twentyforty
Well-known member
Good post! Enjoy your time in Dubai.
And today is .......
- Thread starter tiger_one
- Start date
January 31
National Hot Chocolate Day steams onto our calendar each January 31. Yes, today is all about that comforting, delicious cup of hot chocolate; the sweet treat that warms the body and the heart. It is a warm drink that evokes memories of childhood and makes you happy to drink it.
Hot chocolate is a popular winter drink in Australia, often enjoyed in cafes or at home as a comforting alternative to coffee or tea. The original comfort food, there’s nothing quite like a mug of hot choccy to warm you from the inside and leave you feeling content.
It's especially popular among younger Australians, with nearly a fifth of Generation Z drinking it in an average week.
Don’t go to bed without it! Drinking hot cocoa at night is a common habit and for good reason. It helps your body and mind relax. The warm temperature and cozy feeling make it a perfect drink before bed. Even though cocoa has small amounts of natural stimulants, many people find it helps them wind down. The cocoa content in hot chocolate contains tryptophan, which contributes to the production of sleep-promoting serotonin and melatonin, and the act of drinking a warm beverage can have a soothing psychological effect that helps prepare your body for sleep.
And hot chocolate is healthy too: compared to coffee, hot chocolate contains less fat and calories and is a good source of antioxidants. Hot chocolate's major ingredient – cocoa, contains numerous healthy elements such as antioxidants like flavonols and phytosterols that quickly lower LDL cholesterol levels in the blood, protecting against any early heart ailments, coronary diseases, or heart attacks.
Further, studies have suggested that cocoa consumption might help with heart health factors such as blood pressure and cholesterol, and can boost artery health, vision and brain function.
Research has demonstrated evidence of improved brain blood flow, oxygen levels, or nerve function as measured by imaging tests or tests of electrical activity in the brain after the consumption of cocoa drinks. According to Harvard University, drinking two cups of hot chocolate every day could help boost memory and thinking skills in older adults.
When dark chocolate is used to make your hot chocolate, your beverage contains antioxidants, like polyphenols and flavonoids, which can help reduce the negative impact of aging, as well as boost the immune system and reduce inflammation.
Hot cocoa/chocolate supports healthy blood flow to the brain, which may help with focus and memory. Some studies have even linked regular cocoa intake with improved brain performance, especially in older adults. These effects are among the long-term hot cocoa health benefits that come from consistency.
Tips to make Hot Chocolate drinks even healthier: Make it from scratch, so you can control the ingredients. Use dark chocolate that's at least 70 percent cacao. Choose a low sugar or sugar-free sweetener or adjust sweetness with your preferred type or amount of sweetener. Consider protein options.
Fun Facts about Hot Chocolate:
“Hot chocolate is just coffee in pajamas”
“Keep calm, sip cocoa”
“Hot chocolate is hot milk in superhero mode”
"Happiness is a hot chocolate moment."
National Hot Chocolate Day steams onto our calendar each January 31. Yes, today is all about that comforting, delicious cup of hot chocolate; the sweet treat that warms the body and the heart. It is a warm drink that evokes memories of childhood and makes you happy to drink it.
Hot chocolate is a popular winter drink in Australia, often enjoyed in cafes or at home as a comforting alternative to coffee or tea. The original comfort food, there’s nothing quite like a mug of hot choccy to warm you from the inside and leave you feeling content.
It's especially popular among younger Australians, with nearly a fifth of Generation Z drinking it in an average week.
Don’t go to bed without it! Drinking hot cocoa at night is a common habit and for good reason. It helps your body and mind relax. The warm temperature and cozy feeling make it a perfect drink before bed. Even though cocoa has small amounts of natural stimulants, many people find it helps them wind down. The cocoa content in hot chocolate contains tryptophan, which contributes to the production of sleep-promoting serotonin and melatonin, and the act of drinking a warm beverage can have a soothing psychological effect that helps prepare your body for sleep.
