Continue reading Wine of the Week: Pinot Noir

• Barefoot Bubbly non-vintage Premium Extra Dry - $9
• Domaine Ste. Michelle non-vintage Blanc de Blancs- $12
• Domaine Ste. Michelle non-vintage Brut- $12
• Gruet Brut Blanc de Blancs- $13
• Korbel Sparkling Natural Chardonnay non-vintage- $13
• Piper Sonoma non-vintage Blanc de Noir- $15
• Piper Sonoma non-vintage Brut- $15
• Scharffenberger Mendocino non-vintage Brut-$15
• Mumm Napa non-vintage Blanc de Noirs- $17
• Mumm Napa non-vintage Brut Prestige- $17

Continue reading Great buys in sparkling wines of the world 2006

Although the results of the 12th annual Great New Zealand Sausage Competition won't be in until later this week, the most interesting thing about the judging isn't finding out who the winner is (unless you were participating, of course) but who was doing the judging in the first place. In addition to the Beef, Pork, BBQ, Flavored, Flavored BBQ, Saveloy/Polony/Cocktail, Traditional, International, and Gourmet categories that were evaluated by experienced judges, there was also a second judging of a selected group of entries to see who would win the Kids' Choice Award. All the entries, selected from those participating in other categories in the competition, were scrutinized by two groups of kids: seven judges under the age of five, and a group under the age of nine.

Perhaps some will bristle at the idea of their product being judged by kids, but most children love sausages and while they may not be able to pick out the same points as a life-long professional food critic would, they certainly know the difference between a good one and a bad one.

The "food miles" theory says that the further food has to travel to reach its destination - such as food imported to Europe from New Zealand - the worse it is for the environment because of the greater quantity of pollutants emitted during transport. Researchers in New Zealand, where farmers and ranchers had a good deal of revenue at stake due to their remote location, put the theory to the test and came up with some interesting results.

Their overall conclusion was that the number of miles a food had traveled was not a reliable indicator of its environmental impact. Many forms of produce, as well as dairy and sheep meat, were found to be more energy efficient even when travel to Europe was taken into account. A similar study in the UK produced the same results.

This does not mean that buying goods from far away is necessarily "better" than buying local goods. It simply means that the method of production is what counts, not overall distance traveled, if environmental factors are a primary consideration when purchasing food. Locally produced food may be better in some cases, but it might not be if it is not responsibly produced in the first place. Buying local is a great way of supporting the local economy and keeping revenue within the community and for consumers who make that a priority, local still might be a better choice.

If you're sitting around trying to decide on a new wine to try tonight with you dinner, may we suggest a little something from New Zealand?

Forbes picks 15 "Five Star" wines from the tiny country that served as backdrop to a giant movies about hobbits:

1. Cable Station Pinot Noir, Marlborough 2004 ($18) - "bright, ripe fruit flavors balanced with just the right amount of acidity to keep it food-friendly. Forget those ponderous zins and shirazes, this is the red for a barbeque"
2. Cloudy Bay Sauvignon Blanc, Marlborough, 2005 ($26) - "Deceptively light at first, it slowly evolves in the glass to eventually reveal a long, rich finish packed with a smoky minerality."
3. Craggy Range Merlot, Hawkes Bay, 2003 ($35) - "a perfect balance of silky tannins, lush ripe fruit and good acidity for a robust structure that's unusual for this varietal."
4. Crossroads Destination Series Chardonnay, Hawkes Bay, 2003 ($16) - "Rich and lush with ripe fruit in the front of the mouth, but with a fine, tart, green apple finish."
5. Drystone Pinot Noir, Central Otago, 2003 ($30) - "bright flavors of red cherry fruit and June strawberries abound, pulled together by a soft touch of oak and round, ripe tannins"

Continue reading Five star wines from New Zealand

I'm not vegetarian (though I did try a vegan lifestyle for about a year), but I love this idea of a vegetarian film festival. Organizers of New Zealand's first ever Vegetarian Film Festival will be showing selected movies that have vegetarian themes, ranging from "light" like the indie film Shooting Vegetarians to "heavy," like the story of a live sheep export campaigner in Jill's Film.

But it's not just vegetarian in the movie, it's vegetarian at the movies as well, with concessions stands selling popcorn, vegan ice cream, and contests in which festival-goers can win vegetarian wines (aren't all wines vegetarian!??!) and vouchers to vegetarian restaurants.

