Mickeys

Le Havre, France – Three sailors have died of food poisoning on an oil tanker traversing the Channel between Britain and Europe, maritime authorities said, quoting the captain of the Marshall Islands-flagged vessel.

The captain of the Arionas reported the deaths overnight, French officials said, adding that the source of the food poisoning was not known.

The vessel was going from Cyprus to the Dutch port of Rotterdam.

taken from News24

There’s no such thing as a “good” or a “bad” food. But some are healthier – or more harmful – than others. We give you the lowdown on the foods with the most salt, those that are fat bombs, the foods you can’t afford to miss out on because they’re simply magic, and more.

01. Top 10 super foods
We’re all entitled to having likes and dislikes when it comes to food. But which foods should we all make a point of including in our diets, because they’re simply magic?
Read

02. Top 10 foods with hidden fat
We all know that chocolates, cakes and cookies are loaded with kilojoules. But what about your other favourite foods? Could hidden fats be lurking in them too?
Read

03. Top 10 foods with hidden salt
High salt intake raises blood pressure. And high blood pressure is a major health threat. Be more aware of your salt intake by taking note of this list of the top-10 culprit foods.
Read

04. Top 10 winter foods
Use food to your advantage this winter – the right ones can cut your risk for colds and flu, and help you stay in shape. Here’s our list of the top 10 essential winter foods.
Read

05. Top 10 sources of antioxidants
Antioxidants are magic food components. But which foods are the real antioxidant bombs? Norwegian and US scientists compiled an extensive list.

06. Top 10 foods to control cholesterol
Have you been diagnosed with high cholesterol? Then you’ll be happy to know that certain foods can be a boon to your health. Check the list out.
Read

07. Local heroes to get into your diet
Some foods are just heroic in nutritional terms… and they don’t have to be upmarket to pack a health punch. Make sure you’ve got the following 10 foodstuffs in your diet.
Read

08. Top 10 fruits for diabetics
Follow our guide to the top 10 fruits that won’t spike your blood sugar, and you’ll have a happy, fruit-filled (and fun-filled!) summer.

taken from Health24

Bucharest – While First Lady Michelle Obama launched a high-profile campaign against obesity in the US this week, small Romania may be a step ahead with its bid to impose one of the first comprehensive taxes on junk food.

The government proposal, still in the works despite hopes it could start in March, has triggered groans from the food industry and scepticism about its efficacy.

But the health ministry is not backing down on a measure aimed at changing habits it said have left an alarming one in two Romanians overweight, while outright obesity doubled in only two years.

“We can’t just stand around doing nothing,” said Secretary of State with the Health Ministry Adrian Streinu-Cercel during a public debate.

“We have to re-educate Romanians on how to feed themselves properly.”

Not an easy task in a country with a long tradition of heavy meals and fatty trimmings.

Add to this an influx of calorie-laden fast food, a tantalising hit in a former communist state struggling to keep up with its European Union partners. McDonalds, for one, is hugely popular and “by far the leading player” in fast food sales in Romania, according to the Euromonitor research firm.

Since it was proposed in January, the tax has whipped up roaring debate on special TV talk shows, full-page newspaper articles, café discussions and several press conferences by both the pros and the cons.

“Romanians eat badly because they are poor,” insisted Dragos Frumosu, head of the industrial food producers union.

Taxing hamburgers, chips or pastries will only push people toward cheaper options, “even less healthy and produced in unsanitary conditions”, he said.

The March 1 goal to start taxing is seen as unlikely. A list of “guilty” foods must still be drawn up and approved by the government then put to a parliamentary vote.

But if the bill goes through and “what the health ministry has said is to be believed, it would be the widest-ranging singular tax of this kind”, said Oxford scientist Dushy Clarke, a researcher specialised in the impact of health-related taxes and food subsidies.

Though “junk food” taxes exist elsewhere, Clarke said they generally concern chocolate, foods and drinks high in sugar and some saturated fats, as in Denmark. Romania’s proposal would also take in foods high in grease, fat, salt and some additives.

taken from News24

Bosses at a branch of McDonald’s have been rapped for firing a worker who gave a colleague an extra piece of cheese on a burger.

A slice of cheese on a burger got a worker the chop

The employee had served her fellow staff member a cheeseburger instead of a cheaper hamburger, which had been paid for, at the restaurant in the northern Dutch town of Lemmer.

But a court has now ruled that the fast food giant was in the wrong.

