Twitter scandal in Russia: Kremlin serves ‘salad with live earthworms’

How this is even possible??? What happened to Kremlin ‘standards’? Seriously, serving salad with live earthworms at a dinner to honour German president?!

AFP: A Russian official was branded an "imbecile" by the Kremlin after spotting an earthworm in his plate of salad at a reception for the German president and posting a photograph on Twitter.

Tver region governor Dmitry Zelenin posted a photograph of the small red worm on the edge of a plate of salad on Twitter late Tuesday at a Kremlin reception for German President Christian Wulff and his wife.
"The beef came with live worms," Zelenin wrote, cited by Russian media, adding that, "That's an original way to show that the lettuce leaf is fresh."

But the Kremlin did not relish the joke. The Kremlin's top foreign policy advisor, Sergei Prikhodko, said he regretted that there was no rule on "firing governors for imbecility" in an interview with the RIA Novosti news agency on Wednesday evening. He slammed the governor, 47, saying that: "I won't even talk about (his) irresponsibility and stupidity."

Zelenin -- who is a member of the ruling United Russia party and is in charge of a important region northwest of Moscow -- later deleted the posting.

The Kremlin kitchens are being checked after the incident, a spokesman for the presidential administration, Viktor Khrekov, told RIA Novosti on Thursday. He cast doubt on the photograph's authenticity, however. "A preliminary analysis of the photograph shows it does not match the location nor the table settings at this official event," Khrekov said. The photo simply shows a white plate on a cream patterned cloth. Zelenin also posted a photograph of the chandeliered dining room.

Bloggers jokingly compared Zelenin to the sailors of Battleship Potemkin, immortalised in Sergei Eisenstein's 1925 film, who mutinied in 1905 after they found maggots in their meat.

Poor governor who tweeted the pic. He is now facing ridicule by people in president administration and prospects of being fired.

Familiar mentality, isn’t it? It’s not the Kremlin chef or whoever responsible for the meal are “imbeciles” but the governor who spotted the worm.

Mood: amused



*picture - via Telegraph

Rats become 'Dish of the Day' in South-East Asia

ITN reports:

Soaring meat prices in Asia mean many households are serving up rat as a tasty alternative to pork.

Heavy rainfall in the Mekong Delta has sent the rodents scurrying from their holes into the traps of Cambodian villagers, who are exporting them by the tonne to Vietnam.

More than 35 tonnes of rat meat is now said to be crossing the border every day.

"Just my family alone exports one tonne or around 700 to 800 kilogrammes to Vietnam," said rat meat trader Te Lah.

Rat meat was eaten regularly in Cambodia during the Khmer Rouge regime of the 1970s and, when the price of other meat soared last year, poorer households reverted back to it.

Live rats, some as large as piglets, are selling for around $1 (66p) per kilo and dead ones - used for feeding crocodiles in Vietnam - for $0.37 (24p) per kilo.

Cambodians eat them sir-fried, grilled or in soups and rat is increasingly becoming a common dish at home for many in the rural areas.

"Rats can be cooked as Tom Yam, various types of soup, fried with lemon grass or just fried like this," said Cambodian farmer Chan Pheakdey Ratha.

"It is delicious and I eat them almost everyday," said Tuy Kimchheng.