From the New Europe: Eating bugs and worms because you can afford it

by Iva Skoch on

The luxury restaurant market in the Czech Republic is apparently looking for new, creative ways to cater to their clients and be “distinguishable from others.”

The strategy? Putting insects as an item on luxury restaurants menus, the Prague Daily Monitor reports. The Brno restaurant manager Martin Kobylka says: “We want to shock people. A lobster, a crab or a crawfish are offered everywhere, but a cricket in caramel or a chocolate cake with a cockroach are unavailable in this country for now.” (I love that the name Kobylka actually means grasshopper in Czech. It is about the coolest name for a guy who wants to market mainstream insect-eating.)

Chocolate cake with a cockroach sounds like a delightful way to end a first date. Especially if you are really not that into her.

France ponders breathalysers in clubs

by Abha Malpani on

It is possible that from this summer, all alcohol serving establishments in France will have breathalysers so people can take breath tests before they leave clubs. 350 bars/clubs around the country have already had trial runs.

In France, the legal drinking age is 16 and you can get a driver’s license when you are 18. For years, the country has seen people killed on the road because of drunk driving and this decree is particularly to reduce the number of people driving when over the limit.

Solving the problem by focussing on keeping the roads safer as opposed to controlling alcohol consumption seems more practical, keeping in mind that France has one of the highest rates of road fatalities in Europe.

In principle the idea is great, but how can you force people to take breath tests before leaving? When youngsters drink and drive, they know what they are doing and their over-confidence that “nothing is going to happen” is what lets them drive home instead of taking public transport. So what will make them take a breath test? Will they put someone at the door who makes them do it before they leave? Will it be free to use?

A bar in Boston has taken a similar initiative into their own hands by selling a device called “Breath Scan” in their vending machines — two for US$7. It looks like they are selling, which is at least reassuring.

But once they’ve taken the test, what’s to say that they will still not drive home?

In Dubai (where the population is 70% Westerners from Europe and the US), drink driving is a huge problem — even though the limit is zero and the punishment is a month of jail plus a fine! Such rigid rules haven’t discouraged people from drink-driving, so although France’s initiative is great, I’m not sure how effective it will be.

When in Europe do as the Europeans do: Get drunk and have sex

by Anna Brones on

Fitting in with the local culture is often the most difficult of tasks when traveling. But if you’re a young adult headed to Europe this summer, acting like a European might only entail living up to frat party standards. According to a study published in BMC Public Health, young adults in Europe deliberately booze it up to increase their chances of scoring.

According to the BBC, the study was done with 1,341 people from 9 different cities across Europe. A third of the men, and 23 % of the women — who were all between the ages of 16 and 35 — said they drank to improve their chances of having sex. The researchers concluded that the fun-loving youngsters were “strategically” binge drinking or taking drugs to improve their sex lives.

All jokes aside, drinking and sexing is a health concern; especially since the rate of unprotected sex goes up. However, now that we know what the European strategy is, it looks like we no longer need a “How to Score a European Fling” post.

French trains go for British baguettes

by Anna Brones on

In a country so proud of its culinary heritage, it’s hard to imagine any foreign versions of local specialties ever being sold. I’m talking about France, the country where the capital city organizes the Baguette Grand Prix, just to determine which boulangerie makes the best one (it even makes the French national news). Surprisingly enough, even in a place with such high bread expectations, somehow British baguettes managed to make their way onto the trains of the French railway.

The Guardian reports that Fosters of Barnsley, a Yorkshire bakery, has started exporting truck loads of baguettes across the Channel to be sold on trains. The move has made baker John Foster deemed the “most hated man in France,” according to French media.

With a well-known background of Franco-Anglo tension regarding food, the fact that British baguettes are being sold to French railway passengers is rather humorous. Maybe Sarkozy will see it as an attack on his country’s culinary heritage, or maybe the French will just start exporting fish and chips.

To be banned: Drinking of alcohol on London’s transport

by Iva Skoch on

Now there is a progressive plan coming out of London.

London’s brand new mayor, Boris “the Eccentric” Johnson, unveiled the timeline for bringing in the new alcohol ban. The ban, starting on June 1, on the Tube (subway), buses, trams and Docklands Light Railway is one of his election pledges. According to the BBC, the ban is part of Mr Johnson’s wider strategy to tackle “anti-social behavior” and he also believes driving out so-called minor crime will be the first step before getting a “firm grip on more serious crime”.

But the Rail Maritime and Transport Union said the policy appeared “not to have been thought through very well” and could make matters worse.

Worse? As in people will drink more just for the excitement of doing something illegal?