I don’t know about you guys, but I would love to try some Romulan Ale, although the maple bacon porter also sounds pretty tasty.

Link

(Video Link)

The Superbowl might be over, but it’s never too late to enjoy a party with some sweet Slurm and Bachelor Chow. To be fair, it’s not quite Slurm being as how it is not made from the butt of a giant slug, but it certainly looks more delicious than the original.

Via io9

(Video Link)

This is what I look like after a night of hardcore blogging. To be fair, a dog this lazy could only belong to a lazy person who obviously didn’t want to bother cleaning up the spilled food himself.

Sure he looks cute, but the toppings are far from evenly spread…and how on earth would you divide it up between your guests? Worst of all, it probably is covered in cat hair.

Link Via My Food Looks Funny

By now, you’ve all heard about cupcakes and pies in jars, but can classic pizza pies be made in a jar? The concept is the same, just add your dough and other ingredients and bake. While I love pizza and the cupcakes and pies in a jar sound tasty, something about pizza in a jar just seems soggy.

Link Via Serious Eats

If Garfield were real, this brilliant combination of pizza and lasagna would be enough to give him a heart attack…assuming he didn’t already have one as a result of his terrible diet and lethargic lifestyle. The idea’s pretty simple, just pile some thin crust pizzas into a casserole dish with a little extra sauce and cheese and voila…pizzagna. It would go great with your pizza beer.

Link

Love pizza and beer? Well then, why not combine them with Mamma Mia! Pizza Beer? It’s brewed with basil, oregano, tomato and garlic flavors…yummy?

Link Via Laughing Squid

If you’ve seen the Jack In The Box commercials promoting the imaginary Jumbaco, then you probably already figured that someone would end up trying the item out, even if it isn’t actually on the menu. Sure enough, Serious Eats has gone ahead and tried it so the rest of us wouldn’t have to.

Surprisingly, the review is pretty positive other than the fact that it is so messy:

Cheeseburgers and tacos share a lot of the same core ingredients, so the flavors blended together well (with the exception of the pickle)…The shell added some texture, and the two extra slices of cheese and taco “meat” brought a touch of simulated Mexican flavor to the burger, which is pretty mono-texture and bland on its own. On the downside, you need about one napkin per bite, and under no circumstances should anyone ever look at the slimy meat paste inside the tacos.

Now that you’ve seen someone else eat it, would you try the Jumbaco out?

Link

Chinese steamed buns stuffed with meats or other delicious fillings are always a treat, but Japan might have just upped the ante with their new pizza buns found at the local 7-Elevens.While the reviewer at Serious Eats doesn’t seem to be too fond of the actual product, I think we can all agree that the idea has a lot of great potential.

What do you guys think? Yum or yuck?

Link

There’s a Hello Kitty hospital and a Hello Kitty jet, so it was only a matter of time before Hello Kitty made her way into a restaurant theme. Hello Kitty seems to be something you either love or hate, so if you ended up in Beijing, would you take the time to dine in the sickly sweet pink dining room?

Link Via BuzzFeed

Italy (basil, pasta, and tomatoes)

To promote the Sydney International Food Festival, ad agency WHYBIN created a neat series of flags made from the countries' traditional food. Some examples:

Australia (meat pie)

Brazil (banana leaf, limes, pineapple, and passion fruit)

India (curries, rice, and a pappadum wafer)

South Korea (kimbap and sauces)

Lebanon (lavash, fattoush, and a herb sprig)

More at The Kitchn blog: Link - via Good

What do you think your country's food flag should be made out of? The American flag's red stripes should definitely be made out of bacon!

Believe it or not, this is a completely edible cake. A 6′ 4″ tall Storm Trooper cake was constructed by Amanda Oakleaf Cakes for the Arisia Sci-Fi Convention in Boston. The project took ten people two weeks of work, but how they did it is no secret. By popular demand, the bakery posted a photo gallery that depicts the process of building the cake, which was later consumed by around 600 fans. Link -via Boing Boing

Finger Sporks – $3.45

Are you a fan of finger foods? Does the mere mention of the words canape or hors d’oerves make your fingers tingle with excitement? We know you dream of a world where delicious bite sized meals are always at your fingertips and that is why we present to you Finger Sporks from the NeatoShop.

With this colorful set of 4 Finger Sporks (yes, that’s a spoon and fork combo that you wear on your fingers) you will be able to sample fried wontons, tapenades, dip, and crudites without ever clamoring for a plate. Taste to your hearts content and never go home hungry at a cocktail party again.

Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more fantastic Party Supplies!

Link

These delightful cookies are even geekier than you might think…they were created using a 3D printer to create the cookie cutter. Now all they need is some nice blue frosting.

Link Via BoingBoing

Not only are these Dalek Oreos simply adorable, they also look absolutely delicious, made with Devil’s food cake balls on top of an already tasty chocolate cookie.

Link

There are plenty of great video game cakes out there, but this one “takes the cake” when it comes to epicness. Just look at how devilishly detailed this World of Warcraft Deathwing looks.

Link Via Craftzine

Burger King

In Canada, poutine, fries covered in cheese curds and gravy, is offered at almost every fast food restaurant, but BK offers their own varieties that fit in with the rest of their food –most notably, the Angry Poutine with fried onions and peppers on top.

In Puerto Rico, mallorcas, sweet pastry buns, are a popular breakfast treat and Burger King takes full advantage of the popularity of these buns by offering the King Mallorca, filled with ham, eggs and three different cheeses. If you want something even more filling, you might want to try their Enormous Omelet, which isn’t an omelet at all, but actually one of the restaurant’s long hamburger buns filled with a hamburger patty, two eggs, bacon and cheese. Later in the day, you can always snack on some King Wings, which are buffalo wings marinated in honey –why aren’t these sold in America yet?

In many countries, including the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, Colombia and Mexico, you can enjoy the deliciously fatty Cheesy Whopper, which features a deep fried disc of cheese on top of a standard Whopper.

Personally, I want to try the Hawaiian BK Chicken available in New Zealand, which is like all the other chicken sandwiches Burger King sells, only it features bacon and pineapple. Sign me up!

