The Dark Side of Cooking – Naturally Black Chicken

Did you know there was such a thing as black chicken? And I don’t mean as in dark feathers, but black skin, bones and even internal organs. There are actually several black chicken breeds in the world, especially in Asia, but the most popular of all has to be the Chinese Silkie.

Silkies are beautiful birds, covered in fluffy plumage, which is said to feel like silk, but underneath all that fluff they are far less attractive. Their skin is a dark-bluish color, the flesh is dark beige and the bones and some internal organs are pitch black. Although in the Western world silkie chickens are sold mainly for ornamental purposes, in countries like China they are considered a super food and are appreciated for their deep, gammy flavor. Called “wu gu ji” or “black-boned chicken”, the silkie has been prized for its medicinal value ever since the seventh or eighth century. Chinese women consume it after they have given birth to get a boost of energy, but it’s also said to have a positive effect on the yin, blood, lungs and stomach. Silkie meat is rarely roasted. To take full advantage of its curative properties, the Chinese mainly use it to make an amber-colored broth laced with ginseng , dried wolfberries and jujubes.

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Vegan Black Metal Chef Cooks Healthy Dishes with Hellfire and the Power of Rock

32-year-old Brian Manowitz, better known as the Vegan Black Metal Chef, has one of the most unusual cooking shows on the internet. Dressed in his vinyl Armor of Death and boasting a KISS-inspired face paint mask, he cooks all kinds of delicious vegan meals to the sound of black metal.

Manowitz, a freelance sound engineer from Orlando, has been a vegan for the last 13 years. He’s also a big fan of black metal music, so he decided to combine both of his passions into a unique and entertaining project known as Vegan Black Metal Chef. He set up a site where he posts recipes and photos of his delicious cooking, but it was his YouTube channel that brought him worldwide fame a couple of years ago. Brian’s videos always open to the sound thunderous drums and distorted guitar riffs, and show him in his dark dungeon-like kitchen decorated with leather-bound cabinets, medieval chopping tools and spooky candles, as he explains how to prepare vegan dishes with a crackly voice. All vegetables are “butchered” with his collection of awesome knives, or smashed with a mace, and cooked on a pentagram stove altar. “You can’t summon the essence of Satan into your food without the pentagrams,” Manowitz says.

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Takeaway Restaurant Offers Dirty Dishes Alongside the Food for Authenticity

UK-based restaurant Housebites decided to help people who can’t cook but want to impress their guests by offering them the dirty dishes alongside the food, so they can be more convincing.

Not everyone likes to cook, but lost of people love to pretend they can cook, so British takeaway restaurant Housebites, decided to give them a hand by launching the “pretend you can cook” service. According to the official press release, this ” allows customers to pretend they have slaved away at a hot stove more convincingly by delivering dirty pans alongside the food. Cooked by a professional chef and delivered to your door, Housebites main courses cost on average between £10($16) and £12($19), and now for an additional £5($8), customers can request the pans used to cook them for added authenticity. Collection of the pans is then arranged as easily as the original delivery slot.”

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Thai Cook Fries His Own Hands, Doesn’t Get Burned

Kann “Superhands” Trichan got the cool nickname for his incredible ability of scooping pieces of chicken from burning-hot oil with his bare hands.

The 50-year-old Chiang Mai-based street cook can sink his fingers into 480 degrees hot grease without getting so much as a blister on his hands, and his amazing ability has won him international fame. People from all over the world come to his “Fried Chicken Iron Hands Man” food stall to see Kann use his hands to scoop out the chicken and he and his wife travel the globe showing off his gift. Superhands has no idea why he can do what he does, but he’s just happy it brings more and more customers for his business, every day.

Kann Trichan first discovered his unusual gift seven years ago, when he accidentally got hot oil splattered all over his body. While attending his giant woks, he noticed a squirrel eating a mango on a branch just above him. The squirrel dropped the big fruit right in the oil splattering it all over Kann’s body and head. A taxi took him home and when he got up the next day ready to go see a doctor, he took a look in the mirror only to see he had no burns. The redness was fading away and his skin was practically intact, so he just decided to go back to work, to the astonishment of his fellow street vendors.

