Try the All-New Hot Flash Lager

by Erik Olsen on

Leave it to the Czechs to mix two things that might
seem to most of us unmixable: beer and menopause. Yes, you heard that right. The miserable woes of no longer producing
eggs, the hot flashes, the sleeping troubles, the moodiness, that funny smell (jk!)…all might possibly be relived if
some Czech food scientists have their way. They are developing a new
low-kilojoule, low-alcohol beer that contains heightened levels of phytoestrogen, a form of the hormone estrogen
that is found in plants. Estrogen, remember, is what declines in menopausal women, leading to the afore-mentioned hot
flashes et al.

The beer is being developed by the wonderfully named Research Institute of Brewing and
Malting, and while there is no word on when the first bottle of this fine new brew will be on the store shelves, I am
very eager to know what they plan on calling it. Estro-Ale? Hot-flash Lager? Moodibrew? Inquiring minds want to know.

Birthplace of Pizza

by Neil Woodburn on

Frankly, I
was a bit disappointed with the pizza I ate in Italy.  The crust was too thick, there was only a little sauce, and
really no cheese at all.  I only realized after leaving the country what I had done wrong: I was eating from food
stands (I was a poor college student at the time) and I never visited Naples, the true home of the pizza pie. 

Times reporter Anthony Capella, is much smarter than I was.  He headed straight to Naples to introduce his
16-year-old son to a slew of perfect pizzerias—and he shares the very best with us, as well as the most historic. 

Along the way, we discover that Naples is also the birthplace of fast food—according to Capella—due to
its abundance of other goodies such as fried donuts and sfogliatelle (cream-filled pastries).

In fact, the whole article is an orgy of hearty Italian victuals that make the reader drool with every
mouth-watering adjective and variety of cheese which Capella so lovingly incorporates in his writing.  His
inspiration has obviously come from the food itself, so passionately prepared by Neapolitan chefs—as it has been
for centuries.  Mmmmmm….

Photo of the Day (4/20/06)

by Neil Woodburn on

Wow, so this is where my Canola oil comes from?  So beautiful and yet so fry-licious!  This wonderful shot of Canola fields comes to us via
our Gadling Flickr pool and is the handiwork of one RedHQ. 

I’ll bet you didn’t know that Canola oil comes from an improved rapeseed plant selectively bred by our
good friends, the Canadians.  That’s why it’s called Canola—Canadian
Oil Low Acid.  I guess adding the word “oil” to
Canola oil is therefore redundant.

"Dream fish" poisons two diners in Mediterranean

by Nick Vagnoni on

For all you gutsy travelers who feel that you have to taste the local specialties in order to truly know a place,
here’s a story to keep in mind. Two diners in the western Mediterranean recently suffered intense hallucinations and
digestive problems after eating Sarpa Salpa, a type of Indo-Pacific reef fish (right). According to an article in Practical Fishkeeping, the LSD-like
hallucinations from Sarpa Salpa, also known as Salema Porgy, can begin only minutes after eating the fish and, in some
cases, can last for days. Other fish known to cause hallucinogenic fish poisoning, or ichthyoallyeinotoxism, include
certain types of "mullet, goatfish, tangs, damsels and rabbitfish," according to Practical Fishkeeping. While
the article isn’t clear on where the poisoning occurred, a study of the two cases was conducted by researchers in
Marseilles. Actually, considering the fact that Sarpa Salpa is native to the Pacific, maybe some local seafood would
have been a safer bet.

New York: Looking down on LA's Delis

by Neil Woodburn on

Running an article in The New York Times about Los Angeles delicatessens is like printing a review in
The Napoli Times about pizzerias in Phoenix.  New York is the undisputed nirvana of delis and so I was
very curious to see what a New York journalist had to say about delis in my hometown of Los
Angeles. 

Well, the answer is, not much. 

The point of the article, it seems, was to illustrate that Fairfax Avenue—long famous for such LA
delicatessens as Canters—is being usurped by new neighbors from the
east coast: New York based Turntable Lab (a DJ supply store) and Supreme, a hip skate store also
based, you guessed it, in New York.  Both stores are pulling crowds to a part of town which has traditionally seen
only a smattering of hungry souls in search of corned beef on rye.  “The tireless march of cool culture has
turned a corner,” claims The New York Times.  Perhaps I’m reading into this too much, but it
sounds to me that the newspaper is boasting that even skate stores and DJ equipment outlets will kick the ass of
LA’s deli scene—as long as they are New York based, of course.