Dye, Cabbage, Dye
The trouble with “natural” food colorings is that they lose their color when heated. Beet-derived coloring fades 95%; red grape skin coloring fades 50%. Best bet so far has been red cabbage, which fades only 20%.
A Glasnost of Brewski
Bulgaria produces 3 billion bottles of beer yearly, one third of that being a brand called Zagorka. Two months ago, Alex Kraychev, a Bulgarian former Olympic weightlifter who defected to this country in 1978, started importing Zagorka (hoppy with a bitter finish, like a Mexican beer) along with a companion brand, Astika (exotic clove-like aroma). His slogan: The First Two Over the Wall.
Men and Their Kitchens
The Krups kitchen utensil company recently sponsored a survey of newly married or soon-to-be-married men about what sort of kitchen equipment they’d prefer to get as wedding presents. They had surprisingly specific tastes: 63% said a microwave, 52% a food processor, 42% a set of knives; 20% wanted an espresso machine. The present most likely to be returned was a fondue maker.
Incidentally, 87% of all men--97% of Southern men--said they planned to share kitchen responsibilities with their wives. Time will tell.
Dollars to Petrodoughnuts
The U.S. exported $71 million worth of baked goods last year. The five biggest customers for them were Canada, U.K., Japan, Mexico and Saudi Arabia. But you knew that.
For the Man Who Owns Everything
Say you have a couple thousand dollars’ worth of wine. You can’t store it in a cellar because God didn’t make L.A. houses with cellars, and if you kept your house at the correct temperature and humidity it would ruin your thousands of dollars’ worth of paintings (say you have them). What to do? You could rent storage space at the Los Angeles Fine Arts & Wine Storage Co., which has both kinds of storage, all sorts of computer-monitored surveillance systems and a combination art-viewing and wine-tasting room.
Spud Hoard Periled
The Potato Museum in Washington, D.C. houses rare potatoes, including a 4,000-year-old Peruvian tuber, as well as a potato-related library and potato-oriented art. Or rather, it used to. The Wall Street Journal reports that the museum was closed in June when proprietor Tom Hughes’ landlady reclaimed the three-story house that was, well, housing it. If we can put Tang on the moon, why can’t we save a Potato Museum?
Our Favorite Screwy Book Design
“The Ultimate Mousse Cookbook.” The name says it all, or rather the design says it all. We’re pretty sure.
