Fusion

Over the past 15 years I have noticed the trend of fusion cuisine. Every time someone recommends a fusion restaurant or describes a menu as "fusion" I always wonder what they really mean.

Fusion...What the heck does that mean anyways?

According to our friends at Wiki...

"Fusion cuisine is cuisine that combines elements of different culinary traditions. Cuisines of this type are not categorized according to any one particular cuisine style and have played a part in innovations of many contemporary restaurant cuisines since the 1970s"

I also found this article by Linda Orlando called "Crossing Culinary Boundaries with Fusion Cuisine" which states:

For most chefs there are specific boundaries between culinary styles in terms of spices, sauces, fillings, and recipe ingredients. Soy sauce is always associated with Chinese cooking; Italian dishes usually contain oregano; and tamales are usually a Mexican dish. But now, thanks to fusion cooking, there are no holds barred when it comes to jumbling up typical culinary stereotypes to create new taste sensations.

Wolfgang Puck, one of the most notorious culinary experimenters for several decades, is considered by some to be the original instigator of fusion cuisine. In the 1970s, Puck had the idea for pairing two styles of cooking that were on opposite sides of the world from a geographical standpoint: European cooking with Asian cooking. Having been trained in Europe, Puck was also well versed in Asian cooking. So he decided to launch his new experiment in California, smack dab in the middle between the two.

Eurasian cuisine, like other fusion methods developed later, blends ingredients and/or cooking techniques from the two different cultures. For example, Chinese pot sticker dumplings might be filled with traditional English ingredients, such as ground lamb. Risotto may be infused with wasabi or ginger. The styles fused together could be vastly different, such as the French cooking technique of poaching being combined with an Asian staple, tofu. Other possible combinations of culinary cuisine can be subtle, such as combining Thai recipes with Vietnamese cooking styles. The possibilities for exciting combinations are infinite.

The culinary synthesis resulting from fusion cooking is difficult to achieve successfully, despite the fact that there are numerous restaurants across the country that boast a menu of fusion delicacies. The greatest numbers of fusion eateries are located in urban areas such as New York City and Los Angeles, where a cultural melting pot already exists. In cities where residents are already dining at various ethnic restaurants, the population is more amenable to culinary integration inside the same restaurant.

Critics of fusion cuisine refer to it as "confusion" cuisine, saying that too often, chefs combine ingredients that shouldn’t even be in the same kitchen, much less on the same plate. "Confusion" cuisine usually is the result of a chef trying too hard to create something innovative. Classic recipes are so ordinary now that they are almost passé, so in order for a chef to make a name in the culinary world, it is essential to try something new. Unfortunately, the result is often a culinary nightmare.

One of the things that makes fusion cooking such a daunting task is the fact that people’s likes and dislikes vary so widely. One person might think it perfectly wonderful to pair a garlic Caesar salad with tempura battered scallops, while another person would think someone in the kitchen had made a grave error. Successful fusion chefs are the ones who discover unheard-of combinations that appeal to most palates, despite the fact that there will always be critics.

Sending ingredients and techniques from two dissimilar cuisines to collide with each other in a recipe is what most people think of when they think of fusion cuisine. But the term can also apply in a broader sense to a restaurant that serves dishes from diverse cultures, such as a Greek/Italian restaurant that has moussaka listed on the menu alongside pasta Bolognese.

The opposite of fusion cuisine is to create recipes or entire meals from ingredients that are indigenous to a specific geographical region. Chefs who consider this to be the most superior type of cuisine believe that foods grown together in the same climate and at the same altitude will naturally share an affinity with each other. The idea is even carried through to including wines from the same region. Proponents of this type of "territorial" cooking are usually horrified by even the thought of fusion cooking, because it requires crossing boundaries that are firmly in place in their minds.

Some chefs believe that fusion cuisine is simply an attempt to mask a lack of culinary skills, or just a stab at jumping onto the latest food craze bandwagon, whether or not the result is a good one. Many chefs feel that fusion cooking is like the red-headed stepchild of real cuisine, and bringing together disparate styles and ingredients only serves to diminish the integrity of both cuisines.

Despite the rampant criticism of fusion cuisine, you should give it a try to see what you think. But be sure to do your homework before you do, or you may end up in the middle of a gustatory minefield. Research restaurants, ask people you know for recommendations, perhaps even stake out the restaurant and take a look at the menu before deciding to give it a try. No matter how much you love one particular world of cuisine, you might discover that having another world collide with it might not be so bad after all.
Read more at Buzzle: http://www.buzzle.com/articles/crossing-culinary-boundaries-fusion-cuisine.html

Have you checked out Heidi Swanson's food blog?

Heidi Swanson, cook book author and food blogger extraordinaire! Wow I love her philosophy on food! You will get lost in the slew of recipes she has posted on her blog. All of the recipes look mouth-watering ... ummmmmm fooood! Check it out, you might even learn about some of the wonderful places she has traveled while enjoying her take on healthy eating.

http://101cookbooks.com/index.html

 

Spring Minestrone with Brown Rice
Super Natural Cooking is your guide to navigating a less-processed, more natural world of cooking (vitamins, minerals, fiber, and flavor included).

Written and photographed by Heidi Swanson, creator of 101 Cookbooks, Super Natural Cooking guides cooks toward a more natural (less processed) palette of ingredients and recipes. Everyone knows that whole foods are much healthier than refined ingredients, but few know how to cook with them in uncomplicated, delicious ways.

 

With this book you'll learn the ins-and-outs of the whole-foods kitchen by identifying and exploring a spectrum of whole grain flours, minimally processed fats, grains, sweeteners, and phytonutrient-packed fruits and vegetables.

The book features 80 recipes, and 100 full-color photos. It is 7x10 inches, 224 pages, and printed in full color.

Chapters include:

• Build a Natural Foods Pantry
• Explore a Wide Range of Grains
• Cook by Color
• Know Your Superfoods
• Use Natural Sweeteners

Selected recipes:

• Do-It-Yourself Powerbars
• Black Tea Spring Rolls
• Quinoa and Corn Flour Crepes
• Millet Fried "Rice"
• Sweet Potato Spoon Bread
• Risotto-Style Barley
• Acai Power Popsicles

• Any new signings or demos will be listed here.

Wining and Dining to Grow Your Business and Brand

What a brilliant article - this is a great read for anyone that wants to network with a bit of class!

http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/225413

Wining and Dining to Grow Your Business and Brand

 

image credit: Shutterstock

In his book, Power Entertaining, author Eddie Osterland details how to turn entertaining into an opportunity to build and brand your business. In this edited except, Osterland offers advice on hosting a memorable and successful event.
Power entertaining is about creating an experience for guests, built around great wine, great food, great company and great ambience. It's about giving people enjoyable memories that will cause them to remember you fondly and make them want to do business with you in the future. The following principles will help you take your business entertaining to a new level.
Think of power entertaining as a business-development strategy. You can brand yourself and your company by creating memorable and enjoyable social events that people will long remember and always associate with you. Hosting power entertaining events is a great way to become "a center of influence," because every event you put on for others is an opportunity to create an indelible impression in the minds of others. Creating a memorable experience doesn't need to bust your budget. Power entertaining is about offering people delectable samples of food and tastings of wine, especially of things they haven't had before or don't know much about.
Related: Five Rules for Writing Off Meals and Entertainment Costs

Be an enthusiastic master of ceremonies. Power entertaining is about making others feel special at business events you host. It's important to dive into your hosting role with gusto, extending the welcome mat to people as they arrive, exuding warmth and hospitality, setting the tone for why people are together and describing what the evening is all about.

Engage a sommelier or wine merchant to help plan and host events. They will be very knowledgeable about wine and will be able to help you design unique wine and food pairings to feature at your dinner or reception.

