Jim Paull

Another day, another product McDonald’s is throwing out there to see if it’ll stick: this time it’s garlic fries made with locally-sourced garlic.

Four San Francisco restaurants will be selling “Gilroy Garlic Fries,” made to order fries tossed with a puree mix of garlic, olive oil, Parmesan cheese, parsley, and salt, the company announced. The garlic will come from Gilroy, CA, “the Garlic Capital of the World,” which is about 80 miles south of San Francisco.

If this small test proves successful, McDonald’s will make the specialty fries available in around 250 restaurants throughout the San Francisco Bay Area.

“McDonald’s is committed to listening to our customers as seen by All Day Breakfast,” Michael Haracz, manager of culinary innovation at McDonald’s USA, said in a statement. “We’re proud of the work done by local franchisees and the regional team to create this menu item with locally-sourced garlic and we look forward to introducing Gilroy Garlic Fries to our customers in the Bay Area.”

It seems unlikely that the menu option will go national, considering the emphasis McDonald’s is placing on the local ingredients in this instance. Other regional tests the Golden Arches has tried include burgers with bourbon sauce in Kentucky and lobster rolls in New England, Nation’s Restaurant News points out, products that you won’t find on your local menu elsewhere in the country.

I don't just like asparagus — I love it! It's a bit of an obsession for me. I'll eat it broiled, roasted, steamed, baked, and even raw. To that roster of preparations is the recent addition of oven-baked asparagus fries in all their golden, crispy-brown glory.

With the help of a breadcrumb trick that you can make use of beyond this recipe, I present the crispiest, crunchiest, tastiest asparagus I've made to date — and folks, it's all done in the oven.

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Today we reflect on just another day in China where passengers took images of a grandmother who let a child urinate on the floor during their domestic flight instead of taking her to the toilet.

The incident shocked passengers who witnessed the scene on the flight from Zhengzhou to Beijing and uploaded the images.

It’s by far not the first time such disgusting incidents take place in China and make international news. Just last August we wrote about parents who let their child defecate on the airplane floor as well (access out article here).

The most recent case was reported by Shanghaiist yesterday (access here) which also caused similar outrage.

A grandmother made one heck of a midair social faux pas recently, directing her granddaughter to just go ahead and relieve herself all over the cabin floor.

Pictures from the incident were posted online by an unfortunate nearby passenger on a flight from Zhengzhou to Beijing. He says that the little girl announced her need to go potty. However, rather than escort her to the toilet, the granny simply took down the girl’s pants. A few second later, passengers were horrified to hear a tinkling sound as the girl urinated on the floor.

Netizens were disgusted by the incident. “For some of my compatriots, everywhere is a toilet,” one lamented. “Thanks to this kind of education, when this kid grows up, she is going to be just the same,” sighed another.

You sometimes really got to wonder where these animals lived the last 20 years because even in the most rural parts of China people don’t just urinate and defecate in public places. Simply disgusting!

Conclusion

Hopefully this lady will be added to the travel blacklist established by the Chinese government because such disgusting behavior is unacceptable. Send this person back to whatever uncivilized place she came from. I feel sorry for the child under her care!

PETALING JAYA: A thunderstorm not only brought cool relief to the heatwave but flash floods in various parts of Kuala Lumpur on Monday.

PETALING JAYA: A customer was at fault for purchasing fabric with the image of Jesus on it and not the department store for selling the product, the Malaysian Muslim Consumers Association (PPIM) told FMT today.

Its President Nadzim Johan said that customers should be more careful with the items they wished to purchase.

“Customers need to be more cautious when buying items. Of course, there is some fault in the seller who may have been insensitive, but as a seller he can sell whatever he wants to sell.

“If we want to purchase items, we have to make sure that we do not buy the wrong things. If you buy online, we also have to make sure that we make the best choice,” he told FMT.

He said this when asked to comment on reports by Sinar Harian that a customer had to abandon the idea of sewing an outfit for Hari Raya when she realised the fabric she purchased from a department store in Jalan Tunku Abdul Rahman contained the image of Jesus.

The customer, Aizawati Che Salleh, said she bought three metres of the material at the store recently when it was offered at a special discount.

Nadzim however stressed that every customer needed to be more careful with what they were about to purchase in order to avoid a repeat of such incidents.

“Aside from the Islamic authorities and the Ministry of Domestic Trade, Cooperatives and Consumerism, we ourselves have a role to play,” he said.

Johan said he hoped the department store would cooperate and allow the customer involved to exchange the fabric she bought with one that did not have an image of Jesus imprinted on it.

He also confirmed that PPIM had received a report from the customer regarding the matter, two days ago.

SINGAPORE: Singapore, the world’s second-busiest container port, has started building a harbour to double the island-city’s capacity to meet growing demand.

