Archive Category: Food & Drinks
Thousand Year Egg: Is it Edible?
Alex Rushmer of Just Cook It! Blog wrote an eye-popping account on eating the Asian delicacy (read: gross!) thousand year egg or century egg for breakfast:
What we know as the white is not white at all. It is a translucent brown colour reminiscent of recycled glass. The yolk, far from being an appetising yellow, is grey. And hard. Depending on how old the egg in question is, the smell can be no more than a tickle of ammonia to an eye-wateringly sulphurous tang. Century eggs tend to be milder whereas the millennial counterparts really are a force to be reckoned with. Governments in need of an alternative fuel source need look no further than these potent little ova.
They are made by wrapping regular eggs (that taste so very good fried or poached or boiled or scrambled) in a mixture of salt, lime, mud, clay and straw and then leaving them. For ages. Occasionally they are even buried in the ground for several months before they are deemed edible. And here they were staring me plainly in the face, at breakfast.
Now, even though I’m Chinese and have eaten my share of weird food, I have to say that I’ve never had century egg and after reading Alex’s account, probably never will: Link
Recreating a Super Aussie Burger

Griffin attempted to replicate, and even improve upon, a Super Aussie Burger.
I bought half a kilo of bacon, half a kilo of cheese, six eggs, lettuce, 3 tomatoes, an onion, beetroot, sesame seeds, mustard and ketchup, from Coles, the 4kg of mince from Fine Freddys’ Meats again, and flavourings from my own kitchen. Total cost of the items bought was about $58.
It’s the second project of the Giant Burger Project. Link -via Unique Daily
Rock ‘n’ Roll Cheese Has Van Halen’s Lyrics on Label

When Advertising Age employee Matt Kinsey went shopping in New York, he ran across this curiously labeled "rock ‘n’ roll" assorted cheese: it has Van Halen’s "Aint Talkin’ ‘Bout Love" on the label!
Link - via YBNBY, Thanks Baierman!
Breakfast Hot Dog Wrapped in Bacon Goodness
Hot dogs aren’t health food - in fact, most of them will slowly kill you with their high levels of fat and other yummy yet deadly ingredients. But some dogs will kill you faster than others.
Al Dente blog has a run down of 5 cardiac arrest-inducing hot dogs that look good enough to die for!
Start the morning right with the Breakfast Hot Dog from Crif Dog’s in New York. Wrapped in bacon and deep-fried, this dog is accompanied with a fried egg and American cheese. All it’s missing is a layer of hash browns and sausage gravy. Hey, when you think about it that way, this breakfast dog is bush-league! Time to step it up, Crif’s. Read more about this hot dog here.
Now is that yummy or gross? Link - Thanks Jill Harness!
(Photo: amusingbouche [Flickr])
Previously on Neatorama: French Fry Coated Hot Dog | Hot Dogs Around the World
World’s Largest Cup of Coffee: 952 Gallons of Java!
Now that is a large cup of coffee! Vinacafe Bien Hoa, Vietnam’s largest coffee producer, has just been awarded a new Guinness World Record for the largest coffee cup:
The stainless steel structure was constructed by more than 100 people and is 1.53 meters tall, with a diameter of 2.33 meters.
Weighing in at 1,197 kilos, the cup contained 3,604 litres of coffee made with 801 kilos of instant coffee powder and 4,000 litres of boiled water. [that's 952 gallons of coffee, folks!]
Link - Thanks David E
DJ Turntable Cake by Ashley Holt

Yup, that CD on top spins!

Neatorama reader Ashley Holt made this giant turntable cake for a farewell party for her friend Preston Craig, DJ and founder of the Decatur Social Club (A great accomplishment, considering that Preston is a paraplegic. Oh, and apparently he’s quite famous for throwing awesome parties in Atlanta).
Ashley made the cake in her mom’s kitchen (and completely destroyed it in the process, she said) - she’s now going to Sullivan University to study cake decorating, and is pursuing a side business makin’ awesome cakes (Email her if you’re in Georgia or Kentucky and would like a cake made: CakedUpByAshley AT yahoo DOT com) - Thanks Ashley!
NES Controller Cake

Photo: bixwastaken [Flickr]
Neatorama reader Chris Marshall aka Bix got married on July 12th (Congrats, Bix!) and got this awesome re-creation of an old school NES controller as a groom’s cake.
The cake was made by Anika Kline from "Cakes by Anita" and the photo was taken by Maria from IQFoto.
Thanks Bix!
Foie Gras and Caviar Ice Cream
Japan is still the king of weird ice cream flavors, but France isn’t far behind after gourmet ice cream maker Philippe Faur released the … foie gras and caviar ice cream!
Link - Thanks Marilyn Terrell!
Bacon Alarm Clock
Invented by Matty Sallin, Daniel Bartolini, and Hsiao-huh Hsu, this alarm clock gently wakes you with the aroma of freshly-cooked bacon. Here’s how it works:
A frozen strip of bacon is placed in Wake n’ Bacon the night before. Because there is a 10 minute cooking time, the clock is set to go off 10 minutes before the desired waking time. Once the alarm goes off, the clock it sends a signal to a small speaker to generate the alarm sound. We hacked the clock so that the signal is re-routed by a microchip that in responds by sending a signal to a relay that throws the switch to power two halogen lamps that slow-cook the bacon in about 10 minutes.
Twitter Fortune Cookies

