There seems to be a request for a generic open thread tonight.
However, I also feel obligated to share one London-related story my friend just sent me, simply because I find it amusing in a perverse way. No one could have predicted that a restaurant that had customers eat sand while they listened to the sounds of waves on headphones would eventually make people sick.
The number of people who have reported falling sick after eating at the Fat Duck has risen to 400 from 40 last week, when Chef Heston Blumenthal said he was temporarily closing his restaurant because of the health scare.
The Health Protection Agency and officials from the Royal Borough of Windsor & Maidenhead are investigating the complaints about the experimental eatery, west of London, which is famed for dishes such as snail porridge and bacon-and-egg ice cream.
[….]The Fat Duck, which has three Michelin stars, was named the world’s best restaurant in the World’s 50 Best Restaurant Awards in 2005 and has been in the top two for the past five years.
[….]The restaurant normally serves more than 80 people a day, and each spends on average about 220 pounds, Blumenthal said. The tasting menu costs 130 pounds for about a dozen courses such as the Sound of the Sea, where diners don earphones and listen to lapping waves while consuming seafood washed up on what looks like a beach. The sand is a mix of tapioca and Japanese breadcrumbs.