Category: Food

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Food

Farming Wasabi

Brian Oates has spent 30 years developing a technique for commercial wasabi farming.

It is notoriously hard to grow: it’s difficult to germinate, must be grown in running water, dies if over-watered, and is prone to disease when grown in bulk. It also sells for £160/kg.

Also you’ve probably never tried it:

The first thing to know about wasabi – or Wasabia japonica, as it’s officially known – is that you have probably never tried the real thing.

That light green paste nestled next to the pink ginger in your box of sushi? It is most likely a mix of mustard, European horseradish, and food colouring.

In fact, by some estimates, only 5% of the wasabi served in Japanese restaurants around the world comes from the rhizome, or root, of a wasabi plant.

Categories
Food

Potatoes are awesome

So awesome in fact that you should vote for my aunt to win Project Food Blog for her food blog – hers is a proper blog she actually writes too (not just links to superheros and computer games) – you can check her out at The Daily Spud.

Also don’t be put off by the Join/Sign In dialog that pops up when you try to vote, enter a username and a valid email and that’s it – no lengthy registration or email validation, it’s literally a couple of clicks – but you do need to vote by this Thursday.

For anyone looking for further reading you can find out more about Project Food Blog or check out some recipes (potato-related or otherwise).

Categories
Food

Drink well.

The Case for Cocktails.

Now that you know what to order, learn to drink slowly. A well-mixed drink is like a rich dessert, it’s impolite to shovel sweets into one’s mouth and lick the plate. Sipping will help you aim for cheerful and stop short of drenched.

Have a few taste tests to figure out what kind of liquor you like, then request it when you go out. This will make your drinks slightly more expensive, and also more delicious. If you’re ordering a gin and tonic, make it a Bombay and tonic, a shot of bourbon becomes a ‘Makers Mark, neat.’ Bam, you’re a worldly sonofabitch.

I definitely need to sort out my home cocktail facilities, especially glassware (if only so I stop serving wine in a tankard to Lex)

(via Coudal)

Categories
Food

Subfecal Condomberg

A phrase I *never* thought I would read, from a fairly grim post about a fairly grim topic!

Turns out the sewers beneath London’s Leicester Square contain about 1,000 tonnes of fat that are clogging the system a little:

“We couldn’t even access the sewer as it was blocked by a four-foot wall of solid fat.”

Check the comments for the inevitable KFC, McDonalds and BP jokes…

Categories
Food

Cucumber Pepsi

cucumberpepsi

So it turns out there’s a lengthy list crazy Pepsi flavours, unsurprisingly the craziest are from Japan.

Categories
Food

Hair & Skincare

In an effort to both save money and be more environmentally friendly I’m trying use up all the food in my fridge and cupboards before I go and buy any more, but it looks like by focussing on how I can eat it I’ve shut the door on a host of opportunities (from Extraordinary uses for ordinary items):

  • Beer (+ raw egg) can be used as a volumising shampoo (beer can also be used as a conditioner)
  • Tomato Ketchup can be used as a shampoo and mayonnaise as a conditioner (sounds like the sort of nightmare I’d have)
  • Lemon juice can give you blonde highlights
  • A paste of water and crushed aspirin can reduce spots
  • You can/should add honey and milk to your bath
  • Banana + yoghurt + honey makes a skin-nourishing face mask
  • Milk can be a (last resort) substitute for shaving foam

And not really on the hair or skincare topic but:

  • Fizzy pop can clear drains

Now think what it does to your innards!

(via Coudal Partners)