Foodie Newsletter

Why Junk Food Really Is Addictive

2009-07-01T10:00:00.001+08:00

Ice cream and chocolate bars are addictive because the mix of ingredients in them activates our "bliss point", according to Professor David Kessler, a leading scientist.

Snacks, cereals and ready meals can trigger the brain in the same way as tobacco, according to the former head of America's food standards watchdog.

Professor Kessler, ex-commissioner of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), claims that manufacturers have created combinations of fat, sugar and salt that are so tasty many people cannot stop eating them even when full.

He argues that manufacturers are seeking to trigger a "bliss point" when people eat certain products, leaving them hungry for more.

"It is time to stop blaming individuals for being overweight or obese," he said. "The real problem is we have created a world where food is always available and where that food is designed to make you want to eat more of it. For millions of people, modern food is simply impossible to resist." Source

Kobayashi beats Chestnut in Pizza Eating Rematch

2009-06-14T23:36:00.010+08:00

In a chewy chow-lenge, Takeru Kobayashi outlasted Joey Chestnut when the eating titans faced off to see who could devour the most pizzas.

Kobayashi, a six-time world hot dog eating champion from Japan, consumed 5 3/4 P'zones in a six-minute span of chaotic consumption Saturday to edge Chestnut. The 25-year-old from San Jose, Calif., wolfed down 5 1/2 P'zones on Stage 15 at Sony Studios.

"I'm a little bummed," Chestnut said. "There's nobody I like beating more than him, he pushes me harder than anybody."

The arch rivals are best known for their annual Fourth of July hot dog eating showdowns on New York's Coney Island. Chestnut has beaten his Japanese competitor the last two years, winning last year in a five-dog eat-off after they tied at 59 frankfurters in 10 minutes. Source

Seven Ways to Waste Less Food

2009-06-14T23:36:00.009+08:00

Tips on how to make your shopping go further for longer without slavishly following use-by dates — or poisoning yourself. Source

London Restaurant Uses Touchpads for Orders, Projectors for Mood Alteration

2009-06-14T23:36:00.008+08:00

The Inamo restaurant in London’s fashionable SoHo district isn’t known for its splendid food or outstandingly accommodating waitresses.

Instead, the new Asian fusion eatery is getting raves for its use of a touch pad-projection system that allows diners to send food orders directly to the chefs and makes the dining experience fully interactive. Source

Robot Chef Cooks Okonomiaki

2009-06-14T23:36:00.007+08:00

What's cooking at Tokyo's International Food Machinery and Technology Expo? For this robo-chef, it's Okonomiaki, Japanese pancakes. Source

How Soup Can Help You Lose Weight

2009-05-27T18:08:00.003+08:00

In the battle to lose weight, hunger is the dieter's worst enemy. But research has revealed a simple aid to taming the appetite: soup. Imagine a typical lunchtime meal - say, chicken and vegetables with a glass of water. If you eat the food and drink the water, you will feel full for a couple of hours before hunger kicks in. But if you blend the food with the water - to make soup - you will stay hunger-free for much longer, and less likely to snack through the afternoon. How can blending the food into soup make such a difference? The answer lies in the stomach. When you eat the same meal as a soup, the whole mixture remains in the stomach, because the water and food are blended together. The scientists' scans confirm that the stomach stays fuller for longer, staving off those hunger pangs. Source

New York's First Mobile Cupcake Shoppe

2009-05-27T18:08:00.002+08:00

New York is about to get a new street vendor with a sweet twist. "This is a perfect addition to New York City's mobile vendors," said Lev Ekster, Cupcake Stop's founder. Ekster said the long lines outside the West Village's Magnolia Bakery drove home the fact that cupcakes are in high demand in New York. "This is a mobile city where everyone's always on the go," Ekster said. "I thought, 'Let's come to them.' " Along with a variety of cupcakes on different days -- such as strawberry shortcake, peanut butter and jelly and one described as psychedelic tie dye -- the truck will deliver gourmet coffee and other drinks. After obtaining vendor permits and taste-testing nearly 1,000 cupcakes, Ekster bought a truck, hired a chef and set up shop. Source

The Woman Who Gave Up Doctorate To Become A Food Blogger

2009-05-27T18:08:00.001+08:00

Seattle's finest Molly Wizenberg gave up a doctorate to become a humble home-cooking scribe. "When I started Orangette I had just decided to quit a Ph.D. in cultural anthropology and didn't know what to do with myself. The only thing I knew was that, whatever I did, it had to involve food and writing. " Source

What's Wrong With Orange Juice?