Introduce guests to new wine and food. At many corporate events the only alcoholic beverages people serve are cheap, garden-variety brands of Chardonnay, Cabernet, or Merlot. So instead, offer Sauvignon Blanc (Sancerre), Tempranillo (Rioja), Sangiovese (Chianti), and other wines that go well with specific foods.

Kick the evening off with Champagne. Before serving food, start by giving guests Champagne or sparking wine as they arrive. People feel instantly special when you do this. It delights and dazzles them -- and what a first impression it makes.

Serve your best stuff first. Most people will arrive for your event coming from work, and they're likely to be famished. So instead of offering mixed nuts, pretzels, raw vegetables and potato chips, serve small sampler portions of foods like Scottish smoked salmon, foie gras, or, perhaps my favorite appetizer, jamón ibérico de bellota, a kind of Spanish ham that looks like prosciutto but is far more exotic.

Serve wines in pairs. Design entertaining events around side-by-side comparisons of different wines. This adds an intellectual dimension to your event or dinner party and can be a lot of fun, both for you and your guests. It also helps people mingle and injects a new social dimension into an evening, as people ponder what they've tasted and chat about it with their fellow guests.
Related: How to Behave at Your Office Holiday Party (Video)

Invest in the right 'power tools.' It's important that you invest in some special bartending accessories to add panache, style and flourish to your events. It helps set you apart from everybody else who does business entertaining. Among the necessities are nice wine decanters, a nice wine opener and classy glassware. Very few people or organizations have elegant wine glasses, so buy at least a dozen nice red wine glasses and a dozen nice white wine glasses, as well as a set of 12 Champagne flutes.

Stay attentive to your guests' needs. Too often I've been to business events where the designated "host" didn't do a very good job of mingling with others, introducing guests to one another and making everyone feel special. Many people dread going to business events that involve a social component, and many get nervous when entering a room full of people they don't know. Make efforts when hosting events to help people mingle, and if necessary, enlist others to help.

Give souvenirs. Give your guests a nice take-home souvenir of their evening with you. For example, I often put the pairings of food and wine together on glossy 4 x 6-inch cards so that people can replicate them. It might sound corny, but people love this stuff. And it will cause them to remember you well after the event has passed.

Learn how to work with restaurants. From time to time, you'll want to work closely with restaurants to plan and host events. Here are a few things to keep in mind:
• Know the wine list and menu.
• Work with the restaurant's sommelier to design the wine and food menu.
• Tip generously, in cash, before the event. Plan to tip at least 20 percent of the final estimated cost, and consider 25 percent to secure the best service possible.

Power entertaining can be an extension of your marketing and business development efforts and give clients and prospects a very positive "brand experience" of you, your firm, and your commitment to building and sustaining a strong business relationship with them.

Even businesses have to stop and think about food and how it can help increase the bottom line!!!

Eating healthy is a goal that even businesses have to incorporate into their work structure in order to increase productivity, maintain a happy and healthy staff and increase profit margins!

http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/225427

There's never a better time to make positive changes in your business and your lifestyle than at the start of a new year. We're not talking about a two-week commitment to jump on the dusty treadmill in your basement, but rather real long-term changes in the workplace that will help you and your employees be healthier, happier and more productive.

One tactic to keep the crew motivated throughout the day: Offer them some really good food. Many of the country's top organizations know this and keep the office stocked with delicious, wholesome fare. Here are seven tips from Facebook, Twitter and several other high-profile companies for keeping a well-stocked fridge.

The DailyCandy staff (and office dog Toby) enjoy a healthful snack break at HQ.

Photo courtesy of Niki Dankner, DailyCandy

1. Balance the scales with a mix of healthy stuff and indulgences. Skullcandy, the Park City, Utah-based headphone maker, stocks a broad selection of nutritious foods, but recognizes that some fun options help keep people happy, says spokesman Leland Drummond. Employees will find everything from hummus and vegetables to burritos and mini pizzas in the company's fridge.
New York City-based DailyCandy tries for balance to offset the influx of sweets sent to its office for potential inclusion in its coveted e-newsletter. So the company gets a FreshDirect delivery of such snacks as garlic hummus, Wheat Thins, nuts and peanut butter, says Meredith Howard, vice president of communications at DailyCandy. Carrot sticks, she says, are office dog Toby's personal favorite.

2. Make employees feel valued by requesting their feedback. Though you may think you're stocking fare that everyone enjoys, you'll never know for sure unless you ask. Not only do you want to make sure you're spending your money on items people will eat, but you also can make employees feel their opinion is valued.
Go Daddy, the Scottsdale, Ariz.-based website domain-name registrar, stocked its fridge and cafeteria after employees asked for a convenient way to grab a bite to eat throughout the day, says Go Daddy spokeswoman Stephanie Bracken. The company asks for continuing feedback in its annual employee survey, with questions like "Would you like to see more healthy options?" and "What new food items would you like to see stocked?" Based on the responses, the company added a daily salad option.

The folks from Nobu recently stopped by UrbanDaddy HQ to show employees how to hand roll sushi.

Photo courtesy of Paul L. Underwood

3. Take a team approach to healthier eating. When employees commit to improving their eating habits and working out together, they're held accountable and are more likely to stick to the regimen. At the New York City offices of UrbanDaddy, the authority on what's cool and what's not in the men's luxury lifestyle space, employees often participate as a group in the Fight Diet, a 21-day program that promises speedy weight loss by cutting dairy products, artificial sugar and alcohol, while adding four days of cardio a week into the exercise regime. UrbanDaddy managing editor Paul L. Underwood says employees have also requested the office fridge be stocked with a case of BluePrint Cleanse, a vitamin-packed, raw and organic fruit and vegetable juice cleanse system with varying levels of intensity that can replace meals.

Employees at Chegg, the Santa Clara, Calif.-based student hub, recently set up an email distribution list for the "juice club," says CEO Dan Rosensweig. Each day, someone in the club makes colleagues a nutritious smoothie of their choice. Kale, fruit and flaxseed smoothies are trending in the office right now. Simple activities like this can both strengthen relationships and inspire healthy practices.
Related: How to Train Your Brain to Stay Focused

The word EAT is printed on the floor in Epic Cafe at Facebook HQ.

Photo courtesy of Facebook

4. Make convenience a priority. Facebook provides employees with easily accessible, healthy and delicious eats at no charge all day long, says company spokeswoman Andrea Ragni. This way, people don't have to strategize about where and when they will get their meals and snacks, which can boost productivity and morale. The social network giant's new Menlo Park, Calif., headquarters also offers employees made-to-order caffeinated beverages from Philz Coffee. Epic Cafe and Cafe 18 are also open on campus all day and night.

5. Consider special dietary needs. With more people opting for alternative cuisines, it's important to keep food restrictions in mind when stocking the fridge. At Twitter's San Francisco headquarters, the company strives to accommodate a variety of palates and dietary needs by stocking vegan and gluten-free snack bars and cookies, as well as nuts and dried fruit, says company spokeswoman Karen Wickre. Employees can also enjoy free gourmet lunches in the dining area, where there are plenty of vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free and allergy-friendly options.
Related: How Treadmill Desks Can Improve Your Health and Productivity

Etsy employees dig into a healthy "Eatsy" lunch catered by a local restaurant.

Photo courtesy of Jonpaul Douglass

6. Stay within budget. Although you want to keep the fridge stocked for your employees, it's important to limit your food costs. Don't feel pressure to offer three meals a day, plus snacks and drinks. A great way to stay on budget is to repurpose leftovers from company lunches into yummy snacks. For instance, Etsy, the Brooklyn, N.Y.-based handmade marketplace, provides employees twice weekly with what it calls "Eatsy," a family-style, locally sourced meal prepared by nearby restaurants, says Katie Crosswhite, Etsy's office manager and Eatsy coordinator. Staffers later can find leftovers from those lunches to snack on throughout the day. In the fridge recently: broccoli-cheese knishes, corned beef, homemade pickles, onion rolls, and lots of Russian dressing from a recent deli-inspired meal.

