I Ate This

I Ate This is a Flickr group.

It's a new hobby- people who snap a pic of everything they eat.

Flickr has various rules about sharing pics- so you will have to click over to view the pics. It's oddly entertaining. Some are pics of dishes prepared at home; some are dishes from restaurants; some are quick snacks.

Just for kicks, I tried this on my own blog. So I have my own pics of what I ate to share with you instead! It is still strange to me that people enjoy taking a pic of everything they eat... but at the same time, taking those pics is an easy food journal and sharing those pics is a form of accountability and a strange kind of intimate sharing.



(From NY Times article)

That's using your dipstick!

We've all seen the Castrol commercial where the Scottish man goes around whacking people with an oil dipstick. Well, oil is about the only thing this post has in common with that commercial. Oh, and the stick part.

Here are some great and odd food from around the world you can find a la kebob!

How about Goat Lungs or Seahorse?

No? Maybe you'll enjoy some delicious tentacles!

Not for you, then maybe just a lovely Smore? Or some Hot chocolate? Mmmm...yummy!!

(From Neatorama)

Selleck Waterfall Sandwich

Selleck Waterfall Sandwich delivers exactly what you would assume from such an aptly titled blog. Tom Selleck. With a sandwich. By a waterfall. No gimmicks, no fine lines, no small print.

Enjoy the latest internet meme and Tom Selleck's sandwich of the day choice.

(From a friend of a friend of a friend)

Do You Eat It?

Do You Eat It? is a decision flow-chart posted by Andy Wright on the SF Weekly Food blog.

Finally, a guide to answer one of life's most difficult questions: when can you eat something you dropped on the ground?  We all know the five second rule is SO third grade.

Based on my propensity to drop things, I figure this guide will eventually help me save hundreds of dollars... or cause me hundreds of stomach flues. Let's hope for the former.

(From ) swissmiss

Open A Banana Like A Monkey

Open A Banana Like A Monkey is a video that has gone viral- teaching everyday folks a whole "new" way of opening a banana. Instead of struggling with the stick end- try this method of opening the banana from the bottom. A simple pinch, squeeze, split, pull. I've not witnessed an actual monkey peeling a banana... but this method certainly is easier!

(From YouTube)

Cheese or Font

Cheese or Font is a self-explanatory game where you get to guess if the word is a cheese or font.

(From MT, who got it from Serious Eats)

Food, Inc

Food, Inc is a trailer about the eponymous commercial movie. According to Wikipedia, it was "directed by Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Robert Kenner. The film is loosely based on Eric Schlosser's bestselling 2001 non-fiction book Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal and The Omnivore's Dilemma written by Michael Pollan."

Seems like your typical lefty documentary. I like the creepy music and totally wan to see it. Shoud I bother?

(PS: Okay okay you caught me: I don't normally post things like this, it's really just a ploy to get someone to see it with me.) 

(From Tanya)

Kogi

This is old hat for the foodies but I figured it was time to feature it. I mean, it's been featured on NIGHTLINE so I feel remiss in having held out and not written about it earlier. //

Kogi is a Korean BBQ-To-Go Taco truck restaurant that announces its location (in LA) via Twitter.  They serve a mix of Korean BBQ and Mexican out of a taco truck. While they do have some pre-scheduled stops, they're always on the go.  Supposedly when the tweets go out, the lines are like, totally 100 feet long.  

(From Chris C.)

This is Why You're Fat

This is Why You're Fat is an awful, awful blog about the most fattening foods you didn't even imagine possible. Like oreos with extra filling as tall as the Chrysler building, and doughnuts stuffed with sloppy joe meat. Good luck eating again.

(From JenK, and Metafilter)

Bacon Explosion is an article BBQ Addicts

Bacon Explosion is an article/recipe BBQAddicts.com. Basically, you wrap a sausage in a weave of bacon. This is the grossest article you can send a vegetarian.

Next to ascaris. Nothing is grosser than ascaris.

(From THANKS A LOT Guy)

How Hot Dogs Are Made

How Hot Dogs Are Made is a video From the Science channel's show, "How It's Made." It shows you how hot dog are made. Totally gross, and it's true... you don't want to know.  Soooo glad I don't eat those. 

Also, that inspector job must be soooo tedious.

Also that's it. 

(From Buzzfeed)

Open Source Food

Open Source Food is rapidly becoming another popular player in the vast open source community. But not with source code for software applications... with food!

The idea behind Open Source Food is that your everyday Joe Schmoe can submit their delicious recipes and scrumptuous pictures and share their knowledge of delectable cuisines. What better place than the interwebs to share peoples loves of food. The best part about it is that most of these meals aren't crazy and require foreign spices and herbs you've likely never heard of - they are ingredients that you probably have in your pantry/fridge right now.

