A little bit of boiling is what a good bagel needs

In a new video, the American Chemical Society breaks down the chemistry of what makes New York bagels superior to the also-rans — the disappointing "bagels" you often encounter outside of New York that merely taste like bread with a hole in it. National Public Radio reports:

According to popular mythology, the uniquely superb texture of the New York bagel has to do with New York City's water — specifically, its low concentrations of calcium and magnesium, which make it softer.
But while New York's water does play a role in influencing bagel texture, the effect is actually pretty minor, according to the ACS video. Harder water toughens the gluten in the dough, while super soft water can make it goopy.
What's far more critical is the boiling.

Getting rid of the trans fats

Adios, Trans Fats: FDA Poised To Phase Out Artery-Clogging Fat : The Salt : NPR:

"The case against trans fats is not new. For years, health experts have been telling us to avoid them.

And as retailing behemoths such as Wal-Mart have committed to the removal of all remaining, industrially produced trans fats in the products they sell, the food industry has stepped up its pace to reformulate its offerings.

The Grocery Manufacturers Association says the food industry has already reduced its use of trans fats by more than 85 percent.

Even Crisco is now made without partially hydrogenated oils.

Now, the Food and Drug Administration is expected to take action soon to phase out much of the remaining trans fats in the food supply. The agency first announced its plan back in 2013. And, any day now, the FDA is expected to announce a final rule that could amount to a near ban of trans fats."



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Bon Kura

Dickson ACT 2602 Japanese

Restaurant	Bon Kura
Street address	13 WoolleyStreet
Suburb	Dickson
State	ACT
Postcode	2602
Phone	02 6262 6669
Website	bonkura.com.au
Style	Japanese
Awards 2014 Fairfax Good Food Guides
Awards Gourmet Guide
The Australian Top 50
Restaurant & Catering Awards
Other Awards
Reviews & Notes	"Bon Kura is Japanese, not an adventurous, nor especially modern version, but the kind with which you will probably be familiar. ... There are no surprises in this rather comprehensive line-up, but the food is enjoyable ..."
Reviewer	Kirsten Lawson - Canberra Times 27/4/15 14/20
Reviews & Notes
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Reviews & Notes
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Owner's note

Copper Chimney

Civic, ACT 2601 Indian

Restaurant	Copper Chimney
Street address	28 West Row
Suburb	Civic
State	ACT
Postcode	2601
Phone	02 6162 1845
Website	copperchimney.com.au
Style	Indian
Awards 2014 Fairfax Good Food Guides
Awards Gourmet Guide
The Australian Top 50
Restaurant & Catering Awards
Other Awards
Reviews & Notes	"... a solid weeknight dinner with plenty of competent cooking and some very sweet service."
Reviewer	Natasha Rudra - Canberra Times 12/5/15 13/20
Reviews & Notes
Reviewer
Reviews & Notes
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Owner's note

Ellacure

Bruce, ACT, 2617 Contemporary European

Restaurant	Ellacure
Street address	21 Battye Street
Suburb	Bruce
State	ACT
Postcode	2617
Phone	02 6251 0990
Website	ellacure.com.au
Style	Contemporary European
Awards 2014 Fairfax Good Food Guides
Awards Gourmet Guide
The Australian Top 50
Restaurant & Catering Awards
Other Awards
Reviews & Notes	"... the dishes and wine list mostly carry a comforting mixture of value for money, charm and interest if not a little lacking in excitement."
Reviewer	Bryan Martin - Canberra Times 19/5/15 13/20
Reviews & Notes
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Owner's note

Knowing if your food really is non-GMO

Should Australian government be doing the same?

USDA To Certify Non-GMO Foods With New Label : The Salt : NPR:

"If you want to know if the beef you're buying is grassfed, there's a U.S. Department of Agriculture label for that. The agency is also behind the nation's biggest certified organic label, and an antibiotic-free one, too.

