Salon.com > Food Tube http://www.salon.com Sat, 25 May 2013 01:08:20 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 Police arrest Kobayashi for hot dog contest outburst http://www.salon.com/2010/07/04/us_hot_dog_contest/ http://www.salon.com/2010/07/04/us_hot_dog_contest/#comments Sun, 04 Jul 2010 18:01:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2010/07/04/us_hot_dog_contest Hot dog!

Competitive eater Joey Chestnut has held on to his title at the annual July Fourth hot dog eating contest at New York's Coney Island, but one of his biggest rivals tried to crash the celebration and has been taken into custody.

Chestnut chomped down on 54 hot dogs in 10 minutes on Sunday to win the annual Nathan's International Hot Dog Eating Contest for the fourth year in a row.

Watching from the crowd was six-time champion Takeru Kobayashi (tah-KEH'-roo koh-bah-YAH'-shee), who has not signed a contract with Major League Eating to be free to compete in contests sanctioned by other groups.

But Kobayashi went on stage after the competition. Police officers grabbed him, and he tried to hold onto police barricades as they took him into custody.

Continue Reading...

]]> http://www.salon.com/2010/07/04/us_hot_dog_contest/feed/ 33 Evian’s roller-babies skate their way on to TV http://www.salon.com/2010/04/16/rollerskating_evian_babies/ http://www.salon.com/2010/04/16/rollerskating_evian_babies/#comments Fri, 16 Apr 2010 17:17:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/food/feature/2010/04/16/rollerskating_evian_babies Who would have thought that sticking a bunch of computer-generated babies into rollerskates and having them dance around Central Park to "Rapper's Delight" is a genius way to sell bottled water? When Evian's French "Live Young" ad -- starring tykes in diapers doing pirouettes, jumps and hanging precariously off chain-link fencing -- hit the web in the summer of last year, it rapidly became a viral sensation, racking up a whopping 102 million page views. Now, Ad Age reports, the campaign has been deemed so successful that the babies are making their way on to American TV  (running in L.A. starting this week, and New York starting this summer).

Continue Reading...

]]> http://www.salon.com/2010/04/16/rollerskating_evian_babies/feed/ 9 Vodka: Now with more LCD screens http://www.salon.com/2010/04/13/medea_led_vodka/ http://www.salon.com/2010/04/13/medea_led_vodka/#comments Tue, 13 Apr 2010 19:14:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/food/feature/2010/04/13/medea_led_vodka Have you ever, like me, opened up your liquor cabinet, pulled out some vodka and thought to yourself, "My life would be so much more complete if this bottle of booze had an electronic screen which I could use to awkwardly convey messages to my loved ones and/or random people at parties"? If the answer is yes (and why wouldn't it be?), we've got some exciting news for you: Medea vodka is selling $40 dollar bottles of vodka with a built-in programmable screen that, as the company's website claims, is "the world’s first interactive bottle" and "unleashes your inner poet, your inner philosopher, your inner flirt."

If this delightfully-accented instructional video (which has been making the tech blog rounds) is any indication, "your inner poet" actually means  "your ability to sit around with your bored friends and drunkenly fiddle with complicated gadgetry to program spelling-mistake-riddled Shakespeare quotes onto your liquor bottle." The future is now!

Continue Reading...

]]> http://www.salon.com/2010/04/13/medea_led_vodka/feed/ 2 Breast milk cheese: The media frenzy http://www.salon.com/2010/03/12/how_to_butcher_a_rabbit/ http://www.salon.com/2010/03/12/how_to_butcher_a_rabbit/#comments Fri, 12 Mar 2010 18:01:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/food/feature/2010/03/12/how_to_butcher_a_rabbit
  • The big novelty food story of the week has been New York Chef Daniel Angerer's breast milk cheese -- a dish that he makes from his wife's leftover breast milk. Salon's own Kate Harding argued that the uproar over the foodstuff is much ado about bodily fluids, but that hasn't stopped everybody from Kelly Ripa to food critic Raymond Sokolov from sampling the cheese to great fandare. This week, CNN's Jeanne Moos spoke with the couple behind the cheese, rounded up some of the media reactions, and then tried it for herself.

