Food and Drinks : Reporting Asia News Blog

Frozen Yoghurt – I Scream.

I scream, you scream, everyone wants frozen yoghurt Frozen yoghurt is hailed as the healthful alternative option to ice cream, but is it as good for you as the selling endorses?

Frozen yoghurt Each summer the inhabitants of Japanbuckle down for a month or two of amazing heat. One of many things the sweltering residents will be squirreling away in their desperate tries to keep cool is ice cream. So much is this part of the summer that when Docomo did a survey of the Japanese frozen sweet tooth, they found that forty percent of12288;the respondents ate ice cream at least one time a week.

  Sadly for many folks all that ice cream comes at a price : a large, fat cost. Lately , the Center for Science in the general public Interest released a press document that proved that some sundaes have as much fat and calories as the average steak dinner. This should barely be surprising as most sundaes are a mixture of health horrors crowned with a cherry. With this type of bad P. R. , it is shouldn’t be any surprise that folk all around the globe are looking out for a more healthy alternative and frozen yoghurt might be the thing to please both the belly and the taste receptors.

                                  ‘Half the calories and a 5th of the dairy fat’ boasts the Yami yoghurt company of their frozen creations.

‘Low in calories and fat, high in calcium, high in protein, and it aids digestion,’ Golden Spoon’s web site boasts, offering multiple flavors and sizes to the hungry purchaser. On top of these, any person eating one of those frozen pleasures gets a microbiology degree worth of added bacteria. If it is the tongue twisting Lactobacilli bulgaricus, Streptococci themo-philus or Bifidobacteria, you may be warranted you’re getting your money’s worth of microbes and their gut-soothing benefits.

                                   All this fancy sounding language should be enough to persuade even the toughest sceptic they’re eating something healthy. The sole problem is that it doesn’t tell the entire story. Take a better look at lots of the claims and issues start to appear. For a start, many of those products publicize themselves as being healthy matched against ice cream. That is right, these products are fitter than one of the least healthy products on the market. No surprises there, even cookies have less calories than ice cream and few would disagree that they’re healthy. When something is packed with the word ‘yoghurt’ folk are likely to believe that they are purchasing something healthy.

                                     In reality frozen yoghurt is probably going to contain more sugar, less protein and more additions than standard yoghurt yoghurt. When it comes down to losing pounds, calories are the thing to look at. Dieters who fed themselves on McDonalds really shed pounds if they kept their consumption to less than their standard daily dose of calories ( while doing hideous things to their arteries, so don’t try this experiment at home ). While frozen yoghurt can appear healthy at 100-150 calories per serving, it is simple to take on additional calories that you do not want and turn a minor indulgence into health danger.

                                      For a start, these calorie counts are for little sizes, Upgrading from a little to an enormous portion quickly doubles the calories. Add on two toppings and you can find yourself consuming 5 hundred calories or even more. Weight Watchers were one of the first to counsel caution about eating heaps of frozen yoghurt. The message they’re avid to get across is that folk regularly forget to mind the minor calories, destroying completely excellent diets by not realizing the extra calories here and there are all adding up. The company is concerned to stress that a large amount of folks who desperately add weight do not consume plenty of unhealthy food ; they just have issues with plate size and these concealed additional calories.

                                        So the best diet recommendation is the recommendation that’s all so depressingly common to eaters : eat it sparsely. While frozen yoghurt can be enjoyed as an occasional treat, it’s best not to be cheated by the associations with the name into assuming that it’s a good break. The even better news is that if you actually want to eat something cold this summer, it’s a lot better for you than ice cream, but do not expect your gut to right away many thanks for it.

Smoking Ban in Hong Kong

photo credit: Lightning Lisa

It used to be cool to smoke in bars in Hong Kong.

Folk would talk about how nice it was that they ultimately did not have to wave their hands around like maniacs in eateries or bars.