KFC

The variety of KFC’s international menus is simply astounding, as the American version exclusively limits itself to fried chicken and a few sides, while the international franchises seem to have no limits on what they serve. On the more standard side, there is the Fillet Tower Burger, which is available throughout Europe and other locations, which is essentially just a chicken sandwich topped with a hashbrown. On the other end of the spectrum is the menu from Thailand, which features stir fries, a tuna and corn salad, fish fingers (like chicken fingers, but fish) and a donut filled with shrimp meat. China offers a similarly strange menu compared to the standard KFC fare, as it includes corn salad, beef wraps, red bean porridge, shrimp burgers and an egg and vegetable soup.

Some of the desserts featured in other countries sound downright delicious, particularly those available in France. Some French KFC dessert selections include a banana and passion fruit tart, panna cotta with raspberry sauce and tiramisu.

As for unique dishes, the Cali Maki Twister, available in the Philippines sounds good but weird. It is a chicken wrap with mangos, cucumber and spicy mayo. Japan’s shrimp bisque pot pie also sounds pretty tasty, although the picture looks a little strange.

Pizza Hut

Naturally, Pizza Hut’s main offering around the globe remains pizza, but what does change is their topping selection. Depending on where you go, you can top your pizza with apricot sauce, asparagus, broccoli, calamari, capers, carbonara sauce, chicken fajita meat, chicken tikka, chorizo, clams, corn, crab, cranberry sauce, cream cheese, curry sauce, eggplant, goat cheese, hot dogs, kebab meat, mashed potatoes, mayonnaise, mint, mussels, potato chips, roast beef, salsa, satay sauce, seaweed, sour cream, shrimp, spicy Thai sauce, sweet corn, tandoori spices, teriyaki chicken, thousand island dressing, tuna or yogurt. And I bet some of you still think pineapple is a weird pizza topping.

As if that weren’t enough variations on your pizza, the restaurant also offers a variety of different stuffed crusts and cheesy bite fillings, including a stuffed crust with kebab meat inside and a cheesy bite crust with shrimp inside.

If you really want to see some different menu items at a Pizza Hut though, head to Hong Kong, where the menu reads more like a five-star restaurant than a crummy American pizza chain. A few highlights: escargot with mashed potatoes, lobster soup with puffed pastry, paella, squid in risotto with shrimp in a lobster sauce and crème brule. It would sound great if the sign on the restaurant didn’t still read “Pizza Hut.”

Image Via tangdersons [Flickr]

Taco Bell

Taco Bell’s international menus are perhaps the most similar to the American version, with a few exceptions. Most notably, in Spain you can order tater tot nachos with sour cream (yummy), and a Chocodilla, which is exactly what it sounds like –a chocolate quesadilla. Also, in India, many of the traditional Taco Bell items can be served with potato in place of meat.

McDonald’s

While McDonald’s is certainly the largest fast food restaurant in the world, I did neglect to include them in this list only because I already wrote about many of their international treats in this McFacts About McDonald’s article. Just in cast you’re feeling too lazy to click over though, here is a highlight:

Most Indian menus are largely different than those in America, as pig and cow products are not served outside of Southern India. The chicken and fish are also prepared in separate areas because or strict religious laws regarding the preparation of food for vegetarians. One of the area’s specialties is the Maharaja Mac, which was originally made with lamb meat but now is made with chicken. They also serve a dish called the McCurry pan, which consists of a bowl made from flakey dough filled with chicken in a tomato-curry sauce.

Naturally, there are plenty more international fast food menu options, but we’d be here for weeks if I actually described them all. If you do happen to live outside the U.S. and know of a local offering from a major chain restaurant, feel free to talk about them in the comments. Similarly, if you’ve tried any of the snacks included here, tell us what you thought about them.

Sources: BK.com, KFC.com, PizzaHut.com, Taco Bell Spain, Taco Bell India

I went to the blog Kitchen Fun with My Three Sons to check out the Star Wars gingerbread cookies. Then I was completely distracted by the post of Star Wars Party Food. There’s no end to the tie-ins, from Yoda Soda to Chewie Wookiee Cookies to the Garbage Masher Cake! Link -via Geeks Are Sexy

1. Coke

Perhaps the most documented failure of any American company was Coke II, aka “New Coke.” Humorously, despite the massive reaction against the beverage, Coke II actually smoked both Pepsi and original Coke in taste tests. While most people did prefer it, the idea of losing a beloved American classic was too much for some people, who protested and called the company headquarters until the old version was reintroduced three months later. Coke II continued to be sold until 2002 when it was pulled due to poor sales.

Of course, Coke II wasn’t the brand’s only failure, there was also Coca Cola with Lemon, Coca Cola Black Cherry Vanilla, Coca Cola Black (a coffee-flavored cola) and Coca Cola C2 (a low-carb version).

Image Via akeg [Flickr]

2. Pepsi

When you think of failed Pepsi flavors, let’s face it, one variety seems to come to mind before all others –Crystal Pepsi. While it might not have been the marketing disaster that Coke II was, it was still a huge failure and ended up being discontinued in the US only a year after its introduction. A little while later, Pepsi tried again with a citrus-flavored version called Clear from Pepsi, but that flavor also bombed and was quickly discontinued.

A few other Pepsi failures include Pepsi Kona (a coffee-flavored Pepsi that was only sold on the East Coast before it was discontinued), Pepsi Vanilla, Pepsi AM (Pepsi’s attempt to compete with coffee as the morning beverage of choice, this one contained far more caffeine than the average Pepsi), Pepsi Blue (a berry-flavored, non-cola beverage).

Image Via Roadsidepictures [Flickr]

3. Hershey

Hershey’s flops may not be as well-known as Coke or Pepsi, but they have far more discontinued flavors than either of those cola brands. You may remember some of these flavors but there are so many, at least a few will probably be new to you.

A few original products they discontinued included Bar None (a chocolate bar with two wafers and peanuts), Hershey’s S’mores (a chocolate bar with graham crackers and marshmallows), Swoops (chocolate slices shaped like potato chips) and Hershey’s Sticks (chocolate sticks individually wrapped and sold together in boxes).

