Do you remember how you always had to be quiet at the dinner table when you were young but never understood why? Now that you’re all grown up, with children of your own, you probably wish you could have just one more of those quiet dinners. If quiet is what you seek, you’re in luck, as now you can enjoy a four-course meal in complete silence at the Eat restaurant in Greenpoint, Brooklyn where you have to be quiet and enjoy the food, whether you like it or not.

Nicholas Nauman, head chef and curator of the silent-dinner experience, got the idea for the event during a trip to India where he admired the Buddhist monks having their breakfast every morning without uttering a word. In a competing market where restaurant owners are coming up with the most unusual concepts to attract customers – such as dining in pitch-dark, the 28-year-old thought this idea would gain popularity. “It’s just an opportunity to enjoy food in a way you might not have otherwise,” he says. This way, he hopes to “reconfigure the relationship between a space and food” by forcing customers to focus on their plates rather than on the countless distractions that occur while sitting at the dinner table.

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A new Danish restaurant called “Rub og Stub” is offering patrons dishes cooked with ingredients supermarkets throw away, hoping to reduce food waste and raise money for charity.  According to Sophie Sales, the co-founder of the restaurant “Too much food is thrown away in Denmark, and we wanted to do something about it.” So far, the restaurant has been able to offer “everything from lamb chops and duck breast, to big bags of grapes and dairy products,” Sales explains, courtesy of two supermarket chains belonging to Coop Danmark – the country’s biggest grocery retailer.

The idea for Rub og Stub came from Denmark’s “freegans”, which are better known as dumpster divers. In an attempt to reduce food waste, these people look through trash and consume the edible morsels they find. The ingenious team thought that it would be very good to use this unconventional idea for their restaurant.The tendency to look for the freshest, most beautiful produce has a real impact on the way supermarkets do business, forcing vendors to throw out food that might not look flawless but is still safe to eat. According to Businessweek, in 2012 Americans threw out the equivalent of about $180 billion” worth of food — 8 percent more than in 2008, the last time the USDA calculated the total value of food loss from households, supermarkets, restaurants, and other food-service providers. As Sales and her team are very interested in “food, sustainability and modern consumer society,” this matter is of utmost importance to them.

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Buttery and succulent, the related oil fish (Ruvettus pretiosus)  and escolar (Lepidocybium flavobrunneum)) are considered to be two of the most palatable fish in the world. But before you run out to your local fish market in search of these delicacies, you’d better stock up on toilet paper because you’re going to spend a lot of time in the restroom after your scrumptious meal.

With such a large number of species in danger of  being over-fished and others posing health risks due to their high mercury content, the seafood industry needs alternatives that taste great, are cheap, sustainable and healthy to consume. The oilfish and escolar seem perfect choices, and although they’ve been popping up in restaurants and fish markets around the world, there is one dirty little secret that those who sell them sometimes forget to reveal – they cause explosive, oily, orange diarrhea. I know it sounds bad, but there is a way to avoid this embarrassing and highly uncomfortable side effect. The fish are safe to eat if they are consumed in portions smaller than six ounces, but most people are either unaware of the consequences or they just can’t help themselves because they are so damn delicious, so they go for full servings. People who actually went through this kind of ordeal have reported the oily discharges are almost impossible to control and often lead to embarrassing accidents.

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Few cereals can be described as stunningly beautiful, but the multi-colored Glass Gem Corn is definitely one of these rare exceptions. Also known as Rainbow Corn, these unique strain of corn features kernels of many different colors that sparkle like tiny pieces of blown glass.

The story of Glass Gem corn began with Carl Barnes, a part-Cherokee farmer from Oklahoma who noticed that every once in a while some of his corn cobs had strangely-colored kernels, and dedicated his life to creating the agricultural wonder you see below. Nobody knows exactly how many years Barnes spent worked on the unique cereal, how many successive seasons he carefully chose, saved, and replanted these special seeds, but one thing is for sure – his painstaking efforts had a truly mind-blowing result, a new breed of corn that most people consider a work of art rather than a cereal.

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Until five years ago Derek Nance couldn’t stomach any foods and was very sick. Doctors told Derek he must have an allergy of some sorts and advised him to try various diets in order to determine the cause of his illness. He tried every kind of diet out there and was even a vegan for a while until he discovered the only thing that cured him – raw meat.

While researching the mysterious affliction that no one knew how to cure, Derek Nance stumbled upon a guy with a similar condition who told him  that the only way he could stay healthy was by following a very strict diet consisting only of raw meats. This regime was created by a dentist called Weston Price who was very interested in raw food. According to him, primitive humans who lived on a diet based on raw foods were much healthier, so it’s logical to assume that eating raw was more natural and thus healthier. Although skeptical, Nance had tried so many diets and was so desperate that he thought he’d give this one a try as well. The first raw meat he ate was that of his goats, which he had become tired of milking, and soon enough, he was only eating raw muscles, tendons, organs and fat. At first he suffered from diarrhea and had a strange irony taste in the back of his throat as a result of blood consumption. He calls this his body’s adaptation period to him becoming a carnivore, but he soon got used to the bizarre eating habit, and now he actually loves the irony taste and is healthier than he’s ever been.

