Ivy Esquero

Some have described it as "liquid soap."

It's time to say what's shaking to Fat Water, the latest lardaceous drink from the creator of Bulletproof Coffee. While its name sounds like a triple-dog dare, the brains behind it, biohacker Dave Asprey, assures everyone these bottles will be "a disruptive technology for beverages." He says the trick to boosting energy without a sugar crash is mixing two grams of coconut oil (about a tenth of the day's saturated fat) into perfectly fine water. The oils enhance thermogenesis, which is a fancy word for fat burning. "They get burned as energy and have an appetite-suppression effect," he says, adding: "It's not like we put in sunflower oil or canola."

The concoction will no doubt have its devotees, possibly several from among the Silicon Valley fad-diet-market disruptors, who recently dropped $9 million into Asprey's burgeoning Bulletproof café chain, but taste-testers so far are describing it as "liquid soap" and "like Crystal Light not fully diluted." But taste isn't something the food-as-joyless-sustenance crowd has ever cared much about, though.

For now, the product is exclusive to Bulletproof cafes, his website, and a couple of L.A.-area health stores, but Asprey says his oily H2O will be sliding into mainstream stores across the U.S. very soon.

[NYDN]

Read more posts by Clint Rainey

Filed Under: oil and water, bulletproof coffee, dave asprey, fat water, health fads

La designer italienne Francesca Lombardi est à l’origine de la série Doily (« napperon »). Elle a conçu une collection de masques brodés comme des napperons crochetés et a fait appel au photographe Giacomo Favilla pour capturer des portraits décalés présentant les napperons dans un cadre peu ordinaire : sur les têtes des modèles.

Dayum.

Here's hard evidence of Shake Shack's continued domination: During yesterday's quarterly earnings call, chief executive Randy Garutti revealed that profits have increased by 2.3 percent, to $1.1 million, with same-store sales rising by 12.9 percent. Overall revenue has jumped to $48.5 million — a 74.7 percent increase.

Plus: Since its IPO in January, Shake Shack's stock price has risen over 200 percent. (Buying stock early turned out to be a great idea after all.)

Those numbers are mighty impressive, and Garutti attributes them to a few factors: The return to crinkle-cut French fries significantly reduced labor costs (and pleased loyal customers). Also, of course, there's simply more customer traffic at stores — in part because of special limited-edition burgers. With the much-hyped ChickenShack still in its test phase, who knows how that will impact the following quarter?

As for the future, Garutti said that he expects to see higher same-store sales throughout the rest of 2015, and that he and Meyer are planning to open even more Shake Shack outposts than they originally planned. Back in January, the plan was to open at least ten company-owned outposts annually.

[NYT]

Read more posts by Sierra Tishgart

Filed Under: blockbusters, danny meyer, randy garutti, shake shack

It costs $125.

Year after year, America's state fairs manage to out-crazy each other with their food offerings. The latest viral sensation is a $125 caviar-topped Twinkie, sold at the Orange County Fair by Chicken Charlie's. What's next — truffle-topped Cheetos? Morels on deep-fried string cheese? A Pappy Van Winkle–spiked root-beer float? (The foie-gras doughnut already exists, after all.)

[OC Fair/Instagram]

Read more posts by Sierra Tishgart

Filed Under: state fairs, caviar twinkie, twinkie

It's still not healthy.

Starting next week, Oreos will be available in a thin version that looks like it got run over by a car. Fittingly called Oreo Thins, they're being billed as "sophisticated," "thin and crispy" cookies for grown-ups.

The cookies are the same size as normal Oreos, but only about half as thick (7.5 millimeters instead of 12.5 millimeters — which makes the cookies sound like an iPhone upgrade) and four little thin Oreos contain 20 fewer calories than three full-size Oreos. They also come in Golden and Mint flavors, wading directly onto Thin Mints turf.

