Regional cuisine is a great way to get a feel for the culture of the location to which you are traveling. And what’s the best part of the meal? Dessert. Check out this list of foreign desserts you shouldn’t skip while traveling:
Baklava (Turkey and nearby) – Made from phyllo dough that has been brushed with butter, this flaky dessert is also soaked with honey.
Alfajores (Chile, Bolivia, Argentina, Uruguay, Mexico, other Latin American countries, via Spain) – Cookies reminiscent of shortbread or cake sandwiched with dulce de leche (milk caramel). Sometimes coated with meringue, white or dark chocolate, or covered with shredded coconut.
Semla (Sweden and similar in Norway, Denmark, Finland and Estonia) – A seasonal dessert available between Christmas and Easter, these bun-like pastries have their insides hollowed and filled with milk and almond paste and topped with whipped cream.
Sfogliatelle/Cannoli (Italy) – Sfogliatelle is a pastry shaped like a clam, stuffed with cream or ricotta filling that can be infused with orange or lemon flavor.
Taiyaki (Japan) – Kind of like a fish-shaped waffle, and filled with a sweet red bean paste.
Churros (Latin America, Spain) – Loops with a crunchy texture, topped with confectioners’ sugar and served with thick hot chocolate, in which you are to dunk the churros.
Sopaipillas/Picarones (Chile, Peru) – Fried dough that you dip in a solid brown sugar derived from sugar cane.
Galub Jamun (South East Asia) – Little balls of dough made of a flour and condensed milk mixture, that has been fried and dipped in a sugar syrup flavored with cardamom, rosewater or saffron.
Koeksisters (South Africa via Cape Malay) – Fried and dunked in a cold simple syrup to avoid them getting mushy.
Tres Leches Cake (Mexico, other countries in Central and South America) – Condensed milk, evaporated milk and cream are the “tres leches” in this cake.
Suspiro Limeño (Peru) - Evaporated milk, condensed milk, egg yolks and sugar make a pudding, which is then topped with meringue.
Sernik (Poland) – The Polish version of a cheesecake.
Tangyuan/ Yuanxiao (China, Taiwan) – Balls of dough made from rice flour and hot water, and filled with sesame paste, adzuki bean paste or other sweet fillings.
Brigadeiro (Brazil) – Balls of fudgey caramel, rolled in chocolate sprinkles.
Khao Niaw Ma Muang [mango and sticky rice] (Thailand) – Rice is cooked in coconut milk and served with fresh mango.
Italy is currently the world’s biggest consumer of wine… But not for long. By 2012, the United States will overtake Italy. And China and Russia will soon overtake Spain, which is a country whose history is associated with this alcohol. Read more…
Here is a list of the world’s most expensive beverages. The funny thing is, many of the items on this list are actually known for their cheapness. Coffee, water, beer - you could easily not spend much money on these drinks. But here’s how the marketing industry has appealed to thirsty people with too much money in their wallets:
Most Expensive Coffee: Kopi Luwak, a.k.a. Civet Coffee - made from coffee berries which have been eaten, digested, and then, well, pooped out by the Asian Palm Civet.
Price: About $50-100 per cup
Most Expensive Bottled Water: Bling H20 - the bottle is decorated with Swarovski crystals, and is marketed only to “hand-selected athletes and actors.”
Price: 750mL bottle = $40
Most Expensive Beer: Carlsberg Jacobsen Vintage No. 1 - only available at three Copenhagen restaurants, with only 600 bottles ever having been created.
Price: Almost $400 for a pint
Most Expensive Cocktail (based solely on the alcohol used): Trader Vic’s Original Mai Tai at the Merchant Hotel in Belfast, Northern Ireland - Made with Wray and Nephew rum. There are only six bottles of this rum left in the world.
Price: $1,400
Most Expensive Tea: Tieguanyin tea - a rare green tea from the Fujian province of China.
Price: About $1,500 per pound
Most Expensive Wine: 1997 Domaine de la Romanée-Conti from Burgundy, France
Price: $1,500 per bottle
Let’s think about Chinese food for a minute: Fried rice. Breaded chicken. Sure, there are veggies, but they’re usually covered in a sauce. Point is, our normal Chinese take-out can be a big bowl of chicken-fried calories. Here is the worst-offenders list, the seven least healthy choices on the Chinese food menu:
1. Fried rice
2. Lo mein
3. Chow fun
4. Crispy (orange) beef
5. Lemon chicken
6. General Tso’s chicken
7. Barbequed spare ribs
Makes me ever so happy I brought my Chinese food leftovers for lunch today. Read more…
We’ve all seen pictures or heard stories about horrible English translations from Chinese sayings. As if watching kung fu movies that are voiced over isn’t bad enough, sometimes when travelling, you may even have to deal with bizarre menu items. If “Husband and wife’s lung slice” or “Chicken without sexual life” don’t sound appetizing to you, you’re in luck. According to CNN.com the impending Olympics have prompted China to come up with standardized, and more western-oriented English translations of over 2000 of their dishes. The Chinese names of their dishes focus on the look of the food. Westerners are used to their meals being named for ingredients or how the meal is cooked (i.e.: roast beef). Read more…
Campbell Soup has decided to sell its premium chocolate unit Godiva for $850M to Yildiz Holdings Co., the unit generated $500M in annual sales. The sale will allow Campbell to focus on its soup, juice and V8 units, instead, with a focus on the Russian and Chinese markets.
