Well, well well… Here are my ‘Brèves de Comptoir’, new monthly for 2014, every end of the month. ‘Brèves de comptoir’ are authentic quotations collected from everyday life and particularly gossips at the bistrot. Absurd borders on humour or poetry, news and sometimes philosophy. Mine are of course food oriented, a concentrate of what feed my life, what I swallow every day, what I read, hear, try, taste… In London and the world…

– We are expecting the new burger in London, the ramen burger . Created by the Japanese-American ramen chef, Keizo Shimamoto. Ramen noodles buns, beef embellished with rocket salad and shallot is a huge success in Brooklyn (NY). Let’s hope I will try one in London soon.

– Farmers can’t cope with the growing demand for snails. Production in the UK is estimated to have increased from around 30 000 snails per year in 2000 to 750 000 this year. No more disgust for the mollusc my British friends ? You will see, very soon you will love frog legs !

– A Mac Donald’s worker has been arrested after heroin was found being sold in a children’s Happy Meal in Pittsburg. After saying ‘ I’d like to order a toy’ and paying the police found 10 bags of heroin in the meal bag they bought and Ms Dennis who denies selling drug was in possession of 50 others.

– There are trends in cuisine too. The charred cuisine. In La Madelaine-sous-Montrueil (Pas de Calais, France), the chef Alexandre Gauthier owner of ‘La Grenouillère’ dares burning something so delicate like scallops. ‘Shame on you’ would say most people. ‘The aim is not to bring fibers to saturation which is unhealthy but to play with raw and cooked report. A brutal cook without altering the taste is a come back to an ancestral French cuisine like smoking or curing’ said Gauthier.

– The Portugese Artist Victor Nunes, brings his illustration to life utilizing everyday objects and food, creating very playfull scenes. http://www.journal-du-design.fr/art/faces-par-victor-nunes-40368/

– The Drawing Center in New-York welcome God’s (Ferran Adria) exhibition ‘Notes on Creativity’. This exhibition focuses on the visualization and drawing practices of the master chef. Hundreds of notebooks have been filled with concepts, ideas, collaged photographs, and loose sketches for new dishes for ElBulli. It charts the origins of this innovator’s intellectual and philosophical ideas about gastronomy that have forever changed how we understand food. ‘Notes on Creativity’, The Drawing Center, New-York City. 25.01 to 28.02.2014.

– In a design studio in Sweden a group of inventor claims to have created a revolutionary (and probably weird) ‘self-cleaning plate’. The team is keeping quiet about the material used but they’ve revealed that the plate is made from a cellulose pulp with a ‘super-hydrophobic’ coating’. Meaning : it’s extremely difficult to get wet and repeals dirt and liquid. Lovely. ‘It’s all based on how nature cleans itself’. Swedish people are very close to nature… They know how nature cleans itself, I don’t… And what if I like my plate to be dirty, flooded with a very juicy, greasy gravy ?

– American mother and son believe they have found the perfect way to reseal a bottle of wine : with a specially designed condom. They attempt to raise money as they need $7,500 (around £4,515) Zero leaks, no adding height, so the bottles are a convenient size for the fridge, easy to carry around in a bag or purse. Potential buyers will be reassured to know that the “condoms” are actually produced by a rubber manufacturer in the food industry. As they say : ‘The perfect protection for wine lover’, romantic no ?

– France consumed 150 million wine cases, while Italy consumed 141 million last year. Chinese, the equivalent of 1.865 billion bottles ! China has surpassed Italy ! And France !!! Pinch me please, I am dreaming ! We are not talking about dim sum but wine ! I thought that we were the best ! Ok they are a lot, but still… The International Wine and Spirits Research (IWSR) attribute interest in red wine in China not only to the health benefits of wine, but also to the color. In China, the color red represents good fortune, strength and luck. Pinch me please, I’m dreaming !

– Some people in United States can say that they’ve seen Jesus… A mysterious wealthy man tips restaurant’s staff up to 10 000 dollars! The last time he’s been seen, he ordered 2 drinks, 2 mains and left 1000$ tips for the waiter for a 111.05 dollars bill ! The rumour says that he would be the Paypal former vice-president Jack Selby. Jesus is generous, has now 71 000 followers on Instagram, his tagline ‘’Doing the Lord’s work, one tip at a time’, snaps pic of the waiter with the check in hand and post it. Please Jesus if you wander in London one day, I am in Cork Street. God bless !