Here's the big thing that you should know, as pointed out by the AP: Oreo "says they weren't designed to be twisted open or dunked." And that right there is the reason why Grub Street will be sticking to original Oreos, thank you very much. But why, you might ask, would the company make a non-twistable, only vaguely dunkable Oreo? Because these are "sophisticated" and designed to be eaten by adults, who Oreo has decided apparently don't like fun. One Oreo exec is quoted as saying, "If people want to do that, it's clearly up to them," but that sounds more like dunk-shaming to us.

According to the marketing campaign, Oreo Thins are to be the crêpes to the original's pancakes, but this branding effort has mostly failed on Twitter, where "Diet Oreos" and "Skinny Oreos" have already caught on, because everyone immediately realizes there's no other reason to eat a half-Oreo Oreo. Live a little and just eat a whole cookie.

For full effect, here's a 360-degree view of the width difference:

Oreo Thins debuted today -- a skinnier version of the original. http://t.co/PcmzqVFidi pic.twitter.com/FEZFwMqaKi

— World News Tonight (@WNTonight) July 6, 2015

[AP]

Read more posts by Clint Rainey

Filed Under: sweets, cookies, mondelez, nabisco, oreo, oreo thins, oreos

(YouTube link)

On the surface, you might think that the game Super Mario World and the HBO series Game of Thrones have nothing in common to lend itself to a mashup. But the TV show intro has many art elements that would easily be adaptable to a video game world. Make the GoT theme into a chip tune and voilà! Mashup. The video is from Steven Jase, with music by Paul LeBlanc. -via Uproxx

Pour 100 $, vous pouvez vous procurer ce skateboard re-imaginé par le shop en ligne Hammacher Schlemmer. « The Sidewinding Circular Skates » est un skate futuriste sans planche mais avec deux roues sur lesquelles sont montées deux plateformes pour vos pieds. Une canne est vendue avec, pour pouvoir connecter les deux anneaux si besoin.

Here is your East Village sandwich line forecast for summer 2015.

David Chang's fried chicken sandwich atelier, Fuku, is back in full swing after a two day vacation. According to one member of Team Eater, Chang and his crew might have even made some slight tweaks to the formula over that two day break, because "the crust is crunchier and the meat not nearly as stringy."

With the impending opening of Superiority Burger on the horizon, Team Eater got to wondering: Will the chicken sandwich and veggie burger lines ever intersect? Or possibly merge into one two-headed hellbeast of a sandwich line?

While anything and everything is possible in the overlapping Fuku/SupBurg universes, it's not likely, because for one thing, the Fuku line would have start snaking down First Avenue as opposed to around the corner onto 10th Street, like it normally does. Also, the line would have to cross the avenue, which would be difficult from a logistical standpoint, and possibly deadly. Odds are, never the twain shall meet.

On a related Fuku note, here's the slaw-topped, off-the-menu Koreano sandwich:

Under normal circumstances, if you were to serve someone fried chicken and they made some dumb comment about the thing you served actually being a fried rat, you'd point out the ignorance of the statement and then, of course, take the fried chicken back and eat it yourself, because what kind of ungrateful asshole says a thing like that, you know?

In the case of KFC, when someone last week claimed that his chicken meal actually contained some Kentucky Fried Rat, the assertion blew up the internet, presumably because people felt like, yeah, there might be a chance — however slim — that that thing actually was a fried rat. Such is the sad state of KFC and its signature product that this was even within the realm of possibility.

Even KFC's adamant claims weren't enough to convince the public that a photographed piece of its chicken wasn't actually a deep-fried rodent, so the chain's lawyers had to obtain the dubious piece of protein and send it to a third-party lab for DNA testing. The result: It is chicken. Bad, overbattered, overseasoned, dry, questionably raised, ratlike chicken.

This would never happen at Popeye's.

