A Kalamazoo grill can suck a standard tank of propane dry in two and a half hours. Not that backyard grill-users would want to crank every burner simultaneously and reach the full 154,000 B.T.U. capacity of this $11,290, six-and-a-half-foot-wide brute. But, as with a Porsche that can go 175 miles an hour on the autobahn, some owners find it sweet to know they've got that kind of juice under the hood.

"Our gas line had to be doubled in capacity from the house," said Connie Dove of York, Me. She and her husband, Mo Houde, took delivery last year of a Kalamazoo Bread Breaker Two Dual-Fuel grill with an infrared rotisserie cradle system and a side burner. They hooked the 600-pound stainless steel hulk into their home's main propane supply, choosing not to mess with standard tanks, which each hold only four gallons of fuel. That's enough to allow a typical backyard grill to run at maximum for 15 hours, according to the Propane Education and Research Council in Washington. "It is very, very powerful," Ms. Dove said. "A turkey you can have in an hour and a half."

The Bread Breaker, which has a temperature gauge that reaches 1,000 degrees, is one of an increasingly popular breed of supergrills that are becoming backyard status symbols, as Americans, mostly of the male variety, peacock with an object that harks back to the earliest days of human existence. As Memorial Day marks the official beginning of grilling season, many men will find themselves almost genetically drawn to throwing hunks of raw meat onto a fire and poking them with tongs. It's a pull that some will spend almost any amount of money to satisfy, said Pantelis A. Georgiadis, the owner of Kalamazoo Outdoor Gourmet, the grill manufacturer based in Michigan. "There is a market segment we call the 'man cook with fire' types," he said.

When Daniel Conrad, a lawyer, moved to Dallas four years ago from Pittsburgh to join the woman who would become his wife, his parents bought him a small Weber grill. "It wasn't big enough for my ego," Mr. Conrad, 34, said. "So I got this giant enormous Weber grill." Now, he rushes home to his wife — and to his baby, a Weber Summit Gold D6, to slow-cook ribs or experiment with smoking turkeys. "Grilling has become my creative outlet," Mr. Conrad said. "The only two extravagances I have in my life are my car and my grill." He drives a Mercedes.

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Creepy Cupcakes for Hoffa Search

FBI agents are searching for Jimmy Hoffa's remains in Milford Township in Michigan so a local bakery decided to honor the search with some creepy cupcakes. An MSNBC article says the cupcakes have been very popular. An FBI agent even ordered a few dozen.

As FBI agents combed a Michigan farm looking for the remains of labor leader Jimmy Hoffa this week, a local bakery has decided to capitalize on the search with a cupcake apparently not only grave-digger can love.

Cupcakes aren't usually a best-seller at the Milford Baking Company. But since the addition of a plastic green hand emerging from the chocolate-flavored sprinkles and frosting meant to resemble dirt, the bakery can't make enough of the desserts.

As dozens of FBI agents, police and others invaded Milford Township, a small community 30 miles northwest of Detroit, more than 500 of the 95-cent cupcakes have been sold, with orders coming in from all over the Detroit area. One businessman even waited outside the bakery at 5 a.m. so he could treat co-workers, and an FBI agent ordered three dozen to take to those working at the dig site, co-owner Laura Helwig said.

The Hoffa cupcakes are the best single-day seller ever at the bakery, Helwig said.

The cupcakes are made by the The Milford Baking Co. in Milford, Michigan. Looking at their website you wouldn't think such a nice little company could come up with such disturbing cupcakes.

Posted on May 27, 2006
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No One Will Buy A Hamburger From Paris Hilton

We had asked once before: would you buy a hamburger from this woman? Well, the answer is in: no, you wouldn't. And you wouldn't buy from from Anna Nicole Smith or Donald Trump, either.

The study, which scored 87 celebrities and sports figures who have appeared in an ad in the last year, focused on overall awareness and whether a celebrity left a positive impression in consumers' minds. With all the celebrity endorsers these days, it's a bit of a surprise that none of those mentioned above are considered A-listers or command top ad rates. (Catherine Zeta-Jones reportedly pocketed the most expensive celebrity endorsement last year for her $20 million, two-year deal with T-Mobile, according to trade pub AdWeek.)