They’ve also discontinued quite a few variations on their popular products, such as Hershey’s Cookies and Mint, Hershey’s Kissables (Hershey’s Kisses with candy shells) and Hershey’s Bites, which were bite-sized versions of their classic candies sold in bags.

Additionally, the company also experimented with beverages, discontinuing a premade bottled milk drink called Hershey’s Milkshake and their Hershey’s Chocolate Milk Mix.

Image Via theimpulsivebuy [Flickr]

4. Mars

Mars might not have so many discontinued flavors as Hershey, but the company is notable for discontinuing a rather popular product only because they don’t like dealing with peanut butter. The candy in question was known as PB Max and it contained peanut butter, oats, and a whole grain cookie that were all covered in chocolate. The bar sold well and earned the company $50 million in sales, but the Mars family apparently dislikes peanut butter.

Surprisingly, Peanut Butter M&M’s haven’t been placed on the chopping block yet, but Crispy M&M’s and Dulce de Leche M&M’s have, so only time will tell if the beloved M&M’s flavor will be canned solely because of its filling.

Image Via Rhian vK [Flickr]

5. Jell-O

When it comes to companies with a list of discontinued flavors longer than their existing flavors, you might want to look at Jell-O. Their discontinued gelatin flavor list includes Apple, Bubble Gum, Chocolate, Coffee, Cola, Root Beer, Mango, Passion Fruit, Maple Syrup, Sparkling Berry and more.

They also stopped selling all of their savory flavors after the mid-century trend of making Jell-O entrees and salads ended. During that period though, they sold a few notably disgusting-sounding flavors including Celery, Italian Salad, Mixed Vegetable and Seasoned Tomato.

The company has also discontinued a few unique products including their 1-2-3 Jell-O, a mix that prepared a three layer creamy gelatin, and their popular Jell-O Pudding Pops.

Image Via bunchofpants [Flickr]

6. Frito Lay

Of course, there’s probably no snack food as popular as chips and no chip company seems to have as many discontinued food flavors as Frito-Lay, which puts out Fritos, Doritos, Ruffles and other popular chips. Fritos has a long list of discontinued flavors, including Fritos Lite, Fritos Tabasco, Nacho Cheese, Wild & Mild Ranch, Cheddar Ranch Twists, Texas Grill and Buffalo Wild Wings & Ranch.

As for Doritos, one of their original flavors, Sour Cream and Onion was also one of the first to go –I guess regular chip flavors don’t work as well with tortilla chips. Of course, that’s not their only flavor to get the axe. A few other discontinued tastes include Pizza Hut Pizza Cravers, Nacho Chipotle Ranch Ripple, Cheddar Queso, Extreme Bold BBQ, Black Pepper Jack, Zesty Salsa and Texas Tang.

While I can’t find many discontinued Lays flavors, Ruffles hasn’t been as steady and some of their no longer sold flavors include Ranch, Cajun Spice and Flavor Rush (any idea what the flavor that was being rushed actually was?)

Image Via theimpulsebuy [Flickr]

7. Lunchables

When you want a more substantial snack, there’s nothing better than a Lunchable, assuming they haven’t already gotten rid of your favorite flavor. As of right now, you’re out of luck if your favorite Lunchable was All Star Burgers, All Star Hot Dogs, Taco Bell Tacos, Pizza Swirls, Pizza Stix or Fun Fuel (a slightly healthier option that included a bagel sandwich or a wrap). They also got rid of the entire line of Breakfast Lunchables.

Image Via samantha celera [Flickr]

Obviously there are tons of different snack food companies and hundreds and hundreds of discontinued flavors of said foods, so there’s no way I could have included them all here. That being said, everyone has their own favorite food that is no longer sold by the manufacturer. My favorite one is the 1-2-3 Jell-O mentioned earlier. What is your favorite discontinued snack?

Sources: Wikipedia #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6, #7, #8, #9, #10, #11, #12, Refund Cents

To be fair, not all of these adorable treats are all that Christmasy, but those that are will certainly put a holiday smile on your face.

Link

(YouTube Link)

The guys from Epic Meal Time are no strangers to bacon, in fact, it’s safe to say that their entire career rests on the back of those sizzling strips of pork.

But this time they have stepped up their game to an epic level, creating this monster Christmas tree made from over 2000 pieces of bacon, and registering at a whopping 272,000 calories! See if you can stomach this NSFW foray into culinary insanity.

–via GeeksAreSexy

Apparently, these delicious treats are starting to be carried at Walgreens. Have any of you seen these in person, or more importantly, tried them?

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Sure this Dalek looks cute on the outside, but it’s even better than it looks -when you crush the chocolate shell top with a wooden sonic screwdriver , you can find a tentacled Dalek inside. You can find directions to make your own at the link.

Link Via Craftzine

Personally, I love clam chowder and I like to try new things, so although I don’t have much faith in the flavor of Clam Chowder Doritos, I would still give them a shot. Surprisingly though, they actually are described as being pretty tasty and actually tasting like clam chowder.

So, I ask again, would you try them?

Link

A bacon helmet might not help you protect yourself from dragons, but on the upside, it’s probably a great way to fight off hunger while questing for hours on end.

Link Via Geeks Are Sexy

Super Heroes

They may not be the most artistic gingerbread creations, but these super hero designs by Sugar Swings are certainly adorable and they look absolutely delicious as well.

Russian Literary Greats

For those who like their gingerbread men to be a little less chipper and lot more serious, these figureheads of Russian culture by Craftster forum user Woolylogic are a good choice. Choose between Turgenev, Dostoyevsky (above), Tolstoy and Gogol.

Architectural Masterpieces

Sure anyone can make a one-room gingerbread shack, but turning a unique architectural design into a gingerbread creation takes a heck of a lot more skill. That’s why these great designs by real architecture firms went for so much money when they were auctioned off for charity. In fact, the one above, by Nick Milkovich Architects, Inc., sold for $610.