[LAT]

Read more posts by Alan Sytsma

Filed Under: outrageous claims, kfc, the chain gang

In the nick of time for the Fourth of July, Amazon has released its “Best Books of 2015 So Far” list. The Amazon Book team has culled through their list of Best Books of the Month to come up with this list of 20. That’s a tough task considering they had six months’ worth of releases to whittle down. So what made the cut? Amazon book editors agreed that Helen MacDonald’s H is for Hawk is the hottest title to pick up now. A Best Book pick for March and New York Times bestseller, it has rave reviews across the board. Here’s a brief… Read More

We all know that sitting for most of the workday is bad. And while standing desks are an increasingly popular option, standing in one spot for several hours can also become tiring and tedious. That’s the problem one software developer — who’d spent his career sitting — is trying to fix. Wayne Yeager, a “lifelong inventor and entrepreneur from Lexington, Ky.,” has created the LeanChair because “sitting kills you and standing sucks” and “leaning is awesome.” For about two years, Yeager’s gone through six prototypes to devise this final version he’s now raising funds for via Kickstarter. It’s, well, a leaning platform… Read More

"Our inspectors told me it was the worst case of overcharges that they've ever seen."

Shopping at Whole Foods pretty much always hurts one's wallet, but maybe a bit more than it should. A city investigation into the supermarket chian found that packaged foods are routinely mis-marked at NYC locations, meaning customers are often overpaying for what they're getting — and have been since 2010. Inspectors weighted 80 different types of items at Whole Foods locations around the city and found that every label was inaccurate, reports the Daily News. The overcharges ranged from 80 cents on a package of pecan panko to $14.84 for a container of coconut shrimp. There were also instances when customers benefitted from the labeling mishaps like breaded chicken breasts that were marked as $5.99 for 7 ounces when packages actually ranged from 6-9.2 ounces.

But, overall, the situation sounds pretty egregious. Whole Foods was also found to overcharge at scanning stations and add tax to items that shouldn't be taxed. Eight of the nine New York outposts have logged a total of more than 800 violations since 2010, racking up a $58,000 tab in fines (the UES location that just recently opened wasn't included in the investigation).

Whole Foods isn't the only offender in the overcharging department, but Department of Consumer Affairs Commissioner Julie Menin says: "Our inspectors told me it was the worst case of overcharges that they've ever seen." Whole Foods is of course defending itself. A spokesperson for the company explains that the Whole Foods "never intentionally used deceptive practices to incorrectly charge customers." But a store worker allegedly told a DCA inspector that prices were intentionally mislabeled. This isn't the first time Whole Foods has gotten itself into this sort of mess. Last summer, the Texas-based chain agreed to pay $800,000 to settle a similar issue at some of its California stores.

How many people will sign up for Walmart’s upcoming shipping service that is aiming to rival Amazon’s own membership program? Not that many, according to a survey that asked 6,000 U.S. adults how likely they were to pay $50 a year to join Walmart’s answer to Amazon Prime. The study, which was conducted by Prosper Insights, found that just 12.4 percent of respondents said they were “likely” or “very likely” to sign up for Walmart’s Shipping Pass, which offers unlimited three-day shipping on items purchased online. The results were disclosed in a Forbes guest column today by Prosper. Prosper Insights, a Worthington, Ohio-based analytics company… Read More

Amazon is changing the formula for how it pays book royalties after authors complained that they should be rewarded based on how much people read, rather than the number of downloads a book generates. As a result, Amazon announced that starting on July 1, it will pay authors for each page viewed by a reader instead of the previous model that compensated authors for every book downloaded, or “borrowed.” The new formula only applies to books that are self-published and distributed through Amazon’s Kindle Unlimited and Kindle Owners’ Lending Library. The Unlimited program costs $9.99 a month, and gives readers access to 800,000 titles for $10 a… Read More

Contemporary designers, including Jasper Morrison, Ilse Crawford, and Barber Osgerby, are paying homage to Robin Day—the great English modern furniture designer who would have turned 100 this year—with a show featuring customized versions of one of his most famous creations, the handsome Reclining Chair.

Robin Day Centenary Design Edit has been organized by London furniture retailer Twentytwentyone, the exclusive manufacturer of Day’s 1952 masterwork, in honor of Day’s centenary birth year, and features bespoke coverings for the chair by a select group 10 UK designers.

