Tag Archives: food

Next butcher in line

Yup, that happens. So what do you do when the customers is looking at the boss of the butcher and that customer is just sick of their treatment of the surrounding the they poison? What would you do? I have my ‘go to’ guy in my corner. The name is Jimmy and he is all about chickens and has been for years. His chickens (drumsticks) are the greatest and I have them nearly every day. So what would you do if you are saddened and sickened of his dealings, by hime or his staff with to his customers? Would you take that hit and keep on serving him business? So here is ABC with the news. At https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-03-14/3-billion-united-states-meat-trade-to-china-at-risk/105052220 we are given a mere 12 hours ago ‘US meat trade days away from getting ‘kicked out’ of China’, that is the situation and even if we consider the impact on America, consider that China now has three eager supply points. You see Canada sets the sitting with “$9.5 billion in red meat products, including pork, beef, lamb, and horse, with the United States being a major destination.” Then there is Australia with “the USA is Australia’s largest beef export destination accounting for 27.5% of total beef export flows this year, which is up from 22.7% in 2023.” This represents 27.5% of 17 billion dollars a year, as such America is now on a slanty side of bad news. Last there is New Zealand with “In 2024, the United States was the leading beef export market for New Zealand, with an export value of approximately 1.74 billion New Zealand dollars.” Now when we add the numbers we get the setting that America is about to lose close to 16 billion dollars in beef import. So what happens when America gets that much of a drain of revenue? Lets be clear, that is the obvious danger and China is about to get several happy moments by sticking it to America and add the UK, who is a ‘mere’ £1.77 billion last year (2024) with a small part going to North America and that puts us deep into the 16 billion dollars. The one small side step is that the population tends to go mad when the daily requirements fall away and that is what America enabled to itself; alongside with the notion that the people in the Commonwealth are done with President Trumps barbaric setting of attacking Canada, as such we are nearly all willing to become China’s new supply agent for meat. As ABC gives us “Hundreds of abattoirs in the United States are at risk of being banned from exporting meat to China, because their China export licenses are due to expire this weekend.” So, what happens when the American population, being a mere 340,123,988 people (roughly) will not get access to their hamburgers? Did the American Capitol and White House ever hear of a stampede? That is what taking away their daily needs away amounts to and as I see it, the people surrounding President Xi Jinping are ready for and that is what (I expect) the bad news that people in the White House are in a presented stage of telling the man who ‘elevated’ the term ‘you’re fired’ to, which is a new low for that person who has to bring the bad news. And it also shifts the larger premise. You can only hold something over anyone’s head when you are the billion dollar customer they tended to push around. The Commonwealth might be in line for a new delivery address. It opens up a few doors for the inhabitants of 174 Chang’an Avenue, Xicheng District, Beijing. A stage that falls in our lap because beyond ABC news, there weren’t too many sources and this news is 12 hours old. So where was the media? The Google search term “meat import America” gives us a mere two pages and no items from the BBC, the Guardian, the Wall Street Journal, the NY Times, the Boston Globe, the LA Times or the SF Courier. The Australian had it behind a pay wall, so it is not interesting what they have to say. But as ABC gives us ““The expiry date for several hundred more US establishments is in March and April and [China Customs] has not responded to US government facility registration renewal requests,” it said in statement.” With the added “So what we’re looking at right now in America, is waking up Monday morning and having $US3 billion ($A4.77B) worth of beef, pork and poultry no longer eligible to export to China”, as that being said, I would like to add “Well, Brett Stuart, the news is a lot worse. There is now also the chance you will lose 17 billion in imports because they found a new butcher. As such they could mostly be out of a job and the supermarket isles of meat might be rather empty. So how is your day going now?

Of course this is not a given, but that is the effects of a trade war, so how are these numbers spiking up? By the way, the liquor importer Dan Murphy (Australian) is still eagerly selling ‘American Whiskey’, as such the brotherly love for Canada is a little missing, but we will get there. As such there is space for improvement. America forgot that with export, there is also import of other goods and a 25% tariff will be having a deadly impact and now China has itself a new ball game. I reckon that it will (for them) be a decent level of revenge for the setting Huawei was put under. But not to fret, Americans could all become vegetarians and start working their obesity stages by getting used to coleslaw sandwiches. 

