Let's say...one is tired of the usual fast food options or the conventional menu offered at neighborhood eateries (not that there's anything wrong with local restaurants - I'm a fan). Perhaps there is an inner urge that can't be fulfilled at a buffet, a need for something different. Something on the exotic and perhaps a little eclectic side? How about some Nepali goat brain? Maybe live drunken shrimp, perhaps? Or lamb eyeball (no mention if it's served open or closed - hopefully closed), or perhaps boiled fertilized duck egg, a side of beaver tail. These food options are "average" fare for a group of adventurous diners who have named themselves, Gastronauts. Presumably, the name refers to gastronomical exotic fare and not the end result after eating unconventional food choices. But I digress. Already.
The group, created by two friends in 2006, were seeking out meals that offered a culinary experience not ordinarily found at your regular restaurants. Initially, the first meeting of the club, which has its home base in New York City, attracted a mere half dozen people. I can understand why. Over time, however, the membership has grown to 1000 eaters and plans are to expand to other U.S. cities.
The club, according to one Curtiss Calleo, an art director and graphic designer, who founded the club along with magazine editor, Ben Pauker, is open to all and has bankers, artists, designers among others, as members. There is no registration fee and members/participants pay for their own meals held monthly in restaurants.No mention of the name of host restaurants, though. The invitations are sent via e-mail to 70-80 people, who usually respond quickly to the invite.
In as far as the food served, at a recent gathering in New York for example, the invitees ate balut, a Philippine snack of boiled fertilized duck egg. Just wondering here what fertilized duck egg is preferred say...over unfertilized duck egg. Just a thought. Anybody know? But I digress. Again.
Other delicacies served at previous get together include cooked lamb eye ball. Pass. As an after thought, the vision of tail-less beavers is somehow personally worrisome.
Be that as it may, there may be people reading this who are interested in sampling food and would like more information on how and where to become a member:
http://www.gastronauts.net/
Showing posts with label diet. Show all posts
Showing posts with label diet. Show all posts
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Tea drinkers rejoice!
As a tea aficienada and an occasional coffee drinker, this news doesn't come as a surprise. Researchers at the European Journal of Clinical Nutrician have conducted tests or did research showing tea doesn't dehydrate. Actually, I have to confess that this thought never entered my mind, being that I'm a 3-cup plus tea imbiber. If anything, it's a wonderful sensation when the hot liquid hits my stomach.
Drinking three or more cups of tea per day is as healthy as drinking water, plus it has extra health benefits like protecting people against heart disease and some cancers. This is a bonus for we tea imbibers who are accustomed to our daily afternoon tea break along with a cookie or two, which isn't healthy but good. Nothing like dunking a biscuit in hot tea and taking it out just at the right moment before it disintegrates into a pile of mush at the bottom of the cup. But I digress.
Clinically, it 's the flavonoids that promote health. Seems that the polyphenol antitoxidants found in many foods and plants that are the key to preventing cell damage. Tea also replaces fluids and contains antioxidants. I'll drink to that!
So who exactly are the tea drinkers, you're probably wondering. Tea people tend to be in the 40-plus age range.
Actually, I've been drinking tea since childhood and am not worse for wear, although some people might dispute this. My dentist claims that my not-white-anymore teeth are a result of tea stains, but then he wants to bleach my teeth. Pass thank you since I'm going to continue drinking tea, anyway.
Tea isn't as socially fashionable as coffee with its fancy options like your cafe macciato, expresso, cafe au lait or cafe breva. Also, a real tea drinker would disdain to drink their favorite beverage in a paper cup as do coffee drinkers. A real tea drinker uses a china cup with a saucer. Anything else is uncivilized.
The UK Tea Council - http://www.tea.co.uk/ is a great site with lots of interesting information including suggestions that include the location of local tea rooms located in the UK, recipes including green tea ice cream plus interesting facts and helpful hints like how to fix a broken nail with a tea bag no less!
