Anyone for steak tartare?

Interesting facts on this dish.

The medieval Tatar nomads of the Eurasian steppes tenderised slabs of beef by keeping them under their saddles. Before eating the meat raw, they added salt, pepper and onion juice – the original steak tartare.

In Germany this evolved into grilled Hamburg steak, a dish that emigrants took to the USA. In 1836 “hamburger steak” was on the world’s first printed menu, at Delmonico’s in New York. No one knows who thought of serving hamburgers in buns, but the dish was probably introduced at such fairs as the St Louis World’s Fair in 1904.

Devilled chicken

Here is something for the grey matter . . . .

Fynbos of the Western Cape, South Africa

Birthday Parties

It is a fairly well-known fact that in any group of 23 people, there is at least a 50-50 chance that two of them share a birthday.

In a group of 5, the chance that two have the same birthday is just under 3 in 100; for 15 it climbs to just over 1 in 4; and for 23 it is nearly 1 in 2.

The reason lies in a quirk of statistics. As the size of a group increases, the number of possible pairs increases as well – but at a faster rate. In group 5, there are 10 possible combinations of 2 people; in a group of 23 there are 253 possible pairs.

In his book Lady Luck. The mathematician Warren Weaver relates how this curios fact came up in conversation during a dinner party for a number of army officers during World War II.

 Most of Weaver’s fellow guests thought it incredible that the figure was just 23; they were certain it would have to be in the hundreds. When someone pointed out that there were 22 people seated around the table, he put the theory to the test.

In turn, each of the guests revealed his birth date, but no two turned out to be the same. Then the waitress spoke up. “Excuse me,” she said. “I am the 23^rd person in the room, and my birthday is May 17, just like the general’s over there.”

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Hang yourself with this one . . . .

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A prisoner on death row was visited by his jailer, who was known to be an honest man. “You will hang one day between Monday and Friday next week”, said the jailer, “but it will be on the day you least expect it.”

The condemned man thought over the jailer’s words and, after a while, his face brightened. He explained to the jailer that he had concluded that he was not to be hanged after all.

“I can’t be hanged on Friday”, he reasoned, “Because if I am still alive on Thursday, “I will certainly be expecting the noose on Friday.

“But I can’t be hanged on Thursday either.  First, I know it can’t be Friday. If I am still alive on Wednesday night, then Thursday will be the only day left. So I can’t be hanged on Thursday.

“The same is true for Wednesday, if they haven’t hanged me by Tuesday night.

“Then, by Monday night, there will be only Tuesday left, which means it cannot happen on Tuesday either. That leaves Monday, but because I now expect to be hanged on Monday, the execution cannot be held then, or your word will be broken. The truth is, you are playing a trick on me”.

The jailer look thoughtful, then said; “I can promise you that I am telling you the truth.”

Thursday dawned, and the indignant prisoner was dragged from his cell to the gallows. “You are a liar,” he shouted at the jailer.

“Not at all,” replied the jailer calmly. “You convinced yourself that you would not be hanged. As a result, any day we set for the hanging would be unexpected. Which is no more than what I said.”

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I published an interesting article on Helium: Easy ways to reduce cholesterol

Click here to read the article!

Enjoy it!!!!

Daniel de Villiers

The village barber

Life is full of contradictions and irreconcilable opposites – real twists of logic that challenge the brain. Here is such one . . . .

A man visits a village that has a single barber. The barber proudly tells the visitor that he shaves only those, and all those, in the village who do not shave themselves.

 The stranger leaves the village and next day wakes up preoccupied by a problem that perplexes him for the rest of his life. He has remembered that the barber himself was a clean-shaven man. Who, then, shaves the barber?

At first it seems clear that the barber shaves himself. But if he does, he breaks his own rule: That he shaves only the men in the village who do not shave themselves. But if someone else shaves him, the barber cannot shave all those who do not shave themselves.

Who shaves the barber?

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