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While the price of fresh fruits and vegetables goes up, vendors regularly toss out tons of produce because it’s not pretty. Perfectly good food in irregular shapes, sizes, and colors is too often just wasted. French grocery chain Intermarché began a program of buying those “unacceptable” fruits and vegetables and selling them to the public -for 30% off regular prices! They call these products “Inglorious Fruits and Vegetables.” Shoppers get a bargain, and much less of the crops go to waste.

I would love to buy ugly but fresh fruit at a 30% discount, instead of the way I do it now: saving 30% because the pretty fruit is old and overripe. -via Viral Viral Videos

(Photo: Grist)

Peanut butter and chocolate. Pasta and tomato sauce. Beer and chicken wings. Bratwurst and gummy bears.

Some foods, just by nature's design, belong together. That's why it was inevitable that someone would combine the sweetness of gummy bears and the hearty saltiness of bratwurst. But it was Spencer Grundhofer who actually put them together, thus ushering in a new age of greatness for the human race.

(Photo: Rachel Hutton)

Grundhofer is the owner of Grundhofer's Old-Fashioned Meats, a butcher shop in Hugo, Minnesota. Like the wheel, the transistor, and other revolutionary inventions, the gummy bear bratwurst was invented as a joke. 

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Now it is in high demand and spreading across the United States. They're already available in Minneapolis and Austin.

-via That's Nerdalicious!

When you eat at a restaurant, you are usually well aware of what the costs will be and plan for them. You often have some idea of the food quality and what dishes you might like. But you might not be aware of all the tiny details restaurants employ that are the result of research into the optimum way to get the most profit from each customer. For example:  

7. They use expensive items to draw you to the cheaper items. According to Rapp, restaurants use extremely expensive foods as decoys. "You probably won't buy it, but you'll find something a little cheaper and it'll look more reasonable," he says.

According to William Poundstone, author of "Priceless: The Myth of Fair Value (and How to Take Advantage of It)," in a New York Magazine interview, "The main role of that $115 platter — the only three-digit thing on the menu — is to make everything else near it look like a relative bargain."

8. They offer foods in two portion sizes. This strategy is called bracketing. The customer has no idea how much smaller the small portion is, so they assume it's the best value price because it costs less. What they don't realize is that the restaurant wanted to sell the smaller portion at the lower price all along, and simply used the bigger portion with the higher price as comparison.

That one reminds me of a barbecue place that offers three sizes of standard meals: the “all-you-can-eat,” which is expensive and you can’t take the leftovers home; the dinner size, which is more than I can eat, but you can box it up if you want; and the least expensive luncheon size, which fills me up. I am always surprised by how many people think the all-you-can-eat is the best bargain, which goes against the above research, but it works for that restaurant. Read the rest of the list of psychological tricks at Business Insider.    


(Image credit: Flickr user Ian T. McFarland)

If you recall, we told you about the kerfluffle over the Sriracha factory in Irwindale, California, which posed the possibility of a Sriracha shortage if the factory were to be shut down. And it was, temporarily. After courting the industry vigorously, the city received complaints about smells and air quality after the factory began production.

One part of the story that’s making the news now is the experiment the the South Coast Air Quality Management District did to simulate conditions during pepper-grinding at the factory. Although it wasn’t pepper-grinding season, and they didn’t have the same peppers, equipment, or procedures as Huy Fong Foods, the researchers found that pepper particles filled the air during the process. What they did was grind three pounds of jalapeño peppers using a manual grinder and a food processor in a kitchen.   

The ridiculousness of this shouldn't be ignored: South Coast AQMD measured particle levels in a random kitchen after grinding peppers in a completely different way than Huy Fong Foods does. The group did it on a tiny scale, with none of the filtration systems that are common in factory-level food production. Its researchers measured particle matter right next to the blender; presumably the residents who were allegedly smelling this stuff were not living inside the factory.

But it all worked out in the end, when Huy Fong Foods and the city worked out their differences, and production of Sriracha continues. Read more about the experiment at Motherboard. -via Digg

(Image credit: City of Irwindale)

CORRECTION 7/15/14: It's Durso's son, not daughter, who concieved of the project. I've altered the text accordingly.

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Chris Durso is the proprietor of Foodiggity, an excellent food blog that you should be reading. In addition to rounding up delicious bites of eccentric culinary creations from around the world, he's a father of a creative little boy. Durso's son suggested that he compose food maps of each of the 50 United States.

He's developing puns from the names of the states, such as those you see above. Would you like to contribute? You can suggest your own puns here and help his son earn a high grade in his social studies class.

The chef behind the food blog Oh, Bite It! thinks that these confections "might be my all-time craziest, mind-blowing mash up EVER!" They're brilliant! She took Twinkies, wrapped them in spring roll pastry sheets, then deep fried them. A bit off powdered sugar added to the visual appeal and texture. May I suggest dipping them in Nutella?

-via Incredible Things

Nobody serves up greasy spoon style food quite like Denny’s, home of the Grand Slam breakfast, Moons Over My Hammy and movie themed menu items like the Hobbit Hole Breakfast, but their latest team up with iconic video game company Atari left them with one major problem-how can Atari and Denny’s come together in a way that feels organic?

