Why?

Why does water not calm the tongue after eating hot spicy food?
 The spices in most of the hot foods that we eat are oily, and, like your elementary school science teacher taught you, oil and water don’t mix. In this case, the water just rolls over the oily spices.
What can you do to calm your aching tongue? Eat bread. The bread will absorb the oily spices. A second solution is to drink milk. Milk contains a substance called “casein” which will bind to the spices and carry them away. Alcohol also dissolves oily spices.

Why does wet fabric appear darker?
When fabric gets wet, light coming towards it refracts within the water, dispersing the light. In addition, the surface of the water causes incoherent light scattering. The combination of these two effects causes less light to reflect to your eyes and makes the wet fabric appear darker.

Why is blue for boys and pink for girls?
In ancient times, it was believed that certain colors could combat the evil spirits that lingered over nurseries. Because blue was associated with the heavenly spirits, boys were clothed in that color, boys then being considered the most valuable resource to parents. Although baby girls did not have a color associated with them, they were mostly clothed in black. It was only in the Middle Ages when pink became associated with baby girls.

Why do people kiss under the mistletoe at Christmas?
In ancient myth, when the son of the Norse goddess Frigga, Baldr, was killed by an arrow made of mistletoe and then brought back to life, she blessed the mistletoe and bestowed a kiss on all who passed beneath it. In the 18th century, the legend was adopted as a promise to marry. At Christmas a lady standing under a mistletoe may not refuse a kiss. If she does, she cannot expect to marry the following year. So it is told.


Source: Didyouknow.org

The king of chefs and Dame Melba

The tall chef’s hat is called a “toque.” During the 16th and 17th centuries, toques came in all shapes: berets, stocking caps, and even pointed hats with tassels. During the 18th century the tall hat came into use to show order of importance among the kitchen staff.

One of the greatest chefs is Auguste Escoffier (1846-1935). He started working in his uncle’s restaurant at age 14 and went on to work in the world most famous hotels. Recognized as the “king of chefs and the chef of kings.” During a visit to Paris, William II of Germany is said to have remarked to him: “I am the emperor of Germany, but you are the emperor of chefs.”

Escoffier’s most famous recipe was Peach Melba, created for Australian opera star Nellie Melba (1861-1931) when she was staying at the Savoy in 1893. Dame Melba also liked her toast made in the way that today bears her name: Melba toast.


Source:didyouknow.com

Food

• Milk chocolate was invented by Daniel Peter, who sold the concept to his neighbor Henri Nestlé.
• An ounce of chocolate contains about 20 mg of caffeine.
• Forks, mostly being two-tined, used to known as “split spoons.”
• TIP is the acronym for “To Insure Promptness.”
• The world’s oldest existing eateries are the Stiftskeller St. Peter in Salzburg, Austria – which was started as a monastery and had a tavern for travelers by 803 AD – and an eatery which opened in Kai-Feng, China in 1153.
• Coffee is the seed of a cherry from the tree genus Coffea.
• Melba toast is named after Australian opera singer Dame Nellie Melba (1861-1931).
• Three quarters of fish caught are eaten – the rest is used to make things such as glue, soap, margarine and fertilizer.
• The world’s most expensive jam (jelly) is Confiture de groseilles. It is a redcurrant jam (jelly) from a 14th century recipe made in the tiny French town of Bar-Le-Duc.
• In September 1999 Dustin Philips of the US set a Guinness World Record by drinking a 400 ml (14-oz) bottle of tomato sauce through a straw in 33 seconds.
• To make one kilo of honey bees have to visit 4 million flowers, traveling a distance equal to 4 times around the earth.
• Botanically speaking, the banana is a herb and the tomato is a fruit.
• Bananas are the world’s most popular fruit after tomatoes. In western countries, they could account for 3% of a grocer’s total sales.
• Bananas consistently are the number one compliant of grocery shoppers. Most people complain when bananas are overripe or even freckled. The fact is that spotted bananas are sweeter, with a sugar content of more than 20%, compared with 3% in a green banana.
• The scientific term for the common tomato is lycopersicon lycopersicum, which means “wolf peach.”
• There are more than 10,000 varieties of tomatoes.
• The can opener was invented 48 years after cans were introduced.
• In the Middle Ages, sugar was a treasured luxury costing 9 times as much as milk.
• Of the more than $50 billion worth of diet products sold every year, almost $20 billion are spent on imitation fats and sugar substitutes.
• Over 90% of all fish caught are caught in the northern hemisphere.
• Wine is sold in tinted bottles because wine spoils when exposed to light.
• Approximately one billion snails are served in restaurants annually.
• Vitamin A is known to prevent “night blindness,” and carrots are loaded with Vitamin A. One carrot provides more than 200% of recommended daily intake of Vitamin A.
• Carrots have zero fat contente.
• Tea is said to have been discovered in 2737 BC by a Chinese emperor when some tea leaves accidentally blew into a pot of boiling water.
• The first European to encounter tea was the Portuguese Jesuit Jasper de Cruz in 1560.
• Ice tea was introduced in 1904 at the World’s Fair in St. Louis.
• The tea bag was introduced in 1908 by Thomas Sullivan of New York.
• An onion, apple and potato all have the same taste. The differences in flavor are caused by their smell.
• Americans eat twice as much meat as Europeans, gobbling up some 50kg (110 lb) per capita.
• Meat production causes 1/5 of global greenhouse gases.
• The tall chef’s hat is called a toque.
• Coca-Cola was invented in Atlanta, Georgia by Dr. John S. Pemberton in 1886.
• Pepsi-Cola was invented by Caleb Bradham in 1890 as “Brad’s Drink” as a digestive aid and energy booster. In was renamed as Pepsi-Cola in 1898.
• The first diet soft drink, called the “No-Cal Beverage” was launched in 1952.
• Aluminum cans were introduced in 1957 and two years later the first diet cola was sold.
• The pull-ring tab was invented in 1962 and the re-sealable top in 1965.
• Annually, France exports some 140 million bottles of champagne but keep 180 million bottles for local consumption.
• Plastic bottles were first used for soft drinks in 1970.
• China uses 45 billion chopsticks per year. 25 million trees are chopped down to make ‘em sticks.
• Chocolate is the number one foodstuff flavor in the world, beating vanilla and banana by 3-to-1.
• Watermelons are 97% water, lettuce 97%, tomatoes 95%, carrots 90%, and bread 30%.

 

Source: didyouknow.org