Puls Biznesu, pb.pl,18.05.2009 06:33
Od 1989 r. "żyjemy w kompletnie innym kraju. Mamy swobodę, wyjeżdżamy za granicę, uczymy się, inwestujemy pieniądze. Od 2005 r. powstało 1,5 mln nowych miejsc pracy. 16 razy wzrosła wartość pensji Polaków!" - powiedział dziennikowi "Metro" Michał Boni, szef doradców premiera i twórca "Raportu o Kapitale Intelektualnym Polski" oraz strategii dla Polski na kolejne 20 lat.
W wywiadzie udzielonym gazecie w 20 lat od upadku PRL i przejęcia władzy przez Solidarność, Boni dodał, że "mamy też cztery razy więcej absolwentów studiów wyższych. W 1989 r. takie wykształcenie miało 7 proc. Polaków, teraz 17 proc. To konkretne mierniki naszego cywilizacyjnego rozwoju. Wielki sukces naszej wolności, kreatywności, przedsiębiorczości".
A czego nie udało się zrobić?, pytało "Metro" - "Wieś ciągle nie jest w głównym nurcie przemian. Wiele osób nie nadążyło za transformacją i przeszło na wcześniejsze emerytury. Nadal mamy dysproporcje w rozwoju regionów. Szybko rozwijają się silne ośrodki. Ale różnice pomiędzy tzw. Polską B (wschodnie województwa) a resztą kraju to nie wynik transformacji. Nawet przez 20 lat nie da się odrobić zaległości z poprzednich kilkudziesięciu lat. Nie udało się nam również poprawić infrastruktury transportowej, a także skłonić społeczeństwa do brania większej współodpowiedzialności za otaczający świat".
4.5.09
Trzy zasady kulinarno podróżnicze Witolda
Po pierwsze,nigdy nie jedz w hotelu,z wyjątkiem 5 gwiazdkowych hoteli ,nigdy nie pytaj w hotelu o dobrą restaurację,zapytaj raczej taksówkarza.Jeżeli zobaczysz w w knajpie jakiegoś turystę-uciekaj,bo nic ciekawego cię tam nie spotka.Zaryzykuj-zjedz kolację w miejscowej knajpie z lokalnymi bywalcami.Jedz potrawy,których nazw nawet nie potrafisz wymówić i nie pytaj,z czego zostały zrobione.Pij to, co wszyscy.
Po drugie,bądź otwarty na ludzi ,uśmiechaj się,gadaj.
Po trzecie,nie podróżuj w dużej grupie.Trzy ,cztery osoby to maksimum.
Po drugie,bądź otwarty na ludzi ,uśmiechaj się,gadaj.
Po trzecie,nie podróżuj w dużej grupie.Trzy ,cztery osoby to maksimum.
3.5.09
The 10 Dirtiest Foods Youre Eating
http://liujiaoourhealth.blogspot.com/2008/12/10-dirtiest-foods-youre-eating.html
1.Chicken
The dirt: Never mind cigarettes; the Surgeon General should slap a warning label on chicken. Recent nationwide testing by Consumers Union, the advocacy group behind Consumer Reports, notes that of the 484 raw broilers examined, 42 percent were infected by Campylobacter jejuni, and 12 percent by Salmonella enterides.
The latest USDA research notes similar Salmonella levels. Now add in the fact that we each consume about 70 pounds of chicken a year—more than our intake of beef, pork, or turkey—and it's a wonder broilers don't come with barf bags.
At the supermarket: Look for birds labeled "free range." Close quarters in the henhouse give bad bugs the chance to spread, as do high-volume processing operations. Free-range chickens, which are given more room to roost and are usually slaughtered in smaller numbers, present a potentially safer option. For example, Ranger chickens, a free-range brand sold in the Pacific Northwest, came up negative for Salmonella and Campylobacter in Consumers Union's tests.
At home: To help prevent foodborne illness, bypass rinsing your raw bird in the sink, and instead put it directly into a baking dish or pan. This shortcut reduces the odds of sullying counters and other foods, says Janet B. Anderson, R.D., director of the Safe Food Institute in North Logan, Utah. If you used a cutting board, clean it (and the knife) with a mild, dilute bleach solution. As for your heat treatment, cook breasts and other cuts until the temperature hits 180°F. (If it's a whole bird, take the temperature in the thickest part of the thigh.) "Poking the chicken or judging by juice color is risky," says Anderson.
2.Ground Beef
The dirt: Even a little ground chuck can make you upchuck. When USDA inspectors last tested hamburger meat, they looked at 563 sources nationwide and discovered Clostridium perfringens in 53 percent of the batches, Staphylococcus in 30 percent, and Listeria monocytogenes in 12 percent. Interestingly, the USDA found no trace of Escherichia coli 0157:H7, a.k.a. E. coli, one of the desperadoes of foodborne illness. Despite this finding, if slaughterhouse safeguards fail (and they sometimes do), E. coli could potentially pop up in your next patty.
At the supermarket: Choose ground cow that's been nuked. "Find a grocery store that sells irradiated ground beef," says Donald W. Schaffner, Ph.D., an extension specialist in food science at Rutgers University. The package will bear the words "treated by irradiation." Schaffner gives the safety of the treatment a glowing review: "The amount of induced radioactivity is 200,000 times smaller than the level of radioactivity naturally present in all foods."
At home: Add fresh oregano to your burgers and meat loaf. When researchers at Kansas State University mixed a variety of common household spices into ground beef to test their antibacterial properties, oregano tested as one of the best at wiping out E. coli. Use at least 1 tablespoon per pound of meat. Just as important, flatten your patties—thick burgers will char on the outside before the interior reaches the required 160°F.
3.Ground Turkey
The dirt: Potentially one of the foulest of the fowl. A USDA survey showed that the odds are better than one in four that your ground gobbler contains Listeria, Campylobacter, Clostridium, or some combination of the three. What's more, in a separate study by the FDA and the University of Maryland, 24 percent of the ground turkey sampled came back positive for Salmonella. And some of that Salmonella was resistant to antibiotics.
At the supermarket: Hunt for organic turkey. Most commercial turkey processors pump up their birds with antibiotics, a practice that may have encouraged the rise of resistant bacteria. Organic outfits, on the other hand, say no to drugs. When you reach the checkout, insist that the turkey be slipped into its own plastic bag and then placed in a meat-only shopping bag. This rule applies to beef and chicken, too: Otherwise, meat drippings might contaminate other groceries.
At home: "Change your mind-set about poultry. Start by thinking of it as being contaminated," says Schaffner. Immediately retire to the dishwasher any platter that has come in contact with raw ground turkey. (Use the hottest setting.) Serve cooked turkey burgers (180°F) on a clean plate. And wipe up any spillage with a paper towel instead of a sponge. "The sponge is the most dangerous item in the house because of the organisms potentially living in it," says Tierno.
4.Raw Oysters
The dirt: Oysters' power as an aphrodisiac is overblown, but their power as a diarrheic when slurped raw is not. These filters for ocean waste can contain the norovirus (a pathogen notorious for nixing ocean cruises), Campylobacter, and Vibrio vulnificus. University of Arizona researchers who studied oysters from so-called certified-safe beds discovered that 9 percent were contaminated with Salmonella bacteria. Still hungry? "We found E. coli in 100 percent of Gulf Coast locations, and in high amounts," says Lynn Joens, Ph.D., the study author.
At the supermarket: Buy from the same beds that a chef stakes his reputation on. Sandy Ingber, executive chef and seafood buyer for Grand Central Oyster Bar in New York City, buys Blue Point, Chincoteague, Glidden Point, Narragansett Bay, Pemaquid, and Wellfleet oysters in the winter months. During summer, he buys Coromandel oysters from New Zealand. The reason for the seasonal shift: More than three-quarters of outbreaks involving raw oysters occur in the Northern Hemisphere's warm-water months.
At home: Very simple: Eat only thoroughly cooked oysters. If you must slurp, do so only after following the buying advice above.
5.Eggs
The dirt: Which is dirtier, the chicken or the egg? The chicken, by a long shot, or so it seems at first. More widespread pasteurization has reduced the rate of Salmonella contamination in eggs to only one in 20,000. But that still leaves more than two million hazardous eggs in circulation each year. Food poisoning linked to eggs sickens an estimated 660,000 people annually and kills 300. "Often, dishes made at restaurants are from pooled eggs," which increases the risk, says Schaffner. "It's really a matter of statistics. Eat an egg sunny-side up and your risk of Salmonella is one in 10,000. Eat an undercooked omelette made from a mix of 100 eggs, and the risk is significantly higher."
At the supermarket: Check the egg cartons. You're looking for one word—"pasteurized"—and four numbers—the expiration date. Then remove each egg and look for cracks; germs can enter after pasteurization.
At home: Ignore the egg keeper on the refrigerator door. Instead, keep the eggs in their carton and stow it in the coldest part of your fridge (usually the back of the lowest shelf). Then, after you crack one open, wash your hands. In her study of household food preparation, Utah State's Anderson reports that 60 percent of people failed to wash their hands after handling raw eggs. Finally, cook your eggs—thoroughly (or, if they're an ingredient in a dish, to 160°F).
6.Cantaloupe
The dirt: File this under "Who knew?" When the FDA sampled domestically grown cantaloupe, it found that 3.5 percent of the melons carried Salmonella and Shigella, the latter a bacteria normally passed person-to-person. Among imported cantaloupe, 7 percent tested positive for both bugs. And because you eat melons raw, the bacteria go right down your gullet. That's a big part of the reason why from 1990 to 2001, produce in general has sickened as many people as have beef and poultry combined.
At the supermarket: Dents or bruising on the fruit can provide a path in for pathogens. But don't think precut cantaloupe is safer. "I've been in several supermarkets where the produce was cut by personnel who didn't wash their hands after handling eggs and other items," says Anderson.
At home: Because cantaloupe grows on the ground and has a netted exterior, it's easy for Salmonella to sneak on, and once on, it's hard to clean off. Scrub the fruit with a dab of mild dishwashing liquid for 15 to 30 seconds under running water. And make sure you buy a scrub brush that you use exclusively to clean fruits and vegetables; otherwise it could become cross-contaminated.
