After tomato plants were taken back to Europe from the New World in the early 1500s, people in various places considered the fruit poisonous for the next two centuries. The reasoning behind the fear of tomatoes came from several sources:

1. Rich people ate tomatoes and then died. Their fancy pewter plates were later found to be the reason.

2. Scientists of the time classified the tomato as a deadly nightshade and a mandrake -both scary terms.  

3. Tomato leaves smell awful, so one researcher pronounced the entire plant toxic.

4. Scary-looking worms infested tomato plants.

An article at Smithsonain's Food and Think blog explains each of these concerns, which lingered far into the 1800s, plus a bonus video containing a scene from Attack of the Killer Tomatoes. Link

(Image credit: Flickr user Kicki Holmén)

Pancake artist Nathan Shields is stepping up his game. Not only do his pancakes realistically depict dinosaurs, but one also comes with an articulated jaw!

Why does the pteranodon say, "I know, I know"? Click on the link to find out.

Link

Panna cotta is an Italian gelatin dessert. How did Rhiannon get hers in this visually striking slant? Click on Continue reading to find out.

What's more summery than watermelon? Watermelon Oreos, of course! Unlike some of the other odd Oreo flavors, Dinosaur Dracula says these ones are actually pretty good, though they taste more like watermelon Bubblicious than the actual fruit. Some people would say that's even better though.

Link Via The Consumerist

Elisa Strauss isn't just a baker, but a trained artist who uses food as her medium. This cake is an example of what she can do in her studio. She used fondant and gum paste and, I assume, mushrooms, cheese and beef.

Link -via Cake Spy

This great 8-bit Mario cake by DeviantArt user I-Am-Ginger-Pops is so delightfully true to the original game's style that I can't help but get the Mario noises and soundtracks in my head.

Link

I got the drinks like Jabba...I got the driiiiinks like Jabba. Oh, and the cookies that look like Han Solo in carbonite. Of course, if anyone ever tells you they love this coffee break treat, you can only respond by saying, "I know."

Link

There was once a TV commercial in which a chef was frustrated to find that the Italians did not invent spaghetti -it was supposedly the Chinese. It ended by saying at least the Italians invented ice cream. Well, that's not exactly true, either. It turns out that earliest form of ice cream was made in -you guessed it- China.

No specific person has officially been credited with inventing ice cream. Its origins date back as far as 200 B.C., when people in China created a dish of rice mixed with milk that was then frozen by being packed in snow. The Chinese King Tang of Shang is thought to have had over ninety “ice men” who mixed flour, camphor, and buffalo milk with ice. The Chinese are also credited with inventing the first “ice cream machine.” They had pots they filled with a syrupy mixture, which they then packed into a mixture of snow and salt.

But frozen dairy desserts popped up in various places over history, making it hard to pin down any one place of origin. Read about the history of ice cream at Today I Found Out. Link -via Digg

You don't have to decorate these heroically good Rice Krispie treats with Superman's shield, but I'm glad that Janine did so. Her recipe uses dark chocolate Reese's Peanut Butter Cups and dark chocolate peanut butter spread, which apparently exist.

Link

Redditor bluesberry's mother ordered a graduation cake. She said something to the effect of "put a cap on her head." And apparently they heard that just a little wrong. Still, the finished product is a work of art! Link

It seems like a silly question, as we tend to think of spaghetti and meatballs as an Italian feast. But like many Chinese-American recipes, what we eat in the U.S. is quite different from what you'll find in the old country.

If you go to Italy, you will not find a dish called spaghetti and meatballs. And if you do, it is probably to satisfy the palate of the American tourist. So if not Italy, where does this dish come from? Meatballs in general have multiple creation stories all across the world from köttbullars in Sweden to the various köftes in Turkey. Yes, Italy has its version of meatballs called polpettes, but they differ from their American counterpart in multiple ways. They are primarily eaten as a meal itself (plain) or in soups and made with any meat from turkey to fish. Often, they are no bigger in size than golf balls; in the region of Abruzzo, they can be no bigger in size than marbles and called polpettines.

So there are meatballs in Italy. And marinara sauce. And spaghetti noodles. But combining them was a process made in America. Read about how Italians immigrants in the U.S. developed the spaghetti and meatballs we grew up on. Link

(Image credit: Flickr user Roger Ferrer Ibáñez)

Looking for poutine in all the wrong places...or, at least you are if you're looking for it outside of Canada. If you do happen to live in Canada, you have your choice of tasty poutine dishes, including this Pizza Hutt cheesy beef poutine pizza topped with mozzarella, fries, gravy, beef and tomato sauce.

Link

Takoyaki is a Japanese variety of battered and fried octopus. There's a soda that tastes just like it. Master Blaster of Rocket News 24 tried it as well as other flavors including salted watermelon, corn potage and curry.

Link

Do you know how many ways one can misspell "father"? The folks who submit pictures to Cake Wrecks have found quite a few, but the most common seems to be "farther." Besides the spelling, there are some examples of sad decorations in a roundup of awful Fathers Day cakes. Link

This cake by Conjurer's Kitchen is brilliant in that it not only looks totally realistic, but it also is reminiscent of the last scene from A Christmas Story, only with a swan in place of a duck, you get even more neck leading up to the head.

