Ice Cream-Like Product News

It is a New Age after all. Now there’s a low-fat, no-cholesterol Eskimo Pie made with the egg white and milk protein mixture Simplesse. (They really missed a bet naming the new version “Fat Freedom Eskimo Pie,” though, when they could have called it “Northern Lite.”)

Hunt for Your Breakfast Orange County’s Festival of Britain begins tomorrow and runs for two weeks (oops; a fortnight), with a load of art and cultural events. The basic food news is that a number of Orange County restaurants will be featuring afternoon tea, but there will also be a Hunt Breakfast with kippers and Melton Mowbray pies weekend after next. At press time nobody knew where it was going to be, but you might try (714) 546-3812.

The Decline of the Southwest

Los Angeles is falling behind; we just can’t compete any longer. Seattle-- Seattle , for gosh sakes -- has just pulled ahead of us in the weirdness race. That city now boasts a business establishment named Espresso Dental: the world’s first combination dentist’s office, espresso bar and massage parlor. The Wall Street Journal credits this to the fact that Seattle has the highest per capita consumption of coffee of any American city, but we can see the writing on the wall. We’re doomed! Doomed!

Here a Spam, There a Spam, Everywhere a Spam Spam

We all know that every second of the day two things happen: The Hormel Company makes 7.2 cans of Spam and 3.8 cans of Spam are consumed in the United States. Where do the remaining 3.4 cans go? It seems the biggest market outside this country is the United Kingdom, with South Korea as a close second. South Koreans are far more sensitive to the virtues of Spam than we are, considering it a delicacy suitable for formal meals. The American attitude is better reflected in such events as the annual Spam carving contest in Seattle or the Spam barbecue, Spam eating and Spam can-tossing contest held in Austin, Texas.

Save the Quiche

A public opinion survey in France found that nearly two thirds of the respondents feared traditional French cuisine was in danger of extinction. To protect it, the Education Office of Paris is sponsoring a program under which 500 chefs, bakers and other food artisans will teach food appreciation in Paris classrooms.

Make Mine an FB, Barkeep

Here’s a new product with a catchy name: California Fruit Beer. It’s sweet and nonalcoholic and doesn’t even claim to taste like beer--it’s made from grapes and figs--but it does sort of look like beer. High in potassium (which is lost in exercise) and glucose polymers (quick energy), it seems really to be aimed at exercise-type people who perhaps don’t like to look as if they’re drinking fruit juice.

Or to drink too much of anything. “It’s not the kind of drink you’ll drink and want another,” creator Brad Snower told Food Business magazine. “Your thirst is quenched with one.”

The Potato: Decadent Western Luxury Food Ladies’ Home Journal has published a special edition of its November issue with a 32-page Russian-language supplement for sale in the Soviet Union. The supplement includes exotic American recipes for the Soviet housewife to consider: apple pie, pizza, and meat and potatoes. Unfortunately, these days even potatoes are hard to find in the USSR.