Forget Fish Fridays: In Louisiana, Gator Is On The Lenten Menu

Forget Fish Fridays: In Louisiana, Gator Is On The Lenten Menu : The Salt : NPR:

"Is it OK to eat alligator on Fridays during Lent? That question isn't just rhetorical in Louisiana, which has large populations of both Catholics and gators.

"Alligator's such a natural for New Orleans," says Jay Nix, owner of Parkway Bakery, which serves a mean alligator sausage po boy sandwich. "Alligator gumbo, jambalaya. I mean, it's a wonder that alligator isn't our mascot, you know?"

Catholics abstain from eating meat on Fridays during the time between Ash Wednesday and Easter, but seafood is allowed. Three years ago, when Jim Piculas was trying to settle a debate among his friends about whether gator qualified as seafood, he wrote a letter to the archbishop of New Orleans to ask.

His letter must have been pretty zealous, because not long after he wrote it, he got a response from Archbishop Gregory M. Aymond saying: "Yes, the alligator's considered in the fish family, and I agree with you — God has created a magnificent creature that is important to the state of Louisiana, and it is considered seafood.""



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A St Patrick's Day warning about Guinness

Hey Vegans! There May Be Fish Bladder in Your Guinness 

"Guinness sells about 10 million pints a day across 100 countries. On St. Patrick’s Day, that number hops to 13 million. When Arthur Guinness set up shop in Dublin back in 1759, he never would’ve guessed that his stout would become the unofficial beer of the Irish and the go-to beverage to shout to the bartender come March 17 (besides Jameson). Even Obama honored his Irish lineage with a highly-publicized Guinness at a pub in Ireland last year. But the classic brew isn’t for everyone. For the hardline vegetarians and vegans out celebrating this St. Paddy’s Day: there could be traces of fish bladder in your Guinness."

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Is nothing sacred? No salt on the chips!

Chippies told to hold the salt in drive to beat heart disease - Telegraph:

"Fish and chip shops will be told to cut the amount of salt they add to food under a new government strategy to improve the nation’s diet."

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Hidden salt 'present in popular restaurant meals'

BBC News - Hidden salt 'present in popular restaurant meals':

"A survey of nearly 700 popular meals served in celebrity chef and High Street restaurants found half were high in salt - equivalent to a red traffic light label on a supermarket product.

From their research, Consensus Action on Salt and Health (Cash) discovered that the 13 saltiest main meals contained more than the maximum recommended daily intake of 6g of salt."

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Food poisoning can happen at the best of restaurants

BBC News - Dinner at 'world's top' restaurant in Denmark sickens dozens:

"More than 60 people had food poisoning at a Danish restaurant dubbed the world's best eatery, it has emerged.

Health officials said diners at Copenhagen's Noma restaurant fell sick over a five-day period in February, suffering from vomiting and diarrhoea.

It was not clear what caused the outbreak, but reports say the source may have been a sick kitchen employee.

Noma, which topped Restaurant Magazine's list of the world's 50 Best Restaurants in 2010-12, has apologised."

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Eating Eyeballs: Taboo, Or Tasty?

Eating Eyeballs: Taboo, Or Tasty? : The Salt : NPR:

 "When it comes to Americans, "people in our culture are disgusted by eating any non-muscle part of edible animals, says Paul Rozin, a professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania who studies human food choice and disgust. "Eyes may be special because it is so clear that they are an animal part, and they have some special significance for many people."

Maybe the eyes of other mammals are just a bit too close to home for most people. Fish eyes seem the most acceptable form of ocular cuisine, my fastidious soup-eating friend excluded. As our well-traveled readers pointed out, small fish are eaten whole in many cultures, from British whitebait to the dried fish snacks ubiquitous at Asian groceries. Elvers, tiny eels that resemble spaghetti, are popular not just in Europe but also in Asia."

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French diners feast on Indonesian frogs

French diners feast on Indonesian frogs - The Local:

 "Though diners in white table-clothed French brasseries may not know it, their frogs legs are most likely caught by hunters in the dead of the night in the murky swamps of tropical Indonesia and sold at local markets."



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Enough to drive you to drink

BBC News - Thousands of litres of whisky flushed down drain in Dumbarton:

"Thousands of litres of whisky have been flushed down the drain by accident at a bottling plant in Dumbarton.
It is understood the mix-up happened at Chivas Brothers during the night shift on Tuesday while equipment was being cleaned.
Instead of draining away waste water, the workers on duty somehow flushed out thousands of litres of bulk whisky.
The smell was so strong that sewage workers reported it."

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