Bloomberg reports cheese may become a fad food before the end of the year, because we have so much of it:

....The U.S. is sitting on more butter and cheese than it knows what to do with, and the Europeans are to blame.

European dairy products are so cheap right now that the U.S. itself has become the new No. 1 customer for some products -- imports of EU butter doubled last year and rose 17 percent for cheese, according to the European Commission. All that excess supply is building up in U.S. refrigerators, especially as American dairy production heads to a record this year.

USDA statistics show cheese inventories at the end of March were the highest for the date since 1984, the year Prince's "Purple Rain" was released. More than half of the supply is American cheese, while Swiss accounts for about 2 percent, and the rest the government classifies as "other."

Cheap milk and dairy prices are good for those of us without lactose intolerance, but it's bad news for dairy farmers not only here but especially in Europe.

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SIBUTI: People in Bekenu and Lambir received good news today when the Prime Minister announced more than RM97 million worth of projects for the areas.

Having arrived from Marudi via helicopter, Najib Razak, in his speech also announced the Bekenu water supply system which will serve three villages in the area yet to have a permanent water system.

The water system project is worth RM94.8 million.

An additional RM3 million was announced for low income housing projects in Lambir and Bekenu.

“The Rural (and regional) Development Ministry will also look at a number of roads in the area to be earmarked for upgrades,” he said to a crowd of some 500 people at the Sibuti Rural Transformation Centre here.

Accompanying Najib today were Rural and Regional Development Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob, Sibuti MP Ahmad Lai Bujang as well as Bekenu BN candidate Rosey Yunus and Lambir BN candidate Ripin Lamat.

Najib reminded the people to use their wisdom when exercising their rights as voters, and to vote for Barisan Nasional (BN), which he said can guarantee the future of their children.

“The Opposition can only give promises and play with your emotions. Don’t talk about personal matters, use your wisdom. If the Independent Opposition candidates win, we will not accept them in BN. Vote for BN,” he said to the cheers of the crowd.

Here are ten of the best photos that readers added to the Consumerist Flickr Pool in the last week, picked for usability in a Consumerist post or for just plain neatness.

Bonus photo: please welcome Consumerist’s new hire, Archibald Leash of the Philadelphia Leashes. He’s now training as the junior officer of our K-9 unit.

Want to see your pictures on our site? Our Flickr pool is the place where Consumerist readers upload photos for possible use in future Consumerist posts. Just be a registered Flickr user, go here, and click “Join Group?” up on the top right. Choose your best photos, then click “send to group” on the individual images you want to add to the pool.

Google’s OnHub router is a pricey, but it’s still a handy smart router. It’s getting even smarter with integration with the automation service, If This Then That.

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A simple pan sauce can elevate even the most basic meals. Here, a creamy Alfredo-style sauce with Pecorino cheese makes a sublime meal of linguine, asparagus, and shrimp.

Besides playing the delicious green-ness of asparagus against the buttery notes in the shrimp and cream sauce, I love this dish for how quickly it comes together. The asparagus and shrimp are sautéed until tender and the creamy sauce is thrown together right in the pan while the pasta cooks. The linguine is ready just in time for the sauce to join it. A few chive blossoms to finish make for a gorgeous and delicious spring meal.

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TOKYO: A Japanese tourism board has called on foreign tourists to refrain from public “belching or flatulence” in an etiquette guide which was hastily rewritten, reportedly after complaints from a Chinese resident.

The Hokkaido Tourism Organization, which represents Japan’s northern-most island, published a downloadable brochure on its website, with polite instructions on everything from public bathing to using a Japanese toilet.

Helpfully, it even dedicated an entire section to protocol for avoiding bodily functions.

“Japanese etiquette is based on avoiding causing discomfort or nuisance to others,” the guide points out.

“Accordingly, Japanese will avoid bodily functions such as belching or flatulence in public entirely, or perform bodily functions as discreetly as possible.”

However, the Chinese-language guide — originally entitled “Common Sense When Travelling in Hokkaido” — upset a Chinese resident who angrily claimed the diagrams featuring examples of bad tourist behaviour were offensive, Japan’s Kyodo news agency reported.

The complaint prompted a new, foreigner-friendly version with softer explanations of Japanese customs.

In the updated guide available in Chinese and English, gone are the large ‘X’-marks next to cartoon illustrations of tourists committing, from a Japanese perspective, embarrassing gaffes, such as putting used toilet paper into the waste bin — the general custom in China — instead of flushing it away.

According to The Japan Times newspaper, the original booklet was first published last August and was targeted at Chinese tourists, including a reminder not to open products before buying them when shopping, a habit also seen in China.

China has said it will monitor the behaviour of unruly tourists abroad and punish them on their return home after being shamed by a string of well-publicised incidents in recent years.

