Fishing around

The festive period is fast approaching, along with all the entertaining duties that accompany visiting  family members and friends. As mentioned on numerous occasions here and no disrespect intended to other social gurus like Martha Stewart et al, when it comes to wining and dining savoir faire, Debretts is a good source to consult.

Last time, the focus was on the selection and imbibing of champagne including the proper way to open  the bottle. Among the advice offered by Debretts was that the choice of drinking receptacle is an important factor to enhance the experience and taste and that a tulip-shaped flute glass be used to preserve the bubbles. I mean, what's champagne without bubbles? Like wine without a  vintage. Right? It's not called bubbly for nothing. The glass flute (somehow "flute" reminds me of the musical instrument even though there is no way it could be used for drinking purposes...just a thought, such as it is...but I digress) should or even must be held by the stem to keep the liquid cold. Getting back to the bubble aspect...

As an aside (big on these) a study conducted by the University of Reims Champagne-Ardenne, in France, suggests that there are 15 million bubbles fizzing in a single glass of champagne. A researcher studied the role of the carbon dioxide (CO₂) throughout its journey from the bottle to the glass, focusing on the second fermentation stage, resulting in the CO₂ dissolution into the wine -- aided by the addition of yeast and sugar before sealing each champagne bottle -- to the stage where the gas escapes through tiny bubbles popping on the surface of the wine in the glass.
(http://sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/02/120214100930.htm) Go figure! Somebody actually studied champagne bubbles. Just thinking...wonder if any tasting was involved... Just a thought.

By the way if anyone reading this is interested in studying champagne other than by a taste test and happens to be in the Reims, France, vicinity, the Institut des Hautes Etudes du Goût, de la Gastronomie et des des Arts de la Table is offering a course, entitled, "The Physics of Champagne Bubbles."  No mention whether a degree is offered for those who pass or complete the course. What would it be called? A BA in Bubble Study?

A good match for champagne is caviar, or the roe of the sturgeon fish. As mentioned previously, it's not a personal favorite but it certainly has its adherents. The average portion of caviar is 30 grams. According to advice offered by www.thevivant.com/complete-guide-on-how-to-buy-and-eat-caviar/#ixzz3KbXMsixS  a special spoon made of bone, crystal or mother of pearl should be used in order to preserve the taste and eaten in amounts smaller than a tablespoon. This sounds like logical advice given the high end price of what in the end, is fish eggs. Furthermore, it's good etiquette to consume caviar in small bites. One would never deign to stuff one's mouth with caviar and if one does, one should immediately take a large gulp of champagne to wash it down (my personal advice, not experience). Champagne always seems to make things right. In my mind - such as it is - there is a somewhat snobbish appeal to being served caviar at a party:

"Yes Felicia - they served the golden caviar with crackers. Only the best and found in only one in 1000 osetra sturgeon. I must remember to pick up a can at the supermarket tomorrow for the bridge club ladies."

Debretts also offers advice on eating lobster although it's a specie that is morally difficult to eat - at least for me. Somehow, it's hard to reconcile seeing a future meal positioned in a tank of water along with others of its kind, waiting to be selected as a main course. Moreover, when served whole, it's also problematic to eat a food that stares back at you with accusatory eyes that seem to say, "killer!" Then again, perhaps it's just me. The actual eating of the lobster requires the wearing of a bib while grasping the shell in one hand, while the other hand slowly and methodically uses a lobster cracker to reveal the flesh, after which it's pulled out with a lobster pick. Oh the angst of being a tasty crustacean favored by many!

Last but not least, snails is another shell type food, which has its devotees. Having never consumed one but spotted a number in the garden, can't comment on their flavor value. Judging by their size, not much to eat and once again work is required to remove them from their shell. Debretts advice includes the use of snail tongs to remove the meat, yet another meal requiring work.

