Food Trivia - #3

Named for the inventors, Forrest and Bruce, this food product was first made for use in the military. For 11 years from 1976 to 1987 one variety of this product was not produced, due to an action by the FDA, even though the FDA action did not effect this particular product! 

Many consumers protested, and the University of Tennessee was partially involved in forcing the company to reconsider the discontinuance of the one variety. 

Eventually the company relented and began producing it again. It was reintroduced it at about the same time as glasnost and the crumbling of the anti-Red scare. 

Focus groups were held to decide the correct proportions for the gradual reintroduction of the banned variety during the Christmas season of 1985.

Name this product.


Next Post: The Answer

Related Stories

• Misconceptions About Food & Diets

Like this story? Get all my posts send to you by email. Click here...

Share Like this story? Share it with your friends and family on Facebook. Share

Sliced Bananas...Are You Crazy?

Sometimes I think that I must be the one that's crazy.  I'm going through a first draft of the new menus that my Chef and Director of Catering are planning for the start of the season.  What do I find?  A menu choice for a P.M. food break of sliced bananas.  Are they serious?

Haven't you seen what a sliced banana looks like after a few minutes?  It gets all slimy and definitely unappealing to look at, let alone to eat.  And these jokers think this is a good idea to add it to our menu. 

How the hell do they expect this to hold up after the kitchen cuts the food?  Then the waiter needs to load the bananas, along with the rest of the menu choices, hop in the elevator to get to the floor.  A walk to the meeting room is next, place the food on the buffet ahead of time so the guest doesn't have to wait (remember the 15 minute rule?) then hope the food lasts long enough by the time the group actually decides to take a break during their meeting to have a quick cup of coffee or soda. 

Then what will they find?  A f'ing slimy banana.  Why don't we slice apples too?  This way we can have a competition to see what happens first...the banana get slimy or the apple turn brown.  What jerks!

Thankfully I got them to remove this mess from the menu.  Next item to remove...the flan.

I need a REAL job!

Like this story? Get all my posts send to you by email. Click here...

Share Like this story? Share it with your friends and family on Facebook. Share

Waiter, Hold That Swill Oil If You Please

From Shanghai Daily.com  

MORE than 3 million tons of filthy and toxic cooking oil extracted from gutters and drains may end up back in domestic and restaurant kitchens each year.

China's top food safety watchdogs have organized nationwide swoops to stop the illegal recycling practice.  The Food and Drug Administration has ordered the setting up of strict regulations to stop the production of so-called swill oil.  Offenders found in the swoops face severe penalties.

The swill oil business was so rampant in Chinese cities that some people made a full-time living from it, according to He Dongping, head of China's oil standardization committee and a food science professor in Wuhan.  He told Chongqing Evening News yesterday these people could make more than 10,000 yuan (US$1,465) every month from excavating oil from gutters and drains.

An estimated 3 million tons of swill oil was unknowingly consumed by Chinese people every year, He said.

Red, cream-like residue from drains and gutters is collected and boiled until a layer of clear oil surfaces.  This is sold to roadside restaurants and other outlets and He believes every Chinese at some stage has probably consumed swill oil.

He said swill oil could be highly poisonous, stunt children's growth and cause liver and kidney problems.  Plus, a chemical that is abundant in swill oil is a known carcinogen.  The problem baffling scientists and food safety authorities is there is no effective method for consumers to distinguish between swill oil and normal cooking oil.

He suggested recycling all waste food oil into biodiesel.

Link to original article



Like this story? Get all my posts send to you by email. Click here...

Share Like this story? Share it with your friends and family on Facebook. Share

Pet Peeve #4 - Empty Soda Guns

I looked on the left side of the ballroom, what did I see?  A bar with no bartender.  Where the hell is he?  Not behind the bar.  I ask a few waiters, "Where's Paul?"  "I think he went downstairs to get another soda box" was the answer I received.

Shit like this not only pisses me off but makes me wonder why these damm bartenders can't ever seem to check if the soda box is full enough to get them through the night.  

You make sure you have enough glasses.  You make sure you have enough cut fruit.  You make sure you keep the wine bottle corks for inventory sake but you don't check to make sure you have enough syrup in the boxes for the soda gun?  WTF?

Then you gotta leave the bar to go down to the basement to change the box out.  Then who's pouring drinks?

Just drives me nuts...

Next Post: Sliced Bananas...Are You Crazy?




Like this story? Get all my posts send to you by email. Click here...

Share Like this story? Share it with your friends and family on Facebook. Share

World's Longest Wedding Dress Train

BEIJING (Reuters Life!) - A Chinese bride is hoping to enter the record books after getting married in a wedding dress with a train more than 2 km (1.2 miles) long trailing behind her.

It took guests more than three hours to roll out the gown, complete with 9,999 silk red roses attached to it, in the northeastern province of Jilin, state news agency Xinhua said.

