Would you pay that much for any dish? I suppose that if you were dining at a 3-star Michelin restaurant, a hundred bucks is not that expensive for a single dish. Then again, it really depends on what you’re eating.

In a Japanese restaurant, you can taste a one of a kind soup – ramen – for $110. It does not take a rocket scientist to figure out that this price tag is more than hefty for a bowl of soup! Indeed, if you ever go to Japan, you will be able to find bowls of ramen for as low as $10. This is especially true in areas where they sell food on the streets.

So what makes this ramen soup worth the price tag? According to restaurateur Shoichi Fujimaki, his soup is “not really ramen. This is my cuisine, it’s my 25 years of experience distilled into one bowl. This is the only place in the world that people have this kind of soup.” Twenty-five years of cooking experience, more than 20 ingredients, and three days of preparation – all these add up to $110 per bowl.

And what do customers have to say about the Five-taste Blend Imperial Noodles, which is the highlight at Tokyo’s Fujimaki Gekijyo? It looks like they’re loving it despite the price and the not-so-good Japanese economy! By the way, not just anyone can have a taste of this soup. In fact, customers are required to dine at another restaurant (Fujimaki owns it too) and sample “lesser” fare before they can be qualified to have even a glimpse of THE other soup. Nice business tactic, huh?

Hotdog eating contests are not out of the ordinary. Indeed, people take off their hats to the amazing men and women who can chow down almost a hundred hotdogs in one go. But have you ever heard of an inter-species hotdog bun eating contest?

Now I don’t know what possessed the people behind the event but they organized a hotdog bun eating contest between three elephants and three humans at Coney Island in Brooklyn. The elephants, named Bunny, Susie, and Minnie ate a total of 505 buns in a mere six minutes. On the other hand, the three humans, Eric “Badlands” Cooper, Juliet Lee, and Tim “Gravy” Brown, downed a mere 143 buns in the same span of time.

All the elephants are in the 40s. The humans are all well known in the world of eating contests. Cooper is a subway conductor from New York City and is the world champion in corned beef hash eating. Lee is the world cranberry sauce eating champion, and Brown holds the distinction of eating 8.47 pounds of blueberry pie in 8 minutes. Oh, and he did it hands free, by the way.

I doubt that the elephants knew the reputations of the people they were up against. Even if they did, they probably wouldn’t have been fazed. They probably wouldn’t even care. With a collective weight of about 9 tons, the elephants definitely had the advantage over the humans who weighed a total of about 500 pounds.

Everyone loves Coke, or at least a ginormous number of people do. That, however, does not exempt the company from being reprimanded for less than honest ads, at least in the eyes of the advertising watchdogs in Australia. Last year, the soda giant ran an advertising campaign dubbed Motherhood & Myth-Busting. The main idea of the campaign was to promote Coca-cola as being safe for children. The claims include the ideas that Coke will not make children fat, and that it would not cause one’s teeth to rot – common concerns for children. The company even got popular Australian actress Kerry Armstrong to be its spokesperson.

This did not sit well with the consumer watchdogs, however, and the main governing body has commanded Coke to correct its advertisement. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, which is tasked with watching over cases like these, has declared that Coke should do something about it claims. According to Chairman Graeme Samuel, “Coke’s messages were totally unacceptable, creating an impression which is likely to mislead that Coca-Cola cannot contribute to weight gain, obesity and tooth decay.” He went on to say that “They also had the potential to mislead parents about the potential consequences of consuming Coca-Cola.”

While the Commission does have a point, I dare ask this question: What kind of parent will totally believe that drinking soda all the time is good for his or her child? Interestingly enough, Coke has agreed to publish corrective statements regarding their campaign. I guess there is no excuse for any parent to rely on Coke as his or her child’s refreshment of choice!

Or maybe two? Well, the Oakdale Testicle Festival is the event to go to. For the 28th year in a row, people from all over can have all the balls that they want, cattle’s balls, that is.

