Leave the poppy seed strudel at home if you’re heading to UAE

by Jamie Rhein on

Yesterday, while wandering through Westside Market in Cleveland, I passed by several stalls laden with baked goods, some sporting poppy seed. The poppy seed strudel was mighty tempting. This brought to mind the sidebar I saw that was attached to the article about Michelle Palmer’s and Vince Acors escape from jail time in Dubai after they allegedly had sex on the beach.

Before Palmer and Acor’s legal woes in Dubai, there was an earlier account about how people who bring poppy seeds into the UAE can also meet serious trouble. There could be trouble even if there are only a few seeds dribbled on a coat after eating a bagel before heading off to Dubai. Iva posted on that very situation back in February. There was one Swiss person who had eaten a bagel with poppy seeds and was arrested.

While eyeing the poppy seed strudel and thinking how yummy it looked, I also remembered that poppy seeds are not allowed in Singapore either. At least, you couldn’t buy them when I lived there in the 1990s. Perhaps Singapore has loosened up, but I think not.

The issue with poppy seeds is the same issue in Dubai. Instead of baking with poppy seeds, people could just get a notion to turn them into opium. The thing is, from what I understand, opium is not made from poppy seeds, but from the unripe poppy seed pod. Eating poppy seeds, however, can result in a false positive for the drug. Tricky.

Because this is an older story, I checked the U.S. Department of State page on UAE to see if poppy seeds are still banned. Yes, they are. I looked on Singapore’s page to see if I could find out about poppy seeds. I couldn’t find a reference to them, but the don’ts in Singapore is a mighty hefty list.

The State of American Tourism: Thailand, India, and Cuba

by Brenda Yun on

The internet is abuzz with news from abroad right now. Thailand’s Suvarnabhumi International Airport in Bangkok remains closed; India is reeling from a devastating terrorist attack aimed at British and American tourists in Mumbai; Raúl Castro is open to ending Cuba’s 40-year feud with Washington, thereby allowing Americans to travel there more “freely.” The last thing most Americans want to do right now is travel to a place where they are not welcome. We no longer want to travel because there is a greater fear of it. The state of things as we knew them is suddenly turning on its head.

Fear exists even in the most intrepid travelers. As a solo, female traveler stepping off the plane in Vanuatu, Myanmar and Colombia last year, I had little knowledge of exactly what I was walking into. However, the one thing I have going for me every time I travel to some less-trodden destination is that, although I carry a U.S. passport, I don’t look American and I’m from a state that sits in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, thousands of miles from the mainland.So, when people ask where I’m from, I tell them I’m from Hawaii. Sometimes they don’t know where that is. Sometimes they think it’s a country in itself. Only rarely do they know that it is part of the United States. There’s an advantage to looking the way I do and being from where I am: They don’t have to know I’m American. But plenty of Americans cannot hide behind their fair skin, accent, or residence, so most stay at home for fear of the unknown.

As of late, I have become increasingly interested in news from Cuba. My friend and I are planning a trip there early next year and quickly discovered a lack of resources and general antipathy for American tourism in Castro country. We hope to help out for a week in Cuba with hurricane relief, but even a complex Google search for “volunteer in Cuba” came up empty. The message coming from Cuba is clear: “We don’t want help from Americans. Stay out of our country.” This message is increasingly resounding around the globe, and the state of American tourism is, I would say, grim right now — and the hope that Obama can turn things around come January just isn’t enough to quell our fears.

Turducken: Where Does It Come From?

by Brenda Yun on

The unnatural trio of turkey, duck, and chicken might initially make your stomach curl, but the supposed supernatural taste of the turducken might just appease the staunchest of food critics. This chicken in a duck in a turkey has become a nationwide phenomenon in the past decade – so much so that NFL commentator John Madden awards a turducken to the winning team of the Thanksgiving Day game (usually the Detroit Lions versus the Dallas Cowboys). Just this year, though, Madden announced he would be returning to the traditional turkey for Thanksgivings henceforth.

The unlikely combination of birds actually makes for a nice blend of dark and white, dry and juicy meats. Preparing and cooking the perfect turducken takes at least ten hours. Start by deboning all the birds and preparing a cornbread and sausage stuffing. Basically, the turkey is laid flat and spread with a layer of stuffing. The duck is placed on top of the turkey (add another layer of stuffing), and the chicken (with leftover stuffing inside) is placed on top of the duck. Carefully wrap the turkey as you normally would and cook as usual. The advantage of turducken is that everything is edible, and you don’t have to work around the bones. Just dig in and enjoy the mixture of tastes.

