We Don't Smell » Food

This ain’t your mama’s ice cream truck

Clarence — Sat, 17 Feb 2007 20:32:46 +0000

What image pops into your head when you think of an ice cream truck? For most of us, it’s an off-white Mr. Softee truck covered with pictures of ice cream treats playing that oh-so-familiar “THE ICE CREAM MAN IS HERE” tune. Whatever it is though, it certainly isn’t this blinged out urban ice cream van you see here.

Scoop is a new company who will be selling ice cream to all the cool kids… and their parents. This is ice cream for the nightclub circuit – hot lights, funky beats, and high end ice cream served in sleek Chinese take out boxes.

The ice cream is served by “Scoop” girls wearing funky outfits selling such flavors as Criterion Iceâ€™s Brown Bread, Vintage Marmalade and Turkish Delight, served in small, glossy black Chinese take out boxes.

There isn’t an official website yet, and these limited edition trucks will only be available in London’s East end, but I’m hoping we’ll be able to see some of these state-side once the craze catches on.

via Coolhunter / Springwise / Popgadget

Tagged: Scoop, Ice Cream, Bling

Inventor of Cup Noodles Dies at 96

JoAnn — Sun, 07 Jan 2007 15:18:26 +0000

Momofuku Ando, the Japanese inventor of the beloved Cup Noodles, passed away this past Friday at the age of 96. He produced the world’s first instant noodle product. Consisting of flour, palm oil, and MSG, this treat has been happily consumed by billions in the U.S. and across Asia for over three decades.

“Born in Taiwan in 1910 while it was under Japanese occupation, Momofuku Ando ran clothing and other companies in Taipei and Osaka early in his career.

He was inspired to develop the world’s first instant noodle product after coming across a long line of people waiting to buy fresh “ramen” noodles from a black market stall during the food shortages after World War Two, Japanese media said.

After his Chicken Ramen product became hugely popular in 1958, despite a luxury price-tag of 35 yen, he went on to bring out the Cup Noodle in 1971.

Providing the instant noodles in a waterproof styrofoam container that could be used to cook them using just hot water proved a stroke of marketing genius that made the product a hit with time-pressed people around the world.

Ando remained in the public eye until recently — appearing on television in 2005 to promote a version of the Cup Noodle adapted for astronauts to eat aboard the space shuttle Discovery.

Often seen devouring servings of the dish he invented, Ando opened a museum devoted to instant noodles in Osaka in 1999. Ando is survived by his wife, Masako.” New York Times

Contrary to whatever your Mom likes to tell you, eating Cup Noodles diurnally totally leads to a long healthy life!

Rest in peace Ando-san.

Watermelon Carving?

Clarence — Mon, 25 Dec 2006 20:37:18 +0000

It’s a carved watermelon. A CARVED WATERMELON! GENIUS!

Tagged: Carved watermelons

Cookies need their sleep too! (Apparently)

Clarence — Wed, 27 Sep 2006 03:42:08 +0000

After eating an always-too-much portion of Chinese take-out, I always feel like crap. There I am, sitting in my chair, full of MSG and on the verge of food coma. Aside from the monster shits I will suffer from later, the only bright prospect in my near future is that golden cookie sitting on the table.

For some reason, the semi-sweet, crunchy taste of the cookie is always exactly what I need after such a binge. Not only do the taste and texture hit the spot, but there’s an added bonus: a fortune. Too bad for me, I have bad luck with fortune cookies. A couple of months ago, I cracked open a fortune cookie to find… no fortune. Nothing at all. What a cocktease that cookie was.

I thought it couldn’t get any worse than no fortune. Boy, was I wrong. Check out what awaited me today:

Come back later… I am sleeping. (yes, cookies need their sleep, too)

…Great.

I don’t even know what to make of that. That’s nowhere even close to a fortune. In fact, it’s a command–it’s telling me to come back later. But come back to what? I already ate the damn cookie.

Stupid fortune cookie. I bet the “lucky numbers” are unlucky as hell.

