Food and Beverage Blog

One of the best ways to entertain your friends for a dinner party would be to man the bar and serve out cocktails. But how exactly do you make great tasting cocktails? There are actually several tips that you need to keep in mind if you want to create cocktails that will wow all your guests.

Perhaps one of the first things you need to do is get yourself a solid bar or cocktail set. It is important that it has the necessary items you need like the shaker, the jigger, and the strainer. Other accessories might include the bottle opener, the stirring rod or the ice spoon. Make sure that your cocktail set contains everything you need to measure the ingredients properly.

Speaking of ingredients, a second important factor to making a great cocktail is by strictly following the ingredients. You need to be able to follow the instructions properly including the amount of ingredients you need to add. This will ensure that your cocktails will taste really good each and every time you mix them.

Another surefire way of having tasty cocktails is by mixing and blending them properly. Different cocktail ingredients will have different ways of mixing and blending. For instance, any drink that contains eggs or fruits need to be shaken inside a shaker instead of mixed. This will make sure that the ingredients are thoroughly blended.

Most bartenders will tell you that mixing the drink properly is one of the keys to making sure that it will taste great. Apart from that, it is also important to serve up your cocktails using chilled glasses or at least ensuring that they are served cold. This will help in adding to the taste of the cocktails. Moreover, use small glasses when serving up your drinks. The larger glasses might cause the drink to warm up so it is essential that you do something to keep it warm.

You can also use plenty of ice whenever you are still shaking the ingredients. Always add the ingredients first inside the shaker before placing the ice so that it won’t have too much time to dilute.

Of course, to make sure that your drink will taste great, it is necessary to taste it first before anything else. There are times when you might need to fine tune the taste of the cocktail that you created. Adding a little dash of this and that can do wonders to making the cocktail taste absolutely great?

There will not be a single person in this world that is not familiar with tea. Be it the mountainous area of China or the African dessert land, people consume tea of one kind or another. There are many types of tea; white tea, black tea, green tea, herbal tea and a new variety called blooming tea which is actually a very fancy version of white tea. But one with the most benefits and no side effects is the green tea. The benefits of the green tea are known for 4000 years and also scientifically proven now. But these benefits depend on the quality of tea you use. Many vendors will sell you low quality which would not be that beneficial. Whether you buy it from a shop or online tea stores, make sure that you are getting the best.

The history of green tea dates back to ancient China thousand years ago. It is still a very popular drink in that area. The green tea is made from the species known as Camellia sinensis after very little processing. Minimum processing keeps the vital nutrients in the leaves. It is an excellent antioxidant. The health benefits related to this tea are many. Here are a few to mention.

• The major benefit related to green tea is that it is an anticancerous agent. It does not only prevent the creation of harmful cancer cells in the body but also kill the existing ones. It contains the plant extract known as epigallocatechin gallate which is a powerful anti cancer agent.

• It also eliminates all the bad cholesterol from human body. There two types of cholesterol in our body, one is the good cholesterol HDL and one is the bad cholesterol LDL. The green tea manages the ratio of this good cholesterol and the bad cholesterol.

• Thrombosis is a very major cause of heart stroke and heart attacks. It is caused by thickening and clotting of blood. The researches have proven that green tea can prevent this clotting of blood and hence reduce the chance of heart attack.

• The tea is also found very efficient in preventing and eliminating the type1 diabetics. The tea itself has no sugar content unless added but if honey or natural sweetener is used, it is safer and much healthier.

• Not only is tea very healthy for the liver, it also fights the extreme liver diseases such as viral hepatitis. The polyphenols which help fighting against liver diseases are called catechins. It also provides good protection against harmful effects of alcohol.

• One amazing fact about green tea that most people do not know about is that it contains fluoride which helps in reducing tooth decay. It also prevents the plaque attack and cavities.

Some other benefits for which green tea is highly efficient in weight loss and skin related problems such as acne. It also maintains a fluid balance in your body. It also reduces stress and the chances of dehydration. Its antiviral properties protect against viral outbreaks such as flu and cold. And finally, it simulates the metabolism of the body which results in an overall improvement in health.

Soup is a wonder food. It is not only nourishing and delicious but also typically easy to make and inexpensive. You don’t have to be a carnivore to enjoy soup. There are a myriad of vegetarian and vegan recipes out there that are just as satisfying and hearty as healthy recipes for soup that include some type of meat.

