[Photograph: Punxatawneyphil on Flickr] The New York Times has a quick piece on Berlin's grillwalkers, who sell sausages from portable grills that they wear—gas on the back; hot, hot bratfest on the front. The innovative apparatus sprang up in 1997, when inventor Bertram Rohloff devised it as a way of skirting city street-vendor permits in the city. Without permits, "neither the grill nor the sausages could touch the ground." As he worked on the invention, Mr. Rohloff considered everything from burning charcoal to hooking the grill up to a car battery — which he rejected because it would run down in just 10 minutes — before settling on propane. He designed it with an automatic cut-off mechanism for the...
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Global Street Food, an exhibition curated by Mike Meiré, features the accoutrements of various "improvised kitchens" from around the world, like this coffee cart from Buenos Aires, Argentina. Set up as works of art in a gallery, they're almost indistinguishable from sculptures like Marcel Duchamp's readymades—especially "Grill," from Kampala, Uganda (third photo). The exhibit is on display until July 12 at the Vitra Design Museum in Weil am Rhein, Germany. [via Kottke]...
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Or, 'The Greatest Thing to Slice Bread' What can't this thing do, indeed—besides handle DVDs or CDs or support two USB devices, that is. But I digress. Some folks in Germany have found that Apple's MacBook Air can slice through flesh and, more in tune with our sensibilities here at Serious Eats, can handle your bread-slicing needs [Google Translation]. I suppose it would come in handy if you're working at a cafe and are in a bind for a knife. I doubt this would void the warranty, but I certainly wouldn't use the machine to slather on butter. [via Boing Boing Gadgets]...
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's Baggers, a restaurant in Nuremberg, Germany, claims to have "reinvented the restaurant" with their rollercoaster-like food delivery system in which "freshly prepared, delicious meals and drinks ordered per touch screen are transported on metallic tracks directly to your table." No really, the "futuristic restaurant system" is called RollercoasterTable®. Watch a video of the restaurant in action over at the BBC. To think that I've never wanted my food to be brought to me on metallic tracks...until now. [via Boing Boing Gadgets]...
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The lobsters escaped form their poorly secured crates, then "scurried across the floor of the supermarket and squeezed through the metal shutters covering the front of the store. The front door had been left open by mistake. . . Passers by alerted the police at 1:45 a.m. reporting a large number of the animals heading down the street."...
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Gridskipper's Beginner's Guide to Frankfurt is a great quick read if you're planning a short trip to the city: "It's no Berlin or Munich, but this fine sausage-making metropolis still has a few delights to offer. Most of the city was obliterated during World War II, so much of the usual euro-touring is replaced by cruising the streets, noshing sausages, stopping in countless apple-wine bars, and hanging out with opera fiends. If that's your thing, we have a few choice recommendations for your maiden Frankfurtage." I spent my whole life disliking mustard until the first time I tried it on a street sausage in Frankfurt, and then my eyes were opened to its wonders! If your only exposure to sausages...
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