Flash in the Pan

• Butter Statues - Every year, the Iowa State Fair has big statues made of butter. Making the public vote cut: 40th anniversary of the moon landing. What didn't? Michael Jackson, presumably doing the moon walk. (AP)


• Chilling Cattle - Heat waves in Veneto, Italy is driving farmers to try showers and fans to keep their cattle cool. (UPI)


• That's Mr. Cupcake to You - Guinness certified the world's largest cupcake at 150 pounds, 15 pounds of filling, and 60 pounds of icing. (UPI)


• Did He Spill A Drop? - A Vermont police officer pulled over a driver for drunk driving. What made him suspect? The glass of beer left on the trunk. (AP)


• No Hot Dogging - The Oscar Meyer Weinermobile crashed into a Wisconson home. Was it shaped like a bun? (AP)


• Laurent Ponsot, Wine Detective - Ponsot, a former vintner, tracks fake wine. (Financial Times)


• And Nabbing a Vintage Villain - French police arrested a man who allegedly stole 500 bottles of wine, worth millions of dollars, from top Parisian restaurants. (AFP)


• Making Lemonade - Seven Pennsylvania children got into trouble with the police for selling lemonade without a permit. (AP)


• Onion Juice - A new system converts onion juice into a different type of juice -- electricity. (Reuters)


• Sub Swiping - A serial robber in Florida seems to favor sub sandwich chain stores. (UPI)


• Jail B&B - A Missouri jail is raising money for new mattresses by letting people stay overnight in a new addition. Comes with snacks, mug shots, and shirts. But how about the cake with a file inside? (AP)


• Doesn't Melt In Your Hands - Swiss chocolate maker Barry Callebaut says it has a melt-resistant version of the treat. (UPI)


• Meatball Mania - A Chicago restaurant is prepping 200 pounds of beef for the American Meatball Eating Championship. (UPI)

Labels: news, odd, strange, weird

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• Eat It and Like It - A 71-year-old man complained to his 66-year-old common law wife about her bad cooking. She allegedly beat him and apparently told deputies, upon her arrest, that she had been drunk and burned the bread. Toast, anyone? (AP)


• Cops Own Doughnut Shop - Some Michigan police really wanted their doughnuts, so when the owners of the local shop were planning to close it, nine officers chipped in and bought it. (UPI)


• Have Cork, Will Travel - A service offering a select few consultations from top sommeliers has an entry fee of £50,000, or about $81,000, and that doesn't include the wine. Check the ins and outs of adding a temperature recorder to a case of wine to make sure it didn't get overheated. Alas, it did. (Financial Times)


• Here Comes the Orient Express - Some top British chefs are creating dishes for toddlers, hoping to get kids into restaurants. What are the chances that they still ask for grilled cheese and chicken fingers? (UPI)


• Pastel, Stale, and Coming for You - The first store devoted to selling Peeps is scheduled to open. It won't just be the marshmellow concoctions (whether dream or nightmare is up to you), but also such things as t-shirts, plush toys, and pillows. In a blind taste test, could anyone tell the difference? (Washington Post)


• Water into Wine - A German company claiming that its powerder turns water into Chianti is angering Italian farmers. I'm betting that the Catholic Church does not have a stake in the venture. (UPI)


• Dining the Parisian Way - You can get a great meal in Paris, but only when the restaurants are willing to give it to you. It seems that only recently has it been possible to find establishments open on weekends. (Financial Times)


• Egg Foo Young for Everyone - A crash between a truck and a car sent an estimated 9,000 pounds of Chinese food spilling onto a Chicago toll road. No one was seriously hurt, but no word on what the what the fortune cookies read. (UPI)


• Chicken Feet: Take a Hike - As part of a trade war, China is prohibiting the importing of U.S. chicken, about half of which is chicken feet. (Reuters)


• Mediterranean Britain? - Climate change is bringing some differences in British agriculture, including growing peaches, olives, and pecans. (Daily Telegraph)


• Burger Blooper - Burger King has to apologize for depicting in an ad a Hindu deity eating a beef burger, showing that the company had no regard for sacred cows. (UPI)


• Who Took the Cheese? - There has been such an upsurge in people stealing cheese from a British grocery chain that it is adding security tags to the product. (UPI)

Labels: news, odd, strange, weird

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A method of preparing a fish product comprising filleting a fish to appropriate thickness, immediately immersing the filleted fish in a vegetable oil for a period of 5 to 10 minutes at room temperature to effect absorption of the oil to a depth such as to inhibit excretion of the natural fluids from the fillet and prevent incursion of air and moisture, draining the excess oil from the surface, covering the surface with crumbs and then freezing the fillet.

• Five defendants didn't even start with fresh fish and didn't soak what they had in oil.


• Two of the defendant companies had either filed for bankruptcy or been dissolved.


• The remaining two defendants who might have been sued were not properly served with the suit papers, as a "return of service merely noting delivery to 'girl at front disk'" apparently didn't meet comply with state rules.

Labels: humor, law, news, odd, weird

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• Cross-Species Competitive Eating - In the world of pigging out, it's animals 1, humans, zip. (AP)


• Big Value in Small Change - A pub customer paid for his pint and received as part of his change a 20 pence piece worth about $11,400 (£7,000). (Daily Telegraph)


• Wiener Winner- New York's Joey Chestnut retained his title in the annual Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest with a personal best of 68 hot dogs. (UPI)


• Buddy, Can You Bear a Sub? - A New Jersey man claims that a bear attacked him for his Italian sandwich. The animal probably got lost and thought it was in Manhattan, where no one would have blinked. (AP)


• Cheesy Wedding - A woman who is a professional cheese sculptor married a retired Navy commander that she met while working on a cheese version of a U.S. air craft carrier.(UPI)


• Maybe More Grill Time, Less Air Time? - Gordon Ramsey's restaurants saw profits fall by about 90 percent. (Daily Telegraph)


• Hot, Cold, or Embalmed?- A Canadian funeral home offers free coffee at a drive-through window. Please tell me that they don't take burial orders at the same time. (UPI)


• Pez Sues For Pause - Pez Candy, maker of the eponymous candy and dispensers is suing the Burlingame Museum of Pez Memorabilia in California for infringing its trademark with a giant model Pez dispenser. (Courthouse News Service)


• Field of Diets - A Chicago Cubs fan says that he's going on a 500-calorie-a-day diet until the team can win five games in a row. (Chicago Sun-Times)


• Don't Touch That Grill - The city of Highland Park, Michigan, in its wisdom, outlawed outdoor barbecuing or grilling. (UPI)


• McDonald's Comes to Stop for Bicyclists - A McDonald's in the UK refused to serve a couple of bicyclists on a tandem bike at its drive-through window because of the potential danger to them by cars. What about the danger from what's inside the sack?(Daily Telegraph)


• Bug Weight Loss - Apparently, someone studied whether cockroaches would get fat on fast food. (They do.) (LiveScience.com)

Labels: news, odd, strange, weird

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• Orange Violence - A Tennessee couple has been accused of a fight that escalated into assault by Cheetos. (AP)


• When Chips Are Down - A former FDA head, whose book argues that people are addicted to sweets, apparently once found himself in thrall to a pair of chocolate chip cookies. Clearly he was outnumbered. (Crispy On The Outside)


• Strawberry Brat Spat - There will be three different purveyors of strawberry-flavored bratwurst at the Cedarburg Strawberry Festival in Wisconsin. (UPI)


• Can 'O 'Possum - A baby opossum managed to get itself stuck in a soda machine at a gym in upstate New York. Police were stymied until a worker came with a key to the front panel. Did anyone try some change? (AP)


• Must Have Been Thirsty - A couple of would-be New Zealand liquor store robbers changed their mind mid-stick up and settled for a beer from a customer's six-pack instead. (UPI)


• New Kind Of Ice - Scientists have created the final fifteenth predicted form of ice. Maybe they didn't have a fridge nearby? (Technology Review)


• Chili Grenade - Security forces in India are developing a grenade powered by the searing "ghost chili" to incapacitate people. (Reuters)


• Shops Find Eel Supplies Slippery - Shops in the U.K. that sell a traditional meal called eel, pie, and mash are finding that a fishing ban is making the requisite jellied eel tough to find. (Daily Telegraph)


• Does It Include Tip? - A Chinese investment fund manager paid $2.1 million in a charity auction to have lunch with Warren Buffet. (AP)


• Look For The Ketchup - Canadian police are looking for a man who ran naked past a fast food restuarant and snagged a woman's fries in the process. (Reuters)


• Grocery Sale Or Else - Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin dropped by a grocery store in Moscow without warning and started telling managers to lower their prices. (AFP)

Labels: news, odd, strange, weird

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• Criminal, Drawn and Buttered - A man accused of breaking into a Maine restaurant, eating 11 lobsters, and washing them down with a white wine, after which he left the fridge open, cause $1,000 in damage, was found on a bench in a presumably post-prandial nap. (AP)


• Drinks for Insults - A Spanish bar offers a free drink to patrons who can insult the staff in particularly clever ways. (UPI)


• Prosecutor Looking for Fast Food Toy Ban - A prosecutor in Brazil is asking a court to ban toys included with kids fast food meals because they help children develop bad eating habits. (Reuters)


• Step Away From the Bologna - An Oklahoma man claims that he was assaulted over his bologna and cheese sandwich. Maybe the person was incensed when he saw the victim adding mayonnaise to the snack. (AP)


• Banning the "Devil's Vegetable" - A British navy captain has banned Brussels sprouts from his ship because he hates what he calls the devil's vegetable. He claims that avoiding mass flatulence has nothing to do with his decision. (AFP)


• Man Finds Jesus In Coffee - Some people seem to worship their coffee. A New York man found the image of Jesus, less than an inch across, on the inside of his mug.(UPI)


• Will Steal For Prison Food - A homeless man in Taiwan had stolen a pair of shoes and was kept in jail overnight. The police station apparently is prepared to give a meal to someone down and out. (Reuters)


• Who Needs an Opener? - A martial artists poked his way into the Malaysian Book of Records by piercing four coconuts with his index finger in just under 31 seconds. (AFP)


