Cai Nan runs a YouTube channel dedicated to weird food experiments that I’m sure most of us home cooks would be too afraid to attempt. His most recent effort takes a simple concept and turns it into something completely mind-blowing: a chicken wing that is so clear it looks like a glass sculpture while yet providing the texture and flavor of traditional fried chicken.
Billions of marshmallow chicks roll off a single production line in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and the fact that each one once took 27 hours to make by hand makes the modern process all the more remarkable. An engineer in the early 1950s changed everything with a machine that collapsed that timeline dramatically, and today a finished batch of Peeps marshmallow candy takes just six minutes from start to shelf.
Photo credit: Sreang Hok/Cornell University
Cornell University researchers developed a new method for washing fruit that combines tiny bubbles in water with low frequency sound. Every day, people clean fruits and vegetables to remove dirt and residues, which can come from the farm or the store.
Customers walking into a McDonald’s near Shanghai’s Science and Technology Museum got more than they bargained for. Behind the counter stood a row of humanoid robots dressed in the familiar red and yellow uniform, looking every bit like they had stepped straight out of a McDonald’s advertisement and ready to greet anyone who walked through the door.
Japan-based Nakai Machinery has expanded into food production, offering something completely new to busy kitchens throughout the world. Their CK-280-25 is a prime example of a machine that does most of the heavy lifting when it comes to large batches of fried rice or noodles, with no need for constant supervision. Just add the ingredients into the large drum, where they mix and cook on their own.
Gushi Cliff Coffee is located on a cliffside overlooking the surf pounding against the shore of Fuzhou, Fujian, in southern China. Crowds of people sit on small little platforms embedded straight into the side of the cliff, 70 meters above the thundering surf, with a view out over the water to the Taiwan Strait, where the islands of Matsu appear as a distant collection of small little lights in the night sky.
The Nintendo Wii still has some tricks up its sleeve; some 20 years after its initial release, a homebrew resurrection brings back one of the console’s quirkier functions, the Food Channel, and allows anyone in the United States or Canada to purchase a real Domino’s pizza from the familiar Wii menu. Nintendo released the Wii in 2006, with a channel-based system that divided routine tasks into easy clickable icons.
Metal cookie tins are stacked on shelves, waiting for the Christmas season to begin, filled with delicious gingerbread and other treats. However, when it comes time to get a cookie, those lids can be a hassle to open, especially for people who have been drinking eggnog and helping with holiday preparations. One brilliant maker in Norway devised a solution to the problem: a unique system that blasts cookies directly into your mouth on command.
Ninja’s newest CREAMi model, the Swirl (NC701), priced at $279.95 (was $349.99), expands on the pint-processing technology we all know and love by adding a convenient dispenser handle. Before you begin, prepare your bases by mixing and freezing them in the containers provided. Allow them to remain in the freezer for 24 hours before letting the machine to do the hard work for. Now for the fun part: grab a bowl or make a classic soft-serve directly into a cone.
