Hacking Food

Japanese man chronicles daily life of a vending machine

by Joe DiStefano, Posted Sep 25th 2007 @ 12:45PM

I suppose this blog I came across is no stranger than Cheddarvision. One thing's for certain it's probably more exciting to follow than watching a wheel of cheddar age. You read the headline right. It seems Ryuuichi Terada has been photographing the same Coca-Cola machine almost every day for more than two years.

The title of his web site translates to I take a picture of the vending machine every day (or so). I'm very sorry. Michael Keferl of Trends in Japan hails this the Hokkaido resident's obsessive work as "the GREATEST BLOG EVER." While I don't see eye to eye with Keferl, I can understand the appeal of the site which exhaustively chronicles the daily life of the machine, often with detailed diagrams like the one above. I have a feeling the site is especially popular with executives at Japanese soft-drink companies. In case you are wondering Terada-san has a job and is married. His wife takes photos of the machine when he's on vacation. Now, that's love people.

[via: Boing Boing]

Filed under: Hacking Food, Food Oddities, Drink Recipes

Cheesesteak Eggroll at the Chester County Restaurant Fest

COMMENTS 10

by Marisa McClellan, Posted Sep 16th 2007 @ 10:01PM

a cheesesteak eggroll from the Chester County Restaurant Fest

I left the city limits of Philadelphia (something I hardly ever do) today to hit the Chester County Restaurant Festival with some friends. The city closes the bulk of their walkable central business district for the event and people pile out into the streets for eats, entertainment and rows of craft vendors. It was wall-to-wall people, which made it hard to check out all the available food options before making a selection. We chose the items we ate based strictly on how long the line was and how easily we'd be able to get in said line.

Despite the haphazard selection process, I think I wound up with a winner. A unique mashup of local Philly cuisine with classic American-Chinese food, I present you with the Cheesesteak Egg Roll (served with a side of Whiz). At first I disdained the side of Whiz, thinking that the inner cheese should be sufficient, but after the first taste, I was a convert (cheesesteaks are the only food item on which I eat Cheese Whiz without shame). Horrible for your arteries but wonderful to the taste buds, I think I'll be ready for another...in about a year.

Filed under: Hacking Food, Raves & Reviews, Ingredients

Blueberry, raspberry and cherry burgers

COMMENTS 5

by Marisa McClellan, Posted Sep 5th 2007 @ 4:45PM

Last month I asked you all to help me figure out what to do with five pounds of blueberries. The Slashfood readers came through for me in a big way, suggesting a bunch of terrific ways to utilize these berries. One of the more interesting recipes came from Kevin at Acme Instant Foods, suggesting that I make Blueberry Burgers. I was intrigued, but must admit that I didn't try it. In fact, I didn't even spend much time thinking about it, until another fruit and ground meat recipe rolled into the Slashfood suggestion box last week.

This time the burgers were being made over at Will and Beyond, and he was doing a side-by-side taste test of burgers made with cherries and raspberries (in addition to a plain control burger). He used cherry juice instead of fruit and that burger came out the winner (although he does make certain to tell his readers that all the burgers tasted good). So Slashfood readers, do these experiments convince you try slipping a little chopped fruit or juice into your patties?

Filed under: Hacking Food, Raves & Reviews, On the Blogs, Ingredients

Zucchini "spaghetti"

COMMENTS 7

by Marisa McClellan, Posted Sep 5th 2007 @ 1:52PM

a plate of faux pasta, with julienned zucchini standing in for spaghetti

For most of my life I ate zucchini one of two ways. It was always sliced into rounds and then was either steamed or pan fried in a little bit of olive oil. Occasionally it was cut lengthwise and grilled, but mostly that happened at the hands of cooks other than my mother, so it was very infrequent. I was 22 before I discovered that zucchini could be cooked down to a creamy consistency over low heat or that it could be finely chopped and quickly sauteed.

Once my eyes were opened to a world of zucchini cooking options I started playing around. A while back, I hit upon a way of mimicking spaghetti noodles with zucchini that has become one of my favorite ways to prepare it. I use the fine matchstick blade on my mandoline (Amazon has some for under $10 that would do the job nicely) and slice the zuck lengthwise, so that I come away with long strings of squash that look like squared off spaghetti (don't use the inner seeded area, as it just shreds).

I heat a little olive oil in a nonstick pan, mince a couple of cloves of garlic and toss it all together over medium heat until the zucchini softens but isn't mushy. I like to eat it just like that, a sort of "pasta" alio olio that's a bit healthier than the traditional one due to the use of veg instead of starch. You could also top it with pasta sauce or toss other veggies in for a primavera. Play around, anything goes as long at it tastes good.

Filed under: Hacking Food, Food Gadgets, Ingredients

David Lebovitz makes agave-sweetened chocolate ice cream

COMMENTS 2

by Marisa McClellan, Posted Aug 27th 2007 @ 5:30PM

David Lebovitz's agave sweetened chocolate ice cream

Every so often I go through phases where I try to reduce the amount of refined white sugar I eat (this is obviously not one of them, given the fact that I was baking a cake last night). It's during those times that I've acquired a variety of different sweeteners, including sucanat (basically slightly healthier cane sugar), a very large bottle of honey and a smaller squirt-bottle of agave nectar. I'm not a huge fan of the chemically constructed artificial sweeteners, I've never been able to get over their bitter aftertaste, so I haven't done any cooking with them.

Agave nectar (Nicole wrote about it here on Slashfood last February) has become my favorite substitute for sugar in drinks like iced tea and chai and now the very clever David Lebovitz has found a way to use it in agave-sweetened chocolate ice cream in order to create a frozen treat that rests at the low end of the glycemic index. I think I need to make room in my freezer for my ice cream bowl and try this one out.

