Archive for the “Food and Drink” Category

The “Hopper” contains eight limbs on a traditional base with capers and an anchovy sorbet.

The £17.95 dish has angered campaigners who slammed it as “barbaric” — because frogs’ legs are amputated while they are still alive.

An Animal Aid spokeswoman urged people to boycott London chain Eco.

She said: “The animals typically have their limbs hacked off while still alive, having been captured by the bucketload from the wild in countries like Indonesia.

“I cannot believe people are so desperate to entertain their palates that they want to be part of this vicious and callous trade.”

Chef Sami Wasif came up with the idea on a trip to Paris — and called it “refined”.

I love frog legs, but if I made this I would remove the bones.

AWB

Mo-ped operators in Indiana would need a valid driver’s license and have to get the motorized scooters insured under legislation state Sen. Ron Alting plans to propose in the upcoming General Assembly session.

More here.

I guess they’ll be a lot of clients of AADP taking the cab if this passes.

AWB

The woman that cuts my hair recently had a new child, a baby boy. I ran into her this weekend at Meijer’s. She named her new son Owen. A strong and manly name, if you ask me.

Many of the names parents stick their kids with today makes me wonder just what in the hell were they thinking? To some parents, naming a child is almost like naming a product. For example, Graciela, Nestor, Xiomara or God forbid Barack.

When she told her husband she had picked Owen, he immediately said he had the perfect middle name. She was fine with his selection, but it wasn’t until much later that she found out the driving force behind his choice.

So, they named the child (drum roll please) - Owen Sullivan (last name withheld).

I’m sure Frank and Tommy will be elated.

AWB

I found this growing in my backyard over the weekend and identified it as a very tasty and edible mushroom.

Can you identify it? (click for larger image).

Hint: Lawyer

AWB

From Inside Indiana

A new effort is being launched calling for Sunday alcohol sales in Indiana. Hoosiers for Beverage Choices has launched a Web site giving visitors the chance to sign an online petition to Indiana legislators. The group wants the sale of alcoholic beverages on Sundays and cold beer sales in drug, grocery and convenience stores. Hoosiers for Beverage Choices says Indiana is also one of only three states that prohibits retailers from selling alcohol on Sundays, yet allows restaurants, taverns and numerous sports and community events to sell alcohol by the drink on that day.

I’ve lived in three states that had Sunday Blue Laws, and some included more than the sale of liquor, including bans placed on Sunday shopping. Blue Laws were meant to enforce moral standards and the observance of Sunday as a day of worship.

From Wiki

In Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Oklahoma, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, car dealerships continue to operate under blue-law prohibitions in which an automobile may not be purchased or traded on a Sunday.

So here in Indiana it’s still illegal to sell alcohol on Sundays, except in bars, restaurants, wineries or some sporting events. It’s an antiquated law that should be repealed. You can still stock-up on Saturday, or head for a restaurant or tavern. When I was much younger I remember making road trips to Ohio for a case of rot-gut 3.2 beer on an occasional Sunday afternoon. Why let that money go to Ohio?

AWB

“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” – Albert Einstein

Everything the Greens touch may be turning red. Blood red. Like the Pharaoh Ramesses of old, Congress is bringing plague after plague upon itself. And mankind.

In the past, the Greens have opposed more nuclear energy, more oil exploration, more gasoline refineries, more natural gas exploration – in short, more energy production.  They have placed what they perceive as the Mother Earth’s climatic interests above mankind’s economic interests.  And this has resulted in considerably higher energy costs in the past two decades.

Now they’ve turned their malevolent gaze towards agriculture.  As food prices have rocketed – going up 83 percent in three years according to the World Bank – a global food crisis has emerged, threatening the stability of more than 33 nations and worldwide starvation.  (See ALG News’ “Biofuels and Inflation Driving Up Food Prices Worldwide”.)

The jury’s no longer out – it is in, and the proponents of biofuels are to blame.  Billed as an alternative to fossil fuels, biofuels are nothing short of an unmitigated catastrophe as Congress has mandated their usage and is subsidizing their production to the peril of the developing world, and our own food supplies.  And yet, the callous, perilous cadre of the obtuse and uneducable Green Machine continue demanding “Food for Oil” – even as the death toll mounts.  In short, the insanity continues unabated. 

