For those out there who own a restaurant, you’d think that you’d be referred to as a restauranter or maybe it’s spelt restauranteur right? Well according to the dictionary, you’d be wrong.

An owner of a restaurant is know as a:

[Dictionary.com]

Why is there no ‘N’ in restaurateur?

Apparently it’s because:

Restaurateur is the noun created from the verb restaurer by replacing the -er ending of the verb with the -ateur ending for for a man (its female equivalent, restauratrice, only appeared in 1767) who carries out the action. Hence, no n. At first, he was an artisan who restored or repaired objects. In the seventeenth century, he was an assistant who set broken bones for a surgeon. In the 1770s he became a man skilled in creating this special soup called a restaurant. [Eating in translation via Serious Eats]

The English language can be quite confusing sometimes!

From UPI.com:

LONDON, Feb. 4 (UPI) — A London restaurant said it has begun a monthlong promotion to allow customers to skip the bill and pay only what they feel their meal was worth.

The Little Bay restaurant said all patrons who dine during the rest of February will be asked to pay whatever they consider to be a fair amount instead of receiving a bill, Sky News reported Wednesday.

Little Bay owner Peter Ilic said the promotion is aimed at easing the stress of the economic downturn.

“Anything between a penny and 50 pounds ($72) will make me happy, it’s entirely up to the customer to decide,” Ilic said. “It just seemed the right thing to do with everyone under the cosh and feeling pretty miserable.”

“Customers have already paid 20 percent more than the original price,” the owner said. “People want to be polite and would be embarrassed not to pay enough.”

Somehow I don’t think this kind of scheme would work very well in Malaysia… I think alot of people would go to the restaurant, eat, then say,

“Umm… the food only so/so lah, I’ll give you RM5 ok? Thanks! Bye!”

The restaurant would be out of business in no time at all. Haha… [Photo from Flickr: Neubie]

With the major fluctuations of oil prices we’ve had the last few months, you can’t be blamed for thinking that one day, the price of oil will be so expensive that it’ll be unrealistic to use. But would you be surprised to hear that you can say the same for chocolate as well?

[Flickr: Captcreate]

[CNN]:

“I think that in 20 years chocolate will be like caviar,” says John Mason, executive director and founder of the Ghana-based Nature Conservation Research Council (NCRC).

Could you survive a future without chocolate? Communities and the environment are also at stake.
“It will become so rare and so expensive that the average Joe just won’t be able to afford it.”

The prospect of a future without a ready supply of chocolate is not a pleasant thought for anyone with a sweet tooth, but it’s an even more terrifying prospect for producer countries that depend on cocoa beans for a huge portion of their GDP.

[Flickr: Sifu Renka]

Yields are declining all across the cocoa plantations of West Africa, where two thirds of the world’s supply is grown, as soils are degraded and the area able to support the crop retreats, according to Mason.

“The way we farm is just not sustainable,” he says. “I’m afraid by the time we wake up to that fact it will be too late. I’ve worked in Ghana for 25 years and I can show you huge areas that can no longer support a crop.”

The problem is that cocoa is naturally a rainforest plant that grows in shady conditions surrounded by a high biodiversity, but recently hybrid varieties have been grown on cleared land as mono-cultures and in full sun.

[Flickr: ParsecTraveller]

While this will give higher short term yields, the soil quickly becomes degraded and the lifespan of plants can be cut from 75 or 100 years, to 30 or less. When the trees die and the land is exhausted the farmers must move on and clear more rainforest to plant cocoa.

But the looming decline of West African cocoa is not only a problem for farmers and chocolate producers – Cadbury sources 100 percent of the beans they use for UK chocolate production from Ghana – environmentalists are increasingly concerned about the destruction of the rainforest for short-term gain.

Yes you read the title correctly. Pizza flavoured beer.

I didn’t have time to put up a post on some of the things that Feedmelah.com has been up to, but I thought you’d find this story amusing.

Officially called “Tom Seefurth’s Mama Mia Pizza Beer,” the brew is made with tomatoes, garlic, basil and oregano. It’s kind of like beer-meets-marinara sauce or a Bloody Mary and a beer chaser mixed in one bottle.

What’s even funnier is the website the creators of the beer have come up with to market the product. It is so cheesy, like a cheap commercial for a 1980s Italian pizzeria. A cheap pizzeria. See it here.

The things Americans can come up with… hmmm… wonder what it tastes like though? [Serious Eats via Chow] [Tom Seefurth's Mamma Mia Pizza Beer website]

I found this comic strip quite funny. I’m hoping it doesn’t apply to people who come to our site, as we like the idea of searching for food by cuisine… haha. [Comics.com]

Barack Obama, the next president of the USA

Barack Obama is the president elect of the United States of America after beating his presidential rival John McCain by nearly double the electoral votes required to win the Presidency. He will go down in history as the first African-American president of the United States and takes a lot of inspiration for his speeches from those given by Dr. Martin Luther king decades ago.

