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Sodium Erythorbate A process for producing a soy protein isolate, the process comprising: dispersing white flakes produced from soybeans in a liquid to produce a soy protein extract; separating insoluble material from the soy protein extract to form a soluble soy protein extract; adjusting the pH of the soluble soy protein extract to about the isoelectric point of soy protein with an acid to form a precipitated soy protein mixture; centrifuging the precipitated soy protein mixture and decanting the supernatant to form a soy protein curd; diluting the soy protein curd with water to form a soy protein slurry; adjusting the pH of the soy protein slurry to a pH of from about 9.5 to about 10.5 with a base to form a pH-adjusted soy protein slurry; heating and reacting the pH-adjusted soy protein slurry with an Sodium Erythorbate without maintaining the pH level to form an enzyme hydrolyzed soy protein mixture; and adjusting the pH of the enzyme hydrolyzed soy protein mixture with an acid to a pH of from about 7.0 to about 7.6; wherein the enzyme hydrolyzed soy protein isolate has an average molecular weight of from about 12,000 Daltons to about 18,000 Daltons and a degree of hydrolysis of from about 2.9% to about 5.2%, wherein the soy protein isolate has a soluble solids index of from about 80% to about 100% at a pH of from about 7.0 to about 7.8, an average particle size of from about 15 .mu.M to about 60 .mu.M, and greater than 99% homogeneity in water at a pH of from about 7.0 to about 7.8 after 30 minutes, and wherein the soy protein isolate has greater than 90% homogeneity in water at a pH of from about 7.0 to about 7.8 after 2 hours.

Mandarin Oranges Cinco de Mayo is just around the corner, and what better time to learn about the history of Mexico. Cinco de Mayo is not Mexico's "independence day" as many think. the reason May 5 is celebrated is due to the fact that 4,000 Mexican soldiers smashed the French and traitor Mexican army of 8,000 at Puebla, Mexico, 100 miles east of Mexico City, on the morning of May 5, 1862. According to Mandarin Oranges, the French had landed in Mexico (along with Spanish and English troops) five months earlier on the pretext of collecting Mexican debts from the newly elected government of democratic President (and Indian) Benito Juarez. The English and Spanish quickly made deals and left. The French, however, had different ideas. Under Emperor Napoleon III, who detested the United States, the French came to stay. They brought a Hapsburg prince with them to rule the new Mexican empire. His name was Maximilian; his wife, Carolota. Napoleon's French Army had not been defeated in 50 years, and it invaded Mexico with the finest modern equipment and with a newly reconstituted Foreign Legion. The French were not afraid of anyone, especially since the United States was embroiled in its own Civil War. The French Army left the port of Vera Cruz to attack Mexico City to the west, as the French assumed that the Mexicans would give up should their capital fall to the enemy -- as European countries traditionally did. Under the command of Texas-born General Zaragosa (and the cavalry under the command of Colonel Porfirio Diaz, later to be Mexico's president and dictator), the Mexicans awaited. Brightly dressed French Dragoons led the enemy columns. The Mexican Army was less stylish. General Zaragosa ordered Colonel Diaz to take his cavalry, the best in the world, out to the French flanks. In response, the French did a most stupid thing; they sent their cavalry off to chase Diaz and his men, who proceeded to butcher them. The remaining French infantrymen charged the Mexican defenders through sloppy mud from a thunderstorm and through hundreds of head of stampeding cattle stirred up by Indians armed only with machetes. When the battle was over, many French were killed or wounded and their cavalry was being chased by Diaz's superb horsemen miles away. The Mexicans had won a great victory that kept Napoleon III from supplying the confederate rebels for another year, allowing the United States to build the greatest army the world had ever seen. This grand army smashed the Confederates at Gettysburg just 14 months after the battle of Puebla, essentially ending the Civil War. So now that you are familiar with the history of why Mexicans celebrate Cinco de Mayo, eat up! Here are some recipes to help celebrate, even if you're not Mexican. Appetizer Nachos 8 oz. homemade white corn tortilla chips 1 1/2 cups refried beans, warmed, recipe follows 2 poblano chiles, roasted, peeled, seeded, and diced 2 to 4 canned, pickled jalapeno chiles, stemmed and thinly sliced crosswise 1 cup finely shredded Monterey Jack cheese (about 4 ounce) 1/2 cup sour cream