Then the smoking ban gradually became a natural and taken- for-granted part of our lives. It is easily forgotten that some place else bars and eateries are still enveloped in a haze of cig smoke. I have just been to Macau, for instance, where smoking is still allowed in public areas. I’m familiarised with some smokers, and have been attempting to work out what pleasure they can get from it. Have folk taken up the habit due to stress? Is it because of peer pressure? Advert As someone that is preparing to study fashion design, I assume I’d know the attractions of smoking to the image-conscious person. Think Yves Saint Laurent’s Le Smoking or fashion icons Kate Moss or Edie Sedgwick.

                                There’s maybe something sensuous about the girl who holds a burning stick between her fingers, someone that is independent, requires time to think and welcomes nobody but smoke as her sole company. But truly, is it better to rely on some damaging substance than on somebody else? Is that independence? What about the woman who can wake up in the morning without the assistance of a nicotine rush, who can stand waiting without feeling the necessity for a cigarette? Isn’t this true independence? And then there are, naturally, the health consequences that smokers face. You regularly hear the line : “we intend to all die sometime, is it important how we die? ” What I believe matters most isn’t how we die, but the way in which we live.

                                   This week we had World Non-smoking Day and like any other day, calls were made, celebrated or regretted. Whether we decide to find smoke or clean air more pretty, whether we decide to see the slippery purpose to life or not – it is always in the final analysis up to us to select how we live our lives, here, now.

Hot Curry & Cold Beer in Hong Kong!

Hot curries and cold lager.

What better combo could you ask for? To enhance the Lan Kwai Fong Beerfest next weekend, Thai Lemongrass ( Tel : 2905-1688 ) has just launched the mum of all curry menus.

Executive chef Nutkham Phairot has made a hundred curries from 12 special flavours using seasonal tropical fruits. “Fruits add a sweet note to the curries, which suit the local taste receptors. The lychee pheanang curry, pineapple yellow curry and young coconut curry are our specials, ” announced Phairot, who comes from Chiang Mai. 

“The menu is a mix of normal Thai recipes and my twenty years of experience. ” Besides the common yellow, red and green curries, there’s the milder pheanang curry, a creamy paste blended with grounded peanuts and served with steamed jasmine rice, and the massaman curry, that has sweet and rich tastes with a touch of sour tamarind. Vegetarians can go for the red pumpkin curry while bread lovers will like the special curries served in fresh round bread.

                                  For those needing an actually hot experience, Phairot suggests the lemongrass dry curry and tom yum curry, in which perfumed herbs and hot chilies are freely used. “I am keen on the grilled entire baby chicken served with tom yum as its distinct hot and sour taste goes very well with the soft chicken, ” he revealed. Other high spots include cut beef fillet and potatoes in pheanang curry, roast duck beef and grapes in red curry, crispy soft shell crab with curry sauce, and fried blue muss els with fresh chili, garlic and basil. The dishes in the a la carte menu range from HK$78 to HK$148.

                                   Executive Matthew Cheung Wai- keung related the dishes are engineered to be healthy. “lots of our patrons are discerning about their diet. So we cook with only fresh ingredients while all herbs are immediately imported from Thailand, ” he claimed. The spices used are said to have different health values. For example, chili contains serious amounts of vitamin C and increases endorphins in the brain, the turmeric utilized in yellow curry has been identified as an anti- cancer agent, lemongrass is a natural antiseptic that aids digestion, and galangal is an old cure for sea sickness, ulcer and indigestion.

                                    “Our baked black cod fillet served with lychee pheanang curry and tiger prawns and potatoes in pineapple yellow curry served in entire pineapple have been well-received. But I appreciate the vegetarian red pumpkin curry served in a baked pumpkin. The sweet and thick curry reinforces the freshness of the plants while the mashed pumpkin is an ideal match for rice, ” expounded Cheung.

Girls Drive Liquor Sales in Korea

photo credit: mig rod

Sales of makgeolli, a conventional Korean alcohol, have surged lately, especially among girls drawn to its sweet taste, health benefits and low alcohol content.

According to the Korea Agro-Trade Center Tokyo, 6,157 tons of makgeolli were imported from South Korea in 2009, more than ten times the 611 tons imported in 1999. The figure for 2009 also represented a 26 p.c increase from the year before. 

