When the dead walk the earth, how many will there be and where’s the best place to view them?

by Neil Woodburn on

Today is Halloween, the traditional day for zombies to climb out of their graves and walk the earth, perhaps feeding on some unfortunate human brains along the way.

I suppose if I had to pick a place on this planet to watch this all happen, it might have to be somewhere in Italy where scores of zombie gladiators and roman centurions would make for great spectacle and show.

Of course, I’d have to ask myself, how much danger I’d be in under such circumstances. Sure, I could easily outrun the slow moving zombies (unless I was with some girl who trips and falls down–as they tend to do in these situations). But how many are we really talking about here? Because, as everyone knows, zombies are most effective when working as a team and exploiting their numbers advantage; at some point, there are simply too many and whoops, there goes your brains.

So, when the dead do walk the earth, how many will there be? According to a demographer at the Population Reference Bureau, approximately 106 billion people have lived and died on our little planet. Today, there are just 6.5 billion of us currently alive. That means if the dead do walk the earth, they will outnumber the living about 16 to 1. Wow, those aren’t very good odds. And so, I leave you with some classic advice from Night of the Living Dead:

“Chief, if I were surrounded by say six or eight of these things, would I stand a chance?”
“Well, if you had a gun, shoot ’em in the head. If you didn’t, get a torch and burn ’em, they go up pretty easy. Beat ’em or burn ’em.”

The Toilet Restaurant

by Jamie Rhein on

I once heard that you shouldn’t eat in the bathroom. I don’t know if that’s true, but here’s a twist. How about eating out of a bowl that looks like a toilet while you sit on seat that looks like a toilet? If that’s not enough toilet for you, dishes are also shaped like urinals and bathtubs. My friend Tom Barlow over at Blogging Stocks gave me the heads up on this one.

Leave it to someone in Taiwan to think of this and open a chain of them. The restaurants named Marton–Chinese for toilet–are popular with families with kids and young people. I can see the attraction. Novelty is key. Apparently, the food is also worth going back for. And if you like the idea of toilet dinnerware, you can pick up a ceramic toilet bowl on the way out. Unfortunately, the chain opened after I moved so I’ve never had the pleasure. I have some friends who still live in Taiwan who have probably eaten there. I wouldn’t be surprised if Hsinchu, the city I lived in, doesn’t have a Marton in a couple locations.

Here’s another post with wonderful photographs I found at 2dayBlog.

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The stigma of vegetarianism in Moscow and a few restaurant suggestions to help you survive

by Neil Woodburn on

I’m not a vegetarian, but I considering becoming one after traveling for three months through Eastern Europe and Russia and eating nothing but meat.

The Slavs love their meat and during the early 90s as they were coming out of communism, that was pretty much the only thing one could find in Warsaw Pact restaurants. In fact, a few years later when I move to Prague to live, the only place I could find affordable vegetables was at the local Hari Krishna restaurant.

Although the culinary scene has changed drastically in the last 20 years, it’s still difficult to find good vegetarian food in this part of the world. In fact, according to an article by Stas Shectman, the mere concept of being a vegetarian is actually met with considerable animosity in Russia. There is even an anti-vegetarian website that “devotes itself to exposing the ‘evils of vegetarianism.'”

So, with this in mind, Shectman has compiled a rather detailed article revealing the very best places in Moscow to oblige your vegetarian fetish without necessarily revealing your unmanly habit.

If you have similar dietary restraints and are planning to visit Moscow any time soon, this is one article you need to print out and take with you. Otherwise, good luck explaining your meatless diet to your next Russian waiter.

Japan in New York

by Neil Woodburn on

If you’ve been a recent fan of Mathew Firestone’s Big in Japan feature and, as a result, find yourself yearning for all things Japanese, you might want to pop on over to New York Resident Magazine and check out their Japan Without Jet-Lag article.

Mindful of the expense of actually traveling to Japan, journalist Sarah Wolff brings Japan to you–if, of course, you happen to be a New Yorker. She explores Manhattan’s East Village, a place that she claims is home, “to some of the most authentic Japanese establishments you could ever hope to find outside of Harajuku.”

She covers Japanese food, snacks, toy stores, shopping, drinks, and ramen in a rather detailed, “Best of” set-up which any Japanophile would appreciate.

Sure, it’s not actually Japan itself, but it’s the next best thing–providing you live in New York, of course.

Birds nest, white fungus. No I would not like some, thank you.

by Grant Martin on

You know those shows you see on the telly where the adventurous, sexy host eats ox testicle because that’s what the back country pygmies eat? Or that one friend you have who will eat fermented shark bile because its the Icelandic specialty? I’m not that guy. Case in point, Birds Nest, White Fungus. This Vietnamese drink comes in a Redbull sized can and contains, well, birds nest and white fungus.

Having a notoriously weak stomach, I’ve never been privy to shooting myself in the foot and trying “new, exciting” food. But in the company of family, it’s harder to refuse. One sip of this stuff though and I was on the floor crying for A&W rootbeer. Who’s idea was it to put these two constituents together into a beverage?

So next time you find yourself in far off lands and you feel pressured to be like that one guy from the Travel Channel and eat sauteed Yak hair, feel free to decline. It’s ok to have a weak stomach and not be the culinary hero. I’m talking about you Bourdain; you’re turning my friends into crazy people. I’ll be in New York with my Santoku knives next Friday and I’m ready to throw down.