"Cut a piece of paper from the corner of a dry tea bag, place over the tear, apply a tiny amount of clear nail polish to the paper and press on top. Allow to dry and finish off by filing into shape." It pays to carry around a used tea bag in one's purse or pocket for such an emergency.
There are also interesting tidbits everyone would find interesting, like 98% of people (in England) take their tea with milk while only 30% take sugar. Perhaps the other 70% use a sugar replacement sweetener - go know! There is also a section on tea customs - bits of information that anyone would want or need to know!
There is a section focusing on how to make the perfect cup of tea. Ask me about it - I know.
Drinking three or more cups of tea per day is as healthy as drinking water, plus it has extra health benefits like protecting people against heart disease and some cancers. This is a bonus for we tea imbibers who are accustomed to our daily afternoon tea break along with a cookie or two, which isn't healthy but good. Nothing like dunking a biscuit in hot tea and taking it out just at the right moment before it disintegrates into a pile of mush at the bottom of the cup. But I digress.
Clinically, it 's the flavonoids that promote health. Seems that the polyphenol antitoxidants found in many foods and plants that are the key to preventing cell damage. Tea also replaces fluids and contains antioxidants. I'll drink to that!
So who exactly are the tea drinkers, you're probably wondering. Tea people tend to be in the 40-plus age range.
Actually, I've been drinking tea since childhood and am not worse for wear, although some people might dispute this. My dentist claims that my not-white-anymore teeth are a result of tea stains, but then he wants to bleach my teeth. Pass thank you since I'm going to continue drinking tea, anyway.
Tea isn't as socially fashionable as coffee with its fancy options like your cafe macciato, expresso, cafe au lait or cafe breva. Also, a real tea drinker would disdain to drink their favorite beverage in a paper cup as do coffee drinkers. A real tea drinker uses a china cup with a saucer. Anything else is uncivilized.
The UK Tea Council - http://www.tea.co.uk/ is a great site with lots of interesting information including suggestions that include the location of local tea rooms located in the UK, recipes including green tea ice cream plus interesting facts and helpful hints like how to fix a broken nail with a tea bag no less!
"Cut a piece of paper from the corner of a dry tea bag, place over the tear, apply a tiny amount of clear nail polish to the paper and press on top. Allow to dry and finish off by filing into shape." It pays to carry around a used tea bag in one's purse or pocket for such an emergency.
There are also interesting tidbits everyone would find interesting, like 98% of people (in England) take their tea with milk while only 30% take sugar. Perhaps the other 70% use a sugar replacement sweetener - go know! There is also a section on tea customs - bits of information that anyone would want or need to know!
There is a section focusing on how to make the perfect cup of tea. Ask me about it - I know.
Monday, February 04, 2008
NOT JUST YOUR ORDINARY SNAKE (PYTHON) IN THE GRASS
There are friendships between a boy and his pet that make memories for a life time. Then there are those special relationships that make one wonder, "huh?" In this case the special friendship is between a boy and his pet python.
No misprint. A boy and his pet python.
Pythons have a reputation for being very huggable, huge reptiles that require their meals live, as in live chickens...live rabbits... It comes as a surprise - more like a shock - to learn that a young Cambodian boy is currently sharing his life with a five metre long python named Chamreun that weighs in at 100 kg.
The 7 year old boy named, Sambath Uorn, who sleeps with his "friend" rides on the snake's back and pats it down with baby powder. The snake enjoys nothing more than allowing her young friend to curl up inside her coils.
I bet, uttered the cynic.
The best friends became acquainted when both were small when the snake visited the house. Sambath's mother moved the snake to a river bank but a few weeks later, the snake paid a return visit. The rest as they say is history and Chamreun has earned a place in the family's heart and home. Let's hope not in the snake's stomach.
It even has its own two-by-three-metre room with a spirit house at which Khuorn Sam Ol prays for the python to keep his family happy and healthy. In Cambodian culture, they believe that the reptile protects the family and could be reincarnated.
Thing is...can you trust a snake especially a python, whose nature is to give realllly big hugs and then some?
