Saturday, October 22, 2011

Mutton Cookies and Battenburg Cake

Sautéed eggplant and pasta
Food Diary (October 21, 2011)
Breakfast: Semolina porridge with banana, coconut and sunflower seeds
Lunch: Sautéed eggplant and pasta
Dinner: Polenta
Baking/sweets:

On a regular basis I check to see what search terms brings visitors to my site. Most of the key words are nothing unusual such as 3 ingredient oatmeal cookie, daim cookie and polenta bread. But then every so often unusual items pop up. Today I saw that my site is ranked #1 if you search for “ice fish spread” in google, and it comes in at number 4 if you search for mutton cookies. I have never made or tried mutton cookies. I have posted a recipe for spinach cookies though. Perhaps I need to make meat cookies to reach the number 1 spot!  

Today's Favourite Photo
"Batty" Battenburg Cake



Today’s Favourite Blog
The Centre for Retail Research in Britain does research on shrinkage of food, in other words food disappearing from retailers. According to the survey the causes of shrinkage are: 
- Customer theft, including shoplifting and organized retail crime: 43.2%
- Dishonest employees: 35.0%
- Internal error including mispricing, invoicing errors and administrative failure cost: 16.2%.

Total global shrinkage in 2011 cost retailers $119 billion, an average of 1.45% of global retail sales. India had the highest shrinkage rate of 2.4% followed by Russia at 1.74% and Morocco at 1.72%. The lowest three on the list of countries surveyed were Switzerland (1%), Hong Kong (0.95%) and Taiwan (0.9%)

Cheese is the most popular item with an estimated 3% of the world's cheese disappearing. Other popular items are fresh meat (2.79%), candy, confectionary and chocolates (2.78%), luxury cooked meat (2.74%), alcohol, liquors and whisky (2.47%), high quality seafood/fish (2.46%), infant formula (2.33%) and spices, seasoning and vanilla (2.02%).

I am a bit surprised to see fresh meat in the list since it’s a relatively large item. And no vegetables in the top 6. Some of the vegetables such as garlic and chilli are relatively more expensive. I don't want to give ideas but a couple of bulbs of garlic or few chillis could cost more than a chunk of meat, and its much smaller and easier to conceal. I guess shoplifters don't think, or they would not shoplift if the thought about their action, other than cases of desperation.

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12 comments:

  1. Sauteed eggplant sounds good. I've never heard of mutton cookies either!

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  2. That cake looks fun! Love the purple colored cake.

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  3. mutton cookies...gross!
    Well where I live meat is definitely more expensive then garlic or chilis. If the study is worldwide it can seem odd but prices fluctuate a lot for different products. I was surprised cheese was the first lol.

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  4. Mutton cookies?! No, thank you! :) Your eggplant and pasta dish looks delicious and I love the batty battenburg cake photo.

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  5. That battenberg cake is brilliant! I love it! :)

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  6. LOL ice fish spread... have you made this? I'm intrigued! :-) mutton cookied sound odd, but your eggplant pasta I would have! Yum!

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  7. Ewwwww......mutton cookies???!!!!!!!!!!! I don't think that can be any good! :P
    but the pasta and cake looks good and am sure people will always come back to your site as you have some very interesting recipes and articles!

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  8. lifeisfull: yes those mutton cookies – if you do try making them please let me know how they turn out:)

    yummychunklet: great feast for the eyes!

    Cheap Ethnic Eatz: maybe lamb cookies would be nicer? The study was worldwide, I think it covered little over 40 countries

    Elaine: are you sure, it would be delicious

    Lorraine: it is

    Martyna: No, never made ice fish spread, made regular fish spread though.

    Sylvia: it could be good with some beers maybe:) Thank you so much for your kind words

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  9. Infants' formula sounds so sad in this list... In general basic food shoplifting (not including sweets etc.) sounds sad.
    Very funny that Switzerland is at the end of the list! I suppose it depends on the city... Switzerland is very different depending on regions, some cities (like mine) are so unlike 99% of the country...
    Do you mean you haven't found any "herring" search in google?
    Ice fish spread? Have I missed a post? Mutton cookies? Both sound unusual.

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  10. Sissi: not including sweets?:) In Sweden in most supermarkets sweets are also sold in loose where you pick your own and its not unusual for people to eat. A former PM was caught eating and he was banned from the supermarket. This is similar to shop lifting, instead of eating the sweets outside its eaten inside. I have never made ice fish spread or mutton cookies. Search engines identify my site when these key words are typed

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  11. I love your favorite photos. Great way to find out about other bloggers!

    Amanda
    softandstiffpeaks.blogspot.com

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  12. That Battenburg Cake looks so colourful and artistic

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