This is probably going to start a trend: hospitals in Wales have banned vending machines that sell soda and candy.

They are going to phase out the vending machines over the next six months. But one hospital, University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff, will still have junk food vending machines in 2010. Not sure why they get special treatment, but if you're visiting someone in a Wales hospital and have a craving for Cadbury chocolate, you'll have to go there.

The junk food machines are going to be replaced with machines that have healthier food options, such as fruit juice. Though I hope they're looking at the sugar content of some of those so-called "healthy" fruit juices.

Just in time for lunch comes this news story from the UK.

Skelfayre has been fined 16,900 pounds after an investigation discovered that one of their warehouses was infested with rats and maggots, and that rats had gnawed at some of the food and urinated and defecated on some of it as well. In July of last year the food was recalled and destroyed. The food was headed to care homes, which I'm going to assume is what they call nursing facilities in the UK(?).

Oh, there were bird droppings around the food too. Let's get on to better food news, shall we?

How far would you travel to have your favorite meal? Or rather, how far would you have it sent? Rap star Kanye West, along with 7 other diners, will be enjoying a feast of Indian food this Wednesday from the restaurant British Raj's, located in Wales, though he will be dining in New York City. The bill for this meal is to exceed $3900.

Even with shipping costs, why is it so much? The actual cost of the food, eaten in the restaurant, would run at about $17.50 per person. However the restaurant's Executive Chef will be accompanying the meal to New York, ensuring quality control, customs clearance, and proper service. The $3900 price tag actually reflects the loss the restaurant will experience during the two evenings the chef will be away. His travel and accommodation costs are extra.

Apparently the dinner will include "onion bhajees, chapati breads, biryanis, pappadums, a specially prepared fish dish and vegetables on the side." Kanye isn't the first to receive this kind of service though. The music promotion company that arranged this dining experience previously ordered food to an after-show party for Snoop Dogg from the same Wales restaurant.

Like the Boston Molasses Disaster of 1919, the story of a Swiss freighter that almost exploded with cooked tapioca is safely behind us but still bears mentioning. In August 1972, the cargo of the Cassarate included timber and tapioca. The former caught fire and the hot water and steam created while dousing the blaze caused the 1,500 tons of Thai tapioca below deck to swell in the oven-like conditions. The Cassarate made an emergency stop in Wales, where the fires were finally extinguished. The hundreds of thousands of portions of tapioca, bound for Holland, never did wind up bursting the ship's hull. A recently updated Snopes page has excerpts from local newspapers that covered the incident.

Rats in the kitchen! Not the best thing in the world; especially when your kitchen serves up grub for hoards of school kids.

Actually its not the Welsh schools that suffered a rat infestation but a warehouse that supplies 300 schools in the region. Pembrokeshire Council said rats were found during a routine inspection at the Skelfayre warehouse in Pembroke Docks. This warehouse sends out food for school meals to Pembrokeshire, Carmarthenshire and Ceredigion but also supplies other businesses including the schools, residential care homes, hotels, and restaurants . The contaminated food will be destroyed.

 

 

When the series first began, the Great British Menu offered 14 talented chefs and lots of  ideas as to what should be on the menu for the queen's 80th birthday. The final menu is a compilation of tradition and innovation, taking the best dishes suggested by the participants and combining them into a cohesive whole. Various UK countries are represented and so are local ingredients. The final, and ultimate, British menu is:

• Starter: Smoked salmon with blinis, woodland sorrel and wild cress (Richard Corrigan, Northern Ireland)
• Fish course: Pan-fried turbot with cockles and oxtail (Bryn Williams, Wales)
• Main course: Loin of roe venison with potato cake, roast roots, creamed cabbage and game gravy (Nick Nairn, Scotland)
• Dessert: Custard tart with nutmeg (Marcus Wareing, Northern England)

Charlotte Church, the "voice of an angel" and accomplished classical singer, is entering the restaurant business. She has recently made an offer for a restaurant known as the Old Post Office in St. Fagans, outside Cardiff, Wales, where she is originally from. Despite the name, the Old Post Office is a fine dining restaurant that is up-to-date on modern trends. Ms. Church has often admitted to a preference for junk foods, that that does not seem to have put her off the cuisine of the restaurant, whose menu features dishes such as "Terrine of ham hock & foie gras and pear with gazpacho," "Roast fillet of dorade on olive oil creamed potato with a wild mushroom cappuccino" and, for dessert, "Vanilla and peppercorn parfait." The trend of using flavored foams is evident in the kitchen with their "wild mushroom cappuccino" side.

The offer was accepted and the restaurant sale is expected to go through within the next month.

A hot breakfast was the standard prison breakfast for many, many years for the same reasons that oatmeal is a popular breakfast food on the outside: it's healthy, filling and inexpensive. But porridge is off the menus in British prisons, replaced with a "breakfast pack" that costs only 27p per prisoner (about 46¢ US). The reason for the change, according to audit investigators, was "because cooked breakfasts are no longer part of contemporary eating habits in the wider community". Since the prison officials are so on top of food trends, they found it necessary to remove the offending breakfast cereal from their menus.

It is highly that the change was made to save money. While the breakfast pack - which includes 1 cup of breakfast cereal, two slices of bread, jam or marmalade, margarine, tea bags, instant coffee and a small milk cartoon - might cost slightly more per serving than oatmeal, it is given to the prisoners the night before and prepared and eaten by them in the morning. This eliminates the need to have the kitchen staff on hand for one meal every day.

Figures published last week reveal that in the last twenty years cirrhosis death rates for men in England and Wales have risen by over 60% and the rates for women have increased by nearly 50%. While Austria still has the highest cirrhosis death rates in Europe, followed in an ever-narrowing margin by Scotland, where cirrhosis deaths have doubled in the past two decades, many other countries have seen a 20-30% decline since the 1970s. Excessive and binge drinking - which results in some 22,000 British deaths each year - rates have risen among young men and women, and doctors report treating cirrhosis patients in their twenties, while only two decades ago nearly every patient with the disease was in late middle age.

England switched to 24 hour licensing at the end of last year, which permits clubs and pubs to serve alcohol around the clock. The medical profession is worried that this change will lead to an increase in alcoholism and alcohol and cirrhosis related deaths. They are encouraging the government to put more money into alcohol-treatment programs and to consider putting more restrictions on liquor licensing.

Slashfoodies love their cocktails. Particularly on festive occasions, football games and New Year's Eve, or when we decide to get spirited with our cooking. But we know when to stop and would like to take this opportunity to remind our friends and readers to do the same. Please drink safely, responsibly and in moderation.