Here are my ‘Brèves de Comptoir’, new monthly for 2014.
‘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…

• Vatican city drinks more wine per person than anywhere else in the world.
• ‘Moo Cantina’ has just opened on Brick Lane, this Argentinian restaurant is opened Monday till Saturday from 11am to 11pm, Sun 11:00-22:30, Argentinian meat and street food for £10-£20 per head, I haven’t tried it yet, but I will !
• I fell in love with this food blog : 196 Flavors. As someone who always liked geography at school, who loves to travel and eat, this blog is the perfect concentrate of everything I love. Very well made, clear, intelligent, well written in English and French, with great recipes from all over the world. Uzbekistan, Kowait or Sierra Leone, the whole world explained through its richness which reunite people : food. Origin of ingredients, history of the country and easy to understand recipes, 196 flavors has  become my favorite. http://www.196flavors.com
• Maor Zabar is an Israeli artist who makes incredible costumes for cinema, theatre, ballet… and also makes food hats. Check his website in Hebrew and English to find out more about his work and if you want to buy one of his hat, it’s possible on Etsy. http://www.maorzabar.com/
• The Kopi luwak or civet coffee is the most expensive coffee in the world. Why ? Because the coffee berries have been eaten and ingested by the Asian palm civet. The coffee beans are subjected to ingestion and fermentation in the gastrointestinal tract of the Luwak (civet in Indonesia). The Caffeine content in both Arabica and Robusta Luwak coffee is lower than in unfermented coffee. Kopi luwak is a form of processing rather than a variety of coffee, prices reaching €550 / US$700 per kg.
• I don’t know if waking up with the smell of bacon can be a motivation or a torture especially when there is no one in the kitchen cooking breakfast but just the smell from you phone alarm. Oscar Mayer a meat supplier in the US created the most odorant alarm. He is not the only one to be able to generate foodie smells using an iPhone device and app. An app called Scentee created by a Japanese claims to be able to change the taste of food with its mini air-freshener-like cartridges that clip into a phone. The aim ? By sniffing your phone scent of steak or curry it would help broke students or girls on diet to enjoy a pot of bland rice. Pathetic.
• Believe it or not, I found out that they sell cheeseburger in a can in Sweden (thanks God only in Sweden for now). You just have to heat the can in boiling water, open and eat. Yes of course… On the picture the burger is appetizing even though at the wrong place (in a tin!) but we all know that it’s the great work of a food stylist ! I read a lot of comments about the thing and it’s just soggy and tasteless.
• According to Foodwise, Australians throw away a mindboggling $7.8 billion worth of food each year. Leftovers play a big part in that so let’s follow their tips. They give information on composting, stop wasting, reusing… http://www.foodwise.com.au/
• The best whisky in the world award 2014 is assigned not to Scotland or Japan like in the past but to Tasmania, an Australian island. The winning bottle, is aged from 11 to 12 years and described by Sullivans Cove as ‘a big, fat, chewy whisky full of rich toffee and molasses notes’.
• To close up those ‘Brèves de comptoir’ here is the question of the month : ‘What has more germ, your toilet or your own mouth?’ Yes !!! Your mouth !!! Not appetizing at all, our mouth has the exact temperature, damp and is the perfect spot to grow and feed bacterias while a toilet seat is cold and sanitized. Bon appetit !