AN Australian restaurateur fed up with the waste left by diners has ordered her customers to eat everything on their plates for the sake of the earth or pay a penalty and not return.
Chef Yukako Ichikawa has introduced a 30% discount for diners who eat all the food they have ordered at Wafu, her 30-seat restaurant in the Sydney suburb of Surry Hills, that describes itself as “guilt free Japanese cuisine”.
“To contribute toward creating a sustainable future we request a little more of our guests than most other restaurants,” she says in a list of her restaurant’s policies that is pinned on the door to the eatery.
This list includes finishing all dishes ordered which are organic and free of gluten, dairy, sugar and eggs and the chef and her staff tell people who don’t clear their plates to choose another restaurant next time.
“Finishing your meal requires that everything is eaten except lemon slices, gari (sushi ginger) and wasabi,” says the menu.— Reuters.
BIRD BOOTCAMP
AN Australian kookaburra bird is undergoing personal training after growing too fat to fly because she ate too many sausages.
The bird got into trouble with her weight when residents at a Sydney park began feeding her sausages at barbecues.
The porky kookaburra weighed in at 565 grams, nearly 40% heavier than a normal adult bird, rendering her so unfit she couldn’t fly.
“Out in the wild she’d eat a whole small animal such as a mouse or skink, but butcher’s sausages are just too much of a good thing,” said Gemma Watkinson, Sydney’s Taronga Zoo wildlife hospital nurse.
A Sydney resident brought the bird to the zoo after spotting dogs chasing her along the ground.
Following a rigorous exercise regime up to three times a day with a personal trainer, the kookaburra is winning her battle of the bulge, but still a little more weight to shed before being ready to be returned to her native habitat. — Reuters.
FOUL!
EVEN a plucky chicken which has for months avoided becoming road kill on a Johannesburg intersection can’t escape the crime-ridden city’s crooks.
Under a front-page headline “Murder most fowl”, The Star newspaper lamented the demise of the “plucky black hen” as a cruel reflection of society in South Africa, one of the world’s most violent and crime-ridden countries.
The semi-wild chicken had dodged intersection traffic for months, but was lured across the road to her death by a trail of breadcrumbs laid out by a friendly traffic-light newspaper seller. But it was a trap!
The newspaper seller was being held at knifepoint by two hungry crooks intent on a chicken meal.
“The streetwise chicken met her match,” said The Star. — Reuters.
HELL! EXPLAIN
AUSTRALIA’S Hells Angels bikies will be forced to explain how they pay for their extravagant lifestyles with sports cars and high-end bikes after losing a court case brought by the Australian Crime Commission.
Twelve of the Hells Angels bosses will be quizzed about their activities with the notorious bikie gang, dating back 19 years, Sydney’s Daily Telegraph newspaper has reported.
The bikies lost a Federal Court case on Wednesday aimed at preventing the Australian Crime Commission examination.
Sports cars, Harley-Davidson motorcycles, drugs, firearms, computers and financial documents relating to bikie activities were seized in recent police raids, said the newspaper.
As a result, the 12 Hells Angels bosses were served with summons to appear before the commission, to answer questions on tax fraud and their finances. — Reuters.