These a from a Forbes article on the most expensive Wiskeys

The world’s most expensive whiskey - but its sold out!

So you have the chance of this one thats “on the shelves”!

While there is no doubt that weather, biofuels and changes is demographics are setting the poor of the world up for really hard times for the next few years, their is a lighter side which would have amused Maria Antoinette - if they can’t get food give them cake!

The £50 espresso is made from a blend of two coffee beans; Jamaican Blue Mountain and Kupi Luwak which comes from Indonesia and are harvested by civets who sniff out the choicest berries, digest the flesh, and pass out the bean in the way that nature intended.

What is interesting that the cost is simply a function of the high cost of the coffee beans which are real food ingredients. There are other foods where the price is a function of a non food ingredient, like the $1.4m (£700,000) Strawberries Arnaud, which, in addition to the strawberries, boasted a 4.7-carat pink diamond ring.

However, those listed below are expensive because of their food ingredients

The £85.50 sandwich
Britain’s most expensive sandwich was created by Scott McDonald, chef at Selfridges food hall, in August 2006. He used Japanese wagyu beef, foie gras, black truffles and salad. Selfridges catering manager, Ewan Venters, claimed: “If you are a food lover, this represents great value for money.”

The £8,000 pie
Spencer Burge of the Fence Gate Inn in Burnley, Lancashire, created a pie in 2005 whose ingredients included wagyu beef, matsuke mushrooms from China, French bluefoot mushrooms and winter black truffles, all cooked in two bottles of 1982 Chateau Mouton Rothschild. Discerning diners could buy a slice for a mere pounds 1,000.

The $1,000 pizza
The Manhattan restaurant Nino’s Bellisimo unveiled a $1,000 (pounds 500) pizza in March 2007 made with 225g of Imperial Reserve Persicus caviar from Iran and thinly sliced lobster tail, resting on a creme fraiche sauce.

The £600 salad
The world’s most expensive salad was created by chef Raymond Blanc in 2003 - the Florette Sea and Earth salad used almas and beluga caviar, langoustines, Cornish crab and Florette baby leaf salad.

The Deputy Security Minister of South Africa recently made a number of stunning statements

these included:

“..kill the bastards [criminals] if they threaten you..”

“..I want no warning shots..”

“The constitution says criminals must be kept safe, but I say no”

The disturbing thing about this is that it shows a fundamental disregard for the constitution that has been previously hinted at by other actions/statements of the department.

With a flat stock exchange, in balances in trade and an increase in interest rate its good to see manufacturing growing!

This is really what we need - South Africa to commit to sorting Zimbabwe out in line with the electorates vote!

A previous post looked at consumer food trends from a British source and noted the lack of such a list from Africa.

Now another view on Food Trends, this time American

Comparing the two is informative

Organic and Health are of interest to both while the environment is of no interest to the Americans (while Bush rules anyway) and Portion control is on no interest to the British.

Maybe the biggest difference which is reflected in the focus on taste based trend in Britian - maybe the Americans food taste matches their beer taste which is sad!

Energy and Food Waste are becoming major issues in Africa at present, with warning of dire consequences if the existing trends continue. One technology that sits at the intersection of these sectors is the treatment of processing waste using anaerobic digestion - or biogas.

Biogas is a simple process that is used at household level by millions and is increasingly being used in Europe as part of the sustainable energy drive.

There has recently been news of commercial approach in Canada

Ontario-based StormFisher Biogas is forming partnerships with North American food and drinks firms to allow it to use the organic by-products of farming and food processing operations to produce and sell renewable energy.

“Food processors typically send their by-products to landfills or compost sites. Since we are able to extract more value from these by-products by using the energy they create, we are able to charge a lower disposal fee than landfill and compost sites”.

He added that another advantage afforded processors was environmental stewardship: “This allows food processors to reduce greenhouse gas emissions since the gases that are produced by these by-products are used to create energy, rather then seeping into the atmosphere.”

“When captured and used to generate energy, however, methane serves as an excellent fuel and provides the dual environment benefit of being sequestered from the atmosphere and displacing traditional, polluting forms of energy like coal.”

So Judge Tendai Uchena, three days after the constitution requires the election results are released and fours days after the MDC’s application, says “I find that the application is urgent. The case should now proceed.”

The snack food market is predicted by Global Industry Analysis (GIA) to grow during the next few years, contradicting a feeling that consumers would eat less of these unhealthy food.

The reasons for this appear to be the introduction of healthier snacks by many manufacturers and growing markets in for example Asia, Eastern Europe and Latin America