if this doesn't piss you off...

[Lucky]

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article4286365.ece:



G8 leaders feast on 13 courses after discussing world food shortages
(EPA)
G8 delegates enjoy the working lunch, which included white asparagus and truffle soup and peach compote

Philip Webster, Lake Toya, Japan
Organisers of the G8 summit have proudly displayed the menu for a sumptuous eight-course banquet enjoyed by world leaders meeting to discuss international food shortages.

Only 24 hours after Gordon Brown urged people not to waste food, and with the summit dominated by fears of global shortages, leading statesmen were treated to smoked salmon and kyoto beef - hours after enjoying a five-course lunch.

Several African leaders were at the table as the need for their continent to double its food production ranked highly at the summit.

The lunch began with truffle soup and rare crab while the evening feast, involving 19 separate dishes, even had its own theme - grandly entitled "Hokkaido, Blessings of the Earth and the Sea".

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Organisers proudly boasted the chef's team "know everything that there is to know about food". They proclaimed: "The three specialists will make the best of Hokkaido's natural blessings, supported by higher quality ingredients, more natural ingredients and the soil with which to enjoy them."

The dishes were prepared by the first Japanese to win the famed one star of the Michelin guide Katsuhiro Nakamura.

He was hired as the "grand chef" by the Windsor Hotel where the leaders are staying. 30 miles away from the general public and cut off by 20,000 special police officers keeping crowds at bay, its Presidential Suite costs a staggering £7,000-a-night.

The Japanese air force was flying regular patrols overhead and even the coastguard was on standby on the island of Hokkaido.

Aides insist Mr Brown's warning to householders was not aimed at hectoring people, but he insisted ending food waste could save families £8 per week.

The G8 summit has cost £283million, which could have bought 100million mosquito nets to save Africans from catching malaria.

Shadow International Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell said: "The G8 have made a bad start to their Summit, with excessive cost and lavish consumption.

"Surely it is not unreasonable for each leader to give a guarantee that they will stand by their solemn pledges of three years ago at Gleneagles to help the world's poor.

"All of us are watching, waiting and listening."

Those menus in full:

Lunch

White asparagus and truffle soup

Kegani crab almond oil foam and green olive tapenade

Supreme of chicken served with its stuffed thigh, nuts and orange savoury with beetroot foam

Special cheese selection with half-dried fruits

Peach compote, ice cream and raspberry coulis

Dinner

Corn-stuffed caviar

Smoked salmon and sea urching "pain surprise" style

Hot onion tart

Winter lily bulb and summer savoury

Folding fan modeled tray decorated with bamboo grasses

including

Kelp-flavoured cold kyoto beef shabu-shabu, asparagus dressed with sesame cream

Diced fatty fles of tuna fish, avocado and jellied soy sauce and Japanese herb "shiso"

Boiled clam, tomato, Japanese herb "shiso" in jellied clear soup of clam

Water shield and pickled conger dressed with vinegar soy sauce

Boiled prawn with jellied tosazu-vinegar

Grilled eel rolled around burdock strip

Sweet potato

Fried and seasoned Goby with soy sauce and sugar

Hairy Crab "Kegani" bisque soup

Salt-grilled bighand thornyhead with vinegary water pepper sauce

Milk fed lamb from "shiranuka" flavoured with aromatic herbs and mustard

Roasted lamb and cepes and black truffle with emulsion sauce of lamb's stock and pine seed oil

Special cheese selection, lavender honey and caramelised nuts

G8 fantasy dessert

Coffee served with candied fruits and vegetables

Wine list

le Reve grand cru champagne

japanese saki

Corton Charlemagne 2005

Chateau Latour burgundy

Ridge California Monte Bello 1997

Tokaji Essencia 1999 from Hungary

[joevacc]

Why?  I love "White asparagus and truffle soup"!!  :o :o


I think that for ££££££££££283million!! You should get a nice lunch!!!


(me being very sarcastic in case that did not transcend the web)

[vadasz1]

After all that food, I sure hope they bought 3-ply paper with all that money also................ :o ;D

[inanecathode]

Ivory tower to the max. Reminds me of atlas shrugged  :D

[Tiger]

 ::) "A" Typical of these people, who, for the most part, do not understand the common man and his/her day to day problems at grass roots level...Why, because they have never been "there".......

                       

Do as I say, not as I do

                  8).......TIGER....... 8)

[kwells]

I'm hungry.
Time for dinner.

[h2olawyer]

Doesn't everybody eat like that all the time?!?

