After reading the wonderful post from our friends at The Bitten Word, documenting food highlights from a two-week trip to China (!), I started thinking about some of the weirder food experiences I have had.

True, I have had all kinds of sushi – octopus, urchin, eel, and many others – but that’s all pretty tame stuff these days. My strangest encounter was probably in Jeju, South Korea a few years back, when I had a mystery appetizer that I later found out was aloe meat. The small filet was translucent, slimy, room temperature, and almost impossible to get down. Without knowing what it was, my imagination ran wild about what it could be, and did not help the ease of my attempted swallow.

That said, what strange food experiences have you had? Foreign countries? Mystery meat diner parties? Triple-dog dares? Game shows with Joe Rogan? Please share in the comments section, and your colleagues will judge how brave you are.

[Now, time to ask the boss about that So Good travel expense account...]

H/t to Pineapple fish for the Beijing bugs on sticks.

I’m sure you don’t have to be a twenty-one day Jeopardy Champ to deduce how “Nuttier than a Fruitcake” or “Easy as Pie” came to stand the test of time in the pantheon of frequently used one offs.

Of course my idea of how a particular phrase came to fruition is almost always way off the mark once you dig deeper into its roots. Ok way off. Ok, Ok, a History Professor could bring me up on charges for factual injustices against the world.

Just for kicks, I have compiled for you, five of the more popular sayings which have stood the test of time in our fast paced world with my musings of its origins, followed mercifully by the real one.

And no, “Where’s the Beef?” will not be making an appearance.

Don’t Put Your Eggs in One Basket

Andy: Back in the day, when Styrofoam had yet to be invented, many a villager purchased their eggs locally from market, deposited into one basket and as a result of transporting on badly constructed roads or flatulent donkey, ended up with their dozen being downsized considerably. I also think the Farmers who sold eggs conspired with local basket weavers.

Factual: This phrase is often attributed to Miguel Cervantes, the contemporary of Shakespeare and author (in 1605) of the world-famous “Don Quixote.” However, in fact Cervantes’ original Spanish doesn’t use this phrase; various English translators have used it to convey his meaning. Historians note its first recorded use is in a 1660 text, where it is clearly already a well known proverb. After this it appears frequently, always with the same meaning of “Don’t put all your resources (money, time, energy) into the same project, in case that project fails.

Selling Like Hotcakes

Andy: Wasn’t this coined in the 50’s by a green line cook at Denny’s who didn’t realize pancakes and hotcakes are pretty much the same thing?

Factual: “Hot cakes cooked in bear grease or pork lard were popular from earliest times in American. First made of cornmeal, the griddle cakes or pancakes were of course best when served piping hot and were often sold at church benefits, fairs, and other functions. So popular were they that by the beginning of the 19th century ‘to sell like hot cakes’ became a familiar expression for anything that sold very quickly effortlessly, and in quantity.”

Full of Beans

Andy: I think this term was used as a PG alternative to when someone would call another person out on being full of it. Well something that rhymes with it.

Factual: This term was first used to describe a race horse that possessed lots of energy and was in tip-top condition. Nobody really seemed to question when exactly beans had become the staple diet of horses. Gradually it moved onto Humans around the beginning of the Nineteenth Century. It did gradually over the years move from noting one of vigor and health, to one who exaggerates a bit too much.

Saving your Bacon

Andy: A common practice amongst business savvy Farmers would be to horde all their Pigs until the competitors had sold out on their stock at market. Once he was in sole possession of an Oink monopoly, he could butcher accordingly and sell at an inflated cost.

Factual: As the only meat readily available to a large amount of the population for hundreds of years, bacon was a much sought after commodity on dinner plates. Bacon was cured and dried to ensure sustenance through harsh winters. Saving you bacon from any form of loss or damage amounted to an almost life saving act. Therefore the term gradually evolved to mean you were saving yourself from injury or other type of life changing disaster.

Talking Turkey

Andy: In Pilgrim days of early America, bored families would sit around the fire entranced by the ventriloquist act put on by their eccentric, most likely insane elder. This would entail a freshly plucked turkey dressed up in baby clothes and worked like a puppet. The “Talking Turkey” would be eaten shortly after the show with much guilt and crying by younger members of the kin. The use of turkeys as prop humor has been passed down over the years. Please refer to Mr. Bean Christmas Special, and the episode of Friends which blatantly rips off the same gag in which Joey gets one stuck on his head.

Factual: This term originated in America where it was commonly used by mid Nineteenth century. It means talking business or talking seriously. It does in fact come from the early days of the colonies when the turkey became an important trading commodity between the Native Indians and the Pilgrims. Whenever a colonist showed up on the wigwam step to do some type of trade, inevitably it almost always revolved around a turkey. So, Indians coined the phrase “You come to talk turkey?”

No matter how connected you think you are, something is going to get by you.  Today when I read about a blog that is 75% through a 1,000-day chronicle of mundane things that are secretly awesome, I felt like I missed the boat.  But at least I am on board now.  Looking back over the whole list to-date here, I can’t help but pull out a number of my favorites, and obviously, they are all about food.

• #949 Ordering off the menu at fast food restaurants
• #915 When there’s leftover cake in the office kitchen
• #864 Mastering the art of the all-you-can-eat buffet
• #709 Waking up to the smell of sizzling bacon
• #582 When the guy at the deli counter gives you a free taste
• #524 When your fries order has a few onion rings stashed in the mix
• #416 When you try cooking something new and everyone likes it
• #348 That moment near the holidays when there’s suddenly cookies, chocolate, and candy everywhere
• #276 Waiters and waitresses who know the menu really well
• #257 Eating a free sample of something you have no intention of buying

The great thing about the above 10, and the whole list, for that matter, is that everyone can relate to them, and know the feeling of how awesome they actually are.  I love how the author also really digs down into most of his daily topics – it’s seriously worth a check-in.