“The dismissal was too severe a measure,” the district court in Leeuwarden said in a written judgement. “It is just a slice of cheese.”

A written warning would have been a more appropriate punishment, the court said.

It ordered McDonald’s to pay the worker the salary for the remaining five months of her contract – a total of 4,265 euros (£3,720).

The company was also told to pay court costs.

McDonald’s maintained she broke the rules, which prohibit any free gifts to family, friends or colleagues.

taken from SkyNews

A new advert for McDonald’s has come under fire over its inaccurate use of the English language.

The Pound Saver menu aims to feed customers for about £1

The advert, which promotes the Pound Saver Menu, begins “the pound, also known as a bob”, a statement which, strictly speaking, is not true.

Technically, a bob is a term for a shilling, or five pence, and of far less value than a pound.

The American fast food giant’s blunder has stirred up some incensed online debate about English currency slang, blaming executives in the US for not properly researching the UK market before broadcasting the advert.

One consumer posted: “I suspect the nearest it got to the UK before transmission was when it was dreamed up in an English themed pub in Hollywood.”

Plain English Campaign spokeswoman Marie Clair sympathised with irate members of the public.

“It just doesn’t work for me, a bob certainly isn’t anything like a pound,” she told Sky News Online.

McDonalds had record-breaking year

“This terminology is all very confusing, it would be great if we could have someone who could just give us clarity for lunch.”

Some customers asked McDonald’s to either correct or withdraw the advert, or allow them to purchase items on the Saver Menu for a true bob, or five pence.

McDonald’s has responded to complaints with an appeal to the ever-changing English language.

Their spokesperson has posted: “Although a ‘bob’ was formerly used as a slang term for the shilling until the introduction of decimalisation in 1971, research has shown it is now more commonly used as slang for a pound or money in general.

“As with many words in the English language, the technical meaning of words can change over time and although the word remains in use, what it signifies may develop into something else.”

taken from SkyNews

Of all the food crazes and trends that come and go, pizza is one that’ll never disappear.

It’s that combination of a crisp crunchy base, a variety of taste sensations and smothering of Mozzarella cheese that makes it one of the most satisfying meals on Earth.

History

Pizza has been a basic part of the Italian diet since the Stone Age. Legend goes that the pizza in its earliest form was a crude bread that was baked beneath the stones of the fire. After cooking, it was seasoned with a variety of different toppings and used instead of plates and utensils to sop up broth or gravies. Then there’s also the rumour that the Greeks first used ‘pizza’ as a plate from which they could eat various other foods.

Basics

The best pizza base is made with yeast, which may be time consuming but is worth the effort you want the real thing. You can use instant yeast, but even then the result won’t be quite as good as when you use real active dry yeast. For a basic pizza base you’ll need 1 teaspoon of active dry yeast, a pinch of sugar, 170 ml warm water, 500 ml flour, 15 ml salt and 15 ml olive oil. Preheat the oven to 220 degrees celsius. Place the yeast, sugar and water in a bowl and set aside in a warm place until bubbles form, about 15 minutes. Add the flour, salt and oil, mix to form a smooth dough and knead for 10 minutes until smooth and elastic. Put in a clean, oiled bowl, cover and allow to stand in a warm place for 20 minutes. Roll out to about 3mm thick on a sheet of non-stick baking paper dusted with semolina. Add your topping ingredients and bake for 15 minutes or until golden brown and crisp.

While the Italians love their pizzas as plain and simple as possible, we’ve come to love the overloaded, extra-cheese pizzas made popular by the Americans. Though you can do as you very well please, do try the ‘real thing’ every now and again, which is the Margherita made from a perfect base spread with a homemade tomato and garlic paste: Saute 1 chopped onion in 30ml olive oil for 5 minutes. Add 4 cloves chopped garlic and saute for further 3 minutes. Add a x 410 can of chopped tomatoes and 25ml tomato puree. Bring to the boil, turn down the heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Sprinkle with Mozzarella cheese and some torn basil to finish.

In some parts of Italy it’s even simpler: Brush pizza bases with 45ml olive oil; top with 4 finely chopped garlic cloves, 4 sliced tomatoes, 40ml black olives, 5 ml fresh chopped oreganum and 3ml fresh chopped marjoram. Sprinkle with 350g grated mozzarella cheese and bake at 200 degrees Celcius for 15 to 20 minutes.

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It’s the news all chocoholics have been waiting for – a type of chocolate that helps you lose weight is about to go on sale.

