A fourteen-day Thai Food Festival in Doha was inaugurated by the Thai Ambassador, His Excellency Mr. Suvat Chirapant and the Vice Chairman & Chief Operations Officer of Venture Gulf Group, Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz Al-Nasser at the Doha Marriott Hotel on Saturday, November 29th, 2008.The Thai Food Festival in Doha is supported by the Thailand Embassy and the Venture Gulf Group and FAL Travelmart as the co-sponsors. Mr. John S. Louie, Director of Operations, expressed gratitude on behalf of Doha Marriot Hotel to the Thai Embassy, Venture Gulf Group and FAL Travel Mart and commented that without their generous sponsorship the hotel would not have been able to offer the guest with distinctive rates and nice decorations.
Restaurant Asia Live at the Marriot Hotel in Doha offers the guest to part with delicious multi- culinary experience and discover an exciting lineup of exotic Thai dishes for gastronomic indulgence from November 29th to December 12th 2008. A whole rainbow of dishes that highlight the great and diverse cuisines of Thailand was prepared by the Thai Chef Seri. Specialty Chef Seri Alkkhason who is originally from Thailand, joined the Doha Marriott Family a couple of months ago and carries a great experiences to Doha Marriott’s Culinary Team. He took his primary cooking lessons of traditional Thai food from Thailand. Chef Seri follows a unique style by preparing traditional Thai food items and incorporates international cooking methods to offer his guests with a variety of tastes achieved through these innovative methods.
To add the dedication, he is a Thai food lover and hence makes no point to compromise with the authentic taste. ‘Thai Rice Noodles with prawn, chicken and vegetables’ is his most favourite dish and Chef Seri vows to offer exquisite Thai dishes in this fourteen day long food festival in Asia Live restaurant, Doha Marriot Hotel. Thailand’s rich culinary heritage was one of its best-kept secrets until very recently with the tourism coming on to the Kingdom of Thailand. Later, Thai restaurants opened in Los Angelas and London, Sydney and Tokyo following the wide spread demand for Thai food globally. A visitor stepping in to taste the authentic Thai cuisine for the first time is very likely to have some previous experience of the subtle blend of tastes and textures that makes a Thai meal an unforgettable dish – Asias Live!
Doha Marriot Hotel
Doha Marriott Hotel is a treasured landmark on the coastline of Qatar where one can be lost in the tranquillity of the private beach, yet minutes away from the Doha International airport and busy business hub of Doha. This 5-star business hotel of the Marriots is an all time favourite and widely regarded for its high standard for service and excellent amenities among Doha hotels. This hotel has 6 restaurants and Pearl Lounge club serving award winning international cuisines and classy guest rooms that blend comfort with cutting-edge technology, promising an extraordinary stay. Some of the other highlights include a World-class spa, fitness centre, tennis courts, outdoor pool which is currently under refurbishment and a private beach.
To know more on Hotels in Doha – please visit www.hotelsdoha.com
Fukuoka isn’t that small of a place. Actual numbers bring the population to about the 5 million mark, with the city having roughly 1.3 million people. With that amount of people around, you know there has got to be something to do. On any day of the week if you look you will be able to find something that interests you. There are often festivals in one area or another in Fukuoka city. With a little help from a friend or the domestic foreigner magazines and information centers you will be able to find out where the festivals are being held.
The center of Fukuoka city will have to be Tenjin (though others may argue it to be Hakata). It is the shoppers’ haven of the prefecture. Feel you need to do a little shopping for some nice named brands from Italy or France? head on over to Tenjin. Want to blow off some steam and hit a bar (including foreigner bars)? Tenjin is the place to be. Want to meet some new friends? Rainbow Plaza in… you guessed it, Tenjin, is the place to do just that.
Right next door to Tenjin is Nakasu. Nakasu hosts nightlife entertainment but tends to cater to the more affluent individual. However, Nakasu also has a huge shopping complex named Canal City which has so many shops that you wouldn’t be able to count them all. The complex holds many restaurants, two hotels, a large cinema and in the center of Canal City is an area called Sun Plaza where it is common to find street performers doing their acts.
