Odds and sods

This week's collection of bits and pieces from the world of food:

More on the fried food theme - here's how to make deep fried Oreos should your constitution be able to take it. I really like the originals, so I'm not sure about this one. I mean, deep frying a Mars Bar probably improves it, as it tastes fairly hideous anyway, but Oreos are pretty good to start off with.

European news - Spain has launched an olive oil futures market and the French are trying to tackle bad customer service in cafes (good luck to them on that one. It seems to be endemic across Europe, never mind just in France. Although cafe waiters in Paris seem to be snottier than most.)

And finally, the fabulous Cooking for Engineers site, complete with recipe diagrams.

Deep fried...

I thought the Glaswegians were bad enough with deep fried Mars Bars and sticks of rock, but now I've found evidence of deep fried pickles I'm beginning to wonder. Especially now that the BBC are reporting that deep fried testicles are becoming a delicacy in Devon (check out the meat and two veg pic...)

Pies wonderful pies

Probably not the best thing to bang on about this morning, after a wonderful night spent eating pies (tomato and stilton puff pastry tart, sausage and potato pie, the best steak and kidney pie I've had in years, and a key lime pie) topped off with several bottles of red wine (it was a wine tasting, honest).

But should the government subsidise healthy eating? To be honest, I'm not sure it would make much difference - I can't see cheap fruit and veg tempting people away from McDonalds, especially if they have to prepare and cook it themselves. It's all about taking the easiest option, when it comes down to it.

The name's Bond

Two intriguing articles yesterday - the first on the cancer preventing properties of redbush or rooibos tea which I drink gallons of. It's rather gratifying to know that not only does it taste really nice (contrary to what's in the article, it doesn't taste like wet socks in wellington boots!) but it's actually doing me some good as well.

The second is equally high tech - apparently there's a department at MIT in the US which specialises in technology and kitchen gadgets. It's all rather James Bond, (even down to the fact that it's called Counter Intelligence) with Q passing over his rubber sink and reusable plastic wafers that turn into cups and bowls, with his usual (unheeded) warning about not blowing them up... The research agenda is fascinating - the projects include a desktop gardening system, a talking trivet, knives that warn against bacteria, and a chameleon mug that displays safety messages if the contents are too hot. Remind me in 20 years time that this was where I saw it first...