3B
LIFE/ tElit Cfiatlotte $iult
Thursday, January 8, 2004
Quick cooking: Soba noodles in broth
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
For this one-bowl, main-
dish dinner with its distinct
Japanese flavor, look for
soba, mtrin and dashi in the
Asian section of your local
supermarket or at an Asian
grocery store.
These days our choice of
ingredients once considered
exotic is excitingly expand
ed, and you may already be
familiar with the pasta, wine
and soup granules named
above.
Shopping may take more
time than the dish - which
calls for only 20 minutes
start to finish, and serves
two people. The recipe is
among ‘TOO cozy recipes* in
Better Homes and Gardens’
special publication, “All-
Time Favorites: Soups and
Stews” (Meredith, $4.99).
The recipes range from old
American favorites to a zesty
selection from around the
world.
Soba Noodles in Broth
8 ounces fi^esh or frozen
shrimp in shells
6 ounces dried soba (buck
wheat noodles) or vermicelli
2 cups reduced-sodium
chicken broth
1/4 cup mirin (Japanese
sweet rice vine)
1/4 cup reduced-sodium
soy sauce
2 teaspoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon instant dashi
granules (dried tuna-and-
seaweed-flavor soup stock)
2 green onions, bias-sliced
Thaw shrimp, if frozen.
Peel and devein shrimp,
leaving tails intact; rinse
and pat dry. Set shrimp
' aside.
In a large saucepan, cook
soba noodles or vermicelli in
a large amount of boiling
water about 4 minutes or
imtil tender.
mirin, soy sauce, sugar and
dashi granules. Bring to boil
ing; reduce heat. Add
shrimp; simmer about 2
minutes or until shrimp turn
opaque.
Drain noodles; divide noo
dles among two soup bowls.
Pour the shrimp and broth
over the noodles. Sprinkle
with green onion. Serve
immediately.
Meanwhile, in a medium
saucepan, combine broth.
Makes 2 main-dish serv
ings.
Nutrition information per
serving: 515 cal., 2 g total fat
(0 g saturated), 129 mg chol.,
2,698 mg sodium, 93 g
carbo., 4 g fiber, 35 g pro.
Low-carb beer is the biggest thing to hit breweries since light
By Judy Lin
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
PITTSBURGH - Cutting
calories used to be enough
for U.S. beer makers to lure
Americans watching their
waistlines.
Now they have to count
carbs, too. But they’re not
complaining.
Not since Miller made light
beer socially acceptable with
its "tastes great, less filling”
campaign has the beer
industry been as excited as it
is now about a growing line
of low-carbohydrate beers.
“It’s been the most success
ful new product since light
beer,” said Benj Steinman,
editor of Beer Marketers
Insight. “This is a phenome
non and no one really knows
how high is high, but no one
really knows when it’s going
to be over.”
Michelob Ultra, the first
major brand in the low-carb
beer niche; now has a 2.1
percent share of supermar
ket beer sales, according to
its brewer, Anheuser-Busch
Inc. Rolling Rock recently
celebrated the shipment of 1
million cases of Rock Green
Light in less than three
months after its launch. In
March, Coors Brewing Co.
plans to enter the low-carb
market with Aspen Edge in
10 states.
Although it’s still too early
to teU how much of a market
share the low-carb beer sec
tor v(t11 claim, analysts say
there are already more than
a dozen low-carb beers com
peting for shelf space, and
more brewers plan to join
the trend.
Tf I were guessing, every
major brewery probably had
a recipe they were testing,”
said Julie Bradford, editor of
AH About Beer magazine.
Industry analysts, howev
er, are divided about the
staying power of low-carb
beer. Bradford predicts the
low-carb beer sector will
grow mainly at the expense
of the light beer sector.
The industry generally rec
ognizes light beers as having
low calorie counts; low-carb
beers are touted as having
fewer carbohydrates. Beer
experts say half the estimat
ed $60 billion to $70 billion
domestic beer market is
from light beer sales.
The beer battle may also
confuse consumers as com
panies compete over which
brand of beer has the fewest
carbs. Rock Green Light has
2.6 grams of carbohydrates
and 91 calories. Michelob
Ultra advertises 2.6 grams of
carbohydrates and 95 calo
ries.
Companies are catering to
beer drinkers like Bill
Trogler, a 44-year-old police
detective who washed down
a plate of filed clam strips
with a glass of regional brew
I.C. Light during the lunch
rush in downtown
Pittsburgh.