And hot chocolate is healthy too: compared to coffee, hot chocolate contains less fat and calories and is a good source of antioxidants. Hot chocolate's major ingredient – cocoa, contains numerous healthy elements such as antioxidants like flavonols and phytosterols that quickly lower LDL cholesterol levels in the blood, protecting against any early heart ailments, coronary diseases, or heart attacks.
Further, studies have suggested that cocoa consumption might help with heart health factors such as blood pressure and cholesterol, and can boost artery health, vision and brain function.
Research has demonstrated evidence of improved brain blood flow, oxygen levels, or nerve function as measured by imaging tests or tests of electrical activity in the brain after the consumption of cocoa drinks. According to Harvard University, drinking two cups of hot chocolate every day could help boost memory and thinking skills in older adults.
When dark chocolate is used to make your hot chocolate, your beverage contains antioxidants, like polyphenols and flavonoids, which can help reduce the negative impact of aging, as well as boost the immune system and reduce inflammation.
Hot cocoa/chocolate supports healthy blood flow to the brain, which may help with focus and memory. Some studies have even linked regular cocoa intake with improved brain performance, especially in older adults. These effects are among the long-term hot cocoa health benefits that come from consistency.
Tips to make Hot Chocolate drinks even healthier: Make it from scratch, so you can control the ingredients. Use dark chocolate that's at least 70 percent cacao. Choose a low sugar or sugar-free sweetener or adjust sweetness with your preferred type or amount of sweetener. Consider protein options.
Fun Facts about Hot Chocolate:
- The single most important rule is simple but often overlooked: never let the milk boil.
- The milk matters! The higher the fat content in milk, the creamier the hot chocolate will taste.
- On average, a 240 ml serving of hot chocolate made with whole milk and cocoa powder contains approximately 150-200 calories.
- In November 2010, Nestlé made The World’s Largest Cup of Hot Chocolate (about 2,400.05 litres) in Mexico.
“Hot chocolate is just coffee in pajamas”
“Keep calm, sip cocoa”
“Hot chocolate is hot milk in superhero mode”
"Happiness is a hot chocolate moment."
1 February
On February 1 each year, Australia remembers the Underarm Incident where Trevor Chappell bowled an infamous underarm ball against New Zealand. All that time ago, Trevor Chappell bowled a ball that won the game, sparked an international incident and helped define the trans-Tasman rivalry.
It became a day in Australian sporting infamy. Cricket was exposed; sporting values and standards were revealed, and controversy remains till the present day.
The underarm bowling incident of 1981 is a sporting controversy that took place on 1 February 1981, when Australia played New Zealand in a One Day International cricket match, the third in the best-of-five final of the 1980–81 World Series Cup, at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
With one ball of the final over remaining in the match, New Zealand required a six to tie the match. To ensure that New Zealand were unable to achieve this, the Australian captain Greg Chappell instructed his bowler (and younger brother) Trevor Chappell to deliver the last ball to Kiwi batsman Brian McKechnie underarm along the ground. Trevor did so, forcing McKechnie to play the ball defensively, meaning Australia won. This action, although legal at the time, was nevertheless widely perceived as being wholly against the traditional spirit of cricketing fair play.
So it was that the outrage caused by the incident eventually led to an official amendment to the international laws of cricket to prevent it from occurring again.
Just to go back to that moment:
Trevor then bowled the final over (his 10th of the innings) with New Zealand requiring 15 to win. The first five balls of the over produced a 4, the dismissal of Hadlee via a plumb LBW, 2, 2 and Ian Smith dismissed bowled trying to heave the ball to the outfield. This left New Zealand requiring 7 to win, or 6 to tie off the final ball.
New Zealand needed 6 runs to tie the match from the final ball, with eight wickets down. Greg Chappell, the Australian captain, instructed the bowler (his younger brother Trevor) to bowl underarm in a bid to prevent the Number 10 New Zealand batsman (Brian McKechnie) from getting under the delivery with sufficient power and elevation to hit a six.
In accordance with cricket protocol, the umpires and batsmen were informed that the bowler was changing his delivery style and that the final ball would be delivered underarm. Trevor Chappell then rolled the ball along the pitch, in the style of lawn bowls.
