"without the Culinary Arts, the crudeness of reality would be unbearable"
There was a healthy whiff of
competition in the air in
Chocolate is not widely consumed
in the tropics, even though that's where most of the world's cocoa is
produced. The reason: It's too hot. High temperatures in countries like Food scientists have been trying
to remedy this situation for decades, and now researchers in
With flaky, moist and snowy-white
flesh, this pleasant-tasting fish can be prepared in dozens of ways. In
flavor and texture, think grouper or sea bass or cod. Still, for a
restaurant, it's tough to promote "conger" when its last name is
"eel." "I wish it wasn't called
conger eel," says Rob Klink, executive chef of Oceanaire
Seafood Room in downtown The appearance of the live conger
doesn't help.But while some may envision a scary
sea beast with a name to match, Klink sees a fish
with a future. Read Article.
Czech scientists say they have
created a new non-alcoholic beer that contains 10 times the normal amount of phytoestrogen, intended to help women suffering from the
menopause. The beer, developed by the “Czech women lack oestrogen in their diet, so we wanted to solve this
through beer because the Czech Republic is number one in the world for beer
consumption,” Karel Kosar,
managing director of the brewing research institute, told
Cee-FoodIndustry.com.  There was a healthy whiff of competition in the air in One of the top bids bought dinner for six
prepared by Jacques Pepin in his Anyone can follow the example of these culinary
notables by hosting their own Cook for the Cure dinner party. For information
visit http://www.cookforthecure.com. Chocolate is not widely consumed in the tropics,
even though that's where most of the world's cocoa is produced. The reason:
It's too hot. High temperatures in countries like Food scientists have been trying to remedy this
situation for decades, and now researchers in Most brands of chocolate melt at temperatures
between 77 and about 91 degrees Fahrenheit (25 to 33 degrees Celsius). S.O. Ogunwolu and C.O.
Jayeola, food scientists at the Cocoa Research
Institute of Nigeria, have mixed cornstarch with cocoa to produce a heat-resistant
chocolate that they say compares "favorably with conventional milk
chocolate in terms of color, taste, smoothness and overall
acceptability." The starch acts as a chocolate thickener and
prevents the outflow of cocoa butter — the natural fat of the cocoa bean —
when the heat is on. The researchers found that using 10 percent starch was
ideal and produced a product that was comparable to milk chocolate in taste
tests. The new concoction stays firm up to 122 degrees
F (50 degrees C). Guns and chocolate The battle to prevent chocolate meltdown has
been a long one. One of the earliest of these culinary offensives
occurred in the midst of World War II, when the U.S. Army commissioned
research into the creation of a chocolate that soldiers could eat on the go.
The bar wasn't set very high, though, and the army captain who oversaw the
project had only four requirements for the military chocolate: that it weigh
only about 4 ounces (113 grams), be able to withstand high temperatures, have
high food energy and taste "just a little better than a boiled
potato." Since the 1970s, there have been about nine
patents plus numerous research articles on the development of heat-resistant
chocolate. "People have been working on it for a long
time and are still working on it now," said Richard Hartel,
a food engineer at the During Operation Desert Storm, Hershey's
Chocolate tested a high-temperature chocolate capable of withstanding
140-degree-F temperatures. It was dubbed the "Desert Bar," but
troop reactions to its taste were mixed. Taste tests Hartel has not tried the new cornstarch chocolate himself, but
he points out the one major problem that previous heat-resistant chocolate
products have run into. "They don't melt in your mouth," Hartel told LiveScience.
"You have to chew it, and that's what leads to a waxy or chewy
characteristic." The cornstarch chocolate doesn't seem to have
this problem, however. In taste tests conducted by the Nigerian researchers,
people rated the new chocolate as being similar to milk chocolate in color,
taste, smoothness and overall acceptability. It was found to be slightly less
sweet than milk chocolate, however. The researchers hope their new confection will
"allow the wide distribution, display and consumption of chocolate in
the tropics, especially With flaky, moist and snowy-white flesh, this pleasant-tasting fish can be prepared in dozens of ways. In flavor and texture, think grouper or sea bass or cod. Still, for a restaurant, it's tough to promote "conger" when its last name is "eel." "I wish it wasn't called conger eel," says Rob Klink, executive
chef of Oceanaire Seafood Room in downtown The appearance of the live conger doesn't help. Wriggling in at seven to eight feet in length and 10 inches in diameter, this nocturnal bottom feeder, which inhabits deep-water shipwrecks and coral reefs, has a cylindrical, scale-free, mottled pink-and-gray-skinned body that is covered in a thick insulating slime. At one end is a bulbous head that looks something like a sock puppet with a pronounced overbite (anyone remember Ollie from early television's "Kukla, Fran and Ollie"?). But while some may envision a scary sea beast with a name to match, Klink sees a fish with a future. For an Italian presentation, he lightly bakes conger fillets in olive oil and tops them with roasted plum tomatoes. Crusted in sesame seeds, a Japanese-style grilled conger is served with a wasabi beurre blanc. But the biggest sellers at Oceanaire are a spicy/sweet conger pad Thai and all-American conger chowder. Aside from versatility, Klink appreciates that conger eel, which is also called kingclip by wholesalers, costs, on average, 50 percent less than the popular Chilean sea bass, American red snapper or halibut. Rich Regan, chef and co-owner of Monocacy
Crossing near "When I first tried it, I poached it, I grilled it, I sautéed it and braised it, and it stays together and can stand up to a spicy, aggressive sauce," says Regan, who calls conger "a strong seller and image builder for the restaurant." Tomorrow night, for a Flying Dog beer dinner at the Crossing, Regan is serving blackened conger eel fingers as appetizers. Wholesalers are also trying to attract chefs by stressing the environmental advantages of using of the abundant conger eel. "It's the underutilized species that a lot of chefs are looking for," says Kurt Friesland, who works for Jessup-based seafood wholesaler J.J. McDonnell. "The conger can take some of the pressure off of species that are being overused." In the past, he says, conger eel has been "misrepresented by some wholesalers as grouper and snapper. The texture and taste are nearly the same. But now we're all recognizing the integrity of the product and selling it for what it is, a good value." "It's always been one of the most popular fish in At the retail level, Nobel Prize winner Pablo Neruda gave a fitting tribute in his "Ode to Conger Chowder": In the storm-tossed Chilean sea
lives the rosy conger, giant eel of snowy flesh. And in Chilean stewpots, along the coast, was born the chowder, thick and succulent, a boon to man. |
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