This artificial creation of demand has led to supply disruptions of not just corn, but also other agricultural staples like wheat and rice.  And this in turn has caused the prices for food to go through the roof.  Food riots are occurring all over the world, and it has even led to the government of Haiti collapsing.  It was called a “crime against humanity” by UN expert Jean Ziegler in 2007.

Thus far, there have been calls from free market advocates to bring an end to the Federal mandate and subsidies.  For Ziegler’s part, he believes that a five-year moratorium on biofuel production worldwide should occur to halt “the growing catastrophe of the massacre [by] hunger in the world.”

These developments globally have to be source of no uncertain embarrassment for the White House, which was pushing hard for biofuels.  ALG News shall be charitable in this case.  Anyone can make a mistake.  But to not admit that mistake despite the real and devastating consequences is when the breach becomes insidious. 

This failed policy has brought a terrible plague upon the world, and it is up to the Federal government to reverse course and cease doing the same thing over and over again – when the same results are ever more Oprhans of the Corn.

Source: Americans for Limited Government

AWB

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. (April 14, 2008) — Creativity abounds in the new soy products produced by five teams of Purdue University students participating in the Indiana Soybean Alliance’s 2008 Student Soybean Product Innovation Competition. This is the largest field of competitors ever in the soybean checkoff-funded contest, which is in its 13th year.

Products judged in this year’s competition include a soy-based hybrid fuel product (coal alternative), soy clay pigeon, soy ice cream waffle bowl, soy after-sun lotion, and soy liqueur.

The purpose of the competition is to encourage students to use their scientific and technical education and skills to create potentially commercial products from soybeans and their components. A group of judges ranked the products into three tiers with the payout to teams ranging from $1,500 to $7,500. The student teams will be honored at an awards ceremony Tuesday, April 15 in Indianapolis. Please join us.

I was never a fan of Tofu. I did try Tofurkey once, which is faux turkey, and while not a big hit with me it wasn’t terrible. I hear the students at IPFW are working on a version for a faux tofu/duck equivalent.

Source: Indiana Soybean Alliance

World’s most expensive coffee at £50 a cup comes to British stores…and it’s made from cats’ droppings

It might not be to everyone’s taste - and that’s not just because at £50 a cup it’s the most expensive coffee in the world. The secret behind the special blend about to go on sale at an upmarket department store is that it is made from cats’ droppings. While such an ingredient might leave many spluttering into their cups, Peter Jones thinks it is on to a winner.

For the rest of April, it is serving espressos, Americanos and lattes made from the droppings in its in-store coffee shop in Sloane Square, central London.

And for those who want the ultimate talking point over the after-dinner mints, the coffee beans are also on sale at £50 for 100 grams.

The store, part of the John Lewis partnership, has bought 60 packets of the exclusive blend of Jamaican Blue Mountain and the Kupi Luwak bean. The bean is rare, with less than 450lb harvested each year. The beans are extracted from the droppings of the palm civet, a cross between a cat and a monkey which lives in Indonesia. The civets eat the soft coffee cherries, digest the fruit pulp and excrete the beans on the forest floor, because they cannot digest the beans.

Plantation workers then collect the beans, which are sold as Luwak coffee. The civets are said to pick the best and ripest coffee berries. It is also thought that their gastric juices may add to the flavour.

You can buy it here. I think I’ll stick to Starbucks.

AWB

Judge Orders Starbucks to Pay More Than $100 Million in Back Tips

A Superior Court judge on Thursday ordered Starbucks Corp. to pay its California baristas more than $100 million in back tips and interest that the coffee chain paid to shift supervisors.

San Diego Superior Court Judge Patricia Cowett also issued an injunction that prevents Starbucks’ shift supervisors from sharing in future tips, saying state law prohibits managers and supervisors from sharing in employee gratuities.

Starbucks spokeswoman Valerie O’Neil said the company planned an immediate appeal of the ruling, calling it “fundamentally unfair and beyond all common sense and reason.”

I agree with the judge but then again I disagree with the tip jar being there in the first place. I used to go to Starbucks just for plain old coffee until McDonalds improved their coffee offering. You don’t see tip jars at McDonalds.

When you pay the high prices that Starbucks charges it’s hard to justify leaving a tip for someone that pulls a spout for 4 seconds, places a lid on a cup of coffee and hands it to you. If they were waiting on me at a table, of course I’d tip.

My 2 cents. - AWB