Ivy Esquero

There are at least three kinds of animals in there.

Continuing the kind of innovative work that few fast-food chains have the gall to attempt these days, KFC Korea has abandoned all rational ideas about nutrition and dared to dream with this thing, the Zinger Double Down King. It's got chicken, beef, and pork that have been fried, grilled, and griddled, respectively. What's more is that it's still bunless, of course, like its forebear, and there's some kind of special sauce involved. It's on sale now, allegedly only has 750 calories, and from the looks of some of the photos that have been circulating online, we can safely say it's in the running for the most unwieldy and completely monstrous fast-food item of all time.

In a rare variation of one of the greatest of fast-food traditions, these customers' photos of the actual Zinger Double Down look a lot crazier than its actual menu board photo.

징거더블다운킹 먹고왔습니다. 징더다맥이 치킨과 버거의 중간쯤되는 형태였다면, 이건 그냥 고기덩어리입니다. pic.twitter.com/Rn1USkckTh

— 쫑 (@thalene) October 18, 2014

징거더블다운킹 먹어본소감 : 1. 아주 고기고기하다 2. 소스가 2종류나 발라져잇어서 제법 맛있다. 3. 아주 느끼하다. 맥주나 콜라 필수 4. 결론은 맛있는거+맛있는거=엄청맛있는거 pic.twitter.com/4VycDqIvKb

— 미키미키=새우@스쿠페스쉬는중 (@Rippi_DaisukiS2) October 18, 2014

징거더블다운킹 비쌍 비싸여.. pic.twitter.com/eEHr666ORe

— 콩 (@kong_408) October 18, 2014

This one even required a steak knife.

징거더블다운킹! pic.twitter.com/eA2EW9GNMG

— 엪♥ (@efkmtoho) October 19, 2014

And, finally, continuing the theme of overdelivering, it seems that KFC Korea has a secondary version of the behemoth in its "zinger" arsenal, this one with bacon and cheese.

Related: Burger King Japan’s Black Burgers Are Even Worse in Real Life
[Independent UK]

Read more posts by Hugh Merwin

Filed Under: the chain gang, double down, kfc, kfc korea, zinger double down

Casablanca aside, Morocco without color is an anomaly. Reds, saffrons, and cobalt blues spring with abandon from labyrinthine alleyways and luxury hotels alike, presenting an endless stream of breathtakingly color-filled vignettes for traveling esthetes. Enter the anomaly: Riad Mena, a new 6-room hotel in the center of Marrakech, which blithely makes its trademark a judicious use of color.

Marrakech-based interior designer Romain Michel-Meniere has managed to turn the former private house into an elegantly modern—but still very Moroccan—hotel by applying a color scheme of whites and neutral shades alongside small, beautifully placed infusions of color. His inspired mixture of traditional North African crafts and Mid-Century furnishings keeps the ambience of Riad Mena appealingly local without descending into cliche, while offering diehard Modernists a chance to view classics like the Barcelona Chair and Saarinen Side Table in unexpected new light.

Theme-specific rooms include The Gysin, an homage to the Beat poet and artist Brion Gysin, and, our particular favorite, The Eileen Gray. Who says Modernism and exoticism make strange bedfellows?Via Wallpaper, Romain Michel-Meniere

Too much!

Pizza Hut Korea's brass has done it: Created a novelty pizza that includes everything. The Star Edge pizza is available in all of its stores and it just awkwardly crams a whole bunch of stuff together — we assume because the recipe engineers are tired of gimmick toppings and crust-stuffings and just want to be done with this once and for all. And so, the Star Edge has "surf" covered in the form of calamari and shrimp. There is "turf," specifically bacon, sausage, and steak. And then you've got veggies covered with broccoli and peppers. Oh, but that is not enough, because the actual crust pries off into little turnovers, which are stuffed with cream cheese and either cinnamon apple nut or cranberry.

A large costs a hefty $32, but then again, it is worth remembering that this pizza includes all possible foods you could want to eat. Should you be in the market for such a monstrosity, but also need additional convincing in the form of a television ad, you are in luck:

To all the chains that market novelty pizzas, please know that things have gone as far as they need to go, and it is time to give it a rest.

