Your Lunch Is in the Mail

Cook It Club is a 12-part cooking series for 8- to 14-year-olds. Once a month the child gets cooking tools in the mail--not scaled-down versions but a real whisk, rolling pin, muffin pan etc.--plus graduated recipes that teach basic skills such as juicing lemons, whipping egg whites and kneading bread dough. It’s $13.95 per month, including postage and handling, or $149.95 prepaid for all 12 months, from HearthSong, (800) 325-2502, which guarantees it unconditionally.

Why Not Just Cherry Tomatoes?

The Wall Street Journal reports that USDA scientists have patented a process for coloring bottled cherries by soaking them in alcohol and vegetable pigments, extracted from sweet red peppers or tomatoes, which are insoluble in water. Voila ! Cherries that won’t stain your cake frosting. (The alcohol is later removed.)

Chinese Food to Come

At the Chinese Food Show ‘92, held at the Sheraton Grande Hotel in Los Angeles last week, Taiwanese manufacturers showed off products that might show up in our neighborhood markets. There were imitation meats made from konnyaku (arum root)--imitation squid, abalone and even intestines, manufactured by Big Union Corp. of Taipei. There were all sorts of vegetable and fruit chips from Singnesia Co., including dried mango, star fruit, jackfruit, banana, green beans and carrots, plus excellent dehydrated pineapple and even a crisp, sweet snack of fried bean sprouts. There were candied kumquats and fresh litchis frozen in the shell. Dragon & Phoenix Corp. makes frozen shark’s fin dumplings, to say nothing of a charming dumpling, stuffed with bean paste, that’s shaped and colored like a little peach. Laurel Foods Corp.’s newest item was a carton containing tiny pink and white rice balls and a packet of sweet red bean sauce--you add boiling water for an instant Chinese dessert. And there were juices: bottled star-fruit juice and winter-melon juice, soybean milk and peanut-rice milk. Finally, Anko Food Machine Co. showed a machine that can produce Chinese dumplings and egg rolls, Indian samosas , South American empanadas and Asian curry puffs (as well as Italian pasta). Anko also produces a spring-roll machine and a three-tiered bean sprouter that comes in a large size for restaurants and a small model for homes.