7.Peaches
The dirt: Being pretty as a peach comes at a price. The fruit is doused with pesticides in the weeks prior to harvest to ensure blemish-free skin. By the time it arrives in your produce department, the typical peach can be coated with up to nine different pesticides, according to USDA sampling. And while apples tote a wider variety of pesticides, the sheer amount and strength of those on peaches sets the fuzzy fruit apart. On an index of pesticide toxicity devised by Consumers Union, peaches rank highest.
At the supermarket: Fill your plastic produce bag with peaches that wear a "USDA Organic" sticker. And since apples, grapes, pears, and green beans occupy top spots on the Toxicity Index, too, you may want to opt for organic here as well. Just know that organic produce also contains some pesticide residues, but in minuscule amounts.
At home: Wax on, wax off. "A lot of produce has a natural wax coating that holds pesticides, so wash with a sponge or scrub brush and a dab of mild dishwashing detergent. This can eliminate more than half of the residues," says Edward Groth III, Ph.D., a senior scientist with Consumers Union. Got kids? Play it extra safe, and wash and pare peaches, apples, and pears.
8.Prepackaged Lettuce
The dirt: Don't look now, but the lettuce on a burger could cause you more grief than the beef. Outbreaks of E. coli sickened 36 people in San Diego in September 2003 and sent 29 people reeling in eastern Washington in July 2002. In both cases, prepackaged lettuce was to blame. And according to the Center for Science in the Public Interest, lettuce accounted for 11 percent of reported food-poisoning outbreaks linked to produce from 1990 to 2002, and "salad" accounted for 28 percent.
At the supermarket: Prepackaged salad mix is not inherently more hazardous than loose greens or a head of lettuce. It's the claims of being "triple washed" that lull consumers into complacency. "Just because something is wrapped in cellophane doesn't mean it's free of pathogens," says J. Glenn Morris, M.D., chairman of epidemiology and preventive medicine at the University of Maryland school of medicine.
At home: Rinse salad greens one leaf at a time under running water before eating. Beware of cross-contamination, too. "People know it's risky to put salad in the same colander they washed chicken in," says Anderson, "but they think nothing of touching a towel used to wipe up poultry juice, then making a salad."
9.Cold Cuts
The dirt: Germs don't take a number in the deli; cold cuts have been labeled at "high risk" of causing listeriosis by a joint team of researchers from the USDA, FDA, and CDC. While only 3 percent of the deli meats sampled contained Listeria at the point of purchase, the bacteria's rapid growth rate on cuts stored even under ideal conditions concerned researchers. Combine that with the fact that cold cuts are, well, eaten cold, and you've got trouble; Listeria thrives at refrigerator temperatures that stun other foodborne pathogens.
At the supermarket: Turns out the most likely source of Listeria-contaminated cold cuts is the deli slicer. Without regular cleaning, the blade can transfer bacteria from roast beef to turkey to pastrami and back. But aside from asking the clerk to stop and clean the slicer before handling your order, the best you can do is avoid delis that are obviously dirty and stick with those that are annoyingly busy. Meats that rotate through a deli quickly have less opportunity to bloom with Listeria.
At home: From now on, skip the sniff test and trash whatever meat you haven't eaten in a week. When you're ready to build your sandwich, slather on the mustard. Researchers at Washington State University killed off 90 percent of three potent pathogens—Listeria, E. coli, and Salmonella—within 2 hours of exposing them to a mustard compound.
10.Scallions
The dirt: Scallions play a bit part in most dishes, but a little goes a long way, as evidenced by the massive hepatitis A outbreak at that Chi-Chi's last October. Dirty scallions have also triggered small hep A outbreaks in Georgia, North Carolina, and Tennessee. Other bugs known to have grabbed a ride on green onions include the parasite Cryptosporidium, Shigella, and the ever-present Salmonella. In FDA tests, U.S.-grown scallions carried Salmonella or Shigella in 3 percent of samples, nearly twice the number detected in imported samples.
At the supermarket: Forget trying to weed out U.S. or Mexican scallions. Given current labeling laws, grocers are under no obligation to list the country of origin of any produce item. More important, buy refrigerated scallions; room temperature can trigger a bacterial explosion.
At home: Turn on your faucet full force to blast away visible dirt. As you rinse, remove the outer sheath to expose lingering microorganisms, but realize that any step short of thorough cooking is only a partial solution. "More and more, pathogens are entering produce like scallions at a cellular level," says Caroline Smith DeWaal, director of food safety at the Center for Science in the Public Interest.
1.Chicken
The dirt: Never mind cigarettes; the Surgeon General should slap a warning label on chicken. Recent nationwide testing by Consumers Union, the advocacy group behind Consumer Reports, notes that of the 484 raw broilers examined, 42 percent were infected by Campylobacter jejuni, and 12 percent by Salmonella enterides.
The latest USDA research notes similar Salmonella levels. Now add in the fact that we each consume about 70 pounds of chicken a year—more than our intake of beef, pork, or turkey—and it's a wonder broilers don't come with barf bags.
At the supermarket: Look for birds labeled "free range." Close quarters in the henhouse give bad bugs the chance to spread, as do high-volume processing operations. Free-range chickens, which are given more room to roost and are usually slaughtered in smaller numbers, present a potentially safer option. For example, Ranger chickens, a free-range brand sold in the Pacific Northwest, came up negative for Salmonella and Campylobacter in Consumers Union's tests.
At home: To help prevent foodborne illness, bypass rinsing your raw bird in the sink, and instead put it directly into a baking dish or pan. This shortcut reduces the odds of sullying counters and other foods, says Janet B. Anderson, R.D., director of the Safe Food Institute in North Logan, Utah. If you used a cutting board, clean it (and the knife) with a mild, dilute bleach solution. As for your heat treatment, cook breasts and other cuts until the temperature hits 180°F. (If it's a whole bird, take the temperature in the thickest part of the thigh.) "Poking the chicken or judging by juice color is risky," says Anderson.
2.Ground Beef
The dirt: Even a little ground chuck can make you upchuck. When USDA inspectors last tested hamburger meat, they looked at 563 sources nationwide and discovered Clostridium perfringens in 53 percent of the batches, Staphylococcus in 30 percent, and Listeria monocytogenes in 12 percent. Interestingly, the USDA found no trace of Escherichia coli 0157:H7, a.k.a. E. coli, one of the desperadoes of foodborne illness. Despite this finding, if slaughterhouse safeguards fail (and they sometimes do), E. coli could potentially pop up in your next patty.
At the supermarket: Choose ground cow that's been nuked. "Find a grocery store that sells irradiated ground beef," says Donald W. Schaffner, Ph.D., an extension specialist in food science at Rutgers University. The package will bear the words "treated by irradiation." Schaffner gives the safety of the treatment a glowing review: "The amount of induced radioactivity is 200,000 times smaller than the level of radioactivity naturally present in all foods."
At home: Add fresh oregano to your burgers and meat loaf. When researchers at Kansas State University mixed a variety of common household spices into ground beef to test their antibacterial properties, oregano tested as one of the best at wiping out E. coli. Use at least 1 tablespoon per pound of meat. Just as important, flatten your patties—thick burgers will char on the outside before the interior reaches the required 160°F.
3.Ground Turkey
The dirt: Potentially one of the foulest of the fowl. A USDA survey showed that the odds are better than one in four that your ground gobbler contains Listeria, Campylobacter, Clostridium, or some combination of the three. What's more, in a separate study by the FDA and the University of Maryland, 24 percent of the ground turkey sampled came back positive for Salmonella. And some of that Salmonella was resistant to antibiotics.
At the supermarket: Hunt for organic turkey. Most commercial turkey processors pump up their birds with antibiotics, a practice that may have encouraged the rise of resistant bacteria. Organic outfits, on the other hand, say no to drugs. When you reach the checkout, insist that the turkey be slipped into its own plastic bag and then placed in a meat-only shopping bag. This rule applies to beef and chicken, too: Otherwise, meat drippings might contaminate other groceries.
At home: "Change your mind-set about poultry. Start by thinking of it as being contaminated," says Schaffner. Immediately retire to the dishwasher any platter that has come in contact with raw ground turkey. (Use the hottest setting.) Serve cooked turkey burgers (180°F) on a clean plate. And wipe up any spillage with a paper towel instead of a sponge. "The sponge is the most dangerous item in the house because of the organisms potentially living in it," says Tierno.
4.Raw Oysters
The dirt: Oysters' power as an aphrodisiac is overblown, but their power as a diarrheic when slurped raw is not. These filters for ocean waste can contain the norovirus (a pathogen notorious for nixing ocean cruises), Campylobacter, and Vibrio vulnificus. University of Arizona researchers who studied oysters from so-called certified-safe beds discovered that 9 percent were contaminated with Salmonella bacteria. Still hungry? "We found E. coli in 100 percent of Gulf Coast locations, and in high amounts," says Lynn Joens, Ph.D., the study author.
At the supermarket: Buy from the same beds that a chef stakes his reputation on. Sandy Ingber, executive chef and seafood buyer for Grand Central Oyster Bar in New York City, buys Blue Point, Chincoteague, Glidden Point, Narragansett Bay, Pemaquid, and Wellfleet oysters in the winter months. During summer, he buys Coromandel oysters from New Zealand. The reason for the seasonal shift: More than three-quarters of outbreaks involving raw oysters occur in the Northern Hemisphere's warm-water months.
At home: Very simple: Eat only thoroughly cooked oysters. If you must slurp, do so only after following the buying advice above.
5.Eggs
The dirt: Which is dirtier, the chicken or the egg? The chicken, by a long shot, or so it seems at first. More widespread pasteurization has reduced the rate of Salmonella contamination in eggs to only one in 20,000. But that still leaves more than two million hazardous eggs in circulation each year. Food poisoning linked to eggs sickens an estimated 660,000 people annually and kills 300. "Often, dishes made at restaurants are from pooled eggs," which increases the risk, says Schaffner. "It's really a matter of statistics. Eat an egg sunny-side up and your risk of Salmonella is one in 10,000. Eat an undercooked omelette made from a mix of 100 eggs, and the risk is significantly higher."
At the supermarket: Check the egg cartons. You're looking for one word—"pasteurized"—and four numbers—the expiration date. Then remove each egg and look for cracks; germs can enter after pasteurization.
