![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Good news, everyone. According to a letter sent, apparently, to everyone in the apartment complex, the dengue fever outbreak has been successfully treated. According to the report since the initial three cases -- they said ``two'' before -- there haven't been any more cases. They also say ``we had in the last two weeks removed almost 500 air-con trays,'' and one of them is probably mine. It's a slightly odd thing to boast about, but, you take pride in what you can. They thank residents for letting their contractors in to remove the trays, which increases the chances that I wasn't visited by a roving band of air conditioner tray thieves.
Singapore, meanwhile, is sending its National Culinary Team to the Expogast 2006 Culinary World Cup. I never heard of this before, but next month in Luxembourg the team of seven chefs will have five hours to start from scratch and while being ``scrutinised for hygiene, method of preparation, and professional practices'' attempt to out-cook about nine hundred competitors from 35 countries, according to National Culinary Team manager Randy Chow. The team's supported by the Work Development Agency and by the Food and Beverage Industry Skills and Training Council, in a project to ``increase the profile of local chefs and highlight the fact that it is a prestigious profession'', which put that way makes them sound a bit insecure. The only food shown as completed was cured ocean trout on saffron-scented vegetable jello, which is about two orders of magnitude too classy for me to eat.
And there's a new plan by Eighth Wonder for a Sentosa Island Integrated Resort. This one is named Harry's Island, for ``Hurricane'' Harry O'Brien, founder of the resort, who was born in Raffles Hotel in 1900. The explorer, researcher, and adventurer whose spirit inspired the resort has only the minor character flaw of being a fictional construct designed for the marketing of Harry's Island. Features are to include a ``ride restaurant'', a Pelé football stadium and academy surrounded by a hotel, a tree house hotel, and artificial waterfalls used as curtains for a nightly spectacular show. I'm startled to learn Pelé is still alive, although I don't know why I had thought otherwise.
Trivia: Alaska had an eight-day week in 1867. Source: Mapping Time: The Calendar and Its History, E G Richards.
Currently Reading: V Was For Victory, John Morton Blum.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2006-10-31 05:37 pm (UTC)He gets around. He presented a special trophy to Michael Schumacher on the occasion of his retirement at the Brazilian GP the weekend before last.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-11-01 04:31 pm (UTC)And I think I even read that on your Livejournal, which makes my inability to understand that Pelé has not vanished from the face of the Earth all the more inexplicable.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-11-01 02:52 am (UTC)and highlight the fact that it is a prestigious profession
This rings quite strongly of Yakitate Japan, but with a broader focus. An anime worth watching, I feel, as it does - amongst other themes - try to convey the wonder of good food, and the joy in its tasting, and even its creation. Food is so much more than merely refuelling a vehicle, yet many lifestyles, especially in the US and UK, have attempted to reduce it to such, with rather unfortunate consequences for health and social integrity, versus the joyous evening gatherings of extended families in Spanish restaurants, or French and Italian homes.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-11-01 04:53 pm (UTC)Dengue's been a recurring feature on the evening news the past year or so. But things seem to be generally improving, and there's always a fresh batch of mosquito attacks to watch.
Unfortunately (and don't think this doesn't cause me awkward moments around friends) while I'm very interested in eating food, I'm really uninterested in how it's prepared. My father has never understood why I will change the channel away from any food preparation show at such rapid speed.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-11-01 06:12 am (UTC)Neither have I. 'Expogast' just sounds like a naughty word, even given its perfectly fine roots.
but next month in Luxembourg the team of seven chefs will have five hours to start from scratch and while being `scrutinised for hygiene, method of preparation, and professional practices'
Well, kitchen hygiene is dang important, but.. the extent of what I'd want to see in a competition like that is reasonable, nto scrutinized hygiene, even given it is a competition. It sounds to me they're throwing in a little bit of fuss over some things unrelated to making good saffron-scented vegetable jello.
If there can be good saffron-scented vegetable jello. Good Lord, I thought we'd move past the aspics and gels phase in 1978 in the culinary world.
The team's supported by the Work Development Agency
I first read that as 'Wok Development Agency', which would be far, far cooler to work at.
--Chiaroscuro
(no subject)
Date: 2006-11-01 05:01 pm (UTC)`Expogast' sounds like the detective's name in the adult movie rip-off of Psycho, really.
I didn't realize people tried serving gelatins as anything but desserts. It seems like Jello and trout would battle each other with the result of permanent damage on the diner's tongue.
I get the sense they were sort of grabbing for things to list that would be influences in the score, and that hygiene may not be as important as, you know, not forgetting to plug in the oven before 'cooking' the pizza.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-11-02 11:14 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-11-02 02:21 pm (UTC)My dad's more interested in when fondues will come back. My mom's more interested in getting rid of some of the sets we haven't used since 1979.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-11-02 06:58 pm (UTC)I didn't realize people tried serving gelatins as anything but desserts
Oh goodness. Aspics used to be all over the place. For good reasons as well as bad.. as
--Chiaroscuro
(no subject)
Date: 2006-11-03 04:39 pm (UTC)So, 25 years of saving a fondue set in a dust-covered avocado green box finally pays off ...
I have no direct experience with aspic, except as a punch line on Three's Company that I found insulting when I was seven years old.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-11-04 04:34 am (UTC)--Chiaroscuro
(no subject)
Date: 2006-11-04 04:24 pm (UTC)It was just the one episode that really got to me. Otherwise, with a couple exceptions, I stuck with the show through to its end.