How Barbeque Helped Break Down Racial Barriers

This is a great little article about how somethign as simple as good old BBQ helped bridge racial divides in the US. People are willing to put there racial and socio-economic differences aside in order to enjoy some BBQ at Goldsboro, N.C. barbeque restaurant at a time (1962 to be exact) when all society saw was colour and class.

Food has so many wonderful powers to bring people of all races, cultures and languages together! I love this article!!!!

http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/22

John Parker, 45, started helping out at his family's Goldsboro, N.C. barbeque restaurant as soon as he was old enough to hold a mop. He remembers a bustling lunch crowd of people who put their racial and socio-economic differences aside in the name of good food. "We had doctors, lawyers, small-business owners, mechanics and garbage workers," he says.
Guy Parker's Barbeque Restaurant was one of the first in the region to welcome black and white customers to sit down in the same dining room.
When Parker's father opened the restaurant in 1962, the Civil Rights Movement wasn't top of mind. The World War II veteran and barbeque pit master was more interested in winning over customers with his succulent pork, barbeque chicken and tangy secret sauce. Prior to that, he spent 18 years working at a restaurant that, though black-owned, seated white patrons in the front and asked black patrons to pick up their food in the back. "He didn't judge them for that," says his son. "That's just how things were done." But he had no intention of doing that in his own establishment.

When Guy Parker's restaurant opened, everyone came in through the front door. Initially, says John Parker, customers – including white customers – asked if they could sit down for lunch. "My mom and dad said that anyone was welcome as long as they conducted themselves in a respectful manner," he says. "They didn't have to ask to come in and eat." If there was any hesitation, he says, customers seemed to get over it when lunch was served.

Related:  Great Foodie Gifts - Guy Parker's BBQ Sauce

The restaurant was a thriving local institution for more than four decades. "We had people come from all over, and we shipped barbeque to places outside the state," says Parker. The restaurant closed when its proprietor became ill in 2005 and passed away in 2006. The family still owns the property and opens the restaurant for special events.
A few years ago, John Parker found himself out of a job and looking for a business idea of his own. "My dad always told me that if a man can't find a job he can create a job," he says. He considered reopening his father's restaurant, but it's two hours from his current home in Greensboro and would need some upgrades and new equipment to reopen as a full-time restaurant.
If he couldn't bring back the restaurant, he figured, he'd give them a taste of it by making and selling his dad's secret sauce.

 

The Parker family still owns the original restaurant, opening it for special events.

image credit: Guy Parker's Barbeque

"I didn't know the true recipe until after my father passed away, he recalls. "I was talking to my mom in her home, and she walked over to a file cabinet and pulled out a recipe." The recipe was hand written on notepad paper. It had the exact ingredients, which include apple cider vinegar and crushed red pepper, and cooking times. Still, it took nearly a dozen batches for the young Parker to figure it out. "My father was so used to pouring in this and pouring in that," he says. "It wasn't as simple as I thought it was, but eventually I got it right."

Related:
How Do I Sell My Homemade BBQ Sauce?

After perfecting the recipe he got the UPC code, nutrition information and logo – a photo of his dad tending the pit – lined up and starte
d selling Guy Parker's

Old Fashioned Bar-B-Q Sauce out of the trunk of his car to local stores in his old home town. "I knew if I couldn't make it in Goldsboro I couldn't make it anywhere," he says. In many ways, the timing was perfect for the move to all natural food, says Parker, adding that the sauce has no sugar, gluten free and can also be used for vegetarian dishes. "Everything back in 1962 was all natural, and now we've come full circle."

Parker managed to get his foot in the door with some larger independent grocery stores and even some chains, including Piggly Wiggly and Southern Seasons. But things really took off, he says, when he started working with a regional distributor. Parker is now selling the sauce directly online and at stores throughout North Carolina, including Harris Teeter, The Fresh Market and Whole Foods. "We just started branching out into South Carolina, and by the end of this year I want to be in five other states," says Parker, who outsources production to a co-packer and is looking for distributors in other regions.

Last year, the company sold more than 25,000 bottles of barbeque sauce, he says, roughly five times what he sold in 2011. If he sells enough sauce, he says, he'd love to get the old restaurant up and running again. "Things were different back then," he says of the restaurant's early years. "But in all honesty, food brought people together."

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POM POM not all that it claims to be!

WASHINGTON, Jan 16 (Reuters) - POM Wonderful made deceptive advertising claims in saying that its pomegranate juice and other products would make users healthier, the Federal Trade Commission said on Wednesday.

Despite objections from POM, the commission upheld a decision from an internal FTC judge that POM was deceptive in saying its products had been clinically proven to reduce the risk of heart disease and other ailments.

POM and the FTC have been wrangling over the issue for more than two years.

The FTC commissioners, in issuing their order, found that 36 advertisements were deceptive. The FTC judge had earlier found false or deceptive claims in 19 advertisements or promotional materials.

The commissioners voted unanimously to order Los Angeles-based POM to refrain from making any claims that its POM products could improve a user's health, unless scientists had done two randomized human trials to back up the claims.

In response, POM said the order "would require food companies to conduct double-blind, placebo-controlled studies in order to talk about potential health benefits of fruits and vegetables."

POM said in its emailed statement that it undertaken $35 million in research to substantiate its health claims. It said it would appeal the FTC decision in federal court.

The advertisements for POM that the FTC challenged appeared in such publications as Parade, Fitness and Prevention magazines as well as online and on product tags, the FTC said.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/16/pom-wonderful-health-claims-deceptive-ftc_n_2489390.html?utm_hp_ref=food&ir=Food

Invasion of the super-sized sarnies: As Subway overtakes McDonalds as our biggest fast-food chain, the artery clogging truth about its sandwiches

Tucking in: Anne Shooter holds a Meatball Marinara sandwich from Subway, where she described the culinary experience as 'revolting'

Now, I’m no food snob. Far from it, in fact. My favourite comfort food is canned pilchards on toast with a cup of strong tea, and I like nothing better than a fry-up in a proper greasy-spoon cafe.
But I have just had one of the most revolting, depressing culinary experiences of my life: I’ve been to my local branch of Subway.
Subway is the sandwich chain that has just announced it is the biggest fast-food franchise in the world.
On January 1, Subway had 33,749 stores across the globe, spokesman Les Winograd said, surpassing the reported McDonald’s 32,737 outlets. In the UK, there are 1,500 outlets across the country, compared with 1,197 for McDonald’s.
There’s almost certainly a Subway on your High Street. And if there’s not, you can bet there’s one on its way — the chain has been expanding at a rate of six branches a week.
For those who have yet to encounter it, Subway’s basic food is ‘subs’ — long, American-style ‘submarine’ sandwiches, a bit like baguettes, but made with soft bread.
In theory, so far so good — after all, you can choose your length of sub (6in or 12in) and there’s also a selection of breads, from oat and honey to Italian herb and wheat.
When it comes to fillings, you can either go for one of their suggestions, such as the Italian BMT (big, meaty and tasty) or the Meatball Marinara (meatballs, tomato sauce and cheese), or you can choose from various sliced meat options, a vegetarian version or tuna.
You may add as many salad ingredients as you like, a sauce of your choice, as well as cheese.
Subway’s slogan is ‘Eat fresh’ and it prides itself on providing ‘healthy’ fast food. It boasts it works with a fully qualified dietitian, Juliette Kellow — a former editor of Slimming magazine — to reduce fat and salt content in its offerings.
It works closely with Heart Research UK and has even been involved with the Government’s Food Network to promote healthier eating.
In theory, then, it sounds not only tastier, but healthier than McDonald’s or other fast-food options. Or so I thought, until I visited Subway for the first time. The truth, as I experienced it, was so very different from the healthy, fresh picture Subway paints of itself that it would be laughable, were it not so shocking.