Chamroeun - whom it takes three adults to carry - eats about 10 kilograms of chicken meat every week, posing a heavy financial burden on the family. Be that as it may, the family have no intention of giving up their "pet" - at least for the time being.
Wildlife and police officials used to come by to try to take the snake away and put it in a zoo. But they relented after seeing Uorn Sambath lovingly cuddling the reptile. They left with some pictures they took of the boy and the snake together, Khuorn Sam Ol said.
"I will not let anyone take her away from me, either. I love her very much," declared his son, Uorn Sambath, kissing his pet on the head. The snake can grow up to be 8 metres long and can weigh up to 180kg.
To see family photos of best pals, Sambath and Chamteun:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/01/29/wsnake129.xml
Writers & Friends
www.jrslater.com/forum
No misprint. A boy and his pet python.
Pythons have a reputation for being very huggable, huge reptiles that require their meals live, as in live chickens...live rabbits... It comes as a surprise - more like a shock - to learn that a young Cambodian boy is currently sharing his life with a five metre long python named Chamreun that weighs in at 100 kg.
The 7 year old boy named, Sambath Uorn, who sleeps with his "friend" rides on the snake's back and pats it down with baby powder. The snake enjoys nothing more than allowing her young friend to curl up inside her coils.
I bet, uttered the cynic.
The best friends became acquainted when both were small when the snake visited the house. Sambath's mother moved the snake to a river bank but a few weeks later, the snake paid a return visit. The rest as they say is history and Chamreun has earned a place in the family's heart and home. Let's hope not in the snake's stomach.
It even has its own two-by-three-metre room with a spirit house at which Khuorn Sam Ol prays for the python to keep his family happy and healthy. In Cambodian culture, they believe that the reptile protects the family and could be reincarnated.
Thing is...can you trust a snake especially a python, whose nature is to give realllly big hugs and then some?
Chamroeun - whom it takes three adults to carry - eats about 10 kilograms of chicken meat every week, posing a heavy financial burden on the family. Be that as it may, the family have no intention of giving up their "pet" - at least for the time being.
Wildlife and police officials used to come by to try to take the snake away and put it in a zoo. But they relented after seeing Uorn Sambath lovingly cuddling the reptile. They left with some pictures they took of the boy and the snake together, Khuorn Sam Ol said.
"I will not let anyone take her away from me, either. I love her very much," declared his son, Uorn Sambath, kissing his pet on the head. The snake can grow up to be 8 metres long and can weigh up to 180kg.
To see family photos of best pals, Sambath and Chamteun:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/01/29/wsnake129.xml
Writers & Friends
www.jrslater.com/forum
Sunday, January 13, 2008
ZOO PAYS TO KEEP POPULAR FLUFFY THE PYTHON
Somehow, naming a snake Fluffy, seems somewhat inappropriate especially since Fluffy is a reticulated python. For those of us not familiar with snake or python terminology and according to Wikipedia, a reticulated python is a non-venomous python species found in Southeast Asia. This is the longest snake in the Old World and competes for the title of the world's longest snake with the South American green anaconda, Eunectes murinus. No subspecies are currently recognized.
Fluffy was bred by Bob Clark who raised him from a hatchling and the zoo paid $35,000 to the snake's breeder in Oklahoma to keep the reticulated python on permanent display. By the way Fluffy is a male despite the feminine moniker. While on loan last year, the python helped draw 1.53 million visitors, just under the zoo's attendance record of 1.56 million set in 2006, said Pete Fingerhut, the zoo's associate director.
Fluffy is about as long as a moving van and thick as a telephone pole.
"I really love that snake; I think it's a special animal," Fluffy's raiser said. "It's so big and tame and wonderful. But I have to deal with the realities of life like everyone else. I like to have the money, and I know she's got a great place to live there."
Tame? A boa? Presumably when raising a boa, one does so with a great deal of care...and caution. In as far as Mr. Clark's professed love for Fluffy - different strokes for different folks!
The Columbus Zoo doesn't buy animals very often, said Executive Director Jerry Borin. Its animals generally come as exchanges from other zoos or through breeding loans or donations, he said.
