I have two interesting news items from New Zealand for you today. I know there’s lots of talk on the Internet re authors complaining about reviews and reviewers complaining about authors comments about reviews. It seems we’re quite well-behaved as a group compared to the restaurant owners in Auckland. Several top Auckland restaurants were given bad grades in a recent review by Metro. They struck back in an ad with a recipe for “Preparation of Metro Food Critic Testicles”.
Readers were encouraged to take a “very sharp knife, slice through the sort of skinnie muscley stuff that you find surrounding each of the Metro Food Critic Testicles (there should be two testicles, they can be hard to find)”.
And the Metro Food Critic’s comment – The testicles should be served with a side of “Sour Grapes”. You can read the full article here.
The other item of interest, or at least I found it fascinating, was the thawing out of the 490 kg squid at TePapa museum in Wellington. The colossal squid was caught in the Antarctic waters of the Ross Sea in 2007 and was frozen to preserve it. There’s been all sorts of discussion about defrosting the squid, since it’s not as easy as thawing out a packet of sausages. Here’s the photo gallery showing shots of the squid and you can also check out the webcam showing live action of the defrosting.
April 28th, 2008 at 12:53 am · Link
Wow, I’ve never seen a squid that huge. I wonder if there was a bad smell as it was defrosting.
April 28th, 2008 at 1:17 am · Link
I think there must be some sort of smell, Jane, because the museum staff mentioned they needed to treat it to get rid of the smell before it goes on display.
April 28th, 2008 at 7:48 am · Link
I was thinking the same thing about the smell problem…
Wow – that is a HUGE squid. Really freaky! Makes the old sailors tales a bit less looney. As for the restaurant sour grapes, I think it’s always best to ignore flack and keep doing one’s best. Serving up testicle recipes does seem rather whiny.
April 28th, 2008 at 1:07 pm · Link
No wonder the restaurants got bad grades if they serve testicles. I mean, they’re basically skin bags filled with squishy stuff.
April 28th, 2008 at 1:15 pm · Link
Julia – imagine coming face-to-face with that! Scary
I thought it was a bit whiny, myself, although they managed to get a lot of publicity out of the story.
Gabriele – LOL – exactly
Actually it was a bit like watching kids arguing. One of the main points of contention was the brown pears. The chef said it was the balsamic vinegar, and he mentioned this several times. The critic said this review was from 2006/2007 and he should let it go. Kids arguing…oh, yeah!
April 28th, 2008 at 1:16 pm · Link
That is one scary looking squid.
April 28th, 2008 at 7:53 pm · Link
WoW that is a giant squid.
LOL Chefs are a very excitable bunch aren’t they.
Very enjoyable, I had a good laugh.
April 28th, 2008 at 8:32 pm · Link
Those chefs should get their hands on that squid. That make a colossal dish of calamari!!
April 28th, 2008 at 10:23 pm · Link
Estella – did you see the barbs? I really wouldn’t want to go swimming with one.
Amy – LOL – they interviewed both the chef and the critic on TV last night. They’re both still alive to tell the tale.
Wylie – I actually thought that this morning – that the topics went well together!