Food and Cooking
COOKIN'
More than 2 million people in 20 countries throughout Asia, Europe, and North America have already seen the insanely manic rhythm show "Cookin''' (derived from the traditional Korean art form samulnori), making it the longest-running in Korean performing arts history. To demystify the foreign style for local yokels who failed to catch it earlier this season at the New Victory Theater, show might be characterized as "Stomp" with meat cleavers.
Physically articulate, if totally nonverbal, Seung Whan Song's musical/vaudeville routine takes place in a restaurant kitchen that, in Dong Woo Park's gleaming high-tech design, looks like a training school for would-be Sweeney Todds and Mrs. Lovetts. Under the ferocious glare of a dictatorial kitchen manager, three panicked chefs are frantically trying to prepare an elaborate wedding banquet while initiating a new staff member, the manager's goofy nephew, into the culinary arts. As practiced by this clownish crew, these mysteries consist of being able to slice, dice, chop, filet, and bang on every pot and pan in the house without losing a digit or putting out an eye.
In their desperate race with the clock, the crazed cooks resort to measures familiar from the performance annals of dance, vaudeville and the martial arts, but all are given a fresh comic twist to suit the situational conceit. One maniacal set piece has the energetic performers using every conceivable kind of knife, from delicate parers to bone-cutting cleavers, to chop up vegetables into a giant salad that largely lands on the kitchen floor. In another manic routine, they invite innocent audience members (and the spirit of Lucille Ball) to join them on the assembly line for a high-speed "dumpling challenge." (A less successful bait-the-audience sequence that has the cast tossing balls into the aud is every bit as unfunny and intrusive as it sounds.)
Comic routines aside, the piece de resistance of the evening is a frenetic percussive number in which the cast picks up its chopsticks and meat tenderizers and bangs on every reverberating surface in the kitchen (an empty cooking-oil drum makes a fine instrument), producing a mighty rumble on the night reviewed that shook the house and delighted the largely Asian audience.
Weir Cooking Up Something Special for Masters Defense
TORONTO - Masters champion Mike Weir knows he faces some tough decisions as he prepares for his return to the Augusta National Golf Club next month.
Italian or Mexican, being one of them.
Weir said during a conference call on Tuesday that he has been putting considerable thought into what he will serve at the champions dinner, which he is obligated to host as part of his duties as last year's champion.
"I have a buddy I grew up with who is a chef in my hometown of Sarnia and I asked him to put together a menu and we've been faxing stuff back and forth," said Weir, without giving away details of the feast.
"He called me last night and I think we almost have things finalized what he's going to serve.
"We've been trying to get it all done right, get the food ordered in and all that stuff."
Weir, who beat Len Mattiace on the first extra hole last year, said apart from organizing the dinner there will be few other disruptions to the successful routine that carried him to one of golf's most prestigious titles.
"I've got a little dinner to organize (which) I didn't have to do last year but outside of that I'll probably keep everything the same."
So far, Weir's season has been an almost carbon copy of last year.
Two weeks ago the left-hander defended one of his three titles from last season with a nervy win at the Nissan Open.
After losing in the second round of the World Match Play Championship last week, Weir is taking three weeks off before beginning his final build up to Augusta playing back-to-back events at the Players championship and Atlanta.
"My start to this season is pretty similar to last year," said Weir, whose victory at the Nissan Open was his first since Augusta. "Last year I had two wins at this point and a couple of pretty good finishes.
"This year I've had one win and another couple of pretty good finishes, so (it is) fairly similar but overall I think my game is a little bit better than it was last year.
"It was important to get off to a good start and get some momentum heading into the Masters.
"But at the same time I know what kind of player I am and if it didn't happen I know I'm going to be around for a long time."
Very-Low-Calorie Diet Controls Teens' Diabetes
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - A high-protein, low-carb, very-low-calorie diet is effective short-term treatment for obese adolescents with type 2 diabetes, according to a new study.
The rate of type 2 diabetes has risen exponentially among adolescents, Dr. Steven M. Willi and colleagues from the Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, point out in the medical journal Diabetes Care, but there are few studies comparing the relative merits of diet, exercise, insulin, and other drug therapies in treating such patients.
