Don't fear. As you look for new ways to make cooking special, and also as the gift-giving season approaches, we have found you eight bizarre kitchen items from ThinkGeek! From the futuristic to the just-plain-weird, these items will certainly give you a smile.
And who knows? Some of these are pretty clever. Maybe you need a Titanium Spork!
Too lazy to use a knife? Sick of switching back and forth from fork to spoon when you eat your Ramen noodles?
Ah, yes. These dining conundrums have befallen even the best of us at one time or another. The solution?
Enter, crazy new cutlery. The Washington Post's Jane Black reviewed a few new designs that promise to rid us of our dining woes (or, at the very least, provide us with fodder for our next dinner party conversation).
Among the new designs:
The "Knork," designed to serve as both knife and fork. A little awkward, but helpful for those parties where the you're perched in a corner, attempting to eat off of a tiny paper plate with just a fork.
Mono Zeug Tools are based on primitive Neanderthal designs, in that the knife is designed to be a piece of honed flint, and the spoon, a variation of a curved oyster shell.
Curvware is designed to be ergonomic so that you don't strain your hand or grip too hard when attempting to, say, cut your steak. Black pronounced it "very comfortable."
Ramen spoon - Admit it: Ramen noodles can be annoying to eat. This design changes all that, with a spoon for the broth and fork tines for those slippery noodles. And while I wouldn't go so far as to call it "genius," as Block does, it is pretty neat. Unfortunately, you'll have to wait 'til May before you buy it.
Check out the video of Black testing out these new tools here.
One of the first things I learned to do in the kitchen was crack an egg. I was four years old and standing on a step stool next to my dad, 'helping' him make pancakes on a Saturday morning. He showed me how to hold the egg firmly but carefully and tap it against the edge of the counter top. I remember the thrill I felt that he had trusted me with something so fragile and that I succeeded in not messing it up.
Over the years I've broken countless eggs (in must be in the thousands by now, in the last two weeks alone I've gone through three dozen). I've never thought of it as a onerous or trying task. I certainly didn't think that it was something that required its own utensil to do the job right. However, the human mind loves to create and so someone has invented the egg cracker, a tool that keeps your hands away from the mess of the egg white.
I can actually see how this might be useful for people who have disabilities or reduced motor control. However, for the rest of the folks out there, I think this one doesn't belong in the kitchen. What do you think? Useful tool or useless dust collector?
Designboom, a mod blog devoted to the latest and greatest in product design, recently came out with the winners of its 2006 Dining in 2015 contest. The challenge was exactly as it sounds: to design a food-related product that would be useful in 2015 at work, in travel, or at home.
Chefs and designers from Italy and Japan judged the entires and came up with the top three and an honorable mention.
Let's start from the bottom and work up. The honorable mention [ed. note: shown in photo] was an eco-friendly solution to dinner prep: silicone and nylon triangle-shaped buckets that allow the cook to boil three different foods all in one pot, thereby saving energy, time, and water. I totally expect it to be selling out on QVC in no time.
Third place? A creative ceramic salt and pepper shaker that forces you to physically break open the canister to access the spices inside. The goal of the project? There isn't any, really, but we bet it's really, really fun to break open. Save it for a day when you're really pissed off at someone, and then smash away. (But don't get carried away - - then you'll just have a mess of salt, pepper, and white ceramic shards to clean up).
I admit that I have more specialty cooking gadgets than is absolutely necessary. Pickle grabbers, microplanes, whisks and potato mashers fight it out daily for the limited storage space in my kitchen. However, there are a few items that seem excessive, even to me. Take, for instance, this popcorn fork. Yes, someone has invented a utensil for one of life's perfect finger foods (with a built-in salt shaker).
What do you think? Is it crazy, or does it seem like the perfect way to prevent greasy popcorn fingers?
Ladies and gentlemen and Slashfood readers of all ages, put on your thinking caps and direct your attention to the photo at right. It's time to play name that utensil.
I'll give everyone a head start, by stating the obvious. As you can see the image of the utensil in question is clearly an antique. What, you say that's not enough of a clue upon which to hang a guess! Fair enough: it's a fork.
Still not enough to go on? This particular mutation of the fork is designed to aid the consumption of a rather messy food of which there are purported to be more than 500 varieties. Check the jump for the answer.