Fluffy is on display in a 25-foot enclosure with a pool and a few plants, where he eats two 10-pound rabbits a week. In the wild, pythons native to Asia eat whatever they can catch, starting with mice and lizards when they're small and graduating to pigs and goats. There are a few reports of human victims.
Somehow and maybe it's just me but the idea or mental picture of Fluffy putting the squeeze and bite on live rabbits is very disconcerting. The largest known reticulated python, named for the cross-hatching patterns on their skin, was 32 feet, 9 1/2 inches when killed in 1912 in Indonesia.
Fluffy was bred by Bob Clark who raised him from a hatchling and the zoo paid $35,000 to the snake's breeder in Oklahoma to keep the reticulated python on permanent display. By the way Fluffy is a male despite the feminine moniker. While on loan last year, the python helped draw 1.53 million visitors, just under the zoo's attendance record of 1.56 million set in 2006, said Pete Fingerhut, the zoo's associate director.
Fluffy is about as long as a moving van and thick as a telephone pole.
"I really love that snake; I think it's a special animal," Fluffy's raiser said. "It's so big and tame and wonderful. But I have to deal with the realities of life like everyone else. I like to have the money, and I know she's got a great place to live there."
Tame? A boa? Presumably when raising a boa, one does so with a great deal of care...and caution. In as far as Mr. Clark's professed love for Fluffy - different strokes for different folks!
The Columbus Zoo doesn't buy animals very often, said Executive Director Jerry Borin. Its animals generally come as exchanges from other zoos or through breeding loans or donations, he said.
Fluffy is on display in a 25-foot enclosure with a pool and a few plants, where he eats two 10-pound rabbits a week. In the wild, pythons native to Asia eat whatever they can catch, starting with mice and lizards when they're small and graduating to pigs and goats. There are a few reports of human victims.
Somehow and maybe it's just me but the idea or mental picture of Fluffy putting the squeeze and bite on live rabbits is very disconcerting. The largest known reticulated python, named for the cross-hatching patterns on their skin, was 32 feet, 9 1/2 inches when killed in 1912 in Indonesia.
Monday, November 05, 2007
MAD (VERY) COW OUTBREAK; PIG ABUSE...ANIMAL TALES
OWNER ACCUSES PET SITTER OF SWINE ABUSE
Talk about biting the hand that feeds you!Perhaps - just perhaps - this is a case for going on a diet!
After asking a friend to take care of her pot-bellied pig while on medical leave, the owner of said pig wants to file abuse charges against the pet sitter. Seems that her pig who she named, Alaina Templeton's (interesting name for a pig) weight tripled while under the care of her friend or pet sitter. Her BPS (before pet sitter) weight was 22.5kg and nine months later the pig weighed in at 68kg and it took 4 hours to surgically remove the collar. Police are investigating whether Alaina Templeton was indeed the victim of abuse by neglect or over-feeding.
"That pig is my life," said the pig's owner, who has a tattoo of Alaina's name.
I dunno! Given the amount of people in the world who suffer from physical and/or psychological abuse in this world... Makes you wonder...
http://news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=609&id=1739662007
*************************************************************************************
MAD (VERY) COW OUTBREAK
So a police officer in Sussex, England, has been hospitalized after being attacked by gang members. The members being particularly physical, butted and stamped on him while out walking his dog. Did I mention that the participants were a herd of 50 cows?
The officer, Inspector Chris Poole, received 4 broken ribs and a punctured lung as a result of the normally docile animals sudden urge to charge him. One angry cow charged him in the back forcing him to the ground, before the others members of the herd joined in.
Inspector Poole said he only managed to escape when Zak, his faithful golden retriever, ran away and the cows chased after it. Inspector Poole then managed to attract the attention of another dog walker, who called for an air ambulance.
However, this wasn't the end of his ordeal.
Three days later, while still in hospital, one of his broken ribs shifted out of place and severed an artery. Fortunately, this was detected in time or he might have died.