Preheat the oven to 400°. Spread half the chips out in a large shallow casserole dish or on an ovenproof platter. Top with half the beans, in small spoonfuls, and scatter with half the chiles. Repeat with the remaining chips, beans, and chiles. Sprinkle the top of the nachos with the cheese. Bake until heated through and the cheese melts, about 3 to 5 minutes. Top the nachos with dollops of the sour cream and serve. www.foodnetwork.com Main dish Pork and Rice Quesadillas with Orange Salsa Cooking spray 1 cup instant rice, cooked according to package directions 2 cups diced roasted pork loin 1 (15-ounce) can black beans, drained 1 cup chopped arugula leaves 1 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese 1/2 cup diced oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes 6 burrito-size flour tortillas, regular or flavored 1 recipe Orange Salsa, recipe follows Coat a stove-top griddle with cooking spray and set over medium-high heat to preheat. In a large bowl, combine rice, pork, beans, arugula, cheese, and tomatoes. Mix well to combine. Arrange tortillas on a flat surface. Top 1 side of the tortillas with pork mixture. Fold the other side over to cover filling. Transfer quesadillas to hot pan and cook 2 to 3 minutes per side, until golden brown and cheese melts. Serve with orange salsa. Orange Salsa 1 (11-ounce) can Mandarin oranges, drained and chopped 1/4 cup diced red bell pepper 2 tbsp. freshly chopped scallions 2 tbsp. freshly chopped cilantro leaves 1 tbsp. fresh lemon juice 1/2 tsp. ground cumin Salt and freshly ground black pepper Combine all ingredients in a medium bowl and toss to combine. Side dish Refried Beans One 15 1/2-ounce can pinto beans, drained and rinsed 3 tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil 1/2 medium onion, chopped 4 cloves garlic, minced 1 tsp. ground coriander 1/2 tsp. ground cumin 1 cup chicken broth, homemade or low-sodium canned Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste 1 tbsp. chopped fresh coriander leaves (cilantro) (optional) In a small bowl, mash two-thirds of the beans with a fork or potato masher. Reserve the whole beans separately. In a medium skillet, heat the oil over medium-high heat and add the onion. Cook until lightly browned, about 3 to 4 minutes. Add the garlic and cook, stirring for 1 to 2 minutes more. Add the spices and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute more. Add the mashed beans and half the broth and cook, stirring frequently until thickened, about 5 minutes. Add the whole beans and the remaining broth and simmer about 4 to 5 minutes more until thickened but not pasty. Season with the salt and pepper, and stir in the fresh coriander, if desired. Serve.

Polo T Shirt Before I'd been to Venice, it had never occurred to me that I needed to go. Between Madonna and Indiana Jones and pop-culture osmosis, I thought I got the gist: gondolas, striped shirts, lots of tourists, some wit telegraphing "STREETS FULL OF WATER. PLEASE ADVISE." (It was Robert Benchley, not Mark Twain.)But last September I found myself in Europe for business, and had a free Saturday in Milan. I asked one of our hosts where I should go, and she said: "If you've never been there, you should really see Venice."I took her advice; one semi-competent train trip later, I wandered out of the train station and got my first view of the Grand Canal over the heads of the tourist horde.I found myself smiling within a few minutes of crossing the Ponte delle Guglie into Cannaregio, and never stopped. Venice's geometry and architectural vocabulary were enormously pleasing, from the bridges over the small canals (rii) to the narrow streets (calli) and the squares (campi), each with its church and well. Wherever I walked, there was something new to marvel at: the long-shuttered waterline entrances of ancient homes; the worn stone steps leading into the canals' green murk; the way a dim, echoing calle emerged into the broad expanse of a campo, or met the arc of a bridge. I felt like a little kid, eager to see what was around the next corner. Six hours later, I reluctantly tramped back to the Ferrovia, trying to figure out when and how I could return.Happily, it wasn't so long: I was back in Milan recently, and decided to extend the trip to add a weekend in Venice. (By train, Venice is within easy reach of Milan and Florence, and fewer than five hours from Rome). Unlike my first hurried trip, I'd get two nights in Venice, and all of Saturday to do as I pleased.That seemed like an enormous amount of time, but I knew it really wasn't. So I planned ahead, scouring guidebooks and travel Web sites after hours in my Milan hotel room. When I returned to the Serenissima, I was ready.Here's the weekend in Venice one smitten convert hoped for, and