Celebrate Potato Chip and Pi Day

by Justin Glow on

It’s time to celebrate — today is national potato chip and pi day.

Pi day I can understand — today is March 14th…or 3/14…or 3.14, but potato chip day? Holdayinsights.com doesn’t seem to know either. “Our research did not find the creator, or the origin of this day. This day was most likely created by the snack food industry.”

It’s not the day that potato chips were invented either. Chef George Crum first thinly sliced potatoes and deep fried them on August 24, 1853, and since then these salty wafers have become America’s number one snack.

So how can you celebrate? For chip day, easy — grab a bag of your favorite potato chips and start eating. It’s the least you can do, really. For Pi day, grab your favorite pie and start eating. This could be the worst day for your waistline second only to Thanksgiving, perhaps.

You can also send family and loved ones a potato chip day ecard.

Update: Geez, it’s also 1337 day! OMG.

Spamarama 2007: The Pandemonious Potted Pork Festival

by Willy Volk on

If you think chili cook-offs are commonplace, maybe you need to ditch your preconceived gastronomical notions and get yourself to Spamarama, scheduled for April 7 in Austin, Texas.

In addition to a SPAM Ball, a SPAM Jam, and the SPAM Olympics (think: SPAM can relay and SPAM eating contest), the organizers of this salty event host a culinary cooking contest revolving around everybody’s favorite what’s-in-that-exactly? dish: SPAM.

This year, the field is widening to include both Open and Professional SPAM chefs, so the dishes will no doubt be mouth-watering-er than ever. If you’re in the Austin area that Saturday afternoon, and you want to check out the fun-looking pandemonious potted pork festival, admission is only 5 bacon strips for adults; children are free.

Don’t forget your Alka-Seltzer!

[Via Whatsonwhen]

Wrenchware: Flatware For your Inner MacGyver

by Willy Volk on

If you’re the kind of traveler who always seems to be fixing things on the road, then Wrenchware might be for you. Made from 18/10 polished drop forged stainless steel, the novel flatware comes in its own individual blow-molded heavy duty ABS plastic box. Available in sizes “standard” ($24) or “mini” ($19), Wrenchware is perfect for the traveler who does lots of biking or world-saving.

I’m planning on getting a set for myself as soon as they include a serviette that doubles as a grappling hook.

China’s New Coffee Culture

by Willy Volk on

According to Stuart Eunson, managing director of Arabica Coffee Roasters, “In 1994, Beijing taxi drivers didn’t know what coffee was.” Now, 13 years later, tea production has fallen sharply in the country, and China has developed a deep and sophisticated taste for the drink. In fact, the demand for coffee in China is growing at 10% per year — and there’s no end in sight.

While some “credit” the shift from tea to coffee in China to Nestle — which introduced soluble coffee to the country in the 1980s, which was both easy to make and comfortably similar to making tea — other people think it’s a desire by the Chinese to embrace all things Western. For example, one university student claims, “I learned about coffee culture by watching the TV series Friends.” Ugh. Could that BE any sadder?

However, other people think China has grabbed onto coffee culture and made it its own. These people argue that Chinese coffee lovers pay more attention to “presentation” than Westerners — demonstrated by their love for elaborate latte art; their fondness for siphon pots; and their emphasis on a “fresh cup” (as opposed to Westerners’ always-brewing 10-cup behemoths).

In any event, the “take-away message” is that, despite the Chinese backlash against western coffee houses showing up in ancient Chinese locations, if you love your Cuppa Joe, and you’re in China, you’re going to be able to find it.

[Photo: tonx]

McDonald’s: A Hamburger by Any Other Name?

by Jamie Rhein on

Over coffee with Tom Barlow, former fellow blogger from my Blogging Ohio days, the subject of McDonald’s came up. He mentioned that he came across a McDonald’s menu from India when he was doing a blog for his new digs at Blogging Stocks. That caught my attention.

I’ve been to McDonald’s in India, Taiwan and Singapore. Not one for American fast food eating as a rule, there is something comforting about going to a place that looks familiar when one is living or traveling overseas. However, despite the fact that McDonald’s may look the same, what each serves up is quite different than the U.S. version when you consider that it’s the hamburger that put McDonald’s at the top of America’s fast food nation pile. In Asia, if there are hamburgers, sometimes it’s a special style sauce or some McDonald’s don’t serve hamburgers at all.

In India, for example, you’ll be hard pressed to find a McDonald’s that serves hamburgers. I don’t think any of them do. In Singapore hamburgers may or may not be on the menu depending where in the city the restaurant is located. There are chicken burgers galore however. The special sauces appeal to the palates of the people who mostly live in that particular country. In Taiwan, it’s possible to get corn soup as a side order. If you want to get the one menu item that tastes like it’s been cooked up in the U.S., French fries are universal. The largest McDonald’s I was ever in was in Bejing, China. When traveling, besides the French fries, you can count on McDonald’s for a clean toilet. At least, that’s been my experience. Thanks to Eric Deamer on Flickr for his shot of a McDonald’s menu in Taiwan.