IndianPrincess: Food for Thought

Read about some issues from the papers and I would like to discuss two such issues that deal with FOOD.

A Bite of Heaven - Chocolate

Real chocolate is made from crushed cacao beans, which provide not only solid cocoa mass but also cocoa butter that is vital to texture because, quite literally, it melts in your mouth.

When European companies tried to cut cocoa butter, the debate dragged on for a decade. In 2003, the European Union ruled that substitution had to be limited to 5 per cent and only by a few specific oils that chemically resemble cocoa butter. This faux chocolate is clearly labelled 'contains vegetable fats in addition to cocoa butter' - and is shunned by purists. The French like to call it cocholat, an epithet derived from their word for pig, cochon.

In America, the FDA can act swiftly to change rules based on what it calls a citizen's petition. Last year, 'citizens' like the Grocery Manufacturers Association added new guidelines for chocolate onto an omnibus petition covering more than 200 foods that called for, among other things, altering food standards to 'permit maximum flexibility in the food technology used to prepare the standardised food' and to allow 'any alternative process that accomplishes the desired effect'.

Summary of Considerations:

For Genuine
Everyone has a right to enjoy chocolate at its finest and keep this tradition alive. If the definition of choc grows too wide there would be varying degrees of quality and even any cheapo brown thing can be called that.

For the "Fakes"
People rich and poor can have a taste of 'choc'. If we do not allow production of alternative chocs,"How about the poor man on the street? Doesn’t he have a right to have a bite of heaven?"

Second Food Issue close to my heart:
Tuna shortage sets off national panic in Japan
Supply crunch and rising prices drive sushi chefs to look for other red-coloured substitutes like smoked deer meat and raw horse, a local delicacy in some parts of Japan.

'We tasted it, and horse sushi was pretty good,' he recalled. 'It was soft, easy to bite off, had no smell.'

My heart skipped a beat as and almost stopped beating when I read this. The reason for this epidemic: The Tuna fish are not multiplying fast enough to be eaten all around the world. Thank goodness I prefer salmon sashimi.