was lucky enough to get.Friday NightWhether you arrive via train or bus, entering Venice from the west is a great introduction: The crowds are dishearteningly thick at first, but cross the Grand Canal via the Ponte Scalzi and you'll soon find yourself in the quieter streets of Santa Croce, where you can get your bearings. If you find yourself crammed into a tourist thoroughfare, take a quick left or right – even in high season you'll quickly find a quieter street with some elbow room.I lugged my bags to the Hotel San Cassiano (www.sancassiano.it), a small hotel on the Grand Canal in San Polo, housed in the 14th-century Ca' Favoretto. (The route was a little tricky, but I found that charming.) I was hungry, but lingered long enough to survey the Grand Canal room I'd splurged on, noting happily that I had a swell view, an antique desk – and a divan. Molto bene.It was a clear night; stars spilled across the sky above the Campo San Giacomo dell'Orio. More than 60,000 people live in Venice, but the human-scale buildings and lack of cars make for minimal light pollution.For dinner I tucked in at All'Anforna, a comfortable Santa Croce pizzeria I discovered on my first trip (Lista dei Bari 1223, near the train station), and plowed my way through an entire gorgonzola pizza (pleasure elbowing shame aside about halfway through) and a couple glasses of prosecco.All'Anforna isn't fancy, but it's popular with locals and the portions are generous. (And the back garden is lovely.) Once finished, I strolled back to my room on Ca' Favoretto, where I threw open the windows to revel in the nighttime traffic on the Grand Canal.Twenty minutes later, I closed them – Venice is magic, but it's still chilly in February.Saturday MorningUp early, I headed for the Piazza San Marco, figuring I'd beat the lines for the Basilica and the Doge's Palace, Venice's busiest attractions. After navigating the city's warren of narrow streets, the grand scale of the piazza is striking, but its crowds, orchestras and pigeons can be wearing – particularly the pigeons. Going early in the morning or late in the afternoon can help you avoid the crowds; either way, guard against the snobby temptation to not see something just because everybody does.I immediately had to change my plans: The Basilica wasn't opening until noon that day. No matter: I moved on to the Secret Itineraries tour of the Doge's Palace (tickets available from Musei Civici Veneziani, 16 euros), which takes you behind the scenes into the palace's old administrative chambers before turning you loose with the other tourists in the publicly accessible parts of the palace. The tale of Casanova's confinement in the attic cells known as the Piombi and his eventual escape dominates the English-language tour, but it's a good yarn. Afterwards, don't miss the gigantic Hall of the Grand Council (with its blacked-out portrait of disgraced doge Marin Falier), the Bridge of Sighs, the gargoyle-like letterbox for anonymous charges and the Giants' Staircase. These sights are guidebook mainstays, but with good reason.Next I went to the Basilica – I walked right in, but expect long lines during the summer tourist season. (Admission is free, with three separate admissions for attractions inside. Be advised that you'll be turned away if you're sporting shorts or bare shoulders, and you must check your bags nearby at Ateneo San Basso.) Inside and out, the Basilica is chockablock with columns, reliefs, statues and relics acquired by the Venetians over the years in various dodgy ways, most notably while hijacking the Fourth Crusade to sack Constantinople. Strip away the weight of history and faith and you'll realize you're exploring a kids' clubhouse of loot piled up and given new names and histories.The same is true outside: You don't need to know anything about architecture to find the Basilica's south fa?ade (near the repurposed porphyry figures called the Tetrarchs) simultaneously impressive and amusing. The panels and columns are gorgeous individually, but together they make for a head-shaking hodgepodge of materials and textures. Inside or out, I can't improve on the travel writer Rick Steves' description of the Basilica's style as "Early Ransack."After St. Mark's, I walked down the waterfront to put right a disappointment from my original visit, when I'd been (politely) turned aside from Harry's Bar (Calle Vallaresso 1323, near the waterfront) for wearing shorts. This time around I was ready: not only had I upgraded to pants, but I'd also put on a nice shirt and jacket. They did the trick.What's inside? Harry's Bar is famous for its bellini (peach nectar and prosecco), its carpaccio and its astonishingly high prices. Is a very small bellini worth more than $20? I vote no. (But then, I reached