Of course Tenjin and Nakasu aren’t the only place you can have fun. I live about 10 minutes away from Tenjin by subway in a town called Nishijin and I can do nearly as many things here as I can in Tenjin. Bowling, swimming, soccer, billiards, game centers, and even a movie theater are just a few of the things Nishijin and the nearby areas have to offer.
Yahoo Dome (formerly Fukuoka Dome) is located in Momochi which boarders the sea. Yahoo Dome is home to the Fukuoka Softbank Hawks. The Hawks are a strong baseball team, beloved by the city and its residents. In fact, there are only two teams in Japan’s professional baseball league who attract more than one million fans to their home games per year, and the Hawks are one of them. When the Hawks don’t have a home game you can sometimes find other activities occurring in the Dome. Yahoo Dome hosts various flea markets and concerts throughout the year.
Food, food, food!
As far as I’m concerned, Fukuoka has the best food to offer in all of Japan (though I hear food in Sapporo is quite good). Fukuoka has its own well known dishes and of course the chefs here are well capable of recreating dishes found throughout the world.
Yatai
When night begins to fall on Fukuoka city you may suddenly notice many little street vendors (usually operating out of their vans) popping up all over the sidewalks. These vendors serve a variety of foods ranging from ramen to yakiniku to tempura. Yatais themselves are really a site to see.
Hard Rock Cafe Fukuoka
On the occasions when I miss American and Mexican food, I always have the option to head on over to Hard Rock Cafe right next door to Fukuoka dome in Momochi. Momochi is adjacent to Nishijin so indeed I am in luck. Hard Rock Cafe Fukuoka boasts the largest restaurant of its kind in Japan. The food is fantastic and of course the atmosphere is like all other Hard Rock Cafes out there. The staff is very friendly and since I frequent their establishment often I am treated extremely well with occasional benefits.
Izakaya
Though not only found in Fukuoka, Izakaya restaurants deserve a notable mention. Izakayas offer a wide variety of food and more importantly drinks at a low price. University students as well as business men can often be found in these restaurants chatting with colleagues and drinking up a storm. All Izakayas offer a different ambiance, and with some searching you will be able to find one that suits you.
Famous Fukuoka food
Fukuoka ramen
Have you ever had that cup O ramen or that freeze dried packaged ramen? bah! throw that out and try some “Tonkatsu ramen” (pork ramen) famous in Fukuoka and well know throughout all of Japan. First time I tried it I was instantly hooked and to this day try and eat it once every week or so.
Mentaiko
Another famous food which Fukuoka is renowned for is mentaiko (very tiny fish eggs). To some people mentaiko may not seem very appetizing but please don’t knock it till you try it. Mentaiko spaghetti, as an example, is a delicious treat around these parts. And there are of course many other recipes which have use for mentaiko.
Transportation
Unlike the nickname given to New York, Fukuoka does tend to get a little tired at night but usually not until quite late especially on weekends. One of the reasons for this in my humble opinion is the transportation shutdown at around midnight. That’s right, the subway, train, and bus system all but stops once you hit the AM. Which leaves the weary and, more often than not, drunk to either take a taxi home, walk, or I have even heard the “I will just stay up until the subway starts again at 6:00 before I go home” line used by those who just aren’t finished partying when its time for the transportation system’s last call. This isn’t just a Fukuoka special, for the shutdown happens throughout the whole of Japan.
Though the transportation system does shutdown at perhaps inconvenient times, it is a wonderful system. Perfectly clean trains, buses and subways (which are amazingly quiet) are the consequence of the shutdown for they are all cleaned during the wee hours of the morning.
Location
Fukuoka is found on the southernmost island of the four main islands in Japan. The name of the island is Kyushu. Fukuoka happens to be closer to Seoul, South Korea than it is to Tokyo. Fukuoka prefecture is located on the northern tip of Kyushu.
