Don’t Eat the Food

In case this little tidbit doesn’t make it into the Western media:

Hong Kong (dpa) – Melamine has been found for the first time in eggs imported into Hong Kong from China, a media report said Sunday.

 

The move has prompted concerns that the industrial chemical, which can cause kidney stones and other renal problems particularly in children, has contaminated more of the city’s food supply than first thought, the South China Morning Post said.

Melamine had previously been restricted to dairy products.

 

The territory’s Centre for Food Safety said it would test samples of all eggs imported from China starting Monday after melamine was found in a box of eggs from Dalian in northern China.

 

Tests showed the eggs contained almost double the legal limit of the chemical, which is believed to have been in feed given to the chickens.

 

A centre spokesman said a 3-year-old child would need to eat 12 of the eggs to exceed the safe daily intake of melamine. An adult would need to eat 144 eggs.

 

I Can Haz Yogurt

My first attempt to make yogurt didn’t go well. I ended up with a quart of curdled, spoiled milk.

I tried for a second time yesterday. This time I used my rice cooker as the place to let it sit. I didn’t actually turn the rice cooker on, I just filled the cooking pot with water the right temperature for the yogurt culture and set the sealed jar with the milk in the center. I could only make a pint (half-liter) because the quart (liter) jars were too tall for the rice cooker. I replaced part of the water with warmer water after about 4 hours. I checked on the yogurt after 10 hours and it was perfect. It is neither as thick nor as creamy as commercial US yogurt, but that’s because I didn’t add any powdered milk in the milk. The melamine thing again; I know it’s in the commercial yogurt and I suspect it’s in the powdered milk as well.

I still want a yogurt maker. It will make more at one time, and I won’t have to check on the water temperature every few hours. But now I will be able to have yogurt in the weeks and months while I wait for Verasu in Bangkok to order one for me and ship it.

Sometimes You Just Can’t Win

I glanced out the kitchen window today while I was making my morning cup of coffee, and saw the hibiscus in glorious bloom, 7 rosy red blossoms 6 inches across fully open, with another half dozen or so partially open. It was breathtaking. I just gazed at it a little while.

A few minutes ago I went to get the camera so I could photograph the hibiscus for this post. The camera would not power on. I changed the batteries for new Duracell ones, and the camera stubbornly refused to power-on. The camera has done this before. This was the final straw, and we are now in camera research mode prior to buying a new one. Our needs are simple; 6 megapixels, 3X optical zoom and more digital zoom, and must use some sort of memory card, preferably SD. The ability to record a few minutes of video is a real plus.

More Woes

My broken washing machine needs a part that has to be ordered, which takes 45 days. The owner of our favorite appliance/electronics shop is trying to get a part from Bangkok instead in only a week. He is talking about a “loaner” washing machine while mine is being repaired. No loaner as yet, though to prevent me from washing a load of white clothes in the bathtub tonight. A friend offered to let me use her washer, but I really would rather not. She’s very weird about her washer, to the point of keeping a dust cover over it when not in use.

I will not be able to get a yogurt maker until a week from Monday, 10 days or so away. There wasn’t one available in town, so a friend in Bangkok will buy one for me and deliver it via her husband who commutes regularly between Korat and Bangkok. Whatever shall I eat for breakfast until then?

and now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to go wring out some clothes and get them into the dryer.