There's been a lot of talk lately about what's unconstitutional and what's not, but Slate's got a question the Founding Father's never thought of: Can prison food be unconstitutionally bad?
Apparently there's a prison food so disgusting it's been the subject of numerous lawsuits. Nutraloaf, or Nutri-loaf, is a combination of vegetables, cheese, bread and raisins that can be eaten without utensils by prisoners who can't be trusted with knives. It looks, to put it indelicately, like someone ate Thanksgiving dinner, regurgitated it into a square pan, then froze and sliced it. It's often served to inmates who have misbehaved, a culinary equivalent of solitary confinement.
Prisoners in at least seven states have sued, claiming that Nutraloaf is a cruel and unusual punishment. They've lost. The Slate writer makes his own Nutraloaf, following recipes from several states, and declares California's meat-filled version the best.
So there you go kids, another reason to stay out of jail!
A while, back, I wrote a post on emotionally-based food aversions -- both my own (tuna noodle casserole), and those of loved ones (scrambled eggs, mayonnaise, garlic). Little did I know this was going to open up Pandora's icebox. More than 75,000 people weighed in on our "What food hits your yuck button?" poll, and the comments thread is at the time of this writing, 1668 strong and counting. It seems that folks have just been looking for a place to spill their long-stewing food loathings, so we've counted down the top 20, weighting them for poll votes, number of mentions in comments, and level of vitriol incurred.
Want to keep the conversation flowing? See the initial post, or hurl forth in the comments below.
Bored at work? High tolerance for grossness? Check out this B3TA (a juvenile, crude and quite hilarious British "arts" site) message board on "the worst thing you've ever cooked or eaten." The board is closed for posting, but there are 20 pages worth of responses. Some are almost certainly made-up, many are obscene, others so British they may be nearly meaningless to American readers (Bovril? Walkers crisps? Fry-ups?). But a lot of them are pretty darn funny.
Outstanding responses include turkey-wrapped sheep brain, roadkill badger, maggots meant for fishing bait and a chunk of cigar.
As for me, I'm going to have to pick the soggy tripe stew I ate in Argentina. Tripe is fine when all the stomach-y flavor is well cooked out, but this tasted of wet dog and gym socks and old burps, with the texture of snot-slicked rubber tubing. You?
"No matter how beautiful its carmine and orange stalks, the sight of a bunch of chard in my organic bag always makes my heart sink." -- Nigel Slater, The Kitchen Diaries
A boyfriend once told me that if I ever wanted to make him cry, I could serve him scrambled eggs on a Wednesday night in the winter. I had no particular interest in making him cry (though that changed later on...), of course, but I asked him why. He wasn't especially keen to elaborate, but it had something to do with childhood, and his mother having choir practice, and his now-estranged father taking over kitchen duties the only way he knew how.
My best friend's husband is only now, at 35, accepting small wisps of mayo on his sandwiches after an incident 25 years ago involving his older, stronger brother, a spatula, and a family-sized jar of Hellmann's. My own grandfather, the child of immigrants who settled in a small Pennsylvania town, refused garlic for the first several decades of his life for fear of, in his words, "smelling Italian". It breaks my heart to know that, and it absolutely underscores the massive emotional impact that certain foods can have on us.
Food is uniquely powerful in that besides our multi-sensory involvement with it, it also becomes part of us. While other aesthetic details -- songs, smells, etc., may imprint themselves on our memories of situations both joyful and otherwise, they're not as likely to, well, make you feel like you're gonna hurl. It goes deeper than an aversion to taste or scent or mouth-feel. Food certainly warms the soul, but it can also make it heave.
My trigger food? Tuna-noodle casserole. And no, I don't wanna talk about it.
What are the foods that hit you where you live? Let it out in the comments -- we're here for you.
I always keep an eye out for new and limited edition candies when I'm at the store. The candy companies love putting them out and, frankly, most of us know what the originals taste like. It's interesting to compare old and new to see what works and what doesn't. But even I will admit that things are getting a little out of hand when you can venture into what was once the candy aisle and see that not only has it been replaced entirely with different kinds of limitededitionHershey'sKisses, but that it has been expanded to cover four aisles, making room for all the other new varieties of old candies.
How far can manufacturers and retailers go with this trend? Cotton and Sand , getting more than a little annoyed with the overload of not-so-special releases, came up with some as-yet-unrealized (thankfully!) candy bar concepts that poke fun at the overwhelming selection candy consumers now face. Kit Kat Malt Liquor sounds like the best of the bunch, but I think I'll pass on Vegetable Skittles, Seafood Gumbo Reeses Peanut Butter Cups and Snickers Bacon Bars.