Speaking (or writing about) snails, while researching this piece, came across the Mother Earth News ( http://www.motherearthnews.com/real-food/escargot-zmaz93jjztak.aspx#axzz3KgXXPBpg) site, which advocates using your very own snails found in the garden. FYI, the site provides among other interesting facts, this background info.: "The common garden snail, Helix aspersa, is a close relative of France's commercially harvested Helix pomatia. Both can be found on French dinner plates, where the former goes by the affectionate "petit gris" (little gray) to distinguish it from its cousin gros blanc (large white)." A snail, is a snail is...

Perhaps Jean-Paul Sartre sums it all up: "“It is not a matter of indifference whether we like oysters or clams, snails or shrimp, if only we know how to unravel the existential significance of these foods.”

Whatever you say, Jean-Paul.

Nothing sheepish about it - Paris has some ewes-ful grass cutters

It was, most likely, one of those "Eureka!" moments when somebody came up with a novel way of saving costs related to cutting grass. Not to mention the publicity and public relations value.


The Mayor of Paris, Bertrand Delanoe, an environmentally-friendly politician, is responsible for the bike-and-car-sharing program, the expansion of designated lanes for bikes and buses, in addition to a project to allow pedestrians to stroll along the banks of the Seine.


The Mayor isn't sheepish about his newest project, which ewes-es (little play on words there...very little) ovine power to keep grass short and sweet. He is using sheep, ewes to be specific, to graze the area around the Paris archives, replacing traditional lawnmowers. The sheep in question - all four of them who are on the small-ish side measuring 2 feet in height - will be make the trip by truck from their usual grazing place in Ouessant in Bretangne to Paris, for short periods in April and October. In order to ensure they perform their duties, they will be surrounded by a 3 foot high, yellow, electrified fence.


So I'm thinking here...while the addition of sheep to gnaw/nibble/whatever the grass is ewes-ful, and if they prove successful and a decision is made to expand the project in a big way, how will this go over with the city gardeners whose job is to cut grass? Taking it a step further and if the idea becomes popular with gardeners, the sheep could become a familiar fixture for your average home owner. Taking it still one step further than the last step (I'm a big step taker), owning a couple of sheep could become a status symbol.


"Did you see my luxury, very high end and expensive, new car?" one average home owner could comment to his neighbor in the way of a boast.


"Very nice but mowing the lawn is a thing of the past for us," the other average home owner would reply.


"You're hiring gardeners?" the new car owner would naturally and logically respond.


"Nothing so pedestrian. We're a two-sheep-family, now. No more lawn mowers. We let nature do it for us. We're eco-friendly other than the occasional goat bleat now and then. Did I mention that we also don't need fertilizer anymore?"


Meanwhile, here is a link to a photo of the sheep: http://news.yahoo.com/ewes-full-paris-hires-sheep-mow-city-lawns-125648769.html

Do you see sheep in your future?

Python Challenge update and other unusual but interesting maybe not so thought-provoking pieces

PYTHON HUNT BRINGS IN THE HUNTERS - AND A FEW SNAKES

 

Chances are people reading this blog have already read about this undertaking but it bears further scrutiny. For whatever reason, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conversation Commission decided to host a first-ever, “Python Challenge” in the Florida Everglades. Over the years and due to human stupidity, the python population in the Everglades has grown to enormous proportions. Former pet python owners most likely dumped their pythons in perfect reproductive conditions and the rest, as they say, is history.

The hunt was open to anybody who felt the urge or need to hunt pythons using any methods that hit their fancy including guns, machetes…whatever. To date more than 1,500 “hunters” or wanna-be python slayers have registered and made their way in a section of the Everglades set out by the Commission and to date – count 'em – a mere fifty  pythons have fallen victim to the slayers. Let’s be realistic: pythons will not/do not come out of their python dwellings to become a python belt or boots/fashion accessory. The purpose of the event, according to the FWC, was to raise awareness about the Burmese python. Like, Floridians didn’t know about the situation given the publicity in the media! Pythons will be used for study purposes.

As an incentive to hunt down the slither-ers, $1500 will be awarded to the person who brings in the most pythons and $1000 for the longest snake caught, plus $750 for runners-up. Given the low number of pythons captured so far, one questions the logic and rationale of the hunt and the end result.