• Food for Dad from Church - The Church of England, concerned about fathers not attending mass, celebrated Fathers' Day by serving beer, bacon rolls, and chocolate. (Daily Telegraph)

Labels: news, odd, strange, weird

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• Worse Than Burger Breath Burger King has released a new men's cologne called Flame. The front of this affront to taste (in more ways than one) is a host of the show Britain's Got Talent. Can we vote this off of store shelves? (Daily Mail Online)


• Coupon Madness Few things are more dangerous than too much success. A San Francisco coop market learned that after placing into local phone books a coupon for 20 percent off on Wednesdays and Thursdays, which have become days that patrons wait to get a parking spot and then face very long lines. (UPI


• John Belushi Would Have Been Proud So far in June there have been at least two food fights in U.S. schools that have resulted in police interventions and arrests -- one in New York City and another in Portage, Wis. (UPI, AP)


• Yellow Lobster From the equal-time-for-other-primary-colors we have what may be a rare yellow lobster having been caught off Prince Edward Island and now on display in the tank of a seafood restaurant on Cape Cod. But her claws aren't bound (much to the dismay of the other lobsters in the tank) and she's fed sushi-grade tuna. (Boston Globe)


• No Coke For You Venezuela has banned Coke Zero as a danger to health. Regular Coke apparently remains healthy. (Reuters)


• And No Free Beer, Either Molson has suddenly changed its policy of giving its retired workers free beer. The roughly US$900,000 was apparently too much of a sudsidy for the company to pay. (Reuters)


• It's OK, It's After Memorial Day A crowd of 5,000 appeared dressed in white and invaded a square at the bottom of the Champs Elysees in Paris, set up tables and chairs, and had a sit-down meal. Where are the parking valets when you need them? (AFP)


• Meating Fashion A teenager made a dress out of real salami and bacon for an Aqua Teen Hunger Force birthday party. Well, there's one course taken care of. (Crispy on the Outside)


• A Really Hot Dish A traveler from Mumbai en route to Frankfurt had to return because a package of curry powder in his checked in luggage set off smoke and fire alarms when some of the spice mix escaped its packaging. (AFP)

Labels: news, odd, strange, weird

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• Frozen Pizza A pizza parlor employee forgot to turn the heat off one night, so the owner turned off the heat, period, and threatened to fire any employee who complained. The manager won't - she's married to the owner and gets her own space heater. (KING-TV)


• Cheesy Vacation In an apparently different pizza climate, 54 current and former employees who saved $115,000 in tips over 13 years are taking a week-long tropical vacation. (AP)


• Big Bean Country The leading coffee-producing countries. (The Economist)


• Lamb Rashers A new development in bacon, from our friends at Crispy on the Outside, who follow the subject with obsessive care, is lamb bacon. (Crispy on the Outside)


• Chipped Business Waterford Wedgwood goes into receivership. (The New York Times)


• Head (En)case To avoid a new helmet law, many motorbike-riding Nigerians are tying things like dried fruit shells to their heads. (Reuters)


• Lotsa Latte Chicago public schools spent $67,000 on espresso machines for a culinary arts program, but largely haven't used them. Would Starbucks gift cards have been cheaper? (AP)


• Swallow that Gum To avoid the roughly 70 pieces of discarded chewing gum per square meter of sidewalk space (which seems too large to be believable), the Mexican government is now telling people to swallow their wads. (AP)


• Lobster Liberty An aged lobster - conventionally clocked at 80 years and a full 20 pounds - avoided ending up on a plate when a New York restaurant gave it a reprieve. (AP)


• Unhappy Hour Depressed consumers are still drinking, only at home or during happy hours. (Consumerist)


• Burrito Betrothal A couple gets married at a Taco Bell. (UPI)

Labels: news, odd, strange, weird

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• Cracker Cash Proving that snacking can be rewarding, a California couple found $10,000 in a box of crackers. (AP)


• Brain Busted Supermarkets know a whole lot more about how you shop than you might like. (The Economist)


• Decaf Detection A new product lets you test whether the coffee you're drinking is decaf or hitest. (MedGadget)


• Somewhere Over the Rainbow Manhattan's famous Rainbow Room has closed. (AP)


• God Made Her Do It A New York judge ruled that religious duty doesn't excuse smuggling monkey meat into the country. (AP)


• Now That's a Pour Someone built a device to achieve the perfect beer pour. Does it drink, as well? (Engadget)


• Top Tuna Two sushi bar owners in Japan paid more than $100,000, or $370 a pound, for a blue fin tuna. (AP)


• Big Bread A 22,000 pound bread was part of the Magi celebration in Mexico. (AFP)

Labels: news, odd, strange, weird

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• Soda Subsidy New York's governor proposed a 15 percent "obeisity tax" on non-diet sodas. (New York Daily News via Crispy on the Outside)


• Food Fight For the second time in a month, a Florida man was arrested in part for throwing food at his girlfriend. (AP)


• Apple Apples A Japanese farmer puts stickers on some of his apples so they grow with Apple logos or iPod outlines. (CNET)


• Lotsa Latkes In Hanukkah news, a student ate 46 latkes - or seven pounds - to win an eating contest on Long Island. (AP)


• Legal Sweet Tooth A lawyer gets arrested for feeding a piece of candy to his shackled client in court. (AP)


• Burger Body Bath Burger King has a men's body spray that makes the wearer smell "like flame-broiled meat." Eww. (Crispy on the Outside)


• Cut-Rate Caviar Police in Milan seized 88 lbs. of smuggled caviar and are giving it to the poor. Wonder if they're also providing the blinis. (Reuters)

Labels: news, odd, strange, weird

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• Drinkable Art A start-up prints images in caramel on latte foam. (Boston Globe)


• Kentucky Kleaning Some KFC workers got into trouble for bathing in sinks used for cleaning dishes. Hey, at least they were clean when working. (AP)


• Better than a Gallic Shrug A French literature major, having worked as a grocery store checkout clerk, has parlayed the experience into a best-selling memoir in France. (Washington Post)


• Power of Pepperoni A pizza delivery man, finding himself on the wrong end of a gun barrel, fought back with a hot pepperoni pizza (AP)


• Don't Ask About the Hole A man working without pants at a drive-through doughnut shop gets probation. (AP)


• China Gets First Michelin Star Of course, the obvious line would be that an hour later the restaurant in question would want another one. (Financial Times)

Labels: news, odd, strange, weird

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• Buddy, Can You Spare a Dime (Or Ten) New Yorkers are tipping less, and that's tough on the restaurant crowd. (New York Magazine)


• Drink and Watch Someone has come out with a combination beer tap and LCD television. All it needs is a fridge. (Engadget)


• Double Points for Side Dish Cooking titles (you can fillet a fish on one, oh joy, or rapture) are popping out for game consoles. (Washington Post)


• Soup and Shawl A temporary Manhattan store selling independent designer lines is also serving soup. (AP)


• Free Market Coffee A libertarian, barrista, and contributor to Crispy on the Outside considers the economic and aesthetic implications of Starbucks. (Doublethink Online)


• One Hump or Two? Australians are being told to eat camels to stop global warming. No, I can't make this up. (AFP)


• Did You Check Your Pockets? The Moroccan subsidiary of McDonald's had to apologize for distributing maps, as part of a Happy Meal, that didn't show Western Sahara. (AFP)

Labels: news, odd, strange, weird

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• Bootleg Russian Vodka The economy is hitting Russia hard, and many hard-drinking Russians are having to forgo commercial vodka, sometimes substituting dangerous homemade brew. (Reuters)


• Zero-G Coffee Cup An astronaut has developed a cup for drinking coffee in zero gravity - good for when you're orbiting the planet, or in the middle of a very steep drop in your car. (Space.com)


• Take the Coffee to Go Cafes are closing at a rate of two a day in France. (NYT)


• Foul Fiend Flailed with Frozen Fowl An alleged carjacker was stopped from stealing a woman's car when another shopper clubbed him with a frozen turkey. (AP)


• Patent Pending Panini McDonald's is apparently trying to patent a way of making sandwiches. Ingredients held between two slices of bread - who would have thought it? (Slashdot.org)


• Fierce Flatulence A 13-year-old Florida student was arrested for disrupting his classroom by turning off the computers of other students and by passing gas. (AP)


• Sweet Jesus German church authorities are reacting negatively to a man who's making a business of casting chocolate versions of the baby Jesus, wrapped in gold foil. (Reuters)


• Online Food Forensics An Australian restaurant owner tracked down five young people who ordered a large meal and then skipped out on the bill by finding them on Facebook. (Reuters)


• Plummeting Pumpkins Hundreds of people on Long Island, NY paid $9 each to several hundred pumpkins being tossed from a second floor to splatter on the ground below. (AP)


• Thanksgiving Theft A thief stole the entire Thanksgiving dinner from the porch of a Wisconsin family. (AP)

Labels: news, odd, strange, weird

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• A Pizza Too Far A video of someone's chocolate-covered bacon candy pizza. What more can you say? (Crispy on the Outside)


• TV Pizza Staying on the theme of places that pizza should not go, you can order a Domino's pie on your TiVO. (Silicon Alley Insider)


• Special Samosas A couple visiting India paid over $200 for four samosas. The shop owner explained away the price claiming that the fritters had "special" herbs that acted as aphrodisiacs. (Reuters)


• Two, Please Canada's Supreme Court upheld that obese people have a right to two seats on domestic flights. Do they also get seconds on the meal? (Reuters)


• Tons of Kimchi Thousands of volunteers in Seoul made 143 tons of kimchi in a bid for a world record. Unfortunately, the Guinness Book of World Records doesn't have an appropriate category. (AP)


• Meat Police Framingham, MA police don't know why someone is leaving top quality cuts of meat on the town commons. (AP)


• Revealing Phone A McDonald's patron in Arkansas left his cell phone behind him after a trip, clearly forgetting that he had nude photos of his wife on it. (AP)