The Weasley Family Burrow

While this architectural marvel may not look familiar to everyone, Harry Potter fans will instantly recognize it as The Burrow, the adorably charming home of the Weasley clan. Creator mezcraft from the Craftster forums even added the special monogrammed sweaters Mrs. Weasley makes for each of her children at Christmas.

Hogwarts

Of course, the most iconic Harry Potter building is Hogwarts and Britta’s incredibly detailed gingerbread version is an impressive tribute to the majesty of the world-famous wizarding school. Best of all, she’s even got pictures of the entire arduous process so you could attempt to make your own at home…with a whole lot of time and dedication.

Up House

While the home in Pixar’s Up may not be as elaborate as Hogwarts, it is still certainly memorable enough to deserve its own gingerbread tribute, and this one, by Craftster forum user LawrenceKSRealEstate, is perfect, complete with its own set of giant balloons.

AT-AT

Have you ever wondered what would happen if an AT-At took a little off time to go walking through a winter wonderland? Rachel Klemek from the Black Market Bakery did and here’s the delightfully fun and disastrous results as photographed by Instagram user mommy_pants.

AT-AT

This is the only gingerbread creation with two incarnations here, but just look at this adorable design by Flickr user Chez 282 and you’ll realize why they both deserve to be on this list. While this one might not have the elaborate setting to go with it, it does feature far more decoration on the AT-AT itself.

Millennium Falcon

While this time lapse video by YouTube user FresoSweden doesn’t show you enough t instruct you to make your own fastest hunk of junk in the galaxy, it does show you just how much effort went in to making this gingerbread masterpiece.

Ewok Village

Yes, one last Star Wars gingerbread creation (there are a lot to choose from). Here’s an Ewok village complete with a Death Star sitting on the sky above. The Infinate Yums has detailed photos showing the entire time-consuming process.

Starship Enterprise

Don’t worry Star Trek fans, while we may not have as many gingerbread creations from this side of the sci fi spectrum, you can at least enjoy this great Starship Enterprise by Reddit user nem8.

Tardis

Of course, we also have a gingerbread creation from the favorite sci fi series on the other side of the pond. This gingerbread Tardis by LiveJournal user theruu is not only bigger on the inside, but it also comes with detailed instructions to make your own, including a recipe for the gingerbread and frosting.

Serenity

For those that prefer their sci-fi to be a little less mainstream, this Serenity gingerbread model is certain to impress the fans of the cult-favorite Firefly. If you want to make your own, there are plenty of how to pictures on the FaceBook page of its creator, Kristoffer Gressli.

Teracotta Army

History buffs need not be too jealous of sci fi fans. While you may not have as many gingerbread options, you can always content yourself with your own gingerbread version of China’s famous Terracotta army. These lovely little warriors were created by The Pastry Case bakery as part of the 2007 Nantwich Food and Drink Festival.

Ninjabread Men

In the long-standing war between pirates and ninjas, the sneaky assassins have one distinct advantage: they also come in butt-kicking gingerbread form. Sure you could probably style some regular gingerbread men to look like pirates, but they just aren’t going to be as cool as these ones that were specifically designed with ninja moves in mind. Alternatively, you can always get one of these great gingerbread zombies from the Neatoshop knowing they’ll never go bad.

Of course, if all of these gingerbread delights aren’t enough to satiate you, then feel free to go back and enjoy Stacy’s look at gingerbread masterpieces from 2008. As for you guys, have any of you ever made a geeky gingerbread creation or are you planning to try one out this year? If so, what was your gingerbread design?

That’s because she used spices and other ingredients for cooking to recreate the scenes, and the textures feel much more like the original paintings than most recreations i’ve seen. And when she’s done snapping pics of the scenes she’s created, she can cook up a tasty meal!

Link –via DesignTAXI

When TV characters cook, the results are often disgusting.

Drink: Flaming Homer

Show: The Simpsons (1991)

Origin: Homer is bored at home one night -forced to watch his in-law’s vacation slides- and he doesn’t have any beer, so he makes a cocktail from whatever he can find. He pours the leftover bits from several liquor bottles into a blender, along with the accidental addition of “Krusty’s Non-Narkotic Kough Syrup.” Homer thinks it tastes okay… but it’s even better after it’s lit afire by a stray cigarette ash. “I don’t know the scientific explanation, but fire made it good,” Homer says when he recreates the “Flaming Homer” at Moe’s Tavern. Moe then steals the idea and starts serving the drink (for $6.95) and renames it “The Flaming Moe.”

Food: Chocolate Salty Balls

Show: South Park (1998)

Origin: When the Sundance Film Festival comes to town, the soul-singing school cafeteria cook Chef (voice of Isaac Hayes) opens a stand to sell cookies to tourists. His most popular item: His “Chocolate Salty Balls.” It’s a blatant double entendre, and Chef even sings a song about them: “Hey, everybody, have you seen my balls? They’re big and salty and brown!” The song (which reached #1 in England) gives the recipe: cinnamon, egg whites, melted butter, flour, unsweetened chocolate, brandy, vanilla, and sugar. (Curiously, it doesn’t call for salt.)

(Image credit: Garnished Adventures)

Drink: Thankstini

Show: How I Met Your Mother (2005)

Origins: This cocktail, a martini, invented by booze-swilling playboy Barney (Neil Patrick Harris), combines Thanksgiving food with booze. It’s made from two ounces of potato vodka, four ounces of cranberry juice …and a bouillon cube for that poultry flavor. Barney remarks that it “tastes just like a turkey dinner.”

Food: Skip’s Scramble

Show: Arrested Development (2005)

Origin: On one episode, characters eat Sunday brunch at a bistro called Skip’s Church (the joke being that people “skip church” to go there). A brief shot of the menu shows standard brunch fare, along with an omelet called Skips Scramble. Its description: “Too many choices? Menu too big to swallow? Let Skip serve you up a scram that has something from every dish on the menu. It will knock you into next week!” Price: $47.95. The dish includes eggs, ten slices of bacon, ham, peppers, onion, sausage, and a chocolate glazed doughnut. (The menu also features the disclaimer that Skip’s Church is “not responsible for medical bills of deformities resulting from the digestion of its menu items.”)

