Flash in the Pan

A weekly round-up of food and drink oddities:

• Keeping Diners on Ice Chillout is the name of a new lounge in Dubai where everything is made of ice. Canadians designed it. Why is this not surprising?(AP)


• Hansel and Gretel and Bonnie and Clyde Some teenagers that broke into a gas station were caught in part to the trail of candy wrappers they left as they made their escape. (AP)


• Muffin Meltdown A giant plastic muffin that had been stolen from a supermarket and apparently had sentimental value was found melted into a puddle. (NBC)


• Excuse Hard to Swallow Indian police fed dozens of bananas and then chicken and rice to a theft suspect to get him to ... um ... produce the gold necklace he had swallowed. That's getting to the bottom of the case. (Reuters)


• Encapsulation of the Food Chain Beijing officials are closing food stalls that were attached to public toilets. (Reuters)


• Snail Consumption Speeds An escargot festival ended with participants having polished off 100,800 of the creatures, which actually came from Poland. (AFP)

Labels: Beijing, Chillout, Dubai, escargot, ice, India, thief, toilets

A weekly round-up of odd kitchen events:

• Culinary Criminals Inmates in a Bangalore, India prison like the food, made by the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, so much that they're refusing to apply for bail. They also like the saffron uniforms. (AFP)


• Beersicle Brouhaha A suburban Washington, D.C. restaurant is getting heat for serving frozen beer pops because the liquid isn't in the original container or served immediately on pouring. And can you ask them to hold the ice? (AP)


• Three-Year-Old Served Vodka in Restaurant. Neat. A restaurant accidentally switched drinks and sent a three-year-old a vodka-based drink instead of pineapple juice. The family was still charged for the drink (no kidding). Wonder if they got to keep the kiddie cup.


• Chef TV Show Sued A manager at a New York Indian restaurant is suing to keep an episode of Gordon Ramsey's new show, Kitchen Nightmares, from airing. At the celebrity chef's behest, the restaurant fired the manager on the show. And you thought that the networks could be harsh. (Reuters)

Labels: beer, India, popsicle, prison, toddler, vodka, weird

A weekly round-up of odd kitchen events:

• Toddler Tippling A San Francisco area Applebee's served a margarita in a sippy cup to a two-year-old - accidentally. The apple juice and margarita mix were stored in identical bottles and the manager grabbed the wrong one. Obviously he was looking for the whiskey sours. (AP)


• Pass the Pud A Delhi celebrity chef is filming a 40-part series on British cooking to air in India. It was thumbs up for bangers and mash, down for Welsh rarebit. Who says the glory of the British Empire is over? (Independent Online)


• Weiner-Weight Bout A 107-pound woman managed to eat 26 franks and buns in 12 minutes during the annual Nathan's Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest. Growing up in China, food was always scarce, so she learned to eat a lot when it was available. Just don't come between her and the plate. (AP)


• Getting the Last Honk For years the French have been force feeding geese to fatten their livers for foie gras. It now appears that those livers can transmit amyloidosis, a rare disease that affects various organs. Symptoms range from fatigue and weight loss to swelling and kidney damage. And certain death, at least for the goose. (Reuters)


• I'll Drink to That A Japanese person was just named the world's oldest living man at 111 years. He attributed his longevity to abstention from alcohol. Let's party ... kinda. (Reuters)


• Toss Up The Mexican city of Tijuana, having seen dozens of drug war killings in the last few years, has decided to pick its collective chin up with Caesar salad, invented there in 1932. A local restaurant industry association hopes to give the city "a better image." Nothing like mass salmonella outbreaks to make you forget murder. (Reuters)


• Forget the Market, Let's Get the Royalties The man believed to be the model for the face adorning Cream of Wheat boxes finally got a grave marker with his name after almost 70 years. (AP)


• With a Shot of Ranch, Please Pepsi is selling a cucumber-based soda in Japan. (AP)

Labels: Applebee's, Britain, British, Caesar, contest, Cream of Wheat, cucumber, foie gras, hot dogs, India, margarita, Nathan's, Pepsi, salad, soda, Tijuana

In the past I've tried making chapati, a grilled Indian bread made of whole wheat flour. Although I knew in theory that it took a special flour, I tried using ordinary whole wheat, and the results were indifferent. Recently we were in an Asian market in Hadley, MA and on a whim I picked up a 5 pound sack of atta, the "proper" flour made of whole grain durum wheat. What a difference a grain can make. My wife gave it thumbs up, and it approached the version we get at a great Indian restaurant in Boston, India Quality, we've been going to for a good 20 years (long before Zagat's ever dreamt of becoming a review arbiter). The recipe is easy: flour and water, kneaded to mix and then rolled out into disks. Grill on the first side for maybe a minute, grill on the second for 30 seconds, and then back on the first side for another 15.

Checking Wikipedia, I noticed that the same bread, held in an open flame, puffs up and becomes the Gujrathi or Punjabi phulka. Unfortunately, we're cooking on electric these days, so I'll have to try the microwave variation that can leave the bread a bit soggy. But I'd like to see the puffed version.

Now, if only I had a good recipe for the onion salad the restaurant carries.

Labels: atta, baking, Boston, bread, chapati, cuisine, India, phulka

India's Supreme Court has banned street vendors from cooking on New Dehli sidewalks, in an attempt to clear the crowded streets, according to this Reuters story. There is one exception: tea vendors. There are some people challenging the order, which suggests that the Supreme Court in India isn't the same as in the U.S. According to the story:

Critics say New Delhi's policemen would be reluctant to enforce such a ban as extracting bribes from street vendors is seen as a job perk.

And maybe they don't have doughnut shops. What's an officer to do?

Labels: India, New Dehli, sidewalks, street food