2012/02/01

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  Kate and William at the ITHQ - 2011.07.06
  (Institut de tourisme et d'hôtellerie du Québec)
  Scènes de Montréal - Montreal Scenes
  

  Above

  We may not have the hots for the British monarchy, but we have class. More anyways than those who these days force monarchy down Canadian's throats and found nothing better than to show them how to feed the cattle (way of speaking... or is it?) when they were in Calgary. I'd rather smell a soufflé than a bull's ass, personally, but that's only me .

  

  Dyslexia...

  Or whatever is the cause... but I've had to repass a few times after posting the previous post, and all the others before when I was mentioning "Monsieur Lazhar", to correct its spelling. No matter what I do, I always end up by first writing it "Lahzar" or "Lhazar", with a misplaced "h". I think it's my French to English conveyor belt which squeaks a little. If not, it's either because of the Tibetans or the late singer Lhasa de Sela, which amounts to about the same. Incidentally, Lhasa (the city) is written Lhassa in French, most probably because Lhasa would have to be pronounced Lhaza because an "s" between two "a" is pronounced "z" and that's not negotiable. Which brings us back to Monsieur Lazhar which could be written Lazar or Lasar that it would change nothing in its pronunciation. As per the mute "h" in there, I'm sure there must be an historical explanation for its presence. I must confess that right now, roaming into word histories is not my immediate priority. Maybe later, after a second coffee. All that I readily know is that the anglos don't indulge into such brain stormings because they eat their [lazagna] lasagna while reading a book on [lassa] Lhasa and not wondering one single second why it's a "z" in one case and an "s" in the other, both being enclosed between two "a". That's why English has overridden French as the new Lingua Franca on the planet. You learn 200 words and you can get by, and you can pronounce any one of them with a "z" or an "s" sound and no one gives a damn. Listen to Ze French speak English. Case in point.

  

  Passing seasons

  In the news yesterday (Monday): three Americans, members of NGO groups promoting democracy, were forbidden from leaving the country by the Egyptian authorities, and have taken refuge in the American embassy in Cairo (from AP). I don't know the exact details, if these people were working undercover for the American secret services or if they were truly an independent NGO engaged in democratic ideals. All I know is that by what we read and hear, the Arab spring seems to have bypassed its summer and is heading straight to a new Egyptian winter.

  
  1st ANNIVERSARY OF THE EGYPTIAN REVOLUTION
  «LIBERTY LIBERTY LIBERTY Liberty! Liberty! Liberty!»
  «Liberty! Liberty! Liberty!...»
  «THANK YOU»
  cartoon © A.-P. Côté, Le Soleil

  

  Americana

  Newt Gingrich says he wants to build an American base on the Moon. That would be a nice place for him to retire, permanently. His wife has a strange hairdo. Looks like a helmet. She's ready.

  I don't get the rationale behind Republican candidates demonstrating to anyone wanting to hear that each other is a lower form of life. I mean, didn't anyone tell them that there will be an election, afterwards?

  Anyone explaining to me how super PACs are not the worm in the apple of democracy will have all my admiration.

  Romney's campaign slogan is "Believe in America". I suppose it means that he embodies "America" loosely translated in his mind as "Me". He does believe in buying out companies to suck them off before throwing its workers on the streets, so I guess that's what America is all about (in his catechism I mean).

  

  Decepção brasileira (Brazilian deception)

  I was wondering if the Brazilian panettone Bauducco, which could be the one talked about recently on an American site of our knowing was available here in Montreal. It seemed strange to me that our Italian shops would carry Brazilian-made Italian food since they already have plentifuls of the original ones made in Italy. However, when I saw the packaging on the internet, it did seem familiar, so I just had to clear out this matter once and for good. Yesterday (Monday) I had to go to Milano's for garlic (long story) and also coffee. With the great sense of organization I'm so renowned about, I decided to combine these purchases with the grand search for the Brazilian panettone Grail.

  Upon entering the store, right where they have been for a while piled up in a mesh bin, a stockpile of those famous Bauducci. I think they are in the same bin as were formely the Venezia which I talked about in my November 24 post and whose reputation I shattered to pieces three days later («Dry, brownish, almost no smell»), a no contest with the slightly more expensive Gioia which were going at 1,99$ (on special) while the Venezia was 1,79$. The Bauducco I saw were 1,39$. A priori, it does not mean they are not good. There can be many reasons for a lower price, such as much lower labor costs in Brazil, and probably the same for the ingredients. So it's in total openness of mind that I bought one, for the purpose of comparing it with the Gioia which, it, blessing among blessings, is now selling for 1,49$ because its expiry date is stamped for somewhere in March and they have loads of them in stock.

  The verdict? Let's put it in the form of a question: «Can we make something worse than the Venezia?» and to use an Obamaism, «Yes We Can».

  Not only was this panettone of a funny beige color, including the orange(?) peel bits and dry, it was more so 'very dry', and also burnt on the bottom. When I tried to remove the side paper, the cake came with it, and the bottom circle of paper was burned-glued to the cake. Terrible. No world-famous orange marmalade can salvage this kind of disaster. It's a lost cause.

  The contestants side by side before the great challenge
  

  The Bauducco - no mice have eaten the missing parts - they just stuck to the paper.
  

  For comparison purposes, the Gioia
  

  Accessory evidence, Your Honor! I ate the cake parts that had stuck to the paper (I still remain a food slut, remember?) except on the round piece of paper where what we see is not the paper but the burnt bottom of the panettone which had bonded to it.
  

