iL Dottore

Kynaston is an excellent, unsentimental, historian. His books on the 1945-1962 period of British can be a bit depressing, given the litany of cock ups, bad decisions, and incompetence at all levels that allowed Britain to lose its hard won technological and engineering lead in so many critical areas. Probably one of the worst, and far reaching, decisions made by the immediate postwar governments was to try and prop up the pound, rather than let it find its own level in the international money markets. That was money that could’ve been better spent repairing and upgrading Britain’s infrastructure and industrial capacity which was pretty much clapped out and knackered at the end of the Second World War. In reading his books, I do get the impression that it was not until the 1960s, that Britain started to emerge from a grey, dismal and austere postwar period, and start to embrace the vibrancy of what modern technology (and youth culture) could provide.

Good morning, Good morning, Good morning!!! A busy and profitable day awaits 😁 Returning to various topics: Whilst I can sympathise with PB’s “hang ‘em and flog ‘em” approach to the drug trade, it doesn’t actually work. The financial rewards (due to the huge demand) makes some people take unacceptable risks - the lure of trousering, say, £100,000 for a shipment of drugs outweighs the fear of being caught and banged up (or executed). IF a draconian approach were to work then everyone involved - from traffickers to consumers - should be penalised. Random stops by armed police of citizens for drug testing and summary execution of anyone testing positive (plus “shoot to kill” drug raids) would definitely discourage drug trafficking and use. But even then, there’d still be people who’d try their luck. I don’t think that even the most rabid supporter of draconian drug laws would care to walk to the shops past piles of fresh bodies all labelled “I was an illegal drug user”. The way to effectively address the drug problem is to firstly remove the profitability from the drug trade (by making illegal drugs so cheap through legalisation and sale through government shops) that the criminal elements would abandon the trade, addicts would no longer have to turn to crime to feed their habit and then go on to address why people take drugs. Vice (drugs, prostitution, gambling) will never go away - the best society can hope for is to minimise the effects on society at large. Prohibition in the US should be carefully studied: before prohibition organised crime was a small problem in the US, after prohibition organised crime was a big problem. Regarding Jamie Oliver: his Wiki page is quite an eye opener. It seems that despite being a terrible businessman he has made himself a packet, often at the expense of others (such the 1000 or so people who lost their jobs when Jamie’s Italian went into receivership). He is certainly good at self promotion and has leveraged his “cheeky chappy” image into a considerable fortune. His early forays into cook books (the Naked Chef books) were important in introducing people to the concept of locally sourced, freshly made food. And his campaign for healthy food for kids, admirable. But JO and “authentic” still seem to be strangers to each other. Putting meds in blister packs vs loose packed and then put into a bottle? Hmmm. I’d say “it depends”, as some medications do not take kindly to hanging around in a steamy bathroom in a (often) open bottle. A lot depends on the stability of the drug, its formulation, whether or not it’s hydrophilic, etc., etc. Additionally, it’s a lot harder to accidentally overdose with blister packed meds than with meds loose in a bottle. For one thing, with a blister pack you can’t absentmindedly shake a couple of pills into your hand and take them without noticing. I had read up about the Chinese and SE Asian “uncles” and “aunties” when I first came across Nigel Ng’s Uncle Roger character. They are certainly a character type seen a variety of versions with various names across most cultures. I’ve watched some of Nigel Ng’s stand up on YouTube and he can be incredibly funny.

Given the importance of “luxury” watches to the Swiss economy, the Swiss government decided to do something about it. It is illegal to bring counterfeit goods into Switzerland, even for personal use. Even a counterfeit souvenir for personal use will be seized, destroyed and the patent owner informed - who then can take legal action against you. If you bring a number counterfeit items in, you could be liable to up to a year in jail and/or up to CHF 1 million in fines. But it’s not only the luxury goods market that is affected by counterfeits; for example aviation parts, and pharmaceuticals are also frequently counterfeited and in both these cases, counterfeits can kill you. I’ve also read that as counterfeiting is considered a relatively low risk endeavour (in terms of punishment, whether fines or jail terms) with the increasingly Draconian approach in many countries to controlling the illegal drug trade, many criminals formally involved in the drug trade are moving to counterfeiting.

