How the Japanese drive around town without spilling their soup

by Scott Carmichael on

OK, this is absolutely brilliant. Imagine having to speed through Tokyo on your Honda Super Cub scooter. That is hard enough without having to worry about carrying a tray filled with bowls of soup!

Of course, it takes Japanese ingenuity to design a simple and crude way to keep things from spilling.

I’m not really sure what to call it, so I’ll just name it the “scooter self stabilizing soup shelf”, or S5 for short. It’s not much more than a couple of bits of tubing, a piece of wood and some form of shock absorber.

Even a parked scooter will be no match for the S5, parked up against the curb, the shelf stays level, and you don’t lose a drop of whatever you are carrying. Apparently these things have been around for years, but this is the first time I’ve ever seen someone photograph them.

There are several more of these contraptions captured on film by Lee Chapman, the Brit in Tokyo behind Tokyotimes.org. His site is filled with fantastic articles and some pretty stunning photography, certainly worth checking out.

(Tokyo Times, via Wired gadget lab)

Dining while blindfolded: A new way to enjoy eating out?

by Jamie Rhein on

For chefs who pride themselves on the artful presentation of their culinary artistry, and people who enjoy looking at their food, probably blindfolded dining is not for them. For anyone who is into a culinary adventure that taps into all other senses but sight, head to the Grill Room restaurant at the Sheraton Hotel in Edinburgh, Scotland. Since October, diners have been able to experience this more unusual way to enjoy their food.

According to executive chef Malcom Webster, dining while blindfolded gives diners the chance to fully experience the various textures, flavors and aromas of the five-course meal. With each course, a new wine is served to further heighten the experience. During the entire time, diners don’t know what they are eating. I do wonder if someone stands by to coach a person who is having a hard time directing his or her fork.

“No, a little to the left sir. There you go. Nope, smaller bite. That’s it. No, your mouth is a little more to the right.”

Recognizing that there are hazards to such an experience, coffee is not part of the meal. I’d add that I’d avoid wearing white. Think of red wine. Even with my sight, I once knocked over a glass of red wine in an upscale restaurant in Albuquerque, sloshing it onto the plate glass window.

This dining experience costs £60 per person. If having someone blindfold you gives you the willies, you can try dining in the dark at Dans Le Noir in London. There the whole dining room is dark. How do the waiters see to bring the food, I wonder? “Ooops, sorry Ma’m.”

As you can see from the picture taken by curran.kelleher, you can turn any dining experience into a blindfolded one. This one was at some event in Rüdesheim, Germany. [www.tandorimagazine.com]

Find things to do when you feel hungover or romantic

by Scott Carmichael on

There are probably close to 1000 sites that list “things to do”, but most of them list the same boring stuff (OK, so I admit that I made that number up).

Thankfully, every now and then someone has a neat idea, and puts it into reality by building a web site around it.

“I Feel” is a “things to do” site that currently covers 3 big cities (New York, Toronto and London) and lets you find stuff to do when you are feeling naughty, energetic, hungover or one of 6 other moods.

Want to find somewhere to go in London when you are feeling broke? How about a nice discount shoe shop, or a cheap trip on the London Clipper!

The site is currently in “beta mode”, but invites are being sent out which should allow you to add your own submissions to the maps. No invite or account is needed to search through the tips. I browsed London for some of the ideas and have to say that there are some real gems listed. The results include anything from food to nightclubs.

All the locations are overlaid upon a Google map, so you’ll be able to do all the cool things their maps can do, as well as print or email your results, plus you can link to other reviews of the locations using Google local.

Sites: I Feel London, I Feel Toronto and I Feel New York

New season of No Reservations kicks off tonight

by Jeremy Kressmann on

The holidays are inevitably a time of excess. LIke many of you, I spent the last two weeks eating and drinking my way through way too many parties and get-togethers, and I’m feeling a bit of a holiday-induced hangover at the moment. Thankfully, starting today, I can now redirect my guilt at overindulgence away from myself and project it onto somebody else – Anthony Bourdain. Everyone’s favorite badboy chef is back starting tonight with all-new episodes of No Reservations, kicking off what is sure to be another season consuming copious amounts of booze, street food and local culture along the way.

No Reservations enters its 5th Season coming off a watermark year for the show in 2008. The past season’s top-notch content featured culinary hot spots such as Spain and Tokyo as well as some unexpected gems such as Colombia and Laos. This season offers an interesting mix as well. Tonight kicks off with a journey to Mexico, where Tony dines on some of “the best tortillas ever” before making a visit to a Lucha Libre training center to pay his respects. Season 5 will also feature episodes on such far flung locales as the Azores and Sri Lanka as well as more traditional U.S. destinations like Chicago and New York City.

The curious can stop by the Travel Channel site where Bourdain will be posting new insights into season 5 on his blog. And if you’re looking to catch up on previous seasons of No Reservations, make sure to check out Gadling’s summaries in our archives. Keep your eyes peeled for some great No Reservations giveaways courtesy of Gadling and the Travel Channel, coming soon.

Rainbow Room loses pot of gold

by Tom Johansmeyer on

New York’s Rainbow Room is about to close its Rainbow Grill restaurant. Perched atop 30 Rockefeller Center, the restaurant has accumulated a reputation for dazzling views and putting you on top of the world in as close to the literal sense as possible. This week, the restaurant suffered its own fall … a 65-storey fall, to be exact.

The Rainbow Grill, which serves pricey Italian-style food, will shut down on January 12, 2009. The bar, banquet facilities and weekend dinner-dancing will live on, however. The twin culprits are the general economic decline and a dispute with its landlord, the “pirates” at Tishman Speyer.

Of course, everyone in Manhattan is entitled to a second act, and the Rainbow Room may come back. The Cipriani family, which owns the landmark restaurant, calls the decision temporary.

[Via MSNBC and Gawker]