H₂O

[Brian Moffet]

I try to, but finances keep me from doing so....

[supervision]

the best, will be, good enough for those guys

[YellowJacket!]

Well now that I have learned to live on 1200 to 1400 calories a day, it blows my mind that people in impoverished nations are doing well if they get 750 cal/day or even clean water.

The G8 has no concept of what is going on.  They *ARE* members of the world bank which contributes to the cause but like tiger said, (and in my words) they have no grasp for what is going on because they have never been there.

David

[williamruck]

I think you're right, most people just don't know. But I also think that people have a distorted view of what is necessary to get by. Example: My wife and I just finished college and got married, between the two of us we make around 60k a year, not a ton for two people but more than enough to get by. I have a friend who finished college a few years before me and now he is working making over six figures, he is always complaining about bills and money. It's not that he doesn't have enough money, which has more than enough, he just has a distorted view of what he needs. He owns a condo (home loan), has a new car (car payment), has a new motorcycle (credit card), and has this obsession with going out to eat almost everyday (expensive) and always has designer clothes (also expensive). Now, I rent, both my car and my wife's car equal about $4000, drive a $300 Vision (not quite as fast as his Triumph Daytona), and I usually always cook for myself. Now I am not saying I have it all right, but my wife is a budgeting whiz, and we live a slightly more humble lifestyle. My point is that there are people out there who live on next to nothing, I have seen it. But there are also people who live lifestyles that are decadent to say the least and they have no idea of the suffering out there. Someone has to do something about it, and I suppose the first step is breaking our own delusions about the necessities of life and stepping out of our own comfortable lifestyles to help others.

[67GTO]

There's a lot to be said for being satisified with what you have! Just because people have everything
does not mean they are any happier. A person should live within their means, not above it :)

[Rick G]

My wife and I aren't starving, but we get by on 1650. a month (SS)  and what ever I can scare up fixing AC's and old bikes.  The lot and moble aren't paid for so 420. a month go's for that. Eating out is a rare treat. its a good thing I'm a pretty fair cook  ( married twice , neither wife could boil water without screwing it up)
The increase in gas prices has become a problem , the '93 S10 blazer we have , gets 8 , Thats eight mpg.  I'm trying to finagle some thing that does better , so far, all I have done is shoot my self in the foot!! :'( :'( :'( :'( >:( >:( >:( >:(
Still , it could be much worse , we get buy and have a roof over our heads.

[Kenny]

    If I wasn't elsewhere I would be on board with our PM looking after the Airbus -but we never get to smoosh  with the big boys! Not my thing anyways & I agree all this pomp and pizzaz while others are homeless in Africa for sure! :o :o
        Cheers Ken S.

[inanecathode]

My wife and I aren't starving, but we get by on 1650. a month (SS)  and what ever I can scare up fixing AC's and old bikes.  The lot and moble aren't paid for so 420. a month go's for that. Eating out is a rare treat. its a good thing I'm a pretty fair cook  ( married twice , neither wife could boil water without screwing it up)
The increase in gas prices has become a problem , the '93 S10 blazer we have , gets 8 , Thats eight mpg.  I'm trying to finagle some thing that does better , so far, all I have done is shoot my self in the foot!! :'( :'( :'( :'( >:( >:( >:( >:(
Still , it could be much worse , we get buy and have a roof over our heads.

Dude, what is wrong with your blazer. Theres no way thats remotely healthy, for any s10 of that era...

[Rick G]

It runs fine and its typical. My step son bought a new one in '93  and it got 8 to 10 mpg  he traded it in 10 months later'
First its a 4 wheel drive  and has all that extra machenery , it has a roof rack and an outside mounted spare, the tyres are as big as you can mount (stock) and the streamlining of a  brick.

Most owners I talk to get about the same . one gets 15  . The later model , which has better streamlining gets 12
The 4'3 vortec is a great engine and runs forever , mine has 200,000 and doesn't burn a drop of oil.
It will pass darn near anything on the road , except a gas station. If I need to put it into low range I think it gets gallons per mile.
Funny thing is the same engine in a short wheelbase Astro van will get 24/28 mpg , but it has much better streamlining  and is lots lighter.

[Brian Moffet]

but it has much better streamlining  and is lots lighter.

Yeah, weight only helps when you're going down hill...

Bummer.

[williamruck]

First its a 4 wheel drive  and has all that extra machenery

I have actually started stripping some of the non-essential parts off of my car to free up some HP and get better mileage. I will let you guys know how it works out.