I came across Uncle Roger sometime ago on YouTube and I found him both knowledgeable about Asian food (very knowledgeable actually) and incredibly funny as well. (although the usual killjoys have accused him of perpetuating “yellow face” stereotypes).. He regularly skewers various YouTube cooks, from amateurs to the professionals, when he thinks that they are taking unacceptable liberties with Asian food. The posted video is not the first time Uncle Roger has set his sights on Jamie Oliver. Jamie Oliver may have trained as a professional chef and his heart is certainly in the right place (for trying to get school children to eat healthy and nutritious lunches), but as someone trying to cook non-British food, he is a total disaster. When I downsize my large (250+) cookbook collection, ALL my Jamie Oliver cookbooks are going off to be recycled. His “Italian” cookbook is about as Italian as I am Manchurian. In fact, the recipes are so bad that in comparison @polybear’s three cheese pizza (when PB cares to use high quality, minimally processed ingredients) is the very definition of a decent pizza. However, one mustn’t be too harsh on Jamie Oliver, I think amongst his target audience are those people for whom a typical everyday meal could be turkey twizzlers and frozen chips (perhaps with some sort of a green vegetable), but want to cook something “posh”* But he can’t cook Italian or Chinese food worth a damn. Uncle Roger’s videos are well worth watching! * Jamie Oliver “posh cooking”? I should cocoa… I split my sides writing that…

That’s a very good idea, so Well Done That Bear! Except… Except… Except the food producers would fight it tooth and nail, no matter what scoring system is devised. Assuming a score of 1 - 5 (1 best, 5 worst) I can’t see the manufacturer of “dinosaur shaped turkey bites for kids” (made with at least 5% recovered and reconstituted turkey “meat”) being too happy with getting a 5. One of the problems would separating out chemical equivalents of natural things (e.g. citric acid vs lemon/lime juice) and those things only used in UPF. No matter what you put on that list, high fructose corn syrup and palm oil should be amongst the top 5 “naughty” things - for a multitude of reasons. Such a system, plus the traffic light system, I think should be mandatory on all factory produced food items.

Possibly true for the NHS. In Switzerland it probably means changing the planned Zürigeschnetzeltes* mit Rösti! for a grilled steak, pommes frites and a mixed salad. * as far as I am concerned Zürcher Geschnetzeltes is the Swiss equivalent of “mystery meat in a light brown sauce”. Not my favourite. (https://www.myswitzerland.com/en-ch/experiences/food-wine/recipe/zurich-geschnetzeltes/)

When people tut-tut about “private medicines” low hours, they are ignoring the non-patient facing work GPs and other clinicians have to do (true for all GP practices - no matter where you are in the world). My GP friend (now retired) had surgery hours 07:30 - 11:30 and 14:00 - 18:00 M, T, W, F. Thursday was 07:30 - 11:30. However, lunchtimes were spent reviewing patient test results (they usually came in the morning post) and Thursday afternoons he did house calls (mostly to care homes and the like). As a member of the local GP association he was on call one night in every 14. The problem nowadays with GPs (almost a universal problem) is that more and more women have become GPs. The problem with that is not their expertise or ability, but rather the fact that as women they have to juggle marriage, career, motherhood and family in a way men don’t have to. So if a women GP can work part time, she generally will. Rather strangely, those who rail against doctors and dentist earning well (after completing years of gruelling training and gaining expertise and experience in a high stress and high pressure environment [specialist training]), seem to be very quiet about the huge amounts of money footballers and other “sports personalities” earn. Inverse snobbery at work, perhaps? Something my ex-NHS colleagues can attest to. According to a number of them, one of the advantages of private practice was the near total absence of the bureaucratic cr*p they had to deal with in the NHS - allowing them to concentrate on patient care. On the NHS what should be a simple case note (“syringed out ears, examination found nothing of note”) becomes a multi-line, if not multipage, exercise of pointless expansion of the “bleeding obvious”.

