Spain...On the Road Again is an upcoming PBS series documenting Mario Batali during his four month-long eating spree through Spain with a few of his friends. Maybe you've heard of them: actress Gwyneth Paltrow, food writer Mark Bittman, and Spanish actress Claudia Bassols. Take at peek at their fooding adventures with this four and a half minute montage of their travels. The full series will air in September.
I hope this lip-synching woman is someone's grandmother so that her grandkids can see this video and go, "My grandma is awesome!" If the lip-synching isn't enough for you, there are also googly eyed-bananas and a banana-wielding teddy bear at the end to amuse you.
Watch the magic, after the jump.
Opening a coconut can be an arduous task, but if you're Ho Eng Hui, Malaysia's top kung fu master, you can smash through a coconut with just your index finger! Although he broke his finger in 1993, he has been giving weekly demonstrations of his "digit's devastating power" for the past eight years until recently retiring.
Watch the "coconut-piercing index finger" in action, after the jump.
Ever look at a radish with a long root and think, "Hey, that looks like a rat!" Maybe not. But with just a few small slices and cuts, you could make something that kind of looks like a rat. Impress your friends with your food-carving technique; just don't serve your radish rats to anyone who's afraid of rodents.
Watch the instructional video, after the jump.
Chopping, dicing, grating, wine-opening. These sounds combine to musical effect in this commercial for the Saclà brand of Italian sauces. Do you hear strains of "Hey, Mickey!" in this beat, too? Listen closely—and watch—after the jump.
Homer just wants a smiley faced breakfast with 500% more bacon content than what's listed on the menu. Is that too much to ask for?
Watch the clip, after the jump.
Opening this past weekend in New York City, Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead is the latest film by the schlock B-movie studio Troma, makers of classics such as The Toxic Avenger, Cannibal: The Movie, and Class Of Nuke 'em High. Set in a fast-food outlet built on top of a Native American sacred burial ground, the zombie chickens emerge and things get ugly. This is a vulgar, gory, zombie chicken B-movie (with musical numbers) to beat all past zombie chicken movies to date. If you don't know Troma films, think South Park but live-action.
The New York Times says it best in their review:
Within the context of its genre - the satirical sexploitation zombie chicken gross-out musical extravaganza - it is just about as perfect as a film predicated on the joys of projectile vomiting and explosive diarrhea can be... Poultrygeist plays like a grindhouse analogue to the sloppy, psychosexual provocations of the performance artist Paul McCarthy and is, in its lowbrow way, every bit as liberating.
After the jump: NSFW, awful, gross, sickening trailers. Not for the faint of heart, the squeamish, your kids, or your mom. You've been warned. NSFW!
I don't know what the lyrics of this Japanese song mean, but watching a bunch of people prance around in super happy sushi costumes is captivating enough on its own. Whether or not watching this video will increase sushi consumption is yet to be determined.
Watch the video, after the jump.
Sarah Haskins on Current offers up some funny and thoughtful commentary on the marketing of yogurt to women. "Who's on first? Yogurt is!" Video after the jump.
Sacha Baron Cohen as a French race car driver challenges Will Ferrell in the comedy Talladega Nights in the worst way imaginable: by making him say, "I love crepes," in exchange for not breaking his arm. Although Ferrell initially doesn't know what crepes are, he doesn't want to cave in even after realizing that crepes are just really thin pancakes and that he actually likes them.
Watch the clip, after the jump.
Last night's Nightline featured Michael Pollan talking about his twelve commandments for eating from his book In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto:
In general, I'm inclined to stick with the tried and true when it comes to food. And let the novelties be tested for a while. I think we need to begin to spend more on food, both in terms of money and in time. I know that's not a popular message. People like their convenience foods. But this experiment of outsourcing our food preparation to corporations has failed us. I mean, it's left us really unhealthy, really unsatisfied. And I think it's undermined the family life and undermined the community.
Video after the jump.