                                  Made of rice and rice malt, makgeolli has similarities to Japan’s unfiltered nigorizake. Fermented with lactic acid bacteria, it has got a rich, sweet flavour, contains bounteous amounts of amino acid and is only six to seven % alcohol. Today, a growing spread of eateries and stores are selling makgeolli, from izakaya Japanese boozers to major superstore chains. A major South Korean brewing company also commenced across the nation sales of a new makgeolli product this month.

                                   Makgeolli was first imported to this country about twenty years back. The swift rise in imports is credited basically to the continuing boom in almost all things South Korean, and to customers’ inflating consciousness about their fitness. The makgeolli bar Tejimaul opened four years back in Shinjuku Ward, Tokyo, serving 7 sorts of the drink.

                                    Today the bar offers fifty varieties costing from five hundred yen to one thousand yen a glass. Thanks to complicated transport technology, raw makgeolli which has not been heat-treated can also be imported to Japan, where it is preferred among gourmands who enjoy the first flavour of the rice. 

                                    “There are many kinds of makgeolli, including some with mandarin orange or grape flavors,” asserted bar boss Tsuneyuki Shimazu. “There also are makgeolli cocktails.” “Because it’s loaded in amino acids and lactic acid bacteria, many female clients order [makgeolli] for its beauty and fitness benefits,” Shimazu recounted. There is also a boozer that serves fresh makgeolli made at a factory nextdoor and a brewing company which has started making makgeolli in Japan. Though most makgeolli is formed by tiny or midsize South Korean corporations, some major firms have begun to break into the market. Jinro Japan Inc, the Japanese unit of the South Korean alcoholic libation manufacturer, has started countrywide sales of a 1-liter-bottle of Jinro Makgeolli for 630 yen, including tax. This product was at first sold only in western Japan. “There is powerful demand in this country for healthy low-alcohol drinks that are straightforward to drink,” asserted Satoshi Shida, head honcho of the organization’s's advertising and PR team. “We need to come up with unique techniques of drinking makgeolli, a product that’s usually enjoyed in informal atmospheres.”.

Flying Fox Almost Extinct

 Flying Fox on the verge of extinction in Malaysia

According to a recent survey conducted by scientists, the world’s largest fruit bat, known as the Flying Fox, is on the verge of extinction in Malaysia. According to the team of scientists, Flying Fox could be extinct from Malaysia as early as 2015 if its illegal killings are not curbed.

The research concluded that around 22,000 Flying Foxes are hunted annually. 

These bats are hunted for food, medicinal purpose and as a sporting activity. The shooting takes place at dusk, when the bats fly around in search of food.

These fruit bats are an essential component of the rainforest ecosystem in Malaysia. Having a wing span of about 1.5 meters, these bats eat fruit and nectar, and while doing so they drop seeds around the forest and pollinate trees thereby, helping in the growth of rainforest trees.

The research team carried out an extensive survey to track the number of these fruit bats in Malaysia. 

They also collected the government data on hunting licenses and used a computer model to predict the future of this species while varying their death rates and their current population.

In a first such initiative in Asia, satellite telemetry was used to track these bats in Malaysia. Individual bats were tied a collar around their neck, and the signals coming from these collars were tracked by satellites to study the flying pattern of Flying Fox. This advanced tracking method showed that a 

 Flying Fox can travel approximately 60 kilometers a night in search of food.

The team of scientists has suggested that the government should impose a temporary ban on the hunting of Flying Fox so that their study can be extended and a more extensive assessment can be done. Ironically, the hunting of Flying Fox is banned in the neighboring Thailand and parts of Indonesia. 

Thus, a coordinated effort needs to be undertaken by all the neighboring countries in order to save this species from extinction.

Asian Seafood Safety

 IBM, FXA GROUP AND VIETNAM JOIN FORCES TO ENSURE GLOBAL SEAFOOD SAFETY

For years, IBM has been involved in projects relating to food and has provided millions of dollars in aid and for research and development in the field. With innovative technology, IBM has been providing effective solutions to ensure that all food products being exported are traceable at all times.

Now, in a one of a kind joint venture, IBM has united hands with the FXA group and the authorities of Vietnam to launch a campaign to aid the improvement of global food safety. The Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP) and the Vietnamese State Agency for Technological Innovation (SATI) are deeply involved in the project and aim to ensure the complete and absolute safety of seafood trade, in Vietnam.

