Homemade spices or prepackaged?

For those who love cooking, there will always be a conflict that they may find themselves pondering over: to use homemade spices/flavoring or to use premixed spices?

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Posted in: Flavor,Herb

Food Facts: Disturbing truths about what you eat

I thought I would change it up a little bit. So instead of the usual recent news about food, I figure i'll fill your heads with some mind blowing trivia about food.

So, here I present some factoids about food that will probably make you think about taking that next bite:

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Posted in: Food Facts,Herb

Glowing Meat?

In recent news, a certain shanghai resident has discovered to her dismay that there was an ominous glow coming from her kitchen. When she went to investigate it, she found that it was her slab of pork.

No, this wasn't a case of radioactive meat. When she had bought it, it was just your average slab of meat from your average market (though how average a Shanghai meat market is can be debated). The slab of pork was left out on the kitchen table. Why is this fact important? Because it has been scientifically proven that meat, if stored in conditions that would make a porter-potty seem sanitary, can sometimes cause it to glow. What is the reason for this? Jason Best at Slashfood.com quotes in his article

" writers of Meat Hygiene name the likely culprit: phosphorescent bacteria, such as Pseudomonas cyanagenus, which can cause contaminated meat to appear "as if it were studded with stars."

Can you still eat? Maybe. Should you eat it? No. Can you tell time from meat? Only if you use it to  read your watch.

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Posted in: Bizzarre,Herb

New York City: No Toying Around

Do your kids like collecting toys from fast food restaurants? They might not be able to do so for long.

It has been recently unveiled that some New York City council members are planning to propose a bill to ban toys from being given away with meals from fast food restaurants. Why would they do this? City Council Deputy Majority Leader Leroy Comrie claims " banning toy giveaways would reduce the allure of fast-food restaurants for children and encourage the industry to provide healthier options." While this proposition looks good on paper, would it really solve the issue? While removing the toys could lessen the overall consumption of unhealthy food among children, it doesn't take away the fact that the children with problems related to consuming fast food are those that like those foods and are addicted to them. Taking away the toys could probably even be detrimental to the childrens' development as it could possibly stunt their creativity.

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Posted in: Fast Food,Herb,NYC

Day of The Living Zombies!!

A typical day in Wall Street.

It's official: Zombies exist in real life! Well, not really. Zombies as we know it are humans turned dead, then undead, and now crave human-mind-slurpies (a.k.a. brains). No, I did not meet one of those. But I did meet a zombie. Yes, that's right! A ZOMBIE!!

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Posted in: April Fools,Herb,Unrelated

Want to lose weight? Go high protein!

Many of us, when thinking about dieting and losing weight,immediately picture one thing: salads. It has been a popular image even in showbiz that the key to losing weight is eating plenty of greens in lieu of munching down some hotdogs or grabbing a burger. But is eating greens really the answer to shedding pounds that we can't stand to have?

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Posted in: Dieting,Herb

Boston: Cafeteria Capers

For some kids, school lunch is as part of the day as having leaf on a tree. City schools for the most part (at least here in New York) are required to serve school lunches. Sure they might not be the most edible thing you've ever seen on the end of your fork, but it kept you going throughout the day (unless you skipped lunched in lieu of "other activities"). If you go to a Boston city school, you might want to follow this practice. Recently, it has been discovered that some of Boston's city schools have been serving something that many would find repulsive: expired food. Many items were found to be either past the expiration date or the best-if-used-by date.

Imagine your kid or a little kid you know going to school, then during lunch are forced to unwittingly drink a spoiled carton of milk. Then they have to miss class due to being ill either immediately afterward or the next day. Not to mention these expired items could potentially seriously endanger their lives. Boston, please clean your fridge.

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Posted in: Food,Herb,School Lunch

Subway trumps McDonalds

Subway left McDonald's behind.....

In recent weeks, it has been found that Subway restaurants have globally more established locations than McDonald's, the former reigning king of the fast food world. 2002 marked the beginning of Subway's ascend over the Golden Arch Empire when it had more stores than McDonald's in the U.S. Lo and behold, less than a decade later, it has once again triumphed over the burger mogul as Subway is reported to have 33,749 stores world wide; nearly 1,000 more stores than McDonalds' 32,737.

Despite Subway's continuing success over McDonald's, the latter still claims a significant lead in revenue than Subway. That is not to say though, that it cannot overcome the revenue obstacle. If the trend continues, perhaps kids will be begging their parents for half footers instead of happy meals.

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Posted in: Herb,McDonalds,Subway

Cartooned packages wins kids over in taste

We'll feed your kids cardboard
Image from USATODAY.com

In a recent study done at the University of Pennsylvania, they have found that packaging featuring popular cartoon characters affect kids' tastes. In the study, the kids were given a sample from different types of cereals, one set with cartoon characters on it and another set without. The researchers also told the kids which cereals they were eating. Surprisingly, the researchers found that the kids who sampled the cereals from the boxes which featured cartoon characters generally scored their samples higher than those who ate the same cereal, but featured boxes without cartoon characters.
     It is no surprise that featuring cartoon character is a great way to market to kids. However, it is highly surprising that this factor on its own can affect what kids are willing to eat. Featuring cartoon characters on healthy foods may change their diets for the better. Although on the other end of the scale, this information can be used to force-feed our kids cardboard.

To to read this article in full, go here

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Posted in: Health,Herb,Kids