At home: Ignore the egg keeper on the refrigerator door. Instead, keep the eggs in their carton and stow it in the coldest part of your fridge (usually the back of the lowest shelf). Then, after you crack one open, wash your hands. In her study of household food preparation, Utah State's Anderson reports that 60 percent of people failed to wash their hands after handling raw eggs. Finally, cook your eggs—thoroughly (or, if they're an ingredient in a dish, to 160°F).
6.Cantaloupe
The dirt: File this under "Who knew?" When the FDA sampled domestically grown cantaloupe, it found that 3.5 percent of the melons carried Salmonella and Shigella, the latter a bacteria normally passed person-to-person. Among imported cantaloupe, 7 percent tested positive for both bugs. And because you eat melons raw, the bacteria go right down your gullet. That's a big part of the reason why from 1990 to 2001, produce in general has sickened as many people as have beef and poultry combined.
At the supermarket: Dents or bruising on the fruit can provide a path in for pathogens. But don't think precut cantaloupe is safer. "I've been in several supermarkets where the produce was cut by personnel who didn't wash their hands after handling eggs and other items," says Anderson.
At home: Because cantaloupe grows on the ground and has a netted exterior, it's easy for Salmonella to sneak on, and once on, it's hard to clean off. Scrub the fruit with a dab of mild dishwashing liquid for 15 to 30 seconds under running water. And make sure you buy a scrub brush that you use exclusively to clean fruits and vegetables; otherwise it could become cross-contaminated.
7.Peaches
The dirt: Being pretty as a peach comes at a price. The fruit is doused with pesticides in the weeks prior to harvest to ensure blemish-free skin. By the time it arrives in your produce department, the typical peach can be coated with up to nine different pesticides, according to USDA sampling. And while apples tote a wider variety of pesticides, the sheer amount and strength of those on peaches sets the fuzzy fruit apart. On an index of pesticide toxicity devised by Consumers Union, peaches rank highest.
At the supermarket: Fill your plastic produce bag with peaches that wear a "USDA Organic" sticker. And since apples, grapes, pears, and green beans occupy top spots on the Toxicity Index, too, you may want to opt for organic here as well. Just know that organic produce also contains some pesticide residues, but in minuscule amounts.
At home: Wax on, wax off. "A lot of produce has a natural wax coating that holds pesticides, so wash with a sponge or scrub brush and a dab of mild dishwashing detergent. This can eliminate more than half of the residues," says Edward Groth III, Ph.D., a senior scientist with Consumers Union. Got kids? Play it extra safe, and wash and pare peaches, apples, and pears.
8.Prepackaged Lettuce
The dirt: Don't look now, but the lettuce on a burger could cause you more grief than the beef. Outbreaks of E. coli sickened 36 people in San Diego in September 2003 and sent 29 people reeling in eastern Washington in July 2002. In both cases, prepackaged lettuce was to blame. And according to the Center for Science in the Public Interest, lettuce accounted for 11 percent of reported food-poisoning outbreaks linked to produce from 1990 to 2002, and "salad" accounted for 28 percent.
At the supermarket: Prepackaged salad mix is not inherently more hazardous than loose greens or a head of lettuce. It's the claims of being "triple washed" that lull consumers into complacency. "Just because something is wrapped in cellophane doesn't mean it's free of pathogens," says J. Glenn Morris, M.D., chairman of epidemiology and preventive medicine at the University of Maryland school of medicine.
At home: Rinse salad greens one leaf at a time under running water before eating. Beware of cross-contamination, too. "People know it's risky to put salad in the same colander they washed chicken in," says Anderson, "but they think nothing of touching a towel used to wipe up poultry juice, then making a salad."
9.Cold Cuts
The dirt: Germs don't take a number in the deli; cold cuts have been labeled at "high risk" of causing listeriosis by a joint team of researchers from the USDA, FDA, and CDC. While only 3 percent of the deli meats sampled contained Listeria at the point of purchase, the bacteria's rapid growth rate on cuts stored even under ideal conditions concerned researchers. Combine that with the fact that cold cuts are, well, eaten cold, and you've got trouble; Listeria thrives at refrigerator temperatures that stun other foodborne pathogens.
At the supermarket: Turns out the most likely source of Listeria-contaminated cold cuts is the deli slicer. Without regular cleaning, the blade can transfer bacteria from roast beef to turkey to pastrami and back. But aside from asking the clerk to stop and clean the slicer before handling your order, the best you can do is avoid delis that are obviously dirty and stick with those that are annoyingly busy. Meats that rotate through a deli quickly have less opportunity to bloom with Listeria.
At home: From now on, skip the sniff test and trash whatever meat you haven't eaten in a week. When you're ready to build your sandwich, slather on the mustard. Researchers at Washington State University killed off 90 percent of three potent pathogens—Listeria, E. coli, and Salmonella—within 2 hours of exposing them to a mustard compound.
10.Scallions
The dirt: Scallions play a bit part in most dishes, but a little goes a long way, as evidenced by the massive hepatitis A outbreak at that Chi-Chi's last October. Dirty scallions have also triggered small hep A outbreaks in Georgia, North Carolina, and Tennessee. Other bugs known to have grabbed a ride on green onions include the parasite Cryptosporidium, Shigella, and the ever-present Salmonella. In FDA tests, U.S.-grown scallions carried Salmonella or Shigella in 3 percent of samples, nearly twice the number detected in imported samples.
At the supermarket: Forget trying to weed out U.S. or Mexican scallions. Given current labeling laws, grocers are under no obligation to list the country of origin of any produce item. More important, buy refrigerated scallions; room temperature can trigger a bacterial explosion.
At home: Turn on your faucet full force to blast away visible dirt. As you rinse, remove the outer sheath to expose lingering microorganisms, but realize that any step short of thorough cooking is only a partial solution. "More and more, pathogens are entering produce like scallions at a cellular level," says Caroline Smith DeWaal, director of food safety at the Center for Science in the Public Interest.
27.4.09
Restauracje proponują klientom "Płaćcie ile chcecie"
PAP
24-04-2009, 11:59
Aby ratować dotknięte kryzysem francuskie restauracje, ich właściciele coraz częściej proponują klientom negocjowanie ceny serwowanych dań w myśl zasady: "Płać, ile chcesz" - pisze w piątek dziennik "Le Parisien".
Jak donosi gazeta, w dobie kryzysu restauratorzy chwytają się różnych pomysłów, by nie stracić klientów. Część z nich, jak sieć kafejek przy supermarketach "Casino", proponuje dzieciom, które przychodzą z rodzicami, darmowe antykryzysowe menu w okresie ferii szkolnych.
Innym coraz bardziej popularnym pomysłem jest zapożyczona z Anglii formuła "Pay what you want" ("Płać, ile chcesz"). Po cenowych negocjacjach z obsługą ceny posiłków mogą spaść nawet o połowę. Tak jest w wymienionych przez "Le Parisien" restauracjach w Marsylii czy Bordeaux, gdzie cena menu obiadowego z deserem w zwykłej cenie 16 euro spada średnio do 8 euro.
Podobny pomysł negocjacji ceny z potencjalnymi nabywcami wprowadzają handlowcy różnych branż. Internetowy sklep odzieżowy Brandalley wystawił po raz pierwszy na aukcyjną sprzedaż 10 tysięcy sztuk markowej odzieży za minimalną cenę 1 euro. Także biura podróży i parki rozrywki, jak paryski Eurodisneyland czy Park Asteriksa, oferują darmowy wstęp, zakwaterowanie lub nawet bilety lotnicze dla dzieci podróżujących w towarzystwie rodziców.
24-04-2009, 11:59
Aby ratować dotknięte kryzysem francuskie restauracje, ich właściciele coraz częściej proponują klientom negocjowanie ceny serwowanych dań w myśl zasady: "Płać, ile chcesz" - pisze w piątek dziennik "Le Parisien".
Jak donosi gazeta, w dobie kryzysu restauratorzy chwytają się różnych pomysłów, by nie stracić klientów. Część z nich, jak sieć kafejek przy supermarketach "Casino", proponuje dzieciom, które przychodzą z rodzicami, darmowe antykryzysowe menu w okresie ferii szkolnych.
Innym coraz bardziej popularnym pomysłem jest zapożyczona z Anglii formuła "Pay what you want" ("Płać, ile chcesz"). Po cenowych negocjacjach z obsługą ceny posiłków mogą spaść nawet o połowę. Tak jest w wymienionych przez "Le Parisien" restauracjach w Marsylii czy Bordeaux, gdzie cena menu obiadowego z deserem w zwykłej cenie 16 euro spada średnio do 8 euro.
Podobny pomysł negocjacji ceny z potencjalnymi nabywcami wprowadzają handlowcy różnych branż. Internetowy sklep odzieżowy Brandalley wystawił po raz pierwszy na aukcyjną sprzedaż 10 tysięcy sztuk markowej odzieży za minimalną cenę 1 euro. Także biura podróży i parki rozrywki, jak paryski Eurodisneyland czy Park Asteriksa, oferują darmowy wstęp, zakwaterowanie lub nawet bilety lotnicze dla dzieci podróżujących w towarzystwie rodziców.
Pocałuj mnie, a powiem kim jesteś…
KS, miamiherald.com
26.04.2009 09:51
Za oknami cudowne słońce. Najwyższa pora na wiosenne tematy. Na przykład - pocałunek. Ten Rodina, pocałunek śmierci, pocałunek Judasza – tak wiele konotacji i symboliki związanej z tym prostym ludzkim aktem. A co na temat pocałunku twierdzą naukowcy?
Nauka, jak zwykle, rozkłada proste czynności na części pierwsze. Jak donosi „The Miami Herald”, bazując na opiniach psychologów ewolucyjnych, całowanie nie jest tylko przyjemnością samą w sobie, ale służy również pewnemu celowi. Według naukowców, pocałunek pomaga w wyborze właściwego partnera. Dzięki fizycznej bliskości towarzyszącej pocałunkowi mamy dostęp do wielu informacji (zapach, dotyk) niedostępnych w zwykłych kontaktach.