What food-related awesomeness can you relate to? What is missing?

H/t to Post Secret’s Twitter post, which led me to HuffPo & to signalnoise for the awesomnicityat top.

Gawker posted about this the other day, but make sure to check out The Jude Abides blog post, where he has several more images. You can also buy limited edition prints of these creations.

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

Brain Residue “reported” on the creation of a new sandwich being tested in several markets by KFC called the “Skinwich”, which they allege consists of:

5 layers of fried chicken skin, lumped on a bun and topped with white american cheese and bacon

Brain Reside claimed it was being tested at a KFC near their office, so they went out and bought one to try, even providing the masses with photos of this shocking creation:

Looks disgusting right? Yet strangely intriguing at the same time? Given that KFC is the chain that actually released the Double Down, it’s not unreasonable for people to think this might be an actual creation in the test marketing phase. There’s just one problem, look at the cities Brain Residue claims it is being tested in:

• Ekaf, Maine – Colbert Blvd.
• Tihsllub, Oklahoma – Corner of 3rd & Twain.
• Eritas, California – Dense St.

If you weren’t already skeptical of the words “Colbert” and “Dense” in the street names, just spell those town names backwards real quick and you get: fake, bullshit and satire.

It could not have been more obvious this was a fake unless they titled the blog post “FAKE.” Buzzfeed also picked up on the Skinwich as if it was real, although at least had the common sense to note it “may” be fake. MAY be fake? C’mon guys, learn to read things a little closer.  Geekologie, Buzzfeed, what the heck are you guys doing? You fell for the most obvious fake EVER. Hook, line and sinker.

The Consumerist post is based off an “Infographic of the Day” post from the magazine Fast Company.  The map above appears to show a far less dominant market position for McDonald’s than many had assumed. In fact, the blogger for Consumerist notes:

I had always assumed that McDonalds’ hamburger hegemony of the United States, if not the world, was complete. I was wrong. Clearly, I need to leave the Northeast more.

Indeed, the map seems to convey that McDonald’s has extreme concentration in the Northeast, but not many other places of dominance other than a scattering of black dots across the Northwest and upper Midwest.

There’s just one problem: by making the claim that McDonald’s is not as dominant as they thought, and by failing to explain the nature of the map seen above, Consumerist (as well as Fast Company) is essentially misreading and misinterpreting the data  by failing to note the map above is labeled McDonald’s vs. Allied Competitors.

So what does “Allied Competitors” mean? It means the total number of stores for McDonald’s top 7 competitors are being added together and compared directly with McDonald’s. So if there is a black dot in the region you are looking at, i.e. the Northeast, than McDonald’s in that region has more locations than its next 7 rivals COMBINED.  In any region that is NOT black, the 7 other competitors have more stores than McDonald’s, but only AFTER you combine all their stores  into one cumulative number. In these circumstances, a black McDonald’s dot is simply ineligible to appear on the map for that location and the color of the competitor with the most locations in that region is highlighted on the map.

So let me emphasize that again: the most predominant competitor is highlighted EVEN IF THAT COMPETITOR HAS FEWER STORES IN THE REGION THAN MCDONALD’S.

What is a more interesting question is WHY did Consumerist and Fast Company both highlight this map?  The original blog that posted this visualization, WeatherSealed, provided the map you see above as somewhat of an after-thought, imagining it as a Star Wars-esque “rebel alliance” of McDonald’s competitors who are able to  “beat” McDonald’s only by collectively banding together.  In fact, WeatherSealed led off their original blog post with a map that is a much more accurate representation of just how much McDonald’s dominates vs. other fast food joints on a per-location basis:

Here we see some sheer dominance of Texas and Oklahoma by Sonic, a smattering of Burger King & Dairy Queen clusters in the Upper Midwest/Plain States, some Jack-in-the-Box love for So-Cal and Arizona and some Wendy’s strength in the Appalachian belt.  But the blasting of black across the rest of the United States outside of these clusters makes clear the control McDonald’s wields over the U.S. market based on the number-of-locations metric.

So why did Consumerist and Fast Company highlight the other map? Because it’s prettier? Has more psychedelic colors? Conveys the more interesting (although completely inaccurate) point that McDonald’s might not be as dominant as people thought? Either way, Consumerist and Fast Company appear to have done a disservice to their readers by not better explaining the context of the map they were highlighting and/or noting the more relevant map of the two.

The small business blog You’re The Boss on the New York Times’ site recently hosted a two-part post featuring 100 restaurant staffer “dos and don’ts” written by the owner of a restaurant about to open.  I agree with many of the items on the list, and recognize that most of them are not followed in nice restaurants, much less middle-of-the road eateries.  The customer is rarely ‘right’ anymore.

A bunch of my favorites:

8. Do not interrupt a conversation. For any reason. Especially not to recite specials. Wait for the right moment.

12. Do not touch the rim of a water glass. Or any other glass.

21. Never serve anything that looks creepy or runny or wrong.

32. Never touch a customer. No excuses. Do not do it. Do not brush them, move them, wipe them or dust them.

56. Do not ignore a table because it is not your table. Stop, look, listen, lend a hand. (Whether tips are pooled or not.)

66. Do not return to the guest anything that falls on the floor — be it napkin, spoon, menu or soy sauce.

78. Do not ask, “Are you still working on that?” Dining is not work — until questions like this are asked.

85. Never bring a check until someone asks for it. Then give it to the person who asked for it.

What do you like/dislike from the lists?  Is the author asking too much?

H/t to TV Tango for the art.