"obama" news and stories

It sounds like a setup for a joke: An American president (well, a look-alike) is in China, hawking a fish sandwich for a chicken chain.

But we're not kidding. An Obama doppelganger has been hired by China's KFC marking team to advertise the chain's new fish sandwich. Obama Foodorama, a blog dedicated to rounding up Obama-related food news (someone's gotta do it, we suppose), reports that KFC, the most popular fast-food chain in the country, is hoping the "Mmmm, change is good!" ad campaign will boost sales. Whether "Fauxbama" does the trick remains to be seen.

Read the story at Obama Foodorama.

Dumb products show up in the supermarket every day (honestly, does anybody really need a box of frozen crustless peanut butter and jelly sandwiches?), but the folks over at Buzzfeed have a list of 15 products that take stupidity to another level. The microwaveable pork rinds and pickle juice popsicles are bad enough, but the breaded Obama Fingers are borderline offensive. However, we'll put in one tiny dissenting vote about the bubble gum ice cream -- most kids we know go wild for the stuff.

Read the full list of 15 WTF Frozen Foods at Buzzfeed.

President Obama spent four years of his childhood in Indonesia in the 1960s, and recently made an official presidential visit to the southeast Asian archipelago. But what excited the most public attention in Jakarta were not any diplomatic initiatives he proposed, but what he said he missed from his time there. And what he missed was bakso.

Bakso (a.k.a. bakmi) is Indonesia's premier street food, a soup that can contain any number of things, but always includes meatballs -- which are also called bakso. Confused? This soup is sold from stalls in the street, from trucks, and, most memorably, by vendors who ride bicycles that have a bakso-assembling set-ups attached to the front, complete with little steam-table tubs heated by Sterno flames or charcoal.

The meatballs themselves are usually made with finely ground beef, but can also be composed of chicken, fish or shrimp. Sometimes, they're formed from bovine variety meats like tendon and liver. But the quintessential feature of these orbs -- which can be as small as marbles or as large as tennis balls -- is that the meat is extended with tapioca flour, which gives the meatballs a bouncy consistency.

Photo: John Paul Filo, CBS Broadcasting Inc./AP.

President Obama made his first appearance Monday night on the "Late Show with David Letterman" as President of the United States, but it was a potato that stole the show.

The commander-in-chief -- who made his sixth appearance on the talk show (his first as President) to discuss Afghanistan, the economy, unemployment and health care -- was upstaged by a heart-shaped potato, brought to the show's taping by Mary Apple of Independence, Mo.

"The main reason I'm here?" the President said. "I want to see that heart-shaped potato."

Former President Clinton and President Obama. Photo: Charles Dharapak/Getty Images.

Two presidents known for their shared love of greasy foods chose a healthier choice for a meeting in New York.

After giving a speech to Wall Street on Monday, President Obama met up with former President Clinton at Greenwich Village's upscale Il Mulino, whose cuisine from Italy's Abruzzi region features dishes like Scaloppini Capriccio (veal sauteed in wine with prosciutto, fontina and mushrooms) and Red Snapper Sauteed with Seafood Sauce.

While the White House would not give Slashfood any information on the presidential menu, Clinton told reporters gathered outside that the two had "fish, pasta and salad," the Christian Science Monitor reports.

"It was very healthy. Even I was healthy," said Clinton, whose notorious taste for fast food -- the defunct McDonald's McRib sandwich in particular -- was a target of "Saturday Night Live" humor during his presidency.