Filed under: Hacking Food, On the Blogs, Ingredients

If C-3PO and Snap (of Crackle and Pop) had a love child

COMMENTS 0

by Marisa McClellan, Posted Aug 6th 2007 @ 12:21PM

a Nano Krispie, a sculpted rice krispies treat in human form

Some folks in Pittsburgh were taking a class in robot art when they were inspired them to make an all-edible robot. Thus Nano Krispies were born, a sculpted Rice Krispies treat that has a frighteningly human-like physique. They have a website with instructions on how to make your own, a list of what foods work well for robot sculpting and an instructional video (with incongruous background music) that has helpful tips like, "don't lose a finger!" This a concept that takes playing with your food to a whole new level. This food might just turn around and play back.

Photo credit
Via BoingBoing

Filed under: Hacking Food, Food Oddities, On the Blogs, How To

Sigmund Freud watermelon lollipops

COMMENTS 2

by Joe DiStefano, Posted Jul 15th 2007 @ 11:31AM

I'm not sure if the audience for this weird candy product is would-be cannibals or students of Freudian analysis. More likely it's aimed at the orally fixated who have a sweet tooth, just like all lollipops.

The folks over at Archie McPhee say that as long you don't have any hangups about eating candies shaped like human heads then you'll love the shape and flavor of these Freud head lollipops. The package has a spoof on the famous Freud quote that reads, "Sometimes a lollipop is just a lollipop." For some reason these things remind me of another famous quote: "There's a sucker born every minute."

[via: Boing Boing]

Filed under: Hacking Food, Food Oddities, Ingredients, New Products

Holy Complete Breakfast, Batman! It's Superhero Food

COMMENTS 1

by Joe DiStefano, Posted Jul 13th 2007 @ 6:00PM

The number of bizarre things people collect and post about on the web never ceases to amaze me. The latest such site I came across is Super Hero Food. As you can tell from the photo, this fanboy's creation is not about what Superman and his friends eat on a daily basis; it's an online museum devoted to various food products that feature a compendium of caped crusaders from comic books and movies.

The list of Super Hero Foods this guy has collected is as long as your arm and contains characters from both the Marvel and D.C. universes. It includes products emblazoned with images of most of the A-list superheroes like Spiderman, Batman and the X Men. Apparently nobody ever made any cereals or soups featuring more obscure superheroes. Of course not every item on this list is as conventional as breakfast cereal.

One of the stranger items on the list is a 3-pound bottle of Hulk Green Chocolate Syrup. Then there's Spider-Man Potato Chips, which come to us from Japan, of all places. If you find the thought of possessing any of these strange items for your very own compelling, then you'll be glad to know this guy is selling off parts of his collection on eBay. For a mere $4.99 you can be the first kid on your block with a set of rare Spidey cookies and crackers.

Filed under: Hacking Food, Food Oddities

Don't try this at home: Electrocuted hot dogs

COMMENTS 6

by Joe DiStefano, Posted Jul 8th 2007 @ 10:00AM

Summertime always sparks a craving for hot dogs. No doubt it's largely due to fond memories of childhood barbecues. I've little or no time for whining about whether wieners make for unhealthful eating. Debates about how to cook 'em hold infinitely more interest. As a New Yorker, I'm no stranger to so-called dirty water dogs. I've been known to eat one now and again, but I much prefer the grilled dogs of my childhood. I'm somewhat embarrassed to admit that deep-fried dogs are a relatively new indulgence for me.

Tastiness aside, I realize deep-fried dogs are probably about as good for you as pork cracklins, though no less tasty. Lately I've been reading about hot dog cooking methods that are down right life-threatening. I'm not talking about holding your dog over an open flame with your bare hands, but zapping it with the current that comes out of your wall. Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories gives step-by-step instructions for this novel way to fry your frank along with the warning, "Do not, under any circumstances, cook hot dogs this way." To their credit EMSL repeatedly points out the danger of being electrocuted by cooking a wiener via wall current, and notes that the taste of the final product leaves something to be desired.

The second bizarre method of hot dog cooking I came across is not so much life-threatening in terms of process, but yields a product, that deserves to be called palate deadening. For some reason Jaime J. Weinman decided to microwave a hot dog until all the fat had been rendered out. After 10 minutes of zapping the poor frankfurter, it was reduced to a dry tasteless stick. I'd be hard-pressed to find any cured sausage that didn't taste downright awful after being nuked for five minutes, much less 10.
[via BoingBoing, Serious Eats]

Filed under: Hacking Food, Pop Food, Food Oddities, Spirit of Summer, On the Blogs, Ingredients

Battered Sav Supreme Pizza

COMMENTS 4

by Joe DiStefano, Posted Jul 1st 2007 @ 6:35PM

Move over Taco Town. The good folks at at Australia's Vomino's Pizza have cooked up a fast-food monstrosity that rivals the pizza-crepe-taco-pancake-chili bag. The mindboggling commercial desrcibes the Batterered Sav Supreme Pizza as the the ultimate fast-food pizza. This awesome new menu item was designed to appeal to customers who can't get enough of Vomino's Meat Lover's Pizza. Vomino's artery-clogging new pie is topped with a layer of saveloy's, or spicy red pork sausages, kranskies, another type of Australian sausage, nuggets and chiko rolls. As far as I can tell, the Chiko roll is an Aussie taquito filled with mutton, celery, cabbage, barley rice and carrot. Before I forget the whole affair is also loaded with "anything else left unsold from a milk bar bain marie, topped off with our fizzy cola sauce." All this writing has made me hungry. Since there's no Vomino's in the States, I'll be settling for Taco Bell.

[via: SupersizedMeals]

Filed under: Hacking Food, Food Oddities, Ingredients, Fast Food