2009-05-27T18:08:00.000+08:00

That glass of sunshine sitting on the breakfast table isn't as pure and simple as you think it is, according to an exposé of the orange juice industry. In her new book Squeezed: What You Don't Know About Orange Juice, author Alissa Hamilton examines the "rift that exists between the reality of processed orange juice and retail rhetoric." Although orange juice "has come to symbolise purity in a glass," she writes, it may be heat processed, watered down, sugared up, doctored by flavour engineers and stored for a year. Hamilton, 36, lives in Toronto. She has a doctorate in environmental studies from Yale University and a law degree from the University of Toronto. She is a fellow with the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, based in Minneapolis. The fellows are a diverse group working to change U.S. food policies and advance the idea of healthy, green and affordable food for all. She says making the food system more transparent is her particular area of interest. Source

The Great Canadian Heinz Ketchup Cake

2009-05-02T13:33:00.012+08:00

To commemorate its Canadian centennial and thank Canadians for 100 years of support, Heinz has created The Great Canadian Heinz Ketchup Cake -- an ideal dessert for any celebration. It's red, perfectly spiced and delicious. Think carrot cake without all the work. Source

A WHOLE chicken in a CAN

2009-05-02T13:33:00.011+08:00

A WHOLE chicken in a CAN

Buy 1 and Get 1 Free Voucher - BAB Noodle @Millenia Walk

2009-05-02T13:33:00.010+08:00

Buy 1 and Get 1 Free
Just print the voucher & present it, you will enjoy great tasting Asian food at BAB Noodle @ Millenia Walk

Featuring an extensive menu of Korean, Japanese and Thai; rice and noodle specialties. If this is the first time you patronize BAB Noodle, you cannot miss their Ginseng Chicken Soup, Kimchi Chicken Chicken Ramen, as well as their BiBimBAB Bulgogi Beef. The familiar joys of Asian food culture paired with amicable ambience, BAB is the ideal locale for valuable meal and a casual dine in experience as the day draws to an end.

BAB is located at:
9 Raffles Boulevard
Millenia Walk
#01-20/21/22
Singapore 039596
Tel: 63366770
Fax: 63366771

Operating hours:
11am to 1030pm daily

New Dishes at Persimmon

2009-05-02T13:33:00.008+08:00

By popular demand, Persimmon is expanding the Main Courses to include dishes such as:

* chargrilled sotong with tomato-lemongrass sauce (smoky chargrill flavour contrasts deliciously with zingy spicy sauce)

* crispy pork belly with mustard sauce (what can we say, we love pork...)

* beef goulash with buttered linguine (in Persimmon style, we've spiced up our stew with chilli, galangal, cinnamon and star anise)

Of course, their signature dishes such as Chicken Rice Salad, Linguine Laska-Leaf Pesto, Spaghetti Aglio Olio Porchetta, and Fisherman's Pie remain.

Introductory Offer: From now through Sunday May 3rd, 1 dines for FREE with every 3 paying adults. This offer is by reservation only. Please mention this promotion when you make the booking.

Gordon Ramsay Crashes Out Of World's Top 50 Restaurants

2009-04-27T11:48:00.007+08:00

Gordon Ramsay's flagship restaurant has fallen out of an influential list of the top 50 restaurants in the world, denting the chef’s once unimpeachable reputation.

Restaurant Gordon Ramsay, a small venue in the heart of Chelsea, has long been considered one of Britain’s finest, if not its best.

However, it would appear that dishes such as quail and foie gras pithivier with wild mushrooms, confit leg and celeriac remoulade, no longer impress the critics as they once did.

For the first time since Restaurant magazine started publishing its annual survey of the top restaurants in the world, Restaurant Gordon Ramsay has failed to make the top 50. In fact, the restaurant, last year ranked 13th, dropped out of the longer top 100 list altogether.

A spokesperson for Gordon Ramsay Holdings said: "Gordon takes all these sort of surveys with a pinch of salt. As always, Gordon regards his thousands of customers as his most valued critics. They are his judge and jury." Source

Gordon Ramsay Defends 'Meals On Wheels' Scandal

2009-04-27T11:48:00.006+08:00

Gordon Ramsay maintained that the food in his gastro-pubs was fresh yesterday, despite admitting it was prepared in a backstreet kitchen in south London. Gordon Ramsay maintained that the food in his gastro-pubs was fresh yesterday, despite admitting it was prepared in a backstreet kitchen in south London.

Staff in a Ramsay kitchen in Clapham prepared up to half the dishes for his three pubs in the capital – the Warrington in Maida Vale, the Narrow in Limehouse, the Devonshire in Chiswick – and for his Chelsea bistro, Foxtrot Oscar. Preparing food off-site for warming-up is common in mid-market restaurants but is less frequent in establishments run by Michelin-starred chefs.