Denny's Chief Branding Officer Frances Allen came up with the brilliant idea to turn some Atari's most popular games, like Centipede and Asteroids, into food-related titles, and the best part is- you'll be able to download and play the games while you wait for your food to arrive, which is about as long as you'll want to spend playing an Atari game anyway! 

-Via Gamma Squad

Very few workers deal with as many complaints on a daily basis as those in the foodservice industry, and whether you’re a busser, server, or simply pouring drinks in a restaurant bar, you hear your fair share of complaints from customers who expect more from your establishment than they do from most anywhere else.

Many restaurant patrons want things done their way, because in their mind paying for a meal means paying for their idea of service perfection, so it was probably easy for Consumer Reports to create this infographic detailing The Most Common Restaurant Complaints.

Most people have no problem sharing their opinions about dining out, and if you eat out enough you're bound to have complaints, so how do your complaints about eating out measure up to the percentages on this infographic?

Click here to see an enlarged version of the infographic

-Via DesignTAXI

If you love stir frys, you've probably noticed that it's practically impossible to make a restaurant-quality one at home even if you have all the right ingredients and a wok. While some people claim it's the MSG (and it sometimes is), the real lacking element is the heat.

Chinese restaurants cook on incredibly high heat stoves that you can't get at home -until now. The WokMon is a great new design that can focus your stove's flames so you can get the high temperatures you need to make real Chinese dishes. Best of all, you don't even need to change out your existing stove. Just put the small piece over your burner and the large part on the grate to hold your wok for you and you're ready to go.

You can read more about the WokMon, including where to get your own over at Homes and Hues: Wok N' Roll At Home With the WokMon

You know Magic Shell, that wonderful chocolate syrup that hardens when it comes in contact with ice cream? You can make your own at home! And despite what you may have thought, there’s no paraffin involved at all. The secret is refined coconut oil, which is liquid at room temperature, but hardens in the refrigerator. The complete instructions are at Serious Eats.

They also have suggestions for ways to use your homemade Magic Shell, to make homemade versions of Klondike Bars, King Cones, and more. It would also be good for dipping frozen bananas and other fruits. -via Metafilter

(Image credit: Vicky Wasik)

Even if you can't attend World Cup matches in person, you can still enjoy good stadium food and the comfort of your own couch. Grill up some hot dogs and turn on the TV set. But if you can make it to Brazil, visit the WDOG food seller. It created these elaborate hot dogs inspired by the flags and traditional foods of competing countries.

Pictured above is the American hot dog, which has mustard, mayonnaise, cheddar cheese, barbecue sauce, and cole slaw.

The Mexican dog has tortilla chips, chili, guacamole, and a hot red pepper.

The Brazilian dog has feijoada, which is a meat and bean stew, as well as bacon and cabbage.

The Italian dog has mozzarella-stuffed polpettone, which is a type of meatloaf. It also has tomato sauce and a hit of basil.

The German hot dog has pickles, mashed potatoes, mustard, onions, and sauerkraut.

The Japanese hot dog has a sushi roll instead of a sausage and sukiyaki, which is a type of stew.

The Argentinian dog has chimichurri, which is a type of green sauce, as well as garlic mayonnaise and vinaigrette.

-via Foodiggity

Here’s something really impressive to try for the Independence Day party you’re throwing: Fill an entire watermelon with Jell-o and vodka! You’ll most likely want to slice this into manageable portions before serving, or else grandpa will have half of it eaten before he realizes it has booze in it. Meanwhile, the watermelon you scooped out of the rind can be chilled and served to the kids. The recipe calls for four cups of vodka, so you should add a designated driver in the list of needed equipment. The complete instructions are at Buzzfeed.

(Image credit: Macey Foronda/BuzzFeed)

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Wherever you go there’s a fast food restaurant lurking around the corner, waiting to fry up pounds of delicious fatty foods for you to stuff in your gob, and yet these ever present restaurant chains are surrounded by secrecy and mystery.

They all claim to be number one, but who’s telling the truth? Where do Subway sandwich shops get all of their avocados, and what’s the farthest distance a pizza chain has ever gone to delivered a cheesy pie?

These tasty factoid nuggets and more can be found in BuzzFeed’s low calorie video 9 Fast Food Facts You Won’t Believe Are Actually True, winner of the 2014 award for Most Exaggerated Factoid Video Title.

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Can you tell the difference between your favorite name-brand cereals and their knockoffs just by taste? The folks who guess correctly here seem to be proud of themselves, but as a group, they would have guessed just as well without tasting the cereal at all.

The experimenters upped the difficulty factor by including Kroger store brands, which I’ve found are pretty high quality. There are some food products for which I prefer the the taste of Kroger brand over the national brand name, although I often buy knockoffs from elsewhere to save money. Which brings up another question: even if you can identify the name brand cereal over the generic, which do you like better? You can save money by trying them out with an open mind. -via Buzzfeed

Nash Ruin, the internet's Vulgar Chef, knows how to make a robust sandwich. This hamburger (NSFW language) is composed of all good things present in a manly kitchen. And it looks like he used pre-made Rice Krispie treats, thus reducing the prep time. Excellent!

Why don't fast food chains sell burgers like this?