A rave review for a pizza - Sydney's Da Mario

It would be harder to give a pizza restaurant higher praise than John Lethlean delivered about Sydney's Da Mario.

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Searching the forests for raw food and natural happiness

Nestling alongside the saffron and Chinese caterpillar fungus in the shop of Zhang Xiaowei in Lhasa, Tibet are jars of honey from Nyingchi gathered from low to high altitudes in the Yarlung Zangbo Grand Canyon. It is honey of a rare purity with beekeepers taking advantage of blossoms which are free from pollution and pesticides but production is limited by the comparatively short blossom season. To justify the annual trek into the Canyon beekeepers need a higher price than their peers from down on the plains but Zhang Xiaowei found it hard to convince his customers to pay it.

Until, that is, last month when Nyingchi honey featured in the first episode of the popular China Central Television documentary A Bite of China II. Almost immediately after the program was shown, featuring the story of a Tibetan family searching the forests for raw food and natural happiness, Zhang’s honey sales began to increase and he has now sold 3,500 bottles to customers online.

The China Daily reports that this year, Tmall, an online retail platform, has been authorized to launch a website featuring sales information about food mentioned in the documentary.Among the first batch of 100 food products, most of which went online on April 18 when the program’s second season made its debut, Sichuan sausages, Peking duck and Nyingchi honey were the first to sell out.

CCTV head Hu Zhanfan has described the program as a record of Chinese people’s “living wisdom and cultural traditions”. A Bite of China, which explores the relationship between people and food, was the most recognized TV production in China in 2012.
Staging a high-profile return, the documentary’s eight-episode second season travels to more than 150 places nationwide to focus on artistically crafted urban banquets, simple home cooking and nature’s raw offerings. ...

The Chinese food series becoming popular around the world

Zhang, the online shop owner in Lhasa, hopes the documentary will help to boost development of an industry. The local government had been supportive of beekeeping, and after the documentary was shown, some businesspeople had also begun to show their interest, Zhang said. “I hope the popularity of Nyingchi honey is just a start,” he added.

Return of the Murray Cod

From the Sydney Morning Herald : From paddock to plate, endangered Murray cod are back on the menu

The endangered and iconic Australian native fish is back on the menu, thanks to new fish farms ...

Back in the day: the fish was plentiful but heavy demand put it on the endangered list. Photo: State Library NSW

The largest of all native fish, cod have grown to more than 100 kilograms in the wild. But commercial fishing and changes in their native habitat in south-eastern Australia caused numbers to fall, prompting a commercial fishing ban and strict limits on recreational fishing. Until recently, farming cod has had mixed success, mostly because of widespread cannibalism when they were bred in farm dams. 

Marianvale, the largest of about 10 NSW producers that are now producing more than $450,000 worth of cod for fish markets and restaurants, has found that tightly packing the cod in the indoor tanks with moving water reduces aggression as it limits their territories. 

Cod may not play nice, but the fish is ''delicious'' and has a beautiful succulent texture, said Darren Robertson, a co-owner of the Three Blue Ducks in Bronte. His restaurant is one of a handful, including Rockpool, Sean Moran's new restaurant Tomah Gardens in the Blue Mountains Botanic Gardens and Quay, that has recently put farmed cod back on the menu after many years when it was unavailable.

A tablespoon of clay a day ...

BBC News - Who, What, Why: Why do people eat clay?:



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The US actor Shailene Woodley raised eyebrows this week after revealing on a chatshow that she eats a teaspoon of clay a day. But is it good for you?

In an earlier blog post, Woodley - who played George Clooney's daughter Alexandra in the Descendants and is the star of teen movie Divergent - wrote that clay was one of the healthiest things you can put in your body.

"I've discovered that clay is great for you because your body doesn't absorb it, and it apparently provides a negative charge, so it bonds to negative isotopes. And, this is crazy: it also helps clean heavy metals out of your body." She learned about it from an African taxi driver, she said. Some of her friends make clay toothpaste that you swallow instead of spit out. She cautioned that it was important to get it from a safe source.

Toasted cheese sandwich? Like dope with that?

Finally there's a food truck that sells marijuana-infused food.

The world moves on. Got a touch of the munchies? Then pull up at the Samich Truck and try a Samich (sunbutter and jelly), Banh Mi (Vietnamese-style pork sandwich), the Bronco (BBQ pulled pork sandwich), PhaReal Cheese Samich or a Kushie Tomato Soup. All are carefully prepared with cannabutter and canna-oil from magicalbutter.com — made from the very best cannabis with the help of the company's automatic botanical extractor.

The mobile food stall, a converted 40-foot school bus, made its debut last month at the U.S. Cannabis Cup in Denver. The team behind it envisions an entire fleet of these infused-food trucks along with a permanent beachside location in Seattle and, eventually, California and Florida.

You can find details of how to make your own cannabutter and canna-oil on theCannabist website, along with some recipes to use them on.

One way of staving off global warming - stop eating meat

What If Everyone in the World Became a Vegetarian? | Mother Jones:

"At least one research team has run the numbers on what global veganism would mean for the planet. In 2009 researchers from the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency published their projections of the greenhouse gas consequences if humanity came to eat less meat, no meat, or no animal products at all. The researchers predicted that universal veganism would reduce agriculture-related carbon emissions by 17 percent, methane emissions by 24 percent, and nitrous oxide emissions by 21 percent by 2050. Universal vegetarianism would result in similarly impressive reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. What's more, the Dutch researchers found that worldwide vegetarianism or veganism would achieve these gains at a much lower cost than a purely energy-focused intervention involving carbon taxes and renewable energy technology. The upshot: Universal eschewal of meat wouldn't single-handedly stave off global warming, but it would go a long way toward mitigating climate change."



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Genuine Greek warmth at fair prices - Perth's Brika

Food that is described as straight, traditional and honest,

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