The results suggest there's a big difference between remembering a person and buying something from them. Some of the most exposed celebrities, for instance, had the most negative effect on buying habits. Sexpot Anna Nicole Smith, hotel heiress Paris Hilton, pop tart Britney Spears, supermodel Kate Moss and real estate mogul Donald Trump were all examples of celebs whose association made it less likely a person would buy a product, the study said.

The study also said that you would buy something that Tiger Woods pitched. Which is good for him, since he's selling just about everything these days.

Posted on April 26, 2006
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Georgia Upset Over Alabama's Plans to Adopt the Peach

The BBC reports that Alabama is close to adopting the peach as its official state fruit tree. The BBC describes a growing row between the two states. Georgia, which calls itself "the Peach State", is not pleased with Alabama's plans.

In Georgia, which made the peach its official state fruit back in 1995, Alabama's decision set pulses racing.

"Georgia is the Peach State," Robert Dickey, a past president of the Georgia Peach Council, told the New York Times.

"We're known internationally as the Peach State. We have always been the Peach State, and we think we have the best peaches in the world."

Alabama Democrat James Martin thinks Alabama peaches are much better than Georgia peaches. He says, "If you've ever tasted Alabama peaches, you'd throw rocks at Georgia." But Thomas Irvin, Georgia's agricultural commissioner, snarked back with this comment to the New York Times, "I didn't realise Alabama had any peaches at all." A New York Times article says some people think Alabama is being greedy by naming both an official state fruit and a state fruit tree.

Alabama already has an official state fruit, the blackberry, adopted in 2004. Adding a tree fruit to the list, much less horning in on one indisputably linked to Georgia, just seemed greedy to some.

"We probably grow 10 times as many peaches as they do," Mr. Dickey said.

The Times article says the fruit tree resolution is expected to pass the Alabama Senate. This will make three states with the peach as an official state fruit. The peach is also the official state fruit for South Carolina but Georgia isn't complaining about that.

Posted on February 24, 2006
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The Great Mac and Cheese Debate

As we were perusing The New York Times last week, we ran across an investigative, in-depth article about how to make the best homemade macaroni and cheese. There's a war on and Sam Alito's confirmation hearings are going on, but hey -- why not spend those journalistic resources on something really important, right?

Anyway, we read the article which struck us as really odd. The author argues vehemently against using a white sauce as the base of macaroni and cheese and instead advocates using cheese and noodles -- and that's about it. That sounded like a great way to get a lot of lumpy cheese and some macaroni with a really tough, leathery top. But we let it pass.

But apparently, we weren't the only ones to notice the great Macaroni and Cheese Debate that the Times started. Sara Dickerman over at Slate also saw that recipe and was surprised to find that the recipe for Crusty Macaroni and Cheese remained one of the most-emailed stories at the Times for the past nine days. That's a lot of people reading about how to make really awful macaroni and cheese.

[S]omething about the recipe looked off to me. It accompanied an article in which Julia Moskin, whose food reporting I greatly admire, detailed her search for the ideal macaroni and cheese: "Nothing more than tender elbows of pasta suspended in pure molten cheddar, with a chewy, golden-brown crust of cheese on top." A noble goal, certainly. (Kraft was probably trying to evoke something similar when it renamed the dish "cheese and macaroni" in the 1980s.) But Moskin's recipe has odd proportions: a whopping 24 ounces of cheese to a pound of pasta, with just a drizzling of milk to moisten the casserole.

*****

I tried both of the recipes that accompanied Moskin's article. Neither "Crusty Macaroni and Cheese" nor "Creamy Macaroni and Cheese" (the less popular companion recipe) requires white sauce.