[Brand Eating via Foodbeast]

Read more posts by Clint Rainey

Filed Under: the chain gang, pizza, pizza hut korea, star edge pizza

Finnish illustrator Kustaa Saksi, who is best known for his layered, richly detailed visual narratives, stars in Marimekko’s 2015 Home collection, having contributed two vivid aquatic motifs to the textile house’s latest fabric selections. Saksi’s multicolored Merivuokko (anemone) and monochromatic Meriheinä (seagrass) designs—both of which will be presented in several colorways, and applied to the Finnish brand’s home textiles and tableware—mark a departure from Marimekko’s signature graphic prints, offering up a contrasting suite of elaborate, highly gestural underwater patterns in Saksi’s energetic illustrative style. 




Via Dutch Uncle, Hugo and Marie

Conçus par Matteo Cibic, ces étonnants terrariums personnifient les plantes par leur forme bipède et extra-terrestre : les végétaux sont plantés au niveau du tronc supérieur, sous une cloche en verre. Tels des Art-toys, parfois blancs et minimalistes, parfois customisés et ludiques, ces pots originaux sont à découvrir dans la suite.

Le designer parisien Benoit Malta a imaginé la chaise en bois à deux pieds « Inactivité ». Il la définit comme un « inconfort supportable ». L’idée était de concevoir une chaise qui puisse lutter contre l’inactivité et obliger l’utilisateur à trouver la bonne posture pour garder l’équilibre, en faisant des petits mouvements. Une manière ingénieuse de faire des exercices tout en lisant un livre.

Time to see how well you paid attention in geography class.

Getty Images/iStockphoto istrejman

Amazon’s new Kindle Voyage e-reader offers the ability to turn the page by pressing on the bezel. The sensor-based technology is new, but as longtime Kindle users know, this is far from the first time that Amazon has offered this capability. In the video above, we take a close look at the key features of the new Amazon e-reader, and compare it to two previous Kindle models: The original Kindle Paperwhite, released in 2012, and the very first Kindle, dating back to 2007. Check out our full review for much more on the Amazon device.

Thrift store shoppers come across ceramic figurines all the time, figurines which probably remind them of their grandma’s house, but one savvy shopper saw those tchotchkes as an opportunity to make some seriously cool art.

Portland based artist Tom LaBonty started purchasing those ceramic thrift store treasures and giving them ghastly makeovers, and the results are spook-tacular! 

They no longer look like something that would fit in at grandma’s house, unless your grandma has a dungeon in her basement, but their new life as harbingers of doom somehow makes them look even more precious.

Just look at how cute this little girl is carrying around a scythe that's twice her size!

-Via Dangerous Minds

Beef tongue.

It's the home stretch for the opening of Enrique Olvera's much-hyped first restaurant in New York: Cosme opens on October 28. Expect highly ambitious, modern food from the celebrated Mexican chef, served inside a stunning 3,500-square-foot space that seats 130 guests.

Based on a preview menu, dishes include Manhattan clam chowder with smoked chipotles, mezcal, and cactus; lobster sopes for $25; a mussel tostada; pulled suckling pig with annato seeds, sour orange, and pickled radishes; "nixtamalized parsnip," and a beautiful ball of burrata with herbs and salsa verde. And yes, you can get classics like guacamole and pork chicharrones too. But perhaps what's most exciting is that Olvera will source single-origin corn, which he will nixtamalize and grind in-house for tortillas and other dishes.

Cosme, 35 East 21st St., between Broadway and Park Avenue, 212-913-9659

Earlier: Enrique Olvera to Serve ‘Single-Origin’ Tortillas at Cosme, Opening Next Week

Read more posts by Sierra Tishgart

Filed Under: openings, cosme, enrique olvera, flatiron, mexican food, new york

Some travelers jumped for joy last year when the FAA decided to allow smartphone, tablet and e-reader use during takeoffs and landings. But the Association of Flight Attendants – CWA, America’s largest flight attendants’ union, has filed a suit against the FAA asking for a “reset” to previous regulations, according to a report by the AP. The case, which is being argued in front of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, is focused on how the FAA chose to implement the rule change. The union argues that the nation’s aviation regulator needed to go through a full … Read More on GeekWire

"I have a service and I'm hungry."

