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“Respiro Del Diavolo (Devil’s Breath) ice cream, dubbed “world’s most dangerous ice cream,” was created specifically for Valentine’s Day by the humble people over at Glasgow, Scotland-based Aldwych Café and Ice Cream Parlor. The treat ranks at 1,569,300 SHU on the Scoville scale, which makes it 500 hotter than Tabasco sauce.

According to brothers and co-owners of the cafe, Lee and Martin Bandoni, the idea for this potentially lethal ice cream comes from Italy. They told the New York Post:

“There was a place called Devil’s Bridge and with that, the Italian ice cream families used to meet up once a year and discuss how the year went for them. Every year it still happens over there and this year […] Martin […] brought back the idea that was passed down to him.”

The brothers say the recipe is top secret and only a handful of people know how to make this unusual, spicy ice cream. Lee even called it “a thermal explosion in your mouth” when describing the recipe to the local food agency.

To avoid any legal issues related to health, the owners make customers – who all must be over 18 years old – sign a disclaimer that informs them about potential risks involved with eating the Devil’s Breath ice cream, such as “personal injury, illness, and possible loss of life.”

But is it really that bad? Well, according to Evening Times editor Jenness Mitchell who tried the ice cream, ”

At first, the initial taste was tame. For a second, I thought I was going to have to fake my reaction, but then the hotness hit like a flamethrower to my face; my heartbeat raced as my whole mouth burst into flames.”

Source: Konbini.com

Lota Chukwu, best known for playing Kiki on “Jenifa’s Diary,” has announced a new show called “Lota Takes.”

The food and lifestyle show will kick off this November, taking viewers through Lota’s food experience.

“I love food and I love nature and because of that my team and I have decided to bring you guys on this journey with us called Lota Takes,” Lota said in an introduction video.

A food enthusiast, Lota Chukwu, who often shares her food experience on Instagram and Twitter, has decided to take it to the screen.

Lota Chukwu is a Nollywood actress, who has featured in movies such as “Dognapped,” “Fine Girl” and “The Arbitration.”

 

credit: pulse.ng

Hello ladies! Pulseng has come up with a list of foods to help make your menstrual period less painful and more comfortable. If you suffer from heavy, painful periods, this article is for you.

A few dietary changes could help to make this time of the month stress-free.

Here are five foods to eat around your period:

1. Gin

Sipping on ginger tea may help to ease painful abdominal cramping.

Ginger manages to reduce pain as effectively as the drugs mefenamic acid (an anti-inflammatory painkiller) and ibuprofen. To make ginger tea, peel a thumb-sized piece of root ginger, slice, and steep in hot water with a slice of lemon for 5 minutes.

2. Green leafy vegetables

Greens and vegetables

Walmart and Whole Foods have issued recalls on certain vegetable products.

Kale, spinach and broccoli are all high in anti-cramping mineral magnesium. They also contain vitamins A, C, B6 and E, calcium and potassium- nutrients that have all been shown to help alleviate PMS symptoms.

3. Yogurt

Full of calcium which has been found to help ease menstrual cramps. Not only that, one large study found a diet with calcium-rich dairy products lowered the risk of developing PMS by as much as 40%. Yogurt always contains “friendly” bacteria which supports a healthy digestive system and may help to ease persistent bloating.

4. Dark chocolate

Intense chocolate cravings are extremely common at this time of the month. Try eating dark chocolate as it’s lower in sugar than milk and white chocolate, but will still satisfy your sweet cravings, and as an added bonus is a rich source of magnesium.

5. Salmon, Sardines

Studies have shown that women who consume the most omega-3s have milder period pain. Oily fish such as salmon, mackerel, trout and sardines are packed full of these wonderful anti-inflammatory fats.

Aim to eat oily fish at least twice a week, and to further boost your omega-3s, flax seeds, walnuts and omega-3 enriched eggs are all good sources.

news credit: pulseng

images credit: google.com

You are not alone if you find yourself always sampling new face wash, Face Toners/Cleansers, Face Creams or even needing to always use concealers – Trust me. But you see, I found out some time ago that I could Eat my way into healthy skin complexion by regularly infusing into my diet, these super foods that will keep not just your face but your entire body glowing.