• Whatchamacall It? Restaurants are considering alternatives to the term "restaurant" because it apparently causes already budget-minded consumers to tighten their purses even more. (Financial Times)

Labels: news, odd, strange, weird

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• Wash Hands After Eating Greasy fingerprints on an orange juice bottle left at the scene of a break-in helped lead police to the culprit. (AP)


• Mexican Giant Bread of Death It's actually what it says. Ten feet of bread is a whole lot for $137. (Crispy on the Outside)


• Bake Sale Police The government push for healthier foods is threatening the existence of the school bake sale. (New York Times)


• That Tastes Like ... Oh. It Is. NASA is using a water recycling system, to purify urine into potable water, to handle larger crews on the international space station. (Reuters)


• Pumpkin Seed Aphrodisiac? An Austrian covered pumpkin seeds in chocolate, but then colored them blue and named them Styriagra. Now Pfizer is suing, saying that he's trying to make them look like little, blue Viagra pills. (AFP)


• Too Big for Prison to Hold A 490 pound gang member got sprung from a Canadian prison because he was too large for his cell. (Reuters)


• Food Records Feature On the fourth-annual Guinness World Records Day, food played an important part in a number of new records, such as the largest tea bag (hopefully inspiring the largest tea cup), and the fastest time to peel and eat a kiwi fruit (16.15 secionds). (AFP)


• EU Permits Wonky Fruit, Veggies The European Union, in its bureaucratic wisdom, has decided that bent cucumbers and other malformed fruits and vegetables may be sold in markets. (AFP)


• Tequila as Precious Jewels Researchers have reportedly found a way to turn tequila into diamonds. (The Guardian)


• Nestlé Pans Soda Nestlé has started anti-soda marketing to help increase sales on its bottled water brand as people, hit by the financial crisis, turn to tap. And then you can have a chocolate chaser to help keep the weight off. (Wall Street Journal)

Labels: news, odd, strange, weird

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• Bloodhounds Follow Pork Swiss police, acting on reports from motorists, had bloodhounds follow a long trail of blood that turned out to be a butcher's van with an overturned barrel of pork headed to a sausage factory (AP)


• Workers Unite at Your Fridges A U.K. nonprofit is urging people not to buy sandwiches at work but to bring leftovers from the previous night's dinner. (Daily Mail)


• They Have Expensive Tastes Chef Jamie Oliver, who really should stop making social pronouncements, claims that Britons don't know how to cook inexpensively at home, so aren't ready for an economic downturn. (Reuters)


• Soup for Spot Berlin has a soup kitchen intended strictly for dogs. (Reuters)


• But the Flavor Lasts so Long A man tried to pay his bar tab with chewing gum wrappers. (AP)


• All Hail Spud It's the international year of the potato. Have a Yukon Gold to lunch. (AFP)


• Mushrooming Music A Swiss researcher claims that he has duplicated the sound of a Stradivarious violin by treating a replica with mushrooms. (AFP)

Labels: news, odd, strange, weird

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• Taco With Weed A Colorado couple found that their take-out Tex-Mex food order included a bag of marijuana. (AP)


• Charm of Coffee Researchers say that even holding a cup of hot coffee can can warm the heart and not just the hands. (Reuters)


• Barkeep, a Two-Thirds, Please The U.K. is considering a measure that would allow bars to sell two-third pint glasses instead of only a full or half pint for those times when the one is too much and the other not enough. (Reuters)


• Turn Back the Clock and Prices A Manhattan restuarant hit its 100th anniversary and for the day set dishes back to 1908 prices. (AFP)


• Fat and Glad-iator It seems that Roman gladiators fattened up on carbs. (Crispy on the Outside)

Labels: news, odd, strange, weird

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• Forget Stocks - Try Barrels The stock market may be taking a beating, but the World Whiskey Index has seen an average return of 26.2 percent over the last 11 months. That's putting your money where your mouth is. (Reuters)


• Use the Tape Faster Next Time A group of Iranians built what they hoped would be the world's largest sandwich, but before representatives of the Guiness Book of World Records could measure it, bystanders rushed in and ate the evidence. (Reuters)


• Burger with Everything - Literally A man took well over four hours to eat a 15 pound burger that, with toppings and all, topped out at 20.2 pounds. (AP)


• Not the Nuts - Police have warned thieves that stole 660 pounds of hazelnuts not to eat them because the sacks they're in are filled with a poisonous gas to extend the shelf life and they need additional treatment to be safe to eat. (Reuters)


• Don't Drink the Stew - About 170 wedding guests in northern China were rushed to the hospital after someone decided to flavor a pot of stew with powdered rust remover, mistaking it for salt. (Reuters)

Labels: news, odd, strange, weird

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• A Slice or 45 Competitive eating champion Joey Chestnut just won a pizza eating contest, downing 45 slices in 10 minutes. That's even more than a teenage boy. (AP)


• Assault by Cake A Hartford, CT woman was charged with assault and various other activities for allegedly serving a pot-spiked gingercake to her real estate agent. Maybe she wanted a higher price? (AP)


• To Choose, Look Down The tabletops of an upscale London restaurant are giant touch-screen displays that let you see the food and then order it. (Evening Standard)


• Bad Wine? Wait 30 Minutes An inventor has found a way to "age" wine in under an hour using ultrasound. (London Telegraph)

Labels: news, odd, strange, weird

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• Food Stars at Ig Nobel One of the winners of this year's Ig Nobel Awards, an honoring of real but weird research, was someone who showed that Coca-Cola was a good spermicide and that people will enjoy stale potato chips so long as they crunch loudly enough. (Reuters)


• End of Free Naked Lunch A Maine restaurant had been offering a free lunch to people who would jump naked into a nearby lake (probably setting their teeth chattering so much that they wouldn't be able to eat), but has dropped the promotion when the town offered to drop his liquor permit. (AP)


• It's Good for You A zoo in central China has been feeding chicken soup to its pandas. And what of the matzo balls? (AP)


• Hair of the Horse A man in Kazakhstan beat a drunken-driving rap because he had consumed fermented mare's milk, not beer or liquor. (AP)


• Ballsy Cooking A Serbian chef has come out with a cookbook focused on recipes using testicles as an ingredient. (AFP)

Labels: news, odd, strange, weird

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• Take Out for Locked In Egyptian prisoners are being allowed to order delivered food. (Reuters)


• Farm Portrait An Ohio farmer, who regularly cuts a corn maze into his field (a big fall activity for those of us living in rural areas) this year had it designed to look like a portrait of vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin. (AP)


• What's in a Wine Name? In another politically tinged story, a small winery in Chile has a wine that was called Palin before the governor of Alaska became so prominent, but has found that sales are off. If only it had been beer. (AP)


• Mom's Milk Ice Cream As a publicity stunt (and a pretty good one), People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, which opposed commercial milk production, called on Ben and Jerry's to make an ice cream out of human milk. (AP)


• Pickle Piccolo? A ten year old group plays music on instruments made of vegetables. (AFP)

Labels: news, odd, strange, weird

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• Did You Hear the One About the Poisonings Chinese citizens are taking their food safety frustrations out online with jokes. (Retuers)


• One Bartender, Neat An Illinois woman was arrested for tending bar in the buff. (AP)


• It's On Us, Almost Lehman and AIG employees are being treated to half-price drinks by a Chicago restaurant. (Reuters)


• At Least the Pie was Hot An Australian pizza delivery driver was arrested for clocking 33 mph over the speed limit. (Reuters)


• A Bagel for Breakfast Is Fine, Thanks A pony-sized pig trapped an Australian woman in her house. (AFP)


• On Tap A group of Estonians are facing charges for trying to smuggle vodka by pumping it through a an underwater pipeline over a mile long. (AFP)

Labels: news, odd, weird

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• High Tech Fridge Think that refrigerators hit their peak when manufacturers added Internet connectivity and video? Later this month, Hitachi is releasing some new models that have a low-oxygen chilled room (to prevent oxidation of foods), doses the air with antioxidant, and comes equipped with disinfection and deodorization capabilities to inhibit molds and odors. (Nikkei Business Publications)


• Zap Those Sales Restaurant owners can use a software program called a zapper to erase business from their cash registers and skim money relatively undetectably from their businesses. (NYT)


• California Counts Calories California is close to passing a law that will require chain restaurants in the state to provide calorie information for their dishes. (LA Times)


• Dinner Redistribution As a reaction to rising food prices, Greek anarchists went into a supermarket, stole food, and then gave it away. (Reuters)


• Wine Movie Sours Some Viewers Some of the people involved with a famous 1976 wine blind tasting in which French experts rated Californian wines more highly than their own are complaining that a new mover version, called Bottle Shock, isn't accurate. Hollywood, not accurate? I need a drink after that one. (Reuters)


• Atomic Aging Speaking of France and wine, French scientists have found a way to date wine using a particle accelerator. (Reuters)

Labels: news, odd, weird

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• Naked Chef Finds British Food - - Bland Jamie Oliver, the "Naked Chef," took swipes at his countrymen, the culture of alcohol, too many material goods, and bland food. Not, as he claims, like it used to be, when the televisions were small, the phones attached to the wall, and the food like Italian, only without pasta or risotto. Order up a slab of meat and some potatoes for the disillusioned and weary cook. (The Telegraph)


• But They All Taste Like Coke Coca-Cola is working on a new fountain machine that can dispense 100 flavors. Let's hope one of them isn't New Coke. (Atlanta Journal Constitution)


• Pest, Please As food prices have jumped internationally, the price of rat meat has quadrupled in Cambodia as poor people cannot afford any other type. (Reuters)


• Pizza on the House Pizzaioli - pizza chefs - in Naples gave away pizza last week to protest some competitors who, they claimed, used jumps in commodity prices to excuse permanent price jumps even when the commodity prices dropped again. (Reuters)


• Annual Tomato Fight Last week also brought the annual tomato fight, with an estimated 40,000 people pelting each other in Bunol, Spain. (AP)


• Stale Cake Sale A 27-year-old piece of the cake from the wedding of Princess Diana and Prince Charles sold for about $2,400. (AFP)