Top of the shops: Subway has powered into first place in the fast-food league, with 1,500 outlets in Britain alone compared to McDonald's 1,197

Walking into the store, the first thing that hit me was the stench: a combination of processed meat, dried herbs and melted processed cheese. Greasy, the smell of cheap, ‘fake’ food.
Bright posters everywhere encouraged me to buy a foot-long sandwich for just £2 more than the basic price (around £3.50 for a 6in sub) and to add crisps and a fizzy drinks plus a doughnut, cookie or nachos.

More...

• Move over Ronald: Subway officially overtakes McDonald's to become biggest restaurant chain in the WORLD

Nowhere could I see any mention of healthy food — though there was a huge photograph on the wall of a highly unappetising collection of processed meat blocks that looked like dog food.
The chilled counter contained the most unappetising collection of ingredients I have ever seen. Sorry-looking lettuce, plasticky olive slices and an assortment of chopped meat that was almost unidentifiable.
I asked what a pile of brown circles was. They looked like leather patches that belonged with a cobbler. ‘That’s beef,’ said the server.
Some brownish slithers? Steak. Brightly coloured pebbles? Chicken tikka. I laughed as I pointed at a pink rectangular slab that looked like Plasticine.

‘That’s our vegetarian cutlet,’ she told me. ‘It’s very good.’ (Well, it is described on the Subway website as a ‘wholesome slice of goodness.’)
The Subway website states most of the meat is reformed — which basically means scraps of meat compressed and made into slices with water and often a host of additives (those infamous Turkey Twizzlers were the ultimate in reformed meat).

Enlarge

I asked my server where Subway’s meat comes from. She asked a colleague. ‘It all comes from America,’ he declared.
In fact, the company has admitted sourcing its chicken and meat from ten different countries including Thailand, Uruguay, Germany, Denmark and the UK. The imported meat is frozen and can take at least a month to reach the UK.
So much for fresh.
In its defence, Subway says by ‘fresh’ it means that the sandwiches are freshly made in front of customer, not that the ingredients are fresh. It also says that, where possible, it sources meat from the UK. Not that its meat is 100 per cent meat: Subway told me its ham contains pork rear-leg meat, water, salt, stabilisers, dextrose (sugar), lactose, smoke flavouring, preservative and antioxidant. What goes into the flavouring, it did not divulge.
The chicken strips are made of chicken breast, sunflower oil, salt, potato starch (a thickener) and paprika.
One company that supplies the chain with processed meat is Dawn Farm Foods, in Co. Kildare (if you recognise the name it might be from the publicity they received over a salmonella outbreak in their factory a couple of years ago, which led to Subway having to remove some ingredients from its stores).
Although Dawn Farm does not list its ingredients on its website, and there was nobody available to talk to me, it does announce that, when it comes to processed meat, ‘If you can imagine it, we can make it happen’. The slogan is illustrated with slices of meat shaped like a pear and, erm, the Colosseum.
So far, so unappetising. But what about the end product?
Subway boasts that 49 per cent of the subs sold are from its range containing less than 3 per cent fat. That may be the case, but since customers are encouraged to add cheese and sauce (‘it’s free, so you might as well,’ I was told), which is not included in the nutritional data, who knows quite how fattening anyone’s final sandwich really is?
I opted for a meatball sub, and instantly regretted it. I was shocked by how utterly revolting it was, with hard, grey meatballs that tasted only of salt.
It left a nasty aftertaste and a film of grease on my teeth — lowest common denominator food at its most miserable. Perhaps I’d ordered badly.

Big, meaty... and unhealthy: The regular Subway BMT contains more than 20g of fat and nearly 3g of salt, but if you order the foot-long version you can double the amounts

Utterly revolting? Anne said the meatballs in this sub were grey and tasted only of salt - with the figures showing it contains 3.3g per serving

So I tried tuna with salad on an Italian herb sub — better than the meatballs, but made with substandard mayonnaise that gave it a bitter aftertaste — and a breaded chicken fillet on a toasted honey and oat sub, with cheese, salad, jalapeno chilli and chipotle dressing. This was better — the dressing, while almost fluorescent orange, was tasty, as were the jalapenos.
But the chicken was marshmallow soft and tasteless. The overall effect was a warm, spicy, salt-sweet sogginess — not unpleasant, but not something I’ll be repeating.

So, how healthy — or otherwise — are Subway’s offerings? According to the company’s figures, a 6in Meatball Marinara sub has 511 calories, 21g of fat, of which 9g is saturated, and 3.3g of salt. That’s 30 per cent less salty than it used to be, Subway boasts — but it is still the equivalent of six packets of Walkers ready salted crisps and more than half of an adult’s maximum daily recommended intake of salt. In fact, it has more calories and salt than a Big Mac.
The Italian BMT is slightly better, with 431 calories, 20.5g fat and 2.7g salt, but the Spicy Italian has a whopping 506 calories, with 29g of fat, almost 13g of it saturated, and 2.8g of salt.
All of those figures ignore the extra cheese and sauce. And remember, the foot-long version has double the calories, fat and salt, putting it into terrifyingly high figures.
Subway admits more than half of its customers go for the non-healthy options — yet it still claims to be the healthier fast-food chain.
Last night it said: ‘The Subway chain continues to be committed to the health and well-being of its customers and is continuing to develop new initiatives to promote healthier lifestyles.
‘It is working towards further reductions in salt, new healthier bread options will be tested, the chain is working closely with suppliers to develop meat products with reduced fat and it will use posters in stores to communicate healthy lifestyle messages to customers.’
As I left the store, a teenager walked in wearing her sports kit, from one of the local private schools. ‘I’ll have a foot-long vegetarian patty with cheese and ranch sauce,’ she said.
In other words, 900 calories, 25g of fat and 4.4g of salt in edible Plasticine form.
I wanted to drag her out by her hair and yell at her that if she really cared about keeping fit, she should get down to McDonald’s instead.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1365424/Subway-vs-McDonalds-The-artery-clogging-truth-favourite-fast-food-chains.html

By Anne Shooter

Subway II

http://www.shapefit.com/diet/subway-healthy-fast-food.html

You know how I feel about Taco Bell's "diet" menu which is called "The Drive-Thru Diet." Let's face it, fast food is never going to be health food, no matter how the corporations try to package it. If you don't believe me, watch the documentary Food, Inc. and find out where fast-food hamburgers and chicken are really coming from. Fast food is a billion-dollar industry with one goal-making money. These restaurants don't care about you or your health. They just want you to keep coming back and spending more and more money with them.
Which brings me to Subway. Is Subway fast food? I don't know. This restaurant is known for touting the health benefits of its food. It features the Fit Club Menu, a selection of six-inch subs that come in at under six grams of fat. And then there's the Subway spokesperson, Jared. Jared was a morbidly obese person who lost over 200 pounds eating at Subway. That's great!

What Subway doesn't proclaim in its advertising, however, is the ingredients it uses in its food. Sure, the company provides calories and nutritional information (fat grams, sodium, cholesterol, etc.), but every fast-food restaurant does that. It's the law. Subway's veggies are definitely healthy for you, but you might not know that there is a big problem with their bread.

