Flash in the Pan

A weekly round-up of food and drink oddities:

• Bugged By Low Tab A Dubai restaurant took 25 percent off the bill of a birthday dinner party because seven insects found bugs crawling in their food. Sorry, the house has a firm policy: it takes 8 bug-infested dinners for the 50 percent discount.(Reuters)


• And What's For Dessert? Before dining with the Queen of England, French President Nicolas Sarkozy asked to see the wine list. (The Sun)


• Shave and a Haircut - Two Pints The Michigan attorney general told a barbershop owner in Grand Rapids, MI that he couldn't hand out a beer with each haircut without a liquor license. (AP)


• Worms Are Easier to Get Into the Bottle A Texas man is in legal trouble for selling bottles of vodka with dead baby rattlesnakes in them. (Reuters)


• Didn't They Like the Food? Cajun chef Paul Prudhomme was grazed by a bullet as he cooked at a New Orleans golf event. (AP)


• Dumping Tea in the Harbor Always Worked for Us Disgruntled Brits on the Internet are gaining traction with a campaign to ban Britain's chancellor of the exchequer from pubs because of a new tax on beer. (AP)


• Can't Hold Their Soda Wausau, Wisconsin police broke up a high school keg party. How embarrassing that the liquid was actually root bear. (AP)

Labels: news, odd, weird

Those who've been watching the escalating cost of food had better ready themselves again: international rice prices have jumped 30 percent, according to the Financial Times. Egypt put into place a ban forbidding exporting rice. It's a big producer of the grain, but is keeping its production at home to help keep lower prices for its own consumers - following a trend:

The Egyptian export ban formalises a previously poorly enforced curb and follows similar restrictions imposed by Vietnam and India, the world’s second- and third-largest exporters. Cambodia, a small seller, also on Thursday announced an export ban.

These foreign sales restrictions have removed about a third of the rice traded in the international market.

That will only exaccerbate a growing problem of food shortages worldwide and, sadly, riots as a result. Expect US producers to look for higher prices along with the rest of the market.

Labels: food, grains, prices, rice

We had just run out of barbecue sauce and, desperately needing a fix, I searched the pantry shelves and found a bottle of Café Tequila BBQ Sauce. Frankly, I don't remember where or when we got it. This may have been one of those samples that came in from a PR firm, or we might have actually - gasp - paid money for it. Either way, it was there and I was game. Off, with some doing, came the wax seal on the long bottle neck and out, eventually, came the cork. Great flavor - some depth to keep your interest and yet delivering on the basic promise of a barbecue sauce.

So, it's worth getting, although there is one problem: the bottle. Yes, the wide bottom and tall, skinny neck are attractive and grab your attention. But that base takes up a bit too much shelf space in the refrigerator and the neck means you can't slip it onto just any of your shelves.

Labels: opinion, product, review, sauce

Remember the story about beef from crippled cows being recalled? Apparently the list of institutions and companies that received the meat has recently been expanded and now includes weight loss firm Jenny Craig:

The state said Jenny Craig Salisbury steak and meatloaf meals were made with beef recalled from Westland/Hallmark. Lisa Talamini, a Jenny Craig program executive, said the company has taken swift action to notify its customers.

“We have asked our distribution centers and retail channels to locate and destroy all impacted products,” Talamini said in a statement. “As part of our commitment to quality and client service, we are making every effort to inform those clients who are in receipt of impacted product.”

However, a legal PR person and activist that I know in California was interviewed - turns out she had recently bought some of the products - and the "effort" to inform people was to put a small sign on the counter in the Jenny Craig locations. This Feb. 27 post on the Jenny Craig site suggests that the company knew about this as of then. So why hasn't the company done anything other than post some small signs? "Every effort" would suggest a whole lot more ... effort.

Labels: food, product, recall, warning

I had never heard of Carol Nix before getting an email from her about two products: Fusion drying racks for wine glasses and a set of wine-themed dishes. That was right before Christmas, but the actual products for review only recently showed up. Two words: I'm impressed.

The Fusion 8-glass and 16-glass Stemware Racks are smart. You don't want to good fragile wine glasses into a dishwasher. So you wash them by hand and ... what? Immediately dry each and put it away while dinner guests may still be about? You don't have to bother. The Fusion Racks are metal frames with legs that fold flat for storage. But when unfolded, you can hang wine glasses upside down and let them drip dry onto a towel that you'd put below. The 16-glass rack has room in the center to turn a carafe upside down and let it drain as well.