    • Continue Reading...

    ]]>     http://www.salon.com/2010/03/12/how_to_butcher_a_rabbit/feed/ 16     The Food Lift: Milk’s weird new viral campaign http://www.salon.com/2010/03/05/food_lift_infomercial_video_roundup/ http://www.salon.com/2010/03/05/food_lift_infomercial_video_roundup/#comments Fri, 05 Mar 2010 18:01:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/food/feature/2010/03/05/food_lift_infomercial_video_roundup
  • This infomercial, for a device called the Food Lift, which "works on the same principle as a waiter climbing a spiral staircase," has been making the rounds over the last few days. The Food Lift purees food and conveys it up a penis-like tube into a person's mouth, a simple and classy way to avoid exhausting yourself with cutlery or light lifting. While it's hard to tell, the video is actually part of a viral ad campaign for milk -- hence all the references to milk's weakness-fighting properties -- but that doesn’t take away from its bizarro brilliance, especially the part with the blueberry pie money shot.

    • Continue Reading...

    ]]>     http://www.salon.com/2010/03/05/food_lift_infomercial_video_roundup/feed/ 3     Italian TV chef: Cats are a “delicacy” http://www.salon.com/2010/02/26/cat_cooking_beppe_bigazzi/ http://www.salon.com/2010/02/26/cat_cooking_beppe_bigazzi/#comments Fri, 26 Feb 2010 18:27:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/food/feature/2010/02/26/cat_cooking_beppe_bigazzi
  • The strangest food news story of the day comes from Italy, where state-run RAI TV has suspended Beppe Bigazzi, a 77-year-old Italian cooking show host, for waxing poetically about a supposed Tuscan delicacy: cat stew. The footage has made its way onto YouTube, and even if you don’t speak Italian, the horrified reaction of the show’s host pretty much says everything you need to know about what’s happening. According to the AP’s translation, Bigazzi began his segment by saying, "Who’s not fat, kills the cat" before going on about how "Cat, soaked for three days in the running water of a stream ... comes out with its meat white," before assuring viewers, "I have eaten it many times -- ... it is a delicacy."

    • Continue Reading...

    ]]>     http://www.salon.com/2010/02/26/cat_cooking_beppe_bigazzi/feed/ 4     Domino’s weird ads: A retrospective http://www.salon.com/2010/02/19/freaky_dominos_ad_roundup/ http://www.salon.com/2010/02/19/freaky_dominos_ad_roundup/#comments Fri, 19 Feb 2010 14:01:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/food/feature/2010/02/19/freaky_dominos_ad_roundup Earlier this week, Salon’s Sara Breselor interviewed Bryan Wansink about Domino’s sweetened new pizza recipe, a recipe that the company has been touting in a bizarre television ad that lists customer grievances ("Domino's tastes like cardboard") and soberly acknowledges that their problems are now a thing of the past. The "I sucked but now I don't" strategy is a strange approach to pizza advertising, but, then again, Domino’s has an illustrious history of baffling (and even fecal-themed) ad campaigns. Don’t believe us? We’ve assembled some of the company’s most head-scratching ads below:

    • In 2006, Domino's decided to sell its new line of "brownie squares" with dipping sauces by doing the following: 1. Dressing up a small person in a costume that looks like a giant turd. 2. Naming the turd "Fudgems." 3. Having child hug Fudgems so that it comes away covered in what appears to be feces. Who wants a brownie?

    Continue Reading...

    ]]>     http://www.salon.com/2010/02/19/freaky_dominos_ad_roundup/feed/ 17     Jamie Oliver at TED: Bad food is killing America http://www.salon.com/2010/02/12/jamie_oliver_ted_talk/ http://www.salon.com/2010/02/12/jamie_oliver_ted_talk/#comments Fri, 12 Feb 2010 16:13:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/food/feature/2010/02/12/jamie_oliver_ted_talk
  • Jamie Oliver was one of the recipients of this year's TED prizes, which awards $100,000 to "exceptional individuals" with a particular wish or project. Oliver's award will help him launch his campaign against American obesity (a subject documented in his new reality show, "Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution"). In his TED talk, which just hit the Web, he vividly outlines the dangers that obesity poses for America, explains the need for broader food education in schools, and throws a bunch of sugar on the stage. It's a lengthy video, but for anybody interested in the debate about American children's health, it's a must-see.