                                 Organizations associated with the VASEP have won numerous prizes, including the prestigious Grand Prize for nutrition and health at the Seafood Prix d’Elite competition, held under the aegis of the European Seafood Exhibition 2009 in Brussels, Belgium.

                                  Vietnam exported seafood worth over $4.25 billion, in the year 2008. With this joint project, VASEP and SATI aim at the proper and regular tracking of Vietnamese seafood exports, which will be monitored via the radio frequency identification (RFID) technology. The entire exercise is being undertaken to ensure that the seafood being exported is totally fresh, when it arrives at the global markets.

                                   The technology being offered by IBM and FXA will initially be tested in a few seafood farms in Vietnam, who export to nations like Japan and USA. By using the technology offered by these hi-tech companies, VASEP and SATI will be able to collect vital data regarding each batch of seafood, meant for purposes of export. The collected data will include information such as the name of the farm from where the seafood was procured, when and where it was processed, the temperature that needs to be maintained and the present location of the consignment or batch.

                                    With all this information available, every single one of the parties involved will benefit, since they will have a steady flow of information. This project aims at offering a better solution for wholesalers, shippers as well as retailers.

Malaysian Delicacies

 Malaysian Delicacies at Their Best

Although Malaysia does not have a cuisine style of its own, but due to a diverse mix of cultures and religions in Malaysia, the origin of Malaysian food can be traced back to the Indian, Chinese, Eurasian, Malay and Nyonya style.

Indian Food

The first taste of Indian food which Malaysia got was in the 19th century, when a lot of Indian immigrants were brought to Malaysia as contract laborers. Today, you can find a host of Indian restaurants and roadside hawkers selling traditional Indian style food.
 

                                  Breads are the most famous items of north Indian cuisine. These breads are made of fresh dough, which is baked inside a hot tandoor and then flavored with onion or garlic. Paratha, naan and chapatti are the most preferred breads in Malaysia.

                                  Tandoori dishes like the tandoori chicken are also very popular among the Malaysian people. Apart from traditional Indian dishes, you can also find modifies versions of Indian dishes that are specially created to cater to the taste of Malaysian people. Mee goring and Nasi Kandar are two such modified Indian dishes.

Chinese Food

                                    Chinese food is basically derived from Cantonese food, which is known for its variety and freshness. Dim sum is a popular Chinese snack that is served widely in Malaysian restaurants and eaten during lunch or brunch. Extreme delicacies like shark fin soup and birds nest soup are also quite popular in Malaysia.

                                    Apart from Cantonese food, the dishes of north and west of China like Szechwan, Shanghai and Peking can also be found in different eating joints in Malaysia.

Malay & Nyonya Food

                                    Malay food is known for its spices and flavors, and is greatly influenced by countries like Indonesia, India, China and the Middle East. Rice is the main diet in Malay food and is served along breakfast, supper and dinner. Fish, beef, mutton and pork are popular dishes that are eaten along with rice.

                                    Nyonya food is a delightful combination of Malay and Chinese food and is also native to Penang and Singapore. Nyonya food generally consists of coconut milk, along with spices like coriander and cumin.

Favorite Fruits in Summer & Their Health Benefits

Nature has bestowed us with an enormous range of fruits for the summer season. Every fruit has certain elements that are advantageous for the human body. Here is a comprehensive list of some of the favorite fruits of people during summer alongwith their respective health benefits.

Watermelon – the rich sweet taste and water in the fruit helps you in quenching your thirst and has a cooling effect on the body. Moreover, it is also a rich source of vitamin C, beta-carotene, potassium, lycopene and iron.

                                       Berries of all sorts, strawberries, blackberries and blue berries aid in boosting up immunity levels in the body owing to the presence of phytochemicals in them. These are also excellent for protection against heart diseases, circulatory problems and cancer.

                                        Mangoes and papayas are perhaps the most cherished summer fruits. Containing high quantities of vitamin C, vitamin A, beta-carotene and fiber, these two fruits are excellent options for beating the summer heat while relishing their sweet, delectable taste. In fact, only eating adequate quantity of mangoes can provide the body with the benefits of vitamin A.

