I know you all love ice-cream. Here are some really interesting and fun facts about ice-cream...
The most avid ice cream eaters in the U.S. don't live in Hawaii, the South, California, or any other hot clime. Instead, in 1999, it was reported that the good citizens of Omaha, Nebraska, ate more ice cream per person than any other Americans.
Vanilla is the most popular flavor in this country, snagging anywhere from 20 to 29 percent of sales. Chocolate comes in a distant second, with about 9 to 10 percent of the market.
Legend has it that the Roman emperor Nero used to send his slaves scurrying to the mountains to collect snow and ice to make flavored ices, the precursors to ice cream, in the first century.
The first written mention of ice cream in this country can be found in a letter from the 1700s, which admiringly describes the ice cream and strawberry dessert a Maryland governor served at a dinner party. Initially, just a treat for the elite (including George Washington, who is said to have consumed enormous quantities), the first ice cream parlor in this country opened in New York City in 1776. In 1845, the hand-cranked freezer was invented, allowing Americans to make ice cream more easily at home.
Among the most unusual flavors of ice cream ever manufactured are avocado, garlic, azuki bean, jalapeno, and pumpkin. Perhaps the weirdest of all: dill pickle ice cream , which was marketed to expectant mothers. Sales were disappointing.
One out of every five ice cream eaters share their treat with their dog or cat. (Can the day of liver- or tuna-flavored ice cream be far behind?)
In 1984, President Ronald Reagan declared July as National Ice Cream Month, citing the food's "nutritious and wholesome" qualities. He decreed that patriotic Americans should mark the month with "appropriate ceremonies and activities."
According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the biggest ice cream sundae in the world was made in Alberta, Canada, in 1988. It weighed nearly 55,000 pounds. The same year, a baking company and a sheet-metal firm in Dubuque, Iowa, teamed up to produce the world's largest ice cream sandwich, which tipped the scales at nearly 2,500 pounds. And, in 1999, Baskin-Robbins created an ice cream cake at a beach hotel in the United Arab Emirates that weighed just under 9,000 pounds.
Americans consume the most ice cream in the world per capita, with Australians coming in second. In 1924, the average America ate eight pints a year. By 1997, the International Dairy Foods Association reported that the figure had jumped to 48 pints a year.
Immigrants at Ellis Island were served vanilla ice cream as part of their Welcome to America meal.
While popular lore claims that the ice cream cone was invented at the 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis, a New York City ice cream vendor actually seems to have created the cone in 1896 to stop customers from stealing his serving glasses. He patented the idea in 1903 and it took off in popularity at the World's Fair the next year.
One of the major ingredients in ice cream is air. Without it, the stuff would be as hard as a rock.
Ice cream novelties such as ice cream on sticks and ice cream bars were introduced in the 1920s. Seems like kid stuff, but today, adults consume nearly one-half of all such treats.
Source: drspock.com , facts
Showing posts with label food. Show all posts
Showing posts with label food. Show all posts
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Interesting Facts about Strawberries
Here are some really interesting facts about strawberries...
Strawberries are the only fruit with seeds on the outside.
The average strawberry has 200 seeds.
The ancient Romans believed that strawberries alleviated symptoms of melancholy, fainting, all inflammations, fevers, throat infections, kidney stones, bad breath, attacks of gout, and diseases of the blood, liver and spleen.
To symbolize perfection and righteousness, medieval stone masons carved strawberry designs on altars and around the tops of pillars in churches and cathedrals.
In parts of Bavaria, country folk still practice the annual rite each spring of tying small baskets of wild strawberries to the horns of their cattle as an offering to elves. They believe that the elves, who are passionately fond of strawberries, will help to produce healthy calves and an abundance of milk in return.
Madame Tallien, a prominent figure at the court of the Emperor Napoleon, was famous for bathing in the juice of fresh strawberries. She used 22 pounds per basin. Needless to say, she did not bathe daily.