(YouTube link)

Drink: Killer Shrew

Show: Mystery Science Theater 3000 (1992)

Origin: On an episode of the movie send-up show revolving around the 1959 movie called Killer Shrews, Joel (Joel Hodgson) and his robot companions devise the “Killer Shrew,” a cocktail that’s non-alcoholic but not very healthy. The recipe: combine chocolate chip ice cream, Cap’n Crunch with Crunchberries, Peanut M&Ms, pancake syrup, Circus Peanuts, Mr. Pibb, Marshmallow Peeps, Sweet Tarts candies, vanilla cake frosting, and Good & Plenty in a blender. Then, “pour into a plastic tulip vase” and throw in a wind-up toy shrew. Joel took a sip… and fell into a diabetic coma from all the sugar. (Note: If you throw in wax lips, it’s no longer a Killer Shrew; it’s a “Vulcan Mind Probe.”)

(Image source: iCarly)

Food: Spaghetti Tacos

Show: iCarly (2009)

Origin: One on episode of the popular nickelodeon comedy, Spencer (Jerry Trainor) had no idea what to make for dinner. So he invented spaghetti tacos, hard taco shells filled with noodles and marinara sauce. Since that episode aired in 2009, the food became a cultural phenomenon both on the show and in real life. In one episode, characters oversee a spaghetti-taco-making contest on a cable show, and in the real world, spaghetti tacos were the most-requested food item at American school cafeterias in 2010. “Spaghetti tacos made it possible to eat spaghetti in your car,” said Syracuse University pop-culture professor Robert Thompson in The New York Times. “It’s an important technological development.”

(YouTube link)

Drink: Bloody Awful

Show: Top Gear (2008)

Origin: This British show about cars and other manly stuff is co-hosted by Jeremy Clarkson, who came up with this recipe for what he calls “a man’s V8 smoothie.” And that’s not V8, as in the vegetable drink- that’s V8, as in the high-powered car engine, which he used to power a blender. Into that blender were placed a few pounds of raw beef with the bones, a dozen hot chilies, a half gallon of Bovril (a meat flavoring agent and tenderizer), two cups of Tabasco sauce…and a brick.

Food: Shepherd’s Pie Trifle

Show: Friends (1999)

Origin: In a Thanksgiving episode, chef Monica (Courtney Cox) makes a holiday feast, while Rachel (Jennifer Anniston) volunteers to make a trifle for dessert. The British dish is traditionally made up of cake, custard, and fruit, but when the pages of Rachel’s cookbook get stuck together, she inadvertently mixes in the ingredients of shepherd’s pie with the trifle, making for a disgusting crossbreed of the two. Joey (Matt LeBlanc), who has a huge appetite, doesn’t think there’s anything wrong with the dish, and eats the whole thing himself. “What’s not to like? Custard, good. Jam, good. Meat, good.” Ross disagrees, saying that it “tastes like feet.”

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The article above was reprinted with permission from Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader Tunes Into TV.

Since 1988, the Bathroom Reader Institute had published a series of popular books containing irresistible bits of trivia and obscure yet fascinating facts.

If you like Neatorama, you’ll love the Bathroom Reader Institute’s books – go ahead and check ‘em out!

If you abide by the rule that the smaller something is, the cuter it must be, then it’s hard to argue that these are undoubtedly the cutest donuts in the world. They are made from Cheerios though, so the same can’t be said about their tastiness.

Link

Frosty the Cheeseball Man is just like your everyday snowman, they melt away, except they are far, far more delicious. This terrifying treat was made by the same genius who invented the churpumple pie/cake crossover.

Link Via Geekosystem

If you like cheeseburgers and you like Nissin Cup Noodles, then you might just enjoy their new Big Cheese Meat Cup Noodles. While it looks like regular hamburger meat, it’s actually ground pork also featuring:

“Cheese, crisp red bell peppers, cabbage and onions with classic curly noodles and a rich soy sauce flavored soup.”

Even if it’s not totally cheeseburgerish, it still sounds pretty good, but I have to admit, it looks disgusting in its freeze dried form.

Link

Aspiring wrapping paper company Gift Couture is trying to get off the ground with the help of KickStarter. Their first product? A six-sheet of collection of wrapping paper that will help you disguise your presents as cheeseburgers.

Of course, in the meanwhile, you can always entertain yourself with the Neatoshop’s great Pi gift wrap.

Link Via Geekosystem

Make A Sous Vide Cooker From A Beer Cooler

While “sous vide” has been one of the biggest buzzwords in the cooking world for the last few years, those of you who don’t work in kitchens or read cooking websites would be excused for not knowing the term. Sous vide literally means “under vacuum”  in French and that’s essentially how this food is prepared –vacuum sealed food is placed in a low heat water bath and cooked very slowly. The cooking method generally allows for foods to cook more evenly, retaining a better texture and its original appearance.

Unfortunately, a quick search on Amazon will show you that a sous vide cooker will run you a minimum of $200. Then you’ll need to buy a vacuum sealer, which will add on at least $30, and non-reusable plastic bags for the sealer that can quickly add up too. All of this is a pretty big investment –especially if you just want to check out the process before you commit.

To hack yourself a cheaper option, Serious Eats suggests using a beer cooler, a thermometer and a few Ziplock bags, which will cost less than $25 total. Just add hot water to your cooler until the temperature is a few degrees above your target cooking temperature, then add in your bagged food, close the lid and let the insulation do the work for you. As for how well the beer cooler holds up to the real deal: in tests, the beer cooler worked every bit as well as a quality $450 cooker.

Turn A Crock Pot Into A Yogurt Maker

Most electric yogurt makers only incubate the product, leaving out the critical heating and sterilization process. That’s why Chris Reilly of Make Magazine opted to hack his own yogurt maker out of a Crock Pot that automates the entire process. He call it the “Yobot.”