Zdaniem amerykańskich uczonych, w chwili pocałunku aktywują się wrodzone mechanizmy pomagające określić „zdrowie, status reprodukcyjny oraz genetyczną kompatybilność” drugiej osoby. Duża część kory mózgowej odpowiedzialna jest za odbieranie i analizowanie bodźców właśnie z okolic ust, policzków, języka i nosa (5 z 12 nerwów czaszkowych przekazuje informację z okolic ust).
Dlatego, z ewolucyjnego punktu widzenia, pocałunek jest formą autoreklamy. Potwierdzają to badania wśród studentów, które wykazały, iż 59% mężczyzn oraz 66% kobiet przynajmniej raz miało do czynienia z osobą atrakcyjną, która po pierwszym pocałunku przestała ich interesować.
Oto kilka interesujących faktów na temat całowania:
• Około 60%osób, zarówno mężczyzn i kobiet, przechyla głowę w prawą stronę i to niezależnie od tego, czy ktoś jest prawo- czy lewo-ręczny.
• Oprócz ludzi tylko szympansy włączyły całowanie w swój repertuar zachowań międzyosobniczych. Ponadto całusy są używane do załagodzenia konfliktów
• Jeśli chodzi o konflikty i rasę ludzką, to mężczyźni, w przeciwieństwie do kobiet, uważają całowanie za bardzo dobry sposób na zakończenie sporów.
• Hormony i neuroprzekaźniki, które dochodzą do głosu w trakcie całowanie to adrenalina, endorfiny, oksytocyna, serotonina i dopomina. Reakcje zachodzące w organizmie przyspieszają one pracę serca, poszerzają naczynia krwionośne, sprawiają, iż zwiększa się dopływ tlenu. Całowanie obniża również poziom kortyzolu, czyli redukuje stres. Jednak badania laboratoryjne wykazują, iż poziom oksytocyny (odpowiedzialnej za tworzenie więzi między partnerami) wzrasta wśród mężczyzn, ale znacznie obniża się u kobiet. Prawdopodobnie potrzebują one bardziej romantycznych warunków niż może to zapewnić laboratorium.
• Nauka o całowaniu nosi nazwę filematologii, więc zdanie „W czasach studenckich dużo czasu poświęciłem filematologii” kryje przyjemną treść, a z pewnością zabrzmi poważnie.
26.04.2009 09:51
Za oknami cudowne słońce. Najwyższa pora na wiosenne tematy. Na przykład - pocałunek. Ten Rodina, pocałunek śmierci, pocałunek Judasza – tak wiele konotacji i symboliki związanej z tym prostym ludzkim aktem. A co na temat pocałunku twierdzą naukowcy?
Nauka, jak zwykle, rozkłada proste czynności na części pierwsze. Jak donosi „The Miami Herald”, bazując na opiniach psychologów ewolucyjnych, całowanie nie jest tylko przyjemnością samą w sobie, ale służy również pewnemu celowi. Według naukowców, pocałunek pomaga w wyborze właściwego partnera. Dzięki fizycznej bliskości towarzyszącej pocałunkowi mamy dostęp do wielu informacji (zapach, dotyk) niedostępnych w zwykłych kontaktach.
Zdaniem amerykańskich uczonych, w chwili pocałunku aktywują się wrodzone mechanizmy pomagające określić „zdrowie, status reprodukcyjny oraz genetyczną kompatybilność” drugiej osoby. Duża część kory mózgowej odpowiedzialna jest za odbieranie i analizowanie bodźców właśnie z okolic ust, policzków, języka i nosa (5 z 12 nerwów czaszkowych przekazuje informację z okolic ust).
Dlatego, z ewolucyjnego punktu widzenia, pocałunek jest formą autoreklamy. Potwierdzają to badania wśród studentów, które wykazały, iż 59% mężczyzn oraz 66% kobiet przynajmniej raz miało do czynienia z osobą atrakcyjną, która po pierwszym pocałunku przestała ich interesować.
Oto kilka interesujących faktów na temat całowania:
• Około 60%osób, zarówno mężczyzn i kobiet, przechyla głowę w prawą stronę i to niezależnie od tego, czy ktoś jest prawo- czy lewo-ręczny.
• Oprócz ludzi tylko szympansy włączyły całowanie w swój repertuar zachowań międzyosobniczych. Ponadto całusy są używane do załagodzenia konfliktów
• Jeśli chodzi o konflikty i rasę ludzką, to mężczyźni, w przeciwieństwie do kobiet, uważają całowanie za bardzo dobry sposób na zakończenie sporów.
• Hormony i neuroprzekaźniki, które dochodzą do głosu w trakcie całowanie to adrenalina, endorfiny, oksytocyna, serotonina i dopomina. Reakcje zachodzące w organizmie przyspieszają one pracę serca, poszerzają naczynia krwionośne, sprawiają, iż zwiększa się dopływ tlenu. Całowanie obniża również poziom kortyzolu, czyli redukuje stres. Jednak badania laboratoryjne wykazują, iż poziom oksytocyny (odpowiedzialnej za tworzenie więzi między partnerami) wzrasta wśród mężczyzn, ale znacznie obniża się u kobiet. Prawdopodobnie potrzebują one bardziej romantycznych warunków niż może to zapewnić laboratorium.
• Nauka o całowaniu nosi nazwę filematologii, więc zdanie „W czasach studenckich dużo czasu poświęciłem filematologii” kryje przyjemną treść, a z pewnością zabrzmi poważnie.
18.4.09
First Thing: Kill All the Boomers
4/14/2009 4:41:51 PM
by Bennett Gordon
Tags: Politics, Baby Boomers, This Magazine, generations
The Baby Boomers were never bestowed the honor of being named the “Greatest Generation.” They got to witness the beginnings of the tech revolution, only to realize that an 11-year-old kid could do more with a computer than they would ever be able to. Now, in what should be their golden years, they’re being attacked.
Writing for This Magazine, RM Vaughan takes a shot at the increasingly helpless Baby Boomers. He writes:
While I don't condone violence, I can condone a reasonable, humane culling of the aging herd. They don't have to actually die, just virtually pass away. And here's how: if you are a boomer, stop. Just stop. Stop working, stop acquiring, stop micro-managing your (and my) universe, stop sucking the life out of popular culture, stop going outdoors in those ghastly Crocs and Tilley Endurable hats, and, please, stop talking about how you're eventually going to stop and, instead, stop. Now.
A similar point was made by Joseph Hart in the September-October issue of Utne Reader, when he wrote:
They promised a revolution and boy did they deliver. Safety net: shredded. Social Security: squandered. Liberalism: perished. Fairness: forgotten. Great Society: whatever. Do I even need to mention climate change? AIDS? The Monkees? So now they want to pass on their wisdom to the rest of us. Uh-huh.
Poor Boomers. They just can’t get no satisfaction.
Sources: This Magazine, Utne Reader
No country for old men
Baby boomers: drop the watercolours, back away slowly
RM Vaughan
In last spring's flimsy caper comedy Mad Money, an uneasy truth lingered beneath the slapstick thievery and rolling-in-greenbacks hijinks: the fabled baby boomers, now hitting their early 60s, have no idea how to deal with the diminishing returns of their impending senior citizenship. Pardon me if I gloat.
The film opens with Diane Keaton and Ted Danson, a greying upper-class couple with grown children, flitting around their vast, over-decorated home like panicked pelicans, wattles and all. Ted's character has lost his job, and Diane's has never worked. They contemplate getting jobs for which they are overqualified (or simply too self-important) to perform, but are so horrified by this prospect that when Diane finally does get a crappy job, her desperation and complete disbelief in her change of fortune leads her to go on a gluttonous crime spree.
Watching Mad Money, it occurred to me that, as a post-boomer, generation X-er, echo baby — choose your own term — I have performed many jobs "beneath" my education or class standing. And so has everybody I know.
In fact, I can't think of one person from my generation who has not spent at least half of his or her adult life gainfully underemployed — typically by boomers with a third, or less, of our education and credentials. For clarification, I am, according to most demographic standards, a near-boomer. I prefer the term "post-boomer," thank you, if the B-word must be used.
I was born in 1965, the year traditionally cited as the end of the post-WWII baby boom. But I have always considered this calendar system woefully imprecise. Boomers are a cultural phenomenon — as they like to tell us every single day — and not a demographic one.
A boomer is someone whose first "English Invasion" pop music crush was the Beatles. Mine was the Sex Pistols (and that's one hell of a telling gulf). A boomer fondly remembers his or her first colour television. A post-boomer remembers the day the cable was hooked up. Boomers were taken to Expo '67 to get their first taste of culture on a grand scale. Post-boomers were taken to ... well, nothing.
One of the first bitter lessons we postboomers learned about the adult world is that once a boomer has all the cake he or she wants (practically free university tuition, full universal health care, bountiful entry-level jobs with minimal qualifications, CUSO), they don't put the rest of the cake in the freezer for a future sweet tooth — they take a hammer to it and shove the mush down the garberator.
But now boomers are edging toward their golden years and you can see the fear steaming out of day spas and rumbling across golf courses like a charged purple haze.
Naturally, they've turned a timeless reality into a fresh business opportunity. Bookstores are packed with how-to-age books for boomers. The ever-resourceful Moses Znaimer has dubbed his own pre-walker days his "zoomer" years and created a magazine to sell the brand. Radio stations are converting to Age of Aquarius nap-time programming, and televisions are flooded with gardening and travel shows.
Sherry Cooper's bestselling The New Retirement: How It Will Change Our Future (the hubris of the boomers demands that everything they do be declared "new" — what next, The New Death?) attempts to counter boomer mortality anxiety with recipes for "wellness" management and, most important, investment profit maximization (one suspects the two goals are mutually inclusive).
According to sherrycooper.com, "boomers will redefine retirement with great energy and creativity, working well beyond age 65 and mostly by choice...healthy goal-driven boomers will seek purposeful leisure..." Am I the only person who finds that paragraph terrifying?
Working "well beyond age 65"? Swell. That's great news for the economy, transnational trade, all levels of government, the civil service, the CBC, academia, the arts (I could go on here, but it's too depressing). Seasons 30 to 40 of The Vinyl Café ought to be a riot.
And what exactly is this futuristic-sounding "purposeful leisure"? I read that quote to a fellow post-boomer artist, and he stopped cold, gulped, and said, "Oh God, now they're all going to be artists ... watercolours are back."