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Have a Ball at Serbia’s Testicle Cooking Championship

Every year, teams of chefs from all over Serbia, gather in the remote mountain village of Ozrem to cook various testicle dishes, in the World Testicle Cooking Championship.

For most people, the mere thought of eating any kind of testicles is sickening, but for the Serbians, who believe testicles contain a lot of testosterone which helps men’s libidos, it’s just a welcome challenge. So, to turn it into a competition, Ljubomir Erovic created the World Testicle Cooking Championship, back in 2005. Since then, it’s been organized every year, and more and more tourists come to try, or see others stuff their faces with various testicle-based foods. The festival has become so popular that Erovic, a seasoned testicle cook, has even published a testicle cookbook.

The motto of the event is “Scots have their scotch, the Swiss – their cheese, and we, the Serbs, have balls,”, and judging by the number of testicles cooked and consumed by the audience, I’d say that’s very true. The cooks use testicles from all kinds of animals and birds, including bulls, pigs, ostriches, roosters, kangaroos, or turkeys. Each of them have original recopies which they hope will land them the annual prize and the title of testicle cooking champion. Read More »

God-grilla – The World’s Biggest BBQ

Measuring 16 feet across and weighing a whopping two tonnes, the God-grilla claims the title of world’s largest barbecue. It would probably get the title of all around largest BBQ, if it weren’t for the Big Taste Grill, a giant truck converted into a traveling barbecue. More on this amazing contraption, soon, for now let’s discover God-grilla.

God-grilla was designed by 31-year-old Jack Henriques, owner of the Bespoke BBQ Company. It is fitted with hinged pannels that allow easy access to add more logs, and has seven separate coal trays that allow you to cook up to seven whole lambs, at once. You can also use the God-grilla to grill 1,000 sausages or 500 hamburgers.

But, as you would expect, using a cooking monster like the God-grilla comes at a high cost. You need 14 bags of coal to get this beast started, so you better make sure your frinds pitch in at the next barbecue party.

Jack Henriques spent three months and over $15.000 to create God-grilla, and says he’s already working on an even more impressive cooking machine.

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RUB Barbecue Chopper Makes a Mean Steak

Built back in 2007, by the guys at Orange County Choppers, the Barbecue Chopper actually features a working barbecue, for people who enjoy a nice steak, on the go.

This totally awesome chopper was featured on Make, as a present for its readers, on Memorial Day, and reminded me of the great bikes built by OCC. Normally their concept choppers are just for show, but this particular masterpiece, built for RUB, has a working barbecue, made by pit master, David Klose. The lucky rider can actually enjoy a nice fresh barbecue and ride this baby at the same time. I’d say that’s the ultimate biker’s dream.

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Chinese Cooking Robot Cooks Over 600 Dishes

It’s official, China is trying to get this cooking thing completely automated. A week after a retired engineer presented his DIY robot cook, another springs up .

The students of Yangzhou University, in Yangzhou, China partnered up with an enterprise from Shenzen, to create a fully automated robotic cook. Their result is nothing short of impressive, considering the machine can cook over 600 dishes from Chinese cuisine. All anyone has to do is put in the necessary ingredints, program the robot and weight for the dish to be served.

Bad news for Liu Changfa, the retired engineer who presented his own patented robot cook. Iguess hi dream of selling one to every restaurant in China, won’t be coming true, after all.

Photos by Zhao Jun/Xinhua

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Chinese Engineer Invents Robot Cook

Liu Changfa, a retired automation engineer,from China, needed only one year to create a robot cook, using only rudimentary tools, like hammer and axe.

The Chinese inventor connected his robot cook to a laptop computer and a cellphone that allow to choose preset menus, or program it to cook certain dishes. Vinegar, salt, sugar and all other seasoning is stored in the robot’s chest, and the cooking takes place in its belly, where an induction cooker is installed. With the help of some dedicated software, the dedicated robot can be programmed to add a certain amount of seasoning, or stir a dish a certain number of times.

