• Besserwisser - (beh•sur•vi•sur) From German, meaning “knowing better,” a person who thinks he or she has greater general knowledge than others; often correcting grammatical mistakes or errors in trivial facts.
• Indigo Children - The New Age belief that certain children (usually born after the late 1970’s) represent a more advanced state of evolution. These children are reported to have greater psychic and mental abilities and are reported to have indigo colored auras.
• Nutraceuticals - (nu•tra•su•ti•culs) Foods and beverages that claim to enhance appearance, revive mental acuity, and increase resistance to disease.
• Nomophobia - (no•mo•fo•bi•uh) The fear of being out of mobile phone contact or mobile phone signal range.
Summer and the sweltering heat are here. Below are some updated fancy new ice cream wallpapers I’ve made, to get all of you in the Summer mood.
Click on the images for downloadable wallpapers of each.
Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, Santa Cruz, CA.
Vanilla soft-serve with blue cotton candy swirl.
Dreyer*s “Take the Cake” ice cream (yellow cake flavored ice cream with blue frosting swirl and colored sprinkles). Safeway “Rainbow Cone” green ice cream cone.
Foster’s Freeze, Menlo Park, CA.
Grape (wax?) dipped soft-serve vanilla.
Baskin & Robbins, Menlo Park, CA.
“Rock’n Pop Swirl” (grape and green apple sherbet with Pop Rocks mixed in) on top of Cotton Candy ice cream.
A West London Burger King franchise is now offering the world’s most expensive burger - known as “The Burger” - for a whopping $200.00 (proceeds go to charity).
Check out the recipe: Wagyu beef, white truffles, Pata Negra ham, Cristal onion straws, Modena balsamic vinegar, lambs lettuce, pink Himalayan rock salt, organic white wine and shallot infused mayonnaise in an Iranian saffron and white truffle dusted bun.
An image from Rika Eguchi’s “How to Cook Docomodake“ exhibit. Docomodake is a cartoony mushroom corporate icon for Japanese cellular phone company NTT DoCoMo - sort of like the Japanese equivalent of the Pillsbury Doughboy. And like the Pillsbury Doughboy, people want to do mean things to it.
My serious lust for red velvet cupcakes has drawn me to these . . . behold the Red Velvet twinkie-type thingy! I hate to admit that I found them at Wal*Mart . . . mmm . . . redness . . .
If anyone knows if this is true - if you can really do this or if this is a hoax - please let us know in the comments section below.
Nevermind. It’s a hoax, but it’s still awesome.
The toffee is a nice blend - far better than other bacon chocolate combinations I’ve tried in the past - a good balance of texture (Brazil nuts and bacon) with pleasant sweetness (chocolate and toffee) and the finish of salty and smokey umami (bacon).
Miracle Fruit, Miracle Berry, Magic Berry, or Flavor Berry (Synsepalum dulcificum) - a native West African red berry that contains the active glycoprotein miraculin. When consumed, miraculin has an interesting effect on the tastebuds - for as long as an hour after consumption, it causes sour foods to be perceived as sweet.
Though for several years this fruit has been known in Japan, only recently have Americans started enjoying this phenomenon in their own way - “Flavor Tripping Parties.” At these parties, Miracle Fruit and an assortment of sour foods are served (grapefruit, lime, certain cheeses, etc.) to guests as an experimental/novel type of dinner party (video link).
Absinthe is the new bacon. There’s a super hip restaurant in NYC called “Tailor” that serves absinthe gummy bears. They’re 85% absinthe, and sorry to say, I couldn’t figure out a way to pay them to send me some.
Vitamin waters can also be found in a more convenient pill form, thus they are lame. Though neither Ramune nor Mexican Coke™ are all that new, both are beginning to appear as a novel beverage of choice:
• Ramune - though Ramune has been in existence in Japan since 1876, only recently has it had a presence on the shelves of American food stores and delis. It comes in a range of flavors - melon, peach, lychee, pineapple, strawberry, etc. - however the original “Ramune” flavor may be the most refreshing (a mild lemon-lime citrus flavor, not too sweet). Ramune is also known for its distinctive Codd-neck gasket - a glass marble inside the neck of the bottle functions as a cap/stopper and also prevents spilling if the bottle is tipped over.
• Mexican Coca-Cola™ - Sought after by Coke™ aficionados, Mexican recipe Coke™ is made with cane sugar (instead of corn syrup) and is bottled in glass bottles (rather than plastic or aluminum - which is also considered to affect the flavor). Having personally done a side-by-side taste test, there is a notable difference between Mexican and American recipe Coke™ - the Mexican recipe is more rich, complex, and natural tasting.
But now they’re getting cool about it. To promote their newest experimental flavor, they have unleashed “Doritos the Quest” - an online game that has I.Q. test/problem-solving puzzles akin to Myst or Riven.
The game will be released in four parts (part 2 will come out in a week) - the grand prize winner will receive “$100,000 in treasure.” It appears that the finalists will actually have to physically compete for the grand prize - a la obstacle course, etc. - as stated in the game rules.
I really hope the grand prize isn’t a $100,000 golden corn chip.
Hello: 