While I don't condone violence, I can condone a reasonable, humane culling of the aging herd. They don't have to actually die, just virtually pass away. And here's how: if you are a boomer, stop. Just stop. Stop working, stop acquiring, stop micro-managing your (and my) universe, stop sucking the life out of popular culture, stop going outdoors in those ghastly Crocs and Tilley Endurable hats, and, please, stop talking about how you're eventually going to stop and, instead, stop. Now.
You've had a good run, flower children, longer than anybody else's, but the bloom's off, it's last call at Alice's Café, time to relocate. I hear P.E.I. is nice, and it has a convenient bridge. The kind that locks at night.
THIS MAGAZINE. BECAUSE EVERYTHING IS POLITICAL
This Magazine is the leading alternative Canadian magazine of politics, pop culture, and the arts.
Tangled Up in ME
Joseph Hart Utne Reader
It's finally happening. In spite of the plastic surgery, the Viagra, the three-wheeled motorcycles -- the baby boomers are feeling old. As the Wonder Years fade to the Blunder Years, they're gazing deeply into the unflattering mirror. They're seeing wrinkles and gray hair. And they're saying, 'Hey, we're elders! Far out! Let's mentor someone!'
Forgive me if I don't camp overnight for tickets to that show.
Isn't it enough that we'll be the underpaid and uninsured chumps who'll wheel them to the 'bongo room' at the assisted-living facility? Do we have to listen to them drone on about their acid-drenched weekend at Woodstock, too?
This is the generation that exhorted us to never trust anyone older than 30 -- then grew up and proved the point by ushering in the long nightmare of social conservatism and permanent war that is our current reality. They promised a revolution and boy did they deliver. Safety net: shredded. Social Security: squandered. Liberalism: perished. Fairness: forgotten. Great Society: whatever. Do I even need to mention climate change? AIDS? The Monkees? So now they want to pass on their wisdom to the rest of us. Uh-huh.
OK, OK. I know I'm trading in gross generalizations here. I mean, some of my best friends are baby boomers. In fact, one of them just informed me that all alternative rock can be traced to Rubber Soul. (Really? Even Motorhead?)
I'm actually pretty invested in the notion of mentorship; I've always had a soft spot for geezers. I'm the afterthought child of pre-boomer parents, so I spent most of my childhood with a couple of taciturn members of the 'Silent Generation.' When they and their peers finally lurched out of their collective coma and began talking about the past, it was riveting.
My mother told me about her father's struggles to find a job during the Great Depression, and about the hobos who came to the back door to beg for food. She spoke about her work as a Dorothy Day-style Catholic, and how the dawn of World War II, while it ended the Depression, plunged us into conservatism after a long and hard-won battle over fairness and class consciousness. My dad told stories of stumbling into anti-aircraft nests hidden in the woods in Central Park, and about the rumors that Japanese subs were in the harbor off the coast of Long Island. He told me about his search for college, and how he was turned down by one school after another because they'd filled their quota of Jews.
These stories had value because they were remote from my experience and therefore became a measure of it. They opened up the history of my country and my people like a knife opens a vein. It's hard not to roll my eyes at the notion of boomers as mentors because their history is so pervasive. Is there a three-minute period of their collective experience that hasn't been made into an hour-long VH1 documentary? I have my own acid-drenched weekends to (blearily) recall, thank you very much.
I recently slogged through a puff piece on Paul McCartney in the New Yorker (a magazine, incidentally, that has been scrubbed free of its wit and style by, yup, baby boomers). McCartney is perhaps the quintessential boomer: a banal, modestly talented guy who's been elevated to genius status by an accident of demographics. But maybe, I thought, the New Yorker had managed to uncover some shred of wisdom from the 65-year-old musician. Alas. 'There was one guy who wrote 'Yesterday,' and I was him,' McCartney muses. 'You have to pinch yourself.'
Such misty-eyed sessions of 'those-were-the-days' tend to dominate the landscape of aging boomer culture, as does a sort of innocent grandiosity. Al Gore more or less claiming to have invented the Internet is just one item on a long list of willful superimpositions: The Beatles as if there were no Elvis; free love as if there were no Emma Goldman; utopian communes as if there were no American Transcendentalists; student movements as if there were no Latin America; LSD as if there were no laudanum.
Given this inability to put their personal experience in context, it's hard to see what boomers have to offer us in the way of mentorship. I think I speak for many when I suggest that as they become 'elders,' a higher road and more challenging practice would be for them to shut up and listen for a change.
Contributing editor Joseph Hart, 39, lives in Viroqua, Wisconsin, and is more of a hippie than he lets on.
by Bennett Gordon
Tags: Politics, Baby Boomers, This Magazine, generations
The Baby Boomers were never bestowed the honor of being named the “Greatest Generation.” They got to witness the beginnings of the tech revolution, only to realize that an 11-year-old kid could do more with a computer than they would ever be able to. Now, in what should be their golden years, they’re being attacked.
Writing for This Magazine, RM Vaughan takes a shot at the increasingly helpless Baby Boomers. He writes:
While I don't condone violence, I can condone a reasonable, humane culling of the aging herd. They don't have to actually die, just virtually pass away. And here's how: if you are a boomer, stop. Just stop. Stop working, stop acquiring, stop micro-managing your (and my) universe, stop sucking the life out of popular culture, stop going outdoors in those ghastly Crocs and Tilley Endurable hats, and, please, stop talking about how you're eventually going to stop and, instead, stop. Now.
A similar point was made by Joseph Hart in the September-October issue of Utne Reader, when he wrote:
They promised a revolution and boy did they deliver. Safety net: shredded. Social Security: squandered. Liberalism: perished. Fairness: forgotten. Great Society: whatever. Do I even need to mention climate change? AIDS? The Monkees? So now they want to pass on their wisdom to the rest of us. Uh-huh.
Poor Boomers. They just can’t get no satisfaction.
Sources: This Magazine, Utne Reader
No country for old men
Baby boomers: drop the watercolours, back away slowly
RM Vaughan
In last spring's flimsy caper comedy Mad Money, an uneasy truth lingered beneath the slapstick thievery and rolling-in-greenbacks hijinks: the fabled baby boomers, now hitting their early 60s, have no idea how to deal with the diminishing returns of their impending senior citizenship. Pardon me if I gloat.
The film opens with Diane Keaton and Ted Danson, a greying upper-class couple with grown children, flitting around their vast, over-decorated home like panicked pelicans, wattles and all. Ted's character has lost his job, and Diane's has never worked. They contemplate getting jobs for which they are overqualified (or simply too self-important) to perform, but are so horrified by this prospect that when Diane finally does get a crappy job, her desperation and complete disbelief in her change of fortune leads her to go on a gluttonous crime spree.
Watching Mad Money, it occurred to me that, as a post-boomer, generation X-er, echo baby — choose your own term — I have performed many jobs "beneath" my education or class standing. And so has everybody I know.
In fact, I can't think of one person from my generation who has not spent at least half of his or her adult life gainfully underemployed — typically by boomers with a third, or less, of our education and credentials. For clarification, I am, according to most demographic standards, a near-boomer. I prefer the term "post-boomer," thank you, if the B-word must be used.
I was born in 1965, the year traditionally cited as the end of the post-WWII baby boom. But I have always considered this calendar system woefully imprecise. Boomers are a cultural phenomenon — as they like to tell us every single day — and not a demographic one.
A boomer is someone whose first "English Invasion" pop music crush was the Beatles. Mine was the Sex Pistols (and that's one hell of a telling gulf). A boomer fondly remembers his or her first colour television. A post-boomer remembers the day the cable was hooked up. Boomers were taken to Expo '67 to get their first taste of culture on a grand scale. Post-boomers were taken to ... well, nothing.
One of the first bitter lessons we postboomers learned about the adult world is that once a boomer has all the cake he or she wants (practically free university tuition, full universal health care, bountiful entry-level jobs with minimal qualifications, CUSO), they don't put the rest of the cake in the freezer for a future sweet tooth — they take a hammer to it and shove the mush down the garberator.
But now boomers are edging toward their golden years and you can see the fear steaming out of day spas and rumbling across golf courses like a charged purple haze.
Naturally, they've turned a timeless reality into a fresh business opportunity. Bookstores are packed with how-to-age books for boomers. The ever-resourceful Moses Znaimer has dubbed his own pre-walker days his "zoomer" years and created a magazine to sell the brand. Radio stations are converting to Age of Aquarius nap-time programming, and televisions are flooded with gardening and travel shows.
Sherry Cooper's bestselling The New Retirement: How It Will Change Our Future (the hubris of the boomers demands that everything they do be declared "new" — what next, The New Death?) attempts to counter boomer mortality anxiety with recipes for "wellness" management and, most important, investment profit maximization (one suspects the two goals are mutually inclusive).
According to sherrycooper.com, "boomers will redefine retirement with great energy and creativity, working well beyond age 65 and mostly by choice...healthy goal-driven boomers will seek purposeful leisure..." Am I the only person who finds that paragraph terrifying?
Working "well beyond age 65"? Swell. That's great news for the economy, transnational trade, all levels of government, the civil service, the CBC, academia, the arts (I could go on here, but it's too depressing). Seasons 30 to 40 of The Vinyl Café ought to be a riot.
And what exactly is this futuristic-sounding "purposeful leisure"? I read that quote to a fellow post-boomer artist, and he stopped cold, gulped, and said, "Oh God, now they're all going to be artists ... watercolours are back."
While I don't condone violence, I can condone a reasonable, humane culling of the aging herd. They don't have to actually die, just virtually pass away. And here's how: if you are a boomer, stop. Just stop. Stop working, stop acquiring, stop micro-managing your (and my) universe, stop sucking the life out of popular culture, stop going outdoors in those ghastly Crocs and Tilley Endurable hats, and, please, stop talking about how you're eventually going to stop and, instead, stop. Now.
You've had a good run, flower children, longer than anybody else's, but the bloom's off, it's last call at Alice's Café, time to relocate. I hear P.E.I. is nice, and it has a convenient bridge. The kind that locks at night.
THIS MAGAZINE. BECAUSE EVERYTHING IS POLITICAL
This Magazine is the leading alternative Canadian magazine of politics, pop culture, and the arts.