The inventors say the greenish chocolate should make you feel pleasantly full

The new variety – called Lola chocs – is 100% natural and tastes exactly like normal chocolate.

But the big difference, according to its makers, is that the recipe includes ingredients which stop a person from feeling hungry.

It is made using cocoa from Peru and Santo Domingo and has been created by a Spanish company called Covcoa BIO.

The chocolate has an unusual green tinge to it which the company says is down to the microscopic algae they used in creating it.

This algae contains nutrients like vitamins A and B12, which help you lose weight.

The manufacturers say special amino acids in the Lola chocs trick the brain into believing you are full, which stops you from over-eating.

One of the creators, Armando Yanez, explained: “People should eat one or two chocolates around one hour before a meal.

“It has an intense flavour and extremely high antioxidant properties.”

The Lola chocs have already been well received by sweet-toothed fans at a chocolate show in Madrid.

And now Covcoa BIO are hoping to have some batches ready for the Christmas period.

taken from SkyNews

Cape Town – Robben Island’s culled rabbits are going to be turned into meals for poor people, island acting chief executive Jatti Bredekamp said on Friday.

He also said initial estimates of rabbit numbers – put at as much as 25 000 – appeared to have been overstated.

Just over 2 000 rabbits have been shot by marksmen since culling started a month ago, and up to now the carcasses have been buried on the island.

However, Bredekamp said, from Monday all culled rabbits certified safe for human consumption would be “dressed and packaged for donation to charity”.

Rabbits, commonly eaten in many European countries, yield an all-white meat, said to be higher in protein and lower in cholesterol and sodium than any other meat.

Bredekamp said a “task team” consisting of museum authorities, its animal control expert and the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) met this week to discuss progress in the culling.

It had been decided that another animal population census would be conducted and presented at the next task team meeting scheduled for the end of November.

“The initial plan made provision for worst case scenarios regarding animal numbers which it would appear were overstated,” Bredekamp said.

The vegetation of the 475-hectare island has been ravaged by 25 000-plus rabbits and around 500 deer, both of them alien species.

Bredekamp said 175 fallow deer had been shot so far, and 21 feral cats, of which about five remained.

The SPCA had offered to trap and find homes for 100 of the flock of 500 free-ranging guinea fowl.

Though the remaining cats had been granted a temporary reprieve, no cats had yet been caught in traps set by an animal welfare organisation.

The marksmen would therefore resume shooting them.

Island environmental officials said in September the rabbits and deer had stripped virtually all the island’s edible vegetation, and that the rabbits had actually started eating stinging nettle.

They said the cats were on the hit list because they ate the chicks of penguins, the swift tern and Hartlaub’s gull, of the threatened oystercatcher, and of the highly endangered bank cormorant.

The culled deer are being shipped off the island by an organisation that makes use of the meat.

taken from News24

South African chefs, Bruce Robertson and Ryan Bradbury, broke the world record for the largest omelette ever made at the V&A Waterfront in Cape Town, the SABC reported on Saturday.

The omelette weighed three-point-two tons and was cooked in a 14 metre skillet.

About 60 000 eggs, 500kg of cheese and 200kg of tomatoes were used.

The record omelette was distributed to the underprivileged in the Peninsula.

The last world record was set in Canada in 2002.

taken from News24

Pleven – On a quiet patch of land apparently devoid of inhabitants, Krasimir Kostov’s farm is silently booming as more than one million snails, hiding from the sun under planks of wood, munch their way to market.

“Indeed, you cannot tell…there is a farm here. But snails do not moo,” notes the suntanned breeder.

Businesses may shut by the day across aEurope and Bulgarian agriculture has been declining for 20 years, but snails – a delicacy particularly popular in France and Italy – have become a dynamic niche for the European Union’s poorest country.

September is harvest season and demand is outstripping supply for “escargots”, as the French call them (“ohlyuvi” in Bulgarian). The country has seized the chance to reinforce a position exporting luxury foods that are rarely consumed at home.

After France, the Balkan country is Europe’s second-largest producer of foie gras, building on duck-liver traditions dating back to the communist era.

About 800-900 tonnes of snails and snail products – six times more than in 2008 – will be exported from Bulgaria this year to please the palates of aficionados, mostly in France.

“The market is immense,” said Kostov, 45, whose farm in northern Bulgaria primarily specialises in supplying baby snails for breeding to other farms. He pulled a face when asked if he liked their flavour.