Labels: news, odd, weird

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• Blitzkreig on a Bun Los Angeles has classified bacon as a "harzardous food," and now has taken to the streets, sending police to confiscate and destroy the stands of street vendors that dared sell hot dogs with bacon. (Reason.com)


• Dregs'Den Some mischief maker conned Wine Spectator into giving out an award to a non-existent restaurant. Except for the very top category, the awards are based on reviewing a wine list and getting a check for the "examination" fee. Hopefully they actually taste the wines they rate. (NYT)


• Phoney Phish A couple of teenagers got samples of fish from restaurants and shops in New York City, had the DNA tested - and found that up to a quarter of the fish was mislabled, and always as a more expensive type than it actually was. (Reuters)


• Arrested for What?? A blind Frenchman was arrested and fined ... for diving drunk and without a license. How about for driving without being able to see? (AFP)


• Making Science Work for Religion Turkish Muslims can get patches to ease their hunger during the month of Ramadan, when they are suppoed to fast. (AFP)

Labels: news, odd, weird

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• Brain Food Some researchers think that the development of cooking may have been the springboard for a rapid increase in brain mass 2 million years ago. (LiveScience)


• No Litreing The owner of a Polish restaurant in England is in legal trouble because he serves Polish beer in .3 and .5 litre sizes instead of in pints. (Daily Mail)


• Domain Dispute Wine producers in St. Emilion are fighting with each other over whose products get to be called Bordeaux. (NYT)


• What Did You Call It? Chinese foods are often difficult to translate, as there may be no English equivalents, and a single region like Sichuan may have thousands of unique dishes. (Financial Times)


• No, He's Our Boxer Both Pepsi and Coke have erected promotional tents outside the home of an Olympic boxer from Thailand, where the athlete's father says both can stay as long as they don't start fighting. (Reuters)


• Vodka on the Rocky Sylvester Stallone is signed up to promote a Russian vodka. (Reuters)


• Barter Bar An English pub is bartering drink for ingredients that can be used on its menu. (AFP)


• Pricey Grapes The Japanese, again showing their proclivity for spending a bit too much on fruit, put Ruby Roman grapes on auction that fetched as much as $30 a single globe. (AFP)


• Way the Cookie Crumbles The company that owns Mrs. Fields, purveyor of cookies, as well as TCBY frozen yogurt has filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Or, as a news report put it, the company says that it needs more dough. Sounds like someone without enough culture sporting a chip on his or her shoulder. (UPI)

Labels: news, odd, weird

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• PC Over Easy Someone has built a gizmo to plug into a computer's USB port and cook an egg in seven minutes. And people say I have too much time on my hands. (Engadget)


• Overtones of Electrons Spanish scientists create an electronic tongue to test wines. (Engadget)


• Nosh-a-Matic A company has created a line of vending machines specifically for kosher food. (NYT)


• Olympic Meals A number of the 40,000 restaurants in Beijing are creating sport-related dishes for the Olympics, including "abalone shaped like a rowing boat with asparagus oars." (Reuters)


• Barbecue Is Dangerous Two people were arrested for using barbecue equipment as a weapon. (AP)


• Killer Dish A U.K. celebrity chef apologized for recommending the use of the toxic and hallucinagenic henbane as a good ingredient for summer eating. Apparently he confused the names of two plants. (Reuters)


• Telltale Sign Teens accused of robbing a vending machine led police to themselves with a trail of Cheetos. (AP)


• The Crunchless Flick An increasing number of movie theaters in Britain are banning popcorn. (AFP)


• Where's the Bathroom? A 25-year-old man had twice the blood alcohol level considered lethal after 20 liters of beer. (AFP)

Labels: news, odd, weird

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• Chinese Kugel For religious Jews visiting China during the Olympics, there is exactly one kosher restaurant. An hour after eating, you feel like doing a mitzvah. (Crispy on the Outside)


• Chef Gorten A new restaurant trend: use frozen fish to lower global warming. (Washington Post)


• Menu Groupthink A new raw foods restaurant looking to open in Washington, D.C. is using the "wisdom of crowds" to create the concept, look, and name. (Washington Post)


• Am I Crispy Yet? A new alarm clock cooks a strip of bacon to wake you to the smell of breakfast. BYOE (bring your own eggs). (Geek.com)


• Please Sir, May I Have Some More? Between 1970 and 2006, the average American was eating 1.8 more pounds of food per week. (NYT)


• Why Are You Wearing Two Dresses? A Cleveland clothing store has opened a bar in the middle of its sales floor. (AP)


• Take It Inside Beijing authorities are banning streaking, drinking, and sleeping outdoors during the Olympics. Could it be that the three activities are related? (Reuters)


• McVroomManila police will power their squad cars with a mix of diesel and old McDonald's fry oil. Presumably officers will have the option to supersize their ride into an SUV. (AFP)


• Well Aged Someone found the world's oldest surviving bottle of Veuve Cliquot in a sideboard inside a Scottish castle. (AFP)

Labels: news, odd, weird

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• Professor of Pistachio One of the world's largest ice cream equipment manufacturers runs Gelato University outside Bologna, where it teaches 6,000 would-be professionals a year. (Financial Times)


• Going Against the Whole Grain Sara Lee, General Mills, and others, get smacked for claiming "whole grain" when products are mostly refined white flour. (Businessweek)


• Briber Works ... Ah, Worked An English school used chocolate bars as bribes for good behavior - and it worked. But higher officials chided him for not using healthy food. (Financial Times)


• That Metallic Taste Coca-Cola lovers in Hong Kong will be getting 25ml less of the drink per can as the company is shrinking the size of the container to save money on the cost of aluminum. (MarketWatch)


• The Big Eatsy For the first time since Hurricane Katrina, the New Orleans Times-Picayune is again reviewing restaurants. (NYT)


• Brain Food The head of the World Trade Organization has suggested to his staff members that they eat bananas to keep them going through difficult negotiation sessions. (Reuters)


• Ho, Ho, Ho The 51st annual world Santa convention included a focus on exercising, not dieting, to get those jolly guys more easily down chimneys. (AFP)


• Keeping His Sunny Side Up A French waiter who threw an egg at the car carrying Nicholas Sarkozy during his visit to Ireland said that he'll be ready with "more than a dozen" should the president of France return. (AFP)

Labels: news, odd, weird

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• Bam - You're Insulted In a new British television show, Eating with the Enemy people prepare their favorite home dishes and food writers try to out-snark each other. (The Observer)


• The Naked Video Game Jamie Oliver is star of a cooking video game with recipes and as it runs on a portable Nintendo DS, you can bring it to the grocery store and have it manage your shopping list. All without calories. (Press release)


• No Take Out for You and You and You An anti-immigrant group in Italy is pushing for a law that would let cities bar ethnic restaurants "incompatible with the historical context." Is any part of Italy not historic? Oh, right, that's the idea. (Reuters)


• Self-Cutting Sandwich A New York man is claiming in a lawsuit that a Subway shop put a 7-inch knife into his sandwich. (Reuters)


• Good Thing He Didn't Ask for Doughnuts A Florida policeman was fired for trying to get free coffee and tea from a Starbucks. Didn't anyone tell him that it's over roasted? (AP)


• Golden Ticket A French woman found a candy wrapper in the trash and, with it, a winning number for a contest where the prize is a flight into space. (Reuters)


• Single-Handedly Keeping Breweries in Business An Australian man, convicted of a seventh DUI charge, was spending almost $1,000 weekly on beer. (Reuters)


• Uh ... Surprise Police say that a pizza restaurant clerk didn't know that her parents and her husband were planning to rob the establishment. (AP)


• He Deserves a Break Today A man who was convicted of robbing a McDonalds in 1994 is among the finalists in a contest to write a new jingle for the chain. (AP)


• Financial Decline of Wine Shrine A Napa Valley food and wine museum is in the financial dregs, and California citizens could get stuck with the tab. (Sacramento Bee)


• Free Willie Some Canadians are bidding to get a New Brunswick restaurant to free a 100-year-old lobster. (AFP)

Labels: news, odd, weird

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• The Stress of Dealing with a Food Crisis At the G8 summit, world leaders prepared themselves to deal with the issue of a food crisis by having a 19-course dinner prepared by 25 chefs. (The Guardian)


• Yes, We Have No Bow-wowersBeijing officials have called on restaurants and hotels to stop serving dishes containing dog during the Olympics. (Financial Times)


• Cocoa Chanel An Ivorian fashion designer makes outfits from jute sacks used to ship cocoa from the Ivory Coast. (Reuters)


• World's Hottest Curry Title? A London restaurant took at shot at serving the world's hottest curry and is waiting on the Guinness Book of World Records to confirm this. Every diner had to sign a disclaimer. (AFP)


• Iron-Rich Diet A Peruvian doctor had to pull 17 metal objects - including nails and a knife - from the body of a patient who ate them. (Reuters)


• Curdled Carriers Thousands of liters of sour milk, sent by farmers protesting low dairy prices, are clotting the EU's main sorting center. (Reuters)


• Cooler Armor A Connecticut man used his lunch cooler to protect himself from the gunfire of two would-be robbers. (AP)


• Some Strong Tea A Japanese calmed down a knife-wielding robber by serving him tea. (Reuters)

Labels: news, odd, weird

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• I'll Drink to That The Museum of the American Cocktail returns to its home in New Orleans on July 21. (Organization web site)


• Shaken, Not Whirred Japanese beer company Asahi unveiled its new robot bartender. (Engadget)


• Hops Go the Brewers Craft beer companies are facing "rapidly rising commodity prices, industry consolidation, and a slowing economy" and trying to figure out how they're going to make money. Oh, wait - we'll pay more. (Businessweek)


• Life's a Bowl of Cherry Pits A son out spat his father to take his seventh International Cherry Pit Spitting Championship. (AP)


• Battle of the Courses A restaurant in a part of Beirut controlled by Hezbollah is war-themed, with a bullet-shaped menu and chefs working in military fatigues. (Reuters)


• Hot Dogging An American successfully defended his world title in Nathan's annual hot dog eating competition. (Reuters)