A good quality cigar is not, unlike cigarettes, processed. A proper good quality cigar is just selected tobacco leaves rolled together and bound into a cylinder with a tobacco leaf wrapper. No chemical processing at all. So no “do as I say, not do as I do” there. Whether or not smoking cigars is good for you is a different matter (although some studies show that the risk of cancer associated with cigar smoking is just a little bit above the risk of the same cancers for non-smokers). Nearly all food and drink is “processed”, but “processed” is very different from ultraprocessed. Milk is “processed” into cheese, milk is ULTRAprocessed into cheese-dip (or - in the US - cheez-whizz) and so on. Conflating processed food with ultraprocessed food seems like something a food conglomerate would do to protect sales.

A sad story indeed. A private consultation may or may not have revealed the underlying problem, But I reckon that it would have done - as exploratory assessments (such as a stress test and/or a multigated acquisition [MUGA] scan) would have been done pretty quickly after visiting the private GP if paid for privately. Unfortunately, for many reasons, in the NHS the time between tentative diagnosis and confirmatory assessment(s) is frequently far too long.

A very good analysis. As for your last point “pre-existing conditions”, in Switzerland this restriction only applies to supplementary insurance (the type that gets you the private room, even when NOT medically required; residential rehab and PT when outpatient treatment is perfectly adequate, 2 weeks in a “wellness spa” etc.). The basic insurance (grundversicherung) does cover existing conditions and provides for all necessary treatments as and when needed. With the basic coverage you’ll be in a semi-private room instead of a private room (the ward system is pretty much unknown here), treatment will be outpatient or day patient rather than residential where feasible. Medications, surgeries, scans and treatments will be driven by condition, not cost. There are, however, a few things that are not covered by the basic health insurance that the NHS does provide; and these things are generally cosmetic procedures not necessary for a persons health and well-being. So plastic surgery for breast reconstruction after a mastectomy would be covered by basic health insurance, a “boob job” would not be covered. Same goes for things like “tummy tucks”, “butt lifts” and “nose jobs”. Because everyone has to have health insurance (with assistance from the state for the truly indigent), and because this money is solely used for healthcare, it does mean that the health system is adequately funded (no medical system in the world will ever be overfunded…) One final point: there is a certain amount of co-pay required, something that horrifies most Brits. Co-pay will depend on your retention (how much you will pay yourself before insurance takes over - and this is a yearly amount). In Switzerland for chronic diseases there is a yearly co-pay cap and so the co-pay amount is affordable (and this is assisted with by the state for the truly indigent), When I had my knee protheses installed, I ended up paying a grand sum of SFr 80 for four weeks (2 weeks hospital, 2 weeks residential rehab) and this was for in-house TV and radio and some meal “upgrades”. Of course, Switzerland being a high pay medium tax country does mean much more in life is affordable to the average Swiss than it is to the average Brit.

In Mrs iD’s absence I am currently hosting (and at the moment stroking) a lovely Romanian beauty. Before you lot jump to the wrong conclusion (which I am certain most of you have already done), let me hasten to add that her name is Frida and she’s the Romanian rescue dog belonging to a friend and one of the BDWBA posse (Bad Dogs With Bad Attitudes). So a pleasant day of dog-sitting awaits. If today’s weather is anything like yesterday’s, this afternoon - after the lunchtime walk - we shall decamp to the garden to catch a few rays and (in my case) enjoy a “wee dram” (probably the Dalmore 12yo) and a good cigar. If you’re so nervous about ingesting trace amounts of chemicals in your food, why are you happily stuffing yourself with UPF full of emulsifiers, anti-caking agents, anti-oxidisers and stabilisers? We have come a long way from when Hobbes wrote “worst of all, continual fear, and danger of violent death; and the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short." Life is all about risk and managing it. Some risks are unavoidable (e.g. side effects with drugs), some are avoidable. I would take all newspaper and magazines articles about the safety (or not) of things like chemicals, processes and medication with a BIG pinch of salt* Peer reviewed professional journals are the only source you should rely on. * how many times have newspapers published articles exclaiming “miracle cure for cancer” only to reveal that they are referring to only some encouraging findings in the first in-vivo studies with a new compound.

