Orange you glad I'm currant with the news...?

Stand back Erin Brockawhateveryournamewas, the proles have a new hero! Or two, to be precise. A couple of New Zealand schoolgirls have just exposed a globally recognised brandname as a bunch of shifty, devious truth-benders intent on peddling us rubbish in the guise of 'healthy drinks'... and all through their school science project!

It all began when they came up with a theory that cheapy juice drinks would contain less vitamin C than the more expensive recognised brands, such as Ribena. You know, the company that proudly states that their drinks are made from blackcurrants which contain 4 times more vitamin C than oranges. What they found, however, is that Ribena actually had around 4 times less than its cheap rivals... in fact, it contains only a negligible amount of the stuff! They were so convinced they had made a mistake that they did the same experiment again... and same results.

Technically, however, Ribena were not lying. You see, blackcurrants do contain a lot more vitamin C than oranges, pound for pound, but most of it is dispersed in the process of making the drink! At first the girls were fobbed off by the company, until the media took an interest. Now they are being 'thanked' for their assistance in rectifying an oversight... hah!

Incidentally, if you eat processed foods that claim to be high in vitamin C, be wary. As it has such a short life span itself companies need to use a hell of a lot of preservatives to keep the vitamin 'fresh'. Not exactly good for the health concious... no, you want your daily dose? Get some fruit down yer!

Cheers m'dears!

Lost in Translation #01

Slice of Life

So, having eaten Asian food every meal so far this year (not actually that uncommon for me, as I live very close to a very good and ridiculously cheap place that does food from all over South-East Asia) I decided the other night to do something a little more... western. I was, after all, sitting in a bar that pretty much only served bog-standard western bar-fare. But having hummed and hawed at the weighty menu, consisting of the likes of burgers and macaroni cheese, I eventually decided that a nice light plate of cold cuts and salad would be just the ticket.

I'm sure you are all aware that cold cuts do exactly what they say on the tin. They are cuts of meat that are served cold. This, for me, sounded like a refreshing change - but then again, I had forgotten that this is Asia and things are often... well, different.

Five minutes after my dining partner's piping hot, freshly cooked meal had arrived I was beginning to wonder what the fuck was taking so long... were they slaughtering the animals, cooking them and then waiting for them to cool down? Being the kind of man I am - very reasonable up to a point, usually a point accompanied by intense hunger, at which time I become a scowling, growling pain in the arse - I was just about to make a rather sarcastic comment to the waitress when, all of a sudden, a plate appears before me. A plate that looked very like a plate of cold cuts on salad. Except that it was steaming.

Yep. That's right. They had heated up my cold cuts. Worse still, the ham was obviously pre-packaged reconstituted stuff which had probably never been hot in the first place. But the clincher for me, the worst of it all... they had heated it all up together, salad included! Limp warm lettuce leaves... delicious, I don't think!

It dawned on me later that I don't think I have ever seen a local meal in this country which hasn't been piping hot. I'll probably never understand why, in a country so damn warm, folk seem to have an aversion to eating cold dishes.

Cheers m'dears!

Food, Glorious Food!

Having a lazy (read: hungover) day, cruisin' around the various blogs I link to and making sure I catch up on those further down the list... yes, I must confess that I do not always manage to read all of them every day, so once in a while I will come across something a few days old and wish I'd seen it sooner so I could join in with all the comments. And so, in lieu of actually having anything to say for myself, I have shamelessly raided a couple of other blogs for ideas... so sue me!

First things first, whilst visiting Hungbunny I came across a new food product which I can only describe as jaw-dropping in it's sheer stupidity. I mean, how much of a cunt do you really have to be to buy a pre-prepared ready meal of... beans on fucking toast! As HB himself points out, he is not averse to "white trash food" but if you want beans on toast how hard is it to open a tin of beans, heat them up and toast some bread. This just takes laziness to a whole new dimension...

The other food-related item brought to my attention was picked up over at Emerald Bile, a story about a tuna fish whose scale colourings form a verse from the Koran. With the level of religious fervour surrounding this incident one has to wonder how long it will be before US scientists attempt to genetically modify fish for propoganda purposes... Just imagine the possibilities!

Cheers m'dears!