took a bite of hot pretzel dough and then took a drink of beer." Zable's previous creations include chocolate-covered strawberry waffle balls and jalapeno corndog shrimp. Is there no end to people’s stupidity?



Meanwhile divers this week salvaged the world's oldest drinkable beer from a shipwreck in the Baltic Sea just days after work began to retrieve dozens of bottles of 200-year-old champagne. "We believe these are by far the world's oldest bottles of beer," Rainer Juslin, a spokesman for the local government of Aaland, said in a statement.
The beer bottles were unearthed from a shipwreck believed to be about 200 years old -- as divers were recovering bottles of what is thought to be the world's oldest drinkable champagne, discovered in July.
The enviable haul, found intact on the seabed at a depth of 50 metres (yards), comes from an unidentified wreck which the Aaland authorities believe sank off the coast in the early 1800s.
"The constant temperature and light levels have provided optimal conditions for storage, and the pressure in the bottles has prevented any seawater from seeping in through the corks," Thursday's statement said. The champagne bottles alone are estimated to be worth tens of thousands of euros. I believe they’re considering sending the beer to that bozo in Texas.

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Eggs.....traordinary omelettes

Which is more grammatically correct, the yolk of an egg is white or the yolk of an egg are white? OK, the yolk of an egg is yellow but here's another one for you, if you make an omelette should the egg be wrapped around the filling as in a French style omelette or should the filling be in the omelette as in a Spanish style omelette or frittata. More importantly does it really matter since you're going to put great forkfulls of it in your mouth at a time? Anyway if you're like me and believe that the end justifies the means then you might want to try out the Ziploc omelette on Sunday morning. It works for any number of people from 1 upwards but if you can get a few friends or family to join in you'll get a fuller appreciation of just how important the Ziploc bag is to the modern lifestyle.
Get everyone to write their name on a medium sized Ziploc bag with a permanent marker. Then let them crack 2 eggs, a splash of cream and a dash of seasoning into their bag. Zip it up and give it a bloody good shake. Next unzip the bag and add your choice from a selection of pre prepared items like grated cheese, finely diced tomatoes, saute mushrooms and onions, peppers, ham etc. Another bloody good shake and this time try to get as much air as possible out of the bag before doing up the zip. Now here's the really difficult part - place the bags into a large pot of water on a rolling boil and DO NOT TOUCH for 13 minutes. Remove from the water with tongs and cut open the bag to allow your omelette to roll out easily. At this point you're way ahead of me......yes of course you can prepare your breakfast the night before and put on to cook while you're having your morning shower. In fact depending on the length of your shower and how hot you like it, you might even be able to take it into the shower with you !

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Soup de jour

Now whilst I am a big fan of le sauce rouge, Heinz Tomato Ketchup, I regret that Heinz Cream of Tomato Soup is one of those childhood favourites that I have long left behind. The problem is that Heinz Cream of Tomato Soup tastes exactly like Heinz Cream of Tomato Soup and nothing remotely like Cream of Tomato Soup. However it is about to celebrate it’s centenary in the UK and it would be churlish not to wish it happy birthday. Today it's considered a simple store cupboard staple but when Heinz first brought out its Cream of Tomato Soup, it was considered rather grand. To celebrate its longevity, Fortnum & Mason, where the soup was first sold, has created a four-course meal based on the dish. It begins with Bigbury Bay oysters with a Bloody Mary style soup sauce, followed by soup dressed with pesto, creme fraiche and spicy sun-dried tomato salsa. Next is rose veal and basil meatballs with a soup sauce and fresh penne pasta. This is followed by fruit cake made with soup, pecan nuts and sultanas, served with vanilla cream. Don’t ask me!

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