When you think of the human body in relation to food, chances are you think about the fact that food is what keeps the body going. This is not the only way that the body and food can beconnected, however. Nyotaimori, for example, is the practice of dining on sushi off a naked body and, especially considering that the "plate" is usually an attractive woman, it is an expensive experience. The practice is relatively popular in Japan when compared to its occurrence in other countries, but it can be found elsewhere, too.
Not wanting to loose points for originality, the Japanese have come up with another way to associate the body and food. In this rather disturbing mashup, a sculpted human body is placed on a dining table where people can "operate" on it, eating what they find inside. Unlike Operation, this body actually appears to bleed, as well.
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."
The idea behind most food websites, food blogs included, is to write about good food. Good recipes, excellent restaurants and tasty products are among the things frequently written up on these sites. Wild Recipes has a slightly different goal, however. The site is dedicated to the weirdest, most outrageous - by which they usually mean disgusting - foods that people actually eat.
Old fashioned scrapple, Rocky Mountain oysters, head cheese and brains are all included on the site, but there are far stranger dishes than the ones that simply involve cooking the less appetizing bits of animals. For example, how would you feel about a Spam milkshake (pictured) with anchovies, mustard and beer? Or would you be likely to put a few slices of Cheddar cheese in your morning coffee then "slurp down the glob of melted cheese" once you've finished off the liquid? Granted, the cheese coffee is unappealing in a way that is different from the "oysters," but that doesn't make it any less disgusting.
Most of the entries have recipes should you be so inclined to try them and there are seven pages of dishes to choose from, and just about all of them are accompanied by a story describing how the submitter first came across the dish.
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.
If you are looking for ways to beat your lunchtime fast food cravings (and stories about E. coli aren't enough), take a look at Court TV's list of the ten worst things found in fast food meals. Since it's Court TV, you can guess that they're not talking about trans-fats, either. Their list includes the following items, though you'll have to check out their list for the full details on each item, as well as info on any subsequent lawsuits:
In 1995 an Alabama man found a condom in a burger at a McDonald's
In 2004, an Ohio man found some skin (part of a thumb) in and Arby's sandwich.
In 2005, a man found the whole finger - a different one - in some Kohl's frozen custard.
The employees at an Oregon Jack in the Box, "for their sole amusement," added a variety of disturbing things (acid, soap, phlegm, human hair and staples) the burgers of at least one couple.
A Virginia Beach firefighter found two used bandages Quarter Pounder at McDonald's in 1994 (My roommate in college found one in the pizza at the cafeteria, but that didn't make the list).
A Tennessee man (allegedly) bit into a hypodermic needle in a Big Mac in 2000.
There are four more disturbing "found" items on CourtTV's list, but, frankly, six is really more than enough for me. And you can bet that I'll be looking closely the next time I hit the drive-thru on a road trip. Better safe than sorry!
Here is yet another concoction to add to our ever-growing list of things that bacon is not normally found in, yet contain bacon anyway: bacon martinis. Unlike some of our previous finds, however, a bacon martini doesn't even really sound appetizing. It is made with the following method: "Lightly mist martini glass with vermouth, and rim the edge with bacon grease. In a cocktail shaker, mix 3oz vodka, one dash Tabasco, and one dash olive juice. Shake well and strain into cocktail glass. Skim excess bacon grease from surface of cocktail. Garnish with one slice of bacon." It's hard to say whether the recipe was intended to be a joke because there are definitely bacon lovers out there who would give this a try at least once. Perhaps the question we should be asking is what to serve such a cocktail with. It might be too salty if served with nuts or other classic bar food, and there is no way that it would pair well with a dessert. It might add a bit of bacon flavor to an otherwise plain steak, but the only other viable option is with an egg dish at breakfast. After all, if you're willing to toss back some bacon martinis in the first place, you probably won't have a problem doing it in the morning.
Generally, the scariest thing about amusement parks is not the haunted house or the gravity-defying roller coaster. It's the greasy, overpriced food - and when the funnel cakes are the only thing drawing people in, you know that there has to be a change. Six Flags is using some scary food as a way to attract customers to their parks during their Halloween Fright-Fest celebrations. The promotion entails eating a live Madagascar Hissing Cockroach in exchange for front-of-the-line passes at some parks, including Six Flags Great America, although at Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom, eating a roach will get you free admission.