Research by the Bank of America Merrill Lynch found that more than 100 million Chinese tourists went abroad in 2014, spending some $164 billion.

But reports of disruptive behaviour have tarnished their reputation, such as passengers scalding a flight attendant with hot water and noodles or a holidaymaker fined in Thailand for washing her feet in the wash basin of a public toilet.

Media in Japan have carried a spate of reports of alleged uncouth behaviour by Chinese visitors, though some local commentators have urged understanding, recalling that the emergence five decades ago of Japanese tourists as a force in global travel was often met with complaints about their behaviour.

Around 85,000 copies of the Hokkaido tourist brochure have reportedly been printed in Chinese and English, to be distributed to hotels and tourist attractions across the island.

– AFP

As much as I love plants, I’ve never had many for two reasons: I’m terrible at keeping them alive and I have pets. A lot of plants are either toxic to my cats or they just require too much maintenance. Recently, though, I vowed to finally bring some greenery into my space without poisoning my pets. Here are some solid options I found.

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If you’ve never been to a tailor, the process can sound a little intimidating. These terms will help you accurately describe what you want from the tailor and make the experience a little easier for both parties.

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Here's a whole slew of ways people have used magnetic knife racks to make organizing easy.

From Apartment Therapy → All the Ways You've Never Thought To Use Magnetic Knife Racks

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How do Christians and Muslims harmonize their faiths in light of the awkward realization that their central figures of devotion, supposedly inspired sages, were unable to distinguish between historical fact and inventive fiction? “Would you willingly lie to your children?” asks Rabbi Adam Chalom,...

Weekends are often a time to let loose and enjoy the finer things in life, like bottomless mimosas at brunch or fried cheese curds while watching a big game. But all that booze and rich food might leave your stomach feeling a little out of whack — and that's where this smoothie comes in.

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Tiny sweet red beets and vibrant orange young carrots — each with a shock of fresh greens — are among spring's most colorful arrivals. This salad makes the best of both, combining marinated beets, quick-roasted carrots, and tangy beet greens. A creamy ranch-style dressing made with Greek yogurt, green onions, and herbs brings it all together for a salad that's both fresh and hearty.

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Last Friday, I found myself on a mission to buy a new bra after realizing that all of my old ones had been worn to near-transparency or had picked up that classic dirt-tinge that’s somehow unique to old underwear.

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Cereal bars are a convenient choice for breakfast on the go, an afternoon snack or a post-workout pick-me-up. However, shop-bought bars can be quite expensive, and the sugar content in some is enough to send blood sugar rocketing. With a few good, basic ingredients and some tried-and-tested techniques, making DIY bars can be easy and fun. And, like with homemade muesli, you can try out all kinds of combinations with different ingredients.

The basic mix

To make 10 bars, you’ll need 250g of cereal flakes, 50g of whole cane sugar, 50g of honey, 100g of butter and 100g of the dried fruit of your choice. Try to pick good-quality organic products. Retailers selling whole foods by weight usually have a great selection of dried fruit, nuts, cereal flakes (rice, Khorasan wheat, buckwheat, millet, soy, etc.), sugars, chocolate chips, coconut, etc. Honey or agave syrup is good for binding the bars together. To mix up flavors and textures, try a blend of five cereals, with organic flakes such as oats, bran, wheat, barley, rice or rye. Dates, raisins and goji berries are great energy boosters, while seeds like linseed, pumpkin and sesame add extra crunch.

Melt the butter with the sugar and honey (or banana or agave syrup) then add the cereal and fruit and mix thoroughly.

Into the oven

To get the bars nice and crunchy, make sure the oven is preheated to 180°C. Divide the mix into mini cake molds, press down firmly, then bake for 20 minutes. Alternatively, to get bar shapes, pour the mixture onto a baking tray covered with a sheet of greaseproof paper. Press the mixture down firmly with the back of a spoon then cut into bar shapes when it comes out of the oven.

Cooling time

To keep everything held together, put the bars into the fridge or give them 10 minutes in the freezer. Once they’ve set hard, they can be removed from their molds.

Store in a cool, dark place

There’s no point creating extra waste and cost by using individual wrapping. To keep homemade cereal bars at their best, store in a cool, dark place in an air-tight box or tin. In these conditions, they should keep for a good week or so. To keep them crunchy, a sheet of paper towel in the tin can help absorb moisture.

– AFP Relaxnews

For a limited time, Amazon’s offering great deals on Anova’s excellent sous vide circulators. $159 gets you the older Bluetooth model (normally $179), or you can opt for the new Bluetooth + Wi-Fi model for $169, an all-time low. Both will cook the most tender and flavorful meats you’ve ever tried , the only real difference is how far away you can control them with your smartphone.

