Jun 23 2009 Wine Balls: Not Just For Sommelier Orgies
Tired of drinking wine straight from the bottle? That was rhetorical -- it never gets old. But N2Wine decided to make these Wine Globe systems anyways. Cheers, Jesus. Want to teach me how to fish?
Wine globes are glass containers capable of holding 33 or 70 bottles of wine (depending on the size) that are specifically designed to thwart oxidization, the chemical reaction that ages wine, by preventing any air from entering the system. Instead, the globes vino-filled spheres constantly topped off by "food-grade" nitrogen when liquid levels deplete, essentially freezing wine's flavor in time.
The wine is also under constant water-cooled temperature regulation so that it's served perfectly every time and, obviously, the system can offer more wines by the glass than most restaurants currently offer.
Each globe costs about $1,000 but can be run in line off the same nitrogen tank, making them still not worth it. No, I'll be sticking to my boxed wine, thank you very much. Literally, I glued it myself. Ever played Edward Fortyhands? You should try Bernard Boxarm.
Wine Globes Swap Tastings for Keggers [gizmodo]
Oct 8 2008 Wait, What?: A Monkey Waiter
I don't have much more information on this except apparently there's some Asian restaurant with a monkey waiter that brings your food and drinks. If that's not freaking crazy, I don't know what is. Just look at his cute little -- BASTARD JUST THREW A TURD AT ME!
Youtube
Thanks to Bryan, who owns a restaurant with a dinosaur server that accused me of grabbing its ass. I did!
Oct 3 2008 Buns And Guns Is A Real Freaking Restaurant
Buns and Guns is an actual freaking restaurant in Beirut and I would totally eat there.
At the "Buns and Guns" fast food restaurant, deep in Beirut's Hezbollah-dominated southern suburbs, the chefs wear military helmets, the food is wrapped in camouflage paper, and the motto is "a sandwich can kill you."
The glossy camouflaged menus feature burgers with names like "the mortar" and "the 155 mm howitzer," while grilled chicken sandwiches can be a "magnum" or a "rocket-propelled grenade."Lebanon's most common and popular weapon, the AK-47 Klashnikov assault rifle, is a beef steak sandwich served in long baguette-style bread.
Oh man, I love a good beef steak sandwich, I'm gonna have to go try one. I'll get it with extra hot peppers too, really blow my o-ring sky high.
Hit the jump for a ton more pictures of the restaurant.
Continue Reading " Buns And Guns Is A Real Freaking Restaurant "
Jun 5 2008 'Modern Toilet' Restaurant Sounds Awesome
As a man who frequently blogs and eats his lunch on the john, I know all about the benefits of canning your food (!). And now there's a restaurant in Taiwan that is cashing in on what I've known for years -- eating on the throne is the shit (!).
Patrons sit on toilets for seats and eat food off covered sinks and bathtubs. The food is served in a mini-toilet bowls and patrons drink out of mini travel potties. To finish the atmosphere, toilet paper is provided in the place of napkins.
"It's really unusual, so special that it doesn't gross me out," said Betty Tsai, 16, a Taipei high school sophomore trying Modern Toilet for the first time on a friend's recommendation.But for a few customers, the toilet humor is too much. "My son thought it was disgusting and didn't know if he could finish his food," said Taipei mother Lin Li-ju.
Wow, Lin Li-ju, it sounds like your son has a problem. Namely that he was born with a vagina and doesn't know how to appreciate the finer things in life. Seriously, if I had one of those oldschool TV-dinner stands I don't think I'd ever leave the bathroom. So yeah, I once saw a little kid at Home Depot urinate in one of the unplumbed toilets they had on display. I wonder if they have similar problems here. Well, my legs are going numb, time to get up.
Several more pictures and a video news report about the place, after the jump.
Continue Reading " 'Modern Toilet' Restaurant Sounds Awesome "
May 6 2008 Win Lobsters In A Claw Machine. HAAHAHA A!
Get it? Lobsters, claw machine? Lobsters have claws, this claw machine has lobsters, I have no brain. I've actually known about these machines for a while, because I was filming a documentary about people (me) who get drunk and travel around to bars playing claw games. If you think I'm joking I have three trashbags filled with stuffed animals and crap to prove it. Oh, and I saw one like this at a seafood restaurant in the Outer Banks. The place would even cook your lobster for you if you won. But it cost $1 to play so I only got to try twice. And even being a claw machine expert, I couldn't freaking grab the crustaceous bastard I had my eye on. I did manage to tear one of his legs off though.
NOTE: Not really.
Worthwhile video of people playing, after the jump.
Continue Reading " Win Lobsters In A Claw Machine. HAAHAHA A! "
Dec 17 2007 Women's Room: A Japanese Aquarium Toilet
The women's room at Mumin Papa Cafe in Akashi, Japan is pretty awesome. It's a monster aquarium that completely surrounds you. The owner of the cafe says it cost $270,000 to build, which is pretty damn expensive for a single bathroom stall. It's filled with all sorts of exotic fish and even a male sea turtle that stares at you when you're trying to pee. Which is just wrong on so many levels. I mean sure peeking is okay, but a full blown stare? What a perv.
Note: Whatever show that was on is awesome and I'm totally moving to Japan. Oh, and doesn't it seem the owner is scrubbing the toilet just a little too lovingly at 0:18 in the video?
Luxury toilet built into aquarium [pinktentacle]
Thanks to Eddy, who is cool in my book, for the tip
Sep 12 2007 Dishmaker Prototype, Um, Makes Dishes
MIT Media Lab's Counter Intelligence Group (which is appropriate because this thing is definitely counter intelligent) came up with this Dishmaker prototype. Sure it looks like a big metal piece of crap with lots of exposed wires and a power strip, but it makes dishes. It holds 150 acrylic wafers at a time, and can make a dish in about 90 seconds, including bowls and cups. After use, the dish can be recycled by reheating to 300 degree Fahrenheit and re-flattening. Each wafer can be recycled approximately 100 times, making them, uh, fairly reusable. I'm still having a hard time understanding why this was made though. It's not like my dish space is a pressing concern. And you're not saving water because I'm sure the plates have to be cleaned between recyclings. Because if you didn't, you'd have less of a plate next time, and more of leftovers held together with plastic. Which is grody.
Dishmaker Prototype, Um, Makes Dishes [ubergizmo]
Aug 27 2007 World's First Automated Restaurant
A new restaurant in Nuremberg, Germany is opening with no waiters. Because it's an automated restaurant! Named 's Baggers (yes that's correct, it starts with an apostrophe) the restaurant's only employees are the cooks (who should be replaced with robots). Patrons order via touchscreen (which doubles as credit card paying device), and the food is delivered via gravity from the kitchen above along steel rails. This place is awesome, and anyone who has been let me know. You know what else is cool? I've heard that if you have two legs or a wheelchair or even a walker and can locate the door all the food you order is free.
A few more pictures after the jump, including one of two vagrants clearly involved in identity theft.
UPDATE: Video added.