• No Starch Decision A UK court ruled that Pringles are not a potato snack, and so not subject to a tax. (AP)


• Hope They Are Red An international body has adopted a standard for tomatoes. (AFP)


• No Restaurant for You Three retired family members have at least temporarily lost a 50 year battle for a top Paris restaurant valued at $110 million. (AFP)

Labels: news, odd, weird

Posted by Erik Sherman @ 5:28 AM Permalink 0 comments links to this post

• Nineteenth Amendment? We Don't Need No Stinkin' Nineteenth Amendment Proving that dead ideas of the past are never far away, the Phoenix Country Club still has a men-only bar, with women relegated to some dump of a back room, crossing the line from "weird" news to pathetic. (New York Times)


• It's a Good Vintage For those, like me, who missed this story the first time around, Martha Stewart has lent her name to some $15 a bottle wines that I notice the other day in a local grocery store. It's probably the only wine that matures according to a strict calendar. (USA Today)


• Say Cheese A Wisconsin sculptor recreated John Trumbull's painting "Declaration of Independence" in a ton of cheddar. (AP)


• Peanuts ... Popcorn ... Kung Pao ... In time for the Olympics, Beijing is providing to restaurants official English translations of local menu items. "'Bean curd made by a pock-marked woman,' as the Beijing Youth Daily rendered the spicy Sichuanese dish, is now 'Mapo tofu.' And 'chicken without sexual life' becomes mere 'steamed pullet.'" (Reuters)


• Hold On There, Pardner The Naked Cowboy, a New York City street performer, is suing Mars for billboards depicting a blue M&M in the cowhand's signature outfit of boots, a hat, and white briefs. (Reuters)


• Maybe If They Call It Adult Grape Juice A burgeoning Finish wine industry is halted in its tracks as the European Union, which doesn't recognize Finland as a wine-producing country under EU rules, prohibits inhabitants from selling what they make.(New York Times)

Labels: news, odd, weird

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• Scratch and Sniff Lottery The Colorado lottery is selling scented scratch tickets, where you scratch the latex-covered area and release scented ink, including chocolate and coffee. (AP)


• Cold Crustacean A restaurant cook allegedly tried stealing frozen lobster tails by stuffing them down his pants. Will he end up in the cooler? (WABC)


• Begone, Thou Misshapen Fruit! The EU is having trouble ridding itself of regulation over the shape of fruits and vegetables sold there. (Reuters)


• One for Me, One for You An English farm has ended its pick-your-own strawberries program because people ate more than they bought. (The Press Assoc.)


• Swearing by Ramsey Australia's parliament is tightening rules on permissible on-air language, and all because of Gordon Ramsey. (Reuters)


• The McDonald's Diet A man in Virginia lost 80 pounds in six months by having nearly every meal at a McDonald's - salads, wraps, and apple dippers without the caramel sauce. Could he maybe have exercised a bit, as well?(AP)


• A Hair of the Dirty Dog An ex-cook was charged with putting hairs inside a steak that was served to a dissatisfied customer. (AP)

Labels: news, odd, weird

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• What About the Free Eggs? Employees at a McDonalds finally captured a rogue chicken that had taken up residence and blocked the drive-through lane. (AP)


• They Also Make a Mean Burre Blanc Scientists find monkeys that fish. (AP)


• Restaurant Snaps Closed New York City inspectors shut down a restaurant after finding a snapping turtle in the sink. (AP)


• Did They Have to Clean the Glasses? A New Zealand restaurant got in trouble for accidentally serving dishwashing liquid as mulled wine. (AFP)


• Garlic Groveling In an attempt to keep yet another segment of the economy from protesting or striking, the Thai prime minister, a former television chef, used his weekly television address to promote cooking with local garlic. (AFP)

Labels: news, odd, weird

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• No Time For Oranges A survey suggests that Britons feel that they don't have time to peel oranges at lunch, so they opt for easier-to-peel citrus. (Reuters)


• Only $358.82 a Pound Someone in Japan paid $6100 for a 17-pound rare black-skinned Densuke watermellon. Hopefully it came with someone to spit out the seeds for the buyer. (AP)


• What Is that Flavor? An Arkansas corrections officer was allegedly caught smuggling syringes and pot hidden inside take-out TexMex food. (AP)


• What Weren't They Smoking? Some dorm workers at Indiana University got suspicious when they found green leafy material in some fudge they had been given. Turns out it was lavender. (AP)


• Serving Your Way to Heaven An Indian widow spent over $37,000 on a feast for a reputed 100,000 because she had no one to leave her money to. (Reuters)


• Do They Come in Coffin Shapes? The late inventor of the Pringles potato chip can had some of his cremated remains buried in one of them. (AP)


• Last Stop for Tube Drinking Thousands took to the London Underground to celebrate the last day of legal drinking on the system - and when things got out of control, police arrested 17 and closed 6 subway stations. (Reuters)


• Shaken, Not Stirred Champagne manufacturer Louis Roederer is testing the results of letting sparkling wine age 50 under the surface of the ocean rather than in the traditional cellars. And after all that wave action shaking the carbonated contents, who gets to open the first bottle? (Reuters)


• Looks Good to Him An Israeli rabbi has declared giraffe meat and milk to be kosher. (AFP)


• Guess the Souffle Fell A 28-year-old trainee chef threatened to kill himself with a knife unless allowed to retake a test at Le Cordon Bleu cooking school in London. (London Telegraph)

Labels: news, odd, weird

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• I'm Going to Need Seconds Japanese scientists created a noodle bowl so small that you have to use a microscope to see it. (AP)


• Everyone's a Critic Police arrested a Hamptons gallery owner for serving wine and champagne at her gallery for the opening of an exhibit of photographs taken by Angelina Jolie, Madonna, and Justin Timberlake. (AP)


• Who Had Too Much Caffeine? Dunkin Donuts withdrew an ad featuring Rachel Ray when conservative bloggers went berserk over her wearing a scarf that they claimed was patterned like a traditional Arab headdress. (AP)


• Bridget Jones Blamed as Chardonnay Bane A wine expert blames the fictional character Bridget Jones's crying into a glass of chardonnay for making the wine less appealing. (London Telegraph)


• A Really Light Beer A Japanese company plans to make beer with barley descended from grains that spent five months on the International Space Station in 2006. The entire run, by Sapporo, will be 100 bottles. (AP)

Labels: news, odd, weird

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• $175 Hamburger The Wall Street Burger Shoppe, which likes having the most expensive hamburger in New York City, just raised its price from $150 to $175 because Daniel Boulud's DB Bistro Moderne had hiked its previous budget busting burger from $120 to $150.


• Cons Are Dining Pros An Italian maximum security prison runs a restaurant a few evenings a year, charging patrons about $55 a head for dinners cooked and served by inmates. (Reuters)


• Nothing Fancy Please A Spanish chef whose establishment has three Michelin stars, calls high tech cooking, such as using foams or gels, to be pretentious. (Reuters)

Labels: news, odd, weird

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• Bad Tips Are the Least of Worries A new Georgia law allows those with permits to carry concealed weapons the right to bring firearms into various places, including restaurants that serve alcohol. Note to wait staff: don't forget the bread. (AP)


• But ... Is The Lager OK? An Australian was fined for buckling his beer into a seat belt but not his child. (AP)


• How Much Is A Six-Pack? At an Oregon charity auction, one bottle of beer went for $707, while the cheapest ran $478. (Internet Broadcasting Systems)


• Watch the Moguls A couple of Belgians have developed some video games to be installed at urinals. (Reuters)


• Make Them Eat The Mystery Meat Two cafeteria managers resign after allegations that they stole thousands of dollars from their schools. (WFTV)


• That's a Lot of Relatives A Girl Scout sold more than 17,000 boxes of cookies. The formerly shy girl and her troop will be going to Europe on the strength of the proceeds - and we're waiting for corporate sales department scouts to come recruiting. (AP)


• After All, They're Just Sitting Around Alabama Sheriffs feed prisoners on $1.75 a day and pocket anything left over. (AP)


• Are You Sure This Guy Wasn't In Alabama? An Austrian prisoner escaped his cell by squeezing through the door's food hatch. (Reuters)

Labels: news, odd, weird

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• Vodka Tickles My Nose A British inventor, obviously never having heard of club soda, spent two years to create a sparkling (read that as carbonation) vodka. (Press release)


• Caffeine Chips Someone has apparently decided to add caffeine to chips. Now snackers will not only have an urge to drink something, they'll want cream and two sugars. But then, who calls a product "the love child of caffeine and snack chips?" (Press release)


• Never Again a Boston Harbor Apparently, the British government in the mid-1950s was worried about the impact atomic warfare would have on the availability of tea. (London Telegraph)


• No Such Thing as Free Doughnut A Canadian woman was fired from the Tim Horton chain after giving a 16-cent doughnut treat to a child. After bad press, the chain said that firing her was a mistake. (Reuters)


• And See What You Get If They're Overcooked Celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay is quoted as saying that restaurants should be fined for serving out of season vegetables and fruit, and that all the produce should be home grown. Guess his cooking is strictly meat and potatoes during the winter. (Reuters)

Labels: news, odd, weird

Posted by Erik Sherman @ 8:30 AM Permalink 1 comments links to this post

A weekly round-up of food and drink oddities:

• No Drinking; We're Indian India's health minister is asking actors in that country's film industry not to smoke or drink alcohol on screen. (AP)


• Or Germans on Father's Day The German family minister is urging men not to head into the fields on Father's Day to drink beer and schnapps. (AFP)


• Or Living in Tisbury A small town on Cape Cod remains dry when a referendum on the subject ended in a dead heat. (AP)


• Or Drinking in a Romanian Bar A Romanian man complained that a single can of beer that he consumed in a bar get him so drunk that he nearly passed out. (New Zealand Herald)


• Forget Feeding Pigeons in the Piazza It's now officially illegal to feed pigeons in St. Mark's Square in Venice. (Reuters)