I wonder what happens when the America media sounds the alarm bells on this premise. How much is the value of meat advertising in America? You see, that is the third stage. When two sides impact, the third side is a given. What is that worth? Do they still think that their ‘51st state’ aspirations was a good idea? 

So at what point will America decide that these billboards will be about coleslaw grazing?

The one danger no one saw coming, what happens when the meat industry will have to vie for new import addresses. How much will the price of meat options increase? Simple questions really. I wonder what news we will see from Washington DC and other places. I reckon the rice wine will flow richly at a certain address in Beijing this weekend. 

So you all have a great day and try to enjoy the alfalfa sandwich you might want to try this weekend (just for the feeling). And Canadians, have a great day too, some of the Commonwealth people do consider your options first as well. 

Leave a comment

Filed under Finance, Media, Politics

Just this morning

This happened to me this morning. You see, I was making my morning walk and I passed a man at a parking meter. It turned out to be that it ‘didn’t work’ because the parking meter would become active at 09:00 (it was 08:43) when paid parking is required. Why? 

Not the paid parking, but the inconvenience given to the people. It took me less than 2 minutes to create a solution in my mind and parking meters are not really that sophisticated. If a parking tine is allocated, like from 09:00-19:00, at 19:05, the option of a prepay button appears and then just press the button prepay and select the time (example 2 hours). That mean that at 19:05 you have a ticket with the parking time from the next day 09:00 until 11:00. It took seconds to select that solution and without effort. So who instigated that system? Why was that not an option from day one? I walked a little more that morning and saw that none of these parking meters had that option. I would have had an excuse as I have no car, but the rest? They never used a parking meter? It takes little effort to think out off the box and select a solution that helps consumers. It took so little and as such I have to consider are these programmers just there to make money without the blame of going the extra mile? How silly of them and how silly for the communities that didn’t think the way some thing (in this case Burwood, Sydney, NSW) could be created.

The setting of thinking the space a little further takes so little. Perhaps a brainstorming session over coffee with the project manager, but likely he has too many projects. Does that excuse him (or her)? I don’t think so. 

So what do you think? Doe parking meters in Toronto, Abu Dhabi, San Francisco, London, Paris or Munich have this option? If not why not? In a stage where so much is automated, is automated a mere excuse to not go the distance? That is the wrong kind of cost cutting. When we use ‘automation’ to do less and not better work, it isn’t automation, it is merely sloppy and lazy IT thinking. 

Have a great day today.

Leave a comment

Filed under Finance, IT

Puzzled

Something left me puzzled today. I saw the article and question marks came up. But before I go there, lets start at the beginning. The UAE, or United Arab Emirates is seen by me as an Islamic Monarchy. At the head of that nation are Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President and ruler of the UAE with Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum as Prime minister of the UAE. I might not have gotten that all correct, but I am likely more correct then plenty of others. The UAE is an islamic nation and pork is seen as haram, forbidden. So if I would accept a job there my days of bacon and egg would end. There is no law against non-Muslims eating pork, but why would I? Why upset others? Pork doesn’t rule my life and having a roast-beef cheese melt for breakfast sounds just as yummy. If not that, then an egg and pastrami sandwich as alternative. There are plenty of options and none of them include a slice of oink.

So I was puzzled when I saw an article (at https://www.khaleejtimes.com/uae/dubai-pork-byproducts-in-food-can-be-easily-detected-through-new-system) with ‘Pork byproducts in food can be easily detected through new system’, it puzzled me as I am amazed that pork and its byproducts aren’t banned in the UAE. It doesn’t matter where these byproducts are used. A banned product is a banned product. It is relatively simple as I see it. So the article also gives me “A new examination and screening system can now accurately identify the presence of pork byproducts in processed meat products. The technology guarantees rapid and precise results, providing outcomes within a day and facilitating up to 100 tests per hour.” Now, don’t get me wrong. I see the need for testing, but I wonder what idiot would ship a pork byproduct to any islamic nation to be honest. It is not a Saudi issue, it is an islamic issue. Egypt has a 90% islamic population and a 9% christian population, that nation too should ban pork and its byproducts. The UAE might only have a 76% islamic population, but that is so far the overwhelming majority and with dozens of foods available I am a little puzzled why pork is tolerated at all. I reckon that pork is a non option in Saudi Arabia (I didn’t check) and I reckon we (non-Muslims) could get used to camel, or kabasa and if in dire need there is always gator tail (a delicacy in Australia, also served in Birmingham). Although it might be called different in the UAE, Croc Tail most likely.