The team evaluated the ability of a ketogenic, very-low-calorie diet to reduce weight, reduce high blood sugar levels, and decrease the dependence on anti-diabetes medications in 20 obese teens -- 5 males and 15 females -- with type 2 diabetes.
The diet consisted of about 100 grams of protein and less than 30 grams each of fat and carbohydrates per day, which delivered between 680 and 800 calories. That translates to approximately 13 ounces of lean meat and 3 cups of vegetables. The participants also needed to take in 8 cups of fluid and supplemental salt daily.
Mean daily blood glucose levels fell from 162 to 100 mg/dL within three days of beginning the diet, and all but one teen managed to discontinue all antidiabetic therapy.
After voluntarily stopping the diet after an average of 60 days, participants' average weight loss was 25 pounds (9.3 percent of total body weight), the researchers report.
In fact, the average body weight was still significantly reduced two years later. This amounted to a 5.4 percent reduction, compared with a 3.7 percent increase in an age-matched control group.
Average blood pressure also fell during the diet, and none of the patients experienced side effects such as nausea and cramps reported in previous trials of the diet in youngsters, Willi's team found.
The investigators call for further studies, but conclude that "the very-low-calorie diet has the potential to improve diabetes control over the short term and perhaps empower diabetic individuals over the long term."
USDA War on Weight Summons Beefy Fast-Food Giants
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Agriculture Department vowed on Thursday to fight American obesity and said it would turn to an unlikely ally for help: The snack and fast food industry.
Top executives of McDonald's Corp and PepsiCo Inc. were keynote speakers at the USDA's annual conference on agricultural policy, which this year focused on nutrition.
"America is clearly losing the battle of the bulge," Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman said at the USDA's annual agricultural policy event. "We need to do more to help consumers understand how they can make healthy decisions."
Despite Americans' obsession with diets to limit carbohydrates or other foods, more than 65 percent of the population is overweight or obese.
Veneman said fighting obesity will be an important part of the USDA's revision of its Food Pyramid and dietary guidelines next year, a periodic update that typically unleashes heated battles among consumer groups, nutrition experts, farm groups and food manufacturers with different priorities.
Veneman, who focused on how fatty, sugary diets have expanded Americans' waistlines, called for a partnership with farmers, scientists, foodmakers and health experts to improve how consumers eat.
USDA data shows U.S. consumption of vegetables has increased in recent years, but most growth was in potatoes and iceberg lettuce, Veneman said. Both are key ingredients on fast food menus that add little to consumer health.
The McDonald's presentation at the conference opened with huge projection screens showing photographs of steaming hash brown potatoes and French fries, egg and cheese breakfast sandwiches, the company's trademark Big Mac, and a musical jingle about "good food is a way of life."
"The challenges we face in today's complex world are unlike any we've ever faced before," said James Cantalupo, chief executive of the world's biggest restaurant company.
OVERHAUL FATTY MENUS
The fast food industry has begun to overhaul its fatty menu to offer more salads, fruits and low-fat snacks.
While the company won't abandon its signature fried meals and breakfast menu, Cantalupo said McDonald's wants to also please customers demanding healthier foods. McDonald's has introduced "Go Active," a Happy Meal for adults that includes salad and a tiny pedometer to encourage diners to walk.
Parents who buy a Happy Meal for their child can swap French fries for a sliced apple or substitute soft drink for milk.
Ronald McDonald, the company's red-haired clown and mascot, also is involved. "We intend for him to serve as a role model for children when it comes to diet, exercise and nutrition," Cantalupo said.
PepsiCo's Frito Lay division has introduced chips with fewer calories, less fat and less sodium.
A vice president of PepsiCo was to address the USDA meeting on Friday.
Veneman said Americans are having a hard time maintaining their weight because they dine at restaurants more often instead of preparing their own meals, are served up super-size portions, and have a sedentary lifestyle.
Consumer groups said the USDA's choice of speakers at the nutrition-themed conference does not send the right message.
"If Secretary Veneman was enlisting (McDonald's and Pepsi executives) in her battle against obesity, I can't think of two worse spokespeople," said Michael Jacobson, director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest.
"The USDA is not trying to limit junk food in schools, where they have some control over food choices because of the school lunch program," Jacobson said. His group wants a 1.5-cent tax on every U.S. can of soda to fund a program supplying fresh fruit and vegetables to American schoolchildren.