                                        Another set of fruits that contain appreciable quantities of vitamin C, antioxidant phytochemicals, beta-carotene and anthocyanins are plums and peaches. These fruits help purify the body be cleaning it of all the free radicals present in the body.

                                        The unforgettable taste of pineapple makes it the favorite of fruit lovers from all over the globe. Apart from having almost all the essential vitamins and minerals, pineapple also contains bromelain enzyme that is extremely helpful in regulating the digestive system.

                                         Few other fruits that are available in summers include apricots, cranberries and cherries that help cure constipation, urinary tract infection and the growth of carcinogenic cells in the body, respectively.

                                           Summer time is great for soothing your taste buds with the delicious taste of so many fruits and also, for building a healthy body by deriving the nutritional benefits from these fruits.

Asian Beer

When one thinks of beer, there are a number of brands that pop up in the mind. But chances are that none of those brands will be Asian. Although beer has been popular in Asia for almost a century and has been consumed in large quantities, there are very few brands that have been able to win for themselves a global standing.

                                     This is surprising, because Asian food is known to be spicy and nothing eases that hot sensation better than a cold beer. Even the climate has a large role to play in the growing demand for beer. 

                                      The rising demand could probably explain why, today, there are a number of indigenous brands offering good quality lager.

                                       For instance, China is being touted to becoming the largest manufacturers of beer in the world. Given that China has the largest population in the world, there is no real surprise in the fact that they also have the greatest demand for beer. Presently the country produces and markets almost twelve times more than that produced by a nation like Australia. Even though Indonesia is a Muslim country, this nation too has a thriving beer business. Most of it can be accredited to the high levels of tourist influx.

                                      Similarly, in the Philippines, beer has managed to garner a large market. San Miguel, established in 1890 is one of the largest breweries in South East Asia and is on its path to beer glory. In Japan, beer was first introduced in 1870 by an American named William Copeland. He set up the very first brewery in Japan and called it the Spring Valley Brewery. Today, the Japanese people have adopted beer as their favorite alcoholic drink, as against the indigenous sake. Hundreds of microbreweries are presently functioning across the four islands of Japan.

                                      Over the years, the demand for beer has grown by leaps and bounds in Asia. This reason is one of the prime facilitators for the rise of local breweries and indigenous brands. Today, people all across the world are beginning to recognize brands such as Chang Beer, Kingfisher, Singha Beer and Tiger Beer.

 Going Green in Philippines

Despite the harsh economic climate the organic industry is still managing to maintain a steady growth rate. A group of green minded growers gathered together at the EchoStore in Serendra Piaza, Taguig City to try and convert industry leaders to the green side with some fresh ideas.
 

Mara Pardo de Tavera, who started the organic buzz in the metro 15 years ago with her company, the Organic Galaxy explained how the business is still booming and how many people are now going for quality to get the full value of their money.
 

And there’s room for 30 to 40 per cent growth so far, she added.
Rosalina Tan, an organic fertilizer producer also for the last 15 years, shares the same sentiment, although she prefers to focus by region.
                                      “Mommy Lina,” as Tan is fondly called, is the founder of the Organic Producers and Trade Association with nationwide organic farmer members.
 

                                        She adheres to the organic marketing principle to “buy organic produce closest to the community and meet the local demand.”
 

                                         Tan explained how she wanted to concentrate on the regions rather than the whole of Manila.
 

Escaping from the middlemen
 

                                       Pardo de Tavera tells how they can help the farmers if they wish to avoid the middlemen. The organic industry can easily set up a system where the farmers can supply to a local market on a regular basis themselves.
 

                                        If organic produce is made accessible in every region, it would mean that the carbon footprint would lessen because it would be less fuel in transporting the harvest to different regions.
 

                                        The Philippines is already known to be a huge exporter its processed organic products to India, China, Vietnam, and even the United States, Japan and Europe.
 

                                         However, it has been reported that the main carrier of the Philippine harvest was down this year due to the economic crisis.