Interesting facts – A higher percentage of women voted for Barack Obama than men did and more people between the ages of 18 and 29 voted for him than John McCain.

But this isn’t a blog about American politics. This is a food blog. So what has Barack Obama got to do with food? Well, he loves to eat it, that’s what.

Check him out eating, eating and eating some more:

Apparently Barack Obama loves his Chilli and even has his own recipe which he says he’s been using to bring to pot lucks since he was in college. Here’s the recipe if anyone is interested.

Ingredients:
1 large onion, chopped
1 green pepper, chopped
Several cloves of garlic, chopped
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 pound ground turkey or beef
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon ground oregano
1/4 teaspoon ground turmeric
1/4 teaspoon ground basil
1 tablespoon chili powder
3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
Several tomatoes, depending on size, chopped
1 can red kidney beans

Method:
Sauté onions, green pepper and garlic in olive oil until soft. Add ground meat and brown. Combine spices together into a mixture, then add to ground meat. Add red wine vinegar. Add tomatoes and let simmer, until tomatoes cook down. Add kidney beans and cook for a few more minutes.

Serve over white or brown rice. Garnish with grated cheddar cheese, onions and sour cream.

American Chilli.

Real Chilli - Chili Padi.

Do you notice that there is actually no ‘chilli’ in his recipe? Just some chilli powder. It’s more like chilli flavoured spaghetti sauce.

But it’s good to know the next president of the United States has an appetite. Maybe he’ll drop by this blog and link to us from the Whitehouse? Well, you can always hope. [CNN] [Sogood] [North Coast Journal] [Gamespot via AP] [Photo - Flickr]

This month marks a special month for fine dining in Malaysia, with the Malaysian International Gourmet Festival, held from 1st to 30th November 2008.

The event, which is now into its 8th successive year (originally started as the KL International Gourmet Festival) brings together some of Malaysia’s best culinary arts talents and tries to make fine dining accessible to as many people as possible.

This is done through special promotional menus, which although are still more expensive than a regular meal, it is still at a discount compared to usual fine dining prices. An example of the cost of a meal in one of the 28 participating restaurants is as follows:

RM108++ without wine
RM188++ with wine

It’s pretty expensive for a meal per person. But when you see the ingredients, it’s probably a lot cheaper than if you were to order the same meal normally:

Marinated Baby Lobster with Zucchini Salad, Oven-Roasted Tomato,
Spring Lettuce, Cream of Scallop & Lemon-Basil Oil
Founders’ Estate Sauvignon Blanc 2004
~•~
Butternut Squash Risotto with
Oyster Tempura
Cesari Pinot Grigio Chardonnay 2006
~•~
Pear & Cinnamon Sherbet
~•~
Grilled Black Angus Tenderloin with Roasted Sweet Potato,
Portobello Mushroom & Aragula Pesto
Leconfield Coonawarra Cabernet Sauvignon
OR
Pan-Fried Dover Sole Roulade with U.S. Asparagus,
Vanilla Bean-Mashed Potato & Balsamic Reduction
Gianni Gagliardo Dolcetta d’ Alba
~•~
Bitter-Sweet Chocolate Mousse Cake with Praline Ice Cream
Limoncello

But there are some other menus that cost upwards of RM200++ per person, which we can’t afford. Unfortunately, Feedmelah.com still has no budget, so maybe if one of the event organisers reads this post, you could send us a voucher for 3 people? That would be great… haha.

All the participating restaurants in the festival can be found below. The pictures will take you to their respective pages on the Malaysia International Gourmet Festival (MIGF) official website. If you by chance go eat there, tell them you found out about their restaurant through Feedmelah.com!