In warning other walkers, Inspector Poole advised walkers to give all cows a wide berth in future.
The RSPCA said cows could become protective of their young to the point of becoming aggressive, especially if a large dog was nearby.
Web links
http://news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=609&id=1735302007
WRITERS & FRIENDS
www.writersandfriends.org
Talk about biting the hand that feeds you!Perhaps - just perhaps - this is a case for going on a diet!
After asking a friend to take care of her pot-bellied pig while on medical leave, the owner of said pig wants to file abuse charges against the pet sitter. Seems that her pig who she named, Alaina Templeton's (interesting name for a pig) weight tripled while under the care of her friend or pet sitter. Her BPS (before pet sitter) weight was 22.5kg and nine months later the pig weighed in at 68kg and it took 4 hours to surgically remove the collar. Police are investigating whether Alaina Templeton was indeed the victim of abuse by neglect or over-feeding.
"That pig is my life," said the pig's owner, who has a tattoo of Alaina's name.
I dunno! Given the amount of people in the world who suffer from physical and/or psychological abuse in this world... Makes you wonder...
http://news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=609&id=1739662007
*************************************************************************************
MAD (VERY) COW OUTBREAK
So a police officer in Sussex, England, has been hospitalized after being attacked by gang members. The members being particularly physical, butted and stamped on him while out walking his dog. Did I mention that the participants were a herd of 50 cows?
The officer, Inspector Chris Poole, received 4 broken ribs and a punctured lung as a result of the normally docile animals sudden urge to charge him. One angry cow charged him in the back forcing him to the ground, before the others members of the herd joined in.
Inspector Poole said he only managed to escape when Zak, his faithful golden retriever, ran away and the cows chased after it. Inspector Poole then managed to attract the attention of another dog walker, who called for an air ambulance.
However, this wasn't the end of his ordeal.
Three days later, while still in hospital, one of his broken ribs shifted out of place and severed an artery. Fortunately, this was detected in time or he might have died.
In warning other walkers, Inspector Poole advised walkers to give all cows a wide berth in future.
The RSPCA said cows could become protective of their young to the point of becoming aggressive, especially if a large dog was nearby.
Web links
http://news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=609&id=1735302007
WRITERS & FRIENDS
www.writersandfriends.org
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
HOLD THE SALT
If ever there was a news item that fit into this category - this is it. I mean - c'mon - gimme a break!
Get this... An employee who works for McDonalds, ended up spending the night in jail and what's more is facing criminal charges for - wait for it - a police officer's burger was too salty! What's more the cop is claiming that it made him sick. Some would say that fast food in general sometimes has that effect on people but I digress.
The McDonald's server was arrested last Friday and charged with misdemeanor reckless conduct and freed on a $1000 bail.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/offbeat/2007-09-09-mcdonaldsburger_N.htm
In the way of an explanation the McD's server admits to accidentally spilling some salt on hamburger meat and informed her supervisior and a co-worker, who handled the problem by trying to remove the salt by "thumping it" whatever that entails.
Read the salty details here: http://www.usatoday.com/news/offbeat/2007-09-09-mcdonaldsburger_N.htm
Next thing you know somebody is going to claim that ketchup served was too tomato-y or the fries were the wrong color or the coffee was to hot... Hang on - somebody already sued for that. I mean, really...
Get this... An employee who works for McDonalds, ended up spending the night in jail and what's more is facing criminal charges for - wait for it - a police officer's burger was too salty! What's more the cop is claiming that it made him sick. Some would say that fast food in general sometimes has that effect on people but I digress.
The McDonald's server was arrested last Friday and charged with misdemeanor reckless conduct and freed on a $1000 bail.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/offbeat/2007-09-09-mcdonaldsburger_N.htm
In the way of an explanation the McD's server admits to accidentally spilling some salt on hamburger meat and informed her supervisior and a co-worker, who handled the problem by trying to remove the salt by "thumping it" whatever that entails.
