|
Feast your eyes and be contented, our intrepid leaders are well-nourished and ready to discuss their concern. Try not to think about our Fratboy slathering ketchup and hot sauce on the exquisite dishes, filching Cheetos from his pocket, and chawing dinner rolls ("Yo, Blair!") between courses. After discussing famine in Africa, the peckish politicians and five spouses took on four bite-sized amuse-bouche to tickle their palates. The price of staple foods may be soaring, but thankfully caviar and sea urchin are within the purchasing power of leaders and their taxpayers - the amuse-bouche featured corn stuffed with caviar, smoked salmon and sea urchin, hot onion tart and winter lily bulb.
Guests at the summit, which is costing £238m (Note: that's $469m at today's rate), were then able to pick items from a tray modelled on a fan and decorated with bamboo grasses, including diced fatty tuna fish, avocado and jellied soy sauce, and pickled conger eel with soy sauce.
Hairy crab Kegani bisque-style soup was another treat in a meal prepared by the Michelin-starred chef Katsuhiro Nakamura, the grand chef at Hotel Metropolitan Edmont in Tokyo, alongside salt-grilled bighand thornyhead (a small, red Pacific fish) with a vinegary water pepper sauce.
They have told their people to tighten their belts for lean times ahead, but you feared for presidential and prime ministerial girdles after the chance to tuck into further dishes including milk-fed lamb, roasted lamb with cepes, and black truffle with emulsion sauce. Finally there was a "fantasy" dessert, a special cheese selection accompanied by lavender honey and caramelised nuts, while coffee came with candied fruits and vegetables.
...
Earlier, the heads of state had restricted themselves to a light lunch of asparagus and truffle soup, crab and supreme of chicken served with nuts and beetroot foam, followed by a cheese selection, peach compote, milk ice-cream and coffee with petits fours.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/jul/08/food.foodanddrink
The leaders tucked into truffle soup and crab as they discussed Zimbabwe and aid to Africa’s poorest people. The evening feast of 19 separate dishes included diced fatty flesh of tuna fish and milk-fed lamb with aromatic herbs. Tomorrow, after working up an appetite discussing soaring food prices, the leaders will enjoy a £200 dinner of giant crab, £50-a-kilogram langoustine and sweet clover ice cream, prepared by Michel Bras, a Michelin three-star French chef.
It is all in keeping with a summit that has cost a total of 60 billion yen (£283 million) (Note: $558m) - enough to have bought 100 million mosquito nets to save Africans from catching malaria - and that frequently seems at odds with the Japanese hosts’ professed theme of ecology and environmentalism.
...
Andrew Mitchell, the Shadow International Development Secretary, said last night: "The G8 have made a bad start to their summit, with excessive cost and lavish consumption. Surely it is not unreasonable for each leader to give a guarantee that they will stand by their solemn pledges of three years ago at Gleneagles to help the world’s poor. All of us are watching, waiting and listening."
Dominic Nutt, of Save the Children, said: "It is deeply hypocritical they should be lavishing course after course on world leaders when there is a food crisis and millions cannot afford to eat."
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article4286365.ece |
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