Day considered Reclining Chair to be one of his best designs, describing it as “an early design showing a clearly articulated structure. The slim steel rod frame cradles a shaped upholstered unit and timber arms which can also serve as shelves for glasses, etc.” Part of a city-wide tribute to the designer, which includes an exhibition at the Victoria & Albert Museum, Robin Day Centenary Design Edit will be on view at the Twentytwentyone showroom from July 1-7.

via Wallpaper

 

There may be a lot less gobbling this November.

Bird flu has made the three-egg omelette a luxury item in parts of America, but the other fowl bearing the brunt of the highly pathogenic virus's outbreak is the poor turkey, whose flocks have been culled by 7.8 million so far. The USDA is now recognizing that this could have bad consequences in, say, five months, when a certain holiday occurs on the third Thursday of November.

The federal agency's latest monthly hatchery report is a bit ominous: Reuters notes that it reports a "significant decline" in the May count for baby turkeys, or poults. That number (22.3 million) is 8 percent lower than it was last May. Turkeys born in May or June will be the right age for slaughter in time for Thanksgiving, so these two months are critical. Analysts can't agree on just how bad the news is, but at least one expert tells Reuters that it's clear that, at the very least, "big, whole birds for Thanksgiving are going to be extremely hard to come by." Looks like it could finally be Tofurkey's year.

[Reuters]

Read more posts by Clint Rainey

Filed Under: shortages, bird flu, news, thanksgiving, turkey

Magisterial. The Great Wave off Kanagawa by Katsushika Hokusai, modified by Reddit users Put_It_All_On_Red and photosonny. (via @craigmod)

Tags: art   Katsushika Hokusai   remix   Sesame Street

“I’m writing in my journal. When I was in 11th grade, I had an English teacher named Ms. Lois Bricklin who required us to write in a journal every day. Then at the end of each marking period, we were supposed to turn in our journal. For the first two marking periods, I wrote all my entries right before the journal was due, and then backdated them. But for the third marking period, I actually made an effort to do it every day. By the fourth marking period, I was hooked. I haven’t missed a day in over 30 years. It’s like brushing my teeth. I turned 50 in January, so my latest entries have been very reflective. I’ve been questioning whether I’m living the life that I wanted to live.”

“God sends me little moments all day long to say: ‘You’re not alone, brother.’ Just a little while ago, an old hunched-over Chinese lady smiled at me with the greatest warmth in her eyes.”
“And you think that was a message from God?”
“I think that was God.”

So much 'Merica right here.

In time for summer, fast-food sister chains Hardee's and Carl's Jr. — so committed to democracy they don't even force a single brand name on their customers — have given the people a new burger that's essentially an entire Fourth of July in a single sandwich.

The Most American Thickburger, as it's being called, starts with a burger patty, slaps some American cheese on there, adds a layer of Lay's potato chips, then tops everything with a grilled hot dog that's been split in half. It costs $8.29 with fries and a drink, and the reason for the higher-than-average price is it's "like two sandwiches in one — and your side." (Plus, this big beast has 1,030 calories, 64 grams of fat, and 2,350 milligrams of sodium, so it's not like you'd have to eat anything else that day.)

A company rep tells USA Today this patriotic beauty has been in the works for nearly a decade. The big hangup was this quandary of how to create a sandwich with chips that don't get soggy. Luckily, the R&D team eventually discovered extra-crispy kettle chips — decade-long chip puzzle finally solved. Alas, America's obesity epidemic might take a little longer to figure out.

