|
|  |
|
|
|
| |
| Oct 31, 2008 6:24 am |
|
interesting food related snippets |
| heathcliff
| |
Culinary Tours
You may all have been on historical, wildlife, nature, historical and spa vacations. Travel agencies around the world now offer culinary tours for the gourmet traveller. The itineraries may include visits to local kitchens and food bazaars, vineyards, bakeries, cheese-makers and restaurants. You are taken on a trek through the historical monuments of the place with special narrations by your tour guide on the culinary cultural history of those tourist spots. If you’d like to pick up the cooking style of the places you are visiting there are crash cookery courses too. Check out http://www.culinarytours.net/ for the latest information on worldwide culinary tours.
Space Food
The foremost astronauts ate from toothpaste-like squeeze tubes and plastic wrapped bite-sized pieces. Nowadays astronauts can treat themselves to a meal tray bearing a full course meal designed by the world’s celebrity chefs. The tray is uniquely designed to hold all the food packages in place preventing them from floating away in the microgravity of space. Typical space shuttle dishes may include raspberry yoghurt, sausage pattie, macaroni and cheese, pork chops, spicy chicken and vegetables and fruit cocktails. There are however certain ‘problem foods’ in space. E.g.: Bread is a very inconvenient space food as its crumbs can float around getting stuck in the astronaut’s eyes. Tortillas are therefore a much safer option to bread as it has far less crumbs. Also salt and pepper has to be added to meals in a liquid form than sprinkled in solid granular form as like bread crumbs these grains may cause great harm. Post meals astronauts must dispose the meal remains in a trash compactor inside the space shuttle otherwise there’ll be litter flying all over.
Pica
Anorexia Nervosa and Bulimia aren’t the only eating disorders. Pica- an appetite for non-nutritive substances like chalk, paper, soil or an abnormal appetite for food in the unpalatable form like flour, raw potato or starch is seen in all ages particularly in pregnant women and small children (especially kids who are developmentally disabled). The etymology of pica can be traced to the Latin word for a magpie- a bird which is known for eating almost everything. Research findings indicate that patients of Pica suffer from iron deficiency and a biochemical imbalance.
Cinnamon Toothpicks
Cinnamon is not only used to spice up your food but also to make toothpick nowadays. Cinnamon which used in toothpowder strengthens sensitive teeth acts as a mouth freshener as toothpicks. If you are trying to quit smoking cinnamon toothpicks act as an oral substitute when you get cigarette cravings. And if you want to consume these sticks you needn’t worry about gaining weight as they come with no sugar and zero calories.
Food Museums
Museums are not just places where you see human mummies, ancient relics and fossils. Food museums across the world tell us how food has sustained humankind. These museums may focus on a specific food like The Bread Museum in Germany, the Mount Horeb Mustard Museum or the Ramen Museum in Japan featuring eminent noodle restaurants with references to the history of ramen noodles. Other food museums may provide a wider overview of food heritage tracing back right to the age of food gathering and going on to narrate how and what the world eats. One such museum is the Agropolis Museum in France describing the global story of people, food and agriculture. It houses mini-exhibits of the world’s fruits and vegetables, farmers from different countries and food and drink preparations ranging from the tea ceremony in Japan, pasta making in Italy and coffee rituals in Ethiopia.
Sporks
Think of cutlery and what may naturally come to your mind is the fork, spoon and a knife. But how many of us may have heard of a spork? On seeing a picture of a spork you may however realise that a spork- which is both etymolically and in design the hybrid of a spoon and fork is no alien cutlery. Indeed a spork has been used since the medieval times and is still commonly used in fast food restaurants, prisons, school cafeterias and by bag packers.
Private Reply to heathcliff (new win) |
|
| |
|
