Category: food

Twinings Earl Grey – tea of the Gods

On By Rick McIn food, product endorsementsLeave a comment

twinings.jpgEarl Grey tea is “any blend with the addition of oil extracted from the rind of the bergamot orange, a fragrant citrus fruit.”

I’ve tried every Earl Grey I’ve come across.

Twinings is the brand poured in my castle.

The blend is named after the 2nd Earl Grey, British Prime Minister in the 1830s, who reputedly received the blend as a gift from a Chinese mandarin.

The tea proved so popular in the Prime Minister’s drawing room that his tea merchants, Twinings in the Strand, were given a sample and asked to come up with a close match. Twinings sold the first “Earl Grey’s tea” in the British market. Twinings Earl Grey blend includes China tea, Indian Darjeeling, Ceylon, and a hint of Lapsang souchong, a strong, “smoky” black tea.

Earl Grey tea – Wikipedia

chocolate milk an ideal “recovery drink”

On By Rick McIn food, health & fitnessLeave a comment

chocolate.jpegI first heard this from Dr. Bill Sands. His recommendation came from research at the University of Utah.

I now drink chocolate milk myself after strenuous exercise.

This was great news for coaches and parents of young athletes who can be very picky about what they eat and drink.

… read more on GymnasticsCoaching.com

chow down wide load

On By Rick McIn food, health & fitnessLeave a comment

I try to avoid big holiday feasts.

But I’m invited to American Thanksgiving at the Masons. That means vegetarian Thanksgiving.

homerjacketsmall.gifI thought the statistics were — adults gain a pound a year every year, on average.

No? Yes?

Then there’s the 10 pounds you gain then lose over Christmas.

New York Times health answer man Anahad O’Connor takes hard look at the widely-held convicition that holiday eating adds up to five to ten new pounds a year. Not quite, says O’Connor. In fact, not even close. The Times reports that most studies on the subject show that the average person gains one to two pounds from (American) Thanksgiving to New Year’s Day.

… To the surprise of no one, those who were the most active had the least gain, and those who were already overweight gained the most.

SportsGeezer: Holiday Weight Gain, Facts and Fictions

A pound is nothing! Gimme another tofurkey drumstick.

Possibly related posts.

nutrition – is corn killing me?

On By Rick McIn audiocasts, books, food, health & fitnessLeave a comment

I’m no wimp when it comes to nutrition.

But with my processed food diet, sounds like I won’t live long enough to read a 400 page book about food: The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan.

But the Slate.com book review club delivered a terrific audiocast. Stephen Metcalf is a particularly eloquent and articulate reviewer. Listen to that podcast.

For reasons historic and political, corn is used to feed American cattle. Unfortunately a corn diet can kill a cow. Thankfully we have drugs to keep the poor beasts alive until slaughter date. (About 18-months-old, I believe.)

Consider a McDonald’s lunch. Corn feeds the cow that turns into the burgers. Corn is the oil that cooks the fries. And corn syrup sweetens the shakes and the soft drinks. Corn even makes up 13 of the 38 ingredients in Chicken McNuggets.

If you wisely avoid Rotten Ronnie’s, know that a quarter of the products in your grocery store contain corn.

Avoiding corn is as easy as avoiding things made in China.

This cannot last much longer. So much petroleum is needed to keep the corn economy running that the corn economy is not sustainable long-term. Something must change.

New Zealand was held up as a non-corn-based model. They dropped all agricultural subsidies long ago.

Omnivore\'s Dilemma

Big Mac index, Tall Latte index

On By Rick McIn economics, food, humour, travel1 Comment

starbucks_latte_price.gifI don’t eat Big Macs — they have no taste — but a travellin’ man is always checking price vs purchasing power. I saw a standard muffin sold for US$3 in San Francisco, then $4.50 in a Las Vegas casino deli.

Economist magazine started the Big Mac index in 1986 and it is still referred to widely.

But Dana would be keener on the Starbucks Tall Latte index, introduced by Economist in 2004.

The graphic shows 2004 prices. You must subscribe to Economist on-line to get the up-to-date statistics. That’s to keep the poor (who might disagree with their pro-globalization, pro-Starbucks editorial policy) ignorant.

PS

I’ve often told people that Starbucks was owned indirectly by big tobacco. That’s wrong — in fact, the company is zealously non-smoking at all outlets, even in China.

the breakfast hype

On By Rick McIn foodLeave a comment

chow.jpgA friend again told me, “Breakfast is the most important meal of the day.”

As a life long “breakfast skipper”, I’ve always questioned that wisdom of the ages.

The LA Time published an extensive piece on the science to date. (Take it with a grain of salt — there is more trash written about nutrition, than consumed.)

The breakfast hype – Los Angeles Times

To sum up, it looks conclusive that growing children do better in school if they have a good breakfast.

But in adults there is no strong consensus. A number of important studies show no disadvantage to those skipping breakfast.

On the other hand, there is certainly no downside for those who do break the fast heartily.

Kate’s 15 minutes of fame

On By Rick McIn foodLeave a comment

Kate ZimmermanMy secret gal pal Kate Zimmerman just won a major food writing award: Best Food Feature in a Magazine from the Association of Food Journalists.

She claims to have kicked Anthony Bourdain’s butt. … (He’s only a little guy.) … Or maybe it was something about “Bourdain won the award last year”.

In any case, congratulations!

Check Kate at KateZimmerman.ca

the Thirsty Traveler

On By Rick McIn books, food, TVLeave a comment

Gourmet chef Dave Adlard tipped me on to The The Thirsty Traveler series on TV hosted by Kevin Brauch.

I had never heard of it.

But I got my hands on the “cookbook” — if you can call tinkering in the kitchen with vodka, tequila, single malt scotch and other fine alcohol, “cooking”.

It’s excellent.

Cooking with Fine Wines, Beers, and Spirits

gimmie my Timmies and no one gets hurt

On By Rick McIn food, product endorsementsLeave a comment

250px-Timhorton-logo.png

Canadian unity and patriotism is best fostered by Tim Horton’s Coffee.

Noted Canadian author Pierre Berton once wrote: “In so many ways the story of Tim Hortons is the essential Canadian story. It is a story of success and tragedy, of big dreams and small towns, of old-fashioned values and tough-fisted business, of hard work and of hockey.”

Some commentators have questioned the rise of Tim Hortons as a national symbol. Rudyard Griffiths, director of The Dominion Institute, recently wrote in the Toronto Star that the ascension of the chain to the status of cultural icon was a “worrying sign” for Canadian nationalism, adding: “Surely Canada can come up with a better moniker than the Timbit Nation.”

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belt buckle on sale – Ebay

Chili, bun, donut (bagel) and coffee for $5.11 !!