So back to the testing. I understand the need for the testing, yet I am puzzled why the UAE hasn’t clearly banned all pork products and by products. Leaving the people to what they desire to eat is a noble setting, but to allow for food that is forbidden to 76% of its population sounds like folly and that could very well be me. 

So leave it to the Khaleej Times to puzzle my brains a little. Enjoy your day, my midweek is about to start.

Leave a comment

Filed under Media

What’s in a list?

I was confronted with a phrase the other day. It was about the Freebie top 5. As I never got married (my mother in law does not have any children), I never considered a list like that. Perhaps it is the benefit of remaining single. Yet, the idea was fun. So I made a top 5. Are these women the ones I want to have sex with the most, or are they the most beautiful women? I wonder if we sometimes can tell the difference honestly within ourselves. That what we desire is tempting in many ways. Can we label a woman as the most beautiful without desiring her carnally?

But then I thought, why stop at those freebies (call me crazy for thinking beyond sex)? It was at this point I started to consider other kinds of Freebies. In my situation, as I consider the reasons of health, there is a magnetic power at play when you consider the past. So I started the food freebie top 5 for London. It is one of places a person never stops missing.

Here is the list:

  1. Shakespeare’s Head, Great Marlborough Street
  2. Wagamama, Streatham street
  3. Sarastro, Drury lane
  4. Royal India, Stoke Newington
  5. The Waterway, Formosa Street

I am not even sure if they all still exist. They weren’t chosen for prices or whatever reason you want to eat free at these places. I have memories at all of them and they are all better because the food was really good. You can try to create some gastronomic memory by eating at some award winning place and as such you can deceive yourself. In my mind, some foods are better because they were shared, some foods were better because of the day, the hunger you have and just the luck of getting a really good plate of food.

Shakespeares Head was on a Saturday. I was in London for a while and after walking around Regent Street, Oxford Street and a few other streets, me was getting mighty thirsty! I remember seeing the Gap on Regent Street and a sign. I followed the sign into the alley and decided to take one more gander on my shoes, I took a look at the shops and noticed the entrance to the ‘temple of goodness’ (some refer to such places as ‘bars’). I headed in and yes, my holy thoughts came to bare. They had Old Peculiar. I had two pints and felt so much better. Two of them buggers on an empty stomach and you know the noise of hunger will set in and soon thereafter I learned that they had a restaurant upstairs. I sat down and my eyes saw the option of a piece of Bambi (more commonly known as Venison). It was the beginning of a beautiful evening. My wallet was decently lighter (it was not too expensive) and in all it was a great day. Not sure if sex with the number one on my Freebie top 5 would have made it better in any way, but we can all dream can’t we?

Wagamama is another matter. It is not the case on how we eat, what we need to eat, or what we would like to eat. When you go to any of the Wagamama places you get live around two words ‘Simply Delicious’. The places are so Spartan, barren and the benches are devoid of comfort. It is you, in a well lit room with your choice, which was the best experience! Simplicity in food, delicious and glorious food. My choice, even today remains a seafood ramen with sometimes a few side dishes and a bottle of cold Asahi. The hardship of work washes away from you, the delight of good food takes over. I am even willing to bet that this food alone in silence remains better than shared with blabbering and chatting others. After my first exposure around 1998 I had no idea I could get so addicted to a good bowl of Ramen, I am just happy that they have one in Sydney as well!

Most other places were found in similar ways. I was just in the neighbourhood. That is the magical side of London; a good diner is always just around the corner. Letting good food to be the base of a created memory is one of the most perfect ones. It is about you and the choice you made. If I had not seen the ‘Drury Lane’ sign and I didn’t remember the song, I would not have turned right, hoping to see some Muffin shop and I never would have stopped at Sarastro’s (which is not a Muffin shop). The mind is a curious thing at time! Make no mistake, I have entered the wrong place more than once, even in London, but the fact that after half a century, I still consider a London personal food top 5 is not a coincidence. London is the place to be, for more than one reason. Perhaps at some point I get to see it one more time!

 

Leave a comment

Filed under Uncategorized