"Both the length of the dress and the number silk roses pinned on the wedding dress can make history," the report quoted groom Zhao Peng as saying.

Zhao, who has applied to Guinness World Records, said he was inspired after seeing a story on the previous record holder in Romania, where the dress measured just over 1.5 km.  "I do not want a cliche wedding parade or banquet," he said.

Bride Lin Rong "laughed and cried at the romantic gesture," Xinhua said.  The dress cost around 40,000 yuan ($5,856), which prompted initial opposition to the plan from his family.

"It is a waste of money in my opinion," said Zhao's mother. "Though I understand that he wants to show his love on the big day."

Link to original article 

Next Post: Pet Peeve #4 - Empty Soda Guns



Like this story? Get all my posts send to you by email. Click here...

Share Like this story? Share it with your friends and family on Facebook. Share

Where's All The Damm Champagne Glasses?

It happened again...

Saturday night, small wedding (it's a good thing), and we couldn't find enough champagne glasses to set the tables and have enough left for the champagne station.  

My captains and I are running around like stuck pigs looking for glasses and couldn't find diddly!  We found 3 empty racks though.  Now we gotta find out WTF happened.

After exhausting all my energy, I sat down near the kitchen to take a breath, that's when the Chef says, "Hey Banquet Manager, are you alright, what happened?".  "I'm looking all around this f'ing place for champagne glasses and can't find shit, I still need around 120", I said.

That's when he dropped his guard.  His face showed the sign of a kid caught with his hand in the cookie jar.  

"Ok, I forgot to tell you", he says (I hate those words).  "The other day I had my dishwashers reorganize the storeroom and one of those idiots tipped over a bunch of glass racks", he cavalierly said.  "I guess those were champagne glasses", came next.  "Well I guess either you or your idiot dishwasher needs to get in a car and drive down the street to the Sheraton (our "friendly" competition down the block) and beg Frankie for some glasses.

Thankfully I have a good relationship with their banquet manager Frankie over the past few years and he will help us out if he can.

Long story short, the chef sent a dishwasher and his sous chef to borrow some glasses from Frankie (thanks buddy), and the event went off with no other problems.

Why can't any chef actually pay attention to anything other than his damm kitchen?

Related Stories:

• Why Can't We Have an Executive Steward?
  

Next Post: World's Longest Wedding Dress Train



Like this story? Get all my posts send to you by email. Click here...

Share Like this story? Share it with your friends and family on Facebook. Share

Food Trivia Quiz #2 Answer

The plant described is Sage, an aromatic culinary herb commonly used to season sausages, poultry and fish.


Congratulations to "Anonymous" who got the right answer on March 12.


 

Next Post: Where's All The Damm Champagne Glasses?

Like this story? Get all my posts send to you by email. Click here...

Share Like this story? Share it with your friends and family on Facebook. Share

Food Trivia Quiz- #2

All of the following information describes one plant:

This plant, native to Mediterranean Europe, is an ancient symbol of wisdom and immortality.

A perennial shrub about 2 feet high, it is a member of the mint family and has over 500 varieties. Its flowers are fragrant, usually purple or blue, sometimes white, red or pink. They are rich in nectar, and it's honey is in great demand in Europe because of its spicy flavor. Some varieties, have broad leaves; others have foliage variegated with red, yellow, or white.

Valued by the Chinese in the seventeenth century, they would trade three chests of China tea for just one chest filled with its leaves from Dutch merchants.

For most of its long history it has been a healing herb (supposedly curing everything from snake bites, eye problems, infection, epilepsy, intoxication, memory loss, worms and intestinal problems) or prescribed as an aphrodisiac.

As far back as ancient Greek and Roman times, healers advocated it for a variety of ailments. Charlemagne ordered that it be grown in his royal gardens. Arab physicians in the 10th century went so far as to claim that it extended life to the point of immortality.

It was an old custom to rub leaves on the teeth to clean them and benefit the gums. American Indians used it for medicinal purposes. The oil is valued in perfumery and toilet preparations, especially those for men. Placed among linen, it discourages insects. Also helps repel cabbage butterflies and improves the flavor of cabbage.

The dried leaves are employed by food manufacturers in seasoning meats, baked goods, and beverages. They are also used to flavor vermouth and various bitters. For years it has been used in the preserving of foods. Now it is known that it contains powerful anti-oxidants which slow spoilage. It is also antibacterial in nature, it is effective in treating sore throats and is even effective as an antiperspirant.

Can You Name This Plant?

Next Post: The Answer






Like this story? Get all my posts send to you by email. Click here...

Share Like this story? Share it with your friends and family on Facebook. Share

NYC Chef Serving Cheese Made From His Wife's Breast Milk!

NY Post March 9, 2009

This Chelsea restaurant has gone from brasserie to brassiere. 

Chef Daniel Angerer is letting diners at Klee Brasserie munch on cheese made from his wife's breast milk. 

