ELECTRONIC HOUSE CALL - May 7, 1999

STILL MORE SCAMS
Max Hitchins, marketing guru from Australia, included this in his last newsletter

John Conry, an Australian hotelier, shared this clever scam story with me. He had not long taken over a small hotel after a long an illustrious football career. A customer approached him, this particular day, telling how he had followed John's career with great admiration. "Great for the ego," John said. The customer told he would be regularly traveling to the area and would like to reserve a room for three days a month. He also told how he would be bringing about twenty people each afternoon to the bar. John was delighted with the potential business. He bragged to his wife about the benefits his football career was now bringing in their hotel business.

John's source of new business asked, as he walked out, "Oh, John would you mind cashing a cheque?" (Yes, that's how we spell check in Australia). John did so willingly. One hour later a detective arrived at John's door to warn him about a con man in the area. He perfectly described John's new-found friend and client. John turned white as he told what had happened just one hour before. "I knew we were close," said the excited detective. On request John gladly gave his new-found detective friend the cheque to help him convict the felon. You've guessed it. The "detective" was in on the scam. He was the accomplice and John had handed him the evidence. Naturally it was destroyed. John said he seriously considered making a comeback to football!

HALFWAY THERE
Last week I asked if anyone knew what snow fungus and torlunas were. Well, we have half the answer . . .

From Rick Robertson: Tremella fuciformis, snow fungus, bai mu erh: immune system enhancement, anti-tumor, anti-inflammatory and liver protectant.

Diana Van Buren adds: snow fungus is also known as white tree ear fungus, silver fungus, silver ear, tremella and white jelly fungus. I got all of this information from Bruce Cost's book on Asian Ingredients, which I picked up in San Francisco.

Steve Johnson, my consultant colleague in Tacoma notes: snow fungus is a specialty mushroom (Tremella fuciformis) also known as silver ear or white jelly. The Japanese call it shirokikurage. (Steve even sent along a Thai recipe using snow fungus. I haven't tried it yet.)

A note from the Doc:
Since these items were found on a dessert menu, you've gotta wonder. Now if we can only get the lowdown on torlunas . . .

ANOTHER WEB RESOURCE
Food safety and risk management concerns and info are readily available on the web. RestaurantSafety.com presents selected links and articles that can help build your awareness of current safety and legal issues. http//www.RestaurantSafety.com

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