Quirky World...Doggone restaurant: Chef serves last canine.

SOUTH KOREA: For more than 30 years, chef and restaurant owner Oh Keum-il built her expertise in cooking one traditional South Korean delicacy: dog meat. But the 58-year-old’s experience with a food eaten for centuries is about to become history.

Daegyo, the famous restaurant she opened in a Seoul alley in 1981, will serve its last bowl of boshintang, or dog stew, today. Opposite views on dogs as food or pets traditionally come to a head on three ‘dog days’, when many queue for the dish but animal rights activists also protest.

ENGLAND: A German artist has sparked an unlikely gold rush by burying thousands of euro worth of the precious metal on a Kent beach as part of an arts festival.

Berlin-based Michael Sailstorfer has hidden 30 bars of 24-carat gold, worth €12,500, under the sand of the Outer Harbour beach in Folkestone as part of the town’s triennial.

Fortune hunters are being encouraged to search the beach after low tide from 4pm and will be able to keep any gold they find.

The project, called Folkestone Digs, is part of the town’s triennial which happens every three years and has previously included work by artists including Tracey Emin, and Martin Creed.

Artists, including Yoko Ono, are taking part in this year’s festival which runs from August 30 to November 2.

GONE NUTS

USA: A Nutella-themed restaurant Nutelleria is soon to open in New York City.

It’s the magical wonderland you imagine, too. There’s to be crepes, breakfast pizza (topped with cream cheese, fruit and Nutella) and — wait for it — a Nutella-bacon-banana waffle sandwich.

Nutella quesadillas and breakfast burritos are also rumoured menu items. If all that couldn’t cure a hangover, who knows what will.

Regrettably, the restaurant has disappointed stoners around New York stating it will not have a delivery service. The restaurant has no association with Ferrero, instead it is run by a bunch of “Nutella enthusiasts that decided to share our love for Nutella with the rest of the world”. !

STORM SURF

USA: Thundering surf spawned by a Pacific hurricane has pounded the Southern California coast of the US, causing minor flooding and major surfing.

Crowds of spectators lined the shore as — despite the danger — surfers flocked to favourite spots such as the notorious Wedge at Newport Beach, where the interaction of swells and a jetty produced huge waves.

Joshua Magner, 35, said: “It’s like being born. You don’t know what the outcome will be, but when you do make it through all that, pressure is alleviated, it’s liberation.”

BARKING MAD

SINGAPORE: A suggestion by Singapore’s public housing authority that owners of noisy dogs consider “debarking” their pets to avoid inconveniencing neighbours has raised animal lovers’ hackles.

The authority, the Housing and Development Board (HDB), recommended in a notice posted in a residential block that one option for dogs that will not keep quiet is to ‘debark’ them.

Debarking involves removing a section of a dog’s vocal cord to reduce the volume of its bark and is recommended as a solution of “last resort” to control noisy pets, according to the website of Singapore’s Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority.

Animal welfare groups say the practice is cruel and unfair.

“A dog also barks when it is in a stressed or anxious mode, and not hearing the dog does not mean the dog is in a stable state of mind,” the group Action for Singapore Dogs said in a Facebook post.

On Thursday, the HDB apologised for causing anxiety to dog owners and said it had taken down the notice.