    • Continue Reading...

    ]]>     http://www.salon.com/2010/02/12/jamie_oliver_ted_talk/feed/ 9     Inside Arizona’s obesity-themed restaurant http://www.salon.com/2010/02/05/food_tube_heart_attack_video/ http://www.salon.com/2010/02/05/food_tube_heart_attack_video/#comments Fri, 05 Feb 2010 18:06:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/food/feature/2010/02/05/food_tube_heart_attack_video
  • In case you weren't disturbed enough by this week's bizarre story of two American heart attack-themed restaurants suing each other because of their similar concept (and the fact that each gives free food to people who weigh over 350 pounds), this Travel Channel visit to Heart Attack Grill in Arizona, home to the quadruple bypass burger, reveals the restaurant to be even more obnoxious than we'd imagined.  The female wait staff are dressed like naughty nurses, they're "required" to take the vital signs of the "patients" before they order, and the owner is, of course, a sleazy dude dressed in a doctor's outfit. 

    • Continue Reading...

    ]]>     http://www.salon.com/2010/02/05/food_tube_heart_attack_video/feed/ 9     Jamie Oliver cries, Japanese game show weirdness, and more http://www.salon.com/2010/01/29/food_tube_food_revolution_trailer/ http://www.salon.com/2010/01/29/food_tube_food_revolution_trailer/#comments Fri, 29 Jan 2010 18:01:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/food/feature/2010/01/29/food_tube_food_revolution_trailer
  • The trailer for Jamie Oliver's new ABC show hit the Web this week. "Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution" takes the British chef to Huntington, W.V., the unhealthiest city in America, where he tries to (in some unclear manner) get people to eat better food. Clearly, things get emotional, as evidenced by all of the crying jags.

    • This Japanese game show pits two delivery people against each other to see who can deliver their item (in this case, Domino's pizza) the fastest. I must say, the execution wasn't exactly what I was expecting (I was thinking less preparation, a little more scooter-racing) but there's still something delightful about the relentless weirdness of watching two people stressing out about making fast food -- and the fact that the audience "oohs" at the sight of melting cheese (via Eater).

    Continue Reading...

    ]]>     http://www.salon.com/2010/01/29/food_tube_food_revolution_trailer/feed/ 0     World’s cutest cheese ad, exploding wine, chocolate records http://www.salon.com/2010/01/22/video_roundup_nolans_cheese/ http://www.salon.com/2010/01/22/video_roundup_nolans_cheese/#comments Fri, 22 Jan 2010 18:01:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/food/feature/2010/01/22/video_roundup_nolans_cheese
  • This Nolan's cheese commercial -- starring a mousetrap, a hunk of cheddar, and one extremely adorable rodent -- has been going viral this week for very good reason: It's not only aw-inducing, it's got one of the funniest Rocky-themed punchlines of any commercial, well, ever.

    • There are many things you can do with chocolate: Put it in a fountain, create a sculptural interpretation of Don Quixote, and, apparently, make records that will play cheesy German folk music. Meet Peter Lardong, a laid-off beer company worker who makes fully-functional LPs made out of chocolate:

    Continue Reading...

    ]]>     http://www.salon.com/2010/01/22/video_roundup_nolans_cheese/feed/ 2     A plate that scolds you, Del Taco’s web series http://www.salon.com/2010/01/15/video_roundup_scolding_plate/ http://www.salon.com/2010/01/15/video_roundup_scolding_plate/#comments Fri, 15 Jan 2010 21:45:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/food/feature/2010/01/15/video_roundup_scolding_plate
  • In the off chance that you feel like your significant other, parent, or subconscious isn’t scolding you enough for your eating habits, we’ve got good news for you: Now your plate can get in on the action too. British researchers have created a "scolding plate," that measures the weight on your plate, and tells you whether you’re eating too fast (a habit that can lead to overeating). The device was first developed to help sufferers of eating disorders. Check out the creepy demonstration video ( and note the narrator’s delightful pronunciation of the word "Mandometer")

    • Continue Reading...

