Cuttings from August 2006

• A good excuse to drink more beer

  There's a new excuse to drink beer. An American scientist, Dr Fred Stevens of Oregon State University, has discovered cancer-fighting

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• A slice of history

  Slaves in Malta tried to supplement their meagre rations by selling whatever they could find. Yet in 1537, the Jewish

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• Anti-wrinkle jam

  Trust the French to come up with something that combines beauty with food: an anti-wrinkle jam. It's called Norelift and

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• Atlantic blue-fin tuna

  The Atlantic blue-fin tuna (Thunnus thynnus) grows to a maximum length of 3.5m and a maximum weight of 600kg. In

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• Aubergines

  Aubergine is the British English name for what Americans call the egg-plant (Solanum melongena). The name 'egg-plant' derives from the

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• Bambinella

  The bambinella (Pyrus communis v. bambinella) is just a small pear. Pyrus communis is the common pear tree, and this

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• Bizarre fruit

  British supermarkets are cashing in on their customers' growing taste for bizarre fruit. They include the pluot, a cross between

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• Brain food

  The British Mental Health Foundation has released news of studies that clearly link attention deficit disorder, depression, Alzheimer's disease and

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• Chinese truffles

  The European countries where prized black truffles are found have united, after generations of being secretive about their own truffles

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• Cooked courgette flowers

  Courgette flowers are difficult to buy in Malta as there isn't much demand for them. Befriend a good greengrocer or

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• Elderberry syrup

  Syrup made from elderberries, the fruit of the elder tree, was pured into cheap port to improve its colour, taste

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• Fancy beer

  Vintage beer is the new luxury drink. Deus, which is brewed in the Belgian village of Buggenhout and matured in

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• Fine wine in your portfolio

  Investors are varying their portfolios by buying fine old wines which appreciate in value, but this has increased the reality

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• Food preservation

  The discovery that food could be preserved in salt made the difference between life and death for whole populations, who

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• Garibaldi biscuits

  Garibaldi biscuits are tea-time favourites in Malta – and yes, they are named after Giuseppe Garibaldi, the Italian general and

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• Gerard Depardieu

  French actor Gerard Depardieu, who owns vineyards, restaurants and a famously large appetite for the finer things in life, says

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• Good things about climate change

  Farmers in southern England are able to take advantage of warmer springs and summers by cultivating trees that were not

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• Haute cuisine in outer space

  They didn't have this kind of thing in Space 1999 and Star Trek: Michelin-starred chefs preparing space meals. Alain Ducasse,

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• Heinz ketchup bottles

  Some years ago, Heinz carried out an extensive market research project in which researchers went into people’s homes and watched

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• Malnutrition in the first world

  Earlier this year, a man of 20 died of malnutrition in Britain. He had never eaten anything but chips, toasted

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• Maltese salt-pans

  Before it was imported commercially, the sole source of salt in the Maltese islands was the sea. Wherever the foreshore

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• Maltese tomatoes: some things never change

  From the Daily Malta Chronicle of 22 August 1905: "We are now in the height of the season for tomatoes

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• Marsala: it's really English

  Marsala is redolent of Sicily but, guess what? It's an English invention. In the early 1800s, when the island, like

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• Mulberries

  There are many different types of mulberry tree, but the two types grown in Malta are the white mulberry (Morus

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• Oh dear, sauerkraut

  Sauerkraut, the traditional German and Polish dish made from cabbage left to ferment for at least a month, contains a

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• Peaches

  The peach, (Prunus persica) originated in China and was introduced to Persia and the Mediterranean region along the old Silk

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• Pensionante del Saraceni

  When he published this painting at the end of the 1920s, the Italian art historian Roberto Longhi described it as

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• Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia

  The world's largest saltflat is Salar de Uyuni in sothern Bolivia's altiplano, the high plateau near the crest of the

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• Saving Ribena

  Global warming is being blamed for threatening the future of Ribena, the blackcurrant drink loved by generations of children. Increasingly

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• Sweet potatoes

  The sweet potato (pomoea batatas) is unrelated to the ordinary potato, although both are American in origin, and both are

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• Swimming and eating

  Is it true that, after eating, you should wait at least one our before swimming? Everyone's body responds to food

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• The cereal wars

  America’s growing 'cereal café' market has been the subject of legal battles over recent weeks, as competitors tussle over the

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• The courgette

  In English-speaking countries other than Britain, the courgette (cucurbita pepo) is often called the Italian marrow, and in North America

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• The pineapple

  The pineapple's rarity, expense and striking visual attractiveness made it the ultimate in exotic fruit.

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• The price of bread: same old story

  In the light of the on-going debate between the bakers, who want to raise the price of the standard loaf,

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• The pumpkin

  The Maltese name for cucurbita moschata (the orange-fleshed pumpkin) - qargħa aħmar, or red gourd - tells us nothing of

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• The science of ice cream

  Unilever is sponsoring a research project by a leading British agricultural science institution into how to reduce the levels of

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• The Sicilian long gourd

  Lagenaria siceraria molina is a type of bottle gourd, and though it is not native to Sicily, it has become

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• The watermelon

  The watermelon (Citrullus lanatus, family Cucurbitacae) is the fruit of a trailing vine that is originally from South Africa. The

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• The word for tea

  In many languages, the word for 'tea' derives from the Chinese character pronounced 'cha'. The Russians call tea chai, as

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• The world's most expensive sandwich

  A sandwich that will burn a hole in your wallet has gone on sale at the sandwich counter at Selfridge's

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• They take their espresso seriously

  Trust the Italians to come up with it: they are giving certification to bars that serve the true Italian espresso.

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• Venetian salt traders

  Venice grew to stength and prominence by controlling the salt trade in the Mediterranean. They started early, by destroying the

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• Weird foods

  A British company called Edible Ltd is selling a range of strange drinks and snacks containing snakes, scorpions, hornets, ants

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• What to put on your hotdog

  Though ketchup remains the second most popular condiment for hotdogs in the USA, second only to mustard, the great debate

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• Wild blackberries

  This is a bramble plant (Rubus, of the rose family Rosaceae) that grows in many parts of the world, and

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• Zinc for growth and development

  Zinc is crucial for our normal growth and development. Lack of zinc means that wounds heal more slowly, immunity is

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