Ramsay, who has 10 Michelin stars, more than any other British chef, has often spoken out against ready meals and praises fresh ingredients on his TV show Kitchen Nightmares.

A spokeswoman for his company, Gordon Ramsay Holdings, said prepping was "very common" in the restaurant business and insisted the food was fresh. "It's all sealed and delivered to the pubs and cooked freshly that day," she said. "So being cooked in one Gordon Ramsay premises and delivered to another is not going to make a difference." Two of the pubs, the Warrington and the Narrow, were in the top 10 pubs in the 2009 Michelin Guide, she added. Source

S. Pellegrino World’s Best 50 Restaurants List

2009-04-23T14:59:00.002+08:00

1 = El Bulli, Spain (The World's Best Restaurant + Best Restaurant in Europe)
2 = The Fat Duck, UK
3 ▲7 Noma, Denmark (Chef's Choice)
4 = Mugaritz, Spain
5 ▲21 El Celler de Can Roca, Spain (Highest Climber)
6 = Per Se, USA (Best Restaurant in the Americas)
7 = Bras, France
8 = Arzak, Spain
9 ▼6 Pierre Gagnaire, France
10 ▲11 Alinea, USA
11 = L'Astrance, France
12 ▼7 The French Laundry, USA
13 New Entry Osteria Francescana, Italy (Highest New Entry)
14 ▲2 St John, UK
15 ▲5 Le Bernardin, USA
16 ▲11 L'Hôtel de Ville - Philippe Rochat, Switzerland
17 ▼8 Tetsuya's, Australia (Best Restaurant in Australasia)
18 ▼4 L'Atelier de Joël Robuchon, France
19 ▼2 Jean Georges, USA
20 New Entry Les Créations de Narisawa, Japan (Best Restaurant in Asia)
21 ▲18 Chez Dominique, Finland
22 ▲21 Ristorante Cracco, Italy
23 ▲12 Die Schwarzwaldstube, Germany
24 ▲16 D.O.M., Brazil
25 ▲9 Vendôme, Germany
26 ▲2 Hof van Cleve, Belgium
27 Re Entry Masa, USA
28 ▼16 Gambero Rosso, Italy
29 ▲13 Oud Sluis, Netherlands
30 New Entry Steirereck, Austria
31 New Entry Momofuku Ssäm Bar, USA
32 ▲16 Oaxen Skärgårdskrog, Sweden
33 ▼4 Martin Berasategui, Spain
34 ▼4 Nobu London, UK
35 New Entry Mirazur, France
36 ▼17 Hakkasan, UK
37 ▲13 Le Quartier Français, South Africa (Best Restaurant in the Middle East and Africa)
38 Re-Entry La Colombe, South Africa
39 ▲5 Asador Etxebarri, Spain
40 New Entry Le Chateaubriand, France
41 = Daniel, USA
42 Re-Entry Combal.Zero, Italy
43 ▼28 Le Louis XV, Monaco
44 ▲3 Tantris, Germany
45 New Entry Iggy's, Singapore
46 New Entry Quay, Australia
47 ▼2 Les Ambassadeurs, France
48 ▼25 Dal Pescatore, Italy
49 ▼13 La Calandre, Italy
50 New Entry Mathias Dahlgren, Sweden
Source

Iggy’s Takes Home Top Honours At The S. Pellegrino World’s Best 50 Restaurants Award

2009-04-23T14:56:00.002+08:00

Illustrious Singaporean restaurateur and sommelier Ignatius Chan's five-year-old eponymous restaurant has been awarded the 45th position in this year’s S. Pellegrino World’s Best 50 Restaurants list, 32 places up from last year.

Voted by the public as Asia’s Number One restaurant in last year’s edition of The Miele Guide, Iggy’s is one of the only two restaurants from Asia that made it into the top 50 in the annual list organised by UK’s Restaurant Magazine.

Chan was ecstatic the morning after the grand celebratory dinner that was held at London’s Freemason Hall on Monday night (20 April). The modest, soft-spoken epicure revealed that he did not expect it. “It was an exuberating moment! It was a really fantastic surprise,” said Chan. “I want to take this opportunity to thank every person who has supported Iggy’s since day one,” he added.

Clearly overwhelmed with pride and joy, Chan did not fail to mention how much he is looking forward to returning to Singapore to celebrate with the rest of his culinary team. “They have put in a lot of effort,” said Chan.

Recognising how spectacular it is to be placed alongside restaurants from countries that have tremendous agricultural support like Spain, Italy and France, the unassuming restaurateur thinks that it is a great honour to be among the top 50 in the world. He is happy to be able to “represent little Singapore, a city with little or no farms, in a global competition like this.”

New Bar Promises to Get You Drunk Without You Taking a Sip

2009-04-23T01:11:00.006+08:00

Londoners are lining up to enjoy their regular tipple in a very different way -- in vapor form.