While the process is pretty involved, for those with the tech skills to pull it off, it seems like a great way to go through the yogurt making process. As a bonus, since you’re already programming a temperature gauge into the Crock Pot, you could easily tweak it just a bit more and make a combination Sous Vide cooker, yogurt maker and Crock Pot in one…now that’s a useful appliance.

Make Your Own Hotel Breakfast

(Video Link)

If you’re sick of leaving your hotel without a home-cooked breakfast, Natalie Tran has a solution. In this video, she shows you how to make oatmeal or soft boiled eggs with a coffee maker, and bacon and fried eggs with aluminum foil and an iron. It might not be the most delicious food in the world, but it’s better than nothing –which is what most hotels offer.

Concoct A Three-Course Meal With A Coffee Maker

Of course, oatmeal is far from the only food that can be made with a coffee maker. The John Hopkins Newsletter has a variety of recipes you can create with nothing more than a coffee maker. While the poached fish, pasta and cinnamon coffee all sound good, the chocolate fondue is certainly the highlight of this column.

Whip Up Fresh Chicken Pesto In The Office

For more advanced coffee-maker chefs, Food 2 suggests making your own chicken pesto pasta for lunch. Simply grill the chicken breasts on the base, boil the pasta in the coffee maker and then use a coffee grinder to create your own pesto sauce from scratch. If you’re really going to make this one though, you might want to buy a new coffee pot and grinder first or else everything is going to taste a little strange.

Brewing Beer With A Coffee Maker

Finally, for those with lots of time and no local bars (for example, someone stuck on an Oceanic Research Vessel), Southern Fried Science has some good tips to make your own beer with nothing more than a coffee pot and items you’d be likely to find on said Oceanic Research Vessel. While it might not be the most practical recipe for most people, it might just be the most useful for those people who do find themselves stuck out on the ocean for months at a time.

Build An Android Bartender

For those of you with some serious hacking skills, many of these tips and tricks will seem too easy or even downright boring. If that sounds like you, then here’s something more inspiring: an Android-powered bartender called “iZac.”

Using a battery-powered aquarium pump, a scale and a tablet with Android software, Nick Johnson devised this electronic bartender that can make any cocktail for you provided he has the ingredients on tap. He also offers an “I’m Feeling Lucky” feature that will provide you with any three liquids at random, providing for some disgustingly hilarious results.

Turn a Broken Wine Fridge Into a Fermentation Chamber

For most people, a broken wine fridge is little more than fodder for the closest landfill, but when Instructables user sklarm found out his neighbor was throwing away an old wine fridge, he jumped into action, hacking it into a top-notch fermentation chamber. By removing the cooling components and adding a lamp and temperature gauge, he was able to turn a piece of waste into an ideal chamber for fermenting bread, yogurt, kombucha and more. If you want to make your own, the process seems pretty straight forward even for the slightly-less tech savvy.

Use Liquid Nitrogen to Make Ice Cream In A Jiff

Homemade ice cream is so delicious, but making it can be so darn boring. What’s a geek to do?

Get an electric drill and liquid nitrogen involved in the process, that’s what. DocBug has all the directions you need to make your own delicious orange raspberry sorbet made with power tools and liquid nitrogen. While you can change up the flavors all you want, whatever you do, don’t forget your safety gear.

Make Some Stew While Taking A Drive

Going on a long road trip and don’t want to get stuck eating fast food? Why not take advantage of the heat generated by your engine? This great Manifold Stew recipe instructs you how to prepare a stew that can be cooked on your car’s engine by driving for about 4 or 5 hours. While it asks for squirrel, you city folk who find squirrel meat in short supply could try using rabbit or chicken in its place.

Personally, the only cooking trick like this that I ever used was making Top Ramen in a coffee pot. Have any of you ever hacked something to cook food it wasn’t intended to create? Are any of you planning to try some of the tricks here?

Bizzle had a hard day, what with people telling him he has the face of a dog and all. So he came home and treated himself to a snack of Dunkaroos. This trick has been done a lot, but rarely this well. -via reddit

While there are no instructions to make your own, most of it seems pretty easy to make. The hands look like they would take a little work though.

Link Via BoingBoing

They might not be big fans of turkey, but tortoises love pumpkins, which is a great way for them to celebrate Thanksgiving dinner. Of course, they are super cute while munching down on the holiday treats.

Link Via BuzzFeed

If you prefer your comfort food without all the calories, then the photo-realistic paintings of Pamela Michelle Johnson may be just the thing you need this holiday season.

With all the warm, rich colors of real food, these food paintings are not only drool inducing, they’re also massive in scale, typically over five feet square! Check out the delicious gallery at the Flavorwire link below, but try not to lick the screen.

Link –pamela michelle johnson

Every year, we announce the results of Danielle Spencer’s Jell-O Turkey Mold Competition and for those of you who have been waiting to see the results this year, they’re finally up. Here’s the #2 winner, entitled School Lunch. Just look at that delicious vegetable serving.

Link

In celebration of Thanksgiving, and to top the record of eating 5 lbs. of turkey in 10 minutes set by Sonya Thomas, Japanese eating contest legend Takeru Kobayashi ate 7.5 lbs. of turkey in 10 minutes. Watch the video of the champ in action, it’s sure to make you feel better about how much food you ate this Thanksgiving.

–via Gothamist

I spent last Sunday in my kitchen, cutting Twinkies in half, scooping out the crème filling, and cubing and toasting the, uh, “shortcake.” I mixed those cubes with crumbled corn muffins and a chopped apple, stuffed it all into a turkey, and roasted at 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

When the turkey was almost done, I mixed the reserved Twinkie crème with a quarter cup of honey, and used it to glaze the hot bird before popping it back in the oven for another 12 minutes. Suddenly, the smell coming out of the oven changed.

As for the taste?

I lifted a forkful of stuffing to my lips. Oh, dear God: cake doused with poultry grease. I quickly took a bite of turkey to try to erase the taste. Turkey, not too dry, normal flavor. And vanilla—sweet, sweet vanilla—mixing with the taste of roasted bird, the vilest thing I’ve eaten in a long time.

Would you guys rather have the Turdunkin or the Twinkie turkey?

