How to Tell a Good Sushi Bar From a Bad Sushi Bar

“If it looks like sushi, it is sushi”

There is no doubt that the making of sushi is not just a culinary trade, but it is also regarded as an art perfected over a lifetime. Below are some memories and points that highlight various things that make good and bad sushi bars. Things like shop conditions, ingredients quality, etc., but most importantly, the sushi chefs themselves are the ones that stand out as affecting the good sushi vs. bad sushi comparison.

“Bad” Sushi Bar 1: Tokyo, Japan — A local place caught my eye as a cheap and quick means to end my weekly sushi craving. Unfortunately, more often than not, “cheap” and “quick” should be taken as red flags when it comes to sushi. The restaurant immediately smelled of fish upon entering and after taken my seat, the counter smelled of cleanser, a shear sign that the meal would not go well. However, hunger and convenience overpowered my reason and I started to order.

Continue reading “How to Tell a Good Sushi Bar From a Bad Sushi Bar”

How Do You Like Your Salad Dressing?

I remember the salad dressing that my mother usually made for the family. It was very simple. The fresh cold pressed virgin olive oil from Lebanon, a squeeze of fresh half a lemon, a pinch of fresh mint, salt and pepper and there it was. And our salads at the time, it seems like a lifetime ago, consisted of fresh crunchy green salad, delicious fresh tomatoes and crunchy small cucumbers, and spring onions! Preparing salad was quick, simple, tasty, fresh and super healthy. Fresh salad was a part of our daily diet. The small cucumbers were so delicious we ate them like a fruit. My most favorite as a child was a sandwich of feta cheese with pitta bread and a cucumber. Continue reading “How Do You Like Your Salad Dressing?”

Actresses With Eating Disorders – How to Survive in Hollywood

I have first hand experience with this not-so-rare phenomenon. It is difficult enough to want to look good to others and feel good about yourself and feel appealing enough to attract a partner, but throw in the scrutiny of the camera and the five to ten pounds it adds to your frame and it is a sure path to disaster if you have an eating disorder.

I started binging and purging when I was in high school. It was not only a way to deal with my “baby fat,” it was a coping mechanism. I thought I had it all under control. Six months later I was still doing it. Six years later, I realized I really had a problem. Twelve years later I finally found help. Today, I am bulimia free.

Continue reading “Actresses With Eating Disorders – How to Survive in Hollywood”

The Cro-Magnon Diet – How the Cavemen Survived

Cro-Magnon man, through no fault of his own, adopted a healthy diet that kept him and all of his Cro-Magnon family healthy.

Another Fad Diet?

Lord no–not another fad diet! It seems like there are as many diet plans as there are fat people–myself included. No, I am not what I consider to be obese. I weigh 185 pounds and am 6 feet tall. But I have a big gut. Many doctors agree that people come in three shapes:

* slim and trim Continue reading “The Cro-Magnon Diet – How the Cavemen Survived”

Wild Edible Plants Of Utah and The West

I have thoroughly enjoyed learning about wild edible plants over the past couple years and while it was tough in the beginning finding the identification and finding resources for the plants I was seeing it has been a thrill to learn how much there is available in the wild. I have to stay I am often stunned at the number of wild edibles available even in the Utah desert where I live. Not only are there a lot of wild edibles but many of them are quite tasty. With spring just around the corner I am thinking about it again and looking forward to some foraging and looking forward to a better diet. I’ll bet you didn’t think that eating wild edible greens could actually improve your diet! Continue reading “Wild Edible Plants Of Utah and The West”

The Top 5 Harmful Substances Found in Your Food

If you need to enhance the flavour of food using artificial chemicals rather than herbs and spices, there is something seriously wrong about that and it begs to wonder why you would want to put such things into their bodies.

Of course, there are more than five harmful substances that are found in foods but I wanted to concentrate on these five because they are the most common.

In no particular order, my top five are:

HYDROGENATED OR PARTIALLY HYDROGENATED VEGETABLE OILS

Out of all the substances, for me personally, this must be the worse. This is not to say that some (additives)) are better than others, but there really is no need for this in food, there really isn’t. Continue reading “The Top 5 Harmful Substances Found in Your Food”

Home-Cooked Pre-Made Meals

Whenever someone follows me to our pantry they inevitably utter amazement at our preserves and pre-made meals and say: “How do you find the time?” Actually I find this activity saves me a lot of time and a heck of a lot of money. Here I’ll share some tips to help make this activity a lot more efficient and do-able.

Don’t be intimidated by the size of some recipes – most are freezer friendly. And remember, it is just as much work to double or triple a recipe as it is to do just one batch. You have to wash the same dishes, clean the same kitchen and use the same heat. Having packages of meals ready to go is a great help to a busy and budget-minded household.

Divide very involved recipes into steps. For instance, you might make the sauce on Monday, the filling on Tuesday and put it all together for the freezer the next night. Breaking it up into steps like this helps the work fit in with tight schedules and makes the recipe more do-able. Continue reading “Home-Cooked Pre-Made Meals”

Resveratrol and Obesity

Obesity, Weight Control, Longevity and Resveratrol

Obesity has been termed an “epidemic” of staggering proportions by many doctors, scientists, scholars, and sociologists. Its complications are now seen by many as being the leading cause of death in America and many other industrialized nations.

A growing number of Americans are obese …

According to the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) – More than 33% of U.S. adults – more than 72 million people – and 16% of U.S. children are obese. Since 1980, obesity rates for adults have doubled and rates for children have tripled. Obesity rates among all groups in society – irrespective of age, sex, race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, education level, or geographic region – have increased markedly. Continue reading “Resveratrol and Obesity”

Cold Spaghetti Salad

This recipe has certainly been a lifesaver over the years. My sister, Debra first introduced me to this delicious salad a few years ago. It’s so economical to make and only has a few ingredients. Sometimes, homemade salads can get quite expensive but not this one. It really is a budget stretcher and it’s certainly a show stopper on any table.

I really enjoy making this cold spaghetti salad because it’s easy to make, packed with lots of flavor, and it never fails to satisfy. Every time I make this recipe it is the talk of the table. In fact I just made it this past Labor Day for a cookout at my niece house. Everyone loved it and it was the first salad to disappear. The cucumbers and tomatoes give this recipe extra freshness which make this recipe truly unforgettable. Once you make it, you’ll be making it quite often and you’ll always remember how delicious this recipe is. Continue reading “Cold Spaghetti Salad”

Dig This – It’s National Potato Month!

My editor recently informed me that September just happens to be National Potato Month. Being both an Irishman by ancestry and a lover of all things potato- mashed, baked, french-fried and roasted – I eagerly offered to do some digging for dirt on the beloved vegetable.

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service, potatoes are the most popular veggie in America… hands down. Unfortunately that’s a greasy hands down because a great many of our processed potatoes end up as french fries!

The USDA claims the typical American munches more than 140 pounds of potatoes every year. That’s a full 50 pounds more than the per-capita consumption of tomatoes, the second-place veggie. And that second-place ranking is kinda ironic since tomatoes are technically a fruit anyway! Continue reading “Dig This – It’s National Potato Month!”