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When you banish clutter from the kitchen, you're more likely to use the room as intended, make dinner, and eat at home. Here are 5 tips to help you.

From Apartment Therapy → 5 No-Fail Tips for Uncluttered Counters All Year Long

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From Apartment Therapy → Even More Uses for the Beloved $30 IKEA Raskog Cart

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If you have a piano or keyboard already and just need the benefit of a little instruction in the right way to play, the best way to read music, and a little music theory, Skoove can give that to you from the comfort of your browser. It’s free to start, and if you need more instruction, it’s not too expensive.

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Here are seven of the best photos that readers added to the Consumerist Flickr Pool in the last week, picked for usability in a Consumerist post or for just plain neatness.

Want to see your pictures on our site? Our Flickr pool is the place where Consumerist readers upload photos for possible use in future Consumerist posts. Just be a registered Flickr user, go here, and click “Join Group?” up on the top right. Choose your best photos, then click “send to group” on the individual images you want to add to the pool.

These days, you probably charge as many things over USB as you do over standard AC outlets, so it only makes sense to add some semi-permanent USB ports to your home.

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Pizza is basically the most perfect food on the planet. If you saw this post yesterday, you would probably agree that it even makes a pretty great date. But if you thought that we had already reached peak pizza consumption, you'd be wrong. So very wrong.

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I love to keep a bowl of celery sticks in the fridge; they make a great healthy snack and pair well with everything from ranch dip to peanut butter and raisins. My sons will always reach for a ready-made snack, even if it is as healthy as celery.

But occasionally I don't get around to slicing it, and it creeps to the bottom of the vegetable drawer, lost under a pile of greens and other produce. By the time we find it, the celery is limp and unappealing. Since I hate wasting food, I came up with a solution.

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SINGAPORE: Oil prices rose in Asian trade on Friday, setting crude futures on course for one of their biggest weekly gains this year, as sentiment has become more upbeat despite ongoing oversupply.

International benchmark Brent crude futures were trading at $45.09 per barrel at 0054 GMT, up more than half a dollar from their last settlement.

US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude was up 52 cents at $43.70 a barrel.

With Brent up 8 percent since Monday and WTI 12 percent higher since April 18, this week is set for some of the steepest price rallies so far this year, and crude is up by more than two-thirds since its 2016 lows between January and February.

Traders said that sentiment in the entire commodity complex had turned more confident, with new cash being put into the market by investors, lifting prices.

Another factor has been producers taking advantage of higher prices by locking in production.

“We would expect producers in the US taking every opportunity to aggressively hedge as soon as there is opportunity when oil prices recover for short periods of time,” French investment bank Natixis said.

Falling output, especially in the United States, where many producers are shutting down following an up to 70 percent price rout since 2014, is also helping to lift the market.

Natixis said it expected US oil production to drop by at least 500,000 to 600,000 barrels per day (bpd) this year, compared with 2015, and by another 500,000 bpd in 2017.

Despite the recent rally, oil markets remain oversupplied as between 1 and 2 million barrels of crude are being pumped out of the ground every day in excess of demand, leaving storage tanks around the world filled to the rims with unsold fuel.

– Reuters

KUALA LUMPUR: The haze plaguing the Klang Valley since Wednesday is due to the smoke from fires in several areas in the peninsula, including peat fires in Kuala Langat and Sepang, Selangor.

Natural Resources and Environment Minister Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar, in a statement last night, said the situation was aggravated by the hot and dry weather, causing the air pollutants to float in the air.

“Currently, there is no influence of trans-boundary haze because the country is still in the inter-monsoon season that is expected to last until mid-May.

“The fires are being doused by the Fire and Rescue Department, and they are under control,” he said.

In the meantime, Wan Junaidi said as at 3pm yesterday, several areas around the Klang Valley recorded unhealthy levels of Air Pollutant Index (API) due to ground-level ozone pollution.

Wan Junaidi said the sweltering weather conditions and an increase in nitrogen dioxides (NOx) and Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC) has contributed to the rise in the API.

He said based on a report by the Malaysian Meteorological Department (MMD), as of Wednesday, Klang and Kuala Selangor had no rainfall for eight consecutive days.

MMD’s website, as at 9 pm last night, showed that the APIs in several areas, hit by the haze in the afternoon, had returned to moderate levels.

Among the areas affected were Shah Alam (API reading from 122 to 86, Batu Muda (106 to 77), Cheras (131 to 78) and Petaling Jaya (103 to 73).

An API reading of between 0 and 50 is considered good, 51 to 100 (moderate), 101 and 200 (unhealthy), 201 to 300 (very unhealthy) and 300 and above (hazardous).

The public can refer to the portal http://apims.doe.gov.my/v2/ for the latest API readings.

– BERNAMA