Mario Batali made the braciole from his new book, Italian Grill
If I thought watching Gordon Ramsay hurl criticisms and insults at contestants on Hell's Kitchen was uncomfortable enough on network television, it's even worse uncensored.
For your enjoyment (or pain), watch Ramsay forcefully tell the hapless chefs that he doesn't like their food in this introductory, f-bomb-filled episode from season 2 of Hell's Kitchen, after the jump. (Not safe for delicate ears.)
Michael Pollan gave a lecture last week at Google's Mountain View, CA, headquarters to discuss his book, In Defense of Food, and share simple advice about how to eat healthily and responsibly, but also for pleasure and community.
The video runs for about an hour—half lecture, half Q&A with the Google crowd—but it's worth listening to if you're a fan of Pollan (or if you need an introduction to him). Watch the video, after the jump.
Now I know why I never excelled at sports in gym class—I didn't eat Little Chocolate Donuts for breakfast. John Belushi did and he became a decathalon champion. It had nothing to do with training or inherent physical skill. It was all about the donuts.
Watch this classic Saturday Night Live clip, after the jump.
"White and tender surround the center / Cozy, sitting in the crackling shell."
What are those high-pitched voices singing about? Eggs! Eggs! So many eggs! Smiling eggs! Ninja eggs! Strawberry eggs! Dear god, this song is now permanently stuck in my head!
If you didn't love eggs before, you will after watching this video. Because you won't have a choice. The voices continue to screech, "I love egg!" in your brain long after the video is over.
Experience the hypnotizing power of singing, animated eggs, after the jump.
And the question is, "What is special about the food eaten by a 'locavore'?"
Serious Eaters, you've been pressed. You have seven seconds to click through the jump. [Tip o' the hat to eatorama]
"It's the most wonderful day of all. Once a year, the teamsters go to this Italian sandwich shop in Brooklyn. No one knows what it's called, or where it is. It's a teamster's secret."
Watch the freakishly giddy happiness brought about by Sandwich Day on 30 Rock, after the jump.
Learn how to make crab spring rolls and tequila melon balls with Gordon Ramsey and his assistant, late night funny man Conan O'Brien. What's the verdict on the mayonnaise-enhaced crab spring rolls? "Deep fried mayonnaise is the greatest thing I've ever had," says Conan.
Watch Conan attempt to follow Ramsay's directions, after the jump.
Gordon Ramsay, promoting his latest book, visited Live with Regis and Kelly today to do a cooking demo. Ramsay's comment to Regis Philbin regarding his previous visit to the show: "You were a nightmare last time. You were horrific." A lot of gentle sparring. Video after the jump.
Last night's Law & Order: Special Victims Unit featured Robin Williams playing a deranged character whose alibi is that he wasn't at a burger restaurant because he's a locavore. Bonus clip from the same episode, with Robin Williams and Mo Rocca leading a pillow fight in Bryant Park. Both videos, after the jump.
This Czech vision of the future from 1957 features a number of goofy predictions (cookbooks replaced by punch cards, an at-the-ready dispenser that gives accurate doses of ingredients) along with a couple uncannily accurate ones (cool-to-the-touch induction cooktops and "TV shopping"—essentially an early, starry-eyed form of online grocery shopping).
The coolest thing in it is the circular, rotating, glass-door fridge and the infrared rotisserie. Give it another 51 years.
File this under, "Why didn't I think of that?" Turns out the best tool to peel a kiwi with is a spoon; just push it under the skin of the cut ends of a kiwi, rotate it until the skin comes loose, and out pops a naked kiwi!
Watch the tutorial video, after the jump.
In the latest installment of his FN Dish video series, Adam "Amateur Gourmet" Roberts interviews food bloggers Luisa Weiss (The Wednesday Chef), Amanda Kludt (Eater), and our own Ed Levine (Serious Eats overlord) to find out what motivates their eating and bleating. If you have no interest in starting your own food blog (much madness lies that way, believe me), fast-forward to 2:04 to skip the tutorial.