As for the Carol Fountain Nix/Sophia Ceramic Line, Ms. Nix sent an assortment of these heavy square plates. My entire family and people who have come into the house have oohed and awed. Each is named for some varietal, and the color palette and art work are most pleasing. These would make great plates for a party, or even serving pieces or candy dishes for a dressed-up dinner at home. Unfortunately, she doesn't have her own web site up yet, so the links are to Oenophilia.com. The racks are also available through Target; Amazon; Wine Enthusiast; Bed, Bath and Beyond; and other outlets.

Labels: dishes, plates, storage, wine

A weekly round-up of food and drink oddities:

• Taco Bars A man got 30 days in jail for scamming a taco shop out of food and then posting the escapade on YouTube. Wonder what the sentence would have been for a burrito? (AP)


• Jailhouse Slop Vermont prisoners have undertaken a class action suit in protest of such dishes as nutraloaf: "a mixture of cubed whole wheat bread, nondairy cheese, raw carrots, spinach, seedless raisins, beans, vegetable oil, tomato paste, powdered milk and dehydrated potato flakes." (AP)


• Some Schnoz Lloyd's of London has insured a winemaker's nose for close to $8 million. (Reuters)


• Illinois for $1,350 on eBay Two sisters sold a corn flake shaped like the state of Illinois for $1,350 on eBay. Is that with milk, or without? (AP)


• In the Bag Patrons of Atlantic City's Irish Pub celebrate a holiday, invented by bar staff that worked through St. Patrick's day one year, by wearing paper bags on March 18. (AP)

Labels: news, odd, weird

I've tried 'em, and they taste and act like regular eggs. But the people at Eggland's Best have a patented feed mix - which they license to producers around the country (generally you're getting a local egg with the Eggland's branding) - that supposedly improves nutrition. I have no way of verifying these claims independently, as the Flash in the Pan lab decided that when the first day of spring brings more snow and sub-freezing weather, it's time to move south. However, here are some of the improvements over normal eggs that the company claims: 19 percent less cholesterol, 25 percent less saturated fat and 10 percent less overall fat, almost three times the omega 3 fatty acids (research supports that they may help reduce risk of coronary heart disease), five times the vitamin E, and 25 percent more lutein (good for the eyes). To be fair, if you aren't eating egg all the time, then this isn't going to be a reliable source of nutrition. But when you are using eggs, it's nice to know.

We still go for: 1) eggs from our chickens (when they feel like paying off the massive debt in chicken feed they now owe), 2) organic store-bought, and 3) vegetarian-fed free range (though, to be truthful, chickens have eating habits that you probably don't want to know if you're ever to use an egg again in your life). But the Eggland's Best seems like a reasonable choice.

Labels: food, ingredients, opinion, review

Starbucks has faced increasing competition as it increasingly has turned itself into a giant coffee machine. Where once baristas applied skill to get espresso shots to turn out the right way (or at least as right as you can get when your beans are overly roasted), now it's a push button land. And when coffee is the result of pushing buttons, of course a McDonald's or Dunkin Donuts can enter the market. Hell, it only requires buying the equipment. So CEO Howard Schultz has announced a series of steps to improve "the coffee experience," as reported by the Financial Times:

• Install lower-height automatic espresso machines so you can see the bored look in the barista's eyes.
• Add yet another coffee blend that is different from all the other ones the chain has sold.
• Buy a company that makes single-cup grinding and brewing machines for filter coffee and put them into select stores because, as you know, more things to look at or buy means better coffee.
• Provide extra ingredients and toppings to people who use the Starbucks purchase cards because that way your coffee becomes even more of a commodity.
• Start a social networking site to let people suggest ideas and vote on them, which doesn't sound all that tasty, but what do I know?
• Get into health and wellness food and drink, which probably means cutting the caffeine and, therefore, the coffee that they want to promote.

I wasn't impressed with the "training session" they did last month, bringing all their employees in on a night for three hours of training. (Wonder how you train people to push buttons better.) Maybe Starbucks hasn't jumped the shark, but it sure sounds like there may be a fin circling at the top of you next cup of java - extra shot, soy milk, extra hot, hold the foam.

Labels: business, coffee, humor

The New York Times has a funny article - well, at least I was amused - about a negative correlation between the amount of beer scientists drink and the amount of successful papers they publish:

According to the study, published in February in Oikos, a highly respected scientific journal, the more beer a scientist drinks, the less likely the scientist is to publish a paper or to have a paper cited by another researcher, a measure of a paper’s quality and importance.