*****

"Crusty" is no exaggeration; the two cups of cheese used to top the casserole shrink-wrapped itself around the uppermost elbows. Eaten piping hot it was a little chewy and a little crispy; after the dish had cooled just a hair, the top layer had firmed to a leathery shield. The noodles below sweated fat, which collected unappealingly at the bottom of my earthenware dish. On my first attempt, I took the high road and used the all-cheddar option presented in the recipe. Bits of cheese clung clumpily to the elbows. Cheese that's not processed—and especially cheddar—needs help to achieve an ideal state of ooziness. And without the moderation of something creamy—ricotta, crème fraiche, or I think, ideally, white sauce—that much cooked cheddar loses some nuance and tastes a bit caustic. When, on the second go-round, I used a mixture of American cheese and cheddar, the texture was smoother, but the dish tasted unpleasantly unctuous: more fatty than cheesy.

So while I share Moskin's pro-cheese stance, I remain unconvinced that cheese can stand alone, with only a modicum of milk at its side. For my casseroles, I'll stick with my not-so-noxious paste of flour-thickened milk. With a scratch of nutmeg and a little cayenne, not to mention all that cheese, it's pretty yummy, really.

If that's not enough to wean you off the kind in the box, well then we can't help you.

Posted on January 14, 2006
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Mariah Carey's Eating Habits

Cindy Adams of The New York Post examines the backstage eating habits of superstar Mariah Carey. What she discovers is quite puzzling:

Superhot again Mariah Carey's concert contracts specify she be provided with Cristal champagne and flutes, Simple Peche sparkling wine, complete Celestial Seasonings tea setup, Wet & Dry handywipes, Dove liquid soap, Famous Amos Fatfree bars, S&W stuffed olives, Newman's Own popcorn, Tostitos mild salsa, lemon Ricola drops, Borden's evaporated milk, Drake's coffee cake, Dijon mustard (with the evaporated milk and coffee cake???), Coca-Cola Classic, lite low lean whole wheat bread. So what's she want under her tree? Tums?

That has got to be the strangest collection of food and drink we've seen in awhile. But there could be an explanation. The tea, wipes, fatfreebars, Ricola drops, and lite bread all make sense for a singer who is watching her weight and her voice. The popcorn, salsa, coffee cake, and Coke Classic are for her bodyguards. That works. But what in the world is the Dijon mustard for? It's driving us crazy.

Posted on January 3, 2006
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Butternut Squash Searches Up 279%

So Jason Lee Miller of WebProNews informs his readers.

"What's that got to do with anything?" you ask. For food and beverage websites, it has everything to do with it. As the holiday season approaches, reference sites posting recipes see a sudden spike in search engine-generated traffic. This year, just before Thanksgiving, everybody asking what the hell they're supposed to do with a butternut squash (and other vegetables) produced 48% of epicurean website traffic, according to Hitwise.

He then shares an ode to the Butternut Squash that he composed in honor of the occasion of his article:

An Ode To the Butternut Squash

Oh, Butternut Squash
Where do you come from
With your butternuttiness
And your squashy way?
My mothers says
Searching is futile
"The squash will find you,"
She says with a slap.
And I hope you do.

Absolutely brilliant.

Posted on November 21, 2005
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Archeologists Find 4,000 Year Old Noodles

You know we're a sucker for a good noodle story, so this one about scientists digging up 4,000 year old noodles was bound to catch our eye.

It was a long time to wait for a portion of noodles. Scientists have uncovered the world's oldest known noodles, dating back 4,000 years, at an archaeological site, Lajia, along the upper reaches of the Yellow river in north-west China. They were preserved in an upturned bowl among the debris of a gigantic earthquake. Until now, the earliest evidence for noodles has been a Chinese written description of noodle preparation dating back 1,900 years. The Lajia settlement is thought to have been destroyed by earthquake and catastrophic floods. Houyuan Lu and his team at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing were excavating this scene of ancient destruction when they came across a well preserved earthenware bowl, embedded upside-down in a layer of clay. In the bowl they were amazed to see the remains of somebody's dinner. "The prehistoric noodles were on top of the sediment cone that once filled the inside of the inverted bowl. Thin, delicate and yellow, they resembled the traditional La-Mian noodle that is made by repeatedly pulling and stretching the dough by hand," said Dr Lu.

