Avant-garde French Cuisine in Shanghai

The Food by Chef Paul Pairet

The Resturant – Ultraviolet, Shanghai

The Changing Scenes of the Dining Room

The 10-seat dining room is choreographed by computerized audiovisual aids to ensure that the setting, the aroma, the lighting, the breeze, and the music enhance the tasting experience of the food.

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Character Bento

Usahana Charaben

The Character – Usahana

Can Tomatoes Slice Prostate Cancer Risk?

Armed with a $400,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), scientists from the University of Illinois and Ohio State University are tracing how tomato compounds help reduce the risk of prostate cancer in humans. Using isotopic labeling of the three tomato carotenoids—lycopene, phytoene, and phytofluene—they’re tracking the absorption and metabolism of these substances in the body, hoping to unlock the mysteries of how tomatoes seem to protect against prostate cancer.1

The prospect that something as simple as eating tomatoes can help fend off prostate cancer is exciting. After all, the National Cancer Institute estimates there will be more than 217,000 new cases of prostate cancer in the United States this year, resulting in more than 32,000 deaths.1

“Most men are going to get prostate cancer if they live long enough,” says John Erdman, PhD, professor emeritus of the department of food science and human nutrition at the University of Illinois who’s been studying the effects of tomatoes on prostate cancer since the mid-1990s and is the co-lead researcher on the NIH-funded study. “Many men between 40 and 50 develop early-stage prostate cancer, and it may continue to develop over 20 years. It’s important to reduce the growth of the tumor. If you can control this by diet so that the tumor doesn’t get large enough to cause problems, you’ve saved a lot of lives.”

Read the complete article in Today’s Dietitian that includes a recipe – Home-Style Turkey Vegetable Lasagna ….

Stewed Whole Chicken

Ingredients

1 whole chicken, about 3 lbs
1 cup soy sauce
5 oz rock sugar
2 slices ginger
1 tsp sesame oil

Seasoning

1 tbsp Szechuan peppercorn
1 tbsp ground clove
1 stick cinnamon
2 pieces star anise
2 pieces licorice root 甘草
1 piece black cardamom 草果
1 stalk green onion, cut into sections

Sauce

2 tbsp XO chili sauce
1 tbsp soy sauce
1/2 tbsp sugar

Method

1. Clean and Rinse chicken. Drain and set aside.
2. Wrap all seasoning ingredients with cheesecloth and tie up with string. Add to a pot with 12 cups water. Bring to a boil. Simmer for 30 minutes. Remove cheesecloth pouch.
3. Add soy sauce, rock sugar and ginger. Bring to a boil again. Add chicken and cook for 5 minutes in high heat. Lower heat and simmer for 25 minutes until chicken is cooked through.
4. Remove chicken and brush with sesame oil. Cool and cut into pieces.
5. Sauté XO sauce in a saucepan. Add 3/4 cup of the stewed liquid in Step 3. Bring to a boil. Mix in soy sauce and sugar. Spoon sauce over chicken and serve.

Source: Hong Kong magazine

Today’s Comic

Innovative Food Presentation

Kushi Oyster with Margarita Sorbet and Orange Caviar

The dish is an appetizer prepared by Chef Hubert Keller of The Toque in Las Vegas.

The oysters were served atop a mini-aquarium filled with colourful stones, LED lights and fog-producing dry ice.

The dish features fresh orange “caviar” created using molecular gastronomy technique.

Quotable Quote

“It’s so beautifully arranged on the plate — you know someone’s fingers have been all over it.”

….Julia Childs on nouvelle cuisine.