Twitter user Overtime Queen had a brilliant idea: make a scarf that she can eat! It will keep her both warm and well-fed.
She used 15 packs of a type of gummy candy that comes in 50-inch strings. Her knitting needles are actually chopsticks. With them, she elegantly wove citrus soda and cola-flavored strands into fabric.
The final product is about 10 by 6 inches, so she probably needs about 100 more packs to make a full size winter scarf.
The chalky little candy hearts that say something sweet like “kiss me” or incomprehensible like “me too” are ubiquitous this time of year. You’ve seen them all of your life, but did you ever wonder when they became a thing?
The story of conversation hearts began in 1847, when a Boston pharmacist named Oliver Chase longed for a way to get in on the apothecary lozenge craze. Lozenges were quickly gaining steam as the medicine conveyance of choice, and were also popular remedies for sore throats and bad breath. But making lozenges was complicated and time-consuming—the process involved a mortar and pestle, kneading dough, rolling it out, and cutting it into discs that would eventually become lozenges.
There had to be a better way, and Oliver came up with it. Inspired by the new wave of gadgets and tools that hit America as it industrialized, he invented a machine that rolled lozenge dough and pressed wafers into perfect discs. Oliver had inadvertently created America’s first candy-making machine, and before long, he had abandoned his pharmacy business to crank out miles of what would become New England Confectionery Company (NECCO) wafers.
The candy was just the first step. The message came later, and the heart shape even further in the story, which you can read at mental_floss.
Gnocchi are dumplings, normally boiled and then pan-fried. But Steve here decides he’s going to deep-fry them. He mentions that they popped a little last time, so he’s going to turn the fryer up a little hotter. What? When he removes the gnocchi, you’ll see why that might not be the best idea -unless you are looking for a laugh. Steve, the video host, came to reddit to address some questions about the situation. Be aware that the audio is only in one channel -your equipment is probably fine. -via Viral Viral Videos
Thursday was World Nutella Day, a celebration of that wondrous hazelnut chocolate spread made by the Italian company Ferrero. To celebrate, Elizabeth of Sugar Hero made huge Ferrero Rocher candies. These are small balls of hazelnut and chocolate--luxurious bits of joy that are about an inch wide. Elizabeth's version is fully 5 inches across!
They aren't simply enlarged versions of Ferrero Rocher candies. Such a concoction, Elizabeth explains, would not be able to hold together consistently. Instead, she made spheres of hazelnut chocolate mousse and cake that give you the same delicious experience.
Food wrappers amount to millions of tons of additional garbage ending up in landfills each year, but the fact that they make food products far more portable and help keep them fresh means they’re not going away anytime soon.
So how do we reduce wrapper waste yet retain their usefulness? Swedish design duo Tomorrow Machine have offered a solution in the form of compostable and reusable packaging.
Tomorrow Machine's package designs come in two package waste reducing forms- a compostable container that dissolves in water and the Sustainable Expanding Bowl:
A biodegradable, cellulose wrapper fits snugly around freeze-dried food. Pour hot water into a spout, and not only will the food insta-cook, the wrapper will blossom open and morph into a bowl.
-Via Wired
It was a day that would live on in poultry infamy- the day hundreds of chickens gave up their tender wings for the sake of one epic eating contest starring a man named Pat Bertoletti and a competitive cheater named Mick Foley.
Mick is a professional wrestler so he knows the value of showmanship, but his underhanded fanny pack stuffing tactic got him ejected from the game, while Pat went on to eat an (g)utterly amazing 444 wings and win Wing Bowl 23.
It was a day that Pat won’t soon forget, a day that proved he has what it takes to eat way too much food in one sitting, and the start of a new foodie feud with last year's wing champ Molly Schuyler.
-Via The Daily What
When you crack open a can of chunk light tuna you expect to see chunks of light colored tuna flesh floating in oil or water, but nobody expects to see a strange little critter staring back at you from inside the can!
A concerned mum from Arnold named Zoe Butler made a somewhat frightening discovery when she opened a can of Princes tuna chunks and found:
“a purply thing, a gut sack or intestine – then I turned it round and pushed it with a fork and saw it looking back at me.”
The little head is thought to be a juvenile crab missing its legs, but I prefer to think of it as the "prize inside" promotion of the tuna tin world- a free crab head in every can!
-Via Fox5 San Diego
There are plenty of geeky foods out on the internet, but not many places where you can order them in the outside world. Thankfully for those in Portland, there's Nom*Ables. This bakery isn't just full of sweet treats, it's also packed with all kinds of great geek stuff.
