Banned in Denmark!

I know very little about Denmark. If I were to be asked to describe the people of the country, I think I might choose words like cosmopolitan, educated and permissive for my answer. So an article that Jeanne came across a couple weeks ago surprised us.  It seems that Denmark has recently banned a certain noodle. The reason given for pulling Buldak Hot Chicken Flavor Ramen out of stores was that it was a health risk. That surprised us.  

The 'permissive' part of my answer above lead me to believe that the government would not get involved with something so personal as someone's choice of food. So wow!  Those must be some spicey noodles. But to ban them?  Just how spicey could they possibly be?  

Hmm. Well, you know me. Or some of you do anyway.  I headed off to our favorite Korean market and checked the shelves. Yup, there it was.  I opted for a single pack of ramen, just to play it safe. I could always come back and get the economy pack if it turned out that we liked them a lot. I fully expected to. I like hot foods. 

We tried them today for lunch.  

Notice that the up at the top the packaging says it 2 X spicey. 

After cooking the noodles, Jeanne added the first packet of gel-like spice.  

Then, after stirring, she added the second packet of dry spice.  

I think that the labeling means that there are two kinds of spice added to the noodles.  

In my opinion however, after tasting them, I think that 2 X spicey actually means 

    Too (eXpletive) spicey

These noodles were something else.  Definitely the hottest thing I've ever purchased off any shelf.  I sipped some of the soup with a spoon, which tasted good, and then ate three mouthfuls of noodles before it hit me.  About this time, Jeanne, who was across the room with her own bowlful, was shaking her head regretfully and saying, "Nope, not for me, I'm not eating any more of this."

Always a scientist at heart, I didn't want to end my own experimentation without further testing. I rinsed my portion of noodles in two changes of water and tried again.  By this time, my mouth was back to close to normal and the noodles were cooler besides.  It took four additional forkfuls to convince me that further research was ill advised.  The noodles had clearly absorbed enough of spice packets one and two and I was not up to withstanding their effects. 

A week or so after Jeanne shared the 'ban the noodles' article with me, we saw a follow up piece that said that the ban had been lifted.  That upon further review, the legislators had decided the noodles were not actually dangerous. Just hot, really hot, really, really hot. If any of their citizens wanted to subject themselves to such an experience, they were once again welcome to do so.  

We said, "Good for the Danes."  We applaud their bravery. 

Personally, I think that after seeing sales of Buldak noodles soar as the ban is lifted and the residents flock to the stores to try them like I did, sales will plummet, as they try them like I did.  

Or, maybe the Danes are a lot tougher than I am. Who am I to say?  Maybe Denmark has a large Korean population which will continue to make 2 X spicey ramens profitable to keep on the shelves of markets. After all the effort Jeanne and I put into this issue, I'm hoping to see a final article that will address the matter.   

In the meantime, I have decided not to go back and purchase the twelve-pack of  2 X noodles. 

-djf  

Paul Harvey was a radio personality when I was much younger. He had a show that he called, The Rest of the Story. In it, he gave the news behind the news that you'd hear on mainstream TV or radio.  

The rest of the story on these noodles is that Jeanne had also added a package of Udon noodles to the ramen so we had about twice as many noodles as the packages of spices were measured for. We were eating in effect, a diluted product. Yipes.  

And now, the real rest of the story.  I just looked up the Scoville units for this product, expecting it to be half a million at least.  I found it was 10,000.  I must be getting soft. What a wimp.     

A wise man, Fred, once said, "A guy's got to have projects."

And I of course agreed.  I knew all about projects. Jeanne provided me with what, over the years, seemed like an almost endless list of projects. I sometimes wondered when I'd find the time for my projects. Most of hers added value to our house and three acres. Mine improved our 130 acres of land. I built trails and five deer blinds; what could be better?     

Now that we live in a retirement community in New Zealand, the nature of my projects has changed considerably, but I'm still staying occupied.    

This blog of mine is a major project. I don't feel like going back right now and checking, but I think this post you're reading is roughly my 645th.  I started it back in 2014.  Since then, I've spent countless hours working on it and derived immeasurable pleasure in the process. I'd suggest that a blog ranks very high on the scale of satisfying activities. Some of you might want to consider starting one of your own.

Here is a tasty recent project of historical import.   

Jeanne and I visited Spain three times over the years.  On one occasion, I remember an especially good meal that we enjoyed one evening in an outdoor restaurant in Plaza de Mayor in Madrid. The restaurant we ate at claimed to have been in business for over 150 years, and one of their specialties was Callos Madrilenos. (Tripe cooked the Madrid way.) I loved it.