The fruit size of the very early strawberries was very small.
Strawberries are the first fruit to ripen in the spring.
There is a museum in Belgium just for strawberries.
Strawberries are a member of the rose family.
Ninety-four percent of U.S. households consume strawberries.
Americans eat 3.4 pounds of fresh strawberries each year plus another 1.8 pounds frozen per capita.
Over 53 percent of seven to nine-year-olds picked strawberries as their favorite fruit.
Source: michigan.gov , factsnfacts.com
Strawberries are the only fruit with seeds on the outside.
The average strawberry has 200 seeds.
The ancient Romans believed that strawberries alleviated symptoms of melancholy, fainting, all inflammations, fevers, throat infections, kidney stones, bad breath, attacks of gout, and diseases of the blood, liver and spleen.
To symbolize perfection and righteousness, medieval stone masons carved strawberry designs on altars and around the tops of pillars in churches and cathedrals.
In parts of Bavaria, country folk still practice the annual rite each spring of tying small baskets of wild strawberries to the horns of their cattle as an offering to elves. They believe that the elves, who are passionately fond of strawberries, will help to produce healthy calves and an abundance of milk in return.
Madame Tallien, a prominent figure at the court of the Emperor Napoleon, was famous for bathing in the juice of fresh strawberries. She used 22 pounds per basin. Needless to say, she did not bathe daily.
The fruit size of the very early strawberries was very small.
Strawberries are the first fruit to ripen in the spring.
There is a museum in Belgium just for strawberries.
Strawberries are a member of the rose family.
Ninety-four percent of U.S. households consume strawberries.
Americans eat 3.4 pounds of fresh strawberries each year plus another 1.8 pounds frozen per capita.
Over 53 percent of seven to nine-year-olds picked strawberries as their favorite fruit.
Source: michigan.gov , factsnfacts.com
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Interesting Facts about Pizza, especially in U.S.
Here are some really interesting facts about pizza, especially pizza in the U.S.A.
Since 1987, October has been officially designated National Pizza Month in the United States.
Approximately three billion pizzas are sold in the United States every year, plus an additional one billion frozen pizzas.
Pizza is a $30 billion industry in the United States.
Pizzerias represent 17 percent of all U.S. restaurants.
Ninety-three percent of Americans eat pizza at least once a month.
Women are twice as likely as men to order vegetarian toppings on their pizza.
About 36 percent of all pizzas contain pepperoni, making it the most popular topping in the United States.
The first known pizzeria, Antica Pizzeria, opened in Naples, Italy, in 1738.
More pizza is consumed during the week of the Super Bowl than any other time of the year.
On average, each person in the United States eats around 23 pounds of pizza every year.
The first pizzeria in the United States was opened by Gennaro Lombardi in 1895 in New York City.
The record for the world's largest pizza depends on how you slice it. According to Guinness World Records, the record for the world's largest circular pizza was set at Norwood Hypermarket in South Africa in 1990. The gigantic pie measured 122 feet 8 inches across, weighed 26,883 pounds, and contained 9,920 pounds of flour, 3,968 pounds of cheese, and 1,984 pounds of sauce. In 2005, the record for the world's largest rectangular pizza was set in Iowa Falls, Iowa. Pizza restaurant owner Bill Bahr and a team of 200 helpers created the 129 X 98.6-foot pizza from 4,000 pounds of cheese, 700 pounds of sauce, and 9,500 sections of crust. The enormous pie was enough to feed the town's 5,200 residents ten slices of pizza each.
Source: recipes.howstuffworks.com , Interesting Facts
Since 1987, October has been officially designated National Pizza Month in the United States.
Approximately three billion pizzas are sold in the United States every year, plus an additional one billion frozen pizzas.
Pizza is a $30 billion industry in the United States.
Pizzerias represent 17 percent of all U.S. restaurants.
Ninety-three percent of Americans eat pizza at least once a month.
Women are twice as likely as men to order vegetarian toppings on their pizza.