Graphic designer Lauren Hom started noticing that many handsome restaurants overlooked a detail that, in her mind, was critical: the hand-writing on their chalkboard signs. "I noticed that it's common for a restaurant to have a menu board that's written by, like, a hung-over hostess," she says. "And it's totally not a diss on anyone's handwriting, but I thought, I could do that and make it look kick-ass!" So the 23-year-old freelance illustrator came up with a simple arrangement: She will stop by your restaurant to hand-letter a pretty sign — in exchange for a taste of the foods that she writes on the board. "I'm just really hungry!" she says. "And I just thought, I have a service and I'm hungry and maybe this can work out." Hom only started the project (Will Letter for Lunch) in April — passing out flyers to local restaurants near her home in Crown Heights — and the pay-it-forward idea has quickly gained traction.

"Actually, the first flyer I ever passed out was a 'yes,'" she says. "It was this little organic, hippie café called Mountain Café, and I wrote their sandwich board." Hom is currently working on her sixth project in Clinton Hill — and some places, like Docklands, have requested that she hand-write their entire menus. "I go in, I letter, and then everything I write, I get to eat," she explains. "It's a complete fair barter. So if I write the entire menu, sometimes I'll have to go back multiple times and bring friends to feast. It's amazing!"

But regardless of how big Will Letter for Lunch grows, Hom has no plans to start charging for her work, even though it takes her about an hour to complete something as small as a sandwich board. "I feel like it almost taints the fun of it if there's money involved," she says. "And I have a very steady freelance career, so everything's fine. And the truth is, free food tastes better, too." (It's also great exposure for her paid illustration and typography work, for which she charges $100 per hour.)

Hom's ultimate goal is to hand-letter a menu for a sushi restaurant, but for now, she focuses mostly on reaching out to casual cafés. "My mom always told me you eat with your eyes first, and so she always made sure all of our food looked nice," she says. "But then I realized, where typography comes into the picture, is that you eat with your eyes before you even see your food. If you're looking at a menu and the food's written out nicely, you're going to want to eat more. It's totally weird, but it's true!"

There's a wholesome quality — though, perhaps, a naïveté — to Hom's work, and above all, she says she actually just wants to make new friends (and, of course, eat well). "I've lived in New York for about five and a half years, and I've explored a lot of the city, but I just thought that this would be a fun way to meet more people — especially because I'm interested in food and the restaurant industry. Anyone who opens a restaurant is fascinating to me, because you have to be pretty passionate about it to do it. And there are so many great places to eat in New York. If you're not eating well in New York, I don't know what you're doing. Like, move to Cleveland."

Read more posts by Sierra Tishgart

Filed Under: design, lauren hom, new york, nourish kitchen + table, restaurant news, will letter for lunch

Seems like a good idea.

Taco Bell has quite the recent history of turning otherwise-disgusting-sounding menu items into massive hits. While it's still too early to tell what fate history holds for Starburst smoothies, word is that Bell locations in Kansas are already testing another potential megahit: a Sriracha menu that, at least according to Thrillist, showcases the beloved condiment on five different items: Sriracha Nachos Supreme, a Sriracha Quesarito, the so-named Sriracha Scrambler Burrito, a Sriracha Loaded Griller, and, of course, Sriracha Tacos.

Since what we're really talking about here is just a squeeze of the Thai hot sauce, you can also request it on any regular menu item. But there's one potential issue holding things back: Redditors who've tried Taco Bell's "sriracha" say it's not the pure stuff we all know and love. Rather, it's something creamier that "isn't quite the same," seems to be more in the vein of Subway's Sriracha mayo. Will high college kids the taco-loving masses care that the sauce is a rooster impostor? Probably not. After all, "lack of authenticity" has always sort of been a crucial part of the Taco Bell experience.

