I bought a new suit in time for Tony and Tracy’s wedding this Saturday. I originally went to Moore’s to look at their selection, but I didn’t see any style that I liked. I went to Mexx today after work and saw a sexy pinstripe suit. The great thing about Mexx is that everything they have is slim-fit. Well, I guess that isn’t so good if you’re not skinny.. but I am, so ha! With the suit, I also bought a French-style shirt and cuff-links. I’d post some pictures, but the jacket and pants are being tailored right now and I’m picking them up Friday night.
Archive for August, 2007
Popular Kitchen Myths
August 7th, 2007
I’ve looked into some of the common knowledge people share about the Kitchen, mostly regarding cooking. I knew some of them to be false before but I decided to check into more of them. It seems many of the knowledge passed through the ages has proven to be wrong by modern science. Though I must admit there are many things that are confirmed by modern science as well. So without further adieu I give you my list. (these are all false)
1. Raw meat must be washed before cooking to kill germs and bacteria.
I have never come across anyone who doesn’t wash their meat before they cook. It turns out washing your meat could make things worse because you get the germs and bacteria in your sink, and the water you use to wash can splash into other parts of the kitchen. The truth is if you cook your meat thoroughly there is no need to wash them at all. And of course anything that the meat touches must be sanitized properly — including your hands.
Source: Food Standards Agency (UK).
2. Baking soda eliminates odours.
Baking soda is actually quite poor at absorbing odours, contrary to what years of marketing has led you to believe. The only way to eliminate odours is to be sure you don’t have spoiled food in your fridge, cover everything, and clean the entire fridge out once in a while.
Source: Ask a Scientist. Department of Energy (US).
3. Cold water boils faster than warmer water.
I’ve always thought this just to be one of those counter-intuitive ways physical science work sometimes. But it turns out it’s not true at all! However, under special circumstances hot water does freeze faster than cold water.
Source: Scientific America.
4. The reason to add salt to water when cooking pasta is to raise it’s boiling point.
The real reason you want to add salt to water when cooking pasta is to flavour it. Nothing more. Scientifically speaking salt can raise the boiling point of water, and lower it’s freezing point at the same time — in fact this is how anti-freeze works — but the amount you need to add in order to raise the boiling point by any practical amount is too high. However, this property is practical for lowering the water on our driveway’s freezing point during.
Source: I don’t know, just Google it, I’m sure there are tons of sites on this.
That’s all I can think of at the moment. Maybe I’ll add more later when I do more research.
Weekends are too short
August 6th, 2007
It’s a civic holiday today in Ontario. I wish we had longer weekends, or just shorter work days. In most European countries (maybe all?) they only work a maximum of 6 hours per day, whereas in North America we typically work 8 hours or more each day. That’s a third of our day gone! Plus it takes time to get to and from work as well (for me that’s 2.5 hours), and add on 8 hours of sleep, then we only get 5.5 hours each day to do our own thing. That’s not a lot of time at all! You need some time to relax, time to cook and eat dinner, do some exercise, chat with people. And there’s always some extra things you want to do — for me I’m trying to learn learn Japanese. Does anyone actually think a 9-5 schedule is fine?