[USAT]

Read more posts by Clint Rainey

Filed Under: the chain gang, burgers, carl's jr., hardee's, most american thickburger

Rogue restaurant websites connected to the OrderAhead delivery service are claiming the official Google Business listings of restaurants around the country — diverting web traffic from actual restaurant websites in violation of the search giant’s terms of service. That’s the latest finding from GeekWire’s ongoing investigation into OrderAhead, a product of the Y Combinator startup accelerator with a roster of high-profile Silicon Valley investors, including Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt. Last week, we reported about the widespread registration of rogue OrderAhead websites using restaurant names without the restaurants’ knowledge or consent. These sites often outrank the actual restaurant websites in search results. When someone… Read More

Nintendo turned its first annual profit since 2011, posting operating income of 24.8 billion yen, or $207 million, cutting costs to move itself into the black despite a decrease in revenue for the year ended in March. The results came despite meager results for the Wii U console, which sold 340,000 units in the quarter, compared with 2.8 million units for Sony’s PlayStation consoles and 1.6 million Xbox consoles sold by Microsoft during the quarter. The company, which has its North American headquarters in Redmond, Wash., also pointed ahead to the financial impact of its move into smartphone games, through a… Read More

Why?

India these days is slowly, cautiously, warming up to burgers, but is the nation (or anybody else, for that matter) ready for a jet-black version? Barcelos, a chain based in South Africa that has just one Indian location, is the perpetrator, and the sandwich, being in India, comes with either grilled chicken or a veggie patty between the buns.

Clearly, all-black burgers are on the darker side, but something about the artificial dyes this time — "red, yellow, and blue food colors in appropriate proportions," instead of the bamboo charcoal in Burger King's sandwich or the squid ink in McDonald's — makes this one completely matte black.

"Somebody had to introduce it here," a Barcelos India executive said, "and we did it." The sandwich rolls out today.

[Times of India]

Read more posts by Clint Rainey

Filed Under: burgers, barcelos, black burgers, india

Amazon’s drone delivery is still a little ways off at least, but we got another glimpse at the future today thanks to a patent application the company filed. The “Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Delivery System” patent describes a system that would allow Amazon’s drones to intelligently reroute to find a package’s recipient through their smartphone. That’s just one of the new details included in the patent, which was first reported on by the BBC. It’s part of an overall system that will allow Amazon’s drones to intelligently reroute themselves with the package in order to reach the user wherever they may… Read More

The Seattle company that lets anyone turn themselves into a superhero is about to dive into shark-infested waters this Friday. You Kick Ass creators Keri Andrews and Alesia Glidewell appear on Shark Tank to pitch their idea of turning anyone into a superhero action figure. We wrote about You Kick Ass last summer, after the startup concluded a successful Kickstarter campaign, ending up with $45,000, well over their initial goal of $15,000. The three friends, including partner Douglas Jordan, came up with the idea to customize superheroes after Glidewell received her action figure of the Portal game series’ Chell, for which… Read More

What does a first kiss taste like according to Ansel? Raspberries, fresh mint, and vanilla cream.

Pastry savant Dominique Ansel is busy making made-to-order pastries at his new Dominique Ansel Kitchen, but sometime this summer he will debut his after hours dessert tasting counter, Unlimited Possibilities (aka U.P.). From the ceiling of the second floor of DAK, a table will descend for an eight person, eight course dessert menu with cocktail pairings designed to make diners remember all of the "firsts" in their life, from first word to first kiss, to first job. Ansel explains: "Our goal here was not just to focus on ingredients and flavors, but the emotion behind a dish." So what does a first kiss taste like when it's served on a plate? Raspberry, fresh mint, and vanilla cream, according to Ansel and his pastry chefs Karys Logue and Noah Carroll, and butter popcorn rum and cola, according to mixologist Don Lee.

U.P will take just two seatings a night (at 7 p.m. and 9 p.m.) on Fridays through Sundays only, and will only accept parties of two or four. Tickets for the experience ($75 with a $35 cocktail supplement) will go on sale in late May through Tock, the ticketing system developed by Alinea restaurateur Nick Kokonas, but there's no official start date quite yet. Keep in mind, the "first" theme will only be around for half a year before Ansel changes it entirely.