Light English Brunch

Take this lovely dish. Some might say it's a happy face. I say it's a marvel of human engenuity. Bust mostly it looks funny

Simple recipe for a cute brunch meal with British roots. It's not going to win any awards, but it tastes good.
1. Cut the crusts off your bread and use a mug to press a hole in the center. Yes, we're about to make "egg in bread".
2. Put your baked beans on a low heat and stir occasionally.
3. Add a glug of olive oil and a knob of butter to a griddle pan. When hot, gently lay your slice of bread in and let it fry for a minute until golden on the underside. Flip it over, bring the heat down and crack an egg into the hole.
4. Chuck a few mushrooms in the pan and squeeze a bit of lemon on them. Let everything cook through (don't turn the egg-bread, just let it cook from underneath).
5. Garnish with something green - a rosemary sprig or a fried sage leaf would do nicely. Season your egg with a bit of freshly ground salt and pepper.

Yes, you read that right, fellow TOTI reader - "a glug of olive oil and a knob of butter". Crazy british.

Pesto Tortellini

I have a weakness for both pesto and tortellini. And cherry tomatoes. The BEST part here? AVOCADO! :O

1. Chop up the bacon to small pieces and fry up until crisp. Blot off the fat and set aside.
2. Boil tortellini as directed and drain. (I find that spinach & ricotta or mushroom & gruyère filled tortellini work the best.)
3. Dice the onion and sweat in a pan with some olive oil until translucent.
4. Add the bacon, tortellini, pesto and cream (as needed). Stir well until pesto covers the tortellini evenly. If you work fast all the ingredients should still be warm, which helps spread the pesto paste.
5. Add the avocado and some tomatoes and mix carefully so that you don't destroy the avocado.

If you like, just before serving, add some more tomato halves and avocado to the top for presentation points.
Feel free to omit the bacon to make this dish vegetarian.

Maybe I'm just hungry. Maybe the pictures of food won me over. Maybe people giving out recipes for free makes me happy. Regardless, the idea of combining open source goodness with cooking deserves an A+ in my book!

(From Guy du Blag)

Cake Wrecks

Cake Wrecks is a blog about when professional cakes go horribly, hilariously wrong.  It covers everything from unnecessary quotes on farewell cakes to uncanny-valley plagued baby-shower cakes.  My favorite by far is the Good Luck in China cake. If you can only read one thing this week, read this.  (Trust me, you can shop this week without a grocery list.)

The bakery has an online form that apparently prints directly onto the cake. 

Will they? Will they miss Anber?

From the post titled, "You know your mom is cheap when..."

Baby for dessert. Deserted baby for dessert?

And finally the Good Luck in China cake. The story is by Scott of Basic Instructions, which was reposted in Cake Wrecks, and now is reposted here: 

"I had a day job as an office manager for the Seattle office of an international firm. We found out that one of our employees was transferring to one of our offices in China. When one of our people would leave, we usually had a little wing-ding with drinks and cake on the departing employee's last Thursday in the office, so on Tuesday it fell to me to fax a cake order into our nearest Costco Bakery.

I should point out that on that day I had a headache so bad that it hurt to move my eyes. Ordering the cake was the last thing I did before I went home sick for the afternoon. As I filled out the order form, I realized that in addition to the personalized message ("Good Luck in China," in this case) we could also get a large decoration for no extra charge. I looked at the options and none of them were appropriate. They were all things like teddy bears, balloons, or race cars. Crap, in other words. I figured if none of them were appropriate, I might as well get something that made no sense whatsoever.

I put a check mark next to the word 'Fireman.'

The next morning (Wednesday), lying in bed just before getting up, my mind wandered over the previous day and all the things I had accomplished. My eyes snapped open as I thought, 'What did I do!? Why did I order a fireman? That makes no sense!!! I'm going to look like an idiot!'

I went to work, intent on calling the Costco as soon as they opened and stopping the cake before it started. I still had a day before I was supposed to pick it up. I figured that should be plenty of time. After some effort, I got hold of the bakery manager, only to be told that the cake had already been made. It was too late. I figured I'd just have to stand up straight and take it like a man.

My wife and I went to Costco to pick up the cake. When I got to the bakery, this is what was waiting for me.

(see above picture)

Making the hose flesh-toned had been a very bad move.

At first all I could do was blink at it and wonder, 'Am I the only one who sees a giant wang?' I looked at my wife. She was blinking at the cake. An awkward silence and a few stammered sentences later we established that we both saw the same thing. A fireman holding an immense, dripping wang.

I could not serve this cake to my coworkers.

My first thought was that I would just absorb the cost of a second cake and pretend this never happened. Then I thought, 'Wait a minute! This is not an erotic bakery! This is Costco! I should be able to order any stupid cake I want and be confident that it will not be sexually charged.'

While at the checkout line I found a Costco employee to complain to, and showed him the cake. He blinked at it. I told him I was uncomfortable serving this cake at a place of business, and he started laughing and looking relieved.

Here’s what I came to realize about the cake. The obscene image was just obvious enough that you can't help but recognize it, but also obviously innocent enough that you don't want to say anything for fear that you're the only one who sees it.

Soon I was surrounded by several Costco employees who were looking at the cake and laughing. They explained that they had a new cake decorator who was a deeply religious woman from a foreign country, as if that explained everything. At one point while we were hammering out a settlement a woman happened by, caught a glimpse of the cake, covered her mouth and gasped. Good stuff."

(From Cynical-C, Metafilter)