About 36 percent of all pizzas contain pepperoni, making it the most popular topping in the United States.
The first known pizzeria, Antica Pizzeria, opened in Naples, Italy, in 1738.
More pizza is consumed during the week of the Super Bowl than any other time of the year.
On average, each person in the United States eats around 23 pounds of pizza every year.
The first pizzeria in the United States was opened by Gennaro Lombardi in 1895 in New York City.
The record for the world's largest pizza depends on how you slice it. According to Guinness World Records, the record for the world's largest circular pizza was set at Norwood Hypermarket in South Africa in 1990. The gigantic pie measured 122 feet 8 inches across, weighed 26,883 pounds, and contained 9,920 pounds of flour, 3,968 pounds of cheese, and 1,984 pounds of sauce. In 2005, the record for the world's largest rectangular pizza was set in Iowa Falls, Iowa. Pizza restaurant owner Bill Bahr and a team of 200 helpers created the 129 X 98.6-foot pizza from 4,000 pounds of cheese, 700 pounds of sauce, and 9,500 sections of crust. The enormous pie was enough to feed the town's 5,200 residents ten slices of pizza each.
Source: recipes.howstuffworks.com , Interesting Facts
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Noodles & Rice Facts
Here are some really interesting and fun facts about "Noodles & Rice"...
Australians consume more than 18 million kilograms of noodles every year – that's almost one kilogram per person!
In Japan, it is considered good form to loudly slurp your noodles as a way of telling your host that you are enjoying the meal.
Australians eat approximately 3.5 billion rice crackers or 55 million packets each year – that's approximately 184 crackers per person!
Noodles symbolise longevity in China.
Noodles have been created from flour and water since 1000BC and today they are more popular than ever.
Noodles are an excellent source of vitamins and minerals including thiamin, riboflavin, niacin and iron. Iron helps transport oxygen throughout the body and thiamin, riboflavin and niacin help convert carbohydrates into energy.
Noodles are low in fat and have a very low sodium content.
If the packets of rice crackers sold in Australia each year were placed end to end they would stretch four times further than the River Murray or five times as high as Mount Kosciusko.
NSW consumers are the nation's biggest fans of rice crackers, munching through 17.6m packets each year, followed by Victorians who consume 11.3m packets each year.
Source: fantasticsnacks.com.au , Interesting Facts
Australians consume more than 18 million kilograms of noodles every year – that's almost one kilogram per person!
In Japan, it is considered good form to loudly slurp your noodles as a way of telling your host that you are enjoying the meal.
Australians eat approximately 3.5 billion rice crackers or 55 million packets each year – that's approximately 184 crackers per person!
Noodles symbolise longevity in China.
Noodles have been created from flour and water since 1000BC and today they are more popular than ever.
Noodles are an excellent source of vitamins and minerals including thiamin, riboflavin, niacin and iron. Iron helps transport oxygen throughout the body and thiamin, riboflavin and niacin help convert carbohydrates into energy.
Noodles are low in fat and have a very low sodium content.
If the packets of rice crackers sold in Australia each year were placed end to end they would stretch four times further than the River Murray or five times as high as Mount Kosciusko.
NSW consumers are the nation's biggest fans of rice crackers, munching through 17.6m packets each year, followed by Victorians who consume 11.3m packets each year.
Source: fantasticsnacks.com.au , Interesting Facts
Interesting Facts about Pasta
Here are some really interesting and delicious facts about pasta...
The Chinese are on record as having eaten pasta as early as 5,000 B.C.
Contrary to popular belief, Marco Polo did not discover pasta. The ancient Italians made pasta much like we do today. Although Marco Polo wrote about eating Chinese pasta at the court of Kubla Khan, he probably didn't introduce pasta to Italy. In fact, there's evidence suggesting the Etruscans made pasta as early as 400 B.C. The evidence lies in a bas-relief carving in a cave about 30 miles north of Rome. The carving depicts instruments for making pasta - a rolling-out table, pastry wheel and flour bin. And further proof that Marco Polo didn't "discover" pasta is found in the will of Ponzio Baestone, a Genoan soldier who requested "bariscella peina de macarone" - a small basket of macaroni. His will is dated 1279, 16 years before Marco Polo returned from China.