Tomatoes

Tomatoes are a great source of Lycopene which is known to protect skin from damaging UV rays while also having anti-aging properties. No matter the ripeness of a tomato, the health and skin benefits still stands. Try using fresh crushed tomatoes in your sauces, sliced tomatoes in your salads and even sandwiches to be sure you are really getting it in.

Kiwi Fruit

Eating kiwi fruit regularly will keep your skin smooth, firm, and glowing. This fruit is high in vitamins C and E and also, like tomatoes, it also is an amazing source of lycopene which heals and protects skin. Researches have shown that eating the skin of a kiwi is also extremely beneficial. Try adding kiwi to your salads, or to your morning juice or smoothies.

Avocado

Avocado is known for having a large quantity of good fats, making it one of the healthiest foods you can eat for your skin. Avocado has abundant amounts of omega-3, vitamin A, C, and E. Eating avocado regularly will help even out your complexion, moisturize your skin, keep your skin glowing and healed from any damage. Use mashed avocado on toast in the morning, or in your salad at lunch!

Carrots

Carrots are another yummy skin protecting food. They help fight against the sun’s harmful rays and actually help repair the skin from damage already done! Carrots are Packed with vitamin A, which helps boost the immune system and help speed up cell growth. Throw carrots into your juicer in the morning, or eat them steamed for dinner with spices.

Water

Calm your nerves – I know, this isn’t FOOD, but I couldn’t write this article about what to eat for skin complexion without adding Water. Drinking enough water each day is one of the most important things you can do for your skin’s health. Water consumption helps hydrate your skin, helps flush your body of toxins, and keeps your skin glowing! You should be drinking a minimum of three liters of water each day. Make your water drinking experience even more healthy and interesting by infusing fruits or vegetables like kiwi, Strawberry, cucumber, or any other thing that will benefit your skin and give the water a delicious hint of flavor.

 

Ruby Agu CFT (IREP), LWMS, ACISM
Lifestyle & Weight Management Specialist | Nutrition Consulting | Fitness Training/Advisory