At Alcoholic Architecture, an experimental bar that opened last Thursday for weekend business, customers actually breathe in their beverage. Co-creators Sam Bompas and Harry Parr say they are looking to change the way Britain looks at its favorite libation.

Visiting Alcoholic Architecture is a unique experience. Customers are given a protective suit at the door, so that they can enjoy their evening without ruining their clothes. Once you're kitted up, there's time for one liquid libation at the upstairs bar before heading down into the dark-green mist.

"It's sticky, very sticky ... and sweaty, nice sweaty, though," first-time visitor Andrea Gelardin told ABC News recently.

"It tastes like lime mixed with sweat," another customer added.

The "g 'n' t" mist is released with a high-tech vaporizer machine. Customers breathe through half a gallon of gin an hour, for about $7.25.

Perhaps Keevo Johnson from Seattle summarized it perfectly, saying, "I've been in an alcoholic fog before but never like this." Source

World Most Expensive Dessert Cost $25,000

2009-04-23T01:11:00.005+08:00

The most expensive dessert in the world used to be the $14,500 “Fortress Aquamarine” served at a luxury resort in Sri Lanka. But today Sri Lankans can choke on their gilded shame, for the Upper East Side’s Serendipity 3 has put America back on top with a $25,000 triumph called the Frrrozen [sic] Haute Chocolate. Break out your giant diamond-encrusted foam fingers, because the Guinness Book of World Records will now list this as their number one entry!

The dessert blends 28 different cocoas and five grams of edible 24-karat gold, served in a goblet lined with edible gold. It’s consumed as conspicuously as possible with a gold spoon decorated with white and chocolate-colored diamonds and is crowned by an 18-karat gold bracelet with 1 carat of white diamonds. Both the spoon and bracelet are intended for the diner to keep, along with a vastly over-inflated sense of social status. Source

What The World Eats, Part II

2009-04-20T21:59:00.001+08:00

What's on a family dinner table in fifteen different homes around the globe? Photographs by Peter Menzel from the book "Hungry Planet".

What The World Eats, Part III

2009-04-20T21:59:00.000+08:00

What's on a family dinner table in fifteen different homes around the globe? Photographs by Peter Menzel from the book "Hungry Planet".

EXPOSED: Gordon Ramsey Served Pre-prepared Meals From Central Supplier

2009-04-20T21:53:00.003+08:00

Michelin-starred chef Gordon Ramsay has defended the use of 'boil-in-the-bag' meals in his restaurants, claiming are still 'freshly prepared'.

It has been revealed that customers at four of the celebrity chef's restaurants are likely to be served pre-prepared meals produced by a central supplier. The food arrives in transit vans, is reheated – then sold for up to six times the cost price.

Food critics said this amounted to hypocrisy, as Ramsay has always stressed the importance of freshly cooked ingredients.

He recently told Olive magazine: ‘My food hell is any ready meal. It’s so easy to prepare a quick dish using fresh produce, such as a simple stir-fry, but people still resort to ready meals that all taste exactly the same.’

In another interview he condemned roadside restaurants which employ staff ‘to heat up pre-prepared food’ rather than hiring chefs to make food on site. Source

What The World Eats

2009-04-20T21:53:00.002+08:00

What's on a family dinner table in fifteen different homes around the globe? Photographs by Peter Menzel from the book "Hungry Planet".

Morton's Steak and Seafood Special

2009-04-17T09:41:00.001+08:00

Morton's is featuring a steak and seafood set dinner for only S$95.00!

which includes:

1) your choice of any salad: caesar, center cut iceberg, Morton's salad, sliced beefsteak tomato or chopped salad

2) single-cut filet: Morton's leanest and most tender cut of beef... with upgrades available for your favorite steak!

3) choice of one seafood option:
- Morton's jumbo lump crab cake
_ three pieces of Morton's famous Colossal Shrimp Alexander
_ or Broiled sea scallops wrapped in bacon with apricot chutney

4) One Morton's signature potato or fresh vegetable

S$95.00 Special good through June 30, 2009

KFC Gambling on Chicken that is Grilled, Not Fried

2009-04-16T23:17:00.001+08:00

In a culinary gambit backed by buckets of big money, KFC is hoping to replicate its founder's recipe for success with the national introduction of Kentucky Grilled Chicken.

This week's rollout is KFC's most ambitious attempt to win over health-conscious customers as the chain known worldwide for fried chicken tries to reinvigorate lackluster U.S. sales.

"It's going to get people who haven't eaten KFC for a long time to come back into our restaurants," said KFC President Roger Eaton. "It's going to get people who have never eaten KFC to come into our restaurants." Source