"It tastes like cow's-milk cheese, kind of sweet," he told The Post. The flavor depends on what the cheese is served with -- Angerer recommends a Riesling -- and "what the mother eats," said Angerer, who once bested Bobby Flay on TV's "Iron Chef." 

Breast milk doesn't curdle well due to its low protein content, so a little moo juice has to be added to round out the texture, Angerer said.

After blogging about his efforts with the human cheese, customers started demanding a sample, he said.  "The phone was ringing off the hook," the chef said. "So I prepared a little canapé of breast-milk cheese with figs and Hungarian pepper." 

The response has been generally positive from those who've tried the cheese, although many customers are too squeamish to attempt it. 

"I think a lot of the criticism has to do with the combination of sex and cheese, but . . . the breast is there to make food," said Lori Mason, the chef's wife.

Since the restaurant began offering customers a taste, Mason has been inundated with creepy queries, she said. 

"Some people who clearly have issues have . . . e-mailed me saying, 'I wasn't breast-fed as a child, so can I taste your breast milk?' " she said.

Mason politely declines the offer. 

"I'm not here to walk people through their psychological problems," she said. That said, Mason is now prodding her husband to make gelato. 

After inquiries from The Post, health bigs said yesterday that even though department codes do not explicitly forbid the practice, they have advised Angerer to refrain from sharing his wife's milk with the world. 

"The restaurant knows that cheese made from breast milk is not for public consumption, whether sold or given away," a spokeswoman for the city Department of Health said.

You can't make this stuff up...

Link to original article

Related Stories:

• Restaurant Promotes Sex in its Bathrooms 
• Breastfeeding in the Restaurant 
• The Government Can't Run a Restaurant

Like this story? Get all my posts send to you by email. Click here...

Share Like this story? Share it with your friends and family on Facebook. Share

Giving Up Wine

I was walking down the street when I was accosted by a particularly dirty and shabby-looking homeless woman who asked me for a couple of dollars for dinner.

I took out my wallet, got out ten dollars and asked, "If I give you this money, will you buy wine with it instead of dinner?"  No, I had to stop drinking years ago', the homeless woman told me. 

"Will you use it to go shopping instead of buying food?" I asked.  "No, I don't waste time shopping," the homeless woman said. "I need to spend all my time trying to stay alive."

"Will you spend this on a beauty salon instead of food?" I asked.  "Are you NUTS!" replied the homeless woman. I haven't had my hair done in 20 years!"

"Well, I said, "I'm not going to give you the money. Instead, I'm going to take you out for dinner with my husband and me tonight."

The homeless woman was shocked. "Won't your husband be furious with you for doing that? I know I'm dirty, and I probably smell pretty disgusting."

I said, "That's okay. It's important for him to see what a woman looks like after she has given up shopping, hair appointments, and wine."





Like this story? Get all my posts send to you by email. Click here...

Share Like this story? Share it with your friends and family on Facebook. Share

Now They're Beggin' For Shifts

You know, it's funny...I've been working with banquet waiters for years and have never had a bunch like this that don't seem to care if they lose a shift. 

Usually, banquet servers are the cut-throat kings of this business, ready to steal away a shift from anybody they can, or they'll bitch and moan that someone else got more shifts than they did, but not my guys and girls.

They willingly will give-up a shift to another team member if needed, no questions asked. That's why I go to bat for them every chance I can. A great bunch of people I've got.

But now, during the slow season, they're beggin' for shifts. Hope it gets busy soon...for all our sakes.


Related Stories:

• Banquet Staff...A Strange Bunch

Next Post: Giving Up Wine

Like this story? Get all my posts send to you by email. Click here...

Share Like this story? Share it with your friends and family on Facebook. Share

Don't Give Me The Same Lame Excuse That Waiter Did!

I was helping out in the restaurant the other day, nothing bad, just assisting the restaurant manager on a busy night.

One of the servers walks over to me and says, "Hey Banquet Manager, can you help me with this table"? Sure I said, what do you need? "My table is pissed-off because we didn't have a bottle of wine that they wanted", she said. Ok, I'll go over and speak with them.

Then just as I approached the table, the big fat guy directly across from me says, "I hope you're not going to give us the same lame excuse that waiter did". "She said you were all out of that vintage, you didn't have that wine", came next. I apologized and offered to check it myself, and that's when he went off.

"I don't understand why you advertise a wine in your menu but don't carry it, this is bullshit!, he yelled.

He went on and on about how he wanted that specific wine for his dinner with his friends and now he can't enjoy his meal.

Do you believe this crap! I need to deal with this knuckle-head over a lousy bottle of $45 wine...some vintage right?

I don't need this shit from this guy. Let me go back to my banquet department. You restaurant guys need to fend for yourself.

Related Stories

• Banquet Staff...a Strange Bunch

Next Post: Now They're Beggin' For Shifts




Like this story? Get all my posts send to you by email. Click here...

Share Like this story? Share it with your friends and family on Facebook. Share