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You can’t sell Polish beer in litres…

Polish Beer

BBC reports on the restaurant which is breaking the law by selling Polish beer in litres.

A restaurant owner has described laws which ban him from serving beer by the litre as “barmy” after he was threatened with court action.

Nic Davison was served an infringement notice by trading standards officers for selling beer illegally.

Mr Davison, who owns the Kuchnia Polska restaurant in Doncaster, was told to change his glasses within 28 days or face a court hearing and a £2,000 fine.

The 1988 Weights and Measures Act says draught beer must be sold in pints.

Photo source.

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Oops, not quite what I meant!

So there you are, a famous chef, Antony Worrall Thompson, writing in a magazine distributed all over the UK. You are talking about salads and you recommend the weed henbane, to be “great in salads”.

All well and good you might think.

Okay let’s just check the definition of henbane.

A coarse and poisonous plant of the nightshade family, with sticky hair leaves and an unpleasant smell.

Sorry.

Poisonous?

Nightshade (as in deadly nightshare)?

Unpleasant smell?

Methinks that Antony Worrall Thompson may have made a mistake!

From the BBC

In a magazine interview about watercress and other wild foods, Mr Worrall Thompson said the weed henbane was “great in salads”.

Healthy & Organic Living magazine’s website has now issued an urgent warning that “henbane is a very toxic plant and should never be eaten”.

The chef had meant to recommend fat hen, which is a wild herb. 

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Is it okay to eat Tiger Prawns?


I quite like eating tiger prawns.

Prawns

However after reading this (slightly old) article in the Guardian, now I am not so sure…

The article starts on a positive note…

Something happened to prawns in the 1990s. Like the girths of western gourmands discovering fusion food, they started to grow and grow. Once a mere shrimp of a thing, a fiddly heap of shell for every tiny mouthful, the prawn miraculously turned into a great tiger, an effortless bite as good as lobster but at half the price.

Evidence of this startling evolution is everywhere. Prawns feature prominently on bar menus and in top restaurants. Thai spiced prawns have even infiltrated Delia’s Summer Collection cookbook. Healthy and fashionably south-east Asian, but not too exotic or rare any more, they have flown into our lives from apparently teeming tropical seas where everything grows bigger and better.

But then issues the following warning!

The price of providing an everyday luxury for consumers in industrialised countries has been a catalogue of damaging consequences in developing nations. Serious environmental degradation, disease, pollution, debt and dispossession, illegal land seizures, abuse of child labour and violence have afflicted the dozen or so countries entering the market. Western diners, meanwhile, are eating a food dependent on the heavy use of antibiotics and growth hormones.

Hmmm, may now need to reconsider what prawns I buy and eat – difficult to do when eating out!

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Mexico rustles up giant baguette

BBC reports on the world’s biggest sandwich.

Mexican caterers have made what they say is the longest sandwich in Latin America, throwing together a 44-metre (48-yard) “torta” in five minutes.

Dozens of people from sandwich outlets in Mexico City came together to produce the monster baguette at the start of a three-day torta fair in the capital.

Each section of the 600kg (1,320lb) sandwich had a different flavour and 30 ingredients went into the mix.

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Theory Cafe, the theory is flawed

In theory the Theory Cafe, part of the at-Bristol complex should be the perfect place for families visiting at-Bristol, however that theory is flawed on a few levels.

The Theory Cafe does have a kids menu, which for a city centre location and at a location for a family day out, are reasonable priced at £3.95 – the macaroni was only £2.95. The food is not just kiddes food and comes served with salad.

However first flaw, no high chairs!

If you are a toddler, sitting on a proper chair and eating dinner is not an option. Sitting on a sofa is fun, but pity the poor customers who have to sit on the sofa after the toddler has gone!

China plates are nice to eat off, less nice when they fall on the floor and smash – not that happened to me, but it is possible.

Final big flaw is, yes we sell food for children, but we don’t sell drinks for children!

The Theory Cafe is a nice environment, and a huge improvement over the Nescafe cafe it replaced. The food is good and not processed. However it needs to do a few more things to make it a place to take the family.

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I’m sorry I don’t like cheap pasta…

Most people probably think pasta is pasta isn’t it?

Well sorry no it isn’t. Cheap pasta is cheap and nasty. Good pasta makes a huge difference to the taste of a pasta dish.

Part of it is the flour which used, another key is the dies used the “form” the pasta.

If all you ever eat is cheap pasta, treat yourself and get some decent good pasta and see if you can tell the difference.

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Throwing out the unopened yogurts, over a million a day

According to a recent survey, we as a nation in the UK throw away 1.3m unopened yogurts every day.

Throwing out the unopened yogurts, over a million a day

The BBC reports on the survey:

More than a million unopened pots of yogurt and yogurt drinks are thrown away in the UK every day – that’s 484 million a year, according to recent research.

And it’s not just yoghurt!

4.4 million whole apples and 1.2 million sausages are thrown away each day.

What a waste!

What are you throwing away?

Photo source.

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Lemon and Rocket Risotto

I am going through a risotto phase at the moment.

This is my original lemon risotto recipe.

Lemon and Rocket Risotto

In a large frying pan, place some olive oil and butter. Then add some finely chopped onion and the zest of two lemons.

Soften the onions.

Bring up the heat.

Add the risotto rice and ensure that the rice is coated in the oil and butter.

Add a splash of white wine.

Now add some chicken stock.

Keep topping up with stock to ensure that the rice doesn’t dry out.

Once the rice is virtually cooked, add the juice of the lemons, a large handful of grated parmesan, some roughly chopped rocket and some freshly ground black pepper.

Serve, garnish with a few slices of lemon.