Link

A fluffernutter is a sandwich consisting of marshmallow fluff and peanut butter. It's a traditional food of Massachusetts, if not the state's signature sandwich. Shannon Marie's intoxicating version blends marshmallow vodka, hazelnut liqueur and a syrup made from peanut butter, sugar and water.

Link -via Tasteologie

The Food Lab at Serious Eats looks at things you've been told about the proper way to cook a steak. Some of what you've heard is correct, but some are just myths, like "Only flip your steak once!"

The reality is that multiple flipping will not only get your steak to cook faster—up to 30% faster!—but will actually cause it to cook more evenly, as well. This is because—as food scientist and writer Harold McGee has explained—by flipping frequently, the meat on any given side will neither heat up nor cool down significantly with each turn. If you imagine that you can flip your steak infinitely fast,* then you can see that what ends up happening is that you approximate cooking the steak simultaneously from both sides, but at a gentler pace. Gentler cooking = more even cooking.

That's just one of seven myths about steak debunked, with the science behind each. Warning: reading this will make you hungry. Link

(Image credit: J. Kenji Lopez-Alt)

A generation of Americans grew up thinking that the instant drink powder Tang was developed for the space program. That isn't true, but Tang was used during John Glenn's historic Mercury flight and then during the Gemini missions, which forever linked the drink with astronauts.

But last night, during an awards show on Spike TV, Apollo astronaut Buzz Aldrin revealed the truth about the legendary drink by saying "Tang sucks." NPR responded with a poll in which the majority of the respondents agree (so far). The comments reveal some fondness for Tang with vodka, often called a Cosmonaut, which probably has more to do with nostalgia than taste. For those too young to remember the hype about Tang, or who have never consumed it, imagine SunnyD without the 5% orange juice or the water.  

Link -via reddit

Entertaining an army full of geeks for breakfast? Then check out Kitchen Overlord's Settlers of the Noms: Breakfast O Rama where you can see how to set up a waffle station, omelette station and a biscuit display all in the shapes of the Settlers of Catan board.

Link

(Video Link)

Like the sound of creme brulee cookies, but don't think they're quite nerdy enough for your taste? Then enjoy this video by Nerdy Nummies that shows you how to make creme brulee cake balls that look like Dragon Balls.

Via The Mary Sue

It's an It's It. Wait..what?

For those of you East of the Rockies, I should explain. An It's It is essentially an ice cream sandwhich made with oatmeal cookies and covered in a chocolate shell.

Okay, then. But Randy Sarafan went even further, making his It's Its by battering pre-prepared It's Its, freezing them in liquid nitrogen, then deep frying them.

Link -via Make

A note to companies trying to promote their brand with something like the "World's Biggest Popsicle," don't schedule the promotion when it's so hot that your popsicle will melt and make the entire area covered in sticky sludge from your product. That's exactly what Snapple did and New Yorkers who had to deal with rivers of sugary nastiness weren't exactly rushing out to buy Snapple the next day.

If you think that's bad, just wait until you read these other weird publicity stunts created by major food brands.

Link

Admit it, the best part of the creme brulee is the delicious, crunchy crust. These cookies take that magical crust and a little vanilla pudding and add them to soft sugar cookies for a creme brulee treat that requires no spoons or forks. Best of all, they're incredibly simple to make!

Link 

Have you been wishing for something that tastes like breast milk, but doesn't actually contain the bodily fluid of another human being? Well then, look no further than this vegan breast milk lollipop. While I can't tell you why someone would actually want a breast milk lollipop, the company's owner did express why he decided not to use actual breast milk in the products, saying "Managing that would be a logistical nightmare.”

Link Via The Consumerist

There are some seriously goofy food trucks out there. In fact, I saw an Italian one just today with a horn that played the Godfather theme. That being said, most of these trucks are pretty standard with a goofy name and a few silly puns. Jalopnik has ten of the craziest ones out there though, including one truck that specializes in the potentially deadly fugu fish.

Thanks, but I'll stick with the giant metal pig truck that serves pulled pork.

Link

It looks like a gourmet dessert made by a professional, but it's actually really simple. The entire thing consists of ice cream sandwiches separated by layers of peanut butter and jelly and covered with Cool Whip. You're supposed to store it in a freezer for a while after you're done preparing it, but I doubt the cake will survive that long if I'm around.

Link -via Foodbeast

For Father's Day, Elizabeth LaBau is giving her husband sweet bars composed of all of the major male food groups: bacon, pretzels, chocolate, peanut butter, caramel and potato chips. You can find her full recipe at the link.

Link

Dad doesn't want flowers for Father's Day. He wants something manly, like beer and food. What better way to give him beer and food on his special day than with a cupcake bouquet with cupcakes that include beer?

There is one way you could make this gift more awesome though...throw some chocolate-covered bacon bits on these cupcakes.

Link

Not sure if you're in the mood for something salty or sweet or crunchy or chewy? Why not satisfy all those cravings at once with these buttered popcorn brownies? The secret to getting the popcorn to stick to the brownies is a heavy drizzle of condensed milk and chocolate. Excuse me, I've got to go bake some brownies and pop some corn now.

Link

(Video Link)

Can't afford to visit New York and stand outside for hours just to get your hands on an authentic cronut? Then head to your local grocery store and grab some Pillsbury cresent rolls so you can make a delicious knock-off version right in your own kitchen.

Via Serious Eats