"food oddities" news and stories

When people are bored, they come up with all sorts of unusual experiments that, if otherwise occupied, perhaps they wouldn't ordinarily try. There is little doubt that this has led to some great discoveries over the years, but this particular one is probably unlikely to have widespread cultural ramifications. It involves Jello and the question of whether or not it can be nailed to a wall.

I won't keep you in suspense. Jello - or jelly if you're not from the US - cannot be nailed to a wall in its standard form. When prepared according to package directions, the amount of gelatin that gives the food its signature "jiggle" is not enough to hold it together when nailed to a board. If you live somewhere where you can purchase concentrated jelly/Jello cubes, however, you will find that it can easily be nailed to a wall.

Mystery solved.

[via boingboing]

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Today (January 26th) is Australia Day and one way that some of our friends down in summery Australia are celebrating is with Vegemite gelato.

The combination sounds slightly horrifying to anyone who doesn't already love Vegemite, the salty brewers' yeast paste that, like Marmite, is popular on toast in many parts of the world, but for those who enjoy its flavor, the combination is proving to be a popular seller for its creator. Gherardo Deflorian is from Italy and has a gelato shop, Gelateria Cremona, in Brisbane. Not a fan of Vegemite himself, he thought that the flavor would be unique, a little controversial and a bit more interesting than the same old flavors that everyone uses. He had to have his customers taste the gelato in progress, as he just couldn't stomach the concoction himself, but it has been met with positive feedback from gelato (and Vegemite) fans who say that "it reminds them of when they were little and they had Vegemite on toast with butter."

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I don't honestly think that the KFC Famous Bowl looks appetizing. It is a bowl containing layers of mashed potatoes, gravy, corn, fried chicken pieces and shredded cheese. The idea is that, unlike most fast food meals, it actually has the same components as a real homestyle dinner. Why you would want to have all those things mushed together is clearly a matter of personal taste, but it is safe to say that you are much better off combining your own homemade ingredients than buying KFC's concoction, even if the fast food chain is eliminating trans fats from their recipes. Homemade will taste better and will probably be less fattening. A regular Famous Bowl has 720 calories and 34 grams of fat. The nutritional content of a homemade one will depend on your personal recipes for each of the components, but if you want to go really low-fat, you can always try Hungry Girl's KFC-Ya Later Bowl. At 285 calories and 6.5g of fat, her madeover bowl has less than half the salt and almost half the carbs of the original.

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Green eggs and ham is a legend of the children's book world, but I must say that this is the first time I've seen a genuine attempt at producing it. This photo is from a flickr set by user michales and is accompanied by instructions detailing how to recreate the dish in your own home. The ham is painted with food coloring, but there is a trick o getting the egg just right. The egg white has to be separated from the yolk and scrambled with food coloring. The yolk is then (gently!) added back to the white when it is poured into the pan.

The only way in which these eggs differ from the literary eggs is that Dr Seuss imagined his to have green yolks, not whites. But I think that neither Sam-I-am nor any little Seuss fan would have a problem eating these eggs - here, there or anywhere!

[via boingboing]

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With the amount of bacon that we have seen on this site this year, 2006 should have been the year of the pig (2007 is actually the year of the pig). It has popped up everywhere from breakfast plates to evening cocktails. Some say that Everything Tastes Better with Bacon, but after checking out our list of the top 8 uses for bacon from the last year, you can decide for yourself if you have been Seduced by Bacon:

• Since breakfast is the most important meal of the day, why not start it off with a big bowl of Bacon cereal?
• Cereal isn't the only bacon-infused breakfast option. French toast and bacon sandwich could be a more appetizing choice if you're not the cereal type, or you could simply opt for bacon waffles. Bacon breakfast cookies will give you a bacon fix on the go.
• BLT's have much too small a ratio of bacon-to-nonbacon. The ultimate bacon sandwich or a deep-fried bacon Double Quarter Pounder are both much more meat-oriented.
• Gummy bacon isn't bacon flavored, but if you like the idea of bacon in candy, bacon caramel might be just what you're looking for
• For dessert, a generous serving of bacon ice cream is in order, and this kind actually has chunks of bacon in it, much like the bacon ice cream that Marcel mixed up on Top Chef.
• The bacon martini is not a drink for everyone. You may have to be an addict - not that we condone alcoholism or bacon-aholism - to get it down.
• You can't keep bacon in it, but the bacon wallet will help you bring home the bacon, in addition to looking like it. The only odd thing here is that the wallet is made of faux leather - couldn't they have gone for the real thing?
• Time, bacon and eggs heal all wounds, especially if you use bacon and eggs bandaids to help speed the healing process along.
• We suspect that the bacon trend may continue into next year, since we recently found out about the existence of chicken fried bacon (with gravy), which sounds like it will be an instant hit at the fried-food havens that are county fairs.
• Last, but certainly not least, we have heard that eating bacon and participating in open discussion of the pork product may be the single most important part of achieving world peace. Peace Through Pork makes a good point.