Curious Foodstuffs

 This mushroom cropped up in Toronto's Sculpture garden a couple of months ago.  Looking at this photo brought a couple thoughts to mind.

Firstly,  I was visiting my local T&T Supermarket admiring the selection of exotic beverages when I came across asparagus juice.  This was no bad translation issue .  There was an illustration of what was most definitely asparagus stocks. The ingredient list confirmed my fears.  Who came up with this idea?  Was it some derranged parent that thought this would be a great way to add more veggies to their child's diet?  Someone who likes to eat asparagus but hates all the bother of cooking it?  Did I miss an article on a bumper crop of aspargus that had to be juiced because the asparagus market was flooded?  I hope somewhere in the world this is a delicacy and that being seen sipping your tetra pak of asparagus juice assures you entrance to the upper eschelons of society.

Secondly, I purchased some mock chicken loaf this week.  Fear not!  This was not the action of an addled mind; it was nostalgia.  I was fed a lot of it when I was a child.  That, and mac and cheese loaf but that's another story.  As an adult,  I find it most curious.  Why was it called mock chicken?  It doesn't taste like chicken.  It doesn't look like chicken.  It's not made with chicken. Is it because of that paprika coating?  Was there ever a time that the price of chicken was so great that it warranted producing a pork-based chicken substitute?  I just don't know.  

John Barrowman at CBC-The Movie

While traveling through the wilds of the internet, I discovered this video of John Barrowman signing autographs at the CBC.  I laughed when I remembered the story he told about having a cardboard cutout of the Capt. Jack photo he was signing.  I was surprised when I heard my laughter in the background.  But I was knocked of my chair when I realised  I was in the video.