“We had quite a few orders this year, but we could not fulfil them all because our incubator is not large enough.”

He will save some 60 000 snails of the Mediterranean Helix aspersa genus – one of the three major edible species – to become breeders. Each will lay about 150 eggs. The rest – about 10 tonnes or the equivalent of about 470 000 snails – will be exported.

So voracious are appetites that about 300 new farms are set to open in Bulgaria next year to add to the 50 now in operation, says the National Snail Breeding Cluster, which backs exports.

“This year we have orders from France, Germany, Austria, the Netherlands,” said Simona Mollova, consultant at the cluster.

Orders were likely to reach 1 billion baby snails this year, she said, citing demand also from Japan for fattened escargots and from Dubai for the new, orange, carotene snail.

“We have a great number of clients, but at this stage we cannot meet demand in any way,” Mollova said.

Funding from the European Union, which Bulgaria joined in 2007, has also helped aid the snail business. Breeders are eligible to apply for some of the €3.2bn promised to Sofia to 2013 under a development programme.

French appetites for the gastropods – treated as exquisite delicacies since the Roman era – have withstood changing times and tastes.

“The snail market is a very traditional and stable market and … big changes should not be expected,” said Pierre Commere, Secretary General of ADEPALE, the French association of food processing companies.

The tradition is stronger than the financial crisis, he said: anyone who wants to make a savoury treat for Christmas would try to afford snails.

A jar of snails with sauce weighing 0.4 kilos costs 50 euros, while high-quality gourmet packs fetch from 55 to 235 euros. By contrast, a kilo of the live snails Bulgaria breeds ranges from 2.5 to 4.O euros.

story from News24

A takeaway in Bristol is selling what it claims is Britain’s biggest burger.

Super Scooby pictured next to a McDonalds' Big Mac

The Super Scooby contains a massive 2,645 calories – 145 calories more than the daily recommended limit for men.

It is loaded with four 1/4lb beef patties, eight rashers of bacon, eight slices of cheese, 12 onion rings, lots of salad, and three sauces. It also comes with a side portion of chips.

The burger is six inches tall, has a circumference of 13 inches, and weighs 1.5kg – the same as a family-sized roast chicken.

The Jolly Fryer takeaway in Filton, Bristol, is selling the meal for £10 – and will give anyone who can finish it in one sitting a free can of diet coke.

Among its fans are ”real man” Luigi Armato, 22, who has eaten a Super Scooby once a week since its creation earlier this year.

Mr Armato, who weighs about 20 stone, told Sky News Online he crushes the burger first and it takes him about five minutes to finish it.

He said he feels fine afterwards, adding: “I play rugby so I burn it off on the field.”

Super Scooby Calorie Count

* Four 1/4lb beef burgers: 1,160 calories
* 12 onion rings: 300 cals.
* Eight bacon rashers: 275 cals.
* Eight cheese slices: 480 cals.
* Two lettuce leaves: 4 cals.
* Six tomato slices: 25 cals.
* Four onion slices: 15 cals.
* BBQ sauce, burger sauce and relish: 40 cals.
* Mayonnaise: 90 cals.
* White burger bap: 256 cals.

He said: “The truth is, I really enjoy eating them. I also like it because it’s a real challenge to finish.

“You have to be a real man to eat one. They’re delicious and I don’t care about the calories.

“I always think it’s healthier than fast food burgers because they prepare it fresh into front you.”

Jolly Fryer owner Nick Lomvardos, 42, told the Bristol Evening Post: “None of our customers have ever been disappointed by the Super Scooby.

“‘We have never heard of a bigger one being served up anywhere else and we are challenging any big eaters to come along and finish one.

“If you can manage that then we’ll give you a free can of diet coke. I have never tried eating one myself but I’d struggle to finish one half the size.”

taken from SkyNews

Most diets fail because we are still thinking and eating like people. For those us who have never had any success dieting. Well now there is the new Miracle Cat Diet! This diet will also work on humans ! Except for cats that eat like people such as getting lots of table scraps most cats are long and lean (or tiny and petite) . the Cat Miracle Diet will help you achieve the same lean, svelte figure . Just follow this diet for one week and you’ll find that you not only look and feel better, but you will have a whole new outlook on what constitutes food. Good Luck!