The results were not, however, a matter of a few scientists having had too many brews to be able to stumble back to the lab. Publication did not simply drop off among the heaviest drinkers. Instead, scientific performance steadily declined with increasing beer consumption across the board, from scientists who primly sip at two or three beers over a year to the sort who average knocking back more than two a day.

But, as one source pointed out, there's a difference between correlation and causality. Two things happening at the same time are not necessarily linked by one causing the other. And it would be possible to get this completely backwards. Maybe, instead of beer drinking causing lack of publishing productivity, it is low spirits over being at the back of the pack that pushes some scientists to seek consolation with barley and hops.

Labels: beer, news, science

While on a shopping excursion in the Brattleboro Food Coop, I came across a bottle of St. Peter's English Ale. Imported from Suffolk, England, the brew was good - round flavor with a pleasant hint of bitterness at the end. Unfortunately, my capacity for alcohol is limited, and I went through only half the bottle. But as we had some short ribs that needed tending to, I decided that a little braising would be in order:

Beer-Braised Short Ribs

• 1 cup flour
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1/2 tsp. pepper
• 2 TBS olive oil
• 4 lbs. short ribs
• 6 ounces beer (I used St. Peter's English Ale)
• 1 large yellow onion, thinly sliced
• 1 stalk celery, chopped (optional)
• 3 cloves garlic, chopped fine
• 1 can diced tomatoes
• 2 tsp basil
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 tsp cardamom seeds

Directions>

1. Heat oven to 250 degrees F.
2. Mix flour, salt, and pepper together. Dredge short ribs in mixture. Heat 12-inch frying pan over high heat, add olive oil, and brown ribs on all sides. Transfer to dutch oven.
3. Reduce heat to medium. Add onions and celery, cooking until onions are translucent. Add garlic and continue cooking until onions are browned. Add mixture to dutch oven.
4. Add beer to pan and deglaze. After dissolving all solids, add tomatoes, basil, bay leaves, and cardamom. Heat through. Add to dutch oven.
5. Add salt and pepper to taste. Cover dutch oven and place in oven. Cook for three hours. Serve with egg noodles.

Serves 4-6, depending on the appetites. I found that kim chi goes well with this dish, as do braised greens.

Labels: beef, beer, braise, casserole, entree, opinion, recipe, review

I saw mention of the newest V8 V-Fusion flavor: açaí. For those unfamiliar with the products, they are blends of fruit and vegetable juices, meant to get people to ingest more vegetables by disguising the taste with something sweet. When the bottle came in, my kids started eyeing it, as I guess they are already fans, so if your intent is to improve the nutrition of a younger crowd, you've got that base covered. But what isn't clear, to my non-nutritional mind, at least, is just how much more of a balanced diet you can drink yourself into.

I know the mantra is to eat X many servings of fruits and vegetables every day, but when I looked at the bottle's label, darned if I could find a massive influx of vitamins or minerals. So while the advice is out there, I can't figure out exactly what it is trying to accomplish in results.

However, if there is a benefit from drinking some portion of your fruits and vegetables, and the V-Fusion fits the bill, the açaí version had a quite pleasant taste, and the bottle was gone a lot faster than would have been the case with a bottle of regular V8. (Though I like that as well.)

Labels: drinks, opinion, product, review

A weekly round-up of food and drink oddities:

• Now That's Crabby Guinness World Records has certified the world's biggest fishcake - a crab cake of 235 pounds. (AP)


• Chew On This Peru lawmakers criticize a UN recommendation to criminalize all uses of the coca plant. (Reuters)


• Jenny Craig, Meet King Kong Zoos try to keep their charges from putting on too much weight. (AP)
gorilla

• Pass the Biscuits A 27 year old man who lived on biscuits (cookies in the UK) became a chef to fight his addiction. (BBC)


• Meals by Mail The Thailand post office has announced a new food delivery service with meals coming from famous restaurants. (AFP)


• Ham Bone Connects to the Thief Bone A Massachusetts restaurateur drove off a would-be robber with a frozen ham. (AP)

Labels: news, odd, weird

The other day I caught a commercial for one of the flavored water brands - Propel, I think. It started with indicating all the exercise that various characters would have to do to burn off the calories in their "water" drinks. Then it proudly announced that the advertised brand had only 25 calories per bottle. "Twenty-five calories?" asked an impressed and impossibly fit person.

