Fun_People Archive
18 Aug
noodle notes

Date: Wed, 18 Aug 93 14:13:45 PDT
To: Fun_People
Subject: noodle notes

 From: Steven Cantor <HARVARDA.HARVARD.EDU!SLC>

  This is an exact quote (no kidding) from the Asahi
News Service in TOKYO, though some of it has been left out.

"TOKYO - Do bread or noodles whose raw materials have been exposed
to the music of Beethoven or Vivaldi taste any better than convention
al ones?  That's the latest pitch from food makers trying to make a
big hit in a stagnant market.

The theory behind these classical music-assisted products is that
while humans relax by listening to the music, enzyme and yeast-fungus
.

[stuff left out]

Ohara Brewery in Kitakata City, in Fukushima Prefecture in northern Japan,
has made sake against a background of Mozart music for the past five
years.  Its researchers found that Mozart makes the density of yeast
used from brewing sake about 10 times higher than normal.

They have also tried the music of Saburo Kitajima, a veteran Japanese
singer, and Beethoven, but Mozart brought the best result.  Ohara, now
has a special-category of skae ... which has been highly evaluated in
sake competitions.

Tohoku Pioneer Electronic Corp. ... is doing research on the
relationship between music and the growth of vegetables and fungi."

© 1993 Peter Langston