Archive for January, 2012

Salad Towers: Food Engineering in ways you never expected

Wednesday, January 18th, 2012

Okay, a few of us would admit to be hogs at buffets.  Who wouldn’t?  At an average of $30 a plate, you want your money’s worth.

But of course, there are people out there who like to CRANK THINGS TO ELEVEN.

"LOOK ON MY WORKS, YE MIGHTY, AND DESPAIR!"

Behold the “salad tower”.

What is it really?  According to these websites and blogs, it is a scheme in China and Korea to take advantage of salad bars and their “one bowl only policy”.

What you would do is bring your bowl to the salad bar, level it out with a good foundation, build the “floor” with carrots, then construct the walls using pineapple and sliced cucumbers.  Then, fill up the center with the PICKINGS OF YOUR CHOICE.

Yeah, you read that right.  This exploit was the result of trying to get around a one-trip-to-the-salad-bar policy.  Clearly the policy failed.  In fact, there are now INSTRUCTIONS for the salad tower.  Here’s a few samples:

If only my Bachelor's of Science was this useful...

Check out the rest after the jump.  Here, have something more condensed:

Understandably, the management at the Pizza Huts in China aren’t happy about this.

So now, there are no salad bars in any of the Pizza Huts in China.

Nuts.

Posted in News, Outer Food Limits | Comments Off

Coming soon: PS Vita from Taco Bell?

Wednesday, January 11th, 2012

We are all probably familiar with occasionally hearing about prizes and rewards from contests in the food we eat.  A classic example would be the free toy at the bottom of cereal boxes.  But now, Sony is doing something with their PS Vita product… a chance to win one ahead of the official release by eating at Taco Bell.

According to this post on the Playstation Blog, news unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2012 reveal that SONY and Taco Bell are banding together to promote the soon-to-be-released PS Vita.  How will they do this?  By offering up the chance to win FREE PS VITAS in three ways.

This promotional starts on January 26th and ends on March 11th and the three ways you can win a PS Vita is called the “Unlock the Box, Battle, and Boast”.  The one that caught our attention is the “Unlock” method:

The Unlock Box

The box cotents. Not shown: your next health report.

UNLOCK THE BOX: Beginning January 26th, Taco Bell’s specially marked $5 Buck Box – which includes a Cheesy Gordita Crunch, Crunchy Taco, Burrito Supreme and medium fountain drink – will also provide a code that can be entered online for an instant chance to “unlock” and win a PS Vita.

What’s even more amazing is the blog post claims there will be a winner every 15 minutes.  We’re not sure how reasonable that will happen, but by golly we guess we’re going to try Taco Bell one more time.

You knew this joke was coming.

For the curious, winners would receive “one PS Vita 3G/Wi-Fi system, one copy of the PS Vita exclusive Little Deviants, one 4GB PS Vita Memory Card and your choice of one of the following: ModNation Racers: Road Trip, MLB 12 The Show or LittleBigPlanet.”

Posted in Media, News | Comments Off

Welcome to 2012!

Thursday, January 5th, 2012

How many rounds does this make? Eh, who cares? Image courtesy of Getty Images

Ho boy, we’re a bit late coming back from the end of 2011 aren’t we?  Like much of the world, we simply partied too much while pondering the implications of 2012.  So naturally, we emerge back into the regular world wondering what we should do to address our recent “alcohol contamination”.

Our first thought is to swear off alcohol for months (as if that has any real chance of happening).  However, a BBC News article published on New Years Eve suggests otherwise:  for the sake of your liver, cut back your drinking habit slowly rather than abstaining altogether.

Andrew Langford, chief executive of the British Liver Trust, said that people tend to believe the hype about rejuvenating their liver by detoxing in January.

“People think they’re virtuous with their health by embarking on a liver detox each January with the belief that they are cleansing their liver of excess following the festive break.

“A one-hit, one-month attempt to achieve long-term liver health is not the way to approach it.

“You’re better off making a resolution to take a few days off alcohol a week throughout the entire year than remaining abstinent for January only.”

We can see the merit in this thinking; it’s sort of like hitting the brakes in your car.  You want to ease slowly on the brakes rather plant both feet straight down.

As we celebrate (re-celebrate?) using the leftover champagne, we also come across this:

What the-? Image courtesy of Impact Lab

That’s a 3D printer for food.  Or at least, the concept of them.  More on this next week about this approach to repair fruit with defects that normally don’t make it to our supermarkets.

Posted in Health, Holidays | Comments Off