DAY ONE

Breakfast: Open can of expensive gourmet cat food. Any flavor as long as it cost more the .75 per can and place 1/4 cup on your plate. Eat 1 bite of food: look around room disdainfully. Knock the rest on the floor. Stare at the wall for awhile before stalking off into the other room.

Lunch: Four blades of grass and one lizard tail. Throw it back up on the cleanest carpet in your house.

Dinner: Catch a moth and play with it until it is almost dead. Eat one wing. Leave the rest to die.

Bedtime snack: Steal one green bean from your spouse’s or partner’s plate. Bat it around the floor until it goes under the refrigerator. Steal one small piece of chicken and eat half of it. Leave the other half on the sofa. Throw out the remaining gourmet cat food from the can you opened this morning.

DAY TWO

Breakfast: Picking up the remaining chicken bite from the sofa. Knock it onto the carpet and bat it under the television set. Chew on the corner of the newspaper as your spouse/partner tries to read it.

Lunch: Break into the fresh French bread that you bought as your part of the dinner party on Saturday. Lick the top of it all over. Take one bite out of the middle of the loaf.

Afternoon snack: Catch a large beetle and bring it into the house. Play toss and catch with it until it is mushy and half dead. Allow it to escape under the bed.

Dinner: Open a fresh can of dark-colored gourmet cat food tuna or beef works well. Eat it voraciously. Walk from your kitchen to the edge of the living room rug. Promptly throw up on the rug. Step into it as you leave. Track footprints across the entire room.

DAY THREE

Breakfast: Drink part of the milk from your spouse’s or partner’s cereal bowl when no one is looking. Splatter part of it on the closest polished aluminum appliance you can find.

Lunch: Catch a small bird and bring it into the house. Play with on top of your down filled comforter. Make sure the bird is seriously injured but not dead before you abandon it for someone else to have to deal with.

Dinner: Beg and cry until you are given some ice cream or milk in a bowl of your own. Take three licks/laps and then turn the bowl over on the floor.

FINAL DAY

Breakfast: Eat 6 bugs, any type, being sure to leave a collection of legs, wings, antennae on the bathroom floor. Drink lots of water. Throw the bugs and all of the water up on your spouse’s or partner’s pillow.

Lunch: Remove the chicken skin from last night’s chicken-to-go leftovers your spouse or partner placed in the trash can. Drag the skin across the floor several times. Chew it in a corner and then abandon.

Dinner: Open another can of expensive gourmet cat food. Select a flavor that is especially runny, like Chicken and Giblets in Gravy. Lick off all the gravy and leave the actual meat to dry and get hard.

Mash:
3 large potatoes
60ml olive oil
10 ml fresh oregano, chopped
salt and pepper to taste

1. Preheat the oven to 180º c.
2. Wrap the potatoes in aluminium foil and bake in the oven until soft, about 1 hour.
3. Remove from oven and remove the aluminium foil. Let it cool slightly, remove skin, place in oven dish and smash lightly.
4. Mix in olive oil and season. Put back into oven to keep warm.

Bangers:
4 to 6 sausages (pork, lamb, salsicca, bockwurst, or any other)
Olive Oil

1. Heat Olive oil in a pan until smoking hot.
2. Brown the sausages on all sides, transfer to an oven dish.
3. Bake in the oven for 15 minutes.

Serve with a Mint Sauce:
125ml of fresh mint leaves, roughly chopped
30ml white wine vinegar
25ml apricot jam

1. Mix everything together.
2. Top the mash with sausages and the mint sauce and serve hot.

This seems nicer though instead of the Mint sauce:

Onion relish/Chutney:
4 onions – peeled, halved and sliced
olive oil
balsamic vinegar
salt/pepper
sugar – about 1 tbsp
2 tbsp red wine

Heat the oil in a pan and saute the onions until they start to brown. Add about 2 tsps of sugar to caramelize the onions further. Now add the red wine, balsamic vinegar and let the onions cook for about  5-10 minutes, tossing the pan now and then. Taste and season with salt, pepper or even more sugar and vinegar if so preferred. We like the onions to still have a crunch, but it is entirely up to your prefference!

Parsnip Crisps:
2 large parsnips
oil for frying
Maldon salt

Peel the parsnips with a vegetable peeler and keep “peeling” so that you will end up with  long strips of parsnip. Heat the oil and fry until golden brown.  Remove from the oil and place on some kitchen paper to absorb the oil. Serve with the bangers and Mash, it adds a lovely crunch to your meal!!

recipes from: Pinkpolkadot & NinasKitchen