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The Food Show: The starchy world of 'Stodge'

For 12 years, The Food Show took listeners inside the food business, exploring news and trends in food production, marketing and consumption. Beginning in 1978, host Jim Wright – a former circus ringmaster – navigated through the gastronomical gamut as listeners learned all about the food business. From important news to tips on camel-milking or microwave cookery, The Food Show offered a wealth of information on anything food-related.

Ever wondered what Spotted Dick actually is? Bangers and mash? How about a chip butty? The English call it "stodge," a slang term for the type of fatty, starchy food that fills your stomach and devastates your arteries. Mati Laansoo offers a damning and unappetizing look at the cholesterol carnival that is stodge in this 1978 episode of The Food Show.
• British kitchens have offered some of the more creatively named foodstuffs in the English language. They include toad-in-the-hole, bubble 'n' squeak and spotted dick, which is also called spotted dog, plummed duff, figgy dowdy and steamed dicky.

• The United Kingdom ranks seventh in the world for deaths caused by heart disease. Coronary heart disease is the country's biggest cause of death, killing more than 110,000 people each year.

Medium: Radio
Program: The Food Show
Broadcast Date: May 28, 1978
Guest(s): Bing Porchester
Host: Jim Wright
Reporter: Mati Laansoo
Duration: 5:02
Photo: © Peter Millichamp. Image from BigStockPhoto.com

Last updated: January 27, 2012

Page consulted on March 26, 2013

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