Widespread use of kitchen scales would alleviate many of the world’s problems. This is because most of the issues humanity faces are directly-correlative to doing math. If people had to do less math, they would have more time to focus on important, earth-saving tasks like planting trees (the environment), drinking wine (supporting farmers) and putting condoms on before sex (overpopulation). Read more

I have never had much use for Peeps. They are spongy, saccharine and come in colors that never seem to match my outfit. Food that matches my outfit is always a bonus, so I decided to make an outfit out of Peeps in order to get that pastel shade of banana slug yellow just right. In fact, Peeps resemble the banana slug in more than just color. For example, when you squash one, it tends toward the gooey. Both “foods” are considered acceptable to feast upon by the cultures that eat them, yet I am not a member of either of those cultures. Finally, both are very attractive to the toddler set.

Because of the strong parallels between Peeps and banana slugs, I briefly considered fashioning a bikini top out of Peeps and a bottom out of slugs. I even captured a slug to try. I did not bargain on my bleeding heart oozing forth with compassion for the gastropod when I felt his whole body stiffen at the sight of the impending hot glue gun, but ooze it did and so I spared the slug. Instead, I inflicted the torture upon myself. Have you ever taken a hot glue gun to the crotch? I am ok with killing animals for food, and I am a big fan of using the whole thing, offal and all, but, I reasoned with myself, banana slug would not taste good with hot glue smeared down his back. Read more

Taco de Asador

The book that launched a thousand one-eyed salutes in the pants of food geeks across the globe was the literal elephant in the room during dinner at the Intellectual Ventures Laboratory (IVL). This lab nee motorcycle machine shop is where every parametric recipe and epic image present in Modernist Cuisine was developed, created, tested, replicated and documented by Dr. Nathan Myhrvold, Chris Young and Maxime Bilet along with a team of dozens of stagiares.

Lab Kitchen- Maxime Bilet, left

I should say every image was created in the lab save the one of ballistics gelatin, which was shot in the forest at night. Picture a gaggle of lab coat-clad boy-men traipsing through the dark woods armed with sheet pans of gel and a wildly expensive camera with which to capture the quivering nuances of goo as it shimmies through space. And yes, for those of you considering bellying-up to the standing-room only bar that doles out volumes of the book for the not inconsiderable sum of $466.62 (current price on Amazon), you WILL get the recipe for ballistics gelatin. Read more