When you order wheat bread at Subway, you aren't really getting whole-wheat bread. It's enriched. This means that the wheat stalk has been removed and processed, making it much cheaper to mass produce. This type of wheat bread has essentially the same properties as white bread.

The benefit of eating whole wheat and other whole grains is that you receive a steady stream of energy, released over time and sustaining you until the next time you eat. White, enriched, or processed bread causes your blood sugar level to spike, giving you a quick burst of energy followed by a crash. It also increases your obesity risk and makes you feel terrible!

Fortunately, most people who eat at Subway don't eat the bread alone. Instead, they top it with meat, veggies, and oils, which help to even out the spike in blood sugar (especially the proteins). Even so, this doesn't excuse the fact that Subway doesn't offer healthy bread to its customers.

Follow this link to find a list of the ingredients in Subway's breads.

Look at the 9-Grain Wheat Bread in particular. You would think this would be the healthiest bread on the menu. For bread to be considered whole wheat, "whole wheat" should be listed as the first ingredient, not enriched wheat. And look at the fourth ingredient-high fructose corn syrup! High fructose corn syrup is so bad for you, it deserves its own article.

I heard about Subway's bread about five months ago, but just didn't have time to do the research, or maybe I just didn't want to believe it. Subway was a weekly thing for me. My usual order was the foot-long chicken breast sub with spinach, tomatoes, onions, green peppers, jalapenos, pickles, and olive oil. But since doing the research about six weeks ago, I haven't been back!

No matter where you eat, take the time and respect your body enough to find out exactly what you're getting!

By Jason Yun

Subway

http://www.100daysofrealfood.com/2012/06/12/food-babe-investigates-is-subway-real-food/

Vani Hari (a.k.a. The Food Babe) is a regular contributor on 100 Days of Real Food. To learn more about Vani check her out on “Our Team” page.

Subway is the single largest chain restaurant in the world. That means you’ve probably eaten there at some point in your lifetime and if you are like me could possibly have 10 of these restaurants within a 1 mile radius of your house.
But is eating at America’s favorite fast food chain really eating real food?

Subway would certainly like you to think so. With their slogan “Eat Fresh,” marketing with avocados and a guy who lost hundreds of pounds eating their famous sub sandwiches, it’s easy to get duped.
You may also feel tricked when you see a little heart logo, indicating a menu item at Subway is “heart healthy.” Just last week it was announced that the American Heart Association (AHA) has endorsed several menu items at Subway and added the heart logo to indicate which ones.
At every Subway on the “sneeze guard” glass they display one version of their nutritional information – the infamous “6 grams of fat or less” menu. This menu includes calories, fat grams, and that new little heart logo, but doesn’t display anything about the ingredients. Doubting that Subway or the AHA would actually ever create a real food information guide for you, I decided it was time to do this myself. Below are the “6 grams or less” menu items and critical real food information you should know about each choice.

Let’s take a closer look.

• Subway definitely keeps it fresh and I figured out how. Every single one of their items on the “6 grams or less” menu has preservatives to keep it …well…fresh! Sure Subway makes your meal right in front of you, but what is really happening behind the scenes? Boxes of already cut up and prepackaged processed foods and chemical additives are being shipped from Big Food industry factories to each location.
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• The 9 grain wheat bread might look and smell freshly baked but it contains close to 50 ingredients including refined flours, dough conditioners, hidden MSG, refined sugars, etc. Could bread this processed ever be real food? Certainly not, when it includes a chemical ingredient called azodicarbonamide, which is banned as a food additive in the U.K., Europe, and Australia, and if you get caught using it in Singapore you can get up to 15 years in prison and be fined $450,000. Azodicarbonamide is more commonly used in the production of foamed plastics, however, it is allowed in the United States as a food additive, a flour bleaching agent, and a dough conditioner that improves elasticity of bread. The U.K. has recognized this ingredient as a potential cause of asthma if inhaled, and advises against its use in people who have sensitivity to food dye allergies and other common allergies in food, because azodicarbonamide can exacerbate the symptoms. Let’s not forget it only takes 4 or 5 simple ingredients to make REAL whole-wheat bread including flour, yeast, salt, water, and maybe honey.

• Three sandwiches on this menu, along with several other menu items not listed, are comprised of processed meats and filled with nitrates and forms of MSG. The consumption of nitrates need to be taken very seriously. Nitrates are frequently converted into nitrosamines, which have been proven to increase the risk of disease dramatically. The latest research from World Cancer Research Fund declared that “processed meat is too dangerous for human consumption.” Studies have shown it may only take 1.8 ounces of processed meat (about half of what is in a typical 6 inch sub) daily to increase the likelihood of cancer by 50%, heart disease by 42% and diabetes by 19%. I still know people who eat Subway for lunch everyday, but I’m glad I don’t know anyone on the actual Subway Diet. Sheesh. I can’t imagine what their percentage would be, could you?
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• Can you believe the American Heart Association is now putting their seal of approval behind these processed meat based Subway menu items? WOW. After all these studies that show an increase in heart disease? Is this a joke? Even the processed turkey meat that seems harmless because it doesn’t contain nitrates is full of preservatives, chemical flavorings, and carrageenan. I wrote about carrageenan last month after the Cornucopia Institute revealed a study that once the food grade version of carrageenan is ingested it turns into a carcinogen in your digestive system.

• Preservatives and even artificial colors are added to many of their “fresh” vegetable offerings – like the banana peppers and pickles. The ingredients for the black olives unveiled a new additive I learned about, “ferrous gluconate,” which is an iron based preservative that helps keep olives black.
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• While the “6 grams or less” menu says the totals don’t include cheese or salad dressings, it is important to know that some of the cheeses offered at subway also have artificial colors, preservatives, and even cellulose that’s made from wood pulp.
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• Two of the healthiest sounding salad dressings were actually the worst based on my analysis. Fat free honey mustard and the red vinaigrette both have corn syrup, artificial colors, preservatives, and other chemical additives.

To top it off, the majority of foods at Subway have been conventionally sourced and probably include pesticides, antibiotics, and/or growth hormones. In my research, I didn’t find one single organic ingredient or menu item available at over 36,000 stores. Even the lemon juice comes in a pre-packaged squirt pack filled with preservatives. Because of this I haven’t consciously ever considered going to a Subway in the last 7 years.

Last weekend, I broke this streak and went into a Subway in search of real food. I have to admit the thought of going into a Subway and ordering off the menu was a little bit daunting, but I decided this was the best way to get the answers to my questions, like whether or not their avocado was really fresh or not. Could it be possible for me to order something and actually take a bite without squirming? Going against my Eat With Your Dollars philosophy and purchasing something from the “bad guys” went against every bone in my body. But I did it.

Watch it all unfold in the video below. Everything at Subway may not be “fresh” but if you are ever stuck on a deserted island and this was the only place you could eat… now you know what to order.

Québécois food - un gout anglais [English-style] !

I have been in a relationship with a French Canadian for a few years now and every time I ask about traditional Québécois food ... I get nothing! Since I had no reason to believe otherwise, I bought into the myth about our temperamental French counterparts and for years I believed that Québécois food could be summed up as nothing more than MAPLE SYRUP...

Every so often, someone will throw me a bone and I’ll get a lame tutorial on Québécois food.  In most cases, the overview contains a regurgitation of the same 3 delicacies (it is arguable whether these items qualify as delicacies but I’ll use the term for this purpose) - poutine, croton and pâté chinois.

In fact, over the holidays I was in Montreal (the motherland of traditional French Canadian food) and once again I asked about dinning someplace with an authentic Franco-Canadian menu, instead I was taken to a tapas bar.