Didn’t Mommy Bear tell you about washing your fruit and veg before using? The really nasty pesticides (like DDT) are now pretty much banned and many of the new generation insecticides are harmless to humans - targeting enzyme pathways present only in the target insect species (a former classmate of mine did her PhD thesis on enzyme pathways uniquely found in the American cockroach) And as for those who are all aghast about pesticide use and using ethylene to ripen fruit and veg in store, you’d better take a good look at yourselves: if there wasn’t an demand from consumers for picture perfect fruit and veg,* agriculture and raw fruit and veg processing would be very different indeed. *Dutch aquaculture tomatoes are a perfect example: look beautiful have no taste and are watery as hell!

Fair points. But if you can pay, why suffer in pain with the prospect of worse outcomes when you finally do get seen (and - possibly - treated) in order to prove a political point. I am so glad that I am in Switzerland (I sat down and calculated that adding the yearly cost of the Krankenkasse Health Insurance to my yearly tax bill, the total I am paying - in percent of income - just slightly less than I would in taxes alone in the UK. But my KK premiums don't go into a general pot, they are ring fenced for healthcare).

It will come as no surprise to learn that I have quite a few "kitchen gadgets" all but one (the dinky doughnut maker) in regular use, although use tends to be episodic. For example, this week I have been having roast beef and Emmental Panini made with my one person sized pannini press (my hot breakfast of choice at the moment: vollkorn bread, roast beef trimings, hand sliced Emmental, seasoning, 7 minutes in the panini press. Beats cornflakes any day). I also have a few items that are rarely seen outside of professional (or serious amateur) kitchens - such as an infrared thermometer (accurate and hygienic), a sous-vide system, a chinoise and a passe-vite. But there again my culinary horizons and cooking techniques go beyond that of many posters on ER. I don't have an air fryer as I find the cost savings in both time and electricity to be pretty much non-existent given the sort of dishes I cook (besides you can't cook tempura, bhaji, tonkatsu or suppli in an air fryer). As for the usual suspects bemoaning that all this equipment is unneeded, I have but one question: would you limit your modelling tools to just one knife, one size of paintbrush, one type of glue and one straightedge? As always, you can bodge, but - as has been the case for centuries, nothing beats using the right tool for the right job.

You miss the point, anyone who has the talent can be cynical, curmudgeonly and grumpy - even at a young age (although it is rare to see CCG folk under the age of 30). But to become a Cynical, Curmudgeonly, Grumpy Old Git - well the secret is in the highlighted word: Old. Nothing can replace years of experience “on the tools“ (so to speak) and a fancy degree from a Russell Group University will not make you a CCGOG any faster! But keep on being cynical and curmudgeonly, we oldies like to see talent emerge and develop!

Isn’t it (wasn’t it?) against the dentists code of ethics to remove perfectly healthy teeth? I don’t see that as being acceptable dental practice in many other countries. But what price health? There seems an incredible reluctance to pay for medical & dental care amongst the British, even when they can afford to do so. It seems that many would rather wait in pain, slowly deteriorating rather than fork out for treatment. My maternal grandfather, a grand old chap (definitely traditional working class who, in the 1930s, went down the mines aged 12 to help feed the family), made a very very apposite comment about the NHS and government services in general. He said “appreciate what they give you, but never ever forget that if they give with the one hand they can (and will) take away with the other”. Wise words indeed. There are a lot of myths about the foundation of the NHS one of which was only the Tories voted against it. Nothing further from the truth, many groups and parties such as the LCC, various health charities and working class benevolent societies (such as the one my Grandfather was involved in) were against the NHS as they feared, quite rightly, that the NHS would come in, take over the clinics and cottage hospitals created by the charities and benevolent societies for their members, run everything from Whitehall whilst arrogantly ignoring and marginalising those who knew the local needs and local concerns. They had a point. But at least it’s free…..