The UK's Telegraph has a good set of pictures from the record-breaking set of simultaneous explosions of Diet Coke and Mentos in Leuven, Belgium. Or as it's known in Belgium: Coca Cola Light. Several videos of the event have appeared online - the best we could find are after the jump.
Reason.tv host Drew Carey takes a look at the illegal bacon hot dog trade in downtown Los Angeles. Selling bacon dogs without county-approved equipment can result in fines and jail time for vendors, creating an illicit black-market trade by unlicensed vendors. Video after the jump.
"Brilliant scientists and tiny overseas hands work eighteen-hour days to produce 5 devices that can make you even lazier than a stereotypical American!"
What are the top five laziest inventions according to a video on the Internet? The Clapper Plus, Moo Mixer, Twirling Spaghetti Fork, Motorized Ice Cream Cone, and the "Nugget Cup." For the record, the official name of the "nugget cup" is the Col-Pop - readers might remember it from our extended coverage of the Col-Pop back in February.
Video after the jump.
As global food shortages cause riots in East Africa, West Africa, Egypt, and elsewhere, Americans feel the effects in the form of Costco's limit on how many bags of rice they can buy. In a segment called C"Rice"Is in the U.S., We're All Gonna Die, Rob Riggle reports from Costco: "The lines here to purchase your four 50-pound bags of basmati rice—per visit—while not long, are slow-moving." Aasif Mandvi reports from East Africa: "There is some concern that the food riots will not subside in time for the scheduled water riots, leading to what some might call, a much bigger riot."
Watch the video, after the jump.
At first I felt bad that I couldn't understand what the lyrics of this rap were, but then neither could the McDonald's employees on the other end of the intercom. So the customers rapped again. And again. At different speeds. Hopefully after those few tries, the order made sense. ("Extra salt on the frizzle," anyone?)
Watch the video, after the jump. It's not much visually, but it's funny to listen to the song interrupted by questions from the confused employees. [via Indablog]
Cadbury creme eggs might be gone from drug store sale racks, but don't forget them just yet. As part of Cadbury's Unleash the Goo contest, one runner-up spent six months (yes, half a year) on this complex Rube Goldberg-inspired apparatus, where his egg travels through cups, tight ropes and toilet paper holders before final smooshage. At around 1:30 minutes, there's even a live concert by the always-entertaining, four-piece Smashing Egg Cremes rock band.
Creator Joseph Herscher used 30 hot glue gun sticks and 480 pins to create this homemade whirlwind of a ride. Judging by the ingenious design, he was definitely that kid in high school physics class whose homework you wanted to steal.
Watch the video, after the jump.
"And I know firsthand how awful a food riot can be. Last week Whole Foods had a sale on starfruit. It was a madhouse. I could barely make it to the bok choy."
Stephen Colbert reports on the current global food shortage. Video after the jump.
In the web show Cooking With Rockstars, famous rockstars (including Rufus Wainwright, Robyn Hitchcock, and the Raveonettes) are interviewed about food. Jack Black reveals that his favorite dish to make is the Dorito Burrito: "flour tortilla, cheddar cheese, Dorito chips laid down in the middle, microwave, folded up, crispy, burrito." But only Nacho Cheese Doritos will do; Cool Ranch doesn't work because "that's a mixture of tastes—the cheese on top of the cool ranch is a clashing I don't want to deal with."
Learn more about Jack Black's food preferences (ketchup is good, onions are bad); after the jump.
Forget Hillary and Barack. (That news is so five hours ago anyway.) The real "bitter" rivalry in Pennsylvania is between Pat's and Geno's in South Philly. The Colbert Report investigates the feud and determines that the across-the-street contest is only hurting cheesesteakdom as a whole.
If a cooking show done completely using stop-motion animation doesn't already exist, it should. This video shows the making of mille crêpes á la norvégienne, a stack of savory crepes sandwiched with goat cheese, smoked salmon and chives, without human interference. If only food could prepare itself in real life...actually, that might be freaky.
