Global big shots pig out

World leaders (from the US, France, Britain, Germany, Canada, Japan, Italy and Russia) have just met in Japan for their annual "G8 summit." This year they met to talk about the growing global food crisis. (Note: the World Bank has just estimated that rising food prices could drive as many as 105 million more people below the poverty line.)

In the course of their meeting, the G8 delegates had a six-course lunch and an 18-course dinner.

For lunch:
White asparagus and truffle soup
Chaud-froid of Kegani crab
Almond oil foam and tapenade
Supreme of chicken with stuffed thigh, nuts and orange savoury and beetroot foam
Cheese selection
Peach compote, ice cream and raspberry coulis
Coffee and petits fours
and two 2005 wines

For dinner:
Corn and caviar
Smoked salmon and sea urchin
Hot onion tart
Winter lily bulb and summer savoury
Kelp-flavoured beef and asparagus
Diced tuna, avocado and soy sauce jelly and herbs
Boiled clam, tomato, shiso in jellied clam soup
Water shield and pink conger with soy sauce vinegar
Boiled prawn with tosazu vinegar jelly
Grilled eel and burdock
Fried goby fish with soy sauce and sugar
Hairy crab bisque soup
Grilled bighand thornyhead fish with pepper sauce
Milk-fed lamb flavoured with herbs and mustard
Roast lamb with cepes and black truffle
Cheese, lavender honey and carmelised nuts
G8 "Fantasy" dessert
Coffee and candied fruits and vegetables
and six wines

I didn't know what the hell half of these words meant, so I ran the lists through my spell checker. It choked. As did, I am sure, just about everyone around the globe who heard about this grandiose festival of gluttony and hypocrisy. In ancient Rome, it was the feasters who threw up. In this case, I'd bet on the observers.