Here's the latest python update: http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/palm-beach/fl-python-challenge-flop-20130204,0,1282073.story


Speaking or writing of pythons - not your ordinary baby sitter

 Is it just my imagination or are inhabitants of planet earth losing their marbles. This story really takes the proverbial cake.

There are babysitters and then there are babysitters with a difference, accent on the latter. A Chinese family uses - can't believe I'm writing this - a pet snake to babysit their 13-year old son. Not just any old specie like your common garden snake but a 15 foot Burmese python. Really!

According to the article, the snake was introduced to the family as an egg that hatched into the python. The son took to the 220 lb. snake in a big way and a friendship was established. Over time, the snake acquired the role of pseudo-nanny.

According to the boy, she - presumably the snake is a female...not that it makes any difference - is very gentle when the pair are together and doesn't squeeze too hard. Key words here: too hard.

So I'm thinking here, is this not a disaster in the making? I mean, true it's very surprising that the snake hasn't made its move, yet, but then again and most likely, he's being fed well to stave off the pangs of hunger.

According to National Geographic: "Burmese pythons are carnivores, surviving primarily on small mammals and birds. They have poor eyesight, and stalk prey using chemical receptors in their tongues and heat-sensors along the jaws. They kill by constriction, grasping a victim with their sharp teeth, coiling their bodies around the animal, and squeezing until it suffocates. They have stretchy ligaments in their jaws that allow them to swallow all their food whole."

Need one say or write more? Here is a photo of the young boy and his "baby-sitter": http://web.orange.co.uk/article/quirkies/Giant_python_babysits_for_boy_13

The women in France can now wear pants

Unbelievable as it may seem and read, for the last 200 years there had been a old ban on women wearing pants. Having visited France a few times, can’t say that I noticed whether or not French females wore the pants in the family (weak attempt at humor…very weak). Moving on …

In any case, for whatever reason the French government has decided to overturn the ban and now French women can legally wear pants. Why it took them so long is puzzling. Thinking further, there is no mention of the definition of “pants.” Would it include capris that reach below the knee or shorts?
 
According to Najat Vallaud-Belkacem, Minister of Women’s Rights, the ban which came into being on November 17, 1800, was incompatible with modern French values and laws. To say the least! The law stated that females required the permission of local police should they want to “dress like a man” and wear pants.  The original law according to Ms Vallaud-Belkacem, had been intended to prevent females doing certain jobs. Modified in 1892 and 1909, it allowed women to wear pants if they were “holding a bicycle handlebar or the reins of a horse.”

Actually, thinking further, I wore pants during my visits and wasn’t arrested or anything. Had I ended up in jail, think of the media headlines: "Une touriste de France who wore de pants ends up in de prison." No mention in the story about the fine for this brazen act.

Seems that during the French Revolution, Parisian women had requested the right to wear pants and working-class revolutionaries became known as "sans-culottes" for wearing trousers instead of the silk-knee breeches preferred by the bourgeoisie. Given the reality that some French beaches allow topless bathing makes the change sensible.


There's no bones about it - parking lot reveals more than wheels

Not a regal end for a king but then nobody ever conceived the creation of parking lots centuries ago. Maybe it’s my warped sense of humor but it did cause a chuckle upon reading that the skeleton of King Richard III was found buried beneath a council parking lot in Leicester, England. Also, go figure that there had been a search by archeologists to discover his bones. In any case, now that it has been confirmed that this is indeed King Richard and for whatever reason –curiosity springs to mind – scientists have gone one step further and revealed a 3D reconstruction of his face. I mean, according to the image, he was a good look king but do we really care? Obviously, some people and according to Philippa Langley of the Richard III Society (they even have a society dedicated to him?) who led a 4-year hunt to find the king’s remains, “I hope you can see this face what I see in this face and that’s a man who is three-dimensional in every sense.” Different strokes for different folks…

So how is your world?

