table talk
Bird flu-stricken Vietnam to get Kentucky Fried Fish
US fast-food chain KFC said last week it would offer fish instead of fried chicken on its menu in Vietnam, where a bird-flu outbreak has killed six people. Pornchai Thuratum, general director of KFC Vietnam, said the chain will temporarily replace its chicken dishes with fish. He said KFC's sales had dropped by 30% due to the bird-flu scare. About 5.4 million poultry, mostly chickens, have died or been slaughtered in an attempt to prevent the disease from spreading. KFC buys about 20 tonnes of locally raised chicken every month. Now the company is applying to import chicken from unaffected countries by the end of the month, Thuratum said.
Wozza gives £2m fizzical consideration
At the Food Standards Agency's public debate, "Defusing the diet time bomb", last week, Antony Worrall Thompson was asked: "If the man from Pepsi offered you £2m, would you advertise it?" Wozza adopted his best Chicago 1930s gangster accent and replied: "Well, I'd have to think about it."
Last orders can give grave concern for landlord
"A pint of Boddington's, a packet of crisps and a plot for four, please." It's the perfect final resting place for when the Almighty calls last orders - a grave behind the pub. Landlord Julian Taylor has added a cemetery to his pub, the Church Inn at Uppermill, near Oldham, and regulars have not been slow to secure their final resting places. Taylor says that 15 plots have already been sold at £1,000 a pop. He told the Guardian: "One has even asked his friends to pop in to the cemetery with their pints on Friday nights after he dies, so he can still have a drink with his pals."
Insomniac in the soup over wrong soup case
A Florida man who sued a restaurant claiming he had suffered a sleep disorder after getting the "wrong" soup has lost his case. Donald Johnson had been seeking the equivalent of £31,000 from the Shoney's restaurant chain after getting clam chowder instead of potato soup during a visit in 1995. But a jury in West Palm Beach ruled against the man's claim for suffering as a result of an allergic reaction to the soup. The six-person jury decided that Johnson was 90% negligent. He told the court he had been left with psychological and sleep disorders. The jury calculated his damages at just £230 for medical bills. "I thought it was a silly case," Shoney's attorney Charles Rice said after the verdict. He said the restaurant chain had offered Johnson about £600 in 1999 as a "nuisance settlement".
Rollover rolls out into Europe
Rollover, a hot dog supplier to most of Britain's theme parks, is now expanding its business into Continental Europe. First port of call? Germany, of course. Rollover has won its first major European account at Legoland in Gnzburg, Bavaria. Talk about selling coals to Newcastle…