Twenty-five calories in a bottle of water? And that's supposed to be impressive? There are no calories in water, so if the bottle from which you drink puts something into your body that needs working off, you're not drinking water. You're drinking a sweetened concoction, probably a variation on soda, except with some collection of vitamins or minerals replacing the carbonation.

Clearly, regular water isn't enough for people. If we as a society are so far gone as to need to find low-cal water, then the barbarians can't be far away.

Labels: business, water

I should start by saying that I have an almost absolute dislike for flavored coffees. I generally hold that if I want an added taste, I can put in a shot of some more naturally-flavored syrup, go for something chicory-laced, or even add some ground cinnamon, cardamom, or other spice before brewing. But I have to admit that Flavorbean coffees are pretty good.

According to the PR materials, most flavored beans are made using chemical solvents to deposit the taste on the coffee. I don't know that independently, but, if true, that perhaps explains the overly aggressive and harshness I've found when I've tried such brews. But the french vanilla and hazelnut varieties I received from the company to test were really pleasant. They claim that the coffees are "naturally flavored," which can be a slippery label to understand. But if you like flavored coffee, I'd suggest giving these a try.

And if you want something really different, add a half teaspoon of good cinnamon to the grounds. It's a lovely way to start an early morning.

Labels: coffee, opinion, product, review

A weekly round-up of food and drink oddities:

• Keep Pouring... The Utah legislature has decided to loosen up a bit, and allow restaurants and bars to serve up to 1.5 ounces of liquor in a single drink - up from the previous 1 ounce limit. Can the lampshade hats be far away?(AP)


• ... But Not Here Teetotaling members of the Swedish legislature want only alcohol-free drinks at official parliamentary functions. Next thing - wet blankets for everyone(AFP)


• Don't Eat the White Snow Research has shown that many snowflakes coalesce around a core of bacteria. (AP)


• Steel Cage Birthday Parties Two mothers got into fight at a Chuck E. Cheese when one, there for her son's birthday, thought the other was allowing her child to hog an arcade game. (AP)


• First, We'll Puff at All the Lawyers Minnesota has a ban on all smoking in restaurants and bars - unless you're an actor in a theatrical performance. Some bars are avoiding the ban by declaring all patrons to be actors. Ah, but did they ever eat with one? (AP)


• Way the Cookie Crumbles Oklahoma police arrested a man for allegedly breaking into Chinese restaurants. The giveaway? The fortune cookies in his pocket. (AP)


• Alas, Poor Triffle New research indicates that steak and kidney pie, spotted dick and sherry trifle may become extinct by 2021. (Press Assoc)

Labels: news, odd, weird

The ground is still covered in snow and ice. But things are starting to warm just a bit, and it's maple sugaring season - a great time in New England. Those with groves of sugar maples will be running taps, collecting the watery, slightly sweet sap in buckets through plastic lines running between the trees, as temperatures above freezing cause pressure that forces the liquid out. Producers bring the sap to sugar houses, with wood-fired kettles that will boil batches for 24 hours to develop the amber liquid you can easily grow to love.

Maple sugaring also means the opening of the seasonal restaurants attacked to some of the sugar houses: fluffy pancakes and round corn fritters, all soaked with maple syrup, and, at one, at least, even tiny cones of maple-flavored ice cream. The whole experience will last only six weeks. If you're anywhere near this part of the country, come by on a weekend, check one of the web sites for the locations of the restaurants, and get in early. Two hour waits are hardly unusual. In April, as people who have been coming for decades are leaving from their last breakfast of the season, you'll hear people say, "See you next year."

Labels: maple syrup, restaurants, travel

OK, so the name sounds like something Roald Dahl threw out when writing Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. But don't let the self-conscious cuteness of FruitaBü throw you. These organic fruit snacks have a strong and clean fruit flavor, though some tend a little to the sour. But they're aimed at kids, and those same kids often like incredibly sour candies that twist my lips into a knot when I even think of them. Also, all the sugars come from fruit, so there is no high fructose corn syrup that goes into these.

There are two versions. The fruit Twirls are like a ribbon of soft fruit leather spiralled up. The fruit Sploooshers are packets of some kind of gelatinous mass that I'm sure is a heretofore unknown physical state of matter. I found the texture mildly off-putting, as did my teenage daughter, though, as I did, she liked the Twirls. But, being the dutiful young woman she is, she brought samples with her to school to test on her friends. They pretty much said, "Bring more," and they preferred the Sploooshers.