Link

Over at Neatorama, our fridge only contains a bottle of crusty mustard, a half -eaten can of green olives and a few hard boiled eggs wrapped in bacon, then sausage and then more bacon. But at other websites, the fridges can actually say a lot about the companies themselves. The one above belongs to Nickelodeon. See if your favorite website is listed and if so, what they have to eat and drink in the office over at the link.

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Tired of staring at your food while it cooks in the microwave? That’s so 1980. Fortunately, students from the University of Pennsylvania have managed to hack a microwave oven to play YouTube videos while your food is cooking. If you don’t feel like waiting, you can also have the microwave text you when your food is done.

Now that’s impressive!

Link Via Geekosystem

Game of Thrones

This fantasy epic is filled with so many delicious food and drink ideas that there is already more than one blog out there dedicated to creating the tasty treats in real life. Inn At The Crossroads is the best known of these blogs and the site even has a cookbook coming out soon.

For those looking to spice up their Thanksgiving with some kingly delights, may I recommend the Rack of Lamb in a Crust of Garlic and Herbs served with a cup of Salladhor Saans Hot Wine. If you’d like something a little more exotic for your main course though, the Grilled Snake, served with a spicy mustard sauce, looks rather delightful.

Dune

If you’re familiar with Dune, then you know that it is all about the spices. That being said, the two best recipes from this story are both beverages. Whether you prefer Spice Beer or Spice Coffee, I’m sure either one would make a great contribution to your Thanksgiving menu. Grumpy Frenchman suggests adding cinnamon to your beer for Spice Beer, but he also warns that that makes the foam go crazy, so pour accordingly. Meanwhile, GeekChill has a fantastic recipe for Spice Coffee that blends Chai tea, coffee and cinnamon –yum!

Lord of the Rings/ The Hobbit

Middle Earth is awash with great food and drink, but because most of Tolkien’s stories take place on the road, we tend to hear about the ones that are good for travel…which are not necessarily the most delicious treats around. That being said, while the hobbits seem to tire of Lembas bread, it is certainly the most delicious travel-friendly bread around and The Geeky Chef has a great recipe to make your own.

As for The Hobbit, the many mentions of seed cake seem to indicate that it is certainly one of Bilbo’s favorite foods and Historical Foods has an excellent recipe based on the time period for which Tolkien based the setting for his classic tales. That means, this seed cake is about as close to what Bilbo would eat as possible.

Harry Potter

Between the butterbeer, chocolate frogs and cauldron cakes, wizards and witches have quite a selection of tasty treats for any time of year. Of course, if there are any geek recipes that would actually go great with an otherwise traditional Thanksgiving feast, they would most certainly be Pumpkin Juice or Pumpkin Pasties. HarryPotterRecipes.Net has an absolutely delightful recipe for making your own Pumpkin Juice, sweetened with pineapple juice and spiced with a touch of nutmeg and allspice.

For your Pumpkin Pasties fix, stop by The Geeky Chef and try out this delicious recipe that imagines them as a sort of pumpkin-filled pastry…like pumpkin pie turnovers.

Star Wars

These films contain very few references to food. Even when the characters eat or drink, they never really seem to bring attention to what, exactly, they are putting in their mouths. That being said, Wookiee-Ookies are specifically mentioned in the Star Wars Holiday Special. Although they are best known for being a Christmas treat, they can undoubtedly still be served for Thanksgiving, just like eggnog.

You can find the recipe for these treats over on the website dedicated exclusively to the special, inventively called The Star Wars Holiday Special, and culled from The Star Wars Cookbook.

Firefly

Like Star Wars, while the characters on Firefly do eat and drink on screen, they rarely explain what it is they are actually eating. We know they get most of their vitamins through nutrient bars that can provide a month’s worth of nutrition to someone although they still need to drink water and ingest  calories, but aside from that, few foods are actually mentioned. A few exceptions are Mudder’s Milk, which is enjoyed in large quantities on Higgin’s Moon in the episode “Jaynestown,” and Ice Planets, which River Tam has difficulty eating in the episode “The Message.”

You can find a non-alcoholic version of Mudder’s Milk on the Firefly Wikia and learn how to make your own Ice Planet (essentially ice cream on a string) over on Tasty Planner.

Star Trek

Of course, geek Thanksgivings don’t have to ignore the turkey entirely. After all, in the Star Trek episode “Charlie X,” Captain Kirk is upset because he wants to celebrate Thanksgiving properly with a turkey, but there were none on board. Instead, the crew was going to have to eat meatloaf.

Strangely, while the meatloaf was cooking in the ovens, it suddenly transformed into turkey. It turns out that this was caused by Charles Evans, a young boy the crew recently brought on board, who has incredible powers. On the downside, he later uses those powers against everyone on board and tries to take over the ship, but hey, at least they got a nice Thanksgiving meal out of the ordeal. (For the record, yes, I know that is Picard and the Next Generation crew in the image, it was just the most holiday appropriate shot available.)

While you can always serve turkey as your main course and just reference this episode, you can also try blending the storyline in a little more and serve turkey meatloaf that has been cooked in a turkey-shaped baking pan.

What are your guy’s plans for Thanksgiving dinner? Are you planning to go traditional or do you guys like to mix things up a little more? Do any of you want to actually incorporate something from this article into your meal?

If art made from Thanksgiving food isn’t quite your thing, then what about delicious turkey dinner cupcakes? The bottom is made from turkey meatloaf, which is then topped with stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy and cranberry sauce.

What do you think? Yum or yuck?

Link Via BuzzFeed

“My rights are not being violated, but the food is an abomination,” declared former Liberian president Charles Taylor when he was brought to trial at the Special Court for Sierra Leone in Scheveningen in 2006.

Taylor, who was accused of crimes against humanity and orchestrating war crimes carried out by militias, was used to his own personal cook who made spicy African meals.

Unable to adjust to Dutch culinary blandness, he set up a cookery club using the facilities at the Scheveningen remand centre.

Yes, inmates are allowed to cook for themselves, but they have to buy their own ingredients from the prison shop.