Tagged: Fortune Cookies

Labor day labors

Clarence — Mon, 04 Sep 2006 04:39:41 +0000

I didn’t check my RSS reader for 3 days. I had a little free time today so I thought I’d sit down and catch up. There were a whopping 572 unread articles. Lucky for you, I’ve waded through all of them and brought you only the most interesting articles. So please excuse this (not so) short entry. And to kick it off, here’s a heart-breaking picture of Andre Agassi:

That just breaks my heart. With 60 titles under his belt, Agassi walks off the court after his last professional match amidst a champion’s ovation.
Google got it in it’s head that it wants to improve its Google Images search. Rather than pore over the millions of indexed photos by themselves, they elicit the help of the unwashed masses. But how to get the public to do your work for you? Turn it into a game!
Cherry picking at it’s finest. If you don’t know what cherry picking means, you’re probably a girl.
The perfect iTunes equalizer setting? That’s up to my ears to decide! Even though a perfect setting cannot exist, this setting does sound pretty damn good.
Hack a coke machine. Get a free coke. Lather, rinse repeat.
A guy plays Mozart’s 40th symphony with rollerblades and half-filled glass coke bottles. I bet Mozart never thought of that.
99 wolves crash into a wall, 99 wolves crash… Ok. So the song doesn’t work with wolves crashing into a wall. But this art installation of 99 wolves crashing into a glass wall surprisingly… does.
This is an ice cream / chocolate place I will definitely need to check out. Remind me!
Harry Potter fans discover a continuity error that will be fixed in the next edition–illustrating that they have no lives. No news there.
iTunes to have movie downloads for $14.99 this month. I think that’s stupid. I wouldn’t pay $14.99 for iTunes-resolution video. That also better not be the only Apple news announced on September 12. I want those freakin’ Meroms in the MacBooks.
Who said squirrels are scary, feral vermin? They need love too.
The prettiest subway station in the city? Yeah, I wasn’t expecting much either. But I was proved wrong.
Missing Munch paintings discovered! Now we can all enjoy the Scream again! Ahhhhh! I scream for Munch’s Scream! Ok, I’ll stop. Sorry.
McDonald’s, being the ever-responsible-corporate-entity that they are has redesigned their McFlurry cups so that hedgehogs can’t get their heads stuck in them anymore. Who knew that was a problem? I can’t wait until McDonald’s makes their cups so small that humans can’t get obese from them anymore. HA!
Morgan Library: another place I need to check out. And judging from this picture, a place I may want to spend a lot of time in.
Diddy has to pee. Let’s watch Diddy pee. Let’s hear what Diddy has to say about pee. Let’s slap a reality show together about it and put it on MTV.
Wikipedia has a massive 14 megapixel shot of San Francisco in ruins after the 1906 earthquake. And this was before digital imagery. It’s simply… breathtaking.
Do you remember this commercial? I swear, it brings me back to my living room all those years ago as a wee little lad…

That’s all folks (thank God). I’m spent.

This post brought to you by the Number 13 and the symbols eo&rg. Thank you.

Tagged: Andre Agassi, Google, iTunes, Hacks, Coca Cola, Mozart, Squirrels, Edvard Munch, Subway stations, McDonald’s, McFlurries, Morgan Library, Diddy, San Francisco, AWESOME RETRO COMMERICALS

Thursday bits

Clarence — Thu, 24 Aug 2006 19:50:12 +0000

Reading food blogs at work is very dangerous. Especially when they include luscious pictures of delicious food like the one above. Today’s drool-inducing dishes were from Momofuku SsÃ¤m Bar and Province.
Wang is a “COMMON CHINESE SURNAME SIMILAR TO AMERICAN SLANG FOR PENIS“
A totally new way to shop: Web 2.0 style.
Giant reflective sphere to make its debut in Rockefeller center. Vain New Yorkers rejoice!
I’m not really sure why scientists are keeping tabs on polar bears’ testicle size, but I hope they took into account the environment that they live in.
Don’t you just hate slow shoppers? Then you’ll just love these Home Depoters.
English nerds rejoice! Dictionary.com finally gets a much-needed makeover.

Tagged: Food, Polar Bears

RICEGATE 2006

Clarence — Tue, 15 Aug 2006 15:45:22 +0000

According to Eater, all Chipotle Mexican Grill locations in NYC were without rice yesterday. Yes, that’s right. Apparently there was a rice shortage yesterday.