Christopher Columbus, one of Italy's most famous pastaphiles, was born in October, National Pasta Month.
Legend has it that noodles were first made by 13th century German bakers who fashioned dough into symbolic shapes, such as swords, birds and stars, which were baked and served as bread.In the 13th century, the Pope set quality standards for pasta.
Thomas Jefferson is credited with introducing macaroni to the United States. It seems that he fell in love with a certain dish he sampled in Naples, while serving as the U.S. Ambassador to France. In fact, he promptly ordered crates of "macaroni," along with a pasta-making machine, sent back to the States.
The Spanish explorer Cortez brought tomatoes back to Europe from Mexico in 1519. Even then, almost 200 years passed before spaghetti with tomato sauce made its way into Italian kitchens.
The first American pasta factory was opened in Brooklyn, New York, in 1848, by a Frenchman named Antoine Zerega. Mr. Zerega managed the entire operation with just one horse in his basement to power the machinery. To dry his spaghetti, he placed strands of the pasta on the roof to dry in the sunshine.
During the 1980s, macaroni, which was traditionally considered a "blue-collar" down-home meal, was transformed into the more upscale "pasta." As more and more people began to have fun with it and romanticize it throughout the '60s and '70s, its image began to change along with its name.
Pasta is a good source of carbohydrates. It also contains protein. Carbohydrates help fuel your body by providing energy that is released slowly over time.
One cup of cooked spaghetti provides about 200 calories, 40 grams of carbohydrates, less than one gram of total fat, no cholesterol and only one gram of sodium when cooked without salt. Read more about pasta nutrition.
All pasta is made by essentially the same equipment using the same technology. Also, in independent taste tests conducted by Consumer Reports, Cook's Illustrated and The Washington Post, U.S. pasta either was found superior to Italian imports or the judges were unable to discern a difference between them.
To cook one billion pounds of pasta, you would need 2,021,452,000 gallons of water - enough to fill nearly 75,000 Olympic-size swimming pools.
One billion pounds of pasta is about 212,595 miles of 16-ounce packages of spaghetti stacked end-to-end -- enough to circle the earth's equator nearly nine times.
Speaking of spaghetti...and meatballs: the Italians only ate meat a few times a month. So, when they came to America, where meat was so plentiful, they incorporated meat into their cooking more often, making meatballs an American invention.
Most pasta is made using wheat products mixed with water. Other types of pasta are made using ingredients such as rice, barley, corn, and beans.
Egg noodles contain egg; almost all other dry pasta shapes do not. By federal law, a noodle must contain 5.5 percent egg solids to be called a noodle. So without egg, a noodle really isn't a noodle.
Cooked al dente (al-DEN-tay) literally means "to the tooth," which is how to test pasta to see if it is properly cooked. The pasta should be a bit firm, offering some resistance to the tooth, but tender.
Pasta comes in many different colors. Most pasta is cream-colored, but some is made using spinach making it green, red pasta that is made using tomato, gray pasta that is made using squid ink, and some pasta is called "cellophane" because it becomes transparent when cooked.
The average person in Italy eats more than 51 pounds of pasta every year. The average person in North America eats about 15-1/2 pounds of pasta per year.
Pasta is one of America’s favorite foods. In 2000, 1.3 million pounds of pasta were sold in American grocery stores. If you lined up 1.3 million pounds of 16 oz. spaghetti packages, it could circle the Earth’s equator almost nine times!
Top-quality pasta is made from durum wheat. According to the North Dakota Agricultural Statistics Service, about 73% of the durum wheat grown in the U.S. is grown in North Dakota. American-grown durum wheat is considered among the best in the world and the pick of the crop is earmarked for domestic use, ensuring a finished pasta product second to none in the world.
