January 29, 2012

Roadster's New Menu Tasting


"Yes, I think I do. After reading a lot of overheated puffery about your new cook, you know what I'm craving? A little perspective. That's it. I'd like some fresh, clear, well seasoned perspective."  Anto Ego.



All foodies  know Anto Ego from Ratatouille and his renowned strict criticism. And all remember his famous line that If he didnt love the food, simply he wouldn't swallow it!  
Still he is a logical person . A perspective is what he only needed to judge Gusteau's! 
Well, I personally think that restaurants criticism is a 100% biased process as much as the food critique tries to hide this biased opinion.
Why? One single moment from Ego's childhood, transformed all his thoughts about the restaurant. Food critisim doesn't get born at the moment we taste food, it is a process that mingles together all our thoughts, memories, the people we are with , even the music we are hearing there....
It is a sensory "crumbling" .
All the neurons are moving and the signals going back and forth from the mouth to the brain, then from the brain to the stomach. Continuous set. One peculiar odor from the meal on the table, will shift everything, bringing memories, whether sad or bad. You will forget what you are criticizing and base it on mostly what you are feeling when you tasted this meal.
As much as food critiques will tell me that this is not the case and they succeed in isolating their feelings when tasting. I believe that this is useless. What is the purpose of  tasting  food without a memory to remember or build upon? Tasting food is not just a physical experiment to the tongues as much as it is a creation of new feelings and new tastes. Eventually, creation of new memories.
What brings you back to the same restaurant and order the same meal is what it had created the same time you tasted it.  The memory was stored in a special place in your brain and you want to enjoy it again and again. 

Restaurants have this mission to keep the same memory, unchanged, and untouched. This is quality. 
And once they change their menus or maybe a recipe, they are in a dilemma of making us unhappy. They will either lose us or they will succeed in repeating the same process of building an enjoyable memory again

And here I am talking about one of my favorite Lebanese Chain restaurants : Roadster's Diner*. Roadster's will always remind me of my college days when we used to ditch classes at AUB and go eat there and enjoy our times chatting.It will always remind me of the vividness of Hamra, its diversity and its noisy setting.

January 28, 2012

Chocolate Bars made from Camel Milk


For those who are living in the United Arabs of Emirate, you have probably tried it.
But for someone who is living in Lebanon , where there are no camels, and no camel milk production, this is something "exotic".

A month ago I talked about localization of food products and how it is crucial that Food industries focus on what the consumers in their markets need rather on what it is more likely to import . A an example I tweeted was a new product : the "Camel Milk Icecream". Here is a business review from the dairy products website about Al-ain wanting to launch icecream from camel milk.

So, a week ago, my friend wanted me to try the chocolate bars made from Camel Milk . The chocolate bars were produced by  "Nasma" company.


January 23, 2012

January News & Announcements

Pearl's Powder blogger  was interviewed by  the Gate's Magazine for the January Issue !

 Thanks  to Lana from L' Armoire De Lana for giving me this opportunity. ( If you love fashion ,you might want to check her  glamorous blog! )

Link to Loulwa Kalach's Interview with the Gate Magazine

Also you might also what to check Paty M from PatyMsNutritionWorld to read her post about the " Social Media Changing Lives"  thank you dinner for all those who participated in the Conference.
The dinner was hosted by Amarress and organized by AUB's Online Collaborative.
(Link to the Post)


January 15, 2012

Energy Drinks Popularity.. I Blame Marketing

“It is approaching midnight and the student’s eyes about to shut down but there is still few important chapters left for his 8 am final. He decides on over-nighting. But coffee won’t have any effect as he already had 3 today. Perhaps, he will grab a Redbull.” This normal scene happens every time the finals period creeps in the lives of college students.

Perhaps I am not a nutritionist to judge.  But a food technologist do know what a product is made of: mostly affeine and the amino acid taurine, and both of these may have dangerous consequences for the heart when taken together. Read more ). So energy drinks' subject is like the anti-smoking campaigns by  health practitioners!Thus,  you will always hearing me lobby against  energy drinks in the social scene.
Every time I see my friends grabbing this energy drink (
مشروب الطاقة), my food awareness comes alive ....My friends suffer from me, but I would be saving them ...
A Mania ? Or a Savior?  Find Out Below