An empty space between the sediment and the bottom of the bowl had prevented the soft noodles from being crushed and helped preserve them. "The empty space must have been tightly sealed and become anoxic, allowing excellent preservation of the noodles for 4,000 years," said Dr Lu. When the bowl was lifted the exposure to air quickly oxidised the noodles, turning them to dust, but Dr Lu and his colleagues still managed to analyse the remains.

By analysing phytoliths, the microscopic mineral particles that form within plants, and starch grains from the noodle powder, the scientists managed to narrow down what kind of flour the noodles were made from. Modern noodles tend to be made from wheat flour, but analysis of the ancient noodles revealed they were made from millet, used in making alcoholic drinks. "Our findings support the belief that early plant domestication and food production relied on millet in the semi-arid Loess plateau region of China," writes Dr Lu in Nature today.

Dr. Lu and his colleagues are hot on the trail of the 4,000 year-old recipe, and are analyzing some bone fragments and an oily substance found in the bowl. They hope to reverse engineer the recipe and tell us what they ate with their noodles 4,000 years ago. Awesome.

Posted on October 18, 2005
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We Celebrate National Sandwich Month

Apparently, we've managed to go an entire week without realizing that it'sNational Sandwich Month. How we could have let this important holiday pass almost unoticed is beyond us. We do love a good sandwich: and who doesn't? Now that the Atkins diet has officially gone bankrupt, let the carbs run free! I Love Sandwiches is a good place to go to celebrate the love of sandwiches. We'd write more about the somewhat mysterious origins of National Sandwich Month, but we have to go whip up a club sandwich on toasted whole wheat with turkey, provolone, avocado, mayo and tomato.

Posted on August 8, 2005
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Instant Ramen Inventor Achieves Lifelong Dream: Space Noodles

Momofuku Ando, the inventor of the popular instant ramen noodles and founder of Nissin Food, achieved his lifelong dream earlier this week when the Discovery space shuttle successfully blasted into space carrying some high-tech space noodles. The special space noodles, called Space Ram, went with Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi, who took part in the Discovery mission. Red Nova has more about the noodles.

Nissin Food Products Co. showcased on Wednesday a vacuum packed instant noodle specially designed for Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi to eat during the U.S. space shuttle Discovery's current mission.

"This tastes good," Nissin Food founder and Chairman Momofuku Ando said on eating the "Space Ram" noodles in front of reporters.

"I'm happy I've realized my dream that noodles can go into space," he said.

The company said it has no plan to commercialize the product.

Nissin Food sells ramen noodles here in the U.S. under the Top Ramen and Cup Noodles brands. According to Nissin Foods, Japanese consumers eat approximately 45 portions of ramen, bags and cups combined, each year. In addition, Nissin estimates that U.S. consumers eat 9 portions of ramen each year. The Space Ram noodles were designed specifically for zero gravity according to a Space Daily news report.

Noguchi helped test the early stages of the astro ramen, which astronauts can open and eat normally rather than suck through a tube like other space meals.

The soup is thick enough to prevent spilling, Nissin said, while the noodle balls retain their shape after being re-heated.

Boiling water is not used in space so Space Ram can be heated with water of 70 degrees Celsius (160 Fahrenheit), thanks to a unique blend of flour and starch, it said.

News reports did not indicate whether Soichi Noguchi would share the Space Ram noodles with his fellow astronauts.

Posted on July 30, 2005
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Crying While Eating

Daniel Engber, a New York writer, explains how he created the Internet hit website Crying While Eating in this confessional piece on Slate. Crying While Eating features pictures and videos of people crying while eating food. Engber launched the site in an effort to win a $2,000 prize in a website contest. In the process his girlfriend's picture ended up on a Japanese sex website. But he did create a website that was very popular -- at least for a little while.