I no longer purchase cans of soup. They are full of sodium and simply do not have the same taste or texture as homemade soups. Plus, the canning process kills most of the nutrients that are simmering loud and clear in freshly made soups. Let’s face it, there is nothing like the aroma of a pot of simmering soup to fill your house and leave you yearning for a steaming bowl of this curer of all ills.

There really is something to the folklore that grandma’s chicken soup will heal you when you become ill. In fact, it’s been studied. In 1993, University of Nebraska Medical Center researcher, Stephen Rennard, MD, found that his wife’s family recipe for chicken soup had anti-inflammatory effects and actually slowed the development of cold symptoms.

The soup definitively increased the cold-fighting ability of cells when they were bathed in chicken soup. The hot chicken soup also improved the movement of mucus and shortened the life of a cold. Although unable to pinpoint exactly what ingredient in the chicken soup did the most good, his theory is that the ingredients work synergistically to make a difference in the duration and severity of a cold.

But you don’t only have to enjoy chicken soup to reap the benefits of decreased sick time when you have a cold. In fact, any freshly made soup that contains organic vegetables, garlic and onion is filled with powerful anti-oxidants and is quite nutritious.

All healthy soup recipes can have the same effect on your health as chicken soup does. Not all of those who partake in soup are carnivores and for those of us looking for vegetarian recipes as alternatives, have no fear.

Vegetarian or vegan versions of soup offer us the wonderfully warming feeling and healing potential as chicken soup. Actually the vegetarian version might even be more beneficial. As much as it may match the nutrient content of a soup that includes chicken or other type of meat, when you replace the meat with a bean and include fresh, organic vegetables – you are only doing yourself good. The vegetarian recipes are lower in saturated fats that are artery clogging.

Usually pasta is made of wheat or rice flour, although some varieties are made of beans and soy. Noodles may be of different shapes and sizes – flat or round, in the form of rods (tubes), or spider net or bar. They can be hard or soft, fresh or dried, with the addition of eggs and without them. Sometimes in noodles is added potash (potassium carbonate), in order to prevent them from mold in a hot and humid climate.

As every country have its own kinds of noodles, tangling in them – a piece of cake. To prevent this from happening, let’s get acquainted with the most popular types of pastas.

Rice Paper (pancakes). It is incredibly thin sheets of dough made from rice flour and water. They can be round or triangular. Used to be prepared for the first time in China, Thailand, and most importantly, the Vietnamese kitchen used them to cook Spring Rolls, or wrap pieces of meat or fish before hot. Ground is usually made of vegetables, or vegetables with shrimp, or pork – or from all together. First rice pancakes have to be dipped in warm water, for softening. Then rolled up rolls and fried or boiled in the fryer.

Rice noodles. These translucent or white strip width from a few millimeters to three inches are very popular in China.

Chinese wheat noodles. These creamy-beige or white noodles may vary in thickness, and also be round or flat, but necessarily long. They are prepared from wheat flour, salt and water.

Ramen. The most famous in the world view of Japanese wheat noodles. It is as thin as vermicelli, and long, sold in the form of briquettes.

Soy noodles. Noodles made from soy – looking thin and flat, like a rubber band. They are made of pressed bean curd, so it is rich in protein and other nutrients.

Fettuccine and linguine are pasta that is shaped like ribbons.

One popular Italian pasta group is ravioli and tortellini and manicotti. This group differs from other ones because this pasta has a stuffing (vegetables, cheese, ham etc.)

Tapioca noodles. Perhaps can be of one of the most varied forms: from grains and pasta spirals to varying degrees and length of the plane. It is eaten in Asia and Africa: fried together with sharp and aromatic sauces, and in Indonesia and Malaysia, it is mixed with red beans, coconut milk and sugar syrup. It turns to be a traditional dessert.

Soba. This is a well-known Japanese version of pasta. Soba is flat and thin, made from a mixture of buckwheat and wheat flour. Soba has a nutty flavor and color from beige to brown. Sometimes Japanese add in soba green tea, making it acquiring a greenish color. It is usually cooked in salted boiling water, steep 5-7 minutes. It is very popular in the summer of as it’s served cold.