Approximately 2.75 million tons of pasta is made in Italy each year, while the United States produces nearly 1.9 million tons per year
There are more than 600 pasta shapes produced worldwide.
Source: ilovepasta.org , Interesting Facts
The Chinese are on record as having eaten pasta as early as 5,000 B.C.
Contrary to popular belief, Marco Polo did not discover pasta. The ancient Italians made pasta much like we do today. Although Marco Polo wrote about eating Chinese pasta at the court of Kubla Khan, he probably didn't introduce pasta to Italy. In fact, there's evidence suggesting the Etruscans made pasta as early as 400 B.C. The evidence lies in a bas-relief carving in a cave about 30 miles north of Rome. The carving depicts instruments for making pasta - a rolling-out table, pastry wheel and flour bin. And further proof that Marco Polo didn't "discover" pasta is found in the will of Ponzio Baestone, a Genoan soldier who requested "bariscella peina de macarone" - a small basket of macaroni. His will is dated 1279, 16 years before Marco Polo returned from China.
Christopher Columbus, one of Italy's most famous pastaphiles, was born in October, National Pasta Month.
Legend has it that noodles were first made by 13th century German bakers who fashioned dough into symbolic shapes, such as swords, birds and stars, which were baked and served as bread.In the 13th century, the Pope set quality standards for pasta.
Thomas Jefferson is credited with introducing macaroni to the United States. It seems that he fell in love with a certain dish he sampled in Naples, while serving as the U.S. Ambassador to France. In fact, he promptly ordered crates of "macaroni," along with a pasta-making machine, sent back to the States.
The Spanish explorer Cortez brought tomatoes back to Europe from Mexico in 1519. Even then, almost 200 years passed before spaghetti with tomato sauce made its way into Italian kitchens.
The first American pasta factory was opened in Brooklyn, New York, in 1848, by a Frenchman named Antoine Zerega. Mr. Zerega managed the entire operation with just one horse in his basement to power the machinery. To dry his spaghetti, he placed strands of the pasta on the roof to dry in the sunshine.
During the 1980s, macaroni, which was traditionally considered a "blue-collar" down-home meal, was transformed into the more upscale "pasta." As more and more people began to have fun with it and romanticize it throughout the '60s and '70s, its image began to change along with its name.
Pasta is a good source of carbohydrates. It also contains protein. Carbohydrates help fuel your body by providing energy that is released slowly over time.
One cup of cooked spaghetti provides about 200 calories, 40 grams of carbohydrates, less than one gram of total fat, no cholesterol and only one gram of sodium when cooked without salt. Read more about pasta nutrition.
All pasta is made by essentially the same equipment using the same technology. Also, in independent taste tests conducted by Consumer Reports, Cook's Illustrated and The Washington Post, U.S. pasta either was found superior to Italian imports or the judges were unable to discern a difference between them.
To cook one billion pounds of pasta, you would need 2,021,452,000 gallons of water - enough to fill nearly 75,000 Olympic-size swimming pools.
One billion pounds of pasta is about 212,595 miles of 16-ounce packages of spaghetti stacked end-to-end -- enough to circle the earth's equator nearly nine times.
Speaking of spaghetti...and meatballs: the Italians only ate meat a few times a month. So, when they came to America, where meat was so plentiful, they incorporated meat into their cooking more often, making meatballs an American invention.
Most pasta is made using wheat products mixed with water. Other types of pasta are made using ingredients such as rice, barley, corn, and beans.
Egg noodles contain egg; almost all other dry pasta shapes do not. By federal law, a noodle must contain 5.5 percent egg solids to be called a noodle. So without egg, a noodle really isn't a noodle.
Cooked al dente (al-DEN-tay) literally means "to the tooth," which is how to test pasta to see if it is properly cooked. The pasta should be a bit firm, offering some resistance to the tooth, but tender.