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The bad news is the delicious-looking hunk of roast beef, burrito or fish fingers featured in the photos below are not what they seem. The good news is they are actually cakes designed by English amateur baker Louise Caola.

Ever since she was a little girl helping her mother around the kitchen, Londoner Louise Caola loved to bake. After studying fashion marketing at university, she landed a job in advertising, but continued to make cakes during her free time. The 23-year-old designed her first sausage and potato mash cake for a friend’s birthday and received praises from everyone who got to see it before it was devoured, which fueled her passion for novelty desserts. She immediately started working on even more impressive cakes in her free time and posted photos of them on social networks like Twitter and Instagram. Soon Louise was flooded with orders from all over the internet and she started taking her hobby more seriously. A few weeks ago, the amateur baker finally decided to quit her job and focus all her attention on her newly-created novelty cake brand called Poppy&Lulu (after a couple of close childhood friends). For the time being she only offers hand-delivery around London, but hopes to one day expand nationwide and have a team of bakers helping her make fun cakes.

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Sick of pretentious food blogs, Collin McQuistan, a foodie from Glasgow, Scotland, set up an unconventional blog where he documents all kinds of gourmet dishes cooked with weird ingredients like cat food, grass and toothpaste.

41-year-old Collin McQuistan only started his offbeat food blog last month, but he is already making headlines in international media, thanks to a series of downright bizarre ingredients he has used so far. First, it was the cat food. The amateur cook admits he had been curious about the taste of cat food ever since he was a child, and this was the perfect opportunity to finally try it. He opted for “Felix As Good As It Looks with Chicken in Jelly” and says he might have freaked out the cashier at the supermarket when she said something about “lucky cat”, and he replied “I don’t have a cat”. Collin describes her facial expression as “89% utter confusion and 11% pure terror”. About the cat food, he says it really does taste as good as it looks, but that’s only because it looks pretty bad. “I can reasonably say it is one of the most horrible things I have ever eaten,” the blogger writes. “It tastes of chicken, yes, but there is something so very very unpleasant about it I almost vomit; it has a very burnt-rubber undertone and the chicken is chewy and tough; it is slightly sulphorous and the jelly is slightly more palatable than the chicken bits in so far as it doesn’t provoke such a strong vomiting response.” Determined to urn the disgusting chow into something edible, McQuistan decided to use it in a Chinese stir fry, “because they eat cats in China so maybe there’s a logical tie-in there”. The dish turned out just “1% edible” and made his mouth produce “an alarming amount of saliva”.

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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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He doesn’t look like your average junk-food addict, but 64-year-old Dennis Rosinlof says that he’s been hooked on McDonald’s Big Macs for the last three decades. During that time, the Utah man estimates he has consumed at least 12,000 burgers.

Dennis started eating Big Mac burgers when he started working as a salesman, 30 years ago, and has never stopped since. For the last two decades, the Vietnam War veteran says he has been eating at least 10 Big Macs a week, and he still can’t get enough of them. He has one on Monday, on his way home from work, two on Tuesday, one on the way to work, and one on the way home, one Big Mac for breakfast on Wednesday, two on Thursday and Friday, and always two of them on Saturday. He only takes a break from his favorite food on Saturday, when his wife cooks for the whole family. Dennis estimates he has spent around $60,000 on Big Mac meals ever since he first started eating them 30 years ago, but says that’s less than what he has spent on car fuel, and that doesn’t come with fries and a beverage.

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They look and smell just like common table grapes, but pop one into your mouth and the first impression you get is a rush of cotton candy flavor. At least that’s what Spencer Gray, a personal chef in Culver City and blogger at Omnivorous, who has sampled the grapes says.

If you have sweet tooth but want to stay away from unhealthy treats, cotton candy grapes could be a great alternative. They have have about five grams of sugar per ounce, 12 percent more than regular table grapes, but far less than popular candy like Skittles, which have about 20 grams per ounce. Still, to many people, a grape variety that packs this much sugar and is advertised as tasting like cotton candy might seem like a gimmick to turn a natural healthy treat into junk food. But while its creator, California-based fruit breeder David Cain admits new sweeter fruit varieties are competing against candy bars and cookies, nutritionists say that’s not a cause for concern. “You would have to eat about 100 grapes to consume the same amount of calories in a candy bar,” David Heber, director of the UCLA Center for Human Nutrition, told the Los Angeles Times.

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Japan is known for its selection of weird foods, and today we can add one more item to the ever-growing list. The Black Terra Hot-Dog is one of the most popular fast-food delicacies sold in the Akihabara district of Tokyo. It’s over 30 centimeters long and looks like it’s been cooked a few hours longer than necessary.