All Liu Changfa has to do is put the raw ingredients into the pot, and wait for the beeping sound, made by the robot. He has already contacted a Chinese restaurant, which will test the robot cook in its kitchen, and add robot dishes on its menu. More restaurants will shortly follow, says Liu Changfa.

Well, I’d wait a while before adding cooking to the list of automated fields, but this is definitely a step in that direction.

Photos via CNS Photo

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If You Can’t Grill It, Can It

That’s an old saying, or at least it should be, because it often happens you find yourself with a nice, big chicken and no way to cook it.

I don’t know if the guy who came up with this didn’t have a grill at hand or if he simply doesn’t like barbecue. But then again, who doesn’t like barbecue? Anyway, it turns out all you need to cook a delicious chicken, is  an empty can of cooking oil, some wood and a match. So there you have it, next time you find yourself outdoors, in the mood for roasted chicken, you can improvise your own oven.

These pics should so be on Instructables!

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Jana’s Fun Cakes Are Edible Masterpieces

Her name is Jana Danae Groller and her love for baking, challenges and giving to people creates true edible masterpieces.

With help from her husband Matt, Jana comes up with all kinds of cake concepts and together think up different ways of actually bringing them to life. Their collaborative work so far is pretty impressive, especially the Jesus Cake and the Elvis Cake. But according to Jana, this is only the beginning, so we can expect a lot more delicious artworks.

If you want an edible Elvis for yourself, you’ll be glad to know Jana takes orders. Just drop by Jana’s Fun Cakes and check out her work.

via UnusualLife

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The Tasty Cooked Mice of Malawi

I knew cooked field rats were eaten in Asian countries like Thailand and Vietnam (they look very tasty too), but it seems they’re regarded as a delicacy in African countries like Malawi.

Living in one of the world’s poorest countries, the people of Malawi have to survive any way they can, so when they’re confronted with the choice of eating mice or starving to death, you can guess what they opt for.

Young children chase the “tasty” critters through the corn fields, right after the harvest, when the mice are nice and fat. To easily catch Kapuku, the most popular edible species of mice, locals set up traps throughout the fields. They fill large clay vats with water and smear them with fried corn husks. As the rats fight over the husks, some of them fall in and drown.

The mice are cooked, salted or dried, then strung on sticks and sold as delicacies. Yum!

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Mega-Pizza

I like my pizza with rich toppings, just like everyone else I suppose,  but how much is too much?

Take this mega-pizza for example, the cook added a crazy amount of toppings, including, sausage, mushrooms, ham, shrimps, pineapple, cream-cheese, Parmesan, bacon and an egg on top. This delicacy was over 4 inches thick before going into the oven and judging by that last, delicious-looking photo, it didn’t drop too much after cooking.

I have to say I’m a big pizza fan (who isn’t, right?) and I would love to try this tasty-looking mega-pizza. Who knows, maybe I’ll try making one of my own, right after I’m finished with this stupid diet. It certainly easier to make than the meat house.

via Struntsaker

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Chinese Chef Makes World’s Longest Noodle

Li Enhai, a talented cook from China, insured himself a spot in the Guinness Book of Records after  making a 2,852 meters long noodle, with just one kilogram of flour. In the photos, you can witness his noodle stretching technique, at a hotel opening, in Keshikten, northern China, on July 29.

Photos by Xinhua/Sun Guoshu

via People.com.cn

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Giant Mortadella

I have been eating Mortadella ever since I can remember and I’m not even Italian. But I never knew Mortadella can be this big.

Apparently, in Bologna and the surrounding area, the boiled sausage known as Mortadella can be as heavy as 200 kilograms. Even weirder is the fact that it’s cut into the thinnest slices, so its taste and aroma can be fully appreciated.

If that’s really the case then one of those giant Mortadellas is enough to feed the whole city.

via CopyPast

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