On Saturday, the Globe and Mail published a wonderful and informative article about French Canadian fare, which I encourage all to read.  Thank you to the Globe and Mail for enlightening me on Quebec’s gastronomic traditions - which as you will read below are rooted in what Prof. Lemasson calls l’amour de l’ordinaire.  French Canada and it’s food (much like India and its food) has not been immune to the colonial legacy left behind by the British Empire.  As you will read, “many quintessential Québécois dishes are British in origin: tourtière, cipaille, pâté chinois.” Since the departure of the Brits, other cultures have influenced the culinary evolution of Québécois food. I find it brilliant that Quebec gastronomy has taken on the identity of the confluence of cultures and traditions that have immigrated to Canada and rooted themselves in la belle province
 

Wheres some of the best Qubcois food in Montreal you might be surprised

“Is it possible that the best place for Québécois food in Montreal right now is a British pub?” a friend asked me recently over a bowl of chunky habitant-style soupe aux pois. We were at Maison Publique, a new neighbourhood joint deep in the Plateau near avenue Papineau. We had just finished playing a game of shinny on a snowy outdoor rink. The soup tasted like being a kid again.

Maison Publique is owned by B.C.-born chef Derek Dammann (formerly at DNA) with his friend and silent partner, British celebrity chef Jamie Oliver. The menu features the usual pubby Briticisms – bubble and squeak, Welsh rarebit, Sunday roast – but also some only-in-Quebec curiosities, such as that split-pea soup.

Like the rest of North America, Montreal is having a British moment. At the vanguard are Maison Publique and Lawrence, an excellent spot in the Mile End. Even as many pubs in England have been closing, British dishes such as fish and chips, sticky toffee pudding, and bangers and mash dot menus all over the city.

But given this province’s complicated relationship with les anglos, it’s not just a straight translation: There is also something uniquely Québécois going on. For example, the 5-à-7 du moment, Taverne Square Dominion, serves up both plowman’s lunches and classic Parisian bistro fare. And the SAT Labo Culinaire’s recent Quebec-themed menu climaxed with a magnificent, and decidedly British, dessert: apple Charlotte.

You can barely eat out these days without considering the intertwined identity of food in Quebec. The whole experiment here has always entailed blending French and English (and others) into a multicultural whole. So it makes sense that the city’s best chefs would be taking the best from both solitudes – and whatever else piques their interest. After dining at Lawrence and Maison Publique a few times, it occurred to me that their merging of colonial traditions with ethnic flairs and indigenous ingredients might be creating a new national cuisine. Or maybe I just drank too many pints of stout?

The first outlier that caught my attention at Maison Publique was a quiche Lorraine, a dish so commonplace I couldn’t help but order it. Dammann’s iteration – four inches high, airy, custardy, studded with confited shallots and smoky lardons – put every other quiche I have ever had to shame.

But a question arose: How is quiche Lorraine (that specialty from Germanic northeastern France) in any way British? “Saying we make British food while serving quiche Lorraine is actually totally appropriate in Quebec,” Dammann clarified. “In fact, many quintessential Québécois dishes are British in origin: tourtière, cipaille, pâté chinois.”

He’s right. Cipaille derives from sea pie, an English mariner dish. Pâté chinois is shepherd’s pie, a concoction so archetypically Anglo-Saxon that Quebec rebranded it as “Chinese.” Cretons, the ostensibly regional breakfast treat, can be traced back to recipes for “croton” and “craytons” in 14th-century British cookbooks. And fèves au lard à l’ancienne is Boston baked beans, which the bûcherons of yore never would have made without the Brits importing molasses.

Which brings up Quebec’s national dish, poutine. Curds are a byproduct of making cheddar, that most English of cheeses. And according to Jean-Marie Francoeur, author of last year’s 600-page Genèse de la Cuisine Québécoise, potatoes were not willfully eaten in New France until after the British conquest. (The French mocked the English for eating them.) The thick gravy called sauce brune could have originated anywhere, but there is no questioning how those mushy peas got into a poutine galvaude.

As Jean-Pierre Lemasson, professor of socio-cultural gastronomy at the University of Quebec at Montreal, puts it, “We speak French here, but we eat many of our traditional dishes with un gout anglais [English-style].”

Lemasson believes that it is important to know the truth about Quebec’s culinary roots. “The war ended long ago,” he writes, “and we have to be able to turn the page.”

But moving on is not so simple in a place where Franco heritage weighs as heavily as its motto, Je me souviens. After all, Pauline Marois and the Parti Quebecois were just voted into power. Sovereigntists insist that the province’s “true” heritage is purely francophone, but it is truer to speak of what sociologists call the “interpenetration” of French and English traditions, not to mention the traditions that predate both colonial powers.

Accordingly, Maison Publique incorporates ingredients that would have been used by aboriginal people: whitefish caviar, ramps, Gaspésie shellfish, Arctic rosebuds, maple syrup. At the Omnivore food festival in Paris last year, Dammann introduced French crowds to an ancient native standby called sagamité, a polenta-like cornmeal porridge.

Whether aboriginal or European, Quebec’s gastronomic traditions are rooted in what Lemasson calls l’amour de l’ordinaire. The desire for simplicity is also largely responsible for Britain’s culinary revival. “British food today has to do with a way of going about things – keeping it simple and focusing on the quality of the raw materials,” notes Marc Cohen, the British-born chef at Lawrence. Like London restaurants St. John and Magdalen, Lawrence celebrates offcuts and serves pared-down, hearty fare such as ox tongue with butter beans and goat curd.

And, as with Maison Publique, there are many un-Brit items on the menu at Lawrence: aioli, agnolotti, artichokes and anchovies, for a start. At brunch, Lawrence serves a superb version of kedgeree: curried rice with flaked fish and vegetables. Now considered to be canonical English breakfast fare, kedgeree began as the popular Indian dish khichri (rice boiled with lentils and spices). It brings to mind the dictum that tikka masala is actually Britain’s national dish. And it shows how cuisines can transform and evolve as different cultures come together.

Cohen says he is just making the food he himself wants to eat. But in the process, he and Dammann may be helping to forge a new direction for Canadian food. “We haven’t been able to find a cuisine of our own in Canada for so long,” Dammann says. “We were just imitating things being done elsewhere. But the idea of Canadian food is in flux and still being defined. It’s a good thing we don’t have an identity yet. ‘French’ cuisine, ‘Italian’ cuisine and ‘British’ cuisine are all kind of set in stone. We’re lucky to be able to find our own path, to make Canadian food without it being defined yet.”

Other “Canadian” specialties at Maison Publique include charmoula, Reuben French toast, schnitzel and an eminently Portuguese pork and clam casserole. All those dishes derive from ethnicities that make up Montreal’s mosaic. “Montreal is a port city,” Dammann notes. “There’s so much diversity here. We can incorporate all of that into our historical traditions.”

Be that as it may, not everybody is ready for a Canadian (or Québécois) food revolution. If we know anything about identity politics in la belle province, the issue is a thorny one. Tourism Montreal recently asked Maison Publique to join its list of the city’s best restaurants. “They wouldn’t let us be called ‘Canadian’ cuisine because they had no category for Canadian cuisine,” Dammann laughs. Calling it British didn’t feel right, either. “They decided we’re ‘Mediterranean market cuisine.’ So we just refused to be a part of it.”

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/food-and-wine/food-trends/wheres-some-of-the-best-qubcois-food-in-montreal-you-might-be-surprised/article7044220/

 

Starbucks reusable plastic cups - a good idea!

Those $1 reusable plastic cups that Starbucks rolled out early this month are apparently a hit.
A survey conducted by research firm YouGov Omnibus shows that more than a quarter of Americans have already bought or plan to buy one of the coffee tumblers, which aim to lower rates of paper cup waste. The survey, which was not commissioned by Starbucks, also indicated that 7 out of 10 respondents believed the cups were a good idea.