Bah - humbug! French department store drops Christmas carols for rock'n'roll

It's November and many - make that lots - of stores are heavy into Christmas decorations in spite of just coming out of Halloween. Actually, statistically, Halloween is big business when it comes to decorations and related items. But I digress.

Some people enjoy the holiday season and welcome the numerous appearances of mall Santas, plastic Christmas trees ("oh Eleanor - you're so cynical!") of many colors and the playing of the Little Drummer Boy over and over... But I digress. Again.

Then there are others who want to update Christmas and modernize the selection of musical offerings. Such is the case of Galerie Lafayette, a department store located in Paris, France, who recently made the decision to eliminate your Christmas carols with - wait for it - rock and roll. As they have done in seasons past, the store is once again putting on shows leading up to the big day but is seeking a means in which to attract and presumably entice a younger generation to their offerings and merchandise.

To this end, they are using rock legend Iggy Pop to pose for photo fliers dressed in a red Santa hat (does Santa know, one wonders), matching shoes and a custumary, electric guitar. In addition, a window show will include performances by a variety of major-label rock and folk bands. A change from the past is the replacement of cute, furry creatures and puppets in favor of life-size mannequins dressed in black leather, and rag dolls dressed in fashionable duds. This leads one to ask what they will do with your usual Christmas icons like snowmen, most likely relegated to a box in a warehouse, somewhere, never to see the light of day along with older puppets... But I digress. Again.

The bottom line, as expected, is the reason for the change with French household spending dropping 1.3% in September with spending on clothing falling by 7.3%. It will be interesting to see the reaction of French shoppers to the change. As a rule, people like to retain Christmas traditions and somehow Iggy Pop, with all due respect, isn't Bing Crosby singing "White Christmas" or "Petit Papa Noel" or "Mon Beau Sapin." Perhaps a combination of both the old and new?

Anyway, here's Iggy and his promo for the dept. store: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYHdX347BR4

Hmmmm - wonder how much he got paid...

France receives hamster alert and warning

Don't get me wrong - I'm very much aware and in favor of preserving endangered species on planet earth. It seems that species once common and plentiful are becoming scarce and in danger of extinction. Then we have hamsters. Not just any hamsters mind you, but the Great Hamsters of Alsace. Go figure!

The French government was warned by a EU legal adviser that it must make a greater effort to protect endangered hamsters living near Strasbourg in Eastern France. Perhaps the warning might have come as a surprise or even shock as it did to me, having never realized there was a difference in hamster species. I figured one hamster is the same as another. The cute rat-like creatures live their lives in cages (at least a lot of them do) and spend their free time working the wheel. But I digress.

If France doesn't heed the warning, the country could be fined if the European Court of Justice rules that it has failed to heed a final warning from the European Commission in 2008. The root of the problem is that their numbers are dwindling and a mere 298 burrows were found in 2010, a drop from 1,167 in 2,001. Hamster numbers are calculated on the basis of one hamster per burrow. Perhaps - pure speculation on my part - some hamster family members were out at the time a count was conducted.

According to EU Advocate General, Juliane Kokott, "if agro-environmental measures were put in place, in 2008, to protect the Great Hamster, they are incomplete at this stage." In other words - my interpretation - if France was making an effort to conserve the hamster, it wasn't obvious. Ms Kokott's opinion has been handed over to judges and in most cases the judges accept the advocate general's opinions and the court's rulings are binding on EU member states. In the recent past, France had been called upon to do more to "combat the agricultural practices and the urban sprawl that are destroying the animal's natural habitat". Furthermore, France failed to fulfil its obligations under the EU directive on conservation of natural habitats.

The hamster, which can grow to 10 inches (25 centimetres) long, has a brown and white face, a black belly and white paws. In old times, the paws were much prized by farmers who made them into trinkets. It wasn't that long ago that people used to hang rabbit paws on key chains.

So what if anything, is your "average" French farmer doing in the way of helping the situation, you may well be asking yourselves at this point. Not much it appears.