So give them a shot. Chances are that you won't go wrong, and at least you're keeping the corn content out and available for ethanol for the car.

Labels: fruit, opinion, product, review, snacks

I recently reviewed Hormel Compleats - a line of one-dish meals that store on the shelf without refrigeration. The company's PR representatives just emailed in response to my comments on the sodium content:

I did want to clarify your statement on sodium content. The USDA recommends that healthy Americans get 2,300 milligrams per day. (USDA Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2005, Chapter 8 “Sodium and Potassium - http://www.health.gov/dietaryguidelines/dga2005/document/html/chapter8.htm) At 600 milligrams or less, Hormel Compleats products provide roughly a quarter or less of the sodium recommendation per day. The sodium content in Hormel Compleats is equal to or less than other single serving shelf-stable offerings in the market today.

I think the PR firm meant that it wanted to challenge my statement, as I don't see how it would be in the position to clarify what I had said. In any case, the product may hover around the same sodium content as other shelf-stable offerings, but the company's analysis is off and even misleading. First, the USDA reference cited does not recommend that people get 2,300 mg of sodium, but less than 2,300 mg of sodium, which is a significantly different statement. If you are middle-aged or older, black, or have hypertension, the top number is 1,500 mg. But that's not the USDA's only statement on sodium.

Instead, let's consider this from the second chapter, Adequate Nutrients Within Calorie Needs, of the same USDA 2005 dietary guidelines. I'd argue that looking at nutritional needs would be closer to the concept of a recommended minimum amount, and that the 2,000 Kcal nutrition levels are near an adult average, given gender and activity levels, which can widely swing the recommendations. That 2,000 Kcal number is the general baseline used for nutritional comparisons on food levels. For that level of caloric intake, the recommended sodium number is 1,779 mg. And here’s an interesting paragraph from the same chapter the company quoted:

Common sources of sodium found in the food supply are provided in figure 4. On average, the natural salt content of food accounts for only about 10 percent of total intake, while discretionary salt use (i.e., salt added at the table or while cooking) provides another 5 to 10 percent of total intake. Approximately 75 percent is derived from salt added by manufacturers.

In other words, packaged foods - shelf-stable or not - put the largest amount of sodium per serving into our diets. On the whole, I think that my analysis is probably more realistic in terms of viewing a food as "healthy" or not, and certainly closer to what a health professional would likely say than taking the number Hormel does and trying to interpret it as a recommended amount that people should have, rather than a maximum, with the understanding that, for salt, less is certainly more.

Labels: food, nutrition, PR, product, review

When the PR people sent samples of the tasty Weil by Nature’s Path Pure Fruit & Nut Bars, also in the box were two cereals: HempPlus Organic Hot Oatmeal and Flax Plus Red Berry Crunch. Let's take the former without any untoward jokes, out there, because hemp is not necessarily its more psychopharmacoligically active cousin banned on college campuses across this great nation. Instead, this is another source of dietary fiber that is supposed to provide health benefits. I gave it a shot. An instant cereal, you mix in boiling water, stir for a bit, and you get breakfast. I was surprised at the creamy nature of the cereal; usually that takes cooking in liquid, not merely adding something wet. The taste was passable, but I could pass on what turned out to be a nearly gelatinous texture. In fact, as I lifted a spoonful, I could see little trailing strands of goo stretching an inch or so back to the bowl. Hmm.

More textually pleasant was the Flax Plus Red Berry Crunch. It's a cold cereal, crunchy, with a fruity taste (freeze-dried raspberries and strawberries) and enough whatever in it that I found it didn't need sugar - just a dash of milk. Put me down for more of this one.

Labels: cereal, opinion, product, review

A weekly round-up of food and drink oddities:

• Worse Than Smell-O-Vision Welch's is testing a magazine ad where you lick the page to taste the product. If it were Campbell's Soup, I'd say, "Ewww, ewww, good." (Wall Street Journal)


• Newport Newborns A Newport, RI hotel has a themed pregnancy special, including a diaper cake with the upcoming child's name on the rear end and a pint of ice cream and dill pickles as part of the turn-down service. Only $900 a night. Did someone say turn down? (The Chanler at Cliff Walk)


• Is That Supersized? Mallie's Sports Grill & Bar in Southgate, Michigan is trying to get into the Guinness Book of World Records with a 150 pound hamburger. With 24 hours notice, you and scores of your closest friends can have one - for $350. (Detroit Free Press)

Labels: news, odd, weird