You will need
2 canYou will need
2 cans of Plum tomatoes
2 medium red onions
Ginger – amount depends on your tolerance, but you should be able to smell the ginger in the uncooked pepper mix, otherwise you haven’t added enough
A sprinkling of thyme – emphasis on sprinkling
A sprinkling of curry powder
3 – 4 pieces of ata rodo – scotch bonnet/habanero pepper
3 pieces of tatashe
Sunflower oil – or your choice of veg oil
How To
1. First things first, blend your pepper mix + ginger. Take out a quarter of 1 of the onions and set aside. Make sure you keep your nose out for the ginger. Very important, but carefully ensure that you do not go overboard with it. Boil the pepper mixture to reduce it until it becomes thick. Also be on the look out for the colour. Big Oladunni’s Chicken Stew is a feast for the eyes and palate.
2. Boil your chicken with chopped onions, ginger, salt and seasoning cubes. Dooney’s Kitchen Tip: To boil chicken, you start with steaming it first in its own juices, decanting that first batch of stock, adding a little extra water, and put back on the heat again. This is how Mummy does it. She always stressed that you should never end up with more than 2, cups of stock, per whole chicken, otherwise you have just adulterated the flavour of the chicken by boiling it with too much water. Advice drilled in my ears over time. Mummy would get quite upset with you if you boiled chicken with a lot of water. Fry or grill after boiling and set aside.
3. By now, you should have your aromatic and sweet smelling reduced pepper mix. When you get to make this and you leave feedback, I really would be expecting comments about the aroma of the pepper.
4. Heat up sunflower oil in the same pot you boiled the chicken with, so as to caramelise as much of the chicken bits left behind. Chop the last quarter of the onion from step 1, add to the oil and let it fry till it softens.
5. Add the reduced pepper and let it fry. See what I as saying about the pleasant to the eye colour. Yeeeeees, once you can achieve this, you are on to something fantastic. Allow it to fry for a bit until you start to see bubbles appear in the pepper.
6. Sprinkle in a little curry powder and thyme. Emphasis on sprinkle because these spices are just flavour enhancers, and should not over power this stew
7. Allow the pepper to fry till it absorbs the oil and takes on a glossy kind of look. This is key.
8. Big Oladunni’s stew is not fried for ages like Buka stew (recipe click HERE), or else you lose the flavour of the ginger, so keep an eye on the pepper. Once the pepper has thickened further from Step 7 above, add the chicken stock, and fried or grilled chicken. Stir and lower the heat. Now, this is where the magic happens.
Dooney’s Kitchen Tip: Lowering the heat is vital. You forget and you will hear her screaming from the living room “shey o ti yina e lole”. English for have you turned down the heat. I know some may be wondering if my mother speaks any English at all, not to worry she has a BA in English from University of Ibadan and was an English teacher for years before she left to setup her own schools. Some of my memories of cooking with her just happen to be in Yoruba.
9. Allow it to fry until you start to notice oil patches on top. Once you start to notice a little oil layer above the stew, take it off the heat, and as Mummy does, just leave it to sit on its own for a while, to allow the flavours to develop before you serve.
This is a bite your fingers, crush all the bones to smithereens kind of chicken stew. Its flavour is light, delicious, flirty on your palate and tingly aromatic on your nostrils.
You will enjoy this Chicken Stew, trust me.
Your Sunday Lunch Rice and Chicken Stew will never be the same
This stew is quite flexible, in that you can use leftovers for Peppered Chicken, which is exactly what I did yesterday. Step by step recipe for peppered meats, click
HERE
2cans of Plum tomatoes
2 medium red onions
Ginger – amount depends on your tolerance, but you should be able to smell the ginger in the uncooked pepper mix, otherwise you haven’t added enough
A sprinkling of thyme – emphasis on sprinkling
A sprinkling of curry powder
3 – 4 pieces of ata rodo – scotch bonnet/habanero pepper
3 pieces of tatashe
Sunflower oil – or your choice of veg oil
How To
1. First things first, blend your pepper mix + ginger. Take out a quarter of 1 of the onions and set aside. Make sure you keep your nose out for the ginger. Very important, but carefully ensure that you do not go overboard with it. Boil the pepper mixture to reduce it until it becomes thick. Also be on the look out for the colour. Big Oladunni’s Chicken Stew is a feast for the eyes and palate.
2. Boil your chicken with chopped onions, ginger, salt and seasoning cubes. Dooney’s Kitchen Tip: To boil chicken, you start with steaming it first in its own juices, decanting that first batch of stock, adding a little extra water, and put back on the heat again. This is how Mummy does it. She always stressed that you should never end up with more than 2, cups of stock, per whole chicken, otherwise you have just adulterated the flavour of the chicken by boiling it with too much water. Advice drilled in my ears over time. Mummy would get quite upset with you if you boiled chicken with a lot of water. Fry or grill after boiling and set aside.
3. By now, you should have your aromatic and sweet smelling reduced pepper mix. When you get to make this and you leave feedback, I really would be expecting comments about the aroma of the pepper.
4. Heat up sunflower oil in the same pot you boiled the chicken with, so as to caramelise as much of the chicken bits left behind. Chop the last quarter of the onion from step 1, add to the oil and let it fry till it softens.


5. Add the reduced pepper and let it fry. See what I as saying about the pleasant to the eye colour. Yeeeeees, once you can achieve this, you are on to something fantastic. Allow it to fry for a bit until you start to see bubbles appear in the pepper.


6. Sprinkle in a little curry powder and thyme. Emphasis on sprinkle because these spices are just flavour enhancers, and should not over power this stew


7. Allow the pepper to fry till it absorbs the oil and takes on a glossy kind of look. This is key.


8. Big Oladunni’s stew is not fried for ages like Buka stew (recipe click HERE), or else you lose the flavour of the ginger, so keep an eye on the pepper. Once the pepper has thickened further from Step 7 above, add the chicken stock, and fried or grilled chicken. Stir and lower the heat. Now, this is where the magic happens.


Dooney’s Kitchen Tip: Lowering the heat is vital. You forget and you will hear her screaming from the living room “shey o ti yina e lole”. English for have you turned down the heat. I know some may be wondering if my mother speaks any English at all, not to worry she has a BA in English from University of Ibadan and was an English teacher for years before she left to setup her own schools. Some of my memories of cooking with her just happen to be in Yoruba.


9. Allow it to fry until you start to notice oil patches on top. Once you start to notice a little oil layer above the stew, take it off the heat, and as Mummy does, just leave it to sit on its own for a while, to allow the flavours to develop before you serve.