Earlier: Taco Bell Is Making Frozen Drinks Out of Starburst
[Reddit, Thrillist]

Read more posts by Clint Rainey

Filed Under: the chain gang, news, sriracha, taco bell, tie-ins

Get ready to pay a little more for this.

Safety measures being used to contain Ebola in West Africa are also putting the world's chocolate supplies and thousands of cocoa-farming jobs at risk. Back in August, Ivory Coast, home to a third of the world's cocoa, closed its borders with Liberia and Guinea, a precaution that's greatly benefited the country — which hasn't suffered even one outbreak of Ebola so far — but Politico reports one big side effect is that a lot of the cocoa industry's workforce is now shut out just as harvest season begins. Cocoa prices, which were inching up anyhow, have subsequently crept beyond their already elevated level, hitting $3,400 a ton a few weeks ago, and could go higher still.

The picture is bleak: Roadblocks are necessary to limit the spread of the disease, but they also limit traffic, impairing farming operations. "The land has not been tilled to plant," one U.N. official explains. "The next crop will not be ready. We won't have one, and we see a food crisis already." And the epidemic goes beyond simply making chocolate. Giant Swiss manufacturer Barry Callebaut relays the news that it can't buy cocoa beans from some middlemen in West Africa anymore because it's simply "lost contact." (The company now educates farmers in remote villages on safety precautions.)

In response, the World Cocoa Foundation hopes to collect donations from companies such as Nestlé and Marks for its "Coca Industry Response to Ebola Initiative," which the group will reportedly unveil Wednesday at its annual meeting. Money will fund work being done by Red Cross and Caritas Internationalis.

[Politico]

Read more posts by Clint Rainey

Filed Under: uh-oh, chocolate, ebola, health scares, ivory coast, west africa

Next year will mark the first time you will be able to watch Game of Thrones without a cable subscription. HBO CEO Richard Plepler said during an investor presentation that the company will start selling a digital version of its service — sans cable subscription — by 2015, Re/Code reports. Up until now, viewers have only been able to catch the latest episodes as long as they paid for it through their cable TV provider. More recently, HBO started to open up older content, including the Sopranos or The Wire, through a deal with Amazon Instant Video, which comes bundled together … Read More on GeekWire

L’artiste new-yorkais Tom Fruin (l’auteur de la Water Tower à New York) a décidé de répandre ses installations en plexiglas coloré un peu partout en Europe avec son projet « Kolonihavehus » : une petite maison qui reflète la lumière comme les vitraux d’une église. Nous pouvons admirer ses installations qui s’implantent depuis 2010 dans plusieurs villes du Danemark, en République Tchèque, en Autriche et aujourd’hui à New York.

Abstract portrait


Honoring breast cancer awareness


Trimming the hedges


Peeping Toms


Kids play


Rainy day


Getting ready for a run


Spaghetti dinner


Watching "Rocky Horror Picture Show"

kristenraemiller:

For the month of October ‘til Halloween, my dad changes up the scene of these 2 skeletons on his front porch each day for the neighbors to check out. Very creative!

This boat is going on hiatus in one months' time.

New York's premier oyster bar on a boat will batten down the hatches and do all kinds of other nautical things right after October 31, when the Sherman Zwicker goes on hiatus for the colder months. Partners Mark Firth, Adrien Gallo, Miles Pincus, and Alex Pincus say there are some renovations planned for the historic fishing schooner, which has been docked in Tribeca all summer, so it'll sail up the Hudson. For the final few weeks, however, they're adding an oyster happy hour and some new dishes.

Beginning October 1, oysters from the waters surrounding Long Island (as well as other East Coast specimens) will cost $1 each from 4 to 6 p.m., Mondays through Thursdays. Additionally, while Grand Banks's excellent lobster roll is still on the menu, the tiny kitchen below deck will start turning out the floating restaurant's very first bowls of chowder as a seasonal small plate. The soup is loaded with cod, chorizo, chopped quahogs, and fingerling potatoes.