McKechnie blocked the ball defensively, then threw his bat away in a show of angry frustration. Australia had achieved victory by 6 runs. The New Zealand batsmen walked off the field in disgust. The New Zealand captain, Geoff Howarth, ran onto the field to plead with the umpires. Howarth believed underarm bowling to be illegal in the competition, as per the rules in the English one-day tournaments with which he was very familiar, specifically the Benson and Hedges Cup.
In the confusion before the final ball was bowled, one of the Australian fielders, Dennis Lillee, did not walk into place, meaning that technically the ball should have been a no-ball on the grounds that Australia had one too many fielders outside the field restriction line. Had the umpires noticed this, New Zealand would have been awarded one run for the no-ball, and the final ball would have had to be re-bowled.
As the ball was being bowled, Ian Chappell (elder brother of Greg and Trevor, and a former Australian captain), who was commentating on the match, was heard to call out "No, Greg, no, you can't do that" in an instinctive reaction to the incident, and he remained critical in a later newspaper article on the incident.
Commentating for Channel 9 at the time, former Australian captain Richie Benaud described the act as "disgraceful" and said it was "one of the worst things I have ever seen done on a cricket field".[
As a direct result of the incident, underarm bowling was banned by the International Cricket Council as "not within the spirit of the game"
The ball rolled out its own legacy: the incident is considered one of the lowest points in Australian sporting history, drawing intense criticism even from within Australia.
Some say it was legal, but most say “It’s just not cricket!”
On February 1 each year, Australia remembers the Underarm Incident where Trevor Chappell bowled an infamous underarm ball against New Zealand. All that time ago, Trevor Chappell bowled a ball that won the game, sparked an international incident and helped define the trans-Tasman rivalry.
It became a day in Australian sporting infamy. Cricket was exposed; sporting values and standards were revealed, and controversy remains till the present day.
The underarm bowling incident of 1981 is a sporting controversy that took place on 1 February 1981, when Australia played New Zealand in a One Day International cricket match, the third in the best-of-five final of the 1980–81 World Series Cup, at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
With one ball of the final over remaining in the match, New Zealand required a six to tie the match. To ensure that New Zealand were unable to achieve this, the Australian captain Greg Chappell instructed his bowler (and younger brother) Trevor Chappell to deliver the last ball to Kiwi batsman Brian McKechnie underarm along the ground. Trevor did so, forcing McKechnie to play the ball defensively, meaning Australia won. This action, although legal at the time, was nevertheless widely perceived as being wholly against the traditional spirit of cricketing fair play.
So it was that the outrage caused by the incident eventually led to an official amendment to the international laws of cricket to prevent it from occurring again.
Just to go back to that moment:
Trevor then bowled the final over (his 10th of the innings) with New Zealand requiring 15 to win. The first five balls of the over produced a 4, the dismissal of Hadlee via a plumb LBW, 2, 2 and Ian Smith dismissed bowled trying to heave the ball to the outfield. This left New Zealand requiring 7 to win, or 6 to tie off the final ball.
New Zealand needed 6 runs to tie the match from the final ball, with eight wickets down. Greg Chappell, the Australian captain, instructed the bowler (his younger brother Trevor) to bowl underarm in a bid to prevent the Number 10 New Zealand batsman (Brian McKechnie) from getting under the delivery with sufficient power and elevation to hit a six.
In accordance with cricket protocol, the umpires and batsmen were informed that the bowler was changing his delivery style and that the final ball would be delivered underarm. Trevor Chappell then rolled the ball along the pitch, in the style of lawn bowls.
McKechnie blocked the ball defensively, then threw his bat away in a show of angry frustration. Australia had achieved victory by 6 runs. The New Zealand batsmen walked off the field in disgust. The New Zealand captain, Geoff Howarth, ran onto the field to plead with the umpires. Howarth believed underarm bowling to be illegal in the competition, as per the rules in the English one-day tournaments with which he was very familiar, specifically the Benson and Hedges Cup.