    ]]>     http://www.salon.com/2010/01/15/video_roundup_scolding_plate/feed/ 3     KFC’s (maybe) racist ad, Michael Pollan and more http://www.salon.com/2010/01/08/food_tube_kfc_racism/ http://www.salon.com/2010/01/08/food_tube_kfc_racism/#comments Fri, 08 Jan 2010 18:01:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/food/feature/2010/01/08/food_tube_kfc_racism
  • Is this Australian KFC ad racist? That's what blogs were claiming this week, about this spot showing a white man befriending black sports fans by offering them fried chicken. Given that the food doesn't have the same loaded context in Australia as it does in the United States -- the company responded that it was a "light-hearted reference to the West Indian cricket team" -- this seems less like racism, and more like a cultural dissonance. (via Slashfood)

    • Continue Reading...

    ]]>     http://www.salon.com/2010/01/08/food_tube_kfc_racism/feed/ 10     When obesity ads shock http://www.salon.com/2009/12/15/obesity_psa_winners_losers/ http://www.salon.com/2009/12/15/obesity_psa_winners_losers/#comments Tue, 15 Dec 2009 19:16:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/food/feature/2009/12/15/obesity_psa_winners_losers It’s fair to say that most New York City subway riders are a fairly hard bunch to shock ("What’s that guy doing in the corner? Just peeing in his knapsack.") but even by those standards the city’s recent anti-soda subway ad campaign, showing fat pouring out of pop cans, was still pretty darn disgusting. The campaign, begun in late summer, aims to teach people about the health danger of drinking too much soda – and yesterday it came out with an even more disturbing video ad, which has since gone viral:

    Continue Reading...

    ]]>     http://www.salon.com/2009/12/15/obesity_psa_winners_losers/feed/ 9     YouTube microwaves, “Top Chef,” and burger secrets http://www.salon.com/2009/12/11/food_tube_youtube_microwave/ http://www.salon.com/2009/12/11/food_tube_youtube_microwave/#comments Fri, 11 Dec 2009 18:01:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/food/feature/2009/12/11/food_tube_youtube_microwave
  • Because we needed another way to destroy our cumulative attention spans: Ubergizmo blogged this week about the new CastOven microwave -- with a built-in 10.4 inch LCD screen, speakers, and the capacity to play random YouTube clips with the exact length of your cooking time. Finally, your dreams of watching iPod commercials while warming up instant noodles can come true.

    • In the past few days, the folks at Digg were all over this clip from "Buy Me That" -- a children's consumer awareness-program -- in which a food stylist explains how she sells hamburgers on TV using undercooked meat, branding, strategic cutting, and toothpicks. There's something about the tinted early-nineties glow of the footage that makes her explanation seem extra-perturbing.

    Continue Reading...

    ]]>     http://www.salon.com/2009/12/11/food_tube_youtube_microwave/feed/ 0     Fake meat, Freedom Trays and a cat-yogurt disaster http://www.salon.com/2009/12/04/food_tube_artificial_meat/ http://www.salon.com/2009/12/04/food_tube_artificial_meat/#comments Fri, 04 Dec 2009 15:10:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/food/feature/2009/12/04/food_tube_artificial_meat In this new Friday feature, we'll be rounding up the most interesting, most talked-about, or some of the just plain bizarre food-related videos that have been circulating on the Web over the past week. If you come across anything worth watching (especially if it involves Paula Deen and flying hams), please send us a link at food@salon.com.

    • In one of the more unappetizing food news items of the week, we learned that Dutch scientists had developed a new form of "artificial meat" derived from pig stem cell, which could help reduce greenhouse gas emissions from animal farms -- while sounding about as appetizing as bacon-flavored lubricant. On "The Daily Show" Jon Stewart articulates our disgust better than we could ourselves (via NYMag).

    Continue Reading...

    ]]>     http://www.salon.com/2009/12/04/food_tube_artificial_meat/feed/ 10