Finally, because the nights are turning brisk and customers' hands will inevitably be chilly, the bar will add a classic toddy made with hot aged rum, sweetened ginger, honey, lemon, clove, nutmeg, and cinnamon — all good things. The drink will be available starting Wednesday; Grand Banks will return to the city next Spring.

Related: Grand Banks’s $25 Lobster Roll Is Absolutely Worth It
Related: Take a Look Around Grand Banks, NYC’s Premier Oyster Bar on a Boat

Read more posts by Hugh Merwin

Filed Under: news, grand banks, mark firth

indikhan:

YOOOOOOOO

Bundles of services are nothing new in the “triple play” world of telecom providers, but here’s a different twist: AT&T is now offering Amazon Prime subscriptions as part of a bundle that includes broadband access, U-verse TV and an HBO subscription. The $39/month package, designed to appeal to would-be cord-cutters, was spotted by a reader at DSLReports. It’s the latest move by Amazon to spread the reach of its Amazon Prime membership program, which normally costs $99/year. One analyst recently estimated that Amazon may now have as many as 50 million members worldwide, a significant increase over the past year, despite a price increase from the … Read More on GeekWire

Afin d’immortaliser les moments les plus marquants du festival Burning Man, le photographe néo-zélandais Trey Ratcliff s’est rendu dans le désert de Black Rock au Nevada où ont lieu chaque année les festivités les plus loufoques de la planète. Déguisements, sculptures, installations, le photographe retranscrit avec talent ce magnifique pèlerinage artistique.

Carl Hansen & Son, the only licensed manufacturer of furniture designed by Danish great Hans J. Wegner, has been marking the 100th birthday of the designer with a series of reissues and commemorative editions of Wegner pieces. The company’s latest Wegner reissue is the CH825 Credenza, an exquisitely detailed and elegantly innovative design that dates back to 1958.

Of the streamlined, low-profile storage piece, Carl Hansen & Son notes that, “Although it looks simple, the credenza features an advanced design with roller shutter doors, requiring double sides and rear panel, between which the roller shutters run on a track and disappear when opened.” Originally produced in rosewood and teak, the updated version has been remade in walnut and oak, and stays true to Wegner’s original drawings. The CH825 Credenza is the latest in a year-long series of new launches or limited edition reissues of Wegner furniture, which has included an introduction of the CH88 Chair, a 1955 prototype never previously produced, and newly-upholstered versions of Wegner’s famous Shell, Wing, and Wishbone chairs.

Images: Carl Hansen & Son

It's family night!

Gun-loving and food-establishment-owning Louisiana resident Kevin Cox is running a special deal at his place, Bergeron's Boudin & Cajun Meats of Port Allen, which rewards his like-minded customers: If you pack heat in addition to eating it, he says, you'll get a 10 percent discount on all your sausage, stuffed hamburger, and po' boy needs. "I just need to see a weapon. I need you to be carrying a gun," he says.

Cox explains that the two-week-old policy is a reaction to "hearing so much about people banning guns." He espouses a theory that chain restaurants, such as Chipotle and Sonic, do not: If all patrons are packing, Cox says, explaining his country-fried version of deterrence theory, no one gets hurt. "As long as everybody has a gun we're all the same size," he says.

Now an average of 15 to 20 people demonstrate that they're carrying a weapon each day at Bergeron's, and while it's unclear whether the restaurant had issues with robberies before all this, there have not been any since. Hard-hitting statistical data aside, it may be too soon to call all this proof of concept, but as you may have guessed, Cox's loyal customers are pleased. "If somebody walked in here with a gun and wanted to hurt us. We're not defenseless," a customer tells the local NBC affiliate, explaining that she brought her Smith and Wesson with her to lunch.

[NBC33, WAFB]

Read more posts by Clint Rainey

Filed Under: meat the press, bergeron's, guns, louisiana, news, open carry

No, seriously, there isn't room for all that.

The fry-up, with its eggs and bread and beans, is a real gut-buster of the British breakfast already, but a north England café called Bear Grills — get it? — has now created one so intense and gimmicky that owner Mark Winder makes intrepid customers sign a waiver absolving the restaurant of damages "arising from any injury received or incurred" through any attempt to finish it.

