Despite working on a foodie site YAMU, if I could find a way to eat less I would. Eating for pleasure is one thing, but eating cause you have to can be a chore. Hence it’s interesting to see that Rob Rhinehart has gone over a month without eating what we’d call food. He drinks a chemical shake he calls soylent. And apparently he’s in good health and poops like once a week. Check out his blog. It’s hilarious, and very insightful too.

The Ministry Of Health has released new standards for the types of food people should donate to monks. Alms givings are a hallowed part of Sri Lankan culture, and a good one, as it enables people to renounce the world and meditate and survive. Over time, however, it’s become cultural practice than a religious one and monks, who ideally eat minimally and mindfully, have been eating too much rich food, leading to these rather shocking stats:

Il Gelato is selling dog ice cream for Rs. 280 a cup (80g). For reference, a liter (1,000g) of Elephant House is Rs. 220. Which is to say, this is expensive ice cream. I’m not one to say that people shouldn’t buy expensive things while others struggle, but this is a bit out there. I mean, the ice cream isn’t even good.

Ceynor is a seafood restaurant near Fort which is actually supposed to be OK. However, they’re severely damaged their reputation by trying to cheat HSBC customers – offering them a public discount and then giving them another menu with higher prices, thus negating the discount. It’s so stupid that it almost boggles the mind. In another country that might be serious damage to a business, but I oddly feel inclined to go try them now. I do hear that the food is ok.

The bite from a lone star tick may give humans an allergy to meat. It seems that their saliva causes antibodies for meat to rise after a bite, releasing histamines when meat is consumed, giving people hives, making them throw up, and even throwing them into anaphylactic shock. Essentially, what happens to me when I eat peanuts, which I avoid like the plague. So the effect here is that some people become vegetarian.

According to a study of 200 people, eating kottu and fried rice all the time does bad things to your cholesterol and liver. The problem seems to be the oil, which is also used to fry other stuff. They also mention cockroaches getting chopped in there but I think that A) this is exaggerated and B) insects aren’t bad for you. There seems to be a scientific point (fried foods are bad for your health) mixed with a bit of speculation (the food is massively unhygienic).

Milk and cookies, or as colonials would call it, milk and biscuits. These consumer degustations are extraordinarily popular in Sri Lanka, especially the biscuits, and are available in every kade. You will rarely be more than one kilometer away from milk and biscuits. They’re that important. I rarely consume the stuff so can’t quite tell it apart, but on YAMU we’ve done pretty comprehensive reviews of both.

Sushi, typically raw fish on rice, doesn’t surprise me anymore, but the idea of raw beef on rice does. Yet it is insanely delicious. I’m thinking more things should be eaten raw, with the exception, I suppose of salmonella prone chicken. Raw food contains less calories than cooked food and it also seems to be effective birth control for people on a 100% raw diet (Discover Magazine). That’s a joke though. No one should eat everything raw, but fish and beef for pleasure? Definitely. Nihonbashi is the best place in Colombo, if you’re gnawsome.

How much does a beer cost? Seems like a straightforward question, and Rs. 140 is printed on the bottle (the big one, the Lion Larger if you will), but it’s not. A beer at a dodgy bar will cost about Rs. 190 whereas a beer at a posher restaurant will be about Rs. 450. Go to a nightclub and a small Lion is like Rs. 600, meaning getting 675 ml worth would cost you over 1,000 Rupees. It’s something I’ve always been subtly aware of but never thought about, till now.

Cinnamon (Cinnamomum zeylanicum) is native to Sri Lanka and we, though no longer Ceylon (Zeylan) still supply upwards of 70% of the stuff to the world. Hence I saw this video of the cinnamon challenge above, whereby two guys try to swallow a tablespoon of cinnamon, and wondered if we should try it. It looks pretty vomitous and painful but also kinda hilarious. The slow-mo video above is quite funny. However, then I watched the video below about the science of the thing and I think I’ll take a pass.