Whats in the food?

I just recently watched this film called Food Inc. and I must say, I was impressed and also abit disturbed by the facts which have been brought to light in the film. I would say this film is very insightful in explaining how the food industry have evovled in the States and how it would affect the industry in other countries.

It even brought to fact that food is processed in the same way as a production or 'assembled' on an assembly line. It also pointed out that there are just a few companies who run a majority of the processed food when you might litreally find thousands upon thousands of labels but when in fact they are only really manufactured by roughly a handful of companies - not a good thing in my opinion...

Of course the movie documentary does showcase the advancements of the food indursty, however at the same time it makes you think whether these advancements are really for the good of the public or just for profits for those coporations. For example, before chickens, used to be bred for roughly 75 days for slaughter, now in the present, the breeding time has been almost cut to half that, they've developed ways to breed chickens in 38days for slaughter and when you see the conditions of those chickens you wonder if its worth eating that meat as its pumped full of antibiotics and hormones. Those chickens are literally bloated on the breast area as its been noted that more and more people nowadays prefer the breast meat so the feed has been designed to grow those areas of the chicken at such a rate that the body of those chicken can't keep up with the exponential growth rate.

It was even more disturbing to find out that because of these new and 'improved' practises, bacteria which is usually not found in those food are contaminated but at the same time being sold to the general public!! It makes you wonder if you should really grow your own food (talk about being in a dilemma, on one hand there's not enough land, on the other, how much can you really grow by yourself to be sustainable?)

Well for those of you who would be interested to see the good & bad of the industry which everyone seems to take for granted this would be a good docu-movie to impart some awareness to you guys^^

Before you Enlist - the wishlist;)

Time sure flies when you're not really keeping tabs on it, well how do you keep tabs on it?!? haha;p Jason was telling me he was feeling peckish the other day and it was roughly a week before he was due to enlist and serve his country; he told me the one thing he wanted to try before he does go for the enlistment was to try a pavlova ( seriously, the last time I made one was way way back when I was still working in Melbourne hehe;p)

I took up his challenge and he also requested for some pasta & soup for him to try.. and I must say I was quite surprised with some of the results^^



First up is this double boiled chicken soup with ginger & asparagus, sounds like a very odd combination but honestly, it turned out quite well. It was very cleansing on the palate and also it prepared you for the upcoming course which was the pasta; well the pasta was not a new creation, just a classic which I brought back(Ange would drool for this hehe;p)^^



Its the rustic remake of the olio I made a while back and yes, ange, I'll make it for the group when I get back, lets hope we'll have enough space in out tummys since every time I'm back we'll be just eating only^^
The pasta dish as always was a crowd favorite, even my staff went ecstatic for it^^



Well I was a little disappointed with this one due to the fact that I almost burnt it when I first baked it, it almost turned into a golden brown - we don't want that with a pavlova!! Well good thing I checked it during the 5mins intervals I planned orelse there was no saving this, and the second baking too alot longer as I was not used to the other oven we had^^ Shows how long since I last made this hehe;p Jason, when you do visit Brunei one day, I'll treat you to one which is sooo sooo divine, and its from the restaurant that I always promote even though I'm across the pond^^

Yes, you guys back home, I'm talking about Saffron^^ Lady Fa will be so please with my PR for her restaurant hahaha;p

Well that's it for my updates for awhile, will be busy with work as my boss will be on leave till next week and I'll be in the weeds with paperwork and meetings^^ Till then, Jason have fun with your NS and guys at home, can't wait to catch up with the chaos form the other side of the pond^^

And the answer is....

Last time, I checked I remembered that the guessing game was still on, however, I think everyone got discouraged from the last answer hehe;p

Sad though, this one was a very edible one^^

well here's one more look at the item:



And here's the anwser: Its actually a sweet paste made from Almonds, Sesame seeds & Sugar^^ I made this out of the whim and I thought it would be a nice guessing game since the last one drew quite a few attention from you guys^^



This one's the fried bread stuffed with the almond paste^^



This other one was baked and I must say, I didn't know which I preferred better.... Well you guys can decide for me^^