It's easy to look back and see why Crying, While Eating did so well, at least for a time. It's a simple concept. It's interactive. It makes you laugh and feel uncomfortable at the same time. But there are two parts to contagious media. You have to make something that people want to spread around, but unless you're as lucky as the Star Wars kid you also have to do a little of the spreading yourself. CwE got lots of free publicity because it was an entry in a contest; if Casimir and I tried to make another contagious site, we'd have to do that legwork for ourselves. I don't know if we could pull it off. It seems like a real pain in the ass.

Engber did not win first place, but he did win two $1,000 prizes. And he's promised his girlfriend a fancy dinner to make up for putting a photograph of her crying while eating food on the Internet.

Posted on June 26, 2005
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The Powerful Spell of Grapefruit

A new study has found that men under the powerful spell of grapefruit aroma think the women around them are six years younger than they actually are. The effect is similar to beer goggles, only the men are totally sober. An article at Phillyburbs.com describes the study:

They took 37 men and women and asked them to estimate the age of models in photographs while wearing masks infused with the odors of grapefruit, cucumbers and grapes and then while wearing plain surgical masks.

Grapes and cucumbers produced no results, but when wearing the grapefruit masks, the participants overall estimated the models to be three years younger.

But when it was broken down by gender, the women smelling grapefruit registered no perceptible difference in the models' ages, while the men guessed them to be six years younger.

The article also says that the researchers literally smeared middle-aged women with broccoli, banana, spearmint leaves and lavender but this did not make men think they were younger. Only grapefruit worked. So, if you want to look younger we recommend carrying a grapefruit or two around in your purse. Or, you could carry a grapefruit spray and secretly release it when in the presence of a man you want to think you are six years younger. As long as the object of your affections a) isn't allergic to grapefruit, b) hasn't read the medical study in question or c) really prefers older women, it's absolutely foolproof.

Posted on June 21, 2005
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Homage to the Elton John Chocolate Man

One of our bloggers was so inspired by the photograph of the Elton John Chocolate Man that he wrote two verses of a Chocolate Man song. Sing to the tune of "Rocket Man."

And I think it’s gonna be a long long time
Till Tom Cruise is ever seen as sane again
I'm not the man to know if he's for real
Oh, no, no, no...I’m a chocolate man
Chocolate man sitting on display all alone

I weigh exactly as much as Elton does.
In fact I'm pound for pound.
And there's no way you could eat me all at once.
And all this press I don't understand
It's just my job five days a week.
A chocolate man, a chocolate man

And I think it’s gonna be a long long time...

Sorry, he just couldn't help himself.

Posted on June 17, 2005
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The 227 lb. Chocolate Elton John

Well, here's something you don't see every day: a 227-lb. chocolate statue of music superstar Sir Elton John, which was unveiled Tuesday at Madame Tussauds Wax Museum in London. Pictured is David Furnish, Elton's fiancé, as he unveiled the mammoth chocolate statue which was made exactly to Sir Elton's measurements. The solid Cadbury "Rocket Man," which took 1,000 hours to make, was created after John was voted England's favorite pop star in a contest held by the candy company.

Rock superstar Elton John is famed for his tantrums and lavish lifestyle. Now it seems he has a sweet side after all. Madame Tussauds has created a chocolate likeness of the singer from bars of Cadbury's Dairy Milk. Sir Elton's partner David Furnish thought he looked good enough to eat. "It certainly looks like him," Furnish said at the statue's grand unveiling today. "They've captured his features and his spirit. I think Elton will be delighted."

Madame Tussauds then crafted the statue from 227lbs (126kgs) of Dairy Milk. It took more than 1,000 hours to create and was made to Sir Elton's measurements. The statue will be on show at the London tourist attraction until the autumn. It will be displayed in a special air-conditioned tent to prevent it from melting.

Well, now everyone knows exactly what the always-dieting Elton John weighs. We'll just see how happy he is about that.

