No More Soggy Food

I have been sitting on this particular idea for at least a decade and I think it is now time to put it into the public domain and I hope someone will use it.

Years ago, I had been doing quite a bit of business travel, staying in really super hotels in SA and neighbouring countries. At night I mostly ate in my room. I loved the beautifully set trolleys and silver domes and sitting back with my feet up, munching away and watching telly.

But the problem was, no matter how many stars the hotel had, once the condensation from the food hit the top of the dome, it dripped back onto the meal – making the food soggy and things that weren’t supposed to be runny runny.

My grand idea which I tested in my home kitchen went something like this: The stuff in babies’ disposable nappies absorbs liquid and doesn’t let it out. So why not use something like this to line the domes, pizza boxes etc.

The tests conducted in my kitchen were done using panty liners (don’t laugh). After food was given a quite warm up in the microwave I stuck a panty liner or 2 to the lid of the food container and voila…..it absorbed the moisture. I also stuck liners to Tupperware lids and put veggies, whole and chopped in the containers and stuck the Tupperware in the fridge. The veggies lasted for ages and stayed very crisp. Much longer than usual.

Needless to say this was hardly a scientific study – but it worked. I have no idea what effect heating the stuff in liners does, but I am still around!

So here’s the thing. No one has done this yet – you can’t buy a roll of liner stuff, like cling wrap, to stick on the lids of pizza boxes, silver domes, hamburger takeout containers or Tupperware.

I know that it might add to the cost but do you know what it will do for people who like non-soggy food – we would love it.

There are heaps of commercial applications – hot and cold stuff for homes and hotels, meals in hospitals, meals on the airlines (just a little strip on the container lid will do the trick) take away/out places (millions of these), and so on.

Please someone use this idea……………………………

In and out of Lectures

Well, I have completed the short course I attended at Pretoria University. The campus is great. Spotless, no litter, buildings in very good repair, safe parking with guards, lecture rooms well equiped and clean and staff really polite and helpful.

A lot of work goes into preparing for and delivering lectures. The lecturer I had was super. Very knowledgeable and one of those people who just knows how to get the message across. We were given comprehensive notes and lots of hand-outs. The experience was so nice I almost ran off to sign up for more courses!

But, and here is the little mystery - can anyone out there tell me why the younger students feel that they have to leave to lecture hall every 20 minutes or so, come back in, make people move or stand up to let them back to their seats, send sms's, write each other notes.....despite our prof giving us the break times in the morning! There was this steady little stream up people bobbing up all the time.

My daughter has just been to a CSI conference - and she says exactly the same thing happened there.

Is this just bad manners?