It’s pretty much a bog-standard chocolate cake recipe, notable perhaps for using cups instead of grams/oz and the rather vague baking instructions. A moderate oven is 180°C to 190°C and I’d bake it at 180°C rather than 190°C and give it a few more minutes in the oven if necessary. Cup size is more of an enigma as I can think of three different cup sizes, you can use (no sniggering in the back): US cup, Australian cup and British/European cup, they are all slightly different; although I think now people have pretty much standardised a cup as 250 ml of volume. To elevate it from bog-standard you could slice it into two horizontally and fill it with a chocolate ganache (perhaps a white chocolate ganache as a contrast?) before sandwiching the halves together or you could add white chocolate chips to the batter mix before baking (or both). Neither icing nor buttercream would be appropriate here - you don’t want a chocolate cake to be sickly sweet (definitely a problem with bought supermarket chocolate cake, frequently far too sweet). Tomorrow’s “cake of the week bake” will be a rhubarb crumble cake.

Returning, for a moment, to the “joke“ box of medication, did anyone notice the words “ take extra care with dentures” in the top right corner? Why do people assume that anyone over 65 years of age is deaf, senile and edentulous? Although the United Kingdom is infamous (and justly so) for poor dentition and dental care, even in GB there are people 65 years of age or older who still have all their teeth (that’s original teeth, not “their own dentures [as opposed to shared dentures? The mind boggles]). I wonder if this ageist stereotype derives from our grandparents generation? They indeed suffered the consequences in older age of inadequate nutrition and medical care in early childhood, plus dealing with all the stresses of fighting a world war coupled with a generally lax attitude towards health and safety in the working environment. When they set up the state pension, they expected few people to make it past 70 or so once retired. Nowadays, notwithstanding the Traditional British Diet (fried carbohydrates with a side of order of carbohydrates, followed by sugary carbohydrates - all washed down by alcoholic carbohydrates) more people are living well past the mid-70s than ever before. This may not be sustainable.

There seems to be enough UPF there to keep any @polybear happy for as much two or three days. On a more serious note, do these have the same (or similar) amounts of stabilisers, emulsifiers, antioxidants and other processing chemicals that are routinely found in the UK’s UPF?

Indeed, Andy, indeed. And, I might say, a perfect example of the “medicalisation of the normal”; inventing (undoubtedly expensive) treatments for things that don’t need treating. Oldgiteritis is perfectly natural and comes from many years of world weary experience with the realities of life. There are actually three stages (or types if you will): Old Git (OG) Grumpy Old Git (GOG) Cynical Grumpy Old Git or Curmudgeonly Grumpy Old Git (CGOG) Some authorities believe that Cynical Grumpy Old Git and Curmudgeonly Grumpy Old Git are mutually exclusive conditions. However, recent research shows that there is a state of perfection beyond that of CGOG, which is CCGOG: Cynical and Curmudgeonly Grumpy Old Git. I am perfectly at ease with, and comfortable with, the (self) diagnosis of CCGOG and I’m most emphatically against any sort of treatment for my so-called “condition“. And I bitterly resent any young person (i.e. anyone under the age of 50), telling me what I should or shouldn’t be! That is definitely ageism hate speech!

Thinking about why fruit and veg packed for commercial users (restaurants, pizzerias, canteens) is so, so much better than that aimed at the consumer market, I suddenly came up with what must be THE answer! The trade supermarket supplies pizzerias; many pizzerias are owned by “men of honour“. Now, should these distinguished gentlemen learn that their profit margins are being eaten into by fruit and veg rapidly spoiling, the trade supermarket would undoubtedly get a visit from very large gentlemen with names like Guido spacca dito or Enzo rompi palle, who would proceed to educate the trade supermarket about good business practices! Either that or restaurants and pizzerias have Soo, Grabbit and Runne on speed-dial.