Tangled Up in ME
Joseph Hart Utne Reader
It's finally happening. In spite of the plastic surgery, the Viagra, the three-wheeled motorcycles -- the baby boomers are feeling old. As the Wonder Years fade to the Blunder Years, they're gazing deeply into the unflattering mirror. They're seeing wrinkles and gray hair. And they're saying, 'Hey, we're elders! Far out! Let's mentor someone!'
Forgive me if I don't camp overnight for tickets to that show.
Isn't it enough that we'll be the underpaid and uninsured chumps who'll wheel them to the 'bongo room' at the assisted-living facility? Do we have to listen to them drone on about their acid-drenched weekend at Woodstock, too?
This is the generation that exhorted us to never trust anyone older than 30 -- then grew up and proved the point by ushering in the long nightmare of social conservatism and permanent war that is our current reality. They promised a revolution and boy did they deliver. Safety net: shredded. Social Security: squandered. Liberalism: perished. Fairness: forgotten. Great Society: whatever. Do I even need to mention climate change? AIDS? The Monkees? So now they want to pass on their wisdom to the rest of us. Uh-huh.
OK, OK. I know I'm trading in gross generalizations here. I mean, some of my best friends are baby boomers. In fact, one of them just informed me that all alternative rock can be traced to Rubber Soul. (Really? Even Motorhead?)
I'm actually pretty invested in the notion of mentorship; I've always had a soft spot for geezers. I'm the afterthought child of pre-boomer parents, so I spent most of my childhood with a couple of taciturn members of the 'Silent Generation.' When they and their peers finally lurched out of their collective coma and began talking about the past, it was riveting.
My mother told me about her father's struggles to find a job during the Great Depression, and about the hobos who came to the back door to beg for food. She spoke about her work as a Dorothy Day-style Catholic, and how the dawn of World War II, while it ended the Depression, plunged us into conservatism after a long and hard-won battle over fairness and class consciousness. My dad told stories of stumbling into anti-aircraft nests hidden in the woods in Central Park, and about the rumors that Japanese subs were in the harbor off the coast of Long Island. He told me about his search for college, and how he was turned down by one school after another because they'd filled their quota of Jews.
These stories had value because they were remote from my experience and therefore became a measure of it. They opened up the history of my country and my people like a knife opens a vein. It's hard not to roll my eyes at the notion of boomers as mentors because their history is so pervasive. Is there a three-minute period of their collective experience that hasn't been made into an hour-long VH1 documentary? I have my own acid-drenched weekends to (blearily) recall, thank you very much.
I recently slogged through a puff piece on Paul McCartney in the New Yorker (a magazine, incidentally, that has been scrubbed free of its wit and style by, yup, baby boomers). McCartney is perhaps the quintessential boomer: a banal, modestly talented guy who's been elevated to genius status by an accident of demographics. But maybe, I thought, the New Yorker had managed to uncover some shred of wisdom from the 65-year-old musician. Alas. 'There was one guy who wrote 'Yesterday,' and I was him,' McCartney muses. 'You have to pinch yourself.'
Such misty-eyed sessions of 'those-were-the-days' tend to dominate the landscape of aging boomer culture, as does a sort of innocent grandiosity. Al Gore more or less claiming to have invented the Internet is just one item on a long list of willful superimpositions: The Beatles as if there were no Elvis; free love as if there were no Emma Goldman; utopian communes as if there were no American Transcendentalists; student movements as if there were no Latin America; LSD as if there were no laudanum.
Given this inability to put their personal experience in context, it's hard to see what boomers have to offer us in the way of mentorship. I think I speak for many when I suggest that as they become 'elders,' a higher road and more challenging practice would be for them to shut up and listen for a change.
Contributing editor Joseph Hart, 39, lives in Viroqua, Wisconsin, and is more of a hippie than he lets on.
John Hopkins study on cancer
AFTER YEARS OF TELLING PEOPLE CHEMOTHERAPY IS THE ONLY WAY
TO (TRY IS THE KEY WORD) AND ELIMINATE CANCER, JOHN HOPKINS
IS FINALLY STARTING TO TELL YOU THERE IS AN ALTERNATIVE WAY .
1. Every person has cancer cells in the body. These cancer
cells do not show up in the standard tests until they have
multiplied to a few billion. When doctors tell cancer
patients that there are no more cancer cells in their bodies
after treatment, it just means the tests are unable to
detect the cancer cells because they have not reached the
detectable size.
2. Cancer cells occur between 6 to more than 10 times in a
person's lifetime
3. When the person's immune system is strong the cancer
cells ill be destroyed and prevented from multiplying and
forming tumors.
4. When a person has cancer it indicates the person has
multiple nutritional deficiencies. These could be due to
genetic, environmental, food and lifestyle factors.
5. To overcome the multiple nutritional deficiencies,
changing diet and including supplements will strengthen the
immune system.
6. Chemotherapy involves poisoning the rapidly-growing
cancer cells and also destroys rapidly-growing healthy cells
in the bone marrow, gastro-intestinal tract etc, and can cause organ
damage, like liver, kidneys, heart, lungs etc.
7.. Radiation while destroying cancer cells also burns,
scars and damages healthy cells, tissues and organs.
8. Initial treatment with chemotherapy and radiation will
often reduce tumor size. However prolonged use of
chemotherapy and radiation do not result in more tumor
destruction.
9. When the body has too much toxic burden from
chemotherapy and radiation the immune system is either
compromised or destroyed, hence the person can succumb to
various kinds of infections and complications.
10. Chemotherapy and radiation can cause cancer cells to
mutate and become resistant and difficult to destroy.
Surgery can also cause cancer cells to spread to other
sites.
11. An effective way to battle cancer is to starve the
cancer cells by not feeding it with the foods it needs to
multiply.
CANCER CELLS FEED ON:
a. Sugar is a cancer-feeder. By cutting off sug
ar it cuts off one important food supply to the cancer cells. Sugar
substitutes like NutraSweet, Equal, Spoonful, etc are made
with Aspartame and it is harmful A better natural
substitute would be Manuka honey or molasses but only in
very small amounts. Table salt has a chemical added to make
it white in color. Better alternative is Bragg's aminos
or sea salt.
b. Milk causes the body to produce mucus, especially in the
gastro-intestinal tract. Cancer feeds on mucus. By cutting
off milk and substituting with unsweetened soya milk cancer
cells are being starved.
c. Cancer cells thrive in an acid environment. A meat-based
diet is acidic and it is best to eat fish, and a little
chicken rather than beef or pork. Meat also contains
livestock antibiotics, growth hormones and parasites, which
are all harmful, especially to people with cancer.
d. A diet made of 80% fresh vegetables and juice, whole
grains, seeds, nuts and a little fruits help put the body
into an alkaline environment. About 20% can be from cooked
food including beans. Fresh vegetable juices provide live
enzymes that are easily absorbed and reach down to cellular
levels within 15 minutes to nourish and enhance growth of
healthy cells. To obtain live enzymes for building healthy
cells20try and drink fresh vegetable juice (most vegetables
including bean sprouts) and eat some raw vegetables 2 or 3
times a day. Enzymes are destroyed at temperatures of 104
degrees F (40 degrees C).=0
D
e. Avoid coffee, tea, and chocolate, which have high
caffeine. Green tea is a better alternative and has
cancer-fighting properties. Water-best to drink purified
water, or filtered, to avoid known toxins and heavy metals
in tap water. Distilled water is acidic, avoid it.
12. Meat protein is difficult to digest and requires a lot
of digestive enzymes. Undigested meat remaining in the
intestines become putrefied and leads to more toxic buildup.
13. Cancer cell walls have a tough protein covering. By
refraining from or eating less meat it frees more enzymes to
attack the protein walls of cancer cells and allows the
body's killer cells to destroy the cancer cells.
14. Some supplements build up the immune system (IP6,
Flor-ssence, Essiac, anti-oxidants, vitamins, minerals, EFAs
etc.) to enable the bodies own killer cells to destroy
cancer cells. Other supplements like vitamin E are known to
cause apoptosis, or programmed cell death, the body's
normal method of disposing of damaged, unwanted, or unneeded
cells.
15. Cancer is a disease of the mind, body, and spirit. A
proactive and positive spirit will help the cancer warrior
be a survivor. Anger, unforgiveness and bitterness put the
body into a stressful and acidic environment
.. Learn to have
a loving and forgiving spirit. Learn to relax and enjoy
life.!
16. Cancer cells cannot thrive in an oxygenated
environment. Exercising daily and deep breathing help to
get more oxygen down to the cellular level. Oxygen therapy
is another means employed to destroy cancer cells.
1. No plastic containers in micro.
2. No water bottles in freezer.
3. No plastic wrap in microwave.
Johns Hopkins has recently sent this out in its
newsletters. This information is being circulated at
Walter Reed Army Medical Center as well.
Dioxin chemicals cause cancer, especially breast cancer.
Dioxins are highly poisonous to the cells of our bodies.
Don't freeze your plastic bottles with water in them as
this releases dioxins from the plastic.
Recently, Dr. Edward Fujimoto, Wellness Program Manager at
Castle Hospital , was on a TV program to explain this health
hazard. He talked about dioxins and how bad they are for us.
He said that we should not be heating our food in the
microwave using plastic containers.
This especially applies to foods that contain fat. He said
that the combination of fat, high heat, and plastics
releases dioxin into the food and ultimately into the cells
of the body. Instead, he recommends using glass, such as
Corning Ware, Pyrex or ceramic containers for heating
food. You get the same results, only without the dioxin. So
such things as TV dinners, instant ramen and20soups, etc.,
should be removed from the container and heated in something
else.
Paper isn't bad but you don't know what is in the
paper. It's just safer to use tempered glass, Corning
Ware, etc. Hereminded us that a while ago some of the fast
food restaurants moved away from the foam containers to
paper. The dioxin problem is one of the reasons.
Also, he pointed out that plastic wrap, such as Saran, is
just as dangerous when placed over foods to be cooked in the
microwave. As the food is nuked, the high heat causes
poisonous toxins to actually melt out of the plastic wrap
and drip into the food. Cover food with a paper towel
instead.
TO (TRY IS THE KEY WORD) AND ELIMINATE CANCER, JOHN HOPKINS
IS FINALLY STARTING TO TELL YOU THERE IS AN ALTERNATIVE WAY .