First Menu

T-Mobile has buried the hatchet with BlackBerry after a feud between the two companies that lasted more than a year. The Bellevue-based carrier announced today that its customers will be able to purchase the BlackBerry Classic. The device will be available for purchase for $0 down, with a monthly payment of $18.33 for 24 months, beginning on May 15. It’s fairly unique among smartphones not only because it’s made by BlackBerry, but also because it sports a physical keyboard, which is a rarity among smartphones these days. It’s good news for BlackBerry, which continues to lose market share to its… Read More

“My dad doesn’t want me to join the military because I’m his only son. But I’ve watched a lot of movies and cartoons and stuff about the military. It seems cool and I want to be a part of that.”

Okay.

Traditionally celebrated every day of the year, a man in Colorado has very serious plans to turn one specific day, June 11, into "White Appreciation Day" at his BBQ joint. "Basically on that day, all white people would get 10 percent off," explains Edgar Antillon, co-owner of Rubbin' Buttz BBQ in the town of Milliken. "We have a whole month for Black History Month, we have a whole month for Hispanic Heritage Month, so we figure that the least we can do is offer one day to appreciate white Americans."

The move started drawing attention after the restaurant posted a window sign that reads "White Appreciation Day! June 11th. Because all Americans should be celebrated!!"

Regardless, Colorado has laws, as someone from the Department of Regulatory Agencies reminded viewers on the local news last night, and racial discrimination typically violates one of them. The department "would investigate" any complaints that arise from this discount, the person says. Surely, Rubbin' Buttz's lawyer is advising against his client's new observance day.

Antillon, who's Mexican American and says he's quite familiar with racism, is pretty sure his discount will do the promote the complete opposite of discrimination. In his mind, it basically boils down to: "We're all American, whether you came from a different country or you were born here."

It's possible he's not an equal-opportunity discounter, though. While he says he'd consider offering one to other racial groups, he admits that's "unlikely to actually happen."

[9NEWS]

Read more posts by Clint Rainey

Filed Under: bad ideas, colorado, discrimination, news, white appreciation day

"Hearty and soothing and fairly transporting."

Traditionally, the Swiss dish raclette was made by melting cheese over a roaring wood fire, ideally one located within some cozy mountain chalet. Presumably having realized the logistics involved in melting cheeses over wood fires inside eight-seat Alphabet City storefronts were prohibitively complex, Edgar Villongco, the chef-owner of this terrific, two-month-old café, opted for an alternative. His electric countertop cheese-melter may look like something you'd lock a two-by-four into to facilitate sawing, but it gets the job done.

How does it work? A half-wheel of raclette (the Swiss cheese after which both the dish and the shop are named) is propped on its side and strapped into the device, its surface exposed to a heating rod that melts and bubbles the cut end from above like a Corner Bistro cheeseburger. When the tanning-booth session is complete, and the top layer of fromage is lightly browned and suitably gooey, it's scraped off with a wide knife over a plate of roast potatoes accompanied by pickled onions, cornichons, and a light arugula salad.

The result ($10) is superbly hearty and soothing and fairly transporting, like an alpine getaway on Avenue A. There are some other delicious things to eat at Raclette besides raclette. An unassuming and deceptively light-seeming croque monsieur ($9) is almost too rich to finish. A tartine of sardines with tapenade on toasted sourdough ($9) is spectacular, smothered with sliced fennel and fresh herbs. And a toasted assemblage of strawberry-tarragon preserves, dark chocolate, and fromage blanc ($9) will appeal to aficionados of Nutella pizzas, s'mores calzones, and oozy, bready, melted-chocolate things in general.

One crucial thing Raclette does not have at the moment: a beer and wine license, which, as any raclette connoisseur knows, in compulsory in the enjoyment of the dish, as the cheese is said to congeal in the stomach when consumed with water. So BYO nice dry Riesling or, even better, a Swiss Fendant to cut through the richness. To do otherwise is to risk the dreaded raclette bloat, a fate even worse than fondue-fork-fatigue syndrome.

Raclette, 195 Ave. A., nr. 12th St.; 917-853-5377

Read more posts by Rob Patronite and Robin Raisfeld

Filed Under: the underground gourmet quick bites, new york, raclette