Earlier this year, I put together a list of chopsticks in celebration of the Chinese New Year. Some of them were just beautifully luxurious, others were made for trvael, and still others were made for kids. Well, some of them were also made like they were for kids, but are for those of us who are still imprpving our dexterity on chopsticks. Training chopsticks.
Now we have the "chork," something like training chopsticks, but instead of making us feel like we don't know how to use chopsticks, these are intended to be used as both chopsticks and a fork, and as Daily Olive put it, "just right for your next Asian fusion meal." Available from lrfurniturestdios.
Have you ever seen someone using a fork, knife or another eating utensil in a way that seems incredibly awkward? Because the ability to use a knife and fork is a mark of a well-socialized individual and is a skill that is typically picked up from observing others, it is hard not to wonder they picked up such unusual habits. In Japan, some schools are wondering the same thing and want to make sure that such sloppy, untraditional habits of chopstick use are stopped before they spread any further. The Hisatagakuen Sasebo Girls' High School will be testing students on their skill with chopsticks as part of their entrance examinations. The 10-minute test will require that students "transfer beads, marbles, dice and beans from one plate to another."
Administrators say that the purpose of this test is to show respect for "the Japanese spirit" but, in light of the decline of chopstick use among Japanese children, it also seems like a rather unusual way to make sure everyone has good table manners.
As if there aren't enough strange food gadgets in the world already, we manage to keep finding new and unusual ones. These Finger Forks look like miniature versions of the Wolverine's claws, but are small enugh to slip, ring-like, onto each finger. They are made of stainless steel and, like other types of forks, are sharp enough to pierce most foods. They are suggested for use at cocktail parties, but you run the risk of having people think that you are repeatedly dipping your fingers into the various dips and sauces. They would be better suited to a restaurant where the food is typically eaten with the fingers - many Moroccan restaurants, for example - so someone unfamiliar with the practice can stay within their comfort zone and still use a utensil. The forks might also work out well for people who can't manage chopsticks and are too embarassed to ask for a fork.
A school principal in Montreal reportedly told a parent: "'Every time your son eats like a pig, he'll be disciplined.'" Maria Theresa Gallardo, the mother of 7-year old Luc Cagadoc, says that now her son no longer wants to go to school and dreads lunchtime. Luc's "problem" was that he ate his lunch with a fork and a spoon, as he says Filipinos traditionally do. When his teacher saw him doing this, she called him "disgusting," "a pig" and "a clown."
This conflict has sparked and international protest over whether little Luc should be forced to "adjust to the Canadian way of eating. The school board claims that this is a matter of etiquette, not culture, while people on the other side of the issue are calling it "an affront to Filipino culture" and outright racism. Cultural sensitivity needs to be taught to educators, say anti-racism groups, so that discrimination - even if it is unintentional - can be avoided.
What utensils do the school officials expect small children to use during lunch? The majority of schools seem to provive no more than sporks to students - would such a fusion be more or less acceptable than separate use of the spoon and fork?
I admit that I have more specialty cooking gadgets than is absolutely necessary. Pickle grabbers, microplanes, whisks and potato mashers fight it out daily for the limited storage space in my kitchen. However, there are a few items that seem excessive, even to me. Take, for instance, this 
Ladies and gentlemen and Slashfood readers of all ages, put on your thinking caps and direct your attention to the photo at right. It's time to play name that utensil. 
Have you ever seen someone using a fork, knife or another eating utensil in a way that seems incredibly awkward? Because the ability to use a knife and fork is a mark of a well-socialized individual and is a skill that is typically picked up from observing others, it is hard not to wonder they picked up such unusual habits. In Japan, some schools are wondering the same thing and want to make sure that such sloppy, untraditional habits of chopstick use are stopped before they spread any further. The Hisatagakuen Sasebo Girls' High School will be 
As if there aren't enough strange food gadgets in the world already, we manage to keep finding new and unusual ones. These Finger Forks look like miniature versions of the 
A school principal in Montreal reportedly told a parent: "'Every time your son eats like a pig, he'll be disciplined.'" Maria Theresa Gallardo, the mother of 7-year old Luc Cagadoc, says that now her son no longer wants to go to school and dreads lunchtime. Luc's "problem" was that he ate his lunch with a fork and a spoon, as he says Filipinos traditionally do. When his teacher saw him doing this, she called him "disgusting," "a pig" and "a clown."
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