1. Every person has cancer cells in the body. These cancer
cells do not show up in the standard tests until they have
multiplied to a few billion. When doctors tell cancer
patients that there are no more cancer cells in their bodies
after treatment, it just means the tests are unable to
detect the cancer cells because they have not reached the
detectable size.
2. Cancer cells occur between 6 to more than 10 times in a
person's lifetime
3. When the person's immune system is strong the cancer
cells ill be destroyed and prevented from multiplying and
forming tumors.
4. When a person has cancer it indicates the person has
multiple nutritional deficiencies. These could be due to
genetic, environmental, food and lifestyle factors.
5. To overcome the multiple nutritional deficiencies,
changing diet and including supplements will strengthen the
immune system.
6. Chemotherapy involves poisoning the rapidly-growing
cancer cells and also destroys rapidly-growing healthy cells
in the bone marrow, gastro-intestinal tract etc, and can cause organ
damage, like liver, kidneys, heart, lungs etc.
7.. Radiation while destroying cancer cells also burns,
scars and damages healthy cells, tissues and organs.
8. Initial treatment with chemotherapy and radiation will
often reduce tumor size. However prolonged use of
chemotherapy and radiation do not result in more tumor
destruction.
9. When the body has too much toxic burden from
chemotherapy and radiation the immune system is either
compromised or destroyed, hence the person can succumb to
various kinds of infections and complications.
10. Chemotherapy and radiation can cause cancer cells to
mutate and become resistant and difficult to destroy.
Surgery can also cause cancer cells to spread to other
sites.
11. An effective way to battle cancer is to starve the
cancer cells by not feeding it with the foods it needs to
multiply.
CANCER CELLS FEED ON:
a. Sugar is a cancer-feeder. By cutting off sug
ar it cuts off one important food supply to the cancer cells. Sugar
substitutes like NutraSweet, Equal, Spoonful, etc are made
with Aspartame and it is harmful A better natural
substitute would be Manuka honey or molasses but only in
very small amounts. Table salt has a chemical added to make
it white in color. Better alternative is Bragg's aminos
or sea salt.
b. Milk causes the body to produce mucus, especially in the
gastro-intestinal tract. Cancer feeds on mucus. By cutting
off milk and substituting with unsweetened soya milk cancer
cells are being starved.
c. Cancer cells thrive in an acid environment. A meat-based
diet is acidic and it is best to eat fish, and a little
chicken rather than beef or pork. Meat also contains
livestock antibiotics, growth hormones and parasites, which
are all harmful, especially to people with cancer.
d. A diet made of 80% fresh vegetables and juice, whole
grains, seeds, nuts and a little fruits help put the body
into an alkaline environment. About 20% can be from cooked
food including beans. Fresh vegetable juices provide live
enzymes that are easily absorbed and reach down to cellular
levels within 15 minutes to nourish and enhance growth of
healthy cells. To obtain live enzymes for building healthy
cells20try and drink fresh vegetable juice (most vegetables
including bean sprouts) and eat some raw vegetables 2 or 3
times a day. Enzymes are destroyed at temperatures of 104
degrees F (40 degrees C).=0
D
e. Avoid coffee, tea, and chocolate, which have high
caffeine. Green tea is a better alternative and has
cancer-fighting properties. Water-best to drink purified
water, or filtered, to avoid known toxins and heavy metals
in tap water. Distilled water is acidic, avoid it.
12. Meat protein is difficult to digest and requires a lot
of digestive enzymes. Undigested meat remaining in the
intestines become putrefied and leads to more toxic buildup.
13. Cancer cell walls have a tough protein covering. By
refraining from or eating less meat it frees more enzymes to
attack the protein walls of cancer cells and allows the
body's killer cells to destroy the cancer cells.
14. Some supplements build up the immune system (IP6,
Flor-ssence, Essiac, anti-oxidants, vitamins, minerals, EFAs
etc.) to enable the bodies own killer cells to destroy
cancer cells. Other supplements like vitamin E are known to
cause apoptosis, or programmed cell death, the body's
normal method of disposing of damaged, unwanted, or unneeded
cells.
15. Cancer is a disease of the mind, body, and spirit. A
proactive and positive spirit will help the cancer warrior
be a survivor. Anger, unforgiveness and bitterness put the
body into a stressful and acidic environment
.. Learn to have
a loving and forgiving spirit. Learn to relax and enjoy
life.!
16. Cancer cells cannot thrive in an oxygenated
environment. Exercising daily and deep breathing help to
get more oxygen down to the cellular level. Oxygen therapy
is another means employed to destroy cancer cells.
1. No plastic containers in micro.
2. No water bottles in freezer.
3. No plastic wrap in microwave.
Johns Hopkins has recently sent this out in its
newsletters. This information is being circulated at
Walter Reed Army Medical Center as well.
Dioxin chemicals cause cancer, especially breast cancer.
Dioxins are highly poisonous to the cells of our bodies.
Don't freeze your plastic bottles with water in them as
this releases dioxins from the plastic.
Recently, Dr. Edward Fujimoto, Wellness Program Manager at
Castle Hospital , was on a TV program to explain this health
hazard. He talked about dioxins and how bad they are for us.
He said that we should not be heating our food in the
microwave using plastic containers.
This especially applies to foods that contain fat. He said
that the combination of fat, high heat, and plastics
releases dioxin into the food and ultimately into the cells
of the body. Instead, he recommends using glass, such as
Corning Ware, Pyrex or ceramic containers for heating
food. You get the same results, only without the dioxin. So
such things as TV dinners, instant ramen and20soups, etc.,
should be removed from the container and heated in something
else.
Paper isn't bad but you don't know what is in the
paper. It's just safer to use tempered glass, Corning
Ware, etc. Hereminded us that a while ago some of the fast
food restaurants moved away from the foam containers to
paper. The dioxin problem is one of the reasons.
Also, he pointed out that plastic wrap, such as Saran, is
just as dangerous when placed over foods to be cooked in the
microwave. As the food is nuked, the high heat causes
poisonous toxins to actually melt out of the plastic wrap
and drip into the food. Cover food with a paper towel
instead.
17.4.09
Jadalne kwiaty
Nim użyjemy kwiatów do sałaty lub ozdobienia dania, upewnijmy się , że rosły z dala od miasta i autostrad, są pozbawione sztucznych nawozów i środków ochrony roślin. Nie wszystkie kwiaty nadają się do jedzenia, niektóre mają właściwości toksyczne. Smak kwiatów jest wyraźny, koresponduje z ich zapachem. Najlepiej sprawdzają się w umiarkowanych ilościach, dodane do ozdoby.
kwiaty ozdobne: stokrotka, nagietek, rumianek, goździk ogrodowy, niecierpek, fiołek, aksamitek, nasturcja, bratek, róża, floks
kwiaty ziół: szczypior, rozmaryn, anyż, kolendra, bazylia, koper, czosnek, tymianek, oregano, mniszek lekarski, lawenda, lubczyk, ogórecznik, szałwia, mięta
kwiaty z drzew i krzewów: akacja, bez lilak, bez czarny, jabłoń, śliwka
kwiaty warzyw: cukinia, dynia, groszek zielony, fasolka szparagowa
kwiaty ozdobne: stokrotka, nagietek, rumianek, goździk ogrodowy, niecierpek, fiołek, aksamitek, nasturcja, bratek, róża, floks
kwiaty ziół: szczypior, rozmaryn, anyż, kolendra, bazylia, koper, czosnek, tymianek, oregano, mniszek lekarski, lawenda, lubczyk, ogórecznik, szałwia, mięta
kwiaty z drzew i krzewów: akacja, bez lilak, bez czarny, jabłoń, śliwka
kwiaty warzyw: cukinia, dynia, groszek zielony, fasolka szparagowa
14.4.09
Jemy za mało owoców ryb drobiu i przetworów mlecznych
PAP
13-04-2009, 11:52
Polacy jedzą zbyt dużo przetworów zbożowych, mięsa wieprzowego i cukru. Mało natomiast spożywamy mleka i jego przetworów, owoców, drobiu, ryb, olejów roślinnych, mięsa wołowego oraz roślin strączkowych - wynika z badań Instytutu Ekonomiki Rolnictwa i Gospodarki Żywnościowej.
Ze względu na sposób odżywiania mieszkańców, kraje europejskie można podzielić na 6 grup i 10 modeli konsumpcji.
Polska została zaliczona do jednej grupy z Węgrami, Słowacją, Czechami, Łotwą i Estonią.Nasz wzorzec konsumpcji został określony jako bałtycki.
Charakteryzuje się on m.in. dużym spożyciem ziemniaków i małym - produktów białkowych.
Według autorki badań, Marioli Kwasek z IERiGŻ, taki wzorzec świadczy o gorszej jakościowo diecie (uboższej w białko) w porównaniu ze "starymi" krajami UE.Wartość energetyczna żywności na jednego mieszkańca wynosi w Polsce dziennie średnio ponad 3000 kalorii, co oznacza nadkonsumpcję (dietetycy zalecają od 2200 do 2800 kalorii dziennie).
Zbyt dużo energii pochodzi z tłuszczów i cukru.Z badań wynika, że najmniej kalorycznie jedzą w Europie Słowacy i Bułgarzy, najwięcej kalorii pochłaniają obywatele Portugalii i Austrii.
Sposób odżywiania zależy oczywiście od lokalnych uwarunkowań, geograficznych i ekonomicznych, lecz ma także związek z rozwojem międzynarodowych sieci handlowych orazrestauracji typu fast food, a także modą na tzw. wygodną żywność, tj. półprodukty czy gotowe dania, jak np. zupy błyskawiczne. Znaczenie ma również rozwój turystyki oraz wszechobecne media. Regułą jest nadmierna konsumpcja w krajach wysokorozwiętnych. Zdaniem lekarzy, najkorzystniejsza dla zdrowia jest dieta śródziemnomorska, o czym świadczy średnia długość życia mieszkańców tego regionu. W Hiszpanii, we Włoszech i Francji kobiety żyją przeciętnie 84 lata; mężczyźni na Cyprze - 79 lat (w Polsce 73 lata). Zmiany sposobu odżywiania sprawiły jednak, że i w tym regionie rośnie ostatnio odsetek osób otyłych.
