Blog Marco

President Ronald Reagan designated July as National Ice Cream Month in 1984 and the third Sunday of the month was proclaimed as National Ice Cream Day. This is due to the fact that President Reagan recognized ice cream as a fun and nutritious food that is enjoyed by a full 90% of the nation's population. During such proclamation, President Reagan called for all people of the United States to observe these events with "appropriate ceremonies and activities."

The proclamation was very much supported by The International Ice Cream Association (IICA) who encourages retailers and consumers to celebrate July as National Ice Cream Month.

The U.S. ice cream industry generates more than $21 billion in annual sales and provides jobs for thousands of U.S. citizens. About 9% of all the milk produced by U.S. dairy farmers is used to produce ice cream, contributing significantly to the economic well-being of the nation's dairy industry. So aside from being very delicious, ice cream also has other benefits particularly to a nation's economy.

Prawn Pizza topping Recipe: Ingredients include: fresh prawns, anchovies, capsicum, tomato sauce with fresh basil, Spanish onion, mushrooms and mozzarella. Previous pizza: Chorizo Pizza. Here is the pizza base recipe. And don't forget to have Tabasco on standby.

Who can't live without Tabasco - the legendary sauce? Tabasco sauce is a brand of hot sauce made from tabasco peppers (Capsicum frutescens var. tabasco), vinegar, and salt, and aged in white oak barrels for three years. It has a hot, spicy flavour and is popular in many parts of the world.

Tabasco is trademarked as the brand name for the variety of tabasco sauce marketed by one of the United States' biggest producers of hot sauce, the McIlhenny Company of Avery Island, Louisiana. While there are many other kinds on the market, Tabasco is the most famous brand of "hot pepper sauce".[citation needed] Although it is produced in the United States, it acquired its name from the state of Tabasco in Mexico. The McIlhenny Company is now in its fifth generation as a family-run business. All of the 145 shareholders either inherited their stock or were given it from another living family member.

Chorizo Pizza Recipe: Ingredients include: Chorizo, olives, capsicum, tomato sauce, Spanish onion, mushrooms and mozzarella. Here is the recipe for the base.

Here's the recipe I use for making a pizza base. This quantity makes about 4 x 30cm diameter pizzas. Put whatever topping you want with Tomato sauce, basil, and cheese (mozarella).

Here's the recipe for a perfect pizza base: Mix 400g Strong Flour with 350mL warm water + 7g Sachet of Yeast + Brown Sugar to feed the yeast fungi. Mix it up the dough and clump it together. Then cover your mixing bowl with a tea towel or glad wrap and place in a warm place. (I put it on top of my computer or a warm window sill) After an hour, preheat the oven at about 240 degrees centigrade and get 200g of soft flour, a pinch of salt, a dash of olive oil (experiment with the amount) and mix together and knead the dough for about 5 to 10 minutes with your hands. We use a pizza stone to bake the pizza - I sprinkle the stone with bran to stop the pizza sticking to the stone. Put your toppings on. The oven is now preheated some 15 - 20 minutes. Place your pizza in the oven. Time to cook should be 8 to 15 minutes depending if your over is fan forced or not. Just be careful you don't burn your crust or your cheese. When cheese becomes "sunburnt" it doesn't taste as good and is really chewy instead of gooey.

Ever wondered how fish sauce is made? Fish sauce is an Asian dipping condiment and also an essential ingredient to many dishes in Vietnamese, Thai, Lao, Cambodian, and Filipino cuisine and is used in other Southeast Asian countries.

Different fish sauces have different ingredients: Some fish sauces (extracts) are made from raw fish, others from dried fish; some from only a single species, others from whatever is dredged up in the net, including some shellfish; some from whole fish, others from only the blood or viscera. Some fish sauces contain only fish and salt, others add a variety of herbs and spices. Fish sauce that has been only briefly fermented has a pronounced fishy taste, while extended fermentation reduces this and gives the product a nuttier, cheesier flavor.

In other words - fish sauce = rotten fish. But it tastes good. More info here: How fish sauce is made

A great condiment to have with steak is Worcestershire sauce... Worcestershire... its one of those mysterious English words with weird pronunciation. How do you say Worcestershire (Sauce) anyway? It's that obscure word which a lot of people are afraid to say. Wikipedia says it pronounced this way: /ˈwʊstəˌʃɪər/ But who has time to decipher that code?

Some websites claim Worcestershire is said like: "Woos-tur-shur". Or "wer-chis-ter"... or even try Wurs-ster-sheer or Wurs-ster-shire or Wurs-ster-shur or Woos-ster-shur.

A New York restaurant waiter, Steve Dublanica, has written a book called "Waiter Rant". The book exposes the restaurant industry, revealing insights into the world of waiting tables in an Italian restaurant in NYC. He writes about waiters spitting in food and about psychological games that wait staff play on restaurant customers who are abusive or arrogant clientele.

Other restaurant waitstaff behaviour described by Dublanica include selling techniues such as the "daily special" or if a customer asks, "what's good?" the answer is usually the dish which the chef needs to move otherwise the stock will go off.

Obama gobbling a hotdog in Montana on Independence day 2008. While we're on the topic of politics, remember this funny photo of Bush?

