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Trivia About Food
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Would you like some coffee on that steak? No, I said ON that steak, not WITH it. In early 2004, Rippe’s a Seattle restaurant, began serving a new steak, created by a waiter and a chef. The Seattle Signature Steak is a filet mignon steak rubbed with coffee grounds before it is grilled. While a bit crunchy, it apparently had only a subtle flavouring of coffee, and the steak became a surprising hit with local diners.
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An old wives tale says that all the good of an egg is in the yolk. Sure the yolk contains protein, fat, iron and vitamin A and contains the richer part of an egg, but the white contains the greater part of the protein.
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Have you ever wondered how doughnuts came to be invented? A New England schoolboy by the name of Hanson Gregory hated his mother’s cakes as they were always too soggy in the middle. Young Gregory encouraged his mother to remove the centre before she fried the dough. His idea worked well and caught on in his neighbourhood. Eventually the idea spread and became one of the favourite snacks we know as doughnuts.
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Did you know that you have Napoleon to thank for canned food. He believed that armies marched on their stomachs and in 1795 offered a reward for sensible ways of preserving food to take with them. A French inventor by the name of Nicolas Appert came up with the idea of canning.
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Until the 15th century people did not use dinner plates. Before that time the people usually ate their food on a chunk of bread which was called a trencher. The bread soaked up the juices.
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It has been suggested that eating fish is good for your brain. In reality, this is not true. There is no particular food that contributes especially to the brain or any other part of the body. This belief came about when it was discovered that the brain contains phosphorus and that fish are a rich source of phosphorus. Since then scientists have found that the best way to keep your brain in shape is to eat a balanced diet, exercise your body and challenge your brain regularly.
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In the 1880’s a Frenchman by name of Gaston Menier had a rather strange way of serving his dinner guests. He used no servants and the guests did not help themselves to the food. A rather ingenious method was used to carry the food from the kitchen to the table and back again. It was a model train and carriages that ran along a track from the kitchen around the table and back again. The train could carry 25kg of food and was certainly a good conversation piece.
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From the seventeenth to the nineteenth century, food was not called food, it was called bellytimber.
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During the Alaskan Klondike gold rush, (1897-1898) potatoes were practically worth their weight in gold. Potatoes were so valued for their vitamin C content that miners traded gold for potatoes.
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A business in Taiwan makes dinnerware out of wheat, so that you can have your meal and eat your plate too.
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Clarence Crane was a chocolate maker when in 1912 he sought to find a way to boost his sales in summertime. Chocolate sales slumped due to the chocolate melting. Clarence was in a chemists one day when he noticed the chemist using a manual pill-making machine that created flat, round tablets. Suddenly Crane had an idea. He soon created circular mint lollies that were different to all the square mints on the market at that time. In addition he punched a small hole in the middle to cash in on the new “Life preserver” craze that had been started in ships around that time. Clarence Crane had created the Lifesaver mint. Although the mints were a hit, Crane eventually sold the rights to Lifesavers for $3,000 which was a fairly big sum at the time. Lifesavers went on to earn their new owners millions of dollars.
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Why are cashew nuts so expensive and why can’t we buy them in their shells? The cashew nut has an extremely corrosive oil in its shell and skin which can cause painful blisters on the skin. The damaging oil must be completely removed from the nut before it can eaten or even touched.
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Chocolate was greatly valued by the Aztecs of Mexico, who during Montezuma's reign demanded it in tribute from other tribes. Each year almost 50,000 pounds of cocoa beans were brought to their capital, Tenochtitlan. While some of the beans were used for money, others were ground into a frothy drink popular with the rich, or given to the gods.
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You have probably heard about how strong acid is in the stomach and that most food is digested in the stomach. Well, actually most food that we eat is actually digested in the small intestine and not in the stomach at all!
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If you like Chinese food, you’ll be interested to hear the although chow mein did originate in China it was spelt and pronounced differently. Actually the original Chinese means “fried dough”. Chop suey on the other hand was created in the USA by a Chinese cook who named it shap sui, which eventually became known as chop suey. Shap sui means “miscellaneous bits”.
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In Japan, lack of chopstick etiquette is strictly taboo. There are many rules for the correct use of chopsticks. Improper use includes licking the ends of chopsticks which is called neburibashi. Wandering the chopsticks aimlessly over various foods without making a decision is also considered improper and is called mayoibashi. Does that mean they’ll get the “chop”!
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While it’s true that we should ensure that children have a good breakfast, a study in Ireland in 2003 indicated that boys actually do better at school tests if they are a little hungry. Dr Barbara Stewart from the Northern Ireland Centre for Diet and Health said “The link between having breakfast and performance at school or work is well established. But this research suggests girls need a more satisfying breakfast than boys to perform at their best.” A breakfast high in carbohydrate and protein, such as beans on toast worked very well for the girls, while simple toast enabled the boys to achieve their best.
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Are you curious about the British royal family and what they eat? If you’re ever in English you can take a new kitchen tour at Windsor Castle. Researchers have delved into historical records to determine royal eating habits over eight centuries. The kitchen at Windsor Castle is the oldest continuously used kitchen in Britain and possibly the world. Records from the early 16th century through to the early 19th century recorded what each royal ate on every single day of their reigns. One example is that of Henry VIII who was slim and tall when he was a young man, but a diet that was 75% meat along with enormous amounts of ale and wine, contributed to his rather overweight figure in later years.
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Have you ever seen the wine connoisseurs tasting wines, and heard their comments? Apparently, chocolate connoisseurs are now going the same way. As with wines, chocolate flavours differ from region to region, depending on which soil the cocoa bean were grown, the fermentation process and even how much rain the plants received. One of the phrases used to describe chocolates is “long on the palate” and the connoisseurs refer to tastes of wood fires, menthol, mushroom and even liquorice. The terms used are becoming more and more like wine descriptions. I think if I was really pressed, I’m sure I could force myself to become a chocolate connoisseur, although the idea of chocolate tasting like mushroom doesn’t really sound all that palatable, does it?
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