Posted on June 17, 2005
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Counterfeit Stamps End Subway Promotion

Some people will do anything to stay on the Subway diet, short of actually paying for a sub. The Sub Club promotion has been running since the 1980s. Subway customers would receive a stamp for each sub they purchased and when they filled up a book of eight stamps they could redeem it for one free sub. But a Sub Club counterfeiting ring has brought an end to the popular promotion. MSNBC.com has more about these bogus sub stamps:

But thousands of stamps are for sale at online auction sites and company officials said franchise owners were increasingly discovering counterfeit stamps.

"It's possible some of the stamps got by and we didn't even know," said company spokesman Kevin Kane. "It's possible we don't even know the extent of it."

Rolls of Subway stamps were even discovered on the Internet. We agree with Subway spokesman Kevin Kane -- it certainly seems like a lot of work just for a free sub.

When company officials discovered rolls of stamps available online, Kane said, it sealed the promotion's fate.

"All that effort and you’re getting free subs," Kane said. "It wasn't a cruise. It wasn't a trip to the Bahamas. You're getting free subs."

Posted on June 3, 2005
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Parents Group Mobilizing Against Paris Hilton's Spicy Burger Ad

The Parents Television Council is not a Paris Hilton fan. Her new Carl's Jr. commercial has them frothing at the mouth and organizing a boycott of Carl's Jr. fast food restaurants because the unseemly nature of the ad. Her new commercial features La Paris seductively washing a Bentley then eating a Carl's Jr. hamburger. Along with washing the car, Paris also seductively washes herself, while she wears a skimpy black bathing suit and high heels.

The Parents Television Council said it is encouraging its more than 1 million members to voice their disapproval of the ad to Carl's Jr., a hamburger chain owned by Carpinteria, California-based CKE Restaurants Inc.

The Los Angeles-based group was also weighing whether to ask the Federal Communications Commission to declare the ad indecent, according to spokeswoman Melissa Caldwell.

"The ad crosses any sort of boundaries about what's appropriate for TV," Caldwell said, adding that the spot was "basically soft porn." CKE Restaurants Chief Executive Andy Puzder took issue with the group's characterization of the ad as pornographic. "There is no nudity in this ad. This isn't Janet Jackson's nipple," Puzder said in an interview. "It's just a fast-food ad. I wish they would focus on something that might be more meaningful."

Puzder added that the commercial has only run during adult television programs and is aimed at Carl's Jr.'s target demographic of "young hungry guys."

"It's not as if we're running this on SpongeBob SquarePants," Puzder said, referring to the popular children's television cartoon. "This ad is not targeted to kids."

SpongeBob SquarePants? Is that really the best defense to use with this crowd? Wasn't it some kind of similar kill-joy group that accused poor SpongeBob of unspeakable perversions?

The longer, more racy version of the commercial has been so popular that the website SpicyParis.com crashed on Friday due to the overwhelming traffic. But it's back online now, so there's no need to panic.

Posted on May 26, 2005
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Would You Buy A Hamburger From This Woman?

Would you buy a hamburger from this woman? Carl's Jr. is banking on it. Next week, burger lovers can tune in watch Paris Hilton in a skimpy black bathing suit, washing her custom Bentley and then taking a break for a full-fat, greasy Carl's Jr. hamburger. Playing in the background will be a rock version of the song "I Love Paris in the Springtime." She'll also say--shock of shocks--"That's hot." Of course it is a hamburger garnished with barbecue sauce and jalapeno peppers. ABC News has the breaking story:

"We're working on trying to make Paris Hilton famous," joked Andrew Puzder, president and chief executive of CKE Restaurants Inc., which owns the two fast food chains. Puzder said his company's ad agency suggested using Hilton. "She's very appealing to our demographic," which he described as young, hungry guys.

"And it turns out she really loved the burger we wanted her to promote," Puzder said. "We did see her eat a couple of them at the shoot."

If the commerical isn't hot enough for you, Carl's Jr. is also offering a longer verson of the commercial which is much racier.

Our informal poll of random males indicates that Carl's Jr. is going to be selling a lot of jalepeno barbecue burgers.

Posted on May 14, 2005
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