Philippine Food Festival was CRAP. Rating at a 5 out of 10 (maybe even a 4 out of ten). Around 100 people turned up. This Filipino Food festival wasn't great. The food was bland, dry and very mild in taste. Here's what the flyer claimed the meal was to be: "Enjoy tantalising South East Asian cuisine rich in exotic flavours, specially created by Michel Le Teuff, who will be our guest Executive Chef for this Festival. Chef Le Teuff joins us from the prestigious Travel Cafe Philippines, Makati City. Luscious dishes bursting with flavour will bring the essence of the Philippines to the Grace Brasserie." So where is the "tantilising" tastes we were promised Chef Le Teuff? Where are the "exotic flavours" and luscious dishes?

At AUD$45 a head at this buffet meal we were expecting much more from an international imported chef. I wasn't even "full" (busog). Compare this with a really tasty meal at Dampa in Paranaque (which is just a stone's throw away from the international airport). We were able to feed three people there for only $40. Or how about the masarap (tasty) lechon from cebu?. Hell we fed 5 people for only AUD$15 and we were soooo full then. Perhaps we should have just ate at one of my usual restaurants near UTS or just venture to Newtown for some exotic tastes from all the Thai food out there.

I have reservations about eating out now. After watching a few episodes of Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares (aired on Channel 9 - yeah we're behind again Australia) I feel sick. How can we trust restaurants? How can we trust that the kitchen is up to scratch? I'm not even sure if the amount of people sitting and eating within the restaurant is a good measure of how clean the back is (although it is a good indication that the food is good to eat since it attracts a lot of people). Men's health has an interesting article: "16 Secrets the Restaurant Industry Doesn't Want You to Know" which talks about the calories that restaurants (fast food and sit down restaurant chains) are pumping into our bodies. Is it even safe to eat out anymore? Has it ever been safe? "Bloody hell" (as Chef

Do you know what you are eating? Do you know how or why certain foods end up on your plate? Are these philosophical questions even relevant? Those are the types a new book by Raj Patel is asking. The book is entitled: Markets, Power and the Hidden Battle for the World Food System. Here's an abstract from the book:

One ingredient we consume a lot more than most of us realise is the soya bean. Patel labels it the food industry's secret ingredient.

"Soy is new, it's weird and it's absolutely everywhere," he says. "It can be found in three-quarters of products on supermarket shelves and almost everything the fast-food industry produces, and yet we have no idea, not a clue."

But the soya bean has a dark side because its mass cultivation in Brazil, especially by several big agricultural companies, has deforested vast tracts of the Amazon.

That most consumers don't make the connection between food production and its impact on the environment shows we become oblivious to what goes on to produce what we eat, Patel says.

It's interesting to see where the food we eat are coming from. Just going through my food pantry I've noticed that Oreos are made in Indonesia, Premium crispbread crackers are made in China, Instant noodles were manufactured in Korea, Fisherman's Friend mints are made in England and Vick's Vapodrops are made in India. Thankfully Buttermenthols is still made in Australia.

I'm having a craving for Thai Tea... having been introduced to it only a month ago in New Jersey, I can't believe I haven't come across this cold drink in Australia before! I love Thai food, I can claim that I have eaten Pad Thai (my favourite Thai dish) at least once in every Thai restaurant I've been to from Germany to USA and Australia...

Anyway, back to that Thai tea. I'm going to look into making myself... hopefully some Asian supermarket has the ingredients to make this truly refreshing iced tea. I've looked up a few websites, and just as I suspected, there are varying recipes: a few making it from scratch and other from pre-made syrups. According to the Wikipedia article about Thai Tea: the tea itself "is a drink made from strongly-brewed powdered black tea... Other ingredients in the powder vary, but may include added star anise, tamarind or red and yellow food coloring, and sometimes other spices as well. This tea is sweetened with sugar and condensed milk and served chilled. Evaporated or whole milk is generally poured over the tea and ice before serving--it is never mixed prior to serving--to add taste and creamy appearance.

The latest news from a free London newspaper (much like our local mX here in Sydney): "Restaurant diner was left with horrific burns after a sizzling sausage dish blew up in her face. The unnamed woman spent two weeks in hospital and needed skin grafts, said it was like 'being hit by a flame-thrower'. Rui Daniel Faria Velosa, owner of Sporting Clube de Londres in Westbourne Green, West London, was fined £4,000 and £2,000 in court costs at West London magistrates court for breaching safety rules."

A few things to note about the article:

1. A Sausage can Blow up
2. English law allows the news to name and shame restaurant owners

(Unlike in Sydney, Australia, it is not allowed for the councils to report to the public which restaurants have breached safety/health regulations

Was watching TV the other day when the TV dad offered to make huevos rancheros. Accoring to Wikipedia, its a traditional Mexican breakfast dish, with its name meaning "eggs ranch-style" or "eggs country-style". "The basic version of huevos rancheros consists of corn tortillas fried lightly, and fried eggs with a tomato–chili sauce. Refried beans (frijoles refritos), slices of avocado, fried potatoes, and extra chili peppers are common accompaniments. Scrambled eggs can be used instead of fried eggs." Variations to the recipe: cook the tortillas in the oven, soaking them in oil beforehand. Fry the egg, leaving the yolk runny. Place the egg on top of the tortilla and put beans or the salsa on top of the egg. Will I cook it? Maybe if I had leftover tortillas...