Ha ha. This reminds me of The Simpsons episode ‘Team Homer’ where Otto is obsessed with getting that lobster harmonica out of the claw game at the bowling alley. But instead of a bowling alley, this claw game is located in Osaka, Japan’s Namba district, and instead of winning a lobster harmonica, you can actually win a real life lobster. Obviously you’d have to up your claw game skills if you expect to snag a moving target like a live lobster, but if you do happen to snatch one the arcade manager will at least give you a plastic bag so you can carry it around with you the rest of the night. I’ve also included a video after the jump of some tourists successfully scoring themselves a tasty lobster prize.
I should probably not continue to be surprised by the weird combinations of concepts that come from China, but here we are again. These fruit shaped pillows have integrated speakers that I assume are either passive or battery powered; plug your MP3 player in, lie back, and relax to some tasty tunes. If that wasn’t enough of a fruit experience for you, the pillows also smell like fruit, thanks to some kind of integrated perfume. Personally, I have a thing for green apple, and I’d be seriously worried about eating one of these pillows (speaker and all) in my sleep. Yummy.
The pillows are about $10 each, but it appears that they’re only available directly in bulk. So, you’ll either have to devote an entire room in your house to scented speaker pillows (not that that would be a bad thing), or see what you can dig up on eBay.
If a perfectly grilled steak isn’t enough to impress your friends at your next barbecue, I’m sure that personally branding their piece of meat will do the trick. And to do that you’ll need this customizable BBQ Branding Iron.
Instead of spending a small fortune to have the local blacksmith create a custom branding iron with just a single message, you can get this version which includes a set of 55 interchangeable aluminum letters (plus 8 blank spaces) for spelling out almost anything. (PWNED!) Creating a new message is as easy as sliding the individual letters into the two line track, but you’ll probably want to make sure the previous message has sufficiently cooled before swapping in a new one.
I’m sure we’ve all seen our share of garish barbecues, and by that I mean those giant brick and mortar temples to meat that people erect in their backyards. But if you prefer to barbecue with a little more style, this stainless steel barrel model from Eva Solo is as cool a BBQ as you’re ever going to find. Designed by Claus Jensen and Henrik Holbaek, the barbecue’s stainless steel finish should make it last longer than other barbecues that are finished with enamel, chrome or nickel-plating. Stainless steel also just looks really cool which is why some people cover their entire kitchens with it. In fact you’ll probably be more inclined to leave this barbecue out on the patio when it’s not in use, just so you can look at it.
But like a lot of things that have been crafted by a talented designer, the Eva Solo Stainless Steel BBQ doesn’t come cheap. A 19.3-inch diameter version costs $680 while a 27-inch diameter version is $1,070. You can get them from Unica Home along with a similarly priced line of Eva Solo barbecue accessories.
I’m about 50/50 when it comes to trying unique or unusual food items. Things like the Pickle Pops I won’t touch with a 10-foot pole, but I’d gladly try these lollipops that are made from maple syrup embedded with tiny pieces of cured bacon. If these were just made with maple flavoring and bacon bits I suspect they’d taste pretty awful, but since they seem to contain the real thing, they’re probably not that bad. I mean let’s face it, you can add bacon to anything and it’s automatically going to taste better. It’s about time the confectionery industry realized that.
The Maple-Bacon lollipops are available from Lollyphile in a 4-pack for $10, a 12-pack for $24 and a 36-pack for $52 but unfortunately the site is currently sold out and won’t be making new batches for at least a few months.
Update: According to Jason, Lollyphile should have more bacon in just a couple of days.
I’m not going to accuse anyone from stealing yet another idea from The Simpsons because quite frankly I think the idea of a toy gun filled with ketchup or mustard is a great idea. The Condiment Gun might look like an oversized six-shooter, but it uses special sauce cartridges you can fill with your topping of choice. Just make sure it’s not something chunky like relish or salsa that could clog the barrel. Once the gun is loaded you just need to take aim at your food and squeeze the trigger for a controlled stream of deliciousness.