It's called the Hibernator for the obvious reason ("if anyone completes it, they'll have to sleep for a year"); it's four times an adult man's suggested daily calorie intake; and here's what's in it, a paragraph unto itself: four fried eggs, eight "rashers" of bacon, eight sausages, four hash browns, a cheese omelette made of four more eggs, four waffles, four pieces of toast, four pieces of fried bread, four pieces of black pudding, two ladlefuls of beans, tomatoes, and mushrooms, french fries, and a hideously overkill 32-ounce milkshake.

There's even a "mini" version for kids. The full one, which goes for £19.95, "weighs the same as the average newborn baby," as the Daily Mail points out, and has been attempted by 20 individuals so far, none of whom completed it. H+Go figure. Winder doesn't expect that will change anytime soon. He says customers "see it come out on the big platter all heaped high and start to cry," which, when you think about it, isn't any way to start the day.

[Daily Mail UK]

Read more posts by Clint Rainey

Filed Under: man vs. food, bear grills cafe, breakfast, england, the hibernator

Les graphistes argentines Sabrina Giselle Acevedo et Jazmín Granada ont revisité avec talent le générique du film The Grand Budapest Hotel de Wes Anderson. Les deux artistes ont recréé des scénographies du film à l’aide de maquettes en papier et présentent ici une courte vidéo de leur travail. On y retrouve les fameuses boites à patisseries Mendl’s ou encore les clefs soigneusement rangées de la réception.

Le calendrier Typodarium pour l’année 2015 a été édité par Slanted Publishers. Comme les autres calendriers, il rassemble 365 typographies, en noir ou jaune, réalisées par 223 designers originaires de 31 pays différents. Une curation quotidienne en typographie, à découvrir sur 384 pages.

You cannot put a price on this.

Paula Deen's new 24/7 "digital network" is one step closer to launching on Wednesday. And people interested in the celebrity chef's complete oeuvre will want to know that her company, Paula Deen Ventures, has purchased the rights to Deen's full catalogue of Food Network shows, including a season of Home Cooking that was pulled from the channel in 2013 when things weren't looking so good for the Southern personality. That means 440 episodes of material are ready to go for people willing to pay the $9.99 monthly subscriber fee (or $7.99 for people who sign up for an entire year).

Of course, it's not all reruns: The network will have new content as well, such as recipes and some 16 cooking shows. There's also a reality series, and even game shows, like one called "What Did Paula Just Put in My Mouth?" ("Paula pairs two surprising foods together and feeds them to blindfolded guests — can they figure out what the heck they ate?").

The biggest bit of original programming could be a documentary that promises to tell Deen's side of her rocky last couple of years, planned to go live sometime next year. "We feel like America needs to know the true story, and everything that happened," Deen explains. "I'm bound by the courts, so I can only say so much. But there's nothing to stop others from talking about it."

Related: Paula Deen Defends Herself on Today: 'I Is What I Is'
[WSJ]

Read more posts by Clint Rainey

Filed Under: paula deen, food network, paula deen network

Passionnée par le papier et toutes les possibilités créatives que ce matériau offre, l’artiste Yulia Brodskaya, dont le travail faisait l’objet d’un article précédemment, imagine de magnifiques compositions colorées à l’aide de papier découpé et de colle. Entre sculptures et illustrations, ses créations sont très graphiques et réalisées avec une précision admirable.

Amazon was only an online bookstore when The Coca-Cola company first launched Surge, but that didn’t stop the beverage giant from exclusively picking the online retailer as the place for it to make a comeback. The cola, which is comparable to Pepsi’s Mountain Dew, went on sale this morning on Amazon.com, to the surprise of its strong cult following. The 12-packs of 16 oz cans cost $14 each (free shipping with Amazon Prime), and sold out in about an hour. Later, Surge could be found on eBay, where it was selling for much more. By this afternoon, Surge had 269 five-star reviews and skyrocketed to become the bestselling … Read More on GeekWire