And like Kombucha, the origins of the "mother" substance are lost in ancient history. Legend has it that Mohammed himself gifted the nomad community with the yellowish-white kefir culture "grains," and taught them how to ferment milk with them. We posted about black cumin, another legendary gift from Mohammed, here.
It’s not a book for beginning cooks, but no recipe is really difficult to manage. For example, baklava might seem intimidating to make, but with filo pastry from the supermarket, a careful cook can easily produce a trayful of that exotic sweet from this book.
The United Arab Emirate states have long been known for over extravagance; including driving white gold Mercedes sports coupes and keeping cheetahs and other wild animals at homeas pets. These oddities may appear to be the ultimate in personal vanity, including selling gold bars in vending machines. Perhaps the ultimate vanity extreme in the UAE […]
Have you met the quince? You might have come across it in a market and passed it by. It’s yellow, but not yielding like an apple. It looks like a bumpy pear. Raw, it’s inedible. What do you do with it? The simple answer is: cook it. Quinces under heat become sweet and tender, with […]
Israel’s dubious meat industry gets more sickening: we’ve already covered exposes of poultry fed with feces and pumped with toxic contaminants. Now it’s all about beef and how it’s frozen, treated laundry style and then resold as fresh.
Sensational food production issues in Israel are covered by Green Prophet. These issues have included exposure of cruelty in the meat industry; frozen fish from China that are pumped with water and Chemicals, and meat being fed with feces and pumped with toxic contaminants. It now appears that the Chinese are not only adding chemicals to food […]
More massive-scale animal abuse found in Israel. This time the kosher status of the company is at stake: Following news that cattle and sheep are being severely mistreated at a large kosher slaughterhouse, Israel’s Kolbotek consumer watchdog program has again revealed large scale animal abuse at the country’s leading poultry processing plant, Soglowek.
There’s a new business afloat that links people to people for the purpose of sharing authentic local dining experiences. I found EatWith.com a month too late for this summer’s vacation, but there’s always next time. I’m fresh back from a few weeks in Europe, a family reunion through Paris and Venice and Rome that doubled […]
Bacterial and viral diseases from poultry is a growing problem that affects more people worldwide than every year. Whether the disease be viral in nature, as in the case of Avian or Bird Flu; or unpleasant intestinal bacterial infections such as salmonella. These diseases can be extremely unpleasant and even fatal to older adults and […]
Pungent and bittersweet, garlic is no stranger to Muslim cuisine. Check out what makes it eco-holy and why a clove a day is a needed health top-up.
Beef Products Inc says that the ABC network is to blame for its economic woes. What’s in a name? Beef Products Inc (BPI) is suing ABC News for $1.2 billion, claiming economic damage from the network’s use of the words “pink slime” to describe the mass of connective tissue ground together, washed in ammonia, and […]
Good news! McDonald’s burgers sold in Israel don’t contain pink slime, and never did. Pink slime, a beef filler ingredient made from from slaughter house beef trimmings is freaking out consumers worldwide. The pink slime is made as meat parts are converted to pink slime as the meat passes through a centrifuge. Pink slime aroused […]
Flavorful basil for cooking now grows on trees, says Hishshtil, Israeli garden and agricultural nursery. I’m used to growing a handful of basil sprouts in a window box, never enough for two batches of pesto (see our delicious pesto recipe here). It seems like a dream to stroll over to a tree and pluck off […]
Cannabis is known to give blessed relief from the pain of cancer. Yet the plant helps people suffering from many other ailments, such as multiple sclerosis, colitis, neurological pain, and post-trauma stress disorder. Until now, the herb has not been in the first line of treatment for chronic pain. Rather, conventional medicine has viewed it […]
Anyone who loves nature will enjoy Balyolu’s week long tour on Northeastern Turkey’s honey road. Update May 20, 2020: this tour is no longer operating. It’s impossible to understate the importance of bees. Like fruit bats – thousands of which were gunned down by unknown assailants in Lebanon last weekend – they are pollinators that […]