What not to eat: Alara everday gluten free organic delight

Ok, so maybe the “gluten free” should have scared me off. But really, why?– do the gluten-allergic (glutellergic?) not deserve good cereal? Anyway, the “deliciously crispy cereals with sweet apple, sultanas, nuts and seeds” sounded too good to pass up. It was a bit expensive, but I figure I should support organic, gluten-free delicious apple-sultana-nut-seed cereal. Although, truth be told, I had no idea what a sultana was. So all that meant I bought this lovely looking box:

The next day, hungry and without alternate food at 9pm, I thought I will have myself some healthy cereal and be happy before bed. I could have never anticipated the vile that waited me! The moment I opened the box, I realized the bag inside seemed altogether too light, and the foodstuff inside looked mainly like tiny packing peanuts with some dried raisins and some pale corn flakes inside! (I’ll have to get a pic of this). Thinking to myself that perhaps it will be better once in milk, I tried pouring the milk in. This made the tiny things float up to the top, and I realized on closer inspection they actually looked like the white bits of popped corn. As I ate it, they tasted like the white bits of popped corn! Really not something I look for in my cereal; and definitely not something I appreciated!

So, if you want pop-corn as cereal with little bits of corn flakes, a sprinkling of nuts, and a few raisins here and there, go ahead and get this stuff. In fact, please, let me know so I can give you this box!  If not, watch out for it!

-r-

World record Hummus!

This isn’t entirely new– Lebanon took over the world record for largest batch of hummus ever made from Israel sometime last year, but mostly I just wanted to point out this excellent article on Foreign Policy magazine about “how we are what we eat” talking about some of the peculiar ways in which our food supply is affected.

I’m not planning on becoming a vegetarian for sure, but it’s yet another article that makes us think we should watch our consumption of meat– not just for the side-effects of quantity, but also for the quality.

-r-

Shati' al Watiya aka Umm Habib Restaurant

On the suggestion of someone at 248am.com, we went to check out the restaurant that was formerly known as Umm Habib.  I don’t know when they changed their name, but personally I think the previous name (“Habib’s mom) was very much more endearing. When we found the place– in a small house, with very intimate, house-looking interior, the new name seemed very ill-fitting indeed.

At any rate, the name change might be my only gripe about the place!