Pasta comes in many different colors. Most pasta is cream-colored, but some is made using spinach making it green, red pasta that is made using tomato, gray pasta that is made using squid ink, and some pasta is called "cellophane" because it becomes transparent when cooked.
The average person in Italy eats more than 51 pounds of pasta every year. The average person in North America eats about 15-1/2 pounds of pasta per year.
Pasta is one of America’s favorite foods. In 2000, 1.3 million pounds of pasta were sold in American grocery stores. If you lined up 1.3 million pounds of 16 oz. spaghetti packages, it could circle the Earth’s equator almost nine times!
Top-quality pasta is made from durum wheat. According to the North Dakota Agricultural Statistics Service, about 73% of the durum wheat grown in the U.S. is grown in North Dakota. American-grown durum wheat is considered among the best in the world and the pick of the crop is earmarked for domestic use, ensuring a finished pasta product second to none in the world.
Approximately 2.75 million tons of pasta is made in Italy each year, while the United States produces nearly 1.9 million tons per year
There are more than 600 pasta shapes produced worldwide.
Source: ilovepasta.org , Interesting Facts
Friday, May 29, 2009
Spain: Food & Drink
Here are some really interesting facts about food and drink in Spain. See how Spain is such an important place when you talk about food...
Spain makes 44% of the world's olive oil, more than twice that of Italy and four times that of Greece. More than a quarter of Spain's oil (10% of the total world production) comes from Jaen.
Nearly three-quarters of the world's saffron is grown in Spain.
The original paella was not considered a seafood dish but had chicken, rabbit and pork (and sometimes snails). There is some debate over the origin of the word.
Tapas is not a type of food but a way of eating it. Tapa means cover and was traditionally a slice of cheese or ham placed over a drink.
The Spanish (in particular, the people of Cadiz) claim to have invented fried fish. Great Britain had links to Cadiz in the eighteenth century and it is thought that the British imported the idea of fish 'n' chips from there.
'Dominations of Origin', common in wine labeling, is also used in Spain to guarantee the quality of ham, olive oil and even paprika.
Though Spain is more famous for its red wine than white, the majority of its vineyards have white grapes.
The fortified wine sherry comes from the city of Jerez in Andalusia. 'Sherry' is a corruption of Shariz, the Persian name for the city. In Spanish, sherry is simply called 'vino de Jerez' (Jerez wine).
Tomatoes, potatoes, avocadoes, tobacco, and cacao (for chocolate) were all imported into Europe by Spain.
Spain is one of the top five importers of Scotch whiskey in the world.
Source: gospain.about.com
Spain makes 44% of the world's olive oil, more than twice that of Italy and four times that of Greece. More than a quarter of Spain's oil (10% of the total world production) comes from Jaen.
Nearly three-quarters of the world's saffron is grown in Spain.
The original paella was not considered a seafood dish but had chicken, rabbit and pork (and sometimes snails). There is some debate over the origin of the word.
Tapas is not a type of food but a way of eating it. Tapa means cover and was traditionally a slice of cheese or ham placed over a drink.
The Spanish (in particular, the people of Cadiz) claim to have invented fried fish. Great Britain had links to Cadiz in the eighteenth century and it is thought that the British imported the idea of fish 'n' chips from there.
'Dominations of Origin', common in wine labeling, is also used in Spain to guarantee the quality of ham, olive oil and even paprika.
Though Spain is more famous for its red wine than white, the majority of its vineyards have white grapes.
The fortified wine sherry comes from the city of Jerez in Andalusia. 'Sherry' is a corruption of Shariz, the Persian name for the city. In Spanish, sherry is simply called 'vino de Jerez' (Jerez wine).
Tomatoes, potatoes, avocadoes, tobacco, and cacao (for chocolate) were all imported into Europe by Spain.
Spain is one of the top five importers of Scotch whiskey in the world.
Source: gospain.about.com
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