Photo: Neven Mrgan [Flickr]
I suspect Neven Mrgan is a genius: he’s turning some of the best tweets from famous twitterers (is that a word?) into fortune cookies! (Who wouldn’t want Merlin Mann’s tweets after some satisfying Chinese food for lunch?) - via Super Punch
Soup Bowl Table
You’ve got to be a) really hungry or b) don’t mind sharing food with your friends to dine at this soup bowl table!
"Fruchtsuppe" soup bowl/table is designed by Professor Alexa Lixfeld and students from the HfbK-Hamburg. No words whether they’ve designed a dishwasher big enough to accommodate the giant bowl: Link
“Robot Restaurant” Actually Run by Two Identical Couples
People are confused how a Chinese couple managed to run a busy restaurant 21 hours a day without getting tired. Turns out the restaurant is run by two couples … both the men and women are identical twins!
Locals had nicknamed the eatery the “robot couple restaurant” as they couldn’t understand how the same couple seemed to be on duty from 6am through to 3am. However, a journalist from Today Morning Post interviewed the restaurant owner and found out the truth. It turned out that the twin brothers, 32, married a set of twin sisters from the same township three years ago and moved to Yiwu to run the restaurant together. “Many diners thought we worked too hard and are like robots, but they don’t know that we are actually four people,” said Mao Zhanghua, 32, the elder brother.
Cake Wrecks

Cake Wrecks is an entire blog dedicated to those occasions when professional cake decorating goes horribly wrong. Sad to say, they seem to have plenty of material. Link -via Cynical-C
Fast Food Lawsuits
Fast food companies a lot of time and effort suing each other and their detractors, which can sometimes backfire by bringing more publicity! See The 7 Most Bizarre Fast Food Industry Lawsuits. Link -via Digg
Chocolate Memo Pad
The Brando website has just released a series of tasty chocolate style memo pads. The 10 x 9 x 2.3 cm large pad is available in three “flavors”: Strawberry, Dark Chocolate or Coffee. The price set to $6 a pop.
Amazing Mario Wedding Cake

The Best Mario Cake Ever from last month faces some serious competition from this amazingly detailed creation by Beth from Let Them Eat Cake in Costa Mesa, California.
We were looking for ideas to make our wedding different and our own, a unique wedding cake was one of the things we came up with. My wife suggested the idea of having a video game cake after we saw one online. We wanted a game that we both enjoyed and decided on the game series we have spent the most time playing together.
Coincidentally, the latest Mario Kart game was released on the same weekend of our wedding. This cake was designed with elements from multiple Mario Kart games, as well as a few aspects from other Super Mario Bros. games.
Link (Flickr) - via Sprite Stitch
Wanted: Kool-Aid Man

When Scott Van Den Plas noticed a wall fell over near his work, he and a friend quickly went to work on a poster to help apprehend the usual suspect: the Kool-Aid Man! (Doesn’t make sense to you? See here)
ORLY Chocolate Bar

Neatorama reader (and biggest Brazilian fan, he said) Marcelo Porpecelli sent us a pic of the best chocolate bar EVAR: the ORLY bar he bought from Wal-Mart - Thanks Marcelo!
If you like that, you’d probably like Neatorama’s ORLY shirt.
Froggy Cream Puff

Photo: 8tokyo
Noriaki Yamada of 8tokyo blog found this Froggy Cream Puff from Japanese dessert shop "Maison grace Ange." She said that the green tea-flavored cream puff was tasty as well as good lookin.’ Link
BTW, Noriaki’s having an exhibit "Fugeiten" at tortoise, in Santa Monica, California. It’s a textile craft project combining traditional Japanese hemp quilting technique with modern designs: Link - Thanks Noriaki!
Seven Deadly Sins Wine Glasses

Designer Kacper Hamilton created seven red wine glasses inspired by the Seven Deadly Sins. Take a look how he represents each sins as a glass: Link - via dezeen
Which is Better: Charcoal or Gas Grill?