In the confusion before the final ball was bowled, one of the Australian fielders, Dennis Lillee, did not walk into place, meaning that technically the ball should have been a no-ball on the grounds that Australia had one too many fielders outside the field restriction line. Had the umpires noticed this, New Zealand would have been awarded one run for the no-ball, and the final ball would have had to be re-bowled.
As the ball was being bowled, Ian Chappell (elder brother of Greg and Trevor, and a former Australian captain), who was commentating on the match, was heard to call out "No, Greg, no, you can't do that" in an instinctive reaction to the incident, and he remained critical in a later newspaper article on the incident.
Commentating for Channel 9 at the time, former Australian captain Richie Benaud described the act as "disgraceful" and said it was "one of the worst things I have ever seen done on a cricket field".[
As a direct result of the incident, underarm bowling was banned by the International Cricket Council as "not within the spirit of the game"
The ball rolled out its own legacy: the incident is considered one of the lowest points in Australian sporting history, drawing intense criticism even from within Australia.
Some say it was legal, but most say “It’s just not cricket!”
February 2
National Crepe Day pan-swirls onto our calendar each February 2. Not to be confused with their “thicker cousins” aka pancakes, lacy, flexible crepes with crisp edges are in a culinary world of their own, where they are much thinner and lighter than traditional pancakes.
Have a hankering for a fruity breakfast? Put some fruit (maybe strawberries YUMM) on those crepes, then add a bit of cream, roll them up and, voila, it’s delicious!
What’s that? Someone else wants a savory dinner? No problem. There’s nothing like a rich beef and mushroom-filled crepe that is drizzled with gravy to round out the day.
Pressed for time? Crepes are the easy peazy go-to delicious treat we can all whip up. All we need are three basic ingredients: One cup flour, one and 1/4 cups of milk and 2 eggs. Then whisk it up till the batter is nice and smooth. And voila! You’re almost there and then the fun part: enjoy every morsel.
Crêpes are usually one of two varieties: sweet crêpes or savoury galettes. They are often served with a wide variety of fillings such as cheese, fruit, vegetables, meats, and a variety of spreads.
Is it snack time? Chocolate/Nutella on the cold leftover crepes from this morning make a perfectly quick and tasty treat. That’s right, crepes can be anything - just about anything at all!
OMG!! Did someone say dessert? Crepes Suzette have now entered the conversation. Oo la la!! A famous dessert where crêpes are flambéed in a sauce of caramelized sugar, orange juice, and orange liqueur. Just add your choice of cream or ice-cream: a guaranteed palate favourite, every time.
And there’s more. “What about cake?” The Mille Crepe Cake to be precise. Well, that’s not difficult at all. Take a rich vanilla filling and then lay down a crepe. Paint it with the filling, put on another crepe, another layer of filling, and just keep going until it is the equivalent of a massive, rich and tasty sandwich, packed with goodness and towering to the sky!
All crepes are French. Yes – and no. While the original recipe has come all the way down the Gallic culinary map, these days crepes are also blended culturally all over.
In Japan, they are known as Harajuke crepes, and are often rolled into cones and stuffed with ice cream and sweets. In central Europe, they are known as palačinka or palacsinta, being common in Balkan and Slavic countries. In India, the Dosa is a savoury, fermented rice and lentil crêpe. While in Mexico, they are called crepas, often served sweet with cajeta (goat's milk caramel) or savoury with huitlacoche. And the Germans have crepes known as Pfannkuchen, usually fried in a skillet with butter until golden brown. Russians have blini made with a yeast-raised batter of buckwheat and/or wheat flour and milk.
People everywhere craft the basic to become their own. And we’re all the better for these yummy options. And here in Oz, our flavour favs are fabulous, where we blend classic French techniques with local tastes, featuring both sweet and savoury options. Top choices include Nutella, fresh strawberries with whipped cream, lemon and sugar, ricotta with honey or maple syrup, and savory combinations like smoked salmon with cream cheese, or ham, gruyere, and spinach. The variety and choices are endless, and all depends on one thing: individual choice. So, go for it. Even “brunch” it.