• And Don't Even Think of Calling Your Sausage Cumberland A food industry group in Cumbria, off in the northwest of England, is trying to get protected status for its sausage, which would have to be coiled (no links here) and contain at least 80 percent meat. The other 20 percent? If you have to ask, you don't want to know. (AFP)


• But Aluminum Cans Are OK on PEI Prince Edward Island, Canada has lifted a 35-year-old ban on selling beer and soda in aluminum cans. (AFP)

Labels: news, odd, weird

Posted by Erik Sherman @ 5:00 AM Permalink 0 comments links to this post

A weekly round-up of food and drink oddities:

• Two Great Tastes in One The manager of an Arkansas pizza place is alleged to have sold marijuana through the establishment's drive-through window. A wicked case of the munchies solving itself. (AP)


• Nearer to God, But Who's Buying? A western Ohio church holds services in a bar. (AP)


• Really Big Catch Three fishermen just sold a giant rare fish for HK$20,000. The buyer turned around and sold it to a restaurant for HK$580,000. And the restaurant sold it to a buyer on the Chinese mainland for HK$1 million. That final take was over $128,000 in US currency. Who says that the fresher the fish, the higher the price? (Reuters)


• How Much Was the Bill? A man who cannot pay his restaurant tab faked a heart attack. (WFTV.com)


• Please Don't Try This at Home People in the UK are apparently inujing themselves as they try to duplicate the feats of onscreen chefs. (The Press Association)


• This Slop Isn't Fit For Prisoners A 300-pound inmate is complaining that he's lost 110 pounds on the jail's fare, and so is suing. Wait, I can see it now: the newest diet craze, the Stir and Save. (AP)

Labels: news, odd, weird

Posted by Erik Sherman @ 11:35 AM Permalink 0 comments links to this post

• Coffee Immersion The Roasting Plant Coffee Company in New York is a coffee shopt that is the coffee brewer, and patrons literally walk through the works. (Gizmag.com)


• Museum Drinks to That The Victoria and Albert Museum in London has two concurrent exhibitions on drinking vessels: The Art of Drinking and Elizabethan Flagons from St. Mary Woolnoth. (Victoria and Albert Museum)


• Food as Art If art in food doesn't take you, how about food in art? Prudence Emma Staite is an artist who makes custom sculpture, paintings, games, and life-sized rooms out of food. She currently has a display of famous artworks made out of a name-brand candy. (BBC)


• Forked An Iowa couple, known for their practical jokes, returned from an out-of-town wedding to find 3,000 white plastic forks stuck in their lawn and dangling from the house and fence. (AP)


• Feeling No Pain - Literally A Russian electrician got so drunk that when he slept it off, he hadn't noticed that there was a knife in his back. (Reuters)

Labels: news, odd, weird

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• Absolutely Terrible PR Absolut Vodka raised ire, not a glass, in the US when its Mexican ad campaign included a map of Mexico that included California, Arizona, and other US states, all of which were part of that country until 1848. (NPR)


• Sazerac Sinks The Louisiana Senate scuttled an attempt to make the sazerac the state cocktail because it would be inappropriate. A tough-minded decision for a state that has drive-through daiquiri stands.(AP)


• Noodle Schmoozing Apparently we all missed the World Ramen Summit. (Reuters)


• Taxes Require Drink A New Jersey CPA brings his tax services to bars on weekday nights and week-end afternoons. (Reuters)


• Shellfish Stuffing The winner of the Acme World Oyster Eating championship downed 35 dozen in 8 minutes. (AP)


• Crying Into Your Noodles South Korea's Black Day is a commisseration of people without love interests who wear black and eat black food. (Reuters)

Labels: news, odd, weird

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• Good Time Charlie Britain's Prince Charles is asking the UK government to help the closing of British country pubs. (IANS)


• Cheetos, Mary, and Joseph Oh, however could I have missed this in March: a church youth worker found a cheese curl that he thought looked like Jesus, and so decided to share it with the world. Someone at his church nicknamed it Cheesus. (KTRK)


• Repent, Satanic Bar Code! A Russian doomsday group has claimed that food packaging bar codes and credit cards are satanic. Well, one out of two ain't bad. (Reuters)


• Goat Power A wine and cheese estate in South Africa has harnessed its 700 Saanen goats by having them walk on treadmills connected to generators. (Cape Argus & Independent Online)


• Job Didn't Pan Out A worker at an Oklahoma Pizza Hut was accused of stealing every pizza pan in the establishment to sell them to scrap metal dealers. (AP)


• What's in a Champagne Name? A Swiss wine-growing region called Champagne is fighting to keep using its regional name although international trade rules restrict it to the French region. (Reuters)

Labels: news, odd, weird

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• Bugged By Low Tab A Dubai restaurant took 25 percent off the bill of a birthday dinner party because seven insects found bugs crawling in their food. Sorry, the house has a firm policy: it takes 8 bug-infested dinners for the 50 percent discount.(Reuters)


• And What's For Dessert? Before dining with the Queen of England, French President Nicolas Sarkozy asked to see the wine list. (The Sun)


• Shave and a Haircut - Two Pints The Michigan attorney general told a barbershop owner in Grand Rapids, MI that he couldn't hand out a beer with each haircut without a liquor license. (AP)


• Worms Are Easier to Get Into the Bottle A Texas man is in legal trouble for selling bottles of vodka with dead baby rattlesnakes in them. (Reuters)


• Didn't They Like the Food? Cajun chef Paul Prudhomme was grazed by a bullet as he cooked at a New Orleans golf event. (AP)


• Dumping Tea in the Harbor Always Worked for Us Disgruntled Brits on the Internet are gaining traction with a campaign to ban Britain's chancellor of the exchequer from pubs because of a new tax on beer. (AP)


• Can't Hold Their Soda Wausau, Wisconsin police broke up a high school keg party. How embarrassing that the liquid was actually root bear. (AP)

Labels: news, odd, weird

Posted by Erik Sherman @ 8:13 AM Permalink 0 comments links to this post

• Taco Bars A man got 30 days in jail for scamming a taco shop out of food and then posting the escapade on YouTube. Wonder what the sentence would have been for a burrito? (AP)


• Jailhouse Slop Vermont prisoners have undertaken a class action suit in protest of such dishes as nutraloaf: "a mixture of cubed whole wheat bread, nondairy cheese, raw carrots, spinach, seedless raisins, beans, vegetable oil, tomato paste, powdered milk and dehydrated potato flakes." (AP)


• Some Schnoz Lloyd's of London has insured a winemaker's nose for close to $8 million. (Reuters)


• Illinois for $1,350 on eBay Two sisters sold a corn flake shaped like the state of Illinois for $1,350 on eBay. Is that with milk, or without? (AP)


• In the Bag Patrons of Atlantic City's Irish Pub celebrate a holiday, invented by bar staff that worked through St. Patrick's day one year, by wearing paper bags on March 18. (AP)

Labels: news, odd, weird

Posted by Erik Sherman @ 9:30 AM Permalink 0 comments links to this post

• Now That's Crabby Guinness World Records has certified the world's biggest fishcake - a crab cake of 235 pounds. (AP)


• Chew On This Peru lawmakers criticize a UN recommendation to criminalize all uses of the coca plant. (Reuters)


• Jenny Craig, Meet King Kong Zoos try to keep their charges from putting on too much weight. (AP)
gorilla

• Pass the Biscuits A 27 year old man who lived on biscuits (cookies in the UK) became a chef to fight his addiction. (BBC)


• Meals by Mail The Thailand post office has announced a new food delivery service with meals coming from famous restaurants. (AFP)


• Ham Bone Connects to the Thief Bone A Massachusetts restaurateur drove off a would-be robber with a frozen ham. (AP)

Labels: news, odd, weird

Posted by Erik Sherman @ 11:20 PM Permalink 0 comments links to this post

• Keep Pouring... The Utah legislature has decided to loosen up a bit, and allow restaurants and bars to serve up to 1.5 ounces of liquor in a single drink - up from the previous 1 ounce limit. Can the lampshade hats be far away?(AP)


• ... But Not Here Teetotaling members of the Swedish legislature want only alcohol-free drinks at official parliamentary functions. Next thing - wet blankets for everyone(AFP)


• Don't Eat the White Snow Research has shown that many snowflakes coalesce around a core of bacteria. (AP)


• Steel Cage Birthday Parties Two mothers got into fight at a Chuck E. Cheese when one, there for her son's birthday, thought the other was allowing her child to hog an arcade game. (AP)


• First, We'll Puff at All the Lawyers Minnesota has a ban on all smoking in restaurants and bars - unless you're an actor in a theatrical performance. Some bars are avoiding the ban by declaring all patrons to be actors. Ah, but did they ever eat with one? (AP)


• Way the Cookie Crumbles Oklahoma police arrested a man for allegedly breaking into Chinese restaurants. The giveaway? The fortune cookies in his pocket. (AP)


• Alas, Poor Triffle New research indicates that steak and kidney pie, spotted dick and sherry trifle may become extinct by 2021. (Press Assoc)

Labels: news, odd, weird

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• Worse Than Smell-O-Vision Welch's is testing a magazine ad where you lick the page to taste the product. If it were Campbell's Soup, I'd say, "Ewww, ewww, good." (Wall Street Journal)


• Newport Newborns A Newport, RI hotel has a themed pregnancy special, including a diaper cake with the upcoming child's name on the rear end and a pint of ice cream and dill pickles as part of the turn-down service. Only $900 a night. Did someone say turn down? (The Chanler at Cliff Walk)


• Is That Supersized? Mallie's Sports Grill & Bar in Southgate, Michigan is trying to get into the Guinness Book of World Records with a 150 pound hamburger. With 24 hours notice, you and scores of your closest friends can have one - for $350. (Detroit Free Press)

Labels: news, odd, weird

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• What's In a Name? A strip club owner in Boulder, Colorado is trying to claim that the cut up fruit, ice, and cups used in serving drinks makes his establishment a restaurant, which would get him out from under a zoning challenge. (Rocky Mountain News)


• Taco Terror A California man was assaulted and then robbed of a bag of tacos at gunpoint. (AP)