Watch the video, after the jump.
From the UK's The Mitchell and Webb Look comes this clip featuring a posh waiter who holds incredible disdain for the patrons. His response after they complain: How can I possibly introduce you to the manager? You haven't shaved, you're not wearing a tie, and you hold your ladle like a pen. Video after the jump.
Chris Cosentino is the chef of San Francisco-based restaurant Incanto and has started the company Boccalone, which delivers cured meats on a weekly basis. In this video from the Salumi Meat Society, Cosentino shares his "everything but the oink" philosophy, explains the difference between bologna and mortadella ("Bologna is the bastard step-child of mortadella."), and we get an inside look at the factory where the salumi is made. Video after the jump.
I so want the ability to summon bacon.
Starring Lucas Grabeel (from Disney's High School Musical), The Adventures of Food Boy is a soon-to-be-released teen comedy about a teenager who discovers he has the ability to make food appear in his hands. His grandmother's advice: "Not all superheroes fight crime." Instead of saving the world, he performs a magic act to try to impress the girls. That's so fetch.
Set to be released in 2008, the film is having its premiere in May at the Newport Beach Film Festival. Check the trailer out after the jump.
Harold, your usual Top Chef recapper, is on the bench tonight, so here I am as the second-string Top Chef blogger suiting up and going in to the game.
Why the sports analogy? I'll get to that. But first, the we're going to cut to the 11 remaining cheftestants' armchair-quarterbacking of last week's show.
Spike "heard it through the grapevine" that "a lot of people thought I should have went home." Why? "People are feeling a little threatened" because "I'm a talented dude."
If your talent is wearing crazy hats, sure. [Warning: Spoilers ahead, mateys!]
This vintage sexist coffee commercial for Folger's instant coffee ... I don't know what to say. I can't believe they ever made ad spots like this. After the jump, the patriarchal percolations.
Most of us would sigh and just toss a ruined batch of cupcakes, but these cupcakes got a second chance in this stop motion film as they put on a charming lil' waltz. What next, krumping cupcakes?
The following commercial for Wendy's Four-Alarm Spicy Chicken Sandwich was posted to YouTube by a guy who supposedly worked making ads for the chain. His claim is that they rejected this spot. Maybe, maybe not. In today's wacky world, this could just be an attempt at planting it virally. If so, I'm biting, because is one of the funniest ads I've seen in a while.
The kitchens of 1999 didn't turn out as advanced as 1967 would've hoped. All a busy mother had to do was punch a dinner choice into the computer and a few seconds later a pre-portioned frozen meal would pop out of a conveyor belted microwave oven fully cooked. (Asshole husband and ODC son hopefully not included.)
Watch the video, after the jump. [via Bitten and TreeHugger]
As Alaina here in the Serious Eats office pointed out, "Andy Rooney is the original blogger." I never thought of it quite like that, but as the camera follows him on a trip to the grocery store (from last night's 60 Minutes), what does he do but essentially blog aloud?
April 12th's Saturday Night Live featured three clips of Ashton Kutcher dressed up as a giant chocolate bar with a killer instinct, cute mime clown face and all. Clip after the jump.
A couple days ago, Serious Eats contributor Lucy Baker put me on to Posh Nosh, a short-lived series of comedy shorts on BBC2 television. It's a send-up of upscale cooking shows, in which husband and wife hosts Minty and Simon Marchmont (Arabella Weir and Richard E. Grant) cook "extraordinary food for ordinary people." They pretentiously demonstrate recipes and wine advice all the while using nonsensical cooking terms ("Then thrill your mussels in hot, bubbling water," "Appliqué the currants," "First you'll want to alienate the chorizo," etc).