Every year, for the past 28 years, the Oakdale Rotary Club has been involved in this festival, in an attempt to raise funds. In its early days, the festival was called the Calf Fry, with only the Rotary Club behind it. In 2003, however, the Cowboy Museum joined in. This year, it’s going to be held on the 30th of March.

So what is in store for participants of the Testicle Festival? Ever heard of mountain oysters? Well, that’s the specialty of the event. For the price of $50, you can get a ticket to a sit down dinner of bull testicles. (Tickets go for $65 at the door.)

About 400 pounds of gonads are chopped up and prepared for the event. The recipe, of course, is a secret, but seems to have people coming back for more. Mountain oysters seems to be a catchy name but I am unsure as to how actually eating them would sit with me.

Participants of the festival swear by their tastiness, however. Christie Camarillo, fore example, swears that they are simply delicious. She is the executive director of the Cowboy Museum. She goes on to say that they taste like a mix of fried calamari and chicken liver. Everything exotic tastes like chicken anyway, right?

Anyhow, if you’re interested in having a ball yourself, give this number a call: 847-5163. (Oakdale, California)

First there was the tomato scare, then there was the milk scare, now it’s the peanut butter scare. It seems that even when it comes to food, safety is not something we should take for granted anymore. The recent salmonella contamination of US-made peanut butter has sent people running around, trying to get rid of food products possibly made with contaminated peanut butter.

You’d think it would be easy but no, it is far from that. This recent issue has made one thing clear – food production is not as simple as some of us might have thought it was. The Food and Drug Administration has already pinpointed about 130 food products that have been recalled but you should continue to check that list as they say that more will be added as the investigation continues.

Before consuming any food product, you must take great care to examine the label and make sure that it is safe. Ironically, peanut butter in jars – which we normally buy at the supermarket – is deemed safe.

The most prominent brand of commercial peanut butter which has been linked to the salmonella outbreak is King Nut, which comes in packages anywhere from 5 pounds to 1,700 pounds – unlikely to be consumed by households but generally used in commercial production. Products which you should watch out for include peanut butter cups, ice cream, cereals, cookies, sandwiches, and the like. Fans of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups and Nutter Butter cookies have nothing to worry about, though, as Hershey’s and Kraft do not use King Nut peanut butter.

As much as I love Ben and Jerry’s ice cream, am an advocate of breastfeeding, and staunchly oppose animal abuse, I was quite stupefied when I saw an article on the Associated Press about the animal rights advocacy group PETA, asking the ice cream kings to use breast milk to replace cow in producing their ice cream.

Tracy Reiman, executive vice president of PETA, argued the dairy products have been linked to juvenile diabetes, allergies and obesity, saying:

“If Ben and Jerry’s replaced the cow’s milk in its ice cream with breast milk, your customers — and cows — would reap the benefits”

Ashley Byrne, a campaign coordinator for PETA added:

“We’re aware this idea is somewhat absurd, and that putting it into practice is a stretch. At the time same, it’s pretty absurd for us to be drinking the milk of cows…”

Its not surprising that the folks at Ben and Jerry’s responded without much enthusiasm. I just can’t help feeling that the PETA people are not doing a favour for themselves or their worthy cause by making statements like this. You don’t need to do a nationwide poll to find out what people (aside from babies) will think of this – and thats creepy, I’m afraid.

Whether or not its absurd for humans to be drinking the milk of cows is not really the issue. Its what generations of us have been used to. Besides, what I find more important is the logistical problems it would face – it takes 12 lbs or 1 1/2 gallons of milk to make a gallon of ice cream. When I was nursing, it took at least half an hour to express 6 or 7 oz. Can you imagine how long poor Mothers would have to be strapped to pumping machines just to meet the demand? Thats an even scarier thought.

With so much of the news one hears of today mostly either bad (like Iraq and global warming) or inane (Hollywood), I thought it would be nice to inject a little humour in today’s post , which was certainly news to me!

The health Q & A below was meant to have been answered by a “leading” physician. Whoever he is, I like him!!