This is a bite your fingers, crush all the bones to smithereens kind of chicken stew. Its flavour is light, delicious, flirty on your palate and tingly aromatic on your nostrils.


You will enjoy this Chicken Stew, trust me.


Your Sunday Lunch Rice and Chicken Stew will never be the same


This stew is quite flexible, in that you can leftovers for pepperedchicken

Source:dooneyskitchen.com

Lotanna Amina Egwuatu holds a Bachelors degree in Engineering from Covenant University and a Master’s of Science degree from Lancaster University, United Kingdom , After her masters at the Gemological Institute of America (GIA) and training with several jewellery schools in New York, she returned home to start her own Jewellery  brand “Mina Stones” . Lotanna is actively involved in projects aimed at growing the Nigerian gemstone and jewellery industry. She shares her tale and journey with us in this interview.

Growing Up

Growing up as the third child in a family of four children, I was raised by a hard working mother and a strong willed father. They taught me the value of Hard Work, and reinforced in me the belief that with God all things are possible. As an adult, these principles have guided all my activities, especially the pioneering work I’m doing right now, by creating awareness of Precious stones in Nigeria, and their use as Jewellery.

Meet Lotanna

I am Lotanna Amina Egwuatu, born and raised in Abuja. I attended Queens College Yaba. I obtained a B.Sc in Information and Communication Engineering from Covenant university after which I did a master’s program in E-business and innovation at Lancaster  university, UK. After my masters I started Gemology courses with the Gemological Institute of America (GIA). I have trained with several jewellery schools in New York and I’m currently studying and working on building my brand – MINA STONES. I work with natural gemstones and precious metals to create handmade fine jewellery and accessories.

Passion for “Stones”

God is my inspiration. He gifted me with a passion for precious stones as well as the talent/ability to make fine jewellery from these precious stones and metals.

Personal Projects

I have some personal projects that are very dear to me. One of which also has to do with gemstones and jewellery. I’ve seen the potential in this field and I’m trying in my little way to see how we can collectively benefit from it.

In collaboration with the Raw materials research and development council in 2015, we organised the first ever gemstone and jewellery expo in Nigeria. I also have a calling to orphaned and less privileged children. I provide financial support for the school fees and overall wellbeing of these kids and by God’s grace in the future I will be able to do a lot more and especially with respect to building them up as grounded individuals and supporting their education on a greater level.

Letting Go….

I have felt like giving up several times. Those times were difficult for me , but I learnt to let go and let God. He gave me this passion for a reason.

Positive customer feedback inspire me

When I hear people tell me how beautiful my pieces are or a customer just keeps going on and on about how they are in love with their jewellery. It makes me deeply happy. I’ve received gifts from artisan miners who were grateful for my attempts at trying to grow the industry. That also made me happy. That they were seeing what I was doing and also felt the need to appreciate me made me really happy.

Nigerians know little about stones

The major challenge is the fact that Nigerians know too little about precious stones (Gemstones). I’ve had to explain over and over that natural gemstones are not man made crystals or imitations. They are mined from the earth. I’ve realised many people especially in Nigeria know only about Diamonds. But there are so many other types of precious stones like sapphire, emeralds, morganite, zircon, topaz, onyx, scapolite e.t.c and most people do not know anything about them.

Advice to women with same vision

Believe in yourself and be persistent. Challenges will come but it’s how you handle them that really matters. People will discourage you, some will encourage you. What’s most important is that you strongly believe in yourself regardless of external opinions. You can do anything you set your mind to. Only believe.

Doing something positive makes me a Woman of Rubies

I believe every woman has a unique purpose to create impact and change their world for the better in some way. I also believe in doing something no matter how small in the direction of your dreams. Right now I am actively involved in projects aimed at growing the Nigerian gemstone and jewellery industry.

Women should support one another

Our time has come. In the world we live in right now, a woman can become anything. So, let’s do just that. Let’s rise to our highest potential, and achieve great things.

Let us all do our own part and do away with the many distractions around us. We have a lot to do and I believe we get there faster when we together. As the Ubuntu Philosophy says – “I am what I am because of who we all are”. Let us all begin to look at the bigger picture.