Of course it’s probably inevitable that your backyard BBQ will turn into a show-down at the OK Corral (if you happen to live at the OK Corral I guess) so hopefully they’ll eventually come out with a Condiment Shotgun that will allow you to keep the peace as chef and sheriff.
The Condiment Gun comes with 2 sauce cartridges and is available for pre-order from Firebox for about $30.
A kitchen scale is the best way to control portion size when you’re trying to shed a few pounds, but the Salter Nutri-Weigh & Go scale goes one step further for those who are seriously counting their calories. Besides the mass, the scale will also calculate the nutritional values of the food based on its weight including calories, protein, carbohydrates, total sugars, total fat, saturated fat, fibre, sodium, cholesterol, net carbohydrates, G.I value and percentage of calories from fat.
It has a database of over 1400 foods and a ‘word prompt’ feature for quickly finding the item you’re weighing. It will also keep track of your daily food intake for up to 7 days and has all the features you’d find in a regular food scale including aquatronic liquid measurement, add and weigh, metric/imperial conversion and auto or manual shut off.
While you’re groggily trying to make yourself breakfast in the morning, there’s nothing like the glare of over 200 Swarovski (i.e. fake) crystals to help jump-start your circadian rhythm. The rest of the (fairly ordinary) toaster is made of stainless steel and frosted glass, and one of the limited edition of 500 can be yours for a mere $300.
If you’d rather cut right to the chase, check this out:
That’s right, folks. It’s finally here… Inflatable toast! Now you don’t have to worry about actually buying bread for toast ever again. Simply inflate the toast with some nice hot air, enjoy*, and when you’re finished, deflate until you get hungry again. You get two (two!) slices of inflatable toast for just $6.50.
*If Steven K. Galson were here, I imagine he’d say that if you actually try and eat a piece of inflatable toast, you probably deserve to choke on the vinyl it’s made of.
About a year ago, a Seguin, Texas based roller skating rink owner by the name of John Howard started freezing leftover pickle juice and selling it to his patrons. And believe it or not they became quite popular, even to the point of selling out every weekend. So he decided to make his, um… ‘treats’ available to the rest of the world and what’s even more surprising is that his PickleSickle.com website ends up selling about 20,000 of them every month. Obviously the taste has to be the biggest attraction, because I can’t see people consuming frozen pickle juice just because it’s low in fat and sugar, but there are apparently other health benefits to pickle brine that I wasn’t aware of.
A recent study revealed that pickles blunted the blood-sugar spike by as much as 30% after a high-carb meal. Studies revealed that vinegar, much like that used in the pickling process, provided a balancing benefit to combat harmful insulin spikes. The spices used in the pickling process are also healthy. Pickling ingredients like garlic and dill help to control the growth of unhealthy bacteria in the body. And many other spices involved in the pickling have been known to have wide-ranging health properties as well. PickleSickles have no fat and have less than 1 gram of sugar.
And if regular Pickle Pops aren’t unique enough for your sophisticated palette, they also come in cherry, lemon-lime and jalapeño flavors though they’re not available on the website just yet. You can order a case of 16 Pickle Pops from the PickleSickle.com website for $17.95, or a box of 32 for $27.95.
Erbert & Gerbert’s recently celebrated 20 years of sandwich making by baking a cake. With candles. To blow out the candles, they constructed what they’re calling “the world’s largest and most powerful air vortex cannon:”
I couldn’t find any official dimensions of this thing, but according to the website, the candle cannon is substantially larger than a fat baby, and just a little bit smaller than three ninjas. And now, the official OhGizmo Upper Midwest Culinary Review Team brings you an exclusive in-depth review of Erbert & Gerbert’s sandwiches: they’re “good.”
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By Andrew Liszewski
By Andrew Liszewski