• Just A Little One? Some Chinese producers of alcoholic beverages are trying to overturn a government ban on officials drinking at lunch. (AFP)


• Take This F-ing Bill Ten diners found an invitation to oral sex listed (though with no charge) on their computer-printed bill. (BBC)


• Do Drink the Water Los Angeles and Clearbrook, British Columbia, Canada recently tied as having the best tasting municipal water in an international competition. Will we soon seen a bottled brand called LA's Finest? (AP)


• Put the Bun Under the Burger A California McDonald's is trying to boost sales with feng shui. First order of business: get some real food in. (AP)


• But Don't Ask For Their Doughnuts On apprehending a freezing burglary suspect in the winter cold, Canadian police offered a cup of coffee. What, no bagel? (The Toronto Sun)

Labels: news, odd, weird

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• Space Pickle A bacteria-free version of the Korean hot pickled cabbage dish, kimchi, is ready for a space mission later this year, along with instant noodles, cinnamon tea, uncooked organic food, and the world's first Korean astronaut. (AFP)


• No Eggroll For You Asian restaurants in Israel went on a one day strike to protest a new government plan to replace Asian restaurant cooks with Israelis. First off the menu were eggrolls. Next? Sushi and noodles. (Reuters)


• Do You Take This Slyder? Three couples got married on Valentine's Day at a White Castle in Columbus, Ohio, the chain's home town. The flower girl threw salt and pepper packets instead of rice, and the grooms' lapels sported employee name tags. (AP)


• What You See Isn't What You Get The Omnivore Food Festival in Deauville, France featured some trompe-l'oeil cuisine, like slices of meat that were actually made of watermellon, or an edible bar of soap with honey bubbles. (AFP)

Labels: news, odd, weird

Posted by Erik Sherman @ 5:26 AM Permalink 0 comments links to this post

• Step Away From the Restaurant Three legislatures in the Missouri legislature had filed a bill that would prohibit restaurants from serving obese people. (AP)


• I Am Not a Leftover After nearly 50 years, an Illinois man still has a buffalo sandwich that was half-eaten by Richard Nixon. And, no, it's not a lot of bull. (AP)


• Whale of a Meal According to a poll, 56 percent of the Japanese public supports eating whale meat. (AP)


• How Much By the Glass? A London diner was sure that the £18,000 bottle of wine he ordered at a restaurant was actually a fake. (AP)


• How About Official Picnic Bucket? PETA tried to keep fried chicken the official food of Kentucky. Maybe everyone should take a time out and have a mint julep. (AP)

Labels: news, odd, weird

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• Hope The Chairs Don't Melt As part of a Valentine's Day promotion, Godiva creates a chocolate room, including furniture and art work. (AP)


• And Tater Tots Are Grenades Laramie, Wyoming police charged some junior high girls who threw french fries during a food fight with hurling missles. (AP)


• Next, Exercise Suppressing Walks Scientists experiment with food additatives, that could be put into snack foods, that could reduce hunger. (Press Association)

Labels: news, odd, weird

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• Quick, Get Robbie Burns Scotland is thinking of lobbying the US to lift a ban on haggis in hopes of boosting sales. Here's a suggestion: there's a long way between buying a kilt and eating a blood and oatmeal pudding stuffed into a sheep's stomach. (Reuters)


• Holy Watering Hole A pastor in a central Pennsylvania town plans to send chaplains to local bars to provide a sympathetic ear. But are they buying drinks? (AP)


• So Hungry You Could Eat A Horse? A woman, selling her horse, found the classified ad she took out accidentally listed under Good Things To Eat. (AP)


• And No Tequila Shots Someone has introduced a bill in Virginia to lift the state's effective ban on sangria, because it doesn't allow mixing wine or beer with spirits. A restaurant actually received a $2,000 fine for serving the drink in 2006. Next thing: free refried beans. (AP)


• Michelin Star, Bring Your Own Boat British restaurant Tean just won a Michelin star - and is located on an island, population 110, 28 miles out to sea. (AFP)


• Invest That Bonus In Food A restaurant in London's financial district has a $2,000-a-head menu intended to catch people who got huge bonuses. Half a dozen people have signed up since last Friday. (AFP)

Labels: news, odd, weird

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• Smoked - or Not The first restaurant chain in Beijing to ban smoking is going out of business after most of its customers took their embers elsewhere. (Reuters)


• Moo Burp Swedish researchers are going to study just how greenhouse gas comes out when cows belch. I'd hate the be the one standing in front of the cow, waiting for the eruption. (AP)


• Oh, You're Still Here? An inmate was left in a holding cell for two days without food when three deputies forgot the person was there. (AP)


• Imagine the Piece of Cheese Researchers found the remains of a prehistoric rodent that weighed an estimated 2,000 pounds. (Reuters)


• Last Call A 150 old cantina, supposedly the oldest in Mexico, is closed after the National Autonomous University of Mexico won a legal battle to eject it. (Reuters)


• When They Said Drive-Through... A McDonald's patron, angry at not receiving his french fries, literally drove into the establishment, and then drove off. (WFTV)


• But Can They Boil Water? A recent survey suggests that many young people in Britain don't know how to boil an egg, can't name cuts of bacon (or tell how long it takes to cook a rasher), and can't identify regional breads. (Press Release)


• Next Time, Check His ID A 16-year-old Japanese boy ran up a $3,490 bill at a bar in Tokyo, and was then arrested for not being able to pay. (AP)


• Keystone Robbers A pair of Australian robbers apparently needed more practice, as they grabbed a bag of rolls instead of a bag of money from a restaurant and one of the duo shot the other by accident. (AFP)

Labels: news, odd, weird

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• The Chilly Diet A Japanese mountain climber who got lost in the wild survived on snow for a week. (Reuters)


• Thanks for Dinner A New Zealand crook talked his way into a Canadian family's hotel room, leaving with their valuables - after running up a food and drink tab. (AP)


• Strong Drink, Not Strong Talk St. Charles, MO may pass a bill that would forbid swearing in bars. Next step - no getting wet in pools and no reading in libraries. (AP)


• Demon Electric Ovens A roast duck chain in China has drawn criticism for switching from wood-burning ovens to electric - and re-branding itself in English. (Reuters)


• Food Fight Informers Columbia, MD school officials got an earful - figuratively - for offering a $30 reward to get students to squeal on whoever started a food fight. (AP)

Labels: news, odd, weird

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• Please, Sir, Could I Have Some More? Two Louisiana men say they've been banned from an all-you-can-eat restaurant because of the definition of the world all. (AP)


• No Kids at Mouse King's Table Walt Disney World has banned kids from its fanciest restaurant. But with prices starting at $125 a person, the chicken fingers would seem a tad steep.(AP)


• Wing of Fire A Chicago restaurant is coating a special chicken wing appetizer in one of the hottest peppers available - the Red Savina. Customers have to sign a waiver before embarking on the culinary journey. (Reuters)


• Round They Go The Chinese quality agency has said that its recent standard for mantou, a cheap streeet food, as having to be perfectly round does not have the force of law. Vendors are rejoicing that their mantou carts do not have to become pi stands. (Reuters)

Labels: news, odd, weird

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• Cranky Legacy A regular cantankerous customer at a cafeteria left $50K and a car to a worker at the establishment after complaining and cursing around her for seven years. (AP)


• Competitive Lazy Snacking ESPN is hosting the ultimate couch potato competition in Times Square today. Contestants watch continuous sports on large TVs and can have unlimiated snacks and drinks, though no nodding off, and bathroom breaks only once every eight hours. (AP)


• A Baby With That? A teen worker at a Vancouver, WA McDonalds gave birth while on the job - while convinced that she wasn't pregnant. (Internet Broadcasting)


• Purple Pearl Diners at a raw bar supposedly found a rare purple pearl, possible worth thousands, in a $10 plate of clams. Who knew that you could find a pearl in a clam? (AP)

Labels: news, odd, weird

Posted by Erik Sherman @ 5:46 AM Permalink 0 comments links to this post

• A Hair Of The Dog After jailing a man, Dutch police fed him, including some cake for dessert. However, they had unknowingly grabbed a hashish-laced cake seized in another case. (AP)


• Pecking Order It's the 50th anniversary of an official French designation of the Bresse chicken as being a protected type of product the way fine wines are. But how do they get the birds into the bottles? (Reuters)


• Wine Owners Win Coverage A British Columbia couple won a law suit forcing their insurance company to pay for the loss of their multi-million dollar wine collection when a sewer backup ruined it. (Canadian Press)

Labels: news, odd, weird

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• Auction Action The first liquor auction since Prohibition happened in New York, and one 81-year-old bottle of scotch went for $54,000. (AP)


• Chicago Considers Banning Chicken Racket Nope, it's not about some organized criminal gang committing fowl play. The city considers banning pet chickens. (AP)


• Quiet Dinner Spot An Indian restaurant is built atop a graveyard, and the tables sit among the graves. (AP)


• Dog East Contest Pies A Bichon Frise got into the collection of pies for the World Pie Eating Championship and proved itself a match for any human, eating them all. (UPI)

Labels: odd, weird

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• Please, Sir, May I Have Some More? Two part-time cooks at a Japanese restaurant chain were suspended when company officials figured out that they were the ones that posted on YouTube a video showing them ladling a mini-mountain of beef onto a bowl of rice. (AP)


• Speecy Spicy Meatball A counter-terrorism cop, fired for failing a drug test, says it was becasue his wife spiked some meatballs with marijuana. Pot luck supper, anyone? (AP)


• Hock-Kosher? A store decided to advertise ham as a perfect meal for Hanukkah. (AP)


• The Unreal Thing A man was arrested for selling generic cola syrup as Coca-Cola branded product. (AP)


• Pillsbury Dour Boy General Mills has decided to come down hard on Potsdam, NY residents that held an annual "bake-off" for the past decade to help a local food pantry. The company says that it owns the word and is the only one that can use it. Undoubtedly somewhere a head of corporate PR is beating his or her head against a wall. (NPR)

