Category Archives: Food

Food

SAN FRANCISCO WILL REQUIRE HEALTH WARNINGS ON FILIPINO ‘HALO-HALO’

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Halo-Halo
Halo-Halo

SAN FRANCISCO, California (The Adobo Chronicles)  — San Francisco Supervisors voted unanimously Tuesday to approve health warnings on ads for sugary sodas and some other drinks, saying such beverages contribute to obesity, diabetes and other health problems.

It is believed that San Francisco would be the first place in the country to require such a warning on ads if it receives a second approval from the Board of Supervisors next week and the mayor signs it into law.

The ordinance defines sugar-sweetened beverages as drinks with more than 25 calories from sweeteners per 12 ounces.

That puts the popular Filipino beverage/snack, halo-halo, way above that category.

Halo-halo, is shaved ice served in a tall glass (certainly more than 12 ounces), mixed with ingredients like beans, coconut, sweet fruits, nuts, milk, flan and lots of sugar —  not including the scoop of ice cream topping.  A full version of halo-halo with ice cream could easily contain as much as 100 calories of sweeteners.

San Francisco Filipino restaurants serving halo-halo  opposed the ordinance, claiming that it will not only cost them extra money to include the health  warning in their ads, but could potentially discourage customers from ordering the delicious snack.

The FilAm community had mixed (halo) reactions to the ordinance, with some saying that it is good for the health of the community, and others arguing that it was about time to elect a Filipino supervisor so that their concerns and issues are sufficiently represented in San Francisco’s liberal politics.

Well, well.

Film and TV, Food

RACHEL RAY PUZZLED BY SUDDEN DECLINE IN RATINGS OF HER COOKING SHOW

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imageNEW YORK, New York (The Adobo Chronicles) – Move over, Martha Stewart. Television’s number one cooking show now belongs to Rachel Ray.

From ‘date night meals’ to ‘cookout recipes,’ Ray’s down-to-earth approach to her cooking has earned enormous following for her syndicated ‘The Rachel Show.’

But then something very puzzling happened over the last couple of weeks. The show’s ratings suddenly plummeted it didn’t even register on the Nielsen scale. (Nielsen is the television standard for measuring TV show ratings.)

It was only after the show’s producers obtained a copy of a magazine featuring Ray on the cover that they realized why the ratings nose-dived:

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Food, Government, Health & Medicine, International

BIRD FLU EPIDEMIC IN U.S. PROMPTS STATES TO INCREASE BALUT IMPORTS FROM PHILIPPINES

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Balut
Balut

DES MOINES, Iowa (The Adobo Chronicles) – While some New Yorkers  have signed a petition demanding a Filipino restaurant in Manhattan to strike off balut from its menu, states like Iowa, Wisconsin and Minnesota have increased their quota for the importation of this Filipino delicacy.  Balut is a boiled duck embryo popular as a street food in the Philippines.

Iowa became the third state to declare an emergency response to a fast-expanding U.S. bird-flu outbreak on Friday as the national poultry death toll climbed toward record levels.

Officials in Iowa, the biggest egg-producing state, said they had identified four more suspected cases of avian influenza, and the likely number of birds affected in the state is now more than 16 million. Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad declared a state of emergency, the same move that was made last month by his counterparts in Wisconsin and Minnesota.

Branstad said the state government is doing all it can to ensure that Iowans get their recommended daily intake of dairy, consistent with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s nutrition guide, My Plate, which recommends the amount of daily foods that Americans should consume for a healthy life.

“We are asking Iowans to eat  balut instead of chicken or eggs during this period of emergency to ensure both their safety and their nutritional health,” Branstad said.