Posts Tagged ‘menu’
Scientists discover unknown lizard species at lunch
It may be an old menu standby to Vietnamese diners, but it’s turned into a smorgasbord of discovery for scientists.
Researchers have identified a previously undocumented species of all-female lizard in the Mekong River delta that can reproduce itself by cloning, and the story of how it was discovered is almost as exotic as the animal itself.
Leiolepis ngovantrii is a small lizard found only in southern Vietnam. A Vietnamese reptile scientist who came across tanks full of the remarkably similar looking reptiles at small diners in rural villages in Ba Ria-Vung Tau province became intrigued when he noticed that all of the lizards appeared to be female.
So the scientist, Ngo Van Tri of the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology, contacted an American colleague about what he was seeing. His friend — a herpetologist at La Sierra University in Riverside, California — immediately dropped everything to come out to assess the find.
Dr. Lee Grismer and his son, Jesse Grismer, a doctoral candidate, flew all the way to Hanoi and then faced a grueling two-day motorcycle trip out to a restaurant where the owner promised to set aside a stash of the creatures for study.
“Unfortunately, the owner wound up getting drunk, and grilled them all up for his patrons… so when we got there, there was nothing left.”
Faced with an empty tank and nearly dashed hopes, the men asked around at other cafes in the area for the local delicacy, and hired children to track down as many of the lizards as they could find.
The team soon had more than 60, and realized they had something special on their hands: a previously undocumented species.
“It’s an entirely new lineage of life that was being eaten and sold in restaurants for food,” says Grismer. “But it’s something that scientists have missed for hundreds of years.”
RTFA. Humorous, especially when the Americans discovered the “flavor” of these wee lizards was unlike anything they ever ate – or wished to, again.
French fast food chain Quick sparks halal burger fuss
A French council has lodged a complaint against a fast food chain that serves only meat that conforms with Islamic dietary laws at a local branch. The mayor of Roubaix, in northern France, said the halal menu constituted “discrimination” against non-Muslims.
The Roubaix branch is one of several restaurants at which the chain, Quick, took non-halal products and pork off the menu in November…
Quick decided to take a bacon hamburger off the menu at eight of its 350 branches, replacing it with a halal version that comes with smoked turkey.
It said the move was designed to test the “commercial interest and technical feasibility” of introducing halal menus.
The Quick manager responsible for the Roubaix branch said there had been a slight increase in business after the introduction of halal menus and that he had not received complaints from customers, AFP news agency reported.
There’s some discussion in the article; but, mostly, the tempest in the teapot seems mostly to involve politicians across the spectrum of France – trying to gain electoral chops from the restaurant chain’s experiment.
Nothing new. It’s happened forth and back in major cities in the U.S. – depending on who owns the hot button, Jews, Koreans, Chinese, Puerto Ricans, Mexicans. You name it. Everyone’s national cuisine gets targeted for opportunist food vendors and even more opportunist politicians.
One of those silly questions that will be resolved quickly and easily by the marketplace. If it doesn’t make money ain’t any chain continuing the change. If it does, well, then, the local population has voted with their feet and their appetites.