Black hamburgers have been around for about a year now, ever since Burger King launched its Premium Kuro Burger in Japan. It has black buns and dark ketchup, but the meat patty and vegetables retain their natural colors. But the people over at Vegas Premium Hot-Dogs, in Akihabara, Tokyo decided to one-up the giant fast-food chain by creating a food item that is entirely black as charcoal. Vegas was already famous for the size of its delicious hot-dogs, which span over 30 cm in length, but ever since they introduced the Black Terra Hot-Dog, in March, their popularity has grown even more. You would expect clients to be turned off by the rubber-like sausage, but apparently people who see this delicacy advertised on the billboards in front of the fast-food joint just can’t resist the urge to try it.

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Gorditos, a popular Mexican restaurant in Seattle, sells burritos the size of babies. No, it’s not an exaggeration, and to prove it, they’ve covered a whole wall with photos of their burritos next to some of their customers’ infants.

At Gorditos, Mexican burritos can weigh up to four pounds, not as much as most newborns, but ridiculously close. These Grande Burritos consist of two tortillas, a sea of meat, guacamole, cheese, rice lettuce and sour cream, and cost just $9. Considering it usually takes two people to finish one of these calorie bombs, you could say eating at Gorditos is a bargain. But the Seattle-based restaurant offers further incentives to patrons who just had a baby. If they agree to have their less than one-month-old infant next to one of the baby-sized burritos, they can dine for free. It’s been a hard-to-pass deal for a lot of parents, as demonstrated by the fact that the walls of both Gorditos locations are covered with photos of babies and burritos. But people will gladly pay for one of these gargantuan dishes as confirmed by one of the joint’s waiters, who says it’s one of their most popular items and that they sell dozens every day.

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Some people believe it to be just a myth, but the Guinness Book of Records has the stuffed whole camel listed as the largest single food item on any menu, and there are even a few photos of Bedouins feasting on it doing the rounds on the internet

The official name of this traditional Bedouin dish is unknown, but most people refer to it as a “camel Turducken”. According to most sources it’s sometimes prepared at wedding feasts and special parties in Arab countries like Saudi Arabia. Basically, they get a full-grown camel, take out the insides and stuff it with a few sheep or lambs which are in turn stuffed with about 20 chickens full of fish. This calorie atomic bomb has to be boiled then cooked over a pit of burning charcoal until the camel meat is brown and crispy. I can’t imagine what the pot that can hold a whole camel looks like, but apparently the entire cooking process takes about 24 hours. The camel is then served on a silver platter and the wedding guests attack it with knives or their bare hands, leaving only the clean bones.

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Tokyo’s Sembikiya Fruit Parlor looks like a luxurious jewelry store and the prices of the items on offer aren’t too far off either, only instead of diamonds and gold this place sells fruits. If you’re looking for perfectly shaped, delicious-tasting cantaloupes, apples, grapes or any other Japanese fruits, Sembikiya is where you’ll find them, but you’d better stop by the bank first, because they don’t come cheap.

In Japan, it’s customary to give high-quality fruits for formal occasions like weddings, business meetings or hospital visits. But we’re not talking about fruits you usually find at the local market or grocery store. Specialized fruit shops like Sembikiya sell only the rarest, most perfect products, grown in special conditions to ensure they look and taste as good as possible. Take the Yubari muskmelons, also known as Yubari King melons, priced at ¥15,750 ($160) for one, or ¥26,250 ($265) for two, at the exclusive Tokyo fruit parlor. That’s a small fortune for produce, wouldn’t you say? But these Japanese cantaloupes are pretty special. The Yubari King sold at Sembikiya only come from Shizuoka prefecture, where they get the most sunshine. They are grown in specially-designed greenhouses with air-conditioning and paper hats in the hot summer months, and heaters during wintertime. Farmers prune the less perfect fruits early on, leaving just one melon to ensure it gets the best flavor possible. A 12-pack of Queen Strawberries sells for ¥6,825 ($68), a box of perfect cherries costs ¥15,750 ($159), and a Senkai-ichi (Japanese for “world’s best”) apple will set you back ¥2,100 ($21). They might seem like outrageously-priced fruits to most people, but with 11 parlors opened in Japan, at Sembikiya business is booming.

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From cooked insects to fermented bird meat, humans have been eating all kinds of outrageous foods for hundreds of years, but there are some things that I just wouldn’t dream of putting in my mouth. One of them is the anus-shaped Belgian chocolates sold by a cheeky British chocolaterie.

If you think the chocolate “Edible Anus” looks remarkably like the real thing, that’s because it’s made using a mold “crafted from the posterior” of the company’s “stunning butt model.” Feel like throwing up yet? There’s really no proof of that on their official website, so you’ll just have to take their word for it. The allegedly delicious treats are hand-crafted in the UK, and contain no artificial preservatives, if it’s any consolation. According to the geniuses behind this novelty desert, the Edible Anus is “the perfect gift for the whole family” and will “light up” Grandma’s face, as she “unwraps a homely selection of chocolate cracks”. I’m pretty sure my family would disown me if I sent them a box of these unique treats, but they’re actually a great gift idea for your proctologist. Read More »