"glasgow" news and stories

Chef Domenico Crolla has cooked up what could turn out to be the world's most expensive pizza, and is probably already the priciest for its size. The 12-inch pizza is worth about $2,800. Dubbed the Pizza Royale 007, it has an organic crust with a sunblush tomato pizza sauce, smoked salmon, venison medallions, cognac-marinated lobster and champagne-soaked caviar. The whole pie is topped with 24-karat edible gold.

Crolla, who is from Glasgow, worked with the British Pizza, Pasta & Italian Food Association and will auction off the pizza to raise money for the Australian Fred Hollow's Foundation, a nonprofit group that works to "prevent curable blindness in developing countries." It will be sold on eBay, where both Crolla and the BPPIFA hope that it will make at least $3,800, which would apparently break the world's record for most expensive pizza, currently held by the white truffle pizza at Gordon Ramsay's Maze Restaurant in London. Whoever wins the auction can either have the pizza prepared in one of Crolla's restaurants or have it prepared in their home.

[via Slice]

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I recently read an article about researchers in Glasgow examining how sugary sodas may help increase brain function and boost memory. Researchers gave test subjects sugary beverages and examined how well they performed memory based exercises such as remembering lists of words and letters. Those that drank the equivalent of two cans of cola did about 20 percent better than the non-soda drinkers. To my layman's understanding, this is because our brains need glucose (sugar) to function properly, whether it comes straight from a soda or gets processed from carbohydrates. Researchers hope to combat dementia from Alzheimer's with glucose supplements and also help younger bodies learn to use glucose more efficiently. I've always been told that using a burst of glucose from a soda or candy bar was a short term solution, however. Some people experience a "crash" afterwards and excessive soda drinkers often run the risk of developing type 2 diabetes. The Franklin Institute Online has a detailed yet accessible section about this sort of brain chemistry. I suggest reading through that in addition to the Glasgow article.