Snake-Bitten Chicken Dish!

Earlier this week, news agency Reuters reported that Chinese health authorities banned a chicken dish prepared from snake-bitten chicken! What? A snake-bitten chicken? I was shocked when I read that? How people can do such things to innocent animals? Okay, chicken is a food item and it must die before going into our stomach. But why such cruelty? Why snake-bite induced slow death?

China is country where people have different odd food habits. The chicken dish was served by some selected eateries in the southern province of Guangdong and the southwestern city of Chongqing. Recently, a video posted on local site sina.com.cn showed how cooks forces poisonous snakes to bite live chickens before cooking. The video caused outraged locally and the may people termed it disgusting and cruel.

The video can be found here:
http:/you.video.sina.com.cn/b/21145091-1405053100.html

Pepquino - The tiny little natural Melon!

Take a look a the tiny fruit in the picture. This is Pepquino, a real fruit identical to watermelon. This mico melon measures just 3-4 cm from tip-to-tip. The interesting thing is that despite it's tiny size the Pepquino melon has identical external pattern and distinctive shape of traditional watermelons. Cute fruit. Isn't it?

Pepquino melon was discovered by Dutch food producers in South America who brought it to the Netherlands and cultivated it in greenhouses. While it resembles larger watermelons, it has a fresh crisp taste similar to a cucumber and juicy light green flesh. Pepquiño is available from April till November and can easily be stored for up to ten days at a temperature of 2-4°C.

According to producer Koppert Cress, Pepquino melon can be eaten as a snack or appetiser, like the olive, in a summer salad, stir fried or made into a sorbet and teamed with dark chocolate. So, they expects this tiny fruit to become the most fashionable fruit of 2009.


And the good news is Pepquino melon is already in the market with a price tag of £10 per 250g box containing around 50 melons. Koppert Cress is already getting orders from New Covent Garden Market, New Spitalfields Market and Birmingham Market in the UK. Want to taste it?