Posts filed under 'Food/Bev'
Sushi Tuna found to contain very high levels of Mercury
And why I order Eel (Unagi) or Mackerel (Saba).
Recent laboratory tests performed for The New York Times found so much Mercury in tuna sushi that a regular diet of even two or three pieces a week at some restaurants could be a health hazard for the average adult, based on guidelines set out by the Environmental Protection Agency. Larger, predatory fish, including salmon, accumulate more Mercury than smaller fish such as sardines because they are at the top of the food chain.
In any case, according to the World Wildlife Fund: Atlantic bluefin tuna, are massively overfished and the spawning stock of Southern bluefin in the Indian Ocean is down about 90%
Add comment January 23, 2008
Cancer-causing Benzene Is Found In FDA random sampling of Beverages
& Why I don’t drink Soda
Note. These two compounds are prevalent in the Soda Industry, just check the ingredients list.
Anybody with a little organic chemistry knows that benzene and many chemicals with a benzene ring are nasty so why trust Sodium Benzoate, already associated with ADD in children. Naturally, with the current regime and political climate, even though a significant percentage of samples exceeded the EPA limit of 5 parts per billion, FDA concluded that the levels of benzene found did not pose a safety concern for consumers. The offending manufacturers were asked to re-formulate their products but this was just a small sample from the industry.
Found at Science Daily
The journal article “Survey Results of Benzene in Soft Drinks and Other Beverages by Headspace Gas Chromatography/Mass Spectrometry” is published in a recent issue of ACS’ Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.
Update: Coca-Cola removes sodium benzoate from Diet Coke production
Add comment January 9, 2008
Dark Beer Is Good for Your Heart?
The darker the beer, the better it may be for your heart, according to a new study.
In a comparison of Guinness Stout, a dark beer, and Heineken, a light beer, the darker brew had substantially more anti-clotting activity, according to a University of Wisconsin-Madison scientist who presented his findings Tuesday at the American Heart Association annual meeting.
WOFFA just happens to have some inside knowledge on brewing and as it is often said that people drink with their eyes, apparently we also research with them. There are countless other differences between these two products other than color:
Brewed by a different process in a different country. Different alcohol levels. Different water and mineral content of the beer. Different quantity and quality of Hops and pale malts and adjuncts. Different yeast and fermentation by-products. But who are we to bah humbug? Raise a glass of the suds from Dublin by all means. We hear they need all the support they can get.
Add comment December 20, 2007
Heritage breed Turkeys carve niche at the holiday table
Large Broad-breasted Whites are the market mainstay but have lost their abilities to fly, run or mate, they lack flavor and are pumped with antibiotics.
Thanksgiving saw thousands of North Americans enjoy a different kind of bird. “Heritage” turkeys from breeds of old like the Buff, Narragansett and Blue Slate. They are not supermarket cheap at c. $4.00/lb but are enjoying a culinary comeback and providing a high end niche for smaller scale breeders and farms.
Add comment December 19, 2007
Absinthe legalized after 100 year Federal ban
Want to party like it’s 1899? Well, now you can–sort of. After nearly a century-long ban on absinthe in the U.S., a federal agency has begrudgingly allowed two European distillers to sell the mysterious liquor Stateside. Renowned for its supposedly hallucinogenic effects, the anise-flavored alcohol was rumored to have caused an epidemic of psychosis in France in the late 1800s–most infamously, leading Vincent van Gogh to cut off his ear.
Add comment December 5, 2007
Holy Hops!
Trappist Ale, thou shalt not have.
WESTVLETEREN, Belgium — The Trappist monks at St. Sixtus monastery have taken vows against riches, sex and eating red meat. They speak only when necessary. But you can call them on their beer phone. Monks have been brewing Westvleteren beer at this remote spot near the French border since 1839. Their brew, offered in strengths up to 10.2% alcohol by volume, is among the most highly prized in the world. In bars from Brussels to Boston, and online, it sells for more than $15 for an 11-ounce bottle — 10 times what the monks ask — if you can get it. For the 26 monks at St. Sixtus, however, success has brought a spiritual hangover as they fight to keep an insatiable market in tune with their life of contemplation.The monks are doing their best to resist getting bigger. They don’t advertise and don’t put labels on their bottles. They haven’t increased production since 1946. They sell only from their front gate. You have to make an appointment and there’s a limit: two, 24-bottle cases a month. Because scarcity has created a high-priced gray market online, the monks search the net for resellers and try to get them to stop. “We sell beer to live, and not vice versa,” says Brother Joris, the white-robed brewery director. Beer lovers, however, seem to live for Westvleteren.