HEALTH QUESTION & ANSWER SESSION

Q: I’ve heard that cardiovascular exercise can prolong
life; is this true?
A: Your heart is only good for so many beats, and
that’s it… don’t waste them on exercise. Everything wears out eventually. Speeding up your heart will not make you live longer; that’s like saying you can extend the life of
your car by driving it faster. Want to live longer?
Take a nap.

Q: Should I cut down on meat and eat more fruits and
vegetables?
A: You must grasp logistical efficiencies. What does a
cow eat? Hay and corn. And what are these? Vegetables. So a steak is nothing more than an efficient mechanism of delivering vegetables to your system. Need grain?
Eat chicken. Beef is also a good source of field grass (green leafy vegetable). And a pork chop can give you 100% of your
recommended daily allowance of vegetable products.

Q: Should I reduce my alcohol intake?
A: No, not at all. Wine is made from fruit. Brandy is
distilled wine, that means they take the water out of the fruity bit so you get even more of the goodness that way. Beer is also made out of grain.
Bottoms up!

Q: How can I calculate my body/fat ratio?
A: Well, if you have a body and you have fat, your
ratio is one to one. If you have two bodies, your ratio is two to one, etc.

Q: What are some of the advantages of participating in
a regular exercise program?
A: Can’t think of a single one, sorry.

My philosophy is: No Pain…Good!

Q: Aren’ t fried foods bad for you?
A: YOU’RE NOT LISTENING!!!. Foods are fried these days
in vegetable oil. In fact, they’re permeated in it. How could getting more vegetables be bad for you?

Q: Will sit-ups help prevent me from getting a little
soft around the middle?
A: Definitely not! When you exercise a muscle, it gets
bigger. You should only be doing sit-ups if you want a bigger stomach.

Q: Is chocolate bad for me?
A: Are you crazy? HELLO …… Cocoa beans! Another
vegetable!!! It’s the best feel-good food around!

Q: Is swimming good for your figure?
A: If swimming is good for your figure, explain whales to me.

Q: Is getting in-shape important for my lifestyle?
A: Hey! ‘Round’ is a shape!

And remember:

“Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways – Chardonnay in one hand – chocolate in the other – body thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and screaming “WOO HOO, What a Ride!“

Newspapers are not all news and trends that a country may find in. For the business-minded people, these are the factors due for consideration in line with their work or business. Such external factors would affect the market they are catering to and the need for possible adjustment is a necessity.

On the lighter side, housewives would check on probable sales and discount coupons offered by their favorite department store and supermarket. Coupons can be cut out and used to save on cost for certain items such as food and basic necessities of living in the household.

Ideally, coupons help a lot for people to sustain their manner of living considering that financial savings goes a long way in today�s economy. While some may care less, all coupons added together may reflect a large sum of savings if compiled. All it takes is a simple turn of the page and such coupons and offered discounts will help a lot for the people who want savings on their purchases anywhere.

The thing about newspapers is that they need to make catchy headlines about current events to solicit the attention of the people who look towards the paper as a means of information on current events today anywhere. Politics, the economy and current situation of the country are among the top attention-catching headlines that papers would normally get.

The level of attention that people would get from most would largely depend on the area of interest a potential reader would look for. This is not to point towards these current events as stimulating points of interest. Rather it should be considered as a person�s need to be aware of what is going on around him.

In some cases, they are contributing factors as well in decision-making in both personal and professional aspects necessary to ensure the convenient mindset that a person should always be up to date with. People are just to cautious since nothing around them should be taken for granted, especially if it concerns them as a whole.

Restaurants will surely be filled, florists will have a huge profit margin and courier and delivery services are sure to have a busy day this February 14. While most people have already booked their itinerary and flower sending, the day of the hearts is something that will surely be a busy day for couples all over the world.

There are people who will be booking themselves at hotels for sure. Some would even find themselves enjoying a musical show in celebration of the occasion being serenaded by ballads coming from well-known musical celebrities with various love songs and entertainment. Clubs are expected to be filled as well, mostly lasting until the wee hours of the mornings.

The mood is definitely under a romantic one. For sure, regular traditions shall be held. But the important thing is really celebrating with the person whom people would consider as special to their lives. That is what the day of the hearts is really all about.