Sunday, June 28, 2009

Food for Sex


Last night I co-hosted a friend's bachelorette party (bride on the right there). I was the first of my friends to get married, so this was all new to me. My co-hostess did some local research and we decided to book a "For Ladies Only" (AKA "FLO") party. You know...lingerie, toys, lubes...the works. After seeing and reading some of the representative's profiles online, I got
scared. "WHAT did we do? WHO is this stranger coming to give us a sex toy presentation?" My last thought, "NO ONE is going to buy anything!" Luckily, it was a busy week and I didn't give much thought to the event.

We got this rep.
Clearly, we landed ourselves a good one.
















To my very pleasant surprise, we had a BLAST! Mixing a bride, friends, booze, and justified sex talk is just bound to be inappropriately fabulous, and doubly memorable. And it surely was. Our FLO rep ended up being a saint...and nearly 7 hours later, she was finally heading out with her suitcases of "product". That last thought about people not buying stuff...couldn't have been more wrong! Apparently her estimated 45-minute "presentation" (ours lasting 2 1/2 hours) and 1-hour order-taking (ours lasting over 4 hours), was a bit underestimated. Like I said, inappropriately fabulous...and doubly memorable.

So here I am sipping my cappuccino this morning recalling the happenings of last evening thinking, "Is there something edible besides champagne and strawberries that can 'turn people on'?" (FYI: there were lots of strawberry and dessert-flavored edibles in the FLO rep's stash).

Dear friend Google and I discovered some stuff that I found undoubtedly worth sharing with blog nation!

We've all heard that sex is great exercise, and I think most would agree. (Virgins and prudes, hit the treadmill...sorry!) Moreover, keeping a healthy diet heightens a positive attitude towards sharing your body and new experiences with your partner, says Lou Paget, author of "The Great Lover Playbook". Surely that's a great reason to tweak your diet, right? Better news yet, Paget claims that attitudes towards sexual experiences improve immediately when the diet is improved [1]. No waiting games or scale torture to endure in order to be sexually rewarded. Double bonus.

Lynn Edlen-Nezin, clinical health psychologist, states, "What's good for your heart is good for the genitals." In her book entitled, "Great Food, Great Sex: The Three Food Factors for Sexual Fitness", she explains that eating right and keeping a healthy heart enhances sensations in the genitals, creating more pleasureable sexual experiences. Elden-Nezin, along with the
International Journal of Cardiovasulcar Interventions, supports argenine supplementation* to aid in both male and female sexual arrousal. Nitric oxide (NO) being the culprit in the reaction. NO has been studied in regards to improved blood flow in coronary arteries [1].

All supplements aside, Elden-Nezin suggests the inclusion of "Staminators" in the diet for prolonged sexual arrousal. Such foods (high in arginine) include: almonds, walnuts, halibut, cod, and salmon [1]. Preparing the
right meal for your sweetie could have dual arrousal factors: being catered to and naturally "drugged" for top performane! Suckers, they'll never know...

Until my goodies arrive next week from the FLO rep, I'll be cooking heavily with fish and nuts!

*I have not personally, to date, read any credible research on argenine and CVD and/or sexual stimulation. I am not recommending argine supplementation for said purposes or verifying this information.
[1] Frankel, Valerie.
Spice Up Your Love Life with the Great Sex Diet. MSNBC. March 3, 2008.

The watermelon, "u muluni" and "gelo di mellone".



The dialect term “muluni”, or "Mellone" which in Italian is said anguria, is the watermelon.
In Sicily, simply turn to the countryside and see the great production, to understand the great love that is devoted to this fruit.


In Palermo you can enjoy the watermelon in one of the many kiosks in the city (and even near the sea), to the Foro Italico, the Cala, Corso Alberto Amedeo, etc,


where you can eat a huge slice of this fruit and truly in this case its exquisiteness is ensured.


"U muluni" can not miss during the feast of Santa Rosalia, where the people eat watermelon and “babbaluci” (snails seasoned with garlic and parsley.

By the watermelon is produced a delicious cake, “gelo di mellone”, which probably is originated from the "arberesch", coming from Albania and which has Arabic influences (the ingredients are, as well to the watermelon , cinnamon and jasmine).


Recipe:

Ingredients: 1 liter of water melon juice, 80gr starch, 200gr sugar, 1 sachet of vanilla, 1 stick of cinnamon, 1 tablespoon of holes jasmine, chocolate drops, pistachios.

Processing: Remove the peel and the blacks seeds and put in the blender the watermelon. Put in infusion the jasmine flowers in a little hot water. Put in a pot on the juice of watermelon, add the starch and dissolve it in cold. Add sugar, cinnamon and vanilla, turn on the cooker and mix, bring to boil, when it thickens turn off the fire and add the water of the jasmine. Pour into cups, to cool and then put in the fridge. Serve decorating the cups with cinnamon, chocolate drops, crushed pistachio and a jasmine flower.