Read the salty details here: http://www.usatoday.com/news/offbeat/2007-09-09-mcdonaldsburger_N.htm
Next thing you know somebody is going to claim that ketchup served was too tomato-y or the fries were the wrong color or the coffee was to hot... Hang on - somebody already sued for that. I mean, really...
Friday, September 07, 2007
WHAT NEXT? POPCORN CAUSES POPCORN LUNG...MAYBE...COULD BE...
Is there nothing left in life to enjoy? Weight watchers have been told that two cups of popcorn is a healthy and less fattening snack food and recommended for people on a diet. Now researchers are telling us that butter-flavored popcorn may be bad for our health. I mean - c'mon! Popcorn and movies are like...sacred, almost!
The public is being warned by lung specialists that not only factory workers could be in danger as a result of the fumes from buttery-flavored microwave popcorn, in a letter issued by federal regulars from a physician at a leading lung research hospital.
Oh? Somebody is getting research funds to study popcorn and I wasn't asked to participate?
A pulmonary specialist at Denver's National Jewish Medical and Research Center has written to federal agencies reporting that doctors working there believe they have the first case of a consumer who developed lung disease from the fumes of microwaving popcorn several times a day for years.
The public is being warned by lung specialists that not only factory workers could be in danger as a result of the fumes from buttery-flavored microwave popcorn, in a letter issued by federal regulars from a physician at a leading lung research hospital.
Oh? Somebody is getting research funds to study popcorn and I wasn't asked to participate?
A pulmonary specialist at Denver's National Jewish Medical and Research Center has written to federal agencies reporting that doctors working there believe they have the first case of a consumer who developed lung disease from the fumes of microwaving popcorn several times a day for years.
This begs at least from my perspective, the question as to how many of us actually eat pop popcorn several times a day? This person obviously had a popcorn addiction that went untreated for many years for this to occur. Perhaps had she/he been weaned away... But I digress.
"We cannot be sure that this patient's exposure to butter flavored microwave popcorn from daily heavy preparation has caused his lung disease," cautioned Dr. Cecile Rose. "However, we have no other plausible explanation."
The July letter, made public Tuesday by a public health policy blog, refers to a potentially fatal disease commonly called popcorn lung that has been the subject of lawsuits by hundreds of workers at food factories exposed to chemicals used for flavouring.
Note there is no Latin term as yet for the new syndrome. Popcornus lungitis bad-forus springs to mind.
In response to Rose's finding, the Flavor and Extract Manufacturers Association issued a statement Tuesday recommending that its members reduce "to the extent possible" the amount of diacetyl in butter flavourings they make. It noted that diacetyl is approved for use in flavours by the federal Food and Drug Administration.
One national popcorn manufacturer, Weaver Popcorn Co. of Indianapolis, said last week it would replace the butter flavouring ingredient because of consumer concern. Congress has also been debating new safety measures for workers in food processing plants exposed to diacetyl.
The FDA said in an e-mail it is evaluating Rose's letter and "carefully considering the safety and regulatory issues it raises."
Fred Blosser, spokesman for the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, said it is the first case the institute has seen of lung disease apparently linked to popcorn fumes outside the workplace.
A spokesman for National Jewish Medical, confirmed the letter was sent by Rose, a specialist in occupational and environmental lung diseases and director of the hospital's Occupational and Environmental Medicine Clinic.
"There have been no other cases that we know of other than the industrial occupational ones," Allstetter said.
Rose acknowledged in the letter that it is difficult to confirm through one case that popping buttered microwave popcorn at home can cause lung disease. However, she said she wanted to alert regulators of the potential public health implications.
Perhaps if we don't inhale...
Rose said the ailing patient, a man whom she wouldn't identify, consumed "several bags of extra butter flavoured microwave popcorn" every day for several years. He described progressively worsening respiratory symptoms of coughing and shortness of breath. Tests found his ability to exhale was deteriorating, Rose said, although his condition seemed to stabilize after he quit using microwave popcorn.
Read an up-close-and-personal story about the man who has allegedly experienced first-hand the effects of popcorn lung here: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/09/06/health/main3239379.shtml
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