Nobel prize nominees (several months too late)

Is there a Nobel prize in wellbeing? Or instead can a chocolate maker qualify to win the Peace Prize? If so (and why not?) then I believe these are the nominees.






I've previously written about the awards for "loo of the year", but this something at a different level altogether. Have you tried these before? As you would expect, they first came to me in a contraband shipment from Europe when I was living in New York and I was recently updated by another contraband shipment here in London. You look at the package and think, what an absurd idea, trying to capture a dessert in a chocolate bar. Why not let dessert be dessert, and chocolate be chocolate? Two families, both happy. But the genius is that they do.

You bite into the the thick square and you are suddenly awash with the unctuous taste of the crème and then after a moment the cruch of the brûlée bit. That's it! They have really captured it and wrapped it in a bar!

The geniuses who created this are clearly capable of magic. Why don't they create an inspiration bar, or just quit messing around and create a bliss bar? Oh, of course, that's what they've already done.

Cheers,

BB

P.S. Here in London I have regular access only to the crème brûlée and tiramisu flavors. I tried the lemon tart in the aforementioned contraband shipment. But if anyone wants to ship me the chocolate tart and macarons (gasp.... sigh...) then you'll earn my eternal gratitude.

Warning! Geek alert!

Actually, I think geek is one of those self-actualizing word. By using it, you become one. So now I am (truthfully always was).

I am bundled under the duvet, in my garret apartment, the wind howling and rattling the windows like the wheelhouse on a ship, imagining I am like the starving artists romanticize in Puccini operas, whereas instead I am just recovering from a week of dumplingbinding (and truthfully a Brazilian party I went to last night). Well, rose colored spectacles, fantasies, dreams, unbounded.

I wish I could take credit for this, but a friend put me up to writing a question into the Undercover Economist column at The Financial Times. The ideas were hers, the words joint, and the name mine. Actually, I was so skeptical that our question would make into the column that we made a bet of one very good bottle of champagne on the outcome. She does not owe me a bottle of Krug. But I now owe her a bottle of Ruinart. Life could be worse, much worse.

* * *

Credit where credit’s due. An article written by Tim Harford on the 26th of January, 2008.

Published on Dear Economist in The Financial Times.

Dear Economist,

I am perplexed by the enormous publicity devoted to the subprime debacle while micro-credit lenders have been showered with praise. Isn’t Countrywide just a micro-credit lender for the US, except that people are borrowing for homes rather than bullocks? And why are borrowers in developing countries so much better at repaying their loans?

Bombay Beauty

Dear Bombay Beauty,

No problem explaining why it is easier to repay a microfinance loan: the loans are a lot smaller. Beyond that, you have a point. Microfinance loans, like subprime loans, target poor clients in underserved communities, and charge high interest rates.

The economist Dean Karlan argues that the difference is largely about spin. We hear about the far-away people whose lives have been transformed by microfinance, and we hear about the subprime defaulters whose lives are in a mess. But Karlan points out that micro-credit borrowers do default, and that subprime default rates are much lower than you would think. And while some subprime borrowers were duped by complicated loan terms, financial literacy is even worse in developing countries.

Karlan also argues that micro-credit “group liability” schemes are overrated. In such a scheme, friends and neighbours have to make up the shortfall if someone can’t pay. But an experiment carried out by Karlan showed that such schemes put off borrowers without increasing repayment rates.

None of this is to condemn microfinance. Rather, it is worth remembering that poor people can benefit from access to credit, even if the credit is expensive – and even if they live in the US.

Confirming my existence or A spot of (computer) trouble

Dear Reader(s),

I really don't want to cash in my computer trouble chip just yet. I've been on the road a lot the last weeks and have also truthfully not felt inspired. Not by life, but by my own insights on it.

In the middle of it all, I did have a panic moment when my computer screen turned grey and emitted three loud beeps (so precise these Macs even when in distress). But after 300 quid and some panic, I'm back on the road.

I've even managed to do some interesting things (went to the London Art Fair a few weeks ago), cooked a fantastic sweet potato and cauliflower soup in a saffron broth, and heard some good music. But the keys just weren't clicking... What can I say?

I will rededicate myself to logging the mundanities (this is apparently not a word, but I do like it) of my life.

Cheers,

BB

A day without adveritising

Might look like this:



BB

Political commentary? What has this blog come to? (To what has this blog come?)

Well, not really. I was fascinating reading this morning of Hilary Clinton's win in the New Hampshire primary that everyone emphasized her emotional moment at a press conference in a coffee shop in NH, how it galvanized women voters by showing her emotional side. A uniquely American spectacle, so here it is:



Did you see emotions there? I suppose compared to her normally steely exterior, yes, barely. But it seems far too overblown. In America's need for the confessional, they are will to take even this! Where was the tearful confession of indiscretion? Where was the religious vision? Where was the revelation of abuse as a child? Having said that, it was her voice that I found most interesting. Normally, hard and confident, it did finally sound like she was speaking rather than reciting some memorized speech.

I'm heading down to the nearest Starbucks to see if anyone wants to interview me and give me my Hilary moment.

Cheers,

BB

Very annoying commentary (or Monkeys in the funhouse)

With New Year's resolutions come New Year's confessions. Here's my first of 2008. I've been defrosting. Not food from the freezer. (I'm just not organized enough to freeze in the first place). But blog posts. (Gasp!)

The New Year is rolling along, indeed probably already more appropriately the new year, and my head isn't quite in the game. So I've been putting out entries that I wrote earlier but for some reason or another never posted (actually, today's is the second).

I'm back at the wheel of the flugelbindery now, so I'm hoping soon there will be new stories to tell.

In the meanwhile, here's something I wrote a while back. The commentary seems rather annoying, so you can just ignore it and look at the fun pictures.

Cheers,

BB

* * *

Title: Monkeys in the funhouse

OK, I admit it. That's the meanest thing I have ever written. But in fairness, I'm included myself among the monkeys. It's really more attributing malicious intention to the creators of Turbine Hall at the Tate Modern and the artists who exhibit there. They are taking cruel pleasure in creating displays for us to huddle around, to pod, poke, and explore, exactly as if the zookeepers had put a new toy in the enclosure.

OK, I admit it wasn't that bad: Oooo, here it comes the crack:

Notice how everyone huddles around it, like a beached whale.
Some of the brave even look it in the eye, some even braver test its depths:



Just give me ahhhrt. Boring art.

BB

P.S. I promise to be more generous and fun-filled next time...

Before / after: Attack of the mushroom mound

It started innocently enough, with the desire to cook a mushroom ragout for 6-9 people. So I doubled the recipe that could feed 4-6 people. I had never seen what 2 kg of mushrooms look like, here it is:


Intimidating and impressive. That's my 10-person paella pan filled to the brim. But the alchemy of the fire again takes over, and after 90 minutes it looks like this:


It was (thanks Mark Bittman) delicious, but still enough to feed 14 people. Since I only had 4 for dinner, if you would like any mushroom ragout drop me a line and I'll send you some in the post.

Cheers,

BB

P.S. Another excellent blogging theme stolen from my friend Lola.