One Tomalley Too Many

A Canadian Government health agency warns us not to eat more than two tomalleys in one day. Tomalley--the soft, luscious green stuff inside a lobster--absorbs toxins produced by the algae lobsters feed on, and you might get Paralytic Shellfish Poisoning: tingling or numbness, possibly followed by headache, dizziness and choking. Of course, no case of PSP from eating lobster tomalley has ever been confirmed, because most of us are already careful not to eat more than two lobsters a day.

There’s No Escapism

A University of Minnesota study showed that 60% of the foods consumed by characters on TV shows were low in nutritional value. And everybody says TV doesn’t reflect real life.

Soon: ZapCans

Microwaveable cans may be here in a year or two, made of metal coated to prevent trouble with both the microwaves and the food inside. Advantages: cheaper to make than plastic, 100% recyclable. Disadvantage: punching the steam hole over the dessert compartment.

Bud vs. Bud

When Anheuser-Busch began marketing Budweiser more than 100 years ago, it gave it the name of a famous brew from what’s now Czechoslovakia. These days, though, A-B is thinking about marketing Bud in Europe, and the name presents trademark conflicts (even though the original is now known under its Czech name, Budvar). So our Bud’s been negotiating to buy the other Bud, despite protest strikes at the Budvar plant.

The Latest in Kitchen (Soft) Ware

If you’re a cook with a computer, Truly Friendly Software of Golden, Colo. produces a recipe database program, the Recipe Manager, that can keep track of recipes by the magazine or book they appeared in, and also keep them on disk. You can look up a dish by course of the meal, nationality, prep time, dietary criteria, and whether you’ve tried and/or liked it.

Betty Is Burned

Brown betty is a fine old dish now making a comeback, but it just can’t get any respect. Most of the restaurants that serve it today insist on calling it cobbler (no way--if it has bread crumbs on top, it’s a brown betty). The worst snub the dish ever had, though, came during the Eisenhower Administration, when apple brown betty was served to the visiting king of Belgium as betty brune de pommes.

Can You Touch Up My Roots?

Valley Grower Magazine sees a coming revolution in green onions: hybrid crosses--even of both regular and fistulosum varieties--designed for resistance to Pink Root.