Still, talk is cheap -- only 2 percent of those respondents had actually purchased a cup. And Starbucks certainly didn't convince everyone the program was a good one -- about 57 percent of respondents said they probably or definitely won't be purchasing a cup, and 66 percent hadn't even heard of the offer at all. Thirteen percent wondered if the green initiative was nothing more than a publicity stunt.
It's worth noting that the survey only includes responses from 1,000 people, which isn't exactly a huge sample.

Like them or not, you'll likely be seeing more of them soon. The cups, which were tested in 600 stores in the Pacific Northwest in recent months, will soon be rolled out nationwide and in Canada.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/09/starbucks-reusable-plastic-cups-hit_n_2442643.html

Fast Food Restaurants You Haven't Heard Of.....

Jumbo King

 

 

With more than 30 locations in India, Jumbo King was open by husband-and-wife Dheeraj Gupta and Reeta Gupta to serve vada pav, an Indian snack of a spicy deep-fried potato patty sandwiched between a bread roll.

Secret Recipe

Headquartered in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Secret Recipe is a popular café chain that is most famous for its cakes, but its menu is also filled with Asian classics like Japanese soba, curry curry laksa (a spicy noodle and soup dish), and pho (Vietnamese noodle soup with beef or chicken). Secret Recipe has locations in Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines, China, Pakistan, Australia, and Brunei.

Henny Penny

 

Henny Penny currently operates 15 locations in the New South Wales, Australia. Opened in 1968 when Steggles Poultry expanded to serve fast food, it’s no surprise Henny Penny is famous for its chicken, particularly its barbecue chicken.

 

Supermac’s

Founded by school teacher Pat McDonagh in Galway, Ireland, in 1978, Supermac’s has more than 100 locations in Ireland and Northern Ireland. The company claims to have pioneered curry chips and the snack box craze in Ireland. Supermac’s menu has burgers, chicken sandwiches, cod and chips, and eight different varieties of french fries, including coleslaw, taco, curry, and cheese fries.


Burger Ranch
 
Burger Ranch was originally opened in South Africa but is most popular in Israel. While its restaurants aren’t classified as kosher, the individual ingredients for its burgers, chicken nuggets, french fries, and the like are, and items like cheeseburgers and seafood and extras like bacon are not on the menu,

 

Mr. Bigg’s

 

Mr. Bigg’s currently has more than 170 locations, spread across 28 of the 36 states in Nigeria, and is still expanding. Moin moin and ofada rice — two Nigerian staples — are two of its most popular dishes

Chefette

What better way to celebrate your time in tropical paradise than with fast food? Chefette, a chain with 14 locations in Barbados, was named by combining the words "chef" (to cook) and "fete" (to party). The chain is famous for its roti, made with curried vegetables and meat and wrapped in wheat flour wrap. Celebrating its 40th anniversary this year, Chefette’s menu includes pizza, chicken, sandwiches, and salads.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com

Shame! Shame! Shame! Both KFC and McDonald's Corp's chicken contains excess amounts of antiviral drugs and hormones used to accelerate growth.

Yum Brands China Apologizes To Customers Over Handling Of Food Scare

 

 

* Yum apologises for inspection shortcomings, lack of transparency

* Yum gets more than half of total revenue from China

* Yum says bad publicity in China hit 4Q sales harder than expected

SHANGHAI, Jan 10 (Reuters) - Fast-food chain KFC's parent Yum Brands Inc apologised to customers in China over its handling of a recent food scare that has hit the company's sales in its biggest market.

"We regret shortcomings in our self-checking process, a lack of internal communication," Su Jingshi, chairman and chief executive of Yum China, wrote on the company's Weibo microblog.

Yum, which gets more than half of its revenue and operating profit from China, warned on Monday that bad publicity from the safety review of its chicken suppliers had hit sales in China harder than expected in the fourth quarter.

Subsequent findings by the Shanghai Food and Drug Administration found the levels of antibiotics and steroids in Yum's current batch of KFC chicken supply were safe, though the watchdog found a suspicious level of an antiviral drug in one of the eight samples tested.

The scandal erupted when the official China Central Television reported in late December that some of the chicken supplied to KFC and McDonald's Corp contained excess amounts of antiviral drugs and hormones used to accelerate growth.

A spokesman for Yum told Reuters on Tuesday that the firm had stopped using the two suppliers before the official probe was announced, after its own random tests showed they were not meeting Yum's own standards.


LACK OF TRANSPARENCY

Yum's Su also apologised for the company's failure to actively report test results to the government and a lack of transparency and speed in its external communication.

Nonetheless, the bad publicity has hurt KFC's image in China, where Western brands are often regarded as safer and higher quality than Chinese peers, an important factor as food safety is often near the top of the list of consumer concerns.

"They do finally apologise now, but it's too late. I don't know if other people will forgive them or not, but I certainly won't!" wrote Jackson_Dong on popular microblog site Sina Weibo.

Yum, which has more than 5,100 restaurants in China and is the largest Western restaurant operator in China, pulled some products in 2005 because they contained "Sudan Red" dye, which was banned from use in food due to concerns it could lead to an increased risk of cancer.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/10/yum-brands-apologizes-china_n_2445119.html?utm_hp_ref=food

The Kraken

Happy Hour: What you’ll be sipping in 2013

 

 

Adam McDowell

 

Some of the trends we observed last year have blossomed (tiki cocktails and exotic flavours of cocktail bitters), which emboldens us to make predictions about what you’ll be drinking in 2013. Get a glass ready for:

Microdistilled spirits Canada is catching up with the United States and Britain, where the trend toward smaller, independent spirits makers has reached maturity. Expect Canadian liquor stores to get their hands on a better selection of treats from across the country — products from Okanagan Spirits and Victoria Spirits in the West to Prince Edward Distillery and Ironworks Distillery in the East. You’ll also continue to see more boutique gins, rums and absinthes from small companies located abroad. It’s a win for the little guy, and for consumer choice.

Old-timey French beer Originally brewed for French farmhands to drink on the job during the spring and summer, saison beers have migrated to the alien (but equally moustache-friendly) climes of hip North American beer bars. Spicy and refreshingly effervescent, saisons are less challenging than some other styles beloved of hardcore beer geeks. If you associate with such people, they’ll probably offer you a glass. You should probably take it.

Doing it yourself Friends and relatives are asking me for tips on how to make bacon bourbon, homemade bitters and vanilla vodka. I didn’t find the trend, the trend found me.

Boozy ice pops This is more of a hunch than a prediction, but I can imagine frozen cocktails popping up in 2013, thanks to three factors: hotter summers, the Internet’s love of bright colour, and an undercurrent of desire for more frivolous libations after all the serious business of recreating vintage cocktails in recent years. In short: Fun in the sun!

Canadian whisky New (and newish), admirable products including Lot No. 40, Alberta Premium Dark Horse and Crown Royal Black, not to mention product placement on top-rated shows, are helping to propel Canadian whisky back to its rightful place next to the amber nectar of the other major whisky-producing countries. Watch out, Kentucky.

Worldwide whisky Meanwhile, countries with little or no tradition of whisky-making have not only been creating products of their own, they have often managed to impress spirits critics and serious drinkers. Expect to see even more brands — and good ones — from countries including Australia, India, Belgium, Sweden and France.

Spiced rum Not long ago, a handful of spiced rum brands (Sailor Jerry, Captain Morgan Spiced) easily satisfied the world’s need for sweetened, flavoured rum. Then along came The Kraken, Cruzan 9, Bacardi Oakheart and other intriguing products that encouraged mixologists to finally figure out how to use the stuff. Spiced rum can clash with other ingredients in cocktails; it’s challenging to work with, but the right recipe turns it into something delicious.