  I personally don't give much of a damn about the Bauducco, especially that at 1,49$ the Gioia is an outstanding bargain and I will return this week to make myself a little reserve. Expiry dates on those things can be overrun by many months, and push comes to shove, I can always put a few in the freezer. What desolates me, however, is that some others may be left with a wrong impression about what a good panettone looks and tastes like. Now I understand why some wanted to add rum to it. But before that, just making it right would be much more in the order. For starters.

  I should have been suspicious when I didn't see any Portuguese on the package, only English and Spanish (there was an added English/French sticker for the Canadian market). But more so, other telltale signs of crapola were readily obvious for the enquiring eye.

  First there was the English only sales pitch printed on one side, harboring a seal-like crest saying "America's #1 panettone". THAT ALONE should have been sufficient reason to leave it where it was (don't ask me to explain, except to say that a Big Mac is also America's #1 idea of a great meat burger). Then there was the text itself:

  In 1952, in a small confectionery, the Bauducco family began making Panettones using its special recipe directly from Italy. [I don't understand this sentence - what/who was in Brazil and what/who was in Italy and what was being done where and from where? Who stole the verb?]

  With great dedication, work and a special talent for baking, the family saw its Panettone become increasingly recognized for its quality and taste. [their appraisal]

  Carefully prepared with a traditional natural leavening process, each Bauducco takes more than 50 hours to bake. [so does any panettone]

  The delicious combination of the finest ingredients with the world renowned Sun Maid Raisins [since when are Sun Maid Raisins world renowned, and since when a dried raisin is different from another dried raisin, except when a conglomerate pushes its other products], results in a unique sweet flavor and an exquisitely moist texture [please define moist and or exquisite or while we're at it, why not both].

  In the past 50 years much has changed [obviously], but the care and dedication in which Bauducco Panettones are made remain the same [not obvious at all]. Quality and tradition made Bauducco the best selling Panettone in the U.S. [bad point] and worldwide [anything made to please the most has by definition been downgraded to the most common denominator - flee].

  Enjoy! [Right ]

  Then there was the other crest on the package claiming "Moist and ready to eat". It is anything but moist. And it is not ready to eat at all either, unless your idea of fun is choking while eating overly dry food. Unless they mean that you don't have to cook it more?

  And then there's the Sun-Maid Raisins being referred to ostensibly. When you use your products as marketing tools to sell other products, it's a telltale indication that your priority is corporate profit, not the quality of what's in the box. Of the almost 100 brands of panettone boxes or packages I've seen, not one of them comercially referred to one of the ingredients. Then again, they were all made in Italy. Which is in Europe. Which also brings me to this young French guy who went on a work intership at the Bauducco factory in Brazil and which he describes such in his blog: «As you must surely know, I am now in intership at the Bauducco company... However do you know the line of work of this unavoidable company in Brazil and nevertheless almost unknown in Europe?» Apparently Europe is not part of "their" world. I can understand why. If you can find crap in Europe's large mega-supermarkets, you can also find anywhere the good version of those products. Which is not the case in some other pastures on this planet. I also noticed that all references by ordinary people (in blogs etc) about the Bauducco company or its panettones more or less were copy-pastes of what the company says, including even at times that strange sentence mentioned above. It reminded me of a past post (or maybe a comment) where I mentioned how nowadays most information we get comes from one or two single sources and repeated, unverified, by all the rest of the medias.

  The Bauducco I bought had an expiry date of July 2012, so there's no reason for it being that dry. I also had never heard of that company before. It may be the largest selling panettone in the world (the company's claim, not verified), it also seems to be in 'selected' areas of that world, of which Europe and central Canada don't seem to be a part of.

  Why I mention all this? Because very often, we get screwed by our own fault simply because we don't give the necessary attention to things. And also because there's no free ride. If the regular price is cheap, so is the product. For some items, it may be exactly what we are looking for, but knowing about it beforehand is an absolute prerequisite. By the way, that cheap_price/cheap_product ratio also fully applies to the news medias which I mentioned above and who, merger after merger after merger, supposedly to rationalize so as to save money, are bringing us closer and closer to the dreaded (for us, not them) pensée unique which Ignacio Ramonet coined in 1995 in the newspaper Le Monde. The third (and maybe final) world war has a great chance of being started by a false and unverified event report spread instantly over the whole planet by this incestuous mediatic system, and taken literally as truth by some dumbfuck egotistical maniac having access to a nuclear button. I know, it's a long stretch from a mini-panettone to the anihilation of Mankind, but when you look at it real close...

  Then again, maybe I'm just an old fart form a rich western country picking on a poor company from an "emerging" country and which is just trying to make ends meet. Buit I doubt it.

  

  Survivors

  They had this diaporama in La Presse about some animals (mostly pets) which, contrary to humans, did not flee and stayed behind in the devastated area surrounding the Fukushima nuclear plant. A governental organisation is taking care of them. Here's the link, for those animal lovers out there. The header caption reads: After the catastrophe which hit Japan last March, a 20 kilometer zone around the Fukushima nuclear plant was evacuated. But the animals have stayed! They were not necessarily forgotten or abandoned. The Japanese government just launched an evacuation operation for domestic animals still on the contaminated lands.

  http://www.cyberpresse.ca/photos/international/201201/30/12-7031-les-animaux-nucleaires-de-fukushima.php

  

  • 15:19
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