Guam has many Islands in and around, it is haviing diffrent cultures and food places on guam now guam food guide is ready to introduce you to all the traditions, food habits, traditional food on guam restaurants of islands of the guam. First let you know about guam island.
Guam, the largest and southernmost island of the Mariana archipelago, is the westernmost possession of the United States, and has been since 1898. The island is approximately 6,000 miles west of San Francisco; 3,700 miles west-southwest of Honolulu; 1,500 miles southeast of Tokyo; 2,100 miles southeast of Hongkong; 1,500 miles east of Manila; and 3,100 miles northwest of Sydney at 13 north latitude and 144 East longitude. The Marianas Trench, the deepest known ocean depth (-39,198 ft.), is located southeast of Guam.
Most of us are unaware that Micronesia is a vast geographical North Pacific Ocean area covering more than 3 million square miles, about the physical size of the United States, and is home to some 300,000 people (excluding Guam) living on 2,100 islands. Together they total just 717 square miles of land (excluding Guam). They are places defined by the sky and the sea, with cultures traditions that over thousands of years adapted brilliant ways of surviving and navigating between each island. When you visit the islands of Micronesia, you’ll find varying landfalls: high lush volcanic islands; low sand and palm strewn atolls; miniscule mushroom-shaped limestone islets; teeming reefs filled with intricate corals and technicolor fish. More over you’ll find all the tasty food on guam restaurants, guam coffee shops, more traditional dishes of guam and the evening party places like guam bar & grills, guam diners and guam fast foods all these places are very special for visitors of guam..
After guam the most viewable island is Cocos island. Cocos Island, 24 sq. kilometers in size is a typical tropical island with two bays in the north, Wafer Bay and Chatham Bay which are divided by a ridge. The latter are a save harbor. The rest of the coastline is very step with quit a number of waterfalls, some of them 200 feet high. In the southwest of the island are the highest point, called mount “Iglesias” and 575 feet high. The Climate is hot and humid – very humid. It rains almost every day for a couple of hours between March and December.
It is told, that the richest treasure in the world is buried on Cocos Island, not only one, but two major loads. The first belonged to a pirate named Benito Bonito who sailed the “Relampago,” raiding every city along the pacific coast line. The second and biggest treasure was brought to Cocos by Captain Thompson in 1821. An attempt by the Spaniards to hide the wealth of Lima from Simon Bolivar and his troops. Limas Governor and the clergy entrusted the treasure to Thompson and his ship “Mary Dear” who in return killed the guards and sailed off to Cocos Island. There is even a third load, belonging to Edward Davis, Captain of John Cook’s ship, the “Bachelor Delight” who left behind some loot in the late 1600’s.
The time of treasure hunts are gone, but the real treasure of Cocos Island is not, as the islands real treasure is its unique ecosystem – the flora and fauna not found elsewhere in the world. Today Cocos Island is the most sacred place in Costa Ricas extensive Park System. You need a very good reason to get permission to visit the Island. Seasonal diving trips are organized to Cocos. Professional divers call it the best diving site of the world.
Pretty controversial for a food additive. The reactions to it are all over the dial. Patrons object to MSG in restaurant food, then go home and make a soup with chicken bullion just loaded with MSG and think nothing of it.
Oriental food has traditionally been associated with MSG, which is unfair because use of monosodium glutamate is pretty evenly distributed across cuisines of all ethnic origins. The restaurant trade seems to always be collectively pondering whether to use it or not.
In spite of its ubiquity in common food products, the flavor contributions made by MSG were only scientifically identified early in the twentieth century. In the year 1907, a Japanese researcher at the Tokyo Imperial University, name of Kikunae Ikeda, identified some brown crystals that were left behind after the evaporation of a large bowl of broth. He recognized the substance as glutamic acid. These crystals, when tasted, reproduced the flavor he detected in many foods, most particularly in seaweed. Professor Ikeda named this flavor “umami.” He then patented the method of mass-producing a crystalline form of glutamic acid, now known as MSG.