Antioxidants - prevent us from killing cancer cells ? Contex please!

National Post is by far the worst paper one can read. I had this exact debate last night! Read below how this eye catching article about how antioxidants "do not reduce the risk of cancer but can actually increase it"!  In the end there is no point to this article as it ends by saying "‘The biggest obstacle’ to a true war against cancer may be ‘the inherently conservative nature of today’s cancer research establishments"...

What a useless article!

http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=5450143697037967487#editor/target=post;postID=7514930256629396539

NEW YORK — A day after an exhaustive report on cancer found the United States is making only
slow progress against the disease, one of the country’s most iconic — and iconoclastic — scientists weighed in on “the war against cancer.” And he does not like what he sees.

James Watson, co-discoverer of the double helix structure of DNA, lit into targets large and small. On government officials who oversee cancer research, he wrote in a paper published on Tuesday in the journal Open Biology, “We now have no general of influence, much less power … leading our country’s War on Cancer.”

On the $100 million U.S. project to determine the DNA changes that drive nine forms of cancer: It is “not likely to produce the truly breakthrough drugs that we now so desperately need,” Watson argued. On the idea that antioxidants such as those in colorful berries fight cancer: “The time has come to seriously ask whether antioxidant use much more likely causes than prevents cancer.”
That Watson’s impassioned plea came on the heels of the annual cancer report was coincidental. He worked on the paper for months, and it represents the culmination of decades of thinking about the subject. Watson, 84, taught a course on cancer at Harvard University in 1959, three years before he shared the Nobel Prize in medicine for his role in discovering the double helix, which opened the door to understanding the role of genetics in disease.

‘He’s stirring the pot, most likely in a very productive way’

Other cancer luminaries gave Watson’s paper mixed reviews.
“There are a lot of interesting ideas in it, some of them sustainable by existing evidence, others that simply conflict with well-documented findings,” said one eminent cancer biologist who asked not to be identified so as not to offend Watson. “As is often the case, he’s stirring the pot, most likely in a very productive way.”

There is wide agreement, however, that current approaches are not yielding the progress they promised. Much of the decline in cancer mortality in the United States, for instance, reflects the fact that fewer people are smoking, not the benefits of clever new therapies.

GENETIC HOPES
“The great hope of the modern targeted approach was that with DNA sequencing we would be able to find what specific genes, when mutated, caused each cancer,” said molecular biologist Mark Ptashne of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York. The next step was to design a drug to block the runaway proliferation the mutation caused.

But almost none of the resulting treatments cures cancer. “These new therapies work for just a few months,” Watson told Reuters in a rare interview. “And we have nothing for major cancers such as the lung, colon and breast that have become metastatic.”

The main reason drugs that target genetic glitches are not cures is that cancer cells have a work-around. If one biochemical pathway to growth and proliferation is blocked by a drug such as AstraZeneca’s Iressa or Genentech’s Tarceva for non-small-cell lung cancer, said cancer biologist Robert Weinberg of MIT, the cancer cells activate a different, equally effective pathway.
That is why Watson advocates a different approach: targeting features that all cancer cells, especially those in metastatic cancers, have in common.

One such commonality is oxygen radicals. Those forms of oxygen rip apart other components of cells, such as DNA. That is why antioxidants, which have become near-ubiquitous additives in grocery foods from snack bars to soda, are thought to be healthful: they mop up damaging oxygen radicals.

If a cancer patient is bingeing on berries and other antioxidants, it can actually keep therapies from working, Watson proposed

That simple picture becomes more complicated, however, once cancer is present. Radiation therapy and many chemotherapies kill cancer cells by generating oxygen radicals, which trigger cell suicide. If a cancer patient is bingeing on berries and other antioxidants, it can actually keep therapies from working, Watson proposed.

“Everyone thought antioxidants were great,” he said. “But I’m saying they can prevent us from killing cancer cells.”

‘ANTI-ANTIOXIDANTS’

Research backs him up. A number of studies have shown that taking antioxidants such as vitamin E do not reduce the risk of cancer but can actually increase it, and can even shorten life. But drugs that block antioxidants — “anti-antioxidants” — might make even existing cancer drugs more effective.

Anything that keeps cancer cells full of oxygen radicals “is likely an important component of any effective treatment,” said cancer biologist Robert Benezra of Sloan-Kettering.

Watson’s anti-antioxidant stance includes one historical irony. The first high-profile proponent of eating lots of antioxidants (specifically, vitamin C) was biochemist Linus Pauling, who died in 1994 at age 93. Watson and his lab mate, Francis Crick, famously beat Pauling to the discovery of the double helix in 1953.

One elusive but promising target, Watson said, is a protein in cells called Myc. It controls more than 1,000 other molecules inside cells, including many involved in cancer. Studies suggest that turning off Myc causes cancer cells to self-destruct in a process called apoptosis.

“The notion that targeting Myc will cure cancer has been around for a long time,” said cancer biologist Hans-Guido Wendel of Sloan-Kettering. “Blocking production of Myc is an interesting line of investigation. I think there’s promise in that.”

‘The biggest obstacle’ to a true war against cancer may be ‘the inherently conservative nature of today’s cancer research establishments’

Targeting Myc, however, has been a backwater of drug development. “Personalized medicine” that targets a patient’s specific cancer-causing mutation attracts the lion’s share of research dollars.
“The biggest obstacle” to a true war against cancer, Watson wrote, may be “the inherently conservative nature of today’s cancer research establishments.” As long as that’s so, “curing cancer will always be 10 or 20 years away.”

Oh Canada ! Our home and deprived land....

 Canada – a land filled with snow, Mounties, beaver tails, maple syrup and dare I say Alberta Grade A beef. To our neighbours just south of us, we are perceived as an exotic but cold place with a unique language “eh”!  Though we have a rich history, a mosaic of multiculturalism and a bi-lingual nation (in theory not so much in practice) what perplexes our American neighbours most about us is not how we live without guns and tolerate free accessible and equitable healthcare.

No those things don’t concern them at all….

What mystifies them is the unfortunate fact that we Canadians do not have a Roscoe’s anywhere on our home and native land – not east not west, not in the prairies and not Maritimes. Nowhere can us peacekeeping Canadians enjoy what some believe to be the food of Gods, that’s right….I’m talking about “Chicken and waffles”!

My reaction to this sad reality is similar to that of our American friends and neighbours. What horrible thing did we ever do to be deprived of such goodness? Why would something like a smoked meat sandwich with Schwartz ever satisfy the void we have from never having consumed Roscoe’s wonderful chicken and waffles? My guess is that we are being punished for voting Harper in and his neo-con politics into power – but that’s just speculation!

You will note almost that every American city has a Roscoe’s – LA, Chicago, NYC….but not TO.

For those of you scratching your beaver lined moose skin cap wondering what the heck Chicken and Waffles are, let me enlighten you…..Fried chicken and waffles lathered in butter and hot syrup. Sometimes this wonderfulness is accompanied with grits, macaroni salad or beans – depends on the mood and the season.

According to our friend Wiki:

“Chicken and waffles is a dish combining waffles, a breakfast food, with (usually) fried chicken. It is served in certain specialty restaurants in the United States.^[1]

The more commonly known, soul food version of the dish is made by serving fried chicken with a waffle, the waffle then typically being covered with butter and/or syrup (as is common practice among those who eat waffles for breakfast in the United States). This unusual combination of foods is beloved by many people who are influenced by traditions of soul food passed down from past generations of their families.

The traditional Pennsylvania Dutch version of this dish consists of a plain waffle with pulled, stewed chicken on top, covered in gravy.”

It is now time for us to take matters into our own hands.  It’s time that us Canadians demand a Roscoe’s!