Types of Cheeses

Everytime I go to an Italian restaurant, I find the menu card full of different varieties of cheese. Mozarella, Chhedar, cottage cheese, parmesan and what not. This post is to figure out the differences between these and if possible, the usage.

Mozzarella: Favored for its mild, milky taste this type of cheese is more of a cooking cheese than a cheese board cheese due to its good binding properties, moist texture, and ability to melt. It absorbs the flavors and juices of the ingredients surrounding it and is perfectly designed for cooking. Mozzarella is also low in fat, therefore, it is ideal to use even when dieting. Mozzarella is the perfect cheese for Italian dishes or melted over tomatoes and garlic bread.
Cheddar: Cheddar can have a diverse selection of tastes that range from mild too sharp. This is dependent upon the age of the cheese. Mild Cheddar is perfect for sandwiches because it has a mellow balance of flavors. Sharp Cheddar is great for cooking because its flavor is released when heated and it shreds well. Sharp cheddar goes well in salads and sandwiches. It is a favorite for deli, and snack trays.

Brick: It is a mild, but also pungent, sweet tasting cheese. It is a semi-soft cheese that slices well without crumbling. Brick has a reddish-brown rind and its inside is yellow-white in color with many small holes. Brick is delicious with fruits and vegetables. It also goes well on sandwiches and snack trays.

Cottage Cheese: It is an adaptable source of protein for table use, snacks, salads, and in baking. The flavor goes well with fresh vegetables or condiments, such as peppers, olives, or pimientos, as well as with fruits, such as pineapple, peaches, or berries. Low-fat cottage cheese can be used to replace higher-fat-content cream cheese in desserts such as cheesecake and Danish pastry, and it’s good in savory baked dishes such as lasagna. Found in salad bars, it stands alone or goes well with fruit or as a side dish.

Parmesan: This is a hard, grainy textured cheese varying in shape and size. It’s used mainly as a grating cheese on many different types of foods and is a good cooking cheese because it does not form threads as it melts. Parmesan cheese will keep for years when it’s whole and will continue improving with age. A perfect topper for pizza and Italian dishes.

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Saffron

Was just discussing cuisines with Smeeta, and was telling her how expensive saffron is. I remember, I was told that just three pieces of that saffron stem (if that’s what you call it) can be obtained from a saffron flower. And given that the stem is so light, a gram of saffron has to be produced from a huge number of flowers. Lemme figure out the correctness of this.

And Bingo. This is what encyclopedia of spices has to say.

Coming from the dried stigmas of the saffron crocus, it takes 75,000 blossoms or 225,000 hand-picked stigmas to make a single pound which explains why it is the world’s most expensive spice.

Saffron is the three stigmas of the saffron crocus. They are delicate and thread-like, each measuring 2.5 – 4 cm (1 -1.5 in). Its colour is a bright orange-red, and in high quality saffron this is uniform. Saffron bearing white streaks or light patches is inferior and when light specks appear in its powdered form it suggests adulteration.

Which means it is extremely difficult a task to source a kilo of saffron. Wonder where we would use a kilo of it, given the fact that saffron in excess is fatal. It has a huge medicinal value. It has been recognized of value as an antispasmodic, diaphoretic, carminative, emmenagogic and sedative.

What is a balanced diet?

This is another of my attempts towards following a healthier lifestyle myself.

Apart from doing some physical exercise regularly, you also need to have a balanced diet (Click here to read more). The term “balanced” simply means that a diet meets your nutritional needs while not providing too much of any nutrients. To achieve a balanced diet, you must eat a variety of foods from each of the food groups.

There are several guidelines available to help you plan your balanced diet. They include:

• The Food Guide Pyramid
• The U.S. Dietary Guidelines (RDA guidelines)

The following is an image of the Food Guide Pyramid, where there are eight divisions from left to right. Food groups are arranged vertically, instead of horizontally like the older model, and are represented by six different colors and the person on the stairs represent physical activity.

Foods from each group should be eaten daily. The wider the food group band, the more of that product you should eat, although the widths are a general guide to portion size, not an exact recommendation.

Further recommendations on the different food groups are as follows:

• Grains(Orange), recommending that at least half of grains consumed be as whole grains
• Vegetables(Green), emphasizing dark green vegetables, orange vegetables, and dry beans and peas
• Fruits(Red), emphasizing variety and deemphasizing fruit juices
• Oils(Yellow), recommending fish, nut, and vegetables sources, and to be used sparingly
• Milk(Blue), a category that includes fluid milk and many other milk-based products
• Meat and beans(Purple), emphasizing low-fat and lean meats such as fish as well as more beans, peas, nuts, and seeds

There is one other category:

Discretionary calories, represented by the narrow tip of each colored band, including items such as candy, alcohol, or additional food from any other group.

How unhealthy is carbonated water?

It is common knowledge that aerated drinks have very high calorie content. But recently I came across an article that told me high calories is not the only harm that you are doing to your body when you consume aerated drinks. Here’s why.

Excessive use of carbonated water will strip the body of phosphorous, a mineral that is vital to the integrity of bones and teeth, metabolism of nutrients, and the formation of genetic material, cell membranes, and many enzymes. Hence, carbonated water, he says, should be considered a luxury and used sparingly.

Distilled water, by the way, should not be used regularly either. It is devoid of all mineral content and, although the science is scanty, many long-term users have encountered health problems such as hair thinning or falling out. 

So for all my ‘spirited’ friends…on-the-rocks it is! 🙂

Drinking water during Lunch/Dinner?

I hear different comments from people… saying we should drink a lot of water, some say we should not… Want to figure out what exactly is the case.

Searched for this online and find different opinions again. What I found in general was that, people suggest you dont drink a lot of water because it hampers digestion by diluting the digestive juices.

Now, some other reports say… that digestive juices don’t mix much with water and its perfectly ok for you to have water during meals unless your stomach is having trouble producing enough acids and digestive juices.

BTW everydayfrance says that french prefer not having water during meals and Americans have a lot of water/fluids with meals.

How many calories in a bottle of beer?

Heard of the term Beer Belly?

Was curious to know how much does beer really contribute to the belly.

Was looking at the number of calories in a bottle of beer. A fosters 12oz has abt 150 calories and budweiser is about 140ish. 12oz is about a pint (330 ml).

Was looking at the kind of diet I should have… (24 years, 5’6″, 62kgs)… I need to take in about 22oo calories to maintain myself in this state. Which means a couple of beer pints each day does not really hurt.

The question that strikes me next is whether all the fat/carbohydrate is digestible? Which means fat/carbos from Milk are equivalent to that from beer and are treated in the same manner. Will find that out in the next few posts.

What do Tigers eat?

Ok. All this while, I was thinking that Tigers eat grass too and was making some basic calorie calculations… But they are hard-core carnivores.

A look at Tigers Diet and Eating Habits reveals that

a. Tigers can consume 20 to 35 kg (44-77 lb.) of food at one sitting (that’s a LOT); but they usually eat about 15 to 18 kg (33-40 lb.) of food a day, over several days. They don’t seem to mind eating decaying flesh.

b. After meals, tigers cover the remains of the kill with vegetation or debris. This conceals the carcass from scavengers such as vultures and jackals.

c. Tigers mainly rest and drink between meals, but may kill other prey if the opportunity arises.

d. Tigers usually gorge themselves at a kill, and they may not need to eat again for several days. If their food requirements are averaged per day over a year, female tigers need about 5 to 6 kg (11-13 lb.) of food per day and males need about 6 to 7 kg (13-15 lb.) of food per day.