Badania zostały prowadzone na podstawie danych Organizacji Narodów Zjednoczonych ds. Wyżywienia i Rolnictwa (FAO).
13-04-2009, 11:52
Polacy jedzą zbyt dużo przetworów zbożowych, mięsa wieprzowego i cukru. Mało natomiast spożywamy mleka i jego przetworów, owoców, drobiu, ryb, olejów roślinnych, mięsa wołowego oraz roślin strączkowych - wynika z badań Instytutu Ekonomiki Rolnictwa i Gospodarki Żywnościowej.
Ze względu na sposób odżywiania mieszkańców, kraje europejskie można podzielić na 6 grup i 10 modeli konsumpcji.
Polska została zaliczona do jednej grupy z Węgrami, Słowacją, Czechami, Łotwą i Estonią.Nasz wzorzec konsumpcji został określony jako bałtycki.
Charakteryzuje się on m.in. dużym spożyciem ziemniaków i małym - produktów białkowych.
Według autorki badań, Marioli Kwasek z IERiGŻ, taki wzorzec świadczy o gorszej jakościowo diecie (uboższej w białko) w porównaniu ze "starymi" krajami UE.Wartość energetyczna żywności na jednego mieszkańca wynosi w Polsce dziennie średnio ponad 3000 kalorii, co oznacza nadkonsumpcję (dietetycy zalecają od 2200 do 2800 kalorii dziennie).
Zbyt dużo energii pochodzi z tłuszczów i cukru.Z badań wynika, że najmniej kalorycznie jedzą w Europie Słowacy i Bułgarzy, najwięcej kalorii pochłaniają obywatele Portugalii i Austrii.
Sposób odżywiania zależy oczywiście od lokalnych uwarunkowań, geograficznych i ekonomicznych, lecz ma także związek z rozwojem międzynarodowych sieci handlowych orazrestauracji typu fast food, a także modą na tzw. wygodną żywność, tj. półprodukty czy gotowe dania, jak np. zupy błyskawiczne. Znaczenie ma również rozwój turystyki oraz wszechobecne media. Regułą jest nadmierna konsumpcja w krajach wysokorozwiętnych. Zdaniem lekarzy, najkorzystniejsza dla zdrowia jest dieta śródziemnomorska, o czym świadczy średnia długość życia mieszkańców tego regionu. W Hiszpanii, we Włoszech i Francji kobiety żyją przeciętnie 84 lata; mężczyźni na Cyprze - 79 lat (w Polsce 73 lata). Zmiany sposobu odżywiania sprawiły jednak, że i w tym regionie rośnie ostatnio odsetek osób otyłych.
Badania zostały prowadzone na podstawie danych Organizacji Narodów Zjednoczonych ds. Wyżywienia i Rolnictwa (FAO).
11.4.09
Singapore Street Food
"IF YOU LOVE FOOD, THIS MIGHT BE THE BEST PLACE ON EARTH," said Anthony Bourdain, on his popular travel and food show No Reservations earlier this year.
No, Bourdain was not talking about France or Italy—he means Singapore, home to 3.5 million people and more than 40,000 street food vendors, called hawkers, serving an incredible mix of recipes that combine Singapore's ethnic heritage of Chinese, Malaysian, Indian and Indonesian.
"The cuisine is an amazing amalgam of influences—from the rich, elegantly spiced curries introduced to the country by travelers from the neighboring Indonesian islands of Java and Sumatra to the phenomenal stir-fries brought by its Chinese settlers. It is one of the world's most sophisticated and robustly flavored cuisines," explains James Oseland, author of the James Beard Award-winning Southeast Asian cookbook Cradle of Flavor.
The flavors of Singaporean food are robust and frequently spicy. The fare pairs Chinese cuisine with the spices of India—coriander, cumin, fennel, fenugreek, cloves, cinnamon and cardamom—and those of the Malay Peninsular—fresh root spices, herbs, aromatic fruit skins, galangal, lemongrass, ginger, turmeric, kaffir lime leaf, garlic and onions.
Hawker Favorites
Singapore is tiny, about the size of New York City, and owes its culinary traditions to another similarity—a rich history of immigration. In 1819, the British colonizers established Singapore as a port and within five years, the population grew from 150 to 10,000. Migrant workers from Malaysia, southern China, India and Indonesia flooded the island.
These immigrants gave rise to the Singaporean tradition of hawker food. When these men arrived looking for work—and leaving their wives back in their home countries—they depended on the street vendors that would visit work sites selling food. Over time, the recipes became uniquely Singaporean in taste—reflecting a blend of southern China (Hokkien, Teochew, Cantonese and Hainanes), southern India (Kerala, Tamil) and the native cuisine of the Malay Peninsular.
In modern Singapore, hawker food is central to the cuisine. It is inexpensive, authentic and can be eaten throughout the day for meals and snacks. It is sold in hawker centers and food courts, with names like Glutton Square. Each holds between 100 and 200 stalls, giving a sense of the variety and bounty available.
Although there's a seemingly endless array of hawker food, some dishes are clearly local obsessions. Laksa is one of these—a spicy noodle soup combining Malaysian and Chinese influences. It is most commonly made with rice noodles, shrimp and cockles, and flavored with coconut curry.
Hainanese Chicken Rice sounds simple—boiled chicken served with rice—but for Singaporeans, its preparation is a topic for endless conversation. It is accompanied by several condiments, including chile sauce, ginger and soy sauce.
Other favorites are: Singapore Chili Crab, whole hard shell crabs swimming in thick chile tomato gravy, and Satay (likely the most familiar of the popular dishes) with diced grilled meat laced through bamboo skewers and served with a spicy peanut sauce.
Traditional Singaporean Street Foods
Some popular dishes for authentic hawker food include:
BEEF RENDANG: Beef slowly cooked in coconut and spices such as lemongrass, ginger, garlic, chilies and turmeric
CHILI CRAB: Live crabs in a chile-spiked gravy
HAINANESE CHICKEN RICE: Poached chicken in fragrant rice cooked in chicken broth with ginger and garlic in a chile-lime sauce, ginger purée and a thick black soy sauce.
LASKA: Rice noodles covered in a gravy of coconut milk, spices, dried shrimp and chile, topped with prawns, cockles and sliced fishcake.
ROJAK: Means a "wild mix" in Malay; made with an assortment of fresh fruits and vegetables such as pineapple, cucumber, water spinach and green apple and shredded ginger bud. These are added to deep-fried soybean cakes and fried Chinese dough fritters.
SATAY: Sweet-spicy meat, barbecued over charcoal and served with a thick, sweet-hot peanut sauce and sliced cucumbers, onion and pressed rice cakes.
No, Bourdain was not talking about France or Italy—he means Singapore, home to 3.5 million people and more than 40,000 street food vendors, called hawkers, serving an incredible mix of recipes that combine Singapore's ethnic heritage of Chinese, Malaysian, Indian and Indonesian.
"The cuisine is an amazing amalgam of influences—from the rich, elegantly spiced curries introduced to the country by travelers from the neighboring Indonesian islands of Java and Sumatra to the phenomenal stir-fries brought by its Chinese settlers. It is one of the world's most sophisticated and robustly flavored cuisines," explains James Oseland, author of the James Beard Award-winning Southeast Asian cookbook Cradle of Flavor.
The flavors of Singaporean food are robust and frequently spicy. The fare pairs Chinese cuisine with the spices of India—coriander, cumin, fennel, fenugreek, cloves, cinnamon and cardamom—and those of the Malay Peninsular—fresh root spices, herbs, aromatic fruit skins, galangal, lemongrass, ginger, turmeric, kaffir lime leaf, garlic and onions.
Hawker Favorites
Singapore is tiny, about the size of New York City, and owes its culinary traditions to another similarity—a rich history of immigration. In 1819, the British colonizers established Singapore as a port and within five years, the population grew from 150 to 10,000. Migrant workers from Malaysia, southern China, India and Indonesia flooded the island.
These immigrants gave rise to the Singaporean tradition of hawker food. When these men arrived looking for work—and leaving their wives back in their home countries—they depended on the street vendors that would visit work sites selling food. Over time, the recipes became uniquely Singaporean in taste—reflecting a blend of southern China (Hokkien, Teochew, Cantonese and Hainanes), southern India (Kerala, Tamil) and the native cuisine of the Malay Peninsular.
In modern Singapore, hawker food is central to the cuisine. It is inexpensive, authentic and can be eaten throughout the day for meals and snacks. It is sold in hawker centers and food courts, with names like Glutton Square. Each holds between 100 and 200 stalls, giving a sense of the variety and bounty available.
Although there's a seemingly endless array of hawker food, some dishes are clearly local obsessions. Laksa is one of these—a spicy noodle soup combining Malaysian and Chinese influences. It is most commonly made with rice noodles, shrimp and cockles, and flavored with coconut curry.
Hainanese Chicken Rice sounds simple—boiled chicken served with rice—but for Singaporeans, its preparation is a topic for endless conversation. It is accompanied by several condiments, including chile sauce, ginger and soy sauce.
Other favorites are: Singapore Chili Crab, whole hard shell crabs swimming in thick chile tomato gravy, and Satay (likely the most familiar of the popular dishes) with diced grilled meat laced through bamboo skewers and served with a spicy peanut sauce.
Traditional Singaporean Street Foods
Some popular dishes for authentic hawker food include:
BEEF RENDANG: Beef slowly cooked in coconut and spices such as lemongrass, ginger, garlic, chilies and turmeric
CHILI CRAB: Live crabs in a chile-spiked gravy
HAINANESE CHICKEN RICE: Poached chicken in fragrant rice cooked in chicken broth with ginger and garlic in a chile-lime sauce, ginger purée and a thick black soy sauce.
LASKA: Rice noodles covered in a gravy of coconut milk, spices, dried shrimp and chile, topped with prawns, cockles and sliced fishcake.
ROJAK: Means a "wild mix" in Malay; made with an assortment of fresh fruits and vegetables such as pineapple, cucumber, water spinach and green apple and shredded ginger bud. These are added to deep-fried soybean cakes and fried Chinese dough fritters.
SATAY: Sweet-spicy meat, barbecued over charcoal and served with a thick, sweet-hot peanut sauce and sliced cucumbers, onion and pressed rice cakes.
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