Fun Fact about Crepes:
"Love is a fire of flaming brandy. Upon a crepe suzette."
“Feeding my soul, one crepe at a time.”
“Sugar, spice, and everything crepe.”
“Happiness is...a perfectly made crepe.”
National Crepe Day pan-swirls onto our calendar each February 2. Not to be confused with their “thicker cousins” aka pancakes, lacy, flexible crepes with crisp edges are in a culinary world of their own, where they are much thinner and lighter than traditional pancakes.
Have a hankering for a fruity breakfast? Put some fruit (maybe strawberries YUMM) on those crepes, then add a bit of cream, roll them up and, voila, it’s delicious!
What’s that? Someone else wants a savory dinner? No problem. There’s nothing like a rich beef and mushroom-filled crepe that is drizzled with gravy to round out the day.
Pressed for time? Crepes are the easy peazy go-to delicious treat we can all whip up. All we need are three basic ingredients: One cup flour, one and 1/4 cups of milk and 2 eggs. Then whisk it up till the batter is nice and smooth. And voila! You’re almost there and then the fun part: enjoy every morsel.
Crêpes are usually one of two varieties: sweet crêpes or savoury galettes. They are often served with a wide variety of fillings such as cheese, fruit, vegetables, meats, and a variety of spreads.
Is it snack time? Chocolate/Nutella on the cold leftover crepes from this morning make a perfectly quick and tasty treat. That’s right, crepes can be anything - just about anything at all!
OMG!! Did someone say dessert? Crepes Suzette have now entered the conversation. Oo la la!! A famous dessert where crêpes are flambéed in a sauce of caramelized sugar, orange juice, and orange liqueur. Just add your choice of cream or ice-cream: a guaranteed palate favourite, every time.
And there’s more. “What about cake?” The Mille Crepe Cake to be precise. Well, that’s not difficult at all. Take a rich vanilla filling and then lay down a crepe. Paint it with the filling, put on another crepe, another layer of filling, and just keep going until it is the equivalent of a massive, rich and tasty sandwich, packed with goodness and towering to the sky!
All crepes are French. Yes – and no. While the original recipe has come all the way down the Gallic culinary map, these days crepes are also blended culturally all over.
In Japan, they are known as Harajuke crepes, and are often rolled into cones and stuffed with ice cream and sweets. In central Europe, they are known as palačinka or palacsinta, being common in Balkan and Slavic countries. In India, the Dosa is a savoury, fermented rice and lentil crêpe. While in Mexico, they are called crepas, often served sweet with cajeta (goat's milk caramel) or savoury with huitlacoche. And the Germans have crepes known as Pfannkuchen, usually fried in a skillet with butter until golden brown. Russians have blini made with a yeast-raised batter of buckwheat and/or wheat flour and milk.
People everywhere craft the basic to become their own. And we’re all the better for these yummy options. And here in Oz, our flavour favs are fabulous, where we blend classic French techniques with local tastes, featuring both sweet and savoury options. Top choices include Nutella, fresh strawberries with whipped cream, lemon and sugar, ricotta with honey or maple syrup, and savory combinations like smoked salmon with cream cheese, or ham, gruyere, and spinach. The variety and choices are endless, and all depends on one thing: individual choice. So, go for it. Even “brunch” it.
Fun Fact about Crepes:
- In France, February 2nd is celebrated as La Chandeleur or "Day of the Crêpes". It is traditional to flip a crêpe while holding a gold coin for good luck and prosperity.
- One of the secrets to making great crêpes is letting the batter sit in the fridge for 12 hours or overnight. This gives time for the flavors to merge. Don't forget to mix it well again before cooking though!
- Aussies celebrate Pancake Day (or Shrove Tuesday) each year, on the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday leading into the Easter period.
"Love is a fire of flaming brandy. Upon a crepe suzette."
“Feeding my soul, one crepe at a time.”
“Sugar, spice, and everything crepe.”
“Happiness is...a perfectly made crepe.”