Labels: news, odd, weird

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• Parents Kidnap Daughter To Prevent Wedding Two parents in Utah kidnapped their 20-year-old daughter to prevent her marrying someone they thought was "evil and wicked." To say nothing of the cost of paying for the ceremony. But they did have to pay $2000 for a meal that had to get called off. (AP)


• Expensive Pizzeria Toilet The missing part of a 17th century cabinet worth £1m has been found outside the toilets of a pizza restaurant in Yorkshire. I want to know when they will start serving the gold leaf pie. (The Statesman)


• Now That's Service ... Service ... Service ... A robot with soft hands was able to help someone out of bed and to prepare breakfast. Time to add another fundamental law of robotics: don't break the yolks. (Reuters)


• Big Like Moose People interested in trying to try eating moose will be able to dine in one - a planned giant wooden moose, about 540 miles north of Stockholm, that will have a restaurant and concert hall in its stomach. Where is an ancient walled Greek city when you need one? (AP)


• Step Away From The Pizza Police used a battering ram to force their way into an apartment and arrest a woman who allegedly took food from a pizza delivery person without paying. Hey, if they wanted a slice, why didn't they just ask? (AP)


• The Eggrolls Were How Much? Relatives of an elderly woman who left $21 million to the owners of a Chinese restaurant are challenging the will in court. That must have been really good garlic chicken. (International Herald Tribune)


• Big Truffle Brings Big Price A 3.3 pound truffle sold for $330,000 at auction. Hardly a frugal fungus. (Reuters)

Labels: news, odd, weird

Posted by Erik Sherman @ 8:18 AM Permalink 0 comments links to this post

• Eating For The Hungry A competitive eater tucked away a Thanksgiving dinner for 10 to highlight the plight of the hungry. No wonder they were hungry - he didn't leave anything. (AP)



• Organized Professional Eating In the last story, the human vacuum was mentioned as a Major League Eater. Turns out there is an International Federation of Competitive Eating. I'd hate to take a turn buying refreshments for a gathering there. (ifoce.com)



• Doughnut Vows A Massachusetts couple tied the knot at a doughnut shop where they originally met. Thankfully, their rings appear to be made of something inedible. (AP)



• Sibling Roastery A brother and sister apparently try to outdo each other every year in the size of turkey they roast on Thanksgiving. The man won this year with a 72-pound bird. (AP)

Labels: news, odd, weird

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• Ancient Candy Bars Researchers have found proof that Central America first used chocolate at least 500 years earlier than was previously thought - in a fermented drink akin to beer. A pint of extra-bitter to go, please. (Reuters)


• Candy Undies Inspected A Norwegian erotic store got a surprise inspection by the food safety police, which said that even handcuffs made of candy needed the proper labeling showing ingredients. But what age do you have to be to read them?(Reuters)


• Rodents Close World's Most Expensive Dessert Place Serendipity 3, which last week was crowing about getting the world record for the most expensive dessert (at $25,000) this week had to temporarily shut its doors because of mice and cockroach infestations. Hopefully they didn't cost diners extra. (Reuters)


• Vying for Vodka Finns stood in long lines to stock up on liquor as employees of state-run package stores prepared to go on strike. Good thing they weren't getting Prohibition. (AFP)

Labels: news, odd, weird

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• Fuel the World with Chocolate A new process turns the byproducts of making chocolate into biofuel. Even your car wants a bite of that chocolate bar. (Reuters)


• A Really Rich Dessert A Manhattan restaurant has offered a dessert sporting cocoa, edible gold, truffle shavings, a take-home bowl decorated with gold and diamonds, and a $25,000 price tag, making it the world's most expensive dessert, according to the Guiness Book of World Records. Do they charge for a second spoon? (AP)


• Ham Soda Jones Soda has developed a holiday-themed soda pack, including such flavors as sugar plum, Christmas tree, Egg Nog, Christmas ham, and latke. Suppposedly even the ham flavor is kosher. Sure, and your rabbi is going to suggest hame and swiss sandwiches for lunch. (AP)


• Comparing Grapes and Apples The EU is close to deciding that wine can be made out of fruits other than grapes. Quick, someone pass the smelling salts to the French. (Reuters)


• It's Christmas - Drop the Mince Pie Apparently, there is an old English law, never repealed, making it illegal to eat mince pie on Christmas Day. this is one of a number of odd laws still on the books, including it being illegal to die in Parliament. (AFP)


• Lift, Separate, and Eat Sushi A Japanese lingerie manufacturer has developed a new bra that will allow women to stash their chopsticks. Hopefully, the rice girdle will shortly follow. (AFP)

Labels: news, odd, weird

Posted by Erik Sherman @ 7:11 AM Permalink 0 comments links to this post

• Terminal Air Velocity of a Kalamata CalTech has a new fall activity - picking olives from the trees that grow on campus and making 1200 bottles of oil as a fund raiser. (AP)


• Mass Crackdown Irish priests are worried that saying more than one mass a day, and drinking the wine as part of it, might trigger the drunk driving limits in proposed new rules. (Reuters)


• Rush On Aisle Three Wisconsin's governor scuttled a part of a new state budget that would have allowed grocery stores to hand out up to 1.5 ounces of liquor for free. (AP)

Labels: odd, weird

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• Driving for Drinking A Nebraska woman, driving a number of cheerleaders to a football game, pull up alongside a car with some of the players and allowed her daughter to lean out of the moving car to grab a beer being passed over. The under-age teens passed the can around and now mom won't be driving for school functions in the future. (AP)


• Burger Competition Yet another competitive eating story yields yet another eye-crossing statistic: 108 small hamburgers in 8 minutes. Ulp. (AP)


• Cultured Robbery A Dallas robber broke into five businesses and stopped for a couple of cups of yogurt during his activity. He's still on the loose, looking for cash from store registers and, presumably, watching his weight. (Internet Broadcasting)


• Don't See Kimchi? According to a recent survey, 65 percent of women in South Korea don't know how to make the spicy fermented cabbage dish called kimchi. Hey, that's why ready made is for. (AFP)

Labels: odd, weird

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• Extra Fat, Please You may have seen some commercials recently where people are ordering fast food and asking for such things as the double jelly belly version. Hardee's may have done just that with a new breakfast burrito weighing in at 920 calories and 60 grams of fat. (AP)


• Round Up the Unusual Suspects German police had their claw ... uh, hands full when they had to capture a group of crayfish that had escaped from an Asian restaurant. If I were an ingredient, I'd probably do the same. (Reuters)


• Toaster Schnitzel A German company, Toennies, has invented a schnitzel that you can heat in a toaster. (Reuters)


• Chinese Commune Themed Restaurant You can live those, oh, so romantic days of Mao at a threme restaurant in Guangdong, China. (Reuters)


• Vanilla File Ripple An Italian company is making eco-friendly gelato using prisoners a few miles south of Milan. (Reuters)

Labels: odd, weird

Posted by Erik Sherman @ 7:35 AM Permalink 0 comments links to this post

• Step Away From the Cookies A consulting firm suggested that supermarkets should use intelligent carrieages that could warn if shoppers were buying too much junk food. The 2.0 version will also nag you about your taste in clothing and ask when you're going to have kids. (Reuters)


• Dad, Can I Borrow the Keys and Stay Up Past Seven? A 6 year old in Colorodo was hunger, so took the keys to his grandmother's car, brought his booster seat along, and prepared to drive to Applebee's - until he crashed the car (no one was hurt) and took out electric and phone service to dozens of residences. (AP)


• Pizza Maker Counterfits Dough A pizzeria owner is accused of printing his own fake bills. It's one way to make sure you always have change. (AP)


• Your Pizza or Your Life A Wisconsin burglar broke into a house to steal food, leaving the valuables. Hey, might as well eat the evidence. (AP)

Labels: Applebee's, news, odd, pizza, weird

Posted by Erik Sherman @ 7:10 AM Permalink 0 comments links to this post

• Burglary Brunch A man said he had a conversation over breakfast with the burglar he surprised in his home. It's a new type of mug shot. (KSAT-TV)



• Christmas in October A Munich man with one too many beers during Oktoberfest got stuck in a chimney for 12 hours as he tried to get into a friend's apartment. Entrepreneurs see huge opportunity for introducing the door. (Reuters)



• I Do Not Like Green Eggs An inmate, upset with the quality of prison food, mailed an egg to a federal judge. The jurist replied in a rhyme immitating the style of Dr. Suess's Green Eggs and Ham. (AP)



• Rich Dessert A resort in Sri Lanka has what it calls the world's most expensive dessert, which, at $14,000, includes a chocolate sculpture and a large gem stone. They've gotten calls, but no one has yet ordered it, let alone seconds. (AP)



• Month Long Hangover A man in Scotland was complaining of "wavy" vision and a constant headache for four weeks. He had apparently drunk 60 pints of beer over a four day stretch. Will he order aspirin by the case? (AFP)

Labels: news, odd, weird

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• Rice Not Nice Venice is banning throwing rice at newly weds because of the "hordes of pigeons" who follow the ceremonies. What's really bad is when they crash the reception, get drunk, and put lampshades on their heads. (Reuters)


• Marmalade Mess The creator of Paddington Bear took heat when the character started snacking not on his accustomed marmalade, but on Marmite sandwiches in an advertisement. Marmite is a popular British food spread made of beer brewing byproducts. Maybe Paddington could just hoist a pint, instead. (Ananova)


• Bus Brunch The French city of Lille is running buses on biodiesel produced from food scraps, weeds, flowers, and grass clippings at a new recycling plant. From one form of gas to another. (AFP)


• Burrito Eating Champ A New York day trader ate 10 3/4 burritos in 12 minutes to win what was billed as the world burrito eating championship. The winner, "Eater X," is also an aspiring pizza chef. Guess that day trading is working out well, then. (AP)


• Raparian Feast In Acton, England, 500 people dove into a swimming pool to set the record for the world's largest formal underwater dinner party. Largest formal? You mean there's another subcategory? (Daily Telegraph)

Labels: burritos, drink, eating, food, news, odd, pool, record, speed eating, weird

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