“It tastes good. I drink light
to try to keep my weight
down,” Trogler said. I.C.
Light is made by Pittsburgh
Brevring Co., maker of Iron
City beer.
At Primanti Bros, sand
wich shop, engineer Ed
Gourley, 34, said Yuengling,
a regional lager, is his beer of
choice but he’s open to the
idea of low-carb beers since
shedding 20 pounds since
August.
"I think if it’ll keep the fat
off me, that’d be great,”
Gourley said.
Low-carb beer makers are
looking for specific market
segments to target, such as
female drinkers with active
lifestyles. Michelob Ultra
will become the official beer
of the LPGA Tbnr next year.
And instead of settling for
Rolling Rock’s customer core
- men ages 24-29 - Rock
Green Light hopes to appeal
to the health-conscious, said
Jon Genese, director of mar
keting for Rock Green Light.
The beer is being advertised
in men’s lifestyle magazines,
and Labatt USA, which
owns Roiling Rock maker
Latrobe Brewing Co., will air
national television commer
cials for Rock Green Light in
February.
“We felt in order for us to
make an impact and to be
able to survive, we needed to
be quick to market, and we
thought it was a very excit
ing and hot consumer trend,”
Genese said.
Bradford said it was proba
bly a smart move for Labatt
to invest its advertising dol
lars on Rock Green Light
instead of also trying to com
pete in the light beer sector
with its light beer. Rolling
Rock Light.
Along with gaining a big
ger share of the market,
Anheuser-Busch announced
plans recently to offer 12-
ounce cans of Michelob Ultra
in early January, in addition
to the bottles already in
stores. Coors .Brewing Co.
hopes to take Aspen Edge
nationwide by the end of the
year. And Miller Brewing Co.
has remarketed Miller Lite
as a low-carb, low-calorie
beer in television, radio and
print ads.
Bradford said one draw
back to the low-carb trend is
the misconception that beers
are high in calories. She says
the average 12-ounce beer
contains 150 calories, com
pared to just 40 calories less
for light beers.
“My personal view is drink
a full-flavor beer and skip
the nachos,” Bradford said.
On the Net:
N.C. flu cases drop signiflcantly
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
DURHAM - North
Carolina health officials say
the number of reported flu
cases this week dropped to
about one-fifth of what they
were dealing with just two
weeks ago.
Reporting sites around the
state show only 238 cases in
the week ending Dec. 27 com
pared to a high of 1,202 for
the week ending Dec. 13.
There were 500 cases tracked
in the week ending Dec. 20.
Health officials say it’s too
soon to know if the down
ward trend will continue and
that parents should still get
flu shots for their children.
“It remains to be seen if
we’re actually done with
this,” Durham County health
director Brian Letoumeau
said Thursday. “Kids have
been out of school, and people
have been traveling, coming
in contact with other folks
from different parts of the
country, and disease trans
mission occurs in that kind of
environment - in airports,
visiting other families and so
forth.
“We’re in that phase where
it could go either way.”
A drop in the frenzy to get
the flu vaccine also reflects
the decline. Letoumeau said
only 20 of the 80 doses of
pediatric influenza vaccine
provided to the health
department by the N.C.
Immunization Program were
used during a clinic
Wednesday. More vaccine
has arrived, he added.
The vaccine is typically
offered to healthy children 6
months to 2 years old, and for
children with chronic dis
eases who are 2 to 3 years
old.
Eight children have died
We’re always online
www.thecharlottepost.com
Labatt Brewing Co. Ltd.,
www.labatt.com
Anheuser-Busch,
www.anheuser-busch.com
Miller Brewing Co.,
WWW. millerbeer. com/av.jsp
Coors Brewing Co.,
www.coors.com
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e, Nc
...utith /Imhi Surkctt, "Ro^ifu cjool,
(IkAxUn 'Jaco^,
'2)?. 'JeHHipx ^Joknuon, y-outk *RA(iio,
^^evotioHAl /hunk, ypcun on tkc And muck mote!
in And Ait Umed!
1501 N. 1-85 Service Road • Charlotte, nc 28216
704-393-1540
/
from flu-related illness this
season in North Carolina.
Annually an average of 15
children in the state die from
the flu.
Last year’s flu season didn’t
get under way in earnest in
the state imtil the third week
in January, peaking at the
end of Febmary and dissipat
ing almost completely during
the following three weeks.
A t. M ' %
\
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Have your announcement published with a photo for
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