Extreme Serbian nationalist and former paramilitary leader Vojislav Seselj is another notorious prisoner who slams the Dutch diet. Seselj, who was charged by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) with crimes against humanity, arrived in Scheveningen in 2003.

During one of the hearings in his trial, he publicly castigated the remand centre’s menu. The food was “a daily torture. Even pigs wouldn’t go near it.”

Prison officials defend their menu as “healthy and balanced.” Just one more reason you shouldn’t commit crimes against humanity. Link -Thanks, Ed!

The Entire Meal

While there are tons of artists who work with food out there, Jason Mecier is the only one I could find that actually created a portrait using aspects of a traditional Thanksgiving dinner. Using turkey, sweet potatoes, corn, mushrooms, onions, green beans, cranberries and more, Mecier was able to construct a portrait of Sarah Hale, the woman largely considered responsible for the creation of a national Thanksgiving holiday. Personally, I couldn’t think of a more appropriate subject for a Thanksgiving meal artwork.

It might not be as artistic as some of the other creations on this list, but the Meta Turkey was the winner for Best Conceptual Turkey in the 2008 Turkey-shaped Jell-O Mold Competition. So what makes a turkey mold become a Meta Turkey? It must contain aspects of all parts of a traditional Thanksgiving dinner, including turkey, cranberry sauce, gravy, stuffing and mashed potatoes.

Sweet Potato Casserole

This entrant into the 2008 Turkey-shaped Jell-O Mold Competition might just be the only artwork on this list that you would actually want to serve at your own Thanksgiving meal. That’s because aside from its strange turkey shape, the sweet potato pineapple casserole adorned with marshmallows and pecans looks simply delicious. Of course, I would recommend toasting the marshmallows before serving, but that’s just me.

Potatoes

Flickr user ReRe is quite the artist when it comes to photographing fruits and vegetables. In fact, she has two different potato artworks that are both so cute, I couldn’t choose which one to include –the red potato hippo or the white potato elephant. (So I included them both.) Which is your favorite?

Corn

Artists Akiko Ida and Pierre Javelle specialize in shooting tiny people interacting with the surface of regular-sized food. In their Paris Roubais piece, we see a few cyclists racing along corn on the cob, with the leader flying off his bike after apparently hitting too big of a kernel.

Rice

Not everyone eats rice on Thanksgiving, but those that do are certain to appreciate Carl Warner’s farm-styled foodscape featuring rice, thyme, parsley, almonds and other common ingredients of a more modernized Thanksgiving dinner.

Butter

While Jim Victor has made tons of butter sculptures throughout the years, perhaps the most appropriate Thanksgiving artwork is the one featuring cow cheerleaders. After all, not only is there plenty of football on Thanksgiving Day to satiate cheerleaders of any type, but I’m sure cows are happy to celebrate any holiday where turkey tends to be the meat of choice.

Bread

If the rolls on the dinner table looked like this angry bread man by Bella Tamas, I’m guessing we’d all be a little more cautious about slicing them open and spreading them with butter. Then again, if he’s using the knife to threaten us, then it might come down to a battle of human versus roll, in which case, you’d be a fool not to slice his head open.

Onions

Flickr user Stereomind’s cleverly carved onion artwork is something I think we can all relate with, especially when prepping up the onions to use for our traditional turkey stuffing. For me, just looking at this piece gets my eyes watery.

Squash

This little guy by Carl Kleiner might not be ready to eat, but that’s just fine since he’s too darn cute to even imagine roasting in an oven. For more food that’s simply too precious to munch on, including zebra eggplants and smiling watermelons, be sure to check out this fantastic gallery on Juxtapoz.

When it comes to stunning centerpieces, Francesco Scravaglieri’s Rassegna Calabria should certainly take center stage. Between the delicate and detailed bird feathers and the amazingly intricate squash flowers, every inch of Scravaglieri’s squash carving is simply stunning.

Pomegranate

There might not be any food as close to a grenade as a pomegranate both in looks, taste and likelihood of exploding into a huge, stain-filled mess. That’s why Sarah Illenberger’s take on the fruit is just so perfect. Just make sure you don’t put any of these around the table if you are expecting to have one of those drama-filled family holidays.

Cake

Of course, it’s not Thanksgiving without some kind of sweet treat and while you might choose to make your whole dinner into a cake, or make a giant cake with two pies baked inside of it, if you prefer just plain cake that has an artistic Thanksgiving flair, then try making your own turkey cake like this one by Geri of Joshua, TX. There are instructions to make your own over at Cake Decorating Ideas free, but if you make one, just make sure you don’t get it mixed up with your real turkey when it comes time to serve dinner.

The closest I’ve ever come to food art is making a snowman with my mashed potatoes and once designing a blueberry pie with an American flag crust. But I’m sure some of you are better artists than I am. That being said, have any of you ever done something creative with your Thanksgiving leftovers or cooked your dinner into an interesting design?

Chocolate fountains…psshh, those are so 2008. These days, it’s all about the ketchup fountain when you want to make a classy statement at your next party.

Link Via Geekosystem

Designer Elsa Lambinet created this brilliant idea for chocolate flavoring mix and match sessions. You can put whatever you want in the middle and then put anything in the little center hole and experiment with all the flavor combinations you can possibly handle. I don’t know about you guys, but I’d love to go to a tasting party for these things.

Link Via Laughing Squid

If you love Jell-O and Harry Potter, these might just be the ultimate adult party treat. The recipe sounds delicious, as it includes amaretto, vanilla ice cream, Bailey’s and chocolate liquor. If that’s not enough for you, they also have a link to a butter beer Jell-O shot recipe with cream soda and butterscotch schnapps.

Link Via Craftzine

Slowly snacking on Halloween candy every few hours, day after day, keeps your teeth bathed in enamel-corroding acid, the byproduct of bacteria feeding on sugar and other carbohydrates in your mouth. This leads to dental caries, or cavities.

So I guess even if you’re a candy stealer, it’s still better to steal it all in one night than stretch your thievery out.

Link Via The Mary Sue