Millions of women and children in Africa have no access to clean drinking water, causing them to walk for miles every day to collect water that is dirty and unsafe to drink. charity: water, a non-profit organization that raises money to fund well-building projects, produced this PSA starring Jennifer Connelley to portray what life in New York City could be like if the taps went dry and there were no clean water. You may never have to carry 40-pound jerry cans of water home from Central Park, but millions of people around the world have to do something like this every day.
Watch the video, after the jump.
The universe did not implode as anticipated; the Food Network's "Chefography" came and went with nary a temporal or spatial glitch. No scintillating details were revealed, but it does offer a glimpse into the early years of the network and most of its stars, including Mario Batali, Paula Deen, Rachael Ray, Emeril Lagasse, and Giada De Laurentiis.
After the jump, the Food Network 'Chefography' on the Food Network in its entirety, in six parts.
Are you still thinking about making that bacon-infused bourbon and maple syrup cocktail but don't know where to begin? Watch this video of Don Lee making the Bacon-Infused Old-Fashioned in which he explains each step, including how to make the bacon-infused bourbon.
Last week, Stephen Colbert credited Doritos for his success on winning the Peabody award for "distinguished achievement and meritorious public service" of television news: "Doritos gave me the money to produce those ground breaking shows. Doritos, I believe, also, gave me nacho-cheese lung... So Doritos have now won a Peabody." To commemorate this "landmark achievement in snacking," Colbert has created stickers that say "Peabody Award Winning!" for people to download, print, and take to their local supermarket to stick onto bags of Doritos.
Watch the video, after the jump.
Last weekend's Saturday Night Live, with guest host Christopher Walken, skewered 'Top Chef.' The skit features "Wylie DelMario," a "weird judge-guy who we tell you owns a restaurant somewhere," faux-hawk jokes, and the contestants reinventing a deep-dish pizza using beets, couscous, frozen yogurt, medicine, a paper bag, stale Peeps, and Padma's gum.
Video after the jump.
In memory of the late actor Charlton Heston, watch one of his most memorable roles in the dystopic science fiction movie, Soylent Green, a depiction of a future where fresh food is scarce, causing most people to rely on the substances Soylent Red, Soylent Yellow, and Soylent Green for food. But what is Soylent Green made of? Why does Soylent Green mean life? Why does Soylent Green mean death? Charlton Heston finds out.
If you don't know what Soylent Green is made of, you may have possibly been living under a rock for most of your life. Now's the time to find out, after the jump.
From Make Magazine's "Make a Cylon" contest comes the Cylon Coffee Maker Model 0001:
In 1964, the Rolling Stones used their musical prowess to sell...puffed rice cereal?
Check out their catchy jingle in this British Rice Krispies commercial, after the jump. [via The New Yorker]
Even though I think this commercial could be edited down by 30 seconds, I'm strangely drawn to it. I like the catchiness of the song; the cheeriness throws me off. All I can think is, "People are definitely not that happy when they drink Dr Pepper." But then again, I've never seen a naturally occurring group of young, carefree Dr Pepper drinkers frolicking on the beach and eating hot dogs; maybe they are that happy.
Watch the commercial, after the jump.
"Round, bold, little bit of a tease. Sharp, open, plausible, very plausible. Trucky, sleuth-like, mysterious. The wine is a mystery novel and I know who done it." Who describes wine this way? Aside from The Connoisseur in this wine snob-targeted skit from sketch comedy group A Week of Kindness, hopefully no one you know. The Connoisseur can't help but taste everything out of a wine glass (whether or not it's edible) and suggest pairings. But in the end, all he really wants is to find out who will best pair with himself.
Watch the skit, after the jump.
Watching this short gumdrops-centric stop motion film by filmmaker/musician Skizz Cyzyk makes me want to eat a big bucket of candy. (And be sure your sound is on; the music is also great.)
Watch the choreographed candy, after the jump.
From online food show Cooking Up a Story comes this four-part interview and lecture with Michael Pollan during which he talks about eating real food instead of their imitations, the ideology of understanding food solely through its nutrients, learning how to eat from culture instead of science, and "voting with your fork" to influence food producers to make better food.
