Monday, August 18, 2008
Strange News from the Food Front (8/18/2008)
A weekly round-up of food and drink oddities:
- Brain Food Some researchers think that the development of cooking may have been the springboard for a rapid increase in brain mass 2 million years ago. (LiveScience)
- No Litreing The owner of a Polish restaurant in England is in legal trouble because he serves Polish beer in .3 and .5 litre sizes instead of in pints. (Daily Mail)
- Domain Dispute Wine producers in St. Emilion are fighting with each other over whose products get to be called Bordeaux. (NYT)
- What Did You Call It? Chinese foods are often difficult to translate, as there may be no English equivalents, and a single region like Sichuan may have thousands of unique dishes. (Financial Times)
- No, He's Our Boxer Both Pepsi and Coke have erected promotional tents outside the home of an Olympic boxer from Thailand, where the athlete's father says both can stay as long as they don't start fighting. (Reuters)
- Vodka on the Rocky Sylvester Stallone is signed up to promote a Russian vodka. (Reuters)
- Barter Bar An English pub is bartering drink for ingredients that can be used on its menu. (AFP)
- Pricey Grapes The Japanese, again showing their proclivity for spending a bit too much on fruit, put Ruby Roman grapes on auction that fetched as much as $30 a single globe. (AFP)
- Way the Cookie Crumbles The company that owns Mrs. Fields, purveyor of cookies, as well as TCBY frozen yogurt has filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Or, as a news report put it, the company says that it needs more dough. Sounds like someone without enough culture sporting a chip on his or her shoulder. (UPI)