To no one's surprise, PETA is not thrilled with this promotion, but some theme park visitors are loving it. "They do taste like chicken," said one visitor. An eight grader at Great America said "I've been here too many time, I just want to eat cockroaches."
You'll have to check with your nearest Six Flags to see if they're offering the deal. Six Flags representatives said that those with shellfish allergies might want to avoid the roaches, though there are no other problems associated with eating them.
At the very first Halloween party I can remember, which was when I was about 7, there was a series of boxes, covered in black cloth, with holes cut out so that you could reach in and feel whatever was inside. There were eyeballs (peeled grapes) in one box and brains (slippery cooked spaghetti). I can't recall if there were any others, but I was not alone in my refusal to stick my hands into the mystery boxes. The idea of touching some mystery substance, especially an icky one, was not appealing at all.
Now, I know perfectly well that they were just grapes and noodles and, like so many others, actually enjoy a good scare from time to time. To this end, the best thing to do is to throw a Halloween party, since the even event makes it socially acceptable to scare people a bit. Atmosphere is easy to achieve with a trip to just about any party store, but the food is more difficult. Fortunately, there is a whole guide to making a really creepy Halloween dinner that will have your guests feeling queasy for at least a course or two, even though the food tastes good. Alien Autopsy Shooters or Eyes in Blood Sauce, anyone?
Click past the jump to see a video of the dessert heart being carved up.
We talked about chocolate-covered ants once before, but when we did, I got the impression that we were considering the tiny little guys that crawl around the patio and that end up in movies, not the so-called big-butt queen ants that are making an entry onto the gourmet foods market. "The first loud crackle tastes and feels like popcorn, but by the time the juices spray wildly in your mouth and the filament-like legs slide down your throat, there's no mistaking this toasted ant queen."
Filament-like legs? Spraying juices? Thanks - but no thanks.
These insects, called hormiga culona, are popular in Colombia, where they are gathered, and thought to have medicinal properties, including acting as an aphrodisiac and as a defense against cancer. There, they are often toasted and salted, though restaurants in the area they are harvested offer ant-spreads and ant-based sauces for their dishes. They are often given away, as the ants are not only a traditional food, but a part of the culture.
In almost every refrigerator in every home, there is a package of old, mysterious food. It could be furry, smelly or have actually developed into a new life form by the time you find it and dispose of it. There is one place that contains food more frightening that the home refrigerator: the office refrigerator.
To say that this appliance is the black hole of food is inaccurate only in the fact that some of the food eventually resurfaces.
There are a variety of standard food items in office refrigerators. Most of them contain some form of creamer, often the non-dairy varieties, as well as variously dated cartons of milk. There are always a few jars with condiments like mustard, mayonnaise and jam. The number of condiments is directly proportional to the number of people who work in the office and have access to the fridge, so despite the fact that no one can recall ever adding anything themselves, a fridge in an office of 50 people will have a dozen bottles of salad dressing, a few jars of mayonnaise and at least 3 different mustards, in addition to pickles, soy sauce and ketchup - none of which anyone can find when they want to use it, of course, which leads to the addition of even more condiments.
There's been a lot of talk lately about what's unconstitutional and what's not, but Slate's got a question the Founding Father's never thought of: Can prison food be unconstitutionally bad?
A boyfriend once told me that if I ever wanted to make him cry, I could serve him scrambled eggs on a Wednesday night in the winter. I had no particular interest in making him cry (though that changed later on...), of course, but I asked him why. He wasn't especially keen to elaborate, but it had something to do with childhood, and his mother having choir practice, and his now-estranged father taking over kitchen duties the only way he knew how.
When you think of the human body in relation to food, chances are you think about the fact that food is what keeps the body going. This is not the only way that the body and food can beconnected, however. 
Today (January 26th) is 
The idea behind most food websites, food blogs included, is to write about good food. Good recipes, excellent restaurants and tasty products are among the things frequently written up on these sites. 
If you are looking for ways to beat your lunchtime fast food cravings (and 
Here is yet another concoction to add to our 
Generally, the scariest thing about amusement parks is not the haunted house or the gravity-defying roller coaster. It's the greasy, overpriced food - and when the funnel cakes are the only thing drawing people in, you know that there has to be a change. Six Flags is using some scary food as a way to attract customers to their parks during their Halloween Fright-Fest celebrations. 
We talked about 
In almost every refrigerator in every home, there is a package of old, mysterious food. It could be furry, smelly or have actually developed into a new life form by the time you find it and dispose of it. There is one place that contains food more frightening that the home refrigerator: the office refrigerator.
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