Dear Neatoramans: my trusty old gas grill has been having some trouble lately, so I’m mulling the decision to get another one to replace it. Should I go with gas and be better for the sake of the environment? Or go with flavor and buy a charcoal grill?
So. I’ve got a question for you: What do you prefer, a gas or a charcoal grill? And why?
More Bad News for Starbucks Employees: Italians Develop Robotic Baristas

Leave it to the Italians to set priorities straight: for the 6 million Euros DEXMART robot project, which focuses on the development of robotic hands, a Naples University team created … a coffee-making robot!
The robot, named justine, is the first result of an 6.3-million-euroEU project called DEXMART , led by naples university professor Bruno Siciliano . Justine’s arms and hands are precise enough to duplicate some of the movements of human hands. in particular, Justine can make instant coffee. ‘The problem of using two hands together, the way humans do when the pick up a heavy plant pot, is a particularly sticky one. At present robots can use a single arm with reasonable accuracy and flexibility. But until now they have fallen short of the technological complexity and artificial intelligence needed for a two-handed approach. We want to develop a system of two-handed manipulation, equipped with sensors that make the robot conscious of its surroundings and the people in its working space’, Siciliano said.
Designboom has more pics and a video clip: Link - via Collision Detection
Five Favorite Fictional Foods
Spanno at Al Dente lists his five favorite foods from movies and TV that he’d like to try someday. I agree that Futurama’s Bachelor Chow always seemed like a good idea.
The sheer simplicity of Bachelor Chow has had me curious for a bite since Futurama started. What bachelor wouldn’t want a meal in a can? It’s like dog food for people. It’s genius! Sure you could get the same thing from a microwave dinner, but who has four minutes to heat that up?
Link via Instapundit
Pizza Around the World
You’ve read about crazy Japanese pizzas, but the rest of the world has distinctive preferences, too. In Brazil, you can get hard-boiled eggs and peas on your pizza! In Germany, you can order a pizza topped with asparagus. Lots more international pizza toppings are listed at Rue the Day! Link -Thanks, Jill!
Judge Ruled that Pringles Aren’t Potato Chips (For Tax Purposes, Anyhow)
Whatever you do, just don’t call Pringles potato chips. That’s because a British judge has ruled in a tax dispute that Procter & Gamble’s snacks "don’t look like a chip, don’t feel like a chip, and don’t taste like a chip."
Heck, Pringles isn’t even "made from potato" (even though it is) for tax purposes:
Potato chips “give a sharply crunchy sensation under the tooth and have to be broken down into jagged pieces when chewed,” the Cincinnati-based company’s lawyers argued. “It is totally different with a Pringle, indeed a Pringle is designed to melt down on the tongue.”
Warren agreed. Pringles aren’t “made from the potato” for the purposes of the tax office’s exemption, he said. He didn’t say what Pringles are, other than that they’re tax-exempt.
Link - via One Large Prawn
Whatever they are, you can still be buried a can of Pringles!
Slate.com video on the Absinthe experience
Ah, Absinthe - recently made legal again in the United States. After many experiences with different types of Absinthe over the past 8 years or so I’ve unfortunately come to the conclusion that the wonderful thing about Absinthe is its mystique. It always comes in a beautiful bottle with a fancy, often art-nouveau label. It’s never a boring color - sometimes it’s bright green, sometimes red or blue or yellow. Most Absinthes turn opaque and milky like magic when ice water is added. Finally, with a 60%+ alcohol content you’re sure to catch a buzz - or simply black out. As for the taste, think Jaegermeister without the sugar mixed with the old-fashioned amber-colored Listerine your grandmother used to keep in her medicine cabinet. In my opinion, there’s almost no amount of sugar and/or water that can be added to a glass of Absinthe to make it actually palatable. Finally, at $40 and up for a 750ml bottle at the local liquor store this isn’t “Two Buck Chuck.”
So sayeth me. The video above is a light look at a Slate correspondent’s experience.
How about you? Have you experienced any Absinthe magic? [Slate.com]
Strange Carafes by Etienne Meneau

Strange Carafes are a set of wine decanter made by French sculptor Etienne Meneau. The intricate glass carafes hold one bottle of wine and go for as much as 5,000 2,200 Euros. All I want to know is: how do you wash them?
Previously: Elastic House for Those Who "Love Instability" also by Meneau.
Newton’s Breakfast: Newton’s Cradle with Eggs
What do you get when you cross an egg holder and an executive toy? This Newton’s Cradle for eggs, titled "Newton’s Breakfast" by David Asher Wilson.
KithKin has the larger pic: Link
Spelled-Out Flatware by Kathryn Hinton

Jeweler and Silversmith Kathryn Hinton created some very interesting tableware, like this fork that lets you "brand" your food with the word "FORK." Dezeen blog has more examples of her fantastic work: Link | Kathryn’s website - via swissmiss
Bacchus’ Beer Scooter
Neatorama reader Hunter Wright was impressed by the Beer Scooter video posted yesterday. He did some further research and found this page from 2002 explaining Bacchus’ Beer Scooter.
How many times have you woken up in the morning after a hard night of drinking and thought ‘How did I get home?’ As hard as you try, you cannot piece together your return journey from the bar to your home.
The answer to this puzzle is that you used a beer scooter.
The beer scooter is a mythical form of transport, owned and leased out to the drunk by Bacchus the Roman god of wine. Bacchus has branched out since the decrease in the worship of the Roman pantheon and bought a large batch of these magical devices.