The film festival will take place in Auckland and Christchurch, New Zealan on October 8 in conjunction with World Vegetarian Day.

We've mentioned the new Netscape here on Slashfood before. In case you haven't heard, what used to be an alternative web browser to Internet Explorer, netscape.com, got an extreme makeover in mid-June and has become a social bookmarking site, similar to del.icio.us, digg (technology) or flickr (photos), but for news. In case you're not familiar with social bookmarking, it is the concept of users collecting bookmarks of their favorite websites, and sharing them with the community. Users can collect, categorize, and "tag" bookmarks, which makes it easier for other users to find similar bookmarks. On sites like digg and newsvine, users can "vote" on each others' stories.

Over on Netscape, it's mostly about news, but users can also submit stories in a number of "channels," or categories - from Art & Design to Careers & Jobs to Health & Fitness to Popular Videos. It goes without saying that Slashfood's favorite channel is Food & Travel, but we'll get into more detail about that shortly.

Continue reading Using the new Netscape from a Slashfoodie perspective

Moves are afoot to ban the sale of chicken, except in its frozen form, in New Zealand.

The call comes after a report showed that New Zealand had the "dubious distinction of being the campylobacter centre of the world" A Food Safety Authority (FSA) report showed that all fresh chicken carcasses carried the campylobacter bug. It also detailed that New Zealand has more than three times the rate of notified campylobacteriosis as neighbour Australia. The rate of 370 cases per 100,000 people has been rising at about 12 per cent a year over the past five years. Over the last 9 years it is beleived that 11 people have died from the disease that causes diarrhoea, vomiting and stomach ache for up to a week.

[Chicken Little image from Disney]

A man in Auckland, New Zealand almost died from consuming a plate of poisoned meatballls. The dish had been made by a kitchen hand who thought he was adding flavouring to the meat.

The 47-year-old South Auckland man ate the microwaved meatballs for an evening meal but an hour later he vomited and lost consciousness. His family discovered him unconscious and he was taken by ambulance to hospital.

He had turned blue and was severely short of oxygen. Doctors diagnosed a potentially fatal condition in which the blood's oxygen-carrying capacity was reduced by nitrites affecting the haemoglobin in the red blood cells. He made a full recovery and was discharged after three days. Meanwhile, his daughter found the leftover meatballs in the fridge and they were sent for scientific analysis which revealed a level of the preservative sodium nitrite which was 344 times the permitted level for cured meats under the Australia-New Zealand Food Standards Code. The meatballs had 43,000mg/kg; the maximum permitted is 125mg/kg.

In New Zealand, scientists have been able to determine precisely which genes are responsible for the individual flavors and scents of fruits and flowers. As a result of this breakthrough, it will now be possible to actually produce natural flavorings without having to resort to chemical extractions or other synthetic processes, not to mention that it will save time trying to match the flavors of new products to natural ones. The scientists inserted the newly-identified genes into bacteria and model plants, which then produced the same results. Using a process known as biofermentation, they will be able to harvest the flavors and smells from the cultures in which they are grown and then implant them into food products (or perfumes).

The upshot of all of this is that it opens the door to a nearly infinite number of flavors - all-natural flavors, at that. As consumer demand increasingly grows for "natural" products, it seems likely that novel, but natural, flavorings could catch on. Green apple potato chips, anyone?

The Manchester Royal Infirmary, which has been using the Manuka honey since May, have had success using it on special honey-coated surgical dressings that can help fight antibiotic-resistant infections. They have been purchasing 880 pounds of the honey so far as it seems to reduce inflammation and reduce the instances of MSRA (Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) Volunteers in the hospital have been administered the honey in their treatment.

While looking into Manuka Honey I have found a website that claims various medical benefits of the honey. There is also a piece on the BBC.

• Hemmesphere, Sydney, Australia
  
• Matterhorn, Wellington, New Zealand
  
• Puri Bar, Jimbaran, Bali
  
• Maduro, Tokyo, Japan
  
• The Soggy Dollar Bar, Jost Van Dyke, British Virgin Islands
  
• La Fonda, Cabo San Lucas, Mexico L
  
• Reid's Palace, Madeira, Portugal
  
• Grand Hotel Europe, St. Petersburg, Russia
  
• Bar FiftyNine, Düsseldorf, Germany
  
• Bascule, Cape Town, South Africa