Participating Restaurants

Avanti – Sunway Resort Hotel & Spa Tel: 03 7492 8000

Chalet – Hotel Equatorial Kuala Lumpur Tel: 03 2161 7777

Chynna – Hilton Kuala Lumpur Tel: 03 2264 2596

Dynasty – Renaissance Kuala Lumpur Hotel Tel: 03 2162 2233

Enak – Starhill Gallery Tel: 03 2141 8973

Iketeru – Hilton Kuala Lumpur Tel: 03 2264 2596

Il Tempio – Taman Tun Abdul Razak, Ampang Tel: 03 4256 8200

Imperial Rama – Highlands Hotel, Resort World Tel:03 6101 1118

Ishq – Crowne Plaza Mutiara Tel: 03 2144 3440

Kabab and Qaurma – Jalan Yap Kwan Seng, Kuala Lumpur Tel: 03 2163 7644

Kim Ma – Palace of the Golden Horses Tel: 03 8944 3784

Lai Po Heen – Mandarin Oriental, Kuala Lumpur Tel: 03 2179 8885

Med.@Marche – Renaissance Kuala Lumpur Hotel Tel: 03 2162 2233

Nerovivo – Jalan Ceylon, Kuala Lumpur Tel: 03 2070 3120

Pacifica Grill and Bar – Mandarin Oriental, Kuala Lumpur Tel: 03 2380 8888

Red -  Hilton Petaling Jaya Tel: 03 7955 9122

Senses – Hilton Kuala Lumpur Tel: 03 2264 2596

Si Chuan Dou Hua – Parkroyal Kuala Lumpur Tel: 03 2782 8303

Summer Palace – Putrajaya Marriott Hotel Tel: 03 8949 8888

Tamaring Springs – Taman Tun Abdul Razak, Ampang Tel: 03 4256 9300

The 39 Restaurant – PNB Darby Park, Kuala Lumpur Tel: 03 7490 3333

The Emperor – Sheraton Subang Hotel & Towers Tel: 03 5031 6060

The Olive – Maxims Genting Hotel, Resorts World Tel: 03 6105 9688

Tuscany – Putrajaya Marriott Hotel Tel: 03 8949 8888

Villa Danieli – Hotel Imperial Kuala Lumpur Tel: 03 2717 9922

West Lake Garden – Sunway Resort Hotel & Spa Tel: 03 7492 8000

Zing! – Grand Millennium Kuala Lumpur Tel: 03 2117 4180

Zuan Yuan – One World Hotel Tel: 03 7681 1159

[Malaysia International Gourmet Festival]

It’s a hot topic I know. But the melamine scandal continues.

In a previous post, we saw how Malaysia and Singapore reacted to melamine contaminated foods but now even people as far away as the United Kingdom are feeling the effects, although not how you might expect it.

This almost sounds too fake to be true, but Ann Summers, a sex shop chain in the UK have started to pull some of their chocolate based products off their shelves.

“The Food Standards Agency issued an alert over chocolate willy spread, a related nipple spread and a novelty pen set, which contains a chocolate-flavoured body pen, all of which were imported from a Chinese manufacturer called Le Bang.”

Le Bang? Willy spread? Nipple spread? Like I said, it’s almost too funny to be true.

The European food safety body have been putting restrictions on products that contain 2.5mg of Chinese milk per kilogram of product. The Ann Summers play toys contained as much as 259mg per kilo.

The products were not found to actually be contaminated, but they were still pulled from the store shelves as a precautionary measure…

It’s good to know that they are encouraging ‘safe’ sex isn’t it? [The Guardian], [Photo]

In the midst of the melamine scandal that has hit China’s dairy companies and seen thousands of children taken to hospital, people have been more cautious of where there food is sourced from and so they should be. The Singapore government has gone all out to reassure its people that they do not import any eggs from China after authorities found contaminated eggs in Hong Kong.

SINGAPORE: The Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA) said Singapore does not import eggs from China.

Most of the eggs available here come from accredited poultry farms in Malaysia, while the others come from local chicken farms.

AVA added that processed egg products from China are also not sold in the retail market. [Channel News Asia]

Malaysia on the other hand, has reassured people that not only do they buy eggs from China, they also buy vegetables and fruits from there as well. But they say, it’s ‘safe to eat’.

KUALA LUMPUR: Vegetables, fruits and eggs imported from China are safe for consumption, the Health Minister has assured worried consumers.

Health Minister Datuk Liow Tiong Lai said there has been no delay in entry of perishables at ports as the authorities were aware that the items “cannot be stored longer than three to four days.”

It is understood that vegetables and fruits from China make up more than three-quarters of the imported fruits in the Malaysian market. [The Star Online]

Like I said, it’s like Black and White.

Safe China imported foods you CAN eat:

The China-made products are Variety Flavour Biscuits (Golden Fuji), Strawberry Flavour Round Biscuit (Aji), Potato Cracker (Aji), Farley’s Rusk Orange (Heinz), Farley’s Rusk Original (Heinz), Oatmeal Cracker Coffee Flavour (Haitai) and Mini Cornetto Blueberry & Strawberry Flavour (Wall’s).

The local products are Rainbow Wafer (Hany), Biskut ABC Chocolate Flavour (Biscuits World), Swiss Roll Perisa Susu (London Biscuits) and Double Choco Choco Coated Cake (Mizu).

A pint a day keeps the doctor away...

Believe it or not, some new research has been done on a beer that fights cancer and heart disease.

Although most students think about and drink beer while at university, this group of students at Rice University, Texas have come up with a beer that contains the anti cancer and anti heart disease fighting resveratrol, commonly found in wines.

Their ‘Bio Beer’ will soon be entered into a national bio engineering contest but ironically, most of their undergraduate team aren’t old enough to even drink beer (legal age in America is 21).

Their other notably strange creations include sheets of bacteria that behave like photographic film and bacteria that smells like mint while they’re growing but like bananas when they stop growing.

So hopefully sometime in the near future we’ll be able to trade in that cup of green tea for a jug of beer? Well you can only hope… [Rice National Media]