OSAKA, JAPAN–(Marketwire - November 15, 2007) - Next time your food spoils, think twice before you throw it out; you may have stumbled on a medical breakthrough.
When it comes to major health discoveries, accidents have proven to be an important step in science. Penicillin was discovered accidentally from moldy bread in 1928 by Alexander Fleming, and a famous Japanese warrior, Yoshiie Minamoto, stumbled upon a new discovery in reversing cardiovascular disease with his spoiled lunch.
Boiled soybeans, a popular food of warriors, were packed in rice straw bags for transport with the army, but on one trip, a bacteria called Bacillus subtilis natto found its way into Minamoto’s soybean bags and fermented to produce what’s now commonly known in Japan as natto (pronounced “nah’-toe”) or vegetable cheese.
Fast forward to 1980, at the University of Chicago Medical School where Dr. Hiroyuki Sumi discovered that natto produces an important enzyme during the fermentation process called nattokinase that can be a powerful ally in assisting the body’s ability to prevent thrombosis, dissolve blood clots and lower blood pressure.
Reducing plaque build-up and blood clots is really important, especially as we age. With every beat of our heart, the body makes a decision to “clot or not to clot” as it seeks to repair any cut, injury or stress endured by our veins and arteries. Medical experts say that as we age our production of fibrin, the protein involved in the blood clotting, increases and can create a backup in our blood vessels and may be the common denominator of over 300 independent cardiac risk factors.
Most people at risk control blood flow with pharmaceutical medications or aspirin. However, scientific studies have shown that both have serious side effects including stomach hemorrhage and intestinal lining damage.
Nineteen studies including five human trials have demonstrated that nattokinase helps enhance the body’s natural ability to fight blood clots and stimulate the body’s own production of plasmin and other clot dissolving agents. Research has shown that it may be more effective than fish oil, which only coats blood platelets to keep them from sticking in the blood vessels. Studies have shown that nattokinase gets to the root of the problem and helps dissolve excess fibrin, reduce blood platelet aggregation and decrease blood pressure to improve circulation.
On average the Japanese eat four to five pounds of natto per capita each year, and have been doing so for centuries. It may be the link to why they have the highest average longevity in the world. In the United States, more than 2,500 Americans die from heart disease each day.
But it’s unlikely Americans will be convinced to eat fermented Japanese soybeans anytime soon. Your best bet is to get the nattokinase enzyme in powder form and sprinkle it on your food or take it as a dietary supplement. Look for products that contain certified NSK-SD nattokinase, which is fermented with the authentic bacteria (Bacillus subtilis natto) and has been reported in studies to have the highest activity (greater than 20,000 fibrin units per gram). Studies have shown that NSK-SD is also the only real form of nattokinase that removes vitamin K2. Vitamin K2 occurs naturally in the natto but is not considered safe for patients who are taking pharmaceutical blood thinning medications like Coumadin and Warfarin. Learn more about the NSK-SD nattokinase ingredient at Japan Bio Science Laboratory’s website, http://www.jbsl-net.com, and click on the English tab.
We’ve heard a lot about the dangers - both myth and reality - about food from China, but what about ordering food in China? Read on:
Eating out in China used to be one of the great experiences of living here. I often thought going out with friends and colleagues for dinner was a bit like the game of “Hungry Hungry Hippos” — vast quantities of amazing food that made dining a pleasure. Best of all, it was affordable and palatable.
But these days, the joy of anticipation of what the next dish will bring has been replaced with, well, the dread of what the next dish may contain.
When ordering at restaurants, I wonder: Is that drug-tainted fish and shrimp? Did that pork come from a pig that was force-fed wastewater? Any melamine added to those noodles?
Those are among some of the recent food scares here. Even drinking a glass of water instills fear: A recent government report found half the bottled watered in this city was counterfeit.
Read more.
China has closed 180 food factories after inspectors found industrial chemicals being used in products from candy to seafood, state media said Wednesday.The closures came amid a nationwide crackdown on shoddy and dangerous products launched in December that also uncovered use of recycled or expired food, the China Daily said.
Formaldehyde, illegal dyes, and industrial wax were found being used to make candy, pickles, crackers and seafood, it said, citing Han Yi, an official with the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, which is responsible for food safety.
“These are not isolated cases,” Han, director of the administration’s quality control and inspection department, was quoted as saying.
Read more.
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