They (the farmers) farming in the region have planted maize (corn)instead of the hamster's favourite crop - alfalfa. What can one say or write? If the farmers don't cooperate, who will? Then again, should farmers focus on raising crops dedicated to hamster preservation? What about mice? Or bunnies? Or deer?

Given the state of starving humans all over the planet, hamsters perhaps don't receive the level of attention they require. For your 'regular' people, there are plenty of hamsters available in pet shops. There is a photo of the Strasbourg hamster here, in case you happen upon one in your travels:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-12250291

Shocking news - truffles in danger!

by Eleanor Tylbor

Directly from France (where else!) where things like this are tres important comes the devastating and shocking news that - wait for it - truffles are in danger of being wiped out!

Mon Dieu! Pas possible!

But yes it's true! So if you're a truffle lover...or liker...or even someone who occasionally indulges in a few truffles, you might be out of luck. Just to clarify we're not talking about the chocolate type with a gazillion calories. It's the kind that only piggies can find in certain geographical locations.

Mais oui!

Narrowing it down further, the Perigort Black Truffle to be exact and the cause is an alien interloping Chinese truffle.

Uh-oh...! Call in the gendarmes or french borner patrol!

Scientists fear it will be wiped out by an invading Chinese truffle they have discovered growing in European soils. Hmmmm... I smell if you'll excuse the pun, a plot afoot - or a-nose. Perhaps yet another means in which to introduce cheaper truffles and spoil the truffle market.

According to people who know about these things who then informed New Phytologist journal, the incomer is a particularly aggressive and fast-growing species.The Perigord black truffle is one of the most highly regarded truffles, fetching around 600 to 800 Euros per kg this season.

"It is the most famous and appreciated among the black truffles, and is the most important truffle in French cuisine," says Claude Murat, a fungus expert based at the University of Torino, Italy.

Somehow, when somebody uses the term "fungus" even though it is referring to a gourmet item, my mind switches to less savory images. Toe nails for example but I digress.

Only Piedmont white truffles fetch higher prices. Hey - we all knew that! Right?

Read the entire story here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7405004.stm

So...like...how upset are you regarding this...this shocking news???? More to the point, would you know the difference between one truffle and another?

Perhaps it would be a good idea the next time you're dining out at a fast food restaurant and truffles are on the menu, you might want to think twice. I mean, one just never knows, does one?

Les baguettes from UK...Lego tower sets record...

Now for something completely different: a Yorkshire (UK) baker is supplying baguettes to discriminating French caterers and restaurants. This comes as quite a surprise to any visitor to France - including moi - who is under the impression that when it comes to crispy baguettes - France has it in the basket, so to speak. However...what you sees isn't necessarily what you gets.

France may be famed for its fabulous bread but a British baker has secured a surprising contract - to ship thousands of loaves across the channel.

The baker, Fosters, will be sending bread to les francaise to make croque monsieur, a hot ham and cheese snack.

It is not the first request from France for the baking firm, based in the South Yorkshire town of Barnsley.

"I nearly fell off my chair laughing," said director John Foster. "Asking a Brit to make French sticks?"

They will ship some 7,000 soft white loaves for use in toasted sandwiches to France every few months.

Read the whole story here:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7386183.stm

Fosters Bakery - the suppliers also have a site here:
http://www.bake-it.com/


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Lego in as far as children and probably their parents given the popularity of the blocks are concerned, is the ideal toy to stimulate the imagination. A 100ft tower made out of Lego bricks will be verified as an official world record, organisers hope.

Thousands of children and their families used almost 500,000 bricks to build the structure at the Legoland theme park in Windsor, Berkshire. The tower is designed to resemble a Viking longboat mast to mark the opening of the new Land of the Vikings. It is yet to officially verified, but the next biggest Lego tower is just over 96ft built in Toronto last August.

The Viking mast tower was created over the Bank Holiday weekend with each of the top sections lifted into place with a crane.

Lego has recently celebrated the 50th anniversary of the iconic brick

Rest of the story here:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/berkshire/7386537.stm