Mantou often referred to as humbao or Chinese steamed bun/bread, is a kind of steamed bun originating in China. It is typically eaten as a staple in northern parts of China where wheat rather than rice is grown. It is made with milled wheat flour, water and leavening agents. In size and texture, they range from 4 cm, soft and fluffy in the most elegant restaurants, to over 15 cm, firm and dense for the working man’s lunch. (As white flour, being more heavily processed, was once more expensive, white mantou were somewhat of a luxury in pre-industrial China.)

Traditionally, mantou, bing, and wheat noodles were the staple carbohydrates of the Northern Chinese diet, analogous to the rice which forms the mainstay of the Southern Chinese diet. Mantou are also known in the south, but are often served as street food or a restaurant dish, rather than as a staple or home cooking. Restaurant mantou are often smaller and more delicate and can be further manipulated, for example by deep-frying and dipping in sweetened condensed milk.

They are often sold pre-cooked in the frozen section of Asian supermarkets, ready for preparation by steaming or heating in the microwave oven.

A similar food, but with a filling inside, is baozi. In some regions, mainly in Southern China, mantou can be used to indicate both the filled and unfilled buns.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mantou

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Aside from what might be called plain sourdough bread, there are a number of other breads that use similar starters and techniques. Amish Friendship Bread uses a sourdough starter that includes sugar and milk. However, it is further leavened with baking powder and baking soda, making it more of a quick bread. The German Pumpernickel is traditionally made from a sourdough starter, although modern pumpernickel loaves often use commercial yeasts, sometimes spiked with citric acid or lactic acid to inactivate the amylases in the rye flour. Also, the Flemish Desem bread is a popular form of whole-wheat sourdough, though cultured in a much less liquid medium.

Other recipes use starters that aren’t actually truly natural leavens. The Italian Biga and French Poolish add sourdough-like flavors to breads by allowing the yeast a lengthy half-day or longer fermentation. Unlike a true sourdough, these recipes usually start with commercial yeast, and cultivation of lactobacillus bacteria is generally an incidental effect.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sourdough

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A peanut butter cookie is a type of cookie that is distinguished for having peanut butter as a principal ingredient. The cookie generally originated in the United States, its development dating back to the 1930s.

George Washington Carver (1864-1943), an African-American agricultural extension educator, from Alabama’s Tuskegee Institute, was the most well known promoter of the peanut as a replacement for the cotton crop, which had been heavily damaged by the boll weevil. He compiled 105 peanut recipes from various cookbooks, agricultural bulletins and other sources. In his 1916 Research Bulletin called How to Grow the Peanut and 105 Ways of Preparing it for Human Consumption, he included three recipes for peanut cookies calling for crushed/chopped peanuts as an ingredient. It was not until the early 1920s that peanut butter was listed as an ingredient in the cookies.

The Peanut Butter Balls recipe in the 1923 edition of Pillsbury’s Balanced Recipes contains the first known written instance of instructing the cook to press the cookies using fork tines. The recipe does not explain why this advice is given, though: peanut butter cookie dough is dense, and without being pressed, it will not cook evenly. Using a fork to press the dough is a convenience; bakers can also use a cookie shovel.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peanut_butter_cookies

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A gingerbread man is a biscuit made of gingerbread, usually in the shape of a stylized human, as per the name although making other shapes, especially seasonal themes, is quite common.

Gingerbread dates back to the 15th century, and figural biscuit-making was practiced in the 16th century. The first documented instance of figure-shaped gingerbread biscuits appearing was in the court of Elizabeth I of England. She had the gingerbread figures made and presented in the likeness of some of her important guests.

Most gingerbread men share the same roughly humanoid shape, with stubby feet and no fingers. Many gingerbread men have a face, though whether the features are indentations within the face itself or other candies stuck on with icing or chocolate varies from recipe to recipe. Other decorations are common; hair, shirt cuffs, and shoes are sometimes applied, but by far the most popular decoration are shirt buttons, which are traditionally represented by gum drops, icing, or raisins.

According to the 2009 Guinness Book of Records, the world’s largest gingerbread man was made on December 2, 2006 by the Smithville Area Chamber of Commerce in Smithville, Texas, United States at their annual Festival of Lights celebration. The gingerbread man weighed in at 1,308 lbs, 8 oz, and stood at over 20 feet. On December 6, 2008, also in conjunction with the annual Festival of Lights celebration, a monument was dedicated in honor of the feat made from the very cookie sheet that was used to break the record.

Recently Madison, Wisconsin, U.S.A. had a potential record-setting Gingerbread man put on display. The Dane County Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) unveiled the world’s largest gingerbread man. It stood 26 feet and 2 inches tall, although its weight is unknown.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gingerbread_man

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Arabian jasmine
Arabian jasmine (Jasminum sambac) is a species of the genus Jasminum of the family in the olive family (Oleaceae). The type grows wild in India and is cultivated worldwide.

