Table Talk

Qantas opts for frog-free frisee A passenger on a Qantas flight received a nasty shock when she took the lid off her salad to find a live frog on top of the cucumber. Well, it's one way to tell the salad's fresh. The surprise was served on a flight from Melbourne, Australia, to Wellington, New Zealand. The woman had the presence of mind to slap the lid back on her meal, preventing the airborne amphibian from escaping. A flight attendant was called and removed the container. The crew notified New Zealand's Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry while the plane was still in the air, and Quarantine Service staff were waiting when it landed. The frog was "euthanased" by being put in a freezer. Since the incident, Qantas says it has changed its lettuce supplier and "introduced additional procedures into the salad supply process".
Food development Breakthrough Moat House Hotels has dreamt up an exciting new menu innovation. In a press release the hotel group boasts: "Resulting from extensive market research carried out by the company's food and drink development group, a new concept for the company known as the ‘signature dish' is to be marketed as a benchmark of excellence in its food and drink portfolio." Well, well, well. Now you've had time to catch your breath, you'll be dying to know what the remarkable "signature dish" is. Steak and chips.

Man behaves, well, badly Word reaches us that jug-eared miscreant Martin Clunes dropped in at Rock's up-and-coming restaurant, the Black Pig, for a bite to eat the other day. It seems to be something of a Cornish celebrity haunt these days. Thankfully, he behaved beautifully, if a tad fishily, throughout the meal, opting for a tempting line of South Coast bream with veg nage, sea bass with broad and butter beans, and South-west cheeses. But when asked what he thought of his meal, he reverted to Men Behaving Badly mode: "It's terrible. Can I have baked beans on toast?" Cheers, mate.