For example, the treats up top are called "S'mordor" and the one right above this is part of the Cornetto Trilogy Series called "You've Got Red On You." Nom*Ables even sets up shop at local conventions like the Wizard World Portland. They said they used to attend the ChocolateFest, which is at the same convention center on the same weekend every year, but the Wizard World better suits their demographic.
On the upside, if you don't live in Portland, you can still get a hold of your own Combustable Lemon Curd and Pokenoms through their online store.
Scientists have learned how to unboil an egg. But can they make a reverse boiled egg? Apparently with a few supplies and a delicate touch, yes!
This video is in Japanese, but the step-by-step instructions make it easy enough to follow without a knowledge of that language. Wrap tape around an egg, which I assume is to help it maintain structural integrity. Then place it inside a stocking, tie off the egg in the middle, then spin the egg for a long, long time. After you then boil the egg, it should have the yolk on the outside and the white in the middle.
-via Rocket News 24
Zeon and I recently went to Portland to check out the Wizard World there. What we didn't know is that the comic convention always lines up with the city's annual ChocolateFest -which seems appropriate since they no doubt bring plenty of attendees to one another's convention.
As you may have guessed, the ChocolateFest is a convention based around chocolate -not just eating it, but the production, cooking and history of the delicious treat. But aside from celebrating one of nature's greatest gifts, the festival also celebrates nature itself in that it is sponsored by the World Forestry Center and all proceeds go to support the center. -So you not only get to sample tons of exquisite, gourmet chocolates, you also get to support a good cause at the same time.
As a chocolate snob who has never been able to find anything quite as good as the chocolate I had in Switzerland, I was blown away when I discovered Cocotutti, which was one of the handful of companies that weren't local to Portland. The company made the best chocolates I've ever had. They were not only as rich and smooth as the Swiss chocolates, but they also had utterly amazing flavors like balsamic strawberry and lemon with lavender. I'm still kicking myself for not buying an assortment, but I was trying to save money since I was on vacation.
The festival also offered alcohol tastings so you could do wine and chocolate samples. Here I once again made an amazing discovery -though not with wine, but vodka. That's because Portland company Wild Roots makes and incredible infused vodka with Oregon's favorite berry, the marrionberry. Unfortunately, you can't buy this stuff out of Oregon, so if you live in the state, grab a bottle and celebrate your location.
As for ChocolateFest, the bottom line is that it's a great event for a great cause and if you make it, plan on getting drunk on chocolate before getting drunk on wine or booze because the delicious candy selection is certain to get your head spinning.
We've seen a previous execution of this idea that involved baking a whole Oreo inside a croissant. Nick Chipman of Dude Foods offers a version that is even simpler and more promising. He took premade chocolate chip cookie dough and cut it into triangles matching the size of canned croissant dough triangles. He wrapped one around the other, then baked them together. He says that it was both flaky and chocolatey, which is exactly what we're looking for.
Brussels
Illustrator Bea Crespo and photographer Andrea G. Portoles' artistic project BrunchCity pairs miniatures grouped to represent cities placed on top of foods for which the city is known. Some are more obvious choices than others, such as the placement of Brussels on a Belgian waffle; others are a tad more obscure. All are a fun bite.
See more Brunch City photos here. Is your city represented? If not, what would you select as your city's corresponding food?
-Via Fooddiggity
Berlin
Madrid
Panda Express is a chain that’s sort of like a fast food version of American Chinese recipes. Buzzfeed assembled some Chinese folks of different generations to sample some dishes from Panda Express, and, to no one's surprise, their opinions varied. There's no mention of how long the taste-testers have lived in America (and we can assume they’re in America from their accents). What struck me is how the older generation is altogether less judgmental about the food. After all, whether something is “authentic” matters less than whether you like it. And at any restaurant, there will be offerings you like and some you don’t like. -via Tastefully Offensive
It's a bit more unconventional than Cherry Coke in the US. But in Takko, Aomori Prefecture, Japan, garlic flavored soda is not a surprising product. That's the garlic capital of Japan, which produces garlic beer and garlic ice cream in addition to regular bulbs of garlic.
Audrey Akcasu of Rocket News 24 reports that the new drink is called Takkola, a combination of the name of the town and the word "cola." The soda is a simple combination of ground garlic and cola. It's supposed to be good for your heart, but, presumably, not for your breath.
Image: Takko
From PBJ to BYO Oreos! The folks at Foodbeast TV give a video demo of how to take your Oreos from sober to drunken in a few easy steps. I noticed that some readers on other posts of this video commented that they thought the filling should be either left on or mixed into the drunken filling. Hey, that's the perfect excuse to make a second "compare and contrast" batch! -Via Foodbeast