Appearance
The Arabian jasmine is growing as erect or climbing shrub. The leaves are undivided and round to oval, some with heart-shaped base. You are papery and bare up to the underside of the leaf veins. The flowers are in three-sympodial, rarely fünfblütigen inflorescences, sometimes separately. The bracts are acicular. The strongly scented flowers have an eight-to nine-up, not or slightly hairy calyx and a white crown. As fruit purple-black spherical berries are formed.

Source: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arabischer_Jasmin

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A box wine (or boxed wine, cask wine) is a wine packaged as a Bag-In-Box. Such packages contain a plastic bladder protected by a box, usually made of corrugated fiberboard.

The ‘wine cask’ (or boxed wine) was invented by Thomas Angove (d. 30 March 2010) of Angove’s, a winemaker from Renmark, South Australia, and patented by the company on April 20, 1965. Polyethelene bladders of 1 gallon (4.5 litres) were placed in corrugated boxes for retail sale. The original design required that the consumer cut the corner off the bladder, pour out the serving of wine and then reseal it with a special peg.

In 1967 Charles Henry Malpas and Penfolds Wines patented a plastic, air-tight tap welded to a metallised bladder, making storage more convenient. All modern wine casks now utilise some sort of plastic tap, which is exposed by tearing away a perforated panel on the box.

The main advantage to bag-in-a-box packaging is that it prevents oxidation of the wine during dispensing. After opening, wine in a bottle it is oxidised by air in the bottle which has displaced the wine poured. Wine in a bag is not touched by air and thus not subject to oxidation until it is dispensed. Cask wine is not subject to cork taint or spoilage due to slow consumption after opening.

The bag is not hermetically sealed and has an unopened shelf life shorter than bottled wine. Most casks will have a best-before date stamped. As a result, it is not intended for cellaring and should be drunk within the prescribed period.

Bag in a box packaging is also preferred by producers of more economical wines because it is less expensive than glass bottles. A bag of wine, removed from the box, will float on water, allowing quick cooling of a white wine by immersion in an ice bath.

The packaging first found commercial success in the land of its invention Australia, and while it has since established a steady market across Europe, in the US the boxed wine has found difficulty in overcoming a down-market image.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Box_wine

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Portuguese wine is the result of traditions introduced to the region by ancient civilizations, such as the Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Greeks, and mostly the Romans. Portugal started to export its wines to Rome during the Roman Empire. Modern exports developed with trade to England after the Methuen Treaty in 1703. From this commerce a wide variety of wines started to be grown in Portugal. And, in 1758, the first wine-producing region of the world, the Região Demarcada do Douro was created under the orientation of Marquis of Pombal, in the Douro Valley. Portugal has two wine producing regions protected by UNESCO as World Heritage: the Douro Valley Wine Region (Douro Vinhateiro) and Pico Island Wine Region (Ilha do Pico Vinhateira). Portugal has a large variety of native breeds, producing a very wide variety of different wines with distinctive personality.

During the Reconquista in the 12th and 13th centuries, with the populating (povoamento) of the conquered territories, areas due to religion the Arabs reduced wine production. During this period, some new varieties were added to the ancient ones, from Burgundy came the French varieties. And during the period of discoveries, Henry the Navigator brought to the newly discovered island of Madeira the Moscatel and Malvasia from the Greek Island of Crete. In the Reign of King Carlos, the Região Demarcada do Vinho Verde and the Região Demarcada do Dão among Colares, Carcavelos, Setúbal, and Madeira were created. In 1979, Bairrada was added and in 1980 the Algarve region (Lagoa, Lagos, Portimão, and Tavira) was finally demarcated. In 1998, the Alentejo region was demarked by the gathering several smaller demarked regions created in 1995.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portuguese_wine

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The parade opens with cadets from the École Polytechnique, Saint-Cyr, École Navale, and so forth, then other infantry troops, then motorized troops; aviation of the Patrouille de France flies above. In recent times, it has become customary to invite units from France’s allies to the parade; in 2004 during the centenary of the Entente Cordiale, British troops (the band of the Royal Marines, the Household Cavalry Mounted Regiment, Grenadier Guards and King’s Troop, Royal Horse Artillery) led the Bastille Day parade in Paris for the first time, with the Red Arrows flying overhead. In 2007 the German 26th Airborne Brigade led the march followed by British Royal Marines.

The president used to give an interview to members of the press, discussing the situation of the country, recent events and projects for the future. Nicolas Sarkozy, elected president in 2007, has chosen not to give it. The President also holds a garden party at the Palais de l’Elysée.

Article 17 of the Constitution of France gives the President the authority to pardon criminals, and since 1991 the President has pardoned many petty offenders (mainly traffic offences) on 14 July. In 2007, President Sarkozy declined to continue the practice.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bastille_Day

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