Each video is about 10 minutes long, but it's worth making the time to watch them. Check them out, after the jump. [via Culinate]
Get inside the mind of chef and restaurant owner Thomas Keller by watching his recent interview on Charlie Rose. It's 22 minutes long, but the most celebrated chef in America should have a lot to say—about his restaurants, his love for roast chicken, his greatest inspiration, and more. [Thanks, dvchurch!]
God knows that if I had a 1200-pound block of cheddar cheese lying around, I'd be tempted to carve it into something. And by "something" I mean "a mangled lump," not a detailed replica of the Statue of Liberty—I don't quite have the skill of champion cheese carver Troy Landwehr, who made his cheese statue over the course of four days.
Watch 35 hours of cheese carving condensed into two minutes, after the jump. [via CurdNerds]
What happens when a dark chocolate bunny gets it one with a white chocolate bunny? They lay eggs! And have little milk chocolate bunny babies! The way nature intended.
Watch the miracle of bunny-shaped chocolate life, after the jump.
As part of The FN Dish, his new online video series for the Food Network, Adam "Amateur Gourmet" Roberts interviews Anthony Bourdain, who goes on an extended rant about the network.
Stephen Colbert interviews inventor Dean Kamen (best known for the Segway) to talk about his vapor compression distiller, a machine that takes contaminated water and turn it into pure drinking water without the use of filters or chemicals. Colbert tests the distiller by adding Doritos to the "contaminated water" container.
The technology behind vapor compression distillers isn't necessarily new, but Kamen's invention looks a lot more compact than already existing vapor compression distillers. Since Kamen appears to have just announced his distiller on the Colbert Report last week, there isn't much information available about it yet.
Watch the interview, after the jump.
Since the title of this video by American fashion model (and hilarious food writer on the side) Elyse Sewell is simple "Seoul Food," I expected to just see clips of various unthreatening food stuffs she came across while modeling in Seoul, South Korea. But half of the video is actually close-ups of the Korean dish, live octopus tentacles, and footage of her unflinchingly slurping down the wriggling tentacles as though it were merely spaghetti. Impressive.
I'd like to believe I'm willing to eat anything once, but I draw the line at food that's still vigorously moving.
Watch the squirming octopus bits, after the jump. (Unless you're squeamish, in which case you may safely watch the first half of the video, and then run.)
The first time I spotted the enormous and bloated-looking phallic clam geoduck (pronounced "gooey duck") in a supermarket in Chinatown, I thought, "How the hell do people eat that thing?" After watching Mike Rowe on the Discovery Channel's Dirty Jobs prepare geoduck sashimi, I now know. And will have nightmares of the elongated skin being pulled off the meat.
Join the fun! After the jump!
I know I just posted an Estonian meat commercial yesterday, but I looked up more of director Harry Egipt's work and couldn't resist this commercial titled "Chicken Kiev." Because this isn't your typical Chicken Kiev—it's Chicken Kiev surrounded by young women dancing and sitting in a room of shiny, silver props who occasionally indulge in a forkful of chicken.
I don't get it, but that's probably the appropriate reaction. Watch the commercial after the jump.
What goes on inside the vegan kitchen of musician Moby's New York City apartment? Watch Epicurious' video tour to peek into his refrigerator, look at his favorite kitchen tools ("If you're hungover, [the microwave] becomes your best friend"), and learn how to make vegan blueberry pancakes with spelt flour, oat bran, and wheat bran.
The Estonian meat industry of the 1980s entices you to indulge in bounteous quantities of ground chicken by chanting, "Kana, kana, kana, hakkliha" ("Chicken, chicken, chicken minced meat") alongside nightmare-inducing clips of ground chicken slowly flowing out of a meat grinder and women eating deep-fried ground chicken lumps.
After the jump, prepare to have your salivary glands tingle with unease.