Has anyone forgotten where we are? We’re in New York effing City: the melting pot of the world. If anything, we have too much rice. Hell, I have enough rice in my basement to stock a couple of Chipotle branches. That’s just completely unacceptable. It’s almost like the time I went to KFC and they ran out of chicken.

Eater reports that the shortage was due to a delivery snafu. Come on Chipotle corporate. You could’ve sent out a couple of Chipotlers to Chinatown, K-town, or even little India to pick up a couple bags of rice. Actually, nevermind. Come to think of it, disappearing rice in NYC? That’s a little sketchy. I wouldn’t be surprised if a few extra bags of Chipotle-branded rice shows up in your friendly neighborhood Chinese grocer today.

via Eater

Tagged: Chipotle, Rice, RICEGATE 2006

Forbidden Fruit

Clarence — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 16:17:37 +0000

When you hear the phrase ‘forbidden fruit,’ I bet this image isn’t the first thing that comes to mind. Instead, pictures of luscious, dripping, ripe flesh flash before your eyes. But fruit doesn’t get more forbidden than these exotic fruits that look like an eggplant’s deformed half-brother. This fruit, the mangosteen, is actually illegal; at least when imported fresh into the United States.

However, we live in New York City. We can get $600 Prada handbags for $30, pirated movie DVDs for $5, and pretty much every other illegal substance you can think of. I think we can get our hands on some forbidden fruit. NYC Nosh visited Chinatown this weekend and did just that. Here’s what they had to say:

…the fruit is absolutely luscious. Inside the tough purple skin (pericarp) sit several brilliantly white wedges of edible fruit that taste a bit like a tangy peach, but with the texture of a ripe cherry. There are aromatic high-note flavors and scents at play here, as well, odors that call to mind passion fruits and blackberries. The pericarp is also edible and rich in micronutrients, but it tastes intensely tannic and unpleasant, so juice manufacturers often purÃ©e the entire fruit (skin and all) together and add sweeteners to make it palatable. If youâ€™ve only tasted purple mangosteen juice, youâ€™ve never really tasted the best part of the fruit.

If you’re curious on getting your hands on some of this delicious, illegal fruit, check out the open-air vegetable markets on Baxter Street, Mulberry Street, and at the corner of Grand & Chrystie Streets, where a pound of fresh mangosteens costs about $9 (4-6 fruits). But make sure you keep an eye out for the produce police.

via NYCnosh

Tagged: Food, Fruits, Mangosteen

The Five-Second Rule really a Rule

Clarence — Thu, 08 Jun 2006 20:52:20 +0000

We’ve all done it before: drop a delicious morsel of food meant to be eaten. What do you do? Do you just watch it sit on the ground and cry? No! You rush to pick it up and exclaim, “FIVE SECOND RULE!” and then blissfully pop it into your mouth.

Why do we do this? Do we really think it’s clean if it’s been on the floor for less than five seconds? Probably not. We do it because we want to eat that damn piece of food, and we didn’t want it to go to waste. However, a new study has shown that the five second rule isn’t just a myth:

Researchers at the University of Illinois say the so-called “5-Second Rule” isn’t a myth. They say when you drop food on the floor, it’s still safe to eat if you pick it up within five seconds.

That’s because it takes at least that long for germs to devour dropped food. Sticky food though, will pick up bacteria faster than dry food.

They say that with sticky or wet food or food fallen on a carpet, all bets are off. But it’s good to know I can eat that potato chip that fell on the kitchen floor.

Â» via Waff

Tagged: Food, Five Second Rule

Pimp My Snack

Clarence — Sat, 22 Apr 2006 01:46:36 +0000

Tired of the same, boring old chocolate bars? Are you really hungry, but a regular-sized Snickers bar just won’t cut it? Well, I believe it is time for you to meet the guys over at Pimpmysnack.com.

Pimp my snack takes on the worthy endeavor of making familiar snacks on an enormous scale. These homemade gigantors of fat not only look like the real deal, but they are also 100% edible. Although, it may require a bit of an effort to take a bite out of them.

via BoingBoing

Tagged: Food