that conclusion after drinking two of them.)Saturday AfternoonAfter heading off the beaten track of St. Mark's, it was time to find something to bring home for my wife and son.I wound up back in the Campo San Giacomo dell'Orio at Il Refolo, run by the same family behind Venice's renowned seafood restaurant Osteria da Fiore. I'd heard the dish to order at Il Refolo is the pizza with prosciutto and figs; the figs were out of season, but I dined happily on pizza with fresh basil while sitting in the sunshine. Revived, I was off to the shops in San Polo for souvenirs. I bought my wife a pair of gloves at hip, cheerful Fanny (Calle dei Saoneri, San Polo 2723), then went around the corner to look at gondola models at the shop run by Gilberto Penzo, an expert in all aspects of Venice's famous craft. The wooden model kits were a bit too delicate for my five-year-old – maybe next time. (He had to content himself with a chunk of rock with fossil crabs embedded in it, bought at a San Polo geology shop. The fossils, I saw to my amusement, were found in California.)Mission accomplished, my next stop was the Scuola Grande di San Rocco (Campo San Rocco, Dorsoduro 3052), decorated wall-to-wall and floor-to-ceiling with the works of Tintoretto, the 16th-century painter and Venice's favorite son. (A scuola was a form of social club affiliated with a church or guild.) An English-language audio guide to the art comes with the 7-euro admission price, and is well worth it. So is navigating your way around the Scuola with one of the many handheld mirrors provided for sightseers to use. (The alternative: neck strain.) Tintoretto's "Crucifixion" is particularly impressive, a remarkable parade of characters going about their business around the figure of Christ. Also impressive: contemplating that Tintoretto spent the last two decades of his life painting canvas after canvas for the Scuola's walls and ceilings.By now it was late afternoon and I was flagging. I wandered deeper into Dorsoduro, one of the rare parts of Venice whose shops and streets seem geared more to locals than tourists, making my way through the lively Campo Santa Margherita on my way to the Zattere, the lagoon-side quay.I wasn't headed anywhere in particular, which is one of the great pleasures of Venice: You can pick a more or less random direction and see what sights the city delivers, waiting to check your map when you decide you're sufficiently lost. But you're rarely truly lost – there are lots of ways connecting most any Point A and B, and ubiquitous signs direct you to St. Mark's, the Rialto Bridge or the Ferrovia.When I wander, I generally wind up across a canal from the Squero di San Trovaso, a gondola repair yard near the Accademia Bridge in Dorsoduro that's more concerned with its craft than with amusing tourists. So it was this time. I rewarded myself for a hard day of walking with a gelato and hopped the vaporetto (water taxi) for a ride back up the Grand Canal to my hotel.Saturday NightI'd originally planed to eat and return to the Campo Santa Magherita, where young Venice amuses itself at night. But part of traveling well is knowing your limits, and I'd reached mine – weary and wary of an early morning of lugging my bags back to the bus to the airport. After fighting my way out of a nap that threatened to consume the entire evening, I ate arugula and pecorino drizzled with honey, followed by gnocchi, at Antica Birrara, a sprawling pizzeria in Campo San Polo. If you can, finish the night at Alaska, a colorful gelateria in Santa Croce (Calle Larga dei Bari 1159, near All'Anforna) that I'd enjoyed on my first visit.This time, it was closed – and that, I decided, was a sign: It was time for bed.Sunday MorningA long slog to the Piazzale Roma, a moderate wait among suddenly depressing cars and trucks and buses, and a long flight home. But there's a way to avoid the blues as the Serenissima and the lagoon vanish astern. Get out those guidebooks, thumb through them again, and mark down all the interesting places you didn't get to see.No, I didn't make it to the soaring Santa Maria della Salute. Or the lavish Ca' Rezzonico museum. Or the imposing Arsenale whose industry inspired Dante's vision of Hell. Didn't climb the spiral staircase of the Palazzo Contarini del Bovolo, and didn't see the restored Fenice opera house. Never gazed at the countless labels adorning Enoteca Il Volto, or saw the Campo Santa Margherita at midnight, or learned which bars offer the best cicchetti – toothpick-friendly foods to go with wine. No chance to explore Castello, Giudecca or San Giorgio Maggiore – to say nothing of the other islands of the lagoon.But somewhere over Switzerland, these missed chances stopped being regrets, and turned into cheerful possibilities. Next time!