What is Trappist Beer? from the guy that wrote The beer book.
Add comment November 30, 2007
Hot Buttered Rum
A sumptuous recipe for this cold weather classic.
It dates from early America, when politicians buttered up constituents with this drink. And perhaps it goes without saying, but this must served steaming hot, not lukewarm.It is best to make the batter in advance so the spices have an opportunity to mingle. Be sure to remove the batter from the refrigerator at least 6 hours before serving to allow it to soften. The recipe for the batter makes enough for 10 to 12 servings; refrigerate in an airtight container for up to 1 month, or freeze for up to 2 months.
Ingredients:For the batter
· 1 pound light brown sugar · 16 tablespoons (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature · 2 teaspoons cinnamon · 2 teaspoons freshly grated nutmeg · 1to 2 teaspoon allspice · 2 teaspoons vanilla extract For each drink · 1 1/2 ounces rum, preferably Mount Gay Eclipse · Boiling water, as needed
Directions:For the batter: Beat together the brown sugar, butter, spices and vanilla extract until well combined. Refrigerate in an airtight re-sealable container until ready to use.For each drink: Combine 2 heaping tablespoons of the batter and the rum in a warmed coffee mug. Add boiling water to fill to the top, and mix well. Serve with a spoon.
Recipe Source:From bartender Tony Abou Ganim, the “Modern Mixologist.”
Add comment November 28, 2007
Primary Taste
We learn at school that there are four primary tastes ( Sweet, Sour, Bitter & Salty) The rest of your ‘organoleptical’ experience is provided by the olfactory region of the nose which we perceive with our nose via an open connection or passage from the back of the mouth to the nose.
Amazingly, the 4 primary taste concept goes back to 5th Century BC Greece when a guy called Democritus identified the primary tastes and declared them to be due to food breaking down into minute components with four different shapes that interacted on the tongue. Not a half bad conclusion considering he only had metaphysics, his favorite tree to contemplate under and maybe his mom’s Moussaka to guide him.
So, for 2300 years everything was right in the tasting world until the first murmurings of dissent were heard around the turn of the century (19C>20C) when a mover and shaker, French chef called Auguste Escoffier developed a veal, demi-glace stock. He had reached new culinary heights and demonstrated a new taste category; his customers agreed and thought it was best food they ever tasted but no-one knew why.
On the other side of the planet the same light bulb went on for a Kikunae Ikeda-san, his specialty was a seaweed soup called dashi which was also used as a base stock. Ikeda decided that his soup also contained a fifth primary flavor component and by chemically analyzing foods he considered to be high in the new flavor, he successfully isolated the compound responsible – Glutamate. A huge industry was founded based on glutamate, and eventually in 2002 it was made official, there was indeed a 5th primary taste and it was dubbed umami (delicious).
Scientists confirmed that the human tongue has receptors for L-glutamate; the L- indicates that it is the laevo or left handed version of the molecule that triggers the sensation. Democritus had it so right. The shape of the glutamate molecule -made out of 5 Carbon, 9 Hydrogen, 4 Oxygen and 1 Nitrogen atom - has to be so exact, like a glove; the right handed version of glutamate doesn’t fit and wont do .
Question: Why did we humans bother to evolve a taste for glutamate?
A possible clue might lie in modern versions of Escoffier’s recipe which utilize a lot of bone marrow. If marrow is an important source of glutamates, could that be how or why our 2 million year ancestor, Homo habilis is thought to have carved a carnivorous or at least omnivorous niche for him or herself ? The theory goes that Homo habilis extracted nutritious bone marrow from the bones of animal carcasses that other predators found hard to reach, by using some of the first stone implements – but then I digress 
References:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=15819485
http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/cavemen/factfiles/homo_habilis.shtml
Add comment November 13, 2007
