We are not big fans of Burger King's creepy ad mascot, The King, and we know that we're not the only ones who feel a little uneasy when his commercials come on. Burger King, and the various advertising firms that represent them, likes to take their promotions into that extreme zone, though, so perhaps we should just be glad that their advertising isn't worse than it already is.

For example, take a look at this Burger King Germany wrapper, which contains instructions for building a throne to your Whopper out of ketchup packets and french fries. According to the person who photographed the wrapper and submitted it to Instructables, the directions say that the throne is for resting your burger and worshiping it.

Let's be glad that they haven't incorporated this idea into their King-centric US advertising yet. Can you imagine how strange the commercials would get?

[via tfs]

King Cake is a staple of Mardi Gras celebrations. The pastry is made with a rich, brioche-like dough that is light in texture, but made with plenty of butter and eggs, and wrapped around a decadent filling of either cream cheese or marzipan. Usually shaped in a round, the cake is frosted with tri-colored icing: purple to represent justice, green to represent faith, and gold to represent power. Amanda and Tyler (the cook and the eater, respectively) from What We're Eating baked up a decadent Mixed Berry & Cream Cheese King Cake to celebrate the season, filled with a combination of berries, cream cheese and sour cream for a sweet, fruity take on the seasonal favorite. The berries are actually cooked with sugar to form a quick jam, which is layered with the cheese mixture inside the cake. King Cakes can be eaten for breakfast or dessert, and this one seems like a prime candidate for the former category.

I admit that I did not think it was possible for the King, the strangely masked man of Burger King TV commercial fame, to get any creepier. Unfortunately, I was wrong. Burger King is promoting Sneak King, an inexpensive and ad-laden Xbox 360 game that features - you guessed it - the King. Instead of standing around and fraternizing with attractive women, he hides, creeps and sneaks around the virtual world in which he lives, jumping out from behind objects to force burgers on unsuspecting people. The image of being stalked by the King (as seen in the above trailer) is enough to make you sleep with the lights on just to be on the safe side.

The only reason to buy the game ($3.99 at Burger King) is (a) if you just shelled out for an Xbox 360, don't have the budget for better games and are really desperate to play it or (b) you have some crazy fantasy about being the King, which who the player controls in the game. If you're buying it for the first reason, that's somewhat understandable. If it's the second...

We posted about Pho Fever around this time last year, and appears that since then the pho site has added a forum where fans can discuss that ambrosial mixture of beef, broth, noodles and herbs. The forum isn't exactly booming, but there are about 50 users, and a healthy banter about pho recipes. With any luck, more people will check it out and share their thoughts. The site also has a sparsely updated pho blog, but for my pho blogging needs, I think I'll stick with the slightly more current Pho King.