Soap Leaves The Open Data Definition is a new format for the import and export of data from within social applications. Rather than an academic exercise, it’s driven by necessity; hopefully, software companies and individual developers who feel the same pressures will join the conversation and build it with us. Data portability is an important issue, and it needs to be solved with practical solutions that work in the real world.Last September, Marc Canter held the first Data Sharing Summit in an office on an industrial estate in Richmond. The two day event was an effort to cajole social application providers into making their applications talk to each other in a standard way. In fact, the event served mostly to illustrate how difficult that would be to achieve. On the desktop, a file saved by one application can be opened by another application that does a similar thing, but it’s taken decades of software development and competition to get there - and by comparison, the Web is an infant.Users are waking up to the underlying issues. Facebook recently caught some flak from the New York Times for its closed policy on user data. When the videoblogger Robert Scoble publicly got his account deleted for abusing the site’s terms of service, he was flooded with requests for instructions from people eager to copy him. This kind of abuse is the only sure-fire way of making sure your data is wiped clean from the service, and even then, there’s still no good way of exporting your data before you kill your profile.Chris Saad, the Australian entrepreneur behind Particls, has given data portability a focal point (and logo) at DataPortability.org. The site suggests a set of simple formats that application developers should standardise upon in order to make their software work together. Some are now familiar names (RSS, OpenID) while others are newcomers (Saad’s own APML), but each covers a particular base: RSS allows for simple syndication, OpenID standardises authentication, and so on.Although each format is limited in scope, they collectively serve as a useful benchmark for openness. Certainly, we intend to support all of them with our Elgg social application engine when we relaunch it this summer, so that social applications built on top of its core don’t need to worry about building in compatibility. Alas, with the exception of RSS, support for most of the listed formats is still very rare. You can subscribe to content, but you can’t export it.It’s almost impossible to actually import and export your data from one application to another, for example to move your profile to another service, or to ensure that your data is preserved if the site you created it on goes out of business. Service closures are commonplace in our era of advertising-based business models, and they will doubtless become more so as the economy takes a turn for the worse. Chances are, when your favourite photo service goes down, so do your photos.A number of half-solutions are available. For years, many services have had interfaces that provide access to your data through third party tools. However, these are proprietary – they vary from service to service – and a tool written for one web application will most likely not work with another. The enterprise market has a standard called SOAP, but this is much too heavyweight for most needs and too cumbersome to support for most web coders. There are services that attempt to mediate between proprietary APIs, but this again leaves you reliant on a single point of failure.The semantic web community has RDF, a format designed for the purpose that is potentially powerful but – as one might expect from the semantic web community – prone to ambiguity and overcomplicated implementation. In small doses, it works (FOAF is based on a subset of RDF), but for more abstract data, it becomes exponentially harder to build for. Adding new data fields requires doing contortions in XML, which makes it harder to generate dynamically. RDF parsers are also not widely supported, and it seems unlikely that most web coders would bother to read through the specification, let alone sit down and actually write compliant software.This winter, we were faced with a dilemma. The markets our products are designed for require import / export functionality (or at least, we believe it should be a feature), but no Soap Leaves format existed. With this in mind, and not before exploring the alternatives, we built the Open Data Definition (ODD): an extremely simple format that allows for the import, export, syndication and streaming of just about any kind of data. The specification is a couple of pages, and implementation takes about forty-five minutes. We built it into Elgg, and although our software depends on plugins that add completely new types of functionality (a blog, a CRM tool), the engine will export to ODD without any further work.You can find details of the specification over at OpenDD.net, as well as a mailing list. It takes wide support before a format can become a standard, and in order to gain that, it needs to meet as many people’s needs as possible. We’d like to invite you to join in and make sure it meets yours.