So, when did the turducken come to be? And where does it come from? Turducken is strictly American fare, as nowhere else in the world would someone even think to combine these three distinctly tasting birds into one Thanksgiving feast. This tri-bird can be traced back to the Deep South – likely somewhere in Louisiana – some time in the early to mid 1980’s. Despite not being able to deep fry it as you would chicken, duck, or turkey separately, the turducken seems to come from a Cajun tradition. Some people credit Cajun-creole fusion chef Paul Prudhomme with creating the dish as part of the Duvall Days Festival in Duvall, Washington in 1983. However, Calvin Trillin in the November 2005 issue of National Geographic magazine traces the turducken’s origins to Maurice, Louisiana, where “Hebert’s Specialty Meats” has been commercially producing turduckens since 1985. The company still prepares around 5,000 turduckens per week during the holiday season.

Tofurkey-loving vegetarians might just be appalled at the pounds of meat that make up the turducken, but families across the nation are still cheering for this great new holiday staple.

Tofurkey: Where Did It Come From?

by Brenda Yun on

I knew about tofurkey about seven years ago, when Sam, my hippie next door neighbor in Boulder, needed a vegetarian alternative to turkey and went so far as to prepare our friends a tofurkey feast for Thanksgiving. Aside from the smooth slices this mock-turkey has opposed to the sometimes dry and stringy quality some Thanksgiving birds have possessed, my rather bland taste buds were not able to tell the difference at all. I never bothered to ask where Sam purchased this honking piece of pseudo-bird. It really did look, smell, and taste like a turkey fresh from the oven.

Since then, I discovered a brand of manufactured tofurkey in stores called “Tofurky” (trademarked without the “e”), which is owned by Turtle Island Foods and can be found at essentially every Whole Foods, Wild Oats, and Trader Joe’s. The Tofurky brand carries all kinds of vegan delights, but specializes in its Tofurky Jurky, Franks, and Holiday Products.Yes, it is possible to buy a turkey-sized Tofurky with stuffing – and maybe your guests won’t even know the difference! I was also quite surprised to discover that turkey and tofurkey have shockingly similar nutritional value, which therefore leaves me slightly compelled to pop a Tofurky in the oven tomorrow!

The question remains: Where did this ingenious concoction called tofurkey come from? Did the masterminds at Turtle Island Foods in Hood River, Oregon create this new vegan staple back in 1980, or did some Chinese-American with a lot of time on his/her hands decide to take all that Chinatown tofu and make it taste like turkey one Thanksgiving, long long ago? The investigation continues and right now your guess is as good as mine. I’m selfishly rooting for the Chinese-American to claim his/her recipe, but Seth Tibbott over at Turtle Island Foods certainly made tofurkey a commercial product worth gobbling for every November!

Oh, and if you’re head over heels in love with Tofurky, why not order a custom (and classic) Tofurky lunchbox for just $20? All your friends will be jealous! Or, in the spirit of travel, Turtle Island Foods has an annual Travels with Tofurky Contest. Tofurky lovers just need to snap a photo with their Tofurky box of choice and submit it every fall for a chance to win a styling Tofurky Care Kit including a Tofurky t-shirt, a case of Tofurky Jurky and other cool stuff.

Stay tuned tomorrow for another Thanksgiving special about “Turducken: Where Did It Come From?”

Winona Ryder gets a British Airways airplane priority landing status. Could you?

by Jamie Rhein on

Two days ago, Winona Ryder’s British Airways flight to Heathrow airport was granted priority landing status after Ryder became sick on the plane. Jaunted’s blurb doesn’t say how she got ill. One wonders was it the food? Is this normal for her? What about me or you? Could we get special treatment? Could we get a plane to land before all the others?

I was on a flight once when the plane turned around before it took off because a woman was complaining of being sick. She did keep hitting herself in the face as she was being led to the ambulance that whisked her away. As much as going back to the gate wasn’t a fun picnic, it was a good thing that she was let off the plane. Better that she was hitting herself in the face as she was getting off the plane than miles up in the air.

A quick Google search found these two articles about other diverted flights.

In October, on a United Airlines flight to LA, a flight was diverted to O’Hare International Airport after a dozen or so passengers complained of being sick.

Back in March, a flight from the Dominican Republic to Canada landed in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida after eight passengers became ill.

What isn’t clear is how sick is sick. “I feel sick,” one might say. Does this mean, “I have gas,” “I have a slight headache,” “I feel as if I could hurl all over myself,” or “I think I’m having a heart attack and won’t live to see another day?” Any parent with a child has played twenty questions at times to find out just what ‘sick” means.

The woman I saw hitting herself in the face did say she wasn’t feeling right as rain when she got on the plane. The flight attendant did try to soothe her nerves, but with no luck, thus the diversion.

It seems that diverting a plane because of an engine failure or when the toilet pump is burning would be a much easier call to make. Sick? Kind of vague. And I still wonder, if you’re Winona, could you get that plane to land faster?

Winona did go to the hospital after she got off the plane, but only for a couple of hours.