The waiter obviously identified us as Americans, but we gained in respect when Jeanne, using her Spanish, very expertly ordered a well-known Spanish wine to accompany the meal. When we had finished, he brought us a bottle of plum brandy and tiny fancy glasses, and left it on the table, allowing us to help ourselves. I'm sure he was angling for a big tip, especially since he called me 'patron' each time he checked on us. I'm sure we were generous with him

Anyway, I came across some very good looking tripe the other day at Mr. Meat and decided to try my hand at producing a pot of the real stuff.  I had been missing it all these years, after all. It did turn out very tasty. Besides the tripe, I used some chorizo sausage. I'm not a big fan of chick peas, which are traditional in callos, so I substituted white beans that I had cooked separately.  Jeanne was very pleased with the result. I'd make this again in a heartbeat.   

Another project. My sister Mary and I have been amusing ourselves for the last couple of years by writing drabbles and sending them to each other.  A drabble is a story of exactly 100 words. Not 99 and not 101.  One hundred.  

This is one of mine.

Mr. Herbert Tralley, President, hadn’t been to his bank all week. His wife had phoned, reporting that she hadn’t seen him since Monday morning. She seemed quite beside herself.   

The police became concerned when they learned that Mr. Tralley had recently doubled his life insurance, but Mrs. Tralley was such a sweet old woman, and grew such lovely flowers.    

Protocol however, required she be interviewed.   

She was in her garden as usual, and showed the detective around as they talked, especially proud of her expanded herb garden.  

After he left, she sighed with contentment, lovingly smoothing the deep, rich soil. 

Another story. I took the picture one morning on a cruise we took through Doubtful Sound, on the South Island of New Zealand. 

#29  The Land of Vertical Rivers

Come children; listen to my story about a faraway land of mountains, clouds, and sea. 

The mountains there stand straight and tall, and clouds cover their tops like a wooly blanket. The sea rocks itself all around. 

The clouds give of themselves to the mountains. They nourish small, wild, happy rivers, which rumble-tumble down the steeps to the sea, sometimes flinging themselves into the air in their joy. They carry with them offerings from the mountains, which nourish the sea. 

  

The sea accepts their gifts, and in its pleasure, sends the purest part of itself up to nourish the clouds. 

Today's final project. 

A friend gifted us recently with a bag of hot peppers.

I started by chopping them and letting them soak in salt for three days. Then came vinegar and

other spices.

Some of the peppers were also added to olive oil. It's got some kick now. I tried some of it just today

as I made a fried-bologna and fried-egg sandwich for lunch.

The other bottle you see has nothing to do with the peppers, but I was multi-tasking as I took the picture.

It is a version of Limoncello, using vodka as the base, but made with mandarins grown in our village

instead of lemons. Top notch. I think it's better than the Limoncello we made about a year ago.

Projects don't have to be huge undertakings to be good ones. I am enjoying the projects I now pursue.

See you next week. -djf

Just a little trim, please.

 

This first picture was taken from our balcony a few weeks ago.

Here is another shot of the same palms, but from the ground on the other side of the roundabout. 

I think you'll agree that the palms are beautiful. I like the seed pods hanging down especially.  Before we moved here, I never knew that some palms grew them like that.  

However, the area below those palms is well traveled. Fronds, spathes, or seeds can and do fall sometimes, and if one of our elderly residents is struck, it could lead to serious consequences.

Therefore, the tree barbers come in regularly, and give our palms much-needed trims.  Let's take a quick look at the latest cut. 

That's quite a reach for that bucket truck. 

Trimming the palm closest to our balcony. 

After the trim, the foliage looks much neater.  

This is the new view from our balcony.  

If you go back up to the first picture, and look at the far left, between the buildings, you'll see how the fronds were obscuring the view of the north-east horizon.  

Now, with the cleanup, the sunrise is once again visible. I took the following shots this morning, 7/12/24.  

By the way, the Sun is once again moving southward each day from its northern-most point. In this photo, I have marked its solstice position and direction of rising with a line. It would of course, move in the opposite direction in the Northern Hemisphere. 

To close out this post, here are a few of the zoomed in shots from this morning.  I can't resist super close-ups.  -djf

The winter African Garden and Fernery

I'm writing this on July 4, 2024.  My header photo today shows frost on the roof, something that doesn't happen very often.  The average number of frosts per winter, since I've been in NZ and sort of keeping track, is three to four, but I don't remember even one last year.  

Despite the frost, the day turned out to be beautiful. The temperature got up into the 60's.  It would have been a good day to go to a parade, or to ride on a float in such a parade, like Mary did. Instead, I wandered around and decided that a few shots of what the African Garden and Fernery look like would make a suitable post.    

I'm leaving the north end of the Atrium here. You can see the barrier put up around the scaffolding for the Palms remediation project. 

Since I'm walking right past it, I though I'd show Dianne and Kathie their room location. It's the one with the closed drapes, on what we call here the first floor.  (above the ground floor) 

  

It may be winter here, but plants keep to their own schedules.  

Our fernery. 

Our 'flock' has moved since the rebuilding has started.  

I have moved from the African Garden area to our central roundabout for a look at these birds of paradise flowers.  

Finally, to close this post off, a last look straight up.  I'll never get tired of palm trees.   -djf