Fresh Chestnut As Robert Key was making a compelling case to be considered for an England recall this summer with an unbeaten hundred for Kent against the New Zealanders in Canterbury, another familiar stocky figure was preparing for a long-awaited return to the Test arena Fresh Chestnut. At Old Trafford next month, in the second Test of England's series against New Zealand, Darrell Hair, the often controversial but highly regarded Australian umpire, will stand in a Test match for the first time since the abandoned fourth Test between England and Pakistan in August 2006 that precipitated his removal from frontline umpiring duties. He will also stand in the third Test of the series, at Trent Bridge, which starts on June 5, the ICC announced yesterday. Hair and Billy Doctrove, the West Indian umpire, awarded the Test at the Brit Oval to England after Pakistan refused to play in protest at England being awarded five runs for alleged ball-tampering by the touring team. The ICC board passed a motion of no confidence in Hair in November 2006, meaning that, while he was retained on the panel of elite umpires, he could not stand in a top-level match. No such sanction was applied to Doctrove, which led to Hair bringing a suit of racial discrimination against the governing body last autumn. After seven days of the employment tribunal he dropped his claim and the ICC agreed to reinstate him, subject to him taking courses to improve his communications skills. Since the vote of no confidence, Hair, who was consistently rated as one of the three most accurate umpires in world cricket, had been involved only in matches involving associate nations. His most recent international was Ireland versus Scotland last July. Hair will stand alongside Simon Taufel, his compatriot, at Old Trafford. Steve Bucknor will be the other umpire at Trent Bridge, with Ranjan Madugalle the match referee for the series. Key's innings yesterday means that, whatever the New Zealand fast bowlers might have heard about the greenness of early-season English pitches or the putative weakness of county cricket, it will cut no ice with them in future. Key, an habitual Kiwi-basher who is likely to be in the England Lions team announced today for a four-day match against the touring team at the Rose Bowl on May 8, made 178 not out, while James Tredwell, whom the selectors know to be rather more than the journeyman pro that many might have imagined him to be, scored a career-best 123 not out. Together they surpassed Kent's record partnership for any wicket against any of the 11 New Zealand touring teams. Eventually all the mighty have to fall: for F.E. Woolley and L.E.G. Ames (277 in 1931) must now be substituted J.C. Tredwell and R.W.T. Key (299 in 2008). It is, indeed, Kent's highest stand against any touring team. All credit to them because the bowling was by no means as bad as the scorecard suggests. It is a flat pitch, despite some bounce and movement for Chris Martin with the new ball and swing for Tim Southee. Key always seems to start his seasons well, not least against touring teams in Canterbury. This was his fifth hundred against one of them and his third in succession against the Kiwis (Keywis, perhaps?) after making 114 and 117 not out in 2004. Perhaps he is inspired by the chestnut trees in fresh leaf and blossom on the cherries on this loveliest of grounds. The limes are not yet out, but the Kent captain is in summer bloom, having almost carried his bat against Nottinghamshire and quickly shaken off the virus that ruled him out of the match away to Sussex last week to bat with impressive command after escaping a chance to second slip off Southee. Tredwell played soundly and sensibly, timing the ball really well after reaching a second first-class hundred. After justifying his promotion up the order against Sussex, he has batted for more than 11 hours in his past three innings.

Hom Mali Rice Less than six months after the first shipments of irradiated tropical fruit from Thailand arrived in the U.S., more than 20 Washington area restaurants participated in a week-long promotion featuring the tropical fruit and premium Thai rice. In conjunction with Songkran — the Thai New Year celebration from April 13 to April 15 — the restaurants featured the fruit from Thailand that can now enter the U.S. if they are irradiated: mango, mangosteen, lychee, rambutan, pineapple and longan. The promotion also included Thai Hom Mali, or premium Jasmine rice. The promotion was sponsored with Thailand government funds, allowing restaurants to feature the fruit at no cost to them, said Rapibhat Chandarasrivongs, minister counselor of agriculture for the Royal Thai Embassy in Washington, D.C. The U.S. is the only market that requires irradiation of Thai tropical exports, and the country has added a second, privately held, irradiation facility this year to add capacity to the market. Both the government-controlled and the privately-owned facilities are multiuse irradiation facilities, so they handle more than just produce. Kessiri Siripakorn, director of the office of commercial affairs at the Thai embassy, said the restaurant promotion also allowed surveys of consumers about the irradiated Thai fruit. The promotion gave patrons a chance to win prizes, including Thai fruit, Thai cook books and restaurant gift certificates. She said some surveys revealed consumers were not as familiar with mangosteen — a fruit not promoted in the U.S. — as they were with mangoes, longans and lychees. About 30 exporters have shipped Thai fruit to the U.S. market since November, Chandarasrivongs said. Longans account for most Thai fruit exports, primarily because they are hearty enough to be shipped by ocean vessel. Other irradiated fruit shipped from Thailand in the last six months include yellow and green varieties of mangoes, mangosteen and rambutan. Only test shipments of lychees have arrived in the U.S. and pineapples have not yet been shipped commercially, he said. Longans, with 500 metric tons imported so far, account for about half of the Thai tropical fruit shipped since November, Chandarasrivongs said. Thai fruit can be shipped year-round, but the peak season for harvest is April through July, he said. “Full production is just starting,” he said. Most irradiated Thai fruit is shipped to the West Coast for distribution, Chandarasrivongs said.