But how do you know whether a product is made with genetically modified organisms?

It's not always easy to tell.

For companies that want to certify their food as being free of these ingredients, there's the Non-GMO Project Verified seal administered by the independent Non-GMO Project. Some companies, like General Mills, just put "Not made with genetically modified ingredients" on the box of Cheerios.

But, increasingly, there's been a push for the federal government to step into GMO labeling.

Now, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack has announced in a letter to his staff (dated May 1) that the agency's Agricultural Marketing Service is developing a verification program for food products containing genetically modified ingredients.

"Recently, a leading global company asked AMS to help verify that the corn and soybeans it uses in its products are not genetically engineered so that the company could label the products as such," Vilsack wrote in the letter. "And AMS worked with the company to develop testing and verification processes to verify the non-GE claim." "



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The great bourbon con - how consumers are deceived

'Bourbon Empire' Reveals The Smoke And Mirrors Of American Whiskey : The Salt : NPR:

"Why are Americans buying more bourbon? According to author Reid Mitenbuler, one reason is that we're being seduced by clever bottles and throwback labels. Along with enticing branding, some of these bottles of "craft bourbon" boast hefty price tags.

Take Pappy Van Winkle, a craft bourbon with "family reserve" editions that retail for thousands of dollars.

And yet "the term 'craft' is little more than an ambiguous buzzword," Mitenbuler writes in a new book, Bourbon Empire: The Past and Future of America's Whiskey.

Behind all the craft buzz, Mitenbuler says, are actually just some "carefully cultivated myths" created by an industry on a roll.

According to Mitenbuler, many of the newer bourbon brands are actually just spinoffs of factory brands: Knob Creek Distillery, for example, is owned by Jim Beam and made at the same plant as the mass-produced Beam.

But you'd never know, since they're packaged to appear different, smaller and therefore more rare. What's inside some artisanal-looking bottles may be startlingly close — and in cases exactly the same — as the mass-produced stuff."



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Why diets don’t actually work - neurological, hormonal and metabolic reasons

Why diets don’t actually work, according to a researcher who has studied them for decades - The Washington Post: 

"And if we've gone this long without a diet that has been shown to work — according to science, not simply the sellers of the fad — will one ever emerge that actually does? The short answer is no, according to Traci Mann, who teaches psychology at the University of Minnesota and has been studying eating habits, self-control and dieting for more than 20 years. 

Over the course of her research, largely conducted at the University of Minnesota's Health and Eating Lab, Mann has repeatedly asked these sorts of questions, and always found the same disappointing answers. Her findings, chronicled in her newly published book "Secrets from the Eating Lab," offer a fascinating explanation for why dieting over the long term is actually impossible. ...

After you diet, so many biological changes happen in your body that it becomes practically impossible to keep the weight off. It's not about someone's self-control or strength of will.

What kind of biological changes?

There are three biological changes that take place that seem most important to me.

The first is neurological. When you are dieting, you actually become more likely to notice food. Basically your brain becomes overly responsive to food, and especially to tasty looking food. But you don't just notice it — it actually begins to look more appetizing and tempting. It has increased reward value. So the thing you're trying to resist becomes harder to resist. So already, if you think about it, it's not fair.

Then there are hormonal changes, and it's the same kind of thing. As you lose body fat, the amount of different hormones in your body changes. And the hormones that help you feel full, or the level of those rather, decreases. The hormones that make you feel hungry, meanwhile, increases. So you become more likely to feel hungry, and less likely to feel full given the same amount of food. Again, completely unfair.

And the third biological change, which I think people do sort of know about, is that there are metabolic changes. Your metabolism slows down. Your body uses calories in the most efficient way possible. Which sounds like a good thing, and would be good thing if you're starving to death. But it isn't a good thing if you're trying to lose weight, because when your body finds a way to run itself on fewer calories there tends to be more leftover, and those get stored as fat, which is exactly what you don't want to happen."

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