They probably aren’t as fresh as they’d like you to believe. Not too sure about the UK, but in one of the European consumer magazines - a number of years ago - there was a report about how (at that time) potatoes were dug up in Holland, sent by lorry down to Southern Italy for washing, then trucked back to Germany for packing and thence to the supermarket. I doubt that things have changed much since then. (this, of course, being subsidise by all kinds of special EU economic and agricultural grants. No matter what you might think about Brexit, you have to admit that some of the things the EU did/does is pretty &£#@#£ stupid). All this handling/washing/shipping certainly does Mr Spud no good. Returning, briefly, to the topic of supermarket fruit and veg; as a small company I have access to a supermarket that serves the trade (small to medium size restaurants, small to medium-sized businesses with canteens etc.), and I can buy the same fruit and veg bought by restaurants in canteens. The thing is, although they come in large quantities the quality is far superior to the small – domestic size – bags of the same fruit or vegetables (as the “trade” supermarket belongs to one of the big Swiss supermarket chains, you can also get at the trade supermarket the “aimed at consumers“ small bags of fruit and veg). So you end up with the rather odd situation of a 5 kg bag of onions (minimum commercial size) lasting for months, whilst a 1 kg bag of “domestic market” onions go bad within a week or so. Thus, one can conclude that one of my favourite sayings (used in regard to equipment): “when you gotta go, you’ve gotta go pro” is also applicable to purchasing food and drink.

Is that with or without the big stick with a nail in the end?

Winnie, dear boy, you'll be pleased to know that the "comparison of whiskey quality by region, distiller and age" is an ongoing scientific investigation sponsored by CCI GmbH (iL Dottore, principal investigator). Currently the team is trying to source a 70 year old aged in barrel single malt whiskey, with little success. Firstly they are rarely available and secondly, even the deep, deep pockets of CCI GmbH are finding the per unit cost a bit of a stretch (The Glen Grant 1952 70 Year Old Queen's Platinum Jubilee is £20,000 a bottle). p.s. WB. I'm looking for an assistant investigator, interested?

Paradoxically, plain frozen veg are frequently better than fresh (by "plain" I mean unseasoned/unspiced or otherwise altered). The reason being that within hours of being picked the veg have been washed, graded, lightly parboiled (to remove any surface nasties) and then flash frozen. "Fresh" vegetables in the supermarket may be anything but - having been stored - sometimes for months (e.g. apples) - in special warehouses. There are certain vegetables, such as potatoes and onions, that do store well; however, how they are stored is important. From personal experience (and experimentation) I can say that unwashed potatoes last a damn site longer than washed potatoes even if stored correctly. Presumably, the light dry dusting of earth left on unwashed potatoes form some sort of protective barrier (but don't ask me what). Many professional chefs swear by frozen peas as an acceptable substitute if you cannot get same day picked fresh peas Defining whisky as a UPF doesn't surprise me - although I think that's really stretching the definition of UPF. Granted the various processes of taking the raw materials and turning them into whiskey are indeed transformative, but (with the exception of the really cheap and nasty stuff) everything involved in the process is (or should be) traditional only relying on all natural ingredients. The addition of the sort of chemical stabilisers, emulsifiers, antioxidants and the like found in processed food is very much frowned upon. Wine, on the other hand, is a completely different kettle of fish. There seems to be periodically regular scandals involving adulteration of wine and the passing off of cheap wine as it's more expensive cousins. To claim that baked beans are merely cooked in a tomato sauce and tinned is, at best, disingenuous. If you look at the fine print on the label you will find the usual rogues gallery of emulsifiers, stabilisers, antioxidants, et cetera, et cetera. Although to be fair some brands are much much better than others. As for those ER miscreants who disdain that glorious beverage known as "the water of life" I think I must introduce them to my Hibernian friend who introduced me to the pleasures (and the correct way of) drinking whisky. A very large bearded gentleman, for whom tossing a cable is no more of an effort than tossing a used toothpick into an ashtray, would definitely be keen to "correct and re-educate" those people who deride that fine Scottish liquid from heaven.