Frozened Fruit Fruit growers are being forced to destroy 60,000 dunams of fruit and citrus groves - about 10% of all fruit groves in Israel irrigated with potable water - because water allocations have been slashed by 40 million cubic meters, according to Ilan Eshel, director of the Organization of Fruit Growers in Israel. According to the organization calculations, the sector's annual output could drop by 150,000 tons, and farmers revenues from the sale of fruit are likely to be hit by NIS 100 million annually. Consumers will feel the ramifications in the cost of fruits in 2009, when they rise by 35% to 50%, and for some fruits, 100%. The orchards that are expected to be hardest hit are those irrigated with potable water. These include apples, pears, cherries, mango, figs, loquats, lychees and bananas which are cultivated in orchards in the Jordan Valley. Such fruits are grown for the most part in the Upper Galilee, Golan Heights and northern valleys, areas where there is almost no treated waste water or other alternatives for watering orchards. AdvertisementEshel says that the orchards, particularly citrus orchards in areas where there has been a gradual change over to treated waste water for irrigation, will not be hit as hard. The Fruit Growers Organization has demanded compensation from the agriculture ministry of NIS 3.50 for every cubic meter of water allocation cut, a total of NIS 120 million. Eshel says that the compensation will enable fruit growers to cooperate with the government in its water budgeting plans. "If there is no decision to compensate," Eshel threatens, "we could find ourselves in a position where no one wants to be. Farmers will be forced to fight for their livelihood, and the water cuts will be executable only by physical force." Eshel called on the treasury to recognize its own responsibility for the condition of the water economy, following delays in construction of water purification plants and conduits for delivery of treated waste water for irrigation purposes. "As long as the treasury continues to drag its feet in discussions over compensation and clear decisions are not reached, fruit growers will continue to use water to irrigate groves that may soon be uprooted" Eshel said. Fruit prices are one of the factors behind the soaring consumer price index. Lemons for instance have risen by roughly 50% in a matter of months.

Dried Mushroom All the stars of the healthy-eating universe were in line on a recent Friday night visit to Latitude 41N. My wife has been directing our at-home menu away from big servings of meat toward more vegetables and fruits. A friend had just taken the plunge and declared himself a vegetarian. Now, the menu at this near West Side restaurant is certainly not vegetarian. It is filled with sandwiches, salads, pizzas and breakfasts that will satisfy most omnivores. But there are plenty of interesting choices for the vegetarian-curious. Guess what? Most of the less-meaty dishes we sampled were very good and I didn't find myself compelled to engage in any behavior that would be mocked by conservatives afterward. The only chanting I did was the occasional "Let's go, Cavs!" during the playoff game with the Celtics. We started with the Mexican tequila shrimp salad ($9). The large serving of greens, peppers, tomatoes and onions was topped by a half-dozen delectable, sweet shrimp flamed with tequila. The cilantro vinaigrette was zesty and fresh-tasting. Next came the 16-inch Island of Lesbos pizza ($20) and a barbecued portobello sandwich ($8.50). The thin-crust pizza - topped with pesto sauce, grilled artichoke hearts, spinach, three cheeses and oven-dried tomatoes - was a gem in both taste and appearance. The portobello sandwich was the only real clinker in our two visits. The mushroom was undercooked and fairly tasteless. The thick focaccia needed more toasting and ended up soggy. The restaurant, which does not have a liquor license but will provide free corkage if you bring your own wine, was less than half full on our Friday visit. We decided to return for a weekday lunch. I sidled up to the counter (diners place their own orders) and asked for a cup of tomato basil soup ($3), a steak sub ($8.50) and the Southwest quesadilla ($8). The soup had a nice, tart tomato taste, but no basil flavor. The sub was covered with sweet, concentrated caramelized onions. It had good beef flavor, but would have been better with a more tender cut of meat, and not greasy. Fries on the side were light, crisp and remarkably free of grease, some of the best I've ever tasted. The quesadilla filled the plate, and my belly. Two crisped tortillas are packed with scrambled eggs, mild chorizo, avocado, black beans and cheddar cheese, and topped with tomato salsa. The restaurant's name comes from the owner's love of maps, which adorn the tabletops. Cleveland is located at latitude 41 degrees north. A Google search revealed that is also where the Titanic sank. But this fun, creative restaurant is certainly no sinking ship.