The Ajinomoto company was formed to manufacture and market MSG in Japan, and a rough translation of the name “Ajinomoto” means “essence of taste”. It was introduced to the United States in 1947 as Accent flavor enhancer. Modern commercial MSG is produced by the fermentation of starch, using sugar beets, sugar cane, or molasses. Almost 1.5 million metric tons of MSG is sold in the United States per year.
Contrary to the stereotype of oriental food, the average American is more likely to encounter MSG in such staples as most canned soups (especially the low-sodium varieties), most beef and chicken stocks and bullion, most flavored potato chip products, many other snack foods such as crackers or cookies, many frozen dinners (especially those which include gravy), and instant meals such as the seasoning mixtures for instant ‘ramen’ noodles.
In 1959, the Food and Drug Administration classified MSG as a “generally recognized as safe” substance. This action stemmed from the 1958 Food Additives Amendment to the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, which required approval for new food additives prior to their marketing and led the FDA to promulgate regulations listing substances which have a history of safe use, such as MSG. Since 1970, the FDA has sponsored extensive reviews on the safety of MSG, other glutamates and hydrolyzed proteins, as part of an ongoing review of safety data on approved substances used in processed foods.
One of these reviews was by FASEB, the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology on approved substances. In 1980, the committee concluded that MSG was safe at current levels of use but recommended additional evaluation to determine the effects of MSG at significantly higher levels of consumption. In 1986, the FDA’s Advisory Committee on Hypersensitivity to Food Constituents concluded that MSG poses no threat to the general public but that reactions of brief duration might occur in some people.
These brief reactions are the MSG syndrome you’ve heard about. When reading about MSG symptom complex, it is essential to keep a couple of things in mind. One, that MSG is a naturally occurring substance; if you’ve had seaweed, for instance, you’ve had everything in MSG. Two, small groups of people are allergic to all kinds of common foods, such as berries, gluten, or milk, and apparently MSG is one of those things people are sometimes naturally intolerant of; there is nothing particularly toxic about MSG that makes it more dangerous than, say, table salt.
The symptoms of MSG complex may be any of:
* numbness or a burning sensation in the back of the neck, forearms and chest,
* tingling, warmth and weakness in the face, temples, upper back, neck and arms
* facial pressure or tightness
* chest pain
* headache
* nausea
* rapid heartbeat
* difficult breathing
* drowsiness
* weakness
These may be more or less acute in the presence of other conditions such as asthma, arthritis, or epilepsy. Also, the severity of symptoms may be masked or enhanced by reactions to salt or alcohol. The dosage required to bring these symptoms out is usually around 3 grams – by contrast, the average meal contains 0.5 grams, so MSG is usually brought about by consuming large quantities of it quickly in the form of a soup or gravy. No fatalities have ever been reported in connection with MSG.
The symptom complex happens within one hour after the meal and wears off ofter twenty minutes. It has been suggested that the association with Chinese food comes as much from the salt and grease in certain dishes as from the MSG, and also ingredients like bamboo sprouts contain a high concentration of cyanic acid, which may also be giving people a reaction.
Generally the most common symptom reported is a slight headache. There may or may not actually be a complex of symptoms which are directly the fault of monosodium glutamate, but it is quite clear in any case that the initial media attention to MSG was a typical media panic which blew the reaction out of proportion. A similar “scare” occurred in the 1980’s, when the media reported alar on apples. This is not to say that it’s “all in people’s heads”; there is some evidence which suggests that the syndrome is real, but no clear-cut proof.
But you have to wonder at a substance which has been in every bag of chips sold and consumed in the United States for 20 years with no ill effects reported suddenly producing a severe reaction from a prepared dish at a restaurant. Just something to consider – even the human body contains some amount of MSG naturally!
The bottom line: If you run a restaurant or other food service and you add MSG to your products, clearly say so the same way you would warn people who were lactose-intolerant about dairy additives. While MSG does indeed have its own taste receptors on the human tongue, it’s not like leaving it out if requested will kill the whole meal.
