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Sushi

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Sushi

What do you like in your favourite sushi?

  • Sushi is a rice-based food originating from Japan, and the rice is normally held together by, or wrapped in nori (seaweed).
  • Sushi can be prepared in wide variety of styles, including hand rolled in a cone as temakizushi, rolled cylindrically as makizushi, pressed into a rectangular shape and topped with an ingredient as nigirizushi, or put in a bowl as chirashizushi.
  • Rice made with rice vinegar is virtually always used as the base in sushi, while other ingredients can include specially prepared cooked egg (tamagoyaki), raw fish and other seafood, cucumber, pickled vegetables, yam and avocado.
  • Soy sauce, or wasabi may be served with sushi, while green tea is commonly drunk with the dish and pickled ginger (gari) commonly accompanies the food to cleanse the palate for the next course.
  • Traditional sushi, known as ‘narezushi’, originated from the 700s in Japan and surrounding areas as a way of preserving fish, as it was encased in fermented rice for many months, however, the rice was typically thrown out until the Japanese started eating it with the fish, and they eventually added vinegar to the rice, which resulted in a shortened fermentation process.

Sushi, Assortment, Rolls, Cut, Homemade, Ten Random Facts, temakizushi, makizushi

  • Japanese Hanaya Yohei of Tokyo is credited with the invention of the now common, modern style sushi in the early 1800s, which was a ‘fast food’ version, small in comparison to the previous style, quick to make, and easy to eat.
  • Unlike Japan, raw seafood is often not chosen as a commercial sushi filling in Western civilisations, as seafood is notorious for requiring the hassle of freezing to kill potentially harmful parasites as per safety regulations in many countries.
  • Sushi may be eaten with chopsticks, although it is traditional to eat it with fingers and this is common practice in both Japan and the West.
  • Sushi is typically white in colour, due to the rice, and dark green, due to the nori seafood, and other colours vary depending on the extra ingredients, while the dish is savoury and served as the main dish of a main meal, one of the dishes in a main meal, a snack, or in bento (a portable food box),
  • Sushi is generally high in carbohydrates and protein, while significant quantities of other vitamins and minerals vary, depending on the fillings.
Bibliography:
Avey T, Discovering the History of Sushi, 2012, PBS, http://www.pbs.org/food/the-history-kitchen/history-of-sushi/
Sushi, 2015, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sushi

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Orange

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Orange

If a rhyme is what you seek, don’t choose orange or it may reek.

  • Orange is a colour and part of the visual spectrum, situated between yellow and red, with a wavelength of 590 to 620 nanometres, a hex code of #FF7F00, and an RGB code of (255, 127, 0).
  • In pigments, orange can be made by mixing red and yellow from the RYB colour wheel, while in light, it can be made with higher quantities of red light with the addition of lower quantities of green light.
  • The term ‘orange’, first used in the early 1500s, was taken directly from the Old French word ‘orenge’ in reference to the fruit of the same colour and name, while previously the colour was known as ‘ġeolurēad‘ which literally meant ‘yellow-red’.
  • Common shades of orange include peach, apricot, carrot, bronze, mango, terracotta, vermillion, burnt and saffron.
  • Realgar, orpiment and crocoite are all natural minerals that were commonly used in the past to create an orange colour paint, while saffron and turmeric were plant based materials used to dye cloth and other items.

Orange, Colour, Assortment, Shades, Variety, Science, Ten Random Facts, Trivia

  • Carrots, mangoes, desert sand, pumpkins, apricots, mandarins, marigolds and other flowers, autumn leaves, tigers, peaches, goldfish, and marmalade are things that commonly feature the colour orange.
  • Natural objects that appear orange typically have a high content of the chemical carotene, and this can be seen in flowers, leaves, vegetables and fruit that display this colour.
  • Orange attracts the eye and is the easiest colour to see in low lighting, low visibility, or next to water, hence its popularity for use on some boats, bridges and life jackets, traffic cones and signage, as well as ‘black box’ flight recorders.
  • Orange is commonly used to symbolise health, safety, energy, cheerfulness, positivity, passiveness, loudness, warmth and comfort.
  • It is normal for a person to find orange either a highly displeasing colour or a highly pleasing colour; and the colour is commonly used for robes worn by Buddhist monks, and represents a commitment to perfection or illumination.
Bibliography:
The Many Meanings of Orange, 2015, Color Wheel Artist, http://www.color-wheel-artist.com/meanings-of-orange.html
Orange, 2015, Color Matters, http://www.colormatters.com/the-meanings-of-colors/orange
Orange (Colour), 2015, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orange_(colour)

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Drinking Straw

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Drinking Straw

Slurping loudly with a drinking straw is half the fun.

  • A drinking straw is a thin, hollow tube used primarily to move a liquid from a container into one’s mouth using suction principles, and they are typically disposable, although reusable straws are available.
  • Drinking straws work by sucking in air using the mouth, and as a result lower the air pressure, which in turn pulls the liquid through the tube.
  • The shape of drinking straws range widely in diameter and length, although they are typically cylindrical, however some straws have crazy, twisted shapes primarily to entertain, or they may have an adjustable, bendy top, while others contain flavouring ingredients, and yet others include a spoon shaped end to generally scoop crushed ice into one’s mouth.
  • The earliest known drinking straw, dating back to 2000 to 3000 BC, was found in a tomb belonging to Sumerians, located in modern day Iraq in the Middle East, and was made of gold and precious stone, while a seal found in the same tomb depicts straws used to drink a beverage, most likely beer.
  • The 1800s saw the escalating use of drinking straws, in the form of rye grass, that notoriously disintegrated and left a rye residue and therefore a grassy taste in the beverage.

Drinking Straw, Assortment, Colourful, Plastic, Paper, Variety, Invention, Ten Random Facts

  • Modern drinking straws were invented by Marvin Chester Stone from Ohio in the United States, who is said to have created a glued paper tube in the 1880s after drinking a beverage unpleasantly tainted with rye residue, and eventually patented his idea in 1888 after refining it.
  • Drinking straws with an adjustable upper bend, known as ‘bendy straws’, ‘articulated straws’, or ‘flexi straws’, made their appearance in the 1930s, created and patented in 1937 by American Joseph Friedman after his young daughter had difficulty drinking through a straight straw in her milkshake.
  • Plastic drinking straws started infiltrating the market in the 1960s and became so popular that by the 1970s they had made paper straws redundant, however they are not environmentally friendly, taking years to break down, hence paper straws have made a small comeback, although in a reinvented sturdier version than the original.
  • In America, large quantities of drinking straws are used daily, numbering around 500 million, and while they are typically made from plastic; metal, glass and paper are also used; and in some instances they are used for craft purposes, while in Uganda they are recycled to make useful woven items like bags.
  • Drinking straws are said to lower the incidence of tooth decay caused by acids in beverages such as carbonated drinks, as they channel the drink more directly into the throat, bypassing more teeth.
Bibliography:
Drinking Straw, 2015, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drinking_straw
Hollander C, A Brief History of the Straw, 2014, Bon Appétit, http://www.bonappetit.com/entertaining-style/trends-news/article/history-of-the-straw
Thompson B, The Amazing History and the Strange Invention of the Bendy Straw, 2011, The Atlantic, http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2011/11/the-amazing-history-and-the-strange-invention-of-the-bendy-straw/248923/

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Lake Baikal

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Lake Baikal

Lake Baikal… the deepest of them all.

  • Lake Baikal is a large, long and relatively narrow lake consisting of freshwater, located in Russia’s Siberia, in North Eastern Asia.
  • ‘Lake Baikal’ is also known as the ‘Pearl of Siberia’ and the ‘Galapagos of Russia’, and in Russian it is ‘Ozero Baykal’ and ‘Baygal nuur’ in Mongolian, while the latter translates as ‘nature lake’.
  • The UNESCO World Heritage Convention declared Lake Baikal a World Heritage Site in 1996, due to its rich ecosystem and its scientific significance.
  • Lake Baikal contains the greatest amount of fresh water of all water bodies on earth, equalling around 20% of the total liquid fresh water in the world, and it is known for its water clarity, greatest depth of all lakes, and it holds the status of the seventh largest lake in the world.
  • The volume of Lake Baikal is greater than 23,6oo cubic kilometres (5,600 cubed miles), it has an area of around 31,600 square kilometres (12,200 square miles) and a depth reaching more than 1630 metres (5,347 feet).
Lake Bakial, Place, Water, Asia, Ten Random Facts, Trivia, Mountains, Veiw
Lake Baikal
Image courtesy of Sergey Gabdurakhmannov/Flickr
  • Lake Baikal is located in a rift valley surrounded by mountains, and sits above a divergent plate boundary where two plates are slowly moving away from each other, and this activity has created hot springs in and around the lake.
  • Wildlife finds Lake Baikal a haven, with around 1,000 vegetation species and 2,500 animal species, including plankton, worms, snails, crustaceans, fish, and the Baikal seal, while large numbers of the species are endemic to the area.
  • Humans had settled around Lake Baikal by 500 AD, primarily due to it being an accessible water source, and it became more widely known after 1643, when explorer Kurbat Ivanov from Russia found it.
  • Lake Baikal freezes from January to May and can be crossed during these times, although it can be fatal, as the freezing winds can cause hypothermia and frostbite.
  • Hundreds of rivers supply water to Lake Baikal, including the Sarma River, Selenga River, Snezhnaya River, Barguzin River and Turka River, while it drains into the ocean via the Angara River.
Bibliography:
Baikal – The Pearl of Siberia, 2005, Geographia, http://www.geographia.com/russia/baikal01.htm
Lake Baikal, 2015, Lake Baikal – World’s Deepest Lake, http://lakebaikal.org/
Lake Baikal, 2015, UNESCO World Heritage Convention, http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/754
Lake Baikal, 2015, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Baikal

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Dhole

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Dhole

Dholes are quite a bit more wild and free compared to the domesticated dog.

  • Dholes are a medium sized mammal native to a variety of habitats in the wilderness of Asia, in the southern and eastern parts of the continent.
  • Dholes have the scientific name Cuon alpinus, and are from the family Canidae, the family of dogs, and they have an average lifespan of 10 to 13 years.
  • ‘Dholes’ are also known as ‘Indian wild dogs’, ‘red wolves’, ‘red dogs’, ‘whistling dogs’, ‘mountain wolves’, and ‘Asiatic wild dogs’.
  • The length of dholes range from 75 to 110 centimetres (29.5 to 43 inches) and weigh around 12 to 20 kilograms (26 to 44 pounds).
  • The fur coat of dholes can be grey, red or brown in colour, according to their environment, with white, tan, gold or black highlights.
Dhole, Sitting, Animal, Trivia, Random Facts, Dog, Furry, Red
Dhole
Image courtesy of Neil McIntosh/Flickr
  • Dholes generally live in small groups of around five to twelve, but up to forty members, and they will usually hunt in groups from early morning.
  • The diet of dholes consists of mammals including goats, deer, boar, buffalo, and rabbits; and they will usually rip open their prey.
  • Dholes are listed as an endangered species, due to a combination of diminished numbers of prey and habitat loss, as well as other factors.
  • Sounds made by dholes vary from growls, yaps, screams, chatters, whines and most notably, whistles.
  • Five to twelve pups are born to a female dhole at one time, with both parents and others in the pack looking after the pups; and they start hunting with adults when they are around six months old.
Bibliography:
Dhole, 2015, A-Z Animals, http://a-z-animals.com/animals/dhole/
Dhole, 2015, San Diego Zoo Animals, http://animals.sandiegozoo.org/animals/dhole
Dhole, 2015, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/?title=Dhole

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Ginger Root

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Ginger Root

Ginger root is strong in flavour.

  • Ginger root is the root of the ginger plant native to parts of South-East Asia, including southern China, that has the scientific name Zingiber officinale.
  • ‘Ginger root’ is also known as simply ‘ginger’, and the word has its origins in Old English, Latin, Greek and Prakrit – gingiber, zingiberi, zingiberis, and singabera respectively, with suggestions that it ultimately came from the Sanskrit words ‘srngam’ and ‘vera’, meaning ‘horn’ and ‘body’ respectively, in reference to the root’s shape.
  • Ginger root is commonly used as a culinary spice, and ranges from mild to hot strengths with a sweet tangy and spicy flavour, and it is a good source of copper, manganese, magnesium and potassium.
  • Common foods that use ginger root as a flavouring include beverages, condiments, curry, and baked goods including cookies, and the root can also be candied, pickled or juiced.
  • Ginger root can be collected when the plant root is either young or old, and it can be dried and ground or used fresh, while the younger roots are normally juicer, contain less fibres and are milder in spiciness.

Ginger, Trivia, Random, Facts, Culinary, Ten, Powder, Fresh, Ground, Sugared, Food

  • Ginger root can be used for medical purposes, including preventing motion sickness and other causes of nausea, reduction or prevention of some cancers, and for treating some inflammatory problems.
  • The skin of ginger root is typically brown coloured, with red, white, yellow or orange flesh, which varies according to the variety of the plant.
  • Fresh ginger root is commonly peeled to remove the skin before grating, slicing or chopping the flesh, though it is not usually necessary to peel younger roots.
  • Care should be taken when eating ginger root as it can cause allergic reactions in some people and negative affects include rashes, bloating, burping, gas and nausea, and it can interfere with some medical drugs.
  • Ginger root has been used since ancient times in the Middle East, India and China, and in 2012 India was the largest producer of the root, growing a third of the world’s total production.
Bibliography:
Ginger, 2015, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ginger
Ginger, 2015, The World’s Healthiest Foods, http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=72
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