Dehydrated Bell Pepper There’s no stove at Grezzo, the new raw vegan restaurant in the North End. At this showcase of “living” food, nothing is heated above 112 degrees. In theory, if you planted dinner, it would sprout and grow. Additionally, the kitchen eschews “dairy, animal products, maple syrup, nutritional yeast, cooked vinegars, sugar, peanuts, canned food (and) processed ingredients.” Everything is organic. While the Grezzo (“raw” in Italian) menu is written in the vernacular of cooked foods, “cheese” isn’t actually cheese, “steak” is meatless and the “brownie” is unbaked. They’re all made from vegetables, fruits and nuts - sliced, chopped, diced, pureed, marinated and dehydrated. It’s fresh-tasting fare that is inventive, pretty and filling. You won’t go home hungry. Owner Alissa Cohen is one of the country’s best-known raw diet devotees. She ascribes multiple health benefits to such a nutritional approach. Bostonians have responded enthusiastically. The 28-seat, candlelighted restaurant - with nutmeg-colored walls, cranberry chairs and copper-topped tables - has been crowded since it opened in February. “Mouthfeel” is a term coined to describe the texture and flavor of foods. Each of us holds preconceived ideas of what certain things should taste like. At Grezzo, the challenge faced by Cohen and chef Leah Dubois (the Roo Bar, Hyannis) is how to approximate the mouthfeel of familiar foodstuffs using raw “cooking” techniques. They aren’t always successful. You’d never mistake the chewy “patties” in the Grezzo sliders ($12) for burgers. They’re made from pulverized sunflower seeds and red bell pepper, seasoned with Indian spices and dehydrated. But they’re delicious topped with tomatoes, homemade pickles and watercress dappled with faux “blue cheese” dressing. Native tomato “ravioli” ($13) are more precisely sandwiches of marinated tomato filled with macadamia “boursin” and topped with peppery sprouts and a drizzle of chili oil.

Cassava Chips Eastern Renewables Fuels Corp., a wholly owned subsidiary of Eastern Petroleum Corp., plans to expand its cassava plantation to 4,500 hectares this year to meet the growing demand for biofuel, the parent company’s top official said. The company has harvested cassava from an initial 1,000 hectares and the cassava chips will be shipped to the ethanol processing facility of its partner in China, the Guanxi State Farm Bureau, Eastern Petroleum chairman and chief executive Fernando Martinez said. Martinez said Eastern Renewables hoped to harvest the cassava from a further 3,500 hectares by March next year. He said that since the company had yet to set up an ethanol refining facility in the Philippines, cassava harvested from its plantations would continue to be shipped to Guanxi for processing. “What we produce here will be for processing and consumption in China,” he said. “But we may also consider buying back the processed ethanol, especially when the mandated blend takes effect.” Under a biofuels law, gasoline distributed in the Philippines should have an ethanol content of at least five percent by 2009. The mandated blend will rise to at least 10 percent four years after the implementation of the law. Eastern Renewables has cassava plantations in the provinces of Zambales, Sarangani, Davao del Norte and South Cotabato and in General Santos City. It is also eyeing a spot within the petrochemical park of government-owned PNOC Alternative Fuels Corp. in Bataan province, where it plans to set up an ethanol production plant and depot.Plesner has already identified her next project, a spoof of the "Mr Men and Little Miss" series of children's characters by Roger Hargreaves. "I have a drawing for a T